"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Last week I gave a talk on apologetics at a bonfire in El Cajon on the subject of apologetics, the follow-on talk from “Evangelization for the terrified”. It turns out I wave my hands about a lot when I talk…
Apologetics for the confused (Download)
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…that state which we call “being in love”… Sexuality makes part of our subject only when it becomes an ingredient in the complex state of “being in love”. That sexual experience can occur without Eros… and that Eros includes other things besides sexual activity, I take for granted… The carnal or animally sexual element within Eros, I intend… to call Venus.
I am not at all subscribing to the popular idea that it is the absence or presence of Eros which makes the sexual act “impure” or “pure”… Most of our ancestors were married off in early youth to partners chosen by their parents on grounds that had nothing to do with Eros… Conversely, this act, done under the influence of a soaring and iridescent Eros which reduces the role of the senses to a minor consideration, may yet be plain adultery, may involve breaking a wife’s heart, deceiving a husband, betraying a friend, polluting hospitality; and deserting your children. It has not pleased God that the distinction between a sin and a duty should turn on fine feelings.
Very often what comes first is simply a delighted pre-occupation with the Beloved – a general, unspecified pre-occupation with her in her totality. A man in this state really hasn’t leisure to think of sex. He is too busy thinking of a person. The fact that she is a woman is far less important than the fact that she is herself. He is full of desire, but the desire may not be sexually toned. If you asked him what he wanted, the true reply would often be, “To go on thinking of her.” He is love’s contemplative.
… Sexual desire, without Eros, wants it, the thing in itself; Eros wants the Beloved…
The thing is a sensory pleasure; that is, an event occurring within one’s own body. We use a most unfortunate idiom when we say, of a lustful man prowling the streets, that he “wants a woman”. Strictly speaking, a woman is just what he does not want. He wants a pleasure for which a woman happens to be the necessary piece of apparatus. How much he cares about the woman as such may be gauged by his attitude to her five minutes after fruition (one does not keep the carton after one has smoked the cigarettes). Now Eros makes a man really want, not a woman, but one particular woman. In some mysterious but quite indisputable fashion the lover desires the Beloved herself, not the pleasure she can give.
In this week’s episode, we return to the Early Church and discuss the successors to the Apostles, known as the Early Church Fathers. Somehow Nessa manages to talk about relationships… :-/
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Episode 11: The Early Church Fathers (Download)
— Show Notes —
* I spent last weekend at the Catholic Man Show Campout. This was a camping weekend for the supporters of The Catholic Man Show podcast. We stayed at Clear Creak Abbey near Tulsa in Oklahoma.
* The Early Church Fathers are the successors to the Apostles.
* We previously discussed St. Justin Martyr, an Early Church Father, in Episode #1 of this podcast when we looked at worship in the Early Church.
* I mentioned my article I’ve written called “Before 300” where I outline 21 documented beliefs of Christians prior to the rise of the Emperor Constantine:
Part #1: The Church
1. The Church is Catholic
2. The Church has a three-fold structure of leadership
3. There is unity through episcopal authority and schism is evil
4. Sacred Tradition is authoritative
5. Worship is liturgical
6. There is Apostolic Succession
7. Peter has Primacy
Part #2: Salvation & Sacraments
1. The Eucharist is a Sacrifice
2. Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist
3. The Eucharist is taken to the sick
4. Infants are to be baptized
5. Baptism actually washes away sin
6. Priests forgive sins
7. Works are involved in salvation
Part #3: The Saints and Our Lady
1. Prayers are said for the dead
2. There is purgation after death
3. Relics are venerated and Saints are celebrated
4. Mary is the New Eve
5. Mary was a perpetual virgin
6. Mary is the Mother of God
7. Prayers are made and songs are sung to Mary
* While there is a definitive list of Doctors of the Church, there isn’t really a definitive list of Early Church Fathers. However, they have traditionally been recognized by four marks:
1. Antiquity
Did this person live sometime between the time of Christ and the end of the 8th Century? This span of time is called the “Patristic Era” (“Patristic” simply means relating to the Early Church Fathers).
2. Sanctity
Did this person live a life of outstanding holiness? Is this person a canonized Saint?
3. Orthodoxy
Did this person hold heretical views? Tertullian and Origen are two early Christians who are typically disqualified here due to some of their erroneous beliefs. We therefore instead give them the title of “Early Ecclesiastical Writers”.
4. Church Recognition and Approval
Has the Church and Christians throughout history generally referred to this person as a Father of the Church?
* There were about one hundred Early Church Fathers.
* The Early Church Fathers of the 1st and 2nd Centuries are usually called the “Apostolic Fathers” since they were born during the era of the Apostles.
* We then briefly spoke about three Apostolic Fathers:
1. St. Clement of Rome
* A successor to St. Peter as Bishop of Rome
* He wrote a letter to the Church at Corinth (AD ~96) in response to the ejection of their clergy
* In the letter he gives many Old Testament examples of those who flaunted God-given authority and who suffered the consequences
* In a particularly beautiful passage reminiscent of 1 Corinthians 13, Clement exhorts the Corinthians to love. I had a small rant about 1 Corinthians 13, pointing out that Paul is speaking of “agape” love rather than “eros” love.
2. St. Ignatius of Antioch
* A successor to St. Peter as Bishop of Antioch
* Taken to Rome in chains (AD ~107) to be thrown to wild animals
* Wrote seven letters, one to St. Polycarp (see below), several to nearby Churches and one to the Church in Rome
* In his letter to the Roman Church he begs them to not interfere with his coming martyrdom: “I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable goodwill towards me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of God”
3. St. Polycarp of Smyrna
* Bishop of Smyrna
* We have a letter he wrote to the Philippians, as well as an account of his martyrdom.
* In the account of his martyrdom, the Governor tells Polycarp to say “Caesar is Lord”, but Polycarp knew that “Christ/Jesus is Lord”. He was told to “revile Christ”, but he responded: “Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He never did me any wrong: how then dare I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”
* Prior to being burned alive, Polycarp gives a prayer which sounds an awful lot like a Eucharistic Prayer.
* As he was burned, people reported the smell of baking bread.
* Some Jews claimed that the Christians might start worshipping Polycarp after his death. The author of the Martyrdom account says the following: “They did not realize that we could never abandon Christ, He who suffered for our salvation – the blameless one for sinners! – or worship any other. Him we worship as being the Son of God, the martyrs we love as being disciples and imitators of the Lord; and deservedly so, because of their unsurpassable devotion to their King and Teacher. May it be our good fortune, too, to be their companions and fellow disciples!”
* After his death, the Christians gathered Polycarp’s relics and and interred them in a fitting place: “There the Lord will permit us, as far as possible, to assemble in rapturous joy and celebrate his martyrdom – his birthday – both in order to commemorate the heroes that have gone before, and to train the heroes yet to come…”
* In last week’s episode, we spoke about another Early Church Father, St. Basil of Caesarea.
* If you would like to learn more about the Early Church Fathers, I have put together a blog point full of free resources. My favourite book on the subject is “When the Church was Young” by Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio.
* If you would like to read what the different Fathers wrote about the Sunday Gospel, you can look it up using the Catena Aurea (“Golden Chain”), a collection of patristic commentary which was assembled by St. Thomas Aquinas. You can also get it on your mobile!
* Towards the end of the show, I read some extended quotations from Tertullian and St. John Chrysostom on the subject of love and romance.
* Blessed John Henry Newman (1801 – 1890), an Anglican convert to Catholicism, said that “To go deep into history is to cease to be Protestant”
* Don’t just read the Fathers for apologetics, read them so as to discover examples to follow.
* Happy Halloween!
Earlier this week, I posted the text of my acceptance speech for the Fiat Award which I received at the San Diego Young Adult Christmas Gala. One of my friends at the Christmas Gala recorded it all, as well as the introduction given by my friend Richael from Clumsy Theosis:
Today was the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest scholastic minds in the Church’s history. Despite his intellect, when he studied in Cologne his size and quiet nature earned him the nickname “The Dumb Ox”…
I’m currently preparing the next document we’re going to be reading in the JP2 Group: “The Martyrdom of Polycarp”. Polycarp was a 2nd Century Bishop in Smyrna about whom I’ve written before. I’ve got a lot to do, so I need to get back to my books soon, but before that, I just wanted to share with you something rather cool I’ve just found…
The account of Polycarp’s martyrdom begins with a covering letter:
“From the Church of God which resides as a stranger at Smyrna, to the Church of God temporarily sojourning in Philomelium, and to all the congregations of the Holy and Catholic Church in every place: may mercy, peace, and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be yours in abundance”
– The Martyrdom of Polycarp (Greeting)
The author, a chap called Marcus/Marcion, describes Smyrna’s church as “resid[ing] as a stranger” and Philomelium’s church as “temporarily sojourning” in that city. This concept often comes up in the writings of the Early Church (Clement, Ignatius, …) and draws from an idea we also find expressed in Sacred Scripture:
“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, …”
– 1 Peter 2:11
The early Christians were keenly aware that they did not permanently belong on this earth, but rather, were citizens of heaven, temporarily away from their homeland. As someone with a blog entitled “Restless Pilgrim”, who has traveled quite a bit and is currently living away from his native country, I find it quite easy to relate to this viewpoint.
So, in the martyrdom’s introduction, the author is simply expressing a deeply ingrained, Early Church mindset – that we reside here temporarily. However, what makes this really cool is that I’ve now seen the Greek. The noun which is used here is “παροικια”, or, in our alphabet, “paroikia” (pa-roy-kee-a) and it literally means “a sojourning” or “a dwelling in a strange land”.
“So what?” I hear you say.
“I’m glad you asked!” I reply.
“Paroikia” is the root of the word which was later used by Christians to describe the local assembly and its location: “parish”… This etymology tells us a profound spiritual truth. Particularly if you haven’t moved around much, it’s easy to think of your parish as your “home” – we even refer to our “home parish”. To an extent, this is true, but really, our parish, our “paroikia” is only a temporary dwelling, an outpost of Heaven. One day we will have to leave and head to our true and everlasting home.
“Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by either country, speech, or customs; the fact is, they nowhere settle in cities of their own… They reside in their respective countries, but only as aliens. They take part in everything as citizens and put up with everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their home, and every home a foreign land… They spend their days on earth, but hold citizenship in heaven.”
– The Epistle To Diognetus, 2nd Century