🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞
Continuation of yesterday’s reading, which
is referred to in the link:
25072023.html
Paul says that the faithful are united in the Eucharist, forming one body, the mystical Body of Christ, the Church.
The cup that we…
— Holy Communion.
At the same time, Paul clearly testifies about idolatry that these
sacrifices are not offered to God, but to demons. Here it should be
recalled that once in Athens, Paul preached and mentioned the godliness
of the Athenians, who had an altar to the Unknown God
, and Paul said
that it was Him that he preached (such a missionary approach, one might
say) (Acts XVII, 22-31) . Why did Paul not characterize the sacrifices
on that altar as idolatry, as sacrifices to demons, and the sacrifices
of Gentiles to idols are sacrifices to demons? What is the
difference?
This is not a very clear question, but you can see the following. The
first time the Gentiles started sacrificing to idols was either
witnessing unusual phenomena that they understood to be gods,
or they
invented those gods
for various reasons. In both cases, the idols were
the direct result of deception. And deception comes from the evil one,
which is the father of lies and deceit.
When people made sacrifices on the altar to the Unknown God, it was because of… truth. The truth that they lacked something in paganism, they were looking for the real God. The truth that they did not know Him and modestly admitted it. The truth that this was a manifestation of their true piety (they had to believe in this Unknown God, if, knowing nothing about Him, they still built an altar to Him, admitting their ignorance). And therefore, since the Source of truth is the True God, then this altar was – to Him. But faith in the Unknown God is weak due to the fact that they did not know how to properly believe in Him and how important it is.
See also:
23052023.html
Paul also goes on to say that Christians cannot be fellow partakers of God and the devil.
Matthew XVI, 23 – ‘εμου’ – ‘emou’ – Me
.
The reading directly follows the events that were read on the feast
of the apostles Peter and Paul.
12072023.html
And here
we can see a situation where Peter receives the opposite
characteristic.
The evangelist does not write after Peter. But about Jesus. The main
person in these two readings is not Peter, but Jesus (as in the entire
Gospel). If we look at Jesus, then in today’s reading we see the absence
of flirting
with people. Jesus is not trying to appease
anyone, gain
someone’s favour through praise, etc. Therefore, He can effectively
respond to the sins of anyone, even those who are close to Him. Personal
attitudes and relationships do not hide the truth from Him.
And with regard to Peter, we see his (as well as other disciples at that time) weakness, he thought in purely human terms about God’s works.
As I wrote before, I want to write more about these two readings and others, but it will take time, because they are instructive in many ways. So for now I will stop only on this.
I will also note that Peter, having received a severe direct rebuke, did not cease to be an apostle.
There is a good essay about the cross at the link:
19032023.html
To Archangel Gabriel:
About the reading of the Apostle: A very rich theological place, which has several parts. It
says a lot about angels in the context of their greatness and glory,
which is why it is read today.
Here it is spoken about 4 subjects
– angels, God, people and Jesus
Christ. Moreover, Jesus Christ is both God and man, and His human soul
is similar to angels.
Therefore, the first thing we are talking about is Christ. Paul shows what glory the angels have, but then he speaks of a human being who is to have, according to God’s design, almost the same glory. And now they do not have, but Christ has greater glory. Therefore, Christ combines everything in Himself for the fulfillment of God’s designs, and he is also the glory of people and the glory of angels.
Quotation from the Old Testament – Psalm VIII, 5-7. There it is used
a little less than the gods
(which is translated as angels
). It is
about the fact that angels can be called gods
(like also the people)
by the gift of God’s grace.
About the fact that Christ suffered by grace – see the link:
15072023.html
About the reading of the Gospel, see the link:
24062023.html
It is
read to the Archangel, because he also saw the fall of Satan from
heaven, and was a participant in those events on the side of God.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!