To celebrate at the beginning of the Epiphany season the Baptism of Jesus is an ancient liturgical custom. It is among the most ancient liturgical feasts of the Church, predating any liturgical celebration of Christ’s Nativity – meaning, it is older than the Church’s celebration of Christmas. And the Church’s liturgical art in icons of Christ’s baptism dates as far back as the early 200s. What all this tells us is how important the Baptism of Jesus Christ by the hand of Saint John the Baptist is to the Christian faith.

The season of Epiphany weaves together several events of Christ’s life: His Nativity, the visit of the Magi, the beginning of His public ministry, the manifestation and revelation of God as Trinity, finding of Jesus in the Temple at age 12, the miracle at the wedding of Cana – in a grand sequence of liturgical celebration. These events have in common the one radical change that had come upon the world: God had united Himself to mankind to show mankind how He has overcome the dominion of evil and death and to give to mankind the Holy Spirit. And the Church does regard Our Lord’s baptism as a kind of beginning. Evidence of that includes the fact that S. Mark’s Gospel account in effect begins with the Baptism; that His Baptism is the first earthly event described in S. John in his Gospel; and that S. Peter declares in the Upper Room after the Ascension, in Acts 1, that witnessing the Baptism is necessary to be considered to be the replacement of Judas in the ministry of the Twelve Apostles.

This importance of the event in the River Jordan is shown also because, historically, the event is named the Theophany, the showing-forth of God. It is the first public revelation of God as Trinity. Jesus of Nazareth, proclaimed by the Father to be His beloved Son, with the Holy Spirit alighting upon Christ as a dove and anointing Him, all before the eyes of the ever-enlightening heart of Saint John the Baptist. Hence the ministry of John Baptist includes being the bearer of the truth of the most holy Trinity.

Perhaps the aspect of the Baptism most pregnant with significance is that of the Holy Spirit. For one, the Holy Spirit affirms that Jesus is in fact the Christ, the prophesied Messiah. Anointing in the Old Testament brought about the descent of the Spirit of the Lord to consecrate someone as a prophet, priest, or king. In 1 Sam. 16, Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed David in the presence of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ like a dove. A dove is a gentle, soft, tender bird. In the Song of Solomon the lover associates her beloved with the dove, as beautiful, lovely, perfect, flawless. The dove is also associated with innocence; it is guileless. In Christ’s own words: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as a dove.” Thus to associate the Holy Spirit’s descent with a dove at Christ’s baptism says much about the nature of His coming messianic ministry. It can be seen to describe the tone of Christ’s whole ministry upon earth. He will not be a military commander, conquering the occupying Romans with force as so many contemporary Jews expected the Messiah to do. Instead, Christ is being anointed to conquer with love, and ultimately, with His own sacrifice on the Cross.

Another aspect of the dove is that it was one of the creatures that Jews were allowed to offer for sacrifice at the Temple. Thus the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove hints at the future sacrifice of the Messiah, though not for Himself, nor only for the Jewish people, but for all. He is both the Sacrifice and He who sacrifices.

Another is that a dove brought to Noah the olive branch as evidence that the waters of the great flood were subsiding and therefore that salvation and a new world were at hand. This tells us that Christ’s coming was to usher in a new life, a new creation, a new way of being. Just as Noah and his family entered a world full of grace, so do Christians through Baptism.

Lastly the Spirit remained upon Christ, something John the Baptist saw with his eyes. John the Baptist says that it had been revealed to him that he could identify Christ as the one upon whom he would see the Spirit not only descend but also remain: in John 1.33: “The one who sent me, to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” In the Old Testament, the Spirit would descend upon the prophets to inspire them temporarily, but in the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell permanently within Christians.

Let us therefore, dear brothers and sisters, celebrate this great event of spiritual revelation, the public coming-forth of Christ, the Theophany of God the Trinity, and the descent of the Holy Ghost, in Whom we live and move and have our being, all in praise of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs all glory, dominion, and power, and Who reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

When the Lord and Saviour was born in Bethlehem, as the sacred history of the Gospel bears witness, the angel of the Lord appeared with a great light to shepherds who were watching and keeping watch by night over their flocks, and declared to the world that the Sun of justice had arisen, not only by the voice in heavenly utterance, but also by the brightness of the divine light. We should know that nowhere in the whole course of Old Testament Scripture do we find that angels appeared with light, though they frequently appeared to human beings; but this privilege was properly kept for this day, when “unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness; the Lord is merciful, loving, and righteous” (Ps 112.4). But so that the authority of a single angel should seem small, after one angel taught the mystery of the new birth, at once there was present a multitude of the heavenly host, who sang “Glory to God on high,” even as they proclaimed peace to human beings. The angelic choir clearly demonstrates that through this Nativity human beings were to be directed toward the peace of one faith, hope, and love, and to the glory of divine praise.

Saint Luke records that “when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.’ And, Saint Luke adds, ‘they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.’” The shepherds hastened with happy joy to see what they had heard about, and because they sought it with a burning love, they were worthy to find immediately the Saviour Whom they sought. By their words as well as their deeds, they showed the future shepherds of spiritual flocks (that is, bishops and priests) and, moreover, all faithful Christians, with what diligence of mind they too ought to be seeking Christ. “Let us go over,” it is as if they said, “to Bethlehem, and see this Word which has come to be.”

Let us also, therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, go over in thought to Bethlehem, the city of David, and let us also recall it with love; let us celebrate Christ’s Nativity according to the flesh. Having cast aside fleshly concupiscence, they us go over with the whole desire of our mind to the heavenly Bethlehem, that is, the house of living bread, not made by hands but eternal in heaven, and let us lovingly recall that the Word which was made flesh has ascended in the flesh to where He sits at the Right Hand of God the Father. Let us follow Him to that place with the whole urgency of our virtues, and let us take care that we may deserve to see reigning in His Father’s chair the One they saw crying in the manger.

“And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger,” Luke tells us. The shepherds came hurrying and found God born as a human being, and at the same time they found those who were ministering to His Nativity. We also should hurry, my brothers and sisters, not by steps of our feet, but by progress in good works, to see this same glorified humanity with these same ministers. Let us hurry to see Him shining in divine majesty, which is the Father’s and His own. Let us hurry, I say, for such blessedness is not to be sought with idleness and sluggishness, but Christ’s footsteps must be followed briskly. Let us follow more quickly with the steps of virtues so that we may be worthy to walk in His ways.

When the Shepherds saw the Holy Child shining in divine splendor, and those ministering to Him, they made known the Word that had been told them concerning this Child. All who heard the Word wondered at what they heard, and who they heard it from. Then Luke tells us, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Mary wished to divulge to no one the secret things which she knew about Christ, but she reverently waited for the time and place when He, her Son, would wish to divulge them. However, although her mouth was silent, in her careful, watchful heart she weighed these secret things.

Indeed, she weighed those acts which she saw in relation to those things which she had read were to be done. She saw that herself, who had arisen from the stock of Jesse, had conceived God’s Son of the Holy Spirit. She had read in the prophet Isaiah, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.” She had read in Micah, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” She saw that she had given birth in Bethlehem to the Ruler of Israel, Who was born eternal from the Father, God before the ages. She saw that she had “conceived as a virgin, and given birth to a Son, and called His Name Jesus.” She had read, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” She had read, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib.” She saw the Lord lying in a manger, where an ox and an ass used to come to be nourished. She remembered that it had been said to her by the angel “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” She had read that the manner of His Nativity could be recognized only by the revelation of an angel, in accordance with Isaiah’s saying, “Who will tell of his generation?” She had read in Micah, “And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.” She knew that the Lord had come in the flesh, Whose power is one and eternal with the Father, and He would give to His daughter the Church the kingdom of heavenly Jerusalem. Mary was pondering these things which she had read were to occur with those which she recognized as already having occurred, and she kept them in her heart.

Finally, Luke records, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. So let us learn, my beloved brothers and sisters, how to be turned from contemplation of the Lord’s most benevolent divinely-arranged plan, by which He deigned to come to our aid, to giving thanks always from His kindnesses. For if they, who as yet only knew about His Nativity, went back glorifying and praising God in everything which they had seen and heard, we who know about the whole progress of His Incarnation in succession, and who are imbued with the Sacraments of His Life, are all the more obliged to proclaim His glory and praise in everything, not only in words but also in deeds, and never to forget that the reason why God was born as a human being was so that He might restore us through our being born anew to the image and likeness of His divinity.

The reason He was baptized with water was so that He might make the flowing of all waters fruitful for the cleansing of our wicked deeds. The reason He was tempted in the desert was so that by being victorious over the temper He might bestow upon us knowledge and power to make us victorious through Him. The reason He died was so that He might destroy the sovereignty of death. The reason He rose and ascended to heaven was so that He might present to us a hope and an example of rising from the dead and reigning perpetually in heaven. Having “gone back” to gaze upon His most benevolent divinely-arranged plan, let us for the sake of each of these actions glorify and praise God Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

(adapted from Gospel Homily I.vii of the Venerable S. Bede)

On this Fifth Day of Christmas, let us reflect on certain passages of our Gospel account. Firstly, we notice that Saint Matthew wishes, in our Gospel account, to speak of Mary. He makes clear what a difference there was between her child-bearing and that of the rest of the genealogy of Jesus. The rest brought forth by the customary joining of male and female; Jesus, however, seeing that He was Son of God, was to be born into the world by a virgin. It was entirely fitting that when God wished to become a human being, for the sake of human beings, He be born of none other than a Virgin. When it happens that the Virgin bears a child, she bears no other son than one who is God.

Also Saint Matthew tells us that her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Joseph saw that his betrothed had conceived, though he knew well that she had not been touched by any man. Since he was just and wished to do everything justly, he chose what seemed to be the best course, that he would neither divulge this to others, nor receive her himself as his wife, but privately changing the proposal of marriage, he would allow her to remain in the position of betrothed woman, as she was. Now he had read in Isaiah that a virgin of the house of David would conceive and give birth to this Lord, and he also knew that Mary took her origin from this house, and so he did not disbelieve that this prophecy had been fulfilled in her. But if he had sent her away privately and not received her as his wife, and if she as a betrothed woman were to give birth, there would surely have been few people to call her virgin rather than a harlot. Therefore Joseph all at once changed his intention for a better one, so that to preserve Mary’s reputation he would receive her as his wife, celebrating the marriage feast, but he would keep her perpetually chaste. For it seems that the Lord preferred to have some ignorant of the manner of His birth than have them attack His mother’s reputation.

We notice as well that Saint Matthew incorporates the example of a prophetic utterance with reference to the virgin birth, in order that a miracle of such majesty might be the more certainly believed if not only he himself proclaimed this fact, but if he also recalled that it was predicted by the prophet. Behold, the virgin, the prophet says, shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel; and Saint Matthew adds, which means, God with us. The Saviour’s Name, because of which He is called God with us by the prophet, signifies both natures of His one Person. For He Who, born before time from the Father, is God Himself in the fullness of time, because Emmanuel, that is God with us, in His mother’s womb, because He deigned to take the weakness of our nature into the unity of His Person when the Word because flesh and dwelt among us. In a wonderful manner He began to be what we are, while not ceasing to be what He had been, assuming our nature in such a way that He Himself would not lose what He had been.

Lastly, let us reflect upon the fact that Joseph, as Saint Matthew records, called His Name Jesus. Jesus, a Hebrew word, means “saving” or “saviour” in Latin. Thus itt is clear that the prophets most certainly call upon His Name. Hence these words are sung in great desire for a vision of Him: “My soul shall be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation” (Ps 35.9); “My soul hath longed for thy salvation” (Ps 119.81). And especially that verse: “Save me, O God, for thy Name's sake!” (Ps 54.1) as if the Prophet Isaiah would say: “You Who are called Saviour, make bright the glory of Your Name in me by saving.”

Jesus is the name of the Son Who was born of a Virgin, and, as the Angel explained, this Name signified that He would save His people from their sins. He who saves from sins is doubtlessly the same one Who will save from the corruption of mind and body which happen as a result of sins. “Christ” is a term of priestly and royal dignity, for from “chrism”, that is, an anointing with holy oil, in the law priests and kings were called “christs,” and they signified Him Who appeared in the world as true King and High Priest, and was anointed with the oil of gladness above those who shared with Him. From this anointing, that is, the chrism, He Himself is called “Christ,” and those who share this anointing, that is, spiritual grace, are called “Christians.” In that He is Saviour may He deign to reconcile us to God the Father. In that He is King may He deign to give us the eternal kingdom of His Father, which is the Holy Spirit: this one and the same Jesus Christ our Lord, our Saviour, our King, our Head, our daily bread, this Holy Child, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God, world without end. Amen.

(Adapted from Gospel Homily I.v by the Venerable Saint Bede)

To acknowledge and celebrate in our Divine Liturgy the birth of time of the Mediator between God the Father and human beings, the man Jesus Christ, born of woman, born of Mary under the Law, we are now drawn to reflect upon the words of the blessed evangelist John concerning the eternity of the Word, that is, concerning the eternity of Christ’s divinity, in which He remained always equal to the Father. As a privilege, I think, of John’s singular focus on Christ, S. John grasped the hidden mysteries of Christ’s divinity at a more profound level and, thanks be to God, he was able to disclose these hidden mysteries to others. For it was not mentioned without reason that at the Last Supper John leaned upon the breast of the Jesus, for through this we are taught in figurative language that John drank the draught of heavenly wisdom from the most holy font of Jesus’s breast, and did so in a more outstanding way that the other evangelists.

Hence, in the symbolic representation of the four animals, John is rightly matched with the flying eagle. The eagle, indeed, is said to fly higher than all other birds, and is said to direct its sight toward the rays of the sun more piercingly than all other living things. The other evangelists (Ss Matthew, Mark, and Luke), as though they were walking with the Lord on the earth, explained brilliantly Christ’s emergence in time, along with His deeds in time; but they said relatively little concerning His divinity. John, however, as though he were flying to heaven with the Lord, expounded relatively few things concerning Christ’s acts in time, but recognized the eternal power of Christ’s divinity, through which all things come into being, and he handed this on in writing for us to learn. Whereas the other evangelists bear witness that Christ was born in time, John bears witness that this same Christ was in the beginning, saying, “In the beginning was the Word.” The others record His sudden appearance among human beings; John declares that He was always with God, saying, “and the Word was with God.” The others confirm that He is a true human being; John confirms that He is true God, saying, “and the Word was God.” And the others testify to the wonders which Christ did as a human being; John teaches that God the Father made every creature, visible and invisible, through Christ, saying, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made.”

And to a remarkable extent blessed John, at this the beginning of his Gospel account, properly imbues us with the faith of orthodox belief concerning the divinity of the Savior, even anticipating false doctrine taught in the later centuries of the Church. For example, false doctrine taught by the 4th century priest Arius (called the Arianism heresy), who said, “If Christ was born, there was a time when He did not exist.” John refutes this beforehand with his first utterance when he says, “In the beginning was the Word.” He does not say, In the beginning the Word began to be, because he wrote in order to point out that Christ’s coming into being was not from time, but that He existed at the emergence of time, and so that through this wording he might point out that Christ was born of the Father without any beginning in time.

In the same way there was the 3rd century priest and theologian named Sabellius (with the heretical doctrine called Sabellianism or “modalism”), which denied that the Holy Trinity is three Persons, and said, “The same God is Father when He wants to be, Son when He wants to be, Holy Spirit when He wants to be; nevertheless, He Himself is one,” that is, one Person and not three. Rebuking this error, John says, “And the Word was with God.” For if the One was with the Other, unquestionably the Father and the Son are two, and not one as if He Himself were sometimes the Father, and sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Holy Ghost. And likewise against other heretics did John speak and, by the grace of God, condemn.

In a profound way, the evangelist describes Christ’s two natures, namely the divine nature (in which He always and everywhere remains complete) and the human nature (by means of which He appeared to be contained by place when He was born in time), saying He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not. He came into His own home, and His own people received Him not. (The evangelist says “the world” to mean human beings deceived by love of the world, and by being attached to creatures have turned away from acknowledging the majesty of their Creator.) Indeed, Christ was in the world and the world was made through Him because He was God, because He was complete everywhere, because by the presence of His majesty He ruled without labor, and without burden He held together what He had made. He came into His own because when He was born He appeared through His humanity in the world which He had made through His divinity. He came to His own home because Christ deigned to become incarnate in the nation of Judaea, which He had united to Himself beyond other countries by a special grace. He was in the world and He came into the world. He was in the world through His divinity; He came into the world through His nativity.

Dear brothers and sisters, we who today recall in yearly devotion this glorious human nativity of our Redeemer, must always embrace His divine nature as well as His human nature with a love that is not yearly, but continual – we must continually embrace His divine nature, through which we were created when we did not exist, and His human nature, through which we were recreated when we were lost. And so, for this reason, the Word became flesh, that is, the Word became bread, that is, became Sacrament and dwelt among us, so that by keeping company with us in His human being become bread become Sacrament, He would be able to unite with us; by speaking to us He would be able to instruct us and present to us a way of living; by dying He would be able to struggle for us against the enemy; by rising He would be able to destroy our death – and so that through a divinity coeternal with the Father’s, He might raise us to divine things by bringing us back to life interiorly through the Sacrament, that in feeding us with Himself He might grant us forgiveness of sins and at the same time the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that through the seven Sacraments He might not only lead us to see the glory of His glorified and sacramental humanity, but also show us the unchangeable essence of His divine majesty, in which He lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

(Adapted from the Gospel Homily I.viii by the Venerable Saint Bede)

The eyes of all wait upon Jesus Christ. Indeed, the eyes of the world, the whole world, wait upon Jesus Christ. For in but a few short days comes the festival of our redemption, the festival of the redemption of the whole world: the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to consecrate the world by His most loving presence, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of His mother blessed Mary, was born of her in Bethlehem of Judah, and was made man. All eyes are on Jesus Christ because of His Nativity, according to the flesh: that which redeems all humanity, indeed redeems the whole world.

Hence says our patron the Apostle Paul: rejoice! Hence he says rejoice in the Lord always. Why would he have us rejoice? Because the Lord is at hand. Because the Coming One Who is Christ is coming to comfort us. He is coming to reveal His glory. And in revealing Himself, He gives to us His true peace, the peace which passes all understanding, the peace of heaven. He gives us His true peace – which is Him, for as Paul says to the Ephesians, Christ Himself is our peace – He gives Himself as our peace that we would live in Him and He in us. Christ seeks to fill all things living with His plenteousness. He seeks to fill all things with His blessing. He seeks to fill all things with Himself, that He might be all in all, that all things might be in subjection under Him.

We know that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, as Christ spoke through Isaiah. We know His glory will be revealed, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and He has spoken clearly: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and His Name shall be called Emmanuel. Emmanuel, which means, God with us.

And He shall be with us, on the great festival of our redemption. He shall be with us through the proclamation of the apostles, whose names are written on the walls of Jerusalem above, which is our heavenly citizenship. The apostles proclaim, This is Christ the King, this holy Child is the Son of the Highest, Who comes to us on donkey and foal. To this holy Child has been given the throne of His Father, David. This holy Child reigns over the house of Jacob forever. Of the Kingdom of this Child there will be no end. This holy Child is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.

And He shall be with us, on the great festival of our redemption, through Scripture opened to Him, in all its pages. For every word of Scripture, what we call the Old Testament, concerns Christ. He comes to us as our daily Bread to be read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested. Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, speaks through all pages of Scripture, that through preaching and prayer we know Him, even He Who passes all our understanding, He Who while conceived in the womb of Blessed Mary, yet the whole world cannot contain.

And He shall be with us in the Blessed Sacrament, administered by holy priests. The Word became Sacrament and dwelt among us. The Word became Sacrament in order that He might dwell in us, for we receive Him – all of Him: body, soul, and divinity – in the consecrated and transformed Bread and Wine, the true Body and Blood of Christ: that we might become what we receive.

(In the words of 20th-century Anglican divine Austin Farrar): Advent is a coming, not our coming to God, but His to us. We cannot come to God, he is beyond our reach; but He can come to us, for we are not beneath His mercy. As S. John teaches, we do not rise to God, but He descends to us, and dwells humanly among human creatures, in the glorious man, Jesus Christ, in the holy Child about Whom the whole host of Angels sing: that we shall be His people, and He everlastingly our God, our God-with-us, our Emmanuel. He will so come, but He is come already, He comes always: in our fellow-Christian (even in a child, says Christ), in His Word, invisibly in our souls, more visibly in the Blessed Sacrament. Opening ourselves to Him, we call Him in: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord; O come, Emmanuel: come, He Who is our Saviour, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

In the audio above is the third lecture of the Advent Study Series that I am doing at my parish. The series is called “Foundations of the Church: Introducing the Church Fathers.”

This lecture follows on from the overall introduction to the Church Fathers in my first lecture, as well as the second lecture on Ss Ignatius of Antioch and Anthony of Egypt.

The third lecture looks at three Greek Fathers, through an outline of their lives as well as a sampling of their teachings.

Firstly I look at Origen of Alexandria, who died in 254, and reflect upon a small portion of his Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John.

Secondly I look at Saint Basil the Great, who died in 379, and look at a portion of is Long Rules, also known as his Asceticon.

Thirdly I look at Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, known as the Theologian, who died in 389, and reflect on a portion of his Oration on Pentecost.

Below are the icons and texts displayed during the talk, for you to contemplate along with my own reflections.

The final lecture of this series, coming next week, will look at Saint Maximos the Confessor and the Venerable Saint Bede.

ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA

Commentary on S. John

The Gospel is the firstfruits of all Scripture. In my opinion, there are four Gospels, as though they were the elements of the faith of the Church. . . . But I think that John’s Gospel is the firstfruits of the Gospels. It speaks of Him Whose descent is traced, and begins from Him Who is without a genealogy.

For since Matthew, on the one hand, writing for the Hebrews awaiting the son of Abraham and David, says, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham, and Mark, knowing what he is writing relates “the beginning of the gospel,” perhaps we find its goal in John, when he tells of the Word “in the beginning,” the Word being God. But Luke also having said in the beginning of Acts, “The former treatise I made of all things which Jesus began to do and teach.” Indeed John reserves for the one who leaned on Jesu’ breast the greater and more perfect expressions concerning Jesus, for none of those manifested His divinity as fully as John when he presented Him saying, “I am the light of the world”; “I am the way, the truth, and the life”; “I am the resurrection”; “I am the door”; “I am the good shepherd”; and in the Apocalypse, “I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

We might dare say, then, that the Gospels are the firstfruits of all Scriptures, but that the firstfruits of the Gospels is that according to John, whose meaning no one can understand who has not leaned on Jesus’ breast nor received Mary from Jesus to be his mother also. But he who would be another John must also become such as John, to be shown to be Jesus, so to speak. For if Mary had no son except Jesus, in accordance with those who hold a sound opinion of her, and Jesus says to His mother, “Behold your son,” and not “Behold, this man is also your son,” He has said equally, “Behold this is Jesus whom you bore.” For indeed everyone who has been perfected “no longer lives, but Christ lives in him” (Gal 2:20), and since “Christ lives” in him, it is said of him to Mary, “Behold your son,” the Christ.

SAINT BASIL THE GREAT

The Long Rules (Asceticon)

Q: Speak to us of the love of God; for we have heard that we must love Him, but we would learn how this may be rightly accomplished?

A: The love of God is not something that is taught, for we do not learn from another to rejoice in the light or to desire life, nor has anyone taught us to love our parents. In the same way and even to a far greater degree is it true that instruction in divine law in now from without, but, simultaneously with the formation of the creation – man, I mean – a kind of rational force was implanted in us like a seed which, by an inherent tendency, impels us toward love. This germ is then received into account in the school of God’s commandments, where it is wont to be carefully cultivated and skillfully nurtured and thus, by the grace of God, brought to its full perfection. Wherefore, we, also, approving of your zeal as essential for reaching the goal, shall endeavor with the help of God and the support of your prayers, and as power is given us by the Spirit, to enkindle the spark of divine love latent within you. Now, it is necessary to know that, although this is only one virtue, yet, by its efficacy, it comprises and fulfills every commandment. “If anyone love me,” says the Lord, “he will keep my commandments.” And again, “On these two commandments depend the whole law and prophets.”

What is more admirable than Divine Beauty? What reflection is sweeter than the thought of the magnificence of God? What desire of the soul is so poignant and so intolerably keen as that desire implanted by God in a soul purified from all vice and affirming with sincerity, “I languish with love.” Totally ineffable and indescribable are the lightning flashes of Divine Beauty. Words do not adequately convey nor is the ear capable of receiving knowledge of them. The rays of the morning star, or the brightness of the moon, or the light of the sun – all are more unworthy to be mentioned in comparison with that splendor; and these heavenly bodies are more inferior to the true light than is the deep darkness of night, gloomy and moonless, to brightest noonday. This Beauty, invisible to the eyes of the flesh, is apprehended by the mind and soul alone. . . . Men are by nature, then, desirous of the beautiful. But, that which is truly beautiful and desirable is the good. Now, the good is God, and, since all creatures desire good, therefore, all creatures desire God.

SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS (THE THEOLOGIAN)

Oration on Pentecost

The Holy Spirit fashions together with the Son both the creation and the resurrection. Be persuaded by these texts: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power” (Ps 33.6); “the divine Spirit created me, and the breath of the Almighty taught me” (Job 33.4); and again, “You will send forth your Spirit and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth” (Ps 101.10).

He also fashions the spiritual rebirth. Be persuaded by the text: “Nobody can see the kingdom or receive it unless he has been born from above by the Spirit” (John 3.3-5), unless he has been purified from his earlier birth, which is a mystery of the night, by a molding in the day and in the light, through which each is molded by his own choice.

This Spirit, who is most wise and most loving toward humankind, if He takes a shepherd makes him a harper subduing evil spirits by song and proclaims him king of Israel (a Sam 16.12). If He takes a goatherd scraping mulberry trees, he makes him a prophet (Amos 7.14). Consider David and Amos. If He takes a youth with natural talents, He makes him a judge of elder, even beyond his years (Susanna 45-60). Daniel testifies to this, who was victorious over lions in their den (Dan 6.17-23). If He finds fishermen, He catches them in a net for Christ, they who catch the whole world with the line of the Word. Take for me Peter and Andrew and the sons of thunder, thundering the things of the Spirit. If He finds tax collectors, He gains them as disciples and makes them merchants of souls. Matthew says this, who yesterday was a tax collector and today is an evangelist.

If He finds fervent persecutors, He relocates their zeal and makes Pauls instead of Sauls and binds them to piety as much as they had been bound to evil.

This Spirit also is most gentle yet is provoked to anger at sinners. Therefore, let us make His acquaintance as meek, not as wrathful, by confessing His dignity and fleeing blasphemy, and not choosing to see Him implacably wrathful.

Jesus Christ is our King. Of that we must never have any doubt. Things in the world we can doubt, we can question, we can critique. Things of the world can, as kids today say, be “sus.” (That is shorthand for “suspect.”) Yet of Christ, none of this applies. He is our King, He is our Saviour, He is the Coming One. He is ever seeking to come to us, every day. This is why He came to visit us in great humility; this is why He will come at the end of days to judge both the quick and the dead; this is why He took our human flesh and nature upon Him, so as to be able to come to us in His glorified and sacramental Body as our daily Bread, received through the opening of Scripture and the Breaking of Bread.

We saw this in the teaching of the first two Sundays of Advent. The First Sunday of Advent dramatically illustrated that Christ is the Coming One by the Gospel reading of Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem upon the donkey and a foal, in which we are the citizens of heavenly Jerusalem to whom Christ is coming. And the Second Sunday of Advent emphasized His coming to us in the opening of Scripture: that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them: our daily Bread of Christ known and present to us in Scripture.

Today we hear Saint Paul teaching the Church that he and the other priestly ministers of Christ are servants and, more poignantly, are stewards. Paul, the other apostles, even John the Baptist, sent by God to go before Christ to prepare the way in our hearts for Christ’s coming to us, are stewards, Paul says, of the mysteries of God. Let it be clear that this word, which comes down in the Latin then English lineage of our scriptural translations, is in Greek the same word as Sacraments. So the priestly ministers of Christ are stewards of the Sacraments of Christ. This is an important teaching for Paul, which is why he gave it to the Church in Corinth and to the whole, universal Church.

Why is it an important teaching for the Church? It is because Christians need to know, and ever remember, that what priests do is make Christ known. They do so in their ministry of the sacraments. They make Christ known through the sacrament of Scripture in their preaching and in their teaching. And they make Christ known through the sacramental rites both in the Liturgy and flowing from it. In the Liturgy priests are stewards of the dominical sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, as well as the sacraments of Matrimony, Confession, Unction, and with the help of the Bishop, Confirmation. Bishops make possible these sacraments just mentioned, as well as the sacrament of Holy Orders. Each of these is a means and channel of saving grace.

As Jesus taught His disciples to regard Saint John the Baptist differently and uniquely, the Church is to regard priests differently and uniquely. Priests are set apart, which is what consecrated and ordained means. They are called to be servants of Christ so as to know Him deeply and profoundly, not merely for their personal benefit, but for others: that they are able to fulfill their calling to be effective stewards of the mysteries of God, of the sacraments of God, of that which is necessary spiritual food for the salvation of Christian disciples. Jesus and Paul want the Church to regard priests as means by which Christ comes: means by which He Who is the Coming One is known and recognized.

Priests are necessary to God’s plan of salvation, which is why the Church has always had them, and evidence of the existence of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons is shown in the earliest documents we have, documents dating to around AD 100, including letters written by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a Church Father. Let us pray for the priests of Holy Church, that it may please God to illumine all Priests with true knowledge and understanding of His holy Word, that both by their preaching and living, they may set forth God’s Word, and make Christ known: always that Jesus transform those men called to the priesthood, that by Christ working through them, the hearts of the disobedient are turned to the wisdom of the just, and turned to follow Christ as their Saviour, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

In the audio above is the audio from the second lecture of the Advent Study Series that I am doing at my parish. The series is called “Foundations of the Church: Introducing the Church Fathers.”

This lecture follows on from the overall introduction to the Church Fathers in my first lecture, which you can find here.

The second lecture looks at two early Church Fathers. For both I provide an outline of their lives as well as a sampling of their teachings.

Firstly I look at Saint Ignatius of Antioch, an Apostolic Father who died in the early 2nd century, and I reflect on portions of his Epistle to the Romans.

Secondly we look at Saint Anthony the Great (also known as the Great), a Desert Father who died in the fourth century. We reflect both on a portion of S. Athanasius’ Life of S. Anthony as well as portions from The Letters of Saint Anthony the Great.

Below are the icons and texts displayed during the talk, for you to contemplate along with my own reflections.

Next week’s lecture will look at Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. The final lecture of this series, in two weeks, will look at Saint Maximos the Confessor and the Venerable Saint Bede.

SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

* S. Matthew 18:1-4

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

* Ignatius’ Epistle to the Romans (2.2)

Do not allow me anything other than being poured out for God, while there is an altar still prepared, so that forming a chorus of love you may sing out to the Father in Jesus Christ, because God has made the bishop from Antioch worthy of being found at the setting of the sun, after being sent from where it rises. It is good for me to sink to God from the world, so that I may rise up to Him.

* Epistle to the Romans (4.1)

I am writing to all the church and I am instructing everyone that I am willingly dying for God, unless you prevent me. I beseech you, do not become an unseasonable kindness to me. Leave me to be bread for the beasts, through which I may be able to attain to God. I am God’s wheat and through the beasts’ teeth I shall be found to be pure bread for Christ.

* Epistle to the Romans (5.3)

Grant me this: I know what is right for me. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing, visible or invisible, show jealousy towards me, only let me attain to Jesus Christ. Fire and cross, packs of wild beasts, cutting, rendings, the scattering of bones, the chopping up of limbs, the grinding of the whole body, the evil torments of the devil can come upon me, only let me attain to Jesus Christ.

* Epistle to the Romans (6:1-2)

Neither the ends of the world nor the kingdoms of this age profit me anything. It is better for me to die in Jesus Christ than to reign over the ends of the earth. Him I seek, the one who died on our behalf. Him I desire, Him Who rose up for us. The birth-pangs are laid upon me. Grant me this, brothers: do not hinder me from living, do not wish that I should die. Do not give the world the one who wishes to be God’s, nor charm him with the material. Allow me to receive the pure light. When I have arrived then I will truly be human.

SAINT ANTHONY OF EGYPT

* Third Epistle

The advent of Jesus helps us to do what is good, until we have destroyed all our vices. Then Jesus will say to us, ‘Henceforth I call you not servant, but brethren.’ When therefore the Apostles attained to receiving the Spirit of Adoption, then the Holy Spirit taught them to worship the Father as they ought.

* Third Epistle

And to me, this poor prisoner of Jesus, this time to which we have come has brought joy and lamentation and weeping. For many of our generation have put on the robe of religion but denied its power. As for those who have prepared themselves to be set free through the advent of Jesus, over them I rejoice. But those who do business in the Name of Jesus, and do the will of their heart and their flesh – over such I lament. Those who have looked at the length of the time, and their heart has failed them, and they have put off the robe of religion, and are become beasts – for them I weep. Know therefore that for such men the advent of Jesus becomes a great judgment. But you, my beloved in the Lord, know yourselves, that you may also know this time, and prepare to offer yourselves as a sacrifice acceptable to God.

* Third Epistle

And to me, this poor prisoner of Jesus, this time to which we have come has brought joy and lamentation and weeping. For many of our generation have put on the robe of religion but denied its power. As for those who have prepared themselves to be set free through the advent of Jesus, over them I rejoice. But those who do business in the Name of Jesus, and do the will of their heart and their flesh – over such I lament. Those who have looked at the length of the time, and their heart has failed them, and they have put off the robe of religion, and are become beasts – for them I weep. Know therefore that for such men the advent of Jesus becomes a great judgment. But you, my beloved in the Lord, know yourselves, that you may also know this time, and prepare to offer yourselves as a sacrifice acceptable to God.

* Third Epistle

He who knows himself knows God: and he who knows God, knows also the dispensations [gifts of grace] which He makes for His creatures. Let this word be manifest to you: it is not bodily love that I have towards you, but a spiritual, religious love, for God is glorious in His Saints. Prepare yourselves while you have intercessors to pray to God for your salvation, that He may pour into your hearts that fire which Jesus came to send upon the earth (Lk 12.49), that you may be able to exercise your hearts and senses, to know how to discern the good from the bad, the right from the left, reality from unreality.

* Fourth Epistle

My children, we are dwelling in our death, and staying in the house of the robber, and bound with the bonds of death. Now therefore, give not sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids, that you may offer yourselves a sacrifice to God in all holiness, which none can inherit without sanctification.

I concluded my preaching for the First Sunday of Advent with these words: “Recognizing that Christ is always the Coming One is the basis of life in Christ’s Kingdom, and thus the basis of Kingdom culture.” How is He the Coming One? In Advent we especially recognize that Christ is the Coming One by means of Scripture and by means of Sacrament. The knowledge that He is the Coming One through Scripture and Sacrament makes for a truly lively faith, a life in the Holy Spirit. And I said that the apostles, whose names are inscribed on the walls of the foundation of heaven, preached Christ the Coming One so that all who hear it with faith may be caught up in the life of wonder, awe, and openness to the coming presence of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit: living and moving and having our being within the Kingdom of our King.

The Second Sunday of Advent is particularly given over to celebrating, savoring, and wondering at the fact that Christ always seeks to come to us through Holy Scripture. Hence the famous and beautiful Anglican collect for this Second Sunday of Advent: Blessed Lord, Who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: grant that we may in such wise (wise is the old word for way: that we may in such way) hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which Thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Through the Scriptures, inwardly digested, Christ is known. Indeed, Christ took on our human nature in significant part because in doing so He would be known through the opening of Scripture: the opening of it, and our reception of Him, inwardly digesting Him because as He said, “I am the Bread of life.” This Bread, our daily bread, is received both through opening Scripture and by the breaking of bread. And we know Christ, the Eternal Word of God, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, took on our human nature to be known and received as our daily Bread because on the very day of His Resurrection, He taught the disciples to interpret Scripture as always concerning Him and to receive Him in the Eucharist.

Hence we have Saint Paul teaching the Romans: “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.” What kind of instruction? Paul specifies and says, “that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Because Christ is our hope, then we are to read Scripture to know Christ in the Scriptures, and in knowing Him in Scripture, we may together with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, Paul says that Christ took on our human nature, the nature of a servant, to show the truthfulness of God the Father. In reading Scripture – in marking, learning, and inwardly digesting Christ as He is known through Scripture – the root of Jesse will come, and through His coming by the opening of Scripture, the God of hope will fill us with joy and peace, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we may abound in hope.

Let us “inwardly digest” Christ through Scripture. That phrase “inwardly digest” has taken on a special meaning unique to Anglican tradition. The Anglican Divine blessed John Keble has this to say about “inwardly digesting”: “When something is digested, it agrees with him, nourishes him, is changed, as it ought to be, into the substance of his body. So the word and commandments of God, made known in Holy Scripture, are inwardly digested, when a man so receives them, as that they shall enter into his character, become, as it were, part of himself. How may that be? There is but one way. We must actually do as God bids us.” And this is a strong echo of the words of Saint James in his Epistle, that we must not only be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. To be a doer of what God commands us to do, and what He reveals of His Son through Scripture as our daily bread, is what it means to inwardly digest. Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction – our instruction in how to pray, how to love, how to worship, how to be humble, how to be a disciple, how to live a godly life of Scripture and Sacraments through the Liturgy: how to live, in other words, in Kingdom Culture, taken up into the life of the Holy Spirit, as He teaches us all things and guides us into the Truth Who is Jesus as He seeks to come to us and be known through the opening of Scripture and the Breaking of Bread: He who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the same Holy Spirit: ever one God, world without end. Amen.

In the audio above is the audio from the first lecture of the Advent Study Series I am doing at my parish. The series is called “Foundations of the Faith: Introducing the Church Fathers.”

In the lecture I reference the icon above, which is of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which happened in AD 325.

In the part of the talk not included in the audio above, I went through many of the major Church Fathers. The text of the slides I showed during that part of the lecture are reproduced below.

The Apostolic Fathers – 1st and 2nd centuriesSaint Clement of Rome (d. 100)Saint Ignatius of Antioch (d. 110)Saint Polycarp (d. 155)

Uncertain authors:The DidacheThe Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle to DiognetusThe Shepherd of Hermas

The Desert Fathers – 3rd and 4th centuriesSaint Anthony the Great (d. 356)Saint Athansius the Great (d. 373, also a Greek Father)Saint John Cassian (d. 435)Saint Macarius of Egypt (d. 391)Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407, also a Greek Father)Many others, collected in books of “Sayings” and anthologies such as the Philokalia

The Greek Fathers – 2nd through 8th centuriesSaint Justin Martyr (d. 165)Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202)Saint Clement of Alexandria (d. 202)Origen of Alexandria (d. 254)Saint Basil the Great (d. 379)Saint Gregory Nazianzus (d. 389)Saint Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395)Saint Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444)Saint Maximos the Confessor (d. 662)Saint John of Damascus (d. 749)

The Latin Fathers – 3rd through 8th centuriesSaint Tertullian (d. 222)Saint Ambrose of Milan (d. 397)Saint Jerome (d. 420)Saint Augustine of Hippo (d. 430)Saint Leo the Great (d. 440)Saint Gregory the Great (d. 604)Saint Bede the Venerable (d. 735)

The Syriac Fathers – 4th through 8th centuriesSaint Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373)Saint Isaac of Ninevah (d. 700)

Click here for lecture two, on Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Anthony of Egypt.