Christ, and the Holy Orders

 A certain elder taught the following:

Now on your account, O son of man, Christ was born, and the Son of God came that He might make you live.

He became a Child, becoming a man, being also God.

He Who was the Lawgiver became a Reader, and He took the book of the synagogue, and He read, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, and for this reason He has anointed Me, and has sent Me to preach the Gospel to the poor."

Like  a Subdeacon He made a whip of rope, and He drove forth from the Temple all those who sold oxen, and cattle, and doves, and other things.

Like a Deacon He girded a napkin about His loins, and washed the feet of His disciples, and He commanded them to wash the feet of their brethren.

Like a Priest He sat among the priests, and taught the people.

Like a Bishop He took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave to His disciples.

He was beaten for your sake, that is to say, for your sake He was crucified, and for your sake He died.  Yet you for His sake will not even endure insult!

He rose as God.  He was exalted as God.  All these things for our sake, all these things by Divine Providence, all these things properly and due order did He do that He might redeem us.

Let us then be watchful, and strenuous, and constant in prayer, and let us do everything which will please Him, and will gratify His friends, so that we may be redeemed and live.  Was not Joseph sold into Egypt, and did he not live in a foreign land?  And the three simple young men in Babylon, had they not men who opposed them?  Yet, because they were fearing God, He helped them, and made them glorious."

We thank the author of the blog site, https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/

and specifically the page, https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2016/12/christ-came-to-pass-through-all-ranks.html

for their permission to repost this piece.

Archpastoral Nativity Message of His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH

“When the fullness of time had come…”  (Gal 4:4-5)

Beloved Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,

This is one of the mighty texts of the Holy Bible. Here is sublime language that links earth with heaven.  The text tells us what God has done. The tremendous fact is declared in five simple words. God sent forth His Son. That is what Nativity means.

That is why throughout the world today companies of men and women meet together to worship God. This is why we keep a holiday which is also a holy day. This is why our mouth is filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. This is why Nativity is the happiest time in all the year. Because God sent forth His Son.

Nativity began with God, God acted. God took the initiative. God sent forth His Son. All begins with God. We cannot go up to Him. He must come down to us. And so, God revealed Himself. He has come down to earth in Christ His Son. God was in Christ. God sent forth His Son. Our text also tells us, while thus stating in categorical language what God has done, now tells us also when He did it. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son." These thrilling words bring to us a new conception of ancient history, for they make it part of the purpose and plan of God. The pre-Christian centuries were a preparation for the advent of God's Son.

God had been preparing the world for His coming. He had been making ready for that one divine event to which the whole creation moved. God sent forth His Son; and He did so at that hour in the world's history when everything was ready for His coming. But how did God do it? Our text tells us: "God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law."

In other words, God chose a moment a method simple yet sublime, the way of our humanity. God sent forth His Son, and there came to earth a little child. God might have chosen other methods, of cause.

He might have sent forth His Son trailing clouds of glory from the opened heavens and with a legion of angels for His bodyguard. But no! A baby is born of a humble girl and love has set forth on its mighty redeeming work. The Word became flesh and, in that act of self-limitation, assumed the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.

And, lastly, we ask "Why? Why did God thus send forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law? Again, our text supplies the answer: "That we might receive the adoption of sons." God became subject to the laws of our humanity in order that He might deliver us from those laws that He might set us free from the law of sin and death. God became Man so that we might become sons of God.

Think of it! Jesus, the only begotten Son Whom God sent forth, will share us His privileges. This is where language of the brain and of the intellect breaks down. We are in the realm now not of logic but of love. We can no longer reason about these things, for they are matters not for the mind, but for the heart.

We can only lift up our hearts to God in thanksgiving for His unspeakable Gift.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

With love in the Newborn God-Child, †Metropolitan Joseph

 

Wonderworker

   The website “orthodoxwiki.org” is dedicated to providing information related to the Holy Orthodox faith.

One of the pages on the site is dedicated to the category of saints known as “wonderworkers”.  There are seventy-seven saints so named, some of whom most of us will have knowledge about—our own St. Herman is on the list, as are St. John Maximovitch, St. John Climacus, St. John of Kronstadt, St. John of Rila, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Patrick of Ireland, St. Seraphim of Sarov, and St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.

But we’ll focus on this day with St. Nicholas of Myra who is also among those named.

We have heard of so many of the miraculous deeds associated with this blessed saint.  But inside of each and every year we encounter yet more of his intercessions for those in need.

This year we’ll focus on one from Ukraine.  The account comes from “stnicholascenter.org.”  It doesn’t give a date for this event, but we all know that a date is not relevant.

The story is about a young man who has a strong devotion to St. Nicholas as well as to the first Ukrainian saints, Sts. Boris and Gleb.

At one time he made a pilgrimage with his wife and baby, traveling up the Dneper River to the city of Vyshgorod to celebrate the feast day of Sts. Boris and Gleb at their tomb.

As they were returning to their home by boat, the mother fell asleep, and in this state the baby fell from her arms, and into the river.  The panicked parents looked into the water where they saw a whirlpool, into which their precious child was pulled, and drowned.

Grief stricken, the two prayed: “Holy Wonderworker Saint Nicholas, you are the swift deliverer of all in times of distress.  We call to you now, hear our prayer and save our innocent child from death.”

That evening, St. Nicholas went to the river, lifted up the child, and he bore the child’s dead body to the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.  There, he placed the baby, now alive and well, in front of his own icon which was located in a place known as “the women’s gallery”.

Early the next morning, the church sacristan (one who is responsible for the sacred items within a church) arrived early and he heard a child crying inside.  He accused the church guard of letting in a woman and child, but the guard defended himself saying that indeed he had not.  As the two went to the building, they found all the doors locked as they should be, assuring that no one had entered during the night.

As they entered, they found a child, still dripping wet and laying before the icon of St. Nicholas.  Not knowing what to think, they went to the Metropolitan, who sent them with the child into the city market to find out whose child this was.

People flocked to see the child, but the father was there, too.  He recognized his child, but was afraid to say anything.  He returned home and told his wife of what had happened at the cathedral.  “Don’t you know?” she asked, “It is a miracle of St. Nicholas!”

The mother ran to the church.  When she saw her child, she fell down before the icon of St. Nicholas, giving thanks for the rescue of her child.

As word of the event spread, the whole city gathered, offering glory to God for His gift of the Wonderworking Saint Nicholas!

 

A Slightly Different View of Thanksgiving

This week our nation will ‘celebrate’ the secular feast of Thanksgiving.  We put ‘celebrate’ in quotes because the day has become less one of focus on thanking the Lord for His blessings bestowed upon us and more one of thanking ourselves for that with which we’ve managed to overload our tables, and thereby overloaded our stomachs.

But the focus of this article is not on excess or self indulgence for one day out of the year.  Rather, this focus in on a more traditional view of giving thanks.

It would be an overgeneralization to say that ALL of us have more than we need.  But we can agree that it’s certainly true for most of us.  When we think about our excesses, we often stop to ponder how we might share from the many blessings we’ve been given with those who DON’T have enough.

Without wanting to promote any sense of pride among us, our little community sponsors quite a number of outreach activities for those in need.  This has far less to do with some concerted effort on the part of our people as a community than it does the individual hearts of the really good people who make up this Orthodox community of believers.

In short, we want more than anything to be found by our Lord to have hearts that conform to His will, to His example, and to His commandments.  We really want to feed the hungry, to clothe those in need, to visit the sick, to pray for any and all who are in need.  We want to LIVE Matthew 25:34-36!

In short, we want to be giving, not just of material goods, not only of finances, but of our time, of our effort.  The Lord has showered us with His love.  Now we want nothing more than to be reflections of that love to others in need.

And in this giving, there is the root element of thanksgiving, for we show the Lord our thankfulness for the excesses with which He has blessed us to the extent that we share from those excesses.

And what is the result of this kind of sharing, of this “thanksgiving of giving”?

The immediate response is yet more thanksgiving on the part of those who receive in their need.  It doesn’t matter if we know of their thanksgiving.  In fact, it is better that we don’t know.  May their hearts be moved to give thanks to the One who provided the excess so that they might receive, not from us, but from Him!

St. Paul expresses this in his second letter to the people of Corinth with these words:

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.  For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!  (2Cor 9:12-15)

What is this “indescribable gift”?  Is it not God’s uncanny ability to bless so many with one single gift?  Thanks be to the Lord for all things!

Have a most blessed Thanksgiving 2024!

 

Starting With a Clean Slate

It’s an expression we use related to “new beginnings”.  It can relate to a new job, to a remodeled home and how it gets organized, or perhaps more appropriately, to a change in attitude after making a sincere confession.  All of these wipe clean what was before, and provide a path for changing the way in which things will be planned to happen afterward.

When the clean slate points to our spirituality, it has as its focus the level of our faith.  If we choose not to have the slate filled with failures that have just been wiped clean, our faith needs to be such that we live according to a plan that will not duplicate the shortcomings we fell into before.

St. Theophan the Recluse says this:

Sincere faith is the renunciation of your own mind.  It is necessary to make your mind naked and present it like a clean chalkboard to faith, so that she can draw herself on it like she is, without any admixture of foreign sayings and attitudes.  When the mind’s own attitudes remain within it, then, after the attitudes of faith are written on it, there appears a mixture of attitudes.  The mind will be confused, encountering contradictions between the actions of faith and the sophistries of the mind.  Thus are all who approach the region of faith with their own sophistries… They are confused in the faith, and nothing comes of it but harm.

What is the Saint explaining to us?

Faith is the renunciation of your own mind—the intellect is a gift from God, but too often used in a way where we allow it to supersede what the Spirit shows us in faith, and so its use becomes detrimental to us.  Faith must win over intellect.

Present (your mind) like a clean chalkboard to faith—We need to give our faith unencumbered access to “write” our path to salvation without the intellect in its way.  Then we must labor to conform the intellect to where the faith is leading us.

When the mind’s own attitudes remain, after the attitudes of faith are written on it, there is a mixture, and confusion and contradiction between faith and intellect—We can’t allow the righteous directions set by faith to be “overwritten” by an intellect attached to this world.  Faith leads us to the life that is eternal.  Intellect steers the life that ends all too soon here on this planet and its dirt.

Thus are all who approach faith with their own sophistries—Our faith gets lost in lies told by this world that get ingrained into our intellects.  Like the world around us, our intellects, which receive instruction from the world, can and often do lie to us.

They are confused in the faith, - If we give leave to our intellects to direct our lives when we really need to rely on faith, it’s easy to see how confusion results.  For example, “My faith tells me to reach out to and help the beggar on the corner.  My mind tells me that he’s a charlatan, and any good that could come from my helping him will be lost in sinfulness.”  The Holy Fathers teach that giving alms is NEVER a wrong thing for the giver, and the good that can come from it, “yay or nay” belongs to the receiver.  There is an account from the Holy Fathers of a monk who, seeing a beggar struggling with the cold, took off his coat and gave it to the beggar.  On the following day, the monk saw his coat - the very same on, in a shop window for sale.  He became angry with himself for not discerning that the beggar would misuse the gift - to sell it and use the money for some unrighteous purpose.  That night he had a dream, and he saw the Lord standing, wearing his same coat, with the Lord asking, "Do you like My coat?"  He understood then that his giving was righteous.  "God knows your hearts." (Luke 16:15)

So, “wipe our slates clean,” and allow the Lord’s finger to write what path or paths He chooses for us to take on this day, and in all successive days.  Fill the slate only with that which brings spiritual gain.  And as best we can, praying for His blessing to do so, let us with all our strength follow where He leads.

 

Sermon - 17th Sunday 2024

The Gift of Life [Luke 7:11-16]

   Glory to Jesus Christ!

It’s hard NOT to take life for granted!  Every day the sun rises.  Every day we awake, get dressed, go to work or to church.  Every day we eat meals, some of us browse the Internet, some read magazines.  All of these things are part of “everyday life,” and we seldom stop to consider what would happen if (or when) something removes them from us.

These days the news brings it all a little closer to home as we ponder the plight of our brothers and sisters in the southeast who have lost everything to Helene.  I heard an interview today of a man who drove nearly 6 hours from his home in North Carolina to a destination in South Carolina where he could buy the necessities to just keep on living—food, water, fuel.

Thank God it’s still warm, otherwise these unfortunates would be freezing as well!

Although percentage-wise the number of fatalities was small, it was large for any ‘storm’!  When it’s all said and done, over 200 will be dead, their families impacted forever, some unable to wash from their memories the terrible visions of seeing their loved one washed away before their very eyes in the raging waters of the storm.

We can’t bring them back.  Much as we’d like to, we don’t have that kind of authority over life and death.

But we serve One Who does have such authority.  And in being such a servant, we must live in that hope, and we must share that hope with others who we know are feeling quite hopeless right now.

In today’s Gospel, the widow of Nain had lost all hope.  She lives as an old woman.  In Jewish society in that time, women didn’t “earn a living” - they were provided for by their husbands.  If they were widowed, they relied upon male children to provide for them, or they would be destitute.

For the woman in today’s Gospel, she IS a widow.  She HAD only one son.  Now, he has died.

And so she walks with a funeral procession from the town of Nain out to a destination where she will lay the dead body of her only hope in this world into the ground.

She feels the grips of hopelessness tear her from the world she knew.

But our Lord knows all of this.  As always, He is at the right place at the right time.  As far as we know, neither the young man nor his mother ever expressed any faith in Jesus.  It doesn’t matter.  God can do as He wills!

And on this day, He wills to restore life, to give the gift of life.  He does so with His Word.  Young man, I say to you, arise!

Do we understand the power of those words?  They’ve been uttered before by our Lord.  At the home of Jairus, Jesus gives the gift of life to a little girl by saying, Little girl, I say to you, arise!  At the tomb of His friend Lazarus He speaks, Lazarus, come forth!

We don’t know if there were other instances of such raisings.  We know from the Gospel of St. Luke that disciples of St. John the Forerunner were present to see today’s raising.  St. Luke records that they returned to John and told him what they witnessed.  John in turn sent them back to Jesus with a question: ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’

John didn’t give them this question because HE needed the answer.  He sent them knowing that he would be murdered, and this was his way of securing his own disciples to their new Master.  In His response, Jesus says to them, Tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor receive the Gospel.

With the first of these, the Lord blesses those who are suffering in this world.  With the proclamation about the dead, they receive the gift of life still in this world.  With the Gospel, all of us, then, now, and until He returns, are granted the gift of life for eternity—if only we follow where He is leading us.

You see, the gift of life isn’t just for the physically dead—it’s mostly for the spiritually dead.  Let us embrace the gift before it’s too late.

Glory forever!

"Over the Top!" [Luke 6:31-36]

   Glory to Jesus Christ!

Isn’t it totally characteristic of our Lord to give us instruction such as this?  Do unto others…..!

I mean, I don’t ever think about what I’d “prefer” for others to do with/to/for me.  But when the idea is couched in the way that Jesus does today, it forces us to think in those terms.  “Is what I’m about to do with/to/for this person something that I would be pleased about if it were coming to me?”

Now all of a sudden there’s meaning to my actions that I’d never before considered.

But this is not YET “Over the top.”

If we go to the topic of this piece, let’s look first at the Lord’s words about love.  If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

Well, I guess I never thought about being given ‘credit’ for loving.  But I can see where He is leading me.  I mean, I’m EXPECTED to love people who love me. 

Who “gives” me love?  Again, it’s expected from family, from spouses, from parents, from children,….. Love is something associated with family, certainly.

But where else is “love” found?  Perhaps some of us have friends who fall into the category of being loved by us, and us by them.  But if this is true, how do we define love?  Webster says that it is ‘a strong feeling of affection and concern toward another.’  OK, that makes sense in both the family and the friend example.

But now Jesus takes us “Over the Top”.  How?

Love your enemies.

Does He really mean that?  YES!  He does! 

So, I’m supposed to have feelings of affection AND concern for someone who at the least does not like me, and in the cases of some, one who may even hate me?  Is that what Jesus is saying?

YES!  It is!

Think about it for just a moment.  I would hope to be considered to be a child of God.  That would make me family.  Jesus spoke to His disciples and called them friends.  If I’m a dedicated follower, then I should fit into that category as well.  So I want to think that love from God ought to be easy—for Him.

But love is typically not seen as being ‘one way’.  In family and in friendships, love is a two-way street, it is given freely and returned freely.

But is this the way that I love God?  Am I a giver AND a taker, or just a taker?

How often do I offer thanks for His gifts (His LOVE) to me?  How often do I go to Him and offer heartfelt apology (repentance) for things that I know I did wrong?  How often do I return actions that in human terms could be couched as “hateful”? 

I can hear you ask, “Hateful, Father?  Do you think I ever behave in such a way?”

Only you can judge for yourself.  I can only speak for me, and my answer is, “Yes.”  There are times that my interaction with God borders on what humans would see as hateful.  When I know there is someone in need and I make the choice to ignore them.  When I schedule time to pray, then turn on the TV.  When I promise to fast and then overeat. 

Now it is I who am “Over the Top”. 

Jesus goes so far as to lovingly explain to me that I must love my enemies, I must do good, lend, hoping for nothing in return.  Do you hear those words?  He’s not saying “expecting noting in return,” but rather HOPING for nothing!!  In short, take what I give you—I don’t want anything back!

He is certainly “Over the Top” in human terms.  But He loves someone like me who doesn’t exactly show Him the love that He deserves.  And what does He promise for this?

Your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, a promise that is truly "Over the Top."  What a loving God we serve!

Glory forever!

Nevertheless....

Glory to Jesus Christ!

We human beings like to think highly of ourselves.  We are confident, certain in our abilities, secure in our understanding of the world around us.

Until something unexpected happens.

In today’s Gospel, our Lord is found preaching to the crowds near the Sea of Galilee.  He sees two boats emptied of their fishermen, and so He sets about to enter one so that He could teach from a position where people would only be in front of Him.  Logical!  What He says to the crowd, we aren’t told.  It is not important to this Gospel record.

It is only when He is finished with teaching that Jesus turns to Peter and says, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

Remember our starting premise—we people are certain in our abilities and our understanding of the world around us!  Peter and his companions have just labored to clean and put away their fishing nets.  The fished all day and caught nothing.  Now, even while Peter knows Jesus, and clearly respects Him, has no doubt witnessed some miraculous healings and deeds, this is now HIS turf, HIS place of expertise.  He knows that Jesus is no fisherman!  And so we can almost hear the exasperation in the voice of Peter as he responds to the Lord’s request.  Peter rightly calls Him Master.  Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing;  NEVERTHELESS… 

There’s that word.  What does it mean?  What Peter is saying in essence is, “You have no experience in what You’re asking me to do.  I KNOW there’s nothing out there.  I KNOW we’ll find nothing.

NEVERTHELESS.  I will swallow my pride and do what You ask, even though I KNOW what the result will be.  He further quantifies his belief in self by saying, at Your word I will let down the net.  In other words, when we come up empty, it’ll all be on You!

St. Luke shows what a lack of faith can be turned into.  He records, And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.  So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

Not only was Peter’s understanding of the world around him turned upside down, he was now the one shown to be without an understanding of the world around him.  Once you come to see the Lord as the One Who is the Creator, you come to recognize that there is nothing in “nature” that is not subject to His command.  Winds stop at His word.  Demons flee from His presence.  Blindness becomes sight at His command.  Lepers are cleansed at His touch.

As this recognition comes to Peter, his understanding is overturned by the recognition of these characteristics of a Man who stands before him as God. 

When Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ feet saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

Peter is not truly begging Jesus to leave him.  From this moment on, he will cling to Jesus, becoming a rock of faith.  Peter is expressing his recognition that Divinity doesn’t coexist with what is sinful.  This is Peter’s “confession”.  He recognizes the sin he has just committed in not trusting in the Lord.  He sees the other sins within his life.  For His part, the Lord gives His absolution.  Do not be afraid.  From now on, you will catch men.

And indeed, Peter and the others didn’t fish thereafter.  St. Luke records, When they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

Lord, help ME to forsake the world as well, and to follow where You might lead me!

Glory forever! 

Which Ones?

[12th Sunday after Pentecost, Mat 19:16-26]

Prescriptions.  They are written instructions from a doctor given to us so that we might follow them and be healed from whatever malady caused us to seek their help.

Some prescriptions carry little in the way of difficulty, such as bad taste, or side effects that cause other unpleasant physical things to occur.  Some carry significant side effects.  Some (like chemo) make us very ill in the process of trying to cure us.

Today, a young man comes to Jesus, the ultimate Physician, and asks for the “prescription” for eternal life.  Given the huge implications for the subject of the request, you might expect a complicated and detailed answer.  But the Lord’s reply is short, and quite simple.  Keep the commandments.

Our initial response to this reply is predicated on our backgrounds and personal histories.  For us as Christians, we immediately snap to the Ten Commandments.

For Jews, it gets more complicated, for there are 613 ‘commandments’.  To us, this seems excessive.  These ‘commandments’ in fact include the Ten, but are also what we might interpret as ‘rules of piety’, such as, Honor the old and wise, Imitate God’s goodness, Affix the mezuzah to the doorposts of your house.  (I encourage all to go do your own search on mezuzah to understand its relationship with piety)

So the young man’s question can be understood to be quite sincere!  I believe that he sincerely wanted Jesus to outline “What’s important?” so that he could, in good faith, follow and attain eternal life!

Inside of the Lord’s answer to the man, there is no reference to “the 613” - instead, Jesus returns to essence.  “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Now that the Lord has framed the discussion, the young man performs his own self-righteous self-evaluation.  “I’m good to go!”, we can hear his thoughts.

We know what the Lord meant, where the young man does not.  We know the content of Matthew Chapter 5!  You have heard that it was said of old, ‘You shall not murder…’, But I say to you that whoever is angry without cause is in danger of judgment.  Jesus also said, Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.  He also said, You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart.  Jesus is proclaiming a “higher standard” for the commandments, a standard tied to the heart, not the mind, to the spirit and not to the intellect - or the flesh.  This view of the commandments has been totally missed by today’s young man.

Jesus knowing this seeks still to give the man the means to attain eternal life.  In fact Jesus gives him two blessings.  Blessing 1:  You can seek perfection by divorcing yourself from the world—get rid of your possessions, your ‘things’.  Blessing 2:  Here’s the invitation to become a disciple—Come, follow Me!

The young man couldn’t do it.  Could I?  Have I?  Will I, before it’s too late???

 

Important Words from St. Isaac the Syrian

There are two facets to humility.  The first is composed of you regarding your brother as more sensible than yourself and more superior to you, or according to the advice of the Holy Fathers, "regard yourself as being lower than everybody."  The second is comprised in ascribing your self-imposed meritorious ordeal to God - this is the complete form of humility of the Saints.  It is born naturally in the soul through fulfilling the commandments.  Because it is like the branches of a tree that sag downwards when they have abundant fruit on them.  However, branches that have no fruit strive upwards and grow straight up.  There are trees in existence that will not bear fruit unless their branches are bent downwards:  if somebody attaches a stone to them so that they grow toward the ground, they yield fruit.  Similarly with the soul, when it becomes humble, it brings forth fruit, and the more fruit it produces, the humbler it becomes.  The closer the Saints get to God, the more they realize their sinfulness.

- St. Isaac the Syrian

....Who Had Given Such Power to Men

 [6th Sunday After Pentecost]

The words that are recorded by the Evangelists give us much insight into not only the acts accomplished by our Lord, but also to the responses of those who observed His acts.

In today’s Gospel (Mat 9:1-8) we hear of that group of men who bring their paralyzed friend before Jesus so that He might heal him.

As Orthodox Christians, we always highlight in this Gospel account our Lord’s words offered to effect this healing, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you!” 

The Lord does not always focus on our sins in His granting healing to those He gives such gifts.  But one can make a convincing argument that when He brings focus on our sins, He does so for more than ‘just’ the particular instance at hand.

With respect to the responses of those observing this healing, we find them scandalized at hearing our Lord’s words.  This Man blasphemes! 

Consider that response for just a moment.  Stop and ponder it before proceeding.

Jesus makes the point in several instances that WE are to be forgiving.  If we are to follow His instructions of be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect then we must become more God-like, and that includes being forgiving.  When the scribes “say within themselves” that This Man blasphemes, they deny the obligation for us, God’s servants, to be forgiving.

And consider for just another moment the implications of this with respect to God.  Forgiveness has two components.  The one relates to the person who is sinned against, and the other to the person who commits the sin.  Forgiveness as an action requires both components.  I must be repentant and truly seek to be forgiven, and the one I have wronged must be willing to forgive me.  If either is missing, the forgiveness is incomplete.

Jesus, looking at today’s paralytic indicates His (God’s) willingness to forgive.  This immediately carries with it the man’s repentance, for the forgiveness is from God Himself.

If there is any blasphemy present in today’s account, it is within the judgmentalism of those who accuse Jesus of wrong-doing by being forgiving.  He who instructs us to live according to that same standard, to turn the other cheek, from He Who took blows and spittings from His servants to show us that very way as His followers.

The final element to look at is the response of those who stood by onlooking.  St. Matthew records Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. 

Had God really given such power to men?  The short answer is that indeed, He had, but not in the way that the onlookers perceived it.  The “power” the crowds were impressed by was the power to tell a paralytic to walk, and then to see him do so.  Our Lord granted this power to His Apostles when He sent them on their Apostolic journeys.  But this “power” had not been given to just any men.  The power belongs to the One whom the Jews felt had been blasphemed.  He dispensed the power, for although they still refused to see it, He (Jesus) is the One from Whom all authority comes.

The crowds who followed Jesus then still regarded Him as a mere man.  The Scribes regarded Him as a malefactor.

The proper response of the crowd to the witnessing of this miracle (and our proper response as well) SHOULD be, “Let us give glory to God for exercising His power amongst men to show them (us) the path to salvation.”

 

Sunday of All Saints

      Today, for the first time since the 25th of January (yes, that’s 19 weeks ago!), the Liturgical schedule of the Church returns to some “normalcy”.  This does not mean that the previous 19 weeks were “abnormal”.  Rather, the church measures its yearly cycle from the Sunday of Pentecost.  Today is the “first” Sunday after that great Feast—the ‘birthday’ of the Church. 

     Over the past 19 weeks, we have found ourselves in the throes of ‘preparation’ - knowing that the Great Fast would be coming upon us, we prepared ourselves for that entry by a period of normal fasting, no fasting, a return to regular fasting, increased fasting, and ultimately severe fasting.  After the preparation on the fasting front, we then found ourselves going inward, becoming introspective, looking for those things in our lives that separate us from the ideal that our Lord has set for us (“Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect,” Mat 5:48).  The introspection led us into places that caused us to seek forgiveness, both of those whom we might have offended (which we did formally on Forgiveness Sunday—the first Sunday of the Great Fast), and also of the Lord Himself through the sacrament of confession.  We found ourselves walking the paths with our Lord to the Cross.  We agonized as He offered Himself thereon.  We cried as we entombed His Precious Body.  We felt the confusion of the apostles.  We empathized with the denial of Peter, knowing that we too have not lived up to our own expectations of following the Lord, even if it were to lead us to our own deaths.  We were overjoyed as we heard the words announcing His Resurrection.  We basked in the joy of that event for 40 more days.  We were present for His Ascension to heaven.  We awaited and were granted the grace to witness the working of the Holy Spirit, establishing the Church on earth, and establishing Himself within our very beings, just as He came to fill the apostles.  We too have received our own measure of the Spirit, and we are now called to bear witness to that gift by sharing our faith with those who will receive it. 

   But now, we again find the hymnology returning to the “familiar”.  We sing from the Octoechos, the eight tones, for all the services that are not otherwise related to specific feast days.  Yes, it is also true that most years we now (again) would enter a fasting period—the only one in the Church’s liturgical cycle whose duration is not fixed, but rather extends from the Monday after today’s commemoration of “All Saints” until the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul (June 29th). 

     As we find ourselves “returning to normal”, now is an appropriate time to again look inward, to become introspective, and to guard against becoming complacent in our spiritual lives.  Simply because we have no focus by way of Presanctified Liturgies, or by way of singing of “Christ is Risen”, or by reminders of NOT being permitted to kneel, we now need to redouble our efforts to guard our spiritual wellbeing, walking in caution, assuring that we carry with us even now the spiritual tools that we attempted to hone during the Great Fast. 

     Did we learn anything during that time that will last?  Did we find the strength (granted by the Spirit) to resist the temptations of laziness (sloth), worry (despair), passions (lust for power), and gossip (idle talk)?  Do we even call to remembrance the Prayer of Saint Ephraim, now that the joy of the Resurrection has come and gone?  Or, will we allow our return to “normal” to carry with it the tools the Church gave us during the Great Fast, putting them into the closet with the prayer books that contain the prayers for that Holy Season?

     God forbid!  Each year that we pass through the Great Fast, we must strive to carry from that ascetic effort things that will change us—things that will cause us to live differently AFTER this day on the Liturgical Calendar as compared to that day that carried us INTO the Holy Season 19 weeks previous.

     So, from this day let us recall our focus from the Great Fast.  Let us focus on praying, and on seeking the aid of the Spirit to give us the ability to remain pure (chaste), humble, to be patient, and to love all—especially those who misuse or hate us.  For those were the “positives” from the same prayer of St. Ephraim.

     Lord, grant us the ability to carry Your love to all!