James Tissot, 1886-94
Translation of the Epistle for the 22nd Sunday After Pentecost
Brethren, I am convinced in the Lord Jesus, that he, who has begun a good work in you, will bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus; and I have the right so to feel about you all because I have you in my heart, all of you alike in my chains, and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel as sharers in my joy. For God is my witness, how I long for you all in the heart of Christ Jesus. And this I pray: That your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the better things; that you may be upright and without offense unto the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of justice. Through Christ Jesus, to the glory and praise of God.
Continuation of the Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew
At that time, the Pharisees went and took counsel on how they might entrap Jesus in his talk. They sent to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, “Master, we know that thou art truthful and that thou teach us the way of God in truth, and that thou carest not for any man; for thou dost not regard the person of men. Tell us therefore, what does thou think is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?” But Jesus knowing their wickedness said, “Why do you test me? You hypocrites. Show me the coin of the tribute.” So they offered him a denarius. Then Jesus said to them, “Who’s are this image and the inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; into God, the things that are God’s.”
The Saving Words of the Gospel
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Transcription of Sermon
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.
“And this I pray; that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and all discernment,” says Saint Paul in this most beautiful of all of his letters, the Letter to the Philippians. It’s a very brief letter, just four short chapters. He’s in the midst of his trials and travails as he’s chained up in a dungeon awaiting his execution, and it’s the most joyful, the most light of all of his epistles. I really recommend you read it slowly.
These two words he says, “that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and all discernment.” Now what’s interesting is he doesn’t use the word γνωσις (gnosis) knowledge, the normal word that we would use for theoretical knowledge but ἐπίγνωσις (epignosis) which experiential knowledge. It’s the knowledge of someone. It’s something that is experienced. It’s not theoretical. It is the fruit of an encounter. And this is what he’s tying into the living of charity; charity, which is not giving donations to those in need, but charity, which is a theological term, the divine presence within us through grace.
And that this charity, then, requires our own co-operation. And tied into it are these two actions of knowledge, ἐπίγνωσις, and this other one, discernment here. It’s translated as discernment. The word is αἴσθησις (aisthesis), and αἴσθησις is an interesting word because it means sense. Usually, in Greek it regards the physical senses, but it also means perception. It also means discernment. So both of these words mean discernment. Ἐπίγνωσις is discernment but through the primacy of the intellect. And then, this other form of discernment, αἴσθησις, a perception, which is something that is more; beyond the intellect. So, not necessarily negating it, but not using the intellect. It’s something that is perceived.
If you go into Adoration and the Blessed Sacrament is exposed and there’s this pregnant silence, you’re not necessarily thinking what you’re experiencing. You’re simply experiencing this loving presence. That’s what this… in Jerome’s translation it says in sensus – in the senses -, but the sense is perceptions, perception with our entire being, not just the mind. So, Paul is talking about both of these actions as a way to deepening charity through this experience of Christ. Thomas Aquinas says, “To know God is to love Him.” In other words, in as much as we know Him, we can’t help but love Him. That’s why Fulton Sheen says that for the many people that denigrate the Catholic Church, he says what they’re denigrating is not actually the Catholic Church, but some caricature that they have in their mind of the Catholic Church. Well, so many people who dismiss God don’t know what they’re missing, literally. They don’t know what they’re missing. And these two concepts of ἐπίγνωσις and αἴσθησις, experiential knowledge and perception, are going to be central points of the spirituality of a fifth-century bishop martyr.
He’s a great man of the Church named Diadochus of Photike, who was a Desert Father, a hermit, and then he was named an Abba, a father, so he was the superior of a community of monks. Then he was made a bishop, and then he was finally scooped up by pagans and martyred; carried off from his native Greece to Egypt, and there he’s on a list of martyrs. Well, Diadochus wrote a brief, beautiful treaties on the spiritual life called a Hundred Gnostic Chapters. Not gnostic in the heretical sense of gnostic, but gnostic in the sense of this experiential knowledge of God.
And he says that this word that we have here is translated in English as discernment, αἴσθησις, sense, before the Fall, before Original Sin, man only had one sense. We didn’t have five physical senses, and then an intellect and a will that were disconnected, that were distinguished. Rather, man just had one individual total sense. And this sense had God as the object, which reveals, if we think of our anthropology in that way before the Fall, what a radical choice the disobedience in Eden was if every aspect of the person was oriented by nature and supernature towards God, the violence one would have to do against oneself in order to sin.
And we see the nature of that sin in Eve when she starts parsing the forbidden fruit. She starts seeing it for what it looks like, what it’s going to taste like, and what it’s going to do for her mind, give her this knowledge, this gnosticism, so to say, false knowledge. Well, that fragmenting, that fragmentation of the fruit, parsing it into particular aspects then, is going to be the curse of the sin. So, as a result of the sin, we are fragmented. We have senses that go in different directions. We have an intellect that knows something and a will that desires something far different. So, this fragmentation, this self-imposed schizophrenia that we all have then as a result of Original Sin, is the curse of Eden. This is one of the fruits of Original Sin.
And Diadochus says it doesn’t have to stay that way. God’s grace comes to the rescue. After baptism, then, when we start to cultivate the life of grace, he says we need these two things, this knowledge and discernment that Paul puts together here. And he points to this. We need these to reintegrate our fragmented humanity, so that God be the sole object of our senses, of our knowledge, of our heart, of our mind, of our memory. So how do we do this?
Well, our knowledge, we can read the Life of Christ, but you know, that’s going to be on the level of information, something far… and it’s not to be denigrated, for sure, but it’s certainly not enough. Our spending time with Him, this brings about an experiential knowledge of Him; spending time with Him in Adoration. And I would recommend in Adoration, that’s not the time for devotions. Adoration is the time to love Him and allow yourself to be loved by Him. We can crowd out the action of grace through many words, through many thoughts.
In our Adoration, or if we’re not in Adoration in our mental prayer, we ought to be very economical with amount of thoughts, amount of words, amount of reading. Those can sometimes even be hindrances to this experiential knowledge of God. Whatever we say, whatever we think, whatever we read ought to be in function of loving Him Not in learning something, not in knowing something, not in figuring out what a scripture passage means. That is not prayer. And so, Diadochus recommends, right?, that we go into prayer to have an encounter with a person, not to learn something.
Another way to knowledge, this experiential knowledge of Christ, is to offer up your sufferings in union with His Passion, not with resignation, not with grumbling or complaint, but with gratitude. Gratitude for suffering. Thank you, Lord, for a small participation in your Passion. There is a privileged knowledge of Christ that comes only to those who suffer well. We live in a Protestant-influenced country that doesn’t understand the Cross. And so, we think that if things are going well, it means I’m not suffering, but we know Paul tells us that for those that God loves, he tries them, tries them in this life, in divine justice. For those who are not going to heaven, Our Lord often allows them a very easy comfortable life in this life, as in the order of justice for whatever natural good they did in this life. He repays them in this life. But for those that are destined for heaven, He allows them participation in the Cross.
We ought not resist sufferings. We have to thank Our Lord for them. Thank Him for a small participation in it. Another way to knowledge of Him, experiential knowledge of Him, is to only desire His will. That’s where holiness resides, in the configuration of will to will; doing the will of God. Outside of the will of God, there’s no holiness. That’s where holiness resides.
Diadochus, the great 5th-century Bishop says, “Indeed, knowledge unites man to God by experience. This unifying experience brings about transformation in the heart of…” The word he uses, αγονιστες (agonistes), which means a warrior, because he’s writing for monks who are in constant spiritual combat. “…in the heart of the warrior, to such an extent that he begins to possess God in his sentiments, in his vision, even seeing those who insult and attack him as God sees them. This notion of sense is not merely a feeling or something corporeal, but rather a perception and awareness of God’s loving will, and presence, and action lived out within oneself, penetrating one’s entire person. Happy are those who have willingly detached themselves from the goods of this life in hope of future goods. This self-mastery makes their bodily attractions to die off.”
And so, this joy that is produced in the soul of Paul here in the midst of his suffering, in pending death, in his chains, he’s in a dungeon, and nonetheless, this is his most joyful of all of his letters. This is not because he’s not aware of what’s going on. He understands the meaning of it, and he understands why he’s going through this. And so, we are also called to this replication of Christ’s Passion in our own lives, not through resignation, but through loving embracing of the Cross. And in that way, we will truly know Him and experience Him and find the strength we need to bear whatever cross He may send us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.
— Fr. Ermatinger