The Lamb's Supper Part 1 - The Mass From Scripture

I have now been posting our parish Bible studies that I have been leading for about 3-4 months, and this post begins the second book we are studying called The Lamb's Supper by renown Roman Catholic theologian (and a convert from Evangelicalism) Dr. Scott Hahn.  Although Dr. Hahn's book is the primary text for the study, I will also be utilizing other sources as well, much as the procedure has been throughout these studies.  I hope that this series will be a blessing to you, and hopefully you gain a greater appreciation for the material we are studying at our parish and it will be useful to you as well. 

When the term "Mass" is talked about, many people think it automatically means Roman Catholic by identification.  However, other Churches (including my own communion, the Anglican Catholic Church) also use this term to refer to the weekly liturgical celebration of the Eucharist, and in this study it will sometimes be used simultaneously with the terms "liturgy" and "Eucharist," although it is not exactly the same as the Eucharist itself.  Therefore, as Dr. Hahn begins his first chapter in our text The Lamb's Supper (New York: Doubleday, 1999), he appropriately starts out by giving a Scriptural foundation for the Mass, as well as defining some terminology, which will prove helpful in the remainder of the book.  I am also going to be referencing Fr. Peter Gillquist's Becoming Orthodox (Ben Lomond, CA: Conciliar Press, 1992) for this particular lesson, because he has a chapter in that book which supplements beautifully the material Dr. Hahn has.

So, for the unfamiliar reading all this, what on earth do these terms "Mass," "Eucharist," and "Liturgy" all mean anyway???  Are they the same, or is there something different about each of them?  To answer that, let us first get some Scriptural background as we look first at Acts 13:2 - "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said..." (NKJV).  Fr. Gillquist, rather than using the NKJV that I normally reference, utilizes instead the NAB, which reads like this - "On one occasion, while they were engaged in the liturgy of the Lord and were fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke to them..."  You look at that, and probably are thinking, "Wow, that is confusing - which one is it then??"  Fr. Gillquist, when he began studying this passage so many years previous, came to that same question, and then he did a study of the original Greek and here is what he found out.  In the original Greek text, the word used in this passage is leitourgounton, which when translated is clearly the English root liturgy!  The word itself actually comes from three Greek words (laos, "people + the article tou. which is a genitive meaning "of" or from + ergon, which can translate as "work," "labor," or "offering.") that when put together mean " a work (labor, offering) of (or from) the people."  Therefore, when it is a "liturgy of the Lord" it means an offering of the people to the Lord, and that is what liturgy means!  More specifically in context, it is a work of the people of God of worship to God.  When God receives this from us in the proper spirit we offer it to Him, He then can speak to us as the Church during the Liturgy.  That being said, and as Fr. Gillquist correctly points out in his text on page 76, despite some Protestant Evangelical accusations of "dead liturgy," in reality liturgy can be neither dead nor alive - it is the people who participate in it who are either spiritually dead or spiritually vibrant.  Looking at it this way then, the Liturgy is an offering to God from us, in essence a labor of our love to Him, and our attitude and participation in it determines its vitality.  To be fair to the occasional Evangelical visitor to one of our parishes, oftentimes it looks as if many of our people do seem to "go through the motions," making sure this is right or that is right, without doing as Acts 13 that we read earlier says - letting the Holy Spirit speak through the Liturgy to us.  The robotic attention to rubric and form is often a put-off to the Evangelical Christian because of two things.  First, on the positive, Evangelicals believe that their faith requires a personal dimension, which of course all Christians should have - we are not only a corporate Body of believers, but also Jesus has reached out to us individually.  However, on the negative side of that, Evangelicals often fall into a trap of what is called the "better felt than telt" syndrome which often confuses emotional response with participatory worship, and that can be about as big of a danger as Catholic Christians just slogging through the Liturgy every Sunday because it is an obligatory thing we do.  Neither extreme is what God wants, because neither the mystical response of emotion nor the juridical action of mere obligatory acquiescence constitute true worship because both take the focus off where our worship is to be directed (Jesus Christ) and instead focuses on what we either think or feel at the moment.  The challenge to us is to get past both, and instead allow God to enjoy the worship of our hearts desiring to follow Him, and then He can speak to us.  Historic liturgy provides the form for this, but we have to learn what liturgy is in order to appreciate and more fully participate in it.  

This now leads me to the second term - Mass.  The Mass is almost exclusively associated with the Western Church, and the reason is because it is derived from a Latin root word rather than a Greek word.  The word "Mass" comes from the Latin word Missa, which means "dismissal" and comes from the concluding part of the Western Liturgy when the words "Ite Missa est" ("Go, it is the dismissal) which in more modern liturgies says this "The Mass has ended - let us depart in peace," or similarly worded benedictory statements.  In time though, it took on a more missionary/evangelistic dimension as it was rendered "Let us go in peace, to love and serve the Lord."  The term "Mass" for us as Anglo-Catholics should therefore present an evangelical challenge - we are to be the light of Christ to a world dying with sin, and when we receive Christ in the Eucharist it is to be transformative.  Therefore, despite the fact that some anti-Catholic fundamentalists sometimes try to villify the word "Mass," there is absolutely nothing evil, but rather something evangelistic, about the challenge we receive to share Christ, Whom we have received, with others in the world. 

The third term in relation to this, Eucharist, is from the Greek word eucaristw, which simply means "thanksgiving."  As this study goes on, we will be exploring that more in-depth, but suffice to say the Eucharist is the actual sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ we receive as the pivotal point of the Liturgy.  Remember, the whole of our discipleship and Christian life is Christocentric, meaning that all points back to the Lord Jesus Christ as part of our worship.  And, that is why we as Anglo-Catholic Christians believe very much in the Real Presence - Christ is really in the elements we partake in the Eucharist, not just being merely contained within them but rather they become His Body and Blood in a mystery we cannot necessarily explain, but the Holy Spirit confirms (see Acts 13:2 again!) that this is Jesus being made present to us.  

Dr. Hahn's book also takes another very unique approach to the Mass by centering his study around Revelation.  In his text (page 9 specifically) Dr. Hahn notes that Revelation comes to life before our eyes.  And, although Dr. Hahn takes more of a preterist position on Revelation rather than the historic futurist position I would subscribe to, what he says here does make sense - Revelation therefore is both a prophetic and a liturgical text, and Dr. Hahn focuses on Revelation 4 as the start of the liturgical dimension of this mysterious last book of the Scriptures.  As mentioned, the Eucharist is a covenant meal - it is the covenant Christ made of offering Himself for the remission of our sins and our restoration to what God originally created us to be - and it forms a sacred bond of the family of God.  And, in a tangible way, when we participate in liturgical worship in an earthly liturgy, we participate in a foretaste of the heavenly.  Many years ago, I heard a Pentecostal minister (as well as a relative of mine) named Perry Stone talk about how when God set up for Israel via Moses the worship He instituted first in the Tabernacle and later the Temple, it was modeled on what happens in the throne room of heaven.  Keeping in mind the Jewish roots of Christian worship, the Church picked up on this in her liturgy as well, but Jesus added a whole new dimension of it to His Church - He becomes a sort of shekinah that we can be nourished by, and He also becomes both the principle Priest and the sacrificial victim (more on that in the next study).  So, when we pray as discussed in the previous lessons on the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," the Mass and celebration of the Eucharist in particular embodies that in that the kingdom of God comes to us now (in the Mass) but not yet (prophetic/eschatological).  

All of this tells us that the language of worship, therefore, plays a vital role in unifying Revelation as a book.  Liturgy, in essence, helps us to make sense of prophecy.  As my mentor and Greek Orthodox priest Fr. Eusebius Stephanou points out on page 62 of his book Sacramentalized But Not Evangelized (Destin, FL: St. Symeon the New Theologian Press, 2005), the ministry of the Word and the Eucharist are interrelated in the Liturgy - therefore, the subject of the sermon must be related closely to the altar, something that Monsignor Eugene Kevane in his works on Catechetics calls "Christocentricity."  Although Fr. Eusebius relates this to the Homily at Mass every Sunday, it also applies as well to our reading of Scripture too - although we obviously believe Revelation has an eschatological/prophetic message, it must also be read in a spirit of worship and it relates to the Liturgy of the Church, and the Holy Spirit speaks to us prophetically (if we care to listen!) throughout the Liturgy too.  And, as Dr. Hahn notes on page 12, Revelation was written about Someone (Jesus Christ) who was to come, and therefore in the Mass we have in essence "heaven on earth."

In addition to Revelation 4, Fr. Gillquist tells us about a related Scripture in Isaiah 6 that says that the prophetic insight we are to receive from the Liturgy is sensory, and he notes on pages 77-79 of his text that this passage of Isaiah is laden with sensory verbiage.  Of course, for our various liturgical traditions, Eastern and Western, we know of the Isaiah passage due to one thing we have in our Liturgies called the Sanctus - "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Sabaoth.  Heaven and earth are full of Thy Glory.  Hosanna in the Highest!"  As the famed Anglo-Catholic cleric and theologian Dom Gregory Dix notes in his classic text On the Shape of the Liturgy (New York: Seabury, 1945) this also evolved in the architecture of church buildings too, as Revelation 4 was made essentially to be more tangible in the place of worship as well as the words of worship.  Dix notes on page 32 of his classic text that in the East it was Jesus as the King Enthroned, as represented by the classic icon of Jesus Christ the Pantocrator.  In the Western Church, it was more of Jesus as the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God, As we'll see in the next study though, the Lamb represents not a contradiction of the Kingship of Christ, but rather the dimension of His Kingdom coming to us via His shed Blood and broken Body that makes us worthy of His kingdom.  This is given symbolic expression, Dix notes on page 30, in the throne of the bishop we have in many of our parishes being both the "throne of God and of the Lamb" - the bishops office, therefore to Dix, would embody both the revelation and redemption of Christ.  Hence again, the Word and Sacrament become interrelated to each other as one great act of God's love for us.

We now want to look at something else in Exodus 25:30, which Catholic theologian Brant Pitre notes in his book Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (New York:  Doubleday, 2011) is one Old Testament precursor of the Eucharist of which we will see many as this study progresses.  Pitre notes, on pages 132-133 of his text, that although many of today's Bible translations render the meaning "showbread" in this verse, the actual Hebrew word was panim, which translates as "bread of the face" or "bread of the presence."  The Bread in Exodus, therefore, represents an earthly sign of God's face and a visible sign of His love.  This therefore hearkens back to John 3:16, which many of us can quote from memory - God so loved us, that He sent His only begotten Son, and one of that Son's titles is the "Bread of Life" (John 6:48) and we are told by Jesus Himself, when He instituted the Eucharist, to "take this Bread and drink this Cup" because they are His Body and Blood, of a new covenant given for the remission of our sins (Matthew 26:28).   Therefore, unlike some quasi-gnostic tendencies among some Evangelicals to "spiritualize" everything in Scripture, God works through symbols and physical means to convey His eternal message to us, and he does it via seeing, hearing, touching/tasting, and smell.   As we go through this study, we will be addressing those areas more as well. 

There is also little doubt that Jesus was partaking of what today we would call a Jewish Passover Seder, and as Pitre points out on pages 150-157 of his book, there is an interesting parallel here as embodied in the four cups of wine partaken during a Seder meal.   The first cup, for instance, is called the Kiddush, and symbolizes sanctification.  If we look in our Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1928 American Edition) at the point in the Mass just as the Liturgy of the Word ends and the Liturgy of the Faithful begins, there is a General Confession that is prayed in unison by worshippers at the Mass.  One part of this Confession is of interest to this study - the petition "Forgive us all that is past, and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please Thee in newness of life."   This prayer prepares our hearts for the Body and Blood of Christ, much as the Kiddush cup prepares its participants to partake of the Passover lamb. The second cup is called the Haggadah, and has to do with proclamation of the Word.  In our Mass, this corresponds to the readings of Scripture and the Homily.  The third cup is called Berakah, and is a cup of blessing - in the Mass, this corresponds to when the priest consecrates the elements and they become the Body and Blood of Jesus.  This is played out in a very interesting way in the Eastern Church in that the priest, as he is praying the consecration, crosses his hands and makes a motion like wings flapping, symbolizing the Holy Spirit's entering the elements and transforming them.  In the Western Anglo-Catholic tradition, it is more subtle than that, as the priest blows - a symbol of wind, the Holy Spirit - on the consecrated elements symbolizing that they are now the Body and Blood of Christ for us to receive.  Between the third and fourth cups, the meal is then partaken, and at the conclusion of the meal is the cup of Hallel, or praise and acclamation, which serves as a sort of offering of thanksgiving (remember eucaristw)   and the words for that blessing if you want to read them are found in Psalm 118:5, 17-22.    This brings back the premise that this is a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and is indicative of a "finished work" - Ite missa est - and this is where the more profound dimension of the term "Mass" comes into play.  As we go on in this study, you can then see how it all fits together.

This lesson kind of introduced us to what we will be studying over the next several lessons, and as we delve deeper into Dr. Hahn's book more specific details will be discussed on these various aspects.  However, there are a couple of conclusions we need to draw from this lesson.  First, contrary to what some of our Fundamentalist brethren may accuse those of us who are Catholic Christians, the Mass is actually very Bible-based, as well over 95% of its read/recited content comes right from the pages of Holy Scripture itself.  If one took the effort to do so, the whole Mass could be referenced with Scriptural citations.  Second, the words Mass/Eucharist/Liturgy are often used interchangeably, and in some contexts this is permissable.  However, it must be also kept in mind that the Eucharist is the central focus of the Mass or Liturgy, and as such it has a unique place of recognition.  Third, ancient Hebraic practices are precursors to the Mass, but even those may be an icon of the worship that takes place in the heavenly throne-room of God - I am of the conviction that much of what we do in our worship mirrors the Kingdom in many aspects, and perhaps God illumined the prophets of old regarding Temple worship as a way of revealing a glimpse of His kingdom to us, and the Church carried on that in its liturgical traditions.  As we advance in this study, more of this will come together for us as we come to appreciate the richness of our worship as a Church.  God be with you until next time. 

The Lord's Prayer Part 11 - "Amen"

We have now come to the end of our official study on the Lord's Prayer, based on the great Roman Catholic theologian Romano Guardini's 1932 text, and what I am going to do for this last study is talk about the word "Amen" and then summarize what was discussed over the past several lessons.  Although the official study is finished, please continue to meditate on this great collection of petitions that Jesus Himself gave us as a pattern for our own prayer life, and utilize the wisdom of the prayer as you walk in your daily pilgrimage of life.

To start today, I want us to revisit what Guardini calls the "gateway" petition of the whole Lord's Prayer - "Thy will be done."  There are several things that this particular petition does.  First, it joins us in concern with the will of the Father.  Second, it is the heart of the whole prayer in that it joins the Christian in union with the Father in heaven via submission to God's will. This is very important, because the whole key to our own salvation of course is Jesus Christ and His atoning death for our sins on the Cross, and the ultimate will of the Father is that in His love we might be restored to the fulness of being in which He created us.  However, due to the free will factor, it is something we must desire as well, which is why it is important that the sovereign will of God is something that we desire to follow, and we must do so willingly.   Understanding the Lord's Prayer in that light helps make sense of the other petitions contained within it.

The first petitions of the Lord's Prayer, you will recall, do several things.  First, they initiate us into the mystery of the name of God.   Secondly, they initiate us into the mystery of His kingdom.  And third, they initiate us into the mystery of His divine will and its significance in heaven and on this earth.  Like the Ten Commandments, several Pauline epistles in Scripture, and other pillars of our faith, they embody the first of two components - how we relate to and serve God.

The remaining petitions of the Lord's Prayer remind us of the fact we need God in our everyday lives too.  They can only be integrated though into our lives in lieu of the first three or four petitions though, as they reflect the simplicity of the child of God who draws life from the first mysteries and only by acknowledging and understanding the first can we live the second.  Remember what Jesus told us?   In our Anglican liturgy, we recite it during our Masses as what is called the "Summary of the Law," and here is what that says from the Book of Common Prayer:

"Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith.  Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the Law and Prophets."

For some of my Evangelical brethren reading this who may not be as familiar with Anglican liturgy, you will recognize this right out of Scripture.  Remember Jesus, when He was being harassed by the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 22:37-40, and that He used that to answer the "zinger" one of them threw at Him in verse 36 about what the greatest commandment was.  It is indeed something that the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and even the theme of Scripture hangs upon - the book of Ephesians, for instance, deals a lot with these two themes, which I have identified as 1) how we relate to God, and 2) how we relate to one another.  With that in mind, the idea conveyed is this - submission to God's will is transformative, and will be reflected in how we interact on a daily basis with others.  Hence, the "glue" that holds these two commandments on which all the Law and Prophets (as well as Apostolic teaching) hang is the sovereign will of God, simple as that.

Now that we have summarized the Lord's Prayer by seeing that it is the will of God, and our willful submission to it, which makes the petitions of the prayer possible, I want to now discuss the closing lines of the Lord's Prayer.  Many Anglicans, Protestants, and even some post-Vatican II Roman Catholics may think it somewhat perplexing that Guardini leaves out the common close of the prayer which we know as the words "for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, amen."   The "Amen" is what Guardini, in traditional Roman Catholic fashion prior to Vatican II, focuses on, and I want to discuss that a bit to help people understand why he does what he does.  In reading what Fr. William Saunders wrote about this, the whole closing phrase is a traditional doxology that was not included in the original Scriptural rendering of the Lord's Prayer we find in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.  The doxology was a Hebraic practice that was utilized at the conclusion of a prayer in order to bring the focus back to worship of the one true God.  It was originally part of the Lord's Prayer in early liturgies, although it was later omitted due to focus on the Christological focus of the Eucharist, prior to which the Lord's Prayer was said before partaking.  It appears too, according to Fr. Saunders, that the doxology may have been reintroduced during the reign of Elizabeth I as part of the traditional Anglican liturgy, which is why traditional Anglicans say it (Fr. William Saunders, "Who Added the Doxology?" at http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/DOXOLOG.HTM - accessed 6/26/2015).   Personally, I don't think it does any harm omitting or adding it, as the focus of the prayer and its powerful message are not affected regardless, but it will explain why Guardini doesn't lend any discussion to it in his text.  Rather, Guardini focuses on the "Amen," which as we know means from the Hebrew tongue either "So be it" or "Let it be."  The "Amen" is to remind us, Guardini notes, that the right prayer (meaning a prayer said in the right spirit) is also an action, be it interior or exterior.  And, as an action, it demands a genuine transformation within the whole person must take place.  The heart yearns and tends toward God, but there must be a stoutness of character to avoid the temptation to shirk our responsibility to respond to that calling of God to Himself.  And, it is to be a consistent attitude, rather than a passive feeling of the "warm fuzzies," and therefore requires a solid frame of mind that also finds expression of this attitude in everyday action.  Therefore, our "amen" to the petitions of the Lord's Prayer sort of acts like the signature on a contract, and focuses us back on the kingdom, which we will now discuss.

The kingdom of heaven is not something that just falls out of the blue at us, and it doesn't evolve from the nature of man, as some modern liberal theologians like Jurgen Moltmann seem to mistakenly think.  The kingdom comes from God Himself, and is also in a continual state of coming - the kingdom, to use a cliche, is "now but not yet," in other words.  The most visible demonstration of this is in the reception of the Holy Eucharist, which we will get into next study.  And, although the kingdom of heaven is in a "continual state of coming," it must be seized by us and drawn to us.  It demands that we risk making a commitment, which unfortunately much in our own human nature due to concupiscence (we talked about that before - the propensity to sin which we inherently received as a race at the Fall), and it means that we must keep the "passions" (see our last study) in check if the kingdom is to have scope within us.  And, that leads to an interesting insight Guardini talked about in his text that I never thought of before, but it makes a lot of sense.

If we look in Matthew 11:12, we are told that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence from opposing forces on earth, and that the "violent" take the kingdom by force?  What does that mean?   If we go to Ephesians 6, we have a clue - it is a form of spiritual warfare that we must fight on a daily basis against the self, as well as against Satan and his minions.  We are also told to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3, NKJV), and regarding Satan, we are to "resist the devil" by "submitting to God" and the devil himself will flee from us (James 4:7, NKJV).  It is a struggle to live for God, as many things come against us to derail us from what God wants us to be, and Scripture from Jesus' own words even to Revelation itself constantly reminds us of that struggle we have.  We cannot therefore afford to be timid, and must break through ourselves via submission to God's will and our own self-discipline to follow His will at any cost.  The "amen" signifies that determination to break through, and it is our pledge to commit to follow what we confess with our mouths.

In case you haven't gotten the idea yet, it is apparent that the whole of the "Our Father" revolves around the kingdom of God.  It expresses the hope of its coming ("not yet," anagogical/eschatological) and the consciousness of its nearness ("now," practical).  When we say "Amen," therefore, we say in effect "I want the kingdom to come!"  And, this is what Jesus came to tell us, as is marked by the beginning of His earthly ministry when His first recorded words in the Gospels were "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" (Mark 1:15, NKJV)   Repentance, therefore, is a prerequisite for entry into the kingdom, and the Cross is the sole means of that repentance.  So, how then does the kingdom come (or not) to us?

First, the kingdom doesn't just fall out of the sky into our laps, but rather calls to us as the heart of the Gospel message.  We are compelled to believe this message, but in order to do so, it requires a change - we are to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, repent of our sins and allow His shed blood to cleanse them, and then we must bow our own will beneath His.  The latter part is an easy thing to say but not so easy to do, as our free will can make us stubborn, shutting itself up to the invitation of God to receive His salvation.  Also, our "passions" are resolute and cling to us, with our inner nature being fastened to those old ways by many roots.  Do you remember what the Apostle Saint Paul said we had to do also?   In Colossians 3:9 we are told to "put off the old man with his deeds," which also hearkens back to something said earlier in another epistles when we are reminded that "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41, NKJV).  The concupiscence we all have is something that we must constantly contend with in this life, for although we may desire to follow Christ and His commands, and submit to His will, we also have base desires that seek gratification - this is "the flesh" it talks about in Scripture so much.  Many of those base desires are not in our best interest, and indeed they can imperil our very souls if we indulge them.  This is another reason why submission to the will of God is vital to our faith, because only with God in control of our lives can be subdue those propensities and keep them in check.  And, the simple word "Amen" has a bigger role than we realize in that, because that little four-letter word draws a line for us to our endless questioning and wavering, and it sets the necessary boundaries to make us take our commitment to God seriously, even at all costs.  Therefore, the "Amen" does some things for us.

First, it changes the instability of creature into fidelity to God.  Secondly, it brings our flight from God in sin to a standstill.  However, due to our limited nature on this earth, this is a commitment we must continually renew, and on a daily basis.  We renew that commitment by studying God's word, talking to Him in prayer (using the Lord's Prayer either directly or as a model), and regular fellowship with our brethren in the Church via the sacramental bond of the Lord's table (the Eucharist).  And, every "Amen" lies valueless unless God Himself pronounces it - what on earth does that mean???  It means that God honors our contract to Him when we pray it with the right attitude of heart and in a contrite and humble spirit which desires to submit to His will and overcome the stubbornness of our own limited flesh.  And, finally, the "Amen" expresses God's determination to see His kingdom realized in us as His servants but ultimately on this earth literally when Jesus returns.  And, as Guardini notes on page 101 of his text, the "Amen" itself turns into its own petition - a petition which declares "Lord, do Thou say Amen!"   What this all means in more basic terms is this - if we approach God honestly and humbly, and willingly accept that "His will be done" as a desire of our own, God will pronounce the "Be it so!" upon us and He will see our faithfulness.  It is not a big mystery either, nor does it require any special ritual - Jesus already did all that upon Calvary, and God pronounced the "Amen" on that as well when Jesus utttered the last words on the Cross, "IT IS FINISHED!"   And, for us, when we submit to God's will and commit ourselves to follow Christ, it is indeed a finished work for us that we can, provided we keep the commitment ourselves, have solid hope.  God bless you all until next time.

The Lord's Prayer Part 10 - "But Deliver Us From Evil"

In this part of the study, we come to the last petition of the Lord's Prayer - "Deliver us from evil."  It is first important to examine what is meant by this petition in its literal sense, as it can be translated a couple of different ways.  Some Scripture translations have it as "deliver us from the evil one," meaning the wiles of Satan, but Guardini uses the Duay-Rheims translation, which like the KJV translates it as we are accustomed - "Deliver us from evil."  Either way, honestly, is fine, and no theological conflict of interest will ensue from either, as both have orthodox support.  So, Guardini in his text begins by raising some important questions about this passage.

The first, and most important question to ask is this - what is the evil from which we should ask to be delivered?  There are, of course, many to choose from, and generally these evils tend to come to us and we don't really have to make a lot of effort finding them (nor should we, if truth be told!).  However, the important emphasis of the text is not from what we should be delivered from, but rather who the petition is directed to, and it is addressed to Divine Providence Himself.  On page 86, Guardini makes an important observation when he notes that Providence becomes only what it really signifies based on the measure we enter into agreement with God in concern for the kingdom.   So, what on earth does that mean??  It follows the theme of the book as Guardini has written from the start - God's will is sovereign, as we noted in Lesson 1, but it also can be weakened by man's resistance to it.  God doesn't, in other words, force us to submit to His will, but rather we make a conscious choice, based on the free will He gave us, to submit ourselves to that will.  Therefore, our willingness to submit to God's will for our lives is measurable in the commitment we make to do so, and that is the measure of Providence we will see manifested.  Like everything else we pray in the Lord's Prayer, any petition therefore that God preserves us from evil come within the framework of Divine Providence.  If we do choose to enter into that fullest measure of agreement with God in concern for the Kingdom ("Thy will be done," in other words), it has a transformational effect on the world around us - in other words, as God's will is good, and for our good, all comes together for good for those who love and serve the Lord in fulness of being (Note Romans 8:28).

That all being said, it is important to see the even and consistent flow of the Lord's Prayer as studied from this point.   Deliverance from evil is linked closely to the petition that asks God for forgiveness of sin.  Evil is an effect of sin, and if Newton's Law is applied, it would look like this - an evil action will produce an evil reaction.   Guardini, on page 87 of his text, goes into an example of how, if he feels an animosity toward his neighbor, it colors the way he perceives his neighbor - the "good" is filtered out and the evil is concentrated.  As a result, a hermeneutic of suspicion is applied to the offending neighbor's communication to the point that if the feeling becomes manifest in action, and if the neighbor is not anchored in righteousness from God himself, then the attitude he displays toward the neighbor will be reciprocated by the neighbor and adopted and focused back at him.  In short, evil begats evil.  If we have this attitude as a part and parcel of our personality too, other things happen to us as well - stirring speech remains lifeless to the hearer, the intended thrill of a situation leaves the respondent cold, the joyful and generous is discouraged, and the exalted becomes trivial - all of this arises from a condition of the heart.  The Church Fathers addressed this as well extensively in many of their writings, and we now will turn the focus to them.

In the writings of the Church Fathers, in particular the Eastern Fathers, there is a lot of discussion devoted to dealing with "the Passions," and as Guardini notes, these "Passions" rage within and make one restless.  But, what are these "Passions?"   St, Gregory of Sinai, in his discourse entitled On Commandments and Doctrines, deals at length with the "Passions" and what they are, and so far his discussion is one of the most extensive I have come across, so we will try to summarize what he says here.  For one thing, passions are provoked by sinful acts, and the logical order of how this works is this - concupiscence is the nature within us which engenders a propensity toward sin, and by giving into temptation that is often aggravated by Satan to cause us to sin, the concupiscent drive to sin, if heeded, becomes manifest by a sinful act.  The sinful act, in turn, gives us a hunger to engage in it that the Fathers call a passion.  The passion then engenders in us an addiction to engage in the sinful act, and our normal thought processes are distracted by this addiction to the point it dominates our lives and endangers our soul.  Satan's primary way of doing this is through the lusts of the flesh, which are sensory-based - pleasures that we enjoy become idolatrous vices when indulged in excess, and hence we are driven to more sinful behavior to satisfy that appetite.  As St. Gregory notes, these distractive (and ultimately destructive) thoughts are the work of demons, and they are precursors to the passions.  So, demonic provocation (appealing to those base desires that are part of our concupiscent nature) begets the evil thoughts which, when given into and acted upon, become sinful actions (Palmer, Sherrard, and Ware, ed,  The Philokalia Vol. IV {London:  Faber and Faber, 1995}  pp.  223-227).  Guardini picks up on this further in his text, as he notes that the exasperations of everyday life aggravate these temptations, and that the ultimate effect of these passions is the devaluation of the self and other people, and the destruction of order in thought and feeling (distractive thoughts?) which results in confusion.  Evil does assault us from all sides, but its greatest battleground is within the mind itself.  Protestant Charismatic author Joyce Meyer, in her book Battlefield of the Mind (Tulsa:  Harrison House, 1995) notes that our reasoning is often used by Satan to steal the will of God from us, and the way that happens is that God may direct us to do a certain thing, but it doesn't make sense to our "rational" way of thinking, so we tend to reject it.  Some of what God leads us to do doesn't always conform to the logic of the human mind, in other words (Meyer, pp. 86-87).  Again, this is concurrent with what Guardini says in his text about allowing externals - even human rationalism - to destroy the divine order of thought and feeling, and this results in a confusion.   The antidote to this is found in Ephesians 6:17, in part of the classic "Armor of God" passage - the helmet of salvation.  If you have read my own book on Ephesians, you will note that one of the things I compare the human person to is a temple, and the mind is its outer court - everything we perceive in the senses is processed through our mind, in other words.  That is why, in submitting to God's will, we have a sort of filter that protects our heart and soul from those things our mind comes in contact with, and therefore that filter is what God's "Helmet of Salvation" is.  We have to guard ourselves, in other words, against those things which, either by just human influence or the manipulations of Satan and his demons, could potentially cause us to sin by appealing to certain things that should not be appealed to.  And, this is why our perception is also important, which we will now discuss more in detail.

On pages 88-89 of his text, Guardini spends a lot of time dealing with the term "world" and what it entails.  It is important that we understand first that this world exists for and by man, and as such it has two centers.  First in externals, things.  Secondly, in man himself.  Through the eyes of man the world is perceived.  Through the will of man the world is encountered.  Finally, through the heart of man the world is felt.  As man therefore relates to other human persons, as well as to things he encounters, so the "world" becomes.  Man forms the world in conformity with his own specific being - this is called one's world view.  Therefore, if there is evil in man, so likewise that evil in man will be reflected in the world around him.  Outside of our individual beings, there are real things, and interaction of course exists between us and these things.  With that in mind, the true significance of the term "world" lies in the vital interplay of thing and person that arises from this interaction.  The resulting effect, therefore, of this interaction will be determined by what man permits, decides or influences.   God made it this way, but with a different dimension - the world He intended for us comes into being only in conjunction with us.  Through the Revelation of Himself, God has called man to perfect Nature in this encounter.  This goes back to basic Thomistic metaphysics - God authored two "Books" (Nature and Revelation) and the second perfects the first.  In order for this to happen as God intended though, the outcome of this encounter is determined therefore by what man himself is - the good in man becomes the good in the world, and likewise the evil.

That brings us back to this petiton - we are in essence praying to be delivered from the evil within ourselves, so that it may not become manifested evil in the world!  Therefore, the petition challenges us that we may be taught to understand that evil comes from evil within.  We also desire to be taught that the world can continually renew itself, with the good within us producing good outside us.  To put this in a theological framework, the transformation Christ does in us should show as our witness to the world around us, and if it does, our quality of life improves and impacts those around us because Christ is allowed to do His work in us, and the resulting effects are called in Scripture the "fruits of the Holy Spirit" we find listed in Galatians 5:22.  Also, the redeemed in Christ receive the seed of a new creation (note Revelation 21:1) and it is spoken into us by Christ Himself when we submit our wills to His perfect will ("Thy will be done").  And, much of this also has its power in words too, as we see next.

The pervasiveness of the spoken word is something that is inescapable.  Even after its sound fades, the spoken word enters into the consciousness of its hearers (this is even true in the parables of Jesus, of particular note the classic Parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13). It also shapes our Christian walk too, as Scripture reminds us that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the Word of God" (Romans 10:17, NKJV).  Therefore, when we hear the Word of God expounded on in our Masses and other liturgical services every week, and we allow it to be listened to, it becomes a part of our inherent reality.  Evil likewise has its origins in words spoken, either by ineptitude, negligence, or past evil deeds.  The wickedness of the heart can become a tangible reality in the world, as we are seeing increasingly in society today.  This wickedness then becomes distilled into evil, and emerges to confront others in the form of scandal ("false witness") hindrance, and oppressive atmosphere.   And, if allowed to grow and persist, it begets more evil, becoming a seemingly endless chain.  But, there is good news.

First though, what is true on a personal level is also true in the collective history of humanity - Darwinism, for instance, begat eugenics, which in term begat evils such as Nazism in the early part of the 20th century.  Therefore when in this sense the petition "deliver us from evil" is prayed, it means breaking the chain by which evil continually arises out of wickednesss, and therefore preventing the propagation of new evils.  Again though, this breaking of the "continual chain of evil" only comes when the individual human heart submits itself to God, undertaking the task that His will be done.  So, surrendering our will to God's will breaks the bondage of evil.  Furthermore, although this evil is real and does exist, blind fate does not compell us to become entangled in its destructive cycle.  Redemption can be realized, and that is why Christ came to earth and died for our sins!  Through the redemptive shed Blood of Jesus Christ, the freedom of the children of God is awakened in man.   And, as a result, it penetrates as an emanating power the chain of universal evil and breaks it.  St. Paul, like the many Fathers of the Church that came after him, affirms that evil comes from sin, and the greatest of all sins that Guardini identifies is the breaking away of man from living union with the will of God.  And, this is a sin that finds its way into every heart, and it continues to operate every time we do sin.  And, that is the reason why we seek, on a daily basis, the grace of God through Christ to sustain us - Jesus is our Daily Bread, the Bread of Life, and we receive Him at every Eucharist we partake of.  This is why our prayer life and faith must be living and active, and not just mere lip-service.

Ultimately then, because we all have this concupiscence to sin, and are vulnerable not only to the passions that are birthed by allowing that sin to manifest in action, but also to Satan and his demonic minions enticing us with things that appeal to those passions externally, our plea for deliverance from evil also becomes an intercessory prayer on behalf of humanity, as a petition for deliverance from evil in its totality.  That of course will not be fully realized until Christ returns and restores the universe and heals it from the effects of the Fall, but as Christians our daily lives are a pilgrimage of faith in that direction on a personal level.  And, deliverance from evil doesn't refer to secular time - rather, it truly is eschatological, something that pervades the spirit of the whole petition.  Therefore, although we are to pray for this daily, the fulness of salvation will only be realized with Christ comes back as one of three interventions, the first being the Creation itself, the second the Redemption.  So, the plea "Maranatha!" (Revelation 22:20) is tied to this petition in a really profound way.  And, like most prayers, it refers to now as well as hope for the future.  God bless you until next time.

The Lord's Prayer Part 9 - "And Lead Us Not Into Temptation"

We are getting down to the last two petitions of the Lord's Prayer, which some would treat as one and the same, although Guardini's text separates them for good reason.  As we embark upon the petition "And lead us not into temptation," we will be focusing on two aspects of the petition.

First, as Guardini points out on page 76 of his text, the purpose of this petition is the desire that God doesn't bring us into the possibility of sinful action, but he also notes that this isn't quite correct either.  The reason Guardini says this is due to the reality of our already being situated in that possibility due to the Fall and our own concupiscence to sin, and to be removed from that is contingent upon the miraculous.  Also, I will add to that the fact that the original translation of this petition read more like this - let us not be led into temptation.  After all, it isn't God who leads us to be tempted - God never intended for that in the first place!   In the same manner, it is also not God who sends us to hell - we do that ourselves.   God doesn't want us to be subjected to temptation, nor does he desire us to be thrown into hell, but we get in the way of that.   Remember the earlier part of the Lord's Prayer, and the lynchpin petition holding it all together - "Thy will be done?"   Well, it goes back to Guardini's teaching on that, which states that although God's will is great and perfect, our own stubbornness and the wrong application of our God-given free will often weakens the will of God in our lives, hence the petition is needed to pray that God's will be done, and that our will should conform to God's.   In the same way, concupiscence for sin makes temptation to sin possible, and only a living, loving relationship with God through Christ helps us overcome that.   So, in praying that we may not be led into temptation, Guardini notes on page 77 that this petition can only mean that God may grant that the reality of concupiscence may not manifest in sinful action, and that is where we need to focus.

In this day and age, it is often too easy to be "led into temptation" even in the supposed Church world.  As the time grows ever closer for Christ's return, we are given several signs that His coming is closer, and one of those signs is in direct relation to this petition in the Lord's prayer.   Starting first in II Thessalonians 2:11, we note something -  many will not receive the full truth of the Gospel, and indeed many who do will apostatize the faith - we see this also in I Timothy 4:1, where it is mentioned that in the latter times some will depart (apostatize) from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of devils, and in doing so, they will begin to not only embrace some wacky things, but even allow the world system to dictate their values and behavior.  We see this likewise in II Timothy 3:13-14, where it says this will get worse, with both people deceiving and being deceived.  Note that much of this in the Church, and if you go back to the parables of Jesus, it is the tares/goats/bad fish He talked about.  And, it will be widespread - many people, in the name of Christianity, will embrace this stuff in such a way that it makes no sense, except that they are being deceived by a false delusion God allows to be sent upon them.   Now, take a look at the news today, will you - apostasy is on the rise in all sectors of Christianity, and people are believing all sorts of bizarre stuff.  All logic dictates they should know better, yet they fall into the trap - look now, for instance, at how many Catholic and Evangelical Protestant clergy are embracing things like evolution and "gay marriage" because it makes them more "relevant" to today's society.   Problem is, God has always transcended the trends of the day, and His truths are eternal.   Therefore, as Guardini notes on page 78 of his text, the petition to "not be led into temptation" is for the believer confessing it a humble recognition of the truth as well as an appeal to God's mercy.  That being said, when we pray "let us not be led into temptation" it means that we be strengthened against the assault and pressure to "conform" to the groupthink that permeates much popular theology.  The reason for that is quite simple - the distractions and allurements of this life  (including temptations to tinker with orthodox teaching in favor of a more popular approach) turn the propensity to sin into an urgent danger, and the temptation grows fierce and relentless.   Therefore, when the pressure is on to conform to things that clearly contradict the orthodox teaching of the Church on anything, it means that we need to seek to be closer to God in communion with Him, and the way we do that is through an active sacramental and devotional life.

This then leads to the second aspect of the discussion that Guardini opens up on pages 80-82 - can God permit temptation to become so severe that we must fall?   In 1983, Christian novelist Frank Peretti wrote a compelling drama of spiritual warfare called This Present Darkness, in which a small Midwestern town becomes the scene of an intense spiritual struggle between a rich national occultist business mogul named Alexander Kaseph and a small-town young pastor of a local church named Hank Busche.    In a series of events that follow, God allows the pastor to fall into a situation in which a demon-possessed woman (who was a plant) attacks him, and he gets arrested and thrown in jail on a trumped-up rape charge.  As you read the story further, God allows this to happen because another protagonist, a persistent and stubborn local newspaper editor named Marshall Hogan, is framed in a similar way when his own daughter is influenced by a witch who is teaching psychology classes at the local college, and he too ends up in jail and the pastor ends up being his cellmate - as the pastor and editor began to compare notes, they begin to play their respective parts in God's plan to bring down the underlying spiritual powers behind Kaseph's empire - a demonic prince named Rafar - and God used a tragic and unjust situation to gain victory over the forces of evil in that town.   As Guardini notes, every hour we exist is woven into the whole fabric of our lives as individuals, and it is important to note that Satan has an assignment to cause each of us to fall just as God has a plan - the temptations that Satan and demonic entities use against us grow from our previous actions in our life's journey, and these circumstances that create the potential temptations to us become incorporated into our living being as either a weakness or strength, a protection or threat - it all depends on our response to it.  But, even when we fail in some way, and perhaps we end up sinning (the question for us as human beings, due to the concupiscence issue, is not if we will sin, but when - we are vulnerable, and a moment of weakness can lead to a sinful act on our part).   This present hour - right now - is the distillation therefore of all that has happened in our lives up to this point.  Remember the Aquinas principle of non-contradiction based on God's two books - Nature and Revelation?   Well, remember that Revelation perfects Nature and Nature can never contradict Revelation, as God created the natural order and it functions according to how He created it, even down to the most minute and simplest of detail.  That being said, each of us has our own "Book of Nature," or our story, if you will, and a "Master Book" of that story is a continuous action until we repose.   When God's Word becomes involved in our lives on a personal level, it transforms our story in that God allows His revelation to begin to perfect us, and from that interaction comes what is called a testimony.  Although some of my fellow Anglo-Catholics, as well as brethren in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches who read this, may pooh-pooh the idea of "personal testimony" as being a bi-product of Protestant revivalism, in reality all Christians have a testimony of some sorts - we, if we are completely honest with ourselves, have to acknowledge a profound move of God's will in our lives on some level, whether it be surviving a debilitating illness, a moment when something transforms our lives, or even just the daily insight we receive from our personal prayer and reading of the Bible and other devotional literature.  These things become integrated into our own "Master Book," and as they do, they begin to shape our existence as living beings.  And, that also includes the negative - an occasional sin or personal tragedy of some sort can be used of God to draw us back to Him, and it serves to remind us of the current petition we are discussing - "Let us not be led into temptation."   And, that leads to another discussion - predestination.

The term "predestination" has been the topic of much lively theological debate over the centuries, and the source of the debate is simply this - does God know the outcome of our lives in detail, or does our free will shape some (or all) of it?   The most notable historical aspect of this debate is the Calvinist/Arminian controversy of the earliest days of the Protestant Reformation.   Some Calvinists taught something called supralapsarianism, which means that God has predestined some to salvation, and others to damnation, and therefore if you were chosen for salvation, nothing you could do would forfeit that (leading to two doctrines, one being irresistable grace, and the second being perserverance of the saints, or the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer, sometimes called by its critics "once saved always saved.")  Calvinist Protestants in recent times have gone two directions with this idea, with the more conservative believing in a strict "Two-Seed Predestinarianism," which presupposes that certain people are actually earmarked for damnation, while the more liberal would go with Universalism, the belief that all humanity is part of "the elect" and will all be saved anyway (it is now called in some Evangelical circles Universal Reconcilliation or Inclusionism, and has been popularized by Emergent Church people such as Rob Bell).   The problem with this position in either extreme is that it doesn't really define what predestination actually is, because it presupposes that God has already set this in stone and it is in direct conflict with the Gospel message, which proclaims that Jesus died for all, yet it is up to us to accept that as individuals.   If we look at Romans 9:20-23, we see the paradox as God Himself asks through the words of the Apostle Paul, "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?"   And, explaining this further, an analogy of the potter shaping a clay vessel is used - does not the potter have power over the clay to make a vessel for honor or for dishonor?   Taking the whole Scriptures into context, the point is that God made the vessel (meaning us), and it was good (Genesis 1:31).  However, how the vessel is used is what makes it honorable or dishonorable.   The point is that evil doesn't come from God, but from our fallen nature, and if man chooses to live in a way that is dishonorable, he condemns himself and God only pronounces the verdict.  Again, God doesn't throw us into hell, nor does He will that we die as sinners, but if we make the wrong choice, we pay the consequences.  The late evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman also expressed this well too, as she often said in her meetings that God doesn't desire gold or silver vessels, but rather yielded vessels.  A yielded vessel would be one of us who desires from the heart when he or she prays from the lips "Thy will be done," not only in a broad sense as the Lord's Prayer says ("on earth as it is in heaven") but on a personal level, making inner transformation into that which God has predestined us to be.   Therefore, by predestination, it simply means that in a way which transcends our own understanding, God can see the outcomes of all our choices, and it is up to us to exercise free will in making the right or wrong choice.  God decreed man to be created in this way because He is love Himself, Our Father!  

Now we come to that principle of grace, which coming from the Greek charis implies something that is outside the realm of effort and obligation.  Grace (or as defined by some appropriately as "unmerited favor") is a free gift of God, hence its attraction and beauty.  Grace is given from God's love, and is not hedged by earned or inherent rights or securities - "security" after all implies right, guarantee, and constraint, which grace transcends.  Therefore, grace is the defining true meaning of predestination, in that it is a thought of love (specifically God's love) and it is the final assurance the all comes from God's freedom.  Therefore, the Christian must let go of everything that spells security, rights, and demonstrable common sense, thus freeing one to achieve harmony with God.  Now, what does all of that mean?  Does it mean that we check our brains at the door of the Church when we go in, and that we don't utilize common sense at all?   Does it also mean we deny all our own rights?   No!   It means that we deny ourselves those things which are based on selfish motive - we always affirm the right to worship God in freedom of conscience, for instance, because that honors God.   We stand up for other human rights because they benefit others besides ourselves - this is why, in some cases, it is permissable to kill in self-defense when our families or communities are threatened, and it also is why St. Augustine taught the theory of "just war," because it means enforcing justice for others even if it means laying our own lives on the line for it.  Some "Christian pacifists" today don't understand that, and the reason that is the case is because they have not been put into a situation where they had to act on behalf of another in that way, and many of them would not have the courage to stand up for what is right anyway.   That is why, too, we need to be careful not to be led into the temptation of our own securities, because our own securities lead to a delusion of heresy and misinterpretation of things.

As we continue next time with the complimentary petition to this one - "deliver us from evil" - we will be continuing in this train of thought, as again we need to keep in mind that the Lord's Prayer only makes sense if you can see how each part of it fits together with the others.  Preventing the sway into temptation as we talked about here is intimately connected to deliverance from evil as well, and we will be seeing that.   God be with and bless each of you reading this until our next visit.

Refining and Reducing - A Study For Today's Remnant

I wanted to take a break this week from posting the parish Bible studies because I have some important stuff to talk about today.  Looking around at our present society, and especially the violence and persecution done against people of true faith, calls for a word of encouragement.  So, that is what I want to share today.

On a sunny day in the ancient kingdom of Israel some 2700 or so years in the past, a guy named Elijah lived, and he was a true prophet of God.  Concerned about the rise of the worship of a pagan devil called Baal imported from the neighboring kingdom of Sidon in Phoenicia by Ahab's Lebanese wife Jezebel, and the growing numbers of Israelites being swept up in the fervor of this pagan ritual, Elijah had to do something drastic.  So, he issued a challenge to King Ahab to duke it out with about 900 "prophets" of the demon Baal atop Mt. Carmel in northern Israel.   Despite all their best efforts - which included self-mutilation by cutting, etc. (I Kings 18:28) - it came to nothing, but Elijah uttered one simple prayer - "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.  Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again" (I Kings 18:37-38, NKJV).  All of a sudden, WHOOOSSSHHHHH!!!! Fire rained from the sky and totally incinerated the sacrifice, the altar, and even with all the gallons and gallons of water that saturated it all - it even boiled the trench around the altar dry!   It was a great day for Elijah and his God.

However, despite such a momentous victory, old Queen Jezebel was not happy, and she wanted to settle the score with this troublesome prophet of God messing up her religious enterprise.  So, she sent word to Elijah - in effect threatening his life! - by saying "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as one of them by tomorrow this time!" (I Kings 19:2, NKJV).   So, Elijah was essentially a fugitive with a death sentence on his head.  He fled into neighboring Judah to the desert, and while out there all this mess began to get to him, at which time he flopped his weary body under a broom tree and resigned himself, saying, "It is enough!  Now Lord, take my life, as I am no better than my fathers" (I Kings 19:4).   But, some hours later, he was awakened by a strange voice saying "arise and eat," and there was a piping hot breakfast waiting for him!   This happened a couple of more nights as Elijah camped out in a cave, and finally God asked him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"  (I Kings 19:9, NKJV).  Elijah spilled his guts, essentially telling God that it was a lost cause trying to save those reprobates back home because if he even tried, he would be strung up himself.  So, God tested him - which one would sound like His voice - the tornado, the earthquake, the fire, or just a still small voice?  Then, God asked him again what he was doing out there, and Elijah gave the same shpil as before.  In response, God told Elijah to go and anoint another king in Israel, a guy named Jehu, and then told Elijah this - "Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." (I Kings 19:18).   That is the crux of this story for us, because whatever hits us, we are not alone, and indeed are in good company with great Biblical heroes like Elijah and even Jesus Himself.  And, this is where I want to talk some. 

We have all felt like Elijah at some point, if we are serving God like we are supposed to, haven't we?   I think now for instance of the brilliant creationist, Dr. Kent Hovind, who is locked away unjustly in a jail over something that the sentence hasn't been exactly fair.  I think of the 21 new Coptic saints who were martyred recently on a beach in Libya by ISIS demons, all because they were Christians.  I think of Cardinal Raymond Burke, the faithful Roman Catholic cardinal who was demoted by a pope who I am finding very disturbing recently.  And, those Christian businesses who are being outlandishly sued by radical homosexual activists over cake of all things - Marie Antoinette would be proud of those homo-nazis, I will say that!  And on, and on, it goes - I too have had my share of being slandered and falsely accused by people who I stood up against as well - academics and even fellow students in Christian colleges who all of a sudden think it's good to be heretical  - so I know too.  I am not going to go into a lot of that or the details these situations entail, except to say that in my own perplexity this story of Elijah reminds me that I am not alone - there are faithful Remnants of those who have not "bowed the knee to Baal," and I have learned to seek them out, and we encourage each other.  They transcend denomination too - some of these good people are Baptists, some are Pentecostals, others are Catholics, and some belong to other church traditions, but we all share a faith that we joyfully confess and just don't nominally assent to in order to "kiss butt" with religious and academic hierarchy.  However, I still have to ask myself on occasion - has the world gone completely nuts????    Just in the past 20 years so much has happened that it is even beyond my own comprehension at times, and it does overwhelm me on occasion.  However, it is at that time God starts talking, and the peace of understanding His plan is what gives me a reason to go on, just like it did Elijah in the wilderness. 

A few nights ago, I had a rather disturbing dream that relates to this.  In it, I was in a bad snowstorm in a subtropical place like Florida, and next thing I know I am battling with wolf-creatures of some sort in the dream!   There were two types of these creatures - one had the appearance of a wolf but also walked upright and was sentient like a human.  The other looked like a giant wolf similar to those creatures in Tolkien's The Hobbit, and those were vicious-looking.   The two creatures were different in the dream but seemed to be working together in a common purpose.  As I thought about that, the Lord gave me the meaning of this dream - whenever you see a wolf in a dream, it is a spiritual adversary of some sort.   The ones that had human-like attributes and were smaller represented apostate Christians, while the meaner, bigger creatures represented outright demon-worship.  What God was showing me is something we will be talking about momentarily, as at some point in the very near future there will be enemies sitting in our churches who will be trying to destroy us, and we need to have sharp discernment - they will look and act like one of the flock, but they will be a ravenous wolf.   And, now that is what we are going to talk about here.

In a conservative Anglo-Catholic Facebook group I am part of, I have been reading a number of articles that have been posted, and many of them are quite enlightening.  One article that caught my attention in particular was by Evangelical writer Ed Stetzer, and it was entitled "Survey Fail - Christianity Isn't Dying" (available at http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/05/13/nones-americans-christians-evangelicals-column/27198423/).   The premise of Stetzer's article, which I thought was excellent, is that true Christianity is as vibrant as ever, which he calls "convictional Christianity" as opposed to "nominal Christianity."  Although the statistics of the "unaffilliated" are growing from 16% to 23% as of a recent Pew Research poll, Stetzer notes that "Nominal Christians are becoming the nones and convictional Christians remain committed. It is fair to say we are now experiencing a collapse, but it's not of Christianity. Instead, the free fall we find is within nominalism."  It is also important at this point to understand what Stetzer calls "Nones," and fellow Anglican researcher Bart Gingerich defined "Nones" as being those people - many of them Millenials unfortunately - who identify as "spiritual but not religious," and have a code they follow called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, a term coined by writers Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton sometime around 2005 and consisting of a set of core tenets which embodies God as the "cosmic butler", and strong doses of political correctness and universalism.  Many of these "nones" do attend "churches," but they prefer people like Rob Bell or Brian McLaren who preach pretty much the same junk.  Many of these "kids" (as a lot of them are in their 20's) are sort of hippie-like in outlook, but the danger comes in what they have the potential of turning into as time progresses - these are the future enemies of true Christianity.  That is why it is important now to witness the truth to as many of them as possible, because the window is growing shorter by the day.  

We should actually not be overly surprised that all of this is happening, as it was foretold in the Bible two millenia ago.  There are a number of things we need to pay attention to in Scripture though, because they mean something more so now than ever.  Here is a sampling of what I am talking about:

1.  A great apostasy in the Church (I Timothy 4:1, II Timothy 3:1-6, Matthew 13:3-23, 24-30, 24:9-12)

2.  Perceived knowledge which is self-promoting (Titus 1:16, II Timothy 3:7, Romans 1:22)

3.  God giving people up to strong delusions and doctrines of devils (I Timothy 4;1-2, II Thessalonians 2:11, Romans 1:28)

More could be said and shown, but this gives you an idea of what is happening.  In order for people to totally apostatize, they have to be led by heady, high-minded people (the professors with their titles and letters after their names) who themselves are given to false teachings and illusions - many of these people at one time may have been Christians, but they forgot who they were and abandoned their faith in order to seek their own glory, and it shows in their attitudes.  We have all seen some pastors and other ministers like that, haven't we?   You know the ones - you disagree respectfully on something, and you get that condescending, baleful glare that says "Who are you to question me?"   God didn't give up on such people though; they gave up on Him, and He let them have their way.   Soon, with the absence of God being replaced with the idolatry of self , these people begin teaching things that are totally contrary to the Bible, the historic teaching of the Church, and some of their nonsense even defies common sense!  Their followers grow though, because they use their talents to deceive people into listening, and before long they are leading others to apostatize the faith.  Then, when such people end up behind the pulpits of our churches and the podiums of our college classrooms, as well as in denominational leadership, they next try to alienate and discredit the faithful Christians, thus marginalizing them.  Some of you know what I am talking about too - you have been there before, and you know that frustration of not being able to even feel at home in your own church, school, or other institution because the "delusion" being propagated is so pervasive that it makes your spirit grieve.   But, there is good news for you, which I want to close with now. 

All of the stuff we see in the world is happening for a reason, and although the apostasy we witness now almost daily in the Church is at times overwhelming, it needs to be looked at in a different light.   The faithful Remnant - those who love God and His teachings - are both being set apart as well as pruned themselves.   The "falling away" that II Timothy talks about is also for the Church's benefit - it is removing a lot of "dead wood" from the Church that shouldn't be there in the first place.  So, let them be "Nones" if they want; they have made that choice, and their dignity as fellow human persons compels us to respect that choice, no matter how it grieves us.  We need to see it as a time to maybe look inward, and begin to grow spiritually ourselves - we may have to do that in many cases in the privacy of our homes with our close families, but you will not believe how that will edify you and how much stronger your own Christian life will become.  Therefore, as Romans 8:28 reminds us, all things, even the nastiest situations, will work together for good to us who are called by God according to His purpose, and who love Him and His Word.  God bless and be with you until next time.  

The Lord's Prayer Part 8 - "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

When we approach this part of the Lord's Prayer, it can be really tough - all of us have either wronged someone ourselves, or we have been wronged by somebody, and forgiveness is a hard virtue to foster.  However, sometimes it is made more complicated than it should be by either allegorization or over-simplification, and people who approach it that way often find out they can't measure up to that standard.   There is good news though - you don't have to, because that is not the standard Jesus was talking about!  Reading Guardini's book at this stage has both affirmed some things I had begun to realize some time ago, as well as teaching me some new insights.  I am sharing some of those in the coming week with my parish Bible study group, but I am also going to share them here now with you.

On pages 63-64 of Guardini's text, he deals with what the various terms of this petition means, and he focuses on the word debt.  For many of us brought up on that particular translation (which both the KJV and Douay-Rheims read I believe) this is familiar to us.  My mother taught me the prayer that way when I was very young, and I have always said it like that up until fairly recently.  The way Guardini defines debt (from the Greek ophelilema, "that which is owed")   is "a failure in regard to something obligatory," and what that means is basically two things - we fail to meet an obligation we have to either God or our fellow man.  What is that classic way of defining the term "sin" - "missing the mark?"  In that case, the word debt fits well into the context of the prayer.  It also concurs with Romans 3:23, which reminds us that we all "have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."   In other words, we fail to meet the obligation of giving God his rightful place in our lives, and thus we fall into sin.  We see that on a national scale too - remember American educational institutions before and after 1963, the year they took Bible reading and prayer out of schools?   It was only 9 years after that when Roe v. Wade was passed, and along with replacing the Bible and prayer with the lie of evolution - you know, that man came from a cell, to a blob of gel, to an ape that smells; that lie! - as God was displaced so man began to devalue himself.   We now see the tainted fruit of that experiment, don't we?  Our current world is a picture of debt - debt accumulated frivolously by pursuing the lusts of the flesh.  And, Guardini addresses that too, because he talks some about what is called "Moral Law" - one application of that is the state, while the other is that which governs thought.  Action, he notes, must follow "Moral law" to prevent error; if it doesn't it goes wrong.  In terms of moral law, this petition of forgiveness makes little sense, and dare I add even less so in this day and age of moral relativism.  After all, one cannot ask to be forgiven by the laws of the state, can they?  Also, one cannot be asked to be forgiven by the laws of logic either - after all, those who think wrongly can only try to redeem themselves as best they can from their error and must own the consequences of their own wrongdoing.  However, with moral relativism that governs most of Western society these days (including that other fallacy called "political correctness") many people who think wrongly don't even understand they are thinking wrongly in the eyes of God - after all, these people justify "same-sex marriage" and other things that are clearly contrary to God's own commandments because they reason, "well, it is love, and love is love after all" (an argument I hear from these people ad nauseum by the way!) and of course, we must be "like Jesus" if we "don't judge lest we be judged," right?   See, that is what happens when a combination of man's logic and misunderstanding of what the Church actually teaches on these Scripture passages leads to, yet because they don't understand it properly, they err to the degree that they justify sin as something "good" - remember what Scripture says about the latter days - "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil...." (Isaiah 5:20, NKJV).  Therefore, we must understand what Jesus said as what He said, and not what we try to make it say.

Another translation of the Lord's Prayer renders the term trespasses rather than debts.  Guardini doesn't address that in his book, but I wanted to make mention of it here because so many of you reading this now may actually recite the Our Father using that terminology, and that is OK.  We need though to explore what a trespass is.  My Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word "trespass" as "a violation of moral or social ethics," and hence it has more of a connection with sin.  The reason Guardini didn't address this was that his text was written in 1932, and at that time the official Scripture translation of the Roman Catholic Church was the Douay-Rheims, which I actually find to be a valuable study translation myself.  Like the KJV, the DR renders the translation "debts." although also Guardini originally wrote the text in German, and in most of Europe the translation "trespass" is used, although the English-speaking world uses "debts."  It, I suppose, could be a minor issue of theological debate, but personally either translation is fine, as they both convey the same truth - sin is both failure and violation, in other words.  As good Anglicans, it was also important for us to understand the difference in terminologies too, as it aids in appreciating our own Book of Common Prayer better.

For the believer in Christ who has received His grace of forgiveness, this petition does not merely reflect an abstract moral law but rather is a living, vibrant part of our faith - it is the holy, the good, impressed upon our inmost souls.  Its source therefore is God, and it demands to be observed.  This is the way God originally created us, and is a vestige of our pre-Fall state as a race.  It therefore doesn't merely "evolve," as some godless academics would have us to believe, but is inherent in our very creation, but at the same time it is also obstructed by the Fall too.  God is of course himself essential goodness and wills for us to become good too - by praying "Thy will be done," the "gateway petition" to this entire prayer, we accept that desire to become better.  Therefore, when we sin, it is an action against this essential goodness.  Furthermore, although original sin was washed away in the font of Holy Baptism, we unfortunately still struggle with something called concupiscence, meaning the propensity (capacity) to commit sinful actions.  God therefore, when He demands of us that good be done, He is demanding what He Himself stands for - His own holiness is the good! The way Guardini puts this is like this - God demands Himself from man for His own sake.

Now, the idea of forgiveness, the tough part!  Revelation (meaning all of God's Word) tells us that the binding authority in the life of the Christian is the living, holy will of God.  This is meant for us as individual believers and is binding on us.  It therefore approaches us in our own unique existence.  The sovereign necessity of the Law obligates man's freedom without cancelling it (also called responsibility in lay terms!) but it only appears in its fulness when it is invested with the character of love.  The sternness of the legalistic aspect remains, but it is no longer an abstraction - it is now drawn into the vital intimacy of person to person, Creator to creature, and more personally the Father in heaven to each of us individually.  God's commandments (you can say the "Thou shalts" and "Thou shalt nots") therefore are the way in which He loves me.   They are the content of His love and at the same time the necessary premise that enables God to love each of us.  Therefore, rather than seeing these commands as restrictions, we should see them as boundaries set to protect us from those things which can destroy and devalue us as persons created in the image of God.

That being said, when I obey God's demand, it is more than just satisfying some legal rubric; it fulfills a relationship of love!  And, this does include, lest we forget, the perfection of every abstract law as well.  Its fruit is not merely the consciousness of a duty done or of merely a purer morality, but it is also a greater nearness and more loving participation in God Himself.  The consequences of disobeying that law is therefore a sin against God's love, and against my debt of love to God; it's ultimate fruit is alienation, enstrangement, and a drifting off into illusion, confusion, and death.

And, it is not merely a case of abstract law confronting "subject," but of something vital and living - the most holy God, lovingly concerned for man.  A new, creative dimension at this point now stands out in the relationship.  And, should failure happen (and on this earth, it inevitably will numerous times for each of us!) it is not in an abstract sphere of "law" and "subject," but rather the living sphere of love between "me" and "Thee."  Penitence is the way in which we become lovingly conscious of the debt of love we are obliged to God - penitence is in a real sense love related to debt.  Penitence is asking God to forgive our failures (sins) and God's love through it is therefore directed toward the creature that is "in debt" (guilty).

It must be remembered, as we discussed earlier, that everything depends on the sinner's response.  It depends upon the sinner returning to the bond of love from which he has divorced himself by his guilt.  The person asking forgiveness, therefore, should place himself in a state of love. And, there is a condition - "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors!"  What this means is that we can always ask forgiveness, provided we are in the state of mind that makes such a petition reasonable.  Moral shame is not that motivation, and neither is a fear of evil consequences.  Only love, that love we see clearly when we have the charity to ask ourselves how we react to fellow man who wrongs us.  However, this doesn't necessarily mean that we have to physically and literally say the words "I forgive you," for at times our offender may think he has done a good thing in offending us, and may not see the need.  It does mean however that we have an attitude of forgiveness which is readily and freely dispensed when our offender is prepared to receive it.  In short, not everyone may be as ready to receive forgiveness as you are ready to forgive, and we must exercise good discernment in that regard.

As Anglican Catholics, one part of our weekly Mass includes what is called the "Summary of the Law," and essentially it is Matthew 22:37-39 - "Jesus said to him. 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and Prophets."  The important question to ask here is "who is my neighbor?"  It is not necessarily a neighbor in a literal sense, in that the person discussed may not live in the house next door to you literally.  Your "neighbors" are therefore those people you interact with on a daily basis.  It is also important that to love our neighbors doesn't necessarily mean we have to like them - some people, let's face it, are just unpleasant!  Although we may strongly dislike someone, the love of Christ must be allowed to shine through us so we can deal with such people gracefully.   Also, remember that in their being qua being (their existence for virtue of who God created them to be) all persons are good - even Satan in being is good insofar as he was originally created by God, but Satan became evil and nasty because of himself, not because of who God created him to be; you see the difference?  The negatives in us therefore come from the Fall and sin therefore corrupts what God intended to be created as good.

Now comes the paradox - how can the first commandment (love the Lord God) be like the second (loving our neighbor)??  They are in reality one and the same - I can love God only if I am prepared to be what He created me to be, which is part of a community, a Church.  Love therefore flows from Him to me, and from me to others.  And, sin can only be overcome by union with God in love.  When someone sins against us personally, that person is in the same situation with me as I was once with God.   Therefore, if I erect a wall of unforgiveness against my offender, I also erect it as a barrier between me and God.  And, both (the wall between us and our offender, and us and God) are one and the same wall.  Sin can only be overcome by union with God by love.  When we come to God with our sin, we should test ourselves whether we are in that condition of love ourselves (self-examination, which is also good preparation for receiving any sacramental grace too).  Love is a matter of requiring faith in that God's love for me and my response to that love are grace and mystery that can only be devoutly hoped for.  Therefore, if I sincerely forgive my offenders, this is my pledge that I may believe and hope that I love God, and remember what Scripture says - "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."  As it relates to this petition, I therefore can have confidence that I am in God's love by the measure that my forgiveness of others is in sincerity.  The more genuinely I overcome my own inner resistance, hatred, and aversion of my offender, the more deeply I can allow real, genuine, and liberating forgiveness to reach down to the depths of the wrong my offenders have done me.  Hence, the more confidently I may hope to be in God's love, and to have my own plea for forgiveness heard.  Summarily, you shall forgive others as you wish God to forgive you!

We need to sincerely confess our culpability before God, a fact that cannot be taken for granted.  For the person who has obviously and palpably sinned, it means a sincere admission of guilt for that sin.  Self-justification of any sin is not an option,  in other words.  For the person living the supposed "good life," it is a realization of how paltry this "goodness" actually is.  All of our perceived "goodness" is often tainted with egoism and narrowness, insincerity, and mixed motives (or, "what will I gain from this?"  Well, maybe your eternal soul if you get your attitude right!).  "Being good" is therefore only due to favorable circumstances (contrary to what Robert Schuller or Joel Osteen may say) and only when God tests can the measure of goodness be accurate.

This petition of the Our Father therefore warns us in several ways.  First, we need to acknowledge our guilt for sins we have definitely committed.   Second, we need to recognize the magnitude of wrongdoing we often regard as trifling (except when we are on the receiving end - hmmm!).   Third, we need to see the sins that lie under our supposed virtues and self-righteousness.   Fourth, we need to realize that we have not only committed sins, but that we are sinners who stand guilty in the sight of God.  Fifth, we are not to withdraw ourselves from the masses of humanity into an aristocracy of self-righteousness.  And sixth, we don't only pray about our individual guilt, but also about the guilt that encompasses us all - that God may open our eyes to it, break its spell, and help us to rise above it aand return to Him.

Being a Christian entails continually rising up out of our guilt to come to God and beg Him for forgiveness, thus being gradually transformed by this continually renewed forgiveness.  As we see in the next section, this also involves another factor - temptation.  God be with you all until next time.

The Lord's Prayer Part 7 - "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"

We have prayed the Lord's Prayer many times, and many times, we all draw the same conclusion from its words.  How many of you reading this, for instance, would associate the "daily bread" in this petition with providing for our physical needs?  It is only natural to do just that, and many times I have as well.  God does provide for our physical needs if we trust Him to do so, and therefore it is not wrong to even think this is what we are praying for.  One of the titles of God found in Scripture, as a matter of fact, is YHWH Jireh, which literally translates as "I am He who provides" (as a good Anglican would understand it, Divine Providence; more on that momentarily).   Also, there is Phillipians 4:19, in which the Apostle St. Paul reminds us that "God shall supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory."  As I myself can attest from many times (some even quite recent!), this is something God naturally does - He is good about providing for His own, and stories in Scripture confirm that.  Note, for example, the story of Elijah in I Kings 19, when after a huge spiritual victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, a wrathful and wicked Queen Jezebel had put a price on Elijah's head, forcing him into the wilderness fleeing for his life.  Despondent, Elijah wanted to just die, and in his depression he laid and slept under a broom tree.  When he awoke, it says "Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water.  So he ate and drank, and lay down again" (I Kings 19:6),  Then, in verse 7, "the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, 'Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you."  It says later that the nourishment from that supernaturally-provided meal sustained him in his travels for the better of 40 days!  Another example we see of this is Elijah's disciple Elisha - remember, in 2 Kings 4, the story of the prophet's widow?  This poor widow-woman only had a little oil in a jar, but Elisha told her to gather up every vessel she could find, and when she did, she was able to fill them all, sell the oil from them, and use the proceeds to pay her bills.  Many, many stories of the providential care abound in Scripture, and it is a cardinal truth that this is what God does for His own.  But, rather than being wrong about it when it talks about "our daily bread" in the Lord's prayer, it is just not the context in which this petition is talking, and therefore that is what we are going to discuss in this study.

Guardini, in his text, first notes that the life of the person who lives by what was brought into the world by Christ is a daily exercise of faith that requires a spiritual sustenance of its own.  Therefore, as Guardini notes, one cannot separate the two parts of this petition from one another - "our daily bread" cannot be understood without the precedent "give us this day," in other words.  If we try to parse this petition too much, the whole thing begins to drift into irrelevance, but together their very simplicity opens up a bottomless well of understanding from which its refreshing waters can be drunk from infinitely.   Guardini also notes, and I would concur, that this petition is often encountered from the lips of the half-believing, indifferent, and unbelieving.  It is often used as a "liberation theology" rallying point, manipulated by certain "theologians" to advance their own agendas for things they themselves don't practice.  The reason for this abuse and indifference, I feel, is because it is not being understood in its proper context.  We think so much about sustaining the flesh that we often forget that Jesus wants to transform us spiritually from within, and while it is not wrong to trust in Jesus for material necessities, as we all have to eat and survive, often we use the wrong things to justify that propensity to seek provision for the temporal at the expense of the spiritual.  This petition, "give us this day our daily bread," has a mystery as well as a hazard - it embodies an expression of that faith that literally "overcomes the world."

So, what is "our daily bread" referring to?  It is time to do a little Greek word study.  In the original Greek translations of the Gospels, the passage dealing with the Lord's Prayer, in particular this particular petition, was expressed with the Greek word epiousiws, which comes from two Greek root words (hepi meaning "on, upon, or above" and ousia meaning "being, substance, or nature.") which when put together can be translated as "supernatural" or "supersubstantial."  As Brant Pitre, in his seminal text Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (New York:  Doubleday, 2011) notes on pages 93-96 of his text, this "daily bread" is above all substances and surpasses all creatures - it is the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ Himself!  Guardini also notes that if we were to literally translate this, it would actually read something like this - "Give us our supernatural Bread for the coming day."  Now, although we have established that Jesus is not merely talking about the Parker House rolls we have with our fried chicken and Brussels sprouts for dinner, this must have a more profound meaning, and we now get into that, as it opens up a whole new dimension concerning the mystery of Divine Providence.

Providence, as Guardini notes, is the innermost mystery of Christ.   The idea of "world order" is discussed in Guardini's book, and as we go back to a more Thomistic approach, remember what Aquinas taught about "God's Two Books" - Nature and Revelation.  Both are authored by the same One - God Himself - but the "order" discussed is a fundamental principle of Thomistic thought - Revelation (Scripture, the Word of God Incarnate, etc.) perfects Nature and brings it to proper order, provided we obey God and seek as we discussed in the "gateway" petition, that God's will be done, both on earth (the text of the Book of Nature) as it is in heaven (where God permeates).  However, what Jesus means here in the prayer we have recited so often at every Mass and Morning Prayer, Evensong ,and other liturgical services, is that this "order" cannot come from the world and its natural ideas; rather, it comes from the throne of God Himself (in heaven).  The basic philosophical law of non-contradiction affirms that Nature cannot in any way contradict Revelation, and we see what happens when people try to make them conflict (the false lie of evolution, for instance).  What Jesus says therefore of Providence is right out of Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus Himself admonishes us to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33, NKJV).    When we see this verse, we think of "righteousness" in terms of justice, and that all these things will be added in addition to that desired righteousness.  If we seek the kingdom of God first, all else will fall into place then as Romans 8:28 says, "all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose."  The ultimate purpose we are to have from God is to desire that His will be done in our lives, and if we seek that, then what happens is that a "new order" begins to emerge - it emerges if we enter into an understanding with God to care for His kingdom, and if we do so, then God cares for us in a new, creative way.  And, although the fallen order that is blighted with the sting of sin is often careless in regard to man (perhaps nature remembers the mess our ancestors Adam and Eve afflicted it with in the Garden, and it hasn't forgotten that!), the life in it begins to rally to us once we begin to manifest a microcosm of the kingdom of God in our own lives.  Therefore, in truth, this is a great miracle of natural life.  And, in truth, a new creation arises from the strength that we can achieve those things from the freely given love of God Himself.  

Hence, "Providence" then.  Providence means something great and mysterious.  And, it means that structure of existence which comes into being around the person who makes God's concerns his own ("Thy will be done").  And, it is tranformational - the world around such a person is impacted in such a way that it becomes different ("Thy kingdom come" on a personal level). And, it comes from the very heart of God Himself.  

This inward transformation we have just discussed leads us to a very important understanding then of "our daily bread."  When we pray this petition, we are in reality praying for the grace to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist!   John 6:54 records Jesus telling us that "My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink."  Therefore, when we ask to be given our daily supernatural bread, we are praying for Christ to be part of us!  It is therefore Jesus, through the mystery of the Eucharist, who conforms, transforms, and shapes us in such a way that we make God's will our own.  As Pitre notes, Jesus Himself taught the disciples to ask God for that miraculous food that the Messiah Himself would give as they journeyed toward the heavenly Zion in this pilgrimage of faith called the Christian life.  And, it is necessary to bestow the grace that we need to pray the other petitions that follow in the Lord's Prayer too - you begin to see how all of this fits together, and it has a flow to it which is smooth and builds upon each precept before it.  Interesting enough, we also see Revelation perfecting Nature in this way too, as the Eucharist is a perfect picture of that.   Frank Tipler, himself a scientific scholar, even addresses this from the point of view of physics in his excellent text, The Physics of Christianity (New York:  Doubleday, 2007).  The doctrine of Transubstantiation, or that the species of bread and wine literally become the Body and Blood of Christ (which we as Anglo-Catholics also believe), is known in scientific terms as quantum coherence (Tipler, p. 239).  What Tipler means by this is that the miraculous is confirmed (not contradicted) by the laws of physics via something he defines as the Second Hypothesis of the Singularity.  What that means essentially is that the molecules (electrons and protons as well) in the Eucharistic Host remain indistinguishable from any other bread, but through the process of quantum coherence - that means that the Host is transformed, but maintains coherence in its chemical makeup.  Jesus' divine nature is therefore the Second Hypothesis of the Singularity, and it is He who establishes the coherence with the Host, and thus He becomes our daily supernatural bread, the Bread of Life!  And, scientifically speaking, one coherent quantum state then has been replaced by another, while still maintaining the form of the first.  At some point later, when we actually discuss the Eucharist in more detail, I will be revisiting Tipler's book on this, as it has some profound things to say but must also be digested in small doses, as Tipler speaks with the mind of a scientist instead of a theologian, yet again he demonstrates how Revelation perfects Nature, and the Eucharist is the prime example of that perfection, as is the Incarnation itself.  

On that, we have studied now what "our daily bread" really is, and why we should desire to pray for it.  We are encouraged to seek to have Christ dwell within us, and as Catholic Christians He does so in a very real way with the Eucharist.   And, the more often we partake of it, and the more serious we commit ourselves to frequent partaking of the Body and Blood of our Lord, He becomes a real part of us and it aids in our own transformation, as well as bringing us closer to fulfilling the will of the Lord in our lives.  So, as you approach the Lord's prayer, remember that it points us right back to Jesus, and also to the mystery we receive of His Body and Blood in the Eucharistic mystery.  And, as we transform, we are better able to do those other things the Lord's Prayer teaches us, such as mastering what it means to forgive others and to seek forgiveness, which we will be discussing next time.  God bless you all as you read this, and please feel free to be part of the next lesson too.