Come, For All Things Are Now Ready

[Luke 14:16-24]

These opening words given by the Master of the Banquet to His servant are words that are intended to call those who were already invited to the banquet to gather.  “You know the time is coming.  Well, it is now here.  Hurry, the Master calls to you.”

With this being our understanding of the parable, how do we rationalize those who received the invitation now making excuses so that they need not come?

Is it that this banquet is in some way undesirable?  Who can imagine such a thing?

Is it that being in the company of the Master is somehow abhorrent to those invited?  How can one countenance this being the case?

Is it that attending the banquet is somehow onerous, that it takes too much effort to ready myself?

If none of these are plausible reasons, what can it be that would cause not just one who was invited, but all with one accord offering excuses?  Can’t figure it out?  Look at the world around you!

This banquet is prepared by this very Master, and is set before His people every Sunday.  His servants are still issuing His call.  The invitation went out long ago.  We as Orthodox Christians extend that invitation to two groups.

Those who have been baptized and Chrismated into the Faith received this ‘perpetual call’ to His banquet when they were brought into the Church.  If all of these would come (knowing that the invitation is still active), the churches would be overflowing.

You say, “...but they’re not”?  So, are these making excuses?  What could justify such an excuse?

But the invitation is extended also to those who need to hear the word of our Lord’s working salvation for all of humanity by His Incarnation, by His showing us how to live, by His showing love to all by His healings, by His gifting to us His Words through the Gospels, by His life-creating death and Resurrection, by His assuring that we would receive the Holy Spirit, by His promise that the gates of hell would never prevail against His bride, the Church!

If we as Orthodox Christians shared a fraction of what we know of this Divine Love with those in this second group, we’d be building larger and larger churches, we’d be ordaining more and more priests, we’d be feeding more and more of the hungry, clothing more of the naked, visiting more of the sick and imprisoned.

This is the blessing already given in His words, Come, for all things are now ready.

But those words will take on yet another new meaning very soon.

Soon, He Who left us to feed those who could be driven into the banquet, those who He commands us to compel them to come in, this same Master is coming again—and very soon.  See how in His parable He tells us that His faithful servants report to Him We have done as You commanded, and there is still room.  We as His servants can’t fill the space that our Loving Lord has made for us, and for all who will come to love Him.  He is returning to say to us again Come, for all things are now ready.

Let us labor to never be ones to hear Him say to us None of those who were invited shall taste my supper.  Let us LIVE each and every day awaiting the next Supper, and the next, living in the Love that He freely has given to us, and showing His love to all others in the highways and hedges who might be ‘compelled’ to join us—if only we allow His image and love to be reflected in our words, and the love we show to all others.

Advent Meditations #1

 [Ed:  The following article was penned by Archpriest Father Basil Slimak, who served at a number of churches in Ohio, as well as being the first Orthodox Chaplain, in which capacity he served the mentally ill at Massillon State Hospital.  The text is from a small pamphlet published in the late ‘70’s by the Ohio Deanery of the OCA and titled, “Orthodox Christmas Lent Meditations”.  See from Fr. Slimak’s words how things have not changed very much in nearly 50 years.]

 “For to us a child is born, to us as son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6)

The more we learn about God, the more we realize how far and how distant is our own way of life, in all we do, in the present modern society.  Even justice appears to elude us, and our earthly governments rarely know periods of peace.

In his Epistle to the Ephesians Saint Paul reminds us what governments and rulers are like when he cautions us about wickedness in high places, how we must struggle against the rulers of the darkness of this world; and how necessary it is for us to put on the whole armor of God—that in fact we are called to be Christian Warriors in the battle against evil.

So too, one day the Kingdom of God will be established with judgment and justice, and only the ‘Prince of Peace’ can grant our world real peace.

We know the Light of Christ will not be defeated by the darkness of this world.  No matter how great the adversaries of our Lord, they are no match against those who love the Lord with all their heart, and seek to do His will!

The Good Leper...

 Today we encounter the account of the ten lepers who cried out to our Lord, seeking healing.  Their cry pleaded with Jesus, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  We recognize in their plea the form of the Jesus Prayer, and as such it was a well executed prayer to the Master, asking for exactly what they needed—God’s mercy to be shown to them.  Whatever form that mercy might take, it would manifest itself as His divine will toward those who gave the heartfelt plea.

But the Lord’s response to their plea is strange, in a way.  Unlike His healing the blind, or the demon-possessed, or others we’ve recently encountered, He does not touch, He does not “say the word” and the healing is immediately manifest.  No, this time Jesus uses “time”.  The Lord gives the ten men this instruction; Go, show yourselves to the priests.

Why is this strange?  The instruction would be to one whose leprosy had already been healed.  The Law of Moses required that a Jew who had previously had leprosy go to be inspected by the priests, and if the leprosy had been healed (meaning there remained no evidence of the disease), then the healed person was to make an offering for his sins through the priest, and he would be re-admitted to the Temple to be allowed to worship as any non-afflicted Jew.

Jesus sends these men on that journey BEFORE their healing was effected.  We know this because St. Luke records, And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.

Now, there are a couple of additional important things about this account.

The instruction to show yourselves to the priests made all the sense in the world to the nine men who were Jews.  But the one who chose to return to give glory to God was NOT a Jew—he was a Samaritan.  He had no such ‘requirement’ to show himself to a Jewish priest—the Samaritans didn’t worship in Solomon’s Temple!  In fact, the command from our Lord for this man to go and show himself to those very Jews was kind of a non-sequitur. 

One priest commented on this by asking the question, “What did the nine do wrong?”  His premise was that they followed the instructions given by the Lord.  How is one to find fault with this?

Here’s the answer.

The instruction to show themselves to the priests was not a condition of the healing.  This is clear because they were healed while going there.  The condition of the healing was one of faith.  The ten believed that Jesus could do this, so they came and made their plea, and He answered, as He had done so many times before.  But once their healing became obvious, it was more important to show thanks to God by returning to the Gift-giver than it was to reclaim a pass to enter the temple!

What they were supposed to do is what the foreigner (the Samaritan) did!  Return.  Offer sincere thanks to the Lord for the gift of being made whole again.

St. Luke records that this foreigner fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.  Jesus calls out the omission of the nine while giving solace to the Samaritan.  Arise, go your way.  Your faith has made you well.  Let us NEVER forget to give thanks to the Lord!!!

On the Feast of St. Nicholas - '23

Glory to Jesus Christ!

My brothers and sisters in Christ:

The Gospel reading for the day is taken from the Sermon on the Mount.  All readings we use today (Old Testament readings at Vespers, Epistle, and Gospel) are readings used in the Church for saints who are of the category of "Wonderworkers".  Let's focus on the Gospel account.  It calls to our attention the aspects of the life of Saint Nicholas that we also should value and seek for ourselves. 

“Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”  In other Evangelists, this reads “poor in spirit”, but we can take the meaning either way and find profit.  Saint Nicholas was rich in the world, by virtue of the estate left him by his parents.  And yet he gave it all away, not without discretion, but to those to whom he was led by the Lord, for the benefit of their salvation, and by the accounts of these blessed gifts, for the benefit of the salvation of all who throughout all time would hear the accounts of Saint Nicholas’ life. 

“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.”  Saint Nicholas was so hungry for doing the will of God that he didn’t withhold his righteous anger over the heresy of Arius, but struck him – in the presence of the Emperor.  This was an offense punishable by death, and for it, the assembly stripped Saint Nicholas of his episcopal rank.  His hunger was filled quickly by the intervention of the Lord in giving a common dream to all who rightly (by canon) but wrongly by principle, stripped his rank, a dream showing the Lord and His Blessed Mother returning the saint’s omophorion and the Gospel to him.  That next morning the council obeyed the instruction of the dream and reinstated St. Nicholas' episcopal office!

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”  Years ago on this Feast, we discussed the miracle of the young man who in 1920’s Russia was being led away by Communists to be murdered with other former city officials.  His family knowing that he was lost, not reporting for duty, already feared the worst and prayed to Saint Nicholas for intervention.  We can only imagine Saint Nicholas weeping over the plight of so many at the time.  But his weeping was changed into laughter by our Lord.  Saint Nicholas approached the line of those being led away to slaughter and took this young man by the hand and began to walk away from the group.  A soldier shouted at Saint Nicholas – “Go away, old man!”  Unflinching in his resolve, Saint Nicholas looked at the man and simply said, “Let this one go.  I know him.”  And they walked away without so much as another word.  After reaching a safe distance, the blessed saint told the young man, “Go home to your mother,” and the saint vanished.  We can only imagine the blessed saint's laughter!

“Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man’s sake.”

See how the world hates Saint Nicholas.  Oh, they LOVE “Santa Claus”, because he sells things.  But Saint Nicholas is only out to sell selfless love.  There’s no room in the world for THAT.  The saint’s name is a bad word in our society.  Isn’t it sad when we can openly talk about the perverted image of Santa Claus, but cannot bring the discussion of Saint Nicholas to the fore without immediately being labeled a fanatic, a believer in phantasy, or worse.  Think of the obvious error - Saint Nicholas is labeled a fantasy, but Santa Claus, he’s “real”.  Inconceivable, but you know it’s true, and it’s where we find ourselves today!

“Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy!  For indeed your reward is great in heaven.”  Let me suggest that it is not only Saint Nicholas whose reward is great in heaven, but it is great for all who revere his memory, who believe in his message of love and selfless giving, who find in his life the image of Christ that we are all called to reflect while serving our Lord here in this world, who seek to follow Christ by conforming ourselves to the example given us BY St. Nicholas.  And if we only find within ourselves the ability to partially accomplish some of the love and giving of Saint Nicholas, then our reward is also promised!

“For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.”  Let me suggest that this is a warning to us, that the world, who has already spiritually assassinated Saint Nicholas, that same world, and its leader Satan, will try to do the same to any who attempt to walk the same path as he has shown to us.  The world will try to reframe us as irrelevant, as fanatical, as judgmental, as being filled with hate (imagine that!), as being founded in ancient traditions and not having the “wisdom to use modern thinking” to guide us.  Lord, help us - we NEED more "ancient wisdom"!!!

Saint Nicholas is looking upon us now, standing ready to accept our plea to him, along with our pleas to Saint Herman, our patron, to intercede before the Lord, that our offerings as a people attempting to be faithful to the Lord will not be in vain, that our actions will be guided by the Lord’s will, and not our own.

On this Saint Nicholas day, let us not forget the love of this revered Wonderworker.  Let us call upon him as did the mother of the young man in Russia, to deliver us and our children from the evil that surrounds us in the world today.  Let us seek his intervention so that we might be found to be worthy of the same love shown by our Lord when he returned Saint Nicholas’ episcopal rank.  May our Lord return to us the pure garments of our own baptism, so that we may also serve Him – in faith and love.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

God's "Needle"

 [Luke 18:1-27]

We’ve spoken of the encounter in today's Gospel many times [Luke 18:18-27].  Let’s take another view of it, hopefully from a different angle, a different perspective.

We’ve heard on a number of occasions those who come to Jesus asking, What must I do to achieve the goal of eternal life, of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Lord’s answer is consistent.  Follow the commandments.  Love God. Love your neighbor.  Love those who hate you.  Do good.

Typically those who get to this point become entangled not by the simplicity of the path outlined (for it IS ‘simple’), but rather by their attachments to the things of this world.

We live here.  Our five senses are focused here.  We have no physical sense that allows us to perceive anything beyond this world.  If we’re going to perceive things of eternity, we must develop a spiritual sense.  We have to believe in something that the five senses cannot help us to believe in.

We have to have faith!

In today’s encounter with the certain ruler, this is exactly where the interplay between our Lord and the man leads.  Jesus tells him plainly that which separates him from eyes that can see beyond ‘here’, eyes that can see into eternity.  And again, it is simple.

You lack ONE THING. 

Only one?  You’re not going to critique my state of repentance?  You’re not going to tell me about people I’ve ignored or offended?  Only one thing?  We can sense the man thinking, “This should be easy!”

And it is—IF the man’s heart is right.  But it’s not.  Jesus’ instruction is VERY simple.

Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.

The physical bond between this dirt, this place of “things that don’t matter” is the greatest stumbling block that exists—I dare say for any of us.  We want ‘security’.  We want to believe (for we cannot “know”) that what we have today will carry us through tomorrow.  We are afraid to trust in God to provide us with all we will need tomorrow.  And so we trust in ourselves as a source of security in a world that can take our perceived security away in a heartbeat.  Earthquake?  Flood?  Fire?  Significant illness?  War? How many ways are there for the world to snatch anything we perceive as being our self-generated security for tomorrow, snatch it away from our very hands?

Worse  than this, Jesus gives today’s man the greatest potential blessing that one could hope for. 

Come, follow Me.

Can you imagine anything you might possibly need that the Lord would not provide for you as one who walked with Him, talked with Him, witnessed His miracles.  What “need” could you manifest that God the Son could not and would not provide for you if you were one of His Apostles?

Jesus ends by teaching, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  The Holy Fathers teach that these words point not to an animal, but to a rope (play on Aramaic word ‘gamalo’ vs. ‘gamala’, camel or rope—St. Cyril of Alexandria, 376-444, in Fragment 219).  Jesus plainly says, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Knowing my sinfulness, Lord I ask You to open wide the eye of Your needle when You call me to leave this life!