Sunday of the Prodigal

1Cor 6:12-20/ Luke 15:11-32

I was reading an essay written by Metropolitan Nektarios titled, “Why Don’t Miracles Happen to Everybody?”  His Eminence’s thesis carries us to places where the saints in faith call on God to heal another, but their prayers for themselves are answered by God saying, “No.”  Witness St. Paul asking for the “thorn in his side” to be taken from him, with God revealing to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” (2Cor 12:9) And in this analysis, His Eminence carries us to an at least partial conclusion that sometimes troubles are allowed to rest upon us AS His “gift” – to teach us to even greater levels to depend upon Him.  A while back we read a book titled “Everyday Saints” by Archimandrite Tikhon.  It was a compilation of accounts of things he witnessed, just regular people, some monastics, some clergy, some laity, but all with incredible faith who called upon God and had prayers answered.  There are indeed “everyday saints,” but I submit to you that we don’t tend to see “everyday miracles.”  But, are they there?

Why this discussion here on this day, with the Parable of the Prodigal Son before us?  In our Lord’s account of this group of three, Father, elder and younger sons, we find the young one reckless, undisciplined, worldly.  There are more words we could apply to him, but we get the idea from these.  Fundamentally, he should have seen his life as complete and a blessing.  Instead, he viewed himself as oppressed, perhaps living under what he would have couched as an overbearing rule of his Father.  He wanted to be out from under the unperceived blessing.

There’s a warning for US in this analogy.  We, too, have received multiple blessings from God, blessings which we don’t often enough thank Him for, but even more often we don’t recognize as blessings.  And in the choices we make in our lives, we select things that, if only we’d prayed about in advance, if only we’d attempted to look at what God would find pleasing about the choices we need to make, we’d choose differently.  But we choose as “feels right”, don’t we!  And in going for “feeling” instead of “right”, we move further from the blessings the Father is already (and without our need to ask) providing for us.

That pantry full of food off the kitchen?  Do we thank God for letting it be filled to overflowing?  That car in the garage with the squeaky brakes?  Do we thank God for keeping the brakes from failing on us on our way home from work?  That job we complain about having to go to each day?  Do we thank God for providing it so that the roof we’re living under can keep us warm and dry?

You see, there are everyday blessings we don’t even notice.  And in those blessings, is it such a stretch to look at them as everyday miracles?

We think that everything just goes on within every day.  The store shelves are filled with food, and I can go there now, or tomorrow, or later this week and all the things I want or need I’ll be able to toss into a cart and bring home.  And we attribute this blessing all to ourselves.

But we saw when COVID hit how something as simple as toilet paper was taken from us.  Of all things God could use to get our attention – toilet paper!  If toilet paper can go away overnight, what else (that we depend upon) could disappear, totally outside of our personal control?  What if diesel fuel couldn’t be delivered?  What if the electric grid in our country was taken down by a solar flare?  The US power grid has gone down in widespread outages many times in our history, with outages lasting from hours to weeks.  What if whatever took the power out lasted longer still?

Are we seeing the idea that we receive blessings, gifts that God allows, every day without ever attributing to His divine providence their being allowed to continue?

In today’s parable, the prodigal refuses to see these gifts.  His youthful “wisdom” sees life better elsewhere, even though in that mysterious “elsewhere” there is no experience of what’s better or how it’s better. 

It is exactly about this perspective on rejection of God-given gifts that St. John of Kronstadt says, “Brethren! This is how the heavenly Father acts toward us. He does not bind us to Himself by force.  If we, having a depraved and ungrateful heart, do not want to live according to His commandments, He allows us to depart from Him, and to know by experience how dangerous it is to live according to the will of one’s heart, to know what an agonizing lack of peace and tranquility tries the soul, devoted to passions, and by what shameful food it is nourished.”

And so in today’s parable, it’s not until the equivalent diesel disappearance happens that the Prodigal finds, “You know, things weren’t really all that bad with the Father….”

Saint John of Shanghai says, “God saves His fallen creatures by His own love for us, but our love for our Creator is also necessary; without it we cannot be saved.  Striving towards God and cleaving to the Lord by love in humility, the human soul obtains power to cleanse itself from sin and to strengthen itself for the struggle to complete victory over sin.”

The Prodigal came to understand what both St. John’s are teaching.  In his need the Prodigal discovered the humility necessary to repent, to confess to his Father all that he had done, and to further show the extent of that humility, he concludes that he is no longer worthy of being seen as his Father’s son, but only as a “hired servant.” 

This is one lesson in love from today’s parable – the love necessary FROM us TOWARD God.  But the second lesson is even more important, and that is the lesson of love FROM God towards us, even in the depths of our sins.

It is in the context of this second lesson that we come to understand God loving us enough to allow us to choose to reject His love.  The Prodigal did, and by the grace of God he “came to himself” (reacquired his moral sense of direction) and found that all of his thinking had been anti-Father, pro-world, but NOT pro-love.  Love was with the Father.  The world has no love to give.  The world only takes.  And what the Prodigal discovered (and this is a lesson that many of us, myself included, need to still come to learn) is that even in “giving” to us, the world is taking more than it gives.  “Come, watch 4 hours of TV tonight….”  At what expense?  I could have prayed for my neighbor.  I could have read scripture and grown in spirit.  I could have volunteered at the food bank.  “Take the evening and go shopping….”  For what?  What do I truly need that I don’t already have?  What will I do with more?  Who could make better use of the amount I’d spend on something I don’t need?  “Isn’t this supper tasty?  Go and get another helping…..”  Why?  Isn’t what I’ve already eaten enough to sustain me?  Who could be fed by what remains who may not be able to find food?

Can we see that the world “takes” by “giving”???

But let’s get back to the love of the Father.  It took many years for the implications of the words our Lord gifts to us in this parable to reach down into my own soul and grab me.  Jesus says, “When (the Prodigal) was still a great way off, his Father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”  Within this one sentence is a doctoral thesis on the love of the Father!  The Prodigal is still a great way off, and yet the Father’s eyes are searching, seeking His lost sheep.  The eyes of an old man should be dim.  Not the Father’s!  He sees His son at a great distance.  And Jesus says He had compassion.  The Greek word used is splanch-ni’-zo-mai, and it goes deeper than just compassion to a meaning of “having a yearning from the bowels”, from the depth of His Spirit.  God’s love for us, even in knowing the depth of our sins, is THIS kind of love!  It’s a love so deep and so complete and so full that even as the Prodigal is giving voice to his repentance, the Father is commanding His servants to bring – to put a robe on him, to put a ring on his finger, to give him shoes, and to prepare a feast in celebration.  It’s not that the Father ignores the Prodigal’s repentance.  Rather, He knows it already, and His joy in the return, the repentance of His son, cannot be contained.  Just earlier in this same chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke the Lord says, “I say to you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)  This joy is clearly not limited to the angels – by the parable we come to know that it extends to the Father Himself!

My brothers and sisters in Christ:  All of us are prodigals.  Different in so many ways, we still are wanderers in a land far from the Father.  As the Holy Church gives us these gifts of reminders, let us allow them to soften our hearts to the message of repentance, and offer prayers for ourselves worthy of the fruits of that repentance, worthy of one for whom the Father is waiting – patiently, with the fullness that is the Love of God – with open arms to receive us again as alive!

Glory to Jesus Christ!

To the Doctors

[The following article is taken from the Bulgarian Patriarchal website, https://bg-patriarshia.bg/orthodox-thought/709.  The article is authored by Archimandrite Basil Gondikakis, Abbot of the Iberian Holy Monastery, Mount Athos, dated 26Feb21, and translated by Alexander Smochevsky.  Some of the concepts haven't translated fully or well, but the article is very well founded, such that the reader won't get lost in the words.]

You are doctors. The patient wants his health from you. Ask for life, ask for extension, ask for eternity. He doesn't tell you all this clearly because you can't give it to him. And so that you don't kick him out, so that he doesn't put you in an awkward position - begging you too much - that's why he doesn't tell you out loud. He tells you wordlessly. The greatest things that transcend sensation, expectation, and expression, the greatest things are said silently: at a glance, with the whole being, with silence. The sick come to you to be saved from suffering and death. In the end, he wants one thing: "not to die" (St. Ignatius the Godbearer).

If you, as doctors, know Someone Who can give this antidote against death, the medicine for immortality, you are obliged and must tell him, to direct him to Him, because that is all the patient wants from you. And nothing more.

And if he does not know it, if he thinks that you can only give him "aspirin", this should not hinder you and does not release you from the obligation to give him the Other, the active, the eternal.

The patient does not want you to teach him medicine. He does not want you to tell him how the stomach or the whole body works, or how any medicine works chemically or otherwise. Ask for health, ask for life.

It is handed over to you - physically and mentally. Although he does not understand that he is betrayed and "mentally", although he thinks that he is only a body and only gives it to you, but in a difficult moment he gives himself completely to you. This means that he also gives you his soul. You can tell him, with your silence or through your words in this hour (in which a unique space is revealed from his soul, from his whole being), you can also tell him about another organism, about another body - mental and spiritually, which he feels but does not see, as he has never seen his bodily heart or entrails.

If you are a real doctor, you need to know and be interested in the whole person, not just his body cover and his temporary stay on earth. And your word and silence must speak of the same thing - the victory over death and the proclamation of life.

Temperature brings health to the body, and pain brings health to the soul. Make sure the patient understands it. Discover his being to him. Act like real doctors.  Thus hospitals become (and are!) Temples, just as monasteries - according to St. John Chrysostom - are healers.

If you extend the life of the other not by ten years, but even by ten centuries, it means that you are not a doctor, but a charlatan. Because one does not just want to prolong life. He wants to "not die." And there is a Physician Who gives life that is eternal.

In fact, such health is asked of by all who come to you, although they often expect from you (due to the bad tradition of our fallen nature and history) "aspirin". But you have studied the art of medicine, and you must give them what they cannot find themselves in the secular pharmacy. You have become physicians, and you must give what you have found in the "inn" (Luke 10:34), in the sanatorium of the Church.

The Christian physician is not a healer, but a servant, an ordinary helper of the One, Great, Only Physician - of the God-man Jesus Christ. Although small helpers, weak and inexperienced, but assistants to the Single Doctor. Employees of private offices, who give directions to the sanatorium of the Church, in which once a person enters, enters life, health and eternity - regardless of whether his body will die and his body will be temporarily buried. No, never be healers who struggle to prolong temporary life, who do not defeat death, but only postpone it.

Discover to man that his nature is able to be healthy, to be healed, to become eternal through the celebration of the Resurrection.

Inside the Church we expect and live the resurrection and eternity of the bodies. This is what the Risen Christ taught us. This is what He tells us and this is Himself. This tells us, and this is what our greatest and true brethren live - who have the same nature as us - the saints of the Church.

As long as the sick person gives you his whole being and you can see how he goes to death from your hands, without anyone asking you to do so, you can reveal the Truth to him, give him your whole being as an effective remedy. There is no other connection between healing and salvation than the communion within the Church of the Triune God. And if you are doctors saved and saved, adored and imitating God, giving yourself to him, you will give him the Doctor, Whom you hide in yourself; The Physician, Health, and Immortality that you are, following medicine within the Church and thus becoming members of the "divine nature." In this way you save the sick and save yourself at the same time, because "one body we are all" and one is the common life, which overcomes death from now on, in this and in the other life ... who, resorting to this Wharf, finds no salvation? Who is that cripple who faints in front of this Healer and is not healed? Creator of all things and Healer of the sick, Lord, before I am finally destroyed, save me ”(verse on Sunday evening, ch. 4).

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

 Our Lord uses words with purpose.  He is “the Word of God,” after all.  No word is out of place.  No word is misused.  No word could be substituted to improve what God the Son says with HIS words.

And so we should pay great attention when the Lord uses a phrase as seemingly incoherent as, “(he) prayed thus with himself.”  What could such an expression mean?

To understand, let’s begin with the dictionary.  What is the definition of “prayer”?

It says this:  A solemn request for help or an expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.

So, when Jesus says that the Pharisee prayed “with himself,” who (Who?) was the SUBJECT of his prayer?

The simplest answer is that it was not God.  In fact, the Pharisee had placed himself as the one to whom his “prayer” was directed, making himself god.

Now, yes, this is a parable.  And so our Lord’s use of language is intended to teach, not to accuse a specific person.

But having said this, we need to go back before this account in the Gospel of St. Luke and find what caused Jesus to speak the parable.

In the verse immediately preceding the beginning of today’s Gospel reading, we find St. Luke recording this.  “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.”

You see, beyond our Lord using language to perfection, He also knows us fully.  In Matthew 9:4 we find, “And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?’”

And so the parable is given lovingly to those whose hearts He has seen to be judging others, just as He describes in the parable.  The loving gift is given to convict the spirits, to cause introspection, to bring to repentance, for we know that it is very soon that our Lord must be calling these same people "blind guides", "hypocrites", and a "brood of vipers."  Before going to the indictment, our Lord continues to give His critics room for repentance!

There’s a “legend” (if it’s not true, it’s still a worthy story) of a pastor being hired by a large Christian community who showed up for his first Sunday dressed as a homeless person.  The account indicates that he arrived 30 minutes before the service, mingled with hundreds from the community, with only 3 offering a “Hello” to him.  He asked some for change to buy food, and none was given.  He went into the sanctuary and sat near the front, where ushers arrived to escort him to a more appropriate seat—in the back.  When officers of the church stood to introduce their new pastor, people began to look around, only to find the homeless man stand and walk to the front, where he recited St. Matthew 25:34-40 (“I was hungry and you gave Me food….”)

You see, all of us “judge” others around us.  All of us (at one time or another) put ourselves in the place of God.  Even if we don’t “pray to ourselves,” we (like today’s Pharisee) judge those we find around us.

And for the record, ANY judgment of another by any of us is unjust!

The Stichera sung at Vespers for the day says, “Brothers, let us not pray as the Pharisee, for he who exalts himself shall be humbled.  Let us humble ourselves before God, and with fasting cry aloud as the Publican: ‘God be merciful to us sinners.’”

 

The New Normal

The title of this piece - it's an expression we've all heard.  We know what is intended by those who use the expression.  They mean to indicate that things as we have known them historically are gone.  We need to "learn to live differently" than we have in the past.  We need to adapt to the changes around us.  We need to embrace how things are today, and leave the past behind.

Those words are all couched in phrases pointing to us as individuals needing to become something we weren't before.  YOU need to change.  YOU need to adapt, or YOU'LL be left behind.  YOU need to stop thinking as you did in the past.  YOU need to stop being an impediment to the wave of change you see around you.

But one must ask the question:  "Or what?"

What if I choose NOT to change.  What if the things that society is attempting to relegate to the past are core values for me?

Take for instance same-sex "unions".  I won't ask forgiveness here.  I refuse to use the word "marriage" in the same phrase with "same-sex", because no matter what society tells me about how antiquated my thinking is, my response is that it's not about "thinking" - it is definitional.  Marriage, by definition - for over 6000 years - is the union of a male and a female.  There's nothing "same-sex" in that expression.  If the government I happen to be living under chooses to recognize civil unions between people of the same sex, they have that civil authority to 'define' such a "union."  But it is NOT a "marriage," nor can it be nor will it ever be.

But this article isn't about same-sex unions.  It's about how our society's rush toward relativism and a general perspective of "there is no 'truth'" is attempting to remove the underpinnings of faith - yes, faith - amongst the people who live under our government's God-blessed auspices.  Why do I say, "God-blessed," and how is that to be interpreted when in the same expression I'm advocating the argument that this same government is attempting to subvert faith in God?  

Saint Paul teaches, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God." (Rom 13:1)

Our Lord Himself, when He stood before Pilate, said, "You would have no authority over Me unless it had been give you from above." (John 19:11)  Jesus was not absolving Pilate from any wrong that was to come from his decisions over Christ's sentencing.  Rather, He makes it clear that as a civil authority, Pilate will be subject to God's review of his stewardship for the position he holds - by the grace of God.  Jesus follows on with these words, "For this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

So just as our Lord instructed us to pray for our enemies, He also instructs us to pray for civil authorities, even when we disagree with the directions and decisions being taken by them!

We're going to have more to say over the coming days and weeks about how we, as faithful Orthodox Christians, have been impacted by government restrictions on our gatherings and on our corporate worship.  We'll discuss how our worship has been impacted by our hierarchs, and how we, while being called to be obedient to our hierarchs, are also called to be shepherds to our own flocks, meaning that we (parish clergy) are also responsible to speak openly, boldly, and with all love and respect to our hierarchs in attempting to defend the ability of the faithful to return to active worship IN the Church.

In 1929 the Soviet government introduced "the new uninterrupted work week", which was meant to increase productivity by keeping machines working throughout the year.  The unstated side goal was to wean workers away from Sundays and religious holidays as days of rest.

For us living through the COVID era, our benign government simply said (in various local jurisdictions), "10 people maximum," or "20% of normal attendance," or some other 'formula' to keep people out of the physical church buildings.

And what has been the result?  Today, when restrictions have been diminished (not necessarily removed), and parishes are allowed to have greater numbers of people present for services, PEOPLE AREN'T COMING.  The faithful have been conditioned to either watch streamed services from a distance, OR they have just said Church is just not that important any more.

This Sunday is the LAST Sunday before we encounter the Triodion, the preparatory Sundays before the Great Fast.  We encounter little Zacchaeus this week.  In him we find DESIRE!!  Oh, what a blessed thing DESIRE is, and what a blessed return it would be to have it once again engendered in our own faithful - the desire to be physically present IN the Church, worshipping corporately again!!

We spent last year's Great Fast with less than a handful of people in the building at most weekday services (Presanctified Liturgy, Soul Saturday Liturgy, Canon of St. Andrew, and as we got to Holy Week, Bridegroom Matins, the Passion Gospels, Lamentations, .....), and Sundays were not significantly different.

Will we allow this year to pass in this same way?

Have we lost the DESIRE to be physically in the presence of the Lord?

Can we still find it in our hearts to crave the ability to share in His Body and Blood, to approach the Chalice IN FAITH and love?

The Great Fast has not YET started - but we're at the threshold.  

Would we, like Zacchaeus, make the effort and climb that sycamore tree?  Or would we simply take passing note of the noise of the crowd, move on, and never encounter the Lord - Face to face?

Jesus called Zacchaeus by name.  He calls to us as well.  Are we IN?

I'm Offended!

Mat 15:21-28

Christ, the Lover of mankind and the Great Physician, reveals Himself yet again in today’s Gospel reading.  And as important – no, as essential as that message is to us, we need to find yet another message in His works from this section of the Gospel of Saint Matthew.

And that message relates to the issue of ‘being offended’.  We hear the expression unceasingly in our society.  We as Christians aren’t allowed to call sin sin because it will offend someone.  We aren’t allowed to pray in schools because it will offend someone.  We are no longer allowed to have community sponsored nativity scenes because it will offend someone.  And while it’s not only Christianity that is at play, it does seem as if this faith plays a central role in the issue of people claiming to be offended.

On the flip side, people often say that our beliefs are founded on superstition and antiquated thoughts, that they have no place in an enlightened world.  And we are not permitted to be offended at their opinions.  Our Lord cautioned us against such behavior when He taught us in the Gospel of St. Luke (9:26), “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.”  If I claim to be offended, am I not indicating my being ashamed of that which I claim to be the offense?

Going back to the beginning of Matthew Chapter 15, we come to an issue that shows our Lord’s perspective on this topic of ‘offending people.’  Here, we find the scribes and Pharisees encountering Jesus.  They have no problem with attempting to anger our Lord with their accusations, and so they come to Him and openly accuse, indeed attempting to provoke the Lord into confrontation: “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?  For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread!”

My goodness.  Such a terrible offense!  It’s a wonder that God didn’t just strike the Apostles dead for such a crime!  Please note that these ‘leaders’ of the Jewish faith do not ask, “Why do Your disciples transgress the law of Moses?”  For there is no such law.  Instead, they focus on a man-made tradition.  Moses is known to have threatened and enjoined his own followers to neither add to nor take away from the Law.  And yet, see what has happened.  Men, in their anxiousness to be seen as having authority, and I dare say to place themselves in the position of God in making rules to set themselves up as judge and jury over others, while at the same time they give to themselves more power, or they abolish rules which convict them of doing wrong.  And it continues to this very day, and it will continue until the Lord’s return.

What is our Lord’s response to them?  He greets the accusers with another accusation.  “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?  For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’  But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother,’ Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God,’ then he need not honor father or mother.  Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.” 

These words need a little explaining.  What Jesus is accusing them of doing is holding onto ‘things’.  Saint John Chrysostom uses the example of a father asking a son to give him a sheep, and the son refuses, telling the father that he has promised the sheep as an offering to God.  The Lord is accusing these men of making up such a tradition.  He is accusing them of hoarding God’s gifts for themselves and breaking the Law in so doing.  Give your father a sheep.  You have others.  Give them, and an extra, to God!

Now comes the offending.  Jesus is not finished with these men.  He says to them, “Hypocrites!  Well did Isaiah prophecy about you, saying, ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”  Jesus ends by then calling all the surrounding people to Himself, and says, “Hear and understand – not what enters the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

The twelve Apostles are astounded, and they pull Jesus aside and say, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

Again with being offended!  If only, in our time, we had a voice that could speak with such authority and lack of concern about offending others for the sake of speaking the truth!  If only.

Why do we begin with this account?  Because there are many who are coming to Jesus, with many issues, many needs, many righteous and unrighteous desires.  These we’ve just discussed are clearly unrighteous, and those who come with them leave empty – perhaps even more empty than when they came, for their hearts are not filled with love, but are filled with hatred and envy.

On the other side, we find today’s Canaanite woman.  Jesus is traveling in a land away from His home.  Saint Matthew relates in the beginning of today’s Gospel that this woman of Canaan “came from that region” – she had left her home.  Why?  To seek the Master.  She shows none of the quarrelsomeness or arrogance of the Pharisees.  She shows only faith, patience, and a great humility.  Her faith is such that she knows that our Lord can heal her daughter.  She shows no doubt in this belief.  Her patience is such that even after being soundly rebuked by the Lord, multiple times, she persists, knowing that God loves all, and the words He is using are those which would be hurled by the ungodly to offend her and break her faith.  She shows by this great patience that her faith cannot, her faith will not be broken.  And by this, she shows a level of repentance that we should try to emulate.  How is repentance shown?  By virtue of the fact that the woman comes before Christ, recognizing His divine authority and power.  One cannot reach this state, one of seeking to reach out and touch God, without encountering first a truly repentant heart.

Her persistence, her unwavering faith and patience can be noted in the reaction of the Apostles, who at one point ask Jesus to “send her away, for she cries out after us.”  They are taken in at first by His ignoring the woman.  They allow this feigned posture of ignoring a nuisance on the part of our Lord to cause them to also take the posture of openly offending her.

The Lord’s rebuke of the woman is not an act intended to drive her away, for our Lord knows our hearts.  He knows that her faith is great enough to overcome this small offense, though to many it would seem great.  How many would be offended enough to leave in anger at being called ‘a dog’?  When is “being offended” appropriate?  Our Lord is teaching us here that it is not appropriate even at this level!!

But the woman turns the offending term into one of indicating the depth of her faith.  “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  In short, I don’t care what words are throwing at me.  I know that there is power and authority to spare in Your being.  I know that You have the ability to heal my beloved child, and to heal me as well.  I will endure anything to receive the answer to my plea that I came before You to receive!  I see the children of Israel offending and rebuking You!  This means that some of which You would give to them, You can and will make available to me.  They have case aside more than enough crumbs to meet my needs, if only You will bless me to take them.  You can see, Lord, I believe!  I trust!  I repent!  I have faith!

These words did not come from her lips.  But again, the Lord knows our hearts.  These words were evident in her heart – just as much, and perhaps even more so than the words of hatred and envy in the hearts of the Pharisees who came to the Lord just before her, scattering their crumbs so that she might benefit from her faith to receive her own need

The Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and says what?  “Have mercy on my daughter?”  No!  While her prayer to Jesus is for her daughter to be released from demonic possession, she comes and prays to God the Son, “Have mercy on me!”  I need healing from my sins!  Heal me, and heal also my beloved child.

Jesus grants the prayer of the woman.  He does not ask for faith from the daughter!  Take careful note of this!!!  When the centurion came to seek healing for his servant, Jesus did not ask, “Does your servant believe?”  God answers prayer based on the faith of those who come to Him in faith, regardless of the level of the faith of the one for whom they are interceding.  Immediately after this passage in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, crowds bring to Jesus multitudes of lame, blind, mute and maimed people.  And He heals them all, because of the faith of those who brought them.

We need to find within ourselves the ability to ignore the world’s attempts to dishearten us with offending and discouraging words and practices.  All that matters is our faith, our patience, and our humility, all of these coming from a repentant heart.  Then, the source of all strength, Jesus our Lord, will hear our prayer offered in purity, and will grant to us that which is beneficial for our salvation, and for the salvation of those for whom we are lead to pray.

It’s a simple plan.  It requires simplicity in heart, being “like a child” as we approach our God.  If we start with this foundation, our faith, like that of the Apostles, can still change the world.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Behind the Mask

 As we entered the Holy Altar this past weekend to celebrate Saturday evening Vespers, we were struck with the incongruity of the image here - a mask hanging "at the ready" on the censer stand, near the Holy Altar.

It certainly is a "sing of the times," an expression our Lord used when confronting the hypocritical Pharisees, who asked Him for a sign from heaven.  Our Lord responded, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times." (Mat 16:2-3)

But what are we to garner from THIS "sign of the times"?

There remain in the Holy Canons bans on attendance at theater events.  When studying the canons in seminary, we asked a mentor why such canons were implemented.  The response was that theater had people engaged in two activities that were counter to Christian principle.  First, they were pretending to be someone they are not.  Second, they wore masks to cretate (or enhance) the illusion of being someone they are not.  The explanation held that these canons responded to the errant position of hiding our true selves, for people may be fooled, but God is never fooled ("for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of man", 1Kings 8:39).

Whether the explanation had merit or not, it bears upon our own use of masks today.  Truly we are not "the same people" having donned these appliances.  How are we different?  

St. Paul, as he teaches about love, speaks to the issue of things being hidden with these words:  "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." (1Cor 13:12)  While masked we can't "see" the person in front of us.  Smiles, frowns, grimaces, all of these are hidden.  We're not showing others what we're sensing.  Our Lord's words in Matthew 6:22-24 lead to the contemporary expression, "The eyes are the window to the soul," but they state the concept differently.  "The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light."  Our Lord's words speak to light coming IN.  But we don't send OUT a smile through the eyes.  Love is expressed in the fullness of the way God created us to share expressions with one another.  How are we different?  While masked, our ability to show true agape love is compromised.

But additionally, the mask (for some, not all) can be an expression of fear.  "If I don't wear this, I might die."  We have no intention here to change anyone's mind on whether a mask should or should not be worn.  Rather, our purpose is to help all move from living in fear to a return to living, a return to life.

In this country, within Christianity in general, and within the Orthodox Church in particular, we find ourselves in a state of fasting.

That's right - all of us are "fasting."  But we're fasting from the wrong things.  Our fast is not from things which will aid spiritual growth (food, strong drink, gossip, avarice, lust, etc.) but from those things that the Holy Church has given us since its inception to PROMOTE our spiritual growth.  Number of confessions in the past 10 months?  Down significantly.  Communicants at the Chalice at any given Liturgy?  Down significantly.  Attendees at any Divine Service?  About half of what they were a year ago.  And, sad to say, in some Orthodox Churches attendance is limited, requiring people to "sign up" before attending.  Are we really at a point of wanting to "take names" of those desiring to attend Liturgy?  How can we welcome people who wish to learn about the faith under such conditions?  

Our Lord instructed us (Mat 25:35-36) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked to give drink to the thirsty, to visit the sick and imprisoned, and to take in the stranger.  With our following of "rules" we may continue in several of these activities, but how can we claim to be feeding the hungry when our own faithful, languishing without the Eucharist, are being starved, and 'strangers' who may wish to enter and pray with us are being shut out of our doors?

When will we, as spiritual guides to our faithful, begin to preach to them of their need to return?  When will we throw open our doors to any and all who choose to enter?

The Holy Eucharist cannot bring harm to anyone who approaches in faith.  May our Lord give all of us the wisdom to understand this, and to return to that sincere desire to worship Him in faith and love - in His house, not through a video broadcast.  For those who are not targets to the pandemic (over 70 with mitigating health issues), let us return so that we may pray in the fear of God, not in the fear of a virus.  And if and when you receive your vaccine regardless of age, why would one choose NOT to return?

Feast of Theophany

Sermon - Feast of Theophany

Titus 2:11-14, 3:4-7/Matthew 3:13-17

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

It’s a glorious Feast!

My brothers and sisters in Christ:

Today, we come to celebrate the beginning of our Lord’s earthly ministry.  Prior to this day, those things that were part of His life were relegated to knowledge only to Him and His parents.  Today, all of this changes.  The Sinless One comes to submit Himself to the ritual that is set aside to remit sins.  But our Lord’s purpose in this was more than submitting Himself to baptism.  Rather, His presence in Jordan submits the world to being baptized by Him.  God the Son enters the waters of Jordan, and the Son is not changed, but rather the nature of water is changed.  Water always had been that which gives earthly life.  Today, water is sanctified by the Creator to change it into something that will bring eternal life to those who, in faith, come to be washed spiritually by it, to be "born of water and the Spirit".  (John 3:5)

In a wonderful sermon from Metropolitan Philaret, he takes the opportunity to ask us – all of us – "Do you remember your baptism?"  Certainly many of us would say, “How can I?  I was only weeks old!”  While this is true in the physical sense, the Church asked you questions on that day, and you answered those questions – for all time.  On that day, the Church asked you, “Do you renounce Satan, and all his works, and all his service, and all his pride?”  And you responded, “I do renounce him.”  You breathed and spat upon him, showing your utter contempt for the great deceiver.

If you were baptized as a child, you will say, “But Father, those questions were answered for me by my God-parents.”  But I say in return to you, their answers were not proxies – they were giving voice to your own heart’s desire to unite yourself to Christ.  Later in that same service, you were asked specifically that question.  “Have you united yourself to Christ?”, and you responded, “I have united myself to Christ!”

As we move in today’s service to the Great Blessing of Water, we offer a prayer within that service that says, “Great are You, O Lord, and marvelous are Your works, and there is no word sufficient to hymn Your wonders!”  This same prayer is offered at every baptism over the water into which the Catechumen is to be immersed.

And so, it is right and proper for us, especially on this day, to remember our own baptism, to give thanks to God for that day, to recall the promises that we made to God, even if by way of the lips of those who held us and loved us.  We need to remember the vows that we took on that day, promising to be fully united to Christ, and to be fully disconnected from Satan and his hordes.  Remember that on the Day of Judgment, our vows will not be forgotten by our Lord.  Ergo we dare not forget them ourselves!

Our renunciation of Satan is an ongoing battle while we are in the world.  Face it – the world bombards us on all sides.  Look here.  Taste this.  Hear that.  Judge this.  Feel anger over that.  Be offended.  Be ashamed.  Be proud.  Take charge.  Exercise authority.  Belittle those who get in the way.

In our renunciation of Satan, we are to set aside such behavior in our lives.  We promised our Lord that we would not allow such passions to hold sway in our lives.

On the positive side, we promised Him that we would put Him above all other concerns in our lives.  Putting Him first, we would be charitable, loving, caring, forgiving, diligent, humble, prayerful, quiet, at peace, filled with the overwhelming desire to praise and worship Him at every opportunity.

Where in the world are we – individually and collectively, as a people – in this analysis?  If we stand for judgment before Him tomorrow, what excuses will we offer for the choices we’ve made?

Yes, we come today to pray over water.  Yes, we believe with all our hearts that our prayers will result in our Lord’s sending a blessing upon this water such that it will be effective in healing our physical and spiritual infirmities, and in providing a defense against the attacks of Satan, on our bodies, and in our homes. 

But as we pray over this water on this day, let us also pray that our Lord strengthen us for this internal battle, that He gives us the strength to wage war with the powers that attempt to drag us into places where our vows from our baptism are forgotten, where we do not place emphasis on serving our Lord, but instead focus on serving self, which is the same as serving the enemy!

Saint Paul writes today to Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world.”  But he continues immediately and without a break to join this to the view of our Lord’s return as he writes, “awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” 

The world knows our Lord, but rejects Him.  Saint John the Forerunner says, “There stands among you One whom you do not know.” (Jn 1:26)  Are we able to look at the world around us and conclude that even "in general" the average person "knows" Christ?  And if truth be told, we can extend that question to those who sometimes enter the Churches!  Indeed, I must ask myself, "Do I know Christ?"

We should ask how they, but especially we who call ourselves by His name, not know Him, when even inanimate creation knows Him.  In some icons of the Feast, there are small creatures riding fish.  These represent the Jordan and the sea, both of which ‘flee’ our Lord's baptism by the Forerunner.  Tradition tells us that the waters of the Jordan reversed their flow seeing our Lord entering them to be baptized.  Read the Psalms!  76:15 says, “The waters saw You, O God, the waters saw You and were afraid; the abysses were troubled.”  113:3 says, “The sea beheld and fled, Jordan turned back.”

God’s created things took no vows.  They were made by Him to be perfect, as were we.  Creation was relegated to be part of our fallenness when we failed in Paradise.  Our vows are promises to God, showing Him our eagerness to return to that place near to Him.  Creation recognizes Him, and His authority.  In the presence of their Creator, they tremble.  But for our part, when we fail to follow through on our own promises, we neither tremble nor fear, and all too often we do not even repent.

Our baptism was a gift from our Lord so that we might show true repentance.  There is one baptism for the remission of sins.  But there are many re-baptisms, through our own tears, that avail much to returning us to communion, fellowship with God.  Saint John Chrysostom teaches, "What rain is for seeds, tears are for those who are afflicted." 

Are we ready to return to those vows we made so long ago?  Do they still mean to us what they meant on that day?  If we can answer “Yes!” to these questions, then we have set ourselves on the path to salvation. 

It’s a glorious Feast!

Resolutions

 03Jan21 - Sunday/Before Theophany

2Tim 4:5-8/Mark 1:1-8

 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

 It's a Glorious Feast!

 My brothers and sisters in Christ:

 We find ourselves “in that time of year” again, a time when people see the calendar and leap to the conclusion that when the digits in the year number change, somehow that occurrence is related to a “new beginning.”  And so, it fosters what we’ve all come to know as “New Year’s Resolutions.”

 I was listening to a radio program this past week, and a guy was being interviewed about a book or an article he’d written on the topic of resolutions.  His argument went something like this:

 1) A resolution is good, but it carries no weight, and virtually all resolutions are therefore shortly forgotten, which promotes the idea that attempting to make a change is pointless.

 2) When a resolution is enhanced by making a plan, it is improved.  If the resolution is to lose weight (and oh how very many are!), even setting a goal of “x” pounds means less than saying, “I’m buying a gym membership, and I plan to go at least twice each week.”  As noted, this is better than 1) above, but still carries little “meat” that will prevent overbooked schedules (or laziness) from causing one to miss the goal.  And once missed, it again promotes the idea of pointlessness.

 3) When a resolution becomes a commitment to make a change on a personal level, then there is something to grasp and to live up to.  Instead of resolving to lose weight, if you say, “I’m the kind of person who looks out for my health on a daily basis.”  Now, you’ve made a change.  Now, with this as a personal description and commitment, you choose a salad for lunch, you pack your gym clothes and put them on the front seat so that you can stop at the gym on the way home.  You start a log of what you ate and how it affected your weight – and your sense of health.  This third way of looking at things is the way of change. 

 So let’s take this discussion to our spiritual lives, because they need “a change” as well – not by “resolving” not to commit a particular sin any longer, but by committing ourselves to a description of ourselves that effects a change.  Suppose we’ve come to confession a number of times and confess, “I have ignored doing things for others who are in need.”  It confesses the sin.  It acknowledges the failure.  Now, if we take that confession to the place where, when we leave, we say to ourselves, “I have become the kind of person who will care for the needs of another every day.”  Inside of that statement is a commitment to change from a sinful pattern of ignoring the needs of others to choosing a path that will at least acknowledge those needs and proactively seek to do something about it.

 And it is the way we must approach change in our lives with respect to our salvation.  St. Matthew records this about our Lord beginning His public ministry, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, ‘Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”  In this verse, the word used for “repent” is the Greek word μετανοέω.  It means to think differently, to reconsider, to feel moral compunction.  It means that in considering how I have fallen short of God’s expectations of me, I understand my need to change.

 Change as a word occurs elsewhere in Scripture.  With today being the feast day of the Prophet Malachi, it’s appropriate that we pull some material from him.  The Aposticha in Tone 3 from Vespers says, “You are the changeless God, Who suffering in the flesh was changed.” In Malachi 3:6 we find these words: “For I am the LORD, I change not.”  The Hebrew word for change here is שָׁנָה, pronounced " shaw-nah’ ".  It carries the meaning to alter or transmute, to become something it was not before.  It is different from repent, which we just tied to the idea of change.  Here in Malachi, the Prophet is pointing to the fact that God, being timeless, is not subject to change.  This is the reason that we understand THIS as our time for repentance, for after we fall asleep in the Lord, we too become “unchanging”, outside of time.  Change is a function of time!  So indeed, THIS is the time for our change!

 We just stated that repentance, true repentance, will effect a change in us.  Repentance brings change.  But change does not necessarily bring repentance.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  I can be impacted by something another person does that I judge to be evil, and I can change my attitude toward that person.  My behavior matches evil for evil.  If I behave in such a fashion I’ve changed, but certainly not repented!

 Where is this discourse leading?  Having survived 2020, we find ourselves worried about 2021.  Will the mutant strains of COVID become another new full blown pandemic?  Will the vaccines work?  Will we be able to “unmask” finally?  Will our children be able to return to some ‘normal’ life in school.  Will we be able to interact socially again?  The year now past was a year of unexpected and undesirable change.  Can we have hope that the coming year’s change will not be so traumatic?  

 As we enter this new year, those are the thoughts in the minds of most Americans.  I find myself focused on other pressing matters.  We missed Pascha in 2020.  Will we have a Pascha in 2021?  Will we be able to restore our community life to the family that is our parish?  Will I find it in my heart to make repentance my number one priority in my changed life?

We WANT change, but we want that change to conform to OUR thoughts, hopes and plans, without considering God's plan in sending change our way.

 When I start to ask such questions of myself, I go to the Fathers for help.  We’ve spoken in the past of a little book from St. Theophan the Recluse titled "The Spiritual Life".  It’s filled with gems which have a connection to our discussions this morning.  I believe St. Theophan was speaking to just such an issue of repentant change when he addressed these words to his spiritual child:

 Live without making empty plans, but doing the works that fall on you with respect (to others) and to all people.  Do not think at all that this life is empty.  Everything that you do here, no matter what it is, will be a work, and if you do it with the consciousness that such a work is according to the commandments and that God wants such a thing, then the work will be pleasing to God.

 Specifically as change relates to repentance, St. Theophan says this:

 God gave us this life so that we would have time to prepare for the next one.  This one is short, but the next one has no end.  Although this life is short, during its course one may lay in provisions for all of eternity.  Each good work goes toward this end like a small contribution; from all such contributions comes the overall capital, the interest of which will determine the upkeep of the saver for all eternity.  He who makes larger contributions will have a richer upkeep, while he who makes smaller contributions will have a lesser upkeep.  The Lord will render to each one according to his works.

 As we find ourselves changing as a result of our repentance, St. Theophan instructs us that ‘monitoring’ our progress is very easy indeed, and that our efforts do not need to be monumental – they simply need to be efforts consistent with the opportunities that the Lord gives to us.  He says,

 We already believe, what else is needed?  Carry out the commandments, for faith without works is dead.  Also give thanks to the Lord: that it suited Him to determine the value of our works, not by their magnitude or greatness, but by our inward disposition when carrying them out, having at the same time given us a multiplicity of opportunities for doing good works according to His will, so that, if we pay attention to ourselves, we may at every moment perform God-pleasing works.

 Do we hear the wisdom the Saint is presenting to us?  AT EVERY MOMENT God gifts us with ways to do that which pleases Him – MULTIPLE WAYS!  If we chose HIS ways as opposed to our own, and if our hearts are filled with joy in doing His will – we are found to be favorable in His sight!!!

 We’ll close with these words from St. Theophan.

 Just look around yourself each day and each hour; on whatever you see the seal of the commandment, carry it our immediately, in the belief that God Himself this very hour requires this work of you, and nothing else.

 When our Lord exits Jordan this week, and He goes to begin His three-year ministry, when He gifts us the words, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” He is giving us the gift of seeking change through repentance.  When we see how very easy living UP to the change can be, how can we not marvel at the goodness and love that our Lord shows us on a daily basis.  He has laid at our doorstep, at our very feet that which we require to serve Him in a way that is pleasing to Him such that our salvation can be secured.

 Following Him from Bethlehem, to Jordan, to Tabor, to Bethany, to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, to the Mount of Olives – His path is the focus of our efforts, for following where He has led is the key to finding ourselves always near to Him.  That path is to be found here, in this place, His house. 

 May our Lord bless us to once again find our way through following His steps, hearing His words, doing His will – without fear or concern for anything else we might find around us in things we can NOT change.  COVID or not, the world will be a better place if we change ourselves to be more Christ-like!  Let us ask His blessing to help us change what we CAN change (ourselves, our hearts, our failings) before it’s too late.