God's Children

   We often describe ourselves in this way.  We “dare to call upon the heavenly God as Father”, and therefore we are his children. 

As children, we have a lot to learn.  As children, we often go astray, and we need correction.  Just as with our own children, sometimes a “gentle word of correction” is insufficient to get our attention and to turn us around from the behavior that requires correction.

The Book of Proverbs is filled with instruction and ‘imagery’ related to this issue.  And as is typical for Proverbs, some of the instruction is a combination of positive with negative.  “The rod and rebuke give wisdom.  But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” (Prov 29:15)  And some of the instruction is just reinforcing positives.  “Correct your son and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul.” (Prov 29:17)

Saint Paul also speaks in similar terms.  “No chastening seems to be joyful in the moment, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb 12:11)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus enters the village of Nain, and there in His compassion for His creation, seeing a young man, the only son of his mother, laying dead and being buried, we can only imagine the empathy he feels for the mother.  And so by His Word alone, He restores the young man’s life, and returns him to his mother.

What has this to do with “discipline”, or being God’s children?

If you read further in the 7th Chapter of Saint Luke, we find this incident being reported throughout Judea.  It makes it to the ears of the imprisoned Saint John the Forerunner.  In his own love for his “spiritual children”, his remaining followers, he sends them to Jesus with the question, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”  Jesus answers their question by giving them the grace to witness His miracles.  Only then does He say, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the Gospel preached to them.”  Jesus gives this instruction as John had intended—not for John’s benefit, but for the benefit of John’s disciples.  They are being “taught” by God the Son, brought along as “children” in their understanding.

Jesus then chastises the Pharisees, giving them every chance to repent before it’s too late.  He says, “John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’  The Son of Man has come both eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look—a glutton and a winebibber… But wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Children.  Yes, we need to be corrected, for we often follow the wrong path.  But don’t forget Christ’s own praise of children.  “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat 19:14)

As we consider God’s gentle means of bringing our souls into conformance to His will, consider how Chapter 7 of Saint Luke ends.  Here we find the woman anointing the Lord’s feet with oil, weeping, wiping His feet with her hair.  As she does, Simon the Pharisee in his heart judges both her and the Lord for this act.  For His part, Jesus explains to Simon the case of the creditor who forgives two unequal debts, one much greater than the other.  Simon judges rightly that the one forgiven more will love the more.  Jesus turns this on Simon, saying, “You gave me no water for My feet, no kiss, no anointing.  Since I arrived, she has not ceased to kiss My feet, to wash them with her tears, to anoint Me with her fragrant oil.  Therefore, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  To whom little is forgiven, these love little.”

For us, here is our lesson as children.  Love much!  Love God!  Love the Church!  Love neighbor!  Love your enemy!  Love those easy to love, and love even more those who are hardest to love.

For this is the example set for us by our Lord.  It is an example that shows us the Love of God the Father for us, His children.

Awestruck

 Today we encounter the “Lukan Jump” wherein the Gospels read at Sunday Liturgies shift from the Gospel of St Matthew to that of St Luke.

In today’s account we find our Lord preaching to a crowd from Peter’s fishing boat. How many people were there we do not know.  St Luke records simply that the multitude pressed about Him, which prompted the Lord to arrange the encounter such that those to whom He was preaching were in fact in front of Him.

Jesus completes His teaching of the crowd, and now He turns His attention to the teaching of those who will be His Apostles.  He requests of Peter, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

All of the time that the Lord preached to the multitudes, we can picture Peter and the others simultaneously being attentive to the Lord’s words but also giving due attention to cleaning their nets and preparing their boats for the following day’s work.

And so our Lord’s request to Peter takes him aback.  He’s tired.  The day’s labor hasn’t borne the fruit a fisherman might hope for.  We’ve toiled all night and caught nothing!  It’s almost as if to say, “If You’ve not noticed, Lord – there’s nothing out there…”  But that’s not what Peter says.  Instead, he replies as we might hope a true apostle would.  Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the nets.

St Theophan’s teaching about this Gospel is priceless:  They toiled all night and caught nothing. But when the Lord entered the boat and commanded them to cast their net, they caught so many that they could not pull them out and the net broke.  This is an image of all work done without God’s help, and of work done with God’s help. When someone works, wanting to achieve something through his strength alone, everything falls apart. But when the Lord draws near to him, one good thing after another flows in. In the spiritual-moral sense, the impossibility of success without the Lord is tangibly evident: ‘Without Me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). And this law acts in all things. Just as a branch that is not grafted onto a tree not only does not bear fruit, but dries up and loses its life as well, neither can people bring forth fruits of truth valuable for eternal life if they are not living in communion with the Lord. They might sometimes have some good, but it is good in appearance. In reality it is of poor quality, like a wild apple that appears red but is sour to the taste. It is also tangibly clear in an external, worldly sense: someone struggles and struggles, but it all comes to no good. When God’s blessing descends, you do not even know where everything comes from. Those who are attentive toward themselves and the paths of life know these truths from experience.

Peter is overwhelmed at what has just occurred before him.  Jesus makes him an active participant in the miracle, as he would in so many instances to come.  But he is awestruck to such an extent that he looks inward.  Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.  He doesn’t really want Jesus to leave.  But he knows that righteousness doesn’t mingle with sin.  It’s a lesson that I need to learn, as well!

The Queen of Heaven is Born!

 There are none of the Major Feasts that can be separated from the others, for the fullness of our salvation as it is worked by God is revealed in them as a total and complete work.  There is no Resurrection without the Lord’s birth.  There is no ministry without His Theophany.  There is no humanity associated with the God-Man Jesus without His flesh being ‘woven’ from the flesh of His Mother.  And so literally every one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Church is part of a tapestry, completing the image of our salvation gifted to humanity through the love of the Holy Trinity for God’s crowning of creation—humanity.

In beginning the Church year with today’s Feast, the Church reveals to us the importance of the Mother of God in that complete plan of salvation. 

Today God, Who rests upon spiritual thrones, has prepared for Himself a holy throne on earth.  He, Who in wisdom established the heavens, has fashioned a living heaven in His love for mankind; for, from a barren root He has made a life-bearing branch spring up for us, even His Mother.  O God of wonders and Hope of the hopeless, O Lord, glory to You!

It is with these words that we usher in our praise of God’s love for us through the Nativity of the Theotokos.  Within this one short hymn we hear how the Church refers to Her with loving and reverent words, giving Her names beyond those used for people.  In this one hymn we call Her “a living heaven” and “a life-bearing branch.” 

When we sing of and to Her in the context of an Akathist, we give Her other names.  Therein we call Her “Heavenly ladder, bridge from earth to heaven, wonder of angels, wound of demons, cornland yielding a rich crop of mercies, torment of invisible enemies, opening of the gates of Paradise, shelter of the world, sustenance that replaces manna, tree of shining fruit, container of the Uncontainable, all-holy chariot of Him Who sits on the Cherubim.”  All of these ignore the names we most often ascribe to Her, “More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim.”  And the supreme of names we ascribe to Her must also be given note—Theotokos, Mother of God!

We must pray these names, but in the process we must never let them pass in prayer without pondering their incredible meaning.  And this is demonstrated in the words of our Lord Himself.  As He was teaching the multitudes about Saint John the Forerunner, He said, “Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Mat 11:11)  Our Lord is not diminishing the greatness of the Forerunner, but in a veiled way He is pointing to His Mother—SHE is “the least in the kingdom of heaven.”  Her humility can’t be overestimated. 

How do we know this?  At the wedding in Cana, She knows—even before He begins His ministry—His authority over nature, and so she tells the Lord, “They have no wine.”  It is not even a request.  It is just a statement of fact, and one that in Her heart She knows the Lord cannot ignore.  And so even after a verbal rebuff, Jesus answers Her prayer.

But the supreme view of humility is at the foot of the Cross.  Knowing Her Son to be God in the flesh, She watches—without saying a word.  She takes note of His suffering, His words, His death.  Knowing Him to be the Son of God, She stands and allows His will to be done.  She knows that if He chose to do so, He could call the angels and be delivered.  But She keeps silent.

Today, this Woman herself is borne from the body a a woman barren until old age.  Let us praise Her birth, pay homage to Her godly parents Joachim and Anna, and praise God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for working our salvation through one of us, through a sinless child who will grow up in the Temple, and who in turn will freely accept God’s will in her own life by giving Him her flesh!