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!

 

"To be and to appear as one body formed of different members ..."

 

St. Maximus the Confessor

 

 Dear Parish Faithful,

I hope that everyone enjoys a good beginning to the Forty-day Nativity Fast that starts today. A "good beginning" can go a long way in creating the atmosphere of keeping a good spirit up to the Feast. 

Vespers this evening at 7:00 p.m. could add to that good beginning!

Below is a passage that is not directly related to the upcoming Feast of the Lord's Nativity, but one that I shared in Church recently, and which you may want to look over more carefully.

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It is in this way that the holy Church of God will be shown to be active among us in the same way as God, as an image reflects its archetype. For many and of nearly boundless number are the men, women and children who are distinct from one another and vastly different by birth and appearance, by race and language, by way of life and age, by opinions and skills, by manners and customs, by pursuits and studies, and still again by reputation, fortune, characteristics and habits: all are born into the Church and through it are reborn and recreated in the Spirit. To all in equal measures it gives and bestows one divine form and designation: to be Christ's and to bear his name. In accordance with faith it gives to all a single, simple, whole and indivisible condition which does not allow us to bring to mind the existence of myriads of differences among them, even if they do exist, through universal relationship and union of all things with it. It is through it that absolutely no one at all is in himself separated from the community since everyone converges with all the rest and joins together with them by the one simple and indivisible grace and power of faith. "For all," it is said, "had but one heart and one mind." (Acts 4:32) Thus to be and to appear as one body formed of different members is really worthy of Christ himself, our true head, in whom says the divine Apostle, "there is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither circumcision or uncircumcision, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither slave nor free, but he is all and in all." (Col. 3:11) It is he who encloses in himself all beings by the unique, simple and infinitely wise power of goodness.  - St. Maximus the Confessor 

 

This remarkable passage from the remarkable St. Maximus the Confessor (+662) clearly indicates that if the Church is understood as an "institution," it is an institution unlike no other in the world. The Church unites what is disunited in the world - men, women and children from innumerable backgrounds. The unity of the Church is stressed in this passage by the saint, in order to remind us that all natural divisions and differences within humanity cannot possibly be the source of unnatural - that is, sinful - divisions and differences in the Church. 

The stress on unity does not mean that unique distinctiveness among the members of the Church is absorbed in some kind of collective. Quite the contrary. The personal uniqueness of every member of the Church is enhanced and recognized within the unity of the Church, made up of all who bear the name of Christ. Be that as it may, this is a wonderful passage that reminds us as we think on it and "unpack" its profound meaning, of the glory of the Church, and one that we can return to often to remind us of the blessings of grace that we receive within the unity of the Body of Christ.

 

Forty Shopping (and Fasting) Days Until Christmas

Dear Parish Faithful,

Here is a meditation from a few years back that I do not overly hesitate to send yet again, because the issues presented here for us to think hard about ("meditate" on), are certainly with us today and are far from being resolved: "There is nothing new under the sun." I hope everyone is prepared to make a real effort to embrace the forty-day Nativity Fast on a level that works for you and your family and that commits us to the life of the Church in a meaningful manner. If we are not prepared, perhaps what you read here will alert you to the Season we are now entering. 

~ Fr. Steven
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Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Forty Shopping (and Fasting) Days Until Christmas

On Wednesday, November 15, we will observe the first day of the 40-day Nativity/Advent Fast, meant to prepare us for the advent of the Son of God in the flesh, celebrated on December 25. (The Western observance is from the four Advent Sundays before Christmas). For some/many of us this might very well catch us unaware and unprepared. However, as the saying goes, “it is what it is,” and so the church calendar directs us to enter into this sacred season in just a few days. This indicates an intensification of the perennial “battle of the calendars” that every Orthodox Christian is engaged in consciously or unconsciously. The two calendars – the ecclesial and the secular – represent the Church and “the world” respectively. Often, there is an underlying tension between these two spheres.

Because of that tension between the two, I believe that we find ourselves in the rather peculiar situation of being ascetical and consumerist simultaneously. To fast, pray and be charitable is to lead a simplified life that is based around restraint, a certain discipline and a primary choice to live according to the principles of the Gospel in a highly secularized and increasingly hedonistic world. That is what it means to be ascetical. And to be an ascetic is not to be a fanatic, but to follow the words of Christ who taught us to practice "self-denial" (MK. 8:34). It further means to focus upon Christ amidst an ever-increasing amount of distractions and diversions. Even with the best of intentions and a firm resolve that is not easy! From our historical perspective of being alive in the twenty-first century, and leading the “good life” where everything is readily available, practicing any form of voluntary self-restraint is tantamount to bearing a cross. Perhaps fulfilling some modest goals based on the Gospel in today’s world, such as it is, amounts to a Christian witness, unspectacular as those goals may be. 

Yet, as our society counts down the remaining shopping days until Christmas; and as our spending is seen as almost a patriotic act of contributing to the build-up of our failing economy; and as we want to “fit in” – especially for the sake of our children – we also are prone (or just waiting) to unleashing the “consumer within” always alert to the joys of shopping, spending and accumulating. When you add in the unending “entertainment” that is designed to create a holiday season atmosphere, it can all get rather overwhelming. Certainly, these are some of the joys of family life, and we feel a deep satisfaction when we surround our children with the warmth and security that the sharing of gifts brings to our domestic lives. Perhaps, though, we can be vigilant about knowing when “enough is enough;” or even better that “enough is a feast.” An awareness – combined with sharing - of those who have next to nothing is also a way of overcoming our own self-absorption and expanding our notion of the “neighbor.”

Therefore, to be both an ascetic and a consumer is indicative of the challenges facing us as Christians in a world that clearly favors and “caters” to our consumerist tendencies. To speak honestly, this is a difficult and uneasy balance to maintain. How can it possibly be otherwise, when to live ascetically is to restrain those very consumerist tendencies? I believe that what we are essentially trying to maintain is our identity as Orthodox Christians within the confines of a culture either indifferent or hostile to Christianity. 

If the Church remains an essential part of the build-up toward Christmas, then we can go a long way in maintaining that balance. Although I do not particularly like putting it this way, I would contend that if the church is a place of choice that at least “competes” with the mall, then that again may be one of the modest victories in the underlying battle for our ultimate loyalty that a consumerist Christmas season awakens us to. The Church directs us to fast before we feast. Does that make any sense? Do we understand the theological/spiritual principles that is behind such an approach? Can we develop some domestic strategies that will give us the opportunity to put that into practice to at least some extent? Do we care enough?

The final question always returns us to the question that Jesus asked of his initial disciples:  “Who do you say that I am?” If we confess together with St. Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then we know where we stand as the “battle of the calendars” intensifies for the next forty days. In such a way, these forty days will result in a meaningful journey toward the mystery of the Incarnation rather than in an exhaustive excursion toward a vapid winter holiday. The choice is ours to make.

Things to do: 

+ Embrace fasting, prayers and almsgiving with consistency. 

+ Read the Scriptures with regularity. Be sure to read the Nativity narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Also the Prologue of in St. John's Gospel. Share this reading with the family, bringing the children into the conversation about the birth of Christ.

+ Choose a good book of Orthodox literature to read during this Season.

+ Be aware and attentive to the liturgical services during the upcoming forty days. Make a point of being at some of the pre-Nativity services from December 20 - 24.

+ Prepare to confess your sins in the Sacrament of Confession.

The Angelic World

 

 

 Dear Parish Faithful,

The passage below is taken from a homily by the late Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon. The title is the "Synaxis of the Holy Angels," and it was delivered on November 8, 2005, the date on which we commemorate the Archangels Michael and Gabriel and and all of the bodiless powers. We celebrated this feast just this week with Great Vespers and the Liturgy. And we also chanted an Akathist Hymn to Archangel Michael the day after the feast. The feast is already past, but this is a timely excerpt from the end of this fine homily that I wanted to share with the parish. And since the Liturgy on the Lord's Day is approaching, an "event" in which the angels are together with us and serving with us, this passage is a good reminder as to where we need to turn our gaze and "attention" so as not to become indifferent to the invisible world:
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My beloved brothers and sisters, we live in a materialistic world, in a world, in a culture - a so-called culture, at any rate - which deals with nothing but matter. How will we satisfy our material needs, how will we increase our bodily enjoyment, how will we increase our pleasure. Our world today is nothing but a struggle to increase our standard of living, our wealth, a struggle without end, a struggle which subjects us to mental and physical fatigue and makes us lose our faith in a world which is not material. So the angels today, my beloved brothers and sisters, are calling us to leave the earth, to think that our destiny is to be together with the angels close to God, because that is where our happiness lies and not in the material goods of this world. And that is precisely why today's feast is an opportunity that our Church uses to send a message that there is an intangible world, that matter is not everything, that our destiny is to unite with this intangible world and to be close to the glory of God.

...Our ancestors lived with this faith in the angelic world. They believed that angels accompany them in their journeys and that at the end of their lives, angels receive their souls and take them to the throne of God. Let us acquire this simple faith again, my dear brothers and sisters, in this materialistic world in which we live. Let us be a light, a witness, a true witness to the glory of God. Amen!

From Receive One Another - 101 Sermons by Metropolitan John of Pergamon.

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 Gadarenedemoniac, 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 yesterday 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 is 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.

The healing of the Gadarene demoniac is a challenging narrative, indeed. Yet, even for us in the 21st c. it is an episode in which the Gospel is proclaimed: The "Good News: of the victory of Christ over the "evil one!"