Category: Theology

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Reflections on the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

“We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

We, who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, owe nothing any longer to the flesh. 

The flesh, from the Greek, sarx, is synonymous in the Biblical and Patristic literature with the “world”, not the created cosmos, but the life of the passions – the world opposed to God. Continue reading “Reflections on the Eighth Sunday after Trinity”

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Reflections on the Fourth Sunday after Trinity

I am often struck by how deeply imbedded in such a relatively short time the evangelical notion of the “Rapture” is in most protestant churches.  It is a dogma in most evangelical circles, even though it is, especially in Orthodox time, a very novel invention.  It basically states that believers (only “true” believers in some circles) will be snatched away from earth so as not to suffer during the Tribulation period which is variously defined as “pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath, mid-wrath,” etc. Continue reading “Reflections on the Fourth Sunday after Trinity”

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Refelctions on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

We commemorate three primary birthdays in the Christian year: Our Lord, Our Lady, and St. John the Baptist.  St. John the Forerunner stands in a unique place in salvation history: on the cusp.  For some 400 years, the voice of prophecy had been silent in Israel—since Malachi. Yet he had prophesied a coming messenger in the spirit and power of Elijah. Continue reading “Refelctions on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist”

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Reflections on Trinity Sunday

Today we commemorate the full revelation of God as Holy Trinity.  The Church has had to deal theologically with the paradox of unity and distinction within the Godhead early and often.

Over the first four centuries she literally transformed the language of the philosophers to speak of the mystery she was forced to defend.  The Fathers, by specializing the meaning of ousia or essence, and hypostasis or person, sought to draw out the importance of affirming personhood within the shared substance of divinity.   Continue reading “Reflections on Trinity Sunday”