Undusted Texts

The Holy Prophet Jeremiah  "'Is not My Word like...a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?' (Jer 23:29).  As the hammer splits the rock into many splinters, so will a scriptural verse yield many meanings."--Sanhedrin 34A These words of the Jewish Midrash reveal an essential truth: the Light within the Scriptures is unfathomable.  Yet how much more incomprehensible is the fullness of the Lord! So many throughout the Church's life have reiterated the fact that Scripture bears a multitude of meanings.  Origen described three ways of interpreting Scripture: the way of the body, the way of the soul, and the way of the spirit.  In the West, the concept of four senses arose, as a medieval couplet summarizes it: "The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith; / The Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny."  Some came to speak of the "sensus plenior," the fuller meaning that lay deeper than the literal meaning of the words themselves.  All t...

  The Incredulity of St. Thomas (1601) by Caravaggio (1571-1610) "Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed."--Jn 20:29 Yesterday we heard the episode related by John the Theologian of that octave of Pascha, the week after Christ's Resurrection.  When He rose, He appeared to many: to Mary Magdalane, to the other myrrhbearing women, to His apostles in the closed room, to His disciples on the Road to Emmaus.  Yet to one in particular He did not appear in that first week: Thomas, called Twin (Didymos).  Why Thomas was not with the rest of the Eleven in the upper room is unknown.  All we know is the fact that he was not there.  Because he was not there, He did not see the Lord's theophany that morning, and it was such a glorious happening that Thomas could not believe the news of it.  Maybe he was a pessimist who was reluctant to believe such news; perhaps he was, as he is often presented now, a man who needed evidence.  Regardless...

"Rejoice, Binder of the faithful to the Lord!" --The Akathist of St. Romanos the Melodist Since the election of Pope Francis, the originally German devotion to the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary as the "Untier of Knots" as become quite popular.  And it is popular for its truth, for she is the one "who gave birth to the Captives' release," the one who "ripped the Athenians' meshes," the one through whom "we have been liberated from terror."  She can truly free us from so many ills through the grace that fills her: thus in our ails we pray to her, and we have confidence in her help, whether it is with cancer (the Pantanassa) or addictions (the Inexhaustible Cup) or any other ill.  She can truly undo knots, whether those of the devil or merely our own fallen nature.  She is, through Christ, "the freedom from our chains," and thus, "in her hands there is no knot that cannot be undone." Yet, though ...

Icon found in Benaki Museum in Athens "The last enemy to be rendered powerless is death."--1 Cor 15:26 On Great and Good Friday, the mother of our parish's founder fell asleep in the Lord, and her funeral was today.  Yet a funeral during Bright Week is less a time of mourning than a triumphal celebration.  It is a common saying that a Christian who falls asleep or else his funeral during Bright Week is taken immediately to Heaven, for it is during that week that all of creation is aglow, radiating the triumphal light of the Resurrection.  Thus the typical hymns of sorrow are replaced with those of victory: "Christ is risen from the dead! Shine in splendor, O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon you!"  Indeed, the entire Paschal Canon prayed on the Paschal morn is again prayed at a funeral.  Death is barely acknowledged, for all know that Christ has made him powerless.  He has been crushed and trampled and conquered, with his own...

"Thus then they went to announce to His disciples, and behold!, Jesus met them, saying, 'Rejoice!'"--Mt 28:9 What Paschal message could be more fitting than Christ's own: "Rejoice!" He told the myrrhbearers.  "Rejoice, for I am risen!  Rejoice, for salvation has come!  Rejoice, for death has been trampled!  Rejoice, for the long-suffering just are freed from Hades!  Rejoice, for his grip on you is broken!  Rejoice, for Heaven is open for you!  Rejoice, for the earth rejoices!  Rejoice, for the heavenly rejoice with the earthly!  Rejoice, for all creation exclaims the most joyous and glorious hymn: 'Christ is risen from the dead, by death He trampled death, and to those in the tombs He granted life!'"  What more is there to say today, as we celebrate Pascha anew.  What Gabriel said truthfully and Judas twisted in his betrayal as been brought aright again by Christ, as He brings alright all that is fallen and straightens all...

  "From on high He came down as Lord, from within the womb He came forth as a servant; Death knelt before Him in Sheol, and Life worshipped Him at His resurrection. Blessed is His victory!" --St. Ephraim the Syrian Christ is risen!  Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!  Christos voskrese!  Today the whole earth rings out its joy, echoing the Paschal hymn, for death is vanquished and our Light has returned from the three-day night.  So all shall praise the all-glorious and life-giving Resurrection of Christ!  One voice, St. Proclus of Constantinople, here echoes from Heaven to proclaim the meaning of this Feast of Feasts.  Christ is risen! Reverential awe should be the prevailing mood on this feast when our salvation is accomplished. Let every loquacious tongue be silent, realizing its impotence to proclaim in adequate terms the resurrection of Christ crucified. What event has ever occurred of similar magnitude as that which we now witness by faith? ...

Today we remember Christ, the conqueror of Hades.  For death could not restrain Him, but He broke the bounds of death to bring the faithful departed to eternal life.  While His Body lay in the tomb, His soul was liberating the just.  Let us praise the Lord's mighty work this day, and let the following words of the great Aphrahat the Syrian (270-345) help us recall Jesus' glorious victory: For when Adam transgressed the commandment whereby the sentence of death was passed upon his progeny, Death hoped that he would bind fast all the sons of man and would be king over them for ever. But when Moses came, he proclaimed the resurrection, and Death knew that his kingdom is to be made void. For Moses said:— Reuben shall live and not die, and shall be in number (Deuteronomy 33:6). And when the Holy One called Moses from the bush he said thus to him:— I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob (Exodus 3:6). When Death heard this utterance, he trembled and feared an...

   "And immediately approaching Jesus [Judas] said, 'Rejoice, rabbi': and he kissed Him."--Mt 26:49 The apostate who ran to the high priests with the Bread of Heaven still in his mouth betrayed our Lord with a kiss.  What is a symbol of filial love, the kiss (φιληματος), Judas turned into a symbol of betrayal.  He who was one of the twelve chosen by Christ to follow Him gave full rein to his greed and allowed Satan entrance into his heart.  Since he betrayed with an act of love the Lover of Mankind, it is fitting that Jesus said, "It would be better for this man if he were never born."  And if the betrayal by an act of love were not horrific enough, ponder the words Judas spoke: "Rejoice, rabbi." "Rejoice."  It is the same greeting spoken to the Theotokos those decades before by the angel at the announcement of the Lord's coming.  It is the greeting the risen Lord Himself will speak to the myrrh-bearers on the Paschal morn.  H...

A replica of the Chair of Moses found at the Synagogue in Chorazin "Upon Moses' chair sit the scribes and the Pharisees: all things whatsoever they tell you to keep, keep and do: but their works do not do, for they speak and do not do."--Mt 23:2-3 How great was Moses' authority, that even his chair continues to be reverenced millennia after his falling asleep!  God ordained him to be the lawgiver of the Israelites and to guide them in the commandments of the Lord, and his authority succeeded him throughout the ages.  First it passed to Joshua, the prototype of Christ in name, then to the many judges the Lord raised, then to the kings of Israel and Judah through the mediation of Samuel, and then to the elders and the teachers after the Exile.  Jesus Himself affirmed this succession of authority, for He affirmed that even the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees had an authority to be heeded.  If even they, successors of the prophet and lawgiver Moses, were to...

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree (1684) by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib "O faithful let us fear the punishment of the fig tree which was dried up for not having borne any fruit; let us offer worthy fruits of repentance to Christ, who grant us His great mercy." --From the Aposticha of Bridegroom Matins on Great and Holy Monday When Christ hungered and approached the fig tree, He expected it to be bearing fruit; when it was not, He cursed it.  Just so, the foolish virgins not possessing oil were barred from the feast.  It is as if Christ said to them as He said to the high priests and the presbyters of the people, "For this I say to you that will be taken from you the kingdom of God, and it will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it."  This too will occur to us if we are not watchful, if we are not prepared in a wedding garment when the Lord comes to invite us into His bridal chamber engulfed in light.  Let us beg Him, "Fill the garment of my...

A lithograph of the Eishet Chayil in Hebrew by Shuki Freiman " A woman of valor who can find?  More honorable than costly stones is such a one."--Prv 31:10 As we complete our reading of the Proverbs of Solomon for this Lent, we come across that great praise of the Godly woman that ends this book.  It is a well-loved passage among the Jews, who call it by the Hebrew name Eishes Chayil (or Eishet Chayil ), which means "Woman of Valor."  It is the Jewish tradition to recite the passage before the Friday meal every Sabbath to praise the women of the house or all the women of Israel; thus the man recites it to his wife or to any woman there, and if there are only women in the household, they recite to praise all the women of Israel.  The passage describes the characteristics of a wonderful wife or "the perfect wife," as Fray Luis de León calls it in his commentary of the same title ( La perfecta casada ).  Such a woman works to beautify her home and...