The Virgin Mother as Historical Source for Matthew and Luke

From Father Patrick Henry Reardon's Pastoral Ponderings:

A special historical problem attends the Gospel accounts of our Lord's Nativity, but the correct solution to that problem, I believe, offers a unique perspective on those narratives. This subject is easily understood and very much worth the pursuit. We will look first at the problem, and then consider its solution.

The problem, as I remarked, is historical. We may put it simply: Just where did Matthew and Luke find the historical material that fills the first two chapters of each of those Gospels?

The significance of this question will be obvious if we examine the content of the earliest apostolic preaching. It is not a hard task to demonstrate that that preaching was based on a defined narrative structure, which invariably began with the ministry of John the Baptist. It contained nothing pertinent to the Lord's conception, birth, and childhood.

We discern the structure of that early apostolic preaching in the Acts of the Apostles. Thus, when St. Peter began to evangelize Cornelius and his friends at Caesarea, he commenced by speaking of the ministry of John (10:36-37). He went directly from John to Jesus; there was nothing mentioned about Jesus prior to His baptism by John.

The same is true of St. Paul's evangelization of Pisidian Antioch. To speak of Jesus, Paul began by linking Him directly to the ministry of John. He included not one word of Jesus’ life prior to that time (13:23-25). That is to say, the "evangelical narrative," the story form in which the Gospel was proclaimed, embraced the ministry of Jesus, beginning with John the Baptist. It contained no information about the earlier years of Jesus, or about His conception and birth.

Now this is exactly what we should expect from a close inspection of the directive that Peter gave to the assembled Apostles prior to the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When they determined to choose some person to take the place of Judas Iscariot to fill up the number of the Twelve Witnesses, Peter specified the time period concerning which that chosen person would have to bear witness. He must be selected, said Peter, from among "these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism by John to the day that He was taken up from us" (1:21-22). That period of time, beginning with John's ministry, defined the specified limits of the original apostolic narrative, the primitive story structure of the Gospel.

Two of the Gospel writers adhere rather strictly to these specified time limits. Thus, Mark begins his Gospel with the ministry of John the Baptist (1:2-3). Even the evangelist John, whose first words take us up to the eternity of the Word's relation to the Father (1:1-5), commences the story of Jesus' life on earth by introducing John the Baptist. Even before declaring that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," John proclaims, "there was a man sent forth from God whose name was John." He goes on to describe the Baptist's ministry at some length (1:6-40). He moves directly from John to Jesus. Neither Mark nor John mentions a single detail about Jesus' life from an earlier period.

In short, then, the inherited story structure of the first apostolic witness began the story of Jesus' life at the point of the preaching of John the Baptist. That apostolic witness seems to have contained not a single detail about Jesus prior to the Baptist’s appearance at the Jordan. Matthew and Luke, consequently, in order to lengthen the Gospel story to include accounts of Jesus' conception, birth, and early life, had available no pertinent material from the earliest apostolic preaching. As far as we can tell, no one had ever preached on such material.
Therefore, this is the historical problem: just where did Matthew and Luke obtain the narrative material that fills the first two chapters of each Gospel? What source was available to them?

The only reasonable answer, it seems to me, is Jesus' own mother, of whom we are told, "Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19,51). Luke is obviously disclosing his source here. Mary alone was still alive to remember, years later, those details no longer known anyone else. She is surely the living witness of the precious stories about herself and Joseph, the conception and birth of John the Baptist, her own virginal conception, the manger in the stable, the swaddling clothes, the angels and the shepherds, the Magi and their gifts, the Lord's circumcision, the presentation in the Temple, Simeon and Anna, and the dramatic event that occurred when Jesus was twelve years old.

Matthew and Luke differ greatly between themselves with respect to details and their differing literary and theological interests, but they tell essentially the same story, and it was a story they could have learned from only one source.
Consequently, to read their Christmas stories even today is to enter into a mother's contemplative heart where those stories were preserved until they were written down in the Gospels under the inerrant guidance of the Holy Spirit. Holy Church, in order to proclaim this earlier part of Jesus' life, draws us into the immaculate heart of Mary, to share in her inner faith and contemplative vigilance, to understand Christmas as she understood it.

St. John Cassian's "On the Eight Vices": Wrath

Well, here it is. So sorry it took me so long to post this, but the end of term is quite difficult, with Don Rags taking up much of my time.

I started this series of meditations based on St. John Cassian's "On the Eight Vices" (or the Seven Deadly Sins) back in Lent, and am now taking it up this Advent for the purpose of "making the way straight" for our God, by rooting out all that should not be in us.

We now take up what the Holy Father Cassian calls the "fourth struggle": Wrath. The first two vices-gluttony and lust-play on what is according to our nature. That is why, in the Divine Comedy, this grouping of sins are identified with the loepard, who is portrayed by Dante as a romping,frolicking and jovial beast. With avarice and anger, we are now dealing with things that are contrary to our nature. This grouping of sins are identified in the Divine Comedy as sins of incontinence.

With wrath, St. Cassian is very uncompromising: "We must, with God's help, eradicate this deadly poison from the depths of our souls."

To what lengths must we go to destroy this unnatural passion? Well, St. Cassian is quite clear, and most uncompromising, on this point: : "If, therefore, you desire to attain perfection and rightly to pursue the spiritual way, you should make yourself a stranger to all sinful anger and wrath. Listen to what St. Paul enjoins: 'Rid yourselves of all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking and all malice ' (Eph. 4:31)." ("On the Eight Vices", Philokalia, p. 83)

"All", for St. Cassian, means ALL. Unlike some of today's politicians, whether Republican, Democrat, Tory, Labour, etc., there is no confusion for him as to what words mean. When he says eradicate all anger, he means ALL ANGER: "In saying 'all' he (St. Paul) leaves no excuse for regarding any anger as necessary or reasonable. If you want to correct your brother when he is doing wrong or to punish him, you must try to keep yourself calm; otherwise you yourself may catch the sickness you are seeking to cure and you may find that the words of the Gospel now apply to you: 'Physician, heal yourself' (Luke4:23), or 'Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eye, and not notice the rafter in your own eye?' (Matt. 7:3) (p. 83)

It is clear why St. Cassian does not allow even "righteuous" anger to his monks. Anger "blinds the soul's eyes, preventing it from seeing the Sun of Righteousness." Anger works on our incensive power, which is classified as a part of the appetetive, or desiring, aspect of the soul, that part of us that "provokes vehement feelings". (Glossary, Philokalia, p. 358). When used correctly, it may lead us to fight against sin, and "intensify our desire for God." (p. 358) When used wrongly, however, it leads to anger, which is the root of hatred and violence. Thus, we can see how it is that anger, no matter how "righteous" or "justified," puts us in danger of obstructing our soul's power to reflect the divine light. It prevents us from "seeing the Sun of Righteousness."

Anger, then, is the use of that incensive power in a way that is contrary to nature. But what of the Psalm, "Be angry, but sin not" (Psalm 4:4)? St. Cassian gives this peace of wisdom: "Be angry with your own passions and with your malicious thoughts, and do not sin by carrying out their suggestions." The battleground, of course, is the human heart, that field of battle where, as Solzhenitsyn once said, draws a line not between good and evil. When we realize that this line cuts through our very hearts, it forces us to look into ourselves, and not our brother, to find the cause of our anger and grief. From the Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian: "Yea, O Lord, grant that I may percieve my own transgressions, and not judge my brother." From St. Paul: "Quia non est nobis conluctacio adversus carnem et sanguinem sed adversus principes et potestates, adversus mundi rectores tenebrarum harum, contra spiritalia nequitiae in caelestibus." (Eph. 6: 12 Vulgata: For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the dark rulers of this world, against the vil spiritual forces in the heavens). It is on tis level that we engage the passion of wrath: in our own hearts and souls.

This is why St. Cassian enjoins his monks to to not only fight wrath in action, but also in thought, "otherwise", he says, " our intellect will be darkened by our rancour, cut off the light of spiritual knowledge and discrimination, and deprived of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit." (p. 84) Even more than lust and gluttony, wrath blinds the soul to the divine light to such an extent that it renders us unable to make proper judgements, devoid of malice. No matter how "righteous," it always has that ability to make us blind to the true goal of correction: the encouragement of a brother to forsake sinful passions. Again, how can we encourage a brother towards virtue, when we ourselves are blinded by sinful passions, especially of anger? For St. Cassian, the answer is quite clear and uncompromising-cut it off at the very root, making no concessions to it.

Because it is a sin which affects our relationships, St. Cassian commands his brethren to take up the fight not in solitude, but in community. He discourages seeking retreat to deal with this sin, since "our passions grow fiercer when left idle through lack of contact with other people. Even that shadow of patience and long-suffering which we thought we possessed while we mixed with our brethren is lost in our isoaltion through not being exercised." (p. 85) Here is the key: the virtue of continence must be worked out in community with our brethren, not in isolation. For St. Cassian, virtues are best exercised when we interact with our brethren. Drawing from his own experience, he relates how, when he lived in the desert as a solitary, he would at times get angry at a piece of wood which he wished to cut quickly, but was not yielding so easily to his strikes, or a flint which would not light fast enough. (p. 86)

While I'm still wrestling with his rejection of righteous anger, I must also be quick to add that when I ponder this more deeply, and am honest with myself, many of ny own bouts with anger (justifiable or otherwise) leave me with an uneasy feeling of satisfaction for the "rush" that it provides. At such times, my mind is on everything BUT God-it is scattered in a million directions, as I obsess about the injury done to me, or to a loved one. Sometimes it takes place at rush hour on the way to work, driving on the I-5, reacting in a way that is, as my students would have it, "ugly". "After all, there are classes to teach, great thoughts to discuss and communicate to my students, dissertations to write, and all the while I'm stuck in this @#$*%$@! traffic!" Now I can see where road rage begins. At such a time, I have been instructed by my Father Confessor to pray for those around me Praying the Jesus Prayer, both for myself and those around me, goes a long way in reining in my passions.

I can see most clearly, at such times, why St. Cassian is relentlessly uncompromising in his attitude against wrath and anger. This is a passion where the will is actively involved, with a demonic level of intentionality that very easily leads to violence, and fraud. This is why, in the topography of Dante's hell, the circle of the incontinent, containing that of the wrathful, is just above the circle of the violent, which includes, interestingly, heretics, and the level of the violent is just above that of the fraud. As we descend further into nether-hell, our relationships become ever more estranged, souls become more self-directed. With wrath, we are that much closer to the "slippery slope" of the descent into the nonth circle-traitors to their lords. Here Dante shows wrath's ultimate end-an isolated existence, where the only relationship between Satan and anyone else is a consuming one. This is the ultimate violence: the breakdown of all relationships, between humanity and God, and humanity with its self. Contra Sartre, hell is not other people, but my own narcissistic self. These are the wages of wrath.

As we await the advent of our Incarnate God and King, let us be done with this malady, that we may recieve Him who comes invisibly upborn by the heavenly hosts! May He, who knew no malice, direct our steps in meekness and love so that, at His glorious and dread judgement seat, He may find us worthy to partake of his Kingdom, now and always, et in saeculam saeculorum. Amen.

Next meditation: On Sloth (Dejection and Listlessness)

Tridentine Mass on YouTube

Biretta tip to Subdeacon Ben Andersen: http://occidentalis.blogspot.com/

Missa Solemnis from the SSPX Seminary in Flavigny, France

Part I: Procession, Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, Introit, Kyrie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zwao3bi1fs)

Part II: Gloria, Collects, Epistle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfozGmBZdWQ)

Part III: Gradual, Gospel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ0u6Ps8jn4)

Part IV: Credo ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQoKC2WLavo)

Part V: Offertory (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKIRfhb6rY0)

Part VI: Preface, Sanctus, Canon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-ipMjI5xpU)

Part VII: Pater Noster, Pax, Agnus Dei, Communion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI5ODgL08Y0)

Part VIII: Ablutions, Postcommunio, Dismissal, Last Gospel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZUMjAdVPpA)

Continuing Series: St. John Cassian's On the Eight Vices

During Lent of this year, I had begun my series of meditations on St. John Cassian's On the Eight Vices. Since Advent is a time where we prepare and "make way in the desert a highway for our God," I think it fitting that we continue to prepare the highway of our hearts by clearing away the weeds and other obstacles that get in the way of our receiving Him who "comes invisibly upheld by the Angelic Hosts." (Liturgy of St. James)

Tomorrow's meditation: On Wrath.

Stay tuned...

St. Nicholas of Myra

He didn't write any great works of theology, but one could perhaps say that his life was theology in action.

He is reputed to have given the heretic Arius a "shiny red nose" at the Council of Nicea. A man of few words, but whose zeal for the house of the Lord knew no compromise when it came to the proper knowledge of the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Ora pro nobis!

1400-Year-Old Christian Burial Ground Found in London

Biretta tip to Huw Raphael (http://raphael.doxos.com/)

Archaeologists excavating near the edge of Trafalgar Square in London have found evidence of early Christianity in England, suggesting the area has a much older religious significance than was originally believed.
A team from the Museum of London has discovered a hoard of what is almost certainly royal treasure, buried in a mysterious, empty human grave laid out in the traditional Christian manner - east to west.
"Our excavations demonstrate the position as a significant and important place at an earlier date than we thought," said Alison Telfer, the senior archaeologist in charge of the dig.
The finds are among the most remarkable discoveries ever made in London and are likely to shed new light on the very early stages of the introduction of Christian ideas into the Anglo-Saxon world 1,400 years ago.
Located immediately next to one of the capital's most famous churches - St Martin-in-the-Fields - immediately to the north of Trafalgar Square, the empty grave appears to form part of a previously unknown ancient cemetery, dating back more than one and a half millennia. Archaeologists have also discovered 24 other graves on the site, all still holding the remains of their occupants.

Read the rest: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2029264.ece