Fragments for Friday -- He Gave What Was Most Precious to Show His Abundant Love

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The sum of all is God, the Lord of all, who from love of his creatures has delivered his Son to death on the cross. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for it. Not that he was unable to save us in another way, but in this way it was possible to show his abundant love abundantly, namely, by bringing us near to him by the death of his Son. If he had anything more dear to him, he would have given it to us, in order that by it our race might be his. And out of his great love he did not even choose to urge our freedom from compulsion, though he was able to do so. But his aim what that we should come near to him by the love of our mind. And our Lord obeyed his Father out of love for us.

Ascetical Homily 74.

Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

This last Sunday, we anticipated the Feast Day of the Elevation/Exultation of the Cross - this coming Sunday, September 14 - by hearing in the Liturgy the glorious passage of Jn. 3:13-17. Embedded in that passage is the famous and well-known verse of Jn. 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." 

The great Fathers of the Church offered some wonderful commentary on this verse in their scriptural exegesis, as well as in homilies and treatises. I would like to offer a small taste of their words to help us further draw out the implications of the extraordinary revelation found in Jn. 3:16.

Here is St. John Chrysostom (the "Golden-Mouthed") commenting on Jn. 3:16 in a passage that has been described as "the Intensity of God's Love and Our Response." And, as usual, St. John draws a sharp moral point from this endlessly rich verse:

"The text, "God so loves the world," shows an intensity of love. For great indeed and infinite is the distance between the two. The immortal, the infinity majesty without beginning or end loved those who were but dust and ashes, who were loaded with ten thousand sins but remained ungrateful even as they constantly offended him. This is he who "loved." For God did not give a servant, or angel or even an archangel, but "his only begotten Son." And yet no one would show such anxiety for his own child as God did for ungrateful servants ...

We put gold necklaces on ourselves and even on our pets but neglect our Lord who goes about naked and passes from door to door. ... He gladly goes hungry so that you may be fed; naked so that he may provide you with the materials for a garment of incorruption, yet we will not even give up any of our own food or clothing for him ... These things I say continually, and I will not cease to say them, not so much because I care for the poor but because I care for your souls.

Homilies on the Gospel of John 27.2-3.

Midweek Morning (Guest) Meditation - The Weeds Between Us

Source: ancientfaith.com

This growing season I have tried to let the big garden at the park “lay fallow” or rest without the burden of needing to produce food for For the Life of the World Cafe. Last year I grew and put up enough menu staples to last us until the spring of ‘26. With the scriptural invitation to let fields lay fallow every seven years, and having tended the soils of our West Norwood neighborhood for fifteen consecutive growing seasons, both the fields and I have been doubly due for some “rest-oration.” However, over the course of the last eight months, I have learned that this is more easily said than done.

I couldn’t simply have a hands-off approach all year, allowing the gardens to be overtaken with weeds and grass. The city of Norwood gave me eighteen dumptruck loads of half-composted leaves, which I used to bury the garden and suppress the weeds. This helped a lot, but it didn’t take me long to discover that even a foot of half-composted leaves does little to check the life force of crabgrass, nutsedge, and thistle.

Yesterday afternoon, in an attempt to keep the thistle from going to seed, I worked to pull tens of thousands of prickly plants for the fourth time this growing season. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated about doing this work during my sabbatical. Then I spotted my son, Kallum, and his kindergarten classmates coming down to the park for their afternoon play time. Fifty yards from the playground, and elbow deep in the thistle, I watched Kallum run non-stop for the next twenty minutes. His joy and freedom of play was so beautiful and so good. 

As I continued my work, buoyed by the gift of watching him, I thought of the many children around the world who, for a variety of political reasons, do not have the freedom, the energy, or the health to run around and play. I thought of children in Sudan and Gaza and Ukraine suffering from war and famine. I thought of children who are not receiving vital medical care, without which they will likely lose out on their childhood, and possibly die. I thought of immigrant children who are here in the United States by no decision of their own, living in constant fear of being separated from their families. Slowly, the thistle became an invitation to pray. Pulling these pernicious and pokey weeds yet again, and watching my son play, I held to God our polarized nation and suffering world.

Those of us who run this cafe believe that all of our lives, near and far, are interconnected, whether we realize it or not. And we believe that both on material and spiritual levels the flourishing of our neighborhood is inextricably connected to the well-being of the wider world. We believe these ideas are not mutually exclusive but mutually dependent.

In the gospel of John, Jesus declares that he gives his life–his very flesh–”for the life of the world”, (6:51), – not just for those with whom he agrees; not just for those who we like. He gives his life for Sudanese and Palestinians, for Ukrainians and Americans, for conservatives and liberals, for immigrants and citizens.

As a counternarrative to the fear-driven belief that we Americans need to “circle the wagons” and stop caring for others, whether people far away or those nearby with whom we do not agree, For the Life of the World Cafe insists that in order to “take care of our own here,” we must not abandon the heart of God for people in need around the world, particularly children who are truly innocent bystanders. To this end, during the month of September, For the Life of the World Cafe will donate 10% of its gross proceeds to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation which lost a tremendous amount of its funding through the dissolution of USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). In this way, may our small work here be for the life of the world and for the flourishing of our neighborhood.

Robert Lockridge

The Nativity of the Theotokos - to see life with a restored vision

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 O incomprehensible and ineffable matters! The God of all things, knowing in advance your worth, loved you; and because of this love, he predestined you, and at the end of times (I Pet. 1:20), he brought you into being and revealed you as Theotokos, Mother, and Nurse of his own Son and God."

"Be glad most blessed Anna, for you have born a female [child]. This female [child] will be the Mother of God, gateway of light and source of life, and she will do away with the accusation against the female sex."

- St. John of Damascus

Coming as it does right after the beginning of the Church New Year, this Feast allows us a good start that we further hope we can sustain as the liturgical year unfolds before us. As a straightforward and joyous feast of commemorating the birth of the Virgin Mary, we receive a “taste” of the joyousness of life from within the Church that is often obscured by life’s challenges, difficulties and tragedies. Fr. Alexander Schmemann puts it like this: 

In and through this newborn girl, Christ – our gift from God, our meeting and encounter with Him – comes to embrace the world. Thus, in celebrating Mary’s birth we find ourselves already on the road to Bethlehem, moving toward to the joyful mystery of Mary as the Mother of God.

In an age of cynicism and unbelief, to encounter the purity of Mariam of Nazareth – the Virgin Mary and Theotokos – is to see life with a restored vision that, again, is only possible from within the Church. Goodness, purity of heart and faithfulness to God are embodied realities lived by real human persons. Such a restored vision of life will strengthen our sense of the inherent goodness of life that sin may obscure, but never obliterate. Yet, if we can no longer “see” that, then we have lost something absolutely vital to our humanity, and we need to repent and embrace that “change of mind” that will restore our own humanity. 

Some will undoubtedly see nothing but a stereotype of the “feminine” here, but perhaps Fr. Schmemann has something worthwhile to say in his approach to the “image of woman” as manifested in the Virgin Mary:

The Virgin Mary, the All-Pure Mother demands nothing and receives everything. She pursues nothing, and possesses all. In the image of the Virgin Mary we find what has almost completely been lost in our proud, aggressive, male world: compassion, tender-heartedness, care, trust, humility.

We call her our Lady and the Queen of heaven and earth, and yet she calls herself “the handmaid of the Lord.” She is not out to teach or prove anything, yet her presence alone, in its light and joy, takes away the anxiety of our imagined problems. It is as if we have been out on a long, weary, unsuccessful day of work and have finally come home, and once again all becomes clear and filled with that happiness beyond words which is the only true happiness.

Christ said, “Do not be anxious … Seek first the Kingdom of God” (see Mt. 6:33). Beholding this woman – Virgin, Mother, Intercessor – we begin to sense, to know not with our mind but with our heart, what it means to seek the Kingdom, to find it, and to live by it.

Celebration of Faith, Vol. 3

On the day following the Feast – today, September 9 – we commemorate the “ancestors of God,” Joachim and Anna, the father and mother of the Virgin Mary according to the Tradition of the Church. This is a consistent pattern within our festal and liturgical commemorations: On the day after a particular feast, we commemorate the persons who are an integral part of that feast day’s events. For example, the day after Theophany we commemorate St. John the Baptist; and on the day after Nativity, we commemorate the Theotokos. Therefore, because of the essential role of Joachim and Anna in the current Feast of the Virgin Mary’s Nativity, September 9 is the “synaxis of Joachim and Anna” and we thus bring them to mind in an effort to discern and meditate upon their important place in this festal commemoration.

The source of their respective roles is the Protoevangelion of James, a mid 2^nd c. document. As Archbishop Ware has written:

The Orthodox Church does not place the Protoevangelion of James on the same level as Holy Scripture: it is possible, then, to accept the spiritual truth which underlies this narrative, without necessarily attributing a literal and historical exactness to every detail.

One of those “spiritual truths” alluded to by Archbishop Ware is the account of both Joachim and Anna continuing to pray with faith and trust in God’s providence even though they were greatly discouraged over the “barrenness” of Anna. This is no longer our perception today, for not being able to have a child is hardly a sign of "barrenness!" And it also implies that this is a "woman's" problem, thus disengaging the man's role in the process of conception. Yet, it is true that a lack of children in ancient Israel could easily be taken for a sign of God’s displeasure, thus hinting at hidden sins that deserve rebuke. Though disheartened, they continued to place their trust in God, refusing to turn away from God though thoroughly tested as to their patience. Perseverance in prayer in the face of discouragement is a real spiritual feat that reveals genuine faith. The conception and then birth of the Virgin Mary reveals the joyous outcome of their faith and trust in God. Perhaps this is why we commemorate Joachim and Anna as the “ancestors of God” at the end of every Dismissal in our major liturgical services, including the Divine Liturgy: We seek their prayers as icons of an everyday faith that is expressed as fidelity, faith and trust in God’s Law and providential care.

Icon of the Conception of the Theotokos by Righteous Anna

Source: allsaintstoronto.ca

Joachim and Anna could also be witnesses to a genuine conjugal love that manifests itself in the conception and birth of a new child. Their union is an image of a “chaste” sexual love that is devoid of lust and self-seeking pleasure. The strong ascetical emphases of many of our celibate saints may serve to undermine or obscure the blessings of conjugal love as envisaged in the Sacrament of Marriage. In fact, through its canonical legislation going back to early centuries, the Church has struggled against a distorted asceticism that denigrates sexual love even within the bonds of marriage as a concession to uncontrollable passions. The Church is not “anti-sex.” But the Church always challenges us to discern the qualitative distinction between love and lust. The icon of the embrace of Joachim and Anna outside the gates of their home as they both rush to embrace each other following the exciting news that they would indeed be given a child, is the image of this purified conjugal love that will result in the conception of Mary, their child conceived as all other children are conceived.

The Feast of the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos has four days of Afterfeast, thus ending with the Leavetaking on September 12. That allows us to then prepare for the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross on September 14!

Blessed Dissatisfaction -- Can't Get No Satisfaction... Thank God!

Source: ancientfaith.com

This meditation being presented here was written some time ago. But for those who are new to the parish, and for those who are willing to give it another read, I thought that it would have a certain resonance since it was only yesterday evening when we chanted the Akathist Hymn "Glory to God For All Things," as we acknowledged the Church New Year beginning on September 1. I There are certain thoughts expressed in the Hymn that led me to write this particular meditation.

* * *

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." —Psalm 42:2

"I can't get no satisfaction" —The Rolling Stones

"(Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones must be considered one of the great all-time "classics" of the pop/rock music world. 

I remember it well from the Summer of 1965. With its driving guitar riff and raspy-voiced lyrics giving a kind of pop-articulation to the disaffection of the lonely and alienated urbanite who, try as he might, just cannot succeed at "satisfying" the material and romantic/sexual goals droned into his mind on the radio and TV; this song - regardless of its actual intentions - managed to say something enduring about the "human condition." (I wonder if the various members of the Rolling Stones ever experience any genuine satisfaction after many years of fame and fortune). 

Be that as it may, a rather odd connection came to me between this song and a verse from "The Akathist of Thanksgiving" that we sang and chanted yesterday evening for the Church New Year beginning today, September 1. In Ikos Six of the akathist, one of the verses in the refrain reads as follows:

Glory to You, Who have inspired in us dissatisfaction with earthly things.

Both the Stones' song and the Orthodox hymn speak of "no satisfaction" or "dissatisfaction." However by "earthly things," the author of this remarkable hymn does not mean the natural world in which God has placed us. The refrain of Ikos Three makes that abundantly clear:

Glory to You, Who brought out of the earth's darkness diversity of color, taste and fragrance,
Glory to You, for the warmth and caress of all nature,
Glory to You, for surrounding us with thousands of Your creatures,
Glory to You, for the depth of Your wisdom reflected in the whole world ...

To the purified eyes of faith, the world around us can be a "festival of life" ... foreshadowing eternal life" (Ikos Two). The "earthly" can lead us to the "heavenly."

"Earthly things" in the context of the Akathist Hymn and the Orthodox worldview expressed in the Hymn, would certainly refer to the very things the Rolling Stones song laments about being absent - material and sexual satisfaction seen as ends in themselves. But whereas the song expresses both frustration and resentment as part of the psychic pain caused by such deprivation, the Akathist Hymn glorifies God for such a blessing! In the light of the insight of the Akathist Hymn, we can thus speak of a "blessed dissatisfaction." The Apostle Paul spoke of a closely-related "godly grief." (On this point, I would imagine that the Apostle Paul and Rolling Stones part company).

This just may prove to be quite a challenge to our way of approaching something like dissatisfaction.

Our usual instinct is to flee from dissatisfaction "as from the plague." Such a condition implies unhappiness, a sense of a lack of success, of "losing" in the harsh game of life as time continues to run out on us; and the deprivation and frustration mentioned above. 

Why should we tolerate the condition of dissatisfaction when limitless means of achieving "satisfaction" are at our disposal? To escape from a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction, don't people resort to alcohol, drugs and sex as desperate forms of relief? Or unrestrained and massive consumer spending? And we should not eliminate "religion" as one of those means of escape. 

If those means fail, then there is always therapy and medication as more aggressive means to relieve us of this unendurable feeling. 

Sadly, many learn "the hard way," that every ill-conceived attempt to eliminate dissatisfaction through "earthly things" only leads to a further and deeper level of this unsatiable affliction. Sadder still, there are many who would "forfeit their soul/life" just to avoid the bitter taste of dissatisfaction!

If the living God exists as we believe that He does, then how could we not feel dissatisfaction at His absence from our lives? What could possibly fill the enormous space in the depth of our hearts that yearns for God "as a hart longs for flowing streams." (Ps. 42:1) 

It is as if when people "hear" the voice of God calling them - in their hearts, their conscience, through another person, a personal tragedy - they reach over and turn up the volume so as to drown out that call. 

If we were made for God, then each person has an "instinct for the transcendent" (I recall this term from Fr. Alexander Schmemann), that can only be suppressed at an incalculable cost to our very humanity. 

In His infinite mercy, the Lord "blesses" us with a feeling of dissatisfaction so that we do not foolishly lose our souls in the infinitesimal pseudo-satisfactions that come our way. Therefore, we thank God for the gift of "blessed dissatisfaction!"

When we realize that we "can't get no satisfaction," then we have approached the threshold of making a meaningful decision about the direction of our lives. The way "down" can lead to that kind of benign despair that characterizes the lives of many today. The way "up" to the One Who is "enthroned above the heavens" and the Source of true satisfaction. 

The Rolling Stones uncovered the truth of an enduring condition that we all must face and must "deal with." I am not so sure about the solution they would ultimately offer ... but in their initial intuition they proved to be very "Orthodox!"

May the Church New Year fill us with "blessed dissatisfaction" so that we desire to seek and love God all the more!