My dad was born into a devoted Roman Catholic family. He grew up as an altar boy and the whole nine yards. My mom grew up as a devoted Southern Baptist. After they got married my dad became a Southern Baptist and that is the church I was baptized in. I still remember that night clearly. It was late in the evening when we arrive at church. I went upstairs to a changing room where I was given a white gown to put on. There was a woman there with the hand full of us getting baptized. I wondered what she was doing there. She looked as old as dirt to me, who knows, she may have been only in her Forty’s. But why didn’t she get baptized at the right time? Doesn’t everyone do it when they’re five? At the appointed time we were all ushered to the top of the stairs above the baptismal pool and we were called down one at a time. The preacher asked me if I wanted to be baptized, which confused me. Why would I do all this stuff to get baptized if I didn’t want to do it? I didn’t know he had to ask me that before dunking me three times in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I remember wondering if I was going to be scared to go under the water, but I wasn’t. That was the first thing I thought stepping into the pool, “I’m not scared.” When my family got home that night my parents sent my brother and sister up to bed and I stayed down stairs to talk with my parents. They asked me if I understood what happened tonight, which I did, and if I understood what Jesus did, which I did. I am not sure if we spoke about anything else but I remember being amazed at the depth of my understanding of God and His action in my life. Of course, I was well prepared for that night. My dad taught Sunday school and I loved the Old Testament stories. I remember learning about the Garden of Eden, Noah’s flood and why we see rainbows (which always represented God to me, to this very day I think “Every time I put My bow in the sky I will remember My promise to you,” whenever I see one), the destruction of Sodom, Abraham and Isaac, the flight out of Egypt, David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions’ den, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago. I knew those stories very well but I never remember learning the New Testament stories (except Jesus feeding the multitudes because one of the hero’s of the story book I had was a boy named Joel, about my age, who brought the fish to Jesus), but I know I knew the Gospel because I knew all about Jesus.
When I was seven we moved from Anchorage, Alaska to Jacksonville, Florida (where it finally made sense to be Southern Baptist!) because my dad entered a seminary school there. We only stayed one year before he joined the Army though. We used to go to church twice a week, but now we didn’t go at all. I never gave it much thought. To keep quite during church my brother and I used to bring toys and play in the back of the church. I remember bringing He-Man action figures one time, but I felt it was heretical because the toys were too big! It didn’t matter any more. When I was a preteen and a teenager I began to read the Gospels at night lying in bed. Our family read the Bible after dinner sometimes and my dad (who I thought knew everything in the world) would teach us the finer points of Baptist theology. I suppose I had a prayer life suitable for my age, but something happened in my middle teen years. The cares of this world stopped drawing me closer to God and began to blot Him out. My love for the Lord never diminished and my faith never diminished but my attention dropped like a rock. When I was seventeen I was on my way to school one morning and the idea occurred to me, “You should become a priest.” That was immediately supplanted with the thought that I would rather have a family. I was curious why a Southern Baptist boy would think about becoming a Roman Catholic priest. When I was nineteen I joined the Navy and began to try to live up to the poor reputation of sailors. I was pretty good at that. It seemed that I just coasted along. For several reasons, mostly my hedonistic life style and my disgust with President Clinton, I decided to leave the Navy after only five years instead of twenty.
My life was about to change dramatically. I moved to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada! I started to work in civil engineering and land surveying. I felt like I found a really good job at a small but very good firm – Alpha Engineering. Right at the end of my enlistment in the Navy I had just about as much fun as I could handle and had to look for more civilized ways to spend my time. It was the Lenten Season of 2000 and I started to feel convicted by the Holy Spirit to tithe. So, I decided I better find a church I can belong to so I can fulfill the wishes of the Lord. At that time my mom was finishing RCIA. She and my dad decided to return to church and my dad wanted to return to the faith he grew up with. I had been to church with them several times (when ever I would visit for the weekend, they lived about 150 mile away from me), but I never really considered the Catholic Church in my search for a congregation to be a part of. I was certain I would join a Baptist church. In fact, there was a church really close to my house walking distance away that always seemed to be jamb packed, so I drove by one time to see which church it was – St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, Roman Catholic Church – I knew immediately I would never attend that church! Interestingly enough I ended up going every Tuesday evening for years and singing in their choir some time later. There were times when I was growing up I attended Catholic Mass. One of my good friends was a Catholic and whenever I spent the night at his house his mom would tell me to go to church with them. I never found it objectionable; I just thought I would be a Baptist, maybe even a preacher. I attended the closest Baptist church twice, one of the times was Easter Sunday, but both times the preacher was slamming the Roman Catholics. That really put me off and I decided not to return to his congregation. Even though I did not want to become a Catholic, I held them up as good Christian people. I made the rounds in Las Vegas but never found a church I was comfortable with. All the services I attended felt a little empty. I did not know exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I would know when I found it.
Several weeks had gone by and it was getting on towards the end of the Easter Season. It may have even been Pentecost Sunday. I do seem to remember red vestments, but of course, that may be my imagination filling in the details. I thought back to my first conscious experience with the Catholic Church, in the Sixth Grade. I went to the Children’s Mass with John Gendron (my good Catholic friend) and he told me how to receive Holy Communion on the way in. I said, “What?” and he answered, “Just do what I do.” Then Monday morning Emily (who was in our class) scolded me for receiving Holy Communion without being Catholic. I remembered visiting John after he moved away and going to church with him again while the bishop visited. He was just another preacher to me. I thought about attending Mass with my parents recently and talking to my dad about the Catholic Church. I knew he loved it. He used to tell us stories about when he was a kid, being an altar boy and playing Mass with his sister and telling people he would be the first American pope. I finally resigned and went to Our Lady of Las Vegas Roman Catholic Church. That was no empty service! The Spirit of the Lord filled the entire sanctuary and I was hooked! Walking out of the church towards my car I felt like I was walking two feet above the ground. On that very day I became a devout Roman Catholic. I went back to Our Lady of Las Vegas several times, but the parish I belong to (according to the boundary lines) was St. Francis de Sales. It was the middle of June before I found my parish. In the mean time I had spoken with my parents and they encouraged me to join RCIA, which I was eager to do.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
New Blog Site
I have begun to post blogs on another site - The Black Cordelias. It can be found here and in the blog roll to the right.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Solemnity of the Annunciation
The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary…And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Behold the Handmaid of the Lord…Be it done unto me according to your word.
And the Word became flesh…And dwelt among us.
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God…That we may be made worthy of the promise of Christ.
Pour forth, we beseech You, O Lord, Your grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Your Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His passion and cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ out Lord. Amen.
Normally I attend 5:30 PM Mass at the Mission San Diego. Because it ends at about 6:00 we always pray the Angelus after the final blessing, except during Easter then we pray the Regina Coeli. That was the last thing on my mind today as we received the final blessing from our priest. The only thing I thought about was how perfect it is to pray the Angelus on the Solemnity of the Annunciation and how the events of history are represented in the prayer.
While the focus of the Annunciation is on Christ, I can not resist expressing my love for His mother. My love affair with her had a rocky start coming out of a Protestant denomination in my mid-twenties. As a Protestant, I never gave the Mother of God a second thought; she was completely eclipsed by the Lord. As I slowly subjected my thinking to the teachings of the Roman Church my affection slowly grew and grew. The first leap out of Protestant thinking came from an argument I first heard from Scott Hahn. He pointed out that as a Christian we are called to imitate Christ. In our imitation of Christ we need to honor Mary as Jesus honored her as His mother. That was not hard to swallow either theologically or morally. Praying the Hail Mary was not hard to swallow either because it comes straight out of Holy Scripture. Then I began to pray the Rosary regularly. Getting to know the mysteries of the Rosary and meditating on them while praying the Rosary warmed me up to Mary even more. After discussions with my dad it was pointed out to me that everything Jesus has as a person came from Mary. All His DNA is Mary’s DNA. That would give her a special distinction among mankind. She is the only person that ever lived that shares the exact DNA of God Himself. My latest development in the way I view the Mother of God came as the result of reading Roy Schoeman’s book Salvation Is From the Jews. The last chapter of his book is a collection of conversion stories of Jews becoming Roman Catholics. It appeared that Mary was critical for a disproportionately large number of Jewish conversions to Christianity. It occurred to me (with the help of some discussions with my dad, again) that Mary would be very important to devout Jews because she is the personification of the perfect Jewish state (which may merit a post in itself)!
The gravity of the Incarnation goes much deeper than the I portrays (of course). God came down to Earth and became one of us! That gives dignity to every man, woman and child that ever lived no matter how degenerate, debased or repugnant they are or were. They now share the same form and likeness of All-Mighty God. God never wanted to be a snowy plover or a humpback whale or any kind of animal. Humans were the only creatures He willed to be His own. Now all of mankind, whether Christian or not, can say, “I am like the Most High.”
Finally I will leave with a poem by John Donne, who I was introduced to in college and immediately fell in love with.
Annunciation
Salvation to all that will is nigh,
That all, which always is all everywhere,
Which can not sin, and yet all sin must bear,
Which can not die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful Virgin, yields himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though he there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet he ‘will wear
Taken from thence, flesh, which death’s force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in his mind, who is thy son, and brother,
Whom thou conceiv’st, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy maker’s maker, and thy father’s mother,
Thou’ hast light in dark; and shutt’st in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.
Behold the Handmaid of the Lord…Be it done unto me according to your word.
And the Word became flesh…And dwelt among us.
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God…That we may be made worthy of the promise of Christ.
Pour forth, we beseech You, O Lord, Your grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Your Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His passion and cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ out Lord. Amen.
Normally I attend 5:30 PM Mass at the Mission San Diego. Because it ends at about 6:00 we always pray the Angelus after the final blessing, except during Easter then we pray the Regina Coeli. That was the last thing on my mind today as we received the final blessing from our priest. The only thing I thought about was how perfect it is to pray the Angelus on the Solemnity of the Annunciation and how the events of history are represented in the prayer.
While the focus of the Annunciation is on Christ, I can not resist expressing my love for His mother. My love affair with her had a rocky start coming out of a Protestant denomination in my mid-twenties. As a Protestant, I never gave the Mother of God a second thought; she was completely eclipsed by the Lord. As I slowly subjected my thinking to the teachings of the Roman Church my affection slowly grew and grew. The first leap out of Protestant thinking came from an argument I first heard from Scott Hahn. He pointed out that as a Christian we are called to imitate Christ. In our imitation of Christ we need to honor Mary as Jesus honored her as His mother. That was not hard to swallow either theologically or morally. Praying the Hail Mary was not hard to swallow either because it comes straight out of Holy Scripture. Then I began to pray the Rosary regularly. Getting to know the mysteries of the Rosary and meditating on them while praying the Rosary warmed me up to Mary even more. After discussions with my dad it was pointed out to me that everything Jesus has as a person came from Mary. All His DNA is Mary’s DNA. That would give her a special distinction among mankind. She is the only person that ever lived that shares the exact DNA of God Himself. My latest development in the way I view the Mother of God came as the result of reading Roy Schoeman’s book Salvation Is From the Jews. The last chapter of his book is a collection of conversion stories of Jews becoming Roman Catholics. It appeared that Mary was critical for a disproportionately large number of Jewish conversions to Christianity. It occurred to me (with the help of some discussions with my dad, again) that Mary would be very important to devout Jews because she is the personification of the perfect Jewish state (which may merit a post in itself)!
The gravity of the Incarnation goes much deeper than the I portrays (of course). God came down to Earth and became one of us! That gives dignity to every man, woman and child that ever lived no matter how degenerate, debased or repugnant they are or were. They now share the same form and likeness of All-Mighty God. God never wanted to be a snowy plover or a humpback whale or any kind of animal. Humans were the only creatures He willed to be His own. Now all of mankind, whether Christian or not, can say, “I am like the Most High.”
Finally I will leave with a poem by John Donne, who I was introduced to in college and immediately fell in love with.
Annunciation
Salvation to all that will is nigh,
That all, which always is all everywhere,
Which can not sin, and yet all sin must bear,
Which can not die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful Virgin, yields himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though he there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet he ‘will wear
Taken from thence, flesh, which death’s force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in his mind, who is thy son, and brother,
Whom thou conceiv’st, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy maker’s maker, and thy father’s mother,
Thou’ hast light in dark; and shutt’st in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Kingdom of Heaven
I love the movie Kingdom of Heaven. It combines my three favorite subjects in the whole world: the Church; the military and history. I was thinking about that movie and modern popular culture in America this past weekend. For all of my love of the movie, there are things about it that just drive me up the wall. My opinion is that if you are going to make a movie based on historical events then get the history right! The producers got so much of it right that it would be easy to overlook what they got wrong. The costumes were right, the major events were (for the most part) right, the weapons were right, the tactics were right and the characters were (mostly) right.
One thing I found particularly offensive was the portrayal of the monastic orders of knights. A major blunder was that none of the characters portrayed as Templar knights were actually Templar knights in real life. Teutonic knights were portrayed as little more than thugs and henchmen better suited to make an appearance in a mob movie. The Templar knights were delivered as riotous, undisciplined war mongers, and the Hospitalar knights were made to be seen as irreligious!? One of the main characters (a Hospitaller) made a statement, "I put no stock in religion..." That kind of a statement would never have been found on the lips of a man who took vows in a religious order of knighthood. Another error that I found offensive took place during a conversation between two men overlooking a bunch of Muslims praying on the beach. It was explained that Muslims were allowed their prayers as long as they payed the tax. That sounds suspiciously like the dihmmi required by Muslims for Christians and Jews (and Hindus in Muslim controlled areas of India) to pay in order to keep practicing their religion. I am not personally aware of any Christian ever exacting that type of a tax on another (we prefer that you convert!). Finally, one more scene I wish to point out for its errors occurred after the Battle of the Horns of Hattin (in which the Christian forces were completely destroyed). In the movie the king of Jerusalem and his chief lieutenant were taken prisoner. That really did happen in history, but what did not happen was Saladin offering a glass of water to the king who passed it to Reginald of Chatillon who subsequently had his throat slit for taking the cup which his king refused. What did happen (as was customary) was the prisoners were offered to convert to Islam and gain a place in Saladin's kingdom. All refused and Reginald immediately called for Saladin's conversion to Christianity at which point he was decapitated. The morning after the battle was over 230 militant knights chose to remain true to Christ and suffered the same fate (all who were given the option chose not to convert).
This may all sound trivial and the rantings of someone who is too obsessed with the details, but it's not! What we are witnessing is the attempt to defame the Church and elevate Islam to something that it is not (a religion on the same level as Christianity and Judaism). The movie was obviously researched extensively, otherwise how could they get it right that the siege of Jerusalem lasted three days, the defense was mounted by Balian of Ibelin and the safe passage of all Christians to Christian held land was the result of the siege after the threat of burning the Muslim holy places forced a parlay. How can you get all that right without knowing that the Templars were the most disciplined military force in the whole Middle East or that the Hospitallers prayed the Liturgy of the Hours and attended Mass every day? The point is that modern popular culture wants to defame the Roman Catholic Church as much as it can and one way to do that is make everything that was bad the fault of the Pope or his agents and everything that was good the credit of secular rulers. This is because the Church speaks out against sexual promiscuity, drug use, abortion, the death penalty, unabated greed, homosexuality, relativism and any number of other degenerate behaviors while lifting up Christ, heterosexual monogamy, family life, regular church attendance, chastity, the Sacramental life, civic and social justice, etc, etc.
One thing I found particularly offensive was the portrayal of the monastic orders of knights. A major blunder was that none of the characters portrayed as Templar knights were actually Templar knights in real life. Teutonic knights were portrayed as little more than thugs and henchmen better suited to make an appearance in a mob movie. The Templar knights were delivered as riotous, undisciplined war mongers, and the Hospitalar knights were made to be seen as irreligious!? One of the main characters (a Hospitaller) made a statement, "I put no stock in religion..." That kind of a statement would never have been found on the lips of a man who took vows in a religious order of knighthood. Another error that I found offensive took place during a conversation between two men overlooking a bunch of Muslims praying on the beach. It was explained that Muslims were allowed their prayers as long as they payed the tax. That sounds suspiciously like the dihmmi required by Muslims for Christians and Jews (and Hindus in Muslim controlled areas of India) to pay in order to keep practicing their religion. I am not personally aware of any Christian ever exacting that type of a tax on another (we prefer that you convert!). Finally, one more scene I wish to point out for its errors occurred after the Battle of the Horns of Hattin (in which the Christian forces were completely destroyed). In the movie the king of Jerusalem and his chief lieutenant were taken prisoner. That really did happen in history, but what did not happen was Saladin offering a glass of water to the king who passed it to Reginald of Chatillon who subsequently had his throat slit for taking the cup which his king refused. What did happen (as was customary) was the prisoners were offered to convert to Islam and gain a place in Saladin's kingdom. All refused and Reginald immediately called for Saladin's conversion to Christianity at which point he was decapitated. The morning after the battle was over 230 militant knights chose to remain true to Christ and suffered the same fate (all who were given the option chose not to convert).
This may all sound trivial and the rantings of someone who is too obsessed with the details, but it's not! What we are witnessing is the attempt to defame the Church and elevate Islam to something that it is not (a religion on the same level as Christianity and Judaism). The movie was obviously researched extensively, otherwise how could they get it right that the siege of Jerusalem lasted three days, the defense was mounted by Balian of Ibelin and the safe passage of all Christians to Christian held land was the result of the siege after the threat of burning the Muslim holy places forced a parlay. How can you get all that right without knowing that the Templars were the most disciplined military force in the whole Middle East or that the Hospitallers prayed the Liturgy of the Hours and attended Mass every day? The point is that modern popular culture wants to defame the Roman Catholic Church as much as it can and one way to do that is make everything that was bad the fault of the Pope or his agents and everything that was good the credit of secular rulers. This is because the Church speaks out against sexual promiscuity, drug use, abortion, the death penalty, unabated greed, homosexuality, relativism and any number of other degenerate behaviors while lifting up Christ, heterosexual monogamy, family life, regular church attendance, chastity, the Sacramental life, civic and social justice, etc, etc.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter! The Lord is Risen!
The church I attend is just a couple blocks away from the stadium the San Diego Chargers play in and when I drove up today it was just like Sundays during football season. The streets were completely devoid of parking spaces. I had to park in a mall parking lot and walk about a quarter of a mile to church. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about it, I wish that happened more than just on Easter and Christmas. As I drove down the freeway to get there I was brimming with joy! Easter is my favorite holiday all year. There is always a tinge of pain though. I had a dream a couple years ago that I get a reminder of when I drive up and down Highway 125 through Spring Valley (east of San Diego). It reminds me of the dream because it looks similar to the landscape I had in the dream. In my dream I rounded the corner of a valley that a city was nestled in and a wall surrounded it like a medieval European city. Right at the center of the city were two cathedrals directly facing each other on opposite sides of the valley, one was Roman Catholic and the other was Eastern Orthodox. I took the dream to mean that God will reunite the two and they will strengthen each other. That might just be wishful thinking and the dream might not have been from God at all. Only time will tell.
My personal opinion is that the two churches need each other. I have frequently wondered how I could put into words the way I feel about the two churches. I finally came up with an analogy that works for me today. The Eastern Church is sensational and the Western Church is focused on the interior journey. I do not mean the East is superficial, melodramatic or unconcerned with the interior life. I mean the East has such a rich tradition with the incense, iconostasis, elaborate vestments, singing the Divine Liturgy, lots of candles and so on, while the Western Church is really bare bones. The Liturgy is relatively brief, the altar is frequently minimally decorated, sometimes there is not any singing at all. I do not point out the differences to make a statement that one is better than the other, one is just different than the other. It is like the difference between Christmas and Easter to me, one is more an inward expression and the other is more an outward expression of worship. It took me years of regular attendance of Mass to find what I have discovered in the Roman Liturgy (and years of praying the Hours). I find it quite a subtle journey and spirituality, but I sure like it a lot!
My personal opinion is that the two churches need each other. I have frequently wondered how I could put into words the way I feel about the two churches. I finally came up with an analogy that works for me today. The Eastern Church is sensational and the Western Church is focused on the interior journey. I do not mean the East is superficial, melodramatic or unconcerned with the interior life. I mean the East has such a rich tradition with the incense, iconostasis, elaborate vestments, singing the Divine Liturgy, lots of candles and so on, while the Western Church is really bare bones. The Liturgy is relatively brief, the altar is frequently minimally decorated, sometimes there is not any singing at all. I do not point out the differences to make a statement that one is better than the other, one is just different than the other. It is like the difference between Christmas and Easter to me, one is more an inward expression and the other is more an outward expression of worship. It took me years of regular attendance of Mass to find what I have discovered in the Roman Liturgy (and years of praying the Hours). I find it quite a subtle journey and spirituality, but I sure like it a lot!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Beauty of the Roman Mass
The Roman Liturgy of the Mass is a beautiful thing. The depth of the mystery I experience grows on me continuously. It is a mystery for several reasons (and I am certain that I can not name them all). The first that always comes to mind is that as we celebrate the Mass we transcend time so we are present at the sacrifice Jesus made on Calvary. We also make a quick journey through the history of our salvation, beginning with the fall of mankind up to the Eucharist and the reception of God’s blessings with the command to evangelize the whole world. This is not something the Roman Catholic Church just made up one day. This is the way the first Christians worshiped their God, the liturgical format was something inherited by the Church from Israel because the first Christians were all Israelites. The classical interpretation of the Song of Songs is God’s approach to Israel and Israel’s response to the advances of their God. What a perfect metaphor! Beginning with the fall of man God has been approaching mankind as a lover attempts to seduce his object of desire. God seduces us. He approaches us and our response to His advance is prayer (as the Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser so eloquently put it). When I first converted to Roman Catholicism I had no understanding of the significance of the Liturgy. At first I looked forward to the homily, then I preferred the Liturgy of the Word to the homily, but now (as I feel I am more mature in my approach to worship) the part I love the most begins with the offertory and lasts until the reception of the Eucharist. The Liturgy continues to be a call and response, a sort of dialogue between our Creator and the congregation. God initially declares His love for us by proclaiming, through His regent, that He will manifest Himself to the congregation and the congregation answers with the affirmation of His holiness, “Blessed be God forever!” So at the conclusion, being filled with the Word, we are sent into the world to fulfill our Christian vocations.
One of the books I recently read was the Pope’s “The Spirit of the Liturgy.” One of the things that surprised me was his references to paganism. It shouldn’t have though. In the beginning of the book the Pope pointed out that the entire cosmos is subject to the Christ. Of course it is and those who observe the norms of the cosmos witness the testament of God. According to the Pope the first day of Creation was the 25th of March, which was also the day of Abraham’s sacrifice, which was also the day of the Annunciation and the day of the Resurrection! Wow! This is also why we used to always pray facing east: the New Heaven and New Earth have not yet come. The sun has not yet reached its zenith, he said. So we pray facing east, towards the Son. In all this is the marriage of three different aspects of Christian worship. The Jewish liturgical practices were married to the Christian liturgical practices in the presents of the Lord in the Eucharist through the norms of liturgical practice. That is why following the liturgical norms are so important and why it is a serious matter to deviate or add things expressly forbidden or ignore things expressly required.
One of the books I recently read was the Pope’s “The Spirit of the Liturgy.” One of the things that surprised me was his references to paganism. It shouldn’t have though. In the beginning of the book the Pope pointed out that the entire cosmos is subject to the Christ. Of course it is and those who observe the norms of the cosmos witness the testament of God. According to the Pope the first day of Creation was the 25th of March, which was also the day of Abraham’s sacrifice, which was also the day of the Annunciation and the day of the Resurrection! Wow! This is also why we used to always pray facing east: the New Heaven and New Earth have not yet come. The sun has not yet reached its zenith, he said. So we pray facing east, towards the Son. In all this is the marriage of three different aspects of Christian worship. The Jewish liturgical practices were married to the Christian liturgical practices in the presents of the Lord in the Eucharist through the norms of liturgical practice. That is why following the liturgical norms are so important and why it is a serious matter to deviate or add things expressly forbidden or ignore things expressly required.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Why Rome?
As I grew up I never gave the phrase "in the fullness of time" much thought, but as my knowledge and understanding of history has grown so has my consideration of "the fullness of time." The first real revolutionary change was when I began to learn more about Alexandria, Egypt. I thought about the implication the city had on the time Jesus' birth. The major change was that I began to pay much more attention to the geopolitical situation and factoring it into God's plan for the world.
In the past year and a half I read a tremendous amount about Rome, just for general knowledge at first, but later for more specific reasons. I have always liked Rome for several reasons. As a kid my interest was just in fascination with Antiquity. As a teen I learned a little more about Rome and was fascinate with her military power. In my Twenties it became because of Christ that I was fascinated with Rome and that is what it remains with me today. All of Jesus' life on Earth was spent in the Roman Empire and that recently struck me as vitally important information. Less than sixty years after the annexation of Judea by the Roman state Jesus was born. About a decade after Rome became an Empire Jesus was born (maybe even less than that). It began to look to me like God had a purpose for the Roman Empire, and I maintain that is true - God wanted to become a man and live under the dominion of the Romans because they would best fit His purpose.
The first question that occurred to me was why didn't God manifest Himself under an independent Jewish state? Well, Judea was almost entirely independent under Roman rule at the time of the birth of Jesus. One example of the privilege they enjoyed was their taxes. Eight years after their annexation Judea was given the right to collect their own taxes. This was almost unheard of and was even the cause of complaint in other areas of the Empire. Then I thought Why Rome? What made the Roman Empire desirable over all others who ruled over Israel? What distinguished Rome from Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Egypt? It is easy for me, so in love with Rome, to come up with quick answers, but I do not think we would come to see the complete picture by doing that.
In the past year and a half I read a tremendous amount about Rome, just for general knowledge at first, but later for more specific reasons. I have always liked Rome for several reasons. As a kid my interest was just in fascination with Antiquity. As a teen I learned a little more about Rome and was fascinate with her military power. In my Twenties it became because of Christ that I was fascinated with Rome and that is what it remains with me today. All of Jesus' life on Earth was spent in the Roman Empire and that recently struck me as vitally important information. Less than sixty years after the annexation of Judea by the Roman state Jesus was born. About a decade after Rome became an Empire Jesus was born (maybe even less than that). It began to look to me like God had a purpose for the Roman Empire, and I maintain that is true - God wanted to become a man and live under the dominion of the Romans because they would best fit His purpose.
The first question that occurred to me was why didn't God manifest Himself under an independent Jewish state? Well, Judea was almost entirely independent under Roman rule at the time of the birth of Jesus. One example of the privilege they enjoyed was their taxes. Eight years after their annexation Judea was given the right to collect their own taxes. This was almost unheard of and was even the cause of complaint in other areas of the Empire. Then I thought Why Rome? What made the Roman Empire desirable over all others who ruled over Israel? What distinguished Rome from Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Egypt? It is easy for me, so in love with Rome, to come up with quick answers, but I do not think we would come to see the complete picture by doing that.
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