“Patience with God” by Tomáš Halík /Review/
Lvov (Ukraine), 16 February 2013
Who is Tomáš Halík and what is his fruit? He himself says that he is a Christian and a Buddhist at the same time. He organized the first visit of the Dalai Lama to the Czech Republic immediately after the fall of Communism. Havel and the Dalai Lama meditated together for eight hours in Hluboka Castle. Halík deceived Cardinal Tomášek into receiving a shawl from the Dalai Lama and thus opened the Czech Church to spiritual syncretism. A series of the Dalai Lama’s visits to the Czech Republic followed, initiated by Halík. Directly in the Church of the Most Holy Saviour Halík alternated with the Dalai Lama at the pulpit and set a practical example of apostasy to the Czech Catholics.
Halík organizes Buddhist meditation in the crypt of his Church right after the evening Mass. Nonetheless, Halík was appointed president for Catholic university youth in the country. He triggered an explosion of Buddhist “circles” among the university youth. Thanks to Tomáš Halík, a gigantic Buddhist centre, a former factory, is under construction in Prague.
At the time when registered partnership was put to the vote in the Czech Republic, Halík manipulated public opinion. President V. Klaus openly stood against it, but Halík de facto supported it. It was the same last year in connection with the establishment of the juvenile justice system and its atrocious crimes.
The cover of the book reads: “According to U.S. reviewers, it is the work of one of the most original religious thinkers of our time.”
According to truly Christian reviewers, it is the work of one of the most original religious heretics of our time. Among them is also A. de Mello, a Jesuit priest, and A. Grün, a Benedictine monk.
Halík shows Zacchaeus from the Gospel as a model searcher. To some extent, he identifies himself with him. However, there is a considerable difference. Zacchaeus had an earnest desire to know Christ, seeking to see who He was (Lk 19:2), while Halík has no desire to know Christ and is seeking other ways which turn one away from Christ and salvation!
Saint Augustine, in his quest, lapsed into Manichaeism. He had to make a painful step of deep conversion to receive the simple belief in the Gospel that leads to salvation. There are many traps on the way of searching for the true God. The searcher can find false gods in pagan philosophy or mythology and reject the way of salvation, the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
In his observations, Halík positively speaks about the Catholic hierarchy and especially about Pope John Paul II. He often refers to him. Is it not purposeful?
At the end of 1989, the Czech Republic obtained religious freedom. Halík acts as a prophet, makes a spiritual diagnosis and opens a “prospect” of restoration of Czech Catholicism. He was a secret adviser to Cardinal Tomášek and after 1989 he was proposed as his successor. However, the plan was thwarted. If Halík became Archbishop of Prague and Cardinal in place of Vlk, now after Benedict XVI had resigned he would be an unrivalled candidate for the papal throne.
When Halík was blamed for belonging to a group of liberal theologians, he objected that he had “a different blood type”, a different spirituality.
In his book, Halík quotes from the Scripture – he quotes the words of the Apostle Paul, but this does not mean that he has the same Spirit as the Apostle Paul. Halík has a different spirit. A change of spirit is associated with painful conversion and repentance.
J. Verlinde, a well-known French personality, searched for God in Oriental religions. Later on, he confessed that no one can find the true God in these religions. He had to break with these false religions once and for all. He received salvation in Jesus through a step of conversion and repentance. Without this step he would remain on a false way and would not be saved, nor would he find the God of love and mercy.
Halík often mentions the practice of Zen, koan, confessing that he experienced it himself. In koan, all is said to be one – truth and falsehood, good and evil. This Eastern meditation is diametrically opposed to the Christocentric interior prayer.
The fact that Halík does not have the Spirit of the Apostle Paul can be known by the fruit. Young people “converted” by him are not really converted. What is more, Halík has a deep aversion to true conversion and repentance.
In relation to moral personalities like Professor Wolf, Halík is critical and unjust whereas people who can by no means be regarded as a moral example, such as President Havel or Archbishop Bezák, are exalted by him. His authority affects public opinion among the youth.
“Patience with God”, chapter 8, review (p. 154-174)
Quotation: “To believe in Christ’s Resurrection means something else, something much more than simply accepting a particular theory or espousing the opinion that ‘it once happened’. Our belief in the Resurrection is confirmed by our involvement in that event, by our ‘joint resurrection’. According to Paul, we have already been raised with Christ (Col 3:1) – and since Christ rose from the dead, we too must now live in newness of life (cf. Rom 6:4).”
Response: To use the term “theory” in relation to Christ’s Resurrection means to question this historical reality. We find ourselves in the academic field of unprovable theories and hypotheses, where everyone can have their own opinion. Victory here lies in rhetorizing, not in the reality but in manipulation of the truth and word. To add such position to the fundamentals of our salvation means to commit spiritual suicide.
Halík consciously omits to distinguish two levels concerning Christ’s Resurrection and us. It is necessary to distinguish the historical and real event from the spiritual or mystical dimension of our resurrection with Christ. Halík one-sidedly emphasizes this spiritual dimension. He thus inconspicuously obscures, and hence denies, Christ’s historical and real Resurrection. One must distinguish between the faith in the mystery of our resurrection with Christ and the faith in the historical reality of this event. One must also take into account a certain nuance of faith in relation to the particular historical events, e.g. condemnation of Christ to death by Pontius Pilate and Christ’s historical Resurrection. The latter is connected with the intervention of God’s omnipotence in the natural order, which we call a miracle. There are many miracles in the Gospel that Christ worked which confirmed that He was the promised Messiah who rules over nature (stills the storm), heals the blind, the lepers, raises the dead (a young man of Nain, the daughter of Jairus, Lazarus). Jesus works miracles even today, and not only spiritually, by grace, but in the physical order as well. Every genuine Christian has at least a little experience of extraordinary divine intervention in his life. Numerous miracles have been recorded in Lourdes. About 70 cases subject to critical scientific examination have proved to transcend natural laws! These also include stigmata (Padre Pio…). Our reason commonly meets with a God-given natural order; miracles are an exception. Therefore it is easy to question this dimension of God’s intervention in the natural order. The fact that Christ rose from the dead is not contrary to reason but beyond reason. Jesus Himself testified that He is not only man but also the Son of God. The fact that He suffered and died as man is one side of the coin, the other is His Resurrection which confirms that, being God, He conquered death.
Halík writes that to believe in Christ’s Resurrection means something more than simply accepting a particular theory or espousing the opinion that “it once happened”. If we question the historical event of real Resurrection of Christ, the spiritual dimension of crucifixion with Christ is mere illusion. And this is Halík’s case since in another place he refers to Christ’s Resurrection as to a tale with a happy ending. The Apostle Paul says: “…because if Christ has not been raised, we shall not be raised either.” (cf. 1 Cor 15:12-20) It is misleading to leave the reality of the Resurrection obscure and to refer to it as a mere theory or opinion “that something once happened” or not.
One-sided emphasis on spiritual resurrection questions the historical and real event. It is similar to tactics of a professional deceiver who emphasizes partial truth in order to distract from the essence of truth and hence completely eliminate it.
Christ’s historical Resurrection
Christ died on the cross and was laid in a tomb. On the next day, the chief priests and the scribes asked the Roman governor Pilate to command that the tomb be made secure. They told him that Jesus said that He would be raised from the dead and so there was a danger that someone could steal His dead body and spread the word that He rose from the dead. Therefore, on Saturday morning a Roman officer and a few soldiers were commanded to guard the tomb. On Friday evening a stone was rolled to the entrance of the tomb. The Roman guards certainly rolled away the stone to be sure that the dead body of Christ was there. The soldiers guarded the tomb on Saturday, throughout day and night. On Sunday, early in the morning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. Both the soldiers and the women were witnesses of an extraordinary event. An angel of the Lord rolled away the stone by supernatural power. The soldiers were terrified and became like dead men. The angel said to the women: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay, and go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead.” (Mt 28:1-7a)
“While the women were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened.” (Mt 28:11) A Roman soldier could not leave the place he was commanded to guard. It carried the heaviest penalty – death. How great fear and shock it must have been if the Roman guards left the place at the tomb! The guards and the women could not see Christ coming out of the tomb. The angel just announced the fact: “Christ is not here; for He is risen, as He said.” Christ’s Resurrection took place earlier in the night. Whether Christ was raised at the beginning of the night or at midnight or early in the morning is not important. All Saturday night is holy, which we commemorate every week. The Resurrection of Christ took place in a different dimension than the resurrection of the young man of Nain, Jairus’ daughter or Lazarus. They were all raised, but then died again. The Resurrection of Christ is also associated with the transfiguration, or glorification, of Christ’s body. The risen Christ did not die again. The mystery of Christ’s Resurrection is not restricted by physical laws. It belongs to the sphere of spiritual laws and spiritual dimension. This spiritual aspect of Resurrection as well as of resurrection with Christ applies already now to all who are in unity with Christ through the saving faith. Our physical resurrection is connected with the mystery of the second coming of Christ to this earth. This will involve an unprecedented intervention of God’s omnipotence similarly to the creation of the universe or human life or to the breathing of the breath of life. “God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” (Gen 2:7) Our physical resurrection likewise will involve the intervention of God’s omnipotence. At the hour of our death, “the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Eccles 12:7). Then it goes to the place it freely chose during the life – to eternal glory or eternal damnation. The physical resurrection and transfiguration of our body will be in the same spiritual dimension as the Resurrection of Christ. St. Paul says: “We shall be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection.” The risen body just like the human spirit, these being in unity, will remain in the dimension of eternity.
From Sunday morning until the evening there were many events the participants of which witnessed of Christ’s Resurrection in amazement. Mary Magdalene was the first to tell the Apostles that the tomb was empty. When she came to the tomb again, she encountered Christ, but she did not recognize Him at once. Then He appeared to the myrrh-bearing women, then to the Apostle Peter, to two disciples going to Emmaus that afternoon, and eventually to ten Apostles in Jerusalem in the evening as well as to the disciples of Emmaus who had returned by then and were telling the Apostles about their experience.
The Apostle Thomas doubted the Resurrection, even though the other Apostles told him about Jesus appearing to them, eating a piece of fish (whose bones remained) and commanding them to go and preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all nations (Lk 24:36f). Thomas uncompromisingly insisted on his own way and kept repeating: “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” A week later, the doors being shut, Christ stood in the midst of the Apostles again and repeated Thomas’ request almost word for word. He told him to put his finger and hand into His wounds and not to be unbelieving but believing. And Jesus adds: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” So faith in Christ’s historical and real Resurrection actually requires that human reason should allow the possibility of God, the Supreme Lawgiver, intervening in physical laws.
Christ performed many miracles, but the greatest of them, which proves His Divinity, is His Resurrection. Christ’s Resurrection has nothing to do with pagan myths of the resurrection of gods or reincarnation. The Christian faith is vastly different from pagan religions. Pagan mythology involving the worship of demons and false gods has nothing to do with true Christianity.
Christ did not appear to the Apostles and believers during one day only but during 40 days. The Apostle Paul says clearly: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once…” (1Cor 15:3-6) The Apostle Paul does not mean mystical, transhistorical or symbolic resurrection, but speaks clearly about real and historical resurrection. “If Christ is not risen, your faith (that you will be raised too) is futile… But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1Cor 15:17-20)
The Apostles went to Galilee and spent all night fishing. In the morning they encountered Jesus. After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter three times if he loved Him. Peter answered three times. It was another encounter with the risen Jesus. Sober Galilee fishermen were neither intellectuals with their own theories or opinions, nor pseudo mystics with their own visions or koans. They had down-to-earth common sense. They became credible witnesses.
The most important thing in the restoration of contemporary Christianity is not only to return to the foundations, i.e. conversion and repentance, but also to create the conditions for spiritual growth. This was seen with the early Christians (Acts 2:42):
1) common prayer,
2) the apostles’ teaching,
3) fellowship,
4) the Eucharist.
It is necessary to celebrate Sunday – the day of Christ’s Resurrection and the day of the Holy Spirit. This involves the 4 basic means of spiritual life which were used by the early Christians. Model contemplation of Christ’s Resurrection (see http://vkpatriarhat.org/en/?category_name=celebration-of-sunday) can be divided as follows: On Saturday evening we spend one hour reflecting on the reality of Christ’s Resurrection according to the given structure. We read a reflection on a particular truth (5 minutes), repeat a Bible verse together (5 minutes), confess our belief in this truth (5 minutes) and sing a song (5 minutes). In this way we reflect on three biblical truths concerning the Resurrection (the Resurrection of Christ and our spiritual resurrection together with Christ). In the morning, best between 5 and 7 o’clock, we reflect on the passages speaking about witnesses and concerning each of us personally: an angel at the tomb, an encounter between Christ and Mary Magdalene, women, Peter, at the Sea of Galilee, Christ’s Ascension. This lasts two hours. Families can reflect on these truths in their homes. Sunday is the day of the Holy Spirit. The best time to experience the descent of the Holy Spirit is between 8 and 9 o’clock – reflection, prayer and singing. In the afternoon, when the believers meet together to listen to God’s Word, to share testimonies, to discuss problems, to pray for each other (fellowship), it is useful to devote 20 minutes to the reflection on the next biblical truth – Emmaus. In the evening, we reflect on the passages about Christ appearing to the Apostles without Thomas and then in the presence of Thomas.
If one encounters the living Christ in personal prayer, including this one, one must admit that the intellectual questioning of the faith is very harmful!
Analysis of some statements
Quotation: “I believe with Paul that if Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is in vain (1Cor 15:17) – but equally vain, pointless and empty would our belief in Resurrection be if it simply remained nothing more than an opinion or conviction.”
Response: In fact, Halík does not deal with the question of whether he himself believes in the real Resurrection of Christ. He just states: If Christ did not rise, our faith is in vain. But he omits to confess that Christ is risen, as testified by the Apostle Paul, and that our faith is not vain or pointless. Furthermore, in verses 13-19, the Apostle Paul does not deal with the question of Christ’s Resurrection but our resurrection, and he uses the fact that Christ is risen to support the fact that we will be raised too. “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain… But now Christ is risen from the dead!” (1Cor 15:13-20) Halík arrived at the conclusion that he “believes” with Paul that if Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is in vain. But Paul clearly testifies that Christ rose from the dead, historically and really, unlike Halík who keeps shifting this historical reality to the spiritual sphere only. Halík does not confess the faith in the real Resurrection of Christ, but rather the faith in the pointlessness of our faith. He says: “I believe with Paul that if Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is in vain.” Unlike the Apostle Paul, Halík does not testify that Christ rose from the dead historically and really. He remains at the level of conditions – if Christ did not rise, our faith is in vain. In approaching Christ’s Resurrection, he focuses attention on the moment of Resurrection and says that this cannot be proved. This argument is the same nonsense as if a patient died in hospital during the night and the next morning the doctor would say that no one can prove that he died because the moment when he died is unknown and there was no one to see him die.
Quotation: “…dramatic stories of Scripture … Easter story … Resurrection story.”
Response: Using the word “story”, Halík relativizes and makes light of the reality that happened. He moves it to the level of a story which can be made up. The vocabulary used by him embodies a spirit which makes light of essential things or denies them.
“…if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9) What does it mean to believe in our heart in the mystery of the Resurrection and in the mystery of our salvation? It means to accept a certain fact in our life which builds up our personal relationship with Christ. One can accept something by reason and know that it is true, and yet reject it in one’s heart. Example: Two people have a quarrel. The guilty person knows that he did wrong but justifies himself by presenting wrong as right so as to refute the reproach. This reveals the mystery of human nature wounded by original sin. People refuse to hear the truth, and if they do hear it, they reject it. Their justification may be true to some extent but they deliberately emphasize it to the exclusion of the objective truth.
Quotation: “…a series of Old Testament covenants – and above all the covenant on Sinai – God bounds Israel and Himself. This is certainly an incredible step whereby God is transformed from an ‘unpredictable desert demon’ of the ancient Orient or an ‘absolute ruler’ into a ‘constitutional monarch’ (to borrow the psychoanalytical language of Freud and Fromm) – and the religious relationship is now logical and transparent, like any good legal code.”
Response: Who does he mean when he speaks about an unpredictable desert demon? Azazel, a desert demon, or Allah, the god of Islam? Surely not the Christian God?
God who gave His law to the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai is no desert demon. This is an offence against the Divine Majesty – a sin against the Second Commandment which used to carry the most severe punishment. That was why the Jews were not allowed even to pronounce the name of God for fear of this name being dishonoured. To associate the name of God with a desert demon or a demon as such is blasphemy and a grave offence against the one true God – the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is neither an absolute ruler nor a constitutional monarch, but a loving and merciful God who in the fullness of time gave His only begotten Son who died for our sins, that we might receive the adoption as sons and eternal happiness in glory after death.
The fact that Halík as a Catholic priest uses terminology which belittles or ridicules Christianity and the person of God is a sign that he lacks a personal relationship with God and serves an unpredictable demon. His rhetorical juggling is simply an intellectual trap and young people get caught in it very easily. It is because many, and not only young people, lack the sound doctrinal foundations and sound principles of spiritual life, and so they can hardly see through intellectually wrapped syncretism.
Quotation: “A thinker of such genius as Nietzsche … the author of The Antichrist, strikes me like a truculent child. … Nietzsche’s renowned hammer … tends not to be an instrument of destruction, but rather a mineralogist’s hammer or a neurologist’s hammer for testing our reflexes.”
Response: Nietzsche is not a brilliant thinker but a brilliant demagogue. Halík foists on the reader a bestial author who hated Christians like the plague. Confined to bed for ten years, Nietzsche would shout with such anger that he was foaming at the mouth, which was the visible sign of obsession. His books burn with hatred and demonic pride which fascism with its theory of superman and master race adopted as an ideal. And not only that. Apparently it is an ideal even for modern engineers of reduction, or genocide, of humanity. By studying Nietzsche, Halík was probably struck on the head with Nietzsche’s hammer and is no longer capable of a critical view of him and of the pernicious consequences for mankind. One can by no means speak of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of truth – in connection with Nietzsche but of a demonic spirit – the spirit of pride. His writings were intended to destroy the traditional, Christian values; there is no doubt about it, for a tree is known by its fruit.
Quotation: “For Paul Nietzsche has nothing but virulent words of hatred and absolute condemnation… Where did all that anger come from? Aren’t the two of them in fact much more similar in many ways?”
Response: Obviously Halík had another experience of a koan, when all got mixed up in his head into one and he is excited about it, otherwise he could never deduce such ridiculous nonsense. The Apostle Paul has the Spirit of Christ; Nietzsche has the spirit of Antichrist. This is a substantial difference!
Quotation: “In The Antichrist, Nietzsche totally caricatured Paul’s doctrine and his role, but one of his perceptions was correct: Jesus’ entire life is of no interest to Paul, all Paul needed ‘was the death on the cross, and something more’ (The Antichrist, p. 42).”
Response: Halík is right when he argues that Nietzsche totally caricatured Paul’s doctrine and his role. And if there was a modicum of truth in what Nietzsche said, it was in the spirit of lies and death and so this truth becomes just a dangerous trap and barrier. By hero-worshipping Nietzsche, Halík received the same cynical spirit.
Quotation: “Nietzsche senses in Paul a rival rather than an enemy. After all, both of them want to initiate a new historical era, both of them are convinced that modern man is something that must be surpassed, both of them want to end the rule of guilt and law, both of them practise an ‘antiphilosophy’.”
Response: Halík tries to artificially align a fanatical enemy of Christianity with the great apostle of the nations! Halík’s parallels are nonsense. Suffice it to ask one elementary question: Of what spirit was the Apostle Paul? The Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of love and life! Of what spirit was Nietzsche? The spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of lies, hatred and death. And to associate somehow the Apostle Paul and Nietzsche is indeed a sign of manipulation and denial of the essence. The Apostle Paul preached the living Christ; he was no private philosopher and had no idea of rivalling anyone. He had one aim: to preach the Gospel without heresies and without speechifying in order to bring salvation to as many souls as possible. Nietzsche’s aim was the exact opposite: antigospel and eternal damnation.
Quotation: “With his rejection of the old God (and the vague promise of a return of God, who would ‘slough off his moral skin’), is Nietzsche not a radically Protestant preacher?”
Response: Nietzsche is not a radically Protestant preacher but a blasphemer and total denier of God and of all moral values. The offensive expression “God, who would slough off his moral skin” is blasphemy, and if Halík uncritically quotes Nietzsche and comments on him in a misleading way, he reveals that he has identified himself with the spirit of Nietzsche whose aim is the destruction of true Christianity.
The Apostle Paul explains many truths of the Old Testament in the Spirit of God and shows their fulfillment in the Gospel of Christ and in a personal relationship with Christ. Nietzsche rejects not only the one and most high God but he also rejects Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Nietzsche has absolutely nothing in common with the Apostle Paul!
Currently, legislation in almost all states undergoes changes under pressure from the UN and EU. The aim is reduction, or autogenocide of the individual nations. This mass crime is being perpetrated with the use of professional lies. The most serious crimes against humanity and against defenceless children are disguised by positive terms. The term “children’s rights” actually covers the most blatant injustice and crimes against humanity – children are torn from their loving parents, demoralized and demonized. Under the slogan of “rights” and “protection” of women, women are deprived of their children! Many of them end up in a mental hospital, in alcoholism, in prison or committing suicide. The term “antidiscrimination laws” covers promotion of discrimination against 99% of the population. The term “gender equality” actually means that a man can declare that he is a woman, and this must be indicated on his identity papers, even in the Czech Republic. This is loss of reason and madness of modern times.
Why is Prof. Halík silent on gender-gay demoralization? Was he perhaps inspired by Nietzsche’s immoralism? Why is he silent on juvenile justice piracy committed against children? Why is he silent on demonization and genocide of humanity? These are the most topical issues on which Halík as an authority should express his view. Not speak some evasive phrases but say a clear yes-yes or no-no because in this situation, whatever is more than these is from the evil one (Mt 5:37). His books do not breathe of the Spirit of Christ but the spirit of Nietzsche, the spirit of Antichrist.
Halík versus Paul
Halík refers to the Apostle Paul and absurdly compares him to Nietzsche. He also ascribes to him things that are against the spirit of the Apostle’s words. In fact, it is clever manipulation. The Apostle Paul is a model Christian. He followed Christ in earnest. He perceived the essence of the saving faith and justification by faith (cf. Rom 4-5). He could say truly: “Become like me.” (Gal 4:12) To him, to live was Christ and to die gain. (Phil 1:21) He defended the truths of the faith and fought against heresies (cf. Gal 1:8-9) “Even if I, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you … anathema sit.” He was free in Christ, but he also says that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (cf. Phil 2:12). He observed the law of God, and yet he stood against the scribes who adhered just to the external form. He himself was a charismatic, praying in tongues more than others (1Cor 14:18), and yet he denounced the charismatics who started in the Spirit and ended with the flesh (Gal 3:3). He was also endowed with human wisdom, God worked wonders and signs through him, and yet he emphasizes that this is not what is essential: “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified … the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1Cor 1:22-24) The Apostle Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles. But he promoted no interreligious dialogue or reverence for other religions, although in Athens he respected their spiritual blindness. He preached the Gospel of salvation among the Gentiles in season and out of season. If he saw Halík standing at the pulpit with the Dalai Lama or with a Shinto priest, misleading the young generation by false spirituality and robbing them of salvation in Christ, he would say to him like to the Jewish sorcerer: “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind.” (Acts 13:6-12) And in terms of reverence for other world religions, the Apostle would say again: “What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.” (1Cor 10:20), and condemn the spirit of Assisi: “What communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial?” (2Cor 6:15) Concerning homosexuality, he said: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie … For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions … men committing shameless acts with men.” (Rom 1:25-27) To adherents of the historical-critical method he would say: “… (they preach) another Jesus … a different spirit … a different gospel…” (2Cor 11:4). “Such are false apostles, deceitful workers… And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2Cor 11:13-14)
Does Halík preach the same Jesus as the Apostle Paul or a different gospel and a different spirit? The Apostle Paul could by no means put his signature to Halík’s preaching and literary activities. On the contrary, he would have to pronounce an anathema on him acc. Gal 1:8, just as the orthodox Catholic Synod of Bishops was forced to do on 29 June 2008.
Practical faith
The acceptance of the historical truth of Christ’s Resurrection is connected with the acceptance of the truth of Christ’s redemptive death on the cross. The saving faith requires the following:
1) I have to confess my sins before God as well as before myself and also to fully accept the reality that I can not get rid of them by my endeavour;
2) I have to believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God, God from God, Light from Light, and that He died on the cross for my sins too.
The redemptive death of Christ
1) is a historical event – Jesus Christ died on the cross;
2) in spiritual terms – Jesus Christ died for all sins of the world but only those will be saved who will receive Jesus as their personal Saviour by faith (in their hearts).
In the first point there is no need of faith; it concerns a historical event. The second point requires the faith of the heart and humility necessary for the confession of sins, which is painful, of course.
The Resurrection also has two levels:
1) historical
2) spiritual
Ad 1) Historical level. In contrast to the historical event of Christ’s death on the cross, the historical level of Christ’s Resurrection is questioned. Such an approach, however, turns into deceivers not only the Apostles but all witnesses of the historical event of Christ’s Resurrection who met Him during 40 days, as well as the First Martyrs who laid down their lives for the sake of Christ. Moreover, one would have to deny the omnipotence of God – the fact that God created the universe, microcosm and all forms of life and placed His laws in them. Furthermore, one would negate the whole of Christianity because if Christ is not risen, He is no God.
Ad 2) Spiritual level. Halík consciously focuses on the spiritual level and inconspicuously omits the historical reality of the Resurrection. Concerning this spiritual level, a personal relationship with Christ is missing here, i.e. the belief that Jesus died for our sins, that He is God and that He is risen physically. Halík’s manner of presenting the truth of the Resurrection proves that he has believed in his heart neither in Christ’s historical Resurrection nor in the true mystery of our resurrection with Christ revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in several places in the Bible (Eph 2:6; Col 3:1… ). Spiritual resurrection is associated with the presence of Christ in His Mystical Body and in the heart of a Christian through the saving faith: “…that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith…” (Eph 3:17) or “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20).
This spiritual resurrection requires walking in the Spirit: I enter into the presence of God, seek His will and try to do it, renouncing my own will. Even though I am weak, I unite to Jesus by faith and His power mightily works within me (Col 1:29). Hundreds of thousands of martyrs have testified to this.
In Halík’s view, the new life of resurrection is a bizarre life of freedom open to syncretism and heresies. The new life, as preached by him, is not rooted in communion with Jesus. The sincere search for truth and salvation is replaced by constant questioning. He does not draw the attention of youth to the living Christ but to himself. Oftentimes he makes use of empty intellectual tricks and performances, pious phrases and rhetorical manipulation with biblical terminology. Therefore, he easily puts aside the commandments of God and the Church and sets his ego as a new standard independent of God, His commandments and the truths of the faith. It is probably the above-mentioned koan where everything is supposed to be one. The peak of Zen Buddhist enlightenment is diabolical delusion – the belief that I am god.
How dangerous is Halík’s rhetoric that operates biblical terms like joint resurrection or crucifixion, or quotes the saints with the purpose of confirming his spirit and his anti-Christian attitudes.
What is most necessary?
We can philosophize or theologize but this will not save us in the hour of death. There is nothing more certain than the reality that Halík and all of us will die. Nevertheless, one must literally force oneself to believe in this reality. None of us doubt it in our minds but let us be honest: Which of us let this truth penetrate our hearts so much that it made us live wisely? Again, human pride and the darkness of sin in us boycott even the very natural truth. God created this rational world and placed His laws both in the living and non-living matter. The human mind must logically accept this too, but the heart often does not want to. Our life, however, will come to an end one day, which will be followed by the judgment of God and eternity. We do not want to hear this unpleasant truth, but we cannot escape it. Wisdom is to live as if this day was the last day of my life.
An example of how to attain salvation is the penitent criminal on the cross. He called on the name of Jesus with faith and was saved for eternity. God’s Word says: “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:21) The name of the Lord by which we are saved is the name Yehoshua (Jesus). Call upon this name with faith at least for one minute every day. You can imagine Christ on the cross, His pierced hands and feet and the wound in His side, and repeat four times: Yehoshua, khuonayny! (Jesus, have mercy on me!) and for the fifth time, looking at the wound in His side, repeat three times the name Yehoshua and then add khuonayny. And if you want to do something more for the sake of your salvation, you can add a short prayer: “Shema Israel, love God! Jesus, my God, I love You with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my strength. Now I lose my soul for Your sake and the Gospel’s.” Then you can add one Bible verse and repeat it for a period of two weeks. Then you can choose another one. Say this short prayer of perfect contrition and perfect love seven times a day (Ps 119:164) – when getting up, at 9:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00 and before sleep.
Try to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength during the day at least for one minute in prayer. How? Realize that God sees you, even though you can not see Him. He knows you and loves you. Visible manifestation of God’s love for you is above all Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. You can repeat several times consciously in thought: “I lose my soul for Your sake, Jesus.” What does it mean? It does not mean self-destruction of the soul; it means that I enter by faith the power of Christ’s death, when my spirit is separated from the soul and united to God for a few moments. Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” For a moment, the spirit is separated from the riches of the soul – feelings, plans, vanities and inner disharmony resulting from original sin which corrupted our nature and is rooted in our soul as a negative core or a hotbed of evil. The experience of loving God means that I commend my spirit into God’s hands at least for a few seconds. I give Him my past and my future and all my fears. Simply, at that moment I concentrate on the reality that God sees me and that I give Him my all, as if it was the last minute of my life. Experiencing this in your spirit by the cross, you might feel that you need to lift up your hands and call on God from the depth of your soul. The primary sound automatically escaping one’s breast, which is also produced for example in severe physical pain, is something between the vowels a, e, i, o, u. This is no mantra but “groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26), groanings of the spirit that longs for eternal love which is to be found in God. It is interesting that although the Czech people are greatly influenced by religious apathy and ranked as the most godless nation in Europe, in time of great suffering they often subconsciously cry out “Jesus!”
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
+ Methodius OSBMr + Timothy OSBMr
Secretary Bishops
Download: “Patience with God” by Tomáš Halík /Review/
