MATHETΩN

I think it is the most important comma in the history of the universe; it can be found in the so-called Apostle’s Creed:

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell.”

Let me repeat that:

“… born of the Virgin Mary COMMA suffered under Pontius Pilate …”

That comma obscures the life, temptations, teachings, doings, healings, sayings of Jesus. It obscures Jesus. To do that, I’d think the hymnbooks would need a font at least a hundred stories high.

… Only let me not give up my life irrationally, only let me not give up my life faintheartedly, or from some casual pretext. For again, God does not so desire; for he has need of a good universe and of good men to go to and fro upon earth. …

What then? Must I explain these things to the multitude? When the children come up to us and say ‘Happy Saturnalia!’ do we say to them, ‘No, all this is not good’? Not at all; but we cheer too. And so you, therefore, when you are unable to make a man change his belief, realize that he is a child and cheer with him or hold your peace.

All these things a man ought to remember, and then, when he is summoned to meet some difficulty, he ought to know that the time has come to show whether he has learned. Wrestling students act displeased with the youths of light weight: ‘He cannot lift me,’ says one — ‘bring me a sturdy young man.’ But when the crisis comes, sometimes they weep and say, ‘I wanted to keep practicing!’ Why, what did you practice for! Now, I like to think that someone among you reading this is in travail within his soul, saying, ‘Alas that such a difficulty does not come to me now as came to such-and-such good man! Alas that now I must be sitting in a corner!’ You ought all to be thus minded.

If one should take away from a good tragic actor his paraphernalia, is he lost or does he abide? And so it is in actual life. God may say, ‘Take the governership’: I take it and show how a man educated in the good comports himself. ‘Lay aside the robe of state and put rags on’: What then? Has it not been given to me to mount the stage now as a witness summoned by God?

What kind of witness do you bear for God? ‘But, O Lord, I am in sore straits and in misfortune; no one regards me, no one gives me anything, all blame me and speak ill of me.’ Is this the witness that you are going to bear, and disgrace the summons so important?

Or what if the priest declares, ‘He is impious’ — what has happened? ‘I have been pronounced impious.’ Nothing else? ‘No nothing.’ And if he had made a declaration: ‘When it is day, then it is dark,’ or: ‘The circumference of a circle is not equidistant from its center’ — would the educated man pay attention? So why when he passes judgment on what is holy and unholy, just and unjust?

How great is the injustice committed by us if we do so! Leave to others quibbles, grumbling about the good. For what is lacking now is a man to bear witness to these arguments by his acts. This is the character I would have you assume, so that we may no longer use old examples of good men in the schools but may have some examples from our own time!

This would be my dream job for the next few years:

Looking Glass Youth and Family Services:
STREET OUTREACH WORKER

Program: New Roads

Reports to: Clinical Supervisor

Comp: $9.50 / hr

Responsibilities:
Is responsible for the provision of education and prevention services regarding issues of sexual abuse, domestic violence, prostitution, and other issues relevant to homeless and runaway youth. In addition, assists with classroom presentations and outreach to community groups.

Availability: Day, evening, overnight

Specific duties:
Provides advocacy services to street youth in the drop-in center and on the street; debriefs with other staff; co-leads weekly support groups; works with related agencies to provide resources for street youth; provides referrals to New Roads case-management and educational services, other Looking Glass programs, &c.; conducts classroom presentations in area middle and high schools; provides coverage at New Roads drop-in center; provides some coverage at a group living facility with up to four residents.

I just finished studying Francis of Assisi’s first Rule (he rewrote the Rule years later for confirmation by papal bull) and taking notes, and I think I will sum my interpretation of it:

I. Live the whole gospel of Jesus Christ in its most obvious and simple way, all His teaching, all His footsteps. First, sell your property and give all you possess to the poor. Seek out the conversation of the poor, despised, sick, and beggars and show joy in it. Judge none, but judge your own self severely. Observe the Golden Rule toward everyone; love one another, in works and then words, which is Christ’s Commandment; resist no evil fate but accept violence, even from nature, and expect martyrdom. Never become depressed, never complain, but show forth joy, contentment in the Lord, and merriment. Show chivalry and courtesy.

II. Revere all churches, ordinances, and clerics. Study the gospel and pray in a regular pattern daily; seek repentance in a regular pattern daily; fast regularly and during holy seasons. Yet if it become necessary, to further the work of the Kingdom, fasts or any other constraints may be abandoned. Expel a brother or sister who is proved a heretic. Among unbelievers, or in the countries of unbelievers, do not contend but only freely confess you are a Christian. Then, when there is opportunity, explain the gospel of Christ to who will listen. When God is blasphemed, respond with a word of praise of God. Any may preach, but none may call himself a preacher, make of it a career, or preach in an aggrandizing way. Confess sins and faults to one another. Confess all sins before taking the bread and wine.

III. Wear poor clothes and have very few. Neither own nor use private transportation. Own nothing but food and clothing and perhaps the tools of your trade. Work at an honest, preferably manual, trade you knew before you were converted to support your own needs. Do not become a businessman or a manager; do not take a morally-ambiguous job; do not take a job for the money. Do not borrow, save, or invest money. If you discover money or a money-making opportunity, let it lie as though it were nothing but a stone. Ask boldly for donations for the poor, or for your work or yourself if necessary; remember that insults are a shame only for the insulter; remember that every person’s wealth will perish except the wealth of charity. Never claim a space as home, and always welcome any who comes, even if he is a thief. Never be idle, but always be doing a job, your good work, or your devotions. Travel everywhere doing good work; lodge in pious households as you come to them; accept attacks on the way and give to any who asks. Yet, if you become ill, you may instead seek care from your brothers and sisters, and these constraints may be abandoned. Do not let illness make you morose or angry, but learn from it as from the chastisement of a Father.

IV. Do not ogle the opposite sex and do not dally with them alone. Offer them spiritual counsel and encouragement. Expel immediately a brother or sister who is proved a fornicator; afterward, urge him or her to repent.

V. Establish servants who will arrange the brothers and sisters throughout the country to best effect and others who will visit them often with admonishment and comforting. Remember that such servants are not masters but slaves, for the first shall be last. Never shall any among you be called Prior. Let all watch the servants carefully for any wrongdoing, and, after three private admonishments, let nothing prevent you from reporting them. Also, let all watch each other, and admonish wrongdoing three times, and then report it openly. Yet let no such discovery make you angry or sad but at peace with God and apter to judge yourself. All shall obey all. No one who does any conscious sin is being obedient; no one who follows the gospel is being disobedient; and no one shall obey against his soul. All shall hold all in reverence. No one shall argue, be angry, or accuse others, but shall be silent or offer a humble, ready answer. Everyone in the country shall meet yearly, and everyone in the world shall meet tri-yearly. Wash one another’s feet.

VI. [Francis offers a very short benediction and sermon that a brother or sister may use anytime in any company.]

VII. [Francis concludes with a long and beautiful summation of the gospel of Christ, admonishment for the brothers and sisters' souls, and praise of God.]

Today as I ate at Taco Bell I observed, passing in front of the window to my right, various persons with crippled limbs making their way slowly to the public housing beyond and, at the table to my left, a father boasting pompously of his son’s sexual exploits at college. These things saddened and angered me, and they put me in mind of the Tripart Survey of the Mathetai.

At regular intervals the Mathetai issue this report for themselves in their work, whether for the world, for a country, or for a small region. Just as their Teacher sent his first followers throughout the Levant to teach, to preach, and to heal, so the work of the Mathetai takes those three general courses; and just as the Works tells us that the work of his first followers turned the world upside-down, so the end of the Mathetai’s courses is to fix the world — to rid it of the sufferings I observed as I ate lunch. And before a thing can be fixed, its breakages must be surveyed.

Thus the Tripart Survey seeks to answer: ( 1 ) Against what lies ought we most teach? ( 2 ) Against what abuses of power ought we most preach? ( 3 ) Against what illnesses ought we most turn our skills of healing?

Some would remark — especially after reading a Survey — that this seems a very scientific approach for men of God. And indeed the Mathetai are practical as flint in their war to fix the world: they feel themselves badly outnumbered and out of time; they are not a bit daunted; they will use any How, Who, or What most effectually to approach the goal.

What is the point of doing anything that is not impossible?

A girl’s name: Skirmish
A boy’s name: Heart
A girl’s name: Volante
A boy’s name: Chaste
A girl’s name: Emperatriz
A boy’s name: Embrace

The Mathetai, as I have implied before, mostly wear traditional work-clothes. Yet modesty is not their rule so much as expediency. If the Duke of Windsor had bequeathed a Mathetes a wardrobe, he likely would wear most of it.

Clothing is one of two material things the Mathetai allow concern them; as the Envoy has written: “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.” Yet that the Envoy has recognized clothing does not mean the Mathetai think much of them. They would wear free rags if these covered and warmed them. But this is not acseticism: again, it is expediency.

The hermits, from the anchorites to the Mennonites, have got small things right with a very great thing wrong. It is because the Mathetai war a great war and work a great work that they have not a second nor a cent for finery. If a Mathetes had leisure and spare wealth, he would spend it as the Epicurean with a Cynic’s mind, prescribed in the Ecclesiastes, would spend it.

“ ‘Homo creatus est.’ [‘Man is created’—from the meditations of Loyola.] Creation, the making out of nothing, bringing from nothing, into being: Once there was nothing; then lo this huge world is there. How great a work of power!

“The loaf is made of flour; the house of bricks; the plow, the cannon, the locomotive, the warship of iron—all things are made of matter. But the world—the grain, the wheat ear, the seed, the ground, the sun, the rain; the clay, the earth; the iron, the fuel—was made of nothing. The loaf &c. were made over time and with labor; the world in no time and with a word. Man cannot create a single speck; God creates all that is besides Himself.

“But men of genius are said to create a painting, a poem, a tale, a tune, a policy. Not indeed the colors and the canvas, not the words or the notes, but the design, the character, the air, the plan. How then? From themselves, from their own minds. And they themselves, their minds and all, are created of God: If the tree is created, much more the flower and the fruit.

“To know what creation is look at the size of the world. The speed of light—it would fly six or seven times round the earth as the clock ticks once. Yet it takes thousands of years to reach us from the Milky Way, which is made up of stars swarming together (though each as far from other as we are from them), running into one another and looking a soft mist, and each of them a million times as big as earth perhaps (the sun is about that). And there is not the least reason to think that is anything like the size of the whole world [universe]. Yet all arose at a word! So that the greatest of all works in the world, nay the world itself, was easier made than the least little thing that man or any other creature makes in the world.

“Why did God create? Not for sport, not for nothing. Every sensible man has a purpose in all he does, every workman has a use for every object he makes. Much more has God a purpose, an end, a meaning in His work. He meant the world to give Him praise, reverence, and service—to give Him glory. It is like a garden, a field He sows. What should it bear Him? Praise, reverence, and service—it should yield Him glory. It is a leasehold He lets out. What should its rent be? Praise, reverence, and service—its rent is glory. It is a bird he teaches to sing; a pipe, a harp He plays on. What should it sing to Him? Praise, reverence, and service—it should sing Him glory. It is a glass He looks in. What should it show Him? With praise, reverence, and service it should show Him His own glory. It is a book He has written of the riches of His knowledge, teaching endless truths, full of lessons of wisdom, a poem of beauty. What is it about? His praise, the reverence due Him, the way to serve Him—it tells Him of His glory. It is a censer fuming. What is the sweet incense? His praise, His reverence, His service—it rises to His glory. It is an altar, and a [sacrifice] on it lying in His sight. Why is it offered? To His praise, honor, and service—it is a sacrifice to His glory.

“The creation does praise God, does reflect the honor of Him, is of service to Him—and yet the praises fall short. The honor is like none—less than a buttercup to a king. The service is of no service to Him. He does not need it. He has infinite glory without it and what is infinite can be made no bigger. Nevertheless He takes it; He wishes it, asks it, commands it, enforces it, gets it. The sun and the stars shining glorify God. They stand where He placed them, they move where He bids them. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ [Psa ixx.1]. They glorify God, but they do not know it. The birds sing to Him, the thunder speaks of His terror, the lion is like His strength, the sea is like His greatness, the honey is like His sweetness; they are something like Him, they make Him known, the tell of Him, they give Him glory, but they do not know that they do—they do not know Him, they never can, they are brute things that only think of food or think of nothing. This then is poor praise, faint reverence, slight service, dull glory. Nevertheless what they can do they always do.

“But we will speak of man. Man was created, like the rest then to praise, reverence, and serve God—to give Him glory. He does so, even by being, and being beyond all visible creatures: ‘What a piece of work is man! Domine, dominus, quam admirabile … Quid est homo … minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis.’ [This is again from the meditations of Loyola; the Latin is from Psalm 8: ‘O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name ... What is man ... a little lower than the angels.’] But man can know God—can mean to give Him glory. This then is why man was made, to give God glory—and to mean to give it. To praise God freely, willingly to reverence Him, gladly to serve Him. Man was made to give, and mean to give, God glory.

“I was made for this. Each one of us was made for this.

“Does man then do it? Never mind others—do I do it? If I sin I do not: How can I dishonor God and honor Him? wilfully dishonor Him and yet mean to honor Him? choose to disobey Him and mean to serve Him? No, as sinners, we have not answered God’s purposes, we have not reached the end of our being. Are we God’s orchard or God’s vineyard? We have yielded rotten fruit, sour grapes, or nothing. Are we His cornfield sown? We have not come to ear, or are mildewed in the ear. Are we His farm? It is a losing one to Him. Are we His tenants? We have refused Him rent. Are we His singing bird? We will not learn to sing. Are we His pipe or harp? We are out of tune, we grate upon the ear. Are we His glass to look in? We are deep in dust, or our silver has gone, or we are broken, or worst we misshape His face and make God’s image hideous. Are we His book? We are blotted, we are scribbled over with foulness and blasphemy. Are we His censer? We breathe stench and not sweetness. Are we His sacrifice? we are like the sacrifice of Balac, of Korah, and of Cain. If we sin, we are all this.

“But what we have not done yet we can now do; what we have done badly hitherto we can do well henceforward. We can repent of our sins and begin to give God glory. The moment we do this we reach the end of our being, we do and are what we were made for, we make it worth God’s while to have created us.

“This is a comforting thought: We need not wait in fear until death; any day, any minute that we bless God for our being or for anything—for food, for sunlight—we do and are what we were meant for, made for: things that give and mean to give God glory. This is a thing to live for.

“Then make haste so to live.

“For if you are in sin you are God’s enemy, you cannot love or praise Him. You may say that you are far from hating God; but if you live in sin, you are among God’s enemies, you are under Satan’s standard and enlisted there: you may not like it—no wonder; you may wish to be elsewhere—but there you are, an enemy to God. It is indeed better to praise Him than to blaspheme, but your praise is not a hearty praise—it cannot be. You cannot mean your praise if, while praise is on your lips, there is no reverence in the heart; there can be no reverence in the mind if there is no obedience, no submission, no service; and there can be no obeying God while you disobey Him and no service while you sin.

“Turn then, brethren, now, and give glory to God. You say grace at meals and thank and praise God for bread—thank and praise Him now for everything.

“When a man is in God’s grace and free from mortal sin then everything that he does, so long as there is no sin in it, gives God glory. It is not only prayer that gives God glory, but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping scouring—everything gives God some glory if, being in His grace, you do your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and temperance gives Him glory too. To lift up hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a pitchfork in his hand, a woman with a pail give Him glory too. He is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean they should.

“So then, my brethren—live.”

God bless you and

Porter

“A―― says God wants us to be diligent.”

“God wants us to be diligent in much the way he wants us to walk fast. Toward what?”