What Archangels and Centurions and You Have in Common

On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we continue in Book 4, Chapter 1, with paragraph 3.

Thomas tells us that we have to prayerfully and intentionally invoke a conscious grace - that of being aware of our humility in coming to the Blessed Sacrament:

3. What do You mean by this most loving condescension and friendly invitation?



How shall I dare to approach You, when I am conscious of none of my own good thoughts or deeds on which I can presume upon Your favor?


How shall I introduce You into my house when I have so often provoked your anger and displeasure?

The angels and the archangels* stand with reverential awe in Your Presence; even the saints and the just are afraid: and still You say, "Come you all to Me."


Only because You, O Lord did say it, who could believe this invitation to be true?


And unless You did command it who would dare to attempt to approach Your Throne?

So our friend Thomas shows a way to imitate him so that we may imitate Christ. 

Condescension here is a positive term, in that Our Lord sets aside His own nature, taking the form of Bread and Wine to be consumed by us.  THAT is humility that we can only begin to grasp and imitate through our own mindfulness of our unworthiness.

In comparison to the Holy Angels and Saints, who you would think God would first invite them to His Table, instead He reaches out to we, the wholly unworthy, to offer Himself. 

Thomas doesn't quote it here, but it is appropriate to refer to Matthew 8:8 and following where Jesus meets the centurion and marvels at the man's faith.   The centurion declares himself unworthy to receive Our Lord in his home. 

Jesus was ready to go the the centurion's house to cure the centurion's servant, but the centurion, being a man of humility and faith, declared his unworthiness. Rather, he believed that if only Jesus spoke a word, his servant would be healed. At this, Jesus marvelled.  He declared the servant healed....and so he was.

This holds great promise for us in that if we follow the centurion's example of faith and humility in receiving Holy Communion, Jesus will enter into the souls of our homes, even though we do not deserve that He should come under our roof.  But first, we must ask Him.  He will heal His servant, that is, our own self, if we let Him.  He will heal us, he will save us (Jer 17:14).

Pray with me: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed!  May the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ bring me to everlasting life. Amen."

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!
tim

*Scripture tells us that the Angels and Archangels are constantly before the Throne of God, worshipping Him (see, for example, Is 6: 1-4), when they are not on a Holy mission (e.g. Rev 12:7-9).

Confident Humilty: Approaching the Unapproachable - and other Contradictions

Book 4, Chapter 1, continues:

2. You command me to approach You with confidence if I would abide with You, and to receive the food of immortality if I desire to obtain life and glory everlasting.

“Come,” You say to me , “all you that labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Matt 11:28.


Oh what sweet and amiable words in the ear of a sinner, that You, O Lord my God, should invite the poor and needy to the communion of Your most sacred Body!

But who am I, O Lord, that I should presume to come to You?

Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, 1 Kings 8:27 and you say "come you all to Me."

Today, Thomas tells us several contradictions:
1. The Lord commands us to be approach Him with confidence.
    a. He will only spend time with us if we are confident in our approach...this takes faith and a knowledge of our many shortcomings.
2. He commands us to Receive a gift.
a. We give ourselves (up) so we can receive the gift of Him.
3.  He asks us to bring our burdens to Him. 
4.  He will GIVE us rest...usually we TAKE a rest.
5. He invites the poor and needy to a banquet.
6.  The heavens cannot contain Him, and yet He chooses to present Himself to us in the form of Bread and Wine.

One last comment:  This passage from 1 Kings 8 is taken from the dedication of the Temple, by Solomon.  Solomon demonstrates his confidence in several ways.
He has a large cook-out:  Literally slaughtering 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.  He then says a prayer, on his knees, in front of the temple, just after The Lord enters in the form of a cloud. 

He prays that anyone who asks for help receive it, even if a foreigner should do so. He asks for judgment for the wrongdoings of himself and the nation, but at the same time asks that anyone asking for forgiveness of sin should receive it.  Even if all the petitioner does is turn toward the temple and pray...that will be enough.

In short, he turns everything over to God, confidently - knowing that He will do everything Solomon petitions, because He is God.  Because He's done it before.  Because He is a God of Mercy and Forgiveness.  Because He has kept His promises.

Next week:  Loving Condescension - more contradictions!

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!

God and Contract Law: The Invitation to a Promise, the Promise, Accord & Satisfaction vs. A Gift

The Most Blessed Sacrament

Warning: Do not read this series of postings unless you are prepared to see The Sacrament in a whole new Light.  Start slow, and chew on the meditation.  More prayer than thoughtfulness is in order here to absorb the themes Good Thomas is revealing to us.

As we move into Pentecost and Corpus Christi, I'm going to go a bit out of order, skipping to Book 4, on The Blessed Sacrament.  Here goes!   (For those going in order, Book 1, Ch 3,  is here).

Book 4, Chapter 1: On How Great Reverence is to be Shown When Christ is to be Received

Book 4 opens with five New Testament quotes.  While the other books have many Scriptural references in the opening, only Book 4 opens with Christ, as part of a prayerful conversation, directly quoting from the New Testament. 

Thomas always gets it right in that he sees The Word, The Eternal Word (Jesus) and The Blessed Sacrament as intimately intertwined.  You cannot have one without the other and have a complete meal.  Without one, you will always leave the banquet hungry.

Therefore, Thomas opens the book on The Eucharist with a meditation on the Words of Christ, offering an invitation from Jesus to believe and then rely upon His True Presence in The Blessed Sacrament.  The result of that reliance? Spirit and Life. So, first the quotes:

The Voice of Christ:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28
"[T]he bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." John 6:51
"This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 1 Cor 11:24
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him." John 6:56
"The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." John 6:63

Thomas will now make his case with a question and a comparison: How can we dare to approach the Altar of God and receive Holy Communion when we don’t measure up to the likes and efforts of Noah, Moses, David, Solomon, The Angels, and The Saints? His conclusion will be that we can never be worthy or measure up. But as Thomas will repeat throughout this chapter, God keeps inviting and reminding us: “Of course you don’t qualify to be here, but come anyway! Come because My Son has opened the gates of Heaven and Grace for you.”

Disciple:

The Breaking of the Bread by Ariel Agemian



These are your words, O Christ, the Eternal Truth, though not all delivered at one time, nor written in one place.

Since, therefore, these are Your words, and true, all are to be received by me with thanks and with faith.


These are Your words and You have spoken them; and these words are also mine because you have delivered these for my salvation.


I willingly receive Your words from Your mouth that these may be more integrated, yes even grafted into my heart forever.

Such great and tender words! Full of sweetness and love - this encourages me; but my sins terrify me and my unclean conscience keeps me back from approaching such great mysteries. The sweetness of your words invites me, but the multitude of my sins weighs me down.

I find these words of Thomas particularly personal from Thomas.  He is truly edified by Christ's words and yet fully aware of his unworthiness created by his sins. Still, he believes upon the Promises and joyfully approaches the Altar, aware of his fear, his shortcomings and The Lord's Grace.



Professor Kingsfield from "The Paper Chase"
portrayed by John Houseman

This whole first line of quotes and discussion reminds me of the first year of law school, Contracts class, where we discuss the foundation of Contract law, which is the notions of Offer, Acceptance and Consideration:  An offer is supported by a promise, and has to have consideration (a giving up of something of value).  For the contract to be complete, there must be acceptance by the person the offer is being made to - that's us.



In the opening quotes, we have Jesus' invitation to a promise, the promise, the fulfillment of the promise.  His 'consideration' was his death on the cross.  Our consideration is the 'giving up' of our selfish lives for following Him. In imitating Him, we find out how much more He gives us and how we can never give back enough. 

So God binds Himself to an eternal contract - a covenant, really, which is essentially unilateral (He must do it even if we do not perfectly perform our end of the bargain!).  So, it is an enforceable Gift. Wow!  Who said studying the law wasn't profitable?

Next time, we will look at God's invitation to us....

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!

tim

Knowledge of Self Gives us a Powerful Weakness for Knowledge of Others

From Book 1, Chapter 2, paragraph 4, Good saint Thomas finishes his thoughts on having an humble opinion of oneself:

4. This is the highest and most valuable lesson: to truly know yourself and to have a low opinion of yourself. To think always well and highly of others is great wisdom and high perfection.

Knowing ours frailties gives us the empathy to understand the weaknesses in others. This is different than sympathy, which is mildly compassionate.  Empathy is more of "walking in their shoes" understanding.  Think of the line from The Prayer of St. Francis'  "O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love...."

Thomas continues, explaining that, like St Paul, we should all consider ourselves as capable of being chief among sinners (1Tim 1:15):

If you should see another person openly sin or commit some wicked crime you ought not think of yourself as better since you do not know how long you may remain in a good state of integrity and grace. We are all frail and weak but see that you do not think of anyone more frail than yourself.

Like St. Paul, we often are at the height of our spiritual pursuits when The Lord sends some thorn in the flesh to humble us.  For me, that's usually after I look down my spiritually pure nose at some other sinner, knowing full well that person is hell-bound.  Thankfully, the thorn brings me back into the breach, where I realize my own weakness and then turn to Confession and His Grace. The Lord also tells us in this same passage that His Grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor 12:9).

Thomas succinctly brings all these prayerful thoughts together in Chapter 2, laying out the natural desire to know things, and then putting perspective on that knowledge, putting value on that knowledge, adding wisdom and humility to that knowledge to reach an humble opinion of ourselves, and empathy toward others.

Next, I will prudently turn to Chapter 4, since I treated Chapter 3 in some detail back in January.

In a short while, I'll have all of these posts, along with a podcast, loaded onto a new site that my friend Dave is helping me set up.  I'll keep you posted.

The podcast will likely come at the end of each chapter, so I can wade through the whole chapter and perhaps go into a little more detail.

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!

tim

On The Dignity of The Sacrament and the Priestly State

In honor of the Ordination of a friend to the Priesthood, I wanted to place the full reflection in front of you, without comment (at this time, however, please look at the image below and meditate on that image and pray for vocations and the recently ordained).  And so I will return to Ch 2 of Bk 1 later, but for now am skipping to Book 4, Ch 5: On The Dignity of The Sacrament and the Priestly State

CHAPTER 5: Of the dignity of this Sacrament, and of the office of the priest

The Voice of Christ: If you had the purity of an angel and the holiness of St. John the Baptist, you would not be worthy to receive or to minister The Blessed Sacrament. For this is not deserved by merit of man that a man should consecrate and minister the Sacrament of Christ, and take for food the bread of Angels. (Ps 78:22-25 (see below)).

Great is the mystery, and great is the dignity of the priests, to whom is given what is not
granted to Angels.



Great is the mystery, and great the dignity of priests to whom that is given which is not granted to angels.
illustration by Ariel Agemian, K.S.G.



For priests only, rightly ordained in the Church, have the power of consecrating and celebrating the Body of Christ.



The priest indeed is the minister of God, using the Word of God by God's command and institution; nevertheless God is there the principal Author and invisible Worker, that to Whom all that He wills is subject, and to all He commands is obedient.

2. Therefore you must give more credit to Almighty God in everything related to this most excellent Sacrament, than to your own senses or any visible sign. And therefore you are to approach this work with fear and reverence.

Take heed to yourself (1 Tim 4:16), and see what kind of ministry is committed to you as priest by the laying on of the Bishop's hands.

Behold! you are made a priest and are consecrated to celebrate Holy Mass; see now that you do it before God faithfully and devoutly in due time, and show yourself without blame or reproof.

You have not lightened your burden, but are now bound with a stricter bond of discipline, and are pledged to a higher degree of holiness.
A priest ought to be adorned with all virtues and to afford to others an example of good life.  (Titus 2:7)

His conversation must not be with the popular and common ways of men, but with Angels in Heaven or with perfect men on earth.(Phil 3:20)
3. A priest clad in holy vestments is Christ's vice regent in that he may pray unto God with all supplication and humility for himself and for the whole people.

He has before him and behind him  the sign of the cross of the Lord that he may always remember the Passion of Christ.

He bears the cross before him on his vestments that he may diligently look upon Christ's footsteps and fervently endeavour to follow them.

He is marked with the cross behind that he may mildly suffer, for God's sake, whatsoever adversities are brought upon him by others.

He wears the cross before him that he may mourn for his own sins; behind him that through compassion, he may lament the sins of others, and know that he is placed as a mediator between God and the sinner. He should not grow careless of prayer and holy oblation, until he prevails to obtain the grace and mercy for which he implores God.

When the priest celebrates Mass, he honours God, gives rejoices with the Angels, builds up the Church, helps the living, has obtains rest for the dead, and makes himself a partaker of all good things.

-------------------------------------------------
Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!


tim


Psalm 78: 22 For they did not believe in God, did not trust in his saving power. 23 So he commanded the skies above; the doors of heaven he opened. 24 God rained manna upon them for food; bread from heaven he gave them. 25 All ate a meal fit for heroes; food he sent in abundance.

Accountability Counts. (Thinking of Puffy Bunny marshmallow Game)

In Book 1, Chapter 2, Paragraph 3, Good Thomas turns his attention to the knowledge element in more detail (see previous post) by focusing on the accountability element to our level of knowledge.  He tells us that knowledge carries a stiff price.  It's okay to be smart (which is different than being knowledgeable) and to know many things, but having the wisdom to put both gifts together is the challenge:

3. The greater and more complete your knowledge, the more strictly accountable you will be at the day of your judgment unless your life be also more holy by measure. Therefore do not be puffed up with any skill or knowledge but rather be accountable for the knowledge which has been given to you.

If it seems to you that you know many things and understand many things well enough, know at the same time that there are many, many more things of which you do not know at all.

Do not be high-minded but rather acknowledge your ignorance. Why would you want to let yourself be above others when there are many others with more knowledge and skill in the Scriptures than you? If you would know and learn anything to its purpose, love to be unknown and be considered as nothing in the sight of others.

In the first paragraph, the leaven for knowing a great deal is holiness, and leading a holy life.  Do you also have the wisdom of knowing when enough is enough?  Does your knowledge have value, or is it just trivial, ego-boosting? 

These questions reminded me of a game my boys used to play in Cub Scouts:  The puffy bunny marshmallow game.  In that game, you are to stuff your mouth full of marshmallows to the point of "cheek exhaustion" and then be able to say "puffy bunny".  The game is silly and fun and the results are hilarious, but I couldn't help but think of it as an analogy for comparing to this passage on knowledge.  Marshmallows have almost no nutritional value, and too many of them in your mouth will keep you from being understood. So to "win" at the puffy bunny marshmallow game, you need to know when to stop ingesting the marshmallows so you can at least say "Puffy Bunny".

And like the puffy bunny game, in the next paragraph, Thomas tells us that no matter how many items we stuff into our heads, there's so much more that we still do not or cannot know.  Just one more marshmallow?

So where does humility fit in?  The last paragraph tells us that being humble in our knowledge is the best practice, since there are clearly others who know more, not only about "things" but about The Lord or The Scriptures.  I can think of at least 4 people right out of Scripture, who know more than me:  Jesus, Solomon, Moses, St. Paul.  And I'm fairly sure my Bishop and my Pastor knows more than me.  Then there's my friend Kay, who reads her Bible daily. And I'm fairlysure that my friends and Deacons, Dave and Tom know more than me...hmmm.  Anyone else?  Of course there is our Patron Saint here, Good Thomas A'Kempis, who knows more than me.  So with that august crowd, I'm feeling okay with acknowledgeing my ignorance here.

My prayer then, is this:  "Lord Jesus, please help me to moderate my eagerness to know so much about everything.  Help me to direct this effort with Your leaven of humilty and holiness.  Help me to seek those things worth knowing, especially where it concerns You or The Faith.  And where the Faith is the focus, please know me more for my holiness and obedience to You than for my knowledge of Scripture."

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!
tim
p.s.  Next time we will finish up Chapter 2 with an exploration of how to empathize with all those bad people out there.  We will first look at our friend in the mirror.

On Heuristic Algorithms…huh?..Many words from talking heads, few saints.

I'll keep this one short, given the title.   But the essence of this week's reflection is trying to justify our wordiness by our level of knowledge, when the formula really is simple:  too much talking = pride.  It's a heuristic algorithm. See the footnotes below for definitions.  Here's the reflection:

Thomas tells us in Book 1, Ch 2 (Having an Humble Opinion of Ones Self):

2. Cease your excessive desires of knowing all things because there is found only distractions and deceit. They who are learned want to appear wise and want to be called wise. There are many things the knowledge of which is of little or no value to the soul. In fact, to ever pay such attention to knowledge of things other than how these serve to his own salvation is very unwise and even foolish. Many words do not justify the soul; but a good life gives peace to the mind; and a pure conscience affords a great confidence in God. (1 Timothy 3:9)

Today, there is so much "blah, blah, blah....ad infinitum," from talking heads to The Talking Heads, to Talk Radio, to Podcasts (of which I'm a fan).  I listen to more talking than I should, and I talk more than I should.  Often, Mr. Pride takes over my head and tongue, since he (I, me, himself, that is, me) wants to appear important or wise or smart. 

I'm one of those people who also wants to know everything.  My typical excuse is:  "that's the way God made me!"  But ultimately, I know it's a pride issue. 

My other excuse is that I'm just curious.  But most of the time, it's because I don't want to appear stupid or uneducated....or don't want to be quiet, or DO want to be the center of attention.  It's a full circle, pride is.

Next time, we'll explore the concept of
"Accountability Counts" - the puffy bunny marshmallow game.

Until then: Thanks for praying with me -

Be imitators of Christ!


Heuristic refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a good enough solution, where an exhaustive search is impractical. Examples of this method include using a "rule of thumb", an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, or common sense. In more precise terms, heuristics are strategies using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem solving in human beings and machines..]

An algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions[ for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning.

Starting from an initial state and initial input (perhaps null),] the instructions describe a computation that, when executed, will proceed through a finite number of well-defined successive states, eventually producing "output”] and terminating at a final ending state. The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic; some algorithms, known as randomized algorithms, incorporate random input.]