Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: goarch.org

As  a fine exegetical supplement to Fr. Paul's homily from Sunday (Lk. 6:21-36), I am sharing this, prepared by our parishioner Kevin Rains. There is a good deal to assimilate here!

The text and its root (Luke 6:36 / Exodus 34:6)

• Luke 6:36 — "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" — echoes Exodus 34:6's "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious..."
• That revelation comes immediately after the golden calf - Israel's worst act of unfaithfulness. God names himself merciful before any sacrifice or repentance restores the relationship. Mercy as self-disclosed nature, not a reward for good behavior.
• Jewish tradition calls Exodus 34:6-7 the "Thirteen Attributes of Mercy" — the most quoted verse about God's character in the Hebrew Bible, reused nearly verbatim in crisis after crisis (Nehemiah 9, Joel 2, Jonah 4).

The Greek word

• The beautiful, feminine tone of this passage: (Luke's word) translates Hebrew rachum, which shares its root with rechem - womb. This is visceral, maternal mercy, not a judge's clemency.
• Ginesthe ("be") is a present imperative — "keep becoming," not a single decision. Mercy is a direction like St Gregory of Nyssa talks about as an ann infinite joirney into God , not a state we ever arrive at.
• Oiktirmōn appears only twice in the whole NT: Luke 6:36 and James 5:11 ("the Lord is compassionate and merciful" — after Job's endurance).

The non-transactional nature of God (vv. 32-35)

• "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same." God is kind "to the ungrateful and the evil" (v. 35).
• The real test of mercy is never the easy case - it's the person who hasn't earned it.

Liturgical enactment

• "Lord, have mercy" is sung/spoken roughly 30-40 times in a single Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom - were basically rehearsing Exodus 34
• The Eucharist itself enacts v. 35 — given to the ungrateful before worthiness is proven.
• Confession follows Moses' own pattern (Exod 34:8-9) — mercy declared first is what makes repentance possible.

Patristic witness (catena bible app)

• Cyril of Alexandria (on Luke 6:35-36): compassion is an attribute of the divine nature; this virtue restores us to the form of God.
• Clement of Alexandria: uses homoiōsis ("assimilation to God") for what mercy produces.
• Worth noting honestly: no Father explicitly equates Luke's "merciful" with Matthew's "perfect" (5:48) but several converge independently on the same destination (likeness to God). Those passages taken together seem to suggest that becoming perfect equates to becoming ever more merciful

Justice connection - since I’m on this justice learning experience in Alabama right now this seem poignant 

• Mishpat (justice) and hesed (mercy) are paired constantly in the OT - never opposites. Micah 6:8: "do justice, and love kindness/mercy."
• Deuteronomy 10:18-19 - God "executes justice for the fatherless and the widow," grounded in Israel's own memory of being shown mercy in Egypt. (Also Isaiah 1.17, James 1 fro these categories of widows and orphans) 
• Jesus defines "neighbor" in the Good Samaritan not as a legal category but as "the one who showed mercy" (Luke 10:37).
• Acts 6 (the diaconate) and St. Basil's Basiliad (4th c., among history's first hospitals) show the Church turning mercy into institution, not just sentiment.

Fragments for Friday -- The Protecting Veil of the Mother of God

Source: orthodoxmonasteryicons.com

This feast became the heart of that experience of Mary as Mother, of the one who at the Cross was given to all humanity as Mother (Jn. 19:27), and who as Mother brings into her own heart all of our sorrows, all our sufferings, all unbearable pain of our earthly existence. "A sword will pierce through your soul also, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed" (Lk. 2:35). These words, prophetically spoken to her by the righteous Elder Simeon on the day she brought the Child into the Temple to consecrate Him to God, have deeply penetrated the souls of the faithful. The mother of Jesus Christ, standing at the Cross of her Son and taking upon herself all of the terrible pain of compassion and co-suffering, became a gift to us, to humanity, a gift of maternal love, maternal care, maternal compassion ...

Fr. Alexander Schmemann

Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Source: ancientfaith.com

On October 1, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Great Horologion describes the Feast in this manner:

The Feast of the Protection commemorates the appearance of the most holy Theotokos in the Church of Blachernae in Constantinople in the early sixth century, as recorded in the life of St. Andrew the Fool for Christ's sake. While the multitudes of the faithful were gathered in church, Epiphanius, the friend of St. Andrew, through the saint's prayers, beheld the Virgin Mary above the faithful and spreading out her veil over them, signifying her unceasing protection of all Christians. Because of this we keep a yearly feast of gratitude, imploring our Lady never to cease sheltering us in her mighty prayers.

As we chant in one of the hymns of the Feast:

Heaven and earth are sanctified,
the Church shines and all people make glad.
For behold, the Mother of God with the hosts of angels,
with preachers and evangelists, prophets and apostles,
has invisibly entered.
She prays to Christ for Christians
and entreats Him to have mercy on this city and people
who glorify the Feast of her Protecting Veil. (Stichera at Great Vespers)

We will celebrate the Feast of the Protection with the Divine Liturgy this morning. We also commemorate St. Romanos the Melode on October 1. As we all know, the icon of St. Romanos is on one of our deacon's doors.

Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

For Jesus to be was to be God’s Son. This is now orthodox Christian theology, expressing the Christian conviction that the godhead is a Trinity of divine ‘persons’ among Whom Jesus is the second, the Son and Word of God become flesh… On the human level, Jesus seems filled with concern for the needs of the poor people whom He encountered. On the more mysterious, divine level, His sole concern seems to be to glorify His heavenly Father.

But His over-all disposition seems serious, sad, absorbed in a mighty struggle.

There must have been something compelling about the personality bearing all these traits. By the time of Jesus’ ascension to heaven… He had stamped many lives indelibly. Simon Peter and Mary Magdalene, the beloved disciples John and James – all His intimates felt that He had become the substance of their lives, the only treasure they cared about. The report of later Christian saints has been similar. The most intense Christians have felt that Jesus was their reason to be.

Denise Carmody

Tuesday's Tutorial

Source: wikipedia.org

“To all, I propose this rule; it does not deceive. In every dubious case as soon as the possibility of a choice is offered to you, remember Christ. Picture to yourself His living Person, as it really is, and entrust Him with the burden of your doubts. Let all human beings of good will, as individuals, as social factors, as leaders of others and peoples, apply this criterion, and they will really be able, in the name of truth, to show others the way towards God.”

Vladimir Solovyov (Russian philosopher +1900)