I’m studying for my Patristic and Byzantine Theology final, and I’m rereading First Principles written by Origen between 220 and 230. Here is a passage I have marked as “The Rule of Faith”.

When we find many who think they hold the doctrine of Christ, some of them differing in their beliefs from the Christians of earlier times, and yet the teaching of the church, handed down in unbroken succession from the apostles, is still preserved and continues to exist in the churches up to the present day, we maintain that that only is to believed as the truth which in no way conflicts with the tradition of the church and the apostles.

It’s been several months now since the latest encyclical letter from Pope Benedict was issued. This was the first encyclical that I read all the way through, and it is very good. The theme is that we need hope, and that ultimate hope can only be found in Christ. That’s nothing new for anyone who knows the basics of the Christian faith. What is astounding and important about this encyclical is the way Pope Benedict makes this case in terms that relate to the prevailing ideas of our world, especially as found in Europe. He is speaking of those who have already written off Christianity as having no relevance for true hope, relying instead on politics, education, economics, or technology to provide hope for the future.

There is a lot of good stuff in there that I won’t comment on here, choosing to focus on how he addresses the hope people put in technological progress. When I was a teenager, I completely embraced that hope until I came to a point where I wanted something more. This desire led to Christianity, which gave me my ultimate hope, but I did not initially find good answers to the issue of technological progress. This encyclical is the best treatment of this question I’ve found so far.

Here are a couple of quotes that I found particularly thought provoking. I provide them hoping that you will check out the rest of the letter and benfit from the treasures found there.

 First we must ask ourselves: what does “progress” really mean; what does it promise and what does it not promise? In the nineteenth century, faith in progress was already subject to critique. In the twentieth century, Theodor W. Adorno formulated the problem of faith in progress quite drastically: he said that progress, seen accurately, is progress from the sling to the atom bomb. Now this is certainly an aspect of progress that must not be concealed. To put it another way: the ambiguity of progress becomes evident. Without doubt, it offers new possibilities for good, but it also opens up appalling possibilities for evil—possibilities that formerly did not exist. We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a terrifying progress in evil. If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man’s inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.
(N. 22)

In this next quote, I was particularly struck by the fact that anything we might do to ensure moral goodness in future generations requires the loss of moral freedom. If people have true freedom, then they have freedom to be evil. We will never build a political system that will guarantee a perfect society.

 Let us ask once again: what may we hope? And what may we not hope? First of all, we must acknowledge that incremental progress is possible only in the material sphere. Here, amid our growing knowledge of the structure of matter and in the light of ever more advanced inventions, we clearly see continuous progress towards an ever greater mastery of nature. Yet in the field of ethical awareness and moral decision-making, there is no similar possibility of accumulation for the simple reason that man’s freedom is always new and he must always make his decisions anew. These decisions can never simply be made for us in advance by others—if that were the case, we would no longer be free. Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning. Naturally, new generations can build on the knowledge and experience of those who went before, and they can draw upon the moral treasury of the whole of humanity. But they can also reject it, because it can never be self-evident in the same way as material inventions. The moral treasury of humanity is not readily at hand like tools that we use; it is present as an appeal to freedom and a possibility for it.
(N. 24)

Happy Easter everyone! Since I posted yesterday about Holy Saturday, I felt like I should at least post something for Easter. This is the Exultet, a hymn dating back at least to the 7th century, which is always sung in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, the night before Easter Sunday. (I believe many, if not all Anglicans have a similar practice. I’ve also been to an Eastern Orthodox Easter liturgy which began at midnight with a lone candle in a dark church, but many of the details were different.)

The Easter Vigil begins with a “new fire” lit outside the Church, from which a large white candle is lit. The Easter candle is carried in procession to the front of the church, which is completely dark except for the candle light. Three times on the way to the front of the church, the procession stops and the deacon or priest lifts high the candle and sings, “Christ our light!” The congregation responds, “Thanks be to God!” At celebrations I’ve been to, the congregation also has little candles that are lit from the Easter candle as it moves through the church.

When the procession reaches the front,  the deacon or priest sings the Exultet, which follows:

Rejoice heavenly powers!  Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God’s throne!
Jesus Christ, our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered!  Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church!  Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!

It is truly right
that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God,
the all powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam’s sin
to our eternal Father!

This is our Passover feast,
when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night
when the pillar of fire
destroyed the darkness of sin!

This is the night
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin
and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace
and grow together in holiness.

This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!
Of this night scripture says:
“The night will be clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy.”

The power of this holy night
dispels all evil, washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed
when heaven is wedded to earth
and man is reconciled with God!

Therefore, heavenly Father,
in the joy of this night
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your Church’s solemn offering.

Accept this Easter candle,
a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
and continue bravely burning
to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.

I want to give credit to the electronic sources of these texts which saved me from having to type them in by hand. I got the Exultet from Dr. D’Ambrosio’s Crossroads Initiative. Dr. D’Ambrosio is a former professor at the University of Dallas, but now he travels all over the country as a speaker. His website is a gold mine of informative articles, ancient texts, and other resources. Yesterday’s post from the Office of Readings came from Universalis, an online version of the Liturgy of the Hours (aka the Divine Office).

Today is Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday, when Jesus was executed, and Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead. This is the day that Jesus spent in the tomb. In the Catholic Office of Readings for today, there is an ancient homily for Holy Saturday which is very inspiring, and I think it would be thought provoking for modern Christians, so I’m reprinting it here.

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Yesterday was the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. I ran across these notes from a blog I read written by a Benedictine Monk. He doesn’t provide much explanation, but I was still impressed.

I have heard Tim Staples make the connection between the virgin Earth , unstained by sin, from which the first Adam was formed and the Virgin Mary, unstained by sin, from which the second Adam, Jesus Christ, was formed, but Fr. Stephanos brings out more parallels here than I remember from Tim Staples. Beyond that, Fr. Stephanos draws a parallel between the Virgin Mary and the virgin tomb, which “gave birth” to the resurrected Christ. He even points out that Christ emerged from the tomb without breaking the seal of the tomb. (It was the angel that rolled away the stone in order to reveal the already empty tomb, Mt 28:2.) This is parallel to the early tradition that Christ emerged from the womb of Mary in some miraculous manner such that the integrity of her virginity was not violated. (Although Catholic dogma of the Eternal Virginity of Mary does not insist on this particular detail, it is a common Catholic belief.)

I just want to quickly point out a blog article that articulates something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and that is the necessity of a living teaching authority in the Church, which we Catholics call the Magisterium. Please check it out if you’re interested. Also, here is the complete Answers to Main Objections Against Dominus Iesus by then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). I just have to quote this one part because it’s so good!

When the contours of the faith are blurred in a chorus of opposing exegetical efforts (materialist, feminist, liberationist exegeses, etc.), it seems evident that it is precisely the relationship with the professions of faith, and thus with the Church’s living tradition, that guarantees the literal interpretation of Sacred Scripture, protecting it from subjectivism and preserving its originality and authenticity. Therefore the Magisterium does not diminish the authority of Sacred Scripture but safeguards it by taking an inferior position to it and allowing the faith flowing from it to emerge.

I read the following this morning in John 1:12-13 (RSV):

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

I’ve known of this passage for many years as an Evangelical, and I was always perplexed by the phrase “gave power to become”. If I was writing the verse, I would have said, “… to all who received him, who believed in his name, he made children of God.” I thought that once you received Christ, that is once you believed in him, you were saved. That’s it. The rest of this life is just for getting other people saved.

Now as a Catholic, I understand the verse the way it is written. First of all, the new birth described at the end of the passage is understood by Catholics to refer to the sacrament of baptism. John has more about it in chapter 3, verse 5:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

The Catholic understanding of baptism is that it is the beginning of the Christian life. It is a washing with water, but also of the Holy Spirit, where we are cleansed from sin, united with Christ, and given the gift of the Holy Spirit, including all of the spiritual blessings we need for our Christian life. In one sense, we are made children of God at that point, but in another sense, we are given the power to become everything that God intends us to become through a process of growth that continues the rest of our lives. Physical birth is a great analogy. The new baby is fully human, and is fully a child of its parents. However, it is just beginning the process of becoming an adult human. The baby is mostly potential; it is the totality of the child’s life that will show what it truly is.

I saw the following quote from the opening paragraph of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) on the Intentional Disciples blog:

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).

As someone who works in computer technology, I find it interesting that religion is a term that is now often used in reference to issues that have nothing to do with God. Some people who like the Apple Macintosh or Free Software are sometimes labeled as religious, even though they may in fact be atheists. Indeed, Apple Computer began using religious terminology back in the 80’s by creating a position in their company called “Evangelist” with the intention of spreading enthusiasm for their products.

I believe the use of the term “religion” in reference to technology is instructive in understanding the problem of people’s negative perception of religion today. I find two reasons why a person may be accused of being religious in his support of a technology. One is when he ceases to use rational argument in support of his position, and moves on to personal attacks and other coercive techniques. The other reason is when he makes a claim for his technology that is seen as too universal, such as when a Free Software advocate states that people should only use software licensed under the GPL.

I find the first association of religion with non-rational coercion to be unfortunate and unnecessary. As I stated earlier, I believe that faith and reason can work together. Christian belief is not irrational, and a Christian can communicate much of the truth of the Christian faith to a non-Christian by using a common language of reason and human experience.

The association of universal claims with a religious view are much more justified. Even then, however, I believe that the Catholic Church, in its statements about other Christian denominations and non-Christian religions, has shown that it is possible to assert universal claims of the truth of one’s own religion and at the same time admit the varying levels of truth in other religions. In the case of Computer Religion, a Free Software advocate can strongly state the case for the superiority of the GPL, but still admit that there are merits to the BSD license. He can even admit that at this time some people will find it necessary to use some Microsoft products, and that they should not be condemned for doing so, while he is at the same time hoping and working for the day when the capabilities of free software will exceed that of all commercial software.