on obedience & hard-headedness

Isaiah 45

[9] " 'Woe to the one who quarrels with his maker -- an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands?'

[10] 'Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' Or to a woman, 'To what are you giving birth?' "

there is no other

Isaiah 45

> Tao

[5] " 'I am he LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no God.
[6] ... there is no one besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.

> Yin-Yang

[7] ... I am the LORD who does all these (forming light and creating darkness, causing sell-being and creating calamity).

temporary anger, everlasting love

Isaiah 54
[8] "In an outburst of WRATH, for a moment I hid my face from you; but with ENDURING LOVE I take pity on you, says the LORD, your redeemer.
[9] "this is for me like the days of Noah ... so I have sworn not to be ANGRY with you, or to rebuke you.
=============================================
[10] though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, my LOVE shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has MERCY on you."

Psalm 30
[5] "For his ANGER lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his GOOD WILL. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing."

seek, pursue him

"Let us SEEK him who alone can give us back our liberty. Let us PURSUE him constantly with our desire whose beauty wounds hearts, drawing them towards him by our actions.

Let us not allow anyone, whoever he may be, to forestall us or deceive us and DISTRACT us from our search...."

-- St. Symeon (+ 1022, Greek Orthodox monk)

"the ONLY TRUE GOOD"

Re: "Zacchaeus discovers the ONLY TRUE GOOD"
Fr: Philoxenes of Mabbug (+c. 523, bishop in Syria). Homily 4, 78-80 (trans. SC 44, p. 97), dailygospel.org

"... When faith is concerned, all possessions are of little importance besides that one lasting good which is God. We have taken faith to ourselves so as to find God and possess nothing but Him so that we might see that anything besides of Him is of no value."

confirmation:
"... God, infinite goodness; we love you with all our hearts!" -- St. Arnold Janssen's Quarter-Hour Prayer

father god before father

20 oct 2016 mla 
fr: st. ambrose (+397, bishop of milan & doctor of the church), dailygospel.org

"... religion comes first and filial devotion second.... For if we have duties towards our parents, how much more to the Father of our parents to whom we owe thanksgiving for our parents?...

He doesn't say, then, that we must give up those we love BUT that we must PREFER God before all....

... our blood relations are among God's blessings and no one is to lose the good things they have received more than the GOD who (gave) the blessings...."

buddhism vs christianity

19 oct 2016 manila

> human experience

yesterday, i (prophetically) dialogued with an early adult (age 26) returnee student of ours who's good-looking, well-groomed, well-proportioned and exercised body who:
(a) openly admitted being gay -- having lived in with an older partner (age 39) for 8 years (5 years together, separate houses in the last 3 years but get together on weekends), and (b) is into yoga & eastern breath meditation and is slowly regarding buddhism as a religion as he frequents the fo-guang-shan temple at c. ocampo st. (former vito cruz).

re: (a), i just listened with stunned acceptance as he said it with confidence; ah, although, he said he started getting attracted again with women but felt he needs to be "faithful" to his long-time partner.

re: (b), i clarified between philosophy (buddhism) and religion (christianity) which has REVEALED truths which philosophy cannot reach on its own. 

> divine confirmation

this is confirmed by the first reading today!
-- ephesians 3
[4] "... my insight into the MYSTERY of Christ, which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has been REVEALED to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit."

naaman the leper

fr: readings for the 28th sunday in ordinary time (2016 oct 8)

2 kings 5
[v 15] naaman (an aramean general) "...'now i know that there is no god in all the earth, except in israel.... [17] ... your servant will no longer make burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the LORD.' "

2 timothy 2
[v 12] "... but if we deny him he will deny us. [13] if we are unfaithful he remains FAITHFUL, for he cannot deny himself.' "

love god: aim high!

Re: Commentary on Matthew 22:34-40 (The Greatest Commandment) by Fr. Gil Alejandria, SVD (2015). The Word in other words: Bible diary. Manila: Logos.

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with ALL your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." -- Matthew 22:37

"... To love God with ALL heart, soul, and mind implies a COMMITMENT to spend all your life for God. 

It is an ideal that most of us can only do part of the time. We are distracted and tempted by many things and often fail. Perhaps even the most saintly among us cannot say that they can declare 100% compliance to this directive.

I am reminded of the ARCHER who wanted to hit a lofty goal but could not. But at least by aiming high, his arrow would land at a height of glory.

... Our declaration of love for and faith in God becomes credible and visible only when we do CONCRETE ACTIONS of good towards our brothers and sisters...."

vows 1

source: dailygospel.org 07 sept 2016

re: celibacy
fr: 1 corinthians 7:28 
"if you marry, however, you do not sin...; but such people will experience AFFLICTION in their earthly life, and i would like to spare you that."

re: obedience and poverty
fr: st. gregory of nyssa (C.+395), monk & Bishop. The beatitudes, 1.

"as almost all men have a natural tendency to pride, the lord begins the beatitudes by casting aside the original sin of self-sufficiency and by counseling our imitation of him who is truly blessed, the genuinely voluntary POOR man... so we might become like him in voluntary poverty that is according to our measure so as to share his blessedness, his happiness. 'have among you the same attitude that is also yours in christ jesus. who, though he was in the form of god, did not regard equality with god something to be grasped. rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave' (philippians 2:5-7)

loving self as god loves us

1 corinthians 4:3-5 (NAB)

> others
[verse 3] "It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal;

> self
"I do not even pass judgment on myself;....

> God
"[4] ... the one who judges me is the Lord.

Conclusion:
[5] "Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes... and then everyone will receive PRAISE from God."

loving Love

02 sep 2016

source: st bernard of clairvaux (+1153) (cistercian monk & doctor of the church). sermons on the song of songs, no. 53. Classics of Western Spirituality. dailygospel.org

A. Stimulus

> "In love alone, of all the movements of the soul and the senses and affections, can the creature respond to its Creator..."

> ... the Bridegroom, who is Love, asks only the commitment of love and faith.

B. Response

> "So, rightly renouncing all other desires, she gives herself up wholly to Love, for it is in responding to Love that she is able to return love...

> "For ever if the creature loves less because it is lesser, yet if she loves with all her heart, nothing is lacking where all is given..."

>"This love is nothing other than
-- holy and chaste love,
-- love sweet and tender,
-- love as tranquil as it is true,
-- mutual, close, deep love,
which is not in the flesh but which joins two in one spirit, making two no longer two but one.

As Paul says, "He who is united to God is one spirit with him" (1 Corinthians 6:17)."

support from buddhist philosophy

just found this quote from one of my notes:

SUFFERING = "clinging to that which changes" -- Buddhism

(source: de bekcer, g. 1997. the gift of fear. ny: dell, p. 217.)

>application: abusive men

"CONTROLLING may work for a while, even a long while, but then it begins not to work, and so he ESCALATES. he will do anything to stay in control, but his wife is CHANGING, and that causes him to SUFFER.... when men in these situations do not find out what is going on INSIDE them, when they do not get COUNSELING or therapy, it is a CHOICE to continue using violence...."

action is the final arbiter: my educational philosophy

it started with my educational philosophy, triggered by this beautiful edtech lecturer (sorry, forgot her name :-, poor auditory, better visual memory, esp with names) at dlsu who quoted confucius (+ 479 BC) saying:
http://www.quotehd.com/quotes/confucius-philosopher-i-hear-and-i-forget-i-see-and-i-remember-i-do-and-i

then, as i was looking at the pictures on google images, i found out about edgar dale's (1969) cone of learning which lends scientific evidence to confucius' philosophical view!

https://pandawhale.com/post/9248/i-see-and-i-forget-i-hear-and-i-remember-i-do-and-i-understand-confucius

the reason why i finally decided to write it here is that this morning, the homily of fr. edu apuyan, cfm was: "you will only understand if you do it!"

gospel (15th sunday in ordinary time, year C = luke 10:25-37):

scribe asks jesus about the 1st and 2nd commandments to TEST him. jesus, said, (my rephrase:) "i give you a 100% for your (cognitive, intellectual) answers, BUT you have to do (behavioral) it to UNDERSTAND the teaching / principle!"

Luke 10:28 " 'You have answered right,' said Jesus, 'DO this and LIFE is yours.'" (Jerusalem Bible) [in answer to the scribe's correct rendering of the two most important commandments]

and

Luke 10:37 "... Jesus said to him, 'Go, and DO the same yourself!'" [in answer to "Who is my neighbor?" and Jesus rendering of the Good Samaritan]

Fr Edu said (my paraphrase): "We will only UNDERSTAND love if we love the unlovable" and goes on to narrate what the Hospitaler Brothers are doing, i.e., feeding the mentally ill even if they are slapped by them in the process! Yes, i testify to this testimony of the Hospitaler Brother in Bocaue, Bulacan near St. Paul's (bro raymund? i think is his name) when i brought my psychology grad students of PWU there about 3 years ago and sent a practicumer there.

Then, i remembered the story of the guru and the scorpion. the former kept on trying to save the latter in the ganges river because he said his nature was to LOVE and the nature of the animal was to bite!

my thoughts: 

i only understood philosophy (my major!!!) when i realized it was limited and that THEOLOGY was needed to continue it. thus, the seminary academic preparation sequence of these two courses!

i am also actually living the CHALLENGE of loving beyond human capacity, i.e., accessing DIVINE LOVE!!! divine mercy! hesed yeshua!

ps: fr magling fabiosa, svd recalls the palestenian (samaritan) vs israeli (jew) conflict starting with the partition in 1947 up to the present! so, christ's saying of DO it has apparently not been heeded up to now!!!

pearl of great price in r.s. thomas' poem

Re: “The Bright Field” (poem)

Fr: R. S. Thomas (Welsh Anglican priest-poet, 1913-2000)

“I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the

pearl of great price, the one filed that had

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

“on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.”

=====================================

Commentary by Emily Ardagh 

(emilypoetmyblog.com/2013/10/23/the-bright-field-by-r-s-

thomas/)

Bright field = “shining moments in life – moments of grace, 

beauty, inspiration, epiphany – where we fleetingly 

encounter the divine or feel a deep connection to the 

universe”

Examples:

-- “the moment you see your child’s face for the first time

-- the moment you realize you’ve fallen in love

-- when you read and understand some complicated

scientific theory about the universe,

-- become transfixed by Shakespeare or an incredible piece 

of music,

-- when you pray or meditate, and feel a connection to the

divine.”

touching prayer of hezekiah

from the first reading for today: 2 kings 19

hezekiah's (king of judah) prayer at the temple when threatened and insulted by invasion by sennacherib (king of assyria):

[15] "... 'YHWH Sabbaoth, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubs, YOU ALONE ARE GOD of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth.

[16] 'Give ear, YHWH, and listen. Open your eyes, YHWH, and see. Hear the words of Seenacherib who has sent to insult THE LIVING GOD.

[17] " 'It is true, YHWH, that the kings of Assyria have exterminated all the nations. [1] They have thrown their gods on the fire, for these were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, and hence, they have destroyed them. [19] But now, YHWH our God, SAVE US from his hand, I pray you, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that YOU ALONE ARE GOD, YHWH.'"

[35] "That same night the angel of YHWH went out and struck down 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp.

[37] "One day when he (Sennacherib) was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword anad escapead to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddan succeeded him."

dimensions of god's love # 4. RAHAMIN

RAHAMIN = Tender Compassionate Empathetic Love

>Isaiah 49:15 "Can a woamn forget her suckling child, that she should not have COMPASSION (merahem) on the son of her womb? Even though she may forget, yet I will never forget you."

I consider this God's feminine love. This is confirmed by www.divinemercy.org in stating:

"While 'hesed' highlights the marks of FIDELITY to self and of 'responsibility for one's own love' (which are in a sense MASCULINE characters), 'rahamin,' in its very root, denotes the love of a MOTHER (rehem = mother's womb).

>Confronted by evil, rahamin is manifest as MERCY (divinemercy.org).

>In the mother-child relationshipo, love is completely GRATUITIOUS, not merited; therefore it constitutes an INTERIOR NECESSITY, an "exigency of the heart."

>rahamin nuances
-- goodness and tenderness,
-- patience and understanding, i.e.,
readiness to FORGIVE.
-- (in OT) salvation from danger, especially from enemies
-- forgiveness of sins (individual and communal)
-- readiness to fulfill the promise and hope, in spite of human infidelity

>HOSEA 14:16 "I will HEAL their faithlessness, I will love them FREELY."

dimensions of god's love # 3. HESED YESHUA

HESED YESHUA = Saving Love / Mercy

Examples:
>all the martyrs, e.g., St. Maximilian Kolbe, Servant of God German Bishop Wilhelm Finneman, SVD, first Vicar Apostolic of Mindoro, Philippines (26 October 1942: thrown by the Japanese soldiers off the coast of Mindoro after a week of torture for defying their desire to turn Catholic convents & schools into prostitution houses for "comfort women").

>St. Padre Pio was quoted to have prayed something like: "Lord, if you are going to send a dagger, let it fall on me and spare the people."

This is the highest form of love. 
Question: Can I sacrifice myself for my enemy?

dimensions of god's love #2. HESED SEDAKA

HESED SEDAKA = Righteous or Holy Love / Mercy

This means that God's love is also TOUGH (yang of yin-yang). Getting out of order by violating physical and psycho-spiritual laws will have their corresponding karmic effects.

confirmation: 21 june 2016
fr: fb poster post of sis bernardita diamson

"RIGHETEOUSNESS is a term for covenantal relationship marked by FIDELITY. A righteous person cannot be unfaithful to God, who is the covenant-partner."

dimensions of god's love #1. HESED EMET

Hosea 2:19 "I will bethroth you to myself for ever, bethroth you with integrity and justice, with TENDERNESS (rahamin: feminine*) and LOVE (hesed: masculine*)." (New Jerusalem Bible, Hebrew translation from biblehub.com; *www.thedivinemercy.org/message/scripture)

according to a franciscan friar exorcist of batangas (i forgot his name) whose talk i attended on MERCY at the marian encounter at UST on may 29, 2016, citing the Dictionary of the Bible, mercy is interpreted in the Old Testament as both (1) HESED and (2) RAHAMIN in Hebrew.

i felt he was directly talking to me as i sat at one of the last seats at the last row, as he expounded on the meaning of HESED (BTW, he was holding the crucifix of his rosary while talking, with the beads wound on his wrist).

before writing this, i researched on some websites on the meaning of hesed. 

>there is no direct english translation of hesed because it cannot be captured by a word in this language. the closest biblical scholars came to is usually "LOVING-KINDNESS" or "lovingkindness" in other sites, which was coined by Miles Coverdale.

>Other English translations of hesed are kindness, love, mercy, steadfast love, "covenant-love" (Daniel Elazar), loyalty

>Hesed's equivalent in other languages:
--Greek: eleos = mercy, pity (c/o Septuagint Translation)
--Latin: misericordia (c/o Vulgate c/o St. Jerome)
--Sanskrit: metta = loving-kindness, friendliness (c/o Theravada Buddhism) 

>hesed is also likened to agape = caritas

>"hesed" is also translated as "GRACE AND FIDELITY," considered a literary form called hendiadys (literally "one through two" in Greek; i.e., a complex idea is expressed by two words connected by a copulative conjuction) [source: www.thedivinemerayc.org/message/scripture]
Ex: Ex 34:6, 2 Sam 2:6, 15-20; Ps 25:10, 20:11-12; 85:11; 138:2; Mi 7:20)

>Fidelity is God's nature: He cannot deny Himself

"The juridical commitment on God's part ceased to oblige wherever Israel broke the covenant and did not respect its conditions.

But precisely at this point, 'hesed' in ceasing to be a juridical obligation, revealed its deeper aspect: it showed itself as what it was at the beginning, that is, as LOVE that gives, love more powerful than betrayal, grace stronger than sin."

[O] "This FIDELITY vis-a-vis the unfaithful 'daughter of my people' (Lam 4:3, 6) is, in brief, on God's part.

>Ez 36:22 "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, buty for the same of MY HOLY NAME."
(www.divinemercy.org/message/scripture)

NB: It becomes MERCY in consideration of human frailty. 

>And "the fruits of this love are FORGIVENESS and RESTORATION TO GRACE, the reestablishment of the interior COVENANT." (divinemercy.org)

>"Hesed" appears 23 times in the Psalms
>Context: COVENANT of love between God and Israel


1. HESED (mercy) EMET (truth*) = STEADFAST LOVE

*"truth" is the Greek translation of "emet" in the Septuagint; other primary meanings are: "SOLIDITY, SECURITY, & FIDELITY" (www.divinemercy.org)

>i translate this in filipino as TAPAT na PAG-IBIG
>in an excellent jewish rabbi homily on youtube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPbV9OyjHsE) titled "Chesed ve emet" = Steadfast Loyalty), 3 traits of hesed emet are enumerated:
a. No allegiance oath
b. No benefits (i.e., intrinsic motivation)
c. No conditions attached

OT Example #1: Ittai, the foreign mercenary (probably Philistine) who staked his life for David in their low point (flight from Jerusalem due to Absalom's treason)

2 Samuel 15
[19] David to Ittai (a man from Gath): "Why are you also going with us? Turn back and stay with King Absalom because you are a foreigner. This is not your homeland. [20] You joined me only a short time ago. Should i make you wander with us when i don't even know where I'm going? Turn back and take your kinsmen with you. May kindness and loyalty be shown to you."

[21] But Ittai said to the king, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I WILL GO WHEREVER MY LORD THE KING GOES, WHETHER IT MEANS LIFE OR DEATH."

David eventually made him leader of 1/3 of his troops against Absalom's army. He probably died because he is no longer mentioned.

OT Example #2. Ruth, Jesus' great grandma

Ruth 1
[16] Ruth to Naomi: "Don't beg me to leave you or to stop following you. Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. [17] And where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me terribly if I do not keep this promise: Not even death SEPARATE us."

[In personality psychology, Dr. John Oldham calls this the DEVOTED Personality Style. The pathological form is the Dependent Personality Disorder.]

the sun is the center of the universe

"God is like a SUN. 
You can't look straight at it
but you know it is there."
-- Origen

"There are things you can't hide:
the Sun, the Starts, and the Truth."
-- Buddha

Iesus, Huios, Souteir (Greek for Jesus, Son of God, the Savior)

Source: M16 Galileo 17&18/05/16

Blessed Henry Suso (around 1295 – 1366), [German Dominican] The Book of Eternal Wisdom , dailygospel.org Monday, 7th Week of Easter

“That you may find peace in me”

“Lord, since the days of my youth my mind has sought an I-don’t-know-what with impatient thirst. So what was it, Lord? I still haven’t understood it entirely. It is many years now that I have ardently desired it, and I have not yet been able to grasp it… And yet that is what draws my heart and my soul and without which I cannot settle down in true peace.

Lord, I wanted to find happiness in the creatures of this world, as I saw so many people doing all around me. But the more I sought, the less I found; the closer I got, the further away I was. For everything told me: “ I am not what you are seeking.” So is it you, Lord, whom I have sought for so long? Has the attraction of my heart always and constantly been struggling to reach you? Then why did you not show yourself to me? How could you put off this meeting for so long? On how many exhausting paths have I got bogged down? For the person whom you anticipate with so much love, is truly happy, the person whom you do not let rest until he seeks his rest in you alone. 

commandment of love: who is the center of your universe?

29 april 2016 friday, 5th wk easter
(parenthetical notes and remarks mine)

message:

these past weeks and days, i feel a barrage of messages from the lord regarding forgiveness and theocentric thinking-feeling-acting.

the latest and so far, the most central but simplest actually, was this PM. fr rudy (as far as i could hear his name) of ermita church said:

one day, in our moral theology class, the professor asked us to take out 1/4 sheet of paper. he said it would only take 2 minutes and the rating would only be either a 100 or a zero!
the question was: "what was the commandment of love?"

the following day, the prof came with the results. he said, the papers on my right hand got it right and those on my left didn't. 

the wrong answer was: "love one another" (john 14:17) period. 

the correct answer was: "love one another as i have loved you" (john 14:12).

this is the gospel reading of today. (i just supplied the verses, realizing upon re-examination that both are biblical, but the correct answer is more complete.)

the point, said the prof: loving one another (anthropocentric) rests on a very UNSTABLE / shaky foundation, i.e., HUMAN LOVE. while, divine love is reliable and valid (using psychometric technical terms), i.e., UNCONDITIONAL.

application:

i just added in my mind: "unconditional" doesn't mean setting aside the demands of justice, like setting boundaries and ensuring that sin is not repeated, as much as possible (avoidance of near occasions of sin)!

so, i go back to my "soul-searching" post-dubai quest for MEANING and PURPOSE (one of the five pillars of positive psychology / education!!!) after i was met with a socio-emotional tsunami that crescendoed to an overwhelming proportion upon return! 

c/o aristarchus of samos (+c. 230BC), copernicus (15th c)

my central insight at that time was: "the sun is the center of the universe" (this famous phrase would be recited by a gifted child in one of the milk ads!). this is the HELEOCENTRIC theory (by polish dominican 3rd order & canon lawyer-mathematician-economist-physician nicolaus copernicus, 1543 cf: wikipedia)  vs the debunked GEOCENTRIC theory.

plato & aristotle: geocentrists

the sun = god, the planets = fellow humans. we look to god in the midst of turmoil and disappointment with human frailty.

nicolaus copernicus

oh, today, i also ready on the t-shirt of people i met on the road along UN ave, aside from "love god" !!!, "the glory of man is not in the falling, but in the ever rising from the falling" (or something to that effect; this was a constant refrain by our late methods of teaching teacher sis edel, fmm in the novitiate!!!)

confirmation:

in the commentary of fr xene sanchez, svd (our regent at christ the king mission seminary college department in ~AY 1980-81, now a biblical scholar in congo), he concludes:

"jesus told those he has chosen to bear fruit. the love that 'tends towards the OTHERS' pushes us to be SENSITIVE TO THE NEEDS of our brothers and sisters. christ's love is DEMANDING which entails great SACRIFICES like F O R G I V I N G as HE (theocentric) forgave those who wronged him, even those who B E T R A Y E D him.

if this great commandment were put into practice there would have been no more conflicts, no more war."

pistis (faith in greek) and episteme (knowledge)

the discussion of prof tim wilson on youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=axARKdZ4eHo (9 minutes & 34 seconds) on plato's allegory of the cave made me reflect on two important technial philosophical terms: pistis (faith) and episteme (knowledge).

from the perspective of ancient philosophy, particularly plato's, pistis is classified in the realm of the cave (unenlightenment) to signify belief in mere opinion (doxa). while episteme (knowledge) refers to first-hand encounter of the object -- from shadows of actual objects to their reflections on water to the object itself, i.e., the SUN!

in theology, pistis is more important and higher than episteme. jesus said, "blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe (pisteusantes  = (yet) having believed, cf: biblehub.com)."

now, here's the compromise. through my exposure to protestant christians (particularly, evangelicals) and the infusion of pentecostal beliefs and practices in the catholic church through the charismatic movement, i saw how faith (pistis) becomes personal knowledge (episteme) in the personal testimonies of believers. 

this was my prayer-challenge to the lord after i left the seminary. and he answered me definitively 9 years later through a charismatic catholic healer who healed me of my ankle pain on july 4, 1997, feast of st thomas the doubter / the twin to show me in concrete that he is god the healer (exodus 15:26).

then, pistis and episteme became one.

here's a quote from carl jung that reflects this (thanks to my friend-colleage choncho sanchez who first pointed this quote out to me):

"i only believe (pistis) what i know (episteme)."

sun of justice / righteousness

malachi 4:2 

"but you who fear my name, the SUN (shemesh) OF RIGHTEOUSNESS will shine out with HEALING in its rays (literally "wings" or kanaph in hebrew); you will leap (paw the ground) like calves going out to pasture."

commentary (hermeneutics.stackexchange.com):

there is suggested an allusion to the sun god present in many cultures at that time like the egyptian sun god (a royal symbol) depicted in art as having wings.

the sun is the SOURCE OF LIFE -- physical (and spiritual)[jon lansing in ibid.)

tao and yin-yang in tao teh ching by lao tzu

Re: Creation and Nature of Things

Fr: Lao Tzu. Tao Teh Ching. (trans. John C.H. Wu). Boston & London: Shambhala (1990), ch 42, p. 64.

“Tao gave birth to One,

One gave birth to Two,

Two gave birth to Three,

Three gave birth to all the myriad things.

All the myriad things carry the Yin on their backs

and hold the Yang in their embrace,

Delivering their vital harmony from the

          proper blending of the two vital Breaths.

…

Truly, one may gain by losing;

And one may lose by gaining….”