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Mere Christianity – Book IV – Chapter 10 (“Nice People Or New Men?”)

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Book-4

Picking back up my notes for C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”…

1. If Christianity is true, why are all Christians not obviously nicer than all non-Christians?

(a) Part of this question is very reasonable

“If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions… I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely imaginary…”

(i) Jesus told us to judge by results

“Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’ mean nothing unless they make our actual behaviour better; just as in an illness ‘feeling better’ is not much good if the thermometer shows that your temperature is still going up… Christ told us to judge by results”

(ii) When we fail to live up to our calling, we make Christianity harder to believe for others

“When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world… Our careless lives set the outer world talking; and we give them grounds for talking in a way that throws doubt on the truth of Christianity itself”

(b) Part of this question is very unreasonable

But there is another way of demanding results in which the outer world may be quite illogical…. they should see the whole world neatly divided into two camps -Christian and non-Christian – and that all the people in the first camp at any given moment should be obviously nicer than all the people in the second.

There are several flaws with this kind of thinking…

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The ideal woman!

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The other day I was having lunch with a friend and, out of the blue, she asked me: “What’s the most important quality you look for in a wife?” 

Americans! Sheesh! Whatever happened to polite conversation about the weather?!

I did have to chuckle a bit though… You see, at the moment I’m spending some time reassessing and discerning again my vocation – married life, priestly life, religious life or consecrated celibacy. Therefore, questions regarding the qualities of a future wife may well be, at this point, moot.

“She is worth far more than rubies…”

But I also laughed because of the various texts which flashed through my mind when she asked this question. One such text was from the Book of Proverbs:

“Who can find a worthy woman?” – Proverbs 31:10 (ESV)

Who indeed?! 😉

I can still remember when, at university, I was asked to be a Reader one evening and I encountered this scripture for the first time. I had to read this passage at Mass without sniggering. I won’t lie, it was kinda hard…

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Sunday Lectionary: All you need is love

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I’m going to start trying to make these Sunday Lectionary posts a little bit shorter, both so that I get more of my weekend back and also so more people read them!

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 23rd, 2011

The Readings this week focus around the “vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions of our faith, how we love God and how we love our neighbour. This finds its simplest and clearest expression in today’s Gospel passage when Jesus is asked which is the greatest of all the commandments…

“Therefore the first commandment teaches every kind of godliness. For to love God with the whole heart is the cause of every good.

The second commandment includes the righteous acts we do toward other people. The first commandment prepares the way for the second and in turn is established by the second. For the person who is grounded in the love of God clearly also loves his neighbor in all things himself.

The kind of person who fulfills these two commandments experiences all the commandments.”

– St. Cyril of Alexandria, Early Church Father, 5th Century

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Patient Peter and Paul

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Today is the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul, two of the great pillars of the Church:

christ-with-saints-peter-and-paul

Liturgical Surprise

This morning at the Byzantine liturgy I was struck by how the themes of patience and perseverance came up again and again in the Liturgy of the Word. The Apostolic Reading (roughly equivalent to the Second Reading in the Roman Mass) even contained my life verse where St. Paul talks about how the grace of God operates through our weakness 🙂

If I had been the one to choose the Readings today I would have probably chosen other readings, so during the Liturgy I pondered why the Church chose those particular passages…

In part, I think it might be due to the fact that Peter and Paul were not only great leaders of the Church, but they were also martyrs, enduring suffering and offering their lives to God in the most radical way. I think by focussing on the theme of patient endurance the Church is teaching us that we are all called to do the same, to be patient in adversity and to allow the “fertilizer of life” to yield fruit within us (Romans 5:1-5) and to offer our entire lives to the Lord.

First Century Example

At the end of the First Century, Clement of Rome wrote a letter to the Church at Corinth. The Church at Corinth was having difficulties (again). This time they had rebelled against their clergy, so St. Clement wrote to them to resolve the issue. During the course of his letter, he spoke about how envy and jealousy had caused havoc and destruction in the lives of different Old Testament characters. He then turned to, what was for Clement, very recent events:

But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church have been persecuted and put to death. 

Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience – Pope St. Clement of Rome (c. AD 96)

As you can see, Clement reminds the Corinthians of Peter and Paul, examples of those who patiently endured and, who for their fidelity, won crowns of eternal life.

Let’s Feast!

Since today is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, it is also my Feast Day, since I took the name “Peter” at my Confirmation. I always make a point of celebrating my Feast Day, so I’ll be sure to pick up something delicious for dessert later 🙂

Do you celebrate your feast day? If so, what do you do?

Sunday Lectionary: August 21st

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August 21, Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this week’s readings we hear the passages of Scripture which have been used by the Church throughout the centuries to defend the Primacy of Peter and the authority of the Pope. Our Gospel Reading, in particularly, was cited at the First Vatican Council in the document “Pastor aeternus”.

I’m going to do my best this week to ensure that these notes remain a Scripture commentary, rather than an apologetic defense of the Papacy. I may well write a more apologetic piece later in the week. 😉

“When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel.” – Ezekiel 3:10

 

Reading I: Is 22:19-23

The First Reading this week is our hermetical “key” for understanding the Gospel Reading.

In this section of the prophet Isaiah we hear how Shebna, the Chief Steward of the Kingdom, was replaced by a man called Eliakim. Understanding this ministerial office is critical to our understanding of what Jesus says in the Gospel which, in turn, is paramount to our understanding of the Papacy.

In this passage we see foreshadowed a man on whom God would bestow His blessing. This man would exercise authority on behalf of the King in the administration of the Kingdom. He would be a secured feature, a father to the people and an honoured member of the family of God…

Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace: “I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station. On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut when he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family.”

Questions:

  • What is happening here in Isaiah?
  • Who is Shebna?
  • What kind of job did he have?
  • Who is Eliakim?
  • What symbol of authority is Eliakim given?
  • What does he mean when he says “when he opens, no one shall shut when he shuts, no one shall open”?

Commentary:

“Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace: ‘I will thrust you from your office…'”

Through the Prophet Isaiah, God “fires” Shebna from his position as “master of the palace”. Up until this point, Sheba was the Chief Steward, the Prime Minister in the Davidic Kingdom. The Master of the Palace was not the one ultimately in charge, the King was, but the Prime Minister exercised the King’s authority in the administration and running of the Kingdom. This is the same kind of post that Joseph (son of Jacob) had when he lived in Egypt.

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Artwork of God’s Artwork

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In a previous post I explained the meaning of the text “IC XC” which is found in Eastern icons. I thought today I would do a quick follow-up to explain the letters which commonly appear around the Theotokos…

The Theo-what?

“The Theotokos” (pronounced “th-ay-oh-to-kos”) is the name that Eastern Christians (both Orthodox and Catholic) typically give to Jesus’ mother, Mary. It was also the word used in the proclamation of the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. In the Western Church, “Theotokos” is often loosely translated into English as “Mother Of God” (whereas it literally means “God-bearer”).

Giving Mary the title “Mother of God” has certainly caused some heated arguments in the history of Christianity. Some have mistakenly seen this title as an elevation of Mary to a height even greater than that of Jesus (if such a thing were possible!). Yet the title “Mother Of God” is really much more about Jesus than Mary, since to say that Mary is not the mother of God is to say that she gave birth only to His humanity, which would indicate  some kind of rupture between Jesus’ human and divine natures. That’s kind of a weighty topic…I think I’ll come back to that another time….

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