Anglican Ascetic

In the audio provided, both lessons are read, and then followed by a homily by yours truly.

A Lesson from the Gospel according to S. Luke, 5.17

As Jesus was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?” When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, take up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose before them, and took up that on which he lay, and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”

A Lesson from his commentary on S. Luke by the Ven. S. Bede

The cure of this paralytic signifies the salvation of the soul who sighs out to Christ, after the long stagnation of carnal pleasure. First of all, the soul has need of servants, who may lift it up and bring it to Christ, that is, of good teachers, who may furnish hope of healing and the means of intercession. These are properly found to have been four, as S. Mark relates, whether because the whole power and message of preaching is fortified by the four books of the Gospel, or because there are four virtues by which the faith of the soul is raised up to deserve redemption. Of these virtues it is said in praise of eternal wisdom: “For she teaches self-control and prudence, justice and courage; nothing in life is more profitable for men than these: (Wisdom 8.7). Some call these by the alternative names of prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. And note that the four men want to bring the paralytic to Christ, but every way was cut off by the intervening multitude, because often the soul who comes in repentance to God and desires to be healed by divine grace after languishing in shameful torpor is held back by the obstacles of its old habits. . . . And what is to be done amid these distractions? Certainly there should be not staying outside down below, but the root of the house in which Christ teaches must be ascended, that is, the sublimity of holy Scripture just be sought after, and the Law of the Lord must be pondered with the Psalmist day and night. For, “By what does a young man correct his way By observing yours words,” he says. And so the roof was laid open, and the sick man is let down before Jesus, because, after the mysteries of the Scriptures have been revealed, he is brought to a knowledge of Christ, that is, he is lowered to His humility by the piety of faith.

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As we approach the season of Advent, which is right around the corner, my sermon series on the eucharistic life will reach its conclusion. Still left to reflect upon under the banner of eucharistic life are the topics of stewardship and the parish, and over these last weeks I will go back and forth between them. Today I begin with the parish.

There are two things that stand out to me in our Gospel passage. The first is that in healing the paralytic, Jesus recognizes not the faith of the paralytic but the faith of the people who brought Jesus to the paralytic. For as Saint Matthew records: “When Jesus saw their faith.” And the second is that the healing of the paralytic means for Jesus that the sins of the paralytic are forgiven. Again as Saint Matthew records: “He said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’” And as Jesus says a couple verses later: “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” What this points to is the mystery of Christ’s healing, the traditional word for which is “salvation,” and how salvation itself works.

We know that the paralytic was sick because he was sinful. This is the straightforward interpretation of the text according to the letter, to the simple meaning of our Lord’s words and actions. Jesus tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven, and the paralytic is healed. He was able to rise and walk home, after being previously bound to a bed, unable to walk. What happened is that in being healed, the paralytic learned who Jesus was. He learned that Jesus Christ, the man before him, has authority given to Him by God to forgive sins. He did not know this before, and now that he knew it, and believed it, he was healed. This points to an important aspect of Christ’s healing: knowledge about Christ heals us. Without knowledge of Christ, we are living in our sins. With knowledge, we are able to live in truth, and living in truth heals us: truth gives salvation.

Living in truth, in the truth which is Christ, the revealed truth of God in Jesus, is what separates Christians from non-Christians. Hence Saint Paul writes in his Epistle to the Ephesians: “You must no longer walk as the gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them.” Ignorance of Christ, not knowing about Him, leads to a life of darkness; such a life of darkness for Paul means hardness of heart, callous, slaves to the sensual, greedy, impure, speaking falsehood, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice. A life of darkness is alienated from the life of God. This is the life of sin, the waters darkened by the Devil and his unholy angels. The life of darkness is the life of disease.

What a difference it is to know about Christ, for Paul. To learn about Christ allows us, again in Paul’s words, “to put off our old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of our kind, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness.” This is healing. This is the way of healing—we are healed so as to be able to begin to live this way, and living this way heals us more and more. We can think differently, we can speak differently, we can treat people differently, we can forgive ourselves and others. Knowing about Christ allows us to rise and walk: to rise in a resurrection like His, and walk in His footsteps and do all such good works as God has prepared for us to walk in. This is the Gospel, which the archangels make known to us through their service.

It remains to reflect on why it was that the faith not of the bedridden man, but rather the faith of the people who brought Jesus to him, that brought salvation to the man. Again the words from Saint Matthew: “And when Jesus saw their faith,” He then pronounced the paralytic’s sins forgiven, by which he was healed, and able to rise and walk home. The key to this is to remember that the Christianity is lived in a parish. Specifically, Christianity is lived in a parish of the baptized, those called by God to assembly in a local, specific place, at a particular Altar where the Eucharist is offered in sacrifice and worship. Paul, for whom baptism was truly life-changing, writes: “having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” It is the worshiping parish transformed into the new humanity of Christ which can offer the world back to God. The purpose of a parish is to make Christ present, that He can be known. The knowledge of Christ in the community around the paralytic, their faith in Christ as healer, led Jesus to pronounce the paralytic forgiven and healed. The faith of a parish heals the sick.

Parish community teaches us; parish community forms us; parish community—called in Acts 2 “the apostles’ teaching and fellowship”—heals us, because in parish community ordered around the Eucharist and common Baptism, we meet Christ, we walk among Him, and He walks among us. And He Who walks among us does so that we know Him, and are known by Him. He Who walks among us is Son of God and Son of Man, with all authority given to Him by the Father Almighty. The parish knows Christ as He is revealed in the opening of Scripture, the unveiling of Scripture, and in the breaking of bread, in the Eucharist. Give us this day our daily Bread, because Christ is our bread, and the heavenly Bread which is Christ is our salvation; Jesus Christ is our healing; Jesus Christ hears us, feeds us, and gives us strength: Christ is our Lord, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost; ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Lord, we beseech Thee: grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil: and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The feast of Saint Michael and All Angels celebrates the ministry of the holy Angels, and does so straightforwardly. These creatures: made of spirit and fashioned without material bodies; these creatures, according to the Church Fathers, who were created by God before time, created in heaven, and who serve God in heaven and help and defend us on earth—we celebrate these Angels, the armies of Angels, led by Michael their commander, who, in the words of 4th century Church Father S. Gregory of Nazianzus, are “sent to proclaim God’s will, to guard the faithful, and join in the divine hymnody, ever circling the heavenly throne.” Today we celebrate the mystery of the angels, described throughout Scripture from the first pages of the Bible to the last.

What is most striking perhaps about our Gospel passage is how easily our Lord Jesus Christ mentions angels to His disciples. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones,” He says, “for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” His mentioning of Angels is almost offhanded, and without explanation. Christ simply assumes that the disciples already know about Angels, and instead of lengthy teaching, affirms with but a few that that because children demonstrate the kind of humility and awe and wonder and love of God which is necessary to enter the Kingdom of Heaven—that is, necessary to enter into the life of the Holy Spirit—that they ought not be despised, for God will hear about it, their angels will report to the Heavenly Authority any such sinful behavior.

Here our Lord in our Gospel passage refers to the Angels ordained by God for our personal protection: the Guardian Angels. And because He is so unambiguous about this, the Church has always taught about Guardian Angels as the primary relationship humans have with the angelic order. Hence the 3rd century Church Father, Origen of Alexandria, writes: “Every one of the faithful, even the least, has an angel who accompanies him, beholding the face of God and guiding him through life’s perils to salvation.” What assurance this gives us: not only that our Guardian Angel seeks to guide each of us through life’s perils to salvation, but that our Guardian Angel beholds the face of God.

Because we are not able to behold the face of God—not as of yet, for as Paul teaches, we are meant to behold God face to face, the “beatific vision of God” in the life to come—our Guardian Angel is able to behold the face of God on our behalf, vicariously, as a kind of proxy spiritual eyesight, seeing God for us until we are able to see Him in heaven. Thus the Angels are able, again in the words of Origen, “to bear divine inspirations to human souls, enlightening them through the grace that flows from the Holy Spirit.” Angels announce to us divine inspirations which enlighten us with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence the words of 17th century Anglican bishop Jeremy Taylor, that as Blessed Virgin Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit through the Archangel Gabriel and caused her to conceive, that we may be so overshadowed through the ministry of angels to us so as to “conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and bear Him in our mind.”

Our readings from Isaiah and the Revelation to S. John refer to Saint Michael the Archangel, who is depicted in our icon which we venerate today. The two readings go together. Isaiah addresses Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, the Dragon (all names for the same unholy angelic being). Isaiah says: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground.” It is S. John who provides the background about this, describing the event in heaven which is before time was created: “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” That Satan was thrown down to earth outside of time and space is how is able to make his infamous appearance to Adam and Eve. He had already lost the battle with Michael, and thus already thrown down from heaven to earth, where he prowls around like a lion, seeking someone to devour.

Isaiah also provides key detail about the reason for the battle. Speaking to Satan, Isaiah says, “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Satan thought himself like God, even greater than God. Thus, in the words of S. Gregory the Great (7th century Church Father): “Michael, whose name means ‘Who is like God?’, is set over the powers of heaven to cast down the ancient serpent, contending for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.” Because of Christ’s eternal victory on the Cross, because of the Blood of the Lamb, the humility of Michael always overpowers the pride of Satan.

And so, today we give thanks to God for ordaining and constituting the ministry of Angels. We ask of God that the Angels continue to defend us in battle, that the Angel of this temple of Saint Paul guard us and keep away all evil and help us to worship rightly; we ask of God that the angels, as ministers of the Holy Ghost, continue to reveal to us knowledge of God; that as we conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and bear Him in our mind, we may grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ, to be perfect in Christ Jesus, Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

O God, Who of Thy ineffable Providence dost vouchsafe to send Thy holy Angels to be our guardians: grant to us Thy humble servants, that we may in this life ever be defended by their protection, and rjoice in their everlasting company in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

OFFICE HYMN FOR GUARDIAN ANGELSCreator of the circling sky,Who madest all by pow’r most high,Thy Providence will never cease,to rule Thy works in might and peace.

Be present when we cry to Thee,a sinful people though we be;and as the day-dawn grows apace,illume our minds with light of grace.

O send Thine Angel thitherwardassigned by Thee to be our guard,that now his presence may beginto keep us from all stain of sin.

Let him destroy that hidden snarethe eager serpent doth prepare,lest we be taken in the netbefore our heedless bosoms set.

At his command let ev’ry fearof hostile foemen disappear;let civil strife give way to peace,and pestilence and famine cease.

To God the Father glory be;for those the Saviour setteth free,anointed by the Holy Ghost,are guarded by the Angel host. Amen.

O God, Who gavest blessed Raphael the Archangel unto Thy servant Tobias to be the companion of his wayfaring: grant unto us Thy servants that we may ever be protected by the guardianship of this same Thine Archangel, and defended by his help; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

OFFICE HYMN FOR ARCHANGEL RAPHAELThee, O Christ the Father’s splendourLife and virtue of the heart,in the presence of the Angelssing we now with tuneful art:meetly in alternate chorusbearing our responsive part.

Thus we praise with venerationall the armies of the skychiefly him the faithful healerand companion heavenly,Raphael, by whose princely virtuehelpless bound the demons lie.

By whose watchful care repelling—King of everlasting grace!—Every ghostly adversaryall things evil, all things base;grant us of Thine only goodnessin Thy paradise a place.

Laud and honor to the Father,laud and honor to the Son:laud and honor to the Spirit,ever Three and ever One:Consubstantial, Co-eternal,while unending ages run. Amen.

Almighty and everlasting God, unto Whom thousands of Angels minister: grant, we beseech Thee, that we, who on earth do honour blessed Gabriel the Archangel as the special minister of mankind’s Restoration, may by his supporting prayer obtain in heaven the fruit of our Redemption; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

OFFICE HYMN FOR ARCHANGEL GABRIELGabriel revere we meetly,Herald of the King on high,whom the Father pleas’d to renderLegate of His ministry,to a fallen world announcing:Jesus, Son of God, is nigh.

Gabriel, thou might of heaven,help our weakness with thy care:that we conquer mankind’s foeman,thou thyself our strength repair;that our errors be forgiven,thou for us outpour thy pray’r.

Angel sent to earth, down-glidingto the couch where Mary lay,thou alone God’s hidden purposeknewest on that mighty day;take thou now our poor petitions,and to Heaven’s Lord display.

Unto God be endless glory,with His laud all lips shall swell:one sole praise of Sire and Offspring,and the Holy Ghost, we tell:who such wondrous gifts hath givento the Archangel Gabriel. Amen.

O everlasting God, Who hast ordained and constituted the ministries of angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully grant that, as Thy holy angels always serve and worship Thee in heaven, so by Thy appointment they may help and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER TO S. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGELS. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Saint Paul, the patron of this holy house, urges us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. And our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ reminds us that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Both of these we can easily see fit into the eucharistic life, a life lived with thanksgiving to God. Yet it is our passage of Scripture from the Prophet Ezekiel that adds a new dimension into our thinking about eucharistic life, and that comes from reflecting upon God’s covenant with us as it is revealed in Scripture.

We hear of covenant directly in the reading from the prophet Ezekiel, wherein Christ says, “I will make my covenant of peace with them” (meaning the faithful of Israel), “It shall be an everlasting covenant with them.” By covenant is meant sacred commitment between God and His people. By covenant we mean holy partnership, with promises, signs, and sometimes conditions, all of which are part of God’s economy, that is to say, God’s plan for salvation, the ordering of history and creation towards salvation. God expresses His economy through a variety of covenants. What are these covenants?

To understand more the nature of “covenant,” we start with Jesus Christ Who makes a covenant with us at the Last Supper. Jesus speaks of His precious Blood, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my Blood.” The Holy Spirit has written God’s law on our hearts, forgiveness is granted to all who repent and confess their sins, and we have God’s grace to be obedient to Christ’s words. All Christians are invited to partake of Christ’s Body and Blood to feed our inner transformation and nourish our ability to walk as a new creation according not to the flesh but to the Spirit; to live a life of obedience, not defiance, toward God. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, which we participate in through the Eucharist, we can attain purity of heart, lowliness of mind, and all the virtues of Christ. Hence the words of our Lord in our Gospel passage: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Our humility is our side of Christ’s covenant, which if He sees in us, He promises everlasting life and eternal salvation.

By this covenant, or as I should say, within this covenant, are the previous covenants recorded in Scripture. Firstly there is the covenant God made with Noah and his family after they disembarked from the ark. This covenant follows the flood, and expresses God’s commitment to preserve His creation despite whatever human sin might occur. God promises to never destroy the earth—meaning His relationship with us, the relationship that allows for our spiritual growth toward Him—never to destroy the earth by flood again. The sign of this oath is the rainbow, which is a permanent reminder and symbol of God’s mercy upon all creatures, human and animal.

Secondly, there is the covenant with Abraham. In Genesis 11 and the following chapters, God promises to bless all nations and people through Abraham’s lineage. God says his descendants will be more in number than the stars of heaven. This covenant is expressed through circumcision, which as unveiled by the Cross and taught by Saint Paul, means circumcision of the heart and faith in Christ. Church Fathers elaborate on Paul’s teaching by emphasizing that not only our heart must be circumcised, but our ears, our lips, our mouths, and all of our members, even our mind.

Thirdly, in Exodus and Deuteronomy, we hear of the covenant God forms with Israel through Moses, to be a kingdom of priests, what Saint Peter calls the priesthood of all believers. This priestly kingdom, which is the Church, is thereby through grace able to mediate God’s holiness to the world. God promises His protection if we obey the Ten Commandments, and the teachings on worship, justice, and morality. We are blessed if we have obedient faith; we are cursed if we have rebellious hearts.

And there is the Davidic covenant. This is in 2 Samuel 7, and we learn of God’s promise of an eternal dynasty through David, which fulfills the blessings promised to Abraham through a faithful king. God promises that His Name shall be upon the hearts of His people, even in their hearts; He promises rest from enemies, and an everlasting throne for His Son, Jesus Christ. In this covenant, God promises a Messiah, and this is Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Right Hand of the Father. And because we have a Messiah, a true One, Who is the Eternal Bread of Heaven, we have the Eucharist, Christ’s covenant with us: that when we continue what He instituted, the perpetual memory of His precious death and sacrifice which is the Eucharist, He is actually present again for us to receive Him as the heavenly bread, that the bread and wine offered in sacrifice, which participates in His Sacrifice of Himself, are transformed into His Body and Blood as His eucharistic covenant.

My dear brothers and sisters, living eucharistically means knowing that everything we have is a gift given to us by God: everything—our life, our soul and body, our family. By His covenant with us, God makes existence itself His gift, and our relationship with God a gift beyond the telling. By the mystery of covenant, by holy covenant sealed in Christ’s Blood, we know that God guarantees forgiveness, internal transformation, and direct access to God. Through Christ we have an eternal covenant—of protection, of forgiveness, of eternal salvation, of love—so that the God of peace can equip us with everything good, through Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the true covenant, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

This is unedited audio of my parish’s Saturday morning class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is currently reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage.

In this episode, we look at chapters 27-29. I take a close-reading approach to the text, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way. Enjoy!

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