Evening Sermon: The Robe We Are Given Is Also the Robe We Weave For Ourselves

SAINT SEBASTIAN AND THOSE WITH HIM—A GOOD MEDITATION IN PREPARATION FOR THE FEAST OF THE INCARNATION

For those of us who follow the Old (Julian) Calendar, we are even now approaching the great feast of the Incarnation of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, that is, the Feast of Christmas.  Just a short time ago, we rejoiced with our neighbours who celebrated this feast on the New (Gregorian) Calendar, but for us the Nativity Fast continues, although not for long.  Today, is the 18^th Day of December on the Julian Calendar, and thus it is the feast of the Holy Martyr Sebastian and his companions. 

     The feast of St. Sebastian is an excellent meditation for us who are preparing for the birthday of the Lord. (It is also a very good meditation for those who have already celebrated the Lord’s birth, and are in the midst of the festive Twelve Days of Christmas.  Why is the feast of our martyr such a good meditation for us?  What does the death of a Roman soldier have to do with the birth of the infant Saviour?  We receive a wonderful answer to both questions in the hymns of the Vespers service for today.  We sing in this beautiful service about the Holy Martyr Sebastian weaving a royal, purple robe for himself from his own blood.  Most of us are familiar with the rough circumstances of his martyrdom, since it is one of the most popular subjects of Renaissance art.  The saint was executed by having an abundance of arrows shot through him.  Sometimes, in these various works of art, St. Sebastian has so many arrows sticking out of him that he looks like a pin cushion. 

     The murder of a virtuous man is a profoundly negative thing, and yet, we know that, in Christ, Sebastian’s death was ennobled in the same way that his life had been. Just as every aspect of Sebastian’s life had become infinitely precious and worthy in the sight of God because, in Baptism, he had come to share in the identity of Christ (sharing the same life with God), in just the same way, Sebastian’s death was joined to the death of the Incarnate God.  Thus, it became Life, not death, as Sebastian became a sharer in the fullness of the Paschal Mystery and inherited the Kingdom of Heaven.  Everything that was spoken concerning Christ and His Victory over Death now became true of Sebastian.  St. Paul tells his disciple St. Timothy: “He [Christ] was put to death in so far as fleshly existence goes, but He was given Life in the realm of the Spirit.”

     In this way, the reference that the sacred hymns make to Sebastian “weaving a royal, purple robe for himself from his blood” is a veiled reference to the Feast of Incarnation, for that same feast speaks in much the same language of the way that the Eternal Logos of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, wove from the pure blood of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary His own Sacred Humanity, which became the instrument of our salvation.  What we have then in the feast of St. Sebastian is an interesting and inspiring parallelism.  Christ wove the robe of His Sacred Humanity as the means for our salvation, and St. Sebastian in turn wove from his own blood his own particular share in that salvation.  It is a graphic illustration of the teaching of Paul concerning the conduct of the Christian life. “Fill up what is wanting in the sufferings of Christ;” “work out your salvation in fear and trembling;” “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, your spiritual worship.” It goes without saying that the only reason why Sebastian could weave the royal, purple robe for himself, was because he already “put on Christ” in Baptism.

     As we prepare to kneel devoutly at the manger of the God-Man, born in Bethlehem for our salvation, we need to remind ourselves first of all that we have put on Christ in our Baptism.  It is up to us now to perfect the likeness of God in us by the practice of virtue.  Aided by grace, we need to weave for ourselves a royal robe that we can wear in the presence of Christ our God in the Kingdom of Heaven.  This doesn’t in anyway take away from the fact that we have “put on Christ” and that our confidence is only in Him.  Hear what the Prophet Isaiah has to say about the grace that we have received in Baptism: “My heart rejoices in the Lord, for He has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and He has put on me a garment of gladness.  He has put upon me, as a bridegroom, a crown.  He has adorned me, as a bride, with jewels.” But then, hear what the Holy Apostle John the Theologian says in the Apocalypse regarding this robe of our salvation: “These are they, who have come out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes clean in the Blood of the Lamb.” We who are blessed with the frequent opportunity to do laundry know that “washing” is not a passive activity.  To get something clean requires a great deal of agitation.  In the same way, it takes “great tribulation” and adversity for us to weave the virtues that are necessary for eternal life.  We must cooperate with is work of God in us.   

The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers--With the Feast of St. Spyridon

St. Spyridon of Tremithus—Incorrupt Wonderworker

     Today we commemorate Our Holy Father Spyridon of Tremithus, lived in the fourth century, and was a contemporary of St. Nicholas, whose feast we celebrated last Monday. St. Spyridon was a goatherd on the island of Cyprus, who, because of his extraordinary holiness, and the fervour of his faith was chosen to be the bishop of his town, Tremithus.  He, like all the bishops of the world, was summoned to the First Council of Nicaea in order to refute the heresy of Arius, that Christ was not God, but only a creature.  It is said that by his simple arguments, based in Scripture and the Tradition of the Church, St. Spyridon confounded the arguments of the Arians, who considered themselves as very wise and educated.  Furthermore, St. Spyridon worked some many miraculous signs by his prayers that he, like St. Nicholas and St. Gregory, is called “the Wonderworker.”

     The wonders and miracles, which this saint worked in behalf of his people, did not end with his death, but his grave became a source of miraculous healing and consolation in all kinds of troubles.  About 650, the body of the holy one was taken to the Imperial capital at Constantinople, where it was revered by the Roman Emperors themselves, until the early morning of 29 May 1453, when the saint’s body, along with the relics of the Holy Empress Theodora, was miraculously removed from the city in the arms of the parish priest George Kalokhairetes, only minutes before the church was pillaged and destroyed by the advancing Turkish army.  This priest took the holy relics to the island of Corfu, where they remain to this day. 

     Despite the fact that St. Spyridon died around 350, now, 1,660 years later, his body with all of its flesh, remain in the same condition as the day that he departed this life.  This special incorruption of Spyridon’s body is an eloquent testament to the reality and inevitability of the general resurrection.  The body of St. Spyridon daily reminds the people of Corfu, and the pilgrims that travel there to venerate him, that death is coming for all of us, along with the judgment that will determine everlastingly whether we inherit everlasting happiness with God, or everlasting punishment and sorrow apart from Him. 

A final chance for us to seriously prepare for Christmas

     The feast of St. Spyridon, coming on the 12^th day of December every year, is considered by the Byzantine Church to be the last chance to prepare for the great feast of Christmas. Those who have not fasted up to this point, have one last chance to join the rest of the Church in the discipline of fasting and repentance, which renders us, by God’s grace, worthy to approach the manger of the Incarnate God.

The Holy Forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—Holiness is easier for us

     The human mind was designed by God to be like an enclosed garden, filled with beautiful things.  The soul’s project is to complete, perfect and ameliorate this garden, by exercising care and concern about what new things will be added to it harmonious contents. 

     This Sunday, as the Sunday before the Sunday before Christmas, is the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, the ancestors of Christ who lived before the time of the Law.  We remember especially on this day the Holy Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who, although very imperfect human beings like us, were, nevertheless, deemed righteous by God, even though they did not have the Scriptures to guide them.  We have the Scriptures, the Tradition of the Church, the Mysteries of Christ, and the Holy Icons.  What possible excuse can we have for not having the same degree of holiness as our fathers?

What shall we plant in our gardens? Specific resolutions

     The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, together with the commemoration of St. Spyridon, is a rich opportunity for us to discuss the various things we can plant in the garden of our minds, so that our souls will be ready to receive the Incarnate God born for us from the Ever-Virgin Mary.  We should not worry that the things we plant in these gardens, at first, are small, for this is the way of all things that grow. 

     First of all, we can plant prayer in the gardens of our minds by a concrete resolution.  If heretofore we have not been in the habit of regular prayer, then we should resolve at a specific time to say this or that specific prayer (perhaps too for a specific intention).  It is the very specificity of our resolution that makes it possible for us to fulfill it.  If we simply resolve to “pray more often,” then we may find ourselves, once again, at the end of the day, at the end of the week, or at the end of the fast, without having fulfilled our resolution, and reproaching ourselves on account of our laziness.  But, on the other hand, if we resolve to pray the fiftieth psalm with attention and devotion everyday after lunch, then we will find this specific resolution proportionally easier to fulfill. 

     The same applies to the other beautiful things which we can plant in the garden of the mind.  We can resolve to specifically read one chapter of the Gospel each day, in this way avoiding the snare of a more general resolution to “read spiritual books.” Planting one chapter of the Gospel each day in the garden of the mind can have tremendous benefits for us over time.  In the same way, we can resolve to do a specific work of kindness and charity.  The crucial thing to remember is that, in any case, we are planting a specific thing in the garden of the mind, which we will to grow and increase.  Everything that we plant in the garden of the mind is as incorrupt as the body of St. Spyridon, as long as we keep our minds pure.  All the beautiful things that we add there to that garden are undying and imperishable.     

27th Sunday After Pentecost--We must decide to stand upright

Brothers and sisters in Christ—

     The cure of the woman with a curvature of the spine is among the miraculous signs that the Lord Jesus performed on the Sabbath Day in strict violation of the contemporary interpretation of Jewish Law.  The cure allows the woman to stand upright, so that she is no longer gazing at the earth. Instead, for the first time in many years, she is able to lift her eyes to Heaven.  In this way, the cure symbolizes the entire mission of Christ on earth.  He heals the affliction of human beings, so that they are no longer bound by sin and death, and the human race recovers its original inheritance in the heavenly places.  The Lord says consolingly to the woman with the curvature of the spine: “Woman, you are set free from your affliction.” After hearing this, the woman stands upright and all the on-lookers give praise to God.  Before the woman’s cure, she could not stand upright, and then the Lord pronounced her cure.  She was cured indeed, but she still had to stand upright.  St. Luke tells us that she stood straight after the Lord had spoken to her. 

     In a similar way, we have received a comprehensive cure from sin and death in the Mysteries of Christ.  Nevertheless, in order for that cure to be effective in us, we have to stand upright, taking our eyes off of the things of this world, and look towards Heaven.  We have to willingly enter into a personal relationship with God, One in the Holy Trinity.  We must raise our minds and our hearts up to God.  This is what we call prayer.  When do we pray? The Holy Apostle Paul tells us, “Pray constantly.”

     Years ago, during my years in the monastery, I was assigned by the abbot to clean out a certain attic.  The attic was partially filled with the items that had been donated to the monastery over the years.  In a small box tucked deep under the eaves, I found a small icon of Christ Pantokrator.  It was a Greek icon with typical Greek characteristics.  The face of the Lord in the icon was extremely stern, so stern that it was, somewhat, disturbing.   I put the icon aside.  Later on, however, Brother Benedict, one of my fellow monks came to me to see the icon.  He told me something very insightful and illuminating.  He told me, “the longer you pray before it, the kindlier the image will become.”  Initially, I dismissed the whole idea as nonsense. Painted images do not change, unless they are repainted.  After some time, however, I got the icon out and began to pray.  That which Brother Benedict had told me was true, as it turned out, not because the painted image changed, but because my heart changed.  I was now able to see as kindness, what I had previously seen as severity. 

     In just the same way, we have to enter into a relationship with God.  When we first raise our eyes to God there are bound to be things that we discover, which are disturbing.  What our Christian faith teaches us is at variance with the teachings and values of the world in some very remarkable ways.  On this basis, the world tries to convince us that our beliefs are unrealistic, out of touch and uncompassionate. Traditional Christianity, like the faith of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, appears more and more authoritarian with the passing years, not because the teaching of Christ is unrealistic, out of touch and uncompassionate, but because the Christian people have ceased to pray (to seek communion with God) in any kind of a meaningful way.  More often than not, we say rote prayers, sometimes without thought, but the practice of being in the presence of God in meditation and mental prayer have become more and more rare.  Thus, when we have difficulties in faith, the worst thing we can do is decide that, “I do not believe this or that, which the Church teaches.” Instead, we should take our difficulties to Christ in prayer.  There are those who believe that the sermons in the Church should deal with every contemporary event and circumstance, but the opposite is actually the case.  If we learn prayer, we learn everything, because we learn the Living Christ. From prayer we acquire the mind of Christ and the compassion of Christ, a compassion that shows up the world’s compassion for what it is—demonic hatred of our race. 

     Christ has cured us from the disease of sin and death in His Life-Giving Mysteries, but, having been cured, we need to stand upright and turn towards Heaven.  We accomplish this through prayer.  We turn our eyes to the One Who is our inheritance and reward. 

Evening Sermon: The Role of Suffering in the Destruction of the Passions

Job 6: 4

“The arrows of the Almighty have pierced me.  My spirit has drunk in their poison.”

    This verse from the sixth chapter of the Book of Job gives us an apt description of the way that we often experience suffering, privation and sorrow in our lives. Very often we feel like the unwitting victims of a unfriendly and chaotic universe.  Yet, at the same time, the Holy Apostle assures us that “everything works together unto good for those who love God.” Reconciling the aforementioned feeling with what should be normative Christian belief (as expressed by Paul) is one of the major tasks of the spiritual life. 

     Theodicy (the philosophical inquiry into the justice of God and how it is manifested in our experience) is of major concern for Christianity, because we believe that God is kind and loving.  St. Isaac of Nineveh tells us:

Divine love is beyond human understanding and above all description in words.  At the same time it is reflected in God’s actions with respect to the created world and humankind: “Among all His actions there is none which is not entirely a matter of mercy, love and compassion: this constitutes the beginning and the end of His dealings with us. Both the creation of the world and God’s coming on earth in the flesh had the only aim, “to reveal His boundless love to the world.”

     In the abovementioned passage, Job calls out in anguish that the Almighty arrows have pierced him.  This is an expression of how he feels, since, at that point in the story, he has had to endure incalculable sufferings.  At certain times, he even prays for death.  He refers to his sufferings as “the arrows of the Almighty.” St. Isaac certainly would not be able to dispute that Job experiences his suffering as “arrows” from God. Nevertheless, Isaac would argue that they are “loving arrows.” But Job continues, “my spirit has drunk in their poison.” Job makes it clear that he has experienced God’s action in his life as “death-dealing.”

     As impossible as it might seem, both St. Paul and St. Job the Long-Suffering are both right.  The sufferings of this life are indeed arrows from the Almighty.  It was, after all, God Who permitted them.  But they are “loving arrows” in the sense that the Lord has permitted them for the good of the one who endures them.  These sufferings will indeed work together unto good, if they are received and used rightly.

     Further, the sufferings of this life do indeed introduce a death-dealing poison, just as St. Job says.  It is a death-dealing poison, because it kills the “old man.” This image is used repeatedly in St. Paul’s thought.  For example in Colossians 3:9 he says: “Never lie to one another, for you have put off the old man, and have put on the new man, who is continually renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of his Creator.” What St. Paul is referring to here as “the old man” is the fallen human nature that is controlled by the passions.   The passions have to be stripped off, in order for us to be conformed to Christ.  The positive aspect of the spiritual life is being conformed to Christ through the practice of virtue.  The negative, but just as necessary aspect, is the destruction of the passions.  The arrows of the Almighty are directed towards us in order to destroy the passions, and give us an opportunity to exercise positive virtues: resignation, patience, charity, etc.

26th Sunday After Pentecost-- The Purpose of the Local Church

In the sixty-first psalm, the first verse reads, “Shall not my soul be subjected to God? In Him is my salvation.” We do not consider subjection or subjugation to be a good thing.  We desire and value freedom and independence.  Many rulers throughout human history have sought to bring other peoples and nations into bodily subjection, but nothing can subject the soul by force or coercion.  The soul must subject itself voluntarily to Good or evil.  Subjection to God is not like subjection to human powers, because, as the psalm says, subjection to God leads to salvation, which we believe is true freedom. 

     Naturally, to be subject to God is to obey His commandments.  But, in Christ, the life of the commandments is no longer the sum total of a list of abstract rules, but concrete participation in the identity of a Person.  Rather than a life that is hedged about by negative commandments, we share a life that is free in the pursuit of virtue.  It is concerning this life that the one hundred eighteenth psalm prophesies, when it says, “Set before me for a law, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will seek after it continually.” The psalmist is asking that the Law of God be somehow, someway, held up for imitation.  This desire was fulfilled in the Incarnation of Christ.

     During the earthly lifetime of the Lord Christ, He drew imitators around Himself, those whom He chose for His Apostles and disciples.  He schooled them in the imitation of His Person, so that, with the Paschal Mystery completed by His Resurrection from the dead, they would be able to participate in His identity as the Christ of God.  These people, whom He gathered around Himself, and whom He subjected to the leadership of the Chief Apostle Peter and the other Holy Apostles, became known as the ecclesia, a word meaning “assembly,” which we conventionally translate as “Church.” There is another Greek word, which we translate in the same way. That word is kyriakon, which signifies the church building.  Nevertheless, when the Lord Jesus founded the Ecclesia there was no kyriakon, and it would be many years before the first kyriakon (church- building) was built.

     The Church, Ecclesia, is the assembly of those who share the identity of Christ, who through the Mysteries of Christ have become God, and the Son of God, by grace.  This is equivalent to saying that the Church is the Body of Christ.  The local church exists with the same mission and identity as the Universal Church.  The local church, as the assembly of those who are incorporated into Christ by His Mysteries, provides the environment in which Christian people can practice their faith and grow in it through prayer and the practice of the virtues.  In the context of the local church, we should be able to learn to have a deep relationship with Christ our God through prayer.  We should have the opportunity to learn the disciplines that are necessary for the Christian life, primarily fasting, and we should, together in the community, learn the practice of charity and deeds of mercy.  The church that does not provide this environment, and fails to meet these goals, is an unsuccessful church in the truest sense, for no one is conformed to Christ through its communion.   It is through the life of the local church that individual Christian grows in his or her faith and is more and more like Christ, through conversation about prayer, virtue and the spiritual life, through participation in the holy services, through teaching and study, through the prudent use of a library that contains books that give sound guidance in regards to issues in the Christian life, and through deeds of mercy. 

     The Holy Apostle Paul says in the epistle reading today, “Take heed how exactly you walk, not as unwise ones, but as wise ones, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The way that we practice this wisdom is by living according to our faith in the midst of the Church.  Our church should give us the supportive atmosphere we need in order to be conformed to Christ, rather than being conformed to worldly things, like the unfortunate man in the Gospel reading today.  Shall not my soul be conformed to Christ? In Him is my salvation.

Evening Sermon-- Job 5:11 The Forgiveness of Sins and Salvation

"He lifts up on high the lowly, and those who mourn he exalts to safety." 

This verse from the fift chapter of the Book of Job is extremely appropriate for our meditations during this Nativity Fast.  The verse first reminds us of the importance of lowliness on our part.  We must approach God with lowliness in order to receive the life and salvation that He has to offer.  Humility is an easy concept, but a difficult virtue to master.  Humility, in a nutshell, is the truth.  Humility is knowing our true place in the universe, our true place and state before God.  The same word in Greek means both "humble" and "lowly," tapeinos, and the corresponding virtue is tapeinosis.  Tapeinosis has a range of meaning from meekness to degradation.  In the Christian context it also has a range of meaning.  Tapeinosis can mean the degradation that comes from extreme suffering, or it can mean the lowliness that comes about as a result of sin.  This range of meaning is fortunate, because given the range of meaning, it is Christ, sinless as He is, Who is our model of tapeinosis. In other words, "He lifts on high the lowly" can be understood in this context as a prophecy of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead.  Christ willingly entered the extreme degradation of physical and moral suffering for our sake, and for this "God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the Name above every other name." The same verse is also a prophecy concerning us, who are conformed to Christ in His Mysteries.  Through the Mysteries of Christ, we share the identity of Christ.  We enter into the extreme humility of suffering, so that, in Christ, we can be raised to glory. 
     The second half of the verse is a doublet, that is, it says the same thing as the first half, but nuances the message that has already been given.  The Biblical poets are, almost without exception, masters of doublets.  The second half of the verse says, "and those who mourn He exalts to safety." Well, it goes without saying that "safety" and "salvation" are the same word.  The poet is talking about the ultimate safety, salvation in the Presence of God, the Kingdom of God and Paradise.  But we notice that those whom God gives salvation to, as an inheritance, are those who mourn.  The Lord Jesus Himself repeats the sentiment in the Sermon on the Mount "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." It is not general sorrow, discouragement or despair that is being recommended here.  The poet is talking specifically about mourning for sin.  The poet wants us to know the positive consequences of standing before God and acknowledging that we are not [yet] what we were created to be.  This kind of mourning is a keystone of Christian spirituality. In Greek it is known as penthos.  Penthos has been described by various spiritual writers as "a bright sadness," because it is not the useless, handwringing, fretting sorrow of the world.  It is a mourning that engenders JOY. Yes, it seems like a paradox, but this is precisely what penthos is.  Penthos is a mourning that leads us naturally to joy because of the promise of salvation.  Salvation cannot be attained without it.  The Lord's saying is clear: no mourning, no comfort; but, on the other hand, if there is true mourning, then comfort will follow from the Lord. 
     The importance of penthos in the Church can be observed simply by the way that Christians pray.  Traditionally, Christians pray facing the East.  In fact, in the early Church they even stretched out their hands in a gesture of supplication and longing.  Why the East? We pray towards the East because the Paradise is in the East "And the Lord God planted a garden in the East [Paradise] and there He placed the man, whom He had made." By praying in this way, we express our longing for restoration.  Also, we express our longing for the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, because the manifestation of that coming will also be from the East.  Our Lord Himself tells us, "Even as the lightning flashes from the East to the West, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." In other words, when we pray, we do not try to make ourselves as comfortable as possible as is the custom of certain other religious traditions, but we stretch out our hands in longing towards the East, longing for Christ and His Kingdom above all things, while humbly confessing that we are not worthy to inherit it.  We allow the body to outwardly manifest the disposition of the soul, and, in this way, the body's action supports and bolsters the soul's disposition. 
     A man who is an example of penthos can have a profound effect on those around him. There was a controversy in the early Church concerning who had the authority to forgive sins in the Name of Christ: the bishops [and, by extension, the priests] or the confessors [those who had suffered for the faith during the horrific persecutions, but who had, nevertheless survived] and the "spiritual fathers" certain revered monks who excelled at the art of directing Christian souls.  The controversy ultimately went away on its own, because widespread persecution ended after the Edict of Milan (312-3), so the confessors died out, many of them being revered as saints after their deaths, and the monastic movement became increasingly clericalized until virtually all "spiritual fathers" were also priests.  In my own theological opinion, the confessors and "spiritual fathers" [like Antony the Great, for example] had the ability to "forgive sins" but not in the same way that the bishops wielded the authority.  The confessors and holy monastic spiritual directors could "forgive sins" because they had the ability to move others to a perfect and complete contrition.  In the case of the confessors, we know from contemporary accounts, that the sight of their wounds was so moving that many people [including the Emperor St. Constantine the Great] would venerate them like living relics as they wept for their sins.  The case of the "spiritual fathers" was a bit different.  In their case it was the example of their prayer, their suffering and their apparent and perceivable closeness to God that would move others to repentance. 
     We must strive to perfect lowliness and mourning, not only for ourselves, but as an example for others.  Spend time everyday meditating on what we've lost on account of our great distance from God, all the while remembering with joy the blessed promise of our restoration.

God Is Pleased With Dogs: A Reflection on the Book of Tobias and the Natural Virtues of Man's Best Friend

I was reading just recently about one of the traditions concerning the False Prophet of the Hagarenes.  According to this tradition, the False Prophet was accustomed to receive revelations from the Angel Gabriel [actually, the Devil] at a fixed time during the day.  One day, however, the Angel did not come.  At that point, the False Prophet was a guest in a friend's house.  This friend had a dog.  Later, once the False Prophet had moved on to a different place, the lying spirit did indeed manifest itself to him.  The seer asked the spirit why it did not come at the appointed time on the previous day, and the spirit replied that "we angels never enter a house where there is a dog."
     This is only one example of the theological, philosophical and moral problems that are inherent in what is objectively a blasphemous faith.  It is fundamentally unsurprising that that religion, which rejects the notion of the human being as "the image and likeness of God," also shows blatant and consistent disregard and contempt for other things in God's Creation that manifest His vestige.
     God created dogs, as He did also pigs.  All of the animals were created by God according to the first chapter of the Book of Genesis.  At the end of that chapter, the Lord God looks about on all the things that He has made and pronounces them "very good." It is true that later, in the dietary laws of the Torah, certain animals are designated by God as "unclean," but this says nothing whatsoever about the moral goodness or moral evil of those animals themselves.  The laws are established to distinguish Israel, to make him holy (that is, "set apart") from his neighbours.  To say that all things are "very good" does not exclude the possibility that some things are "better." In this way, the Lord distinguishes the people that He sets aside as "peculiarly His own." He assigns to them from among all existent things (which are good on account of their being), what He designates as the "better" things.
     The Hagarenes, however, on the basis of their false revelation, insist on believing that animals like dogs and pigs are evil in themselves.  This is the reason why they believe, for example, that before the final judgment Isa al-Masih (a caricature and parody of the Lord Jesus) will return in order to accomplish the following things: 1) He will break the Cross [that is, he will destroy Christianity finally and forever], 2) He will kill all the pigs, and 3) He will judge the living and the dead in the final resurrection.
     Why would the Lord Jesus be interested in killing pigs in His Second and Glorious Coming? And why, we could ask for the same reason, do the angels despise some of the things that God has made? The false beliefs of the Hagarenes are not able to answer these questions.
     The revelation that comes from the true God gives us a beautiful, contrary example.  The Holy Bible that is accepted by the historical Churches of Christianity contains the Book of Tobias.  (Protestant Christians also keep the book among the Old Testament Apocrypha.) The Book of Tobias contains two references to "the dog." The story is that of a young man who sets out on a journey at the behest of his father in order to recover some lost wealth and to seek a wife from among his own people.  In the circumstances of this journey, the hero, Tobias, is accompanied by the Angel Raphael, who is concealed in human form.  It is the angel's role to guide and protect the young Tobias in what would otherwise be perilous circumstances.  When the Angel Raphael first appears in the story, and when he and Tobias prepare to set forth on their errand, one other being suddenly appears in the story: a dog.  The dog is only mentioned twice and very briefly, but the dog functions in the story as the symbolic indication of the angel's mission.  On both occasions, as they set out on the journey, and as they prepare to go home, after accomplishing their work, the Holy Spirit records that "the dog followed them." It is not the angel's function to "lead" Tobias (that would interfere in his freedom).  The angel is there to guide and protect.  The dog is the symbolic statement of this.  The dog is suited by nature, and has been trained by mankind, to guide and protect.  He does not guide in such a way that he leads his master against his will, but, rather, guides him according to his will.  A seeing-eye dog, for example, guides his master in such a way that he perfects the will of his master by making it possible for him to execute his will in safety. In just the same way, the angels of God, like Raphael, unlike the malicious demons (e.g. the False Prophet's lying spirit masquerading as the Angel Gabriel), do not interfere in our freedom.  They "lead from behind" (to borrow an expression from contemporary life) to encourage us to practice virtue in safety.  The dog is the effective symbol of the virtues that are part of this kind of guidance and protection, namely: loyalty, faithfulness, perseverance and patience. It is, of course, not true that the dog possesses these virtues in himself. In God is the fullness of virtue (the fullness of perfection) and different virtues are manifest in different creatures according to the Divine Will.
     The False Prophet's blasphemous religion does not like this animal, because it does not believe in virtue.  According to that faith, human beings are to be moved to live a moral life through fear and coercion.  The religious law itself is fundamentally coercive.  In this kind of system, true virtue is impossible, because virtue must be freely chosen and practiced. Conversely, it does not eliminate vice either, but only channels it and rarefies it. 
     We would do well to cultivate the virtues of which the dog in the Book of Tobit is a symbol.  Our life and society is in dire need of loyalty, faithfulness, perseverance and patience.  The only way we grow in virtue is by faithfulness to the struggle. 

Evening Sermon: Lord, take pity on us, exiles from Your Light

As we have stood looking upon the figure of Adam, weeping before the closed gates of Paradise, and as we have felt our first father’s longing for the harmonious world, which God created, and which is so beautifully described in Psalm 103, we have perhaps reflected interiorly that our lives have many small evenings, many dusks, in which we dread and mourn the approach of darkness.  These are moments of discouragement, moral uncertainty and even depression.  Yet, the Lord in the beautiful service that is known to us as “the evening sacrifice” is reminding us that the darkness too has a place in His sublime plan.  It is true that He did not make evil, but now that evil has entered into His creation, He permits it for the specific good of us human beings.  Herein lies the mystery of darkness.  It is a mystery because it is ineffable the way that God makes all work together unto our good.  We cannot understand darkness, because we cannot penetrate it.  Nevertheless, it is certain that the darkness stirs in us the longing for the light. 

     Adam’s exile from Paradise stirred in him the longing for reconciliation with God.  Cast out into the darkness, he longed for the light.  After him, the human race would continue to long for the return of the light (the Light of Paradise, the Eternal Wisdom, the Only-Begotten Son of God).  This longing was expressed by the Patriarchs and the Prophets, who themselves ardently desired to be healed from sin and death, and also taught the people the same ardent longing.  In our present service, the time of the Patriarchs and the Prophets is symbolized by the Great Ektenia, because in this great prayer we adopt the plaintive cry of the Prophets, which went up to God generation after generation: Lord, have mercy! Their cry was, again and again, “Lord, have mercy. See and take pity on our misery, for we are exiles from Your Light, and we wander in darkness.” When we sing the Ektenia, we try to create in ourselves that same expectation, that same desire, that animated and drove the Patriarchs, beginning with Abraham, and the Prophets all down through the ages. 

     We can profitably adopt this call, this plea, and use it anytime that we feel the onset of moral darkness in our world.  In moments of temptation, depression and discouragement, we can call out “Lord, have mercy” with the same faith, longing and hope as the Prophets.

25th Sunday After Pentecost

THE PRISONER OF THE LORD—BOUND WITH THE BOND OF PEACE

     During the eighteenth century, there were seven very famous artists, who made quilts.  These seven women worked together on the same quilt, for each woman designed and perfected a different portion of the same quilt. During their partnership, they produced a lot of beautiful quilts, which, now, the city has acquired and gathered into a special museum. 

     Each quilt is wonderful and interesting, because often a woman deliberately erred in a part of the pattern as a way of showing humility towards God, but later another of the women tried to correct the mistake.  The seven women achieved a very great and extraordinary level of craftsmanship, because they continuously concealed the errors of others, while trying to deliberately reveal their own.  They always sought to do loving things for one another, and, at the same time, refused to accept any honour or recompense for their good deeds.  Often, for example, a candle burned through the night, because one woman worked alone for the benefit of all of them, or, sometimes, six or five of the women worked to satisfy the needs of another, who was sick. 

     We ought not to think that the life of these seven women was easy. Each person, who truly seeks God, ought to realize that love is very, very difficult, because we must do battle with our own fallen nature, which seeks its own good in a disproportionate way.

     The Holy Apostle Paul gives us an example how to live, when he describes himself in today’s epistle as “the prisoner of the Lord.” We must become “prisoners of the Lord” as well.”  What is a prisoner? A prisoner is a person, who is dependant on the will of another person.  Like a slave, the prisoner is not able to work according to his will.  He depends entirely on the good will of the one, who has taken him captive. 

     Prisoners are bound.  The prisoners of the Lord are bound in their unity in the Holy Spirit by the bond of peace.  The purpose of our imprisonment in the Lord is to become like Him, Who tells us: “No man has greater love than this—that he lay down his life for his friends.” In fact, “to lay down ones life” means to consecrate ones life to the service of others.  The Lord Jesus gives us an example and a description of humility, for he says: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.  Again, after he washed the feet of His disciples, He said to them: “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and rightly, because so I am. Therefore, if I, your Teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, then you ought to wash the feet of one another. I have given you an example, as I have done, so you also are to do.”

     Humility is the special virtue of the Lord’s prisoner, who is bound with the bond of peace.  When a prisoner of the Lord hears his Lord command: “I give you a new commandment that you love one another,” he understands that this means: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” and humbly and obediently, the Lord’s prisoner fulfills the command.

     We see a good example of this in the parable of today’s Gospel. The Jews and the Samaritans are enemies.  St. John the Theologian reminds us in his Gospel: “Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.” The Gospel According to St. Luke gives us a glimpse of just how bitter the animosity was between these two groups: “Jesus sent messengers ahead of Him. They entered a certain village of the Samaritans to prepare for Jesus’ arrival. But the Samaritans refused to receive Him, because He had His face set towards Jerusalem.” The Samaritan and the man that he saved were enemies, but the Samaritan is an example of obedience to the Lord’s commandments. He humbled himself and showed love to his enemy.  We also must humble ourselves to show love to our neighbours, especially if they are our enemies.

     Uncompromising love of neighbour, especially of enemies, is the life that is lived according to the example of Christ.  It is a life of self-denial and humility before God.  True humility is captivity in the Holy Spirit in the bond of peace. 

     The 76^th Psalm, tells us that humility attains the blessing of God and brings us to salvation: “God arose to judgment, to save all the humble on the earth.” Clearly, the same psalm shows us, that the Lord punishes pride, when he says: “He takes away the spirit of princes.”

Forgiveness and Resentment: Foretaste of Heaven, Foretaste of Hell

SOME REFLECTIONS OF THE HANCEVILLE PILGRIMAGE

I have just returned from our Nativity Fast Pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama.  The whole of the pilgrimage was a very moving experience, especially the opportunities that I had to offer the Holy Liturgy at our Greek Catholic parish in Conyers, Georgia. 

     On the way to the Shrine on Tuesday morning, we had the opportunity to discuss difficulties in the spiritual life.  We discussed especially the issues of resentment and forgiveness. 

     The issues of forgiveness and resentment are intimately connected with the concept of prolepsis (foretaste).  In the same way that the person, who practices forgetfulness of wrongs experiences the foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven, the person who resides in resentment is, in a very real sense, already in Hell.  We observe, again and again, an unfortunate pattern from the communities of the Middle East, for example, that the population of a local area, who are followers of the Blasphemy (it is not right to call it “submission” since it is submission only to the Will of the Evil One, who is only a creature, equal to us), will attend prayers in their temples, and their passions will become inflamed by the preaching of their clerics.  They will pour out of their temples, taking to the streets to perform deeds of injustice and violence against those who reject the Blasphemy and scorn the Enemy of Mankind.  In this example, the Blasphemy, the entire complex of the teachings of the False Prophet, is a prison for human beings made not of stone, but of thought.  It is a pale parody not of the Faith as a whole, but of various parts of the Faith, stitched together in a haphazard way into a belief system which, though stretched this way and that, is not extensive enough, nor consistent enough to cover the intellectual and moral nakedness of mankind.

     In just the same way, every resentment is a prison made of thought –already a Hell on earth.  Sadly, the only possible escape from this prison is through prayer, and, more specifically, neptic mental prayer.  Only through the practice of watchfulness can we rise above the level of our thoughts, perceive our thoughts for what they are (passion-bearing missiles hurled at us by our enemies) and understand the higher mind (nous) as the victim of thought, whom the True God is anxious and willing to save.  Many, many human beings will never know freedom from the passions, and those same passions will drag them down.  Dying in the earthly Hell of the passions, there they will remain. 

     On Monday night, before our trip down to Alabama, we had an evening celebration of the Divine Liturgy in the church in Conyers.  The Gospel reading was St. Luke’s account of the cleansing of the temple.  During the homily, I recalled the teaching of St. Maximus the Confessor that our Christian temples are both models of the entire Creation, as well as models of the human being.  The Christian temple is a model of the whole Creation because the Creation, like the temple, is divided into a material and a spiritual world (represented by the nave and the Holy of Holies).  On the other hand, the temple is also an image of the human being, because he also is constructed of a material and a spiritual reality (the body and the soul).  In the very center of the “soul” of the temple is the altar.  The purpose of the altar is the offering of sacrifice.  In the same way, in the center of the human soul is the “altar of the soul”—the mind.  The true purpose of the mind, according to the Fathers, is the offering of prayer to God.  The altar is defiled by unworthy sacrifices, and the altar of the mind is similarly defiled by evil thoughts.  Thus, according to Maximus, it is necessary to keep the altar of the mind protected from the defilement of evil thoughts through the recollection of Christ.  This is represented by the indition (the topmost cloth on the altar, which is traditionally sewn in the form of a cross. It is the recollection of Christ in the mind, which maintains the mind as a “house of prayer” and prevents it from becoming a “den of thieves.” 

     Tuesday morning, before our departure to Alabama, once again we had the opportunity to offer the Holy Oblation.  On this occasion, Father Yaroslav preached a moving homily on the parable of the vinedressers in which he connected the text with its Old Testament antecedents, particularly the Prophet Isaiah’s well known pronouncement, “Now, the vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel.” The vineyard is the Lord’s, and as such, it must please the Lord.  Herein is a solemn warning indeed for all of us, both as a nation and a church, as well as individuals.  The vinedressers fell, first and foremost, through what the Gospel refers to as “reasoning among themselves.” The morality of our deeds is in the interior of our souls.  It is our thoughts that defile us.  It makes no difference at all that most of the evil we contemplate we never actually put into practice.  We are still guilty of the evil we have contemplated, because we have contemplated it.  On account of the influence of passionate thoughts, we have “reasoned within ourselves,” and thus have withdrawn within ourselves.  Resentment is a form of “reasoning within ourselves.” Perhaps Hell is the state of “eternally reasoning within ourselves?” …

24th Sunday After Pentecost- Christ is Our Peace in the Communion of the Trinity

The Church continually proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good tidings that He brought to mankind, namely, that through sharing the Life of God by means of the His Mysteries, human beings can be freed from death and become partakers in the everlasting Kingdom of God.  In short, because the Holy One has become a human being, the poisons of this world can be stopped.

     God is calling us to communion with Him. He is calling us to share His life, to live the same life with Him.  This is the invitation that the Church is constantly talking about, constantly promoting and proclaiming.  This invitation is beautifully pictured in the icon of the Holy Trinity.  In this symbolic representation of the Holy Trinity, we see the Three Divine Persons seated around the Holy Table: the Father sits to the right side of the Holy Table, while the Spirit sits across from Him on the Table’s left side. The Word, Christ our God, sits in the center, behind the Holy Table. In the attitude and posture of the Three Persons there is a sense of tranquility, harmony and peace.  Perhaps the most moving detail of the icon is the fact that the front of the Holy Table is open. The communion of the Trinity is open towards us. We are being invited to take our place at the same Table. But, what the Church does not say often enough is that we cannot even accept this invitation to share the life of God without first accomplishing something else.  In order to accept the invitation to share in the deification that is offered to us in Christ, we first have to change our entire orientation towards being. We have to learn to look at being, the universe, creation, in a different way. Only then will it be possible for us to be transformed in Christ and through Christ into the fullness of the image and likeness of God.

     We human beings, because of our sinful nature, are continually at odds with being.  We are continually dissatisfied with what is, and ever wanting to replace what is with what, we think, should be.  This is one of the most effective poisons of the world—a death-dealing drug to the human spirit.  Just look around at the impatience, frustration and anxiety all around us in the world. Take a good look at the anger, greed and hatred that surround us, on account of desires unfulfilled, goals unaccomplished, and needs unmet. Yet, God has revealed Himself by means of two Scriptures, both of which are worthy of our respect and reverence.  The first of these Scriptures in the order of time is being itself.  God reveals His Will to us first and foremost by means of what is.  Behold the stark simplicity of what we human beings try to make a complex world.  What exists has been willed by God, what does not exist, He has not willed. Everything that happens to us is either positively willed by God, or it is permitted by Him.  He always has the same motive for all of His actions: our individual good, because the individual human being is the image of God, and God is capable of loving the individual human being as if he or she were the only created thing.

     The human being, then, who wants to see salvation, that is, who wants to love God, and take his or her place at the Table in the communion of the Trinity, needs to begin by accepting being as the manifestation of God’s Will.  When we accept the world around us as it is, we are free to ponder the significance of things and events.  This humble pondering of God’s Will for us leads us to a deeper understanding of God’s plan, knowing all the while that we are not capable of understanding that plan in its fullness and majesty.  Learning to accept our circumstances as a manifestation of God’s Will for us is nothing less than embracing Christ as our peace.  The Holy Apostle says in today’s epistle: “Christ is our peace.” What this means is: we don’t have to suffer anxiety or impatience, or frustration, because we have Christ.

     Ask yourselves this question: If what occurs in my life is not a manifestation of God’s Will, then what is? And, who is this person, who is greater than God, making things happen against God’s Will?

     Once we have accepted Christ as our peace, then we are able to accept God’s invitation to share His Life.  Once we no longer rebel against being, but humbly accept it, then we become docile to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and He is able to teach us through our experiences, the Scriptures and the rites of the Church.