I was daydreaming this morning about one day writing a book about the East-West Schism. Unoriginal and straightforward enough, right? Well, actually, rather than analyzing the typical factors — theological methodology, cultural pressures, diplomatic gaffes, crusades, excommunications, heresies and the like — I wanted to make it a love story, of sorts. Since Christianity is fundamentally a marriage – between Heaven and Earth, between the Sheep and the Shepherd, between the Holy and the Forgiven, between all peoples and the Three Persons at one Table – we must view the Church too as a marital saga. A long, long time ago, the East and the West lived as one married couple. They exchanged theological and financial goods, gave birth to children, learned from each other – and also often wounded each other. At some point, the estrangement grew to be too much, and the couple separated. Yet, mysteriously, they could never be divorced, for God had joined them around that one marital Feast, for better or for worse.
Read Elliot Bougis whole post and I especially loved the ending of the post. Earlier this week he also wrote something else profound.
Love is preemptive forgiveness; it is a predetermined benevolence that outlasts the fickleness of sin. Forgiveness is resurrected love; neither it nor the Resurrection is merely "resuscitated" benevolence, but is a glorified, transfigured and life-encompassing renewal of communion.
