Humility

I realized that this is the essence of humility. There was complete absence of regard for the self in the way they lived. Either the work mattered or the person mattered. I had thought humility meant accepting that you did not amount to much, that you should always devalue yourself or your achievements when talking to other people. I had been influenced by the ethos of New College, at Oxford University, the essence of which is that you must never make your superiority to others apparent to them. This was essentially the English form of humility, which built the empire and realized, for a time, the prophecy that the meek would inherit the earth. But it was cant. Real humility, I learned from the nuns of Evangelismos, is not thinking yourself less than the dust. It is thinking of others so completely that you do not think about yourself at all (Peter France, A Place of Healing for the Soul: Patmos, Copyright 2002, Atlantic Monthly Press).

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11, NKJV).

Quotes

“Remember,” Father Maximos said as he escorted them to their car, “whatever good or bad things happen to us, they have only one single purpose, to awaken us to the reality of God and help us on the path toward union with Him. There is no other reason for being born on this planet, believe me. It is up to us whether or not we take advantage of these wake-up calls.”
The Mountain of Silence, Kyriacos Markides
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There is only one tragedy: to fail to become a saint.
Léon Bloy, quoted in The Jesus Prayer, Frederica Mathewes-Green
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…in order really to be members of the Church and to belong to the Body of Christ, the laity must partake, or struggle to partake, of the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God.
These things are being said with the understanding that through Baptism we are enrolled as members of the Church. However, if we do not activate the grace of Baptism by the whole ascetic life which the Church has, then we are not really members of it. We can make a division. It is one thing to be a potential member of the Church, to have accepted the possibility of becoming a real member, and it is another thing to be an active member of the Church. St. Gregory Palamas uses the image of the son of the King. He is born in the palace and has the possibility of becoming heir to his father’s estate. But if he dies prematurely or if he is expelled from the house, then he loses the possibility of inheriting the good things. Christ says about the bishop of Sardis: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” True, he can repent, and therefore he is advised to “be watchful” and “repent,” but at that moment he was spiritually dead…
Thus in the Church some are members potentially, some actually, and to express it better, some are dead limbs and others are living ones. This distinction, dead and alive, is seen in all the biblico-patristic tradition of the Church. And it is a pity when we do not know this whole tradition and teach that all who receive only Holy Baptism are members of the Church. To be sure, there are also members who have cut themselves off completely from the Church. But some dead members have the possibility of being made alive by the operation of divine grace and their own cooperation.
The mind of the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hierotheos
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“Go to Church. Say your prayers. Remember God.”
-- advice given to Fr. Thomas Hopko by his mother as he left for seminary

The Mutilated Mountain

Bishop N. T. Wright, Anglican Bishop of Durham, is a biblical exegete and historian of first rank. His academic and popular publications are for many -- and certainly for me -- great sources of knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration. Importantly, in all his academic endeavors, he has never lost his primary calling as pastor, as servant of the servants of God. He brings this pastoral calling and sensitivity to all he writes.

The following link is to a sermon Bishop Wright recently delivered which addresses the relationship between civil authorities and the kingdom of God. Though the context is British, it has universal application. Read and pray.

The Mutilated Mountain

Quote: The Historic Understanding of the Incarnation

What lies at the heart of the Christian faith is the conviction that God is both Creator and Redeemer. He redeems what he creates. "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things...by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Col 1:19-20).

What God creates is good. The Fall is not an imprisonment in matter but a spiritual rebellion. Humanity chooses to direct life and unfold culture not according to the mandate of God but under the direction of the dark powers and principalities of this world. This, of course, affects life in the world. Instead of doing God's will in creation and making this world a theater of God's glory, humanity does the will of the evil one and turns life toward violence, hate, greed and the like. Humanity, which God created, then manifests evil in every structure of life -- political, economic, institutional, idealogical, family and personal relationships. So the world of God's creation, as Paul writes, is "subjected to frustration" and in "bondage to decay" (Rom 8:20, 21).

The biblical and historical understanding of the incarnation is that God becomes creation. He takes into himself all the effects of fallen humanity spread throughout his creation. He assumes all of creation in the womb of Mary in order to reverse the effects of sin and "bring it into the glorious freedom of the children of God" (Rom 8:21). The death and resurrection of God in Christ is then not a "release of the soul from its imprisonment to the material realm" (as Gnostics and the new spirituality assert) but a second act of creation, the redemption of the whole created order. Now, as Paul states, "the whole creation [is] groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time" (Rom 8:22). That is, the whole creation has been "born again" so to speak, and now waits for its final deliverance. The whole creation, from the perspective of the Christian narrative, is pregnant and awaiting redemption.

The ancient church fathers developed a saying to capture the cosmic nature of the incarnation and subsequent redemption. The saying made popular in the ancient church is, "only that which is assumed can be redeemed." In other words, God, in the incarnation, took up into himself the entire creation, so that the creation redeemed by God himself is now to be once again, as in the Garden, the theater of his glory.

The ancient church understood the impact of creation, incarnation, and re-creation on all of creation, and that is why Christians were the leaders in the arts, in learning and in the sciences. The christian faith narrates the world and gives shape to culture-making and to all of civilization.

from Who gets to Narrate the world? Robert E. Webber. IVP. 2008.

Quote: Being In Christ

In Jesus Christ, God became flesh to restore being into our nonbeing by reconciling us to the one “in whom we live, and breath, and have our being.” When the Word that was with God, the Word that was God, became flesh and dwelt among us, being was restored into the nothingness we made of our lives and the world (John 1:1-18). As the Holy Spirit binds us to this Word, allowing us to live “in Christ,” we recover the life we were created to enjoy (Eph 1:3-14). So, to be clear, we don’t make a living. We receive it through our participation in the Christ, who has brought us home to communion with the Creator.

The truth is that if God is not creating our lives, then those around us are. The mother now takes fulfillment in her work only if her children grow up as well as she dreams they will. Office workers and teachers expect the affirmation of good reviews from their supervisors and the rewards of promotions and increased remuneration. Lawyers and doctors need their practices to expand. Entrepreneurs consider themselves a success only if the deals go through. Politicians are completely dependent on the affirmation of the public. There is no such thing as a self-constructed life. There is only being in Christ, or there is the nothingness that others create for us.

M. Craig Barnes. The Pastor As Minor Poet. Eerdmans. 2009.

Quote: Symeon the New Theologian

If, when all visible reality has passed away, nothing shall exist but God, who is and ever shall be, then those who share in the riches of his grace within this world are already enjoying their riches of the age to come, even though they are still on earth. They groan in the shadows under the weight of their burden (Symeon the New Theologian: The Practical and Theological Chapters and the Three Theological Discourses. Cistercian Publications. 1982.).