The Ascension: Our Destiny in Christ

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

The Ascension of Christ, 15th c., Novgorod

You were born, as was your will, O our God.
You revealed Yourself, in Your good pleasure.
You suffered in the flesh, and rose from the dead,
trampling down death by death!
Fulfilling all things, you ascended in glory ...
(Vespers of Ascension)

 

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
and suffered, and was buried.
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
(Nicene Creed)

The two texts above - one from the Feast of the Ascension and the other a portion of the Nicene Creed - are wonderful expressions of the great mystery of the "descent" and "ascent" of the Son of God. The eternal Son of God becomes the Son of Man, descending into our world to live among us and to teach us about, and prepare us for, the Kingdom of God. This is what we call the Incarnation.

This movement of descent is only completed when Christ is crucified and enters the very realm of death on our behalf. There is "nowhere" further to descend (in)to. Thus, there are no limits to the love of God for His creatures, for the descent of Christ into death itself is "for our salvation." The Son of God will search for Adam and Eve in the very realm of Sheol/Hades. He will rescue them and liberate them as representative of all humankind, languishing in "the valley of death." Since death cannot hold the sinless - and therefore deathless - Son of God, He begins His ascent to the heavenly realm with His resurrection from the dead. And He fulfills this paschal mystery with His glorious ascension.

As St. Paul writes: "He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." (EPH. 4:10) The One who ascended, however, is now both God and man, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the incarnate, crucified, risen, and glorified Jesus Christ who is now seated at "the right hand of the Father," far above the heavens. It is the glorified flesh of the Incarnate Word of God which has entered into the very bosom of the Trinity in the Person of Christ. As St. Leo the Great, the pope of Rome (+461) taught:

With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of Heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest Heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father.

This is simultaneously our ascension and our glorification, since we are united to Christ through holy Baptism as members of His Body. Therefore, St. Paul can further write: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (COL. 3:3) Out of our physical sight, we now "see" the glorified Christ through the eyes of faith. St. Leo further explains how important this spiritual insight is:

For such is the power of great minds, such the light of truly believing souls, that they put unhesitating faith in what is not seen with the bodily eyes; they fix their desires on what is beyond sight. Such fidelity could never be born in our hearts, nor could anyone be justified by faith, if our salvation lay only in what is visible.

The Feast of the Ascension is not a decline from the glory of Pascha. It is, rather, the fulfillment of Pascha, and a movement upward toward the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the joyful revelation of our destiny in Christ. To return to the opening theme of the marvelous acts of God moving from the Incarnation to the Ascension, I would like to turn to St. Leo one more time for his understanding of that entire movement:

It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men's sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.

The Feast of the Ascension has a full octave, which means that we commemorate this great event until June 5 this year. According to St. Luke, once the disciples beheld Christ ascend into heaven, "they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." (LK. 24:52) The "temple" is our common place of worship. Hopefully, we too, will soon be able to return to the temple blessing God. Yet, before that happens each one of us needs to bless God wherever we may find ourselves, because for each of us, our bodies are the "temple of the Holy Spirit" (I COR. 6:19).

 

 

 

The Leavetaking of Pascha and the Ascension of Christ

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!

Indeed He is Risen!

 

 

 

The Leave-taking of Pascha is Approaching - The sacred forty days during which the Church expresses the paschal joy of Christ's Resurrection is just about over, as the Leave-taking will occur this coming Wednesday. 

 

For forty days we proclaimed that "Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!"  Of course, the Church always proclaims the Resurrection of Christ as that astounding event - an event that even transcends the very notion of the historical - is the very basis for the existence of the Church. Yet, during the paschal season the intensity and depth and breadth of that proclamation stands out within our liturgical life. 

 

I have included the link below as a fine example of how the paschal troparion is sung in a seemingly endless variation of musical styles. I believe the link below takes us into the world of the Georgian Orthodox Church (please correct me if I am mistaken). I further believe that the presentation is dependent upon the current pandemic, as the "choir" is a medley of isolated voices coming together with a wonderful sense of harmony and coordination via today's technology. A fine blend of the traditional and the contemporary. I believe you will enjoy it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYwnhXCZ_lY&feature=youtu.be  

Although we bid farewell to Pascha, we now anticipate the two great feasts of Ascension and Pentecost, without with Pascha loses its power and purpose. 

 

The Feast of Ascension - somewhat neglected and overlooked - will also mark our parish return to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and thus of the Eucharist. We are still quite restricted in our actual worshipers in the church, but we are certain that we are moving toward a fuller reopening in the days ahead. 

 

We have some great resources on our parish website for Ascension, including many beautiful icons and some "classic" articles on the meaning of the feast. I would highly recommend that you carefully read the article by Fr. George Florovsky that you will find posted there. You will never look at the Ascension the same way once you read Fr. Florovsky!

https://www.christthesavioroca.org/ascension

Memorial Day - So far we are enjoying a beautiful Memorial Day here in the tri-state area. I hope you all enjoy the day as well as possible. At yesterday morning's service we added a short Memorial Service for the departed in honor of this civil observance. We prayed for both men and women who have lost their lives in military service to their country. It is a genuine sacrifice. Those are painful and unforgettable losses especially for the family members who have lost someone in this manner. Presvytera and I still vividly recall the funeral of a young man in our parish in Detroit who was killed in Vietnam many years ago now. Perhaps everyone else has such a painful memory. But we also prayed yesterday for the countless innocent victims of war - men, women and children - caught up in the horrors of occupation, combat, rapacity, reprisals and simply wanton destruction. Innocent victims are not "collateral damage" - they are all human beings who became tragic victims of causes far beyond their capacity to control or escape. However we approach the concept of a "just war," deep down we all know that "war is hell" as it has been strikingly captured once and for all in that timeless definition. 

We should not lose sight of the connection between the paschal nature of the Church's witness to the world and Memorial Day - or any Memorial Service.  "Memory Eternal" is not a pious phrase reminding us that we will always retain "good memories" of our lost loved ones. It is a bold affirmation that every human being is contained within the "memory" of the eternal and loving God who has revealed Himself most fully in Christ. If a human being is eternally "remembered" by God, then that person is never lost to the ravages of history and time. The Resurrection of Christ - the passage from death to life - is the eternal pledge of the gathering together of all human being from ages past in the Memory of God.

 

 

 

Encountering Christ through the Samaritan Woman

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Christ is Risen!

Indeed He is Risen!

 

 

In this post-paschal week as we approach the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, we continue to explore the wonderful dialogue and encounter between Christ and the woman of Samaria (Jn. 4:1-42). 

 

I will admit that this is one of my "favorite" passages in the entire Bible. I would like to therefore share some further insights into this endlessly rich passage from the Gospel according to St. John. To appreciate this passage all the more, we need to bear in mind that Jesus overcame two strict boundaries in this meeting: 

 

1) Openly speaking with a woman while alone in her presence ("They marveled that he was talking with a woman"); and 

 

2) speaking with a Samaritan ("For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans"). 

 

In this one encounter, Jesus elevates the role and status of women by speaking to her of divine mysteries. He also elevates the role and status of non-Jews by revealing himself to the Samaritans as the "Savior of the world." 

Concerning the dialogue with a woman, Origen (+254) wrote the following in his Commentary on the Gospel of St. John:

We know that he is meek and lowly of heart (Matt. 11:29) and does not disdain to speak of such great matters with a woman carrying water who goes out of the city because of her great poverty and labors to draw water for herself. When the disciples arrive they are amazed, for they previously beheld the greatness of the divinity in him, and they marvel that so great a man  was speaking with a woman. We, however, carried away with pride and arrogance, despise those below us and forget that the words "Let us make man according to our image and likeness" apply to each person. 

- COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.166-67.

As to speaking with a Samaritan, St. John Chrysostom (+407), said the following in one of his homilies on the Gospel of St. John:

...And so the woman, on being told, "Give me a drink,"  very naturally asks, "How is that you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" ... She knew he was a Jew from his appearance and speech.  

Observe how considerate she is here. For even if the Lord had been bound to abstain from dealing with her, that was his concern, not hers. The Evangelist does not say that the Samaritans would have no dealings with the Jews but that the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. The woman, however, though not at fault herself, wished to correct what she thought was done unlawfully.

- HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN 31.2,4.

Somewhat randomly, I would like to also include a fine passage from a contemporary biblical scholar, Brendan Byrne, from his book Life Abounding - A Reading of John's Gospel. At the conclusion of their dialogue, the Samaritan woman returns to her town and says to her fellow townsfolk: "Come and see a man who has told me all I have ever done. Can this one be the Christ?" As to her question, Byrne writes: "The opening Greek negative participle, meti, need not necessarily foresee a negative answer. It can express a cautious opinion designed to stimulate reflection." 

But I would like to concentrate on Byrne's paragraph developing the phrase "come and see:"

"Come and see" echoes the invitation of Jesus to the first two disciples (1:39), as also Philip's invitation to the initially reluctant Nathanael (1:46). More significant still is the reason the woman gives for coming to see the one with whom she has been speaking: he has told her all she has ever done (v. 29b). That is the literal meaning of the Greek and doubtless refers to Jesus' knowledge of her private life that led to her regarding him as a prophet.  But to leave the statement there would miss something of a possible wider meaning. 

I have seen it translated, "Come and see a man who has told me the story of my life," a rendering far more truly expressive of the conversion that the woman has undergone. Jesus has taken the broken fragments of her life and shown that they can be part of a wider pattern of meaning in which her personal story and that of her people can be gathered up into the transcendent narrative being worked out in his mission from the Father. Her life, in its failures and deviations no less than in its strengths and successes, has meaning and value within the wider "great story" of salvation.

- Life Abounding, p. 87

We need to imagine just how different the Samaritan woman was after her dialogue and encounter with Christ at Jacob's well. She went to the well for the prosaic but essential task of drawing water for herself and her family. She returned with great enthusiasm believing that she had met the Christ! Her quest for natural water led her to drink of "living water." Truly, as Brendan Byrne writes, this was a "conversion!" 

 

I believe that if we could "slow down" our rushing lives just a bit, then we can enter into a dialogue with Christ that will be a real encounter that quenches our thirst for something truly meaningful - the "living water" that Christ promises. That dialogue and encounter are possible through faith and prayer, strengthened by the reading of the Holy Scriptures.

 

 

 

Notes from our recent class, 'The Common Characteristics of the Risen Lord'

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen! 
Indeed He is Risen!



Apostles Peter and John at the Empty Tomb

You will find an attachment here that we used for this past Wednesday's zoom class, "The Common Characteristics of the Risen Lord." This chart gives us a full account of the various "places" the Risen Christ appeared, which include:

• Tomb Area
• An unnamed section with only the reference to the appearance to Simon (Lk. 24:34)
• Country Road
• Jerusalem
• Galilee

Our main concern was with with the "common characteristics" of these appearances. As you read through these particular texts, try and come up with some of the common elements that occur more than once.

• Think especially in terms of the meals that the risen Christ shares with his disciples. 
• How do these meals relate to our own Liturgy? 
• What differences exist between Jesus appearing to his male disciples and to the myrrh bearing women? 
• Why does Jesus tell Mary Magdalene: "Do not touch (or cling) to me?"

The common characteristics of the Risen Lord - sounds like a discussion with some potential ...

Fr. Steven

* See also: Notes from our class, 'The Myrrhbearing Women and the Empty Tomb'

Where did the Paschal Troparion Come From?

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!

Indeed He is Risen!

 

 

I am currently reading a fine study by Archbishop Ilarion Alfeyev (Russian Orthodox Church), entitled: Christ the Conqueror of Hell - the Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective. Actually, it is an outstanding study in which a detailed survey of this theme from multiple sources - the New Testament, apocryphal literature, early Christian poetry, patristic literature and Church hymnography - clearly reveals just how central it is to the Church's proclamation of the Gospel: the Good News that Christ "has destroyed death by death." That phrase is, of course, from the paschal troparion which we all know and love so well.

I have always wondered about the origin of that troparion, meaning just when and where does it come from? And, lo and behold, Archbishop Ilarion addresses this question in a subsection of the book's opening chapter, under the heading of: "Early Christian Poetry."

Actually, not all questions are answered in his brief survey, but he offers an explanation that shows how intertwined the various elements just listed are brought together to shape our final liturgical expressions. Instead of trying to paraphrase him, I will simply cite the relevant passage so that you may also find an answer to that question: from whence to we derive that "hymn of all paschal hymns?" Archbishop Ilarion begins as follows:

The themes of Christ's descent into Hades and his victory over hell and death are treated extensively in surviving early Christian poetry. We do not know precisely when the short hymn known as the Easter troparion was composed. It is likely, however, that it was already written in the second century (similar hymns, or "tropes," which were paraphrases of texts from Scripture, were an inseparable part of early Christian services) and it continues to be used in the services of the Orthodox Church: "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life."

This hymn reflects a theological idea formed in the second century by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, that the redemptory sacrifice of Christ, the second Adam, is a "recapitulation" (i.e., a backward reproduction) of the life of the first-created Adam. who personifies all mankind. In order to "restore in himself all people who came from Adam, all nations and mankind along with Adam himself," Christ systematically goes through all the main stages of human life so that the effects of the fall of Adam might be corrected in each of them. By his becoming the "first-born of the dead," Christ renews people for the divine life, "having himself become the first of the living, just as Adam became the first of the dying." (Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3, 20, 3) Christ's death therefore becomes a victory over death, and his resurrection brings life and resurrection to the dead. The doctrine of Christ's descent into Hades is later developed in works of liturgical poetry precisely in this vein.
(Christ the Conqueror of Hell, pp. 34-35.)

 

Again, perhaps not an exact pronouncement on the origins of the paschal troparion - which even Archbishop Ilarion states "we do not know precisely" - but a convincing conjecture that the hymn could go back as far as the second century, because the emerging theological Tradition of the Church began to clearly elucidate the teaching of the descent of Christ into Hades in order to "destroy death by death." The Fathers of the Church further developed the salvific content of that descent or, we could say, the human consequences of that victory over death, by stating that those lost in the realm of Hades/death had life "bestowed" upon them. From such a convergence of powerful expressions of Christian faith, it is clear just how the paschal troparion could emerge as a short, but definitive, statement of how we conceive and proclaim that Christ is the Conqueror of Hell.

This is a book worth reading!

 

 

 

An Encounter Like No Other

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


CHRIST IS RISEN! 
INDEED HE IS RISEN!

 

 

Among the Myrrhbearing Women, it is clear that Mary Magdalene is something of a "first among equals."  In the Synoptic Gospels she is always listed first among the other women whose names are recorded by the Evangelists (MATT. 28:1: MK. 16:1; LK. 24:10).  In the Gospel According to St. John, she is the only one of these remarkable women actually named by the Evangelist.  

That St. John also knew the tradition of multiple women visiting the tomb of Christ "on the first day of the week" (JN. 20:1) is indicated by Mary Magdalene using "we" when returning from the tomb and excitingly telling the disciples what she/they discovered there, mistaken though she was as to the reason:  "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know here they have laid him" (JN. 20:2).  

And it is St. Mark and St. John who record the fact that she is the first of the women to actually see the Risen Lord (MK. 16:9: JN. 20:14).  In addition, it is the Evangelist Mark who informs us that Jesus had "cast out seven demons" from Mary Magdalene (v. 9).  

St. Mary Magdalene thus stands out among these outstanding, though self-effacing women, who are now known throughout the world wherever the Gospel is proclaimed.  The Myrrhbearing Women were privileged to be the first human beings to discover the empty tomb, and the first as a body to behold the Risen Christ (MATT. 28:9).

On the Third Sunday of Pascha we hear the account in St. Mark's Gospel about the role of the Myrrhbearing Women in the discovery of the empty tomb as we commemorate the Myrrhbearers on this day (MK. 15:43-16:8).  This is the only Sunday during the paschal season that we hear from a Gospel other than St. John's. 

However, I would like to return to St. John's Gospel for the purpose of this meditation and share a few words about the extraordinary encounter between the Risen Lord and Mary Magdalene recorded there (20:11-18). This is an encounter like no other.  I recall the renowned British biblical scholar C. H. Dodd writing that this  account in St. John's Gospel has no remote counterpart in all of the ancient literature of the Graeco-Roman world.  It is absolutely unique.

At first, as recorded above, Mary Magdalene believed that the tomb was empty because "they have taken the Lord out of the tomb" (20:2). This was her "natural" reaction to the fact of the empty tomb. She then temporarily disappears from the narrative as we hear of Sts. Peter and John discovering the empty tomb, prompted by her troubling words. But after this discovery "the disciples went back to their home" (20:10).  Then, Mary appears again "weeping outside the tomb" (v. 11). When she stoops to look into the tomb she is surprised by the presence of two angels, who pointedly ask her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She again repeats her despairing belief that "they have taken away my Lord" (v.13). At this point "she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus" (v. 14).  

And then that remarkable dialogue and encounter occurs.  

At first Jesus will repeat the words of the angels: "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" (v.15)  Still fixated on the mistaken belief that someone has removed the body of Jesus, Mary, for the third time repeats that assertion to "the gardener" hoping that he will cooperate in disclosing the whereabouts of the body of Jesus.  

And then all is transformed "in the twinkling of an eye" when the Risen Jesus pronounces her name: "Mary" (v. 16). That is all that was necessary, and Christ prepared us for that immediate recognition upon hearing one's name pronounced:

"I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father ... "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand."  (JN. 10:14, 27-28)

When the Risen Good Shepherd speaks her name she immediately recognizes His voice as foretold in the words above and she responds with the endearing title: "Rab-bo'ni!" (The evangelist parenthetically informs us that this means Teacher). 

This encounter like no other is actually consummated through the seemingly simple pronouncement of a name and a title exchanged with both love and devotion between Christ and His disciple Mary Magdalene. I believe that this moment of recognition would be impossible to express in words. We can only bow our heads in silence and awe. Or, perhaps like the other Myrrhbearing Women, "trembling and astonishment" (MK. 16:8) will come upon us if we allow the full power of this encounter to enter our minds and hearts. 

For Mary, bewilderment, despair and confusion give way to joy and regeneration.  That the setting was a "garden" is no accident. Now, upon returning to the other disciples for a second time, a new message is delivered to them, for St. John tells us: "Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord'" (v. 18).

At one point in this incredibly momentous morning, Mary Magdalene told the angels that "they have taken away my Lord."  St. Thomas said when also coming to recognition of the Risen Lord: "My Lord and my God!" In these words, both of these saints made it very personal. 

The encounter with Christ, regardless of the circumstances is always something deeply personal.  Each unique human being has a unique relationship with Christ. We say that He is our Lord, but we equally say that He is my Lord. Therefore, I would like to quote again the deeply encouraging words of Fr. Alexander Men who, when commenting on the events of JN. 20, wrote: 

"Therefore today, on this Paschal day, let each of you, returning home, carry in his heart this joy and the thought that the Lord has appeared to me, too. He is risen for me, and speaks for me, and remains with me, and will forever be as my Lord, as my Savior, as my God. May the Lord protect you!"

A pious tradition has St. Mary Magdalene greeting the Roman emperor Tiberius with the words "Christ is Risen!"  These words reverberate to this day with the glorious "good news" of life out of death.

Notes from our class, 'The Myrrhbearing Women and the Empty Tomb'

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Christ is Risen! 
Indeed He is Risen!

"The resurrection is an act of God, and the message of the resurrection must first of all come from him. His angel or messenger tells the women not to be afraid, and then informs them of the resurrection. In St. John's Gospel the two angels do not proclaim it, however. Instead, Jesus in his risen body greets Mary Magdalene outside the tomb and gives her the message for the apostles (Jn. 20:11-18)."

From The First Day of the New Creation by Veselin Kesich, p. 75

For those of you who were able to join us] I hope you enjoyed the class yesterday evening as much as I did. I very much appreciate your presence and willingness to come together for these classes. Fascinating and "exciting" to go through the resurrection accounts in some detail. I believe that our handouts [see the links immediately below] and the prepared questions (my thanks to Kevin Rains who prepared those questions for the class) very much kept the conversation going:

• The Empty Tomb Traditions
• Discussion Questions about the Empty Tomb
• Harmonization of the Resurrection Accounts

The third handout was from Fr. Lawrence Farley and it was an attempt to fully harmonize the seemingly disparate resurrection accounts. I included that so that we have very perspectives at hand to examine and discuss, but we were only able to address that issue as it came up in our look at the various Gospels. However, I am of the opinion that those "harmonizations" do not quite work, well-intentioned though they might be. 

Perhaps it is a question that I find interesting while others may not, but I want to share this paragraph from Prof. Veselin Kesich's book The First Day of the New Creation. This book has "nurtured" my study of the resurrection narratives for years, and I still turn back to it to this day.

While various speculations may arise from the discrepancies in the evidence presented to us, we must above all avoid attempts to harmonize the sources. The evangelists did not try to harmonize all their accounts, and neither did the early Church, even though there were apologetic reasons for doing so.

The Church preferred to preserve and transmit diverse testimonies. Any harmonization, in order to be consistent, would inevitably exclude some important elements and would produce out of the divine-human witness that we have a human document, based only on human logic. The complexity of the resurrection experience, only partially understood by the participants, would be reduced to a neatly defined sequence of events in the post-resurrection period that would only hinder us from experiencing all that was happening and participating fully in the joy of the resurrection.

The accounts we have of the post-resurrection appearances points to the doubt and fear of the participants - surely an argument that refutes the theory that they were created later. These narratives include the most primitive traditions, which converge despite their differences and confirm the truth of what they report. And primitive Christian preaching would be incomprehensible without different testimonies that the apostles bear to the many and varied meetings with the risen Christ. 

(P. 95; I italicized the parts underlined in my copy of the book)

Again, for what its worth, but I believe that there is something "liberating" in Prof. Kesich's position. We don't have to force every detail into a perfectly harmonious whole.

Next week, we will discuss some of the basic characteristics of the resurrection appearances. This is also quite fascinating!

In Christ,
Fr. Steven

Facing our (Worst) Fears

Dear Parish Faithful and Friends in Christ,

"For I am sure that neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor anything else will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:38-39)

I cannot find the exact citation at the moment, but I recall that St. John Chrysostom once said/wrote that, as human beings, we have three major fears: 1) poverty; 2) illness: and 3) death. And what we fear we do our utmost to avoid.  We are surrounded by this fearful triad in such a way that we cannot ignore, try as we might, the dangers to our well-being that they persistently threaten us with. Poverty and illness can be thoroughly debilitating, but both can be overcome. Yet the finality of death is inescapable, and for this reason it remains the greatest of our fears, with only its postponement as our most realistic goal. For this reason, we all maximize our capabilities and strategies so as to hold these three fears at bay. 

Now, as a Christian pastor, preacher and theologian, St. John went on to say that through our faith in Christ, we need to always remember that none of these three fears - or perhaps we should say "realities" -  can keep us from God. The poor person can still believe in and trust God. The one who is ill can turn to God with patience and prayer. Even death itself is not a barrier between ourselves and God because the death and resurrection of Christ have removed the "sting of death," and transformed death into a passage to God. 

All this leads St. John to the conclusion that there is only one thing to actually fear - and that would be sin! And for this reason: it is sin that creates the barrier that keeps us away from God. If, therefore, you come to the realization that the supreme good in life is closeness with God, then you realize that there is nothing in this world that can undermine that relationship but sin itself, that "missing of the mark" that frustrates our relationship with God. Poverty, illness and death itself cannot keep us from God, but sin can and will. Ultimately, a profoundly encouraging insight by a deep Christian thinker and pastor.

I should add that in no way did St. John brush aside the terrible effects upon living human beings of poverty, illness and the fear of death. He tirelessly preached to his flock about its responsibility to alleviate the crushing burden of poverty that others are suffering from; or to deeply sympathize and assist those who are struggling with any kind of illness or physical defect. He knew firsthand about the harsh environment of a sprawling cosmopolitan setting and how the well-to-do and healthy members of that society can coldly ignore the sufferings of others - even among his Christian flock. He knew the grip that the fear of death terrorized his same flock with. Poverty, illness and death were daily realities that he contended with when both a presbyter and then bishop in the cities of Antioch and Constantinople. All the more so, then, as a preacher would he exhort and seek to keep the image of Christ alive and burning within the minds and hearts of his flock. For St. John, only faith in Christ could dispel, or at least weaken, those fears.

As to our fears today, the same is true for us as there is "nothing new under the sun." What is different in our immediate present is just how these three fears have been so forcefully - if not brutally - brought to our attention with the spread of the coronavirus. 

This global pandemic has brought these three realities to the surface in a way that most people have probably not experienced in their lives before today. Life goes on in our homes and families, but our conversations, the news that we hear, and our very thoughts are fixated on the things we are contending with - poverty, illness and death. These fears that we can more-or-less hide from within the quotidian events of "normal life" have been thrust before our troubled and anxious gaze. Unexpected unemployment is afflicting a huge segment of our society, to the point that it is being compared to some of the great recessions of the past.  This raises the specter of poverty, even with the social programs and government assistance that are meant to alleviate the pressures of that possibility. We know further of how unemployment undermines self-confidence and self-worth leading to depression over the uncertainty of the future. Hence, the eagerness to re-establish normalcy so as to "get back to work." As over a million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, and as we hear some of the horrific stories of people who have been ill, we then all the more fear our own exposure so that now our "neighbor" is the very person that must be avoided and kept at a distance. We can no longer invite other persons into our "space." And with over sixty thousand American deaths as of this writing, the reality of death is no longer a remote inevitability postponed for a far-distance future; but something brought to our attention on a daily basis. Thus, as St. John Chrysostom taught centuries ago, we are indeed facing our worst fears today.

There may exist a misplaced piety among Christians that claims that any fear in the face of any danger is somehow indicative of a lack of faith. The person who believes in Christ should be fearless, according to this approach. And there is support for such a position found in the Scriptures: "that through death he (i.e. Christ) might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage" (Heb. 2:14-15). A firm belief in Christ's victory over death is our path to freedom for its fearful grip. 

And yet, in that same Epistle to the Hebrews, we hear of Christ's agony - and fear - in the Garden of Gethsemane in deeply moving terms: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear" (Heb. 5:7). Even the Son of God agonized over his messianic ministry of passing through "the valley of the shadow of death." There is apparently an inevitable tension between a stance of fearlessness before the reality of death; but also of a genuine fear of death while "in the flesh." I would think that most Christians live within that tension. Christians believe that Christ has "trampled down death by death." This is the faith that we live by and which we proclaim in our liturgical assemblies, especially when receiving the Eucharist.  But we will face our own "agony" and fear when faced with the prospect of death. Perhaps we all share that poignant cry from the Gospel:  "I believe, help my unbelief!" (Mk. 9:24). Those Christians who attempt to intimidate "weaker" Christians into "proving" that they have faith even when fearful, are clearly lacking in charity.

St. John Chrysostom was right: we fear 1) poverty; 2) illness; and 3) death. We can call this (fallen) human nature or the human condition.  Any such terms are applicable. If our anxieties and fears have been heightened to a greater of lesser degree during this coronavirus pandemic, it need not cause us further anxiety concerning our faith, or a debilitating discouragement that we are not being faithful enough. 

To see our weaknesses is not meant to discourage us. In fact, it should encourage us to be honest about ourselves, so as to face and wrestle with our fears. Perhaps like the patriarch Jacob in that mysterious event when he wrestled with an angel, that is how we can overcome them. We know our weaknesses, now we need to avail ourselves of those "tools" from within the Church which, when humbly turned to, can build up our faith: prayer, the Scriptures, Repentance, Confession and the Eucharist (when available again!). Otherwise, our social isolation will only create spiritual fatigue and emptiness. We cannot afford to wait until life returns to normal to then resume our "religious lives" in church. On the contrary, St. Paul exhorts us: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2). And elsewhere: "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). 

I believe being brought face-to-face with our fears is a painful lesson in humility. The French Orthodox theologian, Jean-Claude Larchet says this with great insight:  

Illness is an opportunity for each person to experience his ontological fragility, his dependence, and to turn to God as the one who can help overcome it: if not physically (for there do occur, in response to prayer, miraculous healings), then at least spiritually, and give it a meaning by which one builds oneself up, and without which one only allows oneself to be destroyed.

To be humbled is not to be discouraged. To put that another way: I do not believe that God works through discouragement. But I do believe that strengthened by the grace of God, we can work through discouragement in any form that it may assail us. Realizing our dependence on Christ - "For apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5) - teaches us to be humble. We therefore cannot judge anyone else - including all of those "unbelievers" who live in our midst.

There is something to learn about ourselves, the world around us, and "life" itself, as we face a multitude of fears during this coronavirus crisis in which we are immersed. The process may be painful, but the results are positive. We are learning to care for and to love each other, to more fully appreciate the "little things" in life, to take nothing for granted - including tomorrow - and to deeply sympathize with the sufferings of others. 

On the pastoral level I am hoping that this includes a deeper awareness of our dependence on God. St. John Chrysostom knew our fears, but he also knew how liberating it is to believe in Christ. We may realize this today as never before: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever." (Heb. 13:8). A contemporary Orthodox theologian, Fr. John Breck, expresses this timeless Christian hope as follows:

I hope fear of the coronavirus will lead all of us to recognize "the one thing needful:" to focus eyes and heart beyond the immediate threat, and upon the beauty, peace and joy of the Kingdom of God.  If our suffering enables us to "participate in Christ's own afflictions" (Col. 1), then we can look forward to physical death — however it may occur — not only as liberation, but as a very real transformation from "this body of death" to a spiritual body with eyes to contemplate forever the glorious Face of the Risen Lord.

Archpriest Steven C. Kostoff