Monday Morning Meditation -- The Church New Year: A Choice between 'Convenience' and 'Commitment'

Source: wikipedia.org

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”(LK. 4:18-19)

The beginning of the Church New Year occurs on September 1. This is also referred to as the Indiction, and there are both religious and political reasons behind this date, as the Church was accommodating itself to the realities of a Christianized Roman Empire by the fourth century. 

Though hardly commemorated today with much attention, I see no reason not to remind the parish of this date. Perhaps we may thereby bring to the ecclesial New Year a bit more attention than usual. Living as we do in a completely different and secularized society from the Roman/Byzantine world in which our church calendar was more-or-less fully developed, we have a difficult time conceiving of any new year commemoration other than that of January 1. Be that as it may, if we want to understand the liturgical year with its developed rhythm of feasting and fasting, we will need to embrace “the mind of the Church” to some extent to make that understanding attainable. 

As Orthodox Christians we live according to the rhythms of two calendars – the ecclesial and the secular – and often enough we are caught up in a “battle of the calendars.” That is a struggle that can strain our choices and possibilities when we make decisions that affect the use of our “time, talent and treasure.” The appointed Gospel reading for the Church New Year is LK. 4:16-22, from which the scriptural text above is taken. Every year is potentially “the acceptable year of the Lord,” but from our all too-human perspective that will be determined by how we approach each year as it comes to us in our appointed time in this world.

Recently, but with a more focused intention, I applied two contrasting terms toward our approach to the Dormition Fast that occupied us at the beginning of August for two weeks. Those contrasting terms were  convenience and commitment. I said that our approach to this recent fast was determined by our choice of seeking the way of convenience or of making a commitment. A choice of convenience will lead to being uncommitted and thus negligent of whatever discipline is set before us. 

I believe that we can expand the use of these terms to now embrace our approach to the Church New Year or even beyond to our very approach to life as Christians. As we approach the Church New Year we can ask ourselves: Do I choose convenience over commitment when these terms apply to my relationship to God and with the Church? Is my first concern when the “distribution” of my time, talents and treasure is under consideration reduced to a matter of convenience; or do I first think in terms of my commitment to the Lord? Am I therefore trying to “fit” the Church into my life rather than trying to “fit” my life into the fullness of life offered in the Church? At the beginning of the Church New Year - a beginning that not only implies, but offers the gifts of repentance, renewal and regeneration – these may be questions worthy of our heartfelt and serious consideration.

It may seem too simplistic to ask these questions in a stark “either/or” manner. Life is a bit more complicated than that. The choices of convenience and/or commitment – made consciously or unconsciously - can be seen as relative terms that often overlap and get entangled in ways that only further accentuate life’s complexities. Nevertheless, with the utter seriousness with which the Scriptures confront us with the “God question” we do find set before us a rather stark choice between “two ways:” and that would be between life and death. These are not choices that impinge upon our biological well-being. Rather, “life” and “death” are choices that depend upon our commitment to not only believing in God’s existence, but of our willingness to live according to the commandments of God. That is why the choice is presented in a very straightforward, unambiguous manner. The stakes are that high. It is not as if the teaching found in the Scriptures lacks an awareness of the difficulties of life; or of what we like to refer to as life’s “nuances.” But in the Scriptures we find the “ultimate questions” presented with a clarity that, again, demands a clear choice with a full understanding of just what is at stake. For ultimately, there is an “either/or” distinction when it comes to our decision for or against God.

The term “Two Ways” was from the beginning of the Church’s life even a technical term found in the earliest Christian literature. Although not a part of the New Testament, this is perhaps best illustrated by the very early document (late 1st. c.) known as The Didache. This document opens with a classic expression of this teaching:

There are two ways: one is the Way of Life, the other is the Way of Death; and there is a mighty difference between these two ways.

The way of life is this: first, that you shall love God who created you; second, your neighbor as yourself; all those things which you do not want to be done to you, you should not do to others. (Didache, 1:1-2)

This clearly echoes the direct teaching of Christ found in the Gospels, of course. And in the Gospel According to St. Matthew, we hear the Lord’s own versions of this choice of the Two Ways:

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 

Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.(MATT. 7:13-14;24-27)

Yet, the Christian teaching of the Two Ways finds its first and most definitive expression in the Old Testament. There, as something of a final summation of the lengthy discourse of Moses to the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land, the following is recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy: 

But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.

But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. (DEUT. 30:14-18)

The Church calendar with its New Year commemoration on September 1 can be more than a quaint and antiquated remnant from the past. And it can even be more than a formal reminder that we will begin the annual cycle of feasting and fasting by celebrating the great Feasts of the liturgical year – important as this is. The Church New Year, perhaps coming after a long and “busy” summer, can remind us with a biblical urgency that the choice of the Two Ways may not be a once-in-a-lifetime decision; but one that needs annual renewal that can only be accomplished through repentance and that “change of mind” that directs us toward God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (MK. 12:30). 

Let us search our hearts about this carefully. This deserves our time and attention more than anything else. This is not an inner examination that can be postponed to a more “convenient” time. Rather, it is a time of “commitment” to the really essential question that shapes our lives decisively. As the Lord asked the Apostle Peter, so the Lord asks us if we love him. Are we able to answer Him as did St. Peter: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” (JN. 21:17)

Fragments for Friday -- The Baptist, The Forerunner, The Friend of the Bridegroom

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

On August 29, we commemorate the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.The scriptural text read at the Liturgy is MK. 6:14-29; and we also find the gruesome narrative in MT. 14:1-12. The evangelists relate the story in a way that sharply contrasts the righteousness of St. John and the utter decadence of Herod Antipas' court, beginning, of course, with his wife Herodias and her daughter Salome. St. John, the ascetic, prophet and voice "crying in the wilderness" was raised up by God to announce the coming of the Messiah, but also to denounce any unrighteousness that arrogantly ignored the Law of God. Herod Antipas was an example of that unrighteousness, unlawfully married to his brother's wife, and surrounded by a sycophantic court. Beyond that, the image of the young "dancing girl" receiving St. John's severed head on a platter and then presenting it as a "gift" to her mother, must remain one of the Bible's most brutal images of total moral depravity. Created in the "image and likeness of God," human beings, both male and female, are capable of sinking deep into the abyss of unrestrained evil. Here is a striking reminder that the gift and responsibility of human freedom can degenerate into subhuman license, wherein "everything is permitted."

Yet, perhaps it will prove to be more fruitful to turn our attention elsewhere. We call St. John "the Baptist" and "the Forerunner." These titles are meant to identify his unique and important ministry in relation to Jesus, "the Coming One." At a time when prophets and prophecy had seemed a thing of the past in Israel, God sent forth St. John to preach a baptism of repentance that would prepare the people of Israel for the advent of the Messiah, who would be Jesus of Nazareth. St. John cast his prophetic teaching in the fiery and apocalyptic language that has created an enduring image of him as the stern prophet of the impending judgement of God:

"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (LK. 3:7-9)

In addition to this, though, St. John anticipated the ethical ideals of Jesus about how we need to treat our neighbors with equity and compassion ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"):

" He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages." (LK. 3:11-14)

Eventually, then, in fulfillment of his role as Forerunner and Baptist, St. John recognized the Lord when Jesus approached the Jordan River and "allowed" Himself to be baptized by St. John. Once he identified Jesus as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (JN. 1:29), St. John began to "decrease" so that the Lord may "increase." This attests to the great humility of St. John. This is his "kenotic moment." And this kenosis ("self-emptying") will culminate in his beheading; as Christ's kenosis will culminate on the Cross. We have St. John's own witness to this in the words recorded by St. John the Evangelist:

"He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He must increase but I must decrease." (JN. 4:29-30)

Although we have given St. John the appropriate titles of "Baptist" and "Forerunner," he refers to himself as the "friend of the Bridegroom." At a wedding, all attention must fall upon the Bridegroom and the Bride. A true friend will never usurp that attention, but will carefully act in such a way as to ensure it. Only a false friend will act otherwise. Christ is the Bridegroom and Israel, the Church or the human soul is the Bride. As a "friend of the Bridegroom," St. John is loyal, trustworthy, and ever-ready to serve. As a true friend, he will accept a position of vulnerability for the sake of that friendship if need be. He rejoices simply to stand near Christ and hear His voice. In fact, as a friend his joy is "full." What a blessing it is to arrive at the fullness of life and joy in one's vocation, even in the awareness of the great "price" one must pay for that fulfillment! Indeed, St. John the Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord paid the full price for being a friend of the Bridegroom.

As "friends" of Christ - "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (JN. 15:14) - how wonderful to be able to "rejoice greatly at the bridegroom's voice" as did St. John. When we serve in a parish, as a priest, a member of the parish council, a church school teacher, or in any of the various ministries of the parish; it is essential that our role is to serve the Bridegroom as a true "friend," always perfectly willing to "decrease" so that all attention is given to the Bridegroom - Christ - so that He may "increase" in the minds and hearts of the parish faithful. There is no room for egosim and unhealthy vanity. In the presence of the Bridegroom it would be unseemly to draw attention to ourselves at the expense of His saving, healing and transforming presence. All of that is indicative of a shallowness and "self-love" that has no place in the presence of Christ. If "among those born of women, none is greater than he" (LK.. 7:28), then St. John remains the truest image of faithfulness to God, genuine humility and of that friendship that Christ offers to all of us.

St. John, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, pray to God for us!

Fr. Steven

Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Source: ancientfaith.com

In anticipation of Saturday's Liturgy in commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, I am sharing a fine paragraph from the biblical scholar, Brendan Byrne. This is from is larger commentary on the Gospel According to St. Mark:

"The account of John's death (Mk. 6:17-29) is unique in that it is the only sustained episode in the gospel from which Jesus himself is absent. It is also distinctive in the sense that none of the players in it - save John himself, the totally passive victim - emerges with any credit. On the contrary, we have a superbly told story about a banquet of sensual voyeurism that comes to a horrific climax with the "serving up" of a severed human head presented by a young woman to her mother (Herodias) "on a dish" (v. 28). Through a combination of vengeful cruelty(Herodias) and rash folly (Herod) a righteous prophet (John) suffers a violent death when a weak ruler is compelled by circumstances he himself has created to act against his own better judgment and inclination." 

From A Costly Freedom by Brendan Byrne, p. 113

Monday Morning Meditation -- A Challenging Answer to the Right Question

Source: orthochristian.com

"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matt. 19:26

In Sunday's Gospel (Matt. 19:16-26) we heard of the (rich) young man, who asked the best of all possible questions: "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" (19:16) What a fine way to inaugurate a dialogue with Jesus the Messiah, whose very purpose is to bring us the gift of eternal life! This is a question that is hardly to be expected to be asked today. It would seem quaint or irrelevant. Or, something of an embarrassment in a secular society. Perhaps we (Orthodox Christians) think that the question is unnecessary since we move and have our being within the realm of eternal life - the Church. That is fine, as long as we maintain vigilance in keeping our "eyes of the prize:" eternal life in Christ Jesus.

However, having asked that essential question of Jesus, and hearing the Lord remind him of some of the great commandments (v. 18-19), the young man pressed ahead with a question/request that would take him beyond the Lord's reinforcement of the great commandments: "All these I have observed; what do I still lack?" (v. 20) Asking for "more" from Jesus, he was forced to hear the following:  "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." (v.2) And this proved to be deflating. 

Unable to respond to the Lord with the same alacrity as before, he withdraws, for he was "sorrowful" because he owned "great possessions." (v. 22) Even though an exemplary and pious observer of the Torah, his capacity for radical self-renunciation had been stretched far too broadly by the Lord's "invitation" to reach to a higher level. Admittedly, what he heard from Jesus was not necessarily a new, universal commandment of total renunciation for all. Yet, knowing who he was speaking to, the Lord pronounced what the young man needed to hear then and there. This allowed Jesus to utter one of his more well-known saying that is characteristic of his effective use of hyperbole: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (v. 24)

Unless we are suffering from a serious bout of self-righteousness or hypocrisy, it would be difficult indeed for one of us to criticize the young man's reaction. When we hear these words of the Lord, there is every possibility that they sail right over our heads, as if they had no real meaning for us. As stated above, the words of Jesus to the young man may not have a direct bearing upon our quest for the "good deed" that leads to "eternal life." But the words of Christ certainly challenge the fact of our deep dependency on our possessions and our inability to let go even to a very modest degree. The grip of many possessions can be tenacious, indeed!

Met. John Zizioulas wrote of "all the useless things that we carry around with us in this life" (only to be released in the eschaton). To draw up a catalogue of those "useless things" on a personal basis would perhaps be convicting. As in: I never quite realized the extent of all the useless things that I do carry around in this life. I am therefore unwilling to ascribe a total failure to the (rich) young man's unfilled quest to find that one "good deed" that would lead to "eternal life." It is to the credit of young man that he at least walked away from the Lord feeling "sorrowful." If not a fleeting feeling, sorrow can lead to repentance. And repentance can go a long way in realizing that with God all things are possible. (v. 26

Monday Morning Meditation -- Blessed Feast of the Dormition of our Most Holy and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Theotokos!

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

The feast of the Dormition is the sign, the guarantee, and the celebration that Mary’s fate is the destiny of all those of “low estate” whose souls magnify the Lord, whose spirits rejoice in God the Saviour, whose lives are totally dedicated to hearing and keeping the Word of God which is given to men in Mary’s child, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.

Finally it must be stressed that, in all of the feasts of the Virgin Mother of God in the Church, the Orthodox Christians celebrate facts of their own lives in Christ and the Holy Spirit. What happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience, and love. With her all people will be “blessed” to be “more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim” if they follow her example. All will have Christ born in them by the Holy Spirit. All will become temples of the living God. All will share in the eternal life of His Kingdom who live the life that Mary lived.

In this sense everything that is praised and glorified in Mary is a sign of what is offered to all persons in the life of the Church.

—Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko (+2015), The Orthodox Faith, Vol. 2: Worship

Fragments for Friday -- Beyond Death and Judgment' - The Dormition of the Theotokos

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

The Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos has come to be experienced as something of a "summer pascha," and as such has steadily become an integral event of our parish life. And this is "meet and right."

American Christianity has been shaped by the Protestant ethos, and that basically means that there is no real place for the veneration of the Mother of God. This was primarily based upon a reaction against the perceived excesses of the medieval West's Marian piety by the early Protestant reformers. In a short time, this reaction became a thorough rejection - at times quite vehement - in many Protestant circles. So the Virgin Mary pretty much disappeared from Protestant worship and piety. Perhaps the classic example within Church history of "throwing out the baby with the bath water."

Orthodox Christians cannot succumb to any such truncated form of the Church's living Tradition. (However, there have been clear signs recently of a "recovery" of the role of the Virgin Mary in some Evangelical circles). One of my beloved professors from seminary always used to say that a sign of a spiritually strong parish is that parish's devotion to the Mother of God. For she is the personal image of the Church - warm, embracing, nurturing, protecting.

Since the Dormition has no biblical source, this feast slowly developed over the course of the first five centuries of the Church's history on the basis of a wide variety of sources - primarily narratives, rhetorical homilies and theological poetry/hymnography. (Much of this material now exists in English translation). There is no one authoritative text or document.

However, though details may differ, a tradition emerged that tells of how the apostles were miraculously brought back to Jerusalem in order to surround the bedside of the Virgin Mary as she lay dying. Upon commending her holy soul to her Son and Savior, she peacefully "fell asleep" in death (the meaning of the word dormition) in the presence of the apostles who stood weeping and grief-stricken by her bedside. With great solemnity they buried her pure body which had itself been the "tabernacle" of the King. The traditional place of her burial is a tomb close to Gethsemane. When the tomb was opened on the third day so that the Apostle Thomas, who arrived late, could venerate the body of the Theotokos, it was found to be empty. The "Mother of Life" was thus "translated to life!"

Archbishop Kallistos Ware summarizes the Church's understanding of this tradition in the following manner:

Without insisting on the literal truth of every element in this account, Orthodox tradition is clear and unwavering in regard to the central point: the Holy Virgin underwent, as did her Son, a physical death, but her body - like His - was afterwards raised from the dead and she was taken up into heaven, in her body as well as in her soul. She has passed beyond death and judgement, and lives wholly in the Age to Come.

The Resurrection of the Body, which all Christians await, has in her case been anticipated and is already an accomplished fact. That does not mean, however, that she is dissociated from the rest of humanity and placed in a wholly different category: for we all hope to share one day in that same glory of the Resurrection of the Body which she enjoys even now. ( The Festal Menaion, p. 64)

Fr. Thomas Hopko further elaborates on the meaning of this beautiful Feast and how it "relates" to every generation of Christians:

Thus, the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos is the celebration of the fact that all men are "highly exalted" in the blessedness of the victorious Christ, and that this high exaltation has already been accomplished in Mary the Theotokos.

The feast of the Dormition is the sign, the guarantee, and the celebration that Mary's fate is the destiny of all those of "low estate" whose souls magnify the Lord, whose spirits rejoice in God the Savior, whose lives are totally dedicated to hearing and keeping the Word of God which is given to men in Mary's child, the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

Dormition, of course, means "falling asleep," the Christian term par excellence for how we approach the mystery of death. And here we further approach the paradox, from a Christian perspective, of death itself - the "last enemy" that causes great anguish and grief; but yet which now serves as a passage to life everlasting, and thus a cause for festal celebration in the death of the Mother of God. For the Virgin Mary truly died, as is the fate of all human beings; and yet "neither the tomb nor death could hold the Theotokos" who has been "translated to life by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb!" Without for a moment losing sight of the reality of death (notice the weeping apostles around the body of the Theotokos on the Dormition icon), from within the Church we can actually celebrate death during this "summer pascha" because of the Resurrection of Christ.

Thus, the Feast of the Dormition clearly raises the issue of death and dying, and what we mean by a “Christian ending to our life.” For the moment, though, here is a challenging paragraph from Fr. Thomas Hopko about some of our own misconceptions – basically our fears – that often find us wandering far from an Orthodox approach to death and dying:

I believe that the issue of death and dying is in need of serious attention in contemporary Orthodoxy, especially in the West, where most members of the Church seem to be “pagan” before people die and “Platonists” afterwards. By this I mean that they beg the Church to keep people alive, healthy, and happy as long as possible, and then demand that the Church assure them after people die that their immortal souls are “in a better place, basking in heavenly bliss” no matter what they may have done in their earthly lives.

To add a bit more to this, here is a passage from Bp. Ilarion Alfeyev, that reinforces the Christian understanding – and hope – that accompanies us at the moment of death:

For the non-believing person, death is a catastrophe and a tragedy, a rupture and a break. For the Christian, though, death is neither a catastrophe nor something evil. Death is a “falling asleep,” a temporary condition of separation from the body until the final unification with it. As Isaac the Syrian emphasizes, the sleep of death is short in comparison with the expectant eternity of a person. — From Orthodox Christianity, Vol. 2, p. 496.

St. Gregory of Nyssa states this Christian hope with clarity:

By the divine Providence death has been introduced as a dispensation into the nature of man, so that, sin having flowed away at the dissolution of the union of soul and body, man, through the resurrection, might be refashioned, sound, passionless, stainless, and removed from any touch of evil. – Great Catechetical Oration, 35.

This is precisely why we can call the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, “pascha in the summer!” The Virgin Mary and Theotokos died a “deathless death.” Now we have the opportunity to participate in this mystery in the celebration of this event as nothing less than a Feast. The Leave-taking of the Feast is on August 23. That means that we continue to sing and chant the troparion and kontakion of the Feast in our liturgical services until then, in addition to other hymnography of the Feast. I would strongly urge everyone to incorporate these hymns into your daily rule of prayer, including their use when you bless your meals as a family, replacing the Lord's Prayer up until the Leave-taking. If you can't sing these hymns, you can certainly recite them! The troparia and kontakia or the major Feasts are included in many Orthodox Prayer Books, but if you do not have the texts available at home, I am including them here:

Troparion of the Dormition

In giving birth, you preserved your virginity!
In falling asleep you did not
forsake the world, O Theotokos!
You were translated to life, O Mother of Life,
and by your prayers you deliver our souls from death!


Kontakion of the Dormition

Neither the tomb, nor death, could hold the Theotokos,
who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions.
For being the Mother of Life, she was translated to life
by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb!

The decorated tomb of the Theotokos, containing an icon of her sacred body in blessed repose, will be in the center of the church this evening; and then back in its usual place and open for our veneration whenever we enter the church. The great Feasts extend in time, giving us the opportunity of integrating them into our lives in a meaningful way.

Dormition Fast Meditation -- Forefeast of the Dormition

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

If we keep in remembrance the bad things done to us by people, we are destroying the power of the remembrance of God; but if we keep the bad things of the demons in remembrance, we will be unharmed.

—Abba Macarius the Egyptian, Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Source: zizoulas.org

Presvytera Deborah brought the amazing passage below to my attention, and I would like to share it with the parish. This was written by Metropolitan John Zizioulas (+2022). Many would consider him one of the premiere Orthodox theologians of the last two generations or so, together will such illuminaries as Fr. George Florovsky and Met. Kallistos Ware. He was a prolific writer who approached his vocation as a theologian with great care and a commitment to present and build up the Orthodox Christian Faith to the utmost of his ability. 

In this dense passage, he uncovers the real depth of the Liturgy as a "foretaste of the Eschaton." Here, his theological perspective is very close to that of Fr. Alexander Schmemann who, through his writing, made the Liturgy alive and imbued with a meaning that took it far beyond an ancient and colorful rite. 

_____

“Chronos (chronological or sequential time) is imbued with meaning by kairos(the opportune time), and kairos is nothing more than a stop, a way station, from which we can survey the past and look out onto the future. Without kairos, time (chronos) flows on without meaning, sunk in death, and nothing that happens within it survives. In all of creation, only the human being can change time into kairos. The prerogative and responsibility of the freedom given to him or to her by the Creator is to enter through time, even if only briefly (as happens in the Divine Liturgy), into the presence and foretaste of the Eschaton, that which will not be lost together with all the useless things we carry around with us in this life.”

Dormition fast Meditation -- Afterfeast of the Transfiguration

Source: oca.org

Even though you are asleep, if only Christ has come to know the devotion of your soul, He comes and knocks at her door and says, “Open to Me, My sister.” “Sister” is well put, because the marriage of the Word and the soul is spiritual. For souls do not know covenants of wedlock or the ways of bodily union, but they are like the angels in heaven.

“Open to Me,” but close to strangers. Close to the times, close to the world, do not go out of doors to material things, do not abandon your own light and search for another’s because material light pours out a dark mist, so that the light of true glory is not seen.

“Open yourself to Me,” do not be confined, but expand, and I will fill you. And because, in My passage through the world, I have found very much trouble and vexation and have not readily had a place to rest, do you then open, that the Son of Man may rest His head on you, for He has no rest save on one who is humble and quiet.

—St. Ambrose of Milan, Seven Exegetical Works

Dormition Fast Meditation -- Afterfeast of the Transfiguration

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

To us Christians, then, who reverence you in our Christian faith, show mercy of your unchanging patronage. We rightly consider your falling asleep as [entry into] life, O Mother of God, and we believe you dwell with us still in the spirit. 

For in times of tribulation you are near, and we find safety in seeking your help; and when it is time to rejoice, you are joy’s sponsor. Whenever we find ourselves completely under your maternal care, we cannot help believing that you live among us. Just as the thirsty person hastens to the spring, every faith-filled heart runs towards you, burning to fill himself with your gracious help. 

And again, just as a breath of air fills a person’s nostrils with life, so the breath of every right-believing Christian bears you on his lips. For we do not draw life from breathing the air to the same degree that we draw safety from the protection of your name; so the text of Scripture is fulfilled in Christ and in you, which says, “You are the breath of our nostrils; we shall live in your protection, and in breathing you” (Lam. 4:20 [LXX]).

—Holy Father Germanus, Archbishop of Constantinople, On the Most Venerable Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, Homily I

Monday Morning Meditation -- The Awesome God and the Transfigured Life

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

“Look down from heaven, O Master, upon those who have bowed their heads unto Thee, the awesome God.” (From the Divine Liturgy)

The Afterfeast of the Transfiguration of Christ will continue until the Leavetaking of the Feast on August 13. Having ascended Mt. Tabor with the disciples of the Lord, we will then descend back into the world in order to hopefully witness to the glorious vision that has been vouchsafed to us of Christ shining resplendently in His divine glory (MK. 9:1-8; MATT. 17:1-13; LK. 9:28-36, II Pet.1:16-19). Biblically, the “glory of God,” refers to a palpable “shining forth” of the presence of God that overwhelms the recipient of such a vision. With their spiritual senses purified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were able to “see” the glory of God revealed in Christ on Mt. Tabor, and they, too, were overwhelmed. Truly, therefore, the Transfiguration is an “awesome” Feast!

Yet, today, everything is described as “awesome:” the loud, the superficial, the mundane. Are we witnessing a kind of experiential egalitarianism, where nothing is allowed to stand apart from or above anything else? Is even the awesomeness of God succumbing to this leveling effect? How discouraging that would be, for we refer to God liturgically as “the awesome Judge,” the “awesome God;” and the Eucharist as the “Awesome Mysteries of Christ.” This is as it should be, for the word awesome is based on the noun “awe” which remains defined today as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.” It is God Who is truly awesome! Anything else that can be genuinely described as awesome derives that quality from God.

More specifically, is the awesomeness of the Transfiguration somehow reduced to just one more passing “church event” that comes and goes with an alarmingly insignificant amount of impact on our Christian minds and hearts? Can the awesome Feast of the Transfiguration even “compete” any longer with a new blockbuster film for our attention?Have we maintained the capacity as human beings to be “awed” by the sacred and sublime? I am convinced that when everything is “awesome,” then nothing is really awesome. Inevitably, we will find ourselves calling the most boring of occurrences “awesome,” but with no real enthusiasm or conviction. (Perhaps we can excuse our younger children who are now using the term “awesome,” for the “little things” in life can still fill them with a sense of wonder that we adults have lost).

Be that as it may, the disciples were awed by Christ on Mt. Tabor when “He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light” (MATT. 17:2). This metamorphosis – the Greek word behind our transfiguration - was a direct revelation of Christ’s divine nature or, more precisely, of the uncreated energies of His divinity which now shone through the flesh He assumed in the Incarnation. Jesus did not become something He previously was not, but revealed His true identity as both God and man. To the glory of God, Jesus Christ is a human being fully alive. Such a revelation is unique to the Gospels and clearly prefigures the Lord’s resurrection and the glory of the Age to Come. 

Moses and Elijah appeared flanking the Lord, “talking with Him” (v. 3). Peter wanted to build three booths: one for Christ, one for Moses and one for Elijah. In other words Peter wanted to prolong the vision and the experience. But this was not to be. Interestingly enough, in an apocryphal account of the transfiguration, Peter is openly rebuked for his mistaken desire. Peter and other disciples – James and John – must come down from the mount and witness to Christ through the remainder of their lives and through their deaths ultimately.

The same is true of us. If we have not lost our capacity to be awed in the presence of God, perhaps primarily in the Liturgy, but also when reading the Scriptures, praying alone, looking into the face of another and seeing the “image and likeness of God;” then we must take that awesome experience with us into the everyday flow of events and encounters that mark our lives. We must come down from those metaphorical mountains that we climb, seeing only Jesus after the vision vouchsafed to us by God; and bear witness to that presence and experience by the quality of our Christian lives:

O Christ our God, who was transfigured in glory on Mount Tabor showing to Thy disciples the splendor of Thy Godhead, do Thou enlighten us also with the light of Thy knowledge and guide us in the path of Thy commandments, for Thou alone art good and lovest mankind. (Litiya verse of the Feast)

The fact that it is in the Orthodox Church that the Transfiguration is considered a great Feast is meaningless if the experience of the Feast does not have an impact on us. The goodness, truth and beauty that shine forth from Christ are the uncreated energies that free us from apathy and cynicism; and free us further to pursue the virtue of Christ that “has covered the heavens.” (Liturgy of Preparation)

Dormition Fast Meditation -- Afterfeast of the Transfiguration -- Glorification of Ven. Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of All America

Source: stherman.org

Faith and love of Christ make a true Christian. Our sins in no way hinder our Christianity, as we can tell from the words of our Savior Himself. He stated that He had not been called to judge the righteousness but to save the sinful—there is more joy in heaven at one sinner who repents than at ninety-nine righteous men.

And He also said to Simon the Pharisee, about the woman who was a sinner and washed his feet: much is forgiven to those who love and much is asked of those who have no love. Such thoughts should give the Christian hope and joy and not lead to utter desperation. This is where the shield of faith is needed.

A sin for a person loving God is nothing more than an arrow fired by an enemy during battle. The true Christian is a warrior, fighting his way through hosts of unseen foes to his place in heaven. For, in the words of the Apostle, our kingdom is in heaven, and about the warrior he says: our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with ideas and authorities.

—St. Herman of Alaska, Alaskan Missionary Spirituality

Dormition Fast Meditation -- Afterfeast of the Transfiguration

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

Do evil to nobody nor keep any evil in your heart against anyone. Do not belittle a wrong-doer; do not be influenced by one who does wrong to his neighbor. Do not slander anybody but say: “God knows each one.” Do not agree with one who slanders; neither rejoice with him in his slandering nor hate him who slanders his neighbor—and this is “judge not [that you be not judged”] (Lk. 6:37). 

Do not be at enmity with anybody and do not foster enmity in your heart; do not hate one who is at enmity with his neighbor—and this is peace. Console yourself with this: there is labor for a short while then repose for eternity, by the grace of the divine Word. Amen.

—Abba Moses, Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Dormition Fast Meditation -- Afterfeast of the Transfiguration

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

Christianity is not reconciliation with death. It is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of Life. Christ is this Life. And only if Christ is Life is death what Christianity proclaims it to be; namely, the enemy to be destroyed, and not a “mystery” to be explained.

Religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a “status,” a rationale, make it “normal.” Only Christianity proclaims it to be abnormal and, therefore, truly horrible. In the light of Christ, this world, this life are lost and beyond mere “help,” not because there is fear of death in them, but because they have accepted and normalized death. 

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, 

For the Life of the World

Dormition Fast Meditation (Transfiguration) -- The Holy Transfiguration of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ

Source: oca.org

The Lord does not always appear in glory to all who stand before Him. To beginners He appears in the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7); to those able to follow Him as He climbs the high mountain of His transfiguration He appears in the form of God, the form in which He existed before the world came to be (John 17:5).

It is therefore possible for the same Lord not to appear in the same way to all who stand before Him, but to appear to some in one way and to others in another way, according to the measure of each person’s faith.

When the Logos of God becomes manifest and radiant in us, and His face shines like the sun, then His clothes will also look white. That is to say, the words of the Gospel will then be clear and distinct, with nothing concealed. And Moses and Elijah—the more spiritual principles of the Law and the Prophets—will also be present with Him.

—St. Maximus the Confessor, Second Century on Theology

Thursday's Theological Thoughts -- A Feast of Theology: The Transfiguration, the Heart of the Orthodox Faith

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On August 6 we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Leave-taking of the Feast is on August 13. A time to think deeply on this wonderful and unique event from Lord's earthly ministry.

This feast is thus embedded in the time of the Dormition Fast, but still retains all of its festal splendor. What a truly blessed Feast! 

The Transfiguration is particularly rich in essential theological themes that reveal the very heart of our Orthodox Christian Faith. These dogmatic/doctrinal themes are expressed poetically throughout the services - Vespers, Matins, Liturgy - of the Feast in an abundant variety of hymnographical forms. The troparion and kontakion of any given Feast offer a "summary" of the Feast's over-all meaning and place in God's oikonomia (divine dispensation):

Thou wast transfigured on the Mount, O Christ God, revealing Thy glory to Thy disciples as far as they could bear it. LetThine everlasting light shine upon us sinners! Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee! (Troparion)

On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, O Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father! (Kontakion)

Over the years and through repeated use, many of the faithful know these hymns by heart. If we listen carefully, or even study it outside of the services, the hymnography reveals very profound truths in the realm of Christology (the Person of Christ, both God and man); anthropology (the human person created in the image and likeness of God); triadology (the dogma of the Trinity); and eschatology (the Kingdom of God coming in power at the end of time).

Christology

On Mt. Tabor, when transfigured before His disciples, our Lord reveals to His disciples - and to all of us - His divine nature "hidden" in humility beneath the human nature of His flesh:

Enlightening the disciples that were with Thee, O Christ our Benefactor, Thou hast shown them upon the holy mountain the hidden and blinding light of Thy nature and of Thy divine beauty beneath the flesh.

The nature that knows no change, being mingled with the mortal nature, shone forth ineffably, unveiling in some small measure to the apostles the light of the immaterial Godhead. (First Canon of Matins, Canticle Five)

As St. John of Damascus has written: 

"He was transfigured, then: not taking on what he was not, nor being changed to what he was not, but making what he was visible to his own disciples, opening their eyes and enabling them, who had been blind, to see. This is what the phrase means, "He was transfigured before their faces" (Matt 17:2); he remained exactly the same as he was, but appeared in a way beyond the way he had appeared before, and in that appearance seemed different to his disciples." (Oration on the Transfiguration)

Anthropology

Christ is fully and truly human. He is without sin. Thus, He is the "perfect" human being, by revealing to us the glory of human nature when fully united to God - something that we lost in the Fall. To be filled with the glory of God in communion with God is the true destiny of human beings and thus the true revelation of our human nature. By assuming our human nature, Christ has restored that relationship:

For having gone up, O Christ, with Thy disciples into Mount Tabor, Thou wast transfigured, and hast made the nature that had grown dark in Adam to shine again as lightning, transforming it into the glory and splendor of Thine own divinity. (Aposticha, Great Vespers)

Thou hast put Adam on entire, O Christ, and changing the nature grown dark in past times, Thou hast filled it with glory and made it godlike by the alteration of Thy form. (First Canon of Matins, Canticle Three)

In the words of Archbishop Kallistos Ware: 

"In the light of Christ's face that was so strangely and so strikingly altered upon the mountaintop, in his garments that became dazzling white, all human faces have acquired a new brightness, all common things have been transformed. For those who believe in Christ's Transfiguration, no one is despicable, nothing is trivial or mean."

Triadology

The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity were revealed on Mount Tabor, as they were revealed in the Jordan at the time of the Lord's Baptism. On Tabor it is again the voice of the Father, and the Spirit now appears in the form of a luminous cloud. Every revelation and action of God's is trinitarian, for the Father, Son/Word and Holy Spirit act in perfect harmony revealing thus the unity of the one divine nature:

Today on Tabor in the manifestation of Thy Light, O Word, Thou unaltered Light from the Light of the unbegotten Father, we have seen the Father as Light and the Spirit as Light, guiding with light the whole creation. (Exapostilarion, Matins)

Again, in the words of St. John of Damascus: 

"For God is recognized as one, in three hypostases(Persons). There is one substance of Godhead: the Father who bears witness, and the Son to whom he witnesses, and the Spirit who overshadows him." (Oration on the Transfiguration)

Eschatology

The Lord reveals by anticipation in His transfiguration on Mount Tabor, both his approaching Resurrection and the glorious appearance that we await at His Second Coming. He also reveals the transfiguration of our own lowly human nature in the Kingdom of God, where the righteous will shine like the stars of heaven. Thus, this is a Feast of Hope, as well as a Feast of Divine Beauty, as we anticipate His eternal and unfading presence and our transformation in Him, also eternal and unending:

Thou wast transfigured upon Mount Tabor, showing the exchange mortal men will make with Thy glory at Thy second and fearful coming, O Savior. (Sessional Hymn, Matins)

To show plainly how, at Thy mysterious second coming, Thou wilt appear as the Most High God standing in the midst of gods, on Mount Tabor Thou hast shone in fashion past words upon the apostles and upon Moses and Elijah. (Second Canon of Matins, Canticle Nine)

We bless fruit on this Feast because all of creation awaits transfiguration at the end of time. Even the garments of Christ were shining forth with a radiance brighter than the sun. The blessed fruit represents this awaited transfiguration when the creation will be freed from bondage. In earlier times, the grapes themselves would be used for the eucharistic offering of wine.

The importance of the Transfiguration is shown by the fact that it is recorded in three of the Gospels: MATT. 17:1-13; MK. 9:2-8; LK. 28-36. It is also clearly alluded to in II PET. 1:16-18.

To appeal one final time to St. John of Damascus:

"Let us observe these divine commandments with total concentration, so that we too may feast upon his divine beauty; and be filled with the taste of his sweetness: now, insofar as this is attainable for those weighed down by this earthly tent of the body; but in the next life more clearly and purely, when the 'just shall shine like the sun,' when they shall be released from the body's necessities, and shall be imperishable, like angels with the Lord, at the time of the great and radiant appearance of our Lord and God and Savior from heaven, Jesus Christ: with whom may glory be given to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, now and to the endless ages of ages. Amen." (Oration on the Transfiguration)


Truly a feast of theology and beauty!

Dormition Fast Meditation -- Forefeast of the Transfiguration

Source: legacyicons.com

That death has been dissolved, and the cross has become victory over it, and it is no longer strong but is itself truly dead, no mean proof but an evident surety is that it is despised by all Christ’s disciples, and everyone tramples on it, and no longer fears it, but with the sign of the cross and faith in Christ tread it underfoot as something dead.

Of old, before the divine sojourn of the Savior, all used to weep for those dying as if they were perishing. But since the Savior’s raising the body, no longer is death fearsome, but all believers in Christ tread on it as nothing, and would rather choose to die than deny their faith in Christ.

—St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation

The Blessing of Fruit

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"Bless, O Lord, this new fruit of the vine ..." 

(Prayer at the Blessing of Grapes on the Transfiguration)

Blessing of Fruit - We bless grapes (mentioned prominently in the prayers) and all different kinds of fruit on the Feast of Transfiguration. I noticed that I did not specifically mention that in yesterday's "In the Life of the Parish." So, if you plan on being here on Thursday morning for the festal Liturgy, you may bring a basket of fruit and place it on the table in front prepared for that purpose. At the end of the Liturgy, all fruit baskets will be blessed through prayer and Holy Water. As Met. Kallistos Ware writes about the Feast:

"The Feast of the Transfiguration ... is not simply the commemoration of a past event in the life of Christ. Possessing an 'eschatological' dimension, it is turned towards the future - towards the 'splendor of the Resurrection at the Last Day,' towards the 'beauty of the divine Kingdom' which all Christians hope eventually to enjoy."

From The Festal Menaion: On the day of the feast, fish, wine and oil are allowed, but meat and animal products are not eaten, because it is within the fast before the Dormition of the Theotokos.

Dormition Fast Meditation

Source: archangelsbooks.com

Behold the Virgin, the daughter of Adam and Mother of God: because of Adam she commits her body to the earth, but because of her Son she gives her body to the heavenly tabernacle above. Let the holy city be blessed! Let it enjoy blessing upon blessing forever!

Let the angels go before the holy tent as it passes on; let them prepare her tomb carefully! Let the radiance of the Spirit beautify it! Let perfume be made ready, to anoint that wholly spotless, wholly fragrant body. Let a pure wave come and bathe it in blessings from the pure spring of blessing. “Let the earth rejoice” (Ps. 96.11), as her body is laid to rest; let the air leap as her spirit ascends! 

Let the breezes blow, filled with grace as soft as dew! Let all creation celebrate the ascent of the Mother of God!

—St. John of Damascus, A Discourse on the Dormition of Our Lady, the Mother of God, Homily III