Looking for God in a godless world - Slipknot's All Hope is Gone (1)

Just the title All Hope is Gone sounds like there should only be despair and gloominess. And yet, there are several prophetic lines throughout this entire album. Indeed, perhaps the title of the album and being released in 2008 during the Obama Presidential campaign, is coincidental, but aren't coincidences God's way of remaining anonymous? There is much to be reflected on in the hope that is offered by man and the hope that is offered by God. As much of the album's theme is focused on criticism toward the State and societal decay, it seems that the hope that is gone is not the one that God offers, but the hope that the princes and the sons of men can ever hope to offer is gone. "Put not your trust in princes nor in the sons of men" (Ps. 146:3) is a line I often remind myself of and is one of the very many reasons I have been consistently libertarian in my political philosophy. Conformity and power will always lead to corruption of the good which is what many of the songs on this album discuss.

The album begins with the introductory instrumental ".execute." and then proceeds to "Gematria (The Killing Name)". With a lot of screaming, blast-beat drumming, and tremelo-picking throughout the album, you can gather extreme anger directed at societal decay. Gematria is a numerology that is rooted in ancient Judaism. It's what's referred to in the Book of Revelation when the number of the Beast is discussed. "Oh, this is so typical, apocalyptical". It then identifies America as the killing name. It doesn't feel or discriminate. "We'll burn your cities down" is a line often repeated. Before the main chorus, "What if God doesn't care?" is repeated twice. While there is an obvious reference to American foreign policy from neo-conservatism, there is also a very strong point to take the lyrical themes metaphorically. How politics corrupt and corrode religious ideals, turn things into apocalyptic references and make apocalyptic points about how voting for the "wrong" party leads to introducing all of us to the Antichrist. Etc. It gets tiresome for those living in this two-party State who have experienced oppression from both the major political parties.

"Sulfur" is another incredible track on the album. It reflects on feelings of guilt and shame, and that while life will be filled with suffering, it is to be acknowledged that "I'm not a failure but I know what it's like". Too often, repentance is conflated with the constant feeling of guilt and impending doom. But this attitude toward repentance can lead to what is called despair. It is hopelessness that there can be redemption. "Sulfur" is a song about perseverance.

Stay, you don't always know where you stand
'Til you know that you won't run away
There's something inside me that feels
Like breathing in sulfur

There is also another indirect jab at religious hypocrisy and judgmentalism. "And I'm a sinner to most but a sage to some / And my Gods are untrue". People's opinions about whether the God you worship is untrue or whether you're a sinner or a sage to some don't matter. The question is whether you've learned to stand faithfully and dismiss those views that people have of you. The only Judge Who ultimately matters in the end is God.

"Psychosocial", which immediately follows "Sulfur" is the song most relevant for today's world, especially with the happenings in Iran and the intensity of it all. There's too many themes in it. Sometimes, I find myself just thinking about the line, "The limits of the dead!" Exactly what this means is open for interpretation, but looking at the lyrical direction of the song, you see similarities to "Gematria (The Killing Name)". "I did my time, and I want out!" It's a feeling of a desperation, being crushed within a system that tries to deaden your soul. "Packaging subversion, pseudo-sacrosanct perversion" shows how our political leaders corrupt sacred ideals of freedom and religion and then pervert them for their own agendas, leading people blindly to accept that they are really fighting for righteousness and goodness when it's about their resources and power. "Go drill your deserts, go dig your graves / then fill your mouths with all the money you will save!" Our political rulers and their sheeple will often times to manipulate those who oppose wars that we overthrew a brutal dictator. In the end, the ruling class gets resources and the people often times just get a replacement puppet-dictator and the cycle continues. The chorus is done in clean vocals which gives a symbolic idea to the fact that we're still standing in light of this and we can still persevere.

And the rain will kill us all
We throw ourselves against the wall
But no one else can see
The preservation of the martyr in me

"There were cracks in the road we lay, but where the Temple fell, the secrets have gone mad!" is a reference to the corruption of religion by political leaders and the clinging to political power. This political manipulation of religion is prevalent today when I see people denouncing religious people for voting one way or the other as if acting like their vote for one party's candidate over another is an abandonment of their Faith. I think it's the people who embrace that mentality that actually end up abandoning their Faith in favor of political idolatry though. "Now there's only emptiness / venomous, insipid / I think we're done / I'm not the only one". How many of us have lost friends due to political differences? And we finally get to the most fun part of the song where we're all coming together to shout, "The limits of the dead!" It's a reflection of the martyrdom that we stand in from being oppressed into conformity with all of those trying to lead us into the societal decline. Those who refuse to go along with that decay are dead to the rest of the world but those who go along with the decay are also in a dead state as well. So what are our limits? Before the final chorus comes a full-fledged indictment against the ruling class - "Fake anti-fascist lie / I tried to tell you but / your purple hearts are giving out / can't stop a killing idea / if it's hunting season / is this what you want? / I'm not the only one!" Once again referencing how our political leaders will corrupt ideas of freedom to generate propaganda in order to get us thinking that we're actually fighting a war for a holy cause.

Honestly, this album is too good to leave a reflection off so I'm going to end up making this reflection a multi-part reflection. I will conclude for right now with "Psychosocial". 

Pro-life hypocrisy? Voting for pro-abortion politicians...

There is an overwhelming push by the Republican Party to make abortion, at least under certain forms, to be acceptable. The abortion issue is gradually becoming a less decisive factor now for many Republican politicians when it comes to courting religious voters. This is simply just a fact of modern political life. This means that for a pro-lifers to continue to vote, there are fewer and fewer pro-life candidates to choose from. Democrats who are pro-life tend to exist at very local levels. Though they do exist, most Democrat candidates do support abortion under the banner of "women's reproductive rights". What exactly is someone who is pro-life to do?

This question came up for me last week and there was heated reproach and argument and slander directed regarding the topic. I live in Virginia as some of you know and there was the Virginia Governor's race. I have been deeply concerned about the presentation of autism by the current Trump Administration and I desired to have a counter-party representation at some level of government in Virginia. I ended up voting a split-ticket where I voted for candidates belonging to both parties. At the top of that ticket was my vote for Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger. I have strong approval for the outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin and I definitely did not see my vote being cast as a rejection of the Republican Party overall nor did I see my vote as a rejection of conservative ideology. Our now outgoing Delegate whom I voted to support the re-election of is strongly pro-life.

Nevertheless, my vote for Abigail Spanberger drew great ire from many people on social media who are very well of my pro-life stances and also are very well of my Catholicity. Some of them claimed that Spanberger's policy platform was abortion up to the point of birth. I honestly do not think that this is going to be pushed for in Virginia after what happened with Gov. Ralph Northam back in 2019, but I could be wrong as politicians are sinners. That said, Spanberger's public statements have indicated support for limitations on third trimester abortions and supports parental consent laws currently present in the state for minors seeking abortion. I certainly don't think her position is perfect, but I don't see anything in her platform that suggested anything of the sort of a pro-abortion up to the point of birth position.

One conservative man I follow even cracked a joke about Youngkin's current preparation for transition and stated that Spanberger hasn't even become governor yet and is already forcing people to transition. This is a reflection regarding her LGBTQ policies and how conservatives have presented Spanberger as being "ultra-left" on that position too. Where she stands on gender transitions for minors is no where indicated on her platform, though she has stated that she affirms handling issues on transgender involvement in sports and in bathrooms should be settled on individual bases. There is nothing in her platform that would universally put local communities at risk of harm from predators pretending to be women. To paint her as an extremist one way or the other is simply slander.

Is it possible she is disingenuous? Like all politicians, I think that many try and court two views, but Spanberger's platform is of a centrist-Democrat and not a hardliner on either point. But the more important question should be addressed as to whether it is pro-life hypocrisy to have voted for her to begin with. I have several points to address on this issue.

Catholics on social media often like to portray a vote for a candidate as being tantamount to supporting the whole of that candidate's positions and much in online Catholic sources support this as well. Shamefully, many Catholic priests seem hell-bent on holding people accountable not to vote for particular candidates one way or the other. I received spiritual guidance from three different priests on the issue and all spoke similar. The first priest told me that given two bad options, it is preferable to go with the lesser evil. Often times, the lesser evil is a subjective position. Winsome Earle-Sears, Spanberger's opponent, unfortunately pivoted on the issue of abortion making her, at best, a lesser evil...and in the greater context of Christian polity where multiple issues ought to be pursued, made voting for her against Spanberger to be less ideal. My godfather also pointed out that while for him, abortion is a decisive factor in who he votes for, there are circumstances where others may choose to take into account other issues. The Archimandrite also affirmed that there are a variety of other issues involved in Christian polity besides abortion and sometimes one just has to hold their nose and vote.

While it could be held that "not voting" is the "moral high ground", I've been spiritually advised in the past never to waste a vote by not voting. If it wasn't for that advice, from a man who grew up under the aftermath of Nazi Germany, I would hold that philosophy too. But I don't. And these are all sincere men who are strongly pro-life, actively engaged in the March for Life yearly, and one who refused to acknowledge Joe Biden's Catholicity over the abortion issue. These are not heterodox men but men who have a deeply orthodox track record whom I would put my trust in before a heartbeat.

Voting for a person, regardless of where they stand on issues, no matter how ungodly, is much different than voting for a policy since voting for a person requires that one put their trust in a human being who by nature is subjected to the effects of original sin. This is why voting for a person should not be seen as being tantamount to supporting the policies of that person. Voting for a person requires more investigation often and can end up leading to a much less informed electorate than voting for a policy. We elect representatives to govern us and under the principles of democracy, those elected officials are supposed to represent our best interests. While they can only represent the interests of a collective whole which is already varied to begin with, their duty is to represent the best interests of the public as possible.

I wanted a situation of balance where the dignity of autistic people are protected. This is also a very significant part of Christian polity. No human being is a demon, regardless of what sorts of evil they may find the winds taking them to favor. Human beings are all looking for God in the end and some do it while using very sinister means. That doesn't make them sinister in themselves. Politicians are exactly like this. There isn't a single politician who is unlike this. Democracy allows people to give input and feedback to their government via the voting process. It's not a perfect system nor is it a perfect or always accurate reflection of the values of the populace, but it is the system that we have been given to work under. Voting for one particular representative over another does not tie you to the wicked policies of that person unless your intent was to support whatever policies that would lead to these sinister positions. It does not make someone a hypocrite who supports these policies nor is it a mortal sin. Politicians are imperfect and both sides often support wicked things. As Christians, we have the duty to pray for all elected officials. So let us remember to pray for the Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger and for all our civil magistrates, let us pray to the Lord!

Jo Cox and Charlier Kirk - a reflection...

The past couple days, I have had trauma triggered...as mentioned before, while I may have been more political in the past, I've become less and less political lately. And I didn't really become interested in political affairs in general until 2016 to begin with. But in 2016, I had a long-distance relationship with a woman in England. She got involved in politically campaigning for the "Bremain" position. When Jo Cox was brutally and senselessly murdered, I remembered just being in fear for her safety. She's my ex-girlfriend now but if you have unconditional love for someone, that love never fades away entirely and that fear at the time is still there. I had wanted her out of politics...not to mention, the campaign was exhausting to her and severed time to actually communicate with her. It's the feeling that someone you love may not be safe. For a lot of us, we may look at the assassination or the death of a celebrity as a one-off blip on the radar, but for others it hits close to home.

I had been reflecting on this a bit and noticed that progressive blogger Fred Clark wrote an article about what he learned from the murder of Jo Cox. I decided to read it thinking he had some reflections to make about how both of these events felt personal to him, but I gave up hope upon reading through the article. It's entirely a politicization of two human lives that were wrongly and senselessly taken from us now being used as political football. Though we tend to be simplified into right and left in this world, people are a lot more complicated, and the world is a lot more complicated, to define someone as being on a linear model. I think I might mention that when I end up writing a different reflection that's non-political next week. But Fred Clark seems to see the lack of rallying toward "Bremain" in the end as a reflection of non-empathy of the right and his overall understanding of human nature is completely lacking.

It's not like we go from shedding the stain of original sin by becoming "right-wing" or "left-wing". We are subjected to the tyranny of the Devil due to the sin of our first parents and can only be set free by Christ. A true and genuine encounter with Truth and with Love. Being a member of an earthly political party does not free us because Christ's Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). Adopting someone's politics does not indicate how empathetic we are toward someone either. Political assassinations didn't originate back in 2016, they've been a thing for quite a while and it doesn't matter what the earthly group is, as long as people are subjected to the tyranny of the Devil, some will confuse that tyranny as freedom, embrace it, and act out on it. Both the murderers of Jo Cox and Charlie Kirk acted out on that.

Another thing I should note is that a lot of people seem to think social media is a good indicator of where the world's at. Social media is nothing but a lot of anger amplified. It tends to be anger that gets likes, that gets praised, and that gets one's voice heard. It's awful, but it's true. As such, the wicked in all parties get amplified and we tend to think the other is out to get us. Common sense doesn't exist anymore. Moderation doesn't exist anymore. If someone doesn't support COVID lockdowns, it's not because they find the loss of freedom and interpersonal connection too great a price to pay for an unknown number of lives, if any, to save. It must be because they want everyone to die or they deny the reality of the virus. And so people are villainized for having entirely human concerns.

Empathy is not the same as sympathy and people who emphasize the need to show empathy often do not show any empathy whatsoever. Empathy is not about discarding rational thought and simply just agreeing with someone's politics. I never really paid any attention to Charlie Kirk to be honest and never knew Jo Cox. But the horror of losing a father of two kids or a mother of two kids, that's unfathomable. I'm fine not accepting and seeing eye-to-eye with these people on everything. That doesn't mean I lack empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand the sufferings of another from an outward position, namely that of not having the experience. Compassion is partaking in those sufferings and sympathy is having concern for another experiencing suffering. While I have not shared the experience of losing someone close to me due to political violence, I certainly shared the fear of losing someone I loved to political violence. Jo Cox was doing something similar to Charlie Kirk when she was murdered. She was going to hear from her constituents. Charlie Kirk, even if you didn't agree with his politics, introduced to academia methods of discourse and ways to build up stronger arguments for and against particular positions. I think that's important to remember. He was murdered trying to get kids of all political positions involved in a discussion.

Empathy does not mean I have to agree with you. Empathy is about sharing in another's emotional experience from an outward position. Empathy isn't something political. It's something human. It's something that flows from the image of God. Empathy is an act of love. It does not mean I have to share your beliefs if they are inconsistent with the image of God. Empathy does not discard rationality. I don't know if this is something that neurotypicals just don't get or if they just skirt over and don't have empathy in general - which is something odd because it is usually neurodivergents who are accused of lacking empathy. Empathy actually demands rationality in order to process and to provide necessary help. I grieve for Brendan Cox and I grieve for Erika Kirk. I grieve for them because we are one with the human race and two humans were brutally and senselessly murdered by people who hated their spouses' politics. That should not happen. While emotionally driven people would discard their viewpoints and use this to adopt to their views, that is not the same thing as empathy. That is conversion. My opinion is that I should only convert to a person's viewpoints if I believe them.

Political violence is horror and I am sorry for people like Fred Clark who cannot empathize with the brokenness of the human race and feel a need to score political talking points for their team. That goes back to what I talked about yesterday with our desire to dominate and displace God. I also am sorry for people who think the murder of Charlie Kirk should be used to have people come over to their side as if the "other guys" somehow plotted it. The rhetoric on both sides needs to calm down. While the neo-conservative media tends to dominate the discussion and tends to stoke the fire more, nobody ordered that Brexiteer to brutally murder Jo Cox and nobody ordered a sniper to fire at Charlie Kirk. These people made their own decisions and gave themselves over to a cult of demons.

The death of Charlier Kirk

Many of us truthfully don't know what to think about the events that have happened recently. Some of us are just in shock. It's not just a left-right thing. It's a spiritual problem. I'm much more reserved about politics lately. In the past, I was much more "right-leaning" and now have become much more eclectic in my political views to the point where I don't even belong to a solid right/left paradigm. While I still would favor the laissez-faire market economy for practical reasons, I'm much less firm in my commitment to a political system as systems are not the problem. The problem is a spiritual problem. It's easy for many people to see the recent killings as evidence of a problem solely with the left, but I think there is real caution for retaliation from the right. It's not so much that Charlie Kirk was a "racist, rape apologist, bigot, sexist, grifter, etc.". It's that Charlie Kirk was killed simply because someone didn't want him to be alive, possibly because he disagreed with his politics.

While there are often moral views at stake in politics, much of political debate has little to do with morals and much more to do with systems and what system is the best. This is why I can't do partisan politics anymore as I've done more so in the past. Regardless of what position I'm taking in a political discord, I would have to be lumped into a system favoring a party and an outcome in favor of one party over another. People have turned politics into a war for control over each other. This is why Charlie Kirk was killed. Awful accusations and comparisons to Nazism and racism or communism and anti-religiosity are how people try to "win" their side of the argument.

I had intended to write about something else today, but I think with Charlie Kirk's death, there is a certain heaviness that a lot of us are feeling and it has much more to do with the symbolic meaning of how he died. If he had died some other way or even accidentally, we wouldn't be feeling so heavy, but we would certainly be sad for his wife and kids. Instead, we are feeling emotionally heavy and we also have breaking hearts for his wife and kids because he was killed. And he was killed for merely have the "wrong" political views. And what this means to all of us is a fear of what will happen if we exercise our own First Amendment rights.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the free exercise of religious practices are two of the biggest guarantees against a totalitarian society in order to uphold man's search for meaning and truthfulness. While many Catholics have come to oppose freedom of speech and freedom of religion in favor of forcible conversion to Catholicism, that view has never been consistent with a charitable response to the Faith. There must be liberty without fear in the approach to God, filled with utmost awe and reverence for the wonder and beauty of God. Perfect love casts out fear whereas coercion creates and stirs up fear. Perfect love does not insist on its own way. Many of us are now living in fear. Living in fear because an America we once thought was for the law-abiding and provided free and civic discourse is now under attack.

Although the media tries to deflect the blame on Trump, the reality is that he's not the one behind this. He's not the one ordering the execution of Minnesota lawmakers. He's not the one who opened fire on kids as they prayed in church. He's not the one who took up the knife and stabbed a Ukrainian refugee to death. He's not the one who shot and killed Charlie Kirk. Trump is a symptom. Politicians never solve any of the real issues because then they wouldn't have anything to run on. The problem is a spiritual problem. People have lost a desire to pursue and search for truth and have filled that gap with a desire for dominance and control. To each, one must become his own lord. This is why demagogues are the nominees of the parties and it is why people break into factions over their preferred demagogue. He speaks their own values, he does what they want to have carried out, and he rules over their enemies with an iron fist.

It is the fantasization of controlling and dominating and lording it over others. And what does Jesus say of that? It is the Pagans who lord it over one another (Luke 22:25). In the meanwhile, Christendom makes the same mistake that ancient Israel did. We too beg for a king just like the other nations (1 Sam. 8:5). A ruler to lord it over and dominate the others. We reject God as our own King and turn toward the secular state to dominate. It is becoming impossible to be a Christian while also moving with the flow of Christendom. And it doesn't matter where I turn to these days. The spiritual vacuum is devoid of reason. Truly, only in the silence can God be found. Only in the silence, away from the hustle and bustle and busyness of this world can God be found. The world is suffering from a spiritual vacuum and a vacuum must be filled. Progressive ideology has done away with meaning by embracing the times. Conservatism has done away with meaning by conserving the old wineskins. In the vacuum, there is only "right and wrong" for the adherents of these ideologies. And that vacuum is to be fulfilled by mankind rebelling against his own Creator.

Christendom is in an open state of rebellion against God. Progressivism is in an open state of rebellion against God. How does one find hope? God is not in the earthquake. He isn't the fire. He isn't in the thunder. He is in the silence. The world is oppressed and is lashing out from the tyranny that it has subjected itself to. We dominate over each other. We choose violence. We choose our own way. People are killed. Charlie Kirk's death seems to many to be an ominous foreshadowing of a horror to come. While it's difficult to see the future, I don't think anyone's thinking soberly. 

How to cleanse right-wing brainwashing...

I speak from the position of someone who voted for Trump twice. I was never really what would be properly called a "Trumper" or "MAGA" even, except maybe to those on the hard left who see any opposition of any kind toward leftism as being "MAGA" or "Trumpism" or "Trump-supportive". Like how many Biden voters or Hillary Clinton voters do you really honestly know who actually gave whole support to the ideologies of those? Like most people, I just ended up voting for the lesser of evils. But nevertheless, I did venture more toward right-wing brainwashing. I think a lot of it is dictated by the news we watch. But there is a large responsibility that the left itself needs to take up in creating right-wing brainwashing. There's positive brainwashing and negative brainwashing. And the left contributes to a lot of negative brainwashing.

Pigeonholing is a tactic used frequently in rhetoric where someone puts someone in a position that they would not otherwise hold because of hasty generalizations or strawmanning or even guilt by association. And the left excels in it. I do believe this is how many otherwise conservative people, such as David French, get sucked into making excuses for the left even as the left attacks them. Because if they didn't stray toward the left, they'd end up in my position of being labeled a "MAGA". But that's the thing, these are labels that can be rejected. Labels aren't something that are handed out by people who aren't extemist. Labels are handed out by people who are extremists! I want to make that clear. Understanding that there is pigeonholing by left-wing extremists and anyone who undertakes in pigeonholing is, more often than not, an extremist, is a crucial component of this.

You're not an extremist just because someone says you are an extremist. In fact, you might be normal. I have empathy toward those who see January 6, 2021 as an insurrection. I think that it is an opinion. It doesn't make someone a defender of "MAGA" or a "Trumper" to be able to understand that the usage of the term "insurrection" to define that event is opinionated. What's more concerning is when politicians use the opinionated term as part of their investigation into what happened and so the legal search starts with a conclusion and then finds evidence to support that conclusion. Others, such as myself, see an otherwise organized rally that somehow erupted into a riot. And that's an equally justified opinion unless evidence proves there was an insurrection. When it becomes a matter of good and evil to see such a thing as an insurrection or people who became riotous and politicians start to use that as part of a legal investigation of the issue, that's dangerous. But an extremist, nevertheless, isolates people who see it as either/or into groups of us vs. them and ignores their own responsibility.

So during the Summer of 2020, the President had to hide in a bunker. That is a fact. He had to hide into a bunker because an organized group of people was committing violent acts, vandalizing the streets of Washington, D.C., and riot cops had to be called into to break everything up. Leftists denied this happened and yet video footage showed it happened. When confronted with this, leftists didn't call it out. They actually sought to justify it based on the nation's treatment of racial minorities...in the past. Most people tend to grow up, but extremists tend to grasp onto what happened in the past and act as if everything in the past is the same as today. That's why you get "Hitler" analogies. Obviously, no one's bringing back Hitler. Though due to the fact that Nazism is a variation of socialism and both right and left cling to socialism, it's understandable why so many make these Hitler analogies, on both right and left. The point is, that the Summer riot could also be categorized as an insurrection.

An insurrection, I think, is something that should be defined before the word is thrown out. Generally speaking, insurrection refers to acts that are intentionally undermining the Civil Government. It's impressive to me how many leftists will insist that our government institutionalizes racism and then will somehow care about that government being undermined. That's just cognitive dissonance disorder. Either you care about the institution or you think the institution is inherently racist. The fact that intent is typically emphasized is why I don't think that January 6, 2021 was an insurrection. I'm not saying it may have been, I'm just saying I don't think that happened. The only insurrection I am aware of that happened with certainty was the insurrection in Seattle that occurred in 2020 with "CHAZ".

Going back to my original point, extremism happens on both sides. I don't know what side it is more common with, but the hard rightists typically see the media make comments ad nauseam about right-wing extremism. Then they see on social media video clips of various examples of left-wing extremists and they are hurt and wounded by the fact that there is so much demonization of the right. More than that, but people in the middle, who hold more socially conservative views, see all of this, end up being pigeon-holed along with the more extreme bunch of the right, and end up being categorized as "MAGA", "Trumpers", "Nazis", and "extremists" as well. No one likes being called things they aren't, but it's a part of labeling. Cults typically divide the world into two categories of good guys vs. bad guys. It's easier then to glorify violent acts such as the knifing of Derek Chauvin (leftists recently) and the death of George Floyd (right-wing extremists in the past and today). Or even Kyle Rittenhouse's usage of force against people trying to kill him. Even justified violence should not be glorified. It reminds me of what Elyas says to Perrin Aybara in The Wheel of Time. The moment you start to love that axe is when you need to get rid of it.

The left has engaged in what I would call "negative brainwashing". By creating such a negative picture of the right, that more people on the right have started materializing that in response to the left-wing extremism that is both justified by the media and supported by politicians. Did Nancy Pelosi ever call out those who vandalized a crisis pregnancy center? While opposing right-wing extremism continues to be necessary, it must be remembered that left-wing extremism has media and corporate support. Both should be opposed equally. Those who are of the Kingdom of God know that the enemies attack it from all sides. The warfare is not a material one, but it is an important one. For the left to actually get rid of right-wing extremists, they themselves need to stop thinking like extremists of seeing people as two groups, those for, and those against, their ideological group think. But one thing I give credit to the left on, they at least know that the Kingdom of God is their main enemy.

I haven't been here in a while

I have not been posting here in a while. I took a break from blogging here, because, truthfully, I wanted to try things out as a different person. That did not go well at all. I wanted to hide myself away from past mistakes. But that does not work at all. I cannot hide from that past or from that filth. I can only pray that people love me and will forgive me for whatever sins and failures I have committed. You may have heard of someone called "Autistic Catholic". That was me. That was my moniker. That is who I am now. I am no longer "newenglandsun". But "Autistic Catholic" has the same exact character flaws as "newenglandsun" did. Only that "Autistic Catholic" was able to get the things that "newenglandsun" didn't get. And getting those things that "newenglandsun" didn't get turned "Autistic Catholic" into a monster.

I have found more emotional abuse in the past year and a half getting the things that "newenglandsun" didn't get than emotionally worthwhile friends. That might be only partially true. I found some very decent friends as Autistic Catholic and made friends that I might not have had if I wasn't. And I think I have found very good and decent friends as Autistic Catholic that I could have also found as newenglandsun if I had genuinely wanted to. And the people who didn't want to be friends with newenglandsun to begin with were probably the ones who eventually turned on Autistic Catholic anyway. It was an interesting experiment for about one and a half years actually allowing myself to admit that I was autistic.

I found that Catholics on social media really like the idea of an autistic person speaking on behalf of the Faith. What they don't like is when that person begins to show more and more character traits associated with autism. I learned a lot of Catholics on social media claim to be empathetic toward autistic people, but turn their backs when character traits associated with autism become more obvious. There is a mixture of welcome and a mixture of hostility toward the autistic community. Spiritual warfare is not seen as a cause by some of these people as a source of problems for autistic people online, but only the exclusively autistic problems. If an autistic person is attacked for being autistic, many of these Catholics will attempt to instruct an autistic person defending that person's dignity as being "Woke" or "playing victim".

I think a lot of this has to do with the failure of Catholic culture on social media in general. I've encountered hostility on Facebook, Instagram, X, etc. Catholic culture on social media should not be seen as representative of the Church. There is a statement made by St. John Henry Cardinal Newman about how the Barque of St. Peter is a truly magnificent ship if you refrain from entering into the boiler room. Too many online Catholics want to step into the boiler room. One of the most recurrent problems in Catholic culture today is a mass of bishops who want to lead their sheep directly into the boiler room. Whether they are disobedient liberals who reject Church Teaching or are the "Rad-Trad" pastors who are relentlessly lamenting about how the Church is persecuting them.

I've been called a hypocrite by Catholics on social media many a times. I've been called a hypocrite once by a woman who claimed she would promote each of my blog posts (she never did because she was a liar). I might very well be a hypocrite. I have to get the plank out of my own eye before getting the speck of sawdust out of my neighbor's eye. The thing is that many sins I've committed have been done directly in my interactions on social media and my brethren there have never given me a chance to display my fruits. I have complained about the double-standards. If I were to block someone on X, I'd be accused by Catholics of "holding a grudge". A person who blocks me is "defining boundaries". Of course, I've felt constantly held to the position of being the one who figures out what those boundaries actually are, rather than them clearly being defined. That was my latest negative interaction on X.

It's always the same scenario. I was once told I was being bullied by a woman by another woman who said that she would block the woman who was bullying me. That woman never did that. She went on continuing being mutuals with the other woman until I finally challenged her trustworthiness and brought up that statement. I was blocked. The woman currently has a backup account and where she mutually follows the woman she said she would block and who was "not a good person". She claims what she did to me was "merciful". It was anything but. It's an expected demand that I be a mind-reader in social interactions. That woman knew and understood autism but apparently did not understand that if definable boundaries are not set, I'm not going to have a clue if I'm expected to be a mind-reader.

There were too many interactions like that. I quit. My mental health improved. Honestly, I don't think I will ever go back. One of my dear friends on X though is @fifth_wife (Katherine Howard). She has been a faithful friend almost since the beginning of my tenure on X, even when she thought I was a girl. I have never seen anything from her that has not been unwholesome. I have told her that if she ever converts to Catholicism, I want her to be my goddaughter. I'm referring to people who are exclusively on X though. Not people who I still communicate with via another media form.

I've been looking at my stats here and I might try and blog here more often seeing as people are apparently still viewing this website, even in my absence. I don't recall ever getting that much traffic while...not blogging!

St. Daniel the Stylite

St. Daniel the Stylite lived during the reign of Emperor Leo the Isaurian. His parents had no children. In her old age, his mother, like Hannah, the mother of Samuel, asked God to be blessed with a child and vowed to dedicate the child to the ascetical life. When the child was born, they brought him before the hegumen of the monastery to be baptized. But the hegumen rejected the name his parents had given him. He told the child to take a book from one of the shelves in the monastery and bring it to him. The child took a book from the shelf and it was none other than the book of the Holy Prophet Daniel. The hegumen then gave the name Daniel to the young child.

At age twelve, Daniel asked to join the monastic and ascetical life. Because the boy was so young, the hegumen initially rejected this offer. The hegumen explained that the monastic and ascetical life is grueling and demanding and that it would be unfit for a child as young Daniel was. But Daniel insisted and stated that with God as his helper, he could do all that was required in the monastic and ascetical life. The hegumen agreed but had to inform his parents that they could not visit the monastery as they had been doing since now Daniel was to become dead to the world. At the young age of twelve, Daniel was tonsured a monk and accepted into the monastic and ascetical life.

Having heard of St. Symeon the Stylite's new devotion, Daniel was always desirous to go and investigate the Holy Lands and learn from this great elder. But the hegumen refused to allow him to go on his own. It happened once though that the Bishop required a meeting of elders in the Holy Land and the Archimandrite took Daniel with him as accompaniment. There, at the monastery in Telanissa where St. Symeon the Stylite had trained, they came across a crowd of monks disputing the new devotion. Certain of the monks mocked the concept of sitting atop a pillar for one's entire life. Other monks believed it to be a beneficial discipline for the body as it was subjected to all sorts of harsh environmental treatments. Symeon, hearing the disputes, called out to those on the ground from his pillar asking to be embraced.

Some refused to go up to the pillar as they were afraid. Others refused to go up to the pillar as they had just spoken out against the discipline and were uncertain if St. Symeon would receive them. Daniel had initially not ascended because he was subjected to the Archimandrite. But with the Archimandrite's permission, he climbed the ladder and embraced St. Symeon. Symeon prophesied of the hardships and the life that Daniel would face. "Thou hast many hardships to endure for God, but I trust in the God whom I serve that He shall both strengthen thee and travel together with thee. He shall give thee strength and help, that thou mightest vanquish the devil to the end." Daniel's life would be spent constantly battling devils and expelling from demons from many people. He would soon find himself in a heated spiritual combat with the devil and his minions.

When Daniel returned to the monastery, the hegumen died, leaving a vacancy for who would succeed him. The brothers loved Daniel and desired to have him elected to fulfill the vacancy. But Daniel refused. He fled the monastery and headed toward the Holy Land. But first, he stopped by St. Symeon the Stylite. Symeon told him that he was not to go to Jerusalem. He would suffer death there. Daniel was committed to go there anyway and said that he would suffer martyrdom for the Kingdom. Symeon told him this was not what God had called him for. He was to go to Byzantium. God is in Byzantium. As Daniel continued to head toward Jerusalem, he found a figure much like Symeon following him, warning him not to go to Jerusalem, but head to Byzantium. When Daniel figured out it was Symeon, he eventually heeded the elder's plea and turned to go to Byzantium.

It was in Byzantium that he came across a Temple of idols that some were saying had a demonic energy that caused many ships to crash and sailors to drown. Daniel, always eager to be tested, headed to the Temple and began praying there that the demons would be cast out of the Temple. He spent three nights in prayer being harangued by the assaults of the demons that filled the Temple. On the third night, the demons began throwing rocks at him. But he remained in the Temple, standing firm. "Though a host should draw up in battle-order against me, yet my heart shall not be afraid." (Ps. 26:4) As he defeated the demons through fasting and prayer, many came to Daniel to hear his instructions. But the demons began to sow the seeds of envy in certain impious souls.

Daniel was accused of being a heretic before Bishop Anatolios. But Bishop Anatolios guarded himself against a rash charge and desired to inquire of the manner further. He reminded the people that Daniel, who was Syriac, spoke a different tongue than the Greek-speaking men who accused him of heresy. That if it was God's will for Daniel to be there, then the demons would be sent away from the Temple and the Temple would be filled with holiness. A second time, Daniel was denounced as an impostor. Wishing to learn more about Daniel, Bishop Anatolios had Daniel brought to his chambers where he inquired of Daniel and a translator was able to help understand the Syriac dialect. The Bishop learned that Daniel was of the Orthodox Catholic faith and that he had been spending time in the Temple to vanquish the demons. While staying with the Bishop, Anatolios fell ill and Daniel healed him. Though the Bishop desired to excommunicate Daniel's detractors, Daniel begged the Bishop to forgive them instead. Though the Bishop wanted Daniel to remain with him, Daniel desired to return to the Temple.

In returning, Daniel beheld a vision of St. Symeon the Stylite with two angels around him, calling him to ascend. Daniel could not determine why he had seen this vision until Sergios, the disciple of St. Symeon, came across him. Sergios was bringing the koukoulion (cowl) of his former teacher to the Emperor Leo, but came across the Temple on his way. There, Daniel explained to Sergios his vision and Sergios revealed that St. Symeon had reposed and that while the koukoulion of St. Symeon was going to be a gift for the Emperor, he realized that God had arranged this visit by His Divine Providence and gave the koukoulion to Daniel instead. Sergios and Daniel both received a vision that Daniel was to become a Stylite, following in the footsteps of St. Symeon, and they left the Temple of idols.

While walking in the wilderness by a garden owned by Gelanios, a dove revealed to Sergios where the pillar for the new Stylite was to be built. Mark, an imperial guardsmen and friend of Sergios, helped them to build the pillar. Seeing the pillar built, Gelanios was determined to get rid of the Stylite, inspired by envy. He sent a claim to the Emperor and the Patriarch Gennadios I. Gennadios I ordered the Stylite to remove himself from the vicinity. Gelanios's field was destroyed by hail. Seeing the destruction, Gelanios's servants pleaded that he might actually benefit from the Stylite's prayers and it is disputable as to whether this was actually on Gelanios's lands. Gelanios, conversing in Syriac, asked Daniel to descend from the pillar but to not touch the ground with his feet. Daniel came down from the pillar and Gelanios, seeing the man's feet, then told the Stylite to go back atop his pillar and even asked the Stylite if he could build an even bigger pillar for him. In the meanwhile, Daniel dispelled a demon from a young child.

Sergios returned, building a booth by the pillar, and the two men saw their disciples begin to gradually increase. Daniel healed many sick and possessed people, including the daughter and the sister-in-law of Kyrios, the prefect of Constantinople, who would become the Bishop of Kolyaion. Kyrios had inscribed at the bottom of the pillar the following:

"Betwixt heaven and earth there stands a man who bears up and strives to gain against wind and rains, which he in no wise fears. His sustenance is ambrosial and his drink bloodless, which have armed this warrior's frame and rooted his two legs to the pillar; he who is the root of Symeon, both his heir and equal, is called Daniel the wondrous, who proclaims the most true God, the Son of the Mother who knew not wedlock."

Another man, Pontus, he healed the son of. He also delivered a child by his prayers to the Emperor's daughter Ariadne. She bore Leo II.

Though Daniel was still not without his detractors. A harlot named Vasiane was bribed to entice the Stylite but he would not give in to her whoredoms. She took on a variety of her seducing poses and lingered for a long time by the monasteries. But none of the brothers gave into her harlotries or seducting poses. Frustrated, she claimed Daniel had indeed given in to her seducings but she refused to ascend the ladder up to him so he had threatened to kill her. This was all a lie and a demon eventually overtook her. She eventually confessed the truth to all and Daniel forgave her, exorcising the demon that had taken over her and seized her. It was through this that even more people came to realize the work of the Stylite atop this pillar. From the moment of her healing, she would remain in a life of virtue.

Daniel was ordained a priest at the command of Emperor Leo I in a most unusual ceremony. Refusing to come down from his pillar, even for this, Patriarch Gennadios I informed the Stylite that the people had revealed the will of God when they announced, "Axios!" There was a Divine Liturgy that was celebrated around the pillar and the Patriarch ascended to the top of the pillar where he blessed Daniel with the ordination to the priestly rank. After this, the Emperor Leo I, who had become very close friends with the Stylite after his daughter had conceived, came to visit Daniel, asking for a blessing and offering to build an even bigger pillar for the Stylite. This pillar was an even bigger double-column that Daniel would sit upon for the remainder of his life.

Daniel, seeing that Constantinople had been plagued with heresies and unbeliefs, prophesied bitter destruction and ruin to the city unless they carried out penitential celebrations. But as Pascha was approaching, the Bishop did not want to cause more grief to the people with their festal celebrations already occurring, so the warning went unheeded. A fire broke out throughout the city and many orphans, widowers, and widows visited the Stylite and he took pity on them. "The wrath which came upon us was on account of our carelessness!" Coming to repentance, the Stylite announced that the fire would last for another week and then dissipate. These things came to pass as Daniel had prophesied.

That winter was particularly bitter and harsh and windy. The wind was so strong that it rocked the pillar back and forth. Many of the brothers thought the pillar would collapse and Daniel would be brought to his destruction. They rushed to fortify the base of the pillar with iron bars but the pillar continued to rock back and forth and they were thrown to the ground even as they tried to save the Stylite. Daniel put his trust in the Lord, realizing that this mortal body was only a shell and vessel to assist him in getting to his main goal. "Bring out my soul from prison in order to give thanks to Thy name." (Psalm 141:10) Emperor Leo was troubled by the wind and investigated, finding that the foundation of the pillar was set incorrectly and demanded the architect be put to death. As he left the Stylite, the Devil was hoping to stir up trouble between the Emperor and the saint, and the Emperor's horse threw him to the ground, causing a jewel to break out from the crown. Jordan, the horse's master, informed Daniel of what had happened, and how he was an Arian but would convert to Orthodoxy if the Emperor spared him. The Emperor, understanding that he had caused more offense to the Stylite by mounting a horse while the Stylite stood on a pillar, confessed that it was his own fault and he would never ascend the mountain on horseback again, instead leaving the horse at the base of the mountain when he visited the Stylite. As in the case of Vasiane, in which a soul was converted through the Devil's malice, yet again, a soul was converted through the Devil's malice and attempts at ruin.

St. Daniel the Stylite's wisdom was so trusted by the Emperor that when Gouzavios, King of Lazika and Emperor of the Rhomaioi wished to settle a treaty with Leo, they both sought council from the holy wisdom of Daniel to mediate their dispute. When Daniel froze during the winter that year, the Emperor Leo took sympathy on the Stylite and built a roof atop the pillar for him. Though Daniel refused initially, he then allowed this gift from the Emperor. The Emperor would send many noblemen to seek council from the Stylite, and when Gaiseric, King of the Vandals and persecutor of Christians, threatened to invade the Empire, Daniel told the Emperor to place his trust in God and not pursue military action against the Gothic King. The threat would subside. Leo would bring the relics of St. Symeon the Stylite back to Daniel's pillar and built a church dedicated to St. Symeon there. When the Emperor's General Edranos, an aggressive, wolfish, and valiant man of military might, met with the Stylite, he came to a sense of peace and was turned to a lamb. He joined the monastery and the Emperor demanded him back. But the Stylite informed the Emperor that God's defense was sufficient for the Empire and he would find a new General, equally fierce, soon enough. Daniel would bless Zeno's campaign against the Barbarians and prophesied all of Zeno's troubles that would soon befall, including the treacherous plot against the Emperor Zeno and the Empress Ariadne, their flight to Chalcedon, and their return to the throne.

Basiliskos would be involved in a coup against the Emperor Zeno not long after Emperor Leo I's death. Emperor Leo II would succeed his father, but being too young, the Emperor Zeno, the husband of the Empress Ariadne, would fulfill the role of regent. After Leo II's early death, Emperor Zeno would take full control of the Empire. Not being the blood relation of Leo I, many subordinates in the Senate would despise the new Emperor and seek to overthrow him. Basiliskos overthrew Zeno and sat on the throne as an usurper. He favored the Monophysite heresy and forced the Church to overturn the Council of Chalcedon and allow communion with the Monophysites. Daniel the Stylite would guide the Church through this crisis and convince the new Patriarch Akakios to resist the Emperor in his heresy. Daniel sent a note to the Emperor stating the following:

"Thou has brought turmoil to the Church and despised her priests....Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine. Thus, God has found thee wanting and thy kingdom shall be taken from thee."

He also pointed out that Basiliskos meant "little king" as well as "snake". The people praised Daniel's actions, proclaiming in the Church of Hagia Sophia, "The holy Daniel of the Church! The new Daniel has come to save Susanna in her distress! Another Elias has put to shame Jezebel and Ahab! In thee we have an orthodox priest who protects the Bride of Christ!"

Patriarch Akakios sent messengers to the Stylite to convince him to come down off his pillar and condemn the Emperor in person. Daniel was persistent in refusing, but seeing the men would not let up, allowed himself to be taken down from his pillar and carried to Constantinople. When Basiliskos heard that the Stylite was in Constantinople, he fled to his palace in Hebdomon. Daniel, while in Constantinople, would not be satisfied unless he personally gave censure to the Emperor. As his feet were unfit for walking, the people carried the Stylite all the way to the palace. He healed lepers on the way there and when they arrived, he applied the Gospel command to take the shoes off one's feet and kick the dust off to the Emperor. There were so many people at the palace taking their shoes off and kicking the dust off that the guards heard a clap as if of thunder and joined with the Stylite. The Stylite was proclaimed a Consul as this was seen as an insurrection against the usurper Emperor.

The palace collapsed, the capital burnt, and Zeno returned to Constantinople with the Empress Ariadne to the praise and joy of the people. Basiliskos, his wife, and his child, were sentenced to exile having been formally excommunicated by the Stylite in the presence of the Patriarch Akakios, and they starved to death. While Daniel walked back to the capital to excommunicate the Emperor, a snake wrapped itself around his feet but died. This happened in the presence of Akakios. These events were indubitably the climax of the Stylite's life though when he returned to his pillar, he would continue to perform many more miracles, exorcisms, and various healings which are too numerous to even list.

He announced his repose a week before to his brothers. On the day of his repose, he celebrated one last liturgy and communed. A demon-possessed man confirmed Daniel's repose mentioning the angels, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, surrounding the holy man in the hour of his repose and how this caused him great suffering. When Daniel reposed, he would be expelled and the man would be healed. When this came to pass, it was confirmed that Daniel had in fact entered into eternal glory at last. Daniel reposed on December 11, 493 A.D. at the age of 84 years. Rais, a Patrician woman whom Daniel's intercession brought a child named Zeno to, constructed a spiral staircase around the pillar where Daniel stood all his life. His body was placed in a lead coffin and carried down by Patriarch Euphemios so as it would not be stolen. He was buried above the tomb of the Three Children so that when all come to venerate St. Daniel the Stylite, they come to venerate the Three Children who were thrown into the fire. St. Daniel the Stylite, preserve our Faith and pray for the Bride of Christ! Amen.

St. John of Damascus

St. John of Damascus was born around the year 675 A.D. at a time the Muhammaden heresy was in full power in the Holy Lands. Not only this, but the Emperor Leo the Isaurian began to reign during the lifetime of this holy man and would pursue with a vengeance this man of God. Leo the Isaurian was a notorious God-hating iconoclast who despised the veneration of holy images and the orthodox faith of the Apostolic Catholic Church. Though heresy was rampant throughout his birthplace, St. John's parents preserved the Faith and they reared him to preserving it as well. Sergios was a faithful servant of the Caliph and was in a prominent position but the Caliph whom he served was more lenient toward Christians at the time and allowed the practice of Christianity.

Sergios would adopt an orphan named Kosmas who became a brother to St. John. But he wanted the boys to be well-learned in the faith. Once, he came across a monk named Kosmas who was about to be executed who was weeping bitterly. Sergios asked the monk why he was weeping so in the face of death as martyrdom should bring a Christian great joy and Kosmas disclosed that while he had studied the natural sciences throughout his life, finding them incomplete, he began to study the theology of the Orthodox Church. There, he came to faith, but he had no disciple to pass on his knowledge to. Thus, rejoicing, Sergios had realized he had found a man to tutor his sons in the sciences. He ordered Kosmas to weep no more for he would be released and would tutor his sons. He pleaded to the Caliph to release Kosmas and the Caliph obliged. Kosmas educated the young John and Kosmas until they surpassed him in knowledges. Upon this, Kosmas, who had become a dear friend to Sergios, reposed. Sergios would repose not long afterward and John would be elevated to the role of Advisor to the Caliph following his father's footsteps.

St. John wrote relentlessly against the attacks of the iconoclasts that were wreaking havoc upon the Church. He defended the veneration of icons on the basis that matter was made holy and good by God. "I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with His grace and power." When we venerate the icons, we are not worshiping a mere image nor are we worshiping matter. We are reverencing the grace of God that the icon has been filled with. We are venerating what is behind the image and has filled the image. His writings eventually reached the Emperor Leo the Isaurian as they spread beyond the Saracen world and throughout the Byzantine Empire. The Emperor Leo was incensed at the writings of this holy man and so obtained one of St. John's writings that was in his own hand. Ordering a copyist to forge the handwriting, he began a plot to frame the saint of treason against the Caliph. As the Emperor could not lay a hand on St. John himself, he had to go about this line of dubious business. A letter that called upon the Emperor to combat the Caliph and liberate the Christians was forged in John's name and sent to the Caliph. The Caliph, finding the letter, ordered the right hand of John to be cut off.

St. John, lamenting the loss of his right hand, asked if he could keep it as a memory. The hand was brought to St. John by a servant and John took the hand placed it upon the icon of the Holy Theotokos. He prayed for healing. St. John fell asleep before the icon and when he arose, he found his hand healed once more.

Thy mighty right hand, O Lord, is glorified in strength. Thy right hand has healed my wounded my right; and, by the same, crush those that refuse to honor thy revered icon and that of Thy Mother. Use my right hand to magnify Thy glory and as an organ against those who destroy icons.

A red thread was wrapped into the wrist of St. John providing evidence that his hand had indeed been cut off, so when he was falsely accused yet again of putting someone else in place to have their right hand severed, he was able to present this evidence to the Caliph. The Caliph, repenting, offered to St. John's old position of Chief Advisor back, but St. John refused, preferring to flee to the monastery of St. Savvas with his brother Kosmas.

In rigorous testing from the elder, he was ordered to go to Damascus selling baskets for twice the price they were worth as the monastery needed money. It was a test of his obedience. He was mocked by many people there who didn't recognize him, but one man who recognized him did pay the price for the baskets that were being sold though he did not disclose to the saint that he was recognized. St. John learned obedience and humility this way. He was ordered by the elder not to write any troparia or sing any hymns, but when a brother reposed, the brothers at the monastery pleaded earnestly that he would write a hymn for the brother who had fallen asleep. The elder was away from the monastery at this point, and St. John eventually gave into the pressure from the brothers, and disobeying his elder, wrote a most beautiful troparion that is still chanted today. The elder, finding out what had happened, banished St. John from the monastery.

The brothers, lamenting, begged the elder to allow St. John back into the monastery as St. John reflected on how his disobedience to the elder was similar to the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The elder eventually let him back into the monastery on the condition that he clean the monastery's bathrooms. St. John, eager to go back to the monastery, took this task faithfully upon himself and the elder was pleased to have such an obedient and humble servant among the brothers. It would be revealed to the elder in a vision of the Theotokos that he had been faithlessly suppressing the holy servant of God. That John was to write all sorts of troparia and defend the Faith in his writings against all sorts of heresies, and explain the Faith to many. The elder, repenting of his former suppression of the saint, allowed John to begin writing all sorts of canons, troparia, idiomela, prosomia, homilies, encomia, octoechos, and various other dogmatic instructions defending the Faith.

He and Kosmas began teaching music together and they compiled a Grammar of Music to help teach music to monastics. He would soon be ordained a priest by John V, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and would be known as "The Mouthpiece of John" for his preaching and apologetic writings on the Faith. This would incur upon him the wrath of Leo the Isaurian and Constantine V. Kosmas would be consecrated as Bishop of Maiouma in 743 and John would rely heavily upon his brother's advice. St. John went on to write various discourses explaining the Orthodox Faith including Elementary Introduction to Dogma, Exposition and Profession of Faith, On the Holy Trinity, The Fount of Knowledge, and even an encomia to St. Barbara of whom he shares a Feast Day with. He reposed in the year 777 at the age of 104. He has influenced many philosophers, both East and West, including the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. John of Damascus, pray for us!

Emperor Justinian

The Holy Emperor Justinian the Great was a military commander for his uncle Justin I before his elevation to the throne. It was toward the end of Justin I's reign that the two began a co-reign as uncle and nephew for the former's health was beginning to deteriorate. Justinian would begin this co-regnancy with his uncle in the year 527 A.D. and later that year, his uncle would repose. Justinian would become the sole monarch of the entire Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was beginning to deteriorate. The barbarians had overrun the West and all that was left was in the East. Yet that was about to change. According to the historian Otto of Freising,

"In the five hundred and twenty-seventh year from the incarnation of the Lord, Justinian, the fifty-first in line from Augustus, obtained the imperial power while the sons of Clovis were still  reigning in Francia. This most zealous and Christian monarch resurrected his domain, as it were, from the dead. The state, which had been in large part overthrown, he reestablished and among other brave and valiant deeds triumphed gloriously, through Patrician Belisarius, over the Persians who had invaded the Roman territories. The laws published before his time had been put together in loose fashion with semblance of order. Justinian made a compendium of all these laws. This he reduced to order and published in a single volume, a volume which to this day is called after Justinian the Leges Justinianae. He adorned the Church of God also with many beautiful basilicas throughout the length and breadth of his domain: among others was one in the Royal City, a basilica preeminent for its material workmanship, in honor of wisdom divine, called by the Greeks Sophia. He also caused the king of the Heruli, Grates by name, who came to him at Constantinople, to be baptized at the festival of the Epiphany of the Lord. At that time also Garda, king of the Huns, and a certain widow woman of the Huns with a hundred thousand of their race are said to have accepted the faith and to have received the sacrament of baptism." (The Two Cities, Bk. 5.4)

Justinian was a Serb by birth according to St. Nikolai Velimirovic. There was much work to do for the Roman Empire when Justinian took charge. He began to complete the bathhouses throughout the Empire and he also contributed significantly to the construction and architecture. His most notable contribution to the architecture of the Roman Empire was Hagia Sophia Cathedral. Hagia Sophia, initially built as a Cathedral, flipped allegiances after the first millennium different times before finally falling into the hands of the Turks. It had been a Cathedral for the Greeks who had opposed communion with the Roman Bishop, it had been a Cathedral for the first Uniates, and back and forth. According to Met. Kallistos Ware, the last joint-service between the Latin Crusaders and the Greek Church occurred in Hagia Sophia before the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 A.D. and turned it into a mosque. Hagia Sophia was a museum up until 2020 when it was converted back into a mosque. There is a tradition in the Hagiography of St. Demetrios that Justinian wanted to have relics of the Great Martyr brought back to Hagia Sophia. So he sent soldiers to the tomb of the saint, yet when they started digging, they were halted by a fire. The saint appeared, condemning the soldiers for their actions but allowed them to take some of the dirt back to Constantinople for the Emperor. The Emperor was told this story and placed the dirt from the tomb of St. Demetrios in the Hagia Sophia Cathedral.

The Emperor would also marry out of love his consort Theodora. Theodora was an actress, which in Roman culture, and in Christian culture, was one of the lowest of the professions. It certainly was not economically successful and was a largely frowned upon profession. Yet Justinian's love for his consort was genuine and the two would marry. Justinian was greatly influenced by her and her role in the Nica Revolts would save him the throne. She has been falsely tarnished as a Monophysite heretic, especially regarding her role in the Council of Constantinople. Though the Empress would not live to see the Council, she would be involved deeply with Justinian's arguments regarding the Three Chapters with Pope Vigilius. The West for some time disregarded the Council of Constantinople though its fruits are now evident in the entire Christian world. The Council would denounce the Nestorian leanings of Ibas of Edessa, Theodoret, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. When Theodora would repose in 548, presumably of cancer, the Emperor would regularly light a candle in remembrance of her.

The Emperor also began liberation campaigns in various regions of Africa and Western Europe for Christians who were persecuted by the Arian heretics. Seeking peace first, the Emperor had actually converted many Huns to Christianity from their Arian heresies, he would eventually be forced to exercise war. These former regions once held by a Christian Empire under Constantine could not tolerate being given up to Pagans and Heretics once again. He launched a military campaign in Africa against the Vandals through his Patrician Belisarius and then went into Spain and Italy seizing more land from the Goths and the Vandals. He would form an alliance with the Frankish Kings Childebert, Lothar, and Theudebert. Though Theudebert wanted sole control of Italy so he appointed his general Buccelin to combat Belisarius. Buccelin would achieve many victories against the formidable Patrician forcing Justinian to demote his Patrician and appoint Narses in his place. Narses at first was driven back but when Buccelin was killed in battle, Narses would be able to regain full control of Italy for the Emperor. This control began in 555 A.D. and would last until 565 A.D. when the Emperor reposed.

"The same emperor also built within the city of Constantinople to Christ our Lord, who is the wisdom of God the Father, a church which he called by the Greek name 'Hagia Sophia,' that is, 'Divine Wisdom.' The workmanship of this so far excels that of all other buildings that in all the regions of the earth its like cannot be found. This emperor in fact was Catholic in his faith, upright in his deeds, just in his judgments, and therefore, to him all things came together for good. In his time Cassiodorus was renowned in the city of Rome for knowledge both human and divine. Among other things which he nobly wrote, he expounded particularly in a most powerful way the obscure parts of the Psalms. He was in the first place a consul, then a senator, and at last a monk." (Paul the Deacon, History of the Langobards, Bk. 1.XXV)

The Justianianic Code, which establishes the principles of equality under the law and the presumption of innocence, forms the basis of many of the legal codes today. It had tremendous influence on Napoleon Bonaparte who included many of its principles in his own Napoleonic Code. The legal legacy of Justinian the Great is so tremendous that if one walks into the Halls of U.S. Congress, they will see, in the House of Representatives, images of the great influencers and legal thinkers of American law. Among these are Pope Innocent III, Louis IX, and Justinian the Great. Justinian is considered the founder of Roman law though what he really did was right Roman law down into written format, giving it a more explicitly Christian emphasis.

Justinian practiced this law and governed as was due. During the Nika riots, of which the Blue faction of the chariot fanatics would often persecute relentlessly other factions, burning their homes down, murdering, and looting. Justinian did not lean himself in the governance to be in favor of one faction over another despite whatever perceived leanings he had toward the chariot factions. He ministered due justice, putting to death whoever caused harm, even if it was the Blue faction that he may have been sympathetic toward (Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 4, ch. XXXII). According to John Malalas, Justinian would cut the genitals off of clerics who practiced pederasty causing the deaths of many priests caught in pederasty (Chronicle, Bk. 18.18) and he ended the Gothic wood and oil taxes (Bk. 18.20). The Empress Theodora, his consort, also punished severely brothel keepers (Bk. 18.24).

In addition to his theological contributions at the Council of Constantinople which led to the further decimation of the Nestorian heresy, he also combated the Monophysite heresy in Byzantium and contributed to the Divine Liturgy by writing the Hymn "Only Begotten". He also established as Patriarch of Constantinople, St. Eutychius and his successor St. Menas. Toward the end of his life, Justinian was taken over by an evil spirit, much like the Pious King David, and began to oppose the Patriarch he had appointed, teaching the error of Theopassianism which asserted that the Divine Nature experienced suffering and died. This error was rebuked at the Council of Chalcedon. Justinian would be rebuked for this error but before he could do further damage to the Church, he came to repentance and reposed.

Justinian was always accessible to his people and would allow them to visit his courts frequently. He was a great rebuilder of the Roman Empire and was known as "the Emperor who never sleeps". In his final moments, the light of the Imperial Palace in Constantinople was still on. He is forever immortalized in Western Culture, but even more importantly, he is immortalized in the Church as a Pious Emperor who died in the Holy Faith of Orthodox Catholicism. He entered into eternity in the year 565, having reigned for 38 years as Emperor of the Romans. St. Justinian the Great, pray for us sinners!

The Law of Emperor Justinian

The Justianianic Code, which establishes the principles of equality under the law and the presumption of innocence, forms the basis of many of the legal codes today. It had tremendous influence on Napoleon Bonaparte who included many of its principles in his own Napoleonic Code. The legal legacy of Justinian the Great is so tremendous that if one walks into the Halls of U.S. Congress, they will see, in the House of Representatives, images of the great influencers and legal thinkers of American law. Among these are Pope Innocent III, Louis IX, and Justinian the Great. Justinian is considered the founder of Roman law though what he really did was right Roman law down into written format, giving it a more explicitly Christian emphasis.

Justinian practiced this law and governed as was due. During the Nika riots, of which the Blue faction of the chariot fanatics would often persecute relentlessly other factions, burning their homes down, murdering, and looting. Justinian did not lean himself in the governance to be in favor of one faction over another despite whatever perceived leanings he had toward the chariot factions. He ministered due justice, putting to death whoever caused harm, even if it was the Blue faction that he may have been sympathetic toward (Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 4, ch. XXXII). According to John Malalas, Justinian would cut the genitals off of clerics who practiced pederasty causing the deaths of many priests caught in pederasty (Chronicle, Bk. 18.18) and he ended the Gothic wood and oil taxes (Bk. 18.20). The Empress Theodora, his consort, also punished severely brothel keepers (Bk. 18.24).

Justinian was a proponent of federalism, as explained by Paul the Deacon. He divided up his laws into different rubrics, reducing the amount of laws to fifty for special magistrates or judges in a work called  "Digests", and one book he called "The Institutes" in which he further explained and expounded on his own laws (History of the Langobards, Bk. 1, XXV). These laws were further reduced to one volume called the "New Code". Despite his more despotic leanings and sub-Christian thought, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes can be cited here as an exponent of the legal code of the Holy Emperor. He elaborates on the essential seven characteristics of the civil code of Justinian the Great. Justinian the Great had seven sorts of Civil Laws.

1. Those that were edicts, constitutions, and epistles of the Emperor himself.

2. The decrees of the whole people of Rome when put to question by the Senate.

3. The decrees of the common people, excluding the Senate.

4. The orders of the Senate.

5. The edicts of the Praetors, which were comparable to the Chief Justices in England.

6. The sentences and opinions of lawyers to whom the Emperor gave authority to interpret the Law.

7. The unwritten customs, which by the tacit consent of the Emperor, were not contrary to the Law of Nature and were very Laws. (Leviathan, ch. XXVI)

One reading this will recognize a very common theme between our current system of presidential parliamentary republics and constitutional monarchies. These systems of government, in general, respect the two-fold aspect of Catholic social doctrine regarding the subsidiarian and the solidaritarian nature of relationship. Federalism is respected. The individual is respected. Yet all are in solidarity with each other through the common rule and governance of one Emperor. The concept of full equality under the law also has its roots in Galatians 3 where St. Paul declares that there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all have been baptized into Christ. Under the law of Christ, all will have the same hearing at Judgment Day, so also in the civil government, all shall have a fair and equal hearing under the law, regardless of political ideology or political alignment with the civil authorities. The Blue Faction may have been favored by the Emperor, but the rioters were still rioters and they were put to death as a consequence for their actions. A rioter is still a rioter regardless of their political views and if one rioter is locked away in jail but another rioter is let out back onto the streets because of the "cause" they fought for, then the law has no equal application: it is tyranny.

Justinian also recognized the concept of symphony, and acknowledged the harmony between the Church and State. He accepted that the two needed cooperation together. In the Preamble to the Edict of April 17, 535, he writes:

"The greatest gifts which God in His heavenly clemency bestows upon men are the priesthood and the Imperial authority. The former ministers to Divine things, the later presides and watches over human affairs; both proceed from one and the same source and together they are the ornaments of human life. Therefore nothing is so close to the hearts of Emperors as the moral wellbeing of the priesthood since priests have the task of perpetual prayer to God on behalf of Emperors themselves. For if the priesthood is in all matters free from vice and filled with faith in God, and if the Imperial authority with justice and efficiency sets in order the commonwealth committed to its charge, there shall be an ideal harmony to provide whatever is useful for the human race. We therefore have the greatest anxiety for the true doctrines of God and for the moral wellbeing of the priesthood by which, if it is preserved, we believe that the greatest gifts will be given to us by God and we shall preserve undisturbed those things which we have and in addition acquire benefits which are at present lacking to us. But all things are done rightly and efficiently if a beginning is made which is fitting and agreeable to God. We believe that this will come about if there is due care for the observance of the holy canons, which the justly praised Apostles and venerated eyewitnesses and servants of the word of God handed down and which the holy Fathers preserved and interpreted." (in Thornton, Pious Kings and Right-Believing Queens, 255)

The Codes of Justinian became foundational in Roman law and legal theory. It was Roman law that led to the birth of the Medieval system of feudalism, especially in the Frankish law. Roman law influenced the great Pope Innocent III and the philosopher Thomas Hobbes also recognizes the impact of Roman law in the English common law. Roman law was also a strong component and inspiration of the Napoleonic Code which forms the basis of all modern day presidential parliamentary republics and constitutional monarchies. As mentioned, Justinian does not go unrecognized in the United States of America. In the House of Representatives, an icon of the Holy Emperor is raised up among the chief influencers of the legal system of the United States. If only we could commit ourselves to following the influence of this Holy Emperor once again. St. Justinian, pray for our nation!

The Campaigns of Justinian the Great

Part of his effort to rebuild the Roman Empire included the seizing of lands that once belonged to the Roman Empire. This Emperor was glorified for his adherence to orthodoxy and his zeal for the Christian faith. God granted him many victories through his general Belisarius and afterward his general Narses. According to St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, "Justinian the Elder, while he was Catholic, most happily conquered, so that Italy, Africa and many other provinces were restored to the Roman Empire" (On the Church, Bk. IV). Though Bellarmine cites Evagrius Scholasticus who is in error on the status of this Holy Emperor at death, we can see that God blesses his saints and the rulers who faithfully serve him, but of those who reject the will of God, God shall smite and stall.

"Saint Justinian's thoughts hearkened back to the time of Saints Constantine I and Theodosius I, when the Empire stretched from the British Isles to the Euphrates: '[H]e believed the Roman Empire to be one and indivisible, the political manifestation of Christendom." (Thornton, 251) It was an affront to the Will of God that these lands should fall into the hands of the barbarians and the heretics. There was also a sense of thinking in the Byzantine mindset that the lands never actually ceased to belong to the Roman Empire but were only merely occupied by vassals of the Roman Empire that could be rightfully seized once more should the Empire will it. According to Evagrius Scholasticus, the Vandal king Huneric was viciously persecuting Christians. Huneric was a fierce supporter of Arianism. The Arians, as recorded by St. Gregory of Tours, subjected Christians to tortures more heavy than the Pagan Emperors of old. Disturbed by this, Justinian ordered Belisarius to seize the territory of the Vandals and bring it back under the authority of the Empire. And in 533, the Patrician Belisarius began a campaign through Africa which would subdue nearly the entirety of Northern Africa underneath the Roman Empire.

The Emperor Justinian began his campaign in Italy after discoursing with the Gothic Queen Amalasuntha, who, ruling on behalf of her son Atlaric, had granted passage for the Emperor's armies through Italy as he campaigned against the Vandals. However, Atlaric began to wither away from a disease and Theodatus seized the throne of the Goths in Italy and began a reign contrary to the wishes of Amalasuntha (Procopius, History of the Wars). Belisarius was able to compel the Franks into taking up arms against the Goths in Italy as the Goths had embraced Arianism and were persecuting Christians. As mentioned, Childebert, Lothar, and Theudebert were enraged at Theodatus for having killed their cousin. So it was easy for Belisarius to persuade these men to wage a war against the Gothic King. Belisarius was able to take Italy under his control very easily. However, Theudebert wanted to regain control of Italy for Frankish rule and his general Buccelin would drive out Belisarius, winning many campaigns against him (History of the Franks, Bk. III, ch. 32). Justinian would demote Belisarius and replace the Patrician with the general Narses. Narses would be pushed back by Buccelin, but after long heated battles against the Frankish general, Narses would eventually kill Buccelin. That was the turning point, and in 555 A.D., Narses would have the whole of Italy subjected under the Roman Empire (Bk. IV, ch. 9).

Justinian's campaigns against the Vandals would also stretch all the way into Spain. His goal was to remove the tyrant Agila who was persecuting the Christians. Spain, unlike Africa, was under the rule of both the orthodox faithful and the heretics. During Justinian's campaigns against Agila, he seized the entirety of Spain under his control. But when Athanagild assassinated Agila, Athanagild had to also seize back territory for Spain that was wrongly conquered and subdued by the Imperial Army.

These great military accomplishments of Justinian the Great through his general Belisarius and his general Narses has earned him a reputation as a rebuilder of the Roman Empire. Justinian was elevated to the Throne when the Empire was at its weakest, ravaged by barbarians and heretics on all sides. Justinian's campaigns asserted the dominance of Christian orthodoxy in the Roman Empire, freed Christians abroad from the persecutions they suffered under heretic kings, and re-established Roman dominance over the Mediterranean. Because Justinian was building up the Empire for the purpose of the Kingdom of God on Earth, he was blessed with many victories and many territorial gains. From out of nowhere, Justinian revived an Empire that found itself near death.

St. Justinian, pray for us!

St. Gregory the Illuminator of Armenia and his sons and grandsons

In the Armenian Church, the Illuminator is recognized on a different Feast Day, but in the Byzantine Church, the Illuminator is recognized with his sons and grandsons on September 30. Saint Gregory was a prince of the ruling Arsacid dynasty of Armenia. His father was Anak and his mother was Okohe. His father Anak had assassinated the King Khosrov I and the family of the murdered king responded by trying to murder Anak and his family. All of them were killed except for Gregory and one of his brothers. His brother was taken to Persia and he was cared for by his nurse, who was a Christian, in Caesarea. The saint would return to Armenia to preach the Gospel to the Pagan King Tiridates III whose father had been killed by Gregory's father. Tiridates hated both Christianity and the Holy Apostle to the Armenians. He was thrown into a pit filled with poisonous reptiles for thirteen years but was eventually able to convert the Pagan king to Christianity so thoroughly that Tiridates declared Christianity to be the official legal religion of Armenia. St. Gregory would return to Caesarea to be ordained a priest and then consecrated a bishop. He would continue his work in Armenia until he entered into eternity in 325 A.D.

Aristakes was the younger son of Saint Gregory the Illuminator. He was born in 270 A.D. and although initially devoting himself to ascetical disciplines, he was convinced by both his father and King Tiridates III to assist in converting Armenia to Christianity. He would be ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop in order to complete this task. Saint Aristakes also accompanied the king and his father on a visit to the Holy Emperor Constantine and also represented his country at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. He succeeded his father as Catholicos of Armenia and was martyred by a government official whose immoral lifestyle he had strongly denounced.

Saint Vertanes was the elder son of St. Gregory the Illuminator, born in 262 A.D. He was a soldier early in life but would later become a priest and then consecrated a bishop. He was a missionary among his people and miraculously escaped a murder plot instigated by the Queen whose immoral lifestyle he had denounced. He succeeded his brother as Catholicos in 333 A.D. and reposed peacefully in 342 A.D.

Saint Housig was the son of Vertanes and grandson of the Illuminator. He was born in 304 A.D. succeeded his father as Catholicos in 342 A.D. He openly criticized King Tiran's scandalous life, forbidding the King to set foot in the church. For this, the King had the saint cruelly beaten to death.

Saint Grigoris was a son of Saint Vertanes and grandson of Saint Greogry the Illuminator. Grigoris was sent by his grandfather to Caucasian Albania (located just East of Armenia on the Caspian Sea, not to be confused with the modern state located in southeastern Europe). He was a tireless missionary who later became Catholicos of Armenia. But the rulers were not happy with the Christianization of Armenia and the saint received the crown of martyrdom in 338 A.D. Decades later, Vachagan the Pious, Christian King of Caucasian Albania, recovered the relics of the saint and had them entombed in Amaras monastery.

It is unknown whether Saint Nerses (spelled also Narses or Nersess) was a grandson of Saint Housig and thus a great-great-grandson of Saint Gregory, or if he was the son of Saint Vertanes. Accounts differ as to the genealogy of this saint. But he was a tremendous organizer of the Church of Armenia. Ascetically minded, he initially refused the role of Catholicos but later accepted at the insistence of the people. He insisted on the strict adherence to the Holy Canons, strove to remove residual traces of Paganism, and established schools for uplifting of the people and made Christian charity priority, opening hospitals, homes for the aged, shelters for the poor, and orphanages. However, he made enmity with the King when he insisted a man unjustly condemned to death be pardoned. When the King refused, Nerses excommunicated him and the saint was ejected from his Episcopal See. After the King's death, Nerses would be restored. But the new King who restored the Catholicos to his throne fell into evil ways too and Nerses excommunicated him. The King had the saint poisoned and Nerses entered into eternity in 373 A.D.

Saint Sahak was the son of Saint Nerses. He was deeply involved in clerical matters with Saint Mesrop the Translator. Educated in Constantinople, he would be elevated as Catholicos of Armenia. He would assist Saint Mesrop in the invention of the Armenian alphabet and the translation of the Holy Scriptures and Church service books into the Armenian tongue. He wrote many liturgical hymns, including those sung during Holy Week and Palm Sunday. He reposed in the year 439 A.D.

All of these saints are commemorated in the Byzantine calendar on September 30.

See also:

James Thornton, Pious Kings and Right-Believing Queens

Prologue of Ochrid, September 30