'Tis the Season - A Retrospective Look

Each year, as we come to the time of 'Black Friday', we find the marketers of our society ever pushing us to go further and further into our pockets (or more appropriately, into our own red ink) to "give that special something that the one you love most really, really, REALLY wants."

Some of us are now beyond that age that we used to consider 'old', and so we need to consider our perspectives as being sourced from those who are viewed by the rest of society (meaning those under 40 or so) as being fossils, not connected with "the way the world is today".

But let us offer a perspective that perhaps shows that things really haven't changed very much in the years that intervene from when we were "young people" (in our 30's or so) until now.

Some of us will remember the craze over a particular toy called "the Cabbage Patch doll".  It was all the rage at the time of Christmas in 1983.  We had two beautiful little daughters who were 4 and 3 at the time, and of course, this is the toy that they wanted.  And, as all good marketers know, to generate a craze over a new toy, the best way to do it is to release the toy just before Christmas, and then to assure that there is a 'shortage' of the toys.  The dolls, in 1983, sold retail for just under $30 (a lot in 1983), but because the dolls were 'scarce', people were buying and reselling at up to $200.

At the time, we weren't able to enter that 'race' for the original toy.  We rationalized that our little girls wouldn't know the difference, and so we bought a knock-off "look-alike".  It was a happy Christmas, I guess.

But now, 30 years later, I often sit back and wonder.  Those little girls were 4 and 3 at the time.  How many times in their young lives, and in the lives of their brother and sisters who followed, did we do similar kinds of things, specifically meaning "going with the world", following the trends, and giving them what we thought would "make them happy", as opposed to teaching them the value of what might be done with time, money, but most especially, love, that could bring even more happiness?

How might the lives of 5 people who are now raising families of their own be different, and how might the lives of those families being raised today be changed, had we instead of caving to the "toy of the year" given them the gift of going and feeding those in need, or working on a clothing drive, or packing food baskets for the hungry?  And beyond this question, how would the world be different if many of us, or even most of us, gave that same attention to the needs of those whom our Lord showed us to be our neighbors, those whom He places in our paths as ones in need and for whom He has given us resources to help?

If we go to the calendar and go way back, somewhere about this time of year in 1969, I was blessed to be a member of a high school Key Club, and 'service' was what the organization was all about.  We went door to door in a little community of less than 5000 people, and we asked for canned goods, boxed goods, anything that might make for meals for the needy.  After all was collected, we filled a gymnasium with the food, arranged it into bundles, went out and bought turkeys, got information from the local Bureau of Human Services about needy families, and went to deliver the goods to those in need.  This is now 44 years ago, I know - but the memory of that day of delivery is as vivid as any memory I still have, because of two very different encounters.

In the first, we went to a home that was run down, but brightly decorated with Christmas lights.  A fire was burning and smoke poured from the chimney, giving a wonderful odor to the place as we arrived.  Four young boys trekked to the door and knocked, joyous to deliver what some of us (and in that town, it was most of us) knew to be a God-blessed package of goods for someone who was in need.  As the door opened, it did so by just a crack.  A woman's face appeared, and she immediately closed the door, as we could hear her calling loudly to her husband.  A few moments later, he came to the door, asking us why we were so late?  They were expecting us an hour earlier, and what an inconvenience it was to have to wait for their food.....  We received a rather gruff, "Leave your basket there, and get out of here!"

We left crushed.  We thought that God had given us a joyous task, and we went to perform it with that joy.  And now, we just wanted to get the other three baskets out of our car and get home.

We delivered two more baskets, rather uneventfully.  Perhaps they're not remembered because of our own loss of faith in people.  For now, I can't say.

But when we came to the final house, we again found a very run down building.  A chimney, but no smoke.  There were gaps around the door, evidencing a draft in the house.  As we knocked, it took some time before a very old woman came and opened the door.  As she did, she broke into tears, weeping.  "You came!  You really came!  O God!  Come in, my dears, come in!!!!"  She brushed a tear from her eye.  "You can't imagine what this means to me...."  And, several of us brushed a similar tear.  She didn't have to tell us.  We could see that there was nothing in her home to compare to things that we had, and as she offered us a drink, hospitality from one who had nothing herself, we declined, because it was clear that we would be taking from that which she herself so desperately needed.  At the time, I didn't know exactly how to pray for such things, but I do recall exiting her door, making the sign of the Cross, and saying, "Thank you, Lord!" - both for the woman, and for those of us who had the honor of meeting her.

Lives can be changed by simple encounters.  But very few lives are changed by receiving the "current toy" at 4, or at 12, or at any age.  "Things" don't matter nearly as much as people do.  I can't remember what I might have received as a gift for Christmas in 1969.  I was 17 at the time.  You might think it would be important.  But I can't remember a thing about the 'things' of that year.  And while I don't know the names of the first family mentioned, or of the old woman, they will forever be a part of who I have become as a person.

That was the gift from God that was most important.  For too many years, I allowed the world to help me 'forget' the lessons that God offered when I was younger.  Now, I wonder - How can I repent for my omissions?  And more still, how can this lesson be used to help those young people who are raising families of their own?

Lord, Give us Strength!

Very often, when we find ourselves feeling unequal to a particular task, we'll offer a short prayer, "Lord, give me strength."

In these times, I wonder if that prayer is enough.....

I just read an article from a "like" link on Facebook from a guy who is a minister (i.e. NOT Orthodox), but who is nonetheless immersed in his vocation, and wanting to live according to what he's preached for a long time.  But in his own life, there was strife, turmoil, disease and sickness, failure, troubles of all kinds, to the point of his being himself broken.  And it brought him to the realization that in fact the oft used platitude, "God won't give you more than you can handle," is in fact a lie.  He goes to prove the non-scriptural nature of this platitude.  Indeed, there is in Scripture the following from the pen of Saint Paul:  "God is faithful.  He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear." (1Cor 10:13)  But this is not about spiritual burdens, it's about temptation!  What happens when literally everything in our lives get turned upside down, and we don't know where to turn?  It is a times like this that we as priests don't necessarily have the right words to offer.  And yet, we must offer what we can.  What is that?

Saint Paul answers the question of "burdens beyond our ability" later, in Second Corinthians, when he says, "We do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life." (2Cor 8)

Saint Paul sounds pretty conquered there, I think.  But his teaching doesn't stop here.  He continues.  "Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead." (2Cor 9)

God allows burdens to come our way.  Some are light.  Some are heavy.  Never forget that our Lord could not bear the physical burden of His cross as He went to Golgotha.  "But when they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name.  Him they compelled to bear His cross." (Mat 27:32)  And so a servant, one whom He had created, helped Jesus bear that physical burden to the place where He would give up His life.

If Jesus as God is able to accept the help of His creation to overcome a burden in the flesh, we then too must be ready to accept the help of God to bear our burdens in the spirit!  There will be times when we aren't able to carry them alone.

If God the Son vouchsafed to lean on us, His creation, to help Him carry a physical burden too hard for Him to bear, will He not be standing by to help us carry our spiritual burdens when they become too hard for us?  Yes, there will be times when we have been burdened beyond our ability.  There is no sin, but rather only virtue, in seeking help!  God's help can come in many ways, and most of them (after the burden is removed) will appear to us to have been miraculous!  But let us never reject God's help, in whatever form it may be offered.

He will be faithful to give us the strength we need to go as far as we can and then to rely on His help.

Give us the strength to do both, Lord!

Same Sex .... I Can't Use the Next Word

Yesterday (Monday, September 23rd, on the Feast of the Conception of the Baptist and Forerunner John), the Assembly of Bishops sent an e-mail to its subscribing parishes listing actions of the most recent meeting held in Schaumburg, IL from 17-19Sept, just last week.  One of the elements of that work was the following document on the issue of Same Sex Marriage.

From the Assembly of Bishops

To our Orthodox Faithful

1. We, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America, representing millions of Orthodox Christians in the United States of America, Canada and Central America, express our deep concern over recent actions on the part of our respective governments and certain societal trends concerning the status of marriage in our countries, in particular the legalization of same-sex unions.

2. The Orthodox Christian teaching on marriage and sexuality, firmly grounded in Holy Scripture, two millennia of Church Tradition, and Canon Law, holds that the sacrament of marriage consists in the union of a man and a woman, and that authentic marriage reflects the sacred unity that exists between Christ and His Bride, the Church.

3. Persons with homosexual orientation are to be cared for with the same mercy and love that is bestowed on all of humanity by our Lord Jesus Christ.  Moreover, the Church is a spiritual hospital, where we all are called to find the healing of our fallen humanity through Jesus Christ, who assumed human nature in order to restore it.  All of us struggle with various passions, and it is only within the Church that we find the means of overcoming these passions with the assistance of God’s grace.  Acting upon any sexual attraction outside of sacramental marriage, whether the attraction is heterosexual or homosexual, alienates us from God.

4. We exhort the clergy and faithful of the Orthodox Church to bear witness to the timeless teachings of Christ by striving for purity and holiness in their own lives, by instructing their families and communities in the precepts of the Holy Gospel, and by placing their trust in our Lord, who “has overcome the world.” (John 16.33)

5. Finally, we encourage our faithful to approach their parish priest or spiritual father with any questions or concerns about this statement and its practical repercussions in their daily lives.

Having our Hierarchs gift to us such an impressive, rational, and dispassionate position on the issue, we need to be mindful of the fact that others in our society will not be dispassionate, and in far too many instances may not even be rational.  Indeed, both sides of the issue continue to make arguments to support their positions, and both continue to ignore the dialogue coming from the opposing side.  I pray that many read what our beloved bishops have given to us, and take it to heart, for the Church indeed loves all of her children, for we are all sinners and in need of forgiveness and restoration by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To the point of irrationality, we can offer the following.  We recently read a blog (on the side for same sex marriage) that said the following:

"There was a time I had tolerance for the intolerant. I didn’t understand the logic of the opponents, but I assumed there had to be some legitimate rationale for their position. No one, I figured, would spend so much time advancing a bunch of ridiculous hooey with no basis in reality.  But ridiculous hooey it is. The argument by the anti-gay-marriage crowd is so absurd, so internally contradictory, and so awash in unproven assertions that it is difficult to take it as anything more than a construct cobbled together by people who just don’t like those people. These are not arguments about law or marriage or children; if they were, anti-gay-marriage folks could marshal real facts."  (http://www.vanityfair.com/online/eichenwald/2013/03/it-s-time-to-drop-the-fallacy-of-the-anti-gay-marriage)

We live on the side of saying "same sex" and "marriage" in a single subject of a sentence is a logical absurdity.  And like the above author, we might "assume" that the other side has a legitimate rationale for their position.  Here are a few of the more prominent ones that they offer:
1) "You can't stop love - this is about love!"
2) "It's no one else's business what two people do!"
3) "Denying the right (sic) stigmatizes gay couples."
4) "There will be financial gain."
5) "It will become easier for gay couples to adopt children."

Let's look at these one by one in as dispassionate a manner as we can.

1) Love:  Love is without doubt the single greatest gift of God.  But every one of His gifts carries with it a responsibility.  Our world has come to confuse (and perhaps there are those who would contend it's not confusion as much as it is just substitution) the word "love" with the word "lust". In today's world, the physical desire for another person is termed "love".  This has never been the true meaning of the word.  Marriage is not based on lust.  Marriage certainly carries with it a physical aspect, and there is certainly a condition in which the love felt by a man for a woman (love as defined below) causes each to have a physical desire for the other.  And there is beauty in that physical desire when it is pure.  In the Orthodox Church, marriage carries with it a significant emphasis on this kind of 'pure' love, and it does this by giving the example that our Lord gave to us.  We read from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians.  "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her." (Eph 5:25)  Within this passage (I know - it means nothing to those who reject the love of God...) we hear a number of words that are foreign to the "same sex union" proponents.  Husband and wife - Where are these in a same sex union?  There is no statement of "Wives love your wives."  It was, is, and ever shall be impossible for this to be truth.  Christ loved the Church (HE did) and gave Himself for whom?  For another Him, who is the Church?  No!  The Church is the Bride of Christ!  SHE is resplendent in His (Christ's) glory!  And what aspect of this love is elevated to our attention?  Is it a sexual union? God forbid!  Not because the sexual union is sinful, but because the mystical union is so much greater!  The aspect of this love shown is the sacrificial nature of love, and in its purity.  Christ gave Himself for the Church.  The purpose of the union of marriage is to sacrifice for the good of the other.  Where is this argument in a "same sex union"?  There is talk of love, but that love is physical, not mystical, not spiritual.  If this were not so, the people engaged in the debate on the side purporting same sex unions would not be first associated with the gay agenda.  But they are gay first, desiring "marriage" second, and sacrificing - who knows when. Please note that there is no emphasis in Saint Paul's (or in the Church's) view of marriage that offspring - children - perform some kind of "pivotal role" in the institution of marriage.  Marriage is established for the sole purpose of one person so loving another that he and (not or) she would sacrifice themselves to bring the other to salvation in Christ.  In short, "Let's love each other so much that we get each other to heaven!"

2) Privacy:  It is true that it is not the business any person what another person "does".  But those on the side of same sex unions can "do" whatever they choose to "do" without "requiring" the legal change of status to "joined", and more specifically "married".  Ergo, the legal (not spiritual) bond must have some other agenda.  What might that other agenda be?


3) Stigmatization:  Now we get to a more focused heart of the matter.  Because there can be no legal union, those choosing to "do" what they choose to do are stigmatized.  Why?  Because they don't get the same "blessing" (sic again) from the state.  They feel bad.  Does that mean a pricked conscience?  If yes, we call this a healthy recognition of a state of being separated from the will of God.  But if we use the "s--" word (OK, if it needs to be spelled out, "sin"), you'll judge us, won't you?  The stigmatization that exists (if it exists) is a healthy gift from God.  What did Saint Paul say about this?  "For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) " (Rom 2:14-15)  

4) Money:  Yet a second focused reason to want to be de-stigmatized.  If the status is legalized, those who engage in it won't lose as much financially.  If you want to understand a position on a contemporary issue, find the money!  While it's true that the word "marriage" is linked in governmental documents with those who are granted tax benefits and health care benefits and Social Security benefits, it is not present because it is an ecclesiastical word - it is part of human law.  Marriage - that has a sacred meaning to just about every person on the planet who claims to believe in God in whatever fashion they choose (this does NOT single out Orthodoxy...).  So why doesn't the gay agenda movement attack the government to change the words in the rules?  They could have written into secular law an expression for "Legally united people" (LUPPIE's?)  This is not sufficient for those in this group.  Indeed, it's more important to tear down an institution that has existed since the beginning of time!  Why might that be?

5) Children:  This is perhaps one of the hardest issues to deal with.  Priests counsel people all the time, teaching that children need a solid and well grounded home.  Historically this includes a father who can (by his sacrificial love) raise the child to be loving as well.  It includes a mother who (by her sacrificial love) can instill in the child the sense of belonging to something that itself is loving - a family.  Divorce has compounded this problem to the extent that many children today (without any same-sex union issues) have more than one "father" or "mother", and don't think twice about that situation.  What was "normal" 50 years ago is today abnormal - a two parent home in which mom was there when I went to school, there when I got home from school, and dad disciplined me when mom told him that I needed it. The abortion condition (the s-- word again) in our country makes many of us desirous of finding any people who truly choose to love (sacrificially) a child who would otherwise be martyred (yes - it's a pejorative word, but - there it is).  So, adoption for singles?  Why not, if it saves a life. Adoption for gays?  That's a bit more difficult, not because they're "different" as people.  Not because we "hate" them (as the above author suggests).  As the position paper from the Assembly of Bishops so eloquently states, we ALL sin and fall short of the perfection to which God calls us.  But those supporting same-sex unions choose to rationalize their 'sin' to be 'normal', teaching a child that a sinful state that you choose, if you are adamant enough about supporting it, can be unilaterally and artificially declared by you to be  "OK".  If you're uncomfortable with "sin", then let's use "unnatural", for there is no way for a child to be conceived from two like sexes.  To argue otherwise puts the arguer into the position of offering "ridiculous hooey".  Ergo, the "marriage bed" that Saint Paul urges us to "keep undefiled" (Heb 13:4) immediately becomes defiled, for there by definition must be adultery (a third person) involved to create a child.  It's not a refutable argument.  And while the agenda has shifted to permitting marriage, adultery remains a legal criminal activity in at least 23 of our 50 states. Why is there no similar push to remove this "stigmatization"?  Because it has been relegated to the state of unenforceable, it is so rampant.  That and the wonderful rationalization of , "Everybody's doing it..."  

Many who have argued against same-sex unions have done so with hand-waving statements such as, "It will degrade the state of marriage."  While we may feel that way, the truth is that its danger for marriage lies in the institution which grants marriage from the spiritual (and sacrificial, as opposed to legal) perspective.  And herein lies the single greatest reason for the rhetorical "Why" questions above.  The agenda is (and will remain) to first marginalize, and then to destroy the church.  Indeed, such marginalization has already occurred.  There are not enough churches (or religious entities of any kind) standing up and saying, "NO!  ENOUGH ALREADY!" We tend to equate doing so with being unrighteously judgmental against those who are pushing the agenda we find intolerable.  

The word "hate" or variations thereof are often hurled at people like us for offering thoughts like those espoused herein.  Let us state for the record.  There ARE things that we hate!  Does that surprise you?  It shouldn't.  Let's go back to Saint Paul and Romans:  "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor." (Rom 12:9-10)

So, yes - WE HATE!  We HATE cancer.  Judge us for it.  Go ahead, if you will!  Did we suggest that we hated the person with cancer?  How could we?  We are called by our Lord to lovingly care for the needs of such people.  We HATE fanaticism.  Surprised?  Did we suggest that we hate suicide bombers?  We are called by our Lord to love even them, and to do what can be done to lead them to salvation!  We HATE abortion.  Now we've gone and done it!  There we are, judging all those who felt 'pressured' into removing 'tissue' from a body that belongs to them!  We didn't say that we hate the girl/woman or child who has fallen into choosing abortion as her only alternative.  But we are called by our Lord to attempt at all costs to save the life of the unborn no less than to save the life of a suicide bomber or a cancer victim.

What the world refuses to see is that all of these examples are the same.  All are rooted in a world fallen through sin.  And yes, we freely admit to being sinful and in need of God's mercy ourselves.  As a priest, I am more in need of repentance and forgiveness form our Lord than those whom I am called to serve.  So don't attempt to judge me based on the statement.  Trust me, this article has been written, reviewed, revised, and edited 20 times before publishing in large part because of the recognition that my conscience tells me of my unworthiness to serve, but especially to judge.  Nevertheless, there is also a God-given charter to preach the truth.  And by your prayers, perhaps this and other articles like it contain some truth.

Legalization of same-sex unions, and the legal declarations which could result in this status, would never mention the church - not at this state in the process.  But what comes next?  "Hey Father, we're gay and we'd like to get married.  When can you schedule the service for us?"  "Um, I'm sorry, but I can't do that?"  "Why not?  It's perfectly legal now!  And you hold a license from the state to solemnize marriages.  If you won't do it, you're violating your duties to the state!  We'll sue!  We'll have you arrested for denying us our constitutional rights!"  "But my children, you have no such right in the Church?"  "Who cares, Father?  The church is an antiquated institution anyhow.  The sooner we can bring it to the ground, the better off we'll all be.  Look at you!   You're still trying to convince us that what we're doing is wrong!"

Think it can't happen?  Do you disagree that the "s--" words above are not viewed by the general populace as "sin"?  Look at the world around us today, compared with only 50 years ago.....  What lies ahead 50 year from now......         if we don't stand and speak the truth today.

God bless our Bishops!  Na mnogaja leta, Vladiko!  Many years, Masters!  To those of us in the churches, continue to pray fervently for them, for now more than ever, we need them to "rightly define the Word of Your truth!"

Who Were, Who Are "The Chosen People"?

We, as Orthodox Christians, view ourselves quite highly.  I avoid the use of the word 'pride', for it is pejorative in this context.  But we believe that we have the faith handed down from our Lord to His Apostles, the faith established by the Holy Fathers, a faith that has not been contaminated by divisions. Some would argue, "That's not true - you Orthodox have your divisions.  Look at how many times church has broken communion with church!"  And while that comment is true, those breaks in communion have come specifically over issues of defending the faith, and they are healed when one or the other parties repents and returns to the fullness of what the church continues to teach.  I dare say we may expect such issues to continue until the time our Lord returns.

And so it would appear that there is this 'contemporary' sense that we are now 'the Chosen People', having supplanted God's intention for the descendants of Abraham.  We take scripture as it is presented to us and conclude that when our Lord said, "God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones," (Mat 3:9)  He was speaking of His Church.

But is our view of our position of chosenness consistent with our behavior?  The Jews, and without doubt the Pharisees whom our Lord so often derided in His ministry, believed similarly about themselves.  And yet Jesus called them hypocrites, brood of vipers, "whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness."  (Mat 23:27)

What would Jesus say about us today?

In order for humor to have its intended effect, there needs to be an element of truth within the joke.  There's a long standing joke that has appeared online for quite some time.  It details a discussion between two men, one of whom is telling the other that he is leaving the Orthodox Church for another.  The second man states categorically, "I was born into this faith, and I shall never deny it."  The first man asks him, "How often do you attend Liturgy?"  The reply - "Never...."

Perhaps this is an extreme indictment of the many, but if we're honest with one another, we as a people are not exactly committed to the fullness of the faith.  Within our little mission, Sunday attendance can vary from as few as 11 (on some summer Sundays) to as many as 38 to 40 (on a "good" Sunday) to over 60 for Pascha.  Why are there such stark differences?

We have Vespers every Saturday evening, which the Church teaches is an essential preparation for the Eucharist.  We've taught this in sermons from time to time.  And still, Saturday attendance is 4 to 6 people. If we have a week night Liturgy for a Feast, maybe we'll find 8 or 10 people.  When we schedule Adult Studies, we'll have the same 5-6 people each week.  Do these ministries (services, teaching) have no place in the church?  Are we as a people simply "too busy"?  Or does Christ not take that central, core position in our lives?

If we're "chosen" by God, what did He "choose" us to do?  Where did He choose us to be?  What has He chosen us to do?

Jesus, as He looked upon the city of Jerusalem, bemoaned their loss of their own "chosenness", as He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Mat 23:37)  That same heart of God no doubt wishes to gather us together.

Are we willing?

I think it's fair to say that "the Chosen People" are not the people whom God has chosen from among the masses, but rather the people who from among the masses have chosen God.  Remember the account of the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus seeking help for her possessed daughter, and to whom our Lord tested her faith (for the Canaanites were not "chosen" people) by responding to her plea, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." (Mat 15:26)  Saint Matthew records that this woman "worshiped Him", and that even through the testing of giving her a negative reply, her faith did not waiver.  Ultimately, she received the blessing of hearing from our Lord's lips, "O woman, great is your faith.  Be it done to you as you desire." (Mat 15:28).  She was not chosen by being grouped with a people.  She first chose Christ, and then received blessings.

So it must be with us.

After 12 Years, Where Are We As a People?

The 'anniversary' of the attacks on our country on 9/11 is always a time for me to take a kind of spiritual inventory.  Certainly we honor those who courageously gave their lives seeking to help others in need - the police and fire personnel who saw a greater good, who may have remembered the words of Saint Paul, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die." (Rom 5:7)

But we are not first responders, those chartered to go into dangerous situations for the sake of helping others.

Or are we?

What have we learned about our own need to seek the good and to reject the evil in this world since 9/11?

I did a quick search on "church attendance since 9/11", and the results are appalling.  Attendance was up after the attack.  For a paltry month.  Then, we enlightened Americans simply returned to our cesspool.  We began shopping, and watching reality TV, and hit the golf courses on Sunday mornings.  Where was God?  Oh, we put Him away, right back into that closet where we know we can find Him again - IF we need Him.

I don't believe that Jesus was speaking only about the Pharisees when He said,  "For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing. And their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them." (Mat 13:15)  I think our Lord was focused on all of humanity for all time until such time as He would come again - to judge the living and the dead.

We don't need to be trained fire and police personnel to be "first responders" in a world gone mad.  We can pray today that our Lord will intercede for the people of Syria who are being slaughtered by mad men whose political agendas clearly dominate their care for a suffering people.  We can pray for the same intervention in Egypt, and in Rwanda, and in Afghanistan, and in literally hundreds of other places around the world.  We are called to be "first responders" in prayer.  And yes, maybe in fasting for that peace that can only come from God.

In a world filled with turmoil, we've forgotten the essential.  The attack on our country 12 years ago was not a 'judgment' meted out by God upon us.  But it did provide us with a wake-up call to return to Him, to repent, to "seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness." (Mat 6:33)

Jesus warned us in the Parable of the Wise Virgins that we must remain watchful, ever vigilant for His return.  He told us that we won't know the hour in which He will come, but that we must be ready for that hour when it arrives.  To be ready, we, like those wise virgins, must have our "lamps trimmed".  We need to be bearers of light to the world around us.  We need to carry with us that "extra oil" that will permit us to shine that light in a world that seeks only darkness.  How do we do this?  By repentance, by cleansing the lamps of our souls so that they might shine more brightly, and by arming ourselves with the weapon of the Cross, the weapon of peace.  

Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

Take comfort, 'be not troubled' in knowing that this peace cannot be taken from us.  The world can take every possession, every physical support, but Christ gives us a spiritual peace that supersedes all of these. 

On this anniversary, 12 years after a spiritual wake up call, let us not fall prey to the accusations in Proverbs: "As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." (Prov 26:11)  For a month after 9/11, the churches were filled with those looking for God.  I think we can say now that if they didn't already have Him, they were not going to find Him in a 2 or 4 week "search".  So many who seemed committed to change their lives and seek God waned so very quickly, and returned to 'the folly' that was life in America, as it was on 9/10.

For those who believe, or those who have come to believe because God has our hearts, even if our faith feels as though it's 'in the margins', let us turn with renewed effort to following Christ - in the churches, in our offices and schools, in our governmental offices, in the streets, in our cars, and most especially in our homes.

"For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time."  (Rev 12:12)  Indeed, the devil's time, as well as our time, grows short.

"Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul." (Heb 10:35-39)

It is time for us to live as if we are slaves to a Master who loves us enough to forgive us our sins, and to save our souls.  It all begins with faith, and with a heart to not draw back to that same old lifestyle we led before we were awakened from our sleep.

On the Feast of the Dormition

Concerning the Dormition of the Theotokos, this is what the Church has received from ancient times from the tradition of the Fathers. When the time drew nigh that our Savior was well-pleased to take His Mother to Himself, He declared unto her through an Angel that three days hence, He would translate her from this temporal life to eternity and bliss. On hearing this, she went up with haste to the Mount of Olives, where she prayed continuously. Giving thanks to God, she returned to her house and prepared whatever was necessary for her burial. While these things were taking place, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth, where each one happened to be preaching, and brought them at once to the house of the Mother of God, who informed them of the cause of their sudden gathering. As a mother, she consoled them in their affliction as was meet, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. She blessed the Apostles, and, reclining upon her bed with seemliness, gave up her all-holy spirit into the hands of her Son and God.

The prayer offered by the Theotokos for "the peace of the world" was not a prayer for only those gathered at her side, but for the Church for all time, until her beloved Son would return.

May that peace of this glorious Feast be with and remain with you, filling your hearts with the joy of knowing that the path taken by the Mother of God today is prepared for those who also worship her Son in Spirit and truth and love.

The Dormition of the Theotokos in the Holy Land

On August 12, at Little Gethsemane, at the second hour of the night, the head of the Gethsemane church celebrates Divine Liturgy. With the end of Liturgy, at the fourth hour of the morning, he serves a short Molieben before the resplendent burial shroud, lifts it in his hands and solemnly carries it beyond the church to Gethsemane proper where the holy sepulcher of the Mother of God is situated. All the members of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, with the head of the Mission presiding, participate each year in the procession (called the "Litania") with the holy burial shroud of the Mother of God..

The rite of the Burial of the Mother of God at Gethsemane begins customarily on the morning of August 14. A multitude of people with Hierarchs and clergy at the head set off from the Jerusalem Patriarchate (nearby the Church of the Resurrection of Christ) in sorrowful procession. Along the narrow alley-ways of the Holy City the funeral procession makes its way to Gethsemane. Toward the front of the procession an icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos is carried. Along the way, pilgrims meet the icon, kissing the image of the All-Pure Virgin Mary and lift children of various ages to the icon. After the clergy, in two rows walk the black-robed monks and nuns of the Holy City: Greeks, Romanians, Arabs, Russians. The procession, going along for about two hours, concludes with Lamentations at the Gethsemane church. In front the altar, beyond the burial chamber of the Mother of God, is a raised-up spot, upon which rests the burial shroud of the Most Holy Mother of God among fragrant flowers and myrtle, with precious coverings.

"O marvelous wonder! The Fount of Life is placed in the grave, and the grave doth become the ladder to Heaven..." Here at the grave of the All-Pure Virgin, these words strike deep with their original sense and grief is dispelled by joy: "Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee, granting the world, through Thee, great mercy!"

Numerous pilgrims, having kissed the icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, following an ancient custom, then stoop down and go beneath it.

On the day of the Leave-taking of the feast (August 23), another solemn procession is made. On the return path, the holy burial shroud is carried by clergy led by the Archimandrite of Gethsemane.

There is an article in the "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate", 1979, No. 3 regarding the rite of the litany and Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the Holy Land.

Today flowers are blessed in church, and people keep them in their homes. During times of family strife or illness, the flower petals are placed in the censer with the incense, and the whole house is censed. See the Prayer at the Sanctification of any Fragrant Herbage.

PRAYER AT THE SANCTIFICATION OF ANY FRAGRANT HERBAGE

(The usual beginning)

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord have mercy.

O Lord God Almighty, Who fill all things according to Your word, and Who commanded the earth to bring forth every fruit in its season and to give it to mankind for gladness and for life: All-good Master, bless and sanctify by Your Holy Spirit, this seed and various herbage brought into this holy temple; and cleanse from every defilement these, Your servants taking this herbage and seed, and fill their homes with every good fragrance, that these may become, for all that preserve them with faith, and cense with it, preservation and deliverance from every increase of enemies, and for the banishment of every illusion which comes from the action of the devil, whether by day or by night, as well as for the blessing of souls and bodies for Your faithful people, and for the blessing of their work, houses and other places. For all that take this herbage, let them receive for themselves protection of souls and bodies, and may the healing mystery of Your Grace be for our salvation. And in whatever place it may be put, or wherever it may be used, let it be received for a blessing; and may Your right hand shelter it, driving away every adverse power from here, to the glory of Your most-holy, majestic and worshiped Name: to Whom is due all glory, honor and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

The Priest shall sprinkle the herbage thrice with Holy Water pronouncing the usual formula of sprinkling and Sanctification.

Then shall he pronounce the Dismissal of the day.

On the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord

Saint Ephraim teaches that Moses and Elijah were speaking words to our Lord such as these:  They thanked Him that their words and those of their fellow Prophets had been fulfilled by His coming.  They offered Him worship for the salvation He had wrought for the world and all of mankind, that He had fulfilled the mystery they had only sketched with their divinely inspired words.

There was joy in all creation by this ascent of Tabor.  The Prophets rejoiced when they saw our Lord’s humanity, which they had not known.  The Apostles rejoiced when they saw the glory of our Lord’s divinity, which THEY had not known.  These joys were sealed by the Father’s voice, by Moses’ and Elijah’s appearance, and by the witness borne by the Apostles.  The authors of the Old Covenant meet the authors of the New.  Moses meets Simon Peter.  He who struck the rock which poured forth water meets the one whom our Lord calls the Rock, who walks on the water.  John the Theologian meets Elijah, joining the vision of the virgin in the Old with the documentation of virgin in the New.  The tent that Peter begs to raise is raised indeed by the building of the Church of our Lord.  The one who rode the chariot of fire rejoices with the one who will lean his head upon the breast of the Flame itself.  Tabor becomes a Church, and on it Jesus unites the two Covenants, which His Holy Church receives, and makes known to us that He is the giver of both.

May we be filled with His light, the uncreated Light, the Light which overcomes all darkness!

It’s a glorious Feast!

Prayer, Praise, Song

"I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High!" (Ps 9:2)

The Orthodox Tradition is that our worship is corporate, not the act of an individual.  It's one of the reasons that I still struggle with memories of "cantors" who were present (yes) to "lead" the worship, but who all too often were used to "effect" the worship.  Most of us have sat in churches where (similarly) there is a glorious choir filled with the finest voices, singing hymns well rehearsed with a choir master.  And in that worship, all too often (admittedly not always) the faithful sit or stand to 'listen', some even to be 'entertained' by the wonderful music, well pleasing to the human ear.

I remember as a child, then as a young man, sitting first with my mother and my baba in church, and hearing the din which emitted from a particular man's lips as he desperately tried to lend his voice to the singing.  He had no voice.  Well, more to the point, he had no musical inclination at all.  "In tune" had no meaning to him, nor did "in tempo".  But he sang his heart out.  And it puzzled me (as a child, then later as a young man), "Why does no one tell him?"

Now, 50 or so years later, I know the answer to that question.  His voice may not have been pleasing to my ears, but there was no doubt that it was eminently pleasing to God!

Which brings us to the issue of "congregational singing" - a practice that we at Saint Herman's have followed from our inception.  There may be those who enter our walls and think, "Why are they doing this?  Where's the choir?"  But the fact is, when we pray, the participation level in that prayer is at a very high percentage. When people without musical training feel that there is no judgment of their offering of prayer, the results can be astoundingly wonderful.

Come and see!

Why this article today?  Because I just now came across a writing on the topic from Archbishop Averky, who wrote the following.  Enjoy, and - oh yes, "Come and see!  Come and sing!!!"

Congregational [public] singing in church is a strictly Orthodox tradition, for it is of ancient Christian origin. The restoration of congregational singing in our time must be hailed, for it has the most profound roots in the very concept of our Divine Services, in which all the faithful must accept participation "with one mouth and one heart."

The very structure of our Orthodox Divine Services, which requires a constant interchange, like a roll-call, of the exclamations of the priest and deacon with the reading of the tonsured reader, and the singing of the people, already presupposes the most active and conscious participation of all "those standing" in the Divine Service being celebrated, and not just a passive presence in the church, even if it is accompanied by private prayer.

Such an active participation of the laity in the Divine Services is indicated by those numerous notations in the Typicon and Divine Service books where the word "lik" [lit. face]...is very often replaced by the pronoun "we", as for example, "we sing in the most attractive voice, ‘Lord I have cried,’ or, "and we sing 'Joyous Light'."

Very often, instead of the "lik" the expression "people" is used: "and the people sing" (e. g. rubrics for Great Saturday at vespers).

From this, the exclamation of the priest in the Divine Liturgy, in which he calls upon the worshipers to glorify and sing praises to God not only with "one heart," but also with "one mouth," becomes comprehensible.

Thus, according to the concept of our Divine Services, ail the faithful must take part in the singing, if not in all, then at least in the majority of our Church hymns, rather than standing in church like idle spectators and listeners. The church is not a theater, where one goes only to see and hear beautiful singing, but a place of common prayer, in which all must participate in a fully conscious manner. All the more proper is such participation in the singing of the Symbol of Faith, which is our common confession of faith, and in the singing of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father," which is sent up from the person of all of us to God, our common Father.

The intrusion into our Divine Services of Western concert-singing, accessible only to specially experienced singers with careful and lengthy preparation, forced out the choir of believers from a living participation in common liturgical singing and made those who come into church only listeners, but not living participants in common Church prayer. In this Western theatrical singing; all the attention is concentrated not on the words, but on the melody, which is more or less artificial-with bravura or sentimentality--but not at all churchly. Under the influence of this singing, in which it is often impossible to even make out the words, and which is deeply alien to the Orthodox ascetical spirit, many begin to come to church not for prayerful participation in the Divine Services, as in a common action of all the faithful, but only "to listen to beautiful singing, in order to experience aesthetic pleasure, which is, unfortunately, accepted by many in our time as a prayerful feeling. This, in union with irreligious upbringing and irreligious, often godless, school education, penetrated by an atheistic and materialistic spirit, leads to a greater and greater departure from genuine church mindedness and the understanding of the Divine Services by the broad majority of the believers. As a result, there has been a very great weakening of the immense significance of our Divine Services as a "school of religious training." Believers often come to church only "to cross the forehead," as the expression gees, but everything that takes place in Church is alien and incomprehensible to them. It is, therefore, not amazing that we now find people who request to receive Holy Communion at the all-night vigil, and are sincerely perplexed and even offended when they are told this is not possible.

The disappearance from our churches of congregational church singing and its replacement by a theatrical form of church singing by special "choirs" has undoubtedly aided the alienation of our society from church mindedness. Thus, the surest path for a return of our irreligious society to the Church is the return to the ancient practice which is in accord with the Church rubric: the restoration of congregational singing in our churches.

The "House of Grace"

This past Sunday, our Lord came to the “Sheep’s Pool”, which is known in Hebrew as “Bethesda”.  The meaning of this Jewish word is “the house of grace,” or “house of mercy.”

In that time, those who would come to make an offering at the Temple for those things prescribed by the Law of Moses would come to the sheep market which was near this place, and there purchase a sheep to take to the Temple to make their offering to God.  Before taking their purchase to the Temple, it would be appropriate to groom the animal, to make it presentable to God for the priests to offer within the Temple.

Thus, the “Sheep’s Pool”, a place where this washing of the animals to be offered would be done prior to taking them to the Temple.

As the Gospel for the day records, it is in this particular pool that miracles are granted to God’s people, as a “grace” to them, ergo the “House of grace”, Bethesda.  Saint John records the fact that here, the waters used to bathe the sheep are sometimes “disturbed” by an angel of God.

As our Lord comes to the Sheep’s Pool, the waters are calm, placid, peaceful, as are all things subject to His holy will.  And there our Lord finds this man, whom Saint John records has been ill for thirty-eight years.  He was ill before the Annunciation of our Lord to the Theotokos.  Even then, this man sat at the pool, waiting for his miracle.

He sat there while the child Jesus went to the Temple and spoke there with the elders, leaving his mother to worry over his being lost from their company of travelers.  The man sat at the pool as the Lord was baptized by John, as He was led to be tempted, as one by one the Apostles were called, as the multitudes were fed and healed.

In all that time, this man was at the pool, waiting, praying that he might be first to enter the waters and receive his healing.

But each time, someone else came before him.  He was always too late, the last to receive his goal, a goal which our Lord had set for him to receive at His own hand, and not the hand of His angel.

If we are to find the most obvious message, it needs to be that faithful perseverance will be rewarded.  The man knows the “sign of the angel,” that the waters are disturbed.  But he does not know the Author, the one whom the angel who stirs the waters himself serves.  He does not know Jesus Christ, who stands before him, asking what in human terms seems to be a callous question—”Do you want to be healed?” 

For thirty-eight years the man demonstrated his desire to walk, and within that desire was the desire for healing.  But his focus was purely physical.  Our Lord’s question to the man relates not to his inability to walk, but on his retention of the sins that ties him to this earth, to the place that had foiled his hope for all these years.

Like the man at the Sheep’s Pool, who came to the House of Mercy and of Grace, we find ourselves beggars at His house.  Even if we cannot find Him, He seeks us.  All we need is to recognize our spiritual paralysis, our need to receive diving healing of the sins which ail us, for no man can help us to receive that grace.  Then, we need to be ready to reply to His loving voice, “Yes, Lord—I want to be healed!”

Wednesday, Week of Palms

In the readings for this day comes wisdom from the Prophecy of Isaiah (58:1-11).  Below, we quote only the portion of verses 3-10:

'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?' "In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord? "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' "If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.

Here we find instruction in the fasting in which we should be partaking, not just here in the Great Fast, but throughout the entire year.  Loosing the bonds of wickedness.  Undoing heavy burdens.  Setting free those who are oppressed.  Sharing with the hungry, the outcasts, those in need of clothing, or indeed, and kind of need.

Have we taken to heart in our fasting the needs of those around us?  Do we even look, or are we so preoccupied with the emptiness of our stomachs that we bustle about, angered by feeling hunger which we bring on ourselves for the sake of 'spiritual benefit'.  But where is the benefit of being angered over fasting when we really do not want to do so?  Toward whom is our anger directed?  Towards fellow people in need?  Toward the Church for imposing such a constraint on me?  Or even toward God?

Here we hear the heart of God.  We come to understand that a "fast" is not only food.  A fast is to bring about works, good deeds, a view of the needs of those who are less fortunate than we are.

Have we begun to fast as God would have us do?  Or, are we another model of Israel????

Monday, Week of Palms

I despise the word "foreknowledge" and the concept of "predestination".  These words are designed to prejudice us into the belief that we have no control, no authority in our lives to choose the good from the evil, to accept God's mercy and reject Satan's temptations.  They imply that we are simply pawns being moved about at the whim of supernatural powers, over which we have no sway.

But the truth of the matter is that, while God possesses all "foreknowledge" of our choices, He never pushes us in any direction.  He gives us "freewill" to do as we please.  And within that freewill, we can choose to seek His blessings for whatever tasks we intend to undertake, or we can choose to "go it alone".  In either case, the fact that we have a choice to make, and that God gives us the latitude to make that choice for ourselves, does not alter the fact that before we take the path chosen only by us, He knows the result.

Why?

Because God is beyond time.  He is here and now, even as He is with Adam in Paradise, and even as He is at the Second Coming.  All has already been accomplished in His "time", while we remain in our own time, awaiting all things to be accomplished.

Why this topic for today?  Because within the book "The Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox" (ISBN 0-9622536-0-X, Monastery Books) for this day is a writing from Origen which caught my attention.  It says, "In the times of relief between temptations let us stand firm for their onset, and let us be prepared for everything that can happen, so that whatever comes to pass, we may not be tested as though unready, but may be revealed as those who have disciplined themselves with extreme care.  For when we have accomplished all we can by ourselves, God will fulfill what is lacking because of human weakness.  In everything He works for good with those who love Him, those who are foreseen for whatever they will be by themselves, according to His foreknowledge, which cannot be false. ("On rayer", XXVII, 17-19)

The instruction is for us to remain vigilant, trusting in God for all things, whether we are being tested and tempted or whether we are in times of comparative calm.  We learn to lean on God when we are in the depths of trials.  Why do we so easily forget to lean on Him when we are at ease?  And yet we know that this is in fact 'human behavior'!

If we need encouragement along these lines, let us turn to Saint Paul, who teaches, "We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, Who raises the dead." (2Cor 1:9)

The First-born of the dead is about to be born for us by His own Power and Authority.  We are less than two weeks away from being witnesses at His Resurrection, His birth from death!  And He promised to take us with Him as He said, "I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:3)

Let us prepare ourselves, therefore, for always trusting in His loving care for us, and His long suffering with us.  For He loves us beyond our ability to understand....

Beginning of the Fast

Before we proceed, let us be the first to ask forgiveness of all for any offense we have committed, any sin in which we've engaged which has caused you harm or grief.  Know that we forgive all.

I've been reading "Everyday Saints" when time will allow.  This evening, I found the following passage in the book, and it seems to be written specifically for this time - the beginning of the Great Fast:

"It is remarkable but true that if one secludes oneself in prayer and limits oneself in food, sleep, and interaction with people, while not allowing any idle thoughts to enter the mind, nor any passionate feelings to enter the heart, then very quickly one discovers a truth: besides oneself and other people in this world there is also Someone Else.  And this Someone is patiently waiting to see whether we will pay attention to Him during our endless race through life.  He is simply patiently waiting, because God never forces Himself on anyone.  But if one continues to pray properly (here I must stress "properly", in other words, without arrogance, and under the supervision of an experienced guide), then before one's spiritual gaze remarkable phenomena and images begin to appear."

The wealth of the imagery of what this passage presents to us as we enter the Fast is also phenomenal.
1) Secluding oneself in prayer - Our daily prayer regimen should step up as we enter the fast.  Prayer strengthens our struggle against the body, just as fasting strengthens our desire and ability to pray.
2) Limiting our food - We know the rules, and yet we all too often rationalize, justify small cheats against the fullness of the fast, and in so doing, we do no harm to God, but rather we harm our reign over the body.  We allow the body to rule the soul, as opposed to the other, the 'proper' way around.
3) Limiting our sleep - This doesn't mean we need to "deprive" ourselves of sleep.  Rather, it urges us to guard against excess.  The issue arose in the book "Everyday Saints" in response to an urging to the young monk to pray at night, who was admonished by his elder to "remember the commandment of Saint Joseph of Volokolamsk - 'the day is for work, and the night is for prayer'."  Take some 'extra' time in the evenings to pray!
4) Interaction with people - For us, this is an admonishment against gathering to 'party' with others, or worse, to gather with others when the agenda of the gathering is to gossip.  Doing this negates any gain we might otherwise make in the Fast.
5) Not allowing idle thoughts to enter the mind - In short, keep busy.  Do good.  Give alms.  If you have 'spare time', use it to pray.  Don't allow time to become 'spare'!  Make all time "God's time".
6) Not allowing passionate feelings to enter the heart - Passionate here does not mean thoughts of lust (only).
'Passions' for this purpose are those feelings which rouse us to worldliness, to eat, to drink, to play, to follow the crowd when it leads away from God and toward the world.

If we do these things in purity of heart, even if we fail in small ways, Someone Else knows our hearts, and He will answer all those extra prayers we've labored so very hard to offer - for our friends, for those in need, for our enemies, and for ourselves.

May this Great Fast fill us all with such purity of heart, with the most sincere repentant hearts, and with changing our lives so that Someone Else has a home with us and in us.

Ponderings for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

1) From C.S. Lewis:  "The gates of hell are locked from the inside."
2) From Saint Augustine of Hippo:  "There are two loves: of the world, and of God.  If the love of the world inhabits, there is no way for the love of God to enter.... You are a vessel, but as yet you are full.  Pour out what you have, so that you may receive what you do not have."
3)  From Saint John Climacus:  "If the Holy Spirit is peace of soul, as He is said to be, and as He is in truth, and if anger is disturbance of heart, as it actually is and as it is said to be, then nothing so prevents His presence in us as anger."

As we consider the Parable of the Prodigal, it is critically important to keep in mind that God gives to us the free will to create a hell for ourselves, and that entering therein (of our own free will), we can effectively lock out all who are outside, even God Himself.  And any place where God is not, that place is the definition of hell.

The Prodigal was filled with self.  He loved the world.  There was no room in him for the Father.  And the Father, recognizing this, sent him away to endure the suffering that He knew would come, but praying that the suffering would bring His son to his senses.  Once the Prodigal emptied himself of the world, he was only then able to receive what he had never recognized from the Father - His unconditional love.

The elder brother in the parable has so filled himself with anger for his brother that he has locked himself within his own hell.  The Father goes to the celebration of the return of His younger son.  The room is open to the elder brother, but he has locked the gates to the place in which he finds himself from the inside.  There is nothing that the Father could or would do to force him to give us his own free will to join the love of the Father again.  The elder son's anger has locked out the Spirit, blinded him to his own need for the same repentance that his younger brother needed, sought, and was rewarded with the Father's forgiveness.  Just as talents are not the same, neither are sins.  Envy over talents is not rational, nor is envy over how great we might perceive forgiveness to another to be.  If we believe, as today's elder brother does, that our sins are less than another, our hearts are already in the wrong place......

By The Waters of Babylon

Each year as we enter this season of the Triodion, we encounter the hymn “By the Waters of Babylon”, otherwise known as Psalm 136/137.  The hymn troubles many people for a myriad of reasons, but perhaps mostly with the means by which it closes.  Let’s take an in-depth look at the hymn, and at the Psalm, and see if we can come to understand what the Church is attempting to get us to absorb for our own benefit.

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, as we remembered Zion!  Alleluia!”

As the Psalm was written by the Jews, their complaint was about their Babylonian captivity, having been defeated by an unjust and an ungodly enemy.  And so, they wept for their state of living as slaves to unjust masters.

For us as Christians, Babylon is the sinfulness of this world.  The ‘waters of Babylon’ are the things which flow from the fallen state of the world, its sinful nature, its attempts at all turns to force us to conform to its fallenness, the things that tie us to this world, and not to our “home” – heaven, or in this Psalm, Zion and Jerusalem.  And so, we also sit and weep for our being held captive by the unjust and ungodly and sinful state of the world around us.  We desire with all of our hearts to be “at home,” as did the Jews.  Home for them was Zion, or Jerusalem.  Home for us is heaven, in the presence of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Blessed Augustine writes that we should sit by the waters, and not dare to plunge into them, but instead weep for the state in which we find ourselves.

“Upon the willows in the midst thereof did we hang up our harps.  Alleluia!”

Our ‘harps’ are the instruments used to pray to and praise God - our voices!  In the presence of temptation that draws us back into a sinful world, we should hang up our harps, not using our voices, or any thing which we hold to be holy and sacred in any manner that serves the sinful desires of this world. 

Willows are trees that bear no fruit.  They are growing in the waters of Babylon, indicating that the waters feed that which is barren!  Things which are transitory, things which are tied to the cares of the world feed that which is unfruitful.  We can picture the Jews, sitting and weeping by the willows.  In our own world, we have "the weeping willow", a tree which similarly bears no fruit, and whose branches hang low, so that even the dew which collects on the leaves drips from the leaves as tears drip from the eyes.  The Latin name for the weeping willow?  Salix Babylonica!

“For there, they that had taken us captive asked us for words of song.  Alleluia!”

We are tempted by the delights of earthly things.  We struggle constantly with the temptations of the pleasures we know to be against our calling as Christians.  All of these things beckon to us to lend our voices to support them.  Think of the world around us, asking us to assent to abortion, to legalize drug use, to give credence to homosexuality.  They ask us to use our God-given voices to ‘sing’ the melodies that are sweet to them, but not to God.

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?  Alleluia!”

Truly, how strange is the land in which we are sojourning – not ‘living’ here, only occupying this place until we can go to our true home?  If we speak what we believe, what we hold as truth, we are shouted down.  We endure mockery.  The ‘strange land’ in which we live prevents us from ‘singing the Lord’s hymn’ to them, for they refuse to hear, or even to listen.

“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.  Alleluia!”

Please remember that Jerusalem is the metaphor for our home, for heaven.  If we forget heaven, if we forget the promise of what God has labored and died Himself to grant to us, what then is our hope founded upon?  Things that are here and will remain and die here?  Is that our hope?  If so, it is vanity!  If we begin to love the things of this world more than the promise of that which God has promised to us, then we have already forgotten Jerusalem.

“Let my tongue cleave to my throat if I do not remember you.  Alleluia”

The words mean, ‘Let me have no voice, let me be dumb.’  What words, what sounds can have any meaning to those whose home is heaven if those words do not serve our home, but instead serve Babylon? 

“If I set not Jerusalem above all others as at the head of my joy.  Alleluia!”

When heaven is promised to us, when the place to which we aspire to go is a place where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no suffering, but life everlasting in the presence of our Lord, how is this not the chief focus of our lives?  How is it not ‘the head of our joy’?  Where can we hope to find greater joy than when we are in the presence of our God?  What worldly things can allure us to remove this greatest focus?  

“Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom in the day of Jerusalem.  Alleluia!”

Who were the ‘sons of Edom’?  Edom is another name for Esau.  Esau was the twin but older brother (by minutes) of Jacob.  Edom means ‘red’, the color of his hairy body at birth.  You’ll remember that Esau sold his birthright – that ‘right’ which goes to the eldest son – to his brother for the cost of some red stew.  It was the beginning of the end of a wholesome family.  Jacob went on to deliver the promise that God made to Abraham, and Esau’s offspring populated the land named for their ancestor, Edom, and became known as Edomites.  The two lands were in conflict throughout their histories.  On the day that the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, the Edomites were their allies, and they urged the Babylonians to destroy the city, to not leave one stone upon another.

For us, there are those who seek the destruction of the Church, of our faith, of all who hold as holy the teachings of our Lord.  There are modern ‘sons of Edom’, and we must pray that our own ‘day of Jerusalem’, a day when the Church is about to be destroyed, may never come.  Christ promised, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail” against His Church (Mat 16:18).

“Who said, ‘Lay waste, lay waste to her, even to the foundations thereof.  Alleluia!”

These same enemies of Jerusalem sought to encourage their allies to leave no remnant of Jerusalem after its conquering – to destroy it utterly.  Carnal men, seeking not the will of God, but of Satan, to destroy all that is godly.

For us, who can deny that from the time the Church was founded that there have been other ‘sons of Edom’ who have sought the destruction of the Church, and who continue to do so?  It has occurred since the birth of the Church, and even before in the life of our Lord.  And it will continue until His return.  He leaves us the commandments found perhaps best in Mark Chapter 13, to be watchful, and then the promises, "He who endures to the end shall be saved." (Mark 13:13)

Now we get to the places where people most often have the greatest difficulty with the Psalm and the hymn.

“O daughter of Babylon, you wretched one.  Blessed is He who shall reward you with what you have rewarded us.  Alleluia!”

One which succeeds another is referred to as the ‘daughter’.  The daughter of Babylon comes from Babylon.  If Babylon is the destroyer of Jerusalem, then the daughter of Babylon is one who continues to attempt to destroy that which is godly.  In the Psalm Babylon ‘rewarded’ Jerusalem with the total destruction of all that tied them to God.  The prayer of the Psalm is one in which the Jews beseech God to separate them from the followers of Satan, and from his influence.  It carries this same meaning for us.  We sing blessings to the One who came, and overcame, and overthrew hell’s dominion over us.

And finally,

“Blessed shall he be who shall seize and dash your infants against the rock.  Alleluia!”

For the Jews in Babylon, it was an anguished cry to God to deliver them from those who had overthrown their city, slaughtered their men, destroyed their families, and most of all, attempted to destroy their faith.  If any offspring of the Babylonians arose, these offspring would have the power and authority to retain the Jews already captive in Babylon for generations.

For us, the One we are blessing is He who has defeated hell’s authority over us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He has come to take our ‘little ones’, the small offenses which, if we hold onto, if we forget Jerusalem, we allow to be watered by the waters of Babylon and to grow into full blown sins which will ensnare us to this world.  And so we seek His aid to dash these seedlings, these ‘infants’ before they take root and grow into that which will hold us for all the generations He may give us before He is ready to call us to be with Him in the heavenly Jerusalem.

The hymn does have significant meaning to us, and its meaning carries no sinister wishes, requests or prayers.  If we listen and understand, it elevates us out of the waters of Babylon.  It rejects Satan and his influence over this world.  And then, it lifts us to the very gates of heaven.