Monastic Meditations II

The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the
Cross.

St. Isaac the Syrian

When we think about the message of the cross of Christ, we often neglect to meditate on it in all of its details, and in its full and finished accomplishment. St. Isaac here makes the point that the knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross, and this is quite literally true. I want to pull a verse or two from 2 Samuel out now, and begin to point out some of the knowledge of the Cross concealed there.

2 Samuel 7:12-16 reads:

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

To Christians this is the punishment of Christ, prefigured, though not fully, for our sins. ‘With the stripes of the sons of men’ lays upon Him the burdens of all of the sons of men, the generations yet unborn in David’s time and the generations we see born now. Though Christ never committed iniquity, he nonetheless became sin for us and was therefore punished with the stripes of the sons of men. Yes, this is one of those two-edged prophecies, and yes, it holds both meanings contained within it. The knowledge of the Cross before Christ lies with the suffering of the Cross in Christ. The Bible declares in the Gospels that whoever would follow Jesus must take up his cross daily and follow…the knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross for we, too, who follow. To walk as Jesus did is very literally to carry, stumble, and fall under that cross on the road of pain to Golgotha…but such a beautiful knowledge it is to attain.

When next I post, St. John Climacus:

Let us charge into the good fight with joy and love without being
afraid of our enemies. Though unseen themselves, they can look at
the face of our soul, and if they see it altered by fear, they
take up arms against us all the more fiercely. For the cunning
creatures have observed that we are scared. So let us take up arms
against them courageously. No one will fight with a resolute
fighter.

St. John Climacus

Monastic Meditations I

A post preview:

The soul that really loves God and Christ, though it may do ten
thousand righteousnesses, esteems itself as having wrought
nothing, by reason of its insatiable aspiration after God. Though
it should exhaust the body with fastings, with watchings, its
attitude towards the virtues is as if it had not yet even begun to
labour for them.

St. Macarius the Great

From Sayings of the Desert Fathers (http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm)

I’ve begun to revisit these nuggets of wisdom lately because they seem a comfort as well as an aspiration. My thinking has tended more towards an ascetic lifestyle of late, simply because I find so much satisfaction in spending so much time in Scripture and in prayer. There are actually a great many points about these, so many that I’ve decided to do a series on different sayings, looking at them and going further. If the soul after Christ labours not in vain, then to become more Christ-like through thinking about stuff like this seems a good start. I started with this one because of the persistent delusion we Christians have that we need to do something in order to help God, that our tiny little efforts, destroyed by sinfulness, actually aid Him in running His universe. But we also need to be aware that when we are so privileged as to be used of God in His plans for times, places, people and events, we must continually lean on the fact that there is so much more that we can do, and none of it is in our own strength. We can choose to turn away from sinful behaviours and spend more time with God. We can choose to follow hard after leading, if we are so privileged as to receive it clearly. We can really dig in to the hope of righteousness that we look forward to.

I’m sure that more will come of this, but I’ll leave it for now. Tomorrow, St. Isaac the Syrian:

The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the
Cross.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Blasted Mechanism and Meaning

Lately, I’ve been investigating goa-psy-trance music through looking for didgeridoo stuff on Youtube. During the process of that investigation, I came across a documentary on psy-trance that got me thinking about the meaning we search for in life, as well as a fusion group called Blasted Mechanism. The voiceover on the documentary was mentioning the intense need for a consensual experience, and the realization and question ‘is this really happening?’ It’s a question that begs to be answered by Christ, because we know that yes, this is really happening, yes, it’s consensual, and yes, it needs to be preached. Christ is the centre and the object of any meaning that we attach to life, because He is the Truth. He is the Way, and He, too, is the Life.

Forgive me for the long hiatus, especially after the dated post so long ago. It has been a busy summer, spiritually and physically, but I’ve got a wonderful new perspective on the walk with Christ we’re called to. I’ve been listening to various podcasts from theresurgence.com, from John Piper and from Mark Driscoll, and they’ve been expanding both knowledge and spirit. I’ve been reading through the Bible cover to cover, something I’ve never done, and my Psalms have been slow, but moving along still. They’ve taken a different form for prayer, however. My thinking has moved along with everything else, and I’ve been really challenged to take Christ out to the culture, being missional here in the “West” through various things. I’m hoping to keep on going with a lot more. We’ll see what God has in store.

Back soon.