The Triumph of the Cross

Today we observe The Triumph of the Cross. This feast falls on 14 September each year. It is certainly apt that this year it falls on Friday. We observe Fridays as days of abstinence, days of penance, a little Good Friday preceding Sunday. Sunday, of course, is Dies Domini, Day of the Lord, on which we celebrate, rejoice, and jubilate in the resurrection of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this makes each Sunday a little Easter. So, while Fridays are days of austerity, Sundays are always feast days, even during Lent!

Goya, Christo Crucificado

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn 4,10). It is also fitting to point out, after a couple of long meditations on Job, that the Cross is the answer to Job's question about suffering. May we be like St. Paul, who wrote to the Church at Corinth: "know nothing among . . . except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2,2).

Eternal Son of the Father, you came to cast fire on the earth and you longed to see its flame kindled in the hearts of all people,
-grant that through holiness of life we may come to share in the undying light of your glory

More on Job's submission

It response to Bildad the Shuhite's charge that Job is being punished either for the sins of his children, on whose behalf Job "would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all," acknowledging "It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts" (Job 1,5), or because of his own failures, Job replies:

"But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times." This is so because God "is wise in heart and mighty in strength- who has hardened himself against him and succeeded? - he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble" (Job 9, 2-6a). Despite acknowledeging the short-comings of all people before God, Job rejects Bildad's accusation, relying still on God's great mercy: "Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser" (Job 9,15). "Though I am in the right," Job continues, "my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse" (Job 9,20).

How much self-justifying do we engage in, presenting our righteousness, or our good intentions, which, it has been sagely observed, pave the road to hell, before God and others, instead of acknowledging our failures? Like Job, let's get real and be honest. Like Job, we must also recognize that we are not being punished by God, especially in light of Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, suffering, as our Sunday readings from Luke's Gospel have aptly demonstrated over these past several weeks, plays a role in our sanctification. With Job, may we also recognize that "My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good" (Job 9,25).

Rosh Hashanah

I am very sorry that I missed the opportunity to wish all of our Jewish elder brothers and sisters l’shana tovah, or, Happy New Year, yesterday, prior to its beginning today. This High Holy Day marks the beginning of the year 5768.


In the declaration of the Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate, which we looked at yesterday as regards Islam, we read of Israel: "As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock. Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith -are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself" (para. 4).

It is not too much to say Jesus Christ makes no sense outside the context of Israel.

A note on Islam

Once again, just as I did last fall when reading a lot of Orhan Pamuk, I feel the need to explain that there is much that is good, true, and beautiful in Islam. Extreme groups, like Al-Q’aida, distort the Qu’ran, the hadiths, even shar'ia. How would we Christians like being defined by the most obnoxious, closed-minded, fundamentalistic groups of Christians, like some white supremacist group, just to take one example? If the answer is, I wouldn't like that at all, then why would you define somebody else's religion that way?

Here is what the fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote with regard to Islam: "The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting" (Nostra Aetate para. 3).

Indeed, Islam means submission or total surrender to God. The word Muslim means one who has submitted or totally surrendered to God's will, which is often, as Job found out, inscrutable. The word Allah is the Arabic word for God. Semitic-speaking Christians, like the Maronites, an Eastern Church in communion with Rome, call God Allah in their liturgies. In fact, the Aramaic word for God is Alaha. It is here that root of Allah can be uncovered. Many Eastern Christians in the seventh century, when Islam began to spread, did not think it a new religion, but a Christian heresy. The Muslim form of prayer is believed to be derived from early Christian communal prayer, during which people prayed toward Jerusalem, our holy city.

What Job teaches us, or lessons from a Muslim

Marc Chagall, Job Praying
Just what is this morning’s quote from the mouth of Job a response to? It follows Job tearing his robe, shaving his head, and falling to the ground in worship. What, in turn, causes Job to do all this? News that his 500 oxen and 500 donkeys had been taken by force by certain Sabeans, who also killed his servants working in the fields with these animals, except the one who escaped to tell him; that "The fire of God" falling from heaven had burned up his 7,000 sheep and the servants attending them, except the one who survived to tell him; that certain Chaledeans, formed into three groups, had stolen his 3,000 camels and killed his servants, except the one lived to tell him. Finally, the lone surviving servant runs to tell him that while his seven sons and three daughters, their spouses, children, and, presumably some servants, were gathered in the house of his oldest son, a "great wind wind" blew "across the wilderness,” causing the house to collapse and kill them all" (Job 1,13-19). According to this wisdom book, what was the cause of all these misfortunes?

This misfortune was caused by Satan telling God that Job was only faithful because God had “put a hedge around him and his house” and around all that Job possessed. God, according Satan, had “blessed the work of [Job’s] hands.” “But,” Satan says to God, “stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” This God then allowed Satan to do anything to Job he wished, except kill him (Job 1,6-12).

Now, Job contains an incomplete theology. This bears mentioning as we prepare to celebrate on Friday, 14 September, the liturgical feast of The Triumph of the Cross. However, there is much to be learned here. It is not just the quantity of what Job teaches, but the quality. Job is a true Muslim, one who submits, or surrenders, himself to God's inscrutable will. By contrast, I think most of us would qualify as God’s spoiled children, who throw tantrums and doubt God’s very existence when bad things come our way. As Rich Mullins once observed about sorrow and suffering in a lovely song to Jesus, our Lord: "I know it would not hurt any less/Even if it could be explained ".

Perhaps I am projecting, but I doubt it. Let’s each one ask ourselves honestly, Am I only faithful and grateful when things go well for me? Think back to when you were a child, or for the parents among us, to our own experience of our children. When were we, or are our children, most likely to tell our parents that we love them, that they are the best Mom or Dad in the whole world? When they gave us something we wanted. Conversely, when were we most likely to say horrible things, like you are the worst Mom or Dad in the world and perhaps even to tell a parent, a person who gave us life, who fed us, clothed us, and provided shelter, we hate them? When have been denied something we wanted, even if for good reasons, like it is unsafe, unaffordable, etc. As a parent, or, as an adult looking back on your own childish fulminations, how do we feel in such moments? There is a reason that the commandment about honoring our parents comes immediately after the three commandments by which we honor God and just before the commandments about honoring other people. Then, let us each ask, in light of this first reflection: Does my relationship with God bear resemblance to the immaturity I so shamefully exhibited in my youth? Do I curse and shake my fist at God in my struggles as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death? What happened to Job in the story happens in the real world, almost everyday. How many of us, when something bad happens to us, or, to somebody close to us, falls to the ground in worship, declaring our gratitude to God?

Today I finished a book that has deepened my faith more than any book I have read this past year, except two- Dr. Cynthia Crydale’s Embracing Travail: Retrieving the Cross Today and Dr. Rowan Williams’ Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel- Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner. In the character of Hassan, the Hazara servant and illegitimate son of the novel’s main character’s father, known as Baba, we have a new, this time Islamic, Alyosha, who is immortalized in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. While waiting in the hospital for news of the condition of Sohrab, Hassan’s orphaned son, who has attempted suicide in Islamabad after having been rescued from Taliban-controlled Kabul, Amir, in the process of redeeming his past, prays for the first time in fifteen years on a make shift jai-namaz, or, prayer rug, which is but a single bed sheet, on the floor of the hospital:

"I get on my knees, lower my forehead to the ground, my tears soaking through the sheet. I bow to the west [the direction of Mecca from Islamabad] ". . . I have long forgotten the words [the appropriate suras of the Qu’ran]. But it doesn’t matter, I will utter those few words I still remember . . . I see now that Baba was wrong, there is a God, there always had been. I see Him here, in the eyes of the people in this corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find him . . . There is a God, there has to be, and now I will pray, I will pray that He forgive that I have neglected Him all of these years, forgive that I have betrayed, lied, and sinned with impunity only to turn to Him now in my hour of need, I pray that He is as merciful, benevolent, and gracious as His book [the Qu’ran] says He is. I bow to the west and kiss the ground and promise that I will do zakat [the Islamic version of tithing- giving 2.5% of one’s income to the poor], I will do namaz [prayer, which Muslims perform five times a day], I will fast during Ramadan [the month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, even from drinking water] and when Ramadan has passed I will go on fasting, I will commit to memory every last word of His holy book, and I will set on a pilgrimage to that sweltering city in the desert and bow before the Ka’bah [the giant black rock in the middle of the Great Mosque in Mecca] too. I will do all of this and I will think of Him every day from this day on . . ." (pgs. 345-6) [all bracketed explanatory notes are mine]

Again, in the book, it is Hassan, who at this point is dead, who is the holy fool, like Alyosha, like Francesco Bernadone, not Amir, who is the one praying in this passage. Neither can Amir, at this point, be said to be a Job because, unlike the Job, Amir seeks to bargain with God. "I will do all of this if only He grants me this one wish" (pg. 346). His one wish, the petition of his prayer, is that Sohrab lives. In His mercy and goodness, God grants Amir's petition. It is only in the manner of the life he and his wife, Soraya, live with Sohrab that Amir grows beyond this bargaining. As far as one can tell, Amir keeps his pledge to God. However, Sohrab is so traumatized that, once in the U.S., he does not speak for over a year. By the end of the book, while flying a kite in a park, something Amir and Hassan did as children in Kabul, Sohrab smiles when Amir offers to run the cut kite for him. To which Amir responds:

"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make" anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of startled bird's flight" (pg. 371). It is here that we measure the change: "But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting" (pg. 371).

God's best gift

Life, which is constituted by the time between our birth and our death, is God's most precious gift to us. Let us give Him thanks, even on our most difficult days. Job is rightly revered for his patience, but the Book of Job is considered to be one of the Wisdom books of holy writ. So, Job should also be revered for his wisdom: "Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I go back again. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!" (Job 1,21).

He asks his wife, who is telling him to curse God for tragedy that has befallen him, "We accept good things from God; and should we not accept evil?" (Job 2,10b).

. . .all sins are failures in being realistic"

Over on his blog, Inhabitatio Dei, which has been over on my links list for awhile, Halden has been conducting a reading of Herbert McCabe that is well-worth following. Plus, I am in the midst of finishing a paper on soteriology. So, I am not in a position to compose anything, let alone something worthwhile. What makes this quote, mined by Halden from McCabe's writings, worth posting here on Καθολικός διάκονος is that it complements in an extraordinary way what I have been writing on spirituality of late. So, without further adieu, here is the quote posted yesterday:

"The root of all sin is fear: the very deep fear that we are nothing; the compulsion, therefore, to make something of ourselves, to construct a self-flattering image of ourselves we can worship, to believe in ourselves - our fantasy selves. I think that all sins are failures in being realistic; even the simple everyday sins of the flesh, that seem to come from mere childish greed for pleasure, have their deepest origin in anxiety about whether we really matter, the anxiety that makes us desperate for self-reassurance. To sin is always to construct an illusory self that we can admire, instead of the real self we can only love. It is because we fail in realistic self-love that we fail in love for others. So sin, too, means being terrified of admitting that we have failed."

Herbert McCabe, God, Christ, and Us (New York: Continum 2005), 17-18.

In his teaching, Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, this is why humility is not self-abnegation, self-abasement, or grovelling (Lk. 10,27).