Fr. Dwight on Sacrifice

"The Centrality of Sacrifice"

In jumping the divide from Evangelical Protestantism to historic, Apostolic Christianity, the idea of Eucharistic sacrifice presented me with a major hurdle, if not THE major hurdle. I was raised to believe that the Epistle to the Hebrews, which presents Christ's sacrifice as fulfilling, and therefore making obsolete, the Jewish sacrificial system, applies as much to the Christian Divine Liturgy, or Mass, as it does to the sacrifices of the Jewish temple. Not so, not so.

Hebrews, in the last chapter, speaks of the Eucharist: "We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat" and then, later, another more oblique reference is found in Hebrews 13:16: "Do not neglect to do good and to COMMUNICATE for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Then, of course, St. Paul, by juxtaposing the Eucharist with pagan sacrifices in I Corinthians, implies that the Eucharist is inded a sacrifice.

And, then, of course, there is the Didache, written in the late First Century, which explicitly calls the Eucharist a sacrifice and states that it is the fulfillment of Malachi 1:11: "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations [gentiles], and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering,....says the Lord."

In his piece, Fr. Dwight contrasts Eucharist-as-sacrifice with Eucharist-as-fellowship meal. The point is that the Eucharist is a "fellowship meal" precisely because it is participation in the sacrifice of Christ. He also speaks of the Eucharist as the first and foremost means by which we fulfill Romans 12:1, offering our bodies, as a "living sacrifice", as "spiritual worship" through, with, and in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, into whose death we have been baptized.

Finally, he speaks of the kenosis, the "self-emptying" of God as the basis for all sacrifice. This kenosis does not begin with the Incarnation, and it is not restricted to the Son. From all eternity, the generation of the Son and the breathing forth of the Holy Spirit by the Father are archetypal acts of kenosis. In emptying himself, therefore, the Lord Jesus does, as he says in John's Gospel, simply what he sees the Father doing.

Parables: A Different Take on Another One

From Fr. Ray Blake, an RC Parish Priest in the UK:

"An Interpretation of the Good Samaritan"

A great thing about parables, especially Jesus' parables, is that they speak on so many levels.

Convocation: More Pictures...

Just before the beginning of Qurbana, Mar Michael (center) addresses the Assembly. Standing, from the left: Deacons Sister Jackie and Mother Shirley, Yours Truly, Mar Michael, Avva Zakkai, and Amma Caitlin.

Sister-Deacon Jackie censes the gifts during the Great Entrance

Mar Michael chrismates (confirms) Parasceve Cheryl, assisted by Avva Zakkai

Sister Luke Panteleimon is tonsured a Reader. Avva Andreas, soon to be made Andreas Mar Cassian, assists Mar Michael

Reader Sister Miriam Victoria is presented for ordination to the Sub-diaconate by the Deacons Mother Shirley and Sister Jackie, along with Sub-Deacon Yeremyah

A Bishop for Kodak...

The new bishop, Andreas Mar Cassian, on the right, receives the pastoral staff from his consecrator, Victor Mar Michael.

Another annual convocation has come and gone. Each year, the clergy of the ACCA gather at St. Demetrios, Knoxville on the first weekend of October to meet, assess the year past, and to consider the coming year. The final event, each year, is the Sunday evening Qurbana, Eucharist. This year, during Qurbana, a new member, Parasceve Cheryl Beasley, was chrismated; Sister Luke Panteleimon was tonsured a Reader; Sister Miriam was made a Sub-deacon; and Chorepiscopus (Archpriest) Andreas Richard Turner, Chancellor of the ACCA and Pastor of St. Elias, Kodak, Tennessee, was consecrated a bishop, taking the name Mar Cassian. He assumes the role of syncellus, that of suffragan, or assistant, bishop to Mar Michael. (Andreas Mar Cassian’s titular see is someplace in Palestine, a city which has been in ruins for almost two millenia.)

In the end, chains were not required. Avva presented himself voluntarily, if not altogether willingly, for consecration. Prior to that, at 2 PM Sunday, Avva Andreas taught a class in the ongoing “Orthodoxy 101” series at St. Demetrios. He spoke on a subject near and dear to his heart, that of the Didache: the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, a late First Century document. It can be found online here, and a paper Mar Cassian wrote on the subject some time ago can be found here.

After Mar Cassian’s consecration, the liturgy continued with the celebration of the Qurbana proper, the most holy sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ. Over several convocations and other meetings, the clergy of the ACCA have developed what seems to be a unique form of concelebration. The altar at St. Demetrios is freestanding, and during the celebration, the new bishop and the presbyters (Avva Zakkai, Amma Caitlin, and myself) rotated around the altar, each taking a portion of the liturgy, then moving to the side for the next concelebrant, and so on. All pronounced the Words of Institution and the Epiclesis together, and at the elevation (“The Holy Mysteries are for the Holy”), all participated in elevating the paten and chalice. It is always a profoundly moving experience, both for the celebrants and for those in the congregation, manifesting the inherently conciliar nature of the Christian priesthood and of the Church itself, as does the joint discernment which occurs yearly in the deliberations at Convocation. Others who participated in serving the Liturgy this year include the Deacons Mother Shirley and Sister Jackie and Subdeacon Yeremyah. Also, a big thank you to the laypeople at St. Demetrios who helped make Convocation possible, including Jeff and Anna, John and Parasceve Cheryl, Mary Lou, and Tom as well as all the members, both clerical and lay, of the Sisterhood of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women. Please forgive me, y’all, if I have failed to mention anyone that I should have.

Finally, a word of thanks to Andrew, a special friend to Khouria Susan and myself. He has been very generous to us with his time and financial contributions. This year, he provided us with transportation and financial support in attending Convocation and we are very appreciative. Thank you, Andrew, and we hope to be chrismating you soon.

Off to East Tennessyria

We are travelling to Knoxville this evening for the ACCA's annual clergy convocation. On Saturday, the clergy will meet for the day. On Sunday, at Qurbana, Chorepiscopus (Archpriest) Andreas Richard Turner, Chancellor and Vicar-General, will be consecrated to the episcopate as a suffragan to the Metran, or Archbishop, Victor Mar Michael Herron (Avva Andreas will be, God willing, made a bishop, unless he decides to run away, something he has threatened; in that case, we will go find him and drag him to the altar in chains, like the Copts have been known to do). Please keep us in your prayers.

Satisfaction or Cleansing? Response to John Roop

In a comment, Pastor John Roop challenges me on my post, “Speaking of Parables…”. My response is below:

John, thanks for visiting and commenting. With all due respect, however, I wonder how much this retold parable, while not presenting a perfect analogy, really is a caricature, and I think your comment illustrates a problem that Western culture has been living with for at least the last millenium. We immediately identify the idea of sacrifice with Anselmian concepts, and then we read these concepts into the Bible. Consider, for example, the word "atonement". Originally, when the word was coined, apparently by Wycliffe, it really did simply mean "at-one-ment": reconciliation, union, communion. But when we hear it, or read it, we generally think, "make satisfaction" or "make reparation" or something similar. However, the sacrificial system of the Old Testament is not propitiatory in that sense, it is not about “making satisfaction,”; it is expiatory when it comes to sin: the application of the blood is to REMOVE or "cover" the sin, not to make satisfaction for it. “Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is covered.” Consider also the fact that “Yom Kippur” literally means “day of covering” or “day of wiping away”. What God is interested in, first and foremost, is healing (“saving”) humanity, restoring human persons to communion with the Divine Community that is the Holy Trinity. Sin prevents that, not because God “cannot stand to be in the presence of sin,” but because sin, and sinful persons, cannot survive being in the presence of God. “No one shall see my face and live.”

We also, as your comment illustrates, reflexively connect "substitutionary" with "penal" or "satisfaction". Now, there is no question that Christ does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. However, beyond defeating sin, death, and Satan, to what end? Or, to put it another way, in what sense is Christ’s death a sacrifice which fulfills the sacrifices of the Old Testament? Is this propitiation in the Anselmian sense? Or is it expiation, reconciliation? "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." “Behold the Lamb of God who TAKES AWAY the sins of the world.”

Of course, this is far from a complete analysis, and the parable I quote is simply a preface to a long paper in which the author offers his own theory, which seems to be a recapitulation of Ireneus’ work. I think the bottom line is that Anselm, first, missed the point in critiquing what had come before him, in that “justice” is really not the issue. Of course the devil has no rights! However, because of the fall, Satan was de facto the dominant spiritual force on earth, and because humanity, given vice-regency of creation, had put the Enemy in that position, a human had to be the one to dethrone him. But this is something that only God could do. Further, as history has shown, Anselm’s work has largely served to distort our understanding of God’s goodness and love, something which was already an issue, going back to the Fall.

Again, therefore, I have to recommend "The River of Fire". While I wish it were less polemical, perhaps it cannot be, because the points it makes are so true with regard to the distortions in Western theology, going back, not only to Anselm, but, farther, to Augustine and even Tertullian, distortions which are grounded, not only in the defective soteriology of Anselm, but also in a high view of original sin and a misunderstanding of Divine sovereignty, and because it presents the only view of human damnation which is compatible with an understanding of God as philanthropos, the lover of humanity.

In any event, I am interested in the book you mention. Would you post a review/discussion of it on your blog?

Speaking of Parables...

I am a huge fan, if that is the correct word, of Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog, Glory to God for All Things. On a recent post upon which I commented, another commenter referred me to a paper, written by an Evangelical scholar, Robin Collins, which critiques the "satisfaction" theory of the Atonement, first advanced by Anselm of Canterbury, and the closely related "penal" theory of the Reformers. The paper, a "work in progress," begins with a retelling of the story of the Prodigal Son, as informed by the above theories:

There was a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate." So the father divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son went off to a distant country, squandered all he had in wild living, and ended up feeding pigs in order to survive. Eventually he returned to his father, saying, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired servants." But his father responded: "I cannot simply forgive you
for what you have done, not even so much as to make you one of my hired men. You have insulted my honor by your wild living. Simply to forgive you would be to trivialize sin; it would be against the moral order of the entire universe. For 'nothing is less tolerable in the order of things than for a son to take away the honor due to his father and not make recompense for what he takes away. Such is the severity of my justice that reconciliation will not be made unless the penalty is utterly paid. My wrath--my avenging justice--must be placated.'"

"But father, please..." the son began to plead.

"No," the father said, "either you must be punished or you must pay back, through hard labor for as long as you shall live, the honor you stole from me."

Then the elder brother spoke up. "Father, I will pay the debt that he owes and endure your just punishment for him. Let me work extra in the field on his behalf and thereby placate your wrath." And it came to pass that the elder brother took on the garb of a servant and labored hard year after year, often long into the night, on behalf of his younger brother. And finally, when the elder brother died of exhaustion, the father's wrath was placated against his younger son and they lived happily for the remainder of their days.

Well, when ya put it that way...

The problems with Anselm immediately become rather clear.

Professor Collins also has other writings online here.

Minnows: A Parable

So this new job I have, it’s at a marina, which sells live minnows as bait. Maintaining these minnows involves cleaning the tanks in which they live, and replacing dirty water with clean. The cleaning process requires transferring them, with a net, from one tank to another so that the dirty tank can be cleaned. Of course, the minnows aren’t very happy with this process, and invariably, the fastest and strongest minnows are the last to be netted and transferred. What the minnows don’t realize, of course, is that if they are not moved, they will die; the dirty water will kill them. Of course, while they are being transferred, flopping in the net, out of the water for a second or two, they FEEL like they are dying, and if they are especially strong, sometimes they jump out of the net. If they fall back into the water, they’re fine, but often, when they jump out of the net, some will land on the floor or ground, and lie there in agony, flopping around, gasping for the oxygen they cannot assimilate while being out of the water. The ones I miss, or don't get to fast enough, they really do die.

Let the reader understand.

Blogging Once Again: A Response to Abu Daoud

Yes, things have been quiet around here lately. But not necessarily in my actual life, and this may have something to do with why the muse has been rather silent. As I mentioned in a comment on the last post before this one, I returned from Chicago to find that, for economic reasons, I no longer had a secular job. However, God was good, and that situation prevailed for only a couple of weeks before I found another such job, a job which, in several ways, is better than my previous one.

And, speaking of Chicago, Junior is doing very well, as are the Cubs. May this be their year! Thanks to all of you, especially Ttony and Alice, for your prayers and expressions of concern and support. Please keep the prayers coming. Alice, you of course have been in my prayers for some time, and I have now begun to remember your sister and her husband and daughter as well.

But that’s not why I called y’all here today…

Several days ago, Evangelical Anglican missionary Abu Daoud, of Islam and Christianity, wrote about attending a Roman Catholic service in which a man was ordained a priest. In the post, "Attending a Catholic ordination: where's the teaching ministry? " AD contends that the preaching, teaching, and evangelizing aspects of the priesthood were not sufficiently stressed in this liturgy. After reviewing the text of the service, I noted that I did not share that perception, and I still don’t, so I thought I’d take a look at that liturgy in this post.

I may be wrong, but I don’t think the liturgy is online (although the old rite is found here). In any event, the ordination takes place during Mass and begins after the gospel reading when the ordinand, already a deacon, is presented to the bishop. After the bishop states his intention to ordain the man a priest, the bishop preaches a homily on the meaning of priesthood. The service itself includes a text for the homily, although the use of this text is optional. In most RC ordinations I have attended, this homily has been pretty much used verbatim, with occasional extemporaneous expansions. It is possible that the bishop veered off the text entirely at the service AD attended. Nevertheless, this homily certainly does not ignore the ministry of the priest in the areas of preaching, teaching, and evangelizing. (In the quotes which follow, emphasis is added.)

In the first paragraph, the homily alludes to St. Clement of Rome, speaking of Christ being sent by the Father, who sent the Apostles, who in turn sent “their successors, the bishops” to continue Christ’s “work as TEACHER, Priest, and Shepherd,” then noting that priests, presbyters, are co-workers with the order of bishops.

In the next paragraph, the homily states, “[The priest] is to serve Christ the TEACHER, Priest, and Shepherd in [Christ’s] ministry, which is to make his own body, the Church, grow into the people of God, a holy temple.”

From the third paragraph: “By consecration [the ordinand] will be made a true priest of the New Testament, to PREACH THE GOSPEL, sustain God’s people, and celebrate the liturgy, above all, the Lord’s sacrifice.”

Then the bishop addresses the ordinand directly (I love this paragraph):

“My son, you are now to be advanced to the order of the presbyterate. You must apply your energies to the duty of TEACHING in the name of Christ, the chief TEACHER. SHARE WITH ALL MANKIND the word of God you have received with joy. Meditate on the law of God, believe what you read, TEACH WHAT YOU BELIEVE, and put into practice what you teach.”

The bishop continues:

“Let the doctrine you TEACH be true nourishment for the people of God. Let the example of your life attract the followers of Christ, so that by word and action you may build up the house which is God’s Church."

The next two paragraphs deal with sacramental ministry, especially the Mass, as well as the priest’s duty to pray for all. Finally, the bishop concludes:

“Always remember the example of the Good Shepherd who came not to be served but to serve, and to SEEK OUT AND RESCUE THOSE WHO WERE LOST.”

Next, in a rubrically mandated dialogue between ordinand and bishop, the latter asks the former to “declare before the people your intention to undertake this priestly office.”

There are four questions, and the ordinand replies “I am” to the first three, “I am, with the help of God” to the fourth. The first and last questions are general: “Are you resolved…to discharge without fail the office of priesthood…?” and “Are you resolved to consecrate your life to God for the salvation of his people…?”. The second question deals with the sacraments. The third question reads as follows: “Are you resolved to exercise the MINISTRY OF THE WORD worthily and wisely, PREACHING THE GOSPEL and explaining the Catholic faith?”

After preliminary prayer, the chanting of the Litany of the Saints, the ordination proper takes place. The ordinand kneels before the bishop, who lays hands upon the former in silence, followed by the same action by all the priests present. The bishop then offers the Prayer of Consecration.

The first two sections of this prayer note that the Christian priesthood of bishops and presbyters is rooted in the ministries of the High Priest and priests of Israel. Then we read, “….you gave companions to your Son’s apostles TO HELP IN TEACHING THE FAITH: they PREACHED THE GOSPEL to the whole world.”

Then follows two paragraphs, the second of which is considered necessary for the validity of the ordination, asking essentially that the ordinand be made a priest.

The prayer offered by the bishop then concludes:

“May [the ordinand] be faithful in working with the order of bishops, so that the WORDS OF THE GOSPEL MAY REACH THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, and the family of nations, made one in Christ, may become God’s one, holy people.”

The rest of the service, culminating in the newly ordained priest concelebrating Mass with the bishop, is not directly relevant to the question at hand, but it should be clear from the above that the priestly ministry of the word is prominently presented in the contemporary RC service of ordination to the priesthood. What say you, AD (and others)?