Hippolytus of Rome - suffering and salvation

In his Refutation of All Heresies, Hippolytus of Rome writes the following passage (used on today's Office of Readings):

When we have come to know the true God, both our bodies and our souls will be immortal and incorruptible.

We shall enter the kingdom of heaven, because while we lived on earth we acknowledged heaven’s King.

Friends of God and co-heirs with Christ, we shall be subject to no evil desires or inclinations, or to any affliction of body or soul, for we shall have become divine.

Whatever evil you may have suffered, being man, it is God that sent it to you, precisely because you are man.

But equally, when you have been deified, God has promised you a share in every one of his own attributes.

Longer version at Enlarging the Heart.

Jordan of Saxony - the Word in the crib

Jordan of Saxony on Christmas:

I write and send thee the Word Abbreviated, made little in the Crib,

the Word made flesh for us, the Word of salvation and grace,

the Word of sweetness and glory, the good and gentle Word, Jesus Christ

and "Him crucified," exalted on the Cross, lifted up to the right hand of the Father.

To Him and by Him lift up thy soul, and may He be thy rest without end.

This Word read in thy heart, revolve in thy mind, and let It become sweet as honey in thy mouth.

Think over and meditate upon this Word;

may It remain and dwell always with thee.

Blessed Jordan of Saxony OP, Christmastide letter (1229) to Blessed Diana d’Andalò OP.

Cyril of Alexandria on the Magnificat

Today's Gospel was the Magnificat (see previous post). St Cyril of Alexandria (c.375 - 444) offers a typically forthright interpretation in his Commentary on Luke:

1:51. He hath shewed strength with His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart.

The arm enigmatically signifies the Word that was born of her: and by the proud, Mary means the wicked demons who with their prince fell through pride....

For these, when openly claiming mastery over the world, the Lord by His coming scattered, and transferred those whom they had made captive unto His own dominion....

1:52. He hath put down riders from their thrones, and exalted the humble.

Great used to he the haughtiness of these demons whom He scattered, and of the devil....

But He put them down, and exalted those who had humbled themselves under their mighty hand, "having given them authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy".

And He made the plots against us of these haughty-minded beings of none effect.

Ambrose of Milan - "let the soul of Mary be in each one of you"

In the following passage from his Commentary on the Gospel of St Luke (used as the second reading at the Office of Readings, December 21st), Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397) reflects on the meaning and application to the individual believer of Mary's Magnificat:

Every soul that believes – that soul both conceives and gives birth to the Word of God and recognises his works.

Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you, to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each one of you, to rejoice in God.

According to the flesh only one woman can be the mother of Christ but in the world of faith Christ is the fruit of all of us.

For every soul can receive the Word of God if only it is pure and preserves itself in chastity and modesty.

The soul that has been able to reach this state proclaims the greatness of the Lord just as Mary did and rejoices in God its Saviour just like her....

Christ is the image of God and so any good or religious act that a soul performs magnifies that image of God in that soul, the God in whose likeness the soul itself was made.

And thus the soul itself has some share in his greatness and is ennobled.

Fuller text at Enlarging the Heart.

Ephraem the Syrian - "all-pure, all-immaculate"

This quotation from St Ephraem the Syrian (c. 306-373) is a couple of days late. haven't checked the exact reference; I came upn the quotation here.

Most holy Lady, Mother of God, alone most pure in soul and body, alone exceeding all perfection of purity . . . alone made in thy entirety the home of all the graces of the Most Holy Spirit, and hence exceeding beyond all compare even the angelic virtues in purity and sanctity of soul and body . . . my Lady most holy, all-pure, all-immaculate, all-stainless, all-undefiled, all-incorrupt, all-inviolate spotless robe of Him Who clothes Himself with light as with a garment . . . flower unfading, purple woven by God, alone most immaculate.

St Nicholas in iconogaphy

December 6th is the feast of St Nicholas the Wonderworker (270-346), Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. The reflection from The Prologue from Ohrid on the iconography of St Nicholas are worth reading. Numerous examples of icons of St Nicholas can be seen here.

Merciful, truthful, and a lover of justice, he walked among the people as an angel of God.

Even during his lifetime, the people considered him a saint and invoked his aid in difficulties and in distress.

A light shone from his face as it did from the face of Moses, and he, by his presence alone, brought comfort, peace and good will among men.

In icons of St. Nicholas, the Lord Savior is usually depicted on one side with a Gospel in His hands, and the Most-holy Virgin Theotokos is depicted on the other side with an episcopal omophorion in her hands.

This has a twofold historical significance: first, it signifies the calling of Nicholas to the hierarchical office, and second, it signifies his exoneration from the condemnation that followed his confrontation with Arius.

St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople, writes: "One night St. Nicholas saw our Savior in glory, standing by him and extending to him the Gospel, adorned with gold and pearls.

"On his other side, he saw the Theotokos, who was placing the episcopal pallium on his shoulders.''

Shortly after this vision, John the Archbishop of Myra died and St. Nicholas was appointed archbishop of that city. That was the first incident.

The second incident occurred at the time of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea.

Unable to stop Arius through reason from espousing the irrational blasphemy against the Son of God and His Most-holy Mother, St. Nicholas struck Arius on the face with his hand.

The Holy Fathers at the Council, protesting such an action, banned Nicholas from the Council and deprived him of all emblems of the episcopal rank.

That same night, several of the Holy Fathers saw an identical vision: how the Lord Savior and the Most-holy Theotokos were standing around St. Nicholas -

on one side the Lord Savior with the Gospel, and on the other side the Most-holy Theotokos with a pallium, presenting the saint with the episcopal emblems that had been removed from him.

Seeing this, the fathers were awestruck and quickly returned to Nicholas that which had been removed.

They began to respect him as a great chosen one of God, and they interpreted his actions against Arius not as an act of unreasonable anger, but rather an expression of great zeal for God's truth.

John Damascene

Today (December 4th) is the memorial day of St John Damascene (c. 675 - 749) - a monk and theologian who was resolute in his defence of the veneration of icons at a time when the Byzantine Emperor was seeking to eradicate the practice.

St John's De Fide Orthodoxa was a major influence on St Thomas Aquinas. Translated into Latin by Burgundio of Pisa in 1150 (very few western theologians were able to read Greek), it soon became a conduit for the transmission of the wisdom of the Greek Fathers - most especially Gregory Nazianzen, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Athanasius, John Chrysostum, and Epiphanius - into the world of Latin-speaking theology.

I've featured some extracts from John Damascene's writings on my resources blog. Like Maximus the Confessor (see previous post), he played an important part in the development and transmission of the characteristically "Greek" idea of salvation as theosis (deification; divinisation), which is also present (though in a less clearly defined form) in the thought of the Latin-speaking Fathers and of Thomas Aquinas.

Maximus the Confessor - "the meaning of Holy Scripture"

Following recent posts on St Anastasius the Sinaite, St Sophronius of Jerusalem and St John Climacus, here's another on a Seventh-Century Greek-speaking theologian, St Maximus the Confessor (f/d August 13th).

To begin with, a short biography of Maximus:

Maximus the Confessor (also known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople) (c. 580 – 13 August 662) was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar.

In his early life, he was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. However, he gave up this life in the political sphere to enter into the monastic life.

After moving to Carthage, Maximus studied several Neo-Platonist writers and became a prominent author.

When one of his friends began espousing the Christological position known as Monothelitism, Maximus was drawn into the controversy, in which he supported the Chalcedonian position that Jesus had both a human and a divine will.

Maximus is venerated in both Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity.

His Christological positions eventually resulted in his torture and exile, soon after which he died.

However, his theology was vindicated by the Third Council of Constantinople and he was venerated as a saint soon after his death.

His feast day is celebrated twice during the year: on 13 August and 21 January. His title of Confessor means that he suffered for the Christian faith, but was not directly martyred.

His Life of the Virgin is thought to be the earliest complete biography of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Secondly, an extract from his Gnostic Chapters, which is read in some monasteries at the Monastic Office of Vigils on Sunday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Year 1), and which, among other things, affords an excellent template for the practice of lectio divina:

The meaning of Holy Scripture reveals itself gradually to the higher senses of the more discerning mind when the mind has put off the complex bodily form of the words which are formed in it.

This revelation is like a still small voice.

Through a supreme abandonment of its natural activities, such a mind has been able to perceive the meaning only in a simplicity which reveals the divine Word.

This is the way that the great Elijah was granted the vision in the cave at Horeb.

For ‘Horeb’ means ‘newness’, which is our virtuous condition in the new spirit of grace.

The cave is the hiddenness of spiritual wisdom in which the one who enters will mystically experience the knowledge which goes beyond the senses.

This is the knowledge in which God is found.

Therefore anyone who truly seeks God, as did the great Elijah, will come upon him not only on Horeb; that is, as an ascetic in the practice of the virtues.

He will also encounter him in the cave of Horeb, that is as a contemplative in the hidden place of wisdom which can exist only in the habit of the virtues.

When the mind shakes off the many distractions about things which are pressing on it, then the clear meaning of truth appears and gives it pledges of genuine knowledge.

These are given after it has driven off its recent preoccupations which were like scales on the eyes, just as in the case of the great and holy Apostle Paul.

For thoughts about the mere letter of Scripture and the consideration of those visible things that hinder understanding are indeed scales which cling to the clear-sighted part of the soul and hinder the passage to the pure meaning of truth.

John Climacus - repentance

St John Climacus, also known as John of the Ladder, was, like St Anastasius, a 7th century monk of the monastery on Mount Sinai.

His reputation as an ascetic, theologian and spiritual father spread as far Pope St Gregory the Great who (according to St John's biographer) wrote to him in order to request his prayers and provided a sum of money for the hospital of Sinai where visiting pilgrims stayed.

John is best known for his Ladder of Divine Ascent. One of the major themes in the Ladder is that of compunction and repentance - something which is finds expression in the troparion for his feast:

By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile

And by your longing for God you brought forth fruits in abundance.

By the radiance of miracles you illuminated the whole universe.

O our holy Father John Climacus, pray to Christ our God to save our souls.

According to John, Adam is punished not for his original disobedience but for his non-repentance and his self-justification:

But Adam did not wish to say, "I sinned," but said rather the contrary of this and placed the blame for the transgression upon God Who created everything "very good," saying to Him, "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate."

And after him she also placed the blame upon the serpent, and they did not wish at all to repent and, falling down before the Lord God, beg forgiveness of Him. For this, God banished them from Paradise, as from a royal palace, to live in this world as exiles....

Moses, by way of contrast, is an example of someone who truly repents:

Nothing equals or excels God's mercies. Therefore, he who despairs is committing suicide. A sign of true repentance is the acknowledgment that we deserve all the afflictions, visible and invisible, that come upon us, and ever greater ones.

Moses, after seeing God in the bush, returned again to Egypt, that is, to darkness and to the brick-making of Pharaoh, who was symbolical of the spiritual Pharaoh. But he went back again to the bush, and not only to the bush, but also up the mountain.

Whoever has known divine vision will never despair of himself. Job became a beggar, but he became twice as rich again.

Baptism heals the sin of Adam, and repentance renews baptism:

Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort.

Repentance is self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict.

Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the voluntary endurance of all afflictions.

A penitent is the inflicter of his own punishments. Repentance is a mighty persecution of the stomach, and a striking of the soul into vigorous awareness.

Quotations from the relevant entry on Orthodox Wiki.)

Bernard of Clairvaux - lectio divina and the meaning of Advent

In today's second reading at the Office of Readings, St Bernard of Clairvaux talks about the three comings of Christ:

At his first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men, who saw him and hated him.

At his last coming All flesh shall see the salvation of our God, and They shall look on him whom they have pierced.

In the middle, the hidden coming, only the chosen see him, and they see him within themselves; and so their souls are saved.

Bernard explains that

This middle coming is like a road that leads from the first coming to the last. At the first, Christ was our redemption; at the last, he will become manifest as our life; but in this middle way he is our rest and our consolation....

If anyone loves me, he will keep my words, and the Father will love him, and we shall come to him.

Bernard asks

Where are these words to be kept? In the heart certainly, as the Prophet says I have hidden your sayings in my heart so that I do not sin against you. Keep the word of God in that way: Blessed are those who keep it.

Let it penetrate deep into the core of your soul and then flow out again in your feelings and the way you behave; because if you feed your soul well it will grow and rejoice.

Do not forget to eat your bread, or your heart will dry up. Remember, and your soul will grow fat and sleek.

He promises that

If you keep God’s word like this...the Son will come to you with the Father: the great Prophet will come, who will renew Jerusalem, and he is the one who makes all things new.

The result of this renewal will be the restoration of the image of God in those who thus keep the words of God in their hearts, culminating in their beling filled and glorified with Christ:

For this is what this coming will do: just as we have been shaped in the earthly image, so will we be shaped in the heavenly image.

Just as the old Adam was poured into the whole man and took possession of him, so in turn will our whole humanity be taken over by Christ, who created all things, has redeemed all things, and will glorify all things.

Full text here...

Ambrose of Milan - "Scripture alone is their occupation"

St Ambrose of Milan (c.337-397) regards reading and praying the Scriptures and a joyful and delightful occupation which should fill our waking moments:

When day finds you meditating on God’s word and the pleasant task of prayer and psalmody delights your mind, you will once more say to the Lord Jesus: You fill both morning and evening with joy....

With the Jewish elders there is no worldly conversation: Scripture alone is their occupation; voice follows voice in turn so that the holy sound of God’s commandments knows no holiday.

How then can you, a Christian, with Christ as your master, take your sleep without fear of having it said to you: This people does not even honour me with its lips....

What a length of time you are sunk in sleep, in secular affairs, in the cares of this life, in things of earth!

At least divide your time between God and the world.... To keep yourself from dropping off to sleep, recite a psalm, cheat sleep with holy guile.

In the morning hurry off to church, offer the first fruits of your prayers, and after that, if the world and its needs call you, you will be able to say: My eyes are watchful in the morning, to meditate on your words.

More here on my "sources" blog...