Motivation for Writing

Apologetics Books Give-away

I first heard Devin Rose on the Catholic Answers radio show on KATH 910 AM. Then I saw him on the Journey Home TV show on EWTN. After that, I started reading his blog and got on his email list. He is a software developer who converted to Catholicism, so we have some things in common. Check out this book give-away. Not only might you win, but even if you don't, it's a good list of books to check out.

Reflections on the Sunday Readings

Here are some reflections on the Sunday readings for this week.

Have you ever felt like God was asking you to do more than was possible, or that he had put you in an impossible situation? In the first reading for today, God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his only son. Sacrifice of children was a practice in some of the cultures around Abraham as a way of showing extreme devotion. Therefore, this command from God is not something completely strange for Abraham. However, Abraham has followed God for many years, and he knows that his God is not like the cruel gods to which the surrounding tribes sacrifice their children. Abraham knows that God is faithful to his covenant, the same covenant in which he promised that through Isaac, Abraham would have many descendants.

We see the faith of Abraham, not only because of his willingness to obey, but in the answer he gives to Isaac when he asks, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Gen 22:7-8). The writer of Hebrews says that Abraham “considered the fact that God is able to raise someone from the dead” (Heb 11:19), so he was not worried about losing his son.

God stops Abraham from killing Isaac and provides a ram for the sacrifice. God indeed provided, as Abraham said he would, but Abraham’s prediction has a greater fulfillment. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that God “did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all.” (Rom 8:32). Therefore, when our Gospel reading shows Jesus on another mountain, we might wonder if a connection is to be made to the mountain in the first reading. In today’s Gospel reading, Mark tells us that Jesus conversed with Moses and Elijah, but in Luke’s version of the same story, he says that Moses and Elijah spoke to him “about his exodus, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.” In other words, they were speaking to Jesus about his crucifixion. It was on the cross that God makes the ultimate fulfillment of Abraham’s prophecy. Jesus is the lamb that God provides to take away the sins of the world.

On the transfiguration mountain, we do not see a mere man. His glory shows Peter, James, and John, as well as all of us, that He is more than an ordinary man. Therefore, when we see Jesus on a cross on the mountain of Calvary, we need to remember that no ordinary man is hanging there. We understand that Jesus is the God-man, and this has many implications for his crucifixion. One is that as God and man, Jesus is able to accomplish the salvation of the human race there on that cross. Another is that as God and man, Jesus is not defeated on the cross. The grave will not be able to hold onto him, and he will rise from the dead.

As we go through Lent, let us remember the transfiguration. There is a reality about Jesus that is usually hidden, but in the transfiguration, we get a glimpse. In the same way, the reality of the Church, the body of Christ, is ordinarily hidden. The grace that God bestows on us and the realities of the sacraments, especially Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist, are all hidden from our senses, but that does not make them any less real. Jesus showed Peter, James, and John this glimpse of who he really is in order to help them get through the trials that were ahead of them. We need to remember the transfiguration, and the other truths of our faith, as we face the trials that are in our lives, especially in this season of Lent. May we have the faith of Abraham and know that no matter what the circumstances look like, God will be true to his promises, and he will always provide what we need in this life, until he has brought us home with him in heaven.

Martyrs and Saints

There were two topics that came up on my Twitter feed yesterday that caught my attention. The first was the Coptic Church recognized the martyrdom of the 21 Christians killed by ISIS, with several people posting the above icon. The second item was that Pope Francis declares Saint Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church. This Saint Gregory of Narek was an Armenian priest an monk who lived at the end of the 10th century, and is an important saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church, although he is also recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church. He is known for his poetry, some of which has been compiled in this nice website.

One thing that ties these two events together is that the Coptic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church both separated from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. What I find amazing is how similar these churches are to the Catholic Church, even though this division is so old. I attribute that to the mercy of God, who has maintained a level of unity of faith, even after formal unity was lost. This gives me hope that we will see full unity between our churches soon.

The other thing that ties these events together is that we are celebrating the Communion of the Saints. Those 21 Coptic martyrs are in heaven now, together with Saint Gregory of Narek and all of the other saints. Their arrival in heaven, however, has not cut them off from us. We may not see them now, but they are aware of us who are still on earth, and they are praying for us.

Saint Scholastica

Today is the feast day of Saint Scholastica, twin sister of Saint Benedict, the father of western monasticism. The Office of Readings for today has a story about the two of them that I have loved ever since I first heard it, so I will post it for you today.

From the books of Dialogues by Saint Gregory the Great, pope (Lib. 2, 33: PL 66, 194-196)

Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.

One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together.

Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother: “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life.” “Sister,” he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell.”

When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated. Sadly he began to complain: “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well,” she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.”

Reluctant as he was to stay of his own will, he remained against his will. So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.

It is not surprising that she was more effective than he, since as John says, God is love, it was absolutely right that she could do more, as she loved more.

Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.

Their minds had always been united in God; their bodies were to share a common grave.

Welcome Readers of Hoc Tempus

I have closed down a blog I had on WordPress.com called Hoc Tempus, and I left a post for readers of that blog to come over to this one. You will find all of the posts and most of the comments from Hoc Tempus moved over to Scriptorium, and all of my new posts will be here. You will also find posts of mine dating back to the beginning of this blog in 2003.

This blog started with computer programming material, and then took a theological bent. Hoc Tempus was started as a critique on modernity, but then became more general. Although for now I am keeping the name, Scriptorium, for this blog, I am not restricting it to theological content. I hope to blog about all of my interests, including my work in technology and education.

So, with that, I welcome all of you who are new to Scriptorium, as well as those who have read it in the past.

The Incarnation

I have great admiration for Fr. Denis Farkasfalvy, O. Cist., the Abbot Emeritus of Our Lady of Dallas, Cistercian Abbey. I took two theology classes from him at the University of Dallas, and now I wish I had taken more. The Abbey puts out a newsletter from time to time, and here is an excerpt from an article Fr. Denis wrote in the latest issue.

      If I want to speak bluntly, Advent celebrates God’s “Love affair” with mankind, which a human being understands only as a weakness when he or she has an irrational experience by falling in love and feels caught by storms of emotional instability. God, however, is the absolute crystal clear intellect and yet declares himself vulnerable to the human response (or lack or response) of love. He goes out of his way in order to lead the human being on a path of conversion, loving response and ultimately finding fulfillment in a mutual embrace with God.
      The Incarnation is about God becoming a human being without diminishing his divine identity. Cistercian spirituality, formulated most clearly in Saint Bernard’s writings, makes statements like the following: “the Creator and Lord of the Universe came to Man, for the sake of Man, came as a Man” (Sermon in Advent 3). “Man” is so strongly and explicitly put into the center of this statement that you would think it is a quotation from a Humanist author of the 15th century, the peak of the Renaissance era, and yet, the evidence is clear that this comes from the first half of the 12th century, from that “God-centered” period of the Middle Ages. Is Bernard anticipating some later development of a “Christian Humanism” or rather providing us with a fully concentrated sample of that thinking, which was set in motion much earlier by the Church Fathers (Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Gregory the Great and others) who saw that the Incarnation promotes the human being to a level of unspeakably elevated dignity.
      One of Bernard’s favorite ancient sources, Origen of Alexandria from the 3rd century, had already stated this with exceptional force and Bernard did his best to express it in the language of a sweet and ornate prose of the high Middle Ages as the motto of Christmas: “God became man so that man could become God.”

I encountered this quote from Origen years ago as I was discovering the Church Fathers and learning about the Orthodox Church. At first, the phrase "...man should become God" sounded blasphemous to me. Although it's true that such an expression can be understood wrongly, I like it now because it is shocking and causes us to think. If you prefer New Testament language, look at the beginning of 2 Peter, which says that through the power of God we can "become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Saint John also says, "Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).

What all this means is that in the little baby in Bethlehem, God has joined himself to the human race so that humans can be lifted up into fellowship with God. We do not become God by nature; we remain human beings. However, by the grace of God, those of us who choose to follow Jesus will be made like Jesus. We are made his brothers and sisters, inheriting with him the infinite bounty of God. This is why we celebrate the little baby in the manger. I hope you have had a blessed Advent and will have a Merry Christmas!

Happy Belated Birthday to C. S. Lewis

As I caught up on my Twitter feed, I saw that yesterday was the birthday of C. S. Lewis. There were tweets with links to two good timelines of his life, one focused on his life in general, and the other on his publications. After reading these timelines, I was surprised at the academic honors he achieved. I know that he is admired by devoted Christians as a champion of the Christian faith, but I didn't know he was so admired in the academic world at large.

Such academic recognition of Lewis indicates his brilliance and academic achievement, but his great popularity is due to more than just his scholarly accomplishments:

1. He has the ability to explain difficult subjects at a level that common people can understand.


2. He has a keen understanding of the modern world, and he can step outside of it (due to his training in ancient civilizations and literature) and see its flaws.


3. He has an uncanny insight into the human condition. He has the ability to penetrate the human heart such that readers have experienced the sensation while reading him that he has somehow read their minds.


4. He has a deep Christian faith, which he shares from his heart.

If you have never read anything by C. S. Lewis, I suggest you give him a try. My favorite books are Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, and The Chronicles of Narnia. You might also want to look at the official website put up by HarperCollins or his entry on Wikipedia. This article on the Relevant Magazine website is interesting because it shows that although his Christian faith was very traditional, he was not a fundamentalist. His deep, thoughtful search for the truth of the Christian faith caused him to take some positions that don't easily fit in the mold of a particular Christian group. Indeed, although he remained faithful to the Church of England until his death, many Catholics (myself included) find his beliefs very compatible with their own. Finally, in looking for material to recommend, I found this recent article from the Wall Street Journal that has some gems regarding his struggles in his life of faith.