Top Five Things I've Learned about the Church Schism

Well folks, I'm sitting around in the library, waiting for my class to start, so I figured I'd write up a reflection of sorts on my study into the East-West Schism. If you don't care, too bad, it's up here. Deal with it. If you do, these are the five most important points I've learned from my time studying the Schism of 1054 so far. This written in the style of a Cracked article. If you need me to cite anything, please ask, and I will do so.

5. Language (and Schoolin') is Crucial
Did you know that the people in Constantinople were reading Augustine at the same time as Aquinas? No? Me neither. It's pretty sad, but it's true. Language was possibly the biggest barrier to people actually understanding each other, since none of the people in the West spoke Greek, and pretty much no one spoke Latin in a non-liturgical setting. At all. Don't believe me? The current top-to-bottom command structure of the Roman Church was made in the tenth century because the lay people could no longer understand their Liturgy, and thus couldn't participate all that much in Church affairs, and so no lay person actually learned all that much theology. In Byzantium (where they still used the vernacular Greek) theology was part of training to be a statesman. That's right: if you wanted to become a part of the government you had to learn theology. Oh, and to convert you usually had to go through about 3 or so years of catechism before being admitted.

What's my point?

The West and East couldn't communicate, and therefore things fell apart. The language barrier was so great that a lot of things took a lot longer to be understood (the Seventh Ecumenical Council, for instance, where the translating was so poor the West  thought the East were preaching the very thing the East was condemning), or were never really looked at at all until centuries out of context (AUGUSTINE ANYBODY???).

4. The State is a Jerk
There's this idea that religious killings were a common thing back in the day, and that if a war wasn't religious it wasn't a war. I appeal to the almighty common sense, and ask you to think about that. You're telling me that politicians actually have a group of people that are worse than them? Just look down, deep in your gut, and ask yourself that.

No, Obama, it wasn't worth a try.

Didn't think so. No, turns out that politicians have always been backstabbing bastards, particularly when it comes to the Church. Don't believe me?

• The Iconoclast Heresy (all sacred images are bad, essentially) was enacted by the Byzantine Emperor out of a desire to calm down his Arab buddies, who had taken most of his empire. (I know things are a little more complicated  than that, but damn! It sure was convenient!)
• Charlegmane repeatedly tried to usurp Church authority, and his descendants eagerly played the Eastern and Western Churches against each other in the fillioque controversy, so they could keep their "divine right". (Moral of the story? The Germans have always been awful, awful people) The Germans even attempted to conquer Rome later on, which led to the building of the Papal States that we're all so very afraid of. Hear that? The Papal States were built in self-defense against the state. That's something Obama may need to pay attention to.
• The Arabs played both East and West against each other when they had control of Constantinople (no, I will not dignify them by calling it the new name), and made darn well sure that Christianity couldn't unite, cause they'd gotten a taste of it at the Battle of Lepanto and knew the whole of Christianity would own them faster than a hacked Halo player.

3. The Fillioque Controversy is No Controversy at All
For the uninformed, the Fillioque is three words from the Western form of the Nicene Creed: "and the Son". These three words did more to damage Church unity back in the day than almost anything. Why? Well, it was sorta unilaterally inserted by the West into their Creed without asking the rest of the Church if it was OK. And back in the day when Rome was a backwater that got steamrollered by barbarians once a week? This sorta stuff just didn't fly. Rome's response was to apologize, and to command the Carolingians (Charlegmane's people, what a coincidence!) to take the Fillioque out of the Creed. But the damage was done. Pushed on by the Carolingian bishops the people kept the Fillioque in place, and it became common usage in the West.

Why's this a big deal?

Back in the day, whenever you needed to get something done doctrine-wise, you called an Ecumenical Council. This was standard procedure. A unilateral insertion was a huge no-no, and considering that Rome didn't have nearly the power and authority that it claims it has now, it couldn't just face the rest of the East without blinking.

Now, granted, there are some doctrinal concerns. The Fillioque appears to further subordinate the Holy Spirit while robbing the Father of his "monarchia" that the East is so concerned about. But considering that even the Cappodocian Fathers (y'know, the guys who basically wrote Byzantine theology) allude to the fact that the Son has something to do with the spiration of the Holy Spirit? It's not that much of a stretch, and if people actually sat down and worked out their terms? It wouldn't be that much of a problem. It's an issue that's there "because we don't wish to understand each other" (Union of Brest). Imagine that!
 
2. It's Like Watching a Soap Opera
The next two points may seem a bit juvenile in comparison to the first three, but only because the real reasons why everyone were arguing were... well... juvenile! Reading about these people made me think of an awful soap opera, where people are almost schizo in their decisions and the reasonings behind them, circumstances sway more than anything, and just one wrong word will bring the whole damn thing screeching to a halt. It's ridiculous, at best, and well... as soon as you get into the issue of Eastern Catholics, it gets ugly. Real ugly. Now a kid's involved, who loves Mom and Pop, but is understood by neither one of them (and loved even less), but only wants them to be back together again. There's more BS-level angst in Church history than a Twilight novel, which leads me to my next point.

1. If It Seems Like Someone's Being a Jerk, You're Right!
If you've been near the Catholic or Orthodox Church for any longer than two seconds, you've heard the following: We are the true Church, and that's that. We've kept the faith, and everything we've done is to keep it that way. 

Right. Uh huh. Excuse me while I plug my nose, there's a strong smell in the area.

I thought I told you to go outside!

  The fact of the matter is that no one's hands are clean. From the insertion of the Fillioque, the willing ignorance of Western theology (need I re-emphasize that backwater thing again?), the sacking of Constantinople, to selling out to the Communists and helping them almost wipe out the Byzantine Catholics, I think I can safely say that there are some really truly evil people on both sides. This has nothing to do with either side being blessed by God to the exclusion of the other! And it definitely doesn't have anything to do with "the truth" that both sides insist they have the entirety of so strongly it makes me wonder if they actually believe it. Everyone split up because they're fallen, and they're so ashamed to admit their mistakes that they point fingers at the other side and spread blame. I know I have no say, and that my opinion doesn't hold weight with all the bishops of the world, but I have to say it.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, GROW UP ALREADY!  I want my family back together again.

Thoughts on the Crucifixion, Illness, and the Resurrection

For those of you who are Christian, welcome to Bright Monday! For those of you who aren't well... hopefully this'll be interesting to you. Think of it as broadening your horizons.

For the last six years of my life, I've had Lyme's disease. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a disease that can be contracted from a tick bite. Most of you probably know that. What you probably don't know, however, are what happens if you don't catch it within the first six months and blast the hell out of it with antibiotics. It gets stuck in your system and is, for all intents and purposes, incurable. Now, granted, there are people who claim they can cure it, but those results are still inconclusive enough for me to trust in them, not to mention unbelievably expensive. Lyme's attacks your body from within, causing depression, aches and pains, sluggishness, and sensory deprivation. It triggers under stress and lack of sleep. So if you're not careful, Lyme's will flair up at the most inopportune moments.

Like at 2:45 in the afternoon on Great and Holy Friday (the Eastern name for Good Friday). I completely lost all energy and crashed in the back of my family's van as the service started. Now March was a very difficult month for me. I had flashbacks to my abuse "incident" almost every single day for the entire month. It was perfectly hellish. So when I collapsed from just sheer... loss of energy... it was the last straw for me. I lay down in the back of my car, called Carpe and bitched at him for a little while, and then slept. It wasn't so much of a lack of faith on my part as it was a simple question: How am I supposed to live my life like this?

And for whatever reason, my answer came to me this Sunday morning, as I started to hear the words "Christ is Risen!" it sorta occurred to me. I need to get right back up and try again, because He got back up as well. Call it corny, call it trite, but it's true. The Resurrection is the central truth of humanity. There is nothing more true than humanity's triumph over adversity, a fact that was completely unknown before Christianity. Don't believe me?

Who remembers the fable of the tortoise and the hare? Y'know, where the tortoise wins because he's steady and never gives up? That's the Christian bastardization of the myth. In the original the tortoise not only loses, but is mocked by the hare for ever thinking he could change his fate.Most of the pagan myths showcase the helplessness of humanity against fate. Dunno about you, but I prefer what the Christians did with it. It's nicer to have Gurrenn Lagann than Death Note, if you ask me. A bit more accurate to, if any of those inspirational sports films are to be even halfway believed. Tales about people succumbing to their fate aren't very hopeful, or quite as realistic as we'd like to believe.

Although an anime about Black Star dying due to his stupidity would count as hopeful...

The point is this: I don't want to succumb to the downward spiral this world has us in from the instant we're conceived. I know no one else wants to either. And the Resurrection is my answer to that. It always has been, and it always will be.

Anyway, I know it's a day late, but CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!

The School's Trees: On Pessimism and Clannad

As most people who read this blog know, I used to write and lead a blog called The School's Trees, which is about the TV shows Clannad and Clannad: Afterstory (one of the writers was Carpe Guitarrem, whose blog I suggest checking out, if you love RPGs). I've said repeatedly this is my favorite show of all time. I've now watched the show 9(!) times, and consider it part of the reawakening of my Christianity; a vital part of who I am was formed watching this show. I'm one of those nuts who thinks that people should watch good TV shows, and I heartily recommend what I think is the best of the best. So of course I recommend Clannad to people, and most of the time I get a "the scruffy hobbit with a foul mouth just recommended something to me and said it was really good, I'll pass" look.

But sometimes someone decides to take me up on my offer, albeit with the same look on their face. Two of my friends finished watching the show this Sunday while I was completing an icon of the Resurrection (which is amazing, I'll get a pic uploaded for ya'll later!). One of the friends (we'll call her Mary) loved the show, as well as the ending. I don't know if she "got" it, but I don't think anyone fully gets the ending of this show the first, second, or even third time around. But my other friend (we'll call him Raphael), didn't like the end. When I asked Raphael why he didn't he said that the show had been set up for tragedy since the beginning. I told him that wasn't so, and he looked at me like I was a bit nutty. Which is understandable, I suppose. There are warning signs. But I told him that there had been indications that the ending was going to be happy, that things would end well for Tomoya.

Then he looked at me like I was a real nutcase; that took me aback. I told him to watch it again, and that he could borrow my DVDs if he wished. But that look's stuck with me, and here I am trying to write about it. Because I know I would have given that same look to anyone who had told me that after watching the show for the first time. I went and watched it again, not because I liked the ending, but the exact opposite: I hated the ending, but loved the show so much that I figured I had to have missed something. A show that's this amazing doesn't screw up like this at the end.

I found out that I was right.

I had completely glossed over every single time the writers had foreshadowed that goodness was at the end of this show. It wasn't even that I ignored it, it had completely gone over my head. I had found all the workings of a tragedy, so that's what I focused on, I let situation blindness get to me, and only looked for what I wanted to find. It was then that I realized something really awful.

I wanted Tomoya to fail. And why shouldn't I? Why should Tomoya get a loved one back when I can't? I don't have an orb of light, children really aren't made of light orbs, wishes usually aren't granted like that, and damnit to hell that's just unreal! I wanted Tomoya to move on, marry Kyou, and be in the same sobering and depressing reality that I live in: that we can't get what we want, but must settle for something else. That'll shut him up, having to labor in a life that's the second choice that's... wait...

I love my life. I'm in a good place, and have everything that I could possibly want and more. I'm doing art and enjoying it for the first time in years. My iconography is finally becoming what I'd always wanted it to be: a personal source of inspiration, giving, healing, and love. I have an amazing girlfriend, someone who came up and out my childhood in a story of hope and love that would put this show to shame. I have friends who I could whistle for and they'd help me. I have an amazing family. All against odds that really are a snowball's chance in hell.

Everything I've asked for I've received, and then some.

So what am I so bitter about?

And that's just it. That's the joke. There's nothing right now that I'm in want for.

Nothing.

Absolutely. Frickin. Nothing.

Well, a car would be nice... a teleporter machine, if I could get my hands on it.

Anyway.

I don't think I've ever asked for a miracle that bends the laws of physics, time and space, so why should I get one? I don't need something like that, and I don't know of anyone who does. And the only people I know of who have gotten such a wish got it because they needed it. A widow had her son returned to her, people die for over an hour, see Heaven, and come back home. The largest religion in the history of the world teaches that we get our bodies back at the end of time because they're so fundamental  to our existence that even God won't let us go without them long.

Come to think of it, reality's a pretty nice place to be! The people who need stuff have it given to them in the time it's needed, in the right amount. As a Christian that's my avowed creed, something that I profess every single day in the Nicene Creed, every Sunday with a whole bunch of people I don't know but am brother to. We get what we need, God sees to that. He is good.

So why be so jaded about Tomoya? He asked, he got. So have I. So did the widow. So did the centurion. So did Francis of Assisi, Peter the Apostle, Saint Padre Pio, Saint Seraphim Rose, Saint Photini, my father, my mother, my girlfriend, my friends at Franciscan, Benedictine, wherever, and whoever's reading this post, even if they don't realize it. We've all got what we need.

So why does it bother us that Tomoya got his wish?