This year, many vasectomy patients are young or single men concerned about unwanted pregnancy at a time when abortion care may not be as available as before.
In any given year, about half a million men in the United States undergo a vasectomy. Although the percentage of men getting them had been dropping for the past two decades, it looks like those numbers are going up in the wake of the June 24, 2022, Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Appointments up
It’s too early for official numbers, but as a urologist and microsurgeon specializing in vasectomies, I can personally report that more new patients are coming to see me. We used to typically perform about 20-25 vasectomies a month in our Miami clinic. Since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision came down, however, we’re now fully booked at 30 vasectomies scheduled each month through next year. I’m also seeing about 30% more online queries about vasectomies. In my 15-year career, it’s the first such increase I’ve seen.
Young or single men make up the majority of our clinic’s new vasectomy clients. They say they are concerned about getting a woman pregnant when abortion care isn’t as available as it was before. They also inquire about freezing their sperm first in case they want biological children in the future. Frozen storage is a viable option, and some patients have even successfully frozen their own sperm.
Vasectomies generally take 15- to 20-minutes and 98% of them are performed in an outpatient clinic.
Only 2% of vasectomy patients get them in a hospital under anesthesia. That’s usually because of anatomical issues or previous surgeries complicating the procedure – or the personal preference of the patient to go to sleep.
To start, the urologist makes a small opening in the scrotum. Then the doctor pulls out the vas deferens, the tube that delivers sperm out of the testes and to the ejaculatory duct. After placing permanent clips on the tube in two places, the doctor removes a small piece of the tube between the clips. The clips remain in place, closing and permanently sealing the cut tube ends. Now there is no longer any connection between the testes where sperm is produced and the urethra, where it once exited the body.
Patients typically go home and recover for about four hours with some ice on the area. Most can go back to work just a day or two later if their job doesn’t involve manual labor. For about a week after the vasectomy, we recommend no sex and no heavy lifting.
The recovery period is a popular excuse for sports fans to plan their vasectomy around major sports events on TV. That way, they can watch the Masters golf tournament, baseball’s World Series, or the bowl games of American football while they heal. In fact, “March Madness vasectomy” promotions timed to college basketball playoffs are among the reasons March is a popular month for appointments.
More concerns than changes
About two to three months after the procedure, the patient returns to the clinic. We take a sample of semen to check the sperm count. That is used to confirm whether his vasectomy was successful. If any sperm are in the ejaculate, we might need to do a second one. This only happens in fewer than 1% of cases. The vast majority of the time, we can give the patient the all-clear that their procedure is complete.
Of course, this is a surgery, so patients naturally have significant questions and concerns. A common one I’ll hear from a patient is that getting a vasectomy will make him “less of a man” because he is no longer able to father children. But that is absolutely not true. It won’t make you less of a man.
Some men fear it will damage their penis because the procedure is so close to it. But a vasectomy will not damage a man’s penis or any other surrounding structures. And he will not have any changes in sexual function or enjoyment after recovery from the procedure.
While everything else is the same as before, ejaculate volume obviously decreases slightly after a vasectomy. This worries some men. But it’s not a noticeable decrease, since sperm is only 5% of semen volume.
However, if patients do change their minds, they can get their vasectomies reversed. About 5% of U.S. patients do.
Most often this involves a man with a new partner who wants to have biological kids. Nearly all vasectomy reversals succeed, with sperm returning to the ejaculate around 90% to 95% of the time. And, depending on the age of the woman, pregnancies follow vasectomy reversals about 50% to 60% of the time.
Written by Ranjith Ramasamy, Associate Professor of Urology, University of Miami.
That is not a short story for the Dutch Scientologists. In 2013, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal recognized Scientology as a genuine religion and also recognized that its activities should be treated as any other religion in the Netherlands, meaning as a Public Benefit entity and tax exempted. Nevertheless, at that time, the tax authorities of the country challenged this decision and, whilst agreeing with the religious character of the Church of Scientology, did not apply the tax exemption, having questions about the activities of the Church and its finances.
That led to an extensive review of all finances and financial flows of the Church of Scientology in the Netherlands, as well as a complete review of all its activities by the authorities. And boy, the review lasted until today! That makes it certainly the most extensive review any religious entity had to undergo in order to be awarded the official Public Utility status in the Netherlands.
And today, August 30, 2022, the tax office rendered its decision: all activities of the Church of Scientology are to be considered beneficial to the public at large. The tax office did not comment on the decision, but the Church of Scientology did. In a press release sent out today, its Dutch Director of Public Affairs stated his gratefulness towards the Dutch authorities who “have properly confirmed our religious activities and practices and our work toward the humanitarian aims of Scientology as of public benefit” and reminded that its founder L. Ron Hubbard had set humanitarian aims to his Church from the outset.
Scientology obtains full public benefit recognition in the Netherlands 2
It’s not the first time that the Church of Scientology struggled to obtain either religious recognition or public benefit recognition. But it looks that each time, they succeed in making their point across. Spanish religious recognition, for example, has been the result of a long struggle, but the Spanish authorities finally abided by a decision of the Audiencia Nacional (a national competency court in Madrid) in 2007, and in 2015, a ministerial decision recognized that promoting the teachings and practices of Scientology is of public benefit. In 2013 it was the UK Supreme Court that recognized the UK Church of Scientology as a genuine religion and granted it the right to perform official marriages. These recent years, the Church added several successes in terms of recognition, as in Mexico (yet a very Catholic country), Colombia, and North Macedonia. These recent recognitions add to the numerous dozens of recognitions that the Church has obtained since its inception in the 1950s.
The Netherlands, a FoRB country
The Netherlands is usually considered a pretty good country in terms of respect for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). And not only its Constitution guarantees religious freedom for all (which is sometimes the same in countries that in fact do not respect it by far), but it also participates in global efforts by democratic countries to promote FoRB all around the world. It has a special envoy for FoRB belonging to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is part of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, a network of like-minded countries fully committed to advancing FoRB around the world.
Infographic on migration in Europe: interactive infographic - Sources: UNHCR, Eurostat (online data codes: demo_gind, migr_asyappctza, 2022)
Migration in the EU has been affected by crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Russian hostilities. Check out the latest figures in our infographic.
Restrictions put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic led to a reduction in migration, but numbers started rising again in 2021. Recent increases are due in part to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Climate change could also have an impact in the future.
The flaws in the EU’s asylum system exposed by the arrival of more than one million asylum seekers and migrants in 2015 remain. In September 2020, the European Comission presented the Asylum and Migration Pact while Parliament has been working on proposals to create a fairer, more effective European asylum policy.
Below you will find all the relevant data about migration in Europe, who migrants are, what the EU is doing to get to grips with the situation, and what financial implications there have been.
Definitions: what is a refugee? What is an asylum seeker?
Asylum seekers are people who make a formal request for asylum in another country because they fear their life is at risk in their home country. Currently people from outside the EU must apply for protection in the first EU country they enter. Filing a claim means that they become asylum applicants or asylum seekers. They receive refugee status or a different form of international protection only once a positive decision has been made by national authorities.
Refugees are people with a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, politics or membership of a particular social group who have been accepted and recognised as such in their host country. In the EU, the qualification directive sets guidelines for assigning international protection to those who need it. In March 2022, Parliament backed the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time since it entered into force in 2001 to grant immediate protection to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
In 2021, there were 632,315 applications for asylum in the EU, 33.8% more than in 2020. This represents a return to pre-pandemic numbers. In 2019, there were 744,810 applications, significantly lower than the more than one million applications registered in 2015 and 2016.
Particularly large increases were seen in Bulgaria (212%), Poland (180%) and Austria (170%) in 2021. Numbers were down in Hungary (65%), Malta (39%), Greece (30%), Spain (26%), Finland (21%) and Sweden (14%).
First-time asylum seekers in 2021 were mainly from Syria (more than 98,800 people or 18% of the total), Afghanistan (83,700 or 16%) and Iraq (about 26,000 or 5%).
The war in Ukraine caused a new influx of migrants into Europe
Ukrainians were initially received by neighbouring countries, mainly Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Moldova. According to Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, more than 2.5 million Ukrainians returned home between February and June.
In 2015 and 2016, more than 2.3 million illegal crossings were detected. The total number of illegal crossings in 2021 was 200,000, the highest level since 2017. The number of detected crossings increased on all the irregular migration routes from 2020 to 2021, apart from the Eastern Mediterranean one, where numbers dropped to 13,184 from 15,980 in 2020 and 52,169 in 2019.
The Mediterranean crossing remained deadly, with more than 1,500 people reported dead or missing in 2021 compared to 1,754 people in 2020. Irregular arrivals via the Central Mediterranean Route (to Italy and Malta) nearly doubled in January-September 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. There were more than 48,800 such arrivals between January and September in 2021, compared to more than 25,400 in the same period of the previous year.
Overall, the majority of recent arrivals are from Ukraine. Others originate from countries suffering from an economic downturn. A decline in global remittances is also likely to contribute to this trend. Until the economic recovery is under way, poor employment and healthcare prospects will remain an incentive for people to come to the EU. EU funding for migration
Migration has been an EU priority for years. Several measures have been taken to manage migration flows as well as to improve the asylum system
The EU significantly increased its funding for migration, asylum and integration policies in the wake of the increased inflow of asylum seekers in 2015. € 22.7 billion is reserved for migration and border management in the EU’s budget for 2021-2027, compared with €10 billion for migration and asylum in 2014-2020.
The countries hosting the largest number of refugees are Turkey, Colombia, Pakistan, Uganda and Germany. Only 17% of the world’s refugees are hosted by developed countries.
Edinburgh International Book Festival: Why the book will never die even in the Internet Age – Alastair Stewart
The book has not died despite the rise of ebooks and never will (Picture: Clemens Bilan/Getty Images for Bread & Butter by Zalando)
I’ve moved country twice and flats four or five times in the last 15 years. On each occasion, the headache and the ‘deep sigh’ moment was when it was time to move ‘the books’.
Once I was storing a modest library at the family home when I was abroad. I was asked if I had “actually” read these hundreds of books. I was half serious when I said, “define read”?
This was not as sarcastic as it sounded. Have you only read a book if you’ve sat and gone from cover to cover? If that’s the case, no one I know read a thing at university. Most people thumb, flick, underline and dog-ear pages and revisit chapters.
University started a habit of finding second-hand books at such an obscenely reduced cost that you end up paying more for the delivery. Looking for books and sniffing out a rarity and bargain deals in used book shops and charities across the country is a sport.
Our age is so astronomically fleeting that few have the patience to read an academic text from cover to cover. It is almost a lost art to skim, digest, and draw thematic conclusions.
I taught students who made impassioned pleas that accidental cheating is seriously hazardous in literature and social science. The internet and social media are so rife with opinions about opinions that some duplication is inevitable – striking on an original idea is monstrously hard.
Knowledge is everywhere, especially when you have Google searches in your corner. It is easier to read regurgitated summaries about, say, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, than to sit down and read 500 pages on whale song.
Many times, some awful table talk has turned to a subject I have had no idea about, so I quickly read up on it during a restroom break. Usually, it’s sports, chemistry, or some specific public policy item. God bless Wikipedia.
This generation is full of professional amateurs – we know a little about everything and not much expertly. That can only be a good thing, but not at the expense of reading as an activity and learning as a process.
Digital copies of most books can be found across various platforms. They make it easier to search for information, highlight, recall, and even copy text into articles and essays. It might take you a lifetime to get through every classic, science text, or pop culture fad – now, you can read someone else’s conclusions and sell it as a considered opinion.
Environmentalists will tell you ebooks are greener. Book lovers will tell you they’re more practical to read by the poolside – no more soggy pages on those summer days. Travellers will make the case their tablets light up on those midnight planes, trains and automobiles.
I worked at Waterstones as a student job between 2007 and 2012. That little epoch was full of doom and gloom, financial crises and a recession. The company was seriously worried about the death of paper books. Waterstones’ e-readers were given precedence in shops; we were told to push them wherever possible as the future of reading and personal convenience.
Only, it wasn’t. No one ever stopped loving books. No one stopped judging books by their cover, and no one in their right mind traded a lifetime of hard copies for a virtual library. It would be like asking someone to ditch their LP records because they have a Spotify account.
Whether fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry, the book has not died, and never will. The internet is a fabulous, brilliant resource, but it is one big version of SparkNotes. Algorithms and recommended articles on Wikipedia cannot take away from the delight of reading as an activity, not an endpoint.
A wonderful Japanese word is ‘tsundoku’, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them – all hail bibliomania.
My Grandmother, Eleanor, gave me a love of reading from a young age. No book was ever too advanced, too simple or a waste of time and money. She practised what Winston Churchill said of books: “Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.”
Surrounding yourselves with books, read, unread, thumbed or wrecked, enriches your lives. Covers can be bright or musty, but the aroma is always a gripping testament to old knowledge or fresh ideas. They remind you of what you know and are a gentle invitation to learn more.
Exposure to books boosts cognitive abilities by making reading a part of a lifelong routine. One study found that children who grew up in homes with between 80 and 350 books showed improved literacy, numeracy, and information communication technology skills as adults. They can create an inquiring mind and ignite an obsessive need to find the source of what knowledge is.
Old National Trust houses always have an array of books in libraries which look cold and unloved. Very few people who surrounded themselves with books crammed under tables, spilling from cubbyholes or squeezed in between shelves would say it is for vanity.
Books are about intellectual humility, the joy of finding something you do not know by researching, reading, and learning. Here’s to more piles of books and a neverending sea of surprises.
During his regular general audience on August 24, Pope Francis condemned the car bomb murder of Daria Dugina. She was the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher and associate of Putin with extreme nationalist positions and ties to extremist movements in Europe.
And specifically, the Pope said: “I think of all the cruelty – of so many innocents who pay the price of this madness. The madness is on all sides, because war is madness and no one who is at war can say: ” No, I’m not crazy”. War is madness. I think of a poor girl who was blown up by a bomb under her car seat in Moscow. The innocent pay for the war. The innocent”.
Among the first to protest were Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, and Andrii Yuras, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See. In a tweet, the ambassador said that the pope’s speech was “disappointing” and that one cannot put “the aggressor and the victim” in the same category.
Among the sharp reactions was that of the former Polish ambassador to the Vatican (2013-2016) Peter Nowina-Konopka, who wrote an open letter to Pope Francis. In it he writes:
“I share with all my heart, Your Holiness, your words about the folly of war, about resisting the atrocities committed (by all sides) against children, prisoners, and civilians who do not take part in the war. However, I believe that “guilt” is distributed unevenly, just as Abel’s cross is not synonymous with Cain’s cross.
First of all, I do not understand the designation of the victim of the terrorist act in Moscow, Ms. Daria Dugina, as an “innocent victim”. This young man – and not only her father – was precisely one of the leaders who insisted on war and the deprivation of Ukrainians’ national identity, independence and freedom, using the sick ideology of the “Russian world” and the threat of destructive weapons. It is true that a terrorist attack cannot be an appropriate response to this. But, in my opinion, it is not an appropriate response to call active ideologues and propagandists “innocent victims”.
Moreover, the perpetrators of the attack have not yet been identified. An important feature of the current pontificate is that the Pope avoids acting as a judge – unfortunately, the words spoken in the Vatican were felt to be just that. And that is why they caused such pain to our Ukrainian brothers and to many people of good will. The aggressor does not deserve the name “innocent victim”.
With highest respect, Peter Nowina-Konopka, Ambassador of Poland to the Holy See 2013-2016.”
Priests are the men entrusted with spiritual birth and regeneration through Baptism. Through them we clothe ourselves in Christ and are buried together with the Son of God in order to become members of this blessed Head – the Church. Therefore, we should not only fear them more than rulers and kings, but also honor them more than our own fathers, who begat us “of blood and of the lust of the flesh” (John 1:13), while they are ” culprits” for our birth from God, for our blessed new existence, for our true freedom and gracious adoption.
The Jewish priests had power to cleanse the body from leprosy, or rather not to cleanse, but to testify to the cleansing (Lev. 14), and we know how enviable the priestly dignity was then. And our priests have been given the power not only to testify, but to perfectly cleanse – not bodily leprosy, but mental impurity. Therefore those who do not respect them commit a crime far greater than that of Dathan and his accomplices, and become worthy of a greater punishment. They sought power that did not belong to them (Numbers 16), having a high opinion of it, proving it precisely by their diligent pursuits. And now, when the priesthood has adorned itself much more and has risen to such a high degree, disrespect for it expresses much greater audacity, for it is not the same thing to seek an honor that does not belong to you and to despise that good . The latter is as much more grievous than the former, as contempt and respect are different from each other. Is there such a wretched soul as would despise so great a good? I can’t imagine such a person except someone in a demonic frenzy.
God has given priests more power than parents in the flesh, not only for punishments, but also for benefits. The one and the other differ as the present life differs from the life to come. Some give birth to us for the present life, others for the future. Parents cannot save their children from bodily death, nor even protect them from impending disease, and priests often save the suffering and perishing soul either by mild punishment, or by keeping it from falling in the first place; not only by instruction and suggestion, but also by the help of prayer.
In addition to reviving us (through baptism), they also have the power to free us from subsequent sins: “If anyone among you is sick, let him call the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him” (James 5:14-15).
Carnal parents can render no help to their children if they offend any of those in authority, high and mighty, and priests often reconcile people not to nobles or kings, but to God himself, angered by their deeds.
No one loved Christ more than Paul, no one showed more zeal than he; no one was honored with greater grace than he. But, although he had these advantages, he continued to fear and tremble both for his authority and for his subjects. “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning, so your thoughts may be corrupted because of your simplicity in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3) “… And I was with you in weakness, in fear and in great trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3), says a man who was caught up and carried to the third heaven, became a partaker of the mysteries of God, suffered as many deaths as he lived for days, according to what was witnessed to him and unwilling to take advantage of the authority given to him by Christ, lest any of the believers be deceived (1 Cor. 10).
If he, who had done more than was commanded by God, and who sought in all things not profit for himself, but profit for those under him, was always filled with such fear, gazing at the greatness of the power entrusted to him, what should we (priests) feel, often seeking our own benefit? We who not only do no more than what Christ commands, but often transgress His commands.
“Who does not faint,” said the apostle Paul, “so that I also do not faint? Who is tempted, and I do not burn?” (2 Cor 11:29). This is how humble the priest should be, and it is even a little. What else do I mean? “I would pray that I myself might be excommunicated from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen in the flesh,” (Rom. 9:3)—he who can utter such words, whose soul has been exalted to such a desire, he may justly be condemned when he avoided the priesthood. And a stranger to such virtues, as I, deserves censure, not when he avoids it, but when he accepts it.
Illustration: A. A. Ivanov, The Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem (sketch), XIX c.
Much wisdom is shown to us through the holy psalmist king David by the Spirit working in him. Sometimes the prophet, describing his own sufferings and the courage with which he met the adversities of life, through his example leaves us the clearest teaching about patience. For example, when he says: “Lord, how many are my enemies!” (Ps. 3:1). And at another time he describes God’s grace and the speed with which God helps those who truly seek Him, and then says: “When I cry, hear me, O God of my righteousness!” (Ps. 4:2), expressing himself equally with the prophet who says: “Thou shalt call, and He shall say: here am I!” (Is. 58:9), that is, he has not yet managed to call, and God’s hearing has already caught the end of the call. Also, offering prayers and supplications to God, teaches us how those who live in sins should propitiate God. “Lord, do not reprove me in your anger and do not punish me in your anger” (Ps. 6:2). And in the twelfth psalm he shows some duration of the temptation with the words: “How long, O Lord, will you completely forget me?” (v. 2) – and in the whole psalm he teaches us not to lose courage in sorrows, but to expect God’s mercy and to know that God, according to his special arrangement, delivers us to sorrows according to the faith of each one, sending corresponding trials.
Therefore, saying, “How long, O Lord, will you forget me completely?” – and: “How long will You hide Your face from me?” – immediately passes to the madness of unbelieving people, who, as soon as they encounter even a little bitterness in life, unable to bear the difficult circumstances, immediately begin to doubt in their thoughts: does God care about our world, does he monitor everyone’s affairs, does he reward everyone fairly? Then, seeing that their unpleasant situation still continues, they strengthen their wicked opinion and firmly think in their hearts that there is no God. “Said the fool in his heart: there is no God” (Ps. 13:1). And whoever has put this in his mind, he now indulges in every sin without caution. For if there is no judge who renders to each one according to his deeds, what would prevent them from troubling the poor, from killing orphans, from killing a widow, from defiling themselves with impure and abominable passions, all kinds of beastly lusts? Therefore, as a consequence of the thought that there is no God, he adds: “Men have become depraved, they have committed abominations” (v. 1). Because it is impossible for one who is not sick in his soul to forget God to deviate from the right path. Why are the Gentiles given over “to a perverse mind – to do that which is not like” (Rom. 1:28)? Is it not because they said, “There is no God”? Why did they fall into “disgraceful passions: their wives exchanged the natural use for an unnatural one; also the men” (Rom. 1:26-27)? Is it not because “they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man, to birds, to four-footed animals, and to creeping things” (Rom. 1:23)?
Therefore, as truly devoid of mind and reason, he who says: “There is no God” is a fool. But he is close to him, and does not in the least yield to his folly, and he who says that God is the cause of evil. And I suppose that their sin is equally grave, because they both equally deny the good God: the first by saying that there is no God, and the second by saying that He is not good. For if God is to blame for evil, he is clearly not good. In both cases, God is denied.
“Where – they say – are the diseases? Where does the untimely death come from? Where does the destruction of cities, shipwrecks, wars, epidemics come from? This is evil – they continue – and anyway, all this is God’s work. Therefore, who else but God should we consider responsible for what has happened?”
And so, inasmuch as we touch on a frequently repeated question, starting from some universally accepted beginning and more carefully considering the proposed question, we will try to make an intelligible and detailed explanation of it.
It is necessary to confirm the following in our thoughts in advance: inasmuch as we are a creation of the good God and are in the power of the One who arranges everything that affects us – both the important and the unimportant, we cannot suffer anything without God’s will and if we suffer anything , it is not harmful or such that something better could be devised. For though death be of God, it is doubtless not evil; unless someone calls the death of the sinner evil, because for him the exit from here becomes the beginning of torments in hell. But again, not God is the cause of the evils in hell, but we ourselves, because the beginning and root of sin is what depends on us – our freedom. By abstaining from evil, we might not suffer any calamity. But inasmuch as we are caught up in the sin of lust, can we present any clear evidence that we have not become the culprits of our own sorrows?
Therefore, one is evil only in our sensations, and another is evil in its own nature. Evil in itself depends upon us, as injustice, depravity, unreason, cowardice, envy, murder, poisons, deceitful deeds, and all the passions akin to them, which, defiling the soul created in the image of the Creator, generally darken its beauty. Moreover evil we call that which is difficult and painful for us as a feeling: bodily pains, wounds of the body, lack of the necessary, infamy, loss of property, loss of loved ones. After all, each of these calamities is sent to us by the wise and good Lord for our benefit. He takes away wealth from those who use it for evil, and thus breaks the instrument of their iniquity. It sends diseases to those for whom it is more profitable to have their members bound together than to pursue sin unhindered.
And the famine, the drought, the rains are some common calamities for whole cities and peoples, through which the evil that has exceeded the measure is punished. As the physician, though he causes discomfort and suffering to the body, is nevertheless a benefactor, because he fights with the disease and not with the sick, so God is good when, by punishing the parts, he arranges the salvation of the whole. You don’t blame the doctor for cutting one thing in the body, burning another, and completely taking away a third. On the contrary, you pay him, you call him a savior, because he controlled the disease in a small part of the body, until it developed in the whole body. But when you see that an earthquake has brought down a city upon its inhabitants, or a ship with passengers has been wrecked in the sea, you are not afraid to speak blasphemous words to the true Physician and Savior. You ought to understand that in moderate and curable diseases, people benefit only from the care of them; but when it appears that the affliction does not give way to the remedies, then it becomes necessary to isolate the damaged, so that the disease may not spread more widely and pass into the principal organs. Therefore, just as the doctor is not to blame for the cutting and burning, but the disease is to blame, so the destruction of cities, having as their beginning excessive sins, casts no reproach on God.
But they say: “If God is not to blame for evil, then why is it said: “I create the light and create the darkness, I make peace and cause calamity” (Isa. 45:7)? And it is also said: “Iniquity has come down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem” (Mic. 1:12). And: “Does an accident happen in a city that the Lord did not allow?” (Amos 3:6). And in the Song of Moses it is said: “Look now, (see) that this is I, I am, and there is no God besides Me: I sea and revive, I wound and I hope” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
But for the one who understands the meaning of Holy Scripture, none of these places hides in itself an accusation against God that he is the culprit and creator of evil.
For he who says, “I create light and create darkness,” declares that He is the Creator of creation, not the creator of evil. Creator and Artist of that which in creation appears opposite, He called Himself, so that you would not think that one is responsible for light and another for darkness, and so that you would not begin to look for another creator of fire, another – on the water, another – on the air and another – on the earth; because these elements, by their opposite qualities, appear as if opposed to each other; as indeed has happened to some people, by which they fell into polytheism.
“I make peace and cause disaster”. He especially creates peace in you, when with good teaching he calms your mind and soothes the passions rising in the soul. It “causes calamity,” that is, it transforms evil and leads to better, so that, ceasing to be evil, it can assume the quality of good. “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Ps. 50:12). Not to create again, but to renew what has become stale from sin. And: “To create in Himself from the two peoples one new man” (Eph. 2:15). To create, not in the sense of creating from non-being, but that it transforms already existing ones. And: “Therefore whoever is in Christ is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). Even Moses spoke: “Is he not your Father, who adopted you, created you and arranged you?” (Deut. 32:6). Here the word “creation” placed after the word “assimilation” makes it clear that it is quite often used in the sense of “improving.” Therefore, the “peacemaker” creates peace by transforming and turning evil into good.
Moreover, if by “peace” you understand the cessation of wars, and as evil you name the hardships accompanying the belligerents – long marches, labors, vigils, anxieties, shedding of sweat, wounds, murders, capture of cities, enslavement, captivity, the miserable appearance of the captives and in general all the sad consequences of the wars, all this happens according to the just judgment of God. Sodom was burned as a result of his lawless deeds. Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple desolate after the attempt of the Jews against the Lord. But how else could this be justly done, if not by the hands of the Romans, by whom the Lord was betrayed by his enemies?
The words: “I sea and revive” can be taken in any sense. For many people, fear is also edifying. “I hurt and I heal”. And this is useful even in the literal sense of the words, because defeat inspires fear and healing awakens love.
But you can find a higher meaning in what was said. “I see” – through sin, and “I revive” – through righteousness. Because to what extent “our outer man is decaying, but the inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Therefore, do not understand that it kills one and revives another, but that the same person revives by what he strikes, according to the parable that says: “You will punish him with a rod, and you will save his soul from hell” (Prov. 23:14). So the flesh is smitten, that the soul may be healed: sin is put to death, that righteousness may live.
When you hear: “Does an accident happen in a city that God did not allow,” understand that the Scriptures speak of disasters that befell sinners in order to turn from their sins. Thus it is said, “To humble thee, and to test thee, that he may do thee good” (Deuteronomy 8:16), putting an end to iniquity before it overflows, like a stream held back by a solid wall and dammed up.
Therefore, diseases, drought, the barrenness of the earth, and the calamities that befall everyone in life, cross the increase of sin. And every evil of this kind is sent by God to prevent real evils. For both bodily sufferings and external calamities restrain sin. So God destroys evil, and evil is not of God. And the doctor removes the disease, not putting it into the body. The destruction of cities, earthquakes, floods, deaths of troops, shipwrecks, and every death of many people, caused by land, sea, air, or fire, is an effect to make wise, to mend the survivors. Therefore, evil in its proper sense, that is, sin – its most accurate definition – depends on ourselves, because it is our will to protect ourselves from vice or to be vicious. And of the other evils, some, like exploits, are necessary to show manliness (for example, the sufferings of Job); and others are sent as a remedy for sins (for example, in the repentance of King David). And we also know of terrible punishments of another kind, permitted by the righteous Court of God, which by their example make the rest chaste. Thus Pharaoh was drowned with all his army. Thus the former inhabitants of Palestine were exterminated.
Therefore, though the apostle calls such “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Rom. 9:22), we must not think that Pharaoh was ill-made; but on the contrary, by hearing about the vessels, understand how each of us is created for something useful. As in the great house one vessel is of gold, another of silver, another of earthenware, and another of wood (2 Tim. 2:20), and on the personal will of each of us depends our likeness to one or another substance (the morally pure and honest a person is a golden vessel, the inferior in dignity is a silver vessel, the wise vain and vulnerable to crushing is a clay vessel, and the easily defiled by sin is a wooden vessel).
And so, having been taught this by God, having an understanding of what evil is real, namely, sin, the end of which is destruction, and what evil is imaginary, painful in feeling, but having the power of good, such as the suffering sent to curb sin, whose fruits are the eternal salvation of the soul – do not be upset by the provisions of God’s household and do not at all consider God guilty of the existence of evil and do not imagine that evil exists independently. Evil is the absence of good. An eye was created, and blindness came from the loss of the eye. Thus, if the eye were by its nature invulnerable, there would be no blindness. Thus, evil does not exist by itself, but appears when the soul is damaged. It is not unborn, as the wicked speak, who make the evil nature equal to the good nature, acknowledging both to be without beginning and superior in origin; it is not even born, because if everything is from God, then how can evil come from good? Ugliness does not come from beauty; vice does not come from virtue. Read the history of creation and you will find that there “everything he created (and behold) was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Therefore, evil was not created together with that which is good. But even the rational creatures that came from the Creator were not brought into being with an admixture of cunning. For if the corporeal creatures had no evil in them when they were created, even more the rational creatures, so different in their purity and holiness.
(to be continued)
Source: Works of Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea Cappadocia. Ed. 4, h. 4. Holy Troitskaya Sergieva Lavra, 1901 (in Russian).
Blessed is the man who does not go into the assembly of the wicked, does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the assembly of reprobates,
but in the law of the Lord is his will,
and on His law he meditates day and night!
Although small in volume, this psalm plays in St. Writing a unique role. Being the first in the book of prayers, the psalm itself is not a prayer in the proper sense of the word: the prayers in the Psalter begin with the second psalm. In the Acts of the Apostles 13:33, a quote from the second psalm is quoted with the instruction – “just as it is written in the second psalm”. However, in a fifth-century New Testament manuscript, and also in Origen, it is assumed that in this passage the psalm is called the first and not the second, in any case, we can still safely consider Psalm 1 as not belonging to the book of prayers and praises (ie the Psalter), and as an introduction to it. In such an introduction, the way in which a person will be able to enter a state in which, according to the psalmist, prayers and praises to the Lord God can be performed must be revealed. In modern parlance, the psalm should be seen as an exposition of the methodology of proper prayer. We, as if we will not find another place in St. A scripture where not the prayer itself is given, but the approach to it (cf. the New Testament teaching and testimony about prayer in Matt. 6:5-8). He who is interested not only in the performance on the formal side, but also in the experiences during the prayer communion with God and in the soul forces that move the prayer, must hear the testimony of the Holy Scriptures about this.
In order to clarify the psalmist’s system of understandings and ideas, we must delve into the specifics of his language and style, the associations and metaphors that arise in him. Only in this way will we get a sense of his way of thinking and his inner intentions when writing the first psalm.
The Hebrew text of the psalm differs slightly from the Greek translation, but it is clearly preferable to work with the original Hebrew biblical text because the translator was from a different era. The Hebrew original does not indicate that the psalm belongs to David, even more so, considering that the inscriptions to the psalms were composed later than the psalms themselves with a view to their liturgical use in the cult of Solomon’s temple. So we will refer to the author of this psalm as a “psalmist”.
No one needs to be made clear that good is good and evil is bad for man. The phrase “blessed man” in the psalm sounds like an invitation to accept bliss or a call to seek bliss. The psalm is a means that points the way to bliss. The feeling of bliss will accompany the person and will testify to him that he is walking on the right path and not “following the advice of the dishonest”, that he “does not stand in the assembly of corrupters”. Of all the variety of directions in life, he, the righteous one, will prefer the bliss of approaching God and of all the variety of goals in this world – the attainment of mutual communication with Him. Beatitude is an approach to the life of God, thanks to communication with Him, and it gives a person the wisdom to see the way of the wicked, which leads to distance from God and union with the wicked spirits opposed to the Lord from the world of dark and evil forces. The wicked turns to man with a word-counsel, which carries within itself sin and leads away from the truth. If a person accepts the advice, he himself commits the same crime as the evil counselor (the devil in the New Testament is called the “father of lies and murderer” because he gave deceitful advice to Eve and thus caused the entire human race to fall into sin). And if a person falls under the influence of such advice in the path of sinners, he follows it and already sins independently and becomes guilty before the Lord. Why should a piece of advice be so terrible to the lot of man? For a man is not an immutable essence, but on the contrary, if a counsel changes the constitution of his soul, the mood of his soul becomes the way of his life or acquires the character of sinners and finally begins to spread its influence – seduction into sin and vice and to his neighbors around him.
In the first verse, the wrong path is described as a succession of evil deeds that are done on that path, not even as a description of the development during the vicious state, viewed as a malignant disease with its characteristic symptoms. Here the light of truth illuminates this disease from within, making it possible to see the causes that drive the progression of the disease, the deterioration of the sufferer, the forces of the process that turn a person into a wicked person, through a sinner to a depraved (the worst form of the fall). Therefore, the law of the Lord, the Word of God, a person must place in his entire being, to fulfill his entire psychophysical being, and he alone will be able to remain in agreement with God, in adequate communion with Him.
The path that leads to true bliss passes through the change of a person in the direction of a final decision to live with God according to His will. At the same time, the active direction of a person seeks to be in harmony with the direction indicated by the Lord Himself. A person carefully and consciously accepts the Word of God, transforms his nature according to it. In the Sacrament of Communion today in the St. Orthodox Church we have real communication with God. The first psalm reveals to us that the singing of psalms is part of communion with God. As man’s heart is open to God’s Word, so God’s ear is open to man’s prayer when it is sincerely and properly offered.
The way of life described in the second verse is presented as a stage of perceiving the Word of God. In the third verse, the character acquired by man is likened to the growth of the tree, which not only grows, but is cultivated in a garden: it is specially planted, its watering regulated, and thus guaranteed the life-giving moisture without which it would perish. If in the first verse the character of man is presented against the background of his conflict with God (cf. “sinners”), in the third verse man is the tree for which the gardener takes care, i.e. does not remain without God and is nourished by Him. Just as moisture flows into the tissue of a tree, so also a person takes the Word of God and keeps it in his living soul, precisely because it animates it. Just as water gives life and transforms into fruit, so the Word of God does not leave man empty, but accomplishes in him what the Lord has always instructed him to do – “Be holy, as the Lord your God is holy.” In this place, the psalmist amazes us with the power of his speech, describing the tree’s life processes, he does not seem to contemplate a tree, but experiences this beneficial process in himself. There follows a slight transition from the description of the tree to the description directly of the man: and in all that he does he will succeed. Man is partaker of eternal life if he keeps his life and that of others from the deadly sting of sin.
Unlike the tree that bears fruit, there are also plants that wither – the chaff is a remnant of the grain (fruit), useless to anyone, devoid of life. And if the corrupters calmly sit in their places and from them create the perversion of the truth, then this situation is only in this world, until the time when the wind of God’s breath will appear, and since there is no righteousness and truth in them, they will not withstand the current of this wind and they will be scattered, so that only the purified fruit will remain – the righteous. The inward power will become outward and manifest to everyone at the coming of the Lord. Then the Life-Giver God will reveal the difference between the corrupt nature of the wicked and the gracious nature of those who will receive bliss. Only then will it become clear to everyone that the life of sinners is originally alien to the Lord. On the Day of God’s Judgment, the Spirit of God will collect the good fruits – the righteous, and scatter the wicked (“ruach”, in the ancient Hebrew language “spirit”, can also be translated as wind) as a wind of purification.
The path of the righteous in the stage of natural change is seen as reaching union with God. This union took place thanks to the cooperation of the two wills: the will of the farmer, who planted the tree and watered it with the water of life, and the will of the tree, which craved the moisture and received it with the consciousness of bringing fruit to the gardener. This unity is expressed in the fact that the righteous do not run away from the face of God, from God’s presence, they endure the Terrible Judgment of God, which is humiliation for the wicked, but fruitful for the followers of God’s will. Those who walk on the right path live according to the laws of God-likeness, the righteous have true knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God and the pursuit of perfection are the driving forces for Christians.
Source: “First Psalm”, “Orthodox Way” magazine, 1990 (in Russian).
Saint Basil’s book “On the Holy Spirit”, written for Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, is of exceptional importance for Orthodox theology. In this book, St. Basil polemicized with the heretics who rejected the personal nature of the Holy Spirit. They defined the Holy Spirit as divine presence, as a gift of God’s grace, but not as a subject, as a Person of the Holy Trinity, to whom the Church prays and gives glory. Apart from the obvious departure from liturgical tradition, this heresy also represented a form of subordination because it maintained the inequality between the Persons of the Holy Trinity. In the book “On the Holy Spirit” it is interesting the form in which Saint Basil expresses his refutation: although it clearly follows from everything that has been said that the Holy Spirit is God, that He is not lower in His essence than the Father and the Son, this nowhere not directly stated. This is a brilliant example of the “economy” of church housekeeping, according to the principles of which St. Basil first of all sought peace within the Church. (Fr. John Meyendorff)
Saint Basil’s explanations of certain customs related to the liturgy are interesting:
“That is why during prayer we all look to the east, but few of us know that by doing so we are looking for the ancient fatherland, the paradise that God planted in the east (Gen. 2:8). On the first day of the week, we pray standing straight (that is, without bowing and kneeling), but not all of us know the reason for this. Because, not only as we have risen with Christ and are obliged to seek the above, on Sunday with the upright position of the body during prayer we remember the grace given to us, but we do this also because this day is, obviously, an image of the expected future age. Therefore, since this day is the beginning of days, Moses does not call it first, but one. There was evening, there was morning—one day (Gen. 1:5), for this same day returns many times: therefore it is at the same time the first and the eighth day, depicting… that state which will follow after time, that which never sets, the never-evening, unchanging day, the never-ending, ageless age. That is why the Church teaches her children on this day to pray standing, so that with the frequent reminder of the endless life we do not forget to learn about the meaning of this day. But all of Pentecost is a reminder of the resurrection that awaits us in eternity. Because that first and eighth day, multiplied sevenfold by the number seven, completes the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost, because, starting from the first day of the week (Sunday), it ends with it, after a fifty-fold change between them… Therefore it (Pentecost) imitates the age to come with its circular motion, beginning and ending with the same law. During this Pentecost, the church rules have taught us to stand upright in prayer, reminding ourselves that we must move our minds from the present to the age to come. At the same time, with every kneeling and rising from the ground, we show in action that through sin we fell to earth, and with the love of the Creator we are called to heaven”. (“For the Holy Spirit”, 26)
Many different testimonies about the liturgical life of the Church are scattered throughout the writings of Saint Basil. In letter number 93 he speaks of the customs connected with receiving communion. He recommends daily, or as often as possible, communion:
“I receive communion four times a week: on the Lord’s day (Sunday), on Wednesday, on Friday and on Saturday, and also on other days, if the feast of a martyr falls.”
Illustration: Icon of the Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian (Constantine) and Antoninus († c. 250; 408-450) –Emperor Decius ordered that the entrance to the cave, in which they hid from the persecution of the Christians, be covered with stones. Two of the courtiers (Theodore and Rufim) secretly professed the Christian faith and placed in front of the stones lead plates on which they wrote the names of the seven boys buried alive in the cave. Meanwhile, God, according to His unspeakable decrees, gave the boys a mortal sleep and preserved them for two whole centuries incorruptible and unchangeable until their awakening for His glory and as a testimony that His words of resurrection are true. The miraculous awakening of the boys who had fallen asleep during the Persecution of Decius took place in the reign of Theodosius the Younger.
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, discovered neurons that respond to pictures of food, writes the magazine “Current Biology”.
According to the researchers, it is possible that these neurons evolved because of the evolutionary and cultural importance of food to humans.
For the purpose of the study, eight volunteers were shown around 10,000 different images while their brain activity was monitored.
The results suggest that pictures of food activate a population of neurons in the visual cortex that process visual information.
The discovery puzzled scientists because food is not a “homogeneous category”. Participants were shown pictures of food products that did not resemble each other – apples, macaroni, corn. However, the brain responded to all images in the same way.
The reaction to cooked food, for example pizza with cheese, is more pronounced than to raw fruits and vegetables. Neurons were also activated when seeing pictures of chips and other snacks. The type of photography (color or black and white) had no effect.
Scientists hypothesize that these neurons evolved over the course of evolution to provide a shortcut to finding food. They remained undiscovered for a long time because they are not concentrated in one place, but are distributed in different groups.
