Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Source: legacyicons.com

 

The Ascension ~ The Meaning and the Fullness of Christ's Resurrection

Dear Parish Faithful,

"I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, and to my God, and Your God.”(JN. 20:17)

According to the mind of the Church, the Risen Lord is also the Ascended Lord and, therefore, in the words of Fr. Georges Florovsky: “In the Ascension resides the meaning and the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection.” I would refer everyone to the complete article by Fr. Florovsky, a brilliant reflection on the theological and spiritual meaning of the Lord’s Ascension. This article is accessed from our parish website together with a series of other articles that explore the richness of the Ascension. In addition to Fr. Florovsky’s article, I would especially recommend The Ascension as Prophecy. With so many fine articles on the Ascension within everyone’s reach, I will not offer up yet another one, but I would like to make a few brief comments:

Though the visible presence of the Risen Lord ended forty days after His Resurrection, that did not mean that His actual presence was withdrawn. For Christ solemnly taught His disciples – and us through them – “Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (MATT. 28:20) The risen, ascended and glorified Lord is the Head of His body, the Church. The Lord remains present in the Mysteries/Sacraments of the Church. This reinforces our need to participate in the sacramental life of the Church, especially the Eucharist, through which we receive the deified flesh and blood of the Son of God, “unto life everlasting.”

Christ ascended to be seated at “the right hand of the Father” in glory, thus lifting up the humanity He assumed in the Incarnation into the very inner life of God. For all eternity, Christ is God and man. The deified humanity of the Lord is the sign of our future destiny “in Christ.” For this reason, the Apostle Paul could write: “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (COL. 3:3)

The words of the “two men … in white robes,” (clearly angels) who stood by the disciples as they gazed at Christ being “lifted up,” and recorded by St. Luke (ACTS. 1:11), point toward something very clear and essential for us to grasp as members of the Church that exists within the historical time of the world: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” The disciples will remain in the world, and must fulfill their vocation as the chosen apostles who will proclaim the Word of God to the world of the crucified and risen Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. They cannot spend their time gazing into heaven awaiting the return of the Lord. That hour has not been revealed: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.” (1:7)

The “work” of the Church is the task set before them, and they must do this until their very last breath. They will carry out this work once they receive the power of the Holy Spirit – the “promise of my Father” - as Christ said to them. (LK. 24:49) Whatever our vocation may be, we too witness to Christ and the work of the Church as we await the fullness of God’s Kingdom according to the times or seasons of the Father.

In our daily Prayer Rule we continue to refrain from using “O Heavenly King” until the Day of Pentecost. We no longer use the paschal troparion, “Christ is Risen from the dead …” but replace it from Ascension to Pentecost with the troparion of the Ascension:

Thou hast ascended in glory,O Christ our God,granting joy to Thy disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit;Through the Blessing they were assuredthat Thou art the Son of God,the Redeemer of the world.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Scandal of the Man Born Blind

 

THE SCANDAL OF THE MAN BORN BLIND

“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.’” (Jn 9:1-3)

Certain “works of God” are revealed in the man born blind, – that is, a man born quite different from most people, because he didn’t see as others saw. His not-seeing as they saw scandalized his co-religionists, so they even presumed it was because of “sin.”

Which “works of God” are revealed through this scandal, this challenge that the man was to his co-religionists? For one thing, he demonstrates to others that vision is a work of the creative hands of God, Who “works” on our vision not only or even primarily in our mother’s womb. The story of the healing-process of this man includes his heeding Christ’s word and walking and washing off the clay that the Lord put on his eyes in the pool of Siloam; his testifying to Jesus as the One who healed him and getting “cast out” by his religious authorities because of this; and, finally, his coming to believe in Christ and worshipping Him when the Lord finds him and speaks with him after he got cast out.

All of that, my friends, is how the man born blind reveals to the rest of us how the Son of God “works” on our vision, “that those who do not see may see” (Jn 9:39). It’s relevant to all of us, because we are all born blind. Some of us choose to remain blind, if we prefer merely-human religion to God-given faith. The latter, God-given faith, is impossible without a humble acceptance of Christ’s way, the way of the Cross, through which He teaches and touches us and works His works through us, separating us (sometimes painfully) from merely-human religion. And sometimes this involves us walking through our city with mud on our face. Thank You, Lord, our true Light, Who shines and works in our night, through the scandal of Your cross.

____

Sister Vassa has been under a good deal of strain and pressure as of late. This is due to her being attacked by her bishop - and losing her monastic habit due to an unjustifiable disciplinary action by ROCOR's Synod of Bishops  - for her relentless critique of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. In fact, she has sought refuge under the episcopal authority of a Ukrainian Orthodox bishop. She has developed a genuinely prophetic voice in support of the Gospel over the years. Please keep her in your prayers.

Monday Morning Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 

Rivers of Living Water

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN! 

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

“So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city…” [John 4:28]

A Samaritan woman came to Jacob’s Well in Sychar, a Samaritan city, at the same time that Jesus sat down by the well, being wearied by His journey [John 4:5]. The evangelist John provides us with a time reference: “It was about the sixth hour” [John 4:6] - i.e. noon. The Samaritan woman had come to draw water from the well, a trip and activity that must have been an unquestioned daily routine that was part of life for her and her fellow city-dwellers.

The ancients had a much more active sense of equating water with life than we do today with the accessibility of water from the kitchen tap, the shower, or the local store. On the basic level of biological survival, Jacob’s Well must have been something like a “fountain of life” for the inhabitants of Sychar.

Therefore, it is rather incredible that she returned home without her water jar, a “detail” that the evangelist realized was so rich in symbolic meaning that he included it in the narrative recorded in his Gospel [John 4:5-42]. And this narrative, together with the incredible dialogue embedded in it, is so profound that every year we appoint this passage to be proclaimed in the Church on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, the Fifth Sunday after Pascha. So, we again heard this justly-famous passage yet again at the Divine Liturgy on Sunday. Something to actually look forward to on an annual basis!

Why, then, would the Samaritan woman fail to take her water jar home with her?

Her “failure” was based on a discovery that she made when she encountered and spoke with Jesus by Jacob’s Well. For even though the disciples “marveled” that Jesus was speaking with a woman [v. 27], Jesus Himself began the dialogue with the woman perfectly free of any such social, cultural or even religious restraints.

As this unlikely dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman unfolded by the well, it was revealed to the woman that Jesus was offering her a “living water” that was qualitatively distinct from the well-water that she habitually drank [v. 11]. This “living water” had an absolutely unique quality to it that the Lord further revealed to the woman:

Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” [v. 13-14].

A perceptive and sensitive woman who was open to the words of Jesus, she responded with the clear indication that she had entered upon a process of discovery that would lead her to realize that she was speaking with someone who was a prophet—and more than a prophet: “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw” [v. 15].

Her thirst is now apparent on more than one level, as her mind and heart are now opening up to a spiritual thirst that was hidden but now stimulated by the presence and words of Jesus. Knowing this, Jesus will now disclose to her one of the great revelations of the entire New Testament, a revelation that will bring together Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles:

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” [v. 23-24].

A careful reading of Saint John’s Gospel indicates that under the image of water, Jesus was speaking of His teaching that has come from God, or more specifically, to the gift of the Holy Spirit. For at the Feast of Tabernacles, as recorded in John 7, Jesus says this openly to the crowds that had come to celebrate the feast:

"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." Now this He said about the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" [John 7:37-39].

Overwhelmed and excited, inspired and filled with the stirrings of a life-changing encounter, the Samaritan woman “left her water jar, and went away into the city and said to the people, ‘Come and see a man Who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” [v. 28-29].

It is not that the contents of her water jar was now unimportant or meaningless. That would be a false dichotomy between the material and the spiritual that is foreign to the Gospel. The Samaritan woman will eventually retrieve her forgotten water jar and fill it with simple water in fulfillment of her basic human needs. For the moment, however, she must go to her fellow city-dwellers and witness to Christ! They, in turn, will eventually believe that Jesus is “indeed the Savior of the world” [v. 42]. Thus, the Samaritan woman became something of a proto-evangelist. Subsequent tradition tells us that she is the Martyr Photini.

There are indeed innumerable “wells” that we can go to in order to drink some “water” that promises to quench our thirst. These “wells” can represent every conceivable ideology, theory, philosophy of life, or worldview—in addition to all of the superficial distractions, pleasures, and mind-numbing attractions that offer some relief from the challenges and oppressive demands of life.

For a Christian, to be tempted to drink the water from such wells would amount to nothing less than a betrayal of both the baptismal waters that were both a tomb and womb for us; and a betrayal of the living water that we receive from the teaching of Christ and that leads to eternal life. It is best to leave our “water jars” behind at such wells, and drink only that “living water” that is nothing less than the “gift of God” [John 4:10].

Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 

Mid-Pentecost: 'Glistening with splendor!' Dear Parish Faithful, CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN! Admittedly, this is an older meditation that I have sent out more than once since initially writing it. But, we always have new members in the parish; and our liturgical cycle remains, of course, unchanged. So, hopefully there are some reflections found here that may seem to be worthwhile. As we have reached the midpoint between Pascha and Pentecost, we realize it all goes by rather quickly. As Orthodox, we are "Paschal" and "Pentecostal" Christians. At least in theory. It is up to each and every one of us to also be so in practice. ____ Mid-Pentecost:  'Glistening with splendor! Today finds us at the exact midpoint of the sacred 50-day period between the Feasts of Pascha and Pentecost. So, this 25th day is called, simply, Midfeast or Mid-Pentecost. Pentecost (from the Greek pentecosti) is, of course, the name of the great Feast on the 50th day after Pascha, but the term is also used to cover the entire 50-day period linking the two feasts, thus expressing their profound inner unity. Our emphasis on the greatness of Pascha—the “Feast of Feasts”— may at times come at the expense of Pentecost, but in an essential manner Pascha is dependent upon Pentecost for its ultimate fulfillment.  As Prof. Veselin Kesich wrote: “Because of Pentecost the resurrection of Christ is a present reality, not just an event that belongs to the past.” Metropolitan Kallistos Ware stated that “we do not say merely, ‘Christ rose,’ but ‘Christ is risen’—He lives now, for me and in me. This immediacy and personal directness in our relationship with Jesus is precisely the work of the Spirit. Any transformation of human life is testimony to the resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. God constantly creates new things and glorifies Himself in His saints, in order to make it known that the Word of God became flesh, experiences death on the cross, and was raised up that we might receive the Spirit” (The First Day of the New Creation,p. 173). Be that as it may, there is a wonderful hymn from the Vespers of the Midfeast that reveals this profound inner connection:  “The middle of the fifty days has come, beginning with the Savior’s resurrection, and sealed by the Holy Pentecost. The first and the last glisten with splendor. We rejoice in the union of both feasts, as we draw near to the Lord’s ascension—the sign of our coming glorification.”(Vespers of the Midfeast) Pascha and Pentecost “glisten with splendor” – what a wonderful expression! Yet, this very expression which is indicative of the festal life of the Church, may also sound embarrassingly archaic to our ears today. This is not exactly an everyday expression that comes readily to mind, even when we encounter something above the ordinary! However, that could also be saying something about ourselves and not simply serve as a reproach to the Church’s less-than-contemporary vocabulary. Perhaps the drab conformity of our environment; the de-sacralized nature of the world around us, together with its prosaic concerns and uninspiring goals; and even the reduction of religion to morality and vague “values,” make us more than a little skeptical/cynical about anything whatsoever “glistening with splendor!” How can Pascha and Pentecost “glisten with splendor” if Pascha is “already” (though, only 25 days ago!) a forgotten experience of the past, and if the upcoming feasts of Ascension and Pentecost fail to fill us with the least bit of expectation or anticipation?  To inwardly "see" how Pascha and Pentecost "glisten with splendor" then our hearts must "burn within us" as did the hearts of the two disciples who spoke with the Risen Lord on the road to Emmaus (LK. 24:32). At the empty tomb, the "two men ... in dazzling apparel" told the myrrh-bearing women to "remember" the things that the Lord had spoken to them while He was still in Galilee (LK. 24:6). Only if we "remember" the recently-celebrated Holy Week and Pascha can any "burning of heart" that grants us the vision of the great Feasts of Pascha and Pentecost "glistening with splendor" possibly occur. With an ecclesial remembrance, only prosaic and drab events - or those that are superficially experienced - are quickly forgotten.  The Lord is risen, and we await the coming of the Comforter, the “Spirit of Truth.” These are two awesome claims! The Apostle Paul exhorts us, “Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). This exhortation from the Apostle is a great challenge, for experience teaches us that “the things that are on earth” can be very compelling, immediate and deeply attractive, while “the things that are above” can seem abstract and rather distant; or that they are reserved for the end of our life as we know it “on earth.” The Apostle Paul is exhorting us to a radical reorientation of our approach to life—what we may call our “vision of life”—and again, this is difficult, even for believing Christians! Yet, I would like to believe that with our minds lifted up on high and our hearts turned inward where God is – deep within our hearts – not only will the feasts themselves “glisten with splendor,” but so will our souls. Then, what the world believes to be unattainable, will be precisely the experience that makes us “not of the world.” May the days to come somehow, by the grace of God, “glisten with splendor!” As it is written: “The abundant outpouring of divine gifts is drawing near. The chosen day of the Spirit is halfway come. The faithful promise to the disciples after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ heralds the coming of the Comforter!”(Vespers of the Midfeast)

The Trinity in our Lives

Source: legacyicons.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

"Our social program is the dogma of the Trinity."

- Nikolai Fyodorov

In preparation for tomorrow evening's Inquirers Class, I have been re-reading a classic essay by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, "The Trinity: Heart of Our Life." It is found in the newly-published Volume 2 of his Collected Works. An amazingly clear presentation of the Orthodox understanding of the Trinity from one of our greatest recent theologians. The doctrine of the Trinity has very powerful practical implications that extend into the wide world around us, so as not remain in the often closed world of theological speculation or academic journals. Metropolitan Kallistos brings that out with great urgency in this very concise, but impassioned defense of responding to the needs of the world:

When as Christians we fight for justice and for human rights, for a compassionate and caring society, we are acting specifically in the name of the Trinity. Faith in the Trinitarian God, in the God of personal inter-relationship and shared love, commits us to struggle with all of our strength against poverty, exploitation, oppression, and disease. Our combat against these things is undertaken not merely on philanthropic and humanitarian grounds but because of our belief in God the Trinity. Precisely because we know that God is three-in-one, we cannot remain indifferent to any suffering, by any member of the human race, in any part of the world. Love after the image and likeness of the Trinity signifies that, in the words of Dostoevsky's Starets Zosima, "We are responsible for everyone and everything.

Such is the compelling relevance of the doctrine of the Trinity for the life and action of every one of us. Without the Trinity none of us can be fully a person. Because we believe in the Trinity, each of us is a man or woman for others; every human being is our sister or brother, and we are called to bear their burdens, making their joys and sorrows our own. If only we had the courage truly to be transcripts of the Trinity, we could turn the world upside down.

From our Orthodox Christian perspective, our defense of social programs that "feed the poor, and clothe the naked," have a theological foundation in their support. In this way, the Church contends on behalf of the Gospel of light, goodness and love, in opposition to the forces of indifference and self-centeredness, whether personal or collective.

Monday Morning Meditation

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

Do You Want To Be Healed?

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!
Indeed He is Risen!

"Do you want to be healed?" (JN. 5:6)

At yesterday's eucharistic Liturgy we heard the account of the Paralytic being healed by Jesus at the pool near the Sheep Gate called Bethesda (or Bethzatha) in Jerusalem (JN. 5:1-15). This is the prescribed Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday of Pascha. "Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ" once again at Pascha; and now believing in, experiencing, proclaiming and "worshiping the holy Lord Jesus, the Only Sinless One;" we read the "signs" recorded in the Gospel according to St. John with and through the eyes of faith. This means that we know that the words and deeds recorded in the Gospel are those of the Word made flesh, Who is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God (see JN. 1:1-18; 20:30-31). This grants us insight into the Person of Christ and the truth of His words as expressive of the will of God for our salvation and that of the entire world (JN. 3:16).

Following the healing of the paralytic, a dispute, in the form of a dialogue, ensued between Jesus and the religious authorities who are scandalized because Jesus healed on the Sabbath. When Jesus declared to them that "My Father is working still, and I am working," the authorities were incensed to the point of seeking to "kill him" because Jesus "called God his Father, making himself equal with God"(JN. 5:18). In the revelatory monologue that follows this dispute, the "words of the Word" further proclaim that He is the Son of God who perfectly fulfills the will of His Father in giving life to those who believe in Him:

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.(JN. 5:19-24)

In reading this passage carefully, it becomes clear from the Son's own testimony that He is equal to the Father in all of those "activities" toward humankind and the world that we would consider "of God" or divine, confirming for believers the intuition of the authorities said in unbelief.

Returning briefly to the healing of the paralytic that set the stage for the dialogue of dispute and the revelatory monologue of Christ to follow, we hear of how Jesus approached this poor man "who had been ill for thirty eight years" (JN. 5:5). In an 'open-ended approach" to the paralytic, Jesus asked him a piercing question: "Do you want to be healed?" (v. 6). Fr. Alexander Schmemann wrote the following about this exchange with the paralytic: "This is not a question of someone intent on forcing, convincing or subduing others. It is the question of genuine love, and therefore, genuine concern." Yet, the affirmative answer of "yes" may not be as obvious as all that when we look beneath the surface.

To be healed means to be changed, and this means that all that was familiar, even though burdensome, must be replaced by a new mode of existence. Even the paralytic seemed to acknowledge a grudging acceptance of his incapacity to act quickly enough in putting himself into the healing pool "when the water is troubled" and its healing effects became prominent. (v. 7) His life had taken on a certain fixed and unchanging pattern that had its own rhythm and predictability to it. Breaking through all of that, Christ tells him authoritatively: "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk" (v. 8). The healing ministry of Christ was holistic, in that the whole person - body and soul - was restored not only to physical well-being, but to a living relationship with the living God. This is probably behind the words of Christ to the healed man when He found him afterwards in the temple: "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you" (v. 14).

When applied to ourselves, are we absolutely certain that we would readily answer Christ affirmatively if He were to directly ask us: "Do you want to be healed?" Actually, as members of His Body, the Church, that is an ongoing question directed to each and every one of us on a daily basis. The Church is the place where sinners and troubled souls are healed and restored to fellowship with God. The "medicine" of healing - from the Scriptures to the Sacraments - are graciously available to us as gifts within the Church. Yet, our desire, as co-workers with God, is integral to the whole process of healing. Do we really want to be healed by Christ; or are we "comfortable" with a more-or-less routine form of Church membership and a more-or-less generic Christian way of life that is not that demanding?

That church membership and way of life is very much on our own terms - and not necessarily Christ's. We have our own "comfort zone" when it comes to how far we will extend ourselves in "prayer, almsgiving and fasting." We will love God and our neighbor, but within the bounds of what is socially acceptable in terms of "religious practice." After all, we are not fanatics! We prefer remaining neutral on explosive issues of a moral and ethical nature so as not to appear extreme. We like to choose our own lifestyle - from sexuality to consumerism - without a great deal of reflection on the Gospel and the commandments of Christ. As long as other persons perceive us to be "good Christians" then we are satisfied. Sensing that "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," and that "God is a consuming fire"(HEB. 10:31; 12:29), we withdraw to a safe distance, away from the healing power of Christ, so that we can avoid that encounter and everything that it would demand of us.

In other words, how bothersome such "healing" would prove to be! We would really need to change. We would need to reassess our consumeristic lifestyles and thus radically reformulate our priorities. We would have to give more of ourselves to God and neighbor and less to the "self' that we so lovingly protect, defend and adore. We would have to put Christ before everything else that we hold dear in life. We would need to say "no" to our passions. Yet, in the final analysis, how liberating all of this would be! 

As the Lord said: "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (JN. 8:32). Christ, as always, asked the paralytic -and asks us today - the perfect question: "Do you want to be healed?" This perfect question just happens to be a bit more complicated under the surface of its initial appeal. We can, of course, remain within the fixed and unchanging patterns of the paralytic's life and "get by" like he managed to do. Or, we too can rise and take up our "pallets" and gladly tell others - even those who may be indifferent or hostile to Him - "that it was Jesus who had healed" us (JN. 5:15).

These Extraordinary Women

 CHRIST IS RISEN!

INDEED HE IS RISEN!


This past Sunday, the third of Pascha, we commemorated the Myrrhbearing Women, together with St. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Joseph and Nicodemus were instrumental in the burial of the Lord. The Gospels are unanimous in telling us that Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in a "new tomb," St. Matthew stressing that it was a tomb that actually belonged to St. Joseph. The Synoptic Gospels of Sts. Matthew, Mark and Luke are also clear in relating that the myrrhbearing women looked on "and saw where He was laid." (MK. 15:47) It is these same "myrrhbearing women" who return to the tomb on the "first day of the week" (MK. 16:2) in order to lament and anoint the dead body of Jesus with spices, as "is the burial customs of the Jews." (JN. 19:40) Those we know by name are Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome and Joanna; but there is also mention of "other women."

According to centuries of accumulated tradition and practice, it was customary among the Jews of Christ's time not to ascribe any "legal" authority to the testimony of women. That makes it rather inexplicable as to why the women are then the first to know of the Resurrection of Christ and to actually see the Risen Lord, with Mary Magdalene being the first human being to be accorded this awesome privilege. (JN. 20:11-18; MK. 16:9-11) However, all through His ministry, Christ treated women with a fresh sense of equality that was meant to remove any undue "prejudice." Christ had women disciples. (LK. 8:1-3) These women disciples remained loyal and committed to Christ even in death, when the "Jesus movement" appeared to be discredited and dissolved with His accursed death upon the cross. Everything was dead and buried with Jesus, to be forgotten in a matter of a short time, and to be lost to history with no real reason to justify its recovery. 

This is why explaining (away?) the emergence of the Church and the rise of Christianity without the Resurrection is so difficult and unconvincing. As my old Byzantine history professor once said to our class when describing the very beginning of Christianity, "something happened" of an extraordinary nature that accounted for the empty tomb. As an historian that was his way of referring to the Resurrection of Christ. There is really no other way to account for the fact that Jesus was believed in and worshipped.

Yet, the myrrhbearing women persisted in their loyalty to the Master even though they must have realized all of this. We can only surmise, but did the Lord "reward" these women for their loyalty by first proclaiming the Resurrection to them, before He did to the eleven disciples? If they were the only ones to come and minister to Him in death, then they would be the ones to behold Him alive after death. In an instant, the Risen Lord reversed centuries of prejudice by appointing the myrrhbearing women to be "apostles to the apostles." 

Intuitively, they went to the tomb, hoping to continue their ministry to Christ without having "figured out" beforehand the removal of the large stone that blocked access to the tomb: "Who will roll away the stone for us form the door of the tomb?" (MK. 16:3) Their anxiety and grief was transformed into surprise when they discovered that the stone had been removed from the entrance to the tomb. This in turn became amazement ("they were amazed" MK. 16:5) when they encountered "a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe" - clearly an angel. He addressed them with words that to this day thrill the heart of the believing Christian with the "good news" that will never be surpassed:

Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you. (MK. 16:6-7)

"Trembling and astonishment" in the presence of the numinous and holy, made tangible by the angel and his proclamation of the Resurrection, rendered them "afraid" and initially, at least, "they said nothing to any one." (MK. 16:8) Soon enough, however, the Gospel accounts make it clear that they spoke to the disciples. We can only imagine Mary Magdalene's reaction when "they would not believe it" when she told the disciples "that he was alive and had been seen by her!" (MK. 16:11) The Scriptures tell us nothing further of these remarkable women, an "omission" we can only lament. Various pious traditions developed over time, one of which has Mary Magdalene appear before the Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Rome and greet him with the words: "Christ is Risen!" while holding up before him an egg that slowly began turning a brilliant red in the process! 

In an age of betrayal, when even "Christians" are no longer willing or able to believe in the bodily Resurrection of Christ, we need to heed the words of the myrrhbearing women and imitate their loyalty, zeal, commitment and love of Christ. They were not proclaiming "an idle tale," as even the male disciples first believed according to St. Luke (24:11). They were witnessing to the Risen Lord and His conquest of death. If, in our daily lives, we could minister to the Lord in the same spirit, which would also mean ministering to others, because Christ is "in" the other, then perhaps we too would be "rewarded" with a greater certainty of faith in His presence as the risen and liviing Lord. The impression is indelible that the myrrhbearing women put Christ first, far above any other loyalties or loves. 

If and when we feel distant from Christ is it because we fail miserably at times to match that loyalty and love? Are we willing to come to the empty tomb regardless of what "common sense" or the daily obstacles of life throw up before us? Or are we easily tempted down another path that has nothing to do with Christ but only ourselves and our desires? These extraordinary women, who will be remembered and venerated until the end of time, present us with an enduring example and an unavoidable challenge.

Fragments for Friday

Source: bostonmonks.com

 "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice, you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy." (Jn. 16:20)

"Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." (Jn. 20:20)

At the midnight Paschal Liturgy, we heard the incomparable and magnificent Prologue from the Gospel According to St. John (1:1-18). In the Prologue, Christ is identified as the eternal Word of God who, though "with God" in the beginning - and who actually "was God" - "became flesh" (as Jesus of Nazareth), "and dwelt among us with full of grace and truth" (v.14). The evangelist John then reveals that: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son (or God, as in some manuscripts), who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." (v.18) The Gospel is then the history of the Word made flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. His ministry is marked by seven "signs" (what we call miracles) to indicate the truthfulness of that claim to those who are open to believe. In fact, those who do believe are called and become "the children of God." (v. 12)

Once the Son of Man (Jesus) is "lifted up from the earth" (12:32), He will glorify the name of God (12:28). This was, of course, the Crucifixion. Following his resurrection, the risen Lord appears to his frightened disciples (20:19-23), grants them his peace, and commissions them through "breathing" the Holy Spirit upon them to proclaim his resurrection to the world. Thomas, one of the twelve was absent on that first day of the week; but he is then present eight days later (20:24-31). During this dramatic encounter, Thomas is transformed from being an unbeliever into a believer. And in the process, utters the greatest affirmation of the identity of Christ in the Gospels: "My Lord and my God!" (20:28) Thus, we have come full circle from the Prologue. The God who has never been seen, is now "seen" in the flesh, but more importantly through the eyes of faith, in the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. This is also called inclusio, bringing together a particular theme proclaimed earlier in the Gospel with its fulfillment later. The Prologue finds its fulfillment in the profession of faith made by the disciple Thomas.

What is so meaningful and hopeful to us who are here after such a great interval of time is revealed in the response of Jesus to Thomas' extraordinary exclamation of faith: "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." (20:29) Perhaps one of our great resurrectional hymns, chanted or sung at every Liturgy, is a elaboration of that wonderful "beatitude" spoken by the Lord: "Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless One ..." We have "beheld" the resurrection of Christ through the eyes of faith, and are thus enabled to worship the risen Lord as Thomas did - as our Lord and our God!

Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: saintgregorythetheologian.org

 On the Death and Resurrection of Christ

Yesterday, I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him.

Yesterday, I died with Him today I am made alive with Him.

Yesterday, I was buried with Him, today I am raised up with Him.

Let us offer to Him Who suffered and rose again for us ... ourselves, the possession most precious to God and most proper.

Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us.

Let us become Divine for His sake, since for us He became Man.

He assumed the worse that He might give us the better.

He became poor that by His poverty we might become rich.

He accepted the form of a servant  that we might win back our freedom.

He came down that we might be lifted up.

He was tempted that through Him we might conquer.

He was dishonored that He might glorify us.

He died that He might save us.

He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were thrown down through the fall of sin.

Let us give all, offer all, to Him who gave Himself a Ransom and Reconciliation for us.

We needed an incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live.

We were put to death together with Him that we might be cleansed.

We rose again with Him because we were put to death with Him.

We were glorified with Him because we rose again with Him.

A few drops of Blood recreate the whole of creation!

   -- St. Gregory the Theologian, Easter Orations

Coffee with Sister Vassa: The Power of our Wounds

 

THE POWER OF OUR WOUNDS 

Why does the risen Lord still have His wounds, which Thomas is able to see and touch, so he believes it is none other than Christ, his King and his God? Because He wants still to have His wounds, as one of us, who also have our wounds. He shows us how to be wounded and yet free; and yet even joyous, and empowered to testify to others, also wounded, how to walk forward and to testify to the power of God in our lives. We don’t have to be perfect, either physically or otherwise, to be vessels of God’s unifying light, hope and all-forgiving love, in our world.

But oftentimes we might be ashamed of our wounds, or bitter about them, or resentful of others or ourselves, who inflicted the wounds. But our new life in Christ is not erasing our wounds, sometimes visible and sometimes invisible ones. Whether we have gone through a painful divorce, or lost our jobs or our homes, or were slandered or somehow betrayed by a loved one, or we ourselves have betrayed our loved ones, or have struggled with an addiction, or struggle with some other disease, - when we allow ourselves to follow our risen-and-still-wounded Lord, and embrace the new life and new hope with which He wants to embrace us, His imperfect and wounded followers, we find a new Way to move forward. And to return into communion with Him and others, if our wounds have been leading us to self-isolation, resentment or self-centered fear.

I was also thinking, on this Thomas Sunday, about the fact that Thomas and most of the other disciples abandoned our Lord, when His wounds were being inflicted on Him. And then they didn’t believe the women, that He is risen, although He told them repeatedly that He would be killed but would rise again. Yet He re-enters into their midst, despite their closed doors, and says, Peace, Shalom. He does admonish them for a lack of faith, but no apologies are demanded or made, not even in Peter’s case. What He does is He eats with them, and communion is restored. Thank You, Lord, for challenging us to unity, even as we struggle with our wounds. Let us not be ashamed of them, but testify to them as did You, as we walk forward into Your new freedom and new happiness.

Fragments for Friday

Source: oca.org

 CHRIST IS RISEN!  INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless One ...

It is already Bright Friday, but I would like to look back at Holy Week and Pascha - just celebrated last week! Thus, we have so recently completed our annual celebration of Holy Week and Pascha after the forty days of Great Lent. I have now served this, the "Feast of Feasts," here in the parish from 1990-2025. That would include our "Covid Pascha" of 2020, during in which only three of us - Presvytera Deborah, Ralph Sidway, and I - served the entire Holy Week and Pascha alone when Covid restrictions were at their peek. That is now thirty-five years, and it remains a joy to be able to continue serving this great annual feast on behalf of, and with all of the faithful of our parish. 

There is always the danger that each annual celebration can simply become indistinguishable from all the others, as they are the same in terms of structure and content. But each year is unique and it is that uniqueness that fills us with the energy and effort to make the Pascha we are serving as fresh and enlivening as possible. Or rather, it is the presence of Christ that accomplishes that on our behalf.

The Feast of Pascha is meant for the entire parish community: the clergy, the servers, the choir and the congregation of the faithful. Each person has his/her ministry within the parish. Truly a communal effort as we assemble together as the local Body of Christ to praise the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. There are different levels of reality, but at the apex of those levels is Christ crucified and risen. Only the paschal mystery brings meaning to the rest of our lives and to our final destiny of life with God. 

The holy doors on the iconostasis have remained open all during Bright Week, to visually express the reality of the Kingdom of God, "open" to us all and in our midst. Those holy doors will be closed on Saturday right before we begin Great Vespers as we bid farewell to Bright Week and as a bit of the light of the Resurrection begins to dim as we move away from the "night brighter than the day." So, we most always translate the visible to the invisible interior of our minds and hearts; and the outward to the inward. That leads us to examine our faith and ask ourselves where the treasure of our heart is.

As the incomparable Canon of Pascha announces to us:

Let us purify our senses and we shall see Christ shining in the unapproachable light of His resurrection. We shall clearly hear Him say: Rejoice, as we sing the song of victory.

Fragments for Friday

Source: legacyicons.com

 Here are two deeply insightful passages from two of my former professors at St. Vladimir's Seminary during my three years there: Frs. Alexander Schmemann and Paul Lazor. In my final year, I served Holy Week and Pascha with them both in the old seminary chapel. Quite an unforgettable experience!

_____

"The Orthodox Church never loses sight of the universal significance of the Passion of Christ. The glorification of the wounds, the bloodshed and the tortured agony experienced by Christ does not find its origins in a simple awe before human suffering. Beyond the scene of the human suffering of Christ is the reality of His work for the redemption of all men. He is the God-man. He does what no human being alone can do. He takes upon Himself the sin of the all and shatters its power. He suffers and dies for all in order that all might be able to pass through and find new hope in the agonies of suffering and death. ... Christ suffered and died not for the sake of some vague "human mass," but for unique human persons - for you and me. In this fact lies the hope and joy of each Christian."

Archpriest Paul Lazor

"Christ freely accepts death; of His life He says that "no man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." (Jn. 10:18) He does it not without a fight: "and He began to be sorrowful and very heavy." (Matt. 26:27) Here is fulfilled the measure of His obedience and, therefore, here is the destruction of the moral root of death, of death as the ransom for sin. The whole life of Jesus is in God as every human life ought to be, and it is this fullness of Life, this life full of meaning and content, full of God, that overcomes death, destroys its power. For death is, above all, a lack of life, a destruction of life that has cut itself off from its only source. And because Christ's death is a movement of love towards God, an act of obedience and trust, of faith and perfection - it is an act of life (Father! Into Thy hands I commend my spirit - Lk. 23:46) which destroys death. It is the death of death itself."

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

Monday Morning Meditation

Source: legacyicons.com

Anyone who participates in the Services of Holy Week, starting with PalmSunday, will experience in a real way the events of the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ? He/she will enter into the pain and sorrow of the Virgin Mary as she beholds her son on the Cross, as she carries away His dead body to burial, and as the tomb is sealed.

Then, gathered in the middle of the night, we will experience the joy and triumph of God over death as we watch the light break through the darkness, spreading to every corner of the church, bringing joy to our hearts. As we hear the angels in the Gospel announcing the Resurrection of the Lord to the women at the tomb, and the priest triumphantly crying out, “Christ is Risen!” we will joyfully shout back, “Truly He is Risen!” and begin to sing the Paean of Pascha: “Christ is Risen from the dead, by death trampling down upon death and to those in the tombs He has granted life!”

Come join us, brothers and sisters. Here is the place and time when the greatest miracle of our God takes place for our salvation. Here is where our hearts and minds are transformed by His Power and Love for us!

Let us give God a chance this year to reach into our hearts and heal our wounds. Let us approach Him humbly and prayerfully. Let us offer ourselves to Him in Faith and Trust during this Holy Week so that the miracle of the Resurrection might happen in us, as well. Let us enter and be transformed!

In Christ’s Love,

Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou

Monday Morning Meditation: Our Commitment to Holy Week

Source: legacyicons.com

 As we are drawing near to Holy Week, I would like to send out this mediation in anticipation of our arrival there in a week's time.

We have reached the saving passion of Christ our God.
Let us, the faithful, glorify His ineffable forbearance,
that in His compassion He may raise us up who were dead in sin,
for He is good and loves mankind. 
(Matins of Holy Monday)

I am trying to fit in one more book before Pascha, and that is On the Tree of the Cross - George Florovsky and the Patristic Doctrine of the Atonement. This book is a collection of excellent essays on the Orthodox understanding of the atoning death of Christ, all very rich and filled with insights primarily drawn from the Fathers. The culminating essays belong to Fr. George Florovsky, arguably the preeminent Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century. Fr. George completely expands our notion of atonement - he prefers the word "redemption" - when referring to the "saving work" of Christ. I will share some key passages from this book during Holy Week. My goal now is to simply share a few comments about the upcoming Holy Week and our approach to it.

As Orthodox, we "live" for Holy Week and realize that it is the key week of our liturgical year - and our Faith - as it will culminate in the Lord's Death and Resurrection - the great paschal mystery. As Fr. Sergius Bulgakov once wrote: 

"Holy Week sweeps the Orthodox believer along as if on a mystic torrent."

Our problem may just be observing Holy Week with focused attention and prayerful participation, as other demands of life impinge upon us in a never-ending flow of responsibilities - and distractions.

Therefore, I would simply like to provide a few pastoral suggestions that everyone can think about and perhaps incorporate into your daily lives as Holy Week unfolds:

• One must first make a commitment to Holy Week and make it the priority for your respective households, regardless of how often you actually make it to the services. This is a week of strict fasting, and no other activities should impinge upon that. Your commitment to making Holy Week the center of your lives is synonymous with your commitment to Christ.

• Try and arrange your schedules so that you are able to attend the services as well as possible. However, if you are not able to attend the services, it must not be because of something of "entertainment value;" or some other distraction that can wait for a more appropriate time. Be especially aware of Great and Holy Friday and Saturday. These are the days of the Lord's Death and Sabbath rest in the tomb. These are days of fasting, silence and sobriety. Respect that fact that you are participating in a great mystery - the mystery of redemption and salvation.

• Parents, you may think of taking your children out of school on Holy Friday and attending the Vespers service in the afternoon. Other children have their "holy days" on which they may miss school; and we, as Orthodox Christians, have our own. And adults may also consider being free from work that day, if that is possible.

• Reduce or eliminate TV and other viewings for the week. Keep off the internet except for essential matters. Struggle against smart phone distraction/app obsessions.

• Be regular in your prayers.

• Try not to gossip or speak poorly of other persons.

• Choose at least one of the Passion Narratives from the four Gospels - MK. 14-15; MATT. 26-27; LK. 22-23; JN. 18-19 - and read it carefully through the week.There is also other good literature about Holy Week and Pascha that could be read. Actually, this is an incredibly rich resource page from our own parish website that offers extensive and intensive insights into the meaning of Holy Week.

• If you have access to any of the Holy Week service booklets, read and study the services carefully before coming to church. This will deepen your understanding of that particular service's emphasis as Holy Week unfolds.

• If you come to the midnight Paschal Liturgy, do your best to stay for the entire service, prepared to receive the Eucharist. It does not make a great deal of sense to leave the Liturgy before Holy Communion. 

Our goal, I believe, is to make of Holy Week and Pascha something a great deal more than a colorful/cultural event that is fleeting in nature and quickly forgotten. To encounter this "more" requires our own human effort working together with the grace of God so that the heart is enlarged with the presence of the crucified and risen Christ.

__________

At the last of our Presanctified Liturgies for this year, we heard the following hymn:

I am rich in passions, I am wrapped in the false robe of hypocrisy.Lacking self-restraint I delight in self-indulgence. I show a boundless lack of love.I see my mind cast down before the gates of repentance,starved of true goodness and sick with inattention. But make me like Lazarus, who was poor in sin, lest I receive no answer when I pray, no finger dipped in water to relieve my burning tongue; and make me dwell in Abraham's bosom in Your love for mankind.

Does this possibly sound familiar to anyone? Do you know of anyone that this hymn may be describing? Is this person well-known to you? If so, you may want to keep this person in your prayers so that he or she may one day - by the grace of God - be freed of these spiritually-harmful traits.

But our primary aim is to focus on the beauty and depth of Holy Week; a beauty and depth that flows naturally from Jesus Christ our Savior.