Both yesterday and today I had insights in Christianity/Catholicism that I'd never heard before and wanted to scribble them down so that I wouldn't forget them in the future. If they are helpful to you, all the better.
Talya - The most recent insight came tonight when I was at RCIA, helping where I could. We were reviewing this upcoming Sunday's readings and got to the Gospel of John.
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
As we read it here in English, Jesus is identified with the Paschal lamb. Interestingly in Galilean Aramaic the word is “talya”. In that language it can have three meanings: “lamb”, “a male youth/child”, or “servant”. This is fitting when you consider Jesus: the lamb of God, the Son of God, and the servant of God. The theme of the servant of God is also used in the first reading which comes from Isaiah.
“The LORD said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb”
Grace - Another theme of the RCIA evening was God's grace, since we were introducing the sacraments. We spoke about one's disposition and I mentioned something I heard yesterday and researched further to confirm. The question had to do with the following: if God pours forth his love on everyone, how does it work so differently on each of us? At first glance it would appear that he favors certain souls as he distributes his graces.
An insight came from St. Theophylactus of Bulgaria (there's a name for ya'!) saying that it is due to man's nature and not God's actions:
“Just as the sun softens the wax candle but hardens clay, not arbitrarily but because of the different materials of the wax candle and the clay: so also God is said to harden the clay heart of the Pharaoh.”
The grace and love of God radiates to all, but it will only work on man according to his disposition. Do you have a heart of clay or a heart of wax?
Some theologians even relate this concept to heaven and hell after death. They say (paraphrasing) that our disposition determines how our souls will be affected by the unimpeded presence of God. We will either conform in perfect unity (like wax) or our souls will find it hardens our hearts, makes them brittle, and unable to conform to His Will, ultimately rejecting Him.