The Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

Source: orthodoxchristiansupply.com

 

St Basil's Liturgy: Deserving our Deepest Attention and Overwhelming Awe

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


During the five Sundays of Great Lent we turn to the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great for our Eucharistic celebration on the Lord's Day. This Liturgy is used another five times during the year, two more of which are during Holy Week - Thursday and Saturday. (The other three times are the Feasts of Nativity and Theophany, and then on St. Basil's day of commemoration, January 1). This Liturgy is known for its long(er) prayers, some of which may challenge our capacity to stand still in concentration and prayerful attention. But what prayers! They strike me personally as being unrivaled in our entire Tradition for their beauty of expression and the depth of their theological/spiritual content. Even though we are hearing them in translation, that beauty and depth remain intact and shine through quite well.

Now St. Basil did not sit down and "compose" the entire Liturgy "from scratch," to use that expression. The basic structure of the Liturgy was already an essential element of the Church's living liturgical Tradition. However, there is every reason to believe that he is responsible for the magnificent Anaphora prayers. These prayers reflect St. Basil's intense preoccupation with the Church's Trinitarian faith - that we worship the One God as the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the Son and the Holy Spirit being consubstantial with the Father as to their divine nature, and thus co-enthroned and co-glorified with the Father from all eternity. (St. Basil wrote a separate magnificent treatise On the Holy Spirit, demonstrating the divinity of the Holy Spirit through his knowledge of the Scriptures and the Church's liturgical Tradition). 

That belief in the Holy Trinity, though present "in the beginning" of the Church's proclamation of the Gospel, was under attack during the turbulent fourth century, with the Arian heresy and its various offshoots stirring up seemingly interminable debate and dissension. St. Basil was one of the premier exponents of the Church's faith that the one God is the Holy Trinity; and he helped establish the classical terminology of the Church in expressing that Faith: God is one in "essence" (Gk. ousia), yet three distinct "Persons" (Gk. hypostaseis). That terminology remains intact to this day. The opening Anaphora Prayer, "O Existing One, Master, Lord God, Father almighty and adorable! ..." is steeped in praise and glorification of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and thus deserves our deepest attention and sense of overwhelming awe as we stand in the presence of the Holy Trinity and as we join the angelic powers in "singing, shouting, and proclaiming: Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord of Sabaoth!

In profound relationship to the prayers of the Liturgy revealing the Church's belief in the Holy Trinity, we find St. Basil's unrivaled expression of the divine "economy" (Gk. oikonomia) throughout. This refers to God's providential dispensation/design toward His creation - culminating in the salvation of the world - in and through the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and Glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I were asked to present to an interested inquirer the most compelling and succinct expression of the divine economy as taught and proclaimed by the Orthodox Church, I would definitely refer this person to the long Anaphora Prayer of St. Basil's Liturgy beginning where the Thrice-holy left off:

"With these blessed powers, O Master who lovest mankind ..."

After praising God "for the magnificence of Thy holiness," we begin to prayerfully recall - and thus make present - the full extent of His providential dispensation toward the world:

"When Thou didst create man by taking dust from the earth, and didst honor him with Thine own image, O God ..."

This long remembrance takes us through what we refer to as the "Fall," through the promises of the prophets — "foretelling to us the salvation which was to come ..." — all the way through to the Lord's Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and even Second Coming:

"Ascending into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of Thy majesty on high, and He will come to render to every man according to his works ..."

Further recalling, and thus actualizing "the night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world," this entire process will culminate with the Epiklesis, or Invocation of the Holy Spirit "to bless, to hallow and to show" that the bread and wine of our offering will "become" the Body and Blood of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. We will then receive the Holy Gifts "for the remission of sins and unto life everlasting."

Today, the Orthodox faithful are blessed in that the prayers of St. Basil's Liturgy are read aloud so that the entire gathered assembly of believers may actually "hear" the prayers that reveal the Lord God's Trinitarian nature and the divine economy together with the consecration of the Holy Gifts. In the past that may have not been so, and even today it is not so in all Orthodox churches. So we thank God for our own liturgical revival which has so enlivened our contemporary worship experience with full parish participation in the Church at prayer and praise.

 And there is a final prayer near the very end of the Liturgy that the priest will say while facing the Table of Preparation and the remaining Holy Communion that will eventually be consumed by the priest or deacon, and while the choir is singing "Blessed be the name of the Lord, henceforth and forevermore"three times:

The mystery of Thy dispensation, O Christ our God, has been accomplished and perfected as far as it was in our power;
for we have had the memorial of Thy death; we have seen the type of Thy Resurrection; we have been filled with Thine
unending life; we have enjoyed Thine inexhaustible food; which in the world to come be well-pleased to vouchsafe to us
all, through the grace of Thine eternal Father, and Thine holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto
ages of ages. Amen.

This summation of the meaning, purpose and experience of the Liturgy is an "awesome" claim that perhaps may strike us in its awesomeness even more effectively if we break the prayer down into its component parts:

• We have had the memorial of the Lord's death;
• We have seen the type of the Lord's Resurrection;
• We have been filled with the Lord's unending life;
• We have enjoyed the Lord's inexhaustible food;
• We ask to continue in this partaking in the world to come;
• All this through the grace of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

That is quite a Sunday morning experience which we so blandly describe as "going to church!" Clearly the remainder of the day is all downhill - no matter what we do! When we begin the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great we know that we have a long road ahead of us. That will require some patience, concentration, and a willingness to "stay with it" through to its dismissal. If we are able to do that, then the "rewards" are inestimable. It will also test our deepest desires about what is "the one thing needful" in our lives and what is the treasure of our hearts. Yet, the Sundays of Great Lent are a unique opportunity to further our movement towards the Lord as we move through Great Lent and our lives toward the gladsome light of the Kingdom of God.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Lenten Exile

 

THE LENTEN EXILE

This past Sunday immediately preceding the beginning of Lent recalled the Exile from Paradise, inviting us to embrace “Adam’s Lament” over a Paradise Lost. How and why should we relate to the whole topic of Exile, which is a leitmotif of Great Lent? Note that it’s also the main theme of Psalm 136/137, By the Rivers of Babylon…, chanted in our churches these past three Sundays, so, there’s something very important about Exile that we’re meant to recognize as part of our human (or human-divine) story, as we enter into the voluntary, communal Lamentof the Lenten season.

We all experience some form of exile, or separation from something or someone beloved, at some point in our lives. Some of us are from war-torn or otherwise troubled countries, which we had to leave and which we might miss. Some of us have experienced a painful divorce from a once-beloved spouse. Others of us might have lost our jobs; or lost a loved one who passed away, and we might feel lost without them. Maybe we have experienced burnout in this or that occupation, and feel we have lost ourselves. Or maybe we have lost our freedom by slipping into a crippling addiction or obsession, which now alienates us from others, to some degree.

These are all different experiences that can help us relate to the biblical narratives related to Exile. And we can channel our pain toward and into the healing hands of a loving Father, our loving God, who clothes us (as He made clothing for Adam and Eve at the end of Genesis 3) before entrusting us with the new, productive work we are given to do henceforth in our Exile. This “work” is described in Genesis 3 as bearing children and working the soil, symbolizing the kinds of God-given creativity we are blessed with in different ways; our creativity, which brings forth new life in our world.

It’s not a joyless or unproductive “lament,” is my point, even while we do have this hole in our hearts that “remembers” our Paradise Lost. On the way of the cross, which is always leading to resurrection, our pain is transfigured into new life, with God’s blessing and “clothing.” The new clothing in the era of the Church is our being clothed in Christ, all of us who are baptized in Christ. We’re getting back in touch with this reality, with these truths, throughout Lent, so we can “re-story” ourselves and regain a proper perspective of our common, human-divine story, which is neither meaningless nor purposeless in our Exile. Anyway, these are a few thoughts on our upcoming, dignifying journey towards Pascha. Happy Lent to you, dear friends. Forgive me and pray for me a bit, if you could. SV

___

Please remember: Sister Vassa  will visit our parish and deliver a talk on March 19. The title of the talk is: "Great Lent as the Great Catechism."

Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: ancientfaith.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

It is perhaps most obvious during Great Lent just how much our bodies participate in the very act of worship. We are now making prostrations and bowing deeply at the waist; services during which we do our best to stand are somewhat longer, and so forth. Of course, that is the "outward person" and not yet the "inward person." Those very practices can be lifeless if done somewhat mechanically. Yet, the point I am trying to make her very briefly is that we need to respect our "bodily nature" as integral to our very humanity. That this is expressive of a holistic Orthodox anthropology at its most complete. These are simply a few comments which are meant to preface a passage from the book Theology of the Body by the French Orthodox theologian, Jean-Claude Larchet. His book is a very thorough examination of the many-sided approaches to the human body and its relation to the "soul" and/or "spirit" which are essential for us to understand. Only then will we fully grasp our understanding and experience of human nature as created by God. 

The passage here is a nice summary of the over-all teaching of the Church on the body:

____

The fact remains that original, authentic Christianity is, by its very nature, the one religion that values the body most of all. This is seen in the doctrine of creation, whereby the body too is deemed to be made in the image of God. Similarly, Christianity's portrayal of future life is one in which the body is also called to participate. Indeed, it is seen in its conception of the human person as composed inextricably of soul and body, and who thus does not simply have a body but in part is a body, marked by all its spiritual qualities. Without question, such exceptional value and significance accorded the body is linked to the very basis of Christianity - namely, the incarnation. It is a consequence of the fact that the Son of God became man, assuming not simply a human soul but a human body; that in this body he experienced what we experience; that in his person he delivered it from its weaknesses and ills, making it incorruptible, granting it eternal life; and that he gave it as food to his disciples and believers, making them partakers of his divinity, and of all associated blessing.

_____

From Theology of the Body by Jean-Claude Larchet, p. 11

Taking Lent Seriously

 Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, 

Great Lent is the “school of repentance.” It is roughly equivalent to an“annual tithe” in which we offer ourselves back to God so as to be received with love as was the prodigal son. As such, Great Lent is a gift from God, guiding us toward a way of life we may be reluctant to assume on our own, suffering as we often are from spiritual apathy or a simple lack of focus. Great Lent is also goal-oriented, for it leads us on a spiritual pilgrimage of preparation toward the “night brighter than the day” of Pascha and the Risen Lord. Great Lent is “sacred” and “soul-profiting.” It is a key component in the Orthodox Way of living out the Christian life we have been committed to in holy Baptism.

During Great Lent we will recover the essential practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. These practices are the tools that can assist us in returning and remaining close to God. Liturgical services unique to Great Lent immerse us in a way of communal pray that is solemn and penitent; but which also lighten and unburden the soul through the mercy and grace of God so abundantly poured out upon us through these inspired services. You leave the church tired in body perhaps, but brighter inside – in the mind and heart.

Great Lent invites us to see our neighbors as children of God and of equal value in the eyes of God, and thus deserving of our attention, patience and care. Charity can be distributed through material means or through an encouraging and warmly-spoken word. Great Lent liberates us from the excessive appetites of our bodies through the discipline of fasting. 

Our diet essentially becomes vegan as we seek to be less weighed down by a body overly-satiated with food and drink. This is healthy for both soul and body. The human person does not live by bread alone as the Lord taught us as He Himself fasted in the desert for forty days. 

We also fast from entertainment, bad habits, obsessions, useless distractions, vulgar language and the like. We try and simplify life and redeem our newfound time through more focused and virtue-creating tasks. If approached seriously, perhaps we will be able to carry some of this over into the paschal season – and beyond.

What can we do? How do we not squander this time set aside for God?

• Prayer - Make provision to be in church for some of the Lenten services. Start with the first week of Great Lent and the Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete. Assume or resume a regular Rule of Prayer in your home. Read the psalms and other Scripture carefully and prayerfully. Pray for others.

• Charity – Open your heart to your neighbor. If you believe that Christ dwells within you, then try and see Christ in your neighbor. Make your presence for the “other” encouraging and supportive. Restrain your “ego” for the sake of your neighbor. Help someone in a concrete manner this Great Lent.

• Fasting – Set domestic goals about the manner in which you will observe the fast. Test yourselves. Resist minimalism. If you “break” the fast, do not get discouraged or “give up,” but start over. Assume that your Orthodox neighbor is observing the fast. Seek silence. Allow for a different atmosphere in the home.

Jesus set the example of fasting for forty days. We imitate Him for the same period of forty days. If it was hard for Him, it will be hard for us; but not as hard as it was for Him. Jesus went to the Cross following His “holy week” in Jerusalem. We follow Him in our holy week observance and practices. Jesus was raised from the dead following His crucifixion, death and burial. We seek the resurrection of our spiritual lives here and now as we await our own death at the appointed time and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

“Taking Lent seriously” (Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s phrase) is a concrete sign of taking God seriously. Our surrounding culture is not serious about taking anything too seriously. When serious issues arise, however, people have a difficult time dealing with them. Yet Jesus was very serious. Especially when it came to issues of life and death – and God and salvation, and so forth. Great Lent helps us to focus on these very themes, therefore making it meaningful and important for our lives.

May God be with you and with our entire parish community!

Fragments for Friday

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

Great Lent will begin on Monday, March 3; but actually for the parish it will begin as we serve the Forgiveness Vespers on Sunday following the Liturgy. This is a very "special" service that inaugurates the lenten fast. The theme, together with the beginning of Great Lent, is that of forgiveness. And that is clearly at the heart of the service, which is the Rite of Forgiveness, which actually comes at the very end. 

What happens is this: Everyone comes and stands before everyone else at the service - beginning with me as the parish priest and our other clergy. We make a full bow at the waist before each other, accompanied by the words: "Forgive me." The response is then: "God forgives," and then we move on to the next person. We will not exchange the "kiss of peace," and it not the place to chat with each other. We continue to move along in this fashion to the next person, who has taken a position in the line after his/her exchange with the last person in the line, until we have gone through to the very last person. The point is to fulfill the Gospel command to forgive one another, as God has forgiven us. The Gospel reading for Sunday's Liturgy will be Matt. 6:14-21. 

Everyone who is there - from members of the Church to catechumens and inquirers - is invited to stay. And that, of course, is a matter of choice. It is a free decision.

On Monday - Thursday of the First Week of Lent, there will be a unique lenten service, described in the following manner by Fr. Thomas Hopko:

"At the Compline services of the first week of lent the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is read. This is a long series of penitential verses based on Biblical themes, to each of which the people respond: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me (with a bow at the waist). This canon is repeated at Matins on Thursday of the fifth week."

A Word about Great Lent

Source: legacyicons.com

 A Word About the Great Fast

St. Theodore the Studite

What is this struggle? Not to walk according to one’s own will. This is better than the other works of zeal and is a crown of martyrdom; expect that for you there is also a change of diet, multiplication of prostrations and increase of psalmody all in accord with the established tradition from of old. And so I ask, let us welcome gladly the gift of the fast, not making ourselves miserable, as we are taught, but let us advance with cheerfulness of heart, innocent, not slandering, not angry, not evil, not envying; rather peaceable toward each other, and loving, fair, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits; breathing in seasonable stillness, since hubbub is damaging in a community; speaking suitable words, since too unreasonable stillness is profitless; yet above all vigilantly keeping watch over our thoughts, not opening the door to the passions, not giving place to the devil. We are lords of ourselves; let us not open our door to the devil; rather let us keep guard over our soul as a bride of Christ, unwounded by the arrows of the thoughts; for thus we are able to become a dwelling of God in Spirit. 

Thus we may be made worthy to hear, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Quite simply, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever pure, whatever lovely, whatever of good report, if there is anything virtuous, if there is anything praiseworthy, to speak like the Apostle, do it; and the God of peace will be with you all.

_____

A wonderful text from St. Theodore. If we recall that he was a rather severe and austere ascetic, his words are refreshing, as he captures a very holistic understanding to Great Lent which will bring meaning and depth to our fasting and prostrations. Ultimately, if we can learn to love God and neighbor during this season, then it will truly be a "lenten springtime."

One Small Gesture

Source: uocofusa.org

 Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Knowing the commandments of the Lord, let this be our way of life: let us feed the hungry, let us give the thirsty drink, let us clothe the naked, let us welcome strangers, let us visit in prison and the sick. Then the Judge of all the earth will say even to us: 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.'

Vespers of the Sunday of the Last Judgment

One of the classics of children's literature is the wonderful novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (She also wrote another classic, The Secret Garden). The young heroine of this novel is an English girl named Sara Crewe, who is initially treated as a "little princess" because her father has acquired some wealth through mining speculation, and was able to establish her as one of the more prosperous girls in a boarding school in London. Yet, when the father loses his fortune and unexpectedly dies, Sara finds herself alone and penniless and now at the mercy of the cold-hearted headmistress at the boarding school. Though now treated as a menial servant, and living in abject poverty up in the unheated attic, Sara maintains a graceful spirit that does not succumb to the physical hardships and psychological abuse of her unwanted poverty.

In a deeply touching passage in the book, Sara, living on near-starvation rations, finds a coin in the street and rushes to the local bakery in order to purchase a few newly-baked rolls. The kind baker gives her a few extra because she knew Sara before her unfortunate "reversal of fortune." Yet, when Sara emerges from the bakery with her rolls, she encounters an unkempt and homeless little street waif who is clearly even more impoverished and hungry than she is. In a spontaneous gesture of compassion and kindness, Sara graciously gives the little girl all of the rolls save one. Unknown to Sara, the baker witnessed this act, and was so impressed by Sara's sharing, that she in turn was moved to compassion and eventually brought the little girl into her shop as a worker.

This profoundly Christian scene of "co-suffering love" embedded in an Edwardian novel meant for young readers, always reminds me of the Gospel passage that we just read this last Sunday, known as the pre-lenten Sunday of the Last Judgement. Then we heard the Parable/Teaching of the Last Judgement, found in MATT. 25:31-46. Jesus powerfully describes an active ministry of love as the way to, and characteristic of, the Kingdom of God. In theological language, this is called an eschatological orientation. (Eschatology is from the Gk. word for the "last things"). Christ enumerates the following deeds of an active love that render a human person worthy of entering into the joy of the Lord at the last judgement:

• feeding the hungry
• giving drink to the thirsty
• welcoming strangers
• visiting the sick
• visiting those in prison

The biblical scholar, John L. McKenzie summarized this teaching in the following manner:

Ministry to the basic needs of one's fellow man is the only canon of judgement mentioned here. One could paraphrase by saying that man is judged entirely on his behavior toward his fellow man. The evasion that this does not include man's duties toward to God is met in this passage; Jesus identifies himself with those to whom service is given or refused, and their behavior toward men is their behavior toward God.

The surprise of those who are condemned is easy to understand; they never accepted the fact that they encountered Jesus in other men and that they cannot distinguish between their duties to God and their duties to men. They are ranked with the devils, whose proper element is the fire of Gehenna. Eschatology means man is capable of a final decision that gives his life a permanent character. Both the righteous and the wicked here have made decisions that are irrevocable.

Like the last discourse in JN, the theme is love based on the identity of Jesus with men. In the last analysis, it is love that determines whether men are good or bad. If their love is active, failure to reach perfect morality in other ways will be rare, and it will be forgiven. But there is no substitute for active love.

Dostoevsky, the great Russian novelist, also stressed the importance of an "active love," especially in the character of the elder Zosima in his final masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov, and in his young hero of that novel, Alyosha Karamazov. Active love, for Dostoevsky, was seen by him to be the most convincing repsonse to all of the arguments of theoretical atheism. In the novel, the elder Zosima says the following to a woman racked by doubts concerning immortality - and God by extension:

Strive to love your neighbor actively and tirelessly. To the extent that you succeed in loving, you will become convinced both of the existence of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain complete selflessness in loving your neighbor, then will indubitably be persuaded, and no doubt will even be able to enter your soul. This has been tested, this is certain.

Though fictional, Sara Crewe's one small gesture is the embodiment of an active love manifested in a gesture of mercy and compassion for the neighbor. It had no theoretical or ideological component to it. It was deeply personal and devoid of any hidden motives or calculated gains. It transcended all such categorizations. This, I believe, is what most truly exemplifies this remarkable passage in the Gospel. The teaching about the Last Judgement by Christ transcends any political/social programs, policies or promises.  The Parable of the Last Judgement is a direct appeal, perhaps a "warning," to each person - and nation? - who encounters Christ and His teaching. What are you doing as part of a ministry of active love seems to be what Christ is asking? Or, at the Last Judgement, what have you actually done? Deeds of active love may just be the most potent signs that we took Christ and His teaching seriously.

The War in Ukraine - February 24, 2022 - February 24, 2025

Source: oca.org

 A Fair and Lasting Peace

For three years now, we have been consistently praying for peace in Ukraine in the Liturgy, in addition for praying for all of the soldiers and civilians - Ukrainians and Russians - who have been killed in this terrible war. The petitions that we use for this in the Liturgy came from the OCA Chancery, meaning that they are blessed by the Holy Synod of Bishops. This has been our parish practice for three years now, at every Lord's Day Liturgy. And we will continue to pray in this manner until the war is over and peace is achieved. And we hope and pray for a "fair and lasting peace" in which Ukraine maintains its status as an independent, democratic and sovereign country. Anything less would be greatly disappointing. The number of victims in this brutal war is in the hundreds of thousands, not including the wounded. Ukrainian civilian deaths are numbered in the thousands. And, of course, that includes innocent women and children, because schools and hospitals in Ukraine have been the targets of Russian bombs and drones. 

Yet, I think we need some clarity, as fast-paced "peace talks" are now underway. To state the painfully obvious: This war was not started by Ukraine. And, indeed, one is caught in a "disinformation bubble" to think otherwise. This war was started by Russia, now a totalitarian country ruled over by a dictator with nothing resembling a moral and ethical conscience. As much as the Church opposes war, Ukraine had every moral right to defend itself against this illegitimate act of aggression. And whatever flaws and imperfections we can discover in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he is not a "dictator." He is doing his utmost best to defend his beleaguered country as well as possible. What he has accomplished is admirable, as his country continues to support him, contrary to fabricated statements to the contrary. With no intention of "romanticizing" warfare, I would say that there is a real nobility in Ukraine's determination to defend its land and sovereignty. 

What further aggravates this unjustified act of aggression on the part of Russia is that it has the "blessing" of Kyril, the Patriarch of Moscow. As recently as this year's Nativity celebration (January 7, in Russia), he called the Russian war effort a "biblical battle" against the "decadent West." That is so absurd, that we could dismiss that phrase as so much rhetorical nonsense, but the consequences of such ill-conceived words are deadly serious - literally - and so we cannot simply brush these words aside. The Russian Orthodox Church has thus undermined its own moral and spiritual integrity, and it has lost the respect of the entire Christian world.

Ukraine and the Ukrainian people have suffered untold misery. Their land has been taken from them by an aggressive enemy, many of whom are fellow Orthodox Christians. After all of their suffering and sacrifice, an eleventh hour betrayal of Ukraine would have tragic consequences for that country and, simultaneously, serve as a betrayal of America's better instincts.

Building Up a Christian Community

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christl,

I have been reading and studying First Peter, a magnificent but much-neglected epistle. The following passage is characteristic of the epistle's tone and the extent to which the epistle is so Gospel-oriented:

The end of all things is at hand.Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. As each one has received a gift, use is to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. I Pet. 4:7-10)

If we "unpack" this densely-filled passage with its variety of Christian virtues, we find four practices that are meant to exemplify a genuine Christian community/parish:

• prayer in v. 7
• love in v. 8
• hospitality in v. 9
• service to one another in. v. 10

Through these practices, a Christian community will stand out from its immediate environment, and environment that often enough finds no interest or meaning in just such practices. Love in v. 8 "covers a multitude of sins." We find this thought already in the Old Testament (Prov. 10:12; Ps. 32:1); and elsewhere in the New Testament (Jm. 5:20). By love, the believer fulfills the Gospel's greatest imperative, and this in turn leads to receiving the great mercy and forgiveness of God. 

The teaching of the Lord and the apostles is meant to be practiced "in season and out of season" (II Tim. 4:5). However, I believe that we do have a tendency to either forget these deeper scriptural truths, or treat them with a certain formalism, not exactly aflame with a love for both God and neighbor! With that in mind, we can be inspired in the approaching "season" of Great Lent, to recover what we have lost through forgetfulness or indifference; or by the sheer overwhelming daily responsibilities and cares that can swamp the best of our intentions. 

Great Lent is after all, a "school for repentance," a genuine "turning" from one mode of existence to another. Could the Apostle's teaching then serve as what is called a podvig in our spiritual tradition - a conscious and exerted effort that we take up as a way of returning to the love and embrace of God? Could an intensification of prayer, love, hospitality and service to one another be that much-needed "lenten program" that will make any ascetical fasting meaningful and not simply a cultural or legalistic undertaking devoid of any lasting significance?

The Apostle closes this section of teaching with further exhortations and then a doxology in praise of God through Jesus Christ:

... whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belongs glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (I Pet. 4:11).

In jus a few verses an entire "worldview" that combines theory and practice with Jesus Christ as the Cornerstone (Is. 28:16; I Pet. 2:6)!

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Joy of our Father

 Coffee With Sister Vassa

Dear Parish Faithful,

A bit more on the Lord's great Parable of the Prodigal Son/The Compassionate Father/The Angry Elder Son:

THE JOY OF OUR FATHER

I’m struck this year, as we re-read and re-discover the Parable of the Prodigal Son two weeks before Lent, how our Lord is seeking to convert both the “obedient” and “disobedient” among us, from our usually-distorted vision of our Father in heaven. The point is, as my friend Nadia Kizenko said in her recent sermon on this parable (find it on YouTube), “God wants us to be happy.”

The younger, disobedient son experiences restlessness in His father’s house; asks the father for his part of the inheritance (as if his father were dead), goes off to do his own thing, ends up experiencing famine and suffering, then comes to himself, rises and returns to his father, having prepared a little speech about his unworthiness, etc. When he comes back, the father comes out to greet him with overjoyed kisses, interrupts the son’s little speech halfway and tells the servants to dress the son in “the first robe” (στολὴν τὴν πρώτην) and throws a big party in his house.

When the party was already well under way, we’re told that the elder son is in the fields, - that is, outside the father’s house and outside the party and its music. Because that’s what he did. He worked and served his father, but somehow did not expect nor want to celebrate and enjoy the music of his father. When he learns what is going on in the house, he doesn’t want to go in. He’s even angry with his father, for celebrating with his disobedient brother.

Both sons initially treat the father not as a father, but more like a patron. It’s a joyless, transactional kind of relationship. “Give me,” is what the younger son has to say to his father in the beginning of the story. But he learns through his restlessness and the ensuing journey into hunger and suffering, to return and to say, “Make me…ποίησόν με, create me” (like one of your hired servants) – although the father interrupts him, before he can say this part. The older son, on the other hand, speaks to his father of the things he (the older son) does for Him, and how he “never transgressed,” unlike his brother, hence the elder son expects the father to provide a reward for him in return.

Meanwhile, the father takes joy in being a father, not a patron. The provocative aspect of this story is that it’s through leaving his father’s house (as a young man eventually should) that the younger son experiences growth, I mean, by making his own mistakes and coming to realize who he is (by “coming to himself”), and that is, a son with a Father; a child of a loving and compassionate God. Meanwhile, the older son, who never stopped working for his father, who never experienced either restlessness or famine or suffering, never grew out of an infantile attitude toward his parent. The older son never noticed the playfulness, if I could put it this way, of true, divine love. God wants us to celebrate with Him; to celebrate in His house, and when we work, to work in freedom and joy, throughout our ups and downs, as we grow through them in love and communion with Him.

This is the newness of Christ’s message: It’s not focused on a set of rules, which guarantee us a certain number of rewards from an impersonal patron, insofar as we keep these rules. When our risen Lord cooked breakfast on the coast of the sea of Galilee and served Peter, who had “fallen” by denying Him thrice, Christ did a similar thing to the father in this parable. Note that Christ also did not demand an apology from Peter. He just let Peter affirm that he loved Him, thrice. What a joy. Let’s joyously head toward Lent, and not be afraid to mess up in our Father’s house, even as our own mess-ups break our hearts. Let us recognize our broken hearts as hearts open to compassion, for ourselves and our brother or sister, who also might need our warm welcome in God’s house with us in it, His imperfect children. Happy week of the Prodigal Son, dear friends. Sorry this was long. xoxo

Hearing the Parable of the Prodigal Son

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 

Have I Ever Really 'Heard' the Parable of the Prodigal Son?

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

As we move forward in the pre-lenten Sundays and the upcoming week of the Last Judgment (MATT. 25:31-46), perhaps we can "meditate" throughout this week on the Parable of the Prodigal Son from yesterday's Liturgy. When thought over deeply, we begin to understand how inexhaustible it really is!

This parable is chosen at this particular time in order to draw us toward repentance (Gk. metanoia); to remind us that Great Lent is the “school of repentance;” and that without repentance, our other “lenten efforts” become rather meaningless – if not spiritually dangerous. What will it take to convince us that we, too, need that “change of mind” and return to our heavenly Father that is the truest expression of living according to the Gospel?

As I ponder that question, I ask myself further: Have I ever really heard this parable in the way that Christ refers to “hearing?” And that would mean being shaken at the very core of my being. Am I only paying “lip service” to this greatest of the parables, as I listen to it as a wonderful short story that is exciting to analyze and discuss; but not quite capable of moving me any closer to genuine repentance? Again, these are the questions that come to my mind as I have heard this parable in the Liturgy for over forty years now as a priest.

Yet, if we have spent some time in analyzing the richness of this parable, then we realize that it is not only about the prodigal son, with the two other characters – the father and the older brother – acting in a clearly subordinate manner or for the sake of rounding out the story. They are both integral to the parable and hold equal weight as we try and grasp the parable as a whole. Without the father and the older son, the parable would suffer from a certain one-sidedness or incompleteness.

This is absolutely true when it comes to the very core meaning of the parable - which is repentance. We are deeply moved by the movement of the prodigal son toward his return to his father’s home. We first read of his journey to a “faraway country” and rapid and total decline wherein he wastes his inheritance in “loose living.” An all too-familiar tale. This is followed by a spiraling descent that has him longing for the pods that serve as food for the pigs he has been hired to tend. His re-ascent begins with his “coming to himself” after what must have been a painfully honest self-assessment of his stricken condition of estrangement from even basic human fellowship. This culminates in the thought of returning to his father and begging for mercy and the actual movement of “arising” and doing it.

None of this would have born any fruit, however, without the compassion and love of the prodigal son’s father who embodies the forgiveness that completes his repentance. If the father had been stern, or absorbed with his own sense of being offended; if he had chastised his son with the predictable and perhaps satisfying retort, “I told you so;” then the parable would collapse with an all too-human reaction that would be plausible but unworthy of the Gospel that Jesus came to proclaim. For the father of the parable is a figure of our heavenly Father’s compassion, love and forgiveness that Christ came to offer to all and every sinner. The father remains unforgettable as a “character” precisely because he confounds our expectations in his boundless love fully revealed by running out to his son, falling on his neck and kissing him. This is how the Father “Who is without beginning” acts toward his wayward creatures who have spent their inheritance – the “image and likeness” of God – in the faraway country of self-autonomy and the “swinish” fulfillment of the most base desires. Our repentance results in a cosmic joy that God shares with the angels and the preparation of the “banquet of immortality.”

The older son represents precisely that all too-human response referred to above of hurt feeling and an offended sensibility that leaves him insensitive to his repentant brother’s return and salvation. No matter how justified such a response would seem from our human perspective, it remains outside of the Gospel’s “transvaluation of values.”

This is our “invitation” to Great Lent offered to us by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (MATT. 4:17). To help us understand the beauty of that movement of repentance, the Lord delivers what just may be his “parable of parables,” the one we usually name after the prodigal son. So before we get out our lenten cookbooks, we must first really “hear” this parable and pray to God that He will direct and guide us toward true repentance. 

The lenten cookbook will not save us – but repentance will.

On Humility

Source: legacyicons.com

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

The theme of humility was "front and center" at the Liturgy last Sunday when we heard the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Lk. 18:10-14). The kontakion of the day reminds us of this in a very straightforward manner:

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

This prompted me to share some of the great insights into humility from St. John Klimakos (of the Ladder) during the homily. I am reproducing those passages here so that we could further reflect/meditate upon them this week; and for others who may not have been at the Liturgy this last Sunday.

_____

HUMILITY

From STEP 25 of the Ladder of Divine Ascent

St. John Klimakos

Where there is humility there will be no sign of hatred, no species of quarrelsomeness, no whiff of disobedience – unless of course some question of faith arises. The man with humility for his bride will be gentle, kind, inclined to compunction, sympathetic, calm in every situation, radiant, easy to get along with, inoffensive, alert and active. In a word, free from passion.

Holy humility has this to say: “The one who loves me will not condemn someone, or pass judgment on anyone, or lord it over someone else, or show off his wisdom until he has been united with me. A person truly joined to me is no longer in bondage to the law.

The person who asks God for less than he deserves will certainly receive more, as is shown by the publican who begged for forgiveness but obtained salvation (Lk. 18:10-14). And the thief asked only to be remembered in the kingdom, yet he inherited all.

_____

Though perhaps the most important words belong to the Lord himself, as we declares at the end of the parable: " ... for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

 

Pharisee and the Publican

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

Who Do I Resemble?

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

The Gospel reading yesterday at the Divine Liturgy — the first of the four pre-Lenten Sundays—is Luke 18:10-14. In it we discover our Lord’s parable of the Publican and the Pharisee.

As with all of the parables of Christ, we can understand this parable in two very different ways. We can listen to it carefully, reflect upon it through the course of the week, and discern what in the parable “speaks” to us today. Or we can take a “ho-hum” attitude—essentially forgetting the parable by the time we return home from the Liturgy—while moving on to the next distraction on our busy schedules (Super Sunday!), and conclude that the parable does not really apply to us anyway. Presented in such stark terms, I am not leaving you much of a choice! But even with the best of intentions, we need to remain vigilant. The mind strays ...

For those who actually “hear” the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the first question that may arise is very basic: Do I resemble the Publican or the Pharisee in my attitude toward God and my neighbor? Other questions follow: Am I also afflicted with self-righteous pride, as was the Pharisee of the parable; or is my goal at least the slow and patient road of learning and practicing humility? Is the Church a society reserved for the pious; or is it a healing center for sinners? Then there is a blunt but honest question: Do I even care? Somewhat unusual for the parables is that the intention of this parable is clearly stated before Christ actually delivers it: “He also told this parable to some who trusted themselves that they were righteous and despised others” [Luke 18:9]. Is this a fair description of me when I enter the church on any given Sunday? If so, what could I possibly do to change such an attitude?

Even with the best of intentions, we could turn this great opportunity for “self-examination” into the ho-hum approach of selective forgetfulness or selective remembrance, wherein we forget the parable but remember the score of the Super Bowl - for weeks on end!

That would be a colossal example of a missed opportunity. Perhaps one way to spare everyone from the ho-hum approach would be to provide the insights of others during the week – Church Fathers or contemporary writers – on this parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. This way, at least the material that lends itself to meditation will be present, and then we can choose to avail ourselves of it – or not. I will try and provide some further material through the week.

A good beginning could be this passage from the Blessed Augustine: “How useful and necessary a medicine is repentance. People who remember that they are only human will readily understand this. It is written: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble….’ The Pharisee was not rejoicing so much in his own clean bill of health as in comparing it with the diseases of others. He came to the doctor. It would have been more worthwhile to inform him by confession of the things that were wrong with himself instead of keeping his wounds secret and having the nerve to crow over the scars of others. It is not surprising that the tax collector went away cured, since he had not been ashamed of showing where he felt pain.” 

From a time closer to our own, we read this from St. John of Kronstadt: "When taking into account our own virtues, do we include self-love or other unseemly motives that were in fact the true reason for our good deeds. The poison of sin has penetrated deeply into our souls, and, unbeknownst to us, its poisons almost all of our virtues. Is it not better to scrutinize oneself more often and more closely, and to notice our faults in the depths of our soul in order to correct them, rather than to display externally our virtues?"

When we contrast pride and humility; self-righteousness and honest self-examination; false piety and heartfelt repentance - which of these describes us the best?

St. Simeon & St. Anna

Source: stgeorge.org

 Dear Parish Faithful,

We recently chanted an Akathist Hymn to St. Simeon and St. Anna (based on Lk. 2:22-40). Akathist hymns are highly rhetorical, and display a very creative and imaginative way of reading the scriptural or historical events being recounted. Yet, they also convey a strong tendency to illuminate both doctrinal and moral teaching that are very much at the heart of our Orthodox Faith.

Be that as it may, at the end of the Akathist, this prayer was included. I find it a wonderful prayer that extends the particularity of honoring the holiness of these two NT saints, to include a very moving and general exhortation for embracing all children at all times, because the Son of God has sanctified childhood as the "Divine Child."

Saint Simeon, you received the Christ Child in your arms. Saint Anna, you stood alongside the Divine Child. We especially pray, therefore, that not only will we always recognize and receive Christ but that we will also be open to all children and attend to their needs. May married couples receive children into their lives and cherish them and raise them to believe in God. May single persons and the childless receive all children and protect them and nurture them. May we all become children of God and pray for one another and encourage one another in the Faith. Saint Simeon and Saint Anna, for this we pray and for this we thank you, and for your lives of holiness we praise you always. Amen.

Perhaps a prayer to periodically add to our Prayer Rule.

A Zacchaeus Moment

Source: christthesavioroca.org

 Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (LK. 19:10)


At Sunday's eucharistic Liturgy, we heard the story of the "towering" figure of Zacchaeus the publican (LK. 19:1-10). 

This is one of the many wonderful paradoxes of the spiritual life that characterize the Holy Scriptures. The paradox is found in the fact that the "towering" figure of Zacchaeus was actually "small of stature." (v. 3) And if indeed he had defrauded his neighbors as he alluded to (v. 8), then he was "small" in even more essential matters. 

Through repentance, conversion, and right action Zacchaeus grew in stature right before the eyes of those who with faith could "see" this transformation. Zacchaeus personifies the type of change that is possible through hearing the Good News and embracing it in thought, word and deed.

This passage, unique to the Gospel According to St. Luke, is thus perfectly placed as the first announcement of the approach of Great Lent. For in the Orthodox Church, this is always the prescribed Gospel reading for the fifth Sunday before the start of Great Lent. The four pre-lenten Gospel readings to follow will then guide us to Monday, March 3, the first day of the lenten journey that will lead us to Holy Week and then Pascha on April 20. (The Western Easter this year will also fall on April 20).

Returning to the Gospel passage, we find the story of Zacchaeus evenly divided into two parts - an outdoor scene (v. 1-5) and an indoor scene (v. 6-10). Outdoors, and in full view of the gathered inhabitants of ancient Jericho, the despised "chief tax collector," the rich Zacchaeus, risks the humiliation of being laughed at because he makes the socially unconventional choice of climbing up into a "sycamore tree" in order "see who Jesus was."

What may have been acceptable behavior among children, would only have drawn the surprised and scornful stares of Zacchaeus' over-taxed neighbors. I always remember that in a meditation on Zacchaeus, the late Metropolitan Anthony Bloom wrote that the equivalent act today would be that of a renowned corporate executive scrambling up a light pole in a downtown area in order to see someone passing by. (For those with a "boss" that you may not be too fond of, perhaps there may be minor consolation in fantasizing such a scenario and its reaction in your own mind). 
There then occurs that life-changing encounter between Zacchaeus and Jesus. For Jesus looks up at the strange figure of this man "small of stature" eagerly looking down upon Him, and says to him in response: "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." (v. 5)

The transition to the indoor setting is now made when Zacchaeus "made haste and came down, and received him joyfully." (v. 6) Yet one can sense the oriental custom of a crowd hovering at the entrance or even coming and going with a certain freedom. The raised eyebrows and clucking tongues of an undescribed "they" who look on and articulate their stern disapproval - "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner" (v. 7) - is a reaction encountered elsewhere in the Gospels when Jesus freely chose to sit at table with sinners and tax collectors (cf. MK. 3:15-17). 

This disapprobation on the part of the scribes and Pharisees then evoked his memorable (and ironic?) saying: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (MK. 3:17) 

The Messiah is not bound by religiously sanctioned social convention that divides people into the convenient categories of the "righteous" and "sinners," "saved" and "lost," the "pure" and "impure." Or rather, by making clear that He has come to bring salvation to everyone, beginning with the marginalized and distressed members of His own society, Jesus reveals the inclusive love of God that tears down all such former barriers. Zacchaeus is a striking and personalized example of this inclusive love of God for "the lost."

Never a distributor of "cheap grace" though, Jesus demands repentance and conversion. And this comes dramatically from Zacchaeus when he publicly declares: "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold." (v. 8) In this, Zacchaeus goes beyond what the Law required for such an act of restitution. (EX. 21:37; NM. 5:5-7) 

The Lord then signifies or "seals" the truth of this conversion when He solemnly pronounces the joyful declaration: "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (v. 9-10) 

It is interesting to note that the blessing of Jesus is given to the entire household. The household of Zacchaeus, in turn, becomes a microcosm of the entire design of salvation: The Son of Man came to seek and save the entire cosmos groaning inwardly and subject to futility as it awaits redemption (cf. ROM. 8:19-23) In this, we and our households resemble that of Zacchaeus, regardless of how "righteous" we may consider ourselves (to be dealt with next Sunday in the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee!).

We can never afford to allow our supposed familiarity with a Gospel passage to blunt its sharp edge. It is that sharp edge that cuts through our many defensive layers of evasions and self-deception. Otherwise, the passage "softens" into a didactic story about a bad man changing his life and becoming "nice." 

However, I believe that no matter how well we know the story about Zacchaeus, the only familiarity that we could claim with him is the familiarity of having an equally profound "Zacchaeus moment" in our own lives.

Such a "moment" would initially be characterized by an equal desire to "see Jesus" - above all else. Than we would need to be willing to overcome our own "smallness of stature" by perhaps first overcoming the tyranny of social convention and respectability before we get to our actual sinfulness. This may mean going beyond our own conventional patterns of church going and the "safety" of keeping the demanding call of Christ at a safe distance so that it cannot overly impinge upon our lives. 

There may yet be a sycamore tree that we need to climb.