Monday (Easter VII Year 1)
Today’s assigned readings:
Ezekiel 4:1-17; Hebrews 6:1-12; Luke 9:51-62
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.
Hebrews 6:4-6
So here’s the kicker. When did I do this? I know well that some who are Orthodox would say that I did this when I returned to Protestantism. My Evangelical past would say I did it when I left Christianity behind for paganism in 1986 or 87… My Baptist friends would say that I did it when I decided to become a pseudo-papist and be Anglican.
And then we have this from Luke:
Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (9:61-2)
To be honest, I’d be glad to know how one might reconcile this with the idea of “eternal assurance” or the idea of “Once saved, always safe.” But that’s not the point of this post… which is Donatism.
The Donatists (founded by the Berber Christian Donatus Magnus) were followers of a belief considered a heresy by the broader churches of the Catholic tradition. They lived in the Roman province of Africa and flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries.
The primary disagreement between Donatists and the rest of the early Christian church was over the treatment of those who renounced their faith during the persecution of Roman emperor Diocletian (303–305), a disagreement that had implications both for the Church’s understanding of the Sacrament of Penance and of the other sacraments in general.
The rest of the Church was far more forgiving of these people than the Donatists were. The Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of the priests and bishops who had fallen away from the faith during the persecution. Many church leaders had gone so far as to turn Christians over to Roman authorities and had handed over sacred religious texts to authorities to be publicly burned. These people were called traditors (”people who had handed over”). These traditors had returned to positions of authority under Constantine I, and the Donatists proclaimed that any sacraments celebrated by these priests and bishops were invalid.
That’s the idea behind Donatism… and, yes, some of us still fall into it, but I want to suggest that the temptation with these verses is to give up: to lapse into sort of a internal “auto-Donatism”. Nothing I do is worth anything any more. I’ve totally messed up: Everything has been a mess since I (BLANK) back in 19xx.
John Chrysostom says this passage is not about the “never again” quality, but rather about Baptism and repentance. You can’t go back to the beginning (illuminations and renewal referring to baptism), but you can repent and keep going. And we know that in our own experience: never in any event can we go back to the beginning. Our first love fades. We stumble. But the issue is not *that* we stumble but rather to get up and keep going.
Looking at all the rejections Jesus takes in this Gospel as a whole, we might see one of two images: either no one is good enough (who doesn’t have family or social duties?) or, at best, everyone has messed up. But I don’t know: let’s not take all three of the rejections as good, pithy statements of Jesus. Take it as all one picture crafted to show problems with taking this all on.
Following God in the Way of Jesus is hard work: no time to do anything else. Family and society tear at one. None of us are good enough… BUT: Even those who reject him outright are not worthy of the fire that might be invoked by the devout.
The Epistle to the Hebrews does that too: the author turns a corner in verse 9, saying Even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.
That first head-rush goes away. The power of the emotional high ends. And regular life hits us in the day-to-day way. The question is what to do then.