Friday, March 8, 2024

Comments on 'The Prodigal Son - Ending Unresolved?'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

I will share a few responses to the meditation that I sent out yesterday about the "openness" of the parable of the Prodigal Son. This one is from Spencer Settles:

_______

Thanks for those thoughts on the parable, Father! The one thought that came to me after I read your email regards a similarity to another biblical account. The younger son, in his moment of repentance, expresses a sentiment much like that of the Syro-Phoenician woman who petitions Jesus to heal her daughter. She says, in response to Jesus’s statement that it is not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:28). In Matthew’s telling of that event Jesus praises the woman’s faith. The younger son in Luke’s parable says something that seems very similar to me: that he would gladly become a hired servant in his father’s house, where the servants never go hungry. There’s that same extreme humility expressed: “Never mind privilege, as long as I can BE there. As long as I can eat, I do not need to be honored. I will be a dog. I will be a servant.” 

That, I think, is evidence of true faith and true repentance. Of course, we do not know whether the son would have continued in this humility, as you pointed out. But I like to think that a moment of such genuine humility has a powerful effect on the heart of a person. And the reception he got! How it must have bewildered him. The father disregards his rehearsed statement - practically interrupts him - and begins calling for a robe, a ring, a feast! As anyone who has ever received love or praise in a moment of intense awareness of one’s own weakness knows, such a thing is incredibly moving and humbling. What might otherwise “puff up” will, in such a moment, scald and sear in the most powerful way. 


Anyway, that was the thought that came to me, so I thought I’d share it.

In Christ,

Spencer Settles

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

The Parable of the Prodigal Son - Ending Unresolved?

 


 

Dear Parish Faithful, 

Of the many intriguing points about the Parable of the Prodigal Son, one of them is the fact of just how "open" it is in the end. After reading of these three wonderfully etched characters of the compassionate father, and of the two sons - one prodigal and the other unforgiving - we find ourselves facing a real dose of uncertainty when the parable is completed. 

Sequentially, we heard of the remarkable "resurrection" (anastas in the text) of the prodigal son once he "comes to himself," and literally throws himself before the father whom he callously abandoned to pursuit his fortune and his misguided understanding of both independence and pleasure. Then, we heard of the compassionate father who responds with an outpouring of forgiveness and love, as he refuses to react with a predictable offense at his son's misadventures when he returns seeking mercy. And finally, we hear of the even more predictable response of the other son who, almost choking with resentment at the mercy shown his unacknowledged brother (a relationship that he does not admit to), as he bitterly lashes out at his father's seemingly blissful indifference to his life of toil in pursuit of fair recognition of his filial piety. The poor father has two very difficult sons to deal with, and he does so with an amazing patience and loving admonition. The image of our heavenly Father as revealed by Jesus finds its truest expression in the father of the parable.

But a parable is not a fairy tale, and though the final sentence is undoubtedly positive and even echoes the very core of the Gospel: "Your brother was lost, and is now found," that is not the same as hearing: "And they lived happily ever after." It is not even equivalent to hearing: "All's well that ends well." Hence, the "openness" of the parable's ending is that we cannot assume with any certainty that the unforgiving brother experienced a "change of mind" (the meaning of the Gk. word for repentance - metanoia). The possibility remains that his resentment may have continued to smolder even if he went into the party and partook of the fatted calf and appeared to "make merry." There is no real indication of his final response. 

And the prodigal son? We left him humbled and on his knees before his father; perhaps filled with jubilation at his "reversal of fortune" as he now rejoices in a sumptuous feast prepared for him shortly after his desperate willingness to even eat the pods thrown to the pigs. But was his repentance permanent or ephemeral? Did he suffer another bout of restlessness and instability? Did he "hit the road" yet again?

Christ gives us a remarkable glimpse of the gift of salvation and of a "fresh start" in this parable. Of this there is no doubt, as many see this as the "parable of all parables;" the one that comes readily to mind when the heart of the Gospel is reflected upon: the salvation of sinners by a merciful God. And yet we can also say that Christ was a "realist," and that he leads us into the deepest recesses of the Gospel, while simultaneously acknowledging the barriers presented to a sinful humanity to actually repent: habit, hard-heartedness, indifference and resentment, to mention a few of the more obvious sins. 

We know how we want the parable to end, as our better intuition seeks reconciliation and deep communion between human beings made in God's image and likeness. But the "openness" in the end, without an assurance of that longed for "happy ending" reveals the contingency of all life within the theater of history and its demands for constant choices. Repentance must be sustained once embraced - an ever-deepening process of "turning around" and "changing one's mind" so that we seek first the Kingdom of God and all righteousness, leading to the human transformation that that implies.

Again, Christ offers us an unforgettable image of repentance, compassion, and even the "no exit" of cold indifference. This openness is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Lord's incomparable parables.

Please feel free to share any comments or further insights into this "parable of parables."


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The Witness of Alexei Navalny

 


 

Dear Parish Faithful,

I have taken these words of Alexei Navalny from a longer article found on the website Public Orthodoxy. These words of Navalny before the Russian judge who would sentence him to prison are introduced by a rather disquieting question by Inga Leonova. I am certain that everyone is aware of the that Alexei Navalny died recently while serving a sentence in a Siberian prison because of his sustained opposition to the repressive regime in Russia.

"What can we, the Orthodox, make of the fact that one of the strongest Christian sermons in recent years was delivered as the last word in the unjust trial of an opposition leader?"

__________

If you want, I’ll talk to you about God and salvation. I’ll turn up the volume of heartbreak to the maximum, so to speak. The fact is that I am a Christian, which usually rather sets me up as an example for constant ridicule in the Anti-Corruption Foundation, because mostly our people are atheists and I was once quite a militant atheist myself. But now I am a believer, and that helps me a lot in my activities, because everything becomes much, much easier. I think about things less. There are fewer dilemmas in my life, because there is a book in which, in general, it is more or less clearly written what action to take in every situation. It’s not always easy to follow this book, of course, but I am actually trying. And so, as I said, it’s easier for me, probably, than for many others, to engage in politics.

A man recently wrote to me, Navalny, why does everyone write to you, ‘Hold on, don’t give up, be patient, grit your teeth?’ What do you have to tolerate? You kind of said in the interview that you believe in God. The Bible says, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.’ Well, that’s just great for you, isn’t it!” And I thought, how well this man understands me! Because it’s not that I’m fine, but I’ve always thought that this particular commandment is more or less an instruction to activity. And so, while certainly not really enjoying the place where I am, I have no regrets about coming back, or about what I’m doing. It’s fine, because I did the right thing. On the contrary, I feel a real kind of satisfaction. Because at some difficult moment I did as required by the instructions, and did not betray the commandment.

And there’s one more important thing. Without question, this whole Biblical passage—“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled”—comes across as overly theatrical to modern ears. It is assumed that people who say such things are crazy, not to put too fine a point on it—crazy oddbods who sit there alone in their rooms with disheveled hair, attempting to cheer themselves up by any means possible, because they are lonely and not needed by anyone. This is the key point. Our authorities and the system as a whole try to tell these people that they are pathetic loners.

The first priority is to intimidate people, and then to prove to them that they are loners, and to imply that no normal or sane person would adhere to teachings of this kind. This attempt to make people believe that they are loners is highly significant, since it represents one of the goals pursued by the authorities. Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter books was a remarkable philosopher who said something very wise about this topic. You might remember her saying to Harry Potter, in an attempt to give him courage in the face of adversity; “Well, if I were You-Know-Who… I’d want you to feel cut off from everyone else…” There can be no doubt that our own You-Know-Who in his palace would also want that.

These guards are great chaps, and the guards in my prison are also decent folk, but they don’t talk to me—they have apparently been forbidden to do so. They sometimes come out with stock phrases. This is also very important, because the aim is for me to feel unceasingly lonely. Yet this is not how I feel at all. And I will explain why. This teaching—“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied”—appears somehow esoteric and odd, but in fact it is the central political doctrine in modern Russia. Your Honor, what is it, this phrase or slogan, the most important political slogan in Russia? Where does power lie? Power lies in truth. That is what this teaching is saying. That is how it could be compressed into a Tweet, omitting the unnecessary words such as “for” and “thirst.” This is what it essentially means. And the whole country repeats in many different permutations that power lies in truth, and that whoever holds the truth will be victorious.


– Alexey Navalny’s closing remarks in Moscow City Court, February 20, 2021.

 

Monday, February 26, 2024

He who humbles himself...

 


 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee and learn humility from the Publican's tears. Let us cry to our Savior: Have mercy on us, O only merciful One. (Kontakion of the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee)

 

At Sunday's Divine Liturgy, we heard the first of four pre-lenten Gospel readings: The Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (LK. 18:10-14). A parable is a story, and therefore is not based on an actual event, but who would deny that it reveals to us the truth about our relationship with God? That is why, in some of our prayers, we ask the Lord to grant us the spirit of the Publican and the Prodigal even though they were not individual historical characters. And yet these characters - the positive and the negative - are representative of all humanity. The parables are thus timeless sources of revealed Truth. They challenge us today, as they challenged our Lord's contemporaries.

This short parable describes "Two men" that "went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector (or publican)." (LK. 18:10). The Lord continues:

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God , I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get. (v. 11-12)

 

The primary sin of this man who would have been considered "righteous" among his fellow Jews, is that of self-righteousness. True righteousness is God-sourced; but the pharisee's righteousness was self-sourced. Perhaps it is significant that Christ specifically says that he prayed "with himself." His "prayer" to God was a concise formulation of self-praise. He trusted in himself more then he trusted in God. He did the "right things," but in the wrong spirit. The sinners that he encountered on a daily basis only served to affirm him in his own perceived righteousness. The comparisons and contrasts were always to his advantage. He "needed" the sinners that surrounded him! His pride was his downfall. If pride leads to the self apart from God, then pride is the bitter road to nowhere. "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled." (v. 14)

Of the publican, the Lord offers this short but moving description:

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' (v. 13)

 

Aware of his sin, the publican manifests deep, heartfelt repentance. This humble recognition of his sin is, paradoxically, the publican's road back to fellowship with God based on forgiveness and restoration. Empty of pride, there is now "room" for God. Humility is the "mother of the virtues" according to the saints, and this is not the way of the world. Humility demands great trust on our part, for the humble suffer reproach in this world, and our fear of being taken advantage of works against nurturing a humble spirit. Humility is the beginning of God-centeredness as opposed to self-centeredness. "He who humbles himself will be exalted." (v. 14)

We all know the temptation toward self-righteousness and pride. The "rewards" are meaningless, for the exalted self ultimately experiences loneliness and emptiness. The proud person lives and dies alone. Yet, we still find it diffiicult to avoid such temptation. The "world' has driven the thirst for autonomy and its pride-based assumptions into our minds and hearts. To follow the Lord in His humility demands a total reorientation of our accumulated worldly "values" and worldly "wisdom." It means trusting in God, and not in oneself. Great Lent creates the environment wherein we can focus our attention on this never-ending battle for the heart's loyalties and final place of rest. The parable is a wonderful reminder of how we should approach this battle.


Monday, February 19, 2024

The Death of Alexei Navalny

Photo: free.navalny.com


Dear Parish Faithful,


I am sure that most of you have heard that the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died last Friday while languishing in a Siberian prison near the Arctic circle (a prison that was formerly part of the Soviet Gulag slave labor camps), the victim of an oppressive authoritarian system that is responsible for his death, regardless of what the final "medical" reason behind his death actually is. That is something we may never know. And only God knows what he suffered in that prison for the last three years. 

In an age seemingly devoid of heroes, Navalny happens to be precisely that - a man of great courage and integrity. In short - a real hero. And these powerful virtues are in sharp contrast with the dictator who feared his principled opposition and then persecuted him. After nearly dying from an attempt to poison him, Navalny bravely returned to Russia to resume his role of opposition to the Putin regime. He was immensely popular. But he clearly understood the danger of returning to his home country and putting himself within the grasp of the authorities. As put in a new article in "Foreign Affairs" by the journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan:

For Russian society, confused, depressed, and constantly besieged by an ever more repressive regime, Navalny was a lone unifying figure. Although Russian authorities isolated him in increasingly restrictive layers of confinement since his arrest on his return to Russia in 2021, he continued to have that stature right up to the moment of his death. Navalny’s demise marks a dark new step in Putin’s ruthless pursuit of power. But it also raises a stark challenge for Russia’s opposition, which must now figure out how to sustain the unity he created and seize the movement he left behind.

I do believe that it is "meet and right" to acknowledge Alexei Navalny's tragic death so that we can think about what it means to stand up today for truth and honesty in a time when posturing and rhetoric are being rewarded by a great deal of public opinion. If the word martyrdom means "witness," we can say that Navalny was a martyr, for he was a witness who gave his life for the sake of defending justice and honesty - what we would call "righteousness" -  as did St. John the Forerunner. Like St. John, he boldly stood up to and spoke against a leader who ruled through fear and oppression. The Herods of old have been replaced all through history by latter-day tyrants exhibiting the same dreary traits of corruption and cowardice. They can only respond to strong morally-based opposition by repression and persecution. That is precisely why history judges them as "infamous." But their victims are deeply respected and remembered as heroes and "icons" of goodness and moral integrity. 

I would like to also share a couple of paragraphs from an article by the esteemed journalist and historian, Anne Applebaum, a scholar who has spent most of her professional life studying and writing about totalitarian regimes in which basic civility is cynically trampled on. The article from which this paragraphs is taken, was published on Friday in the Atlantic Monthly and is entitled "Why Russia Killed Navalny."

The enormous contrast between Navalny’s civic courage and the corruption of Putin’s regime will remain. Putin is fighting a bloody, lawless, unnecessary war, in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians have been killed or wounded, for no reason other than to serve his own egotistical vision.

Even behind bars Navalny was a real threat to Putin, because he was living proof that courage is possible, that truth exists, that Russia could be a different kind of country. For a dictator who survives thanks to lies and violence, that kind of challenge was intolerable. Now Putin will be forced to fight against Navalny’s memory, and that is a battle he will never win.

Alexei Navalny was a man of great moral integrity. His untimely death is a tragedy. We hope that it was not in vain. As we exclaim in the Church: Memory Eternal!