The Hell of Having

I remember as a child, my parents would limit the amount that would be lavished upon me. I certainly was not deprived of anything. Chocolate, good food, toys, trips out to the park, all these would be common occurrences.

Good things would be measured, if they were not there was every chance that I would take them for granted.
Above all, they did not want me to become 'spoiled'.

I am sure we have all seen it, someone who has everything but cares for nothing.
This is reflected in peoples' attitude toward material things. When things are not received as beautiful and useful objects worthy of thanks, they become 'mere things', commodities.
Of course this is encouraged by the people who sell the things because as long as people are unsatisfied with what they have, they will always want more.

For example, I recently was given an Apple iPhone for my birthday. Wonderful, it has made things much easier to keep in contact with those I love. Less than a month later, the updated version was released. Though I knew better, I still had a nagging feeling of envy, something which has been instilled in me for over two decades.
Even though the updated model is not dissimilar from the model I have, I know that if I were to get the updated version, I would not be satisfied. Infact, I would probably be annoyed at myself for playing into the hands of those who feed upon this cycle of novelty and envy.

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde

One of the remarkable things about the Christian life is that, through the Eucharistically minded vision, all things are made beautiful. The world is a wonderous gift which celebrates God. I do not mean this in the "look at how beautiful that sunset" way, but on a more every day basis. The food we eat, the sleep we have, the clothes we wear, the air we breathe; it is all restorative to ourselves and holds us together as community.
For a person to eat well, the food must be farmed. To be clothed, someone must grow the plant to make the fibre, which is then spun and knitted or woven into a textile, which is tailored to make the final object. Everything is manufactured, and this speaks of community.

When we, as consumers, fail to see the chain which leads to the finished article, the object becomes dehumanised and of no intrinsic value other than 'fashion'
Everything becomes disposable, and in so doing, we desensitise ourselves to the co-operation of living, as well as our duty to support those who labour for us.

A world without people, without relationships, is a lonely place.
The French existentialist philosopher John Paul Satre famously wrote "Hell is other people".
I refute that, "Hell is isolation".

Satre was saying that it is our interpersonal relationships which cause us the greatest misery and despair. Though there is certain torment in that, it is favourable by far than isolation. This is because all existence is found in relation.
What good is a gift it can not be given?
What use is love if it can not be shared?


And so I return to my first point.
When we receive to the satisfaction of our own desires and are blinded by the objects to the point where we cannot see the creative act behind them, it is a sad thing. It is a sad thing because that part within us which has delight in receiving the gift as an act of love becomes idle. A state of entitlement and self-worth develops; this in turn causes a person to fail in relating to people. People in themselves become commodities. This leads to dystopia.



It is thanks to a post on another blog site that I was encouraged to write this article.
"The Dream"

The World: an end in itself?

I have been re-reading a lot of Alexander Schmemann recently and I find him to complement Stăniloae very well, particularly in their mutual understanding of the world as the means by which humans maintain communion with God. The material therefore having a purpose not only of itself (for material needs), but also beyond itself (as a means of accessing the metaphysical). 

I quote a paragraph from Schmemann's popular work 'For the Life of the World' (p. 17)

When we see the world as an end in itself, everything becomes itself a value and consequently loses all value, because only in God is found the meaning (value) of everything, and the world is meaningful only when it is the "sacrament" of God's presence. Things treated merely as things in themselves destroy themselves because only in God have they any life. The world of nature, cut off from the source of life, is a dying world. For one who thinks food in itself is the source of life, eating is communion with the dying world, it is communion with death. Food itself is dead, it is life that has died and it must be kept in refrigerators like a corpse.

The world is dead. Distressing as that sounds, it is not the end. The world is animated by life, the presence of God within the world, permeating through all by being glorified by His own creation. 

The Eucharist is where the world and the divine (the life), is met. To receive of the Eucharist is to receive of the living food, the food which does not perish. Rather than the human, being the hungry consumer, eating of the dead flesh in order to receive energy to survive, the reception of the body of Christ, mystically present in the Eucharist, infuses himself (the life of eternity) with the communicant. 

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35 KJV)

The world therefore is a medium by which we come to know and recognise God. It is the means by which God reveals Himself to us, and it is the means by which we are reconciled with God through the sacraments. Sacraments make use of worldly physical things in order to restore them to their ordained purpose, but also on account of our creaturely weakness to perceive the metaphysical 'realities' of the heavenly host etc., as being present. 

On the advancement of Humanity

The Romanian theologian Dumitru Stăniloae, a twentieth century Orthodox priest and writer, continuously considers the place of theology in the twentieth century world. His thought is as relevent today as it was in the mid to late part of that century.

His principle idea is that the world is a gift from God to creation and principally to humanity. The liturgy of the church forms the central point of reference in the giving of thanks towards its creator God.
Every person has the duty and joy to offer to God the thanksgiving for life and in so doing furthers the experience of God in the world.

Theology is not bound by constraints of tradition and convention, but is a living relationship of giver and receiver. Ultimately the purpose of religion is to make the awareness of God present in all things real. It is the responsibility of the church leader to encourage the faithful to acknowledge the workings of God in the world and in the personal lives of each believer.

In reading the second part of Stăniloae's magnum opus 'The Experience of God' I came across a startlingly refreshing thought of this Christian thinker:

A good part of more recent theology puts the idea of hope in the forefront. "Any idea of God that cements the existing social order is abandoned. Today it makes sense to speak about God only if he opens a future and has a function in transforming the world." That is, only if, as God leads the human being toward himself and toward salvation, he is leading him to higher levels.

Here Stăniloae encourages and challenges us as modern Christians to consider the present day operations of God in our world. It is imperative to be responsive to the direction which God calls us in furthering the joy of Christian fellowship as it is the divine desire that the gospel which was revealed some two thousand years ago should find its continual flourishing in our present day lives. The existence of new evils serve only to encourage us to address them as injustices and it is our privilege to overcome them with ever greater actions of that which is good. (p. 194)

The old traditions which bind humanity to convention and law can become constricting in the advancement of the will of God. Stăniloae writes:

St. Paul the apostle opposed the "newness of spirit" to the oldness of the letter or the law as he opposed the life of the resurrection to abiding in death. Now where the law is, there is found a sign that sin reigns. "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" said St. Paul (1 Cor 15:56). When the law does not prepare men to go beyond the level it has helped them to attain, that is, when man does not draw the conclusion as a kind of constant newness, that Christ is the "end of the law" or that "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom 10:4, 13: 10), then the law is the power of sin that leads to death. Moreover, sin is the sign of the survival of the old man. (p. 195)

Ultimately we are called, as priests of creation, continually giving thanks for our existence and that which we experience through our senses, we are called to make God relevant through being ever conscious of the activity of the divine in our world. The consciousness is a marvelous gift for advancement. Humanity strives for ever increasing heights of perfection, towards the attainment of 'theosis', that is, the dwelling of individual humans with God. That which is evil calls for addressing. Goodness always prevails, and so, in what Stăniloae calls 'providence', the present evils are always balanced by ever new goods. 'God is leading the world toward ever new phases' (p. 192).


In conclusion I would say that the tradition of the church is a resource which depicts how humanity has engaged with the life of God in relation to the evils of that age. Tradition can not be convention, something to be followed as law, because it must exist in relation and thus relevance with contemporary issues. Tradition is a resource for the living, indeed tradition itself is living, because much as a person develops and grows in relation to the stimuli that affects him/her, so too does the gospel of Christ relate to the ever changing dynamic of modern life. New problems require new answers; it is through this engagement that the church maintains its relevance with life in the present age and continues to pass on to the next generation the example of God working in the midst of His creation.


Citations are taken from: Dumitru Stăniloae, The Experience of God, vol. 2, (2000), Holy Cross Press, Brooklyn MA.
It may be purchased as a book from the publisher here.

On the Prejudice of Christians: a case study.

It grieves me.

It grieves me often to hear of well respected and decently educated persons of the Christian religion who listen to, and believe in, hearsay.
With the availability of the greatest research tool available to humanity, the internet, it would seem obvious that malicious rumours spread for the humiliation of an opposing belief system, would be seen for what they are.

The Kaaba at night.

I do not often write on other religions, and I do not have much intention to do so as I am no authority on the inner workings of any belief system other than mine own. This blog post is posted out of desperation. Desperation because I am shocked at the claims some Christians (and those in authority) make at the massive expense and degradation of non-Christians.

Here I look at a claim I heard from an Anglican minister regarding Islam.
The minister stated with absolute sincerity that the Kaaba, the 'Holy House', within the most sacred mosque in Islam, was an exercise of deceit. The Kiswah (veil) which covers the Kaaba serves a practical rather than devotional purpose; it masks the many idols which the clergy conceal from the masses at the fear of bringing the faith to mockery. It was related to me that the reason why non-Muslims are permitted in the city of Mecca is through fear that the religion would be destroyed because of the revelation of hidden idolatry. I was further informed that there was an Anglican clergyman in the 19th/early 20th cent. who traveled to Mecca and documented evidence of the idols and that such documentation in the form of photographs though deemed blasphemous by Islam, can be accessed by anyone who desires to view them.

It is perhaps unsurprising that I never found or was given proper directions to see the photographs. Even if I had seen the images, I had no way of authenticating them.



Okay.

First of all, what is the Kaaba?

In short it is the centrepiece of the Great Mosque of Mecca, the 'Masjid al-Haram'. It is believed to have been constructed by Ibrahim (Abraham). In the time of Muhammad, the building had become a shrine to many idols. Muhammad is claimed by the teachings of Islam to have cleansed the Kaaba of the idols.
The present day structure dates from the 17th century, all previous structures were destroyed in war, fire, or flood.
It is required of every Muslim to orientate themselves to pray in the direction of the Kaaba, it thus serves as the central point of unity in the Islamic world.

Evidently it is of great insult to suggest that the Kaaba is covered in images which blaspheme the integrity of Islamic faith.

What is the Kiswah?

A beautiful veil of finest silk hangs over the granite cube of the Kaaba, this costly material, embroidered with texts from the Qu'ran in pure gold thread is the Kiswah. Kiswah is simply Arabic for 'pall'.

Every year on the 9th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah (14th Oct. 2013, 4th Oct. 2014)

, the Kiswah is draped over the Kaaba. The previous Kiswah is cut up and distributed.

As you can see from these photographs, there are no idolatrous images on the Kaaba. Furthermore, there are none within its interior, remember, the present structure was erected in the 17th cent.

http://expatjeddah.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/kaaba.jpg

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/xPBCI_vmZGU/hqdefault.jpg

Finally

It is lamentable how such rumours may be spread within religious circles, and yes, there are no-doubt rumours about Christianity circulating religions outside of itself. But that is the point of inter-religious discourse. Isolated groups without discourse leads to fear on both sides and this is a grave injustice, not to mention a humiliation of the adherants' natural capacity for reason. 

Next time you hear something terrible about something or someone outside of your socially accepted group, hold your judgement. Research it, ask questions, be careful of forming premature opinion. There is great injury made at the expense of a cheap jibe manifest in rumour. 

A warning to ministers of any congregation.

When a person believes something dearly, and will offer themselves for the pursuit of their faith, is it not abominable when persons who claim position and authority, namely 'vicars', use this desire to fuel their own enterprise?

What I am getting at is when people exploit others for the worth of their faith.
Logically speaking.

1. Do you love Christ?
2. Will you do this for the church?
3. If you do not do it, you do not love Christ.

Do you see how that is a fallacy?

Anyway, I link to a blog I find very insightful, 'The Naked Pastor'

Thank we all our God, for Lully.

Wonderful! I have discovered a new, possibly favourite, conductor. Vincent Dumestre. It is as though he died, went to heaven, conversed with J.B. Lully on how to perform the Te Deum, returned by divine favour to Earth, and presented us with this rendition.