From Cell to Wine Cellar is a reference to sermon 49 in St. Bernard's sermons on Song of Songs. Using Song of Songs 2:4, St. Bernard defines the wine-cellar as "the secret dwelling-place of truth, of which from afar the perfume attracts the spouse, that is the fervent soul; it is the abode of inspiration, the radiant center of enthusiasm, of genius, of invention, of ardent search; it is the scene of the activity of the mind and its wise delight" (Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life, 47). The cell in the title refers to a private monastic habitation where the monk would engage in private study and prayer. This newsletter will be a place where my study, performed prayerfully, will be condensed weekly around the three main sources for doing theology: Scripture, Tradition, and reason. In the section on Scripture, I will provide sermons (my own and others), notes, and thoughts on various passages. In the Tradition section, I will discuss Church history and writings of Fathers and theologians who stand in the great tradition of the Christian faith. Under the heading of reason, I hope to cover applied theology, philosophy, current events, and other interesting things that don't fit neatly in the other two sections. None of these are meant to be definitive or last words; rather entries here will reflect the development of thought through reading and research.
Scripture
The Third Sunday in Advent Sermon (Primary Text: St. Matthew 11:2-10)
In St. Matthew 11:2-10, John the Baptist sends messengers to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah or if they should look for another. Jesus tells the messengers to relay to John what they have seen and heard: "the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them" (11:5; ESV) The reception history of this passage is fascinating. The Church Fathers almost exclusively tell us that John sends the messengers to Jesus with his question as a way to testify to others. They emphasize the fact that John did not doubt Jesus because this is the same John who leapt in the womb in the presence of the Blessed Virgin carrying Jesus, who baptized our Lord and proclaimed him to be "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" (St. John 2:29). Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers is a representative of the typical patristic reading: "It is indeed certain, that he who as forerunner proclaimed Christ's coming, as prophet knew Him when He stood before him and worshipped Him as Confessor when He came to him, could not fall into error from such abundant knowledge. Nor can it be believed that the grace of the Holy Spirit failed him when thrown into prison, seeing He should hereafter minister the light of His power to the Apostles when they were in prison."
Interestingly to note, then, that modern interpreters tend to take the polar opposite reading: that John the Baptist is having a crisis of faith in prison. He knows he's at the end of his life and is disturbed by Jesus' lack of asceticism and exercise of judgment. Where is the winnowing fork (Cf. Matt 3:12)? Instead, Jesus is spending time eating and drinking with publicans and sinners (Matt 9:10-13). In his wonderful commentary on St. Matthew 8-20 in the Hermenia series, Ulrich Luz observes, "Since the Enlightenment, Protestant exegesis has again taken seriously the possibility that John genuinely doubted" (133). Many modern interpreters seem to almost relish the fact that such an important figure seems to suffer from doubt in a way that plays into a larger cultural movement, particularly in Evangelical/Exvangelical circles, to valorize uncertainty (I have written about this at Conciliar Post in "Doubt Your Doubt" and at the CiRCE Institute in "The Road to Dialectical Maturity: Doubt as a Tool and a Vice").
I'm not sure why it has to be one or the other. It seems reasonable, based on the Forerunner's preaching and ascetic life to assume he may have had legitimate questions about Jesus' activity without giving into a cynical kind of doubt. In fact, I argue in the sermon, I think we should see the sending of messengers to Jesus as an act of faith seeking understanding. That John comes to Jesus with legitimate questions about how the pieces of the puzzle fits together then is a model for us in a post-modern age: we shouldn't give into corrosive modes of doubt but we should be able to approach God with heartfelt questions. The Psalmist sure does (6:3): "My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord--how long?" But our questioning should have the right posture, that of a creature approaching the Creator. When we approach God this way, we can trust that he will lead us into truth.
Tradition
From Cell to Wine Cellar Podcast 001: St. Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo (1.1-10)
This is the inaugural episode of the podcast that will supplement the newsletter. Right now, it’s only available on Anchor and Spotify but full distribution should be achieved soon.
Earth and Altar's O Antiphon Project
I was honored to be able to participate in the O Antiphon project at Earth & Altar. My entry is on O Sapientia. It’s a wonderful series! Don’t take my word for it when you could listen to Malcolm Guite!
The Sacramentalists, “Advent Series, Part 3: ‘Mary and Eve’ by Sister Grace Remington OCSO”
Fr. Myles Hixson continues his series of reflections for Advent by doing a great talk on “Mary and Eve” by Sister Grace Remington. This ties in well with the podcast discussion of Cur Deus Homo by St. Anselm because he points out the fittingness that our Savior would be born from a woman after the first woman played a part in introducing original sin into the world.
St. Thomas Aquinas on Solitude from "Sixteen Precepts for Acquiring Knowledge"
"I want you to be slow in speaking and slow in going to the parlor."
"Do not inquire at all about the actions of others."
"Be polite to everyone" but "be familiar with none, for too much familiarity breeds contempt and gives matter for many distractions."
"Do not busy yourself about the words and actions of those in the world."
"Avoid useless outings above everything."
"Love your cell, if you desire to be admitted to the wine cellar." (Hence the name of the newsletter/podcast)
Pneumatology, Ecclesiology, and Sacramentology in Hugh of Saint Victor
“The Holy Spirit comes through Christ to Christians. For Christ is the head, the Christian the member. One head, many members, and one body consists of head and members and in one body is one spirit whose in the head is, indeed, participation in the members...Through faith we are made members, through love we are vividness. Through faith we receive union, through charity we receive vivification. Now in the sacrament through baptism we are united; through the body and blood of Christ we are vivified” (De Sacramentis 2.2.1)
There’s so much good stuff here. First, we see what we talk about when we talk about the Double Procession of the Holy Ghost: the Holy Spirit is sent to us by the Son (John 14:15-31). The Spirit is the means by which the Christian is made a member of Christ and united to the other parts of the Body.
For Hugh, it should be noted, faith is seen as a sacrament. He was writing before the seven sacraments were codified and so his understanding of what counts as a sacrament was much more expansive than ours. Like St. Augustine, Hugh counted somewhere over 300 sacraments. So faith is a sacrament that makes us members of Christ but it’s not unrelated or distinct from baptism. But faith is a beginning that must give way to love just as Baptism brings us to the Eucharist.
Reason
Philosophize This! "Episode #148...On Media pt. 1 - Manufacturing Consent"
This podcast covers Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s book Manufacturing Consent. It does an excellent job summarizing their argument that media acts as an intermediary between us and reality. It is a filter. The question then becomes how power dynamics impact this filter. As Chomsky states, "Propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to the totalitarian state." There are five filters between reality and us: (1) interest media outlets; (2) advertisers (curating audience for corporate interests); (3) media elite (people in positions of power decide what is newsworthy); (4) flack (journalistic parameters); (5) fear (people need to be afraid of common enemies: Republicans, Democrats, terrorists, Communists, etc.)
Mere Fidelity, “Divided We Fall, with David French”
This is a must listen and pairs well with the Philosophize This! Episode. French provides us a sobering warning about the direction of political partisanship and further confirms my suspicion: cable news is dangerous for your soul.