Another Look at Repentance - Melkite Eparchy of Newton

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The LinkSociety ofPublicansby Dr. Frances ColieWith the conviction that onlyprayer can bring about andsustain the spiritual renewalof our communities, the Society ofPublicans was established in 1982,This prayer ministry takes its namefrom the parable of the Pharisee andthe Publican (Luke 18:9-14) in whichthe Publican, humble and dependent onthe Lord, is the example of true prayer.The Society is a fellowship of peoplein parishes throughout the eparchywho have committed themselves topray daily for the spiritual renewal ofour parishes and the entire eparchy.There are three levels of commitmentin the Society. In the first, peoplecommit themselves to pray daily forthe spiritual renewal of our Church.Each parish in the eparchy is assigneda particular day to be remembered inprayer – so that there are people allover the country praying for the needsof the parish(es) of the day.On the second level of commitment,we encourage Publicans to gather forcommunal prayer to intercede for theintentions of the Society as well as for thevarious needs of the people of the parish.In some parishes, the members meet forthe Divine Liturgy, the Paraclisis, or anIntercession Service, using one of theprayer services included in the PublicansPrayer Book (available from SophiaPress, www.melkite.org). In other placesthe group meets when necessary to prayfor a special intention. Still other parishesremember the prayer intentions of theSociety in their regularly scheduled serviceson Sundays or every day.On the third level of commitment,some society groups have formed telephoneprayer chains. By phone, email,newsletter or in person, a local coordinatorkeeps members informed ofintentions that are brought to him or herby people in the parish. The local coordinatormay organize group meetings,as circumstances permit, and enlist othersto pray daily for our Church and forthe intentions of the parish.Each experience in prayer beginswith an act of faith that God has alreadydone so much in loving us and in givingus His Son, Jesus. Conscious of this, it isfor us to relax in the Lord, resting entirelyupon Him. The Good News is thatGod truly loves us. We learn this only byexperiencing in sitting and listening tothe presence of Christ’s Spirit within us.As Eastern Catholics our focus inprayer is contemplative, stressingprayer more as a state of experientialexistence rather than a thing to be done.Prayer transfigures us, changes us. Allcatechesis, lessons, books, and sermonswill not change our lives; only the experienceof God will change us. In manyways we are strangers to the person wereally are! Everything in our spirituallife is about changing ourselves – notabout changing God – manipulatingGod or making God hear our petitions.We all live lives of contemplation.The question is, what do we contemplate?Is it riches, power, prestige,fame? Or do we contemplate the wondersof God, the glory of His creation,and the joys of the spiritual life? Whatwe contemplate will play a significantrole in the life we live. The contemplativeis simply a person who meets Godin an ever deepening openness to the“living Mystery” within him.In an American culture, we are especiallyprone to be doers and performers.Instead, we must learn to sit before Godand hear of His infinite love for us andHis whole creation. Then will we be ableto give our response as did Isaiah theProphet: “Here I am, send me.” (Is 6:9)In the parable of the Prodigal Sonthat embodies the spirit of our ministry,the lesson to be contemplated is that theolder son never really fell in love withthe father. He worked for him as a servantwould, demanding tit-for-tat. Thefather never could be a father to him,because the son would never let thelove of the father pour over him andchange him, change his value-structure.The younger son, however, crushed byhis sinfulness, and purified by his alienationand separation from his father, letthe father be his father. The father dideverything and rejoiced to do so.The desert experience teaches uswhat the Prodigal Son learned by beinga pilgrim, separated from the father’slove and home by his own doing, namely,the desire to be independent of hisfather’s love. But returning to thefather’s home, he becomes docile andsupple to the father’s slightest wish. Nolonger is he under the law of a tyrant,but he is liberated by an experience offorgiving love to return love for love.The prophet then sits in the celebratingjoyful love of the father and hears aboutthe great love the father has for him.Then that prophetic word moves usto our response. We move outward tobuild a like community of joy and lovethat we have experienced through thegratuitous love of our Father for Hischildren. Having been accepted in loveby God we have a sense of real identity.We can go out as God’s representativesto witness to this great divine love forall men and women. The existentialWord is being spoken in our daily lives.It is a continuation of the same propheticWord spoken in Scriptures and it livesin our hearts. The Existential Wordunfolds in every event of our lives as weexperience God’s great love in the smileof a child, the violence of a storm, thecalm serenity of a summer afternoon,and in the suffering of a dying person.We need not leave the world, but we areto be reconcilers, as Paul says, withChrist of the whole universe back to theFather. We will see the world throughdifferent eyes – we shall see our Churchcome alive and our parishes renewed aswe shall see them being transfiguredslowly by the inner life of God thatinhabits us and all people. †Note:If you are interested in the Society ofPublicans Prayer ministry – please contact theOffice of Educational Services, 201 417 3804or email doccolie@Yahoo.com28 SOPHIA • Summer 2012
Bible confuses me!” Ihave heard this refrain many“Thetimes in my experience ofteaching Bible to high school studentsand adults. Unfortunately, the complexityof the Bible often discourages usfrom studying it seriously and in depth.And while we regularly encounter theword in the Divine Liturgy and prayerof the church, many treasures of scripture– pearls of great price – are overlookedbecause we sense that anyengagement with the Bible will be a difficulttask. If we are to mature in ourfaith and call to Christian discipleship,however, spending time with Scriptureis indispensible. Bible study can alsoserve to deeply enrich our prayer withthe word. Fortunately, the Catholic andOrthodox traditions have given us manytools to assist us in our efforts to understandthe Bible and apply its teaching toour modern circumstances. It might behelpful to keep the following points inmind as we reflect on Scripture.First, many people approach theBible as if it were a book with chapters.But the Bible is actually a library, a collectionof books. And as we know,libraries have different kinds of booksthat use a variety of literary genres - history,poetry, fiction, children’s books,etc. We know, for example, that HarryPotter is not the same kind of book as abiography of George Washington. Andwe don’t expect every book in thelibrary to be a chronological history.When it comes to the Bible, manyreaders, Americans especially, arepoorly equipped to recognize the differentliterary forms and contexts used bythe sacred authors. Unfortunately, thiscan lead us to miss some of the mostimportant points the texts are trying toconvey. For example, the OldTestament book of Jonah is not primarilya report about a man who was swallowedby a large fish. To focus on thispoint – how a man could survive insidea fish for three days – is to miss the lessonof the story, which is that God loveseven those whom we consider to be ourenemies and sometimes God asks us todo things we would rather not do.This brings us to a second importantobservation – biblical texts can be“true” even though they might not behistorically and scientifically accurate.The creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2convey rich truths about the world andhuman beings – i.e., creation is good,and human beings are created in theimage and likeness of God. Genesis alsoteaches us that we are given the task ofcaring for the earth and God’s creatures.These texts were not intended to be historical,scientific accounts of how theworld was created, nor was it theauthor’s intention to state categoricallythat God created the world in six days.Rather, those who wrote these storieswere concerned with deeper truthsabout the universe and our place in it.Genesis is not about how the world wascreated, but by whom it was created aswell as the Creator’s intentions. We cansee that these texts are “true” becausethey teach us about the creative powersand goodness of God as well as the dignityof all human beings, even thoughthe stories are not linear history.Third, it is helpful to keep in mind thatthe biblical stories were written in historicaland cultural contexts that were muchdifferent from 21st century America. If wefail to understand these contexts, we runthe risk of misinterpreting the text. Thebooks of the Bible are what scholars call“high context” documents. That meansthat the authors assume that the readerunderstands the historical, religious, andcultural references/values that are interwoveninto the text. In other words, thebiblical authors did not include footnotesbecause they did not feel the need toexplain anything. Modern western literature,on the other hand, is “low context”.Everything is explained. A good exampleof low context literature is a credit cardagreement – it has lots of footnotes!Untangling the Bibleby Brian B. PinterThe people who wrote the Gospels,for example, assumed that the readersare familiar with the characters and storiesof the Old Testament, Israelite history,the Jerusalem Temple cult of animalsacrifice, the tense relationship betweenIsraelites and Samaritans, as well asNear Eastern cultural mores and roles,among many other things. ConsiderMark 14:13 - how did Jesus know to tellhis disciples to look for a man carrying ajar of water as they searched for a placeto have their Passover meal? Simple – infirst century Palestine, men almostalways carried water in skins; womenuse jars. A man with a jar would havebeen easy to spot! More often then not,however, these interesting and often significantcontextual clues are lost on us,and as a result we are limited in howdeeply we can enter into what is beingportrayed in the scriptures.Professor Dale Martin, a NewTestament scholar at Yale University,has suggested that we view the Bible asa sacred space we enter, like a church ora cathedral. Once inside there are manythings to ponder – icons, stained glass,sacred books, etc. Our experience of thissacred space will be different dependingon whether we are alone or with thecommunity at prayer. The Bible is similar.It too is a sacred space we enter tohear the word of God. Our traditionoffers us many ways of experiencing thetreasures within, from the rich spiritualand allegorical interpretations of theChurch Fathers to the contextual methodsused in modern times. We areblessed to be heirs of such a legacy!The Bible is fascinating and spirituallynourishing. Its apparent complexityshould not discourage us frommaking the scriptures, both the Oldand New Testament, a regular part ofour lives. As the author of the Epistleto the Hebrews observed “Indeed, theword of God is living and effective,sharper than any two-edged sword,penetrating even between soul andspirit, joints and marrow, and able todiscern reflections and thoughts of theheart” (Hebrews 4:12). †Brian B. Pinter is a member of Christ the Saviorparish in Yonkers. He is also the director ofcampus ministry and a teacher of theology atRegis High School in New York City.ScriptureSummer 2012 • SOPHIA 29
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Another Look at Repentance - Melkite Eparchy of Newton

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