Musings From The High Desert

This week Fr. Gabriel again works with the Epistle lesson from the final chapter of I Corinthians, chapter 16, focusing only on verses 13 and 14, where Paul gives us one of his wonderful nutshell lessons that encompass the gist of what he has been saying throughout the letter. (Parenthetically listeners might want to know that Fr. Gabriel grounds his proclamation in study of the text, meditation upon the conclusions of that study, and then he constructs an outline for preaching. He uses notes but no full manuscript in order to achieve a closer rapport with the congregation.)

The western churches that use lectionaries have tried to coordinate these lessons in the three-year lectionary in use since the Seventies. In Orthodoxy the Epistles do not coordinate to the Gospels. Consequently, Fr. Gabriel usually preaches on the Epistle lesson at Saturday Great Vespers and then on the Gospel at the Sunday Divine Liturgy in order to give consideration of both texts. The Epistle from I Corinthians 15, however, the chapter on the Resurrection, came in the rotation recently and Fr. Gabriel decided to use it for the Sunday homily to reach a wider audience. Listen in on his approach to this classic passage.

Fr. Gabriel wraps up the series on catechesis for a new century with six ways to focus on a new process. These include an emphasis on ritual (especially with regard to the process, beginning with enrollment), an emphasis on imagery, as in the mystagogy of old, to enable people to enter the faith with the heart, the little things that make up the ground of our faith (blessings, veneration of icons, etc.), clarity of expectations, focus on the variable aspects of each person's life as they enter Orthodoxy (get their story like an old-time doctor would interview people), and finally, arrangement of a flexible schedule for study and entry.

Fr. Gabriel discusses what happened over the course of the centuries to contribute both to the demise of a catechetical process and, particularly in the western church, a re-definition of the process through a number of different understandings that arose around the notion of "confirmation." This will set the stage for our final discussion in this series: where do we go from here with catechesis for a new century?

In this episode, Fr. Gabriel leads us through the consideration of the catechetical process as it would have been developed by the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th Century, emphasizing the instruction that would have taken place in three key areas known as Traditions—that material passed on which is both ecclesiastical and to some extent personal, depending on the teacher.

Baptism—the washing itself—is central to the "awe-inspiring rites of initiation." This week Fr. Gabriel explores the biblical background to baptism in the Old Testament, looks at the immediate background for Christian baptism in the rites available at the time of Jesus, and finishes with five headings under which baptism may be understood from a biblical perspective. Along the way he also looks at the concept of "sealing" which is so important in understanding the imposition of the Holy Spirit. Next time we will return to more exploration of the early rites themselves, and ultimately move into the commitment required to become Christian then and now.

This week Fr. Gabriel narrates a composite view of the "awe-inspiring rites of initiation" as they may have been experienced around the turn of the 4th and 5th Centuries. Although this narrative is a fabrication, it follows quite closely what we know about baptism, chrismation/confirmation, and the first reception of eucharist from sources such as the Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem and On the Sacraments by St. Ambrose of Milan.

This week Fr. Gabriel surveys what we can discern of a catechetical process already within the pages of the New Testament, with a brief look backward at the concept emerging in the Old Testament. What we find when we look at the New Testament is really two parts, kerygma (proclamation) and didache (teaching, especially ethics). We will look at a number of references that give us a fairly good idea of what the early church was requiring of candidates for baptism.

This week Fr. Gabriel discusses the meaning of ritual from a number of angles with insights from Mary Douglas and Ron Grimes, scholars of ritual. He moves from there to discuss the four types of Christian ritual and then launches into a discussion of Ritual Process, an anthropological perspective and study that began with Arnold von Gennep in the early 20th Century and which was greatly enhanced through the work of Victor and Edith Turner. Fr. Gabriel believes that this extensive background material will serve as a useful template when we turn next to the history of catechesis, beginning with the New Testament.

In this segment, Fr. Gabriel discusses church as a community both wrapped around and enwrapped by the Blessed Holy Trinity. We enter this community through a shared set of symbols, image, and rituals, and these bind us to one another in love. With the diminution of community in our time we also experience a loss of the symbolic world, and vice versa. This world of images, rituals, and symbols is at the heart of community in Christ—and catechesis has always been about involving people in that world. Fr Gabriel then moves to a brief discussion of St. Augustine's Instructing Beginners in Faith, a manual he produced for a friend. The treatise is important because Augustine addresses people who are in an interim period between having come to faith and becoming catechumens.

Before we move on to consider historical models for catechesis, we have to confront the major difficulty with the entire process. That is this: We are attempting to say the unsayable, think the unthinkable, and express the inexpressible. We are trying to wrap words around the experience of God in order to communicate it to others. At the heart of catechesis is our search not to gain knowledge (gnosis) but rather to enter into the mind of the church (phronema). Fr. Gabriel contemplates these issues in this second installment of Flame in the Mind.

Fr Gabriel returns after a hiatus with a new series. We Orthodox Christians profess our faith in a context of diminished understandings of all forms of Christianity, when a plethora of religious institutions claim to be "church," and when people have an almost blank concept of our place in the faith historically and theologically. We are a breed apart, indeed, and we are blessed to be "discovered" by motivated and intelligent people who are searching for deep roots and faithful traditions. In order to move forward in the 21st century, we will need to create or renew patterns of catechesis for this time. Fr. Gabriel will begin with historical and anthropological overviews of "rites of passage" and move forward from there. Please join in.

Israel is very much in the news these days. The Gaza Conflict, the never-ending attempt at a peace process, the rise of anti-Semitism and the turn against Israel in recent years are very much upon us. As Christians we have a sense that Israel is our spiritual homeland and so we watch with interest and concern. Fr Gabriel introduces us this time to a noteworthy book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, by Ari Shavit, a major Israeli journalist and commentator. This book, which reads like a well-written novel, offers a narrative introduction to the history of contemporary Israel that will grab your attention and that leaves you with the questions that Israel itself faces as the country tries to move forward. This is not a work of either praise or condemnation, but an overview of the paradoxes and complicated issues Israel has either created or faces now and in the future.

In this review, Fr. Gabriel continues with further consideration of resources for Old Testament study. In an attempt to assist people to understand contemporary research and interpretation of Old Testament texts, this week he looks at two books by Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? and The Bible with Sources Revealed. The latter book may well be considered Friedman's masterpiece. Friedman's work is highly respected among Biblical scholars, and he has paid particular attention for years to the contemporary use of the documentary hypothesis, which relates to the compilation of particularly the first five books of the Old Testament. He teaches at UC-San Diego.

Fr. Gabriel commends Fr. Eugen Pentiuc's new book from Oxford University Press, The Old Testament in Eastern Orthodox Tradition. This is an important and unique new resource; nothing exists like it in the world of biblical interpretation. Though many aspects of Fr Pentiuc's book may be approached through monographs, essays, articles, and other books, no other resource pulls them together as does his. The two parts of the book are Reception and Interpretation, and his concluding chapter is on the Church's iconographic representations of the Old Testament. Highly recommended!

Fr. Gabriel spends some time musing on three major reasons why it is so difficult for traditional Christianity to get a hearing in the United States these days, and then moves on to the theme of commitment, which leads into the spiritual journey in a serious way.

Fr. Gabriel undertakes musings in this Paschal season about the basics and center of the faith. These will be exploratory, and certainly not definitive, notes on the search for a genuine and deep spirituality that is Christian, Orthodox, and open to the present and the future. Fr. Gabriel invites you into these musings as a conversation partner; please feel free to write with comments.

Turning again toward contemporary Biblical studies, Fr. Gabriel swiftly surveys recent research into Jesus and Paul and then turns to one representative volume in current Pauline studies—The First Paul by John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg. Their names may be familiar as members of the controversial Jesus seminar, but this book is quite accessible, very well-written, and the authors give us clear and simple insights into how Paul is currently viewed in scholarly circles.

After considering the issue of pride, Fr. Gabriel turns back to books—particularly to books that relate to the issue of sin and grace. So this week we look at the twofold work by Archimandrite Sophrony on the life and teaching of St. Silouan the Athonite, The Monk of Mount Athos, and Wisdom from Mount Athos. Many people have been touched by these books (available also in one volume entitled St. Silouan the Athonite), and Fr. Gabriel has turned to them for his lenten reading again this year.

Fr. Gabriel turns aside from the concentration on books to deal with a heartfelt matter—how pride works to break up community and harm people, especially within the Church. At the heart of what the monastic founder John Cassian called the "deadly sins" following Evagrius Ponticus, pride is the worst of the lot and the inspiring agent for all the others. Let's look at pride's deadly work.