Meditation 52
The Mystery of the Two Rows of Loaves
By
the two rows of loaves on the golden table God emphasizes the two
natures of His Son – His Holy Humanity and Divinity – as the foundation
of the Christification of the soul, both as a participation in
His humanity as well as in His divine nature. Thus He emphasized that
Moses put the loaves exactly in accordance with His ordinance on this
golden table of life,
When we contemplate these two rows of loaves as they are placed on the golden table in the light of Christ's Incarnation they actually emphasizes how God works through matter in the sacraments. He wants to spare us the sad experience of unrealistic or “angelistic religion.” (Med. 19). The twelve loaves reveals the “Law of the Spirit” (Rm 8. 2) as the Royal Highway to eternal life. By these two rows of loaves we see clearly how our redemption is revealed as a procession of the Son from the Essence of the Holy Trinity in His Incarnation on earth. Through the Son the Spirit of Life leads the soul in love through the Son to the glory of the Father, a mystery the ancient Church expressed by the oldest persevered form of the doxology, “Glory be to the Father, through the Son, in Holy spirit.” In this procession of divine love the Church hails the Blessed Virgin Mary “as a pre-eminent and altogether singular member of the Church, and as the Church's model and excellent exemplar in faith and charity.” [1] The glorious assumption of Mary in the live of grace is thus destined for all souls by the “descending” or katabasis of the Son of God to earth as a prerequisite of analepsis or the assumption.
Thus the katabasis or descending of the Son to earth is a procession from the inscrutability of the inter Trinitarian Essence in order to open the way of analepsis or ascending of the soul to heaven,
We can maintain in full earnest that the dogma of the Militant Church on earth is gradual addition or progress in divine knowledge. We can mention numerous instances of this growth which the holy father emphasized in their writings and is excellently put forward by Gregory of Nanzianzus,
By this gradual addition or progress in divine knowledge the Church itself has through the ages increased its charitable knowledge of God's predestination under the Spirit's guidance. The dogmatic definitions of this living experience has usually not been promulgated until outer circumstances have demanded such definitions, but have been living within the Church as a pious opinions.
Thus we see that the dogma of the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin as Theotokos or “the God bearer” became formal dogma and obligatory for the faithful at the Ecumenical Council in Ephesus in 431. This was a response to the growing influence of Arianism which spread out like a fire in a dry haystack. It was not until in the middle of the fourth century when the Church had finally shaped its doctrine regarding the ranks of the celestial hierarchies [4] and at the Seventh Ecumenical council in Nicea in 787 that the church fathers emphasized the value of the ancient tradition of the iconography as is reflected by following words of John of Damascus,
As formal dogma and obligatory for the faithful it was the Council of Florence that affirmed in 1439 the existence of a character imparted by the sacraments as an “impress” on the soul (D 1313), in spite of the fact that this had been a pious opinion among the faithful from earliest of times,
It was not until 1854 when the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin was proclaimed as formal dogma in spite of the fact that the purity of the Mother of God had been confessed as a pious opinion from the earliest of times. This was a response to the secularization and atheism of the nineteenth century. The glorious Assumption of Mary was thus not promulgated until November 1, 1950 in the papal bull Munificentissimus Deus of Pius XII. This was in spite of the fact that already in the second century Theophilus of Antioch stated clearly in one of his writings that God's intentional plan for human creatures was that they should progress toward Himself and be taken into heaven. [7]
In the Gospel of St. John we see clearly that no one has went up to God or ascended to heaven but Jesus Christ, “No one has gone to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man” (Jn 3. 13). In this context we must distinguish between the Greek words anabasis which St. John used, [8] “to ascend” and the Greek word analepsis which means “taking up” or “assumption.” It is this “assumption” which is displayed on Fig. 53 as a fruit of contemplating the mystery of the loaves in the Holy Spirit who always loves to increase our progress in divine knowledge, but we don't receive as we don't ask, “All things, whatever you will ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Mt 21. 22). Thus we see clearly how the foundation jewels of the celestial Jerusalem and on the high priest's breastplate reveal this precious truth of our own “assumption” in the live of grace by teaching us to contemplate our Lord and Savior through the sacred image of the jewels of the Celestial City in order to urge us to “contemplate the physical appearance of the Christ, His miracles and His passion” as John of Damascus stated above. As St. Paul said, To mysterion touto mega estin, “This is a great mystery, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church” (Ep 5. 31). Let us scrutinize this mystery still further as important as this issue is as it reveals the fact that it is only in the humanity and the divinity of Christ that we can make this ascend to heaven when the Spirit clothes us in the vestments of becoming high priests in the Royal Priesthood of the New Covenant.
You will take wheaten flour and
with it bake twelve loaves, each of two tenths of a ephah. You will
then place them in two rows of six on the pure table before Yahweh and
put pure incense on each row, to make it food offered as memorial, food
burnt for Yahweh. Every Sabbath they will be arranged before Yahweh.
The Israelites will provide them as a permanent covenant. They will
belong to Aaron and his sons, who will eat them inside the holy place
since, for him, they are an especially holy part of the food burnt for
Yahweh. This is a permanent law (Lv 24. 5-9).
When we contemplate these two rows of loaves as they are placed on the golden table in the light of Christ's Incarnation they actually emphasizes how God works through matter in the sacraments. He wants to spare us the sad experience of unrealistic or “angelistic religion.” (Med. 19). The twelve loaves reveals the “Law of the Spirit” (Rm 8. 2) as the Royal Highway to eternal life. By these two rows of loaves we see clearly how our redemption is revealed as a procession of the Son from the Essence of the Holy Trinity in His Incarnation on earth. Through the Son the Spirit of Life leads the soul in love through the Son to the glory of the Father, a mystery the ancient Church expressed by the oldest persevered form of the doxology, “Glory be to the Father, through the Son, in Holy spirit.” In this procession of divine love the Church hails the Blessed Virgin Mary “as a pre-eminent and altogether singular member of the Church, and as the Church's model and excellent exemplar in faith and charity.” [1] The glorious assumption of Mary in the live of grace is thus destined for all souls by the “descending” or katabasis of the Son of God to earth as a prerequisite of analepsis or the assumption.
Thus the katabasis or descending of the Son to earth is a procession from the inscrutability of the inter Trinitarian Essence in order to open the way of analepsis or ascending of the soul to heaven,
We can be lifted up towards the
Most High only if the Lord who lifts up the humble has stooped down to
what is below. That is why the soul that rises toward the things that
are above asks the help of the Transcendent One and begs Him to descend
from His majesty in order to become accessible to those who are below. [2]
We can maintain in full earnest that the dogma of the Militant Church on earth is gradual addition or progress in divine knowledge. We can mention numerous instances of this growth which the holy father emphasized in their writings and is excellently put forward by Gregory of Nanzianzus,
The Old Testament manifested the
Father plainly, the Son obscurely. The New Testament revealed the Son
and hinted at the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Today the Spirit dwells
among us and makes Himself more clearly known. For it was not safe,
when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to
proclaim the Son; nor when that of the Son was not yet received to
burden us further (if I may use so bold an expression) with the Holy
Spirit . . . but rather that by gradual addition, and as David says,
going up and advance and progress from glory to glory, the light of the
Trinity might shine upon the more illuminated . . . Our Savior had some
things to which, He said, could not be borne at that time by His
disciples (though they were filled with many teachings) . . . and again
He said that all things should be thought us by the Spirit when He
should come to dwell among us. Of these things one, I take it, was the
Deity of the Spirit Himself, made clear later on when such knowledge
should be opportune and capable of being received after our Savior
restoration when the knowledge of His own Deity should be established. [3]
By this gradual addition or progress in divine knowledge the Church itself has through the ages increased its charitable knowledge of God's predestination under the Spirit's guidance. The dogmatic definitions of this living experience has usually not been promulgated until outer circumstances have demanded such definitions, but have been living within the Church as a pious opinions.
Thus we see that the dogma of the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin as Theotokos or “the God bearer” became formal dogma and obligatory for the faithful at the Ecumenical Council in Ephesus in 431. This was a response to the growing influence of Arianism which spread out like a fire in a dry haystack. It was not until in the middle of the fourth century when the Church had finally shaped its doctrine regarding the ranks of the celestial hierarchies [4] and at the Seventh Ecumenical council in Nicea in 787 that the church fathers emphasized the value of the ancient tradition of the iconography as is reflected by following words of John of Damascus,
Similarly, through His image, we
contemplate the physical appearance of the Christ, His miracles and His
passion. This contemplation sanctifies our sight and, thereby, our
soul. We consider ourselves fortunate and we venerate this image by
lifting ourselves, as far as possible beyond this physical appearance
to the contemplation of divine glory. [5]
As formal dogma and obligatory for the faithful it was the Council of Florence that affirmed in 1439 the existence of a character imparted by the sacraments as an “impress” on the soul (D 1313), in spite of the fact that this had been a pious opinion among the faithful from earliest of times,
For God imprinted on it the
likeness of the glories of His own Nature, as if molding the form of a
carving on a wax. [6]
It was not until 1854 when the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin was proclaimed as formal dogma in spite of the fact that the purity of the Mother of God had been confessed as a pious opinion from the earliest of times. This was a response to the secularization and atheism of the nineteenth century. The glorious Assumption of Mary was thus not promulgated until November 1, 1950 in the papal bull Munificentissimus Deus of Pius XII. This was in spite of the fact that already in the second century Theophilus of Antioch stated clearly in one of his writings that God's intentional plan for human creatures was that they should progress toward Himself and be taken into heaven. [7]
In the Gospel of St. John we see clearly that no one has went up to God or ascended to heaven but Jesus Christ, “No one has gone to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man” (Jn 3. 13). In this context we must distinguish between the Greek words anabasis which St. John used, [8] “to ascend” and the Greek word analepsis which means “taking up” or “assumption.” It is this “assumption” which is displayed on Fig. 53 as a fruit of contemplating the mystery of the loaves in the Holy Spirit who always loves to increase our progress in divine knowledge, but we don't receive as we don't ask, “All things, whatever you will ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Mt 21. 22). Thus we see clearly how the foundation jewels of the celestial Jerusalem and on the high priest's breastplate reveal this precious truth of our own “assumption” in the live of grace by teaching us to contemplate our Lord and Savior through the sacred image of the jewels of the Celestial City in order to urge us to “contemplate the physical appearance of the Christ, His miracles and His passion” as John of Damascus stated above. As St. Paul said, To mysterion touto mega estin, “This is a great mystery, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church” (Ep 5. 31). Let us scrutinize this mystery still further as important as this issue is as it reveals the fact that it is only in the humanity and the divinity of Christ that we can make this ascend to heaven when the Spirit clothes us in the vestments of becoming high priests in the Royal Priesthood of the New Covenant.
[1]. Munificentissimus Deus.
[2]. Patrologia Greace, 44, 988A.
[3]. Quotation from Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Easter Church, p. 161-162 (Or. XXXI (Theo. V), 26-27, “Patrologia Greace,“ XXXVI, 161-4.
[4]. Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Eucharist Rite, Lectures on the Christian Sacraments, p. 32.
[5]. Patrologia Greace, 94, 1333 and 1336.
[6]. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 10 on the Song of Songs (Patrologia Greace 44, 988A).
[7]. Ad Autolycum, II. 24.
[8]. Textus Receptus: oudeis anabebiken.
[2]. Patrologia Greace, 44, 988A.
[3]. Quotation from Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Easter Church, p. 161-162 (Or. XXXI (Theo. V), 26-27, “Patrologia Greace,“ XXXVI, 161-4.
[4]. Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Eucharist Rite, Lectures on the Christian Sacraments, p. 32.
[5]. Patrologia Greace, 94, 1333 and 1336.
[6]. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 10 on the Song of Songs (Patrologia Greace 44, 988A).
[7]. Ad Autolycum, II. 24.
[8]. Textus Receptus: oudeis anabebiken.