'Always Winter, but never Christmas!'

Dear Parish Faithful,


CHRIST IS BORN!

C.S. Lewis, something of a 20th c. Christian apologist, wrote a very endearing series of books that serves as a Christian allegory avidly read by both children and adults to this day.  That series is, of course, The Chronicles of Narnia; and perhaps the most popular book in the series is the first one, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 

In this opening volume, we read of the enchanting kingdom of Narnia, populated by talking animals together with mythical fauns, wood sprites, but also some menacing creatures who personify evil in servitude to the wicked White Witch. 

Narnia is introduced to the reader through the eyes of the four English children - Edmund, Peter, Lucy and  Susan - who find themselves transported there, after having passed through the magical wardrobe found in their eccentric uncle's home in the countryside. 

Yet Narnia, for all of its paradisaical charm, is languishing in the thrall of the White Witch, and thus engulfed with a sense of foreboding and gloom.  And one of the creaturely denizens of Narnia - Mr. Tumnus - finds an utterly apt phrase that perfectly captures the dreariness and bleakness of this fallen Kingdom:  "It is always winter but never Christmas."  A chilling thought if there ever was one! 

The starkness of that phrase is found in the unspoken implication that a world in which it is "never Christmas," is a world in which there is no Christ.  If there is no Christ, then the "Light of Wisdom"[1]  has not shone on us to free us from the captivity of ignorance. If there is no Christ then there is no "Sun of Righteousness" to bring light and warmth into the minds and hearts of its inhabitants.  And if there is no Christ, then there is no "Orient from on high" that dawns upon a fallen world with the bright hope of redemption and reconciliation with God.  A winter season unrelieved by the joy of Christmas, understood primarily as the celebration of Christ's birth, would clearly be bleak indeed. At least this would be true for Christian believers.

Perhaps - and precisely as Christian believers - we have lost a sense of such potential bleakness because of what we have contributed to turning Christmas into.  Or, perhaps the certainty of our annual celebration of Christmas has resulted in a certain complacency, always a temptation when we can take something for granted.  Christians who suffer from persecution might have a very different appreciation for the deeper meaning of Christmas.

"It is always winter and never Christmas." This phrase from C. S. Lewis has become synonymous with a world devoid of the child-like joy that always imparts a sense of an over-arching purpose to life; or a sense of hopefulness even when life seems to conspire against the very concept of hope. 

The "Christmas spirit" may not last long in our fast-paced world, but if it does for only the "twinkling of an eye" then for those few moments we will be thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ who, though the "eternal God," became for our sake "a little Child." [2]

_______

[1]  'Light of Wisdom', 'Sun of Righteousness', and 'Orient from on high' are specific phrases from the Troparion for the Nativity of Christ.

[2] From the Kontakion for the Nativity of Christ.

Christmas and Martyrdom

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS BORN!
GLORIFY HIM!

The Gospel reading for the Great Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord is Matthew 2:1-12.  This passage proclaims the Good News that the Savior was born in Bethlehem according to the biblical prophecies.  

The star guides the Magi and they, in turn, bring their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newborn Child in acknowledgment that He is unique and a true King, testified to by cosmic signs that even the Gentile Magi can properly interpret.  Joyous as this is, there is already a hint of the ultimate destiny of Christ in that myrrh is used in the burial customs of the Jews.

On the Second Day of the Nativity, we complete the reading of the second chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel—2:13-23, which immediately introduces us to the tragic reality of the massacre of the innocent boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or younger.  The previous joy of the Savior’s Nativity is replaced by the wailing and lamentation of the mothers of these innocent children, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more” [Jeremiah 2:18].

The shadow of the Cross lay across the infancy narratives in this Gospel, for in the immediate post-Nativity period, these male children become the first of many martyrs who must die because Christ has entered the world, as many of the powerful of this world—following the dark example of King Herod—will not receive Him; they will actually despise Him and turn against His followers.  Thus, the suffering of innocent children is somehow taken up by God as an offering in a sinful world that fluctuates between light and darkness.  

And we must acknowledge that the suffering of innocent children continues to the present time - a suffering directly caused by human wickedness. We now understand that the cave of the Nativity anticipated the tomb of Christ’s burial, and that the swaddling clothes anticipated the grave clothes with which Christ would eventually be bound following His death on the Cross.

On the Third Day of the Nativity, we commemorate the Protomartyr Stephen, the first to die for his faith in Christ in the post-Resurrection community of the newborn Church.  St. Stephen's lengthy speech to his fellow Jews, in which he upbraided them for their lack of faith; and in which he proclaimed Jesus as the Risen and Ascended Christ is recorded in ACTS 7.  His brutal martyrdom by stoning followed as his testimony resulted in a furious and deadly rejection of his convicting words. In fact, "they gnashed their teeth against him." (ACTS 7:54) 

Martyrdom has always been a distinct and powerful witness to Christ.  Actually, “from the beginning” the Incarnation and Martyrdom are inextricably joined together in a world torn by the tension between darkness and light.  To our great joy, we know "that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (JN. 1:5)  

The kontakion for the Feast of Saint Stephen captures the movement between the joy of Christ’s birth and the sobering reality of what Christ’s coming meant for some:

Yesterday the Master assumed our flesh and became our guest;

Today His servant is stoned to death and departs in the flesh:

The glorious first martyr Stephen!

There is no greater witness to Christ than that of the martyrs—flesh and blood men, women and children who gave their lives for the Lord in the sure hope and assurance that eternal life awaited them in the Kingdom of God. 

If we exchange a “Merry Christmas” with others, we always need to be mindful of the commitment we are making to the newborn Christ.  As we temporarily indulge in the days of the Feast, we realize that the Christian life is ultimately a commitment to discipline and restraint, even the “crucifixion” of the flesh with all of its desires, in order to “witness” to Christ as disciples who believe that His advent in the flesh, culminating in His death and resurrection, has prepared a place for us in His eternal Kingdom where there is “life everlasting.”

The Incarnation: A word about the Word!

Toward recovering a genuine Christian vocabulary.


Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS BORN!
GLORIFY HIM!

“He, the Mighty One, the Artificer of all, Himself prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for Himself, and took it for His very own, as the instrument through which He was known and in which He dwelt."  — Saint Athanasius the Great

Within the Church we have a biblical/theological vocabulary that is very expressive of what we believe as Christians.  These words are drawn primarily from the Bible, the Ecumenical Councils, and the theological writings of the great Church Fathers, such as Saint Athanasius the Great, quoted above.  As responsible, believing and practicing Christians, we need to know this vocabulary at least in its most basic forms.

As we continually learn a new technology-driven vocabulary derived from computers to smart phones, so too we need to be alert to the traditional vocabulary of the Church as it has been sanctified over centuries of use.  And this vocabulary should be natural to us – not something foreign, exotic and “only for theologians.”  It does not take a great deal of effort to be theologically literate, and there is no excuse not to be.

As we continue to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, a key term that must be part of the vocabulary of all Orthodox Christians is incarnation.  The Nativity of Christ is the Incarnation of the Son of God as Jesus of Nazareth.  Or, we simply speak of The Incarnation, immediately knowing what that word is referring to.  If we turn to the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, we find the term defined somewhat blandly, in that kind of clipped, compact and objective style found in most dictionaries:

• in•car•na•tion \in-kär-`nā-shǝn\ n (14c)  1 a (1):  the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form (2) cap:  the union of the divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ.

In the Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology, the Orthodox theologian, Father John McGuckin, begins his definition under a fairly long entry of this term as follows:

Incarnation  Incarnation is the concept of the eternal Word of God (the Logos) “becoming flesh” within history for the salvation of the human race.  Incarnation does not simply refer to the act itself (such as the conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin, or the event of Christmas); it stands more generally for the whole nexus of events in the life, teachings, sufferings, and glorification of the Lord, considered as the earthly, embodied activity of the Word [p. 180].

Speaking of expanding our theological vocabulary, we need to further know that we translate the key Greek term Logos as Word, referring of course to the Word of God Who was “with God” and Who “was God,” according to Saint John’s Gospel “in the beginning.”  We also refer to the Word of God as the “Son,” “Wisdom,” and “Power” of God.  It is this Logos/Word of God Who becomes incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth.  

The key verse that is the classical expression of the Incarnation in the New Testament is found in the Gospel according to Saint John 1:14:  “And the Word (Logos) became flesh.”  Incarnation is derived from the Latin word “in the flesh.”  The Greek word for Incarnation would be sarkothenta, meaning “made flesh.” So the Incarnation of the Word of God is the “enfleshment”of the Word, and here “flesh” means the totality of our human nature.  The Word has assumed our human nature and united it to Himself in an indissoluble union that restores the fellowship of God and humankind.  

The sacramental life of the Church is based on the Incarnation, and the potential for created reality to become a vehicle for spiritual reality.  The ultimate manifestation of this is the Eucharist, and the bread and wine “becoming” the Body and Blood of Christ.

Christmas is the time of the year to recall all of this profound reality and recover a genuine Christian vocabulary that expresses our Faith about as well as what is humanly possible. 

This further means that theological words are not dry and abstract concepts when approached with not only respect, but with awe and wonder.  This makes our reading and studying of our theological Tradition exciting – as well as humbling. The words reveal life-transforming truths that if received with prayer and thanksgiving enhance and expand our minds and hearts, so that we might have the “mind of Christ.”

The Nativity Narratives

Dear Parish Faithful,

"The glory of this Child was, that a virgin should bring him forth into the world, and the glory of the Virgin Mother was, that she should have for a Son, a Man who was at the same time God."  — St. Augustine of Hippo

At the beginning of the Nativity Fast I sent out a "Nativity Narrative Test" that was to test your knowledge of the accounts of Christ's Nativity as found in the Gospels of Sts. Matthew and Luke. This was also meant to stimulate your personal reading of the Nativity narratives during this season - especially if you took the quiz and scored poorly! 

When we read these two Gospels we encounter quite a bit of difference in detail.  A good deal of that is accounted for by the fact that St. Matthew's Gospel clearly narrates the events around the Lord's birth from the perspective of St. Joseph; and St. Luke narrates certain events clearly from the perspective of the Virgin Mary. 

Nevertheless, these divergent traditions have provided a good deal of fodder for skeptical readers of the Gospels, who stress these differences with the goal of undermining the integrity of the Gospel accounts. This is a curious case of "reverse fundamentalism" (although coming from scholars/academics): Any discrepancies in the literal reading of these narratives mean that these narratives forfeit their truthfulness.  This is a fundamentalist approach if there ever was one!

However, my point here is not to further explore this issue. My goal, for the  sake of balance, is to simply draw up a list of the many points of  full  - and "fundamental!" -  agreement between Sts. Matthew and Luke on the major events of their respective accounts of Christ's Nativity.

To make my task all that much easier, I am relying on - and conveying to you - just such an exhaustive list compiled by one of the premier American biblical scholars of recent times. This would be Raymond Brown (+1998), who wrote a massive book entitled The Birth of the Messiah, an incredibly detailed commentary on the Nativity narratives as found in the Gospels of Sts. Matthew and Luke. 

As an introduction to his massive study of the Gospels - including their differences at certain points - Brown composed the following list of "points shared," all of which are very significant:

a)  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).

b)  Joseph is of Davidic descent (MATT. 1:16,20; LK. 1:30-35)

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

d)  The conception of the child by Mary is not through intercourse with her husband (MATT. 1:20,23.25; LK. 1:34).

e)  The conception is through the Holy Spirit (MATT. 1:18,20; LK. 1:35)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ultimately, the main point for all of us is to know the Gospel narratives of Christ's Nativity as thoroughly as possible - "inside out" we could say - and marvel at the birth of the Messiah, a Savior, who is "Christ the Lord." (LK. 2:11)

By the way, if you missed that "Nativity Narrative Test" from a few weeks back, but would still like to give it a try, you will find it as an attachment.

Three Key Events on December 13

Dear Parish Faithful,

Today's date of December 13 has a great deal of significance for Orthodox Christians in North America, especially for those of us within the Orthodox Church in America, and even for our local parish of Christ the Savior/Holy Spirit.  

On this date we commemorate the repose in the Lord of Blessed Fr. Herman of Alaska (+1837). We had a wonderful Great Vespers service yesterday evening to commemorate his rebirth into the Kingdom of God (and, if you count our guests, we reached "double digits" in attendance!).  

I have attached his Life from the OCA website. It is very detailed and thus quite lengthy and may take more than one sitting to read through it all. But St. Herman is one of our few North American saints and we should get to know of his wonderful and holy life as well as possible:

Life of St Herman of Alaska (OCA)

In addition, I would like to include a paragraph from Fr. Thomas Hopko's reflection on Fr. Herman as found in his popular book The Winter Pascha.  The entire chapter was read yesterday evening following the service:

By American standards, St. Herman of Alaska, like the Lord Jesus Himself, was a miserable failure.  He made no name for himself. He was not in the public eye.  He wielded no power.  He owned no property.  He had few possessions, if any at all. He had no worldly prestige. He played no role in human affairs.  He partook of no carnal pleasures. He made no money. He died in obscurity among outcast people.

Yet today, more that a hundred years after his death, his icon is venerated in thousands of churches and his name is honored by millions of people whom he is still trying to teach to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness which has been brought to the world by the King who was born in a cavern and killed on a  cross. The example of this man is crucial to the celebration of Christmas - especially in America. (p. 47-48)

It was on December 13, 1983, that Fr. Alexander Schmemann also reposed in the Lord.  Fr. Alexander is one of the greatest figures in the emergence of an autocephalous Orthodox Church here in North America.  It is Fr. Alexander who initiated the liturgical revival in our parishes that make us now strong eucharistic communities.

I studied under him and served with him as an acolyte and  briefly as a deacon in my three years at St. Vladimir's seminary in New York. When our daughter Sophia was born, he visited our humble apartment in Yonkers, NY to see her, congratulate us and spend some time with us. And  believe me, Fr. Schmemann  visiting your apartment was a big thing!

Again, to quote Fr. Hopko from The Winter Pascha:

For those who knew him, and those who will yet come to know him, the day of Fr. Alexander's death will always be a precious part of the Church's celebration of the Christmas-Epiphany season. (p. 49)

When Fr. Schmemann died in 1983, a brief tribute to him was filmed by CBS News.  Reminding me of this, Mother Paula (Vicki Bellas) sent me the following note and link.  I would like to share it with anyone who may be interested.

Fr. Alexander appears briefly at the beginning, so there is a brief glimpse of him and his style. The rest is a series of tributes to him from various bishops, scholars, friends, etc. including the words of Fr. Thomas Hopko, who was his son-in-law.  The video ends with Fr. Alexander's funeral, an extraordinary event that I returned to New York for.  

I recall approaching Matushka Anne Hopko (Fr. Alexander's daughter) and making a comment about the unique atmosphere of the funeral. She smiled, and then replied:  "Yes, just like Pascha!"  That response caught the essence of Fr. Schmemann's life - and his death.

"Bless Father, perhaps you have seen this."
CBS Documentary on Fr. Alexander Schmemann (OCN)

Interestingly enough there is an entry on Fr. Alexander at Wikipedia with a listing of all of his publications. Here is the link:
Fr. Alexander Schmemann (Wikipedia)

And it was also on December 13, that our former parishioner Mother Paula was tonsured as a nun at the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, PA.  I believe this was in 2010. Mother Paula was known in the parish before her tonsuring by her name "in the world" of Vicki Bellas. She transferred to our parish in the early 90's and stayed with us until 2003 when she left for the monastery to "test" her vocation.  I was the one who drove her to the monastery in the Fall of that year.  

When the time for her tonsuring came, a sizeable group from our parish made the trip for the service.  That group consisted of:  Presvytera Deborah and myself, Roberta Robedeau and our former parishioners Dan and Cristina Georgescu, together with the Callender family and Jeannie Markvan and Elena Drach. We somehow managed to stay just ahead of a snowstorm blowing through the region at that time.  

The hieromonk Fr. Alexander Cutler [formerly the Igumen at St. John the Theologian Skete in Hiram, OH] served as the celebrant of the tonsuring, and Fr. Thomas Hopko and I served together with him. It was an emotional event for all of us who were there.  

Many people journey through life, never quite finding a true "vocation," so Mother Paula was blessed in discovering hers through faithfulness to Christ and a life of prayer and service. It is not a parish footnote that a monastic has come out of our parish community.  Rather, it is a true blessing. We can only say "well done" and wish her Many Years!

See also:

A Blessed Event ~ The Tonsure of Mother Paula