Fragments for Friday - Let Us Recover the Greatness of the Feast of Pentecost

 

stmaryorthodoxchurch.org

At last Sunday's liturgy, we heard from the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES the following passage concerning the Apostle Paul: "For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost"(20:16). 

For the Apostle Paul, that would mean a very challenging journey by sea, which always included the threat of storms, shipwreck and/or attack by pirates. But St. Paul was determined to celebrate the great feast of Pentecost with his brothers and sisters "in Christ" in Jerusalem - the home and center of the newly-established Christian Church, now making its impact felt in the Graeco-Roman world of his day.

Pascha and Pentecost were the two major feasts of the apostolic Church.They were powerful communal commemorations and celebrations of the decisive acts that established the Church in the world once and for all: the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, and the descent of the Holy Spirit into the world. 

It would be wonderful and deeply encouraging if we could match the zeal of the Apostle Paul for eagerly anticipating this commemoration and making it as certain as possible that we will also gather together with our brothers and sisters "in Christ" for the Feast of Pentecost. Liturgically, that would mean Great Vespers on Saturday evening and the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. 

Pascha, of course, is huge and greatly anticipated; but Pentecost is not. It is treated as a "normal" Sunday, which means most parishioners will be in church (thank God Pentecost is on a Sunday), unless some other "pressing concern(?)" keeps them away without, perhaps, any sense of loss. But the role of Pentecost in the economy of our salvation very much needs to be recovered. Pascha does not simply dissolve into the cares and concerns of our daily lives. It does not just disappear once we no longer sing "Christ is Risen!" Rather, Pascha is completed and fulfilled in the twin Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost.

The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles is the goal of the paschal mystery of the death, resurrection, ascent and glorification of Christ. We actualize the coming of the Holy Spirit through our liturgical commemoration on an annual basis. 

The Holy Spirit is the energy of the Church. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church that makes the Church so unique and unlike any other worldly institution. (The Orthodox Church is the "Pentecostal Church"). This is the Holy Spirit with which we were chrismated after our baptism into the Death and Resurrection of Christ. We seek the renewal of the Holy Spirit in our lives on the Day of Pentecost. Here is also the basis of "parish renewal." We pray to God for that personal and communal renewal each year in the special Kneeling Prayers of the Vespers of Pentecost that we serve immediately following the Liturgy. This is all a great blessing.

Looking forward to celebrating the great Feast of Pentecost with the parish faithful!

Coffee With Sister Vassa - SCATTERED, AND YET UNIFIED

This Thursday morning I’m thinking about how divided we are these days, scattered to our own little information-bubbles in a world that we perceive more through the screen of a mobile phone or computer than face-to-face. One might wonder, how can any church-community survive as one, in our Internet Age?

In today’s Gospel-reading our Lord consoles us, that we may have “ good cheer” and peace in Him, even while we go through this “tribulation”: “ Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own,” he says, “ and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:32-33)

Church-unity is not realized by “us,” because we are powerless over “ the world” and cannot overcome it by our own lights, try as we might. God, on the other hand, in His human-divine Son and by the grace of His Spirit, is and always will be One. He offers us one-ness in the Sacrament of Unity that is the Church, in its countless “sacraments” both within and beyond the walls of church-buildings. And by “sacraments” I mean those moments of communion or one-ness with Him, offered to us in various ways in our traditioned faith. It is in Him that we cease to be fragmented, both within ourselves and with one another. His unconditional love for us, and His hope and faith in us, even when we remain scattered, rubs off on us, so to say, when we do not hesitate to reach out to Him and nourish our love, hope, and faith in Him. We can carry His faith, hope, and love into our immediate and online “communities,” by focusing and re-focusing on His presence in our midst.

Let me not just talk or write about this today, but reach out for conscious contact with Him in a bit of healthy reading, contemplation, and prayer sprinkled throughout my day. The unity of the Church is fine, as our Lord reminds us, because He is “ not alone,” remaining the undivided Trinity always, regardless of how many times we scatter into our own little screens and its tribulation(s). “ In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Coffee With Sister Vassa - WE ARE NOT GOD’S GATEKEEPERS

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” (Jn 6:37-39)

In the above-quoted Gospel-reading, our Lord Jesus Christ promises us that He does not come into our midst, in the flesh, in order to act as a gatekeeper at the gates of His Father’s kingdom. Christ sees “all” of us who come to Him as a gift from His Father, “given” to Him by the Father, so He will “ by no means cast out” this gift, because it is given Him by the will of His Father. As He so often reminds us in this Gospel, He has come not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.

Why does the God Man share this point with us so often, that He is doing not His own will (as if it were not sufficient), but that of His Father? I think it's because, as one of us, He is offering us an example of how we, whenever we are called to carry His message, are to perceive ourselves and allthose who might come to Him, via this message that is not from us, but from God. It is easy for us, both personally and collectively, as Orthodox Christians, to slip into carrying ourmessage according to ourwill, rather than His message according to His will. Our own baggage, - personal, ideological, and/or political, can obstruct the way to Him if we lose sight of the fact that weare not called to bring anyone to ourideas and ideologies, but to manifest Christ, Whose power and presence endures beyond all that. “ He must increase, but I must decrease,” as John the Baptist says of the Lamb of God and himself. (Jn 3:30) So let us not fear being “decreased,” as we carry His message today, the message of One who does not cast us out, as we sometimes tend to do to one another.

Monday Morning Meditation - The Fathers of the First Council and the 'Robe of Truth'

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 

"Let us look at the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, which the Lord gave, the Apostles preached, and the Fathers preserved. Upon this the Church is founded." ~ St. Athanasius the Great (+373)

This last Sunday, we found ourselves in between the two great Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost. However, on that Seventh Sunday of Pascha, we also commemorated the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicea in 325 A.D. It is virtually impossible to over-exaggerate the importance of this Council in the life of the Church.

The Council had not only to reject the Arian heresy that claimed that the Son of God is a "creature" and thus subordinate in essence to God the Father; but the Council had to find the right terminology to demonstrate that the Faith of the Church from the beginning believed and claimed that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God equal in essence to God the Father (as is the Holy Spirit). Arianism and Orthodox Christianity are essentially two different faiths which is why the Church was at a crossroads in the fourth century. According to C. S. Lewis, the Christian Faith would either become just one more "synthetic/syncretistic religion" of the ancient world, or proclaim the uniqueness of Christ as the eternal Son of God and the Savior of the world. 

The dramatic story of the Council of Nicea has been told and retold throughout the centuries. Not wanting to repeat that story here, I will simply include a link to a good summary found on the OCA website.

Yet, I would like to add a few words about the manner in which we honor the great Fathers of the Church in our liturgical tradition. To do so, I would like to bring to mind the Kontakion of the Fathers that we sang on Sunday:

The apostles' preaching and the fathers' doctrines have established the one faith for the Church. Adorned with the robe of truth, woven from heavenly theology;great is the mystery of piety which it defines and glorifies.

This kontakion is very close in meaning to what we read from St. Athanasius the Great (+373) - one of the leading lights of Nicene Orthodoxy - as quoted above. There is a direct continuity between what the Apostles "preached" and what the Fathers later formulated as doctrines.

This continuity is not simply chronological - it is theological. It was the same Gospel - the same "robe of truth" - without illegitimate subtractions or additions. The Fathers did not change the content of the Faith that they were expressing through their doctrine. They were developing and expanding upon the apostolic preaching for their own times. But the content of the "one faith for the Church" remained identical with itself in this ongoing transmission of the Tradition. (Tradition means that which is "handed down" or "handed over").

The Nicene Creed does not add anything new to what the apostles preached. It rather witnesses to what they preached so as to preserve the Truth in the face of its possible distortion. To do so they had to come up with new formulations of that unchanging Truth. Thus, their bold introduction of the term homoousios to describe how the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father was not something innovative or "creative." It was a necessary development to again preserve that which was proclaimed from the beginning: God became incarnate in order to save us for only God can save. 

In one of his classic articles "The Authority of the Ancient Councils," Fr. George Florovsky brilliantly described the relationship between the apostles and fathers and their respective roles in transmitting the Tradition:

Apostles and Fathers - these two terms were generally and commonly coupled together in the argument from Tradition, as it was used in the Third and Fourth centuries. It was this double reference, both to the originand to the unfailing and continuous preservation, that warranted the authenticity of belief.

On the other hand, Scripture was formally acknowledged and recognized as the ground and foundation of faith, as the Word of God and the Writ of the Spirit. Yet, there was still the problem of right and adequate interpretation. Scripture and the Fathers were usually quoted together, that is,kerygma (proclamation) and exegesis(interpretation).

This is a "heavenly theology" because its ultimate Source is Christ Himself, Who reveals the will of the Father for the world and its salvation. And this is that "mystery of piety which it defines and glorifies," precisely as the apostles preached:

Great indeed is the mystery of our religion:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels,
preached among the nations,
believed on in the world, taken up in glory. (I TIM. 3:16)

We venerate and honor the Fathers within the ongoing life of the Church. To again turn to the same article of Fr. George Florovsky, he further writes:

"Fathers" were those who transmitted and propagated the right doctrine, the teaching of the Apostles, who were guides and masters of Christian instruction and catechesis... They were spokesmen for the Church, expositors of her faith, keepers of her Tradition, witnesses of truth and faith. And in that was their "authority" grounded.

Most glorious art Thou, O Christ our God!
Thou hast established the Holy Fathers as
lights on the earth! Through them Thou hast
guided us to the true faith! O greatly
Compassionate One, glory to Thee!

(Troparion of the Holy Fathers)

Fragments for Friday - The Ascension - The Meaning and the Fullness of Christ's Resurrection

Source: legacyicons.com

 

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

On the fortieth day after the glorious Resurrection of Christ, we arrived at Ascension Thursday. We celebrated the Feast yesterday morning with the Divine Liturgy, and we enjoyed a  representative body of parishioners present for the Feast - including children and teens. A truly festal celebration! I hope that one and all had a joyous and blessed feast day, and beyond as the Leavetaking is not until next Friday, May 29.

 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) In his homily on the Ascension, St. Gregory Palamas (+1359) draws out some of the implications of this further:

In the same way as He came down, without changing place but condescending to us, so He returns once more, without moving as God, but enthroning on high our human nature which He had assumed. It was truly right that the first begotten human nature from the dead (Rev. 1:5) should be presented to God, as first fruits from the first crop offered for the whole race of men. 

On account of our sins He was led to death, and for us He rose and ascended, preparing our own resurrection and ascension for unending eternity. For all the heirs of everlasting life follow as far as possible the pattern of His saving work on earth.

Those who live according to Christ imitate what He did in the flesh. Just as He died physically, so in time everyone dies, but we shall also rise again in the flesh as He did, glorified and immortal, not now but in due course, when we shall also ascend, as Paul says, for "we shall be caught up," he says, "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:17). (The Saving Work of Christ - Sermons by St. Gregory Palamas, p. 113-114)

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 disciplesby the promise of the Holy Spirit;
Through the Blessing they were assured
that Thou art the Son of God,
the Redeemer of the world.

Thursday's Theological Thoughts - Ascension

Source: legacyicons.com

and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father . . .

After His resurrection from the dead Jesus appeared to men for a period of forty days after which He “was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mk 16.19; see also Lk 24.50 and Acts 1.9–11).

The ascension of Jesus Christ is the final act of His earthly mission of salvation. The Son of God comes “down from heaven” to do the work which the Father gives Him to do; and having accomplished all things, He returns to the Father bearing for all eternity the wounded and glorified humanity which He has assumed (see e.g. Jn 17).

The doctrinal meaning of the ascension is the glorification of human nature, the reunion of man with God. It is indeed, the very penetration of man into the inexhaustible depths of divinity.

Fr. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, Vol. I

Midweek Morning Meditation

 

Source: athoniteusa.com

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!

As we celebrate the Leavetaking of Pascha this morning, we can read this excellent summary of how we understand the Resurrection of the Lord from Fr. Thomas Hopko. The Gospel, the Church, Christianity can only stand and be worthy of our undivided commitment if indeed Jesus Christ has been bodily raised from the dead.

_____

According to Orthodox doctrine there is no competition of “lives” between God and Jesus, and no competition of “powers.” The power of God and the power of Jesus, the life of God and the life of Jesus, are one and the same power and life. To say that God has raised Christ, and that Christ has been raised by his own power is to say essentially the same thing. “For as the Father has life in himself,” says Christ, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (Jn 5.26). “I and the Father are one”(Jn 10.30).

The Scriptural stress that God has raised up Jesus only emphasizes once more that Christ has given His life, that He has laid it down fully, that He has offered it whole and without reservation to God—Who then gave it back in His resurrection from the dead.

The Orthodox Church believes in Christ’s real death and His actual resurrection. Resurrection, however, does not simply mean bodily resuscitation. Neither the Gospel nor the Church teaches that Jesus was lying dead and then was biologically revived and walked around in the same way that He did before He was killed. In a word, the Gospel does not say that the angel moved the stone from the tomb in order to let Jesus out. The angel moved the stone to reveal that Jesus was not there (Mk 16; Mt 28).

In His resurrection Jesus is in a new and glorious form. He appears in different places immediately. He is difficult to recognize (Lk 24.16; Jn 20.14). He eats and drinks to show that He is not a ghost (Lk 24.30, 39). He allows himself to be touched (Jn 20.27, 21.9). And yet He appears in the midst of disciples, “the doors being shut” (Jn 20.19, 26). And he “vanishes out of their sight” (Lk 24.31). Christ indeed is risen, but His resurrected humanity is full of life and divinity. It is humanity in the new form of the eternal life of the Kingdom of God.

Fr. Thomas Hopko - The Orthodox Faith, Vol. I Doctrine

Monday Morning Meditation - Science and Awe for the Healing of the Man Born Blind

Source: oca.org

 Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Paschal Meditation - Day Thirty Seven

"Healing a person blind from birth was indeed an act of creation, not simply a repair. Contemporary medical science knows more clearly how difficult it would be than was known in the first century. When a boy is born, he can only see far enough to behold his mother's face when held in her arms. It will take several years of practice for him to learn to use his eyes, to make the connections among nerves and his brain that will enable him to see well. Medical technology is working on building an artificial eye that would enable a blind person to see at least light and darkness. This might work for one who lost vision in adulthood, but not for one who was blind, who never developed the infrastructure of nerves for seeing in the first place. Indeed, Chrysostom in his own way hints at these facts:

"'Furthermore, not only did [Christ] fashion eyes, not only did He open them, but He also endowed them with power to see. And this is a proof that He also breathed life into them. Indeed, if this vital principle should not operate, even if the eye were sound, it could never see anything. And so he both bestowed the power to see by giving the eyes life, and also gave the organ of sight completely equipped with arteries, and nerves, and veins, and blood, and all the other things of which our body is composed.

"This passage contains another echo of Adam's creation in Genesis 2:7: 'Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being'."

- Sister Nonna Verna Harrison from her article, "John Chrysosom on the Man Born Blind (John 9)."
______

This short medical/scientific digression into the function of the complexities of the eye can only enhance our admiration and awe at the great sign of Christ restoring sight to a man born blind! Interesting to read of St. John's own perception of what was involved.

Coffee With Sister Vassa - THE SEEING MAN IS CAST OUT

After the man born blind was empowered by our Lord to see, he is “ cast out” or excommunicated by the Pharisees. Why did they excommunicate him? Because blind men were useful to their agenda, while “seeing” ones were not.

They first questioned him about his healing on the Sabbath, then called his parents to ascertain that he indeed had been born blind. Finally, they again question the healed man, reviling him and trying to get him to condemn the One who healed him as a “sinner,” who broke their rules about the Sabbath. “ Then they reviled him and said, ‘You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” (Jn 9:28-29) In response to their willful ignorance, the now-seeing man testifies: “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! …If this man were not from God, He could do nothing. They answered and said to him, ‘You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?’ And they cast him out.” Note that they say precisely the opposite of what Christ said, about the man’s birth. The Lord said that “ neither this man nor his parents sinned,” that he was born blind (Jn 9:3).

In the Russian Orthodox Church, these days “seeing” men are also being reviled and “ cast out,” for testifying to the Word of God. For example, a priest in Moscow, Fr. John Koval, was defrocked for replacing the word “victory” in Patriarch Kirill’s war-prayer with the word “peace.” The message is, priests are to serve the Patriarch’s “words” to the letter, while serving the Word of God is reviled. But let us not be discouraged nor scandalized, because our Lord prepared us for this type of thing: “ These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” (Jn 16:1-4) Happy upcoming Sunday of the Blind Man!

Coffee With Sister Vassa - RESENTMENTS & SELF-ISOLATION

 

“…Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship...’” (Jn 4:17b-20)

Here is another thing about the Samaritan Woman: she does not react negatively, when the Lord exposes her whole story with men. We don’t know the details of that story, but it probably involved at least some pain or anguish for her. And yet, she expresses no defensiveness, self-justification, annoyance, embarrassment, or anything else that would suggest she harbored any resentments (against herself or others) on this subject, when Christ talks about it. Instead, she honors Him with this recognition, albeit not entirely an accurate one, that He is “a prophet.” And she immediately starts seeking answers to questions that did disturb her, questions not about her personal life, but about proper worship. What follows in Christ’s response is His “living water,” and His other revelations to her. She is able to receive this “living water,” because its flow is not blocked from her heart by resentments against herself or others. 

Resentments against ourselves and others block our communion with God and others. We cannot learn from Him or through others that which we might learn, were we to clear away our sometimes deep-seated resentments through forgiveness. Resentments lead us to self-isolation, making us either physically, emotionally, or spiritually unavailable. They can also block us intellectually, so we cannot see anybody else’s perspective on various issues, or honor anybody else’s wisdom on various issues. This morning, let me take a look at any resentments that may be hiding their ugly heads somewhere deep in my heart. How can I know they are there? One red flag is when I feel disturbed, annoyed, or even angered, by my or someone else’s behavior or words; when I feel personally degraded or threatened, by this behavior or words, and seek to retaliate or just self-isolate, because of this. Let me embrace God’s forgiveness of me and others this morning, because I can, and because I don’t want to waste time. I want to participate in the flow of God’s creative energies today, in His grace, that I may be useful to God, to myself and others. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” including ourselves, dear Lord, “and give me this water, that I may not thirst!”

Monday Morning Meditation - Rivers of Living Water

Source: bostonmonks.com

 

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. 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].

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- THE FAITH OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

 “The Samaritan Woman came to the well in/by faith; she saw You, the Water of Wisdom, and drank abundantly she inherited the Kingdom on High and is ever glorified!” (Kontakion, Sunday of the Samaritan Woman)

How is it that the Samaritan Woman came to the well “in faith” or “by faith” (πίστει / верою)? Did it take faith to perform a vital, daily chore, like coming out to this well in the middle of the day to draw water? Not necessarily. But the author of this hymn is saying that she already had faith, even before she encountered the One in Whom she believed. As she said to Christ: “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” (Jn 4:25) So, although she was not from the ‘orthodox’ Jewish tradition, but a Samaritan, she did receive the seed of faith in the Coming One, from a ‘not-orthodox’ tradition in which she was raised. And this is a phenomenon to which our Lord points, when He says to His disciples (right after the departure of the Samaritan Woman) that they “will reap where they have not sown...,” where ‘others’ have labored. 

As we prepare for the upcoming Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, this morning I’m inspired by her also to have faith and hope, as I go about my daily chores and responsibilities, so that I am ready to recognize Christ in our midst; also in the midst of the ‘not orthodox’; and to “drink abundantly” of the Water of Wisdom that He offers us in our various blessings and challenges. “Lord, give me this water, that I may not thirst!”

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- HAVE NO HUSBAND

How did St. John the Evangelist know, what exactly was said in the conversation of our Lord with the Samaritan Woman, when he wasn’t there, but he is the one who later recorded it in his Gospel? I think she told him. John explicitly says that the disciples did not ask the Lord about the conversation (Jn 4:27), so - she must have told the story. We do know that she immediately began to tell others in her own city about it. Thus, the rather long conversation of our Lord with the Samaritan Woman, - the longest recorded conversation He has with another person, - can be described as an example (to us and for us) of one woman’s account of “How I Met Jesus Christ.” It can help us recognize how it is that we, also, can “meet” Him, and come to know and believe in Him. 

The conversation has several revelatory moments, at which He gradually reveals important things about Himself, but she also gradually reveals major things about herself. Her “things” are her questions or issues, while His “things” are answers to those questions or issues. The thing about her that I am thinking aboutthis morning, is her admission, (after He pretends not to know this), that “I have no husband.” I think this was her main issue, or what she felt was her major issue, which Christ prompts her to reveal, along with her theological questions. It is reminiscent of the paralytic’s issue at the Pool of Bethesda, “I have no man,” he says, “to put me into the pool…” (Jn 5:7) The woman’s admission clears the way for our Lord to reveal Himself to her, as her Lord; as One who already knows everything about her, but in nowise despises her for any of it. Because here He is, talking to her, and opening to her a new Way that is her vocation.

This morning I’m thinking, I also have no husband. Many people “have no husband” (or wife), either by choice or otherwise. Let us not mistake the presence or absence of certain “others” in our lives for an obstacle to “meeting” Christ, entering into a conversation with Him, and drinking of His “living water.” He already knows everything about us, and does not despise us for it. “Lord, give me this water” this morning, “that I may not thirst!”

Akathist to the Resurrection

 

Source: athoniteusa.com

Christ is Risen!

We chanted the Akathist Hymn this morning "To the Resurrection." In Eikos 2, the praises of the Risen Lord were based on some of the scriptural texts that reveal to us the encounter of the Risen Christ with various of his disciples. But these praises are also wonderful applications of those profoundly meaningful encounters to our own lives today, as we struggle against sin and attempt to purify our hearts with the presence and love of Christ. I am setting forth the praises from Eikos 2 here, and citing the Gospel texts which are their basis:

Jesus, Who passed through locked doors, enter the house of my soul! (Jn. 20:19)

Jesus, Who met Your disciples on a journey, meet me on the journey of life! (Lk. 24:13)

Jesus, Who inflamed their hearts with Your words, set my cold heart on fire too!(Lk. 24:32)

Jesus, Who made yourself known in the breaking of the bread, grant me to know You in the Divine Eucharist! (Lk. 24:30-31)

Jesus, Who promised the Holy Spirit to Your disciples, send down to me too thisSpirit Comforter from the Father! (Lk. 24:49; Jn. 14:26; 15:26; 16:13) 

It is the risen and glorified Christ who is "in our midst!"

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA -- FAITH IN THE HUMAN BEING

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

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

These days, when some disturbing piece of news comes out, say, about a political or religious leader doing or saying something preposterous, sometimes people share on social media how their “faith in humanity” is waning. But Christianity proclaims a radical faith in humanity; God’s undying faith in humanity, which is more honorable and honored than the Cherubim, and more glorious and glorified beyond compare than the Seraphim. We are entrusted with God’s revelation of Himself to us; with receiving it and passing it on, from generation to generation, based on human testimony, language, and other fallible human capacities, like hymnography, iconography and other forms of art. We are free to reject and deride these capacities, but that means embracing iconoclasm, which is considered the sum of all heresies. Why? Not because it denies God, but because it denies the human capacity to pass on His revelation of Himself to us.

May I believe in us today, and embrace at least a bit of the hope, love and patience with us, which God unchangeably has and extends to each of us daily. I can do that, by opening up to Him in prayer, and letting His faith, good will and love for all of us, break into my broken and contrite heart. God is the Lord and has appeared unto us! Let me let that sink in, as we proceed on our journey to Pentecost.

Monday Morning Meditation -- Do You Want to be Healed?

 

Source: ancientfaith.com

CHRIST IS RISEN! 

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

“Do you want to be healed?” (JN. 5:6)

We have already reached the Fourth Sunday of Pascha, with the Midfeast approaching on Wednesday. The Fourth Sunday is known as the "Sunday of the Paralytic" based upon the “sign” of the healing of the paralytic by the Pool of Bethesda near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem and the profound discourse to follow (JN. 5). Archeologists have fairly recently discovered this pool demonstrating the accuracy of St. John’s description. The paralytic had taken his place among a human throng of chronic misery, described by the evangelist as “a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed” (v. 3). Being there for thirty-eight years and not being able to experience what were believed to be the healing capacities of the waters of the pool, the paralytic seemed resigned to his destiny. 

Then Jesus appeared. He saw the paralytic and He knew of his plight. Jesus asked the paralytic a very pointed and even poignant question:  “Do you want to be healed?” (v. 6). Surprisingly, considering what must have been his own misery, the paralytic’s answer was less than direct and not exactly enthusiastic:  “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me” (v. 7). Nevertheless, and even though the paralytic does not commit himself to an act of faith in the healing power of Jesus, he receives the following directive from Jesus:  “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And then, in that somewhat laconic style of describing the healing power of Christ that characterizes the Gospel accounts, we read simply:  “And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked” (v. 9). The “sign” is that Christ can restore wholeness to those in need.

I believe that we need to concentrate on the question Jesus posed to the paralytic: “Do you want to be healed?” (The King James version of the question is: “Wilt thou be made whole?”). For, if the various characters that Jesus encountered in the Gospels are also representatives or “types” of a particular human condition, dilemma, or state of being; then the question of Jesus remains alive in each generation and is thus posed to each of us today. If sin is a sickness, then we are “paralyzed” by that sin to one degree or another of intensity. But do we really want to be healed of the paralyzing effect of sin in our lives? The answer seems obvious, even a “no-brainer,” but is that truly the case? Or, are we more-or-less content with continuing as we are, satisfied that perhaps this is “as good as it gets” in terms of our relationship with God and our neighbors? Do we manage to politely deflect the probing question of Christ elsewhere, counter-posing a reasonable excuse as to what prevents us from exerting the necessary energy from our side? 

Our teaching claims that we must also contribute to the synergistic process of divine grace and human freedom that works together harmoniously for our healing. Perhaps it is easier and more comfortable to stay as we are – after all, it’s really not that bad - a position reflected in the noncommittal response of the paralytic. For to be further healed of sin will mean that we will have to make some changes in our life, in our interior attitudes and in our relationships. It certainly means that we will have to confess our faith in Christ with a greater intensity, urgency and commitment. None of that sounds very "convenient." Are we up to that challenge?

Actually, we could more accurately say that we have already been healed. That happened when we were baptized into Christ. (There are baptismal allusions in the healing of the paralytic by the pool of water). Every human person is paralyzed by the consequences of sin, distorting the image of God in which we were initially created. Baptism was meant to put to death the sin that is within us. We were healed, in that baptism is the pledge to life everlasting, where death itself is swallowed up in the victory of Christ over death. For we are baptized into the Death and Resurrection of Christ. So, with a slight variation, the question of Christ could also imply: 

Do you rejoice in the fact that you have been healed, and does your way of life reflect the faith and joy that that great healing from sin and death has imparted to you?

Are you willing to continue in the struggle that is necessary to keep that healing “alive” within you?

Direct and simple questions can get complicated, often by the paralyzing effect of sin in our lives. We can then get confused as to how to respond to such essential questions. Every time we walk into the church we are being asked by Christ:  “Do you want to be healed?” Responding with a resounding “Yes!” would be a “sign” of the faith, hope and love that are within us by the grace of God.

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- CHRIST GIVES WOMEN A NEW VOICE

 “Women, hear the voice of gladness: ‘Trampling on the tyrant Hell, I have raised the world from corruption. Run, tell my friends the good tidings, for I wish joy to shine on what I fashioned from the source from which came grief’.” (Exapostilarion of Myrrh-Bearers’ Sunday)

In this hymn, which will be chanted this upcoming Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, Christ is addressing these Myrrh-Bearers, and through them all women. He tells us not to walk, but to “run,” and tell His “friends” the good news of the resurrection. Thus He grants women a voice we did not properly have, ever since Adam was banished from paradise, – as God says to Adam, “ Because you listened to the voice of your wife.” (Gen 3: 17) Now, right after His resurrection, Christ chooses to spread joy “ from the source from which came grief,” the female voice, employing women as His witnesses and as the first messengers of the resurrection, – not only or primarily to other women, but to His male disciples.

The “voice” of women was not well-received by the Apostles, who thought their words to be “ nonsense, and they did not believe them” (Lk 24: 11). And throughout Church History even up to our time, the voice of women, on the rare occasion that it is heard at all, is received not un-problematically. Hence from apostolic times, when women first reacted to their new vocation by being afraid “ and did not say a word to anyone” (Mk 16:8), it continues to be difficult, both for women to speak in the Church, and for men to hear them. Nonetheless, it happens, by the grace of the risen Lord, Who continues to call us to the perilous business of being His “witnesses,” that we may overcome the brokenness of our communion with Him and one another. So let’s spread His joy today, as He calls us to do, saying: “ Women, hear the voice of gladness!”

Monday Morning Meditation -- A Shuddering Awe

Source: sttekla.org

 

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!

In the Gospel According to St. Mark, we hear of the discovery of the empty tomb by the myrrhbearing women "very early on the first day of the week." (16:1) This would be the day after the Sabbath, or our Sunday - the "Lord's Day." Since that astonishing morning until this day, Sunday is the most prominent day of worship for Christians, for it was on this day that the resurrection of the Lord was made manifest to the world. And that manifestation was first made to the group of women disciples we know collectively as "the myrrhbearers." 

St. Mark specifically mentions "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome" who "bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him." (16:1) These loyal and loving women had come, somewhat counter-intuitively, to anoint the body of the dead Jesus, though they were aware of the large stone that had been rolled "against the door of the tomb." (15:46) Or, perhaps it was a deeper intuition that brought them to the tomb in the hope that they could fulfill their ministry to the Lord. St. Mark narrates: "And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen." (16:2) The "risen sun" is certainly a wonderful anticipation of what the women were soon to discover. Yet, having arrived at the tomb where Jesus had been laid, "looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; for it was very large." (16:4)

The myrrhbearing women will now enter an empty tomb. Indeed, why was it empty? The empty tomb needed interpretation, or the women would be lost in distressful and fruitless speculation. The interpretation of the empty tomb will simultaneously be the proclamation of the "Good News." The interpreter and proclaimer will be "a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe" (16:5), clearly an angel. And that means that what he proclaims will be a divine revelation. In his presence, the women "were amazed." (16:5). The strength of the Gk. word for "amazed" (used only here in the entire NT by St. Mark) has been further translated as "a strong feeling of awe and agitation in the face of the numinous" (D. E. Nineham), or even a "shuddering awe." (A. E. J. Rawlinson) It is at this point in the dramatic narrative that we hear the "Good News" referred to above: "And he said to them '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'." (16:6) The tomb is empty because Jesus had been raised from the dead! It was the will of God that the women have the privilege of discovering this. In the words of Peter Chrysologus:

He did not roll back the stone to provide a way of escape for the Lord but to show the world that the Lord had already risen. He rolled back the stone to help his fellow servants believe, not to help the Lord rise from the dead. He rolled the stone for the sake of faith, because it had been rolled over the tomb for the sake of unbelief. He rolled back the stone so that he who took death captive might hold the title of Life. SERMON 75.4

This is a bodily resurrection, and not in some vague spiritual or "metaphorical" sense. Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified and buried, had been raised. The "Jesus of history" and the "Christ of faith" are one and the same. The resurrection reveals an awesome transformation, but it is Jesus of Nazareth who is transformed, thus assuring the continuity that is essential to reveal the victory over death that occurs in the resurrection.

The myrrhbearers then hear a further revelation from the angel: "But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." (16:7) This is in fulfillment of Christ's earlier words: "But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." (14:28) The Gospel According St. Matthew will record such an appearance of the Risen Lord to His disciples in Galilee. (MATT. 28:16-20) Then the women, apparently in that same state of amazement "fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid." (16:8) I hope and pray that at some point in the paschal season; or at any time during the year - or during our lifetime! - we too can "tremble" and be filled with "astonishment" that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Is this an enigmatic ending to the initial discovery of the empty tomb and the proclamation of the resurrection? Did the myrrhbearing women fail in their ministry as "apostles to the apostles" because of their (initial) silence? I believe that St. Mark is leaving us with the overwhelming sense of precisely encountering a divine reality that initially did leave the women speechless. As a scholar of this Gospel has written:

The women's profound emotion is described in order to bring out the overwhelming and sheerly supernatural character of that to which it was the response (see also 4:41, 6:30, 9:15), and perhaps to suggest to the reader that if he has even begun to understand the full significance of what had occurred, he too will be bound to respond with amazement and godly fear." (D. E. Nineham, St. Mark, Pelican New Testament Commentaries, p. 447-448).

It is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that the Orthodox Church proclaims to this day with faith, conviction and the certainty that God has acted "in Christ Jesus" within history in a decisive and "eschatological" manner in order to reclaim, restore and renew God's fallen creation. Of course, other Christian churches proclaim the very same victory over death in the Resurrection of Christ. However, the Resurrection understood as the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ has been challenged, "reinterpreted," or rejected by a fair share of biblical scholars and theologians. We need to be fully aware that the bodily resurrection of Christ does not refer to a resuscitated corpse. There is a tremendous element of transformation in the "spiritual body" of the Lord. The mysterious aspect of this transformation is conveyed in many of the scriptural texts that try and describe - perhaps less than adequately, or at least not exhaustively - the risen life of the Lord. Also, a resuscitated Jesus would have died again, as did Lazarus, the daughter of the elder Jairus, and the son of the widow of Nain. 

But St. Paul affirms: "For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him." (ROM. 6:9) There has "arisen" a sad division amongst Christians over this essential issue. To follow Jesus or to believe in Him apart from His bodily resurrection and all that that implies for Christology, anthropology, and eschatology, is to follow "another Gospel." (GAL. 1:7) Such a Jesus did not "trample down death by death." 

The further words of Peter Chrysologus captures the choice before us when contemplating the empty tomb:

Pray that the angel would descend now and roll away all the hardness of our hearts and open up our closed senses and declare to our minds that Christ has risen, for just as the heart in which Christ lives and reigns is heaven, so also the heart in which Christ remains dead and buried is a grave. May it be believed that just as he died, so was he transformed. Christ the man suffered, died and was buried; as God he lives, reigns, is and will be forever. SERMONS 75.4

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!