Hopeful Universal Reconciliation

https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/st-isaac-the-syrian-the-triumph-of-the-kingdom-over-gehenna/

If we do not share St Isaac’s horror of an everlasting hell, then perhaps that says something very important about us. This, I suggest, is St Isaac’s unstated argument. It’s not just a matter of philosophical reasoning or biblical exegesis. Once one has experienced the extraordinary love and mercy of God, as Isaac had, once one has been drawn into the embrace of the Father through the Son in the Spirit, then one knows the truth—and thus one knows how to rightly interpret the Holy Scriptures and one knows how to rightly preach the gospel of Jesus Christ … and one knows the impossibility of eternal perdition.

But Isaac also believes that he is speaking from within the Holy Tradition of the Church. He is not presenting his readers with a doctrinal innovation. He is not teaching, he assures us, “things of which our former orthodox Fathers never spoke, as though we were bursting out with an opinion which did not accord with truth” (II.39.7). He invokes two respected Oriental Fathers specifically in support—Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus. One quotation from Theodore is of particular interest:

In the world to come, those who have chosen here what is good, will receive the felicity of good things along with praise; whereas the wicked, who all their life have turned aside to evil deeds, once they have been set in order in their minds by punishments and the fear of them, choose the good, having come to learn how much they have sinned, and that they have persevered in doing evil things and not good; by means of all this they receive a knowledge of religion’s excellent teaching, and are educated so as to hold on to it with a good will, and so eventually they are held worthy of the felicity of divine munificence. For Christ would never have said “Until you pay the last farthing” unless it had been possible for us to be freed from our sins once we had recompensed for them through punishments. Nor would He have said “He will be beaten with many stripes” and “He will be beaten with few stripes” if it were not the case that the punishments measured out in correspondence to the sins, were finally going to have an end. (II.39.8)

Clearly Theodore does not understand repentance and purification as being impossible after death. He declares the hope and expectation that the wicked will eventually come to see the gravity of their sin and choose the good—and thus be saved. Divine punishment is educative and of limited duration.

St Isaac presents us with a simple choice—the punishment of Gehenna is either retributive or remedial, punitive or medicinal. If the former, then God, and we, are trapped in the past; if the latter, then God, and we, are open to a future beyond our imaginings:

So then, let us not attribute to God’s actions and His dealings with us any idea of requital. Rather, we should speak of fatherly provision, a wise dispensation, a perfect will which is concerned with our good, and complete love. If it is a case of love, then it is not one of requital; and if it is a case of requital, then it is not one of love. Love, when it operates, is not concerned with the requiting of former things by means of its own good deeds or correction; rather, it looks to what is most advantageous in the future: it examines what is to come, and not things that are past. (II.39.18)

Isaac’s eschatology is soundly biblical and must be distinguished from the Origenist construals of apocatastasis that were condemned in the sixth century.

In light of our reading of the eschatological homilies, the oft-quoted famous words of St Isaac of the scourging of the “scourge of love” take on a very different meaning. Read the passage yet once again:

I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love. For what is so bitter and vehement as the punishment of love? I mean that those who have become conscious that they have sinned against love suffer greater torment from this than from any fear of punishment. For the sorrow caused in the heart by sin against love is sharper than any torment that can be. It would be improper for a man to think that sinners in Gehenna are deprived of the love of God. Love is the offspring of knowledge of the truth which, as is commonly confessed, is given to all. The power of love works in two ways: it torments those who have played the fool, even as happens here when a friend suffers from a friend; but it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed its duties. Thus I say that this is the torment of Gehenna: bitter regret. But love inebriates the souls of the sons of Heaven by its delectability. (I.28, p. 266)

The scourging of the “scourge of love” is nothing less than God’s work of purification in the hearts of the wicked. The chastisement that God imposes in hell is educative, remedial, and reparative. God scourges in order to bring the damned to salvation, to bring them into a knowledge both of his mercy and of their sin and its terrible consequences for themselves and for God’s creation. Even Gehenna falls into God’s redemptive purposes. Its purpose is to eventually create within the hearts of the condemned the stirrings of faith and repentance, thus allowing them to experience God precisely as love and not as torture. Only thus are the sufferings and anguish of the damned, caused by the inescapable presence of Love, morally tolerable.

St Isaac would emphatically reject any suggestion that the damned are beyond redemption. God would never have created a cosmos whose history would conclude, even for a small portion of those he has brought into being, with Gehenna. And it is unthinkable that he would have so constructed the after-life that the wicked would be incapable of turning their hearts to Christ and appealing to his forgiveness. The Lord’s face is set “all the time towards forgiveness” (II.40.13). His grace is like an ocean that knows no measure.

Here is where philosophy ends and mystery begins. Philosophers tell us that God so values human (libertarian) freedom that an eternal populated hell must remain a possibility, if not a definite certainty. Every human being is given an opportunity to definitively accept or reject God, and God will respect this choice, even if it means the individual’s suffering and destruction (see, for example, The Problem of Hell by Jonathan L. Kvanig and Hell: The Logic of Damnation by Jerry L. Walls). This has become the ecumenical justification for everlasting perdition. Freedom ultimately triumphs over Love. But the Syrian mystic refuses to be trapped by this philosophical problem, for the God who rose from the dead on Easter morning is not trapped by it:

Accordingly we say that, even in the matter of the afflictions and sentence of Gehenna, there is some hidden mystery, whereby the wise Maker has taken as a starting point for its future outcome the wickedness of our actions and wilfulness, using it as a way of bringing to perfection His dispensation wherein lies the teaching which makes wise, and the advantage beyond description, hidden from both angels and human beings, hidden too from those who are being chastised, whether they be demons or human beings, hidden for as long as the ordained period of time holds sway. (II.39.20)

Gehenna will end. Through his goodness and beauty God will overcome evil. The damned will be saved, not by force or coercion, but by the chastisement of love that will ultimately bring them to the true understanding of the happiness they have always hoped and dreamed for. St Isaac does not speculate further. He simply presents us with the confident hope that the infinitely wise and good God will restore and consummate his creation in Love.

In his essay “Universalism of Salvation: St Isaac the Syrian,” Catholic theologian Waclaw Hryniewicz summarizes St Isaac’s understanding of apocatastasis in these words:

In the sufferings of Gehenna Isaac perceives a hidden mystery. Gehenna has no sense in itself. The wise Creator knew that it would disclose its purpose in the future. Iniquity and willfulness of rational creatures will not remain in them for ever in the state called Gehenna. God is able to carry out His work to the very end. The mystery of Gehenna remains provisionally hidden before humans, angels and demons. …

Isaac belongs to those Christian mystics who do not exaggerate the power of evil. In his eyes human sin is infinitely small in comparison with the infinite mercy of God. The torments of Gehenna are caused by self-exclusion from the great feast in the Kingdom of heaven, by a person’s inability to participate in the love of God. Yet they will come to an end, although here on earth we do not know when it will take place. Gehenna is a consequence of sin which also will have its end. If God punishes, He does it out of love, in order to heal a sick freedom of rational creatures. Sinners in Gehenna are not deprived of the compassionate love of God. The purpose of punishment is change for the better, purification and conversion. The punishment ceases when this purpose is achieved. The sinners are not deprived of God’s love even in their infernal state. They can always count on His help. God’s justice and mercy are inseparable. He awaits with love all His creatures at the end of their purification. If evil, sin and Gehenna do not have their origins in God, how can they be eternal? …

According to Isaac, Gehenna can only be temporary and provisional, permeated by God’s love and mercy. He would not allow a punishment which would deny His own nature. The punishment has a therapeutic and correctional meaning. It is always connected with His “compassionate intentions and purpose” to set us on the upright path, and not to bring us to perdition. Gehenna’s torment is “a matter of immense and ineffable compassion.” It must have its end and achieve its purpose. For this reason it is subject to a limit. It is not for eternity and will last only for a fixed period, decreed by God’s wisdom. The punishments, measured out in correspondence to the sins, are finally going to have an end. The eternal punishment would be a monstrous reality unworthy of God. Who thinks otherwise has not overcome an”infantile way of thinking,” “the childish opinion of God.” (The Challenge of Hope, pp. 82-83)

Hilarion Alfeyev describes Isaac’s vision of Gehenna as akin to the Catholic doctrine of purgatory: “Gehenna is a sort of purgatory rather than hell: it is conceived and established for the salvation of both human beings and angels. However, this true aim of Gehenna is hidden from those who are chastised in it, and will be revealed only after Gehenna is abolished. According to Isaac, all those who have fallen away from God will eventually return to Him because of the temporary and short torment in Gehenna that is prepared for them in order that they purify themselves through the fire of suffering and repentance.” It is unclear to me why Isaac believes that the true aim of hell, namely, salvation, will be hidden from the wicked. How does this not lead to a despair that makes repentance impossible? But perhaps even ultimate despair can become the occasion of total surrender to God.

Speaking about this stuff and speculating upon it brings a sort of fear to me, and rightly so, for it can swerve into heresy fairly simply; yet there is something so hopeful in the idea that it must be spoken about, aloud and shared.

The Catholic Church has declared Universalism a heresy, yet the full definition of Universalism includes an important logical clause, “that we know that all men will be saved.”  The Church wishes to say that it is a possibility that all will be saved, but we cannot yet know it for it is outside of current revelation.  The Church has, in fact, never declared anyone to be in hell, only some saints have written upon certain visions and experiences they’ve had with particularities in hell.

So this is why I personally find St. Isaac’s writings so special that it fills one with a sense of light illumined by hope; that there is a purpose even in Gehenna, even in hell, though it is hidden from us, wicked and righteous alike; thus Gehenna, for creatures in their limitedness, is eternal and cannot be explained any other way, though not in God’s eyes, the master of eternity, whose throne has been set in eternity for and through all ages and beyond ages.  “In the sufferings of Gehenna Isaac perceives a hidden mystery.  Gehenna has no sense in itself. The wise Creator knew that it would disclose its purpose in the future. Iniquity and willfulness of rational creatures will not remain in them for ever in the state called Gehenna. God is able to carry out His work to the very end. The mystery of Gehenna remains provisionally hidden before humans, angels and demons. …”

Priestly Celibacy

When man’s mind is covered in shadows—and it is certainly enshadowed, by Original Sin and all sins—, the devil is greatly aware of how man’s mind offshoots into falsehoods, particularly in the realms of pleasures which man can afford himself.  The devil will indeed wish to darken man regarding the source of life, where life comes from, and what leads to life.   The devil will particularly enshadow his mind such that man only knows of or can think of one way in which life is created, enshadow his mind such that he can only think of one source of life, and that is sexuality.  

To a man who has not been theologically developed, this false belief will certainly take hold in his mind, because it adheres to his faulty logic, reason, and frames of thought.  Yet the fairytale, ancient paganism that “the stork delivers the new child” is in some ways a better understanding. 

Because as the Church teaches, there are several other ways in which life is created.  

From nothing.  God literally creates life from nothing.  Genesis 1.

From a woman’s ‘yes’ to God.  Mary’s ‘yes’ to God brought into the world a human being who was, moments beforehand, not in the world.  This child’s Father was in the world in many respects through Judaism, and this child is consubstantial with the Father.  Yet the physicality of the child was not in the world in one moment, and in the world the next moment—and the event which caused this was Mary’s “so be it,” her Fiat.

And from a man’s ‘yes’ to God.  Abraham birthed an innumerable amount of children through his ‘yes’ to God.  God says to Abraham’s ‘yes,’

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. (Genesis 22:17)

Abraham’s children were not immediate, they were not birthed instantaneously after his ‘yes.’  His children were rather a ‘will be,’ a promise of God for the future, which to God is just as present as the present.

The celibacy of the priest is another physical manifestation of this spiritual, mystical, greatly mysterious world in which the immaterial, the non-physical creates the physical.  If the priest were to administer any other bread or food, this mystery would disappear, the promise of the immaterial creating the material would disappear.  Yet, because of the grace provided by God through the priesthood, the Bread the priest administers is something superstantial: it is the Bread of the Word, it is the Bread of Life.  It is the promise of the uncovering of the ancient mystery of John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)

Priestly celibacy declares this immaterial, mysterious world without ceasing, of the immaterial creating the material, of the Word creating and forever multiplying life.

How Much God Loves Sinners

How much God loves even the worst of sinners is beyond us.  The reason it remains beyond us, even unfathomable to us is simply because of how hard it is for men to love sinners due to his limited resources and vulnerability.  The Saints in heaven pray for sinners all the time and share in God’s compassion—for those on Earth it is harder to feel this compassion due to the flesh and temporality.

I do think most men understand that there is something unreal inherent in sin.  Thus when a man approaches something imperfectly unreal such as another man in a state of mortal sin, he is quick to mirror, yet in opposition, in hopes to become some sort of savior himself.  So he becomes angry, graceless, vulgar, ugly.  Yet instead of becoming a savior, he himself becomes more like that unreal thing.

God, however, is freely without sin, so he has never been subjected to the eternal enemy, the king of sin, thus God has never has any need to become graceless, vulgar, ugly—His treasury is overflowing with resources to have compassion upon sinners; he even has compassion upon and love for the unreal things.  Rather, all he has ever had to do is expose, expose the unreal thing for what it truly is— for in everyday life, the unreal thing coexists with all mankind, though in hiding.  Thus approaches the Godman, and suddenly the unreal thing speaks, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”  (Matthew 8:29).

From St Faustina’s Diary (Paragraph 1698)

“I often attend upon the dying and through entreaties obtain trust in God’s mercy for them, and implore God for an abundance of divine grace, which is always victorious.

God’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way.

Outwardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is not so.

The soul, illuminated by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that, in an instant, it receives from God forgiveness of sin and punishment, while outwardly it shows no sign either of repentance or of contrition, because souls [at that stage] no longer react to external things.

Oh, how beyond comprehension is God’s mercy! But – horror! – there are also souls who voluntarily and consciously reject and scorn this grace!

Although a person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God. But sometimes, the obduracy in souls is so great that consciously they choose hell; they [thus] make useless all the prayers that other souls offer to God for them and even the efforts of God Himself.”

To Reject the Pope is to Reject God's Grace

God deigned, though all men are mired in the shadows, to elect a man to represent Him in between His first and second coming.  

God had no need to do this.  God could have left man with just a memory of Him, pens and pencils, the Holy Spirit floating around, and twelve original members of the same Body.  Yet instead He entrusted to men, to one man, the position to be called the temporal head of the Church.  This same man, at the moments in which Jesus was entering into His brutal torture, passion, and death, in fear rejected Jesus three times publicly and vehemently just after promising everything to him.  Yet despite this, his annunciation upon Peter, one of His first-borns, remained the same.  What is this but God's grace on man's frailty and tendency to unbelief and doubt?

To reject the Pope is to reject God's grace on man, particularly His command that we obey those who temporally on Earth represent His eternal authority.

Modification of Polish

I’ve learned some prayer in Polish, and found myself wishing to make some modifications to it.  I for instance modified the Hail Mary prayer.

 

Zdrowaś Maryjo, łaski pełna, Pan z Tobą, błogosławionaś Ty między niewiastami, i błogosławiony owoc żywota Twojego, Jezus. Święta Maryjo, Matko Boża, módl się za nami grzesznymi teraz i w godzinę śmierci naszej.

Zrow Marie, pełn od łask, Pan esc z Woe Bosławat esc woe miedzy ewiames, i bosławat esc ten owoc od wouz żywot, Jezus. Swiety Marie, Majce od Boż, odle zad as grzesnames, eraz i w godzinę od asej  mierc.

The sense in which we already 'know everything', and just need to realise it

The sense in which we already 'know everything' and just need to realize it, Bruce Charlton on 05/08/2018:

At first sight this seems a ridiculous idea, that has apparently been refuted by the great accumulation of knowledge through human history; but I believe there is a sense in which the broader argument is indicative of a profound insight - and this is why the argument has been taken seriously for more than 2000 years (ie. since Plato).

The sense is that life is two curves running from childhood to maturity - a rising line of self-consciousness which increases from childhood to a maximum plateau attained at adolescence. And a descending line of innate and spontaneous knowing which is high in childhood (albeit it is an unconscious knowing), and reaches a nadir in at adolescence.

In modern society adolescence is (spiritually) usually where matters stop - what we call adulthood is not 'maturity' but merely a sustained and degenerate adolescence. Modern 'adults' have lost their spontaneous natural knowledge (instead just passively absorbing propaganda and hypothesies from 'society') and they live in a cut-off state of self-consciousness (so cut-off that it doubts and denies even itself).

The task of adolescence ought-to-be to change that descending line of knowing into an arc - rising in adult maturity to reach the same kind of spontaneous and universal knowing that we began-with - but this time it is conscious knowing.

Thus, children know everything but are unaware of the fact, adolescents know nothing and are aware of the fact; but spiritually-mature grown-ups potentially know everything, and know-what-they-know.

I say adults potentially know everything, because the process of discovering-what-you-already-know is linear and happens in-time; so it would be more accurate to say that knowledge is un-bounded, open-ended, and tends-towards a situation of knowing everything-that-can-be-known - always from the perspective of a single self.

This scenario is, presumably, why all real learning - all knowing of truth - has the distinct feeling of being a realising, a remembering, a recognition... true knowledge is always 'familiar' - we always feel that we 'always knew that' but had never articulated it [emphasis added].  I'm saying that we always Did know that - but did not realise we knew it, and could not use that knowing until after we had articulated it.

In terms of knowledge the trajectory is therefore from unconscious knowledge to conscious knowledge; from the implicit to the explicit; from immersion-in knowledge to standing outside it; from passivity through contemplation to creativity.

Give a Man a Mask... , Part II

I have this lingering suspicion that I know what is going on right now in the frontier of global consciousness.  I suppose you will have to take my word before you continue.

I believe that:

1)  We have entered into an age where words have begun almost mutating.  No one really expects the verbal inputs that they receive to be greater than 80% accurate.  Verbal inflections and social cues are now at the forefront of everyone's mind.  Only with the open expression of the primal mind is anything real expressed.  In a spiritual sense, hard hitting words are now used as curses and their opposites as blessings.  Double meanings are nearly constant.

2.)  There is absolutely an awareness of this happening.  At the forefront of this is the acknowledgement that in EVERY human being and living thing there is indescribable intelligence that is beyond our own mortal comprehension.  Combined with this is the subconscious acknowledgement that the Jews have been right all along.

3.)  The anxiety that everyone has been complaining about for the longest time is beginning to subside.  People are beginning to understand that feelings are and shape your reality.

4.)  The vibrations (think String Theory) of the subliminal messages that we receive literally sculpt and construct the next iteration of our DNA.  Spirit is reality.  We do in fact mutate like evolutionists suggest, but it is simply the result of the vibrations that we receive from other living organisms.

Thank you.  God Bless.