welcome to multiple strands

a place to converse, virtually, on a variety of topics, bringing together multiple strands to encourage, question, challenge, ponder, and edify. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. (Eccl. 4.12)

Friday, September 26, 2014

life of virtue, enjoyment of God (Aquinas)

The final end of organized society then is not [merely] to live the life of virtue but through a life of virtue to attain the enjoyment of God.

St. Thomas Aquinas, On Kingship, chapter 14

Sunday, September 21, 2014

God all in all (Bernard)

As a drop of water seems to disappear completely in a big quantity of wine, even assuming the wine's taste and color; just as red, molten iron becomes so much like fire it seems to lose its primary state; just add air on a sunny day seems transformed into sunshine instead of being lit up; so it is necessary for the saints that all human feelings melt in a mysterious way and flow into the will of God. Otherwise, how will God be all in all?

On Loving God.  X.28

I'm not sure what to think of this passage. It is significant, though it sounds monistic or pantheistic. I think I understand what Bernard intends, while I also see how this could be twisted to other ends. 

Saturday, September 20, 2014

made and remade (Bernard)

If I owe all for having been created, what can I add for being remade, and being remade in this way? It was less easy to remake me then to make me. ... In his first work he gave me myself; in his second to work he gave me himself; when he gave me himself, he gave me back myself.  Given, and regiven, I owe myself twice over. What can I give God in return for himself? Even if I could give him myself a thousand times, what am I to God?

On Loving God.  Bernard of Clairvaux. V:15

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

And You knew what was coming (Strand)

O Jesus, how can we, in all our limitation, use language to express love to You, You who are love?  Before the creation of time and space, all we perceive with our senses, You were in loving relation within the Trinity.  And You knew what was coming.

In love You created, in perfection, this existence.  We were not there (Job 38-39)  Yet for Your own purposes, to exalt and reflect Your own glory, You created this realm.  And You knew what was coming.

You gave us, allowed us the freedom to turn from You, despise You, reject You, to deprave all Your creation (Gen 3; Rom 8)  And You knew what was coming.

We went our own way – in one sense as evil and separated as we could be, in another sense sinking further into the mire of our profanity, generation after generation adding to the wall of enmity between You and us (Gen 6, 22)  And You knew what was coming.

You chose a man (Gen 12), a people (Deut 10.15; 1 Pet 2.9), even individuals after Your own heart (1 Sam 13.14).  Yet we rejected you, all of us, person by person (Rom 3.23).  And You knew what was coming.

At just the right time, You became as we are, that we might become as You are (Athansius, On The Incarnation, Section 51; 1 Cor 5.21; Phil 2).  Why would You do this?  We were already Yours (Ps 50), You created us.  Yet because of who You are, to be “true to Yourself,” to reflected Your holiness, to be both just and justifier (Rom 3.26).  And You knew what was coming.

You loved to the extent to send Another Comforter, Advocate, Indweller (John 14, 15).  You thought even of us (John 17.20).  And You knew what was coming.

In pain and rejection You lived, bearing our scorn (Is 53). You were executed, and the eternal love in Trinity was severed for one incredible, solitary, unimaginable moment (Mat 26.46).*  And You knew what was coming.

Depravity, separation, death could not grasp you, but was compelled to release its icy grip (Act 2.24) in acknowledgement of Your victory, though it would not admit or acknowledge its utter defeat.  And You knew what was coming.

You again called Your people, and gave us Your Spirit (Acts 2).  You, the Lover, took us, having purchased us back (Hosea 3.1), to be Your beloved (Eph 5.25).  And You knew what was coming.

Jesus, we want to have our lamps ready (Mat 25), awaiting with eager, expectant longing and anticipation (eros) Your victory celebration (1 Thes 4.17) and the wedding feast You are preparing for us, Your beloved bride (Rev 19.6), when the twisted values of this world become straight, and our earthly prizes become as common rock (Rev 21.21).  And You knew what was coming … because You are already there, both alpha and omega, beyond time as both beginning and ending (Rev 22.13).

Jesus, You are our beloved (Song 2.16), and we long for that day!


* I am aware of the potential theological difficulties with this statement. My purpose in writing is poetic, not strictly philosophic. I affirm the unity in the Trinity.  On this difficulty, consider this article (and to further qualify, I do not agree with other positions of the article's author).



Monday, September 15, 2014

But for that very reason, our new birth—our being made alive—is a magnificent display of the greatness of the love of God. We owe our spiritual life, and all its impulses, to the greatness and the freedom of the love of God.

Finally Alive,  John Piper.

http://ref.ly/o/finalive/92734 via the Logos Bible Android app.

need for God (Bernard)

It is difficult, impossible for a man, by his own power of free will, once he has received all things from God, to turn wholly to the will of God and not rather to his own will, and keep these gifts for himself as his own, as it is written "all seek what is their own" and further "... man's feelings and thoughts are inclined to evil."

The faithful, on the contrary, know how totally they need Jesus and him crucified. While they admire and embrace in him that charity which surpasses all knowledge, they are ashamed at failing to give what little they have in return for so great a love and honor.

On Loving God.  II.6-III.7

Sunday, September 14, 2014

virtue: adhering to God (Bernard)

Virtue is that by which man seeks continuously and eagerly for his Maker and when he finds him, adheres to him with all his might.

Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God. II.2