'Think About These Things'

 

Icon of the Indiction

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

As we are about to embark on yet another Church New Year on September 1, this wonderful passage from The Epistle to the Philippians comes to mind (4:8-9):

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Apostle exhorts us to “think about these things.” That may actually take some effort on our part. For without having the time to pause and “think about these things,” we may have lost the inclination to do so. It would be spiritually hazardous to think that such virtues as enumerated here somehow come to us automatically, simply because we are “church-going” Christians. I therefore believe that it is imperative that we listen to the Apostle Paul and “think about these things” and in so doing give ourselves the opportunity to search out all that is wholesome in life. 

In this passage, St. Paul has essentially borrowed a list of virtues that were common within various Greek philosophical schools current in his lifetime. The pursuit of such virtues would lead to the “good life,” for only a life dedicated to such a pursuit would be considered worthy of living. St. Paul apparently continued to respect this centuries-old tradition. We should bear this in mind whenever confronted with other religious beliefs or serious philosophical schools of thought. As much as we may disagree with them about some fundamental issues from our Christian perspective, there is also much to be found that is honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise that are taught and promoted by these other religions and philosophies. To think otherwise would be to succumb to the temptations of a sectarian mind. A sect is a group that cannot find anything of value outside of its narrowly-defined borders. This eventually breeds some form of obscurantism and narrow-mindedness, if not eventually fanaticism. A “catholic” mind as understood by the great Church Fathers can rejoice in whatever is true even if found outside of the Church.

I recall a time when I was a seminarian, and the above theme entered into the ensuing conversation around us. Fr. John Meyendorff, the great patristic scholar, was present, and he was prompted to say: "I like to believe that Mozart will be in the Kingdom because of the beauty of the music that he created." 

At the same time, the Apostle has included this exhortation in an epistle that is thoroughly and consistently Christocentric. The living reality of Christ permeates all of St. Paul’s thoughts and actions. There is nothing that is worthy of pursuit that is outside of Christ. For the Apostle Paul nothing will be able to compare with the knowledge of Christ. And this “knowledge” is not intellectual but deeply experiential. In one of his most famous passages in Philippians (3:7-8) he writes:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse(Gk. skivala = rubbish, dung, excrement,) in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him …”

 

Anything that is of the truth somehow belongs to Christ and comes from Christ – even if not acknowledged. So the virtues that St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to pursue are found in Christ in a most preeminent form. Those virtues – though taught and found elsewhere - will find their most perfect manifestation in Christ. Yet the point remains that we can rejoice in all that is good wherever we encounter it. The Apostle assures us that with such an approach to life, the “God of peace” will be with us.

With the end of August, we have arrived at the end of the Church Year and prepare for the next. We have had every opportunity to deepen our relationship with Christ through the ongoing rhythm of fasting and feasting according to the Church liturgical calendar and, of course, in the Eucharist, the "sacrament of sacraments." The feasts of the Church and the Liturgy have actualized the presence of Christ and the Theotokos in the midst of the grace-filled life of the Church - the "sanctification of time as it has been called" - and within the depths of our minds and hearts. We have been further nurtured by the Word of God as proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures in our liturgical assemblies and in the quiet of our rooms with the door shut. As we live our lives in the surrounding world, perhaps we have been deeply and positively impacted through our human relationships, the beauty of the natural world, or an enduring work of art. 

These God-given encounters reveal to us all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and worthy of praise. In other words, we have had every opportunity to simply become more human - and, in becoming more human, we simultaneously draw closer to God. Further, the richness of life presupposes our ever-vigilant struggle against sin and our ongoing repentance. The Prayer of the Hours reveals to us the fruits of repentance: to "sanctify our souls, purify our bodies, correct our minds, cleanse our thoughts; and deliver us from all tribulation, evil and distress." That is indeed a great endeavor, "but with God all things are possible." (Mt. 19:27)

May the Church New Year be a blessing for everyone and for our parish community!

 

The Image of Giving in St Nicholas

St Nicholas provides gifts for three daughters to save them from poverty and harm.

 

Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

There are nineteen days of charity, prayer and fasting left before Christmas... Redeem the time.

 

Today we commemorate St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, the Wonderworker (December 6). There is a certain unresolved tension that accompanies his person and memory: On the one hand, there are few "hard facts" about his life (to the point where many doubt his actual historical existence); and on the other hand, he is clearly one of the most beloved and universally venerated of saints within the Church. It is said that even many Muslims venerate St. Nicholas! A good example of an objective account of the few facts behind the saint's life can be found in a short introductory biographical note concerning St. Nicholas in the book,The Time of the Spirit:

Little is known for certain about the life of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor). It is believed that he suffered imprisonment during the last major persecution of the Church under Diocletian in the early fourth century, and that he attended the first Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 325. Christian tradition has come to regard him, in the words of an Orthodox hymn, as "an example of faith and an icon of gentleness." (Time of the Spirit, p. 69)

For those interested in the historical background of St. Nicholas, the following note found in The Synaxarion, Vol. II, edited by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonas Petras, may prove to be of real interest:

Since the medieval period, St. Nicholas of Myra has been confused with St. Nicholas of Sion, who founded a monastery not far from Myra at the end of the 5th century. The Vita of the latter has come down to us but the incidents in it have been entirely ascribed to St. Nicholas of Myra, with the result that St. Nicholas of Sion has been forgotten n the hagiographical accounts.... (See The Life of Saint Nicholas of Sion, edited and translated by I. N. P. Sevcenko (Brookline, MA, 1984).

So, even if we are dealing with a "composite figure" when we venerate St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, we nevertheless are given a glimpse into the "mind of the Church" when it comes to an image of a true pastor. A powerful and enduring image of a genuine Christian shepherd has remained within the memory of the Church, regardless of the now unrecoverable "facts" behind the actual history of 4th - 5th c. Asia Minor. It is this "unerring" intuition of the People of God that the faithful respond to up to the present day that remains as a solid foundation upholding all of the wonderful stories that endear us to St. Nicholas. The Church today desperately needs bishops of the type embodied by St. Nicholas. A shepherd who is a "rule of faith and an image of humility" would mean a great deal more to the Christian flock, than legal-minded adherence to canon law. St. Nicholas both protected and interceded for his flock, according to the great Russian Orthodox iconographer, Leonid Uspensky. And he further writes:

This 'life for others' is his characteristic feature and is manifested by the great variety of forms of his solicitude for men: his care for their preservation, their protection from the elements, from human injustice, from heresies and so forth. This solicitude was accompanied by numerous miracles both during his life and after his death. Indefatigable intercessor, steadfast, uncompromising fighter for Orthodoxy, he was meek and gentle in character and humble in spirit. (The Time of the Spirit, p. 69)

Well-known as St. Nicholas has been, he is perhaps less well-known in today's world. In fact, he may be slowly slipping away from Christian consciousness. Santa Claus, that rather unfortunate caricature of the saintly bishop, clearly has something to do with this. But perhaps the very virtues embodied by this saint are slowly fading from our consciousness. A few weeks back, I wrote a meditation that passed on the name our social and secular world has "earned" for itself through its rampant commercialization of Christmas - and that is Getmas. The author who coined this new term - I forget his name - claims it came to him based on a conversation he had had with a good friend about the "spirit of Christmas." The friend of our author said that Christmas was about "getting things." When the author countered by saying, "I thought Christmas was about giving," the friend quickly retorted: "Sure, people are supposed to give me things!" Out of this sad exchange came the unfortunate, but accurate, Getmas.

St. Nicholas was about the proper understanding of "giving." Perhaps the most enduring quality of his image is that of giving to children in need. Our children learn that those who already "have" more are those who will yet "get" more. And that is because they are taught this by their parents who yield to their childish demands. So we persist in widening the gap of imbalance between the "haves and "have-nots" without too many pangs of (Christian) conscience. St. Nicholas wanted to restore a sense of balance, and so he looked first to those who were in need, so that they could also taste some childlike happiness from receiving an unexpected gift. In a simple manner, this imitates the giving of God Who gave us Christ at a time when everyone - rich and poor alike - were impoverished through sin and death. 

I sometimes fantasize that an ideal celebration of Christmas would find a relatively affluent family making sure that they spent more on those in need than on themselves. If Christianity is indeed the "imitation of the divine nature" as St. Gregory of Nyssa once said, then that need not necessarily be such an unrealistic idea. I do not believe that I have ever actually done that, so I convict myself through the very thought. Yet, I am convinced that our children would respond with an eager spirit of cooperation if properly prepared for some approximation of that ideal. Why should it be otherwise if, according to the Apostle Paul, Christ said that it is more blessed to give than to receive?

Once again, just a thought based upon the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

'Think About These Things'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

As we are about to embark on yet another Church New Year on September 1, this wonderful passage  from The Epistle to the Philippians comes to mind (4:8-9):

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Apostle exhorts us to “think about these things.” That may actually take some effort on our part. For without having the time to pause and “think about these things,” we may have lost the inclination to do so. It would be spiritually hazardous to think that such virtues as enumerated here somehow come to us automatically, simply because we are “church-going” Christians. I therefore believe that it is imperative that we listen to the Apostle Paul and “think about these things” and in so doing give ourselves the opportunity to search out all that is wholesome in life. 

In this passage, St. Paul has essentially borrowed a list of virtues that were common within various Greek philosophical schools current in his lifetime. The pursuit of such virtues would lead to the “good life,” for only a life dedicated to such a pursuit would be considered worthy of living. St. Paul apparently continued to respect this centuries-old tradition. We should bear this in mind whenever confronted with other religious beliefs or serious philosophical schools of thought. As much as we may disagree with them about some fundamental issues from our Christian perspective, there is also much to be found that is honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise that are taught and promoted by these other religions and philosophies. To think otherwise would be to succumb to the temptations of a sectarian mind. A sect is a group that cannot find anything of value outside of its narrowly-defined borders. This eventually breeds some form of obscurantism and narrow-mindedness, if not eventually fanaticism. A “catholic” mind as understood by the great Church Fathers can rejoice in whatever is true even if found outside of the Church.

I recall a time when I was a seminarian, and the above theme entered into the ensuing conversation around us. Fr. John Meyendorff, the great patristic scholar, was present, and he was prompted to say: "I like to believe that Mozart will be in the Kingdom because of the beauty of the music that he created." 

At the same time, the Apostle has included this exhortation in an epistle that is thoroughly and consistently Christocentric. The living reality of Christ permeates all of St. Paul’s thoughts and actions. There is nothing that is worthy of pursuit that is outside of Christ. For the Apostle Paul nothing will be able to compare with the knowledge of Christ. And this “knowledge” is not intellectual but deeply experiential. In one of his most famous passages in Philippians (3:7-8) he writes:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse (Gk. skivala = rubbish, dung, excrement,) in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him …”

 

Anything that is of the truth somehow belongs to Christ and comes from Christ – even if not acknowledged. So the virtues that St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to pursue are found in Christ in a most preeminent form. Those virtues – though taught and found elsewhere - will find their most perfect manifestation in Christ. Yet the point remains that we can rejoice in all that is good wherever we encounter it. The Apostle assures us that with such an approach to life, the “God of peace” will be with us.

A Prayer for Virtue

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT - The Thirtieth Day

I received some material from St. Vladimir's Seminary yesterday, and included in the packet was the following "Prayer for Virtue" that I am sharing with everyone in the parish. I an not able to determine the source of this prayer, but as the "acquisition of virtue" - a pursuit so dear to the great Church Fathers and other saints of the Church - is so pronounced in our spiritual tradition, I found this prayer a good one to add to my own Prayer Rule, and perhaps others will agree.

Often in the prescribed prayers of the Church, or one written by a saint or pious soul, we are referred to as "unprofitable servants," or something like that. This is never meant to be interpreted as our being depraved or horrible sinners; but rather as an honest acknowledgment - even a confession - that we have not used our God-given gifts in a way that increases the "talent" given to us by the Lord. Such an acknowledgement is a way of teaching us humility, and not to make us feel "worthless" in the eyes of God. We are always meant to be lifted up by God's grace, and never torn down by God's wrath. That is the "Orthodox way." 

 

 

Prayer for Virtue

   Have mercy, O Lord, have mercy! For I, your ungrateful, proud, and unprofitable servant have wasted the multitude of gifts you have entrusted to me.

   Turn not away from me but open the doors of my darkened heart that the Light of Your Eternal Word may enter it. Shine Your enlightenment upon me. Burn up my sins with the fire of Your Spirit.

   O Lord, take me away from myself that I may belong to You. Touch my eyes that I might see You in the face of every stranger. May I, like Abraham, serve strangers and thus receive not only angels but You, the holy, good, life-creating Trinity.

   Make me zealous in the pursuit of virtue. Above all, be my guide in offering holy and pure hospitality. Set my feet to run and find the stranger, giving before I am asked with words of gentle assurance. Keep me in readiness to do good to those who can neither repay nor thank me. In their outstretched hands, may I find healing for my wounds and the cure of my soul.

   Grant me faithful piety, steadfast love, and progress in the life of Your holy Church, that I too may enter Paradise and glorify Your Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

 

Passions and Virtues according to St. Gregory Palamas

 

GREAT LENT: The Nineteenth Day

Dear Parish Faithful,

As we leave behind the week of St. Gregory Palamas, and press on toward the Sunday of the Cross, I would like to share a few insightful passages from the book Passions and Virtues according to St. Gregory Palamas, by Anesris Keselopoulos. In these fine passages, he is essentially summarizing St. Gregory's teaching on both the passions and the virtues, and in so doing, offering excellent summaries of our entire spiritual tradition:

 

 

"The first aspect of the spiritual struggle is the wrestling for freedom from the passions, which leads to purification. The second is the acquisition of the virtues, which culminate in the heights of that 'divine passion' called theosis.

"In patristic teaching, it is commonly held that sinful habits reveal the soul's sickness, whereas virtues reveal its health and natural state.

"For the Fathers and St. Gregory Palamas, the word 'virtue' has a far richer meaning than what is commonly encountered in ethical teachings. They view the human person as 'the one who by virtue becomes like unto God Himself'.

"Besides natural revelation, which directs human beings towards God, the human person is also given the innate moral law of the human conscience. Palamas characterizes the conscience as a judge who is quite difficult to deceive, as well as a teacher with whom one cannot be unreasonable.

"In the work of our salvation, we see that if grace is essentially the action of God, then virtue is the joint-action of the human person and grace. And even though God is the One Who bestows the virtues, the human person is called to offer up his sweat for each of them.

"Indeed to speak about the imitation of the virtues of Christ apart from participation in the mysteries of the Church is from an Orthodox perspective impossible. The flesh of the Lord, as the Body of the Incarnate Word of God is, for Palamas and the Orthodox tradition, the point of contact between the human person and God, and it shows the way toward existential communion with the virtue of Christ."

 

The Community of Love

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

The reading from The Epistle to the Colossians that we hear this year on the 35th Sunday After Pentecost (February 3) is quite remarkable for what it reveals about our Christian Faith.  In the unique light of his Christocentric faith and piety, the Apostle Paul was reminding the Colossians - and us through them - of what the newly-baptized Christian has “put to death” when embracing the Gospel:  namely “what is earthly in you.”  And here, “earthly” means what is sinful and passion-ridden.  

 

If he had stopped there, he would only have taught us what to avoid, but not what to acquire.   The Christian faith would then be a series of prohibitions, rather than a new way of life to embrace.  

 

This text from the epistle then fulfills and complements what was heard a week earlier in Colossians 3:4-11. Thus, we were able to follow the essential progression of St. Paul’s moral/ethical exhortation to the fullness of the “life in Christ.”  To bring this remarkable text fully to mind yet again, here is the passage:

Put on, then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in  your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  (COL. 3:12-16, RSV)

St. Paul had so thoroughly put on the “mind of Christ,” that in a rather condensed passage, he faithfully and succinctly summarized the teaching of Christ as found in the Gospels – before the Gospels existed in their written form!  A few examples will make this clear, for here is what we will eventually find in the written Gospels at the heart of the Lord’s teaching, taught as exhortation to the earlier Christians in the  Apostle Paul’s Epistles:

On “lowliness and meekness:”

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  (MATT. 11:28-29)

On “patience:”

“And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.”  (LK. 8:15)

On “forgiveness:”

“Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, now often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?’  Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven’.”  (MATT. 18:21-22)

On “love:”

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  (JN. 15:12)

St. Paul was faithfully “handing over” (literally, “traditioning”) the authentic teaching of Christ in pastorally directing these early Christian communities, such as the one in Colossae that received the Epistle from him that is now part of the Church’s canonical Scriptures.  This was a gift of the Holy Spirit, as  Christ promised:

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”  (JN. 14:26)

It follows that if these characteristics are meant to distinguish a Christian community, then their absence will painfully reveal the weaknesses and failures of that community.  Institutional and financial stability may preserve a community, but it will neither “save” it – nor its members! - in the deeper sense of that word.  The “deadness” of such a community will eventually become plain to see.  For the absence of the greatest Christian virtues – love – is treated harshly in the Scriptures:

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.  If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”  (REV. 2:4-5)

But perhaps that is “jumping ahead” too quickly and pessimistically.  The Lord is patient with our slow progress in love, knowing that it takes time, patience and hard work.  The essential need for this binding love, is well-expressed by St. John Chrysostom:

Now what Paul wishes to say is that there is no benefit in those things, for all those things fall apart, unless they are done with love.  This is the love that binds them all together. Whatever good thing it is that you mention, if love be absent, it is nothing, it melts away.  The analogy is like a ship;  though its rigging be large, yet if it lacks girding ropes, it is of no service.  Or it is similar to a house; if there are no beams, of what use is the house?  Think of a body.  Though its bones be large, if it lacks ligaments, the bones cannot support the body.  In the same way, whatever good our deeds possess will vanish completely if they lack love.  (HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS. 8)

And in the words of a lesser-known contemporary of St. John, a certain Severian of Galaba:

When love does not lead, there is no completion of what is lacking; but where love is present we abstain from doing evil to one another.  Indeed we put our minds in the service of doing good, when we love one another.

With such a spirit pervading a community, its members will “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness” to the Lord.  “The peace of Christ” will rule in the hearts of the faithful leading to a spirit of thankfulness.  Yet, there is not one drop of sentimentality in the words of the Apostle or the Fathers concerning love.  They realize that it is a gift coming after much labor and discipline – and dependent upon the grace of God.

Every Christian community/parish has the potential to grow into this love that is ultimately the one true witness to the world of the transformative power of the Gospel.  What St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Colossians is as challenging, inspiring and realizable today as then.  If not, then the grace of God does not actually exist, or it has abandoned us.  The process is long and arduous, but worthy of the Christian vocation.

 

 

 

Victory over the Passions

Dear Parish Faithful,

 

GREAT LENT - The fifteenth day

 

"For us, the beginning of this imitation (of Christ) is Holy Baptism, a type of the Lord's Burial and Resurrection. The mean is the life of virtue according to the Gospel. The end is the victory over the passions through spiritual struggles, a victory that introduces us to the painless, imperishable and heavenly life."

 

St. Gregory Palamas (+1359)

 

 

Who is St. Gregory Palamas? - Yesterday, on the Second Sunday of Great Lent, we commemorated the "towering figure" of St. Gregory Palamas. And yet, the question remains: just how many of today's Orthodox faithful are aware of St. Gregory? Trying to help make him a "household name" - in least in Orthodox homes - I focused on St. Gregory in the homily and post-Liturgy discussion. That was at best an introduction.To further that effort, I am providing a link to a good summary of his life that includes some of the major theological issues that he responded so brilliantly to. Please make the effort to read about this great saint who is one of our great teachers about prayer and life in Christ:

 

https://oca.org/saints/lives/2018/03/04/12-2nd-sunday-of-great-lent-st-gregory-palamas

 

We commemorated St. Gregory on  the same day that the Academy Awards were taking place, and Oscars were being handed out. If we happen to know some of those "stars" who entertain us so well, perhaps we can also know this saint who initiates us into the mysteries of Christ so well.