Christ is risen from the dead,
by death He has trampled Death,
and to those in the tombs
He has granted Life!
Joy has come into the world,
Death and the Devil are vanquished,
Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
CHRIST IS RISEN! Rejoice!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
"Pray that we may be one"
Matthew Petersen has some very good thoughts here on the quest for Christian unity, and the dangers of being dismissive or patronizing toward Christians in other communions than our own.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Palm Sunday
Rejoice greatly,
Daughter of Zion!
Raise a shout,
Daughter of Jerusalem!
Look! Your king
is coming to you,
Righteous, and possessed of
salvation-victory is he,
Lowly, and riding
on a donkey,
On a colt,
the offspring of beasts of burden.
—Zechariah 9:9
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop and martyr (1942-2008)
We, Christians of Mesopotamia, are used to religious persecution and pressures by those in power. After Constantine, persecution ended only for Western Christians, whereas in the East threats continued. Even today we continue to be a Church of martyrs.
—Mar Paulos, Nov. 26, 2007
Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul in northern Iraq, was found dead on Thursday after having been kidnapped two weeks ago by a group of Islamist gunmen. He had served as archbishop of the Chaldean Catholics of Mosul for seven years. (Mosul, the archbishop's hometown, is the Biblical city of Nineveh.)
Three of the archbishop's companions were killed in a gunfight during his kidnapping, as he returned home after Mass on February 29. There are conflicting reports about the cause of death of Mar Paulos himself; there are some suggestions that he died from preexisting health conditions made worse by the circumstances of his captivity, while others claim he was shot.
(Sources: The Times Online, AFP)
May the God who was preached in Nineveh by Jonah the prophet and by Mar Paulos, and Jesus His Son, bring perfect peace to Mosul and to all Iraq and the Middle East. May He reduce His enemies to obedience to Christ, through the testimony that His servants offer in both life and death.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The marks of the true Church
One of the pressing concerns that resurfaced during the Protestant Reformation was how to distinguish between true and false churches. An answer chosen by the early Reformers was that a true church is one that preaches the Word of God purely and administers the Sacraments properly; these two "marks" are noted in the Augsburg Confession (1530) and in the writings of John Calvin (1509-1564). Later, concern for the continuing purity of the Church led Protestant theologians to add the faithful administration of church discipline as a third necessary "mark of the Church." The resulting "three marks" appear in Article 29 of the Belgic Confession (1561), and a variation on them is suggested in Chapter 25 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647).
However, as a means of identifying what is a true church, these "marks" make a somewhat odd and lopsided combination. As pastor Brian McLaughlin points out, the two or three marks have come to represent for many North American Christians the whole essence of the Church, as if the church was a place where you came to hear preaching, eat the Lord's Supper, and (maybe) experience the corrective power of church discipline. For the ordinary Christian, participation in these things tends to be passive, and one's daily life can be largely unaffected.
Shouldn't love be acknowledged as one of the essential elements of any true church? If so, these words of Pope Benedict XVI (from his 2005 encyclical "Deus Caritas Est") provide a better description of the marks of the Church:
The Church's deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.
No matter how correct their preaching and sacraments may be, a church without love is a dead church. If we discuss the essential nature of the Church but ignore the centrality of Christian love and its natural results (which include church discipline, missions, etc.), then we lose everything and gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
