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!

The Greatest Born of Woman

 There are three people whom the Holy Orthodox Church remembers on three occasions each during the Liturgical year.  Those occasions are their conception, their nativity, and their death.  These three are first our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (conception on 25Mar, birth on 25Dec, and death on Holy Friday), the Theotokos (conception on 09Dec, birth on 08Sep, and death or Dormition on 15Aug), and Saint John the Forerunner (conception on 23Sep, birth on 24Jun, and death on 29Aug).

Within these three, the time from conception to birth varies, with that of our Lord being the “perfect” nine months, that of the Theotokos being nine months less one day, and that of the Forerunner being nine months plus one day.  Holy Tradition holds that this indicates the humanity of both mother and Forerunner, and the divinity of the Lord. 

As we commemorate this Feast, we remember that Saint John is described as both prophet and Forerunner, with the later usually capitalized, indicating something indeed very special about the mission of this man.  While John indeed filled the mission of being a prophet, foretelling all that would come in our Lord’s ministry, in doing this, and in preparing the nation of Israel for repentance through his baptism of water, his purpose was to prepare the way of our Lord, to soften the hearts of the people to be receptive to the Lord’s message of repentance, but more than this, one of forgiveness, one of love, one of God with us!

We tend to think of Pentecost as the day upon which the Holy Spirit appeared in the world, but within the Gospel of Saint Luke is recorded the conversation of the angel with Zachariah, the father of John, foretelling that John would be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” 

In the Gospel of Saint Matthew (11:11), our Lord says of Saint John, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.”  Our Lord’s praise of His servant is not just related to the number of people whom John turned from their wicked ways by his preaching, or by his baptisms.  It is also related to the prayers offered by Saint John for the people who came to him in repentance, prayers for the life of the world and of the faithful who would come to follow Christ.  And it is related to his being so filled with the Holy Spirit .  There are those who question whether, when John sent his own disciples to our Lord as he was imprisoned to ask Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”, (Mat 11:3), he did so doubting that Jesus was the Messiah.  But the Holy Fathers teach that this is not the case.  Rather, John sent his disciples to Jesus with this question so that they might hear from the Lord’s own mouth His mighty works.  In so doing, Jesus teaches lovingly the disciples of John that they need to break from their master and follow Him.  In Saint John’s words, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

Immediately before this, John bears bold witness to those who try to sew dissent by saying, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.  You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but rather, ‘I have been sent before Him.’  He who has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom , who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice.  Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.” (John 3:27-29)

In the life of Saint John, the joy of the Church is fulfilled, for he truly is the greatest born of woman.