Last night we were visiting with friends and we were talking about the church and theology and such. It was a wide ranging conversation covering topics like Calvinism, Arminianism, Catholic and Protestant theology, Predestination and Free will, Transubstantiation, Western influenced thought, the struggle we have as humans understanding God, always wanting to understand things, and at times deriving theological beliefs using logic and rationalization. We covered lots of ground. Suffice it to say that it was an engaging conversation.
During the conversation I was describing the reason for the Great Schism (when the Church split between the West and East in 1054AD) and how one of the issues was how a certain word was understood concerning the Holy Spirit. I was looking up a reference to the Great Schism, as I couldn't remember the word and exact points on the Holy Spirit, and found a quote that summarized some of our conversation. Here is the quote:
"Roman Catholicism rationalizes even the sacrament of the Eucharist: it interprets spiritual action as purely material and debases the sacrament to such an extent that it becomes in its view a kind of atomistic miracle. The Orthodox Church has no metaphysical theory of Transsubstantiation, and there is no need of such a theory. Christ is the Lord of the elements and it is in His power to do so that 'every thing, without in the least changing its physical substance' could become His Body. Christ's Body in the Eucharist is not physical flesh."
— Lossky 1969, p. 87
My point in quoting this is not to bring up a theological point nor attack any denomination. I grew up Catholic and don't have an issue with Transubstantiation, nor the idea that the Eucharist being Christ's Body. I have no problem with the Church being the Body of Christ, nor with Christ indwelling me. I am not making a point about the theology so much as the use of rationalization to explain God. As far as I understand, God is God and He can do anything He wants to do! He set the rules and order of the Universe in place, and yet if He wants He can momentarily "bend" that order. A Theology professor I had in college explained it something like this, "Don't try to figure it all out! I tried and my brain snapped!" God is literally unknowable in His Glory and Majesty, in His thinking and ways! One of my absolute favorite verses that describes this is found in Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV:
[8] “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. [9] “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
We, in our human-centric view, think that we can explain God, or understand God, and one of the things I really like about the Eastern Rite church is that they are ok with NOT understanding everything about God. They embrace the fact that some of the revelation of God is mystery! He is beyond knowing, yet He helps us to know Him! He is the creator of the Universe, yet He became man! His Kingdom is ever increasing, and yet He has recorded His Word in written form. He is perfectly Loving, Just, Fair, Merciful, Awesome and Humble all at the same time. God exists outside of time, and we struggle greatly to fully grasp that vantage point and perception, for we are on that timeline and can only look backwards.
If we just look at the miracles and signs and wonders performed by Jesus and the apostles, we find great examples of the unexplainable nature of God. How, specifically, did Jesus walk on water? How did a few loaves and fish feed thousands? How did dirt and spit become eyes? How did a body shriveled from 38 years of paralysis suddenly become whole and allow the man to dance and leap, without ever learning to walk (this was done in the name of Jesus!)? How did the sun stand-still, or the earth go dark for 3 hours? All of these defy rational explanation, and we must learn to be ok with that fact!
God is bigger than we can comprehend! I pray that we might learn to free ourselves from having to understand it all! I pray that we will allow the Lord to unsettle our rationalization, and expand our revelation! I pray that we will allow God, in our lives, to be beyond our understanding! I pray that our relationship with God will allow our mind to be offended and yet grow in our love of Him! I pray that our need to control and understand will be laid down and we will embrace God in all His revelation, even that which we don't understand! Finally, I pray that we will give grace to all our brothers and sisters in the One Body of Christ to have different ideas, and thoughts than we do, for who can fully understand everything perfectly?
May the Lord bless you and open your heart, mind and spirit to know Him more!
Amen and Amen!
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