Do You Celebrate the (Civil) New Year?

Image source: goodfreephotos.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

Do You Celebrate the (Civil) New Year?

Most of us certainly do, so by anticipation, I hope and pray for a blessed upcoming year of 2025 for one and all in our parish. Personally, I prefer looking forward to a blessed New Year more than a happy New Year. What, by the way, would a "happy" new year look like? I assume something like: Everything works out for us as we hope it all will. Well there is always a "reality check" on such wishes, so whatever may be in store for us (a "cross?") we hope and pray that "God is with us" in all circumstances of our life. 

Be that as it may, I would suggest that if you are intent upon greeting the New Year with some form of celebration/party/social gathering; the place to begin is in the Church through acknowledging God first and foremost, as the Source of any anticipated "happiness" if not actually "blessings" for 2025. The possibility is there in that this evening, we will celebrate Great Vespers at 7:00 p.m. (The actual ecclesial commemorations on January 1 are the Circumcision of the Lord; and the feast day of St. Basil the Great). And tomorrow morning, we will celebrate the Divine Liturgy at 9:30 a.m. So, we can begin with God, and then carry on from there. 

Or, to use an expression that is probably a regular part of our vocabulary and approach to life, we can think in terms of our priorities. As in: Just where do I begin, when I establish life-affecting priorities and goals? Is the Lord Jesus Christ the "one thing needful" (highest priority) in my life? If not, then what is ...?

Regardless of what is awaiting us in 2025 - known "in advance" only to God - we can use the New Year as the beginning of both a personal and familial renewal. There are "resolutions" and then there is "repentance." The cliche has it that resolutions are made only to be broken, but that is not necessarily true. With effort and the grace of God, we can turn those resolutions into permanent changes in our way of life, the implication from a resolution being that we very much need the change - overcoming "bad habits" and creating "good habits" in their place. Repentance is not only transforming "passions" into "virtues" - the language of the Church and the saints for bad and good habits - but of re-centering our "worldview" on the Holy Trinity, to borrow a phrase from Met. Kallistos Ware. If we take our "life in Christ" seriously, also meaning our life in the grace-filled atmosphere of the Church, then this is all quite possible; for what is impossible on the human level is possible with God, as taught by our Lord.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Great Reward of Having Faith

 

THE GREAT REWARD OF HAVING FAITH

“Therefore do not cast away your confidence/boldness (παρρησίαν), which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ‘For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” (Hebr 10:35-39)

There is “great reward,” for not casting away our confidence. Our confidence is in the Great Fact that God is. And He is good. He is not an absent father, but One Who suits up and shows up, time and again, as we celebrate in this season of Theophanies, i.e., of His appearance to us in Bethlehem and His coming out to be baptized in the river Jordan. He is invariably the One “who is coming,” and He will come and will not tarry; He will come into any of our unhealed or unresolved difficulties, internal or external, as He always has. 

Sometimes, the negative voices in our heads or in our midst want to drag us down, so that we lose our trust in God and in our own eternal value and importance to Him, and slip into wasting time on loneliness, self-centered fear, complacency, indifference to our own vocation, as if it doesn’t matter, etc. 

“But we are not of those who draw back to perdition,” the author of Hebrews reminds us, “but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” It matters, my friends, that we have faith, that we nourish our faith, and that we emanate it to those around us. Through our faith and hope and communion with our good God, we change and re-vitalize our world, with God’s grace. And we do, as we live and breathe in faith, experience the “great reward” of changing our world, as we change ourselves daily, replacing fear and complacency with faith. But if we allow ourselves to embrace and emanate the opposite kinds of energies, like hopelessness, complacency, etc., we not only waste our own precious, God-given time, but we also begin to infect others with our negativity. This morning, let me let God into my heart, as I engage in some heartfelt prayer, and let me put one foot in front of the other and do what I need to do today, according to my responsibilities, with which He dignifies me.

_____

I just communicated with Sister Vassa, so a final confirmation that she will visit our parish on Wednesday evening, March 19, to deliver a talk entitled "Great Lent as a Great Catechism." She and I both agree that it would be too demanding to have both the Presanctified Liturgy and her talk on one evening. So, we will first serve a lenten Vespers on Wednesday evening, March 19, and shift the Presanctified to Friday evening of that week. Mark your calendars!

The Nativity of Christ and Martyrdom

Source: oca.org

 Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS BORN!

GLORIFY HIM!

The Gospel reading for the Great Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord is Matthew 2:1-12. This passage proclaims the Good News that the Savior was born in Bethlehem according to the biblical prophecies.

The star guides the Magi and they, in turn, bring their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newborn Child in acknowledgment that He is unique and a true King, testified to by cosmic signs that even the Gentile Magi can properly interpret. Joyous as this is, there is already a hint of the ultimate destiny of Christ in that myrrh is used in the burial customs of the Jews.

On the Second Day of the Nativity, we complete the reading of the second chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel—2:13-23, which immediately introduces us to the tragic reality of the massacre of the innocent boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or younger. The previous joy of the Savior’s Nativity is replaced by the wailing and lamentation of the mothers of these innocent children, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more” [Jeremiah 2:18].

The shadow of the Cross lay across the infancy narratives in this Gospel, for in the immediate post-Nativity period, these male children become the first of many martyrs who must die because Christ has entered the world, as many of the powerful of this world—following the dark example of King Herod—will not receive Him; they will actually despise Him and turn against His followers. Thus, the suffering of innocent children is somehow taken up by God as an offering in a sinful world that fluctuates between light and darkness. 

And we must acknowledge that the suffering of innocent children continues to the present time - a suffering directly caused by human wickedness. We now understand that the cave of the Nativity anticipated the tomb of Christ’s burial, and that the swaddling clothes anticipated the grave clothes with which Christ would eventually be bound following His death on the Cross.

On the Third Day of the Nativity - and on the Sunday After Nativity - we commemorate the Protomartyr Stephen, the first to die for his faith in Christ in the post-Resurrection community of the newborn Church. St. Stephen's lengthy speech to his fellow Jews, in which he upbraided them for their lack of faith; and in which he proclaimed Jesus as the Risen and Ascended Christ is recorded in ACTS 7. His brutal martyrdom by stoning followed as his testimony resulted in a furious and deadly rejection of his convicting words. In fact, "they gnashed their teeth against him" (ACTS 7:54).

Martyrdom has always been a distinct and powerful witness to Christ. Actually, “from the beginning” the Incarnation and Martyrdom are inextricably joined together in a world torn by the tension between darkness and light. To our great joy, we know "that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (JN. 1:5).

The kontakion for the Feast of Saint Stephen captures the movement between the joy of Christ’s birth and the sobering reality of what Christ’s coming meant for some:
Yesterday the Master assumed our flesh and became our guest; Today His servant is stoned to death and departs in the flesh: The glorious first martyr Stephen!

There is no greater witness to Christ than that of the martyrs—flesh and blood men, women and children who gave their lives for the Lord in the sure hope and assurance that eternal life awaited them in the Kingdom of God. 

If we exchange a “Merry Christmas” with others, we always need to be mindful of the commitment we are making to the newborn Christ. As we temporarily indulge in the days of the Feast, we realize that the Christian life is ultimately a commitment to discipline and restraint, even the “crucifixion” of the flesh with all of its desires, in order to “witness” to Christ as disciples who believe that His advent in the flesh, culminating in His death and resurrection, has prepared a place for us in His eternal Kingdom where there is “life everlasting.”

The Mysterion of the Incarnation

Source: orthodoxroad.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

We were blessed yesterday morning with a truly festal Liturgy and celebration of the Lord's Nativity in the flesh. I am sorry about cancelling the festal Matins on the eve of the Feast, but that added rest allowed me to recover enough to serve the Liturgy yesterday. It was a joy see the church so filled with worshippers. I hope that your respective Christmas celebrations went well.

As our fast-paced culture moves so swiftly forward (toward what may be a fair question); it may seem as if Christmas is already over - "one and done" as the saying goes. Or what remains could be the rush to return gifts that do not work, do not fit, or are unwanted. Let's slow things down for a moment, if possible, and bring back to mind some of the incredibly rich hymnography that we just sang in the Liturgy or read through on our own. We can meditate upon these hymns as the Nativity Feast continues until January 4 inclusive. The longest fast-free period in our liturgical year! 

These hymns are united in their rhetorical capacity to state the paradox of God becoming man. I was speaking with someone in the church yesterday, while preparing for the Liturgy, and we both agreed that thinking on the Incarnation can "explode" one's mind. A profound mysterion to use of the Apostle Paul's chosen words to reveal the meaning of Christ among us!

This first example is the third kathisma taken from the festal Matins:

How can a womb contain Him whom nothing can
   contain?

How can He remain in His father's bosom, yet rest in his mother's arms?

It is His good pleasure to accomplish this.

Having no flesh, He purposely assumes it for our sake.

He who is becomes what He never was.

He shares our substance without forsaking His own nature.

Desiring to make us citizens of the world on high,Christ, the Only-begotten of the       Father, is born on earth as a man.

_____

From the Liturgy, the incomparable kontakion, which is actually the prelude to the metered theological poem (known as a kontakion) of St. Romanos the Melode:

Today he virgin gives birth to the transcendent one,

And the earth offers a cave to the unapproachable  one!

Angels, with shepherd, glorify Him!

The wise journey with a star,since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a little child!
_____

And, the special Hymn to the Theotokos that replaces "It is Truly Meet" in the Liturgy (actually the Irmos of the Ninth Ode of the splendid Nativity Canon, also from the festal Matins):

Magnify, O my soul,

the most pure virgin Theotokos,

more honorable and more glorious than the heavenly hosts!

I behold a strange, most glorious mystery!Heaven - the cave!

The cherubic throne - the virgin!

The manger - the place where Christ lay,

  the uncontainable God, whom we magnify in song!

There is no need for any further commentary, as each person who reads and meditates upon these hymns will provide his/her own personal interior commentary. As the Apostle Paul exhorts us: think on these things!

Coffee With Sister Vassa: Christmas Eve

 

CHRISTMAS EVE

“God shall come from Teman (the South), and the Holy One from the shady mount Paran (ἐξ ὄρους κατασκίου δασέος) из горы приосененныя чащи).” (Habbakuk/Avvakum 3:3, LXX) 

This mystifying verse from the Song of the Prophet Habbakuk/Avvakum occurs frequently throughout our church-services for Christmas, because it is traditionally seen to be a prophecy about the Virgin Birth in Bethlehem.

The term “Teman” (Greek: Θαιμαν, Hebrew: תימן), among its various meanings, was used in Biblical Hebrew also in the sense of “the South.” This is how the term is translated in the Old Slavonic: Бог «от юга» приидет… (God shall come from “the South”). The Prophet Habbakuk is presumed to have lived in Jerusalem at the time of his prophecy, although his home is not identified in the Bible. Bethlehem lies about ten kilometers south of Jerusalem, hence we recognize here a prophecy about the birth of Christ. At other times, God has revealed Himself from “the South” in the sense of Mount Sinai, which lies to the south of Israel. 

The next part of the verse is more difficult to unpack, and its translations into English are varied. Before looking at the term “shady mountain,” which means the Holy Virgin, let’s look first at the term “Paran,” translated in the Greek Septuagint-translation as “δασύ” that means “forested country” (or an area with a thick forest, hence the Slavonic translation, «чаща» that means a thick forest). The Hebrew etymology of the word “Paran” is more interesting. In the form of a verb פאר (pa'ar) it means “to glorify; to branch out in glory and beauty; the branching out or diversifying into a spectrum of glorious nuances.”

The “shady” or “overshadowed” mountain Paran (as indicated above, one branching out in glory and beauty) is the Holy Virgin, who is an elevated place, like a mountain, and “overshadowed” in the sense that shadows in the Bible often symbolize God’s presence and character. The Theotokos is seen to be “overshadowed” by God’s presence, as the Archangel says to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you.”(Lk 1:35) She is identified as this “overshadowed” mountain with “thick forest” in Heirmos 4 of the first Christmas canon at the matins-service of this feast: “Stem and flower of the root of Jesse, You have blossomed from the Virgin, O Christ. From the overshadowed mountain of thick forest, You are come, made flesh from her that knew no man…” Let’s note also that she is identified with the “mountain” in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, from which a stone is cut“without hands.” (Dan 2:45) 

Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One! Thank you, Theotokos! Thank You, Lord! A blessed Christmas Eve, my beloved friends! In today's reflection, we find some pretty careful exegesis of some of the prophetic images taken from the Scriptures

____

A generous offering by Sister Vassa, as she follows the old Julian calendar and will not actually celebrate the Birth of Christ until January 7. In today's reflection, we find some pretty careful biblical exegesis of some of the prophetic images taken from the Scriptures.

A Word About the WORD

Image source: iconsofsaints.com

 

The Incarnation: A word about the Word!

Toward Recovering a Genuine Christian Vocabulary


Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

“He, the Mighty One, the Artificer of all, Himself prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for Himself, and took it for His very own, as the instrument through which He was known and in which He dwelt.” ~ Saint Athanasius the Great

Within the Church we have a biblical/theological vocabulary that is very expressive of what we believe as Christians. These words are drawn primarily from the Bible, the Ecumenical Councils, and the theological writings of the great Church Fathers, such as Saint Athanasius the Great, quoted above. As responsible, believing and practicing Christians, we need to know this vocabulary at least in its most basic forms. As we continually learn a new technology-driven vocabulary derived from computers to smart phones, so too we need to be alert to the traditional vocabulary of the Church as it has been sanctified over centuries of use. And this vocabulary should be natural to us – not something foreign, exotic and “only for theologians.” It does not take a great deal of effort to be theologically literate, and there is no excuse not to be. 

As we prepare to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, a key term that must be part of the vocabulary of all Orthodox Christians is Incarnation. The Nativity of Christ is the incarnation of the Son of God as Jesus of Nazareth. Or, we simply speak of The Incarnation, immediately knowing what that word is referring to. 

If we turn to the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, we find the term defined somewhat blandly, in that kind of clipped, compact and objective style found in most dictionaries:

• in•car•na•tion \in-kär-`nā-shǝn\ n (14c) 1 a (1): the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form (2) cap: the union of the divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ.

In the Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology, the Orthodox theologian, Father John McGuckin, begins his definition under a fairly long entry of this term as follows:

• Incarnation — Incarnation is the concept of the eternal Word of God (the Logos) “becoming flesh” within history for the salvation of the human race. Incarnation does not simply refer to the act itself (such as the conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin, or the event of Christmas); it stands more generally for the whole nexus of events in the life, teachings, sufferings, and glorification of the Lord, considered as the earthly, embodied activity of the Word [p. 180].

Speaking of expanding our theological vocabulary, we need to further know that we translate the key Greek term Logos as Word, referring of course to the Word of God Who was “with God” and Who “was God,” according to Saint John’s Gospel “in the beginning.” We also refer to the Word of God as the “Son,” “Wisdom,” and “Power” of God. It is this Logos/Word of God Who becomes incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth. The key verse that is the classical expression of the Incarnation in the New Testament is found in the Gospel according to Saint John 1:14:  “And the Word (Logos) became flesh.” 

This profound paradox of the Word-become-flesh is found in the well-known kontakion of the Nativity, written by St. Romanos the Melode. He begins his wonderful hymn with that paradox captured in the following manner: 

"Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One; and the earth offers a cave to the unapproachable One ..."

Incarnation is derived from the Latin word “in the flesh.” The Greek word for Incarnation would be sarkothenta, meaning “made flesh.” So the Incarnation of the Word of God is the “enfleshment”of the Word, and here “flesh” means the totality of our human nature. The Word has assumed our human nature and united it to Himself in an indissoluble union that restores the fellowship of God and humankind. The sacramental life of the Church is based on the Incarnation, and the potential for created reality to become a vehicle for spiritual reality. The ultimate manifestation of this is the Eucharist, and the bread and wine “becoming” the Body and Blood of Christ.

Christmas is the time of the year to recall all of this profound reality and recover a genuine Christian vocabulary that expresses our Faith about as well as what is humanly possible. This further means that theological words are not dry and abstract concepts when approached with not only respect, but with awe and wonder. This makes our reading and studying of our theological Tradition exciting – as well as humbling. The words reveal life-transforming truths that if received with prayer and thanksgiving enhance and expand our minds and hearts, so that we might have the “mind of Christ.”

Coffee With Sister Vassa: Joseph Learns to Accept Her

 

JOSEPH LEARNS TO ACCEPT HER

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins…” (Mt 1:18-22)

On this second day of the Forefeast of Christmas (NC), I’m thinking how very human this family drama was. These two people, Joseph and young Mary, barely knew each other, so their drama played out in silence. When the very awkward situation developed that her pregnancy began to show, Joseph dealt silently with his fears. Apparently, she also did not say anything. And here an angel stepped in, one of the invisible good guys. 

Does this make the story un-relatable for us, ordinary people? I think it’s relatable and holds a practical lesson for us, for those sticky moments in our own male-female interactions, when we fear rejection or betrayal but don’t know what to say or do. The lesson is that Joseph did not become angry in his silent fears and had compassion for his betrothed, which is why he was open to the voice of one of the invisible good guys. It nudged him in the right direction, saying, “Do not be afraid.” After this, Joseph accepted her as she was and for who she was; a woman with a vocation that came not from him but from God. 

Thank God he didn’t send her away, because she needed him. Even she needed a man in her life, at that time. Just like we need one another. I, for one, need both men and women in my life, and am sometimes fearful of not being able to rely on those God sends into my life. These fears are at times understandable, but – and here is the lesson I glean from the above-quoted story, – fear should not be allowed to turn into anger or resentment. Fear needs to be treated by its antidote, faith, and opened up to God, Who can and does enlighten us, as to how or if we should proceed in any given human relationship. By His grace, if I embrace a bit of patience and compassion with myself and others, I remain capable of obedience to the good guys, the good voices in our midst, both visible and invisible, which nudge us in the right direction. God, by the prayers of all Your saints, help us not act rashly or lose the relationships we are meant to foster, and that are meant to foster us.

The History of December 25

 

Image source: ancientfaith.com

Dear Parish Faithful,

To this day it remains uncertain as to how exactly December 25 was eventually chosen to be the date on which Christians worldwide celebrate the Birth of Christ (the Armenian Apostolic Church remains an exception, still celebrating the Lord's Nativity on January 6). Scholars and historians have studied the issue deeply and have come to somewhat different tentative conclusions. There is no doubt that December 25 was already circulating as one choice among very early Christian writers before the 4th c. as the date on which Christ was born. Of course, this was based on a "symbolic" reading of ancient ideas about such themes as the creation of the world, and not on historically verifiable data. 

One early Christian idea was that since the creation of the world occurred on March 25; then, the "new creation" in Christ began with his birth on the same day. Yet, it was understood that the actual incarnation of the Son of God occurred when he has conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. That conception would precede his birth by exactly nine calendar months, thus demonstrating that his actual birth in the flesh must have occurred on December 25. This was the theory of a certain Sextus Julianus Africanus, in the 3rd c. However, it was not universally accepted and there is no indication that December 25 was celebrated as a feast day before the 4th c. Yet, an ancient work known as the Chronograph of 354, informs us that in Rome, the birth of Christ on December 25 was first celebrated in 336. As it spread throughout Western Europe, we also know that that date was eventually accepted in Constantinople in 379, and in Antioch in 386. But not in Jerusalem until 6th c.! 

There appears to be good evidence that the Nativity of Christ on December was very much influenced by various other celebrations around or on the date of December 25 - "pagan" as we would say - in Rome in the fourth c. Christians could very well have finally settled on December 25 as a Christian response to these celebrations, even if initially conceived as a polemical response to non-Christian Roman traditions. At this point, I will simply provide a summary paragraph from the book of a prominent historian, Joseph F. Kelly, PhD (chair of the Theology and Religious Studies of John Carroll University) on the origins of Christmas. In fact, his very well-received and fairly detailed study of the issue is known simply as The Origins of Christmas. Synthesizing and summarizing a great deal of historical research, he writes the following in the chapter entitled "Creating Christmas Day and the Christmas Season:" 

“The Roman Christians did not tell us why they finally chose December 25 to celebrate the dies natalis Christi (the “natal day of Christ”), but it was not because they believed it to be the exact date of Jesus’s birth. While no one piece of evidence finalizes the case, most likely the cult of the Unconquered Sun and the Christian struggle against it along with the tradition of identifying Christ with the prophet Malachi’s “Sun of Righteousness” and the dating of Christ’s birth to the day that was also the winter solstice, itself a consequence of dating his incarnation to March 25, all united in Rome to make December 25 an appropriate if not chronologically certain date for Christ’s birth. When this was combined with the birthday of Mithra and the proximity of Saturnalia and New Year’s, the Roman Christians chose a date which had already achieved some acceptance and which could counter several major pagan feasts.”

The Origins of Christmas, p. 83-84 by Joseph Kelly

Could that be understood as "baptizing" a culture and bringing it within a Christian understanding of time and salvation?

Nativity Narrative Test

Image source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

This is an admittedly an old "warhorse," that has gone out for many years. Yet, we have so many new folks in the parish and on our parish distribution list, that perhaps they will also like to take up the challenge. And for the others, you can test your ever-growing knowledge of the Scriptures. Of course, this presupposes prioritizing the reading of the Nativity narratives during this season of the year.

Nativity Narrative Test

The following test questions should be answered by using the following key:

M – St. Matthew L – St. Luke ML – Sts. Matthew & Luke N – Neither Gospel

1. This Gospel contains a sequence of revelatory dreams to St. Joseph _____

2. This Gospel has an ox and an ass by the manger of the Christ Child _____

3. This Gospel mentions the census that takes Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem _____

4. This Gospel contains the genealogy of Christ that begins with the Patriarch Abraham _____

5. This Gospel narrates the massacre of the Innocents _____

6. This Gospel narrates the visit of three magi who bring gifts to the Christ Child _____

7. This Gospel narrates the angelic visitation to shepherds watching their flocks _____

8. This Gospel contains references to King Herod _____

9. This Gospel narrates that Christ was born in the Hebrew month equivalent to Dec. _____

10. This Gospel contains the prophecy of Isaiah that a “virgin” shall conceive _____

11. This Gospel narrates the journey of the “Holy Family” to Egypt and back to Israel _____

12. This Gospel narrates that Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths _____

13. This Gospel refers to Jesus as the Word of God _____

14. This Gospel tells us that the name of Christ’s mother is Mary _____

15. This Gospel narrates the circumcision of the eight-day old Jesus _____

16. This Gospel narrates that Jesus was born in a cave/stable/house _____

17. This Gospel informs us that Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem _____

18. This Gospel tells us that after His birth, Jesus returned to Nazareth _____

19. This Gospel refers to the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus _____

20. This Gospel mentions women in the genealogy of Christ _____

MARY - Woman and Mother

Image source: legacyicons.com

Dear Parish Faithful,

Here are a couple of insightful paragraphs on the role of the Virgin Mary in the divine oikonomia. These passages also offer good insight into the ever-perplexing genealogy found in St. Matthew's Gospel, and the undeniably major role assumed by women in that genealogy:

"Mary is presented as the final and perfect instrument in God's providential history. She brings to fruition a long history of courageous women and mothers, as she gives birth to the Messianic son of David, son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). Matthew indicates that Israel's sacred history has been marked, from its very beginning, by women open to God's action in their lives, cost them what it may. The presence of the feminine through the religious history of Israel, incarnated in the women mentioned explicitly by Matthew, and culminated in Mary of Nazareth, shows that, despite all the judgments of society, religion and culture, they were the ones who were open to the initiative of God working in them. Thus, one of them became the mother of the Messiah."

"The earliest Church immediately saw Mary as a woman and a mother. These themes are repeated in Matthew, but now we see Mary understood and presented as the perfection of all the women who have played a decisive role in the gradual unfolding of God's salvation history to become the mother of Jesus Christ. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba are not only women of great significance in critical moments of God's unfolding plan for his people. There is more to their role: they are included in the genealogy, written in a way which indicated that it is God-directed, because of their husbands and the sons they bore to them. They are both women and mothers."

MARY - Woman and Mother, by Francis J. Moloney

 

Coffee With Sister Vassa: Celebrating Our Jewish "Root"

 

CELEBRATING OUR JEWISH “ROOT”

“By faith You justified the Forefathers, when through them You betrothed Yourself beforehand to the Church of the Gentiles. The saints boast in glory, that from their seed there is a glorious fruit: she who bore You without seed. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.” (Troparion, Sunday of the Forefathers)

On the second-to-last Sunday before Christmas, our church celebrates the Jewish “forefathers” of the Theotokos, who rightfully “boast in glory” that she came “from their seed.” But this makes me think about Romans 11, where St. Paul talks about a wrong kind of boasting on the part of some Gentile Christians, who boasted “against” the non-believing Jews in their midst. 

St. Paul warns the Gentile Christians not to boast or feel superior to those Jewish people who rejected Christ, because the latter remain the “root” and the original “branches” that support the new Tree of Life, the incarnate Son of God, while Gentiles were “grafted in” from the “wild” later, after the “Tree” had been well-established: “And if some of the branches were broken off,” St. Paul writes to these Gentiles, “and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” (Rom 11: 17-18) In this chapter, St. Paul also expresses his faith that “all Israel will be saved” in the end, because “they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.” (Rom 11: 26,28)

As we pray for the intercessions of the Jewish ancestors of our Jewish Lord this season, I take pause and say, “Thank you, Jewish people!” for being our root. It’s not an easy thing to be, as we can see throughout history and today, when many of us continue somehow to resent you for it. Holy Forefathers, pray to God for the Jewish people and for all of us this season, that we remember we are all “beloved”!

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I very much appreciate Sister Vassa's recognition of the "Jewish people" and our thankfulness to them for being the root of our Christian Faith. As the Lord declared: "Salvation is from the Jews." (Jn. 4:22) Perhaps we may understand the anguish of the Apostle Paul who so hoped and prayed for the conversion of Israel in his profound conviction that Jesus, indeed, is the Messiah of Israel. But that has nothing to do with the irrationality of "Christian" antisemitism - possibly the greatest historical sin of Christianity through the centuries. As profound as our disagreement may be about the "identity" of Jesus of Nazareth with our Jewish friends, that disagreement must remain within the bounds of sharing a common root and of respect and care for the "other," especially of those who have born the burden of persecution for their faith. 

As the Roman Catholic thinker Leon Bloy expressed it: "Antisemitism ... is the most horrible slap in the face suffered in the ever continuing Passion of our Lord. It is the most stinging and most unpardonable because He suffers it on His Mother's Face and at the hands of Christians."

Coffee With Sister Vassa: Faith in the Human Being

 

FAITH IN THE HUMAN BEING

"We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar." (1 Jn 4:19-20)

Our human (self-)loathing is a kind of denial of God’s undying love for us and faith in us. It’s a sign that on some level we don’t believe in the God in Whom St. John the Evangelist believes, Who, through us sent His Son into our world. As St. John says in this same chapter, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world…”

Christianity proclaims a radical faith in humanity; God’s undying faith in humanity, which is more honorable and honored than the Cherubim, and more glorious and glorified beyond compare than the Seraphim. We are also entrusted with God’s revelation of Himself to us; with receiving it and passing it on, from generation to generation, based on human testimony and language, and other messy and fallible human capacities. 

May I believe in us today, and embrace the hope, love and patience with ustoday, that God unchangeably has and extends to each of us daily. I can do that, by opening up to Him in prayer, and letting His divine energies, His faith and His love for all of us, break into my broken and contrite heart. God is the Lord and has appeared unto us! Let me let that sink in, as we proceed on our journey to Bethlehem, preparing our little gifts for one another, as little testimonies of our love for Him.

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In a time of dehumanization through either ugly rhetoric or violent actions, this is a wonderful "reminder" of the goodness of humanity and of our responsibility as Christians to clarify our vision whenever it becomes obscured by the disparaging nature of sinful words and actions. May Christ strengthen us in that worthy endeavor! 

Coffee With Sister Vassa: Illumined, But Not Consumed

 

ILLUMINED, BUT NOT CONSUMED

“Standing in a furnace of flaming fire as though in dew, 
the Holy Youths mystically prefigured Your coming from a Virgin, 
by which we are illumined, but not consumed…” 

(Hymn at Vespers, Sunday of the Forefathers) 

On the Sundays before Christmas, in our church-services we will hear references to the story of the Three Holy Youths in the fiery furnace, as told in Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel. This incident “mystically prefigured” Christ’s“coming from a Virgin, by which we are illumined but not consumed,” as explained in the above-quoted hymn. Just as the Theotokos was not consumed by the living God in her womb, neither are we consumed by receiving His Body and Blood in ours. “We are illumined, but not consumed.”

Why does it need to be said, that the true God does not come into our lives to consume or harm us, like fire? Because, before His coming, most of humanity believed in gods that were not good and loving. We believed they needed to be kept at bay, by offering them all sorts of sacrifices, so that they would not harm us. We might still tend to suspect that God somehow needs to be satisfied by our good works, otherwise He will turn against us. But this is a pagan notion, as I’m reminded by the story of the Three Holy Youths, who did not succumb to the fears of the pagans who threw them into the furnace. 

Let me continue this journey of the Nativity Fast in the light and lightness of the Cross, not with anxiety. It’s a journey by which we are meant to be illumined, one day at a time, but not consumed. By the prayers of the Theotokos, Savior, save us!

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Here is a touch of "good news" for those of you who read Sister Vassa's wonderful and succinct reflections as they come out periodically: She is scheduled to visit our church on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 and give a talk to the parish entitled: "Great Lent as a Great Catechism." More details to follow.

"Let Us Give Thanks to the Lord"

Image source: uocofusa.org

 

'Let us give thanks unto the Lord!'

"Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?" (LK. 17:17)

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

The cleansing of the ten lepers (LK. 17:11-19) is clearly a remarkable story that reveals the exousia, or authority, of Christ over sickness. Yet, in addition, it is a healing story that is just as much about the need to offer thanksgiving to God whenever we are a recipient of His abundant mercy.

As the story opens, we first hear the plaintive and pathetic cry from these lepers: "And as he entered the village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, 'Jesus, Master, have pity on us'." (v.12-13) Did these lepers truly believe that Jesus could do something for them that no one else could possibly do?

In response to whatever level of faith they may have had, Jesus cleansed the ten lepers simply by His word:  "When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to priests." And as they went they were cleansed." (v. 14).

Lepers, of course, were not allowed to be near the other members of their community, for they were declared to be unclean and therefore, ritually impure (LEV. 13:45-46; NUM. 5:2-3). Their cleansing not only freed them from a debilitating illness that left its victims visibly disfigured; but it also restored them to fellowship in their community. Their ostracism was now over. 

According to the Law, the priests that Jesus sent them to would declare their healing and make that restoration to society a possibility. Yet, considering the enormous generosity of Christ in being the source of both their cleansing and restoration, we read with great surprise that only one of them returned to Jesus in order to thank Him:

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell at his feet, giving him thanks. (v. 15-16)

What adds to our surprise is that this newly-cleansed leper "was a Samaritan." (v. 16) We know that Jews and Samaritans were hostile to each other and that "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."(JN. 4:9) In the light of that reality, it is all the more significant that there was a Samaritan among the ten lepers. Perhaps, as lepers, they were forced to keep company; but could it be possible that in their misery they understood that they shared a common humanity that transcended their ethnic/cultural/religious barriers? So, perhaps in their collective misery, these lepers overcame their mutual hostility as they remained together on the outskirts of the village. 

Be that as it may, Jesus wanted to point out the incongruity of a Samaritan returning to offer thanks to God, while His fellow Jews failed to do so. And then Jesus asks what is a very convicting question that goes to the very heart of the matter:  "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner"?" (v. 17-18) Even Jesus calls the Samaritan a "foreigner!" (It is of note that it was a foreigner - Naaman - who returned to Elisha after being healed of leprosy (II KINGS 5:15, LK. 4:27). But, nevertheless, the question "cuts deep," we can say. 

Christ does not "need" to be thanked. Jesus is not petulant; and He is not offended by the cleansed lepers who failed to return as did the Samaritan. It was the lepers who needed to offer thanksgiving or praise to God for what had been done for them. That was the point that Christ drew attention to through His publicly-stated question. Significantly, Jesus tells the Samaritan:  "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." (v. 17) Did the cleansed and thankful leper receive more than the others had done?

St. Athanasius the Great implies this in his comments on this passage:

"They thought more highly of their cure from leprosy than of him who who had healed them.... Actually, this one was given much more than the rest. Besides being healed of his leprosy, he was told by the Lord, "Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you." You see, those who give thanks and those who glorify have the same kind of feelings. They bless their helper for the benefits they have received. That is why Paul urged everybody to 'glorify God with your body.' Isaiah also commanded, 'Give glory to God'." — Festal Letter 6

The leprosy that was treated with fear and great caution in the Scriptures can serve as a vivid metaphor for human sin. In the Orthodox Tradition, we treat sin more as a sickness than as the breaking of a commandment. Sin is more of a "condition" than a "crime." It is, actually, the "human condition" into which we are born when we enter this world. Thus, "Since all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God" (ROM. 3:23), we all need to be healed by God. And we all have been: through the redemptive death of Christ on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead. And then through our personal death to sin and resurrection to life with Christ through the mystery of Baptism. (ROM. 6:3-11) 

For this we give thanks to God from a heart overflowing with gratitude, thanksgiving and love because we are overwhelmed by what God has done for us in and through our Savior Jesus Christ. We may have been healed through Baptism, but without the response of thanksgiving, this healing remains incomplete, and it will not bear much fruit. 

On the Lord's Day we come to the Eucharistic service of the Church - the Liturgy - which is the Service of Thanksgiving, we could say. Our presence signifies our own "return" to the Lord in response to His healing presence in our lives. (For the baptized who do not return to thus give thanks, we find a resemblance to the healed lepers who failed to return in order to praise God). And it is then that we offer thanksgiving to God as we offer ourselves up to God through the sacrifice of Christ actualized in the Liturgy. And then we receive the Eucharist - the "thanksgiving food" - to nourish us in this movement of growing love toward the most Holy Trinity:

"Eucharistisomen to Kyrio!" - "Let us give thanks unto the Lord!"

The Image of Giving in St Nicholas

 

Image Source: ancientfaith.com

Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

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

Today we commemorate 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 in 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 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.