“The Pros and Cons of Cursing”

By Father S. Peter Donatelli

(All Biblical quotes from the New King James Version; OT6c)

JOKE:

There’s this man with a parrot who swore a lot. The man was a quiet, conservative type, and the bird’s foul mouth is driving him nuts. One day, it just gets to be too much and the guy grabs the bird by the throat, shakes him really hard, and yells, “Quit it!” This just made the bird mad and it swore even more. The man got so mad that he threw the bird into the freezer. The bird kicked and clawed and then it suddenly got very quiet. At first the guy just waits, but then he starts to think that the bird may be hurt. After a couple of minutes of silence, he’s so worried that he opens up the freezer door. The bird meekly climbs onto the man’s outstretched arm and says, “Awfully sorry about the trouble I gave you. I’ll do my best to improve my vocabulary from now on.” The man is astounded at the transformation that has come over the parrot. Then the parrot says, “By the way, what did the chicken do?”

INTRODUCTION:

I sometimes get in trouble for talking about swearing in church but I really believe people do not really understand the frame of mind for a first century Mediterranean thinker when it came to blessing and cursing. I remember recently a reporter wrote an article about our family business and as she was interviewing my father, my sister and brother were having a “talk” that sounded like old salty sailors filled with colorful metaphors. The reporter was so astonished that she turned around which prompted my sister to say, “We make the Sopranos look like the Brady’s.” As funny as that was, people have difficulty understanding that for an immigrant Italian family, cursing took the form of using the Lord’s Name in vain or invoking the Saints to perform awful activities. They never considered that foolish, made-up words in former Anglo days meant anything. Amazingly TV programs bleep out these words but when the Lord’s name is used in vain, they do not bleep it out. I think they should bleep out any innuendo of sexual behaviors outside of marriage. How many programs would be even heard? How about bleeping out abominable acts like abortion perverted under the auspices of choice or reproductive rights? How about bleeping out every attempt to devalue or demean the lives of great Saints like Mary the Mother of God, or Mary Magdalene, or even God’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church? How much bleeping out needs to take place before we as Christians realize the enemy has fooled us to listen for the wrong words? This morning I want to simply look at what it means to swear, or bless or curse and hopefully we can get a better perspective of these as we enter the Season of Lent.

POINT ONE:

By definition when one swears it means to make a solemn declaration or affirmation by some sacred being or object, as a deity or the Bible. There used to be a connotation of trust and truth when one swore especially if God was involved. When I was a child, and even now, we used to demand honesty with phrases such as “I swear to God on the Holy Bible.” The young Catholic kids I hung out with not only understood the significance of these statements, but also we understood the repercussions of not fulfilling these oaths. We actually feared God’s wrath or something bad happening to us if we went against this sacred covenant or these sacred vows. I question whether North Americans have the same understanding. Using God for oaths or the Bible for either swearing in ceremonies or even court appearances seems to have lost the gravity of one’s promise to God and what God will do when one breaks these pledges. In the last few years of our small diocese in the CEC, we have come across priests and deacons who simply walked away from their vows without realizing any consequences for their actions. Quite frankly as a priest I would be negligent in NOT pointing out the atrocity of what they just did. Our ordination liturgy is pretty exhaustive with no ambiguity about what you are doing. I was honored to sponsor Father Drew Wyns at his ordination yesterday and at the party the night with some mirth and all due seriousness I kept telling him not to go through with it. All kidding aside Father Drew is going to make a great priest and the more he lives us to vows the more God will bless him and his family. The ordination takes about two hours in the CEC and the Divine Liturgy is filled with pretty obvious statements about what you are about to do. If a man walks away from ordination with some kind of intentionality that he can walk away from these vows, he is an utter fool listening to either his own devices or the schemes of other reckless men. Jeremiah understood the concept of fidelity to covenant relationships and the consequences of walking away. Jeremiah 17:  5Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Everything we do at the Church of Christ Jesus Victor has the foundational purpose of planting ourselves to bear much and good fruit. This work of God was called by God and will be fulfilled by God with many blessings for ourselves and our prosperity. I am not in this for quick gratification. We are here to hear God, do what He tells us, and realize His providence in His due time. We must simply believe!

POINT TWO:

Paul understood this as he planted a church in Corinth. The most fundamental key to success is a community who believes what the Church teaches. When we read the pious words of Paul’s first letter to the Christians of Corinth we miss the reality. The Greek city was a battleground between two very different ideas. Greek philosophy was concerned with the mind. It considered the body relatively unimportant. The physical world was only a poor copy of a spiritual reality. The spiritual world, what we call Heaven, existed beyond this world and could only be reached by the mind. Hebrew philosophy was exactly the opposite. The physical world was the only reality. There was little belief in a spiritual world. A person was not so much a combination of body and soul but of body and breath. There was a real point of contention between the two views centered on the resurrection of the body. Greek philosophers saw it as unnecessary, since the body was not important. Biblical philosophy insisted on a physical resurrection. Paul argues for this philosophy. He says that if there is no rising of the body after death, Christian faith is in vain. Eventually St. Augustine would strike a harmony between the two beliefs. By assuming a human nature Christ perfected it in Himself, while His divinity remained unchanged. This unity of divinity and humanity is like putting on a garment which offers the form of being an icon of Christ without losing our personal integrity. Thus the blessings or the curses of our own actions rely implicitly and explicitly on our level of faith. Believing that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again is an absolute necessity because this teaching came from the mouth of God Himself. 1 Corinthians 15: 12Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him that God may be all in all.

POINT THREE:

Our Christian walk is a blessed walk indeed as we have put on the garment of praise that we may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” And we shall rebuild the old ruins, we shall raise up the former desolations, and we shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations (c.f. Isaiah 61). One of the highlights of Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”. It is a summary of Christ’s teachings about the way to sanctity. There is a parallel event in Luke’s Gospel, but it is in a different setting, a level area. Our Lord probably gave similar messages in several places. Matthew arranges the message in eight beatitudes or “blessings”. They say that you will be happy if you: don’t’ get attached to material possessions, make peace, etc. Luke’s version renders them as four blessings and four “woes” or statements that you will be unhappy if you: cling to wealth, etc. The message in both cases is that the values approved by this world are exactly the opposite of Christian ideals. However, the acceptance of Jesus as Lord and God entitles to the blessings of being children of Light and Truth. Luke 6: 17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, 18 as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. 20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: ” Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. 24″But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

CONCLUSION:

We are blessed to be in this sacred family. We are blessed to have brothers and sisters in the Lord that offer us the blessings of their own walk in their own families. We are blessed to have relationships with the Saints and Angels who are constantly praying for us to succeed on this earth for the promulgation of the faith and for the garment of our divinity can be taken with us from this life to our life in the Kingdom. I had a great weekend as I traveled over 300 miles from my family in Christ in Portland to my family in Christ in New Paltz. I was welcomed with Christian hospitality. We partied. We laughed. We participated in Kingdom work. The blessings of our God are intense and exhaustive throughout the world and beyond. A simple, “Yes Lord” thrusts you into a life a blessings so that subsequently we are rewarded with eternal life with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the blessed Kingdom of Heaven with all our friends and family forever and ever. Amen!

~ by ordani on February 16, 2010.