Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 17 May 2020, is the Sixth Sunday of Easter.
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are:
The Readings: Acts 17: 22-31 or Isaiah 41: 17-20; Psalm 66: 7-18; I Peter 3: 13-22; John 14: 15-21.
There is a link to readings HERE.
This Sunday is also known as Rogation Sunday, the day on which the Church has traditionally offered prayer for God’s blessings on the fruits of the earth and the labours of those who produce our food.
The word ‘rogation’ comes from a Latin word (rogare), that means to ask or to beg. Historically, the Rogation Days – the three weekdays this week before Ascension Day – were a period of fasting and abstinence, asking for God’s blessing on the crops for a bountiful harvest.
Introducing the Readings:
‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’
What have the ways of the world got to do with the way we live our life as Christians?
How does God respond to the cry of the poor?
How is God present in our lives?
How do we live a life of love that shows we know the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
How do we respond in love and in faith and love to suffering in the world and to suffering of those we love?
Where do we find God in the midst of all this?
All these questions are asked regularly, and these readings offer an opportunity to face them, in faith and in love.
Acts 17: 22-31:
Across Europe, 48 sites have been recognised with the European Commission’s European Heritage label. The Acropolis and the surrounding archaeological sites constitute an architectural ensemble of outstanding significance. The complex of up to 100 monuments represents the core of ancient Athens, spanning a period of more than 3,000 years.
The site, which is an outstanding example of ancient architectural development, includes the Hill of the Acropolis crowned by the Parthenon, its north, south and east slopes, the Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, the Library of Hadrian, the hills of the Pnyx, the Areopagos, Philopappos (Muses) and Nymphs (Observatory), as well as the Kerameikos workshops and cemetery.
Philosophy, democracy and political theory, theatre and music were practiced and developed on these sites, making them the cradle of essential aspects and values of European culture and civilisation. The heading on the European Heritage label site reminds us, ‘Europe starts here!’
The Areopagos is a prominent outcrop of rock immediately north-west of the Acropolis. Its English name is the composite form of the Greek name, Ἄρειος Πάγος (Areios Págos, ‘Rock of Ares’).
In classical Athens, this functioned as the court for trying cases of deliberate homicide. It was said Ares was put on trial here by the gods for the murder of Halirrhothios, the son of Poseidon. The gods supposedly accepted his defence of justifiable deicide on the grounds that he was defending his daughter Alcippe from unwanted advances. A temple dedicated to the Erinyes stood at the foot of this rocky outcrop, and murderers sought shelter to escape the consequences of their actions.
Before the 5th century BC, the Areopagos was the council of elders of Athens, similar to the Roman Senate. But in 462 BC, Ephialtes introduced reforms that deprived the Areopagos of almost all its functions except that of a murder tribunal. The centre of decision-making shifted to the ecclesia or ekklesia (ἐκκλησία), the principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens which met at the Theatre of Dionysus from about 300 BC.
In the play The Eumenides (458 BC) by Aeschylus, the Areopagos is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother Clytemnestra and her lover (Aegisthus). Phryne, the hetaerae or courtesan famed for her beauty, appeared before the Areopagos in the 4th century BC, accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. One story says she was acquitted when she let her cloak drop, impressing the judges with her physical beauty.
The Areopagos continued to function in Roman times, and the Romans referred to the rocky outcrop as Mars Hill, identifying Ares with Mars, the Roman god of war. Here too was the Athenian altar to the Unknown God, where the Apostle Paul delivered his speech below the Acropolis, which we read in this first reading.
On his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul has crossed Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and has arrived in Athens, a city known to be open to public discussions of philosophy and religion. There, he speaks, debates and preaches in the synagogue and in the market place (agora), perhaps in the Stoa of Attalos, every day.
Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debate with him, but others see him as babbling and dabbling in philosophy or proclaiming foreign divinities. So, he is invited to the Areopagos to join the debates and to explain what he is teaching. There, he preaches the most dramatic and fullest reported sermon or speech in his missionary career.
The location of this speech has important cultural contexts, including justice, deicide and the hidden God. He presents the good news to a people of a culture very different from the one in which it was first proclaimed, and explains this in their terms.
After praising the Athenians for being ‘extremely religious’ and for their ‘objects of your worship,’ he draws their attention to an altar to ‘an unknown god.’ He tells them that this is God the Creator who is Lord of heaven and earth. He need nothing, and is the source of all life. He is not found in human-made shrines, and does not seek sacrifices. He created all people and all nations, and they continue to search for him, and find that he is not far from us at all.
Saint Paul then quotes the Cretan philosopher Epimenides: ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’
We are all God’s children, and only the true God, the creator of heaven and earth, is worthy of our worship and service. This is the God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
After his sermon, a number of people in Athens became followers of Saint Paul. They included a woman named Damaris, and Dionysius the Areopagite, a judge at the court of the Areopagos who is said to have become the first Bishop of Athens.
Tertullian asked rhetorically, ‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ (De praescriptione, vii), meaning ‘What has Greek thinking to do with Christianity, or philosophy with theology?’ But Tertullian was strongly influenced by Stoic philosophy, and without that approach, he might never have posed his question, and without understanding Greek philosophy, Saint Paul could never preached at the Areopagos in a way that could have been listened to by the people of Athens. The thinking of both was founded on the two mighty rocks of both philosophy and theology.
Isaiah 41: 17-20:
Isaiah 41 is the second chapter of the section known as ‘Deutero-Isaiah’ (Isaiah 40-55), dating from the time of the Israelites’ exile in Babylon. Verses 10 and 13 have inspired many well-known hymns.
In this alternative first reading (verses 17-20), the Prophet Isaiah urges the people to fear not, but to depend on God’s generosity.
When the poor and the needy thirst and seek water, God will hear them and open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the dry valleys. God will turn the wilderness into a pool of fresh water, and water will spring up in the dry land.
Trees will spring up to provide shelter and fruit, and the people will praise God for his creation and his generosity. When all this takes place, everyone will know of God’s work.
The generosity of God in this scene might be compared with God’s response to the suffering of faithful people and the promises of the waters of Baptism in the Epistle reading or with the promise of the Spirit in the Gospel reading.
Psalm 66: 7-18:
Psalm 66 gives thanks to God for his goodness. The opening verse invites ‘all the earth,’ and not just Israel, to praise God and to sing of his glory.
God’s rule is for over and over all nations. Now, we take part in thanking God who blesses us with life, and who protects us.
In the past, we have faced difficulties and tests, but these have purified us as silver is purified in fire. We have been ensnared, enslaved, and put through fire and water. But God has brought us to freedom again.
The psalmist then promises to offer sacrifices to God in the Temple in thanks, and invites all who fear God to hear what God has done for him, and how God has listened to his requests and his prayers.
I Peter 3: 13-22:
Earlier in this epistle, the author has spoked on the persecutions suffered by his readers. He now urges his readers to love one another and to go good in the face of evil. He asks them who will weaken them in their faith if they are eager to do what is good. We are not to be intimidated. Instead, we should be able to speak up in defence of our faith and life, but speaking with gentleness, reverence, and a good conscience.
This should shame our persecutors, and it is always better to suffer for doing what is good than to suffer for doing evil.
Saint Peter reminds his readers that Christ is the example for all our suffering. He suffered for the sins of all, both the living and the dead (see also I Peter 4: 6), an event known as the Harrowing of Hell and referred to in the Apostles’ Creed (‘he descended to the dead’) though not in the Nicene Creed.
He then compares draws comparison between the way Noah and his family were saved in the Flood or ‘through water’ and the way the waters of Baptism put us in a state to be found worthy before God, sharing in the resurrection of Christ who is now in heaven, or, as the Apostles’ Creed says, ‘… he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.’
John 14: 15-21:
In this reading, Christ continues his ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper, which we began reading the previous Sunday.
He is preparing his disciples for his departure. He has given them a special commandment: to ‘love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another’ (13: 34). Love requires obedience and, as this reading concludes, those who keep his commandments are those who love him (verse 21).
Keeping Christ’s commandments makes it possible to continue their relationship with Christ. But how?
Christ promises the disciples that the Father will send them ‘another’ representative of God, also in God, as their ‘Advocate’ or champion.
The original word used here, paraclete (παράκλητος, parakletos), is a verbal adjective, often used of one called to help in a lawcourt.
In Jewish tradition, the word was transcribed with Hebrew letters (מְנַחֵם) and used for angels, prophets, and the just as advocates before God’s court. The word also acquired the meaning of ‘one who consoles.’ The Septuagint (LXX) version of Job 16: 2 uses the word παρακλήτορες (parakletores).
In the Tanakh or Hebrew Scriptures, the term spirit or ruach (רוח) can refer to divine power as well as the breath of life, which God breathes into a lump of clay to animate the first human being (see Genesis 2: 7), and which the Risen Christ breathes on his disciples (see John 20: 22).
The word has a wide range of meanings that include advocate, encourager or comforter. So, the word can signify:
1, Someone who consoles or comforts.
2, Someone who encourages or uplifts.
3, Someone who refreshes
4, Someone summoned or called to one’s side, especially called to one’s aid.
5, Someone who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, the counsel for the defence, a legal assistant, an advocate.
6, Someone who intercedes to plead another person’s cause before another person, an intercessor.
7, In the widest sense, a helper, one who provides succour or aid, an assistant.
So, in its use, παράκλητος appears to belong primarily to legal imagery. In this passage from Saint John’s Gospel, it is used beside the language of testifying, and where the activity of the Paraclete is to lay down evidence sufficient to win a case on a number of issues awaiting judgment.
The word παράκλητος is passive in form, and etymologically it originally signified being ‘called to one’s side.’ The active form of the word, παρακλήτωρ (parakletor), is not found in the New Testament, but is found in the Septuagint in the plural, and means ‘comforters,’ in the saying of Job regarding the ‘miserable comforters’ who failed to rekindle his spirit in his time of distress: ‘I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all’ (Job 16: 2).
However, the word παράκλητος in passive form is not found in the Septuagint, where other words are used to translate the Hebrew word מְנַחֵם (mənaḥḥēm, ‘comforter’) and מליץ יושר (Melitz Yosher).
In Classical Greek, the term is not common in non-Jewish texts. However, the best-known use of this term is by Demosthenes – in a speech also given at the Areopagos – at a trial Athens in 343 BC:
‘Citizens of Athens, I do not doubt that you are all pretty well aware that this trial has been the centre of keen partisanship and active canvassing, for you saw the people who were accosting and annoying you just now at the casting of lots. But I have to make a request which ought to be granted without asking, that you will all give less weight to private entreaty or personal influence than to the spirit of justice and to the oath which you severally swore when you entered that box. You will reflect that justice and the oath concern yourselves and the commonwealth, whereas the importunity and party spirit of advocates serve the end of those private ambitions which you are convened by the laws to thwart, not to encourage for the advantage of evil-doers’ (Demosthenes, On the False Embassy, 19: 1).
In Jewish writings, Philo of Alexandria speaks several times of ‘paraclete’ advocates, primarily in the sense of human intercessors. The word later passed from Hellenistic Jewish writing into rabbinical Hebrew writing.
In the Greek New Testament, the word is most prominent in the Johannine writings, but is used elsewhere:
1, In Saint Matthew’s Gospel (see Matthew 5: 4), Christ uses the verb παρακληθήσονται (paraclethesontai), traditionally interpreted to signify ‘to be refreshed, encouraged, or comforted.’ The text may also be translated as vocative as well as the traditional nominative. Then the meaning of παρακληθήσονται, also informative of the meaning of the name, or noun Paraclete, implicates ‘are going to summon’ or ‘will be breaking off.’ The Paraclete may thus mean ‘the one who summons,’ or ‘the one who, or that which, makes free.’
2, In Saint John’s Gospel, it is used four times (14: 16, 14: 26, 15: 26, and 16: 7), where it may be translated into English as counsellor, helper, encourager, advocate, or comforter. In the first instance found in this Gospel reading (John 14: 16), however, when Christ says ‘another Paraclete’ will come to help his disciples, is he implying that he is the first and primary Paraclete?
3, In I John 2: 1, παράκλητος is used to describe the intercessory role of Christ, who advocates for us or pleads on our behalf to the Father.
The Early Church identified the Paraclete with the Holy Spirit (Το Άγιο Πνεύμα) received in the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles (see Acts 1: 5, 1: 8, 2: 4, and 2: 38; see also Matthew 3: 10-12 and Luke 3: 9-17).
The word Paraclete may also have been used in the Early Church as a way of describing the Spirit’s help when Christians were hauled before courts. Christ has already promised, ‘When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit’ (Mark 13: 11; see Luke 12: 11-12).
Even the language of ‘sending’ is legal, since one of the major avenues of communication in the ancient world was through one’s legal agent or ἀπόστολος (apostolos), ‘sent one.’
So, the role of the Spirit is to make a case for Christ in the court of the world and to help us to do so. That is our task in mission as the Church.
Although the Fourth Gospel does not present a developed Trinitarian theology, in which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together constitute the Divine, this passage implies that a process of differentiation between Father, Son and Holy Spirit was already taking place in the theological reflection.
Christ promises the Paraclete or Advocate as the one who will continue to teach and guide them after he returns to the Father, the one who will support, help and intercede for them. This is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (verse 17), of faith, of revealed doctrine. He cannot be perceived by or known to those in the world who do not believe. But we can both recognise and know him, because he will be with us and will remain among us.
Christ will not leave us alone. After his death, unbelievers will no longer be able to see him, but we will, and because he lives so will we. When he returns at the end of time, we will know that he has been with the Father, we have been with Christ, and he has been with us. But this will only be so because of the divine love we share.
John 14: 15-21 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18 ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
A reflection on the Gospel reading:
If the truth were to be told, many Christians find it difficult to live a life that is truly Trinitarian.
We may think we understand our relationship with God the Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
We may think we have an even clearer understanding of our relationship with God the Son … after all, we know every last detail of his biography; his CV has been the subject of every Sunday School and Confirmation class we attended; his CV fills and shapes our Church Calendar and the stained glass windows in many of our parish churches.
But what about the Holy Spirit?
If we were to ask most people, they probably think of the Holy Spirit as some invisible appendix of God the Father and God the Son, ‘something’ or ‘someone’ that comes down at Pentecost. Perhaps, ‘something’ or ‘someone’ that gave us gifts at Confirmation. But that ‘something’ or ‘someone’ is best not talked about too much in case someone thinks we are too enthusiastic about Christianity, too enthusiastic about religion.
We become uncomfortable about the Holy Spirit when we think about enthusiastic and uncontrolled expressions of charismatic Pentecostalism.
Our access to thinking about God the Holy Spirit is made more difficult when we think about the images of the Holy Spirit provided in the traditions of Christian art: a dove that is shown in paintings and stained-glass windows that looks a lot like a homing pigeon; or tongues of fire dancing around the meekly-bowed heads of people cowering together as they hide in an upstairs room.
We think, perhaps, that it is best to leave sermons about the Holy Spirit to the Day of Pentecost [31 May 2020], or to a once-a-year Confirmation service. But we might be in danger of slipping into the idea that it is best to let the rest of us get on for the rest of the year with God being God the Father or God the Son.
However, the Holy Spirit is not something added on as an extra course, as an after-thought after the Resurrection and Ascension.
We find it difficult to think of the pre-existence of Christ. What was he doing before the Annunciation? Sunday after Sunday, we confess in the Nicene Creed that ‘Through him all things were made.’ But we still find it difficult in our prayer and inner spirituality to think of the Eternal Christ.
And when it comes to saying, ‘We believe in the Holy Spirit,’ do we really believe in the Holy Spirit as ‘the Lord, the giver of life,’ in the Holy Spirit as the way in which God ‘has spoken through the prophets’?
Some years ago, when I faced up to some personal difficulties and wrestled with them, I posted on my blog some reflections on how my mind kept returning to those reassuring words from Dame Julian of Norwich: ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.’
I wrote how Julian’s positive outlook does not come from ignoring suffering or being blind to it, but arises from the clarity she attained as she struggled with her own questions. This struggle gave her the ability to see beyond her own pain and suffering, and to look into the compassionate face of God. Only this gazing could reassure her that – despite pain, and sorrow – in God’s own time, ‘all shall be well.’
Within hours, a former work colleague rang to know if I was all right. He offered a friendly ear, and his response was comforting and consoling.
Over the years, there have been some other responses to this posting. Then, some years after it was first posted, an anonymous reader posted, saying: ‘Thank you for this gift. [I r]eceived very difficult news this past week and kept looking for a silver lining – some way to give thanks to God for what has happened in my life …
‘In reading the words “All shall be well … ” was a great reminder of the hope that Christ gives us and as well, that Christ is with us each second of the day. Thank you again for the reminder of “God with us” no matter what.’
It was a response out of the blue, and it put my own difficulties then in perspective. Years later, someone else had found comfort in my own reflections on my own sorrows.
I do not know who this person is, or where she lives. All I know is that she is a chaplain.
But if this was the only blog-post that I had a response to, if this was the only reader I had all these years, then all the other blog-posts have been worth it. We cannot control, quantify or restrict the way in which the Holy Spirit uses or values our work, or uses us to work with others. And for most of the time, we are better off not knowing.
I was sharing this experience with some colleagues some time ago. And I was reminded of a saying in the Talmud – one of the most sacred texts of ancient Judaism: ‘Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world’ (Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 4: 1 (22a); Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a).
It is a saying found throughout Rabbinic literature, that is repeated in the Quran, and, as I was reminded when I was in Kraków and Auschwitz recently, a saying that inspired Oskar Schindler, the hero of the movie Schindler’s List.
I was sharing this story over dinner one evening with some clerical colleagues and friends.
One colleague told me of a man who had turned up in his church for a quiet mid-day service. The man is now in his mid-40s, and was visiting Ireland on a business trip. He had often visited churches and cathedrals, but had never before been so moved as he was by this mid-day Eucharist. He approached my friend afterwards and asked for a quiet moment.
He wanted to be baptised … there and then.
My colleague asked him to wait, to come back in an hour or two. And he did. Two parishioners stood as sponsors or godparents. The whole thing was over within 10 or 15 minutes. The man rang his wife full of joy. He felt he had arrived where he ought to be. Outwardly, he was full of joy. Inwardly, he had arrived, he was at home, he had found his peace with God.
What had happened? The Holy Spirit had moved, and he had responded.
‘Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.’
God never leaves us alone.
And, because the Resurrection breaks through all the barriers of time and space, the Apostle Peter tells us in the Epistle reading that even in death Christ brought the good news to those who died before the Incarnation: ‘also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison’ (I Peter 3: 19).
God leaves no-one without the opportunity to be drawn into his infinite love, no-one, despite the barriers of time and space, the barriers of history or geography, the barriers of social or religious distinction.
And as a sign or a token of this, as a promise of this, Christ says in our Gospel reading this morning that he is asking ‘the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you’ (John 14: 16-17).
If you know the Spirit, and the Spirit abides in you, how would you let others know?
If the Holy Spirit is the Advocate and is living in you, then who are you an advocate for?
Who do you speak up for when there is no-one else to speak up for them?
Who are you, in your own small, quiet, undramatic way, a voice for, like Oskar Schindler?
I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit works in so many ways that we cannot understand. And that the Holy Spirit works best and works most often in the quiet small ways rather than in the big dramatic ways.
I should never put down or dismiss the small efforts to make this a better world. ‘Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.’
Gandhi, in a saying often quoted by Barack Obama, once said: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ And he also said: ‘Only he who is foolish enough to believe that he can change the world, really changes it.’
And sometimes, even when it seems foolish, sometimes, even when it seems extravagant, it is worth being led by the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit may be leading us to surprising places, and leading others to be there too.
A discursus on the reading from the Acts of the Apostles:
God never leaves us alone.
This is what the Apostle Paul is saying at the Areopagos in Athens in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17: 22-31). The people who worshipped the unknown God on the slopes beneath the shadow of the Acropolis were assured that God had heard their prayers, and they were now being invited to join in communion with this God through Saint Paul’s proclamation.
The Stoa of Attalos is one of the many splendid buildings beneath the slopes of the Acropolis in Athens. This stoa (στοά), covered walkway or portico in the Agora was built by and named after King Attalos II (159-138 BC) of Pergamon. Its arcades were divided into shops and stalls, and it was a popular place for wealthy Athenians to meet and gossip.
There were many stoas in Athens, including the Stoa Poikile (ἡ ποικίλη στοά) or Painted Porch, originally called the Porch of Peisianax (ἡ Πεισιανάκτειος στοά), built in the fifth century BC on the north side of the Agora.
The Stoa Poikile was one of the most famous sites in ancient Athens, owing its fame to the paintings and loot from wars displayed there. It was in this porch that Zeno of Citium taught Stoicism, the philosophical school that takes its name from this place.
The Stoa Poikile stood for over six centuries, but was damaged when Athens was sacked by the Goths in 267 AD, and again when paintings were removed by a Roman governor around 396 AD. This stoa may have continued to stand for another 50 to 100 years until it was demolished and was used for building material for a city wall.
The Stoa Basileios (στοά βασίλειος) or Royal Stoa, was built in the sixth century BC and rebuilt in the fifth century, in the north-west corner of the Agora. Socrates met Euthyphro in front of this stoa, and had the conversation recreated by Plato in his Euthyphro. Here too Socrates was charged with impiety.
The Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, in the north-west corner of the Agora, was built ca 425 BC-410 BC and was one of the places where Socrates taught.
The large Middle Stoa took up the major part of the central marketplace or Agora, and its aisles were lined with Doric columns.
Close to the Theatre of Dionysos and the Asklepieion of Athens on the slopes of the Acropolis, the Stoa of Eumenes was built by Eumenes, King of Pergamon. This colonnade served as a shelter and promenade for theatre-goers.
The Stoics took their name from the Stoa Poikile, where Zeno of Citium (ca 333-262 BC) taught in the early third century BC. As a school of philosophy, Stoicism flourished in the Greek and Roman world until the third century AD.
The Stoics believed in a god, and this god played an important role in their general philosophy. But Stoic theology was fluid in its conception of god. The theology of the Stoa began with its founder, Zeno of Citium, presenting arguments that the cosmos is an intelligent being, although he seems not to have explicitly identified that intelligent being as God.
But there is confusion about the true intent of Zeno’s arguments because the sources have been distorted. Sextus Empiricus, for example, presents several of Zeno’s arguments for the rationality of the cosmos (κόσμος) as if they were intended as arguments to establish the existence of God.
Zeno was followed by Cleanthes of Assos (ca 330 BC–ca 230 BC), and he in turn was followed by Chrysippos of Soli, the third head of the school, who died of laughter. Chrysippos claimed that the cosmos is the ‘substance of god,’ while Epictetos speaks of God in a clearly theistic fashion.
According to the Roman orator and philosopher Cicero, in his De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), the Stoics recognised four main questions in theology: they prove that the gods exist; they explain their nature; they show that the world is governed by them; and that they care for the fortunes of humanity.
Essentially, Stoicism is a philosophy of personal ethics that is informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world. It teaches that the path to happiness is found in accepting this moment as it presents itself, by not allowing ourselves to be controlled by our desire for pleasure or our fear of pain, by using our minds to understand the world around us and to do our part in nature’s plan, and by working together and treating others in a fair and just manner.
The Stoics taught that emotions resulted in errors of judgment that were destructive, due to the interaction between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will that is in accord with nature. To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they taught that everything was rooted in nature.
Later Stoics, including Seneca and Epictetus, believed that virtue is sufficient for happiness.
During his visit to Athens, the Apostle Paul debated with Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in the marketplace or the agora, probably at the Stoa of Attalos rather than the Stoa Poikile. They took him to the shrine of the unknown god at the Areopagos (see Acts 17: 16-19).
In his letters, Saint Paul drew on his knowledge of Stoic philosophy, using Stoic terms and metaphors to assist his new Gentile converts in their understanding of Christianity.
In his translation of the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, the Anglican Patristic scholar, the Revd Maxwell Staniforth (1893-1985), discussed the profound impact Stoicism had on Christianity. He claimed the use of term Logos for Christ in Saint John’s Gospel was influenced by ‘one of the leading terms of Stoicism, chosen originally for the purpose of explaining how deity came into relation with the universe.’ Staniforth says other theological thinking influenced by Stoicism include the debates about the Holy Spirit and the Trinity.
Stoic influence can also be seen in the works of Saint Ambrose and Tertullian, and Stoic writings such as the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius have been highly regarded by many Christian writers throughout the centuries.
Stoicism went into decline after Christianity became the state religion in the fourth century. Yet Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), in his Five Theological Orations, uses Stoic and Aristotelian logical rules to develop a systematic approach to major doctrines such as the Trinity and Christology. In Duties of Saint Ambrose (339-397), Maxwell Staniforth says, ‘The voice is the voice of a Christian bishop, but the precepts are those of Zeno.’
The Stoa of Attalos was fully rebuilt In 1952-1956 and the Ancient Agora Museum was established by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The Stoa of Attalos now houses the Museum of the Ancient Agora, and its exhibits are mostly connected with the Athenian democracy.
In his speech at the Areopagos, Saint Paul also quotes the Cretan philosopher Epimenides: ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’
Epimenides (Ἐπιμενίδης) of Knossos is a semi-mythical philosopher and poet said to have lived in the seventh or sixth century BC. It is said that while Epimenides was tending his father’s sheep, he fell asleep for 57 years in a cave in Crete that was sacred to Zeus. When he awoke after 57 years, Epimenides is said to have found he was endowed the gift of prophecy.
Aristotle and Plutarch say Epimenides purified Athens after the pollution brought by the Alcmaeonidae, a powerful noble family who negotiated an alliance with the Persians during the Persian Wars. Pericles and Alcibiades also belonged to the Alcmaeonidae, and during the Peloponnesian War the Spartans referred to the family’s curse in an attempt to discredit Pericles.
It is said that the expertise Epimenides showed in sacrifices and the reform of funeral practices were of great help to Solon in reforming the Athenian state. But the only reward he would accept was a branch of the sacred olive, and the promise of perpetual friendship between Athens and Knossos in Ceret. He is also said to have prophesied at Sparta on military matters.
One legend says Epimenides lived until he was almost 300 years old and that he died in Crete at an advanced age. But another legend says he was captured in a war between the Spartans and Knossos, and that he was put to death by his captors for refusing to prophesy favourably for them.
Several prose and poetic works have been attributed to Epimenides. But all of his works are now lost, and we only know of them through quotations by other authors. In a fragment of one of his poems, citied in the Hymn to Zeus of Callimachus, Minos of Knossos addresses Zeus:
Τύμβον ἐτεκτήναντο σέθεν, κύδιστε μέγιστε,
Κρῆτες, ἀεὶ ψευδεῖς, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.
Ἀλλὰ σὺ γ᾽ οὐ θνῇσκεις, ἕστηκας γὰρ ζοὸς αίεί,
Ἐν γὰρ σοὶ ζῶμεν καὶ κινύμεθ᾽ ἠδὲ καὶ ἐσμέν.
They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one,
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies.
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever,
For in you we live and move and have our being.
Epimenides is quoted by Saint Paul not once but twice in the New Testament.
While speaking to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers at the Areopagos in Athens (see Acts 17: 22-34), the Apostle Paul, in verse 28, quotes from Epimenides’ Cretica: ‘For “In him we live and move and have our being”.’
In this address in Athens, Saint Paul is citing the fourth line in the Hymn to Zeus of Callimachus, with its reference to one of ‘your own poets’ (Acts 17: 28). Saint Paul goes on to quote from Aratus’ Phaenomena: ‘For we too are his offspring’ (see verse 28).
When Saint Paul spoke to Saint Titus concerning his mission in Crete, he committed a logical fallacy by quoting Epimenides: ‘It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said, “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.” That testimony is true’ (Titus 1: 12-13a).
The ‘lie’ of the Cretans is that Zeus was mortal, for Epimenides believed that Zeus is dead. The logical inconsistency of a Cretan asserting all Cretans are always liars may not have occurred to Epimenides, nor to Callimachus, who both used the phrase to emphasise their point, without irony.
However, Saint Paul must have thought long about the idea of a dead god and the dead god’s tomb as he sought to preach the Resurrection in Crete.
Epimenides is first identified as the ‘prophet’ in Titus 1: 12 by Clement of Alexandria (Stromata 1, 14). Clement mentions that ‘some say’ Epimenides should be counted among the seven wisest philosophers. But he does not indicate that the concept of logical paradox is an issue.
Saint John Chrysostom (Homily 3 on Titus) gives an alternative fragment:
For even a tomb, King, of you
They made, who never died, but ever shall be.
However, it is not clear when Epimenides became associated with the Epimenides paradox, a variation of the liar paradox. Saint Augustine restates the liar paradox in Against the Academicians (III.13.29), but he does so without mentioning Epimenides. In the Middle Ages, many forms of the liar paradox were studied under the heading of insolubilia, but they were not associated with Epimenides.
Paradoxically, I have found most if not all Cretans to be truthful and honest. Many years ago, back in the 1980s, as I entrusted someone on the beach in Rethymnon with my wallet and valuables as I went for a swim, I was advised that it was tourists and foreigners I needed to be wary of, and not Cretans.
A note on Rogation Sunday and the Rogation Days:
The word ‘rogation’ comes from a Latin word (rogare), that means to ask or to beg. Historically, the Rogation Days – the three weekdays this week before Ascension Day – were a period of fasting and abstinence, asking for God’s blessing on the crops for a bountiful harvest.
Even though fewer and fewer people today are directly involved in the production of food, it is still good for all of us to be reminded of our dependence on those of us do, and to be reminded of our responsibility for the environment.
There was a tradition or custom on Rogation days, certainly in England, of beating the bounds, a ceremony or procession of parishioners, led by the priest and churchwardens, walking around the boundaries of a parish, praying for God’s protection for the parish and the fields in the coming year.
Beating the bounds was also an effective way of passing from one generation to another the traditions and memories of the precise limits of a parish. In times before maps and written title deeds, it was important for clergy and residents to know the physical boundaries of their parish.
It is a tradition that continues to this day in Cambridge, Oxford, and other places in England, and, although it is forgotten in many places, I have been involved in discussions with some other historians in Lichfield about whether this tradition could be revived there too.
it was a tradition that reminded us, long before ‘green issues’ were fashionable and on the political agenda, that we needed to pray for specific elements of creation, including livestock, fields, orchards and gardens.
Beating the bounds was also an effective way of passing from one generation to another the traditions and memories of the precise limits of a parish – not only where was in, and where was out, but also who was in, and who was out.
In times before maps and written title deeds, it was important for priests and people to know the physical boundaries of their parish. Until 1834, the Poor Laws made the care of the poor the legal responsibility of a parish, and the parish was responsible for relieving the needy, supporting apprentice children and children in one-parent families, and caring for the destitute in the parish.
The parish boundaries embraced not only those who went to church on Sundays. The parish had responsibilities for all people within the parish bounds, and a greater responsibility for those who might otherwise be missed out on.
These readings may be used on Rogation Days, in any combination:
Deuteronomy 8: 1-10 or Numbers 11: 16-17, 24-29 or Numbers 27: 15-23;
Psalm 84: 7-12 or Psalm 122 or Psalm 134;
Acts 20: 28-35 or I Corinthians 3: 5-11 or I Peter 4: 7-11;
Matthew 9: 35-38 or Luke 12: 35-43 or Luke 4: 16-21 or John 4: 31-38.
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: White (Easter, Year A).
The Greeting (from Easter Day until Pentecost):
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Penitential Kyries:
Lord God,
you raised your Son from the dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus,
through you we are more than conquerors.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit,
you help us in our weakness.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect of the Day:
God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
Grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Collect of the Word:
O God,
you have prepared for those who love you,
joys beyond our understanding:
our into our hearts such love for you,
that, loving you above all else,
we may obtain your promises that exceed all we can desire:
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and resigns with you and the Holy Sprit,
one God, for ever and ever.
The Collect (Rogation Days):
Almighty God and Father,
you have so ordered our life
that we are dependent on one another:
Prosper those engaged in commerce and industry
and direct their minds and hands
that they may rightly use your gifts in the service of others;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
A prayer for Rogation Day (Common Worship):
Almighty God,
whose will it is that the earth and sea
should bear fruit in due season:
bless the labours of those who work on land and sea,
grant us a good harvest
and the grace always to rejoice in your fatherly care;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.
A prayer for Rogationtide:
Remember, Lord, your mercy and loving-kindness towards us.
Bless this good earth, and make it fruitful.
Bless our labour, and give us all things needed for our daily lives.
Bless the homes of our parish and all who live within them.
Bless our common life and our care for our neighbour.
Hear us, good Lord. Amen.
Introduction to the Peace:
The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said,
Peace be with you.
Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20: 19, 20).
Preface:
Above all we praise you
for the glorious resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
the true paschal lamb who was sacrificed for us;
by dying he destroyed our death;
by rising he restored our life:
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life:
May we also thirst for you,
the spring of life and source of goodness,
through him who is alive and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Blessing:
The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight:
or:
God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
raise you up to walk with him in the newness of his risen life:
Dismissal: (from Easter Day to Pentecost):
Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Suggested Hymns:
Acts 17: 22-31:
10, All my hope on God is founded
25, All things bright and beautiful
270, I know that my Redeemer lives
28, I sing the almighty power of God
581, I, the Lord of sea and sky
6, Immortal, invisible, God only wise
336, Jesus, where’er thy people meet
29, Lord of beauty, thine the splendour
31, Lord of the boundless curves of space
363, O Lord of heaven and earth and sea
34, O worship the King all–glorious above
35, The spacious firmament on high
112, There is a Redeemer
Isaiah 41: 17-20:
29, Lord of beauty, thine the splendour
45, Praise, O praise our God and King
35, The spacious firmament on high
Psalm 66: 7-18:
657, O God of Bethel, by whose hand
640, Purify my heart
I Peter 3: 13-22:
218, And can it be that I should gain
260, Christ is alive! Let Christians sing
257, Christ is the world’s Redeemer
417, He gave his life in selfless love
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
431, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour
456, Lord, you give the great commission
102, Name of all majesty
392, Now is eternal life
214, O Love, how deep, how broad, how high
439, Once, only once, and once for all
200, The sinless one to Jordan came
244, There is a green hill far away
372, Through all the changing scenes of life
John 14: 15-21:
398, Alleluia! sing to Jesus
516, Belovèd, let us love: love is of God
294, Come down, O Love divine
297, Come, thou Holy Spirit, come
300, Holy Spirit, truth divine
422, In the quiet consecration
307, Our great Redeemer, as he breathed
451, We come as guests invited
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).
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