Peace be with you!

As the glorious season of Easter approaches I wish to extend my sincerest blessing and greetings to you and your families and congregations.  I would like to spend a few moments with you talking about this holiest of seasons in our church.  Second only to the birth of Jesus, when God Himself became incarnate in Jesus, we see in Easter the fulfillment of the prophets telling of the savior of the world realized.  We come to understand that in the midst of chaos and confusion, In Jesus there is hope!

Easter is that special time when, through our own periods of prayer, sacrifice and fasting, we begin to understand what the death and resurrection mean to the Christian.  As I sit back in my little oratory and meditate on the mystery of the divine, my mind takes me to numerous theological debates that I have with my wife, Heather, and, when I worked at San Quentin, my patients on death row.  In these discussions I have been asked the question: “Why is Christianity a religion that celebrates the violence of death? After all, Jesus was scourged, purged, beaten, hung on a cross and buried as a criminal. So, in essence Christianity is a violent religion, and you people celebrate this violence. Why?” Even though in the history of the Roman Church and Christianity we read about the crusades and the discovery or takeover of nations where clergy forced the natives to be baptized or, in some cases, be killed, the death of Jesus is not meant to glorify death and evil but to give us an understanding of what our sinful nature does to us.

When I am challenged by statements as those above, my heart and mind travel to the life of Christ and the first Easter.  Think of this if you will. If you read the Old Testament, you will notice several themes of creation, rebellion, rules, and the promise of a Savior.  We read about a God who punishes only to exalt.  We read the stories written by man as told through oral tradition.  They are stories of struggle, conquest and exultation.  They are stories of faith and lack of faith.  Through it all runs the theme of Yahweh trying to show the people what it means to forgive, love and move on.  Not punish, beat up, kill and destroy.  Even the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, if one truly understands it, is a way to show the believing people of God what sin can and does do to one’s soul.  It is a story that illustrates the annihilation of humankind if human kind persists in turning away from God and forging forward in the waywardness of Satan.  It illustrates, truly, that the wages of sin is indeed death.  Which brings me to Easter.

Let’s take a look at Jesus’s life for a moment.  If they had had video back then we would see a regular guy of poor means trying to make it in the world.  We see a young boy growing in faith, learning a trade, and eventually moving away from home pursuing his career.  Like some of us – we grow up wanting to be one thing, and wind up in a career different from our initial dream.  Jesus, however, had one thing in mind, that is, to serve his heavenly Father.  We see how in Jesus’s poverty, he rose above the struggle, while still struggling, and used his talent as a preacher and teacher to spread the message of peace and justice throughout the countryside and towns.  He was the miracle worker of the day.  As we know, he changed water into wine, raised the dead and healed the sick (both physically and spiritually). He tried to show the multitudes that the suffering we have, we give to ourselves.  All we need do is follow his lead and reach out to the anawim – the widow, the orphan, and the lowly – and give ourselves to another out of care and consideration of our fellow human being.  As Jesus illustrated this through his lifestyle of selflessness and message of messianic hope, he also clearly showed the people what evil and neglect can do.  Think of the money changers in the temple and his reaction to them disrespecting his Father’s house.  Ponder on the meaning of the parable of the camel and the Needle’s Eye.  It’s not a story of trying to fit a camel through the eye of a needle, but the story of  how the tax collector tried to cheat the people as they entered the gate of Jerusalem, which was small and lower then the height of a camel.  The people had to get the camel to kneel on all fours and literally crawl through the gate.  As they did so, the tax collectors would go through their merchandise and tax the vendor once through the gate, which was called the “Needle’s Eye Gate”, not the “Eye of a Needle”.  This is a story about dishonesty and mistrust.

As Jesus pointed out the flaws in humanity, he also tried to teach us ways to overcome those flaws.  Just as people were starting to get the message, others felt threatened through jealously, hatred and evil. The best way to destroy good is to obliterate it.  The evil ones, at that time, tried to wipe out good the only way they knew how:  turn evil against it.  Jesus told the people that destroying good is not the answer, and to turn away from sin, and if they didn’t, Jesus was going to show them, through himself, what evil will do.  The beatings, scourging, crowning with thorns, and eventual death of Jesus were the price paid to evil.  The horribly  beaten Jesus was illustrative of what the mangled sinful soul looks like through neglect, and improper choices.  The ugliness of the scourged, battered body of Jesus is what humankind has chosen if sin is their way.  But, even in this gross anatomical illustration, the ultimate price of sin is what happened when Jesus died.  That point was the point of  death of the soul, and what it looks like when humankind chooses the way of sin.

However, the story is not over.  For recall that Jesus descended into hell, and that He opened the gates of hell freeing those unjustly put there, and on the third day rose from the dead.  What does this illustrate?  The resurrection is the ultimate illustration of what happens to the soul that is redeemed, freed from sin, and chooses life over death.  The resurrection of Jesus is truly a metaphor for our resurrection from our human sin-nature to our divine promise of eternal life…but… only if we choose it.  The human Jesus chose to be born a slave. Chose to suffer and chose to die.  The divine Christ chose to rise and present his followers with the choice to go forth to all nations and preach the Good News.  That if we choose to cheat, steal, kill, and go against nature and God, we will truly suffer and look like the battered Jesus, all mauled and tortured.  But, if we choose to fight evil, turn away from sin, and believe the Good News, eternal life shall be ours.

Ah, Easter! A true metaphor of what the human soul can choose to look like in the midst of its sinful abuse and obliteration, or its glorious redemption and resurrection.

Choose wisely, my friends.  This Easter as you celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, celebrate also your resurrection and turning away from the ugliness and evilness of sin.  Be charitable to others and love thy neighbor as Jesus taught us all to love ourselves. In Jesus there is hope!

May the word of God find a place in your heart, and may the resurrected Jesus give you peace.

Sincerely yours in the Risen Lord,

+Tony

As we approach Palm Sunday and Holy Week, the most sacred time in our liturgical calendar, may I thank you one and all for your support and fraternal fellowship during the past year. This year Good Friday comes on 14 Nizam and is as close as we can get to that fateful day over 2,000 years ago when Our Beloved Lord, Jesus Christ, redeemed our sorry mankind. In the ancient church there were those like St. Polycarp who celebrated the Holy Paska on this very date. This is synchronicity, the melding of time events of equal significance to enhance our understanding of these time changing events. The Great High Priest once and for all made the Atonement holy sacrifice for all mankind. The Old Covenant is ended. The Old Law abrogated. We are a new humanity in a new age of love.

Happy Paska,

+Francis C. Spataro

Holy Week.  What do those words mean to us?  Are they just another round of days to remind us that Spring is finally here and warmer weather is on the horizon?  A time when we can laugh at fresh snow-fall knowing that it will not last, and watch the ground begin to wake up and offer new life?

Well the answer is: sort of.  It is true that Spring is a time of renewal.  Traditionally it was this time of year that marked the new year, not January 1st.  Spring was and is a time of preparing for a new season, deciding what changes need to be made to make sure that the next year is more successful than the last.  But it is a great error to think that Holy Week is just something leading up to the end of Lent and candy filled Easter baskets.  It is a time to reflect, not on the historical person of Jesus, but a time to put yourself in Christ and to become Christ.

Our Lord once said that we ought not to lay up our treasures on earth, nor care for the morrow what we shall eat and drink.  Rather we should care more for the Kingdom of Heaven.  The mistake many of us make is to believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is something we attain when we die.  I do not believe in that.  Theologian Alan Watts stated that “the Kingdom of heaven is not [in the] future, within time, but [it is] now, above time.”  To use a common evangelical term, we must all be “born again”.  That is, become one with Christ.  In theological terms, this is also known as theosis.

 St. Maximus of Turin said:

“In the Saviour we have all risen, we have all been restored to life, we have all ascended into heaven.  For a portion of the flesh and blood of each one of us is in the man Christ.  Therefore, where a portion of me reigns, I believe that I reign; where my blood rules, I conceive that I rule; where my flesh is glorified, I know that I am glorious.”

How is it possible that we, as mere mortals, can be glorious and rule with Christ?  That is the celestial question of the day!

“Know Thyself” is a phrase you have heard more than once coming from this pulpit.  Other preachers have asked this question of us, and yet, how many of us have an answer to this burning question?  Who among us has taken the time to really consider it?  If I were to ask one of you to stand up right now and tell us who you really are, could you answer?  Would anyone like to volunteer?

And if you do know who you are, do you know who everyone else is?  Here is a clue:  Jesus said: “As long as you did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me.”  Have you ever offended someone?  Have you ever gossiped about someone?  Have you ever spread nasty rumors about someone?  Have you ever looked down on someone?  Have you ever wished something bad would happen to someone?

If you truly know yourself, would you do any of those things?  You already know the answer.

The Gospel of Thomas expands on the theme of knowing yourself when the Lord is reported to have said:

“…the Kingdom is inside you and it is outside you.  When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father.  But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty and you are poverty.”

I would add that when you learn who you truly are, you realize who everyone else is, and as is also written in Thomas:

“Seek and do not stop seeking until you find.  When you find, you will be troubled.  When you are troubled, you will marvel and rule over all.”

Now you may be saying to yourself: “This is all so new.  Sure I have heard these sayings of Christ before, but I never expected this!”  Well there may be a good reason for that.  The great Mystic Thomas Merton wrote:

“Every one of us forms an idea of Christ that is limited and incomplete.  It is cut according to our own measure.  We tend to create for ourselves a Christ in our own image, a projection of our own aspirations, desires and ideals.  We find in Him what we want to find.  We make Him not only the incarnation of God but also the incarnation of the things we and our society and our part of society happen to live for.

Therefore, although it is true that perfection consists in imitating Christ and reproducing Him in our own lives, it is not enough merely to imitate the Christ we have in our imaginations.

It is the Spirit of God that must teach us Who Christ is and form Christ in us and transform us….

Therefore if you want to have in your heart the affections and dispositions that were those of Christ on earth, consult not your own imagination but faith.  Enter into the darkness of interior renunciation, strip your soul of images and let Christ form Himself in you….”

Do not leave here today as you do every other Sunday.  Let Christ transform you.  Learn to “Know Thyself”.  See yourselves for who you really are.  See yourselves as God sees you.  Seek to be ONE WITH CHRIST.  Let this Holy Week remind you that you too have entered triumphant into Jerusalem!  You too will stay with Lazarus.  You too will have a Last Supper Thursday night.  You too will be betrayed by a friend.  You too will be taken before Pontius Pilate.  You too will be Crucified on Good Friday.  You too will descend into hell and you too will be raised from the Dead, resurrected into Eternal Glory.  You too will ascend to the right hand of the Father!

And now to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, Three Persons in one God, be ascribed, as is most justly due, all honour, might, majesty, power and dominion, now, henceforth and for evermore.  R. Amen.

Mgr. Jason Voss, VG, OCR

Dearly Beloved in Christ:

May God give you His abundant blessings during this Lenten Season.

Well before the acquisition of the name “Lent”, the primitive church celebrated a feast in which fasting, solemnity, prayer, reflection and spiritual study was paramount.  As time progressed, this feast eventually shaped itself around the Gospel accounts of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days prior to the start of His public ministry.  For Jesus, this was an intense time when new converts were professed and when those who were lapsing in their profession of faith were brought back to the fold.

The roots of the word Lent are to be found in England. It means spring, and its origin suggests the “lengthening of days”.  The five Fridays of Lent commemorate the instruments of the Passion:

• after Ash Wednesday – The Most Holy Crown of Thorns
• after 1st Sunday of Lent – The Most Holy Lance and Nails
• after 2nd Sunday of Lent – The Most Holy Shroud
• after 3rd Sunday of Lent – The Most Holy Five Wounds
• after 4th Sunday of Lent – The Most Precious Blood

Around 1962, in Canada, the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer replaced Ash Wednesday with a “Penitential Service”.  In this, the faithful were invited to utilize the Lenten Season for a time of personal growth and building a deeper relationship with Our Lord, Jesus, the Christ. As Catholics, this conscious introspection is also an important aspect of our approach to the Lenten season.

Lent is a time for personal spiritual growth.  Spiritual growth comes in through a deep understanding of one’s gifts and weaknesses and reconciling oneself with God.  It is a time we are called to remember our humanness that joins with the human side of Jesus, and a time to remember our spiritual side that joins with Jesus’ spirit.

One way to reconcile both the corporeal and spiritual divinity through our humanity is for us to personally exercise our Lenten devotions.  Whether we are drawn to formal liturgical prayers or free flowing expressions of faith through private prayer or public actions, we are all called to public witness, repentance and sacrifice.

Remember, also, how St. Paul in Romans (14:19) encourages us to seek, “the ways which lead to peace and the ways in which we can support one another.” We are reminded by  St Paul that since all of us are members of Christ’s body as integral parts, we “should be equally concerned for all the other.” As concerned faithful, we are called to acknowledge the good that the Lord Jesus is doing in others and give thanks for the wonderful blessings that God freely dispenses on us all in an effort to continually offer us his graces, so we may continually accomplish our life’s journey as God’s chosen children.

As Lent advances these forty days, let us all be called to look deep within, remember where it all began and most of all, what we are all called to do, namely: pray avidly, fast, sacrifice, do penance and help one another, but most of all prepare the way of the Lord!

May God bless you abundantly as you journey inwardly this Lent.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Bishop Tony

Click to view slideshow.

CREATION, a Biblical Vision for the Environment

By Prof. Margaret Barker

326pp, T and T Clark International (A Continuum Imprint) London/NY, 2010, www.continuumbooks.com

With a Foreword by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

Reviewed by the Rt. Rev. Francis C. Spataro, DD

Prof. Margaret Barker is a very well known and prolific Old Testament scholar and master of Biblical Hebrew. The central theme of her research is that the Rabbis after the destruction of the 2nd Temple created a religious reform Movement which today is Rabbinical Judaism. These were Rabbis Ben Zakkai, Ben Hakanah and Ismael. However, the early Christians kept the ancient traditions of Israel. And “Israel” meant those who saw God. This is the reason why the early Christian Church eclipsed Rabbinical Judaism because it followed an older more authentic Religion dating from the First Temple. It is this Temple Theology that is expressed in both the Epistle to the Hebrews and in John’s Revelation.

While the Septuagint(LXX) contains the true Messianic texts, the Masoretic version does not. It had been edited to back up the Reform Movement without much of the Wisdom Literature conrained in the LXX. At Qumran have been found MSS of both the Book of Enoch and Jubilees which today are canonical only in the Ethiopic Bible.

Since the Presence of God was to be found in the Holy of Holies of the Temple, when the Temple was destroyed by the Romans where is IT? According to Rabbinical Judaism, in the Torah. Thus in the synagogue, the Place where the Torah is kept represents the Holy of Holies. In the Christian Church it is the Church or Qahal/Ecclesia where the Presence of the Almighty resides. Thus the Presence of God in the world is to be found in Creation.

I had the great honor of meeting the author, Dr. Barker, at St. Vladimir’s Seminary where she gave the Schmemann Lecture for 2012. She autographed my copy of her book and we chatted briefly about her research. Dr. Barker told me that once in London, a Rabbi had approached her and said that he wanted to hug her for restoring their ancient tradition. The great Philo of Alexandria spent a life time interpreting Genesis. This book by Margaret Barker is in that category: it is a revelation about Revelation.

The ORCCGB at St Lucy’s Cathedral, Brooklyn, has been a firm friend to the Apostolic Episcopal Church over the years and we join with them in mourning the loss of their Primate. Memory eternal!

I had come across her viewpoint many years ago in a book, “Jews, Christians and Moslems.” It was a true joy to hear it again from her at this bastion of Orthodox Theology: the current Hebrew Masoretic text is not as ancient as both the Vulgate and the Septuagint! Marvelous. The Jews concocted the Masoretic text some 300 years after the death and resurrection of our Lord in order to omit from the prophetic texts any references that Christian apologists were allegorically using to prove the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. The dead sea scrolls contaim .MSS of both the book of Enoch and Jubilees. I am now reading her book, “Creation”, which has the endorsement of Bartholomew the Ecumenical Patriarch.

In 1996, I attended a Continuing Anglican conference in Atlantic City, presided over by the late Presiding Bishop, Frank Benning. At the Conference, I expressed my opinion the the reason the Protestant Bible differs from the Catholic and Orthodox one was that Luther erroneously used the Hebrew masoretic text for his High German translation rather than the Vulgate or septuagint. He wrongly thought that it was older, but the Jewish Rabbis in Germany misled him in that belief. Erasmus proved a better scholar when he edited an authoritative Greek NT text by searching out first the oldest MSS. The King James translators just followed Luther in his mistake. Needless to say my commentary didn’t go over well at the Atlanta Conference. But now we have this world famous scriptural scholar voicing the very same idea. Mirabile visu!

+Francis C. Spataro

Memory Eternal!