The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

 For a few Sundays now, at the Divine Liturgy, we have made the transition from the Gospel According to St. Matthew to the Gospel According to St. Luke. Here is a brief meditation on the significance of the third Gospel.

“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Thoephilus, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.” (LK. 1:1-4)

That, of course, is the well-known introduction by St. Luke the Evangelist to the third of the canonical Gospels that he compiled with great care and a determination to present the “truth” of the ministry and then the death and resurrection of Christ. And it is the holy apostle and evangelist Luke whose Gospel we are now reading on Sunday morning at the Liturgy. From The Menologion, or calendar of the year providing a brief account of the saints and feasts of the Church, we read this succinct entry about St. Luke: 

This Apostle was an Antiochean, a physician by trade, and a disciple and companion of Paul. He wrote his Gospel in Greek after Matthew and Mark, after which he wrote the Acts of the Apostles, and dedicated both works to Theophilus, who, according to some, was Governor of Achaia (i.e. Greece). He lived some eighty-six years and died in Achaia, perhaps in Patras, the capital of this district. His emblem is the calf, the third symbolic beast mentioned by Ezekiel (1:10), which is a symbol of Christ’s sacrificial and priestly office, as St. Irenaeus says.

 

On his feast day of October 18, the dismissal hymn in Tone 5 (troparion) to St. Luke praises him for his service to Christ and to the Church: 

Let us praise with sacred songs the holy Apostle Luke, 
the recorder of the joyous Gospel of Christ 
and the scribe of the Acts of the Apostles; 
for his writings are a testimony of the Church of Christ. 
He is the physician of human weaknesses and infirmities. 
he heals the wounds of our souls, 
and constantly intercedes for our salvation.

And the kontakion in Tone 2:

Let us praise the godly Luke; 
he is the true preacher of piety, 
the orator of ineffable mysteries 
and the star of the Church, 
for the Word, Who alone knows the hearts of men, 
chose him, with the wise Paul, to be a teacher of the Gentiles!

And one of the apostikha verses stands out as an excellent summary of the contents of St. Luke’s Gospel, outlining some of the unique features of this particular Gospel and then moving on to mention St. Luke’s role as the Apostle Paul’s traveling companion. Although highly rhetorical as usual, this particular aposticha remains as a good teaching tool:

Rejoice, blameless writer of the Gospel of joy; 
you have recorded for us the conception and preaching of the Baptist; 
the wondrous Annunciation to the Mother of the Lord; 
the ineffable Incarnation and Birth of the Word Who came forth from her womb; 
His temptations, miracles, and parables, 
His Passion, Cross and death, 
the glory of His risen body recognized in the breaking of the bread, 
His glorious Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. 
As a faithful witness you compiled the Acts of the Apostles. 
You were Paul’s companion in travel and his great consolation, 
The beholder of divine mysteries and light of the Church. 
Guard us all, O glorious healer!

 

Is everyone able to identify all of the references above? Is everyone able to enumerate some of the miracles and parables that are unique to St. Luke, meaning that they cannot be found in any other of the remaining three Gospels? Some of those unique passages are referred to above in the apostikha verse. Is everyone aware of some of the different details found only in St. Luke’s account of the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ? Does everyone know the events compiled by the evangelist in the Acts of the Apostles? As the years go by and as we continue to read the Gospels over and over, I believe that we begin to distinguish between Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – their style, their particular emphases and approach, and the material that is found in only one of the Gospels. The point is not about “passing a test” concerning our knowledge of the “facts.” . (Though, periodically, the “Bible” as a category does shows up on Jeopardy!). The point is rather to have a scriptural mind that is very familiar with the Gospels precisely because we turn to them on a daily basis for our immersion into the "joy" that is found there because they make Christ alive to us.

I recall watching many years ago an interview of William F. Buckley. Buckley was asked what books and writers have had the greatest influence on him, and he unhesitatingly responded: "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." An awkward silence ensued, and the interviewer quickly changed the subject! So, who are the writers and what are the books that have most deeply influenced your thinking, your worldview and your approach to life?

St. John The Evangelist and Theologian (Sept 26)

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Today we commemorate St. John the Evangelist, also known as the Theologian. That title is ascribed to St. John, because as the author of the fourth Gospel, he 

"Ascended to the heights of theology, and learned the ineffable mysteries of God." (Apostikha of Vespers). 

This "ineffable mystery" is the trinitarian nature of God, expressed in the same apostikha as:

"The unity of the essence of the Godhead; one glory, one Kingdom, one Dominion, ever divided into three Persons, yet undivided and united in a divine Unity without confusion. In this way you proclaimed Him, glorifying the undivided Trinity."

We find that same "ineffable mystery" primarily - though not exclusively - in the Prologue of the Gospel, with the magnificent beginning that: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn. 1:1-2)

Then the equally magnificent - yet startling - verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth."

It was St. John Chrysostom - of course! - who said that if you are seeking "proof" as to the inspired nature of the Fourth Gospel, then simply read the Prologue! 

This same incarnational revelation is found in the First Epistle of St. John, where  one can sense the sheer amazement he has about the Word made flesh:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us ..." (I Jn. 1:1-2)

We, too, testify to the Word of life made flesh in the Church, and in the lives we live in the world. For our fellowship "is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." (I Jn. 1:3)

Shared Points in the Gospel Infancy Narratives

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

"In the form of God all things were made by Him (Jn. 1:3); in the form of a servant, he himself was born of a woman, born under the law (Gal. 4:4)."  — St. Augustine - The Trinity

Yesterday's Nativity Narrative Test highlighted the differences between the two Gospels in the presentation of Christ's Nativity. Yet, we do not want to lose sight of the many "shared points" which are of great importance. This list was compiled by the eminent biblical scholar Raymond Brown. I hope that you find this quite helpful.

Eleven Shared Points in the Two Infancy Narratives of the Evangelists Matthew and Luke

+ The parents to be are Mary and Joseph who are legally engaged or married, but have not yet come to live together or have sexual relations (MATT. 1:18; LK. 1:27,34).

+ Joseph is of Davidic descent (MATT. 1:16,20; LK. 1:27,32; 2:4).

+ There is an angelic announcement of the forthcoming birth of the child (MATT. 1:20-23; LK. 1:30-35).

+ The conception of the child by Mary is not through intercourse with her husband (MATT. 1:20, 23,25; LK. 1:34).

+ The conception is through the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18,20; Lk. 1:35

+ There is a directive from the angel that the child is to be named Jesus (MATT. 1:21;LK. 1:31)

+ An angel states that Jesus is to be Savior (MATT. 1:21; LK. 2:11).

+ The birth of the child takes place after the parents have come to live together (MATT. 1:24-25; LK. 2:5-6).

+ The birth takes place at Bethlehem (MATT. 2:1; LK. 2:4-6)

+ The birth is chronologically related to the reign (days) of Herod the Great (MATT. 2:1; LK. 1:5).

+ The child is reared at Nazareth (MATT. 2:23; LK. 2:39).

From The Birth of the Messiah, by Raymond Brown, p. 34-35

On Death and Our Daily Lives

 

Icon of the Parable of the Rich Fool and his barns

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


In the Orthodox Prayer Book under the heading "Before Sleep," we find the following: "A Prayer of St. John of Damascus, said pointing at the bed." This particular prayer begins in the following manner:

O Master Who lovest mankind, is this bed to be my coffin? Or wilt Thou enlighten my wretched soul with another day?

 

 As St. John was a monk we could, of course, dismiss or ignore such a prayer as "monastic excess" or even as a morbid and medieval fixation on death. (It seems that whenever our contemporary ears encounter anything strange, unfamiliar or jarring from the past the label of "medieval" allows us to disengage from any thoughtful consideration of what is being said). If we are sleepy, but essentially healthy, as we prepare for bed on any given evening, then it seems quite unlikely - thank God! - that our bed will serve as our coffin as we prepare to enter into it. The inevitable seems safely postponed for the moment and we feel confident that we will rise with the sun the following morning. And yet a moment of serious reflection on our common destiny - that great equalizer that we call death - should alert those who are spiritually vigilant, that such a prayer cannot simply be dismissed as either monastic excess or morbid. Understood in the over-all context of how and for what we may pray before sleep according to the Prayer Book and our personal prayers, it is an open-eyed, and hence realistic, reminder that "you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (GEN. 3:19) Perhaps a bit more poignant for those of us who are working on a second half-century that will most assuredly not be completed.

This theme comes to mind on this Monday morning because of yesterday's Gospel reading at the Liturgy: the short parable of the "rich fool" as found uniquely in LK. 12:16-21. Short but devastating. The foolish landowner is far-reaching in his plans for the future. He will tear down his old barns, now inadequate to store his abundant crops, and build "larger ones." Anticipating the enjoyment of a life of ease based upon his accumulated wealth, he says:

I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry." (LK. 12:19)

However alluring, this was not to be. For the very next thing we hear in this parable are these frightening words:

But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. (LK. 12:20-21) 

 

Such planning is mere foolishness in the eyes of God. (As Tevye the dairyman said: "The more man plans, the harder God laughs"). The brevity of life and the uncertainty of our end has - although containing a timeless and universal truth - often been reduced to the level of a pious cliché or religious platitude, by reason of sheer repetition. For that reason, spiritual vigilance is essential. In the Church's spiritual tradition we are exhorted to cultivate the "remembrance of death." And yet our highly-secularized society convinces us to practice the "forgetfulness of death." Which is more realistic? Or true to life? Try as we might, we cannot forget death, of course. So, as living human beings "go for it" in terms of life in this world the unwanted "remembrance of death" is there to trouble the mind. In his book, God With Us, Fr. John Breck, in a chapter entitled "The Thought of Death" captures this underlying and unresolved tension:

A great many people actually do chastise their soul with the thought of death. They suffer acute anxiety at the thought that their life will come to and end, that they will die and be buried in the earth. They fear death because of the unknown. What lies beyond the threshold behind that veil? Heaven? Hell? Nothing? The dread of death, which provokes questions like this, can, with tragic irony, push a person over the brink and into suicide. (p. 101)

 

The "remembrance of death" taken in isolation, especially among those who "have no hope" (I THESS. 4:13), can have a horrible effect upon the soul. It only makes sense to forget about it! The Christian practice of the "remembrance of death" needs to be the result of a lively faith in Christ, the Vanquisher of death, for it to be the spiritually positive practice it is meant to be. St. Paul has said it with an unmatched clarity and eloquence from the very dawn of Christianity:

If Christ is not raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (I COR. 15: 17-22) 

 

From an intolerable reality that leaves us as creatures to be pitied, death itself becomes a passage to life in the risen Lord. St. John Chrysostom could therefore write: "what was the greatest of evils, the chief point of our unhappiness, what the devil had introduced into the world, in a word death, God has turned into our glory and honor." With the powerful words of both the Apostle Paul and St. John in mind, we can fully understand what Fr. John Breck further relates in his chapter about the thought of death:

Our physical death remains before us, certainly and inevitably. But is has been emptied of its power. For those who are "in Christ," true death occurs at baptism, when we go down into the baptismal waters, then rise up from them, in a mimesis, or reactualization, of Christ's own death and resurrection. Baptism effects a "new birth," but only because it signifies the death of the "old Adam," or former being. (p. 101)

 

The daily practice of the "remembrance of death" is a Christian practice that - besides its realism as mentioned above - allows us to further meditate upon the overflowing love of God that has been poured out for our salvation in Christ, the "Coming One" whose death has overcome death, fully revealed in His glorious resurrection. It may not be the most timely subject for dinnertime conversation or the banter of the workplace; but it has a crucial and time-honored place in our prayer life and in our "search" for those essential truths that we meditate on throughout the course of our lives. Imbued with a Christian realism that we embrace with open eyes and the virtue of hope that leaves the future open-ended, we can consciously avoid the foolishness of the rich man of the parable, but rather heed the teaching of St. James:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall do this or that." (Jas. 4:13-15)

 

There is a healthy realism in all of this!

 

Annual Nativity Narrative Test

Dear Parish Faithful, Here is an old "warhorse" - the annual Nativity Narrative Test of your knowledge of the Gospel Narratives surrounding the Nativity of Christ. I would suggest first taking the test and recording your score. Then, read the Gospels of Sts. Matthew & Luke, and retake the test. Perhaps you will see a good deal of improvement if your initial score was not one to boast about.  Or, you could take the test together as a family and either determine a collective score; or perhaps discover the "biblical scholar" in your midst.   Nativity Narrative Test The test questions should be answered by using the following key: M – St. Matthew L – St. Luke ML – Sts. Matthew & Luke N – Neither Gospel   1. This Gospel contains a sequence of revelatory dreams to St. Joseph _____ 2. This Gospel has an ox and an ass by the manger of the Christ Child _____ 3. This Gospel mentions the census that takes Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem _____ 4. This Gospel contains the genealogy of Christ that begins with the Patriarch Abraham _____ 5. This Gospel narrates the massacre of the Innocents _____ 6. This Gospel narrates the visit of three magi who bring gifts to the Christ Child _____ 7. This Gospel narrates the angelic visitation to shepherds watching their flocks _____ 8. This Gospel contains references to King Herod _____ 9. This Gospel narrates that Christ was born in the Hebrew month equivalent to Dec. _____ 10. This Gospel contains the prophecy of Isaiah that a “virgin” shall conceive _____ 11. This Gospel narrates the journey of the “Holy Family” to Egypt and back to Israel _____ 12. This Gospel narrates that Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths _____ 13. This Gospel refers to Jesus as the Word of God _____ 14. This Gospel tells us that the name of Christ’s mother is Mary _____ 15. This Gospel narrates the circumcision of the eight-day old Jesus _____ 16. This Gospel narrates that Jesus was born in a cave/stable/house _____ 17. This Gospel informs us that Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem _____ 18. This Gospel tells us that after His birth, Jesus returned to Nazareth _____ 19. This Gospel refers to the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus _____ 20. This Gospel mentions women in the genealogy of Christ _____

The Abundance of Our Possessions

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

 

"Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possession." (LK. 12:15)

Icon of the Parable of the Rich Fool: He dines like a king at the table in the center, while servants build his new barns on the left. At right, an angel is seen coming to his deathbed to receive his soul.

 

There is hardly a Christian who would disagree with this teaching of the Lord, as expressed in the words above, when it comes to our relationship with the "abundance of our possessions." We know that our life does not "consist" in them. In other words, these very possessions do not, and simply cannot, impart genuine meaning and significance to our lives. These possessions are external to our inner being; for they cannot define us as human beings made "in the image and likeness of God." And we can say that without dismissing these possessions as just so much "mammon."

There are things that we need and there are things that we enjoy. Yet, I also cannot but arrive at the inescapable conclusion that even though we know this teaching to be true, we seem to pay such teaching just so much "lip service" because of the extent to which we are enamored and captivated (enslaved?) by "the abundance of our possessions!" Who is the person that can claim otherwise?

On one level - certainly not the highest! - our lives seem to be a steady progression of accumulating as much as possible, the only limit to this accumulation being imposed on us by the extent of our available resources. This means that the abundance - or at least the quality - of our possessions will increase as our access to "purchasing power" increases. (Thus, at Christmas, the extent and quality of the gifts that end up in the hands of children will depend upon the wealth - or lack of wealth - of their parents. Those who have will simply have more once Christmas comes and goes).

As Christians, then, we find ourselves in the awkward position, indicative of a genuine tension, of accepting our Lord's teaching about the dangers of accumulating possessions as true, and yet unable to arrest the desire and endeavor of adding to this abundance. The "consumer within" is a driving force indeed!

The Lord reveals the obviousness of His teaching about possessions through the Parable of the Rich Fool, found immediately after the words already cited above. (LK. 12:16-21) This parable is relatively short and to-the-point, so I will include it here in order to refresh our familiarity with it:

The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; that there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample good laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

 

Not only short and to-the-point, but almost brutal in its clarity and inescapable truthfulness: You can plan all you want, but death will cut short the most well-conceived plans with an unexpected finality that makes a mockery of those very plans. When death comes, the rich man's wealth is shown to be a worthless form of security for his "soul." (This parable always brings to my mind the words of Tevye the dairyman, who once mused that the more man plans the harder God laughs!).

The parable does not make a moral monster of the rich landowner. There is no hint of his being a particularly sinful person. Indeed, he is probably quite indicative of his "type:" at least outwardly decent and a man of status. And he may have attended his local synagogue with regularity. It is his preoccupation with "the abundance of his possessions" - "what shall I do;" "I will do this" - that renders him a "fool" in the judgment of God; a preoccupation that was self-centered in its orientation, culminating in a blindness that resulted in forgetfulness of God, instead of pursuing the meaningful task of striving to be "rich toward God." As a Jew guided by the Law, he had that opportunity but squandered it.  

His careful plans to build larger barns in order to accommodate his ever-increasing store of crops had the immediate impact of making life easier and enjoyable - a time to "eat, drink, and be merry." This, in turn, was a self-satisfying expansion and investment of his time and energy. In the process he pushed the inevitability of his death into a vague and perhaps far-off future. (The saints teach us that the "remembrance of death" is a key component of our spiritual lives, precisely to protect us from any such foolish forgetfulness). It is an attitude/temptation as alive today as it was in the time of Christ.

As real as the barns the landowner envisioned may have been, they are equally symbolic of a choice he made with the direction of his life. And this choice toward wealth proved to be quite costly. Is our present-day portfolio-building equivalent to the rich landowner's building of barns? Are we more preoccupied with becoming "rich toward God," or simply with becoming rich in the accumulation of our possessions? Will we have to suffer with being called a "fool" when that time comes?

Perhaps we can understand the rich landowner's pursuit of an abundance of possessions as an unconscious strategy toward finding and establishing a sense of security in life. 
We are all aware of the fragile nature of our lives, and the threats posed to our security on a host of fronts: poverty, illness, death itself. There is nothing quite so reassuring as the feeling of security that would protect us from such threats. While to feel insecure is a cause of great anxiety. Civilization and technology are built and developed to provide security for human beings in an insecure world.  

Thus, we find ourselves facing the same dilemma as the landowner of the parable in our own search for security; and often turning to the very means that he did in order to build up that ever-shifting sense of security: the accumulation of an "abundance of possessions." How ironic, though, that we tend to "secure our security" with the very means that cannot really provide it, while we neglect trying to get "rich toward God, the only true security!

As the biblical scholar Timothy Luke Johnson has written:

"It is out of deep fear that the acquisitive instinct grows monstrous. Life seems so frail and contingent that many possessions are required to secure it, even though the possessions are frailer still than the life"  (Gospel of Luke, p. 201). 

 

And, as another biblical scholar - Brendan Byrne - writes with a certain bluntness:

"Attachment to wealth is incompatible with living, sharing and celebrating the hospitality of God" (The Hospitality of God, p. 115).

 

The impact of the Parable of the Rich Fool is precisely in the choice with which the parable confronts us between two very different types of "security:" the abundance of our possessions, or being rich toward God. It seems like a simple choice - especially for Christians - but somehow it ends up being a good deal more complicated. We need to search our minds and hearts as to why this is true.

Christ did not deliver parables in order to entertain us with pleasant stories. Neither to simply edify us with a moral story that remains within our "comfort zone." The choice that the parable does confront us with demands a response - though it is possible that if we do not have "ears to hear," we can walk away from the parable with indifference. ("Let us attend!" always precedes the reading of the Holy Scriptures in church so as to focus our minds on the appointed readings).

Let us, however, assume that we do have "ears to hear." If, then, the parable shakes us out of the false sense of security that possessions may give us, we then have to reflect deeply on how to become "rich toward God."

Of course, we must begin by cultivating the gifts of God graciously bestowed on us: faith, hope and love. We can direct our prayer towards this. We need to un-hypocritically practice prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

We further immerse ourselves in the "words of the Word" - the holy Scriptures. It is essential that we confess our sins, and then wage a "spiritual warfare" against them. The possibilities within the grace-filled life of the Church are many indeed. We are neither predestined nor forced to avail ourselves of these possibilities. We must choose to do so, supported by the grace of God. This choice may very well determine whether or not, at the end of our lives, we will hear either "Fool!" or "Well-done, good and faithful servant." As Jesus often exclaimed: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

*As a kind of footnote to the above, I would like to point to a tremendous story of great narrative power and psychological insight, that almost reads as an extended and artistic embodiment of this parable: Leo Tolstoy's "Master and Man." In the story the rich landowner of 1st c. Palestine is now re-conceived as a wealthy 19th c Russian landowner. His ultimate fate is rather terrifying. A great work of literature well worth the time and effort.

Image of a True Disciple: The Gadarene Demoniac

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,      One of the most challenging narratives in the Gospels has to be the healing of the Gadarene demoniac (Mk. 5:1-20; MATT. 8:28-34; LK. 8:26-39). This dramatic event which reveals the power of Christ over the demons will appear to the 21st c. mind as either archaic or even primitive. We may listen with respect and sing "Glory to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee!" upon the completion of the reading, but "wrapping our minds" around such a narrative may leave us baffled if not shaking our heads.  The spectacle of a man possessed by many demons, homeless and naked, living among the tombs, chained so as to contain his self-destructive behavior is, to state the obvious, not exactly a sight that we encounter with any regularity. (Although we should acknowledge that behind the walls of certain institutions, we could witness to this day some horrible scenes of irrational and frightening behavior from profoundly troubled and suffering human beings). Add to this a herd of swine blindly rushing over a steep bank and into a lake to be drowned, and we must further recognize the strangeness of this event. This is all-together not a part of our world! Yet, there is no reason to doubt the veracity of the narrated event, which does appear in three of the Gospels, though with different emphases and details - in fact there are two demoniacs in St. Matthew's telling of the story! It is always instructive to compare the written account of a particular event or body of teaching when found in more than one Gospel. This will cure us of the illusion of a wooden literalism as we will discover how the four evangelists will present their gathered material from the ministry of Jesus in somewhat different forms. As to the Gadarene demoniac, here was an event within the ministry of Christ that must have left a very strong impression upon the early Church as it was shaping its oral traditions into written traditions that would eventually come together in the canonical Gospels. This event was a powerful confirmation of the Lord's encounter and conflict with, and victory over, the "evil one." The final and ultimate consequence of that victory will be revealed in the Cross and Resurrection. Whatever our immediate reaction to this passage - proclaimed last Sunday during the Liturgy from the Gospel According to St. Luke (8:26-39) - I believe that we can recognize behind the dramatic details the disintegration of a human personality under the influence of the evil one, and the reintegration of the same man's personhood when healed by Christ. Here was a man that was losing his identity to a process that was undermining the integrity of his humanity and leading to physical harm and psychic fragmentation. I am not in the process of offering a psychological analysis of the Gadarene demoniac because, 1) I am ill-equipped to do so; and 2) I do not believe that we can "reduce" his horrible condition to psychological analysis. We are dealing with the mysterious presence of personified evil and the horrific effects of that demonic presence which we accept as an essential element of the authentic Gospel Tradition. The final detail that indicates this possessed man's loss of personhood is revealed in the dialogue between himself and Jesus: Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. (8:30)   To be named in the Bible is to receive a definite and irreducible identity as a person. It is to be "someone" created in the "image and likeness of God." It is the role of the evil one to be a force of disintegration. The "legion" inhabiting the man reveals the loss of his uniqueness, and the fragmentation of his personality. Such a distorted personality can no longer have a "home," which is indicative of our relational capacity as human beings, as it is indicative of stability and a "groundedness" in everyday reality. The poor man is driven into the desert, biblically the abode of demons.  Once again, we may stress the dramatic quality of this presentation of a person driven to such a state, but would we argue against this very presentation as false when we think of the level of distortion that accompanies any form of an "alliance" with evil -whether "voluntary or involuntary?" Does anyone remain whole and well-balanced under the influence of evil? Or do we rather not experience or witness a drift toward the "abyss"? Then we hear a splendid description of the man when he is healed by Christ! For we hear the following once the demons left him and entered into the herd of swine and self-destructed (the ultimate end of all personal manifestations of evil?): Then the people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. (8:35)   "Sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." This is clearly one of the most beautiful descriptions of a Christian who remains as a true disciple of the Master. This is the baptized person who is clothed in a "garment of salvation" and who is reoriented toward Christ, the "Sun of Righteousness."  The image here is of total reintegration, of the establishment of a relationship with Christ that restores integrity and wholeness to human life. Also an image of peacefulness and contentment. Our goal in life is to "get our mind right" which describes repentance or that "change of mind" that heals all internal divisions of the mind and heart as it restores our relationship with others. Jesus commands the man "to return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you" (8:39). We, too, have been freed from the evil one "and all his angels and all his pride" in baptism. In our own way, perhaps we too can also proclaim just how much Jesus has done for us (cf. 8:39).

The living God who 'does not throw away people'

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

I was thinking about the words of Christ from the incomparable Gospel teaching that we call the Discourse on The Last Judgment heard this last Sunday:  "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." (Matt. 25:40) In the words of Jesus, the "least" would include people who do not have enough food to eat; or enough drink to satisfy their thirst; strangers in need of hospitality; those lacking proper clothing; those sick in hospitals; or those languishing alone in prison. We like the sound of this coming from Christ: His universal love for all of humankind. His identification with those Dostoevsky called "the insulted and the injured" (or sometimes "the humiliated and the wronged"), is deeply moving. His refusal to ignore those with no status and thus with no protection awakens our Christian sense of equality and justice.

But upon further reflection our ardor for these compassionate words of Christ may cool when we attempt to further objectively identify those described as "the least" in our contemporary setting. Just who are these "least of my brethren" - and "sisters," we should add, for the sake of clarifying the inclusiveness of the Lord's embrace? Are they the "unwashed/uneducated masses?" Perhaps the "proletariats" of George Orwell's 1984? Prisoners, drug addicts and/or prostitutes? Unwed mothers with nowhere to turn? The chronically unemployed? Neglected minorities? Undocumented immigrants? Even perhaps those dismissed as the undifferentiated "riff raff" drifting along the margins of society. These are descriptive terms for those countless human beings that are both neglected and dismissed as not counting for much. Or, with a bit more respect and regard, are "the least" just "simple people" who go through life without leaving a memorable trace (this possibility might be getting uncomfortably close). 

At the same time I was recently thinking of the dedication of Sister Verna Nonna Harrison's remarkable book, God's Many Splendored Image. I am currently reading my XU students' reviews of her book. My students have a genuine positive experience reading this book for the simple fact that they are reading about things they have never thought about up to this point in their young lives. And that would include the notion of human beings made "in the image and likeness of God." Or that not all Christians look at human nature as debased and inherently sinful. (This book is a "must read" for Orthodox Christians, in my humble opinion).

Getting back to her heartfelt dedication, Sister Nonna writes: "This book is dedicated to all those people whom other people have thrown away. It shows that God does not throw away people." What a unique and deeply moving dedication! A good part of human history is a dreary chronicle of horrific human suffering, as the strong throw away the weak with impunity and hardly a second thought: Man is a wolf to man as it has been said. Recent history makes this terrifyingly clear: Two World Wars; the Holocaust; the Gulag; the Cultural Revolution; Cambodian genocide. Step back one more century, and we face our own unconscionable national examples of slavery and the near-genocide of native Americans. Step into the contemporary world and we see slums, massive poverty, child abuse, human trafficking and endless other examples of "people whom other people have thrown away." We live with this, just glad that we and our loved ones are not part of this discarded humanity. 

The positive side of Sister Nonna's dedication is "that God does not throw away people." Each human person is as worthy as the next in the eyes of God - and the "range" traversed is from saint to sinner. Our eschatological hope is for the great reversal when the "least of these my brethren" are embraced by the love of God, transforming their sorrow into joy, "where the voice of those who feast is unceasing, and the sweetness of those who behold the ineffable beauty of thy countenance is beyond telling." (St. Basil the Great). What a wonderful expectation! But Christ in His teaching in Matt. 25:31-46, is concerned with how we treat the "least" here and now within the context and confines of our earthly existence.

The question that looms over us is this: Are we, as Orthodox Christians and members of the Body of Christ, torn between our commitment to the Gospel, but also to an ideology - political, social or cultural - that does not leave much room in our minds and hearts for those considered "the least."  Are we indifferent to our fellow human beings who are marginalized and disregarded? Even worse, do we look down on them with (unspoken) disdain or contempt? Are we open to acknowledging that each and every human person is made "in the image and likeness of God," including those "whom other people have thrown away?" Do we resent it when our hard-earned "tax dollars" that may go to supportive programs for those in need - meaning the poor, the unemployed and the homeless? (Yet, are we as resentful toward the wealthy who know how to avoid paying their fair share of taxes or who are corrupt and steal the needed resources of others?). Am I troubled by childhood poverty though I live in the wealthiest country in the world?                                                           

I maintain that these are legitimate questions in the light of Christ's teaching that we just recently heard in the great Discourse on the Last Judgment found in Matt. 25:31-46. These words are directed to us as we stand in church and hear the Gospel proclaimed. The merciful and loving God that we believe in is also the One who will judge us, or perhaps we should say who will pronounce the sentence that we have "earned" throughout the years of our earthly existence. The Gospel is not about social programs but about the heart of each of us and how we treat "the least" that are so dear to Christ. If we fail to be neighbors to those in need, it is then that we need "safety nets" coming from our religious, social and political leaders.

On a personal level, we need to help the "the least" of Christ's brothers and sisters. And we need to feel deeply in our hearts a painful recognition and sorrow for "those people whom other people have thrown away." Can we even grasp for a moment what it will mean for us to hear the words of the glorified Son of man: "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25:34) For we worship "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," the living God (Matt. 22:32) who "does not throw away people." I, for one, am deeply grateful to Sister Nonna Verna Harrison for bringing this to our attention through her heartfelt dedication found at the beginning of her marvelous book. 

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