‘I believe in God the Father almighty’ isn’t the first in a set of answers to the question, ‘How many ideas or pictures have I inside my head?’ as if God were the name of one more doubtful thing like UFOs and ghosts to add to the list of the furniture of my imagination. It is the beginning of a series of statements about where I find the anchorage of my life, where I find solid ground, home.
Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust, p. 6
In John’s Gospel (the ninth chapter), Jesus asks the blind man he’s just cured whether he ‘believes’ in the Son of Man. He’s certainly not asking (as he might about the Loch Ness monster) whether the man is of the opinion that the Son of Man exists; he wants to know whether the former blind man is ready to trust the Son of man – that is, Jesus in his role as representative of the human race before God. The man – naturally – wants to know who the ‘Son of Man’ is, and Jesus says that it is him; the man responds with the words, ‘I believe.’
He believes; he has confidence. That is, he doesn’t go off wondering whether the Son of Man is out to further his own ends and deceive him. He trusts Jesus to be working for him, not for any selfish goals and he believes that what he sees and hears when Jesus is around is the truth. Hence the radical difference from ‘believing’ in UFOs or the Loch Ness monster. To believe in these doesn’t make that much difference to how I feel about myself and the world in general, and it has nothing to do with whether the Loch Ness monster is reliable or not. If it existed, it would undoubtedly be useful to know if it was a creatures of dependable and regular habits, but that isn’t what we have in mind when we talk about believing in it.
Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust, pp. 5-6
The man who here lies half dead, wounded and stripped of his clothing, is Adam and all mankind. The murderers are the devils who robbed and wounded us, and left us lying prostrate half dead. We still struggle a little for life; but there lies horse and man, we cannot help ourselves to our feet, and if we were left thus lying we would have to die by reason of our great anguish and lack of nourishment…The parable stands in bold relief, and pictures us perfectly, what we are and can do with our boasted reason and free will.
Martin Luther, Church Postil, Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, First Sermon, II.28-29
The deaf-mute, of whose marvelous cure by our Lord we have just now heard when the Gospel was read, represents those members of the human race who merit being freed by divine grace from the error brought on by the devil’s deceit. Man became deaf, unable to hear the word of life after, puffed up as he was against God, he listened to the serpent’s deadly words; he was made mute and unable to declare the praises of his Maker from the time when he presumed to have a conversation with his seducer. Rightly did God close man’s ears from hearing the praises of his Creator along with the angels – those ears which the unsuspected enemy by his speech had opened to hearing denunciation of this same Creator; rightly did God close man’s mouth from proclaiming the praises of his Creator along with the angels – that mouth which the proud deceiver had filled with his lies about the forbidden food, in order, as the devil said, to improve upon the work of this same Creator.
The Venerable Bede, Homily II.6
Immortal Heat, O let thy greater flame
Attract the lesser to it: let those fires
Which shall consume the world, first make it tame,
And kindle in our hearts such true desires,
As may consume our lusts, and make thee way.
Then shall our hearts pant thee; then shall our brain
All her invention on thine Altar lay,
And there in hymnes send back thy fire again:
Our eies shall see thee, which before saw dust;
Dust blown by wit, till that they both were blinde:
Thou shalt recover all thy goods in kinde,
Who wert disseized by usurping lust:
All knees shall bow to thee; all wits shall rise,
And praise him who did make and mend our eies.
George Herbert, Love (ii)
The Most High planted in the middle of Paradise
The thrice blessed wood, the gift of life for us,
In order that, in approaching it,
Adam might find eternal and immortal life,
But he did not strive earnestly to know this life,
And he failed to attain it, and revealed death.
However, the robber, seeing how the plant in Eden
Had been beautifully transplanted in Golgotha,
Recognized the life in it and said to himself:
`This is what my father lost formerly In Paradise.’
St. Romanos the Melodist, Kontakion on the Adoration of the Cross
Since Thou hast become life and resurrection for all men through Thy goodness,
Release me from this life.
Thou Who art immortal, and send me away from this life, which is mortal:
Give my body over to mortal death, as with all Thy friends,
But grant me, Merciful One, life spiritual and eternal.
Since I have seen Thee in the flesh, and have been deemed worthy to hold Thee,
I behold Thy glory along with Thy Father and the Holy Spirit,
For Thou hast at the same time, remained on high, and come here below,
Thou, the only Friend of man.
St. Romanos the Melodist, Kontakion on the Presentation in the Temple
Overcome by love, He came into the world to seek
His creature who had wandered.
Without beginning, and Ineffable,
Son of God and our God,
Wisely and with divine providence, as a God,
He makes the search.
He is made flesh from His mother whom He cleansed
(as though swept clean) and sanctified;
And He offers His body as a lamp to the fire and oil
Of His divinity which illumines all.
For fire and clay always make light.
Thus from His divinity and Incarnation, Christ
Shed the light of the Lamp —
The Life and Resurrection.
St. Romanos the Melodist, Kontakion on the Resurrection IV
O the marvel! the forbearance! the immeasurable meekness!
The Untouched is felt; the Master is held by a servant,
And He reveals His wounds to one of His inner circle.
Seeing these wounds, the whole Creation was shaken at the time.
Thomas, when he was considered worthy of such gifts,
Lifted up a prayer to the One Who deemed him worthy,
Saying, “Bear my rashness with patience,
Have pity on my unworthiness and lighten the burden
Of my lack of faith, so that I may sing and cry,
`Thou art our Lord and God.'”
St. Romanos the Melodist, Kontakion on Doubting Thomas
O brothers, let us love the Bridegroom,
Let us make ready our lamps,
Shining out with brightness and true faith,
So that, like the wise virgins at the Lord’s coming,
We may arrive with Him at the marriage,
For He, the Merciful, since He is God,
Offers to all as a gift
The incorruptible crown!
Thou, O God, the Bridegroom of salvation,
the hope of those who hymn Thee,
Grant to us who pray to Thee
That we find, without stain, in Thy marriage,
Just like the virgins
The incorruptible crown.
St. Romanos the Melodist, On the Ten Virgins I
Locus Communis