Learning about the Incarnation from Maximos the Confessor

“A sure warrant for looking forward with hope to the deification of human nature is provided by the incarnation of God, which makes man god to the same degree as God Himself became man.  For it is clear that He who became man without sin (cf. Heb 4:15) will divinize human nature without changing it into the divine nature, and will raise it up for His own sake to the same degree as He lowered himself for man's sake. This is what St Paul teaches mystically when he says, '. . . that in the ages to come He might display the overflowing riches of His grace' (Eph 2:7)." 

    

~ Maximos the Confessor, The Philokalia, Text 62, First Century of Various Texts

    
TALK ABOUT IT  What do you think about the Incarnation as the means of atonement (uniting human and divine natures)?  Why then the Crucifixion?  
  
NOTE
Maximos notes that it is love that unites those who have been divided and is able to create a unity of will and purpose.  The praxis he recommends is "simply that we should show mercy and receive mercy" (Text 45).  
  
DOING IT (INNER PRACTICE)  How are you being called to practice receiving mercy? 
  
DOING IT (OUTER PRACTICE)  How are you being called to practice showing mercy?
     
LEARNING FROM MAXIMOS THE CONFESSOR: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Learning from Timothy Ware

Orthodox religious thought lays the utmost emphasis on the image of God in man.  Man is a 'living theology', and because he is God's icon, he can find God by looking within his own heart, by 'returning within himself': 'The Kingdom of God is within you' (Luke xvii, 21).  'Know yourselves,' said Saint Antony of Egypt.  '...He who knows himself, knows God. (Letter 3).  'If you are pure,' wrote Satin Isaac the Syrian (late seventh century), 'heaven is within you; within yourself you will see the angels and the Lord of the angels' (Quoted in P. Evdokimov, L'Orthodoxie, p 88).  And of Saint Pachomius it is recorded: 'In the purity of his heart he saw the invisible nature of God as in a mirror' (First Greek Life, 22).  
  
Because he is an icon of God, each member of the human race, even the most sinful, is infinitely precious in God's sight.  'When you see your brother,' said Clement of Alexandria (died 215), 'you see God' (Stromateis, I xix [94, 5]).  And Evagarius taught: 'After God, you must count all men as God Himself' (On Prayer, 123).  This respect for every human being is visibly expressed in Orthodox worship, when the priest senses not only the icons but the members of the congregation, saluting the image of God in each person.  'The best icon of God is man' (P. Evodokimov, L'Orthodoxie,  218).   
   
~ Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, p 225-226 
   
TALK ABOUT IT:  How does this Orthodox teaching affirm or challenge your own thoughts about human beings? 
  
DO IT (INNER PRACTICE):  If, as in Orthodox teaching, this divine image (icon) is a potentiality to be made real, how can/do you practice realizing it? 
  
DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE):  How can/do you summon this potentiality in others?  
    
LEARNING FROM TIMOTHY WARE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Learning from Martin Thornton

Spiritual direction assumes the centrality of prayer as power to act... The practical out-going Christian is not someone who, vaguely inspired by Jesus, sets about solving the world's problems and trying to love his neighbors off his own bat - albeit autographed by Jesus.  Rather he is one who, ontologically incorporated into the sacred humanity of Christ, becomes his redemptive instrument.... Christian action is not action of which Jesus approves but action that he performs through his incorporated, and therefore prayerful, disciples.  
~ Martin Thornton, "Spiritual Direction", pp 13-14       
                                                                                                        No images of Martin Thornton
  
TALK ABOUT IT   How does the difference between doing what Jesus would do, and Jesus doing his work through us, matter to you?  
  
DO IT (INNER PRACTICE)   How does this difference effect you experience the practice of compassion? 
   
DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE)  How could this difference effect the way others experience your compassion?  

LEARNING FROM MARTIN THORNTON: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Learning from William Johnston

After the Second Vatican Council, scholasticism collapsed.  New theological methods arose.  No one can question the value of the historical critical approach to Scripture and patristics that is now in vogue; no one can deny the immense value of modern, scientific scholarship and research.  Yet the West has to learn an important lesson from the Orthodox tradition: the value of prayer and mystical experience for theology.  Profound wisdom comes not only from scientific research but also from contemplation.  This is the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas who speaks of connatuarality and knowledge that comes from love.  Such wisdom will be all the more necessary as Christianity enters into dialogue with the mystical religions of Asia.
  
~ William Johnson, "Mystical Theology: The Science of Love"
   
TALK ABOUT IT  What could mystical experience contribute beyond reason, research, and rational thought to theological study (the study of God and God's nature, attributes, and relation to the world)? 

DO IT (INNER PRACTICE)  What inner (contemplative) practices are helping you (or what inner practices do you think might help you) to know and understand God's nature and relation to the world?  

DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE)  What relationship can you discover between you inner practice and your outward relationships with / behaviors toward others? 


LEARNING FROM WILLIAM JOHNSTON: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION