Reflections on the Incarnation

 

Dear Friends of the Incarnation,

As a follow-up, I am sharing the four responses I recently received from our zoom class participants. I had written the other day about sharing with me your "favorite" text from those provided for our class from the Holy Fathers on the Incarnation. Interestingly, I received different responses. A positive example of diversity! Not having asked our contributors ahead of time, I am presenting them anonymously. If you still would like to share your favorite with an explanatory sentence or two, please feel free to go ahead.


1) I choose St. Gregory of Nazianzos.  Although it was a tough choice, I prefer St. Gregory's explanatory style of writing as compared to St. Ephraim's bolder style.  I also prefer St. Gregory's approach to incarnation which centers on Christ and how human beings "fit in" as opposed to St. Ephraim's approach which is to communicate the moral implications of Christ's nativity.

2) With respect to my favorite text, I think I would go with St. Nicholas Kabasilas.  For me, the idea that Mary was more than a simple vessel, more than a random teenage girl, is a paradigm shift.  My protestant training claimed that about her.  And, unsurprisingly, she was therefore not to be venerated in their tradition.  As I’m learning about the true doctrine, I’m beginning to understand why she higher than the angels.  Her will was a part of the incarnation.  It was “the work of the will and the faith of the Virgin.” 
 
3) I think for me personally the most helpful text was the one by St. Ephrem the Syrian. Being one who enjoys Philosophy and Theology as an intellectual discipline, it’s important for me to be reminded the reason for which we do Theology. It is important that because Christ became incarnate, we must forgive our brother and not hold anger or bitterness in our heart, nor become puffed up in pride. If Christ could deign to be born in a lowly manger, how can I stand to judge my fellow man for the wrong they've done to me? Theology is always imminently useful to me here and now in its repercussions, which is an important grounding for me personally. As far as beauty and depth of writing, I think I would be hard-pressed to find anyone surpassing St. Romanos the Melodist and his Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ!

4) As far as the Incarnation quotes are concerned:  my choice is the Sticheron for Vespers of Nativity. Firstly the poetry is beautiful.  Secondly I love the idea that we offer God our humanness in the person of the Theotokos.  He accepts and needs our humanity in His greatest act - that blows my mind!  

 

 

Three Key Events on December 13

 

Dear Parish Faithful& Friends in Christ,

This mediation takes us back to last Sunday, but I still wanted to share it. It was  actually written a few years ago, but all these commemorations and events of December 13 remain significant for us today - on the level of the universal Church concerning Blessed Fr. Herman; of our local OCA concerning Fr. Alexander Schmemann; and of our local parish concerning Mother Paula.

Today's date of December 13 has a great deal of significance for Orthodox Christians in North America, especially for those of us within the Orthodox Church in America, and even for our local parish of Christ the Savior/Holy Spirit. 

On this date we commemorate the repose in the Lord of Blessed Fr. Herman of Alaska (+1837). We had a wonderful Liturgy on Sunday morning, with His Eminence, Archbishop Paul as our head celebrant, in order to commemorate his rebirth into the Kingdom of God. And we had the maximum number of parishioners present on Sunday.  

I have attached his Life from the OCA website. It is very detailed and thus quite lengthy and may take more than one sitting to read through it all. But St. Herman is one of our few North American saints and we should get to know of his wonderful and holy life as well as possible:Life of St Herman of Alaska (OCA)

In addition, I would like to include a paragraph from Fr. Thomas Hopko's reflection on Fr. Herman as found in his popular book The Winter Pascha.  The entire chapter was read yesterday evening following the service:

By American standards, St. Herman of Alaska, like the Lord Jesus Himself, was a miserable failure.  He made no name for himself. He was not in the public eye.  He wielded no power.  He owned no property.  He had few possessions, if any at all. He had no worldly prestige. He played no role in human affairs.  He partook of no carnal pleasures. He made no money. He died in obscurity among outcast people. Yet today, more that a hundred years after his death, his icon is venerated in thousands of churches and his name is honored by millions of people whom he is still trying to teach to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness which has been brought to the world by the King who was born in a cavern and killed on a  cross. The example of this man is crucial to the celebration of Christmas - especially in America. (p. 47-48)

It was on December 13, 1983, that Fr. Alexander Schmemann also reposed in the Lord.  Fr. Alexander is one of the greatest figures in the emergence of an autocephalous Orthodox Church here in North America.  It is Fr. Alexander who initiated the liturgical revival in our parishes that make us now strong eucharistic communities.

I studied under him and served with him as an acolyte and  briefly as a deacon in my three years at St. Vladimir's seminary in New York. When our daughter Sophia was born, he visited our humble apartment in Yonkers, NY to see her, congratulate us and spend some time with us. And  believe me, Fr. Schmemann  visiting your apartment was a big thing!

Again, to quote Fr. Hopko from The Winter Pascha:

For those who knew him, and those who will yet come to know him, the day of Fr. Alexander's death will always be a precious part of the Church's celebration of the Christmas-Epiphany season. (p. 49)

When Fr. Schmemann died in 1983, a brief tribute to him was filmed by CBS News.  Reminding me of this, Mother Paula (Vicki Bellas) sent me the following link to this.  I would like to share it with anyone who may be interested.

CBS Documentary on Fr. Alexander Schmemann (OCN)

Fr. Alexander appears briefly at the beginning, so there is a brief glimpse of him and his style. The rest is a series of tributes to him from various bishops, scholars, friends, etc. including the words of Fr. Thomas Hopko, who was his son-in-law.  The video ends with Fr. Alexander's funeral, an extraordinary event that I returned to New York for.  

I recall approaching Matushka Anne Hopko (Fr. Alexander's daughter) and making a comment about the unique atmosphere of the funeral. She smiled, and then replied:  "Yes, just like Pascha!"  That response caught the essence of Fr. Schmemann's life - and his death.

Interestingly enough there is an entry on Fr. Alexander at Wikipedia with a listing of all of his publications. Here is the link:

Fr. Alexander Schmemann (Wikipedia)

And it was also on December 13, that our former parishioner Mother Paula was tonsured as a nun at the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, PA.  I believe this was in 2010. Mother Paula was known in the parish before her tonsuring by her name "in the world" of Vicki Bellas. She transferred to our parish in the early 90's and stayed with us until 2003 when she left for the monastery to "test" her vocation.  I was the one who drove her to the monastery in the Fall of that year.  

When the time for her tonsuring came, a sizeable group from our parish made the trip for the service.  That group consisted of:  Presvytera Deborah and myself, Roberta Robedeau and our former parishioners Dan and Cristina Georgescu, together with the Callender family and Jeannie Markvan and Elena Drach. We somehow managed to stay just ahead of a snowstorm blowing through the region at that time. 

The hieromonk Fr. Alexander Cutler [formerly the Igumen at St. John the Theologian Skete in Hiram, OH] served as the celebrant of the tonsuring, and Fr. Thomas Hopko and I served together with him. It was an emotional event for all of us who were there.  
Many people journey through life, never quite finding a true "vocation," so Mother Paula was blessed in discovering hers through faithfulness to Christ and a life of prayer and service. It is not a parish footnote that a monastic has come out of our parish community.  Rather, it is a true blessing. We can only say "well done" and wish her Many Years!

See also:A Blessed Event ~ The Tonsure of Mother Paula

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Dialogue With an Athonite Elder on Fasting

Dear Parish Faithful,

This is wonderful dialogue that is so impressive due to the simplicity and humility that accompanies every word of the elder. And this was one of our topics last Wednesday evening at our zoom class on "Almsgiving, Prayer and Fasting."


Dialogue With an Athonite Elder on Fasting
 

"The Lord bless you, my joy."

Are you on Mount Athos for many years?

"I've been here for sixty years, but what is sixty years to God; it is a breath."

Elder, I would like you to tell me a few things about fasting.

"In order to say something you must experience it, you must live it. Only one who was born near the sea or is a seaman can speak of the sea. But I will be obedient to your will and tell you what the Fathers said who were friends of fasting."

Elder, is fasting the aim?

"Fasting is not the aim, but the means towards it. See, it was your aim to come to Mount Athos, it was your destination. The boat which brought you was the means by which you arrived. Such is fasting; it is one of the means given to us by the love of God to crave for Him. God is our destination."

When did fasting appear?

"Fasting is commingled with humanity. In Paradise it was given to man by God, says Basil the Great."

But why did God give fasting? To reduce man?

"No, in order to free him! The Sacred Chrysostom writes that when God created man He took him and placed him in the hands of fasting, which is an affectionate mother and excellent teacher. He entrusted it for his salvation. Though fasting is a teacher, it does not limit but it cultivates man."

Is fasting necessary, Elder?

"Chrysostom will again reply to you: 'If fasting was necessary in Paradise, it is much more necessary outside of Paradise. If medicine was useful before an injury, it is much more useful after an injury.' Do you understand?"

What?

"Fasting was given in Paradise as a precaution to not fall. Since man fell it is given therapeutically."

Then what is the purpose of fasting?

"Fasting withers evil desires, says Saint Maximus the Confessor; and Saint Symeon the New Theologian says it softens our hearts. Through fasting every good work is accomplished and perfected, says Saint Gregory Palamas. For all these reasons Sacred Chrysostom confesses his love for fasting: 'I love fasting, because it is the mother of wisdom and the well of philosophical acts'."

How should we fast?

"Fasting is a means and spiritual tool which is not limited to food, but the entire man must participate in it psychosomatically. Listen to what John Chrysostom says: 'Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him. Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eye and the ear and the feet and the hands and all the members of our bodies. Let the hands fast, by being free of greed. Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin. Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful. Let the ear fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip. Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism. For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fish, but bite and devour our brothers?'"

How do we bite and devour our brothers?

"With slander and criticism, which proceed from the lack of love for our brother."

Thank you, Elder. You have benefited me much.

"May we thank God for enlightening our saints."

Your prayers. 

"Go in goodness, and may the Grace of God cover you, the Panagia protect you, and the saints accompany you. And don't forget that fasting is primarily to hunger for God!" 

 

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

The Image of Giving in St Nicholas

Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

There are nineteen days of charity, prayer and fasting left before Christmas... Redeem the time. 

 

Just yesterday, we commemorated St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, the Wonderworker (December 6). There is a certain unresolved tension that accompanies his person and memory: On the one hand, there are few "hard facts" about his life (to the point where many doubt his actual historical existence); and on the other hand, he is clearly one of the most beloved and universally venerated of saints within the Church. It is said that even many Muslims venerate St. Nicholas! A good example of an objective account of the few facts behind the saint's life can be found in a short introductory biographical note concerning St. Nicholas in the book,The Time of the Spirit:


Little is known for certain about the life of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor). It is believed that he suffered imprisonment during the last major persecution of the Church under Diocletian in the early fourth century, and that he attended the first Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 325. Christian tradition has come to regard him, in the words of an Orthodox hymn, as "an example of faith and an icon of gentleness." (Time of the Spirit, p. 69)

For those interested in the historical background of St. Nicholas, the following note found in The Synaxarion, Vol. II, edited by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonas Petras, may prove to be of real interest:

Since the medieval period, St. Nicholas of Myra has been confused with St. Nicholas of Sion, who founded a monastery not far from Myra at the end of the 5th century. The Vita of the latter has come down to us but the incidents in it have been entirely ascribed to St. Nicholas of Myra, with the result that St. Nicholas of Sion has been forgotten n the hagiographical accounts...

(See The Life of Saint Nicholas of Sion, edited and translated by I. N. P. Sevcenko (Brookline, MA, 1984).

 So, even if we are dealing with a "composite figure" when we venerate St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, we nevertheless are given a glimpse into the "mind of the Church" when it comes to an image of a true pastor. A powerful and enduring image of a genuine Christian shepherd has remained within the memory of the Church, regardless of the now unrecoverable "facts" behind the actual history of 4th - 5th c. Asia Minor. It is this "unerring" intuition of the People of God that the faithful respond to up to the present day that remains as a solid foundation upholding all of the wonderful stories that endear us to St. Nicholas. The Church today desperately needs bishops of the type embodied by St. Nicholas. A shepherd who is a "rule of faith and an image of humility" would mean a great deal more to the Christian flock, than legal-minded adherence to canon law. St. Nicholas both protected and interceded for his flock, according to the great Russian Orthodox iconographer, Leonid Uspensky. And he further writes:

This 'life for others' is his characteristic feature and is manifested by the great variety of forms of his solicitude for men: his care for their preservation, their protection from the elements, from human injustice, from heresies and so forth. This solicitude was accompanied by numerous miracles both during his life and after his death. Indefatigable intercessor, steadfast, uncompromising fighter for Orthodoxy, he was meek and gentle in character and humble in spirit. (The Time of the Spirit, p. 69)

Well-known as St. Nicholas has been, he is perhaps less well-known in today's world. In fact, he may be slowly slipping away from Christian consciousness. Santa Claus, that rather unfortunate caricature of the saintly bishop, clearly has something to do with this. But perhaps the very virtues embodied by this saint are slowly fading from our consciousness. A few weeks back, I wrote a meditation that passed on the name our social and secular world has "earned" for itself through its rampant commercialization of Christmas - and that is Getmas. The author who coined this new term - I forget his name - claims it came to him based on a conversation he had had with a good friend about the "spirit of Christmas." The friend of our author said that Christmas was about "getting things." When the author countered by saying, "I thought Christmas was about giving," the friend quickly retorted: "Sure, people are supposed to give me things!" Out of this sad exchange came the unfortunate, but accurate, Getmas.

St. Nicholas was about the proper understanding of "giving." Perhaps the most enduring quality of his image is that of giving to children in need. Our children learn that those who already "have" more are those who will yet "get" more. And that is because they are taught this by their parents who yield to their childish demands. So we persist in widening the gap of imbalance between the "haves and "have-nots" without too many pangs of (Christian) conscience. St. Nicholas wanted to restore a sense of balance, and so he looked first to those who were in need, so that they could also taste some childlike happiness from receiving an unexpected gift. In a simple manner, this imitates the giving of God Who gave us Christ at a time when everyone - rich and poor alike - were impoverished through sin and death. 

I sometimes fantasize that an ideal celebration of Christmas would find a relatively affluent family making sure that they spent more on those in need than on themselves. If Christianity is indeed the "imitation of the divine nature" as St. Gregory of Nyssa once said, then that need not necessarily be such an unrealistic idea. I do not believe that I have ever actually done that, so I convict myself through the very thought. Yet, I am convinced that our children would respond with an eager spirit of cooperation if properly prepared for some approximation of that ideal. Why should it be otherwise if, according to the Apostle Paul, Christ said that it is more blessed to give than to receive?

Once again, just a thought based upon the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.  

Same Old Barns

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Before delivering the short Parable of the Foolish Landowner (LK. 12:16-21) the Lord first offers the following admonition by way of preface to the parable itself: "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness, for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (LK. 12:15) The parable gives story-form to the truth of that admonition. Yet, the timeless and universal truths revealed in this particular parable can have the unfortunate effect of blunting the depth of its inner meaning. As if the clarity and obviousness of the parable somehow removes its "sting." We then feel content with repeating the worn-out and cliched saying (accompanied by a pious sigh): "When you die, you can't take it all with you." Spoken in such a spirit, this becomes a form of lip-service to what Christ is getting at, while in reality we brush the parable aside as "not applicable." But the parable goes far beyond the banality of that cliche which, in itself, still contains more that a hidden hint of despair over the prospect of death and loss. The parable is compact enough to include in this meditation:

The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

The Parable of the Foolish Landowner is not only about the loss of material wealth due to our common human finitude, against which we have no real defense (though leaving it for our loved ones is something of a consolation); but more importantly about the loss of not being "rich toward God." Then the parable is not only about the inevitability/necessity of loss, but about the cost of a self-inflicted poverty and a freely-chosen path of neglecting God. In the post-Resurrection Church, the loss of such "riches" becomes even more acute, based on what the Apostle Paul so powerfully expressed:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. (II COR. 8:9)

The landowner is chastised in the end because he turned his new barns into the treasure that attracted his heart's desire, "for," as Christ taught: "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (MATT. 6:21) These "barns," in turn, represent whatever it is in our lives that becomes a treasure more valuable than God. It should be deeply sobering and convicting, indeed, when we think of how grossly materialistic some of these "treasures" actually are. It's the same old barns, but now with modern conveniences! "Nothing new under the sun ..." 

 

In the parable, the Lord has God call such a confusion of priorities "foolishness." Basically, this is misplaced spiritual energy. The "energies" of our human nature are so misplaced as to be considered wasted. Directed toward the self, they lack any root by which to be nurtured by divine grace, for the self cannot serve as a substitute for God. Since there is no indication that the rich landowner was a theoretical atheist, it appears that he, as countless others, may have been trying to manage a "balancing act" - if not "bargain" - of sorts: (outward?) piety toward God together with the heartfelt pursuit of building new barns and then eating, drinking and being merry to his heart's content. Very human desires, but draining enough to transform one into a practical atheist - believing in God's existence, but living as though God did not exist.

To be "rich toward God," is to put God first and foremost in our lives. To build up our relationship with God is infinitely greater than building up new barns. We do not know when our soul will be "required" of us. Even though we postpone thoughts of our mortality, or project them into a vague, indistinct and seemingly remote future, the reality could be different. Only God knows. To hear God pronounce "Fool!" in the end would be beyond tragic, especially if we are immersed in the life of the Church and its call to eternal fellowship with God. We have this life as a gift in order to become rich toward God. The Parable of the Foolish Landowner is a fair warning of what squandering that gift may ultimately mean.

Waiting in Faithful Expectation for the Fullness of Time

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

I have the feeling that we are never quite ready for the Forty-day Nativity/Advent Fast that prepares us for the Birth of Jesus Christ on December 25. And yet, it is fast approaching, as early as this coming Sunday, November 15. 

 

Trying to keep ahead of ourselves as much as possible, I have attached a pastoral meditation/reflection on this upcoming season for  you to hopefully read. The meditation stresses the need for patience. I do hope you take the time to read what I wrote.  

 

For the moment, I would yet again - as I have all during this pandemic - stress our need to make the home that "little church" that St. John Chrysostom spoke of. That becomes even more imperative when our access to the church as our place of gathering and worship remains restricted. It is all about connecting with the life of the Church that always presents to us Truth, Goodness and Beauty - all incarnate in Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man. 

We are getting ready to embark upon a journey. If we do this together it will prove all that more rewarding. Please address any questions you may have about the Nativity Fast to me.

In Christ,

Fr. Steven

 

+ + +

 

Waiting in Faithful Expectation for the Fullness of Time

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

We may indeed feel unprepared, but the forty-day fasting season in preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation is rapidly approaching. That being the case, I would like to develop a particular perspective concerning the nature of the approaching Nativity/Advent Fast.  And that would be about the necessary virtue of patience that accompanies any period of preparation in the life of the Church.  

 

We are directed to observe a fast as we prepare for the advent of the Son of God in the flesh.  This is only for forty days, but that can seem like a very long period to make some alterations and adjustments in our lifestyles!  Clearly, it has its challenges, all of which we are very much aware of.  

 

We know that the “sacred” number of forty – years or days – is a very scriptural number, always implying a period of expectation and fulfillment, a movement begun and completed in accordance with the express will of God.  That could be the forty years of Israel’s wandering in the desert, or the Lord fasting for forty days in the wilderness.  Yet, less specifically, we need to understand the great length of time that Israel was forced to wait for its deliverance.  If we think in terms of Abraham to Christ, we become aware of the 3 x 14 generations that St. Matthew lists in the opening genealogy of his Gospel.  That is a long history indeed, filled with God’s providential care for His chosen people, but also filled with apostasy and betrayal on the part of Israel.  A history embracing Israel’s victories against its surrounding enemies, but also its subjugation and humiliation at the hands of other enemies.

While this tumultuous and even torturous history of Israel was unfolding, the prophets were both exhorting and chastising the people, but also speaking of deliverance.  Although this is a very complex development, there were clear indications among the prophets of a Messiah figure – sometimes very human, but at times a transcendent figure – around whom and in whom these longings for deliverance were concentrated.  He would be the Lord’s Anointed, and as such he would proclaim deliverance and salvation to Israel.  That profound and poignant sense of longing for deliverance is beautifully expressed in the two hymns found in the opening chapters of St. Luke’s Gospel, the first from St. Zechariah (LK. 1:67-79); and the other, the Magnificat of the Theotokos (LK. 1:46-55). 

 

One needs only to read the Book of Isaiah to get a sense of this messianic longing which took on universal dimensions, so that all the peoples of the earth would come to know the one true God and then come to Zion to worship Him.  We read of The Prophet, the Son of Man, the Suffering Servant of the Lord, and of the Messiah throughout the prophetic books of the Old Testament.  This basic human longing for regaining a “lost paradise” in one form or another was gathered around these mysterious figures “promised” by the prophets who, in turn, were those chosen by God to deliver God’s word to the people of Israel.  But many generations were disappointed that these prophetic promises were not fulfilled in their time.

If we can appreciate this sense of waiting and longing, we can understand better how we, as contemporary Christians, in a very modest sense, are re-living or actualizing the experience of Israel as we await the advent of our Lord in a specially-designated period known as the Nativity/Advent Fast.  This designated forty days serves as a microcosm of Israel’s testing and preparation. Waiting implies expectation, perhaps even a certain sense of excitement. (Ask your children about that!). But it also implies patience, stabilized and strengthened by trust and faith in God, especially when we encounter obstacles, temptations, doubts, diversions and distractions.  Therefore, if Israel waited for the Lord’s Anointed, so will we as the New Israel of God. 

Of course, we know and believe that the Messiah has come as Jesus of Nazareth, and our festal cycle again allows us to also re-live and actualize that advent on an annual basis, so as to renew our sense of fulfillment of the prophecies of old, and to again “greet” the newborn Christ Child with great joy and thanksgiving to God for working out our salvation “in the midst of the earth.”  All Christian believers of all ages can experience a child-like joy in the birth of Christ, the Son of God who became flesh.  We have the decided advantage of knowing all of this in advance, and this has been expressed very powerfully in the Epistle to the Hebrews, wherein the author, after reminding the early Christians of the great faith of the saints who lived before Christ, further reminds them of the great privilege of having lived in the time of fulfillment:  “And all these, though well-attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect”  (HEB. 11:39-40).

We cannot join “the world” in its indifference to Christ. And we cannot descend to the level of the crass commercialization of Christmas.  We are, after all, Christians!  Our goal is to fulfill the words of the Apostle Paul:  “I therefore … beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”  (EPH. 4:1-3).  This will test our patience, our trust in God, and our faith.  It has never been otherwise.

With the current pandemic and the unsettling political uncertainty around us - both of which are causes of extreme polarization and lack of trust in our institutions and in one another – we need to look inward very carefully in order to meet these challenges with the patience of the People of Israel and to simultaneously remain joyful as we await the birth of our Savior.

'All My angels praised Me!'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

"Uplifted Godwards, from their beginning it has been the angels' greatest joy to choose freely for God and to give him their undaunted flow of life in unending love and worship."  ~ Mother Alexandra

On November 8, just yesterday at the Liturgy this year, we commemorated The Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the Other Bodiless Powers. This gives us the opportunity to explore the Church's well-developed angelology. 

 

Orthodox theology reveals to us the fulness of all created reality, beginning with the realm of the bodiless powers: "When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice." (Job 38:7) When we remove the angelic orders from our account of reality, we diminish our sense of wonder and our sense of "mystery" in the best sense of that word. I recall once, speaking with one of our parish’s Church School teachers about the nature of angels and how we convey this to our children.  One of our first tasks, I believe, is to overcome the caricature that has developed over the centuries concerning  the appearance and role of angels.  (Do adults also need to be liberated from this same caricature?).

That caricature imagines angels to be puffy and fluffy “cherubs” that are basically rosy-cheeked floating babies.  Cupid-like, they carry bows and arrows that appear harmless enough.  They are often naked, but at times they appear to be covered in what can only be described as a celestial diaper.  How these Hallmark card fantasies, based on Renaissance and Baroque-era deviations from the sacred and profound iconography of the earlier centuries both West and East, can be associated with the “Lord of Sabaoth” and the celestial hierarchy of angels that surround the throne of God with their unceasing chant of “Holy, Holy, Holy!” is something of an unfortunate mystery. In the words of Lev Gillette, a Monk of the Eastern Church: "There is nothing rosy or weakly poetical in the Angels of the Bible: they are flashes of the light and strength of the Almighty Lord"  And in her wonderful book The Holy Angels, Mother Alexandra writes:  "In a certain sense, if it can be so expressed, they are the individualized  selfness of God's own attributes."

The Scriptures and the Holy Fathers only describe powerful celestial beings that serve God and fulfill His will for the well-being of the human race and our salvation.  Angels are not eternal or immortal by nature.  They are creatures, coming forth from the creative Word of God perfected by His Spirit.  It was Saint Basil the Great, based on Job 38:7, as quoted above, who taught that angels were created even before the cosmos. These genderless beings are described by Saint Gregory the Theologian as “a second light, an effusion or participation in God, in the primal light.”  And whenever a human being is visited by an angel and receives this heavenly messenger’s revelation, his or her first impulse is to bow down and worship this celestial visitor as a divine being!  Warm and fuzzy feelings with any impulse toward cuddling and kissing are hardly implied in the biblical texts. It is again, Mother Alexandra who reinforces this: "Angels are of a superiority all but incomprehensible to us, but they are a part of our lives. By God's boundless mercy, they are destined, in the great moments of history, to be the heralds of the Most High to man below; they are, as well, our guides, guardians, mentor, protectors, and comforters from birth to the grave." Actually, our use of the term “angel” – based on the Greek angelos or “messenger”—is a generic term used to describe all of the many kinds of heavenly hosts described and named in the Scriptures.  In fact, this celestial hierarchy, according to Saint Dionysios the Areopagite,  is comprised of a triad of ranks, three angelic orders in each rank.  The names are scriptural, but the triads have been conceived of by Saint Dionysios:

 

• First Rank:  Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones (Is. 6:2; Ezek. 10:1; Col. 1:16)
• Second Rank:  Authorities, Dominions, Powers (Col. 1:16; I Pet. 3:22; Eph. 3:10)
• Third Rank:  Principalities, Angels, Archangels (Col. 1:16; I Thes. 4:15)

 

This structuring of the celestial hierarchy has had an enormous influence on the angelology of the Church.

Actually, Saint John Chrysostom tells us that even these names and “classes” do not exhaust the heavenly ranks of angelic beings: “There are innumerable other kinds and an unimaginable multitude of classes, for which no words can be adequate to express.” he writes.  “From this we see that there are certain names which will be known then, but are now unknown.”

With his great ability to summarize and synthesize the Church’s living Tradition, Saint John of Damascus (+749) gives us this description of what an angel actually is in his Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.  “An angel, then, is a noetical essence, perpetually in motion, with a free will, incorporeal, subject to God, having obtained by grace an immortal nature.  The Creator alone knows the form and limitation of its essence.”

Admittedly, this is a very brief description of the true nature of the bodiless hosts of heaven, based on the Scriptures and the Fathers. Hopefully it will restore a genuine sense of awe and veneration before these incredible beings that only further amaze us with the creative power, energy and will of God. 

The 'Big Picture'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

As we continue to wait as a nation for a winner in the ongoing presidential election, I would imagine that some persons are agonizing, others are deeply interested, and others may be indifferent. Whatever the case may be, perhaps we all need to put everything in context and see the "big picture" of life all around us, especially as Christians. For that reason, I am sending out an older meditation that is based on a Feast Day that we already celebrated this year. It may be chronologically "out of turn," but I was looking for something that raises enduring themes that will draw out minds elsewhere - in case they are overly-preoccupied with politics, itself a relative dimension of life. So, if you may feel the need for a (meaningful) "distraction" that will take our minds elsewhere, this meditation is for you.

Fr. Steven

_____

God's Love - Shown Through the Cross

Dear Parish Faithful,

In preparation for the upcoming Feast of the Elevation/Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross on September 14, the Sunday preceding the Feast is designated simply as the “Sunday before the Cross.” This anticipatory focus on the Feast of the Cross alerts us to its importance in the consciousness of the Church. If we have the “mind of the Church,” then our own minds and hearts can be elevated and exalted upward toward the Son of Man who will be “lifted up” on the Cross for our salvation. This is precisely where the Church directs our attention with the upcoming Feast in mind. For in addition to the appointed Gospel reading at yesterday’s Liturgy, this second reading was taken from the Gospel According to St. John:

No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (JN. 3:13-17)

It is this passage, of course, that contains the well-known and magnificent text referred to simply as “John 3:16.” (Even those who never read the Gospels have either heard this verse somewhere or seen it displayed on a billboard, on a side of a barn along the highway, or even overhead on the tail of a helicopter as I once saw it at a baseball game). God (the Father) will “send” His Son – clearly the pre-existent Son – into the world (kosmos in the Gk.) that God loved into existence, and continued to love even though the world had fallen from its initial purpose and destiny. That “fall,” however conceived, meant that all was perishing. For human beings created for a relationship with God, this resulted not only in a death attended by guilt, regret, anxiety and fear; but also in the loss of life’s meaning and purpose. The biblical concept and reality of sheol/hades was no real consolation. A good deal of idolatry – the worship of “false gods” - is generated by a desperate search for some meaning in life; for something to attach to that will lift us up beyond the mundane and material aspects of existence. To believe in nothing is to be predisposed to believe in anything.

The expression that God “gave” us His Son is to point to the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation, which is the Cross, where again, the Son of man will be “lifted up.” And it is Jesus who is the Son of man. Behind the historical commemoration of this Feast, which is the discovery of the “true Cross” in the fourth c., we discover the Cross as the “place” where God wiped away our sin in and through the death of the Crucified Lord. In this way the “world” is “saved” through Christ, and we need no longer “perish” if we believe in Him. The “eternal life” of this salvation process is not an endless extension of time, nor is it the extension of biological existence (bios in Gk.) but something all together qualitatively different, as in true or abundant life (zoe in the Gk.) with and in God beyond the vicissitudes of time.

“Money makes the world "go 'round" is a cliché that many think and believe is true. Perhaps it seems most true to the very rich or the very poor. (As Hazel Motes of Flannery O’Connor’s novel Wise Blood said: A man with a new car don’t need redemption). The very rich may believe that they have discovered the secret to life’s meaning in the accumulation of great wealth; and the very poor may be convinced that a good life has been denied to them because they have been left out of the distribution of the world’s wealth One attitude can easily lead to arrogance, and the other to despair. But anyone struggling with economic distress, financial instability or making ends meet, may either willingly or reluctantly ascribe – to one degree or another – to the cliché that money is the energy and power that drives life and the “world.” Others, of course, may think that it is politics and politicians that make the world "go 'round." That may be the case, regardless of any given person's "party."

However, if we ascribe to the Gospel as revealing not only relative truths, but Truth itself in all of its majesty and glory; then we will realize that it is ultimately love that makes the world "go ‘round." This is not a sentimental counter-cliché. It is the love of God that is the “energy” that created the cosmos “in the beginning.” This love is the pouring forth of the eternal love that dwells within the Trinity and which as an “uncreated energy” gives, sustains, and redeems human life made “in the image and likeness of God.” Because of God’s steadfast love, the world which was created is now also saved by that same love. This love has no limit, because God is the source of an infinite love that we hardly comprehend. For God does want to condemn the world but precisely to save it. 

When we “bow down” before the decorated Cross during the Feast of the Elevation/Exaltation of the Cross, it is this Truth that we acknowledge and rejoice in.

 

Image of a True Disciple: The Gadarene Demoniac

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

One of the most challenging narratives in the Gospels has to be the healing of the Gadarene demoniac (Mk. 5:1-20; MATT. 8:28-34; LK. 8:26-39). This dramatic event which reveals the power of Christ over the demons will appear to the 21st c. mind as either archaic or even primitive. We may listen with respect and sing "Glory to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee!" upon the completion of the reading, but "wrapping our minds" around such a narrative may leave us baffled if not shaking our heads.

 

The spectacle of a man possessed by many demons, homeless and naked, living among the tombs, chained so as to contain his self-destructive behavior is, to state the obvious, not exactly a sight that we encounter with any regularity. (Although we should acknowledge that behind the walls of certain institutions, we could witness to this day some horrible scenes of irrational and frightening behavior from profoundly troubled and suffering human beings). Add to this a herd of swine blindly rushing over a steep bank and into a lake to be drowned, and we must further recognize the strangeness of this event. This is all-together not a part of our world!

Yet, there is no reason to doubt the veracity of the narrated event, which does appear in three of the Gospels, though with different emphases and details - in fact there are two demoniacs in St. Matthew's telling of the story! It is always instructive to compare the written account of a particular event or body of teaching when found in more than one Gospel. This will cure us of the illusion of a wooden literalism as we will discover how the four evangelists will present their gathered material from the ministry of Jesus in somewhat different forms. 

As to the Gadarene demoniac, here was an event within the ministry of Christ that must have left a very strong impression upon the early Church as it was shaping its oral traditions into written traditions that would eventually come together in the canonical Gospels. This event was a powerful confirmation of the Lord's encounter and conflict with, and victory over, the "evil one." The final and ultimate consequence of that victory will be revealed in the Cross and Resurrection.

Whatever our immediate reaction to this passage - proclaimed yesterday during the Liturgy from the Gospel According to St. Luke (8:26-39) - I believe that we can recognize behind the dramatic details the disintegration of a human personality under the influence of the evil one, and the reintegration of the same man's personhood when healed by Christ. Here was a man that was losing his identity to a process that was undermining the integrity of his humanity and leading to physical harm and psychic fragmentation. 

 

I am not in the process of offering a psychological analysis of the Gadarene demoniac because, 1) I am ill-equipped to do so; and 2) I do not believe that we can "reduce" his horrible condition to psychological analysis. We are dealing with the mysterious presence of personified evil and the horrific effects of that demonic presence which we accept as an essential element of the authentic Gospel Tradition. 

The final detail that indicates this possessed man's loss of personhood is revealed in the dialogue between himself and Jesus:

Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. (8:30)

To be named in the Bible is to receive a definite and irreducible identity as a person. It is to be "someone" created in the "image and likeness of God." It is the role of the evil one to be a force of disintegration. The "legion" inhabiting the man reveals the loss of his uniqueness, and the fragmentation of his personality. Such a distorted personality can no longer have a "home," which is indicative of our relational capacity as human beings, as it is indicative of stability and a "groundedness" in everyday reality. The poor man is driven into the desert, biblically the abode of demons. 

Once again, we may stress the dramatic quality of this presentation of a person driven to such a state, but would we argue against this very presentation as false when we think of the level of distortion that accompanies any form of an "alliance" with evil -whether "voluntary or involuntary?" Does anyone remain whole and well-balanced under the influence of evil? Or do we rather not experience or witness a drift toward the "abyss"?

Then we hear a splendid description of the man when he is healed by Christ! For we hear the following once the demons left him and entered into the herd of swine and self-destructed (the ultimate end of all personal manifestations of evil?):

Then the people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. (8:35)

"Sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." This is clearly one of the most beautiful descriptions of a Christian who remains as a true disciple of the Master. This is the baptized person who is clothed in a "garment of salvation" and who is reoriented toward Christ, the "Sun of Righteousness." 

The image here is of total reintegration, of the establishment of a relationship with Christ that restores integrity and wholeness to human life. Also an image of peacefulness and contentment. Our goal in life is to "get our mind right" which describes repentance or that "change of mind" that heals all internal divisions of the mind and heart as it restores our relationship with others. 

Jesus commands the man "to return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you" (8:39). We, too, have been freed from the evil one "and all his angels and all his pride" in baptism. In our own way, perhaps we too can also proclaim just how much Jesus has done for us (cf. 8:39).

 

What Role for Orthodoxy?

Dear Parish Faithful,

 "Today, in many parts of the very wealthy and comfortable West, there is such a profound loss of spiritual consciousness that the very semantics of the Spirit are unknown. When people came asking for spiritual advice Archimandrite Cleopa used to ask them back: What prayers  do you know by heart? What hymns from the writings of scripture or the fathers are you able to sing by heart? What habitual words do you use when you invoke the presence or the guidance of God in your lives? Often his visitors were hoping he might give then some weird and exotic "mystical" inner knowledge. But this is where he started." 

This insightful anecdote is taken from the final chapter of Fr. John McGuckin's latest book The Eastern Orthodox Church - A New History (p. 300). You may recall, that back in early September I wrote about this book in a very positive manner, promoting this new history of the Church to the parish. I was informed then that a few parishioners made the investment. I did not write a full book review, but simply offered some key excerpts from the book so that everyone could have a "taste" of Fr. John's exceptional presentation of the Church's ongoing history through the centuries. If anyone would like to go back to that earlier piece: https://orthodoxmeditations.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-new-book-waiting-to-be-read.html

This final chapter of his book is entitled, "What Role for Orthodoxy in a Postmodern Environment?" A fitting question, indeed, and Fr. John offers a sober assessment that avoids all of the triumphalism that usually descends into either bombast or unreality. But the very fact that Fr. John wisely eschews Orthodox triumphalism, makes his response to his own question all the more hopeful and uplifting. For he gets to the very heart of what the Orthodox Church continues to offer to a spiritually-thirsty world. Fr. John writes of "the ancient heritage of Christian wisdom, the Spirit-filled teaching of the Eastern Christian past," claiming that both Protestants and Roman Catholics will recognize "truly as their own," either the Christian East's "immediacy and simplicity" or its "richly Christocentric warmth." He then goes on to describe how Orthodoxy must keep this patristic spirit alive if a true witness will be effective:

"It is in the renewal of a new and deeper consciousness of Christ and his resurrectional presence among the faithful that all other renewal will flow out in the church: a renewal that will come in the fire and quality of the common liturgies, a renewal that will be powerful and fueled in the social and charitable outreach of the churches. Only after this sense of living in Christ has been renewed internally will the mission of the church be rendered actively reenergized once more. It is of no attraction whatsoever for any believers to offer to someone else what does not seem to illuminate their own hearts and minds with the radiant quality of beauty and freedom. Too often, in lieu of this, the Christian public mission has been characterized by fearfulness, cultic sectarianism, intellectual immaturity, and social hyper-conservatism. Why should we be surprised if this clammy handshake does not work?" (p. 301)

This leads Fr. John to this realistic question: "What can Orthodox Christian thought offer to the modern man and woman outside Christian culture, who would most probably find, looking in passing at an Orthodox service, something foreign?" After referring to the fact that "the divine Power and Word and Fire became personally incarnated within time and space: and our God was shown to us as a humble, suffering servant of mercy," Fr. John writes how Orthodoxy can lead us toward discovering our own humanity:

"The real problem today is not that men and women who have become secularized (nonreligious, or whatever) have lost the sense of God. The problem is that they have lost the sense of what it is to be truly human. The fundamental character of the true human being is the self-awareness that presses on all people that they are a transcendent reality, and as such, profoundly strange even to themselves...

In Orthodoxy, one learns from generations of wise and saintly teachers the knowledge that humility and love have been lifted up to divine status in Christ. This saves us: for our transcendence is rooted in the stability that our poverty has been made rich by God's love. The individual who serves to be the place of the indwelling of Christ, through the Spirit, is a person who can stand on the revolving planet without feeling dizzy: knowing why his place is both here and yet not here; and why it is true that we must 'cultivate the garden'; but not just the garden of our present culture and life, also the garden of our soul."

I find this to be an eloquent reminder in a time of political polarization, that it is not politics or politicians that we need to look at for our ultimate well-being. That Christians need not depend upon the support of secular institutions to "protect" Christianity and Christians.  If the spirit of freedom in Christ fills our hearts, we will recognize this and understand that it was "the divine Power and Word and Fire" that strengthened the early Church to withstand the persecution that they suffered from the powerful Roman Empire. And the same can be true for us today, no matter how secular or godless the world becomes.

Be that as it may, I want to share a well-known passage that Fr. John closes his study of Orthodox Church history with. These are the words of Fr. Lev Gillette, also known as "a monk of the Eastern Church." In defining the Orthodox Church, Fr. Lev stressed humility, love and prayer:

O strange Orthodox Church, so poor and weak, with neither the organization nor the culture of the West, staying afloat as if by a miracle in the face of so many trials, tribulations and struggles; a Church of contrasts, both traditional and so free, so archaic and so alive, so ritualist and so personally involved; a Church where the priceless pearl of the Gospel is assiduously preserved, sometimes under a layer of dust; a Church which in shadows and silence maintains above all the eternal values of purity, poverty, asceticism, humility and forgiveness; a Church which has often not known how to act, but which can sing of the joy of Pascha like no other. (p. 304)