Category: History

Here’s the Bad News…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

Life as a Christian is tough and probably going to get tougher. If you wish to be an observant Christian in this culture you’re going to struggle, face temptations and challenges, endure the hardships of being a perpetual outsider, and be constantly faced with the sins of the world and your own.

The days of easy culturally accepted Christian Faith are over, have been for some time. In the years to come there will be fewer places to run, fewer places to hide, and even the most benign forms of observant Christianity will increasingly be seen as a public scandal. You’ve been warned. Prepare for it now, not like some sort of “prepper” hiding out in the woods waiting for an apocalypse but rather by increasingly cultivating within yourself a prayerful, peaceful, and holy life, a life centered on Jesus Christ.

Now here’s the good news.

As things darken the contrast  between light and dark will grow. The good in you, if it is the good of God, will shine brighter than ever as the world around you grows more bleak. In this contrast, vividly displayed in our own lives, will be a message for those many who are looking to escape the madness of our times. It won’t be a message of superiority, of self-righteousness, of uncritical judgment, or of false holiness, but rather an invitation, couched in the moments of your life, to encounter the living Christ who is, was, and always will be the Light of the world.

There will be more dark times ahead but it is the darkness before morning. We humans are stubborn, incorrigible, and full of ourselves. Trials, large and small, may sometimes be the only way God can get our attention and draw us from the sickness of the world to the life He wishes us to share with Him. If we cannot learn by being wise we often learn by experiencing struggle, the results of our own inclinations that God can use for the greater and eternal good. Yet God is still God and the Light that He shines in the world, and the people who struggle to keep that Light alive in themselves, will never ultimately perish from the Earth.

This is no time for fear, this is, rather, a time to respond to the world we see around us by drawing closer to God. As we do this we ourselves will change, and, in time, so will this desperate world. In Christ, by Christ, and with Christ we are the revolution we’ve been waiting for.

 

It’s Not About Panic…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

when we hear about the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, pushes against observant Christian people and institutions in our culture. After all Jesus told us such things would be a routine part of our life and what makes us think that as Americans we have some kind of exemption?

Powerful interests in our culture have reasons to marginalize, or indeed eliminate, the existence of observant Christianity and why should we be surprised to see them act in their own self-interest? The idea of a transcendent faith, vision, or morality strikes at the heart of the myths that pervade our godless consumer culture so why are we so often dumbfounded when the institutions and people who stand to benefit from such an arrangement want us to go away?

Moral human beings, especially of the Christian variety, need very few laws so why should we be puzzled when the state, which for the sake of its own survival and necessity,  encourages a kind of amorality that allows it to place itself, with all its bureaucracies, where once a well-formed conscience existed? If you want the State to grow and expand you need people with a vacuum where a conscience used to be. Such people then become dependent, not on an informed soul, but on the State with all its rules, plans, and priesthoods. So why should the State, which thrives on the neediness of the morally dysfunctional, seek to encourage that which would limit its scope and power?

Corporate America, as well, needs people without a sense of the transcendent, people who will react emotionally and see their fulfillment in an endless stream of consumer goods which it, conveniently, will provide at a cost. If you think about tomorrow, or even about eternity you may not be the kind of person who responds to “Just do it” and therefore you will be of limited value to the great economic machines of our age. So it makes sense, in one sort of way, for such concerns to push for laws and policies which favor the libertine as pursuing such a lifestyle is of significant benefit to those who control the production of the goods and services which define it.

One could go on about the academy which is, in fact, often a place not of expanding thought but rather of self-perpetuating secular orthodoxies enforced with the passion of an inquisition and the tolerance of a prison. If you believe there is more to life than just the here and now pursuit of knowledge within the strict confines of a materialistic vision you are a threat to the very heart of the academy and the academy, if it cannot change you, will at least ridicule and ostracize you as primitive or uneducated.

Indeed, if you are an observant Christian you have, your are, and you always will be a revolutionary of the most dangerous kind. Your life becomes, over time, a living witness, by contrast,  to the nature of the lies that undergird much of what has been considered “normal”. You live as a citizen of another world whose rules often stand in stark contrast to the prevailing spirit of a lost age. You destroy, not with violence but rather with light. You do not kill but you have within you the power to transform yourself and others. You are evolving into something that will, over time, look more and more like God and the people, powers, institutions, and principalities that have a vested interest in the world as it is will take notice and do what they can to divert or stop you because if you succeed the people they have made captive will be set free.

So when you see the great powers of this world use force and law and the easily manipulated mood of the herd against you there is no need to panic.  Such things must be and it is a sign that having failed to convince they resort to force. Endure. Love. Do no violent harm. Pray. Grow deep. Shine. We are watching the end of an empire and the beginning of redemption.

For Days Like These…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment
From Life of the World on Facebook
XVII How tedious to me are the counsels of human leaders and wise men–oh how tedious they seem to me–ever since Your wisdom caused my heart and mind to tremble, Holy God. Those whom the dark desires of the heart are dragging into the abyss do not believe in Your light. There are no obstacles for a stone while it is rolling down a hill. The higher the steep slope and the deeper the abyss—the swifter and more unrestrained is the rolling of the stone. One dark desire lures another with its success; and that one hires yet another, until all that is good in a person withers, and all that is evil gushes out in a torrential flood–until, along with everything else, all that the Holy Spirit has built is washed away, both inside and out; Until the scorners of the light begin to scorn themselves and their teachers; Until the sweetest sweets begin to choke them with their stench; Until all the material goods, for which they killed neighbours and razed cities, begin to mock their monstrosity. Then they stealthily lift their eyes toward heaven, and through the dung of their profaned and putrid existence, they cry out: “Holy God!” How it irritates me like a burning arrow to hear men boasting of their power, ever since I came to know of Your powerful hand, Holy Mighty! They build towers of stone and say: “We are better builders than your God.” But I ask them: “Did you, or your fathers, build the stars?” They discover light inside the earth, and boast: “We know more than your God.” But I ask them: “Who buried the light beneath the earth for you to discover?” They fly through the air and arrogantly say: “By ourselves we have created wings for ourselves, where is your God?” But I ask them: “Who gave you the idea of wings and flying if not the birds, which you did not create?” Yet see what happens when You open their eyes to their own frailty! When irrational creatures show them their monstrous power; when their mind becomes filled with wonder at the starry towers, that stand in space without pillars or foundations; when their heart becomes filled with fear of their own frailty and insanity–then, in shame and humility, they stretch out their arms toward You and cry: “Holy Mighty!” How it saddens me to see people overrating this life, ever since I tasted the sweetness of Your immortality, Holy Immortal! The shortsighted see only this life, and say: “This is the only life there is, and we shall make it immortal by means of our deeds among men.” But I tell them: “If your beginning is like a river, then it must have a source; if it is like a tree, it must have its root, if it is like a beam of light, it must come from some sun.” And again I tell them: “So, you intend to establish your immortality among mortals? Try starting a fire in water!” But when they look death in the face, they are left speechless, and torment seizes their heart. When they smell the flesh of their dead brides; when they leave the empty faces of their friends in the grave; when they place their hands on their sons’ chests that have grown cold; when they realize that even kings are not able to buy off death with their crowns, nor heroes with their mighty deeds, nor wise men with their wisdom–then they feel the icy wind of death breathing down their necks too, and they fall down on their knees and bow their heads over their toppled pride, and pray to You: “Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!”From “Prayers by the Lake” by Saint Nikolai of Ochrid and Zirca

Perhaps…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

when we see all the sadness and struggle in the world we need to ask a very simple but clarifying question. “Where is the voice of God in all of this?”

I think it’s too easy to think apocalyptically about the world we live in because it allows us to give up on everything and hope that we’re going to be lucky enough to hide, or be taken away, from the world. We may even relish the idea that God will settle accounts, vindicate us, and destroy evil and evil doers. It also a ring of truth to it because we do believe, as Christians, that there will be a day when God will establish perfect justice and renew a broken world.

Yet could it also be true that the sin, struggle, and just plain craziness we see in the world  has within it a still small voice that too often gets unheard because we’re focusing on the storm? Could it be, for example, that God is trying to tell us, that the chaos and troubles of the world as we experience it are actually indicators for where we, as the people of God, need to be active and encountering the world? When a person is in pain we ask them where that pain is in order to help them become whole. Could it also be that what we see around us are the cries of a world in pain and we need to listen to them so we know where the hurt is and make healing possible?

Regardless, if we presume that God is the God of history should we not at least not give in to panic as we see the world around us but rather to look to see where God is in all of this? At the least we could learn from St. Peter and realize that if our eye is only on the storm around us, and not on the Master of the wind and the waves, that we will almost certainly sink.

I Wonder Sometimes…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

that perhaps God is allowing the culture of the United States to become more and more like the worst aspects of the Roman Empire in the hope that His followers in this country may learn to become more and more like the best aspects of the early Christians?

Ancient Christian Voices on the Eucharist…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

Via this Facebook Page…

“Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread, and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your Sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your Sacrifice [Matt. 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a Sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my Name is the wonder of nations.’ [Mal. 1:11, 14]”- Didache 14, c. A.D. 70

————–

“Make certain, therefore, that you all observe one common Eucharist; for there is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and but one cup of union with his Blood, and one single Altar of Sacrifice — even as there is also but one Bishop, with his Clergy and my own fellow servitors, the Deacons. This will ensure that all your doings are in full accord with the will of God.”- St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Philadelphians 4, c. A.D. 107

“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God… They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior, Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the Gift of God are perishing in their disputes.”- St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2–7:1, A.D. 107

“We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made Incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that Incarnated Jesus.”- St. Justin the Martyr, First Apology 66, A.D. 151

“God speaks by the mouth of Malachi, one of the twelve [minor prophets], as I said before, about the sacrifices at that time presented by you: ‘I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord, and I will not accept your sacrifices at your hands; for from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my Name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering, for my name is great among the Gentiles.’ [Mal. 1:10–11] He then speaks of those Gentiles, namely us [Christians] who in every place offer Sacrifices to him, that is, the bread of the Eucharist and also the cup of the Eucharist.”- St. Justin the Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 41, c. A.D. 155

“He took from among creation that which is bread, and gave thanks, saying, ‘This is my Body.’ The cup likewise, which is from among the creation to which we belong, he confessed to be his Blood. He taught the new Sacrifice of the New Covenant, of which Malachi, one of the twelve [minor] prophets, had signified beforehand: ‘You do not do my will, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my Name is glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure Sacrifice; for great is my name among the Gentiles, says the Lord Almighty.’ [Mal. 1:10–11] By these words he makes it plain that the former people will cease to make offerings to God; but that in every place Sacrifice will be offered to him, and indeed, a pure one, for his Name is glorified among the Gentiles.”- St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against All Heresies 4:17:5, c. A.D. 185

————–

“‘And she [Wisdom] has furnished her Table’ [Prov. 9:2]… refers to his [Christ’s] honored and undefiled Body and Blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine Table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable Table of the spiritual divine Supper [i.e., the Last Supper].”- St. Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Proverbs, c. A.D. 215

“You are accustomed to take part in the Divine Mysteries, so you know how, when you have received the Body of the Lord, you reverently exercise every care lest a particle of it fall, and lest anything of the consecrated Gift perish… how is it that you think neglecting the word of God a lesser crime than neglecting His Body?”– Origen, Homilies on Exodus 13:3, c. A.D. 230

“As the [Lord’s] prayer proceeds, we ask and say: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ This can be understood both spiritually, and simply, because either understanding is of profit in divine usefulness for salvation. For Christ is the bread of life and the bread here is of all, but is ours. And as we say ‘Our Father,’ because he is the Father of those who understand and believe, so too we say ‘our Bread,’ because Christ is the Bread of those of us who attain to His Body. Moreover, we ask that this bread be given daily, lest we, who are in Christ and receive the Eucharist daily as food of salvation, with the intervention of some more grievous sin, while we are shut off and as non-communicants [i.e. are excommunicated] are kept from the Heavenly Bread, be separated from the Body of Christ as he himself declares, saying: ‘I am the Bread of Life which came down from heaven. If any man eat of my Bread he shall live forever. Moreover, the Bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.’ Since then he says that, ‘if anyone eats of his Bread, he lives forever,’ as it is manifest that they live who attain to his Body and receive the Eucharist by right of communion, so on the other hand we must fear and pray lest anyone, while he is cut off and separated from the Body of Christ, remain apart from salvation, as he himself threatens, saying: ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood, you shall not have life in you.’ And so we petition that our Bread, that is Christ, be given us daily, so that we, who abide and live in Christ, may not withdraw from his sanctification and Body.”- St. Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lord’s Prayer, c. A.D. 250

“Let all mortal flesh be silent, and stand with fear and trembling, and meditate nothing earthly within itself:—

For the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God, comes forward to be Sacrificed, and to be given for Food to the faithful; and the bands of angels go before Him with every power and dominion, the many-eyed cherubim, and the six-winged seraphim, covering their faces, and crying aloud the hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.”- Divine Liturgy of St. James, c. A.D. 275

————–

“After having spoken thus [at the Last Supper], the Lord rose up from the place where he had made the Passover and had given his Body as food and his Blood as drink, and he went with his disciples to the place where he was to be arrested. But he ate of his own Body and drank of his own Blood, while he was pondering on the dead. With his own hands the Lord presented his own Body to be eaten, and before he was crucified he gave his Blood as drink.”- St. Aphraahat the Sage, Treatises 12:6, A.D. 340

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Hosts, heaven and earth is full of your glory. Heaven is full, and full is the earth with your magnificent glory, Lord of Virtues. Full also is this Sacrifice, with your strength and your communion; for to you we offer this living Sacrifice, this unbloody oblation… To you we offer this bread, the likeness of the Body of the only-begotten. This bread is the likeness of his holy Body because the Lord Jesus Christ, on the night on which he was betrayed, took bread and broke and gave to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat, this is my Body, which is being broken for you, unto the remission of sins.’ On this account too do we offer the bread, to bring ourselves into the likeness of his death; and we pray: Reconcile us all, O God of truth, and be gracious to us.’ And just as this bread was scattered over the mountains and when collected was made one, so too gather your Holy Church from every nation and every country and every city and village and house and make it one living Catholic Church.

We offer also the cup, the likeness of his Blood, because the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup after he had eaten, and he said to his disciples, ‘Take, drink, this is the New Covenant, which is my Blood which is being poured out for you unto the remission of sins.’ For this reason too we offer the chalice, to benefit ourselves by the likeness of his Blood. O God of truth, may your holy Logos come upon this bread, that the bread may become the Body of the Logos, and on this cup, that the cup may become the Blood of the Truth. And make all who communicate receive the remedy of life, to cure every illness and to strengthen every progress and virtue; not unto condemnation, O God of truth, nor unto disgrace and reproach!”- St. Serapion of Thmuis, Prayer of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, c. A.D. 350

“After the disciples had eaten the new and holy Bread, and when they understood by faith that they had eaten of Christ’s Body, Christ went on to explain and to give them the whole Sacrament. He took and mixed a cup of wine. The he blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy, declaring that it was his own Blood, which was about to be poured out… Christ commanded them to drink, and he explained to them that the cup which they were drinking was his own Blood: ‘This is truly my Blood, which is shed for all of you. Take, all of you, drink of this, because it is a New Covenant in my Blood. As you have seen me do, do you also in my memory. Whenever you are gathered together in my Name in Churches everywhere, do what I have done, in memory of me. Eat my Body, and drink my Blood, a Covenant new and old.”- St. Ephraim the Syrian, Homilies 4:6, c. A.D. 350

“Then having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual hymns, we beseech the merciful God to send forth His Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before Him; that He may make the bread the Body of Christ, and the wine the Blood of Christ; for whatsoever the Holy Spirit has touched, is surely sanctified and changed.

Then, after the spiritual Sacrifice, the bloodless Service, is completed, over that Sacrifice of propitiation we entreat God for the common peace of the Churches, for the welfare of the world; for kings; for soldiers and allies; for the sick; for the afflicted; and, in a word, for all who stand in need of succour we all pray and offer this Sacrifice… After this ye hear the chanter inviting you with a sacred melody to the communion of the Holy Mysteries, and saying, ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good.’ Trust not the judgment to your bodily palate, no, but to faith unfaltering; for they who taste are bidden to taste, not bread and wine, but the antitypical Body and Blood of Christ.”- St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, c. A.D. 350

“When we speak of the reality of Christ’s [human] nature being in us, we would be speaking foolishly and impiously — had we not learned it from him. For he himself says: ‘My flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink. He that eats my flesh and drinks my Blood will remain in me and I in him.’ As to the reality of his flesh and Blood, there is no room left for doubt, because now, both by the declaration of the Lord himself and by our own Faith, it is truly flesh and it is truly Blood. And these Elements bring it about, when taken and consumed, that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Let those who deny that Jesus Christ is true God be free to find these things untrue. But he himself is in us through the flesh and we are in him, while that which we are with him [i.e. his human nature] is in God.”- St. Hilary of Poiters, The Trinity 8:14, c. A.D. 350

“To communicate each day and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ is good and beneficial; for he says quite plainly: ‘He that eats my flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life.’ Who can doubt that to share continually in Life is the same thing as having Life abundantly? We ourselves communicate four times each week… and on other days if there is a commemoration of any Saint.”- St. Basil the Great, Letter to a Patrician Lady Caesaria, c. A.D. 360

“The tongue of a Priest meditating on the Lord raises the sick. Do, then, the greater thing by celebrating the Liturgy, and loose the great mass of my sins when you lay hold of the Sacrifice of the resurrection. Most reverend friend, cease not to pray and plead for me when you draw down the Word by your word, when in an unbloody cutting you cut the Body and Blood of the Lord, using your voice for a sword.”- St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Letter to Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, c. A.D. 370

“You will see the Levites bringing the loaves and a cup of wine, and placing them on the Table. So long as the prayers and invocations have not yet been made, it is mere bread and a mere cup. But when the great and wondrous prayers have been recited, then the bread becomes the Body and the cup the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ… When the great prayers and holy supplications are sent up, the Word descends on the bread and the cup, and it becomes His Body.”- St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Sermon to the Newly Baptized, A.D. 373

“We see that the Savior took in his hands, as it is in the Gospel, when he was reclining at the Supper; and he took this, and giving thanks, he said: ‘This is really Me.’ And he gave to his disciples and said: ‘This is really Me.’ And we see that it is not equal nor similar [to his physical appearance], not to the Incarnate Image, not to the invisible Divinity, not to the outline of his limbs. For it [the Eucharistic Element] is round of shape, and devoid of feeling. As to its power, he means to say even of its grace, ‘This is really Me’; and none disbelieves his word. For anyone who does not believe the truth in what He says is deprived of grace and of Savior.”- St. Epiphanius of Salamis, The Man Well-Anchored 57, c. A.D. 380

“Having learnt these things, and been fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to the taste, but the Body of Christ; and that the seeming wine is not wine, though the taste will have it so, but the Blood of Christ: and that of this David sung of old, saying, ‘And bread strengthens man’s heart, to make his face to shine with oil’ (Ps 103:15), strengthen your heart by partaking thereof as spiritual, and make the face of your soul to shine.”- St. Ambrose of Milan, On the Mysteries 4:22, c. A.D. 380

“‘My flesh is meat indeed, and my Blood is drink’ (Jn 6:56). You hear him speak of his flesh and of his Blood, you perceive the Sacred Pledges [Eucharistic Elements] (conveying to us the merits and power) of the Lord’s death, and you dishonor his Divinity? Hear his own words: ‘A spirit has not flesh and bones’ (Lk 24:39). Now we, as often as we receive the Sacramental Elements, which by the mysterious efficacy of holy prayer are transformed into the flesh and the Blood, ‘do show the Lord’s Death’ (1 Cor 11:26).”- St. Ambrose of Milan, On the Christian Faith 4:125, c. A.D. 380

“The Lord Jesus himself proclaims: ‘This is my Body.’ (Matthew 26:26) Before the blessing of the heavenly words another nature is spoken of; after the consecration the Body is signified. He himself speaks of his Blood. Before the consecration it has another name; after it is called Blood. And you say, ‘Amen,’ that is, ‘It is true.’ Let the heart within confess what the mouth utters, let the soul feel what the voice speaks.”- St. Ambrose of Milan, On the Mysteries 9:54, c. A.D. 380

“We saw the Prince of Priests coming to us; we saw and heard him offering his Blood for us. We follow, inasmuch as we are able, being Priests, and we offer the Sacrifice on behalf of the people. Even if we are of but little merit, still, in the Sacrifice, we are honorable. Even if Christ is not now seen as the one who offers the Sacrifice, nevertheless it is he himself that is offered in Sacrifice here on earth when the Body of Christ is offered. Indeed, to offer himself he is made visible in us [Priests], he whose word makes holy the Sacrifice that is offered.”- St. Ambrose of Milan, Commentaries on the Twelve Psalms of David 38:25, c. A.D. 380

“The bread again is at first common bread; but when the Mystery sanctifies it, it is called and actually becomes the Body of Christ.”– St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ, c. A.D. 383

“Rightly, then, do we believe that now also the bread which is consecrated by the word of God is changed into the Body of God the Word. For that Body was once, by implication, bread, but has been consecrated by the inhabitation of the Word that tabernacled in the flesh. Therefore, from the same cause as that by which the bread that was transformed in that Body was changed to a Divine potency, a similar result takes place now. For as in that case, too, the grace of the Word used to make holy the Body, the substance of which came of the bread, and in a manner was itself bread, so also in this case the bread, as says the Apostle, ‘is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer;’ not that it advances by the process of eating to the stage of passing into the Body of the Word, but it is at once changed into the Body by means of the Word, as the Word itself said, ‘This is My Body.'”- St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 37, c. A.D. 383

“When you see the Lord immolated and lying upon the Altar, and the Priest bent over that Sacrifice praying, and all the people empurpled by that precious Blood, can you think that you are still among men and on earth? Or are you not lifted up to heaven?”- St. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood 3:4:177, c. A.D. 387

“Christ is present. The One [Christ] who prepared that [Passover] Table is the very One who now prepares this [Altar] Table. For it is not a man who makes the sacrificial gifts become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he that was crucified for us, Christ himself. The Priest stands there carrying out the action, but the power and the grace is of God. ‘This is my Body,’ he says. This statement transforms the gifts.- St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Treachery of Judas 1:6, c. A.D. 390

“What then? Do we not offer [the Sacrifice] daily? Yes, we offer, but making remembrance of his death; and this remembrance is one and not many. How is it one and not many? Because this Sacrifice is offered once, like that in the Holy of Holies. This Sacrifice is a type of that, and this remembrance a type of that. We offer always the same, not one sheep now and another tomorrow, but the same thing always. Thus there is one Sacrifice. By this reasoning, since the Sacrifice is offered everywhere, are there, then, a multiplicity of Christs? By no means! Christ is one everywhere. He is complete here, complete there, one Body. And just as he is one Body and not many though offered everywhere, so too is there one Sacrifice.”- St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Letter to the Hebrews 17:3, c. A.D. 399

————–

“Far be it from me to speak adversely of any of these Clergy who, in succession from the Apostles, confect by their sacred word the Body of Christ, and through whose efforts also it is that we are Christians…”- St. Jerome, Letter to Heliodorus, c. A.D. 400

“After the type had been fulfilled by the Passover celebration and he had eaten the flesh of the lamb with his Apostles, he takes bread which strengthens the heart of man, and goes on to the true Sacrament of the Passover, so that just as Melchisedech, the priest of the Most High God, in prefiguring him, made bread and wine an offering [sacrifice], he too makes himself manifest in the reality of his own Body and Blood.”- St. Jerome, Commentaries on Matthew 4:26, c. A.D. 400

“When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my Body,’ but, ‘This is my Body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his Blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my Blood,’ but, ‘This is my Blood’; for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic Elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the Body and Blood of our Lord. We ought… not regard [the Elements] merely as bread and cup, but as the Body and Blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit.”- St. Theodore of Mopsuestia, Catechetical Homilies 5:1, A.D. 405

“Christ was carried in His own hands when, referring to his own Body, he said, ‘This is my Body’ [Matt. 26:26]. For he carried that Body in his hands.”- St. Augustine, Explanations of the Psalms 33:1:10, A.D. 405

“I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the Sacrament of the Lord’s Table… That bread which you see on the Altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ… What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your Faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the Body of Christ and the chalice is the Blood of Christ. This has been said very briefly, which may perhaps be sufficient for faith; yet faith does not desire instruction.”- St. Augustine, Sermons 227, 272, A.D. 411

“But by the prayers of the Holy Church, and by the salvific Sacrifice, and by the alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt that the dead are aided, that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their sins would deserve. The whole Church observes this practice which was handed down by the Fathers: that it prays for those who have died in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in the Sacrifice itself; and the Sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on their behalf. If, then, works of mercy are celebrated for the sake of those who are being remembered, who would hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf prayers to God are not offered in vain? It is not at all to be doubted that such prayers are of profit to the dead; but for such of them as lived before their death in a way that makes it possible for these things to be useful to them after death.”- St. Augustine, Sermons 172:2, c. A.D. 411

“We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody Sacrifice in the Churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his holy flesh and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it; God forbid: nor as of a man sanctified and associated with the Word according to the unity of worth, or as having a Divine indwelling, but as truly the life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself. For he is the Life according to his Nature as God, and when he became united to his flesh, he made it also to be Life-giving [i.e., through it we partake of the Divine Nature].”- Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, Session 1, Letter of Cyril to Nestorius, A.D. 431

“Dearly beloved, utter this confession with all your heart and reject the wicked lies of heretics, that your fasting and almsgiving may not be polluted by any contagion with error: for then is our offering of the Sacrifice clean and our Gifts of mercy holy, when those who perform them understand that which they do. For when the Lord says, ‘unless ye have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man, and drunk His Blood, ye will not have life in you,’ [Jn 6:53] you ought so to be partakers at the Holy Table, as to have no doubt whatever concerning the reality of Christ’s Body and Blood. For that is taken in the mouth which is believed in Faith, and it is vain for them to respond ‘Amen’ who dispute that which is taken.”- Pope St. Leo the Great, Sermons 91:3, c. A.D. 440

————–

“Hold most firmly and never doubt in the least that the only-begotten God the Word himself become flesh offered himself in an odor of sweetness as a Sacrifice and Victim to God on our behalf; to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, in the time of the Old Testament animals were sacrificed by the patriarchs and prophets and priests; and to whom now, I mean in the time of the New Testament, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom he has one Godhead, the Holy Catholic Church does not cease in faith and love to offer throughout all the lands of the world a Sacrifice of bread and wine… In those former sacrifices what would be given us in the future was signified figuratively; but in this Sacrifice which has now been given us, it is shown plainly. In those former sacrifices it was fore-announced that the Son of God would be killed for the impious; but in the present it is announced that he has been killed for the impious.”- St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, The Rule of Faith 62, c. A.D. 524

“The spiritual building up of the Body of Christ is achieved through love. As Saint Peter says: ‘Like living stones you are built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ [1 Peter 2:5] And there can be no more effective way to pray for this spiritual growth than for the Church, itself Christ’s Body, to make the offering of his Body and Blood in the Sacramental form of bread and wine. ‘For the cup we drink is a participation in the blood of Christ, and the bread we break is a participation in the body of Christ. Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, since we all share the same bread.’ [1 Corinthians 10:16-17] And so we pray that, by the same grace which made the Church Christ’s Body, all its members may remain firm in the unity of that Body through the enduring bond of love… God makes the Church itself a sacrifice pleasing in his sight by preserving within it the love which his Holy Spirit has poured out. Thus the grace of that spiritual love is always available to us, enabling us continually to offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him forever.”- St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, Letter to Monimus, c. A.D. 524

————–

“I, for my part, do verily believe, that the reason why, by God’s Providence, this thing falleth out thus apparently to them that be living, and think nothing thereof, is that all may know how, if their sins be not irremissible, that they may after death obtain pardon and absolution for them, by the oblation of the Holy Sacrifice. But yet we have here to note, that the Holy Sacrifice doth profit those kind of persons after their death, who in their life time obtained that such good works as were by their friends done for them might be available to their souls, after they were out of this world.

And here also we have diligently to consider, that it is far more secure and safe that every man should do that for himself whiles he is yet alive, which he desireth that others should do for him after his death. For far more blessed it is, to depart free out of this world, than being in prison to seek for release: and therefore reason teacheth us, that we should with our whole soul contemn this present world, at least because we see that it is now gone and past: and to offer unto God the daily sacrifice of tears, and the daily Sacrifice of his Body and Blood. For this Sacrifice doth especially save our souls from everlasting damnation, which in mystery doth renew unto us the death of the Son of God: who although being risen from death, doth not now die any more, nor death shall not any further prevail against him: yet living in himself immortally, and without all corruption, he is again Sacrificed for us in this mystery of the holy oblation: for there his Body is received, there his flesh is distributed for the salvation of the people: there his Blood is not now shed betwixt the hands of infidels, but poured into the mouths of the faithful. Wherefore let us hereby meditate what manner of Sacrifice this is, ordained for us, which for our absolution doth always re-present the Passion of the only Son of God: for what right-believing Christian can doubt, that in the very hour of the Sacrifice, at the words of the Priest, the heavens be opened, and the quires of angels are present in that Mystery of Jesus Christ; that high things are accompanied with low, and earthly joined to heavenly, and that one thing is made of visible and invisible?

But necessary it is that, when we do these things, we should also, by contrition of heart, sacrifice ourselves unto almighty God: for when we celebrate the Mystery of our Lord’s Passion, we ought to imitate what we then do: for then shall it truly be a Sacrifice for us unto God, if we offer ourselves also to him in sacrifice.”- Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4:57-59, c. A.D. 600

————–

“He washes us from our sins daily in his Blood, when the memory of his blessed Passion is repeated at the Altar, when the creature of the bread and wine is transferred into the Sacrament of his flesh and Blood by the ineffable sanctification of his Spirit: and thus his Body and Blood is poured out and killed, not by the hands of infidels unto their destruction, but is assumed by the mouth of the faithful unto their salvation.”- St. Bede the Venerable, Homilies 1:14, c. A.D. 710

“Just as in nature the bread by the eating and the wine and the water by the drinking are changed into the body and blood of the eater and drinker, and do not become a different body from the former one, so the bread of the Altar and the wine and water are supernaturally changed by the invocation and presence of the Holy Spirit into the Body and Blood of Christ, and are not two but one and the same.”- St. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4:13, c. A.D. 730

“The bread and the wine are not merely the figures of the Body and Blood of Christ (God forbid!) but the deified Body of the Lord itself, for the Lord has said: ‘This is my Body,’ not, ‘This is a figure of my Body’; and ‘my Blood,’ not, ‘A figure of my Blood.’”- St. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4:13, c. A.D. 730

For Your Consideration…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

But just as modern Christians “do not get the Church,” so they “do not get the Eucharist.” An individualized, democratic culture sees the Eucharist as an entitlement and the refusal of eucharistic “hospitality” to be an insult to Christian unity. The refusal of eucharistic  “hospitality” is not an insult to unity – it is rather the careful and accurate expression the boundary of the Church. The scandal lies within the modern refusal to embrace the unity of the faith. The heedless “eucharistic hospitality” practiced by the denominations is simply an extension of their refusal to take the Church as a serious matter of the faith. Eucharistic hospitality is easy (and cheap) when unity itself has been emptied of meaning. The critique of Orthodox integrity with regard to the Eucharist is nothing less than an assault on the Eucharist itself.

Read more here…

I Remember…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

airplanes. Airplanes from all over the world. Airplanes slowly descending in the sky in the flight path over where I worked. I looked at the tails as they settled into their final approach to see where they came from. Then the sky, normally so busy and right overhead, went silent.

New Jersey…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

will, apparently, be joining California as a state that bans licensed therapists from practicing what it defines as “conversion therapy” for people who identify as gay. Of course the devil is in the details and while the article presents scenarios (without attribution) where frankly bizarre things were done in the name of changing sexual orientation it presents no details as to the potential scope of the law, the issues of freedom and personal choice that may be involved, and of course the rights of religious persons and institutions.  Read the rest of the article for context.

On the freedom front I find it interesting that in a country where people are pretty much free to consider a wide variety of therapies as a matter of personal choice this one is singled out. The answer, I believe, is ideology. The standard approved line on the topic is that sexual orientation is genetic and permanent and this must be defended in law so that any dissent is curtailed before it can start. You may find someone to give you a colonic while chanting Buddhist scriptures in a sweat lodge and this is a freedom you enjoy but if you decide you are uncomfortable with the direction of your sexual life and seek to change you run afoul of the law. People deride those who speak of a “gay agenda” but there certainly are orthodoxies among the secular classes that they believe are superior to other orthodoxies and that must be defended, if need be, by curtailing the freedom of others. This is one of them.

On the religious front it will be the defense of those secular orthodoxies by the powerful that will eventually lead to the legal and social stigmatizing of observant believers and their institutions. There will be no gulags for the faithful, but there will be, and already are, legal and social doors that are slamming in our faces. Because we have chosen not to be “of this world” we should not be surprised when this world acts accordingly. I presume that in the future, perhaps the near future, there will be a push to remove tax exempt status and other legal protections of groups that refuse to embrace the new agenda. This has already been proposed in California and somewhere along the line it will find its way to passage and to the courts. In the present observant religious believers, particularly Christians, are being handicapped by virtue of their beliefs in employment and licensing for some professions.  I think it would be wise for observant Christians to understand this and be prepared for it.

Now the first reaction of some, when they become aware of this, may be to seek a political solution. Yet I believe this will be difficult because politicians of both parties are defenders of these secular orthodoxies, especially in the area of sexuality. Governor Jerry Brown of California and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey are in two different parties but they share the same desire to enforce secular sexual orthodoxies on the people of their states. A deciding vote in the Supreme Court’s review and subsequent striking down of sections of the Defense of Marriage Act was a Republican appointee. There are very rich and powerful people who may disagree vehemently on how to run an economy but share the idea that any moral restraint is a sign of backwardness, a relic of an era they would like to see disappear.

The answer, I believe, lies elsewhere for the observant Christian community.

We have two incredible assets on our side, truth and love. A traditional Christian sexual morality is life-giving and healthy and those who follow it will avoid many hurts, illnesses, and much brokenness. This is a fact and the hard evidence is starting to come in.  However the laws may change at a given time it is becomingly increasingly impossible to ignore the truth of what we strive to live for because that truth is rooted in the very nature of our bodies and our souls. It’s simply a medical fact that the more people a person has sex with, and the kinds of partners they have sex with, has a direct relationship to the frequency of disease and social pathology. As the studies roll in eventually the evidence itself will storm the walls and take down the castle. A Christian sexual morality is difficult, and especially so in a culture where there is real money to be made and power to be gained by destroying it, but it does work and those who attempt to practice it will find themselves remarkably free, not necessarily of struggle, but of many of the pathologies that mark our age.

The second asset, and perhaps the more powerful, is love. The criticism that others may bring towards the Church and religiously observant people has a certain kind of resonance among some in our culture because there is a grain of truth to it. We have often, as observant Christians, been unloving towards the larger world. We’ve forgotten that even those who would harm us still bear within them some form of the image of God. We sometimes lose track of the idea that even truth can be bitter when it is presented without genuine concern and love. The guy wearing the leather thong with a body full of tattoos and pink hair at the Gay Pride event is not our enemy and we’ve sometimes reacted to him, and other like him, as if they were. Now I’m not suggesting that we practice love as the world does, like some form of nebulous approval for any and every thing. Rather love for us is the seeking of the betterment of the other not necessarily as they, or we, define it but as God does. To the extent that we actually practice this love we, and the Traditions passed down to us through history (Love, by the way, is a capital “T” Tradition for Orthodox Christians) will have life and resonance in the larger world. Authentic Christian love is more powerful than the State, always has been and always will be because the State is about coercion and love is about conversion.

So if New Jersey actually does adopt this law will it be a better place? Not really. This attempt to close off any exits for the person genuinely seeking something different for their sexual lives exposes the fragility of the current secular sexual orthodoxy.  It shows that they have lost the power of conviction and have reverted to force. Such an understanding in the laws that govern New jersey will not make it a better place to live, even for the people those laws are supposed to protect, because it reminds the people in New Jersey it is the State and not the individual which defines the parameters of conscience. The social programmers will achieve part of their temporary utopia at the expense of the broader freedom of their subjects, but that’s what utopians always do and why utopias always fall.

As to the Church, in the fire She will shine. New Jersey is a legal fiction, so is the United States by the way, an artificial boundary created by the temporarily powerful who have for the moment determined that this is what this area shall be called and this is how the people living there will organize themselves. Compared to the life of the Church the life of New Jersey is a blip and a thousand years after the maps change (and they always do) She will still be present, alive, and active in the world. If we truly understand this such moments as these will not strike fear, anger, or desperation into our hearts but call us, instead, to be who we are meant to be in the fullest sense of the word. What, ultimately, can the times do to people who are already living in eternity?