Reflection on the Word for the First Sunday of Advent in 2022
The Day of the Lord is Coming
- (Matthew 24:36,44)
" But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. (...) Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come. "
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Pope Francis and Constantinople Orthodox Greek Patriarch Bartholomew kissed each other on the peck, held hands seemingly for ever like rival sheriff candidates before the TV cameras in Arizona. Nonetheless, the lovely event occurred at the end of a ceremony in Jerusalem, in the middle of 2014. They prayed together for the Christian unity at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the assumed site, according to the Gospels, where Jesus was crucified, and consequently was buried and resurrected.
Hearsay has it, that the Pope and the Patriarch made an astonishing statement, that they were planning to heal the so called Great Schism, which is the great split within world Christianity, when almost 1000 years ago the Western, Latin churches divorced the Eastern, mostly Greek speaking episcopates.
Pope Francis and Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew promised each other and world Christianity that on the 1700th anniversary of the ecumenical Nicea Council, which happened in 325 CE, they will gather again in 2025, with the serious determination to work on the long time broken ties between the two major bodies in Christianity, the Roman Catholicism and the Greek Orthodoxy, which latter in theory includes the national churches in Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and so on.
Till the 1054 schism Christianity was mostly a united body, created on the orders of Emperor Constantin and Emperor Theodosios in the IVth century and by the following consecutive Ecumenical Councils. The centuries later arising tension, exploded in 1054, was of course rather a power struggle in its nature than a theological disagreement.
The Western Roman Empire, fatally stricken by the Huns, finally ended by the attacks of German tribes in the 5th century, meanwhile the Eastern Greek speaking part of the Roman Empire survived till 1453, when the Ottoman Turks took its capitol, Konstantinople.
In the year of the split, Rome’s spiritual might grew over the European kings, meanwhile in the East, the Greek Emperor was the official head of the church, not the patriarch.
The two clashing powerhouse used an ongoing theological debate as an excuse for the showdown between the two major claims of authority in the Christian world. This theological debate was about the procession of the Holy Spirit. The debate was an excuse, because all sides had imperial agendas looking for the opportunity to suppress the opposition declaring it heretic.
Many times in church history fighting heresy or having denominational splits were rather similar to a civil war inside a realm or a country, even though these often evolved into international conflicts. But at this time the wholeness of Christianity became divided into two major parties, into West and East, Latin and Greek, following geographical and political lines.
The major theological excuse was the so called fililoque issue, where the West said as early as the late 6th century, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son together, meanwhile the East was adamant that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.
The disagreement was always around for half a millennium, but only in 1054 led to anathema, where the parties mutually excommunicated each other. It might have been hilarious for third party investigators, that both the Western and Eastern theologians referred to the same biblical verse to justify their point, respectivly, in which Jesus says in the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 26, that “ When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
The West said, that Jesus sends the Spirit of truth, the East said that the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father.
One thing is certain that loosing each other over doctrines, interpretations, is way worse than loosing a debate or an argument. It is definitely not the Christian way, and as the Church history shows, that disagrements evolved into bloodsheds, into burning heretics at the stake, into waging wars to enforce religious authority over other nations.
Definitely, it would be interesting to know something intimate about the very nature of God, however and fortunately it is beyond human understanding, so nobody can ultimately claim the he knows more than his siblings on Earth, thus nobody should inflict spiritual tyranny over the others, because any spiritual tyranny or manipulation is a clear blasphemy regarding that God is the only King we should ever accept to rule according to God’s righteous and just ordinances and commandments, as Moses told the Israelites that “ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is whenever we call on him? What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today? ”
Regarding the judgment day, the Gospel says, that its ordered time is so hidden, that nobody knows, not even the Son, or the heavenly angels, but God only. The place of the Son on Earth and in Heaven is so elevated as Daniel wrote that “ I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Dominion was given him, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom one that which will not be destroyed.”
Still the time of the judgment day is hidden by God, who knows it only. As the Son of Man, mentioned by Daniel, serves God, then the Son of Man has to obey the ancient one who sits on the throne.
As Paul wrote that “Then the end comes, when the Son will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. (...) When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to God who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.” If the Son of Man knew the ordered time, then his role is not serving but planning, which is impossible as the creed says, that the Son was begotten. It should be clear that before the Son was begotten, God had been King already.
Nonetheless, it is our human thinking and terms to deal with time in seconds, hours, and years, deeming that the past, the present, and the future differ from each other.
Maybe it is not too incomprehensible that our personal judgment day when we leave this world behind and the judgment day at the end of the history, the first day of the creation, the final collapse of the creation, the alpha and the omega is one single time point, not two. In this regard there is no need to know the time, even our own time.
The only thing we must know, and Jesus said it, that “Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.”
May we be always ready for that Day, by the grace of the Lord, according to the will of God, by the Holy Spirit,
AMEN"
