Unschooled and Ordinary

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

 

UNSCHOOLED & ORDINARY

 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1: 14)

St. John, who “thundered” these famous words ca. two millennia ago, was an “unschooled and ordinary” man, as we learn from the Book of Acts, about John and Peter before the religious elite of their time, the Sanhedrin: “…Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unschooled and ordinary men (ἀγράμματοί εἰσιν, καὶ ἰδιῶται), they marveled. Then they realized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4: 13) Indeed, the only way to explain the “extraordinary” testimony of these “ordinary” men, was by the fact that “they had been with Jesus.” They had “beheld His glory, …full of grace and truth,” and now His grace and truth emanated, nay, thundered, into the world around them. Let’s note that the Greek word “ἰδιώτης” (not meaning idiot) that is translated here into English (in the NKJV) as “ordinary,” was used by Ancient Greek authors as the equivalent of our term “layman,” as in “one not having professional knowledge.” It’s sort of delightful to contemplate the fact that in the eyes of the religious authorities of their time, the Holy Apostles were seen as “laymen.”

And so are we, however “unschooled” or “lay,” but as members of an “apostolic” Church, invited both to receive and pass on this extraordinary energy, “full of grace and truth.” Because “the Word became flesh,” and continues to “dwell among us,” as we prepare for the upcoming feast of Pentecost and open our hearts to His Spirit. By the prayers of Your holy Apostles, Savior, save us!

From "Coffee With Sister Vassa"

 

Why Do You Stand Gazing Up Into Heaven?

 

WHY DO YOU STAND GAZING UP INTO HEAVEN?

 

“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem…” (Acts 1:9-12)

What did the eleven disciples do, after they returned to Jerusalem? Did they onlypray and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit? No. They did, indeed, pray in “the upper room” with the rest of the community, ca. 120 people, as we learn from the Book of Acts 1:14: “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” But they also had other work to do, and “in those days” (before Pentecost) they cast lots and elected Matthias, to replace Judas as one of the twelve, “and he (Matthias) was numbered with the eleven apostles.” In other words, they also tended to a church-administrative matter, a matter of church order, for which they would be held accountable when “this same Jesus, who was taken up” from them returned, as the two men in white apparel reminded them.

As we celebrate the great feast of the Ascension today, I’m thinking that we also have work to do, to order the small or big set of responsibilities we are given, according to our vocations. We don’t just “stand gazing up to heaven,” although we do a bit of that as well, whenever we ascend the “mountain” of focused prayer. Thank You, Lord, for dignifying me with my small set of responsibilities, and for lifting all of us up in Your Ascension. Glory be to You for all of it.

From "Coffee With Sister Vassa"

_____

Perhaps the real challenge is to keep our gaze on heaven "for you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God;" (Col. 3:3) and simultaneously fulfill our earthly responsibilities in a manner pleasing to God. One has the distinct impression that that is precisely what the apostles accomplished, by the grace of God, which they all received with the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

The Ascension: Our Destiny in Christ

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, You were born, as was your will, O our God. You revealed Yourself, in Your good pleasure. You suffered in the flesh, and rose from the dead, trampling down death by death! Fulfilling all things, you ascended in glory ... (Vespers of Ascension)  Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. (Nicene Creed) The two texts above - one from the Feast of the Ascension and the other a portion of the Nicene Creed - are wonderful expressions of the great mystery of the "descent" and "ascent" of the Son of God. The eternal Son of God becomes the Son of Man, descending into our world to live among us and to teach us about, and prepare us for, the Kingdom of God. This is what we call the Incarnation. This movement of descent is only completed when Christ is crucified and enters the very realm of death on our behalf. There is "nowhere" further to descend (in)to. Thus, there are no limits to the love of God for His creatures, for the descent of Christ into death itself is "for our salvation." The Son of God will search for Adam and Eve in the very realm of Sheol/Hades. He will rescue them and liberate them as representative of all humankind, languishing in "the valley of death." Since death cannot hold the sinless - and therefore deathless - Son of God, He begins His ascent to the heavenly realm with His resurrection from the dead. And He fulfills this paschal mystery with His glorious ascension. As St. Paul writes: "He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." (EPH. 4:10) The One who ascended, however, is now both God and man, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the incarnate, crucified, risen, and glorified Jesus Christ who is now seated at "the right hand of the Father," far above the heavens. It is the glorified flesh of the Incarnate Word of God which has entered into the very bosom of the Trinity in the Person of Christ. As St. Leo the Great, the pope of Rome (+461) taught: With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of Heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest Heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. This is simultaneously our ascension and our glorification, since we are united to Christ through holy Baptism as members of His Body. Therefore, St. Paul can further write: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (COL. 3:3) Out of our physical sight, we now "see" the glorified Christ through the eyes of faith. St. Leo further explains how important this spiritual insight is: For such is the power of great minds, such the light of truly believing souls, that they put unhesitating faith in what is not seen with the bodily eyes; they fix their desires on what is beyond sight. Such fidelity could never be born in our hearts, nor could anyone be justified by faith, if our salvation lay only in what is visible. The Feast of the Ascension is not a decline from the glory of Pascha. It is, rather, the fulfillment of Pascha, and a movement upward toward the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the joyful revelation of our destiny in Christ. To return to the opening theme of the marvelous acts of God moving from the Incarnation to the Ascension, I would like to turn to St. Leo one more time for his understanding of that entire movement: It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men's sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.   The Feast of the Ascension has a full octave, which means that we commemorate this great event until June 21 this year. According to St. Luke, once the disciples beheld Christ ascend into heaven, "they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." (LK. 24:52) The "temple" is our common place of worship. Hopefully, we too, will soon be able to return to the temple blessing God. Yet, before that happens each one of us needs to bless God wherever we may find ourselves, because for each of us, our bodies are the "temple of the Holy Spirit" (I COR. 6:19). In our daily Prayer Rule we continue to refrain from using “O Heavenly King” until the Day of Pentecost. We no longer use the paschal troparion, “Christ is Risen from the dead …” but replace it from Ascension to Pentecost with the troparion of the Ascension: Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God, granting joy to Thy disciplesby the promise of the Holy Spirit; Through the Blessing they were assured that Thou art the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world.

Leavetaking of Pascha: 'Did our hearts burn within us?'

The Risen Christ and the Meal at Emmaus

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen, and Happy Leavetaking of Pascha today

Today is the Leavetaking of Pascha as we draw near to the Feast of the Ascension. According to the Acts of the Apostles: "To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God." (1:3) Of course, the apostles had the distinct advantage of actually seeing and touching the Risen Lord over these forty days whenever he appeared to them. As their certainty was built up and their faith strengthened as men who "built their house upon a rock" (Matt. 7:24), this was all meant to prepare them for their arduous mission to the world to proclaim the Gospel of the crucified and risen Lord. When the rain, and flood and winds of persecution threatened the very foundation of their lives and faith (cf. Matt. 7:25), they remained steadfast, "even unto death." Their "houses" were not shaken.

We have just had forty days to strengthen our faith in the risen Lord. At every liturgical service we sang: "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death." We proclaim at every Liturgy that we have "beheld the resurrection of Christ." And even though we did not have that privileged direct presence of the Lord as did the apostles, the Lord, when speaking to Thomas, according to St. John's Gospel, not only reminded us, but once-and-for-all assured us that we have lost nothing because of this: "Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe'." (Jn. 20:29) We are all part of the endless generations of believers who "have not seen but believe."

At this point, perhaps we can ask ourselves about the extent of our effort to "see" the risen Lord during these sacred forty days which are now ending. Was the Lord uppermost in our minds and hearts? Did our hearts "burn within us" when we thought of Christ risen from the dead? (Lk. 24:32) Did we probe the Scriptures as Christ invited the apostles to do, so that they/we would find him there: "These are my words which I have spoken to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to the Scriptures ..." (Lk. 24:44-45) The opportunities to see the risen Lord have surely been many and varied. 

Hopefully, we have not followed the surrounding social and cultural environment in which any significant event or celebration is reduced to "one and done," as the demands of life - but also the daily enticements and distractions - press upon us for our attention. Whatever the case may be, we now arrive at the Feast of Ascension and the glorification of the Risen Lord and our human nature "in him." The opportunities to draw nearer to Christ and to strengthen our faith in him, never really cease in the grace-filled life of the Church.

PASCHA - Day Thirty Eight — Understanding Death... and the Resurrection

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!

"Strictly speaking, a system of ethics which does not make death its central problem has no value and is lacking in depth and earnestness." (Nikolai Berdyaev) 

"Our one and only war ... is the sacred battle with the common enemy of all people, of all mankind - against death." (Archimandrite Sophrony)

Recently I met with some folks from Norwood - both Orthodox and non-Orthodox - for what we rather laconically called a "theological talk." The basis for our discussion was an article written by Fr. Alexander Schmemann, entitled "The Christian Concept of Death." The title may not capture the full weight of the essay, since it is a look at the Christian concept of death in the light of the Resurrection of Christ.

With such a powerful theme, enriched by Fr. Alexander's usual style that combines insightful penetration into the given theme, a captivating style of literary expression, and a series of challenging assertions that question our unexamined assumptions, our discussion proved to be an intense one that led us in many directions. All in all, a good way to spend an atypical Thursday evening. 

Obviously, the theme of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ digs deep into the very foundations of Christianity. Who does not know the powerful words of the Apostle Paul:  "If Christ is not risen, then your faith is in vain." It is the Resurrection that ultimately makes the Gospel "Good News" - in fact the "best news" conceivable and outside of which all "other news" sounds rather vague and lifeless!

It is this joyous Good News that imbues the entire life of the Church according to Fr. Schmemann:

The joy of early Christianity, which still lives in the Church, in her services, in her hymns and prayers, and especially in the incomparable feast of Pascha, does not separate the Resurrection of Christ from the "universal resurrection," which originates and begins in the Resurrection of Christ.

 

Yet, a good deal of the essay is taken up with something of a "lamentation" from Fr. Schmemann over the fact that many Christians are unaware of the ultimate consequences of the Resurrection of Christ, and that is the "universal resurrection" just mentioned above and which means the resurrection of the dead at the end of time with the "spiritual body" that the Apostle Paul speaks of in I COR. 15. Jesus, bodily risen from the dead, is called the "first fruits of those who have fallen asleep,"thus anticipating and pointing toward the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

But is this, in fact, what Christians believe? Fr. Schmemann's trenchant criticism is expressed as follows:

The Resurrection of Christ comprises, I repeat, the very heart of the Christian faith and Christian Good News.

And yet, however strange it may sound, in the everyday life of Christianity and Christians in our time there is little room for this faith. It is as though obscured, and the contemporary Christian, without being cognizant of it, does not reject it, but somehow skirts about it, and does not live the faith as did the first Christians.

If he attends church, he of course hears in the Christian service the ever resounding joyous confirmations: "trampling down death by death," "death is swallowed up by victory," "life reigns," and "not one dead remains in the grave."

But ask him what he really thinks about death, and often (too often alas) you will hear some sort of rambling affirmation of the immortality of the soul and its life in some sort of world beyond the grave, a belief that existed even before Christianity. And that would be in the best of circumstances. In the worst, one would be met simply by perplexity and ignorance, "You know, I have never really thought about it."

 

Fr. Schmemann is not speaking of non-believers in the bodily Resurrection of Christ, but of an unfortunate transformation of Christian thought about death itself and the impact of that unfortunate transformation on the understanding of the body, or of the relationship between "body and soul." 

Basically, Christians have resorted to a kind of warmed-up Platonism that claims that there is a real and natural division between the soul and body, a division which renders the body almost meaningless, or as a prison that the soul needs to escape from. 

In opposition to this dualism, the Church's Symbol of Faith (the Nicene Creed) affirms our belief in "the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." 

This is far from merely claiming a vague belief in the "immortality of the soul." Again, this is a resort to pre-Christian modes of thought and this way of thinking is foreign to the Biblical revelation. 

Here is how Fr. Schmemann puts it:

Indeed, all non-Christian, all natural religions, all philosophies are in essence occupied with our "coming to terms" with death and attempt to demonstrate for us the source of immortal life, of the immortal soul in some sort of alien world beyond the grave. Plato, for example, and countless followers after him teach that death is a liberation from the body which the soul desires; and in this circumstance faith in the resurrection of the body not only becomes unnecessary, but also incomprehensible, even false and untrue.

 

Such a pre- or non-Christian way of thinking will make us blind to the Apostle Paul's affirmation that death is the "last enemy;" and that God desires the whole person - both body and soul - to be saved and transformed in the Kingdom of God. Such a belief even renders the Resurrection of Christ as a kind of superfluous miraculous event that does not really affect our destiny.

Orthodox Christian thinking at its purest resists and rejects this way of approaching death, but rather it drives home with a powerful realism the tragedy of human death.  

Again, in Fr. Schmemann's words:

Christianity proclaims, confirms and teaches, that this separation of the soul from the body, which we call death, is evil. It is not part of God's creation. It is that which entered the world, making it subject to itself, but opposed to God and violating His design, His desire for the world, for mankind and for life. It is that which Christ came to destroy.

Man, as created by God, is an animate body and an incarnate spirit, and for that reason any separation of them, and not only the final separation, in death, but even before death, any violation of that union is evil. It is a spiritual catastrophe. From this we receive our belief in the salvation of the world through the incarnate God, i.e. again, above all, our belief in His acceptance of flesh and body, not "body-like," but a body in the fullest sense of the word: a body that needs food, that tires and that suffers.

 

In a relatively short essay, Fr. Schmemann presents us with the distortions of Christian thinking on death which have twisted our whole conception of the meaning of the Gospel, and which, more specifically, undermine the great power contained within the Resurrection of Christ.

Yet, if Fr. Schmemann was anything, he was a life-affirming person and thinker who, in his expressive manner, always spoke and wrote of the "Good News" proclaimed throughout the New Testament and liturgical life of the Church. He thus pointed out defects that have entered our way of thinking so that we could recover the Gospel in all of its power:

He alone rose from the dead, but He has destroyed our death, destroying its dominion, its despair, its finality.

Christ does not promise us Nirvana or some sort of misty life beyond the grave, but the resurrection of life, a new heaven and a new earth, the joy of universal resurrection. Christ is risen, and life abides, life lives ...

That is the meaning; that is the unending joy of this truly central and fundamental confirmation of the Symbol of Faith: "And the third day, He rose again according to the Scriptures." 

According to the Scriptures, i.e. in accordance with that knowledge of life, with that design for the world and humanity, for the soul and body, for the spirit and matter, for life and death, which has been revealed to us in the holy Scriptures.

This is the entire faith, the entire love, and the entire hope of Christianity. And this is why the Apostle Paul says, "If Christ is not risen, then your faith is in vain.

 

As a kind of appendix affirmation to the above, I would like to include, and thus conclude, with a passage from one of the most prominent Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century, the Romanian-born Dumitru Staniloae. Attempting to capture the essence of the Orthodox Church's absorption of, and appreciation for, the gift of Christ's Resurrection, Fr. Staniloae chose the word "salvation" as the best to summarize the Church's interior knowledge of ultimate reality:

Salvation expresses the deepest, most comprehensive and many-sided meaning of the work which Jesus Christ accomplished. In this last dimension, that is to say, understood as the destruction of man's death in all of its forms and the assurance of full and eternal life, the word "salvation" produces in the Orthodox faithful a feeling of absolute gratitude towards Christ to whom they owe the deliverance of their existence and the prospect of eternal life and happiness.

For those who would like to read the entire essay from Fr. Alexander Schmemann, the link below is for your convenience:

http://oca.org/reflections/fr-alexander-schmemann/the-christian-concept-of-death