Genuine love

I am always amazed how voices from the past, especially the remote past, can yank us out of our smug satisfaction with our own era and vaunted superior set of cultural or spiritual values. We often take the Church Fathers for granted, paying little or no attention to them, but instead run after modern thinkers and writers, though not always doers, of the Christian faith. Book store shelves are bending with the weight of books by Max Lucado, Rick Warren, and T.D. Jakes, but rarely do we find the writings of those whose faithful lives and writings testify to “Christ among us” from the earliest days.
Why? Do we really think that Christianity just appeared in the 21st century? “Do you think the Word of God came out of yourselves? Or that it has come only to you?” asks the holy apostle Paul (1 Cor 14:36 Jerusalem Bible).

This morning, my faithful friend Presbytera Candace sent me another ageless gemstone of the wisdom of the early Church. This resonates in me very strongly, confirming from an ancient “life in Christ” something that I too have experienced and learned about the Lord, even living today near “the end of the ages.” This is a word about love, about who loves us, and why, and is expressed with more brevity and simplicity than this rambling introduction of mine; but this word is true. Like the words of holy and divine Scripture, drawn from them and leading us back to them, the humble teachings of our holy and God-bearing ancestors point us always to Jesus, the Word of God, and leave little of themselves to glory in.

[God disciplines] …not for any interest of His own, but for you and for your benefit alone. For this is genuine love, and love in reality: when we are beloved, though we be of no use to Him Who loves us, not that He may receive, but that He may impart. He chastens, He does everything, He uses all diligence, so that we may become capable of receiving His benefits, [chastising us], “so that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10).

— John Chrysostom

As a postscript…
Something about this quote from John Chrysostom reminds me of the following old Dutch hymn (circa 1625), which is traditionally sung in the autumn, around or at (American) Thanksgiving.

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
Sing praises to His Name, He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning:
Lord, Thine be all the glory, The victory is Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender wilt be;
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation:
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free.

Yes, “He does everything, He uses all diligence, so that we may become capable of receiving His benefits.” Ameen!