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Tonight is the night of the Holy Unction Service. Unction in the Church is linked to healing and strengthening. Unction is linked to the Spirit of God descending--indeed, rushing--onto the one anointed: see I Samuel 16:13, the anointing of David by Samuel.
My prayer for each of you tonight is that with this Holy Unction you will be healed and strengthened in your pilgrimage and that the Holy Spirit will rush on you to complete the gifts of grace He has given each of you through the ascetical struggles you have done, again with His grace, to prepare for Holy Pascha.
May the Lord Who is going to His voluntary and ever-memorable Passion for our salvation, Christ Our True God, have mercy on us and save us for asmuch as He is gracious and compassionate and He loves each of us with a love beyond our understanding. AMEN.
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Isaiah 53:3-5 - He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Matthew 27:45-50 - Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah." And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Nothing is a better meditation for this Great and Holy Friday than the readings posted on the general forum page. Jesus' shameful death by suffocation, done naked on the Cross, absorbs all of the sin, the pain, the shame, the loneliness, the grief of this fallen world and bridges the gap between us and the Father caused by sin. Today as we gaze on Him, let us ponder the awful nature of sin, the awesome nature of the unconditional Divine Love for us, and the price by which we were ransomed. Then the full impact of what it means to die with Him in Baptism so as to rise with Him may begin to sink in and cause the metanoia begun this Great Lent to become life-long. May the Lord Who is going to His voluntary and ever-memorable Passion for our salvation, Christ Our True God, have mercy on us and save us for asmuch as He is gracious and compassionate and He loves each of us with a love beyond our understanding. AMEN.
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Holy Saturday
Lord, it was the compassion You aroused in the Noble Joseph that caused him to ask for Your Body and to place it in his own tomb. Arouse in us this same compassion for those around us, especially those who are poor and without defenders. Help us to be the comfort of those who have no one to pray for them, to those who have no one to offer a word of comfort, and to those who are shunned by the rest of the world.
Lord Jesus, take the things that we hold so dear�the hurts, the thoughts of revenge, the wish for our persecutors to be punished, the desire to impose our will on others�and put them into Your tomb so that, as You rose from the dead to new and everlasting life that is not limited by the bonds of earth, we, too, might rise from the bondage that these habits have placed us in and live the life You came to give us in Baptism. Help us all to rise from the tombs we have constructed around ourselves that seal us in with our own self-righteousness and the Holy Spirit and our brothers and sisters out. Expand our vision and make our love so grow that we will see each one who calls himself your servant as our brother or sister.
A tomb is a cold and lonely place. Help us, Lord, to open ourselves to others and accept them as You have accepted us�unconditionally.
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HOLY SATURDAY EVENING
Did you ever notice that the saving act of Christ--His death on the Cross--and His Glorious Resurrection are both events that involve an earthquake? As He died there was an earthquake and the Temple curtain was torn in two; when He rose victorius there was an earthquake and the stone rolled back.
For believers these earthquakes bracket the central moment of human history. For those who are being lost, we're all nuts.
Christ is Risen!! Indeed He is Risen!!!
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Exodus
1. What do you know about water? Why is it important? Can you live without water?
2. What is the significance of the rock? Relate the rock to our Lord calling Simon Peter "Rock" (Matt 16:18-19)
3. What could be a possible meaning of water flowing from a rock? Water is not only a symbol of life but it is at the foundation of all life on this earth. We cannot live without water. The rock is symbolic of Peter or Peter's faith, depending on your approach to the Lord's spoken word to Peter. In Exodus the rock can also be seen as God Himself nourishing His People. Water flowing from a rock can mean that our very life comes from God in and through the Faith given to the Apostles in and through the Church. Water from the rock, if we think of the rock as symbolizing God can also remind us of the Blood and Water flowing from the side of Christ on the Cross--the source of life for the Church. So this Exodus event prefigures the source of the Church's life, the water flowing form the Side of Christ.
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Romans 5:12-19
1. What is sin? Do you have a sense of sin? What is it to you? What does this do to our relationship with God? With others in the community? Is it easy to get so caught up in our own sin that we forget how awful it is and how spiritually damaging it is? Is this related to how we all tend to forgive ourselves but go hard on others? (To paraphrase Jesus, we need to take the log out of our own eye before trying to take the speck out of the eye of our brother.)
Sin is a reality best understood as an acronym. �Sin� stands for �separation� or �selfishness� or �self-centeredness� Is �normal� or �natural� or �nice.� Separation from God is the separation that is meant here: a life lived with no thought that there could be or is more than what we have experienced or can experience in this mortal sphere. With all the injustice, perishability, limitedness of this mortal sphere, the thought that this is all there is for man to experience and that his death could or would be the end of his existence is simply too unjust to endure. We rebel against it because it seems to cut across and against all the hopes and aspirations that we have. The verb �is� stands for a statement of equality in English. It bridges the two things on either side of it. Given the three choices for �S,� the three choices for �N� really should run up against our sense of what we should be aspiring to as people of faith. The statement should be a call to self-examination since we know that for so many in the world it may not be spoken but is lived. Christians should stand apart. God Himself is �other directed,� the direct opposite of the three �S� choices. We are called to turn the world upside down by reflecting Him in the way we live our lives and relate to others. We ought to live so as to be worthy of the statement made by an ancient Roman who said, �See those Christians, how they love one another.�
2. What is death? Do you relate sin and death? What is the relationship? Is there one?
I�ve heard it said that death is �the inability to learn and grow from that learning.� We become dead spiritually when we live in sin�the separation from God that comes from deciding that we are the center of the universe and creation instead of the Creator; when we see our own needs, wants, and demands as being more important than directing ourselves in service to God and to others in the community�His People. We can become separated from other people very easily in this modern world because we seem to build little worlds of our own and become too busy to meet and live with others. We avoid strangers out of fear�very often justifiable. But in the process, we avoid coming together and forming communities�gatherings of those who possess a �common unity� of belief or work or interest of one sort or another. Separating ourselves from others can cause us to die simply because we lose the ability to interact with those who have gifts and experiences to offer that can help us to continue to grow and learn, learn and grow. We also lose the talent we are given by God because talents that are not developed and shared atrophy and die. Keep in mind the teaching of our Lord concerning the Parable of the Talents. The talent buried in the earth is given to another. Likewise the talent that we have that is not developed and shared with others atrophies and dies�gets �rusty� (Try to do something you haven�t done for awhile and see how difficult it might be to get �back on track� with it.)
3. What is it about death that stirs people? Does it stir something in you? Have you ever given it much thought?
Jesus died. How does His death fit into this picture?
What is �the gift� Paul speaks of? What does the word �gift� mean to you? What is it about a gift that this passage tries to evoke in us? What is the gift alluded to here?
Verse 6 of this chapter gives me the answer. Christ died for us, the ungodly, while we were helpless. He gave us the gift of being heirs of the Kingdom, a gift beyond all our understanding, all our efforts, and all our ability to return a gift in kind. A true gift is one that cannot be earned, cannot be merited, cannot be returned in like measure. A true gift is one that lifts up the one receiving it. God�s gift is the saving act of His Only-Begotten Son Who died and rose from the dead to do away with the distance that mankind had experienced in relation to God the Father. Jesus is a gift in the true sense.
4. As Christians, we talk about sin and death interchangeably. What�s this about?
As Christians, when we speak of those who are no longer in the body, we speak of �falling asleep.� The one who has passed on has passed into the realm to which we travel on pilgrimage from the moment we enter this world. And when we speak of death, we mean that state of the soul in which there is no stirring of the Holy Spirit because the door of the soul is closed to His inspiration. Put another way, death is the state of the soul that is not big enough for anything or anyone else than itself. There is no room for God because the sense of self is so great that it fills the entire soul, leaving no room for another, especially the Other we were created to share this life and eternal life with. The one who is so self-centered as to have no room for the concerns of others, their feelings or their needs, is actually dead�dead spiritually. Christians speak this way because we live in two worlds at the same time: one foot in this present age where we struggle to remain faithful and the other in the Kingdom that we receive in Baptism, Chrismation, and the Eucharist and continue to receive each time we commune in the Holy Mysteries.
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3. What is it about death that stirs people? Does it stir something in you? Have you ever given it much thought? Death is something we tend to put out of our minds, it seems to me. Death is something that our culture likes to hide, to deny, to avoid--talking about it, thinking about it, dealing with it. Death, for this part of human history and in my experience of American culture during the last third of the 20th century, is the new forbidden topic. Like past generations dealt with sex, it seems to me we now deal with death: it's talked about in hushed tones, never in polite company, and never in front of children. Almost as if, by denying it, we can avoid it or control it. Death moves us simply because it is the one thing that confirms that human beings DO NOT and CANNOT control their lives, no matter how we may delude ourselves by our behavior and mindsets that we do. So many of us believe that we are invincible; that we are indispensible; that death happens to others and not to us. Death actually stirs us to quickly put it aside. No matter how many times it is said we refuse to believe that the world will not continue after our funeral. There are many reasons that we deny death. One of them is that we want to have our own agenda and we want to manage that agenda for as long as we can. But as I once observed to my spiritual father, most of us are like people who try to write our names on the top of a bucket of water: most of us will make little impact on the great design of human history. And that frustrates us to no end. Another reason that death stirs us so much is that we have a deep desire for justice and peace, and we somehow believe that we can build it here in this life--not to mention that each of us thinks we have the complete answer if only everyone else will just stop and get on board with our vision. Death signals that our time to get our vision up and running is limited and that, as the psalm says, " . . . put not your trust in princes, in sons of men . . . on that day they die and their plans perish." It also seems to me that death demands that we stop and take stock of our vision. It demands that we ask and seek to answer the eternal questions that have stirred the human race in every age and culture. Who am I? Why am I here? Why is there so much injustice? Why don't people get along? Are there consequences to my actions? What are my obligations toward others? Or should I "do unto others before they do unto me" because there are no consequences other than not "doing" first? Some time ago I was asked to conduct the Vigil Service for a Catholic family because their pastor could not be in two places the same evening. I told them that death is a way for God to let us "get off the treadmill" of our lives for a minute and take a look at ultimate things. The death of a loved one lets us take a bit of time and ask ourselves these questions. It allows us to take a minute and reevaluate our own lives; to get on track with God if we've become slack and forgotten who we are and why we are here. Death allows us to confront the time limited period of another's life and somehow get into the idea that we will one day be in that same position. And what then? We believe in God; we believe that His Son came here to die for us and to bridge the gap caused by our own sin--"separation is normal"--so that we could have that peaceful, just, joyful life that we are all hard-wired to want; we believe that we are destined to live with God for an eternity--an existence without end. And at the death of someone we love, we've got to ask ourselves, "Am I ready to meet my Maker and give an account of my stewardship of the time and talents He has given me"? Am I ready to live with Him for eternity? Have I built my relationship with Him so as to be ready for that? (It would be Hell to live with someone we didn't know and love for a limited time; how much more so for eternity.) And that, to me, is why the Church, in her wisdom, has given us the rich treasury of lived-out experience of those who have gone before us. We have the narrow way illumined by the example of saints and martyrs. We have the Church's life, Christ's life, given to us through the liturgical cycle, the ascetic cycle, the cycle of prayer and spiritual direction. We have the way to make decisions that will enable us so to live that we have no fear of accounting for our stewardship of time, talent, and treasure. We have the means to know and to love Jesus Christ, the beginning , the center, and the end of our lives here and hereafter. It seems to me that death is nothing to fear, but it is not something to ignore either. Christ went through the Veil and came back to proclaim that He is in charge on both sides. He has asked us for a commitment and He has made us a covenant. He says that those who persevere to the end will be saved. He says that His commandment is that we love one another. He says that He calls us friends because we know what He is about--doing the Father's Will in all things--and He says that His friends do the same. Each night, the last prayer I read from my Orthodox prayerbook O Master, Who lovest all men, will not this bed be my grave, or wilt Thou again enlighten my condemned soul with the day. Behold the grave lieth before me; behold death standeth before me . . . and this passage reminds me that "this life which passes so quickly away is nothing compared to that life of blessedness which You have promised to those who remain faithful." It seems to me the better part of wisdom is to keep death before my eyes, not as something to be feared, but as something to help me focus. What is important--rather Who is important? And what does that mean for how I conduct my life so as to be ready for His call?
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Dear Bob,
ALL your meditations are a blessing, but this one was very special. It seems to me, that the only time I see alot of folks display any humility before the Lord is when a loved one or friend has died.
Having said that, a dear fellow church goer who is my contemporary, and who just finished up her master's degree at St. Vladimir Seminary, just lost her husband suddenly yesterday. He was younger than her, (only 43), they were married only a few years now, and he was a model of tall, handsome, healthy Slavic good looks.
Every time someone I know dies lately, It usually takes a day or two for me to stop thinking about them, praying for them, and reflecting on the loss...it really affects me somehow, though I am not always particularly close to them. It just really makes me think about their person and how the world will now be without them. It makes me think about the seriousness of death, and how flippant our society is about achieving eternal life in Heaven. So, I also pray for their souls....I don't know if this sounds strange. Perhaps I feel like this because I am taking death so seriously from a theological and religious point of view?
I am now especially praying for this church friend, for she is a glowing, always happy and smiling, and attractive woman, and a very faithful, loving and committed servant of God...she was so proud and happy that she had found her husband, the love of her life, albeit, later in life... Time is so fleeting, and this temporal life can often be so unfair. We need to be thankful for what we have each and every day, even in the face of uncertainty, sadness and despair, and put our whole faith and hope in our Lord.
In Christ,
Alice
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Alice: Perhaps you are beginning to be open to this because your own pilgrimage is maturing as you realize the things I mentioned. We all have projects that we want to do "sometime in the future" and with aging--me now, not you  --we come to the point where we realize that many of them will not get started and many started will never get finished. You mention praying for those departed souls for a few days after learning of their departure. Maybe it's because I've worked "on the edge of the grave" for my whole career (the past 41 years), but I seem to have people long ago part of my life who come to mind and I feel "prompted" to say a little prayer for their repose. There are so many from my high school class at this point, too. And when I am called to serve a family with a death of someone either a few years older or younger, I feel like lightening has struck close enough to "singe the hair on my leg" if you will: a close one; one to make me really think hard about the direction of my life, my witness, my attitudes. As a result, I find myself letting go of so many things that used to "push my buttons" because, measured against eternity and facing Christ, most of those things aren't worth a hill of beans or my time in fussing over them. But that hasn't made me think I've made any progress, either. Somehow the Desert Father who said at the end of his life that . . . I go to the Lord, as one who hath not yet made a beginning of serving God. resonates with me more and more. I'm not afraid to meet the Lord and I trust His just judgment completely. He is Mercy in Person, the source of all our hope. I think I'm coming to the point of another Here I have toiled with what strength I had to keep the commandments of God: but I am a man, and I know not whether my works have been pleasing in His sight. But the joy we have is in the covenant of Christ's Blood. As St. Paul tells the Corinthians in his second epislte, we are "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body." 2Cor4:10 Jesus gives meaning to all the great and small things that I do or think or say--or that happen to me in any way. And in that, knowing that He will not allow His faithful ones to undergo any test that they cannot stand, that He is with us always as He promised, is the joy that carries me through all of my life and causes me to draw others to Christ by just being who I am IN HIM. In Christ, BOB
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I wrote "We all will die alone" and I wondered if I'd be challenged by this assertion. After over 1900 views, no one has challenged that statement. If no one else does, I have to challenge myself. For the believer, that statement is simply silly and certainly not true. God has made a covenant with us and will never abandon us. As the story in the Desert Fathers teaches, God will not abandon us, even when we deny Him, renounce our baptism, and walk completely away. That doesn't mean that we'll get a pass into His Kingdom since He does continue to respect our free will and our freely made choices. On the other hand, He is faithful to His promise that the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. I am convinced that God will not allow His faithful ones to undergo corruption: the corruption of being lost because He abandons us to the world that wants to destroy not only the body but the soul as well. So the answer to that silly statement is the words of a Byzantine Vespers hymn I once heard, "God is with us, understand this ye nations and submit yourselves, for God is with us." No believer will ever be alone because of the covenant created by Baptism and Chrismation; the covenant nourished continually by the Eucharist. It is this knowledge--that deeply held relationship with Christ--that allowed the Christian martyrs in every age to face death, even if physically they were alone, and be unafraid. After all, what's the worst thing that someone can do to us here? Kill me and I am tossed into the Hands of the Father Who created me and loves me from eternity before He created the earth I live on. So what kind of penalty is that? In Christ Who calls us to remember we are never alone, BOB
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I attended a pre-funeral blessing service (before body is sent back to his home city for funeral and burial) at St. Vladimir's Seminary (OCA) chapel. The service was quite interesting and touching. What was most touching is that the Priest said that it is Orthodox tradition (I have felt this in my heart, but never was taught it anywhere) that when we approach the casket to say goodbye, that we should forgive the deceased, and ask the deceased to forgive us! How beautiful. That confirms to me that we are all one communion, one Church united in death and life. The deceased is not alone...with these beautiful church services, with their rich blessings and prayers, how could he be? We are all united in soul and spirit, if we are people of God!
Some thoughts--
after a long, sad day,
Alice
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Genesis 12:1-4
1. What�s in a name? What�s the significance of receiving a new name?
We were given a saint�s name at Baptism. Why?
How can someone�s name be a blessing? Don�t blessings only come from God? What about the Name of Jesus? How can each one of us be a blessing to others in a similar way? A name is supposed to describe the person, thing, or object that is used to refer to him or it. It is linked to the idea that a name somehow describes the deep essence of the person, thing, or object. To name someone or something is also to be able to understand it on some or several levels. The significance of receiving a new name, then, is that something essential has changed in the person or object. That lump of stuff that starts out as "dough" becomes something vastly different by the time we refer to it later at "bread." I've been told that one reason we receive a saint's name in Baptism is that we hope to have a powerful intercessor for us before the Throne of God. A second reason is that it is hoped that we will, by God's gracious gift, receive some or all of the virtues and gifts that marked the saint whose name we bear. A person's name may be a blessing if he lives his life so as to be a blessing. In that way, when people call his name to mind and memory of him comes along with mention of the name, they are reminded of what a gift from God he is and they may be prompted by the Holy Spirit to give thanks for his being in their lives. Blessings do, indeed, come only from God. And He blesses us through others that the Holy Spirit is able to work in and through. I think of it in this story There was a man sitting on his porch watching the rain come down and the river rise. The river rose until it came up the porch. So the man went inside, moved his furniture to the second floor, and looked out the window. The water rose to the second floor windowsill.
Along came two men in a rowboat. �Hey, buddy, come with us. The water�s rising and you might drown.� �Don�t worry about me,� the man replied. �God is going to save me.�
The water rose and the man went to the third floor. The water rose to the third floor windowsill.
Along came two men in a motorboat. �Hey, buddy, come with us. The water�s rising and you might drown.� �Don�t worry about me,� the man replied. �God is going to save me.�
The water rose and the man went out onto the roof and climbed to the top of the chimney. The water rose to one brick short of the top of the chimney.
Along came two men in a helicopter and threw down a rope ladder. �Hey, buddy, come with us. The water�s rising and you might drown.� �Don�t worry about me,� the man replied. �God is going to save me.�
The water rose, the man drowned, and he went to meet God.
�God,� the man said. �I believed in You, I hoped in You, I trusted you and You didn�t come to save me as You promised.�
To which God replied, �I sent you two men in a rowboat, two men in a motorboat, and two men in a helicopter with a rope ladder. What more did you want Me to do for you?� There is no greater name in Heaven, on earth, or under the earth than the Holy Name of Jesus. His Name is a blessing just to hear it, to read it, to speak it. Each one of us can be a blessing to others by being as faithful to the commands of Christ as we can. Then the Holy Spirit can work in us, leavening our lives for His purposes. In the process we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit to serve others and thereby become a blessing to and for them.
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the Priest said that it is Orthodox tradition What a profound thought!!! And what a wonderful thing to incorporate into one's life and practice fo the Faith. Alice, thanks for the one thing I've learned today. So the day's not a waste. In Christ, BOB
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2. Has my spiritual growth this Lent made me more likely to forgive first and not hold a grudge? Have I let go of long-held hurts that may have been baggage for me and been dragging my spiritual life down? Has Forgiveness Sunday become for me a way of life or was it something I did then and moved on from?
3. Have I begun to do the hard work of praying for those who REALLY hate me? Who REALLY want to see me fail? Have I forgiven as Jesus did from the Cross--"Father, forgive them; they know not what they do." It takes time to grow spiritually. It takes effort. It takes quiet. It takes discipline. All these are things that we seem to be able to put together for any other effort of life in this world except the life that will continue into eternity. If it is a career, we take the time, make the effort, focus our energy and give up other things that get in the way, and we block out whatever is "noise" that threatens to break our efforts. If it is becoming proficient in a sport, we do the same. Learning a skill, ditto. But the spiritual life we think can be done on the cheap--little time, little effort, a pass at discipline if we even think about it. Quiet?? Not likely because we've got too much to "do." But all the things we put so much effort into all come to nothing. We might get an award and there is a temporary "high." But then the real business of life starts the day after and the award gathers dust on the shelf. Even worse, years pass and we can wonder what it was all about anyway. Our life with Christ, however, continues on into eternity because He made a covenant with us in His Blood. He sealed it; promises it; will do it. If He makes so much effort for us, why do we take so little with Him? And what about forgiveness? Some of us have already celebrated Forgiveness Sunday Vespers and have plunged into Great Lent. Some of our brethren still await that day. But for all of us the challenge is to adopt the ongoing forgiving attitude that is embodied in Forgiveness Sunday Vespers. I read the account of His Eminence Job of the OCA prostrating himself in front of another bishop and asking for forgiveness. I wonder if I could do that. And I have to admit today that he is miles down the road spiritually from where I stand with my pride intact and probably likely not to even ask forgiveness in some situations let alone making that outward expression of Our Lord's humility. I know I have a lot of work to get started in the area of the radical forgiveness that is the title of another thread. Radical forgiveness, it seems to me, is such that one does not even hesitate to forgive or ask for forgiveness. It springs from the goodness--the godliness--that is already firmly rooted in the heart. And to have that goodness--that godliness--one must start by praying for the Lord's forgiveness and His grace to help clean up and make the heart into the "good soil" mentioned in the Parable of the Sower so that His goodness, His godliness can take root to produce the kind of virtue it takes for radical forgiveness to become a way of life. A good start is to get to the Mystery of Confession and make the forgiveness question one of the ones in examining my conscience. I had a penance once from confession related to radical forgiveness. It was that I was required to pray for people who I really disliked whenever the thought of them entered my mind and I was tempted to spend time thinking how I could bide my time and get back at them. Talk about a tough penance. There was no time limit to it--one day or two days or a week. I was asked to make it a part of my life. I have to remind myself constantly about doing it. I've found it's easier to try to block the people out of my mind than to make the Gospel move of praying for them--almost like thinking if I don't pray for them Christ will take care of them for me. What an awful thought. But a pretty accurate description of my own struggle. Does it sound familiar to anyone else? But to forgive and ask the Lord to forgive someone is "putting on Christ" and that's the reason we've got the discipline of Great Lent in the first place: to get us back on track; to get us "retooled" in the spiritual life. So I'm trying to take back the penance and make it a habit. Talk about a tough penance. One last thing...I find it most perplexing that Jesus said, "No greater love has a man than that he lay down his life for his friends." Elsewhere Jesus is clear that even the Pharisees love those who love them, so loving those who love us is not automatically a virtue. What IS a virtue is loving those who hate us. Some will not like what I am about to suggest here...but here it is anyway...Jesus was speaking, obviously, of his own "laying down his life for his friends" when he made that statement. However, who does Jesus consider his "friends"? "But God commended his love toward us in that while we were YET SINNERS (enemies of God!)Christ died for us." Is not our Lord enjoining upon us to lay down our lives even for our enemies...calling them friends? I can only wonder what a broader realization of this might do for Catholic/Orthodox ecumenism.
Jason One of the things I love about this forum is that there are so many people wrestling with the Gospel and the Christian life here like I am. I receive so much from each of you. I think Jason is on to something here I hadn't even begun to consider. Jason seems to suggest that Jesus is calling every human being His friends, including the very people who have crucified Him. And given that He accepted all of His life-giving Passion as the loving Hand of the Father, it is so true. So now we've got a big example of what it means to "put on Christ" and be His living icons. I ask myself if I've even begun. And I don't really like the answer so I'm avoiding looking at myself in the mirror today. 6. When Pascha arrives will I lose all this changed life and return to being the same person that I was on Forgiveness Sunday? If so, what has Lent meant--REALLY? Do I make an idol of the disciplines I undertake for this Holy Season? An idol that I will cast aside because my heart is not converted, but merely the same fickle one I started Lent with? When last Pascha rolled around, I was convinced that this whole experience must become my way of life. And then I drifted off into routine after a couple months. "Stuff" happened; "things" came up; "duties" and "obligations" and "noise" got in the way and veiled the lessons. But Great Lent is back and I've got another chance. I plan to make another attempt at kneading this into my heart--like yeast into dough. I hope with the help of His Grace to make a better outcome by Pascha this year. In Christ, BOB
Last edited by theophan; 02/19/08 03:07 PM. Reason: spelling
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 7,392 Likes: 106
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Moderator Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 7,392 Likes: 106 |
Romans 8:8-11
Introduction:
In Great Lent and throughout the Church�s liturgical cycle, Jesus �opens� things for us. He opened the eyes of the blind in the Gospel and He gives us the eyes of faith so that we can see things that physical eyes cannot see�so that we do not judge things simply by appearance. He opens our ears and our minds, as He did for the different people in the Gospel, so that we may hear Him and understand what He says to us. He opens His life to us in the Liturgy and through all of the Church�s Mysteries. What the nature of that life is is always being unfolded for us in greater detail. Each year should open a bit more of the Mystery that He invites us to share with Him or at least give us a new look at the same thing from a different angle. Some of this understanding is for this present life alone. But He also prepares us for His own death and resurrection during this Holy Season. In doing so, He also begins to lead us to relate His experience to our own eventual death. He begins to show us that all the things we have experienced during this Lenten journey have a dimension far beyond what we can see and hear in this present world. He prepares us for the experience of eternity�something we can only partially understand here and now. But that�s the final point: we must take a leap of faith and tell Him that we trust Him.
1. Do you think the people St. Paul was writing to understood what it meant to have �the spirit of God� in them? How about you? What does it mean to have the Spirit of God in you? Is it something we feel as an intense experience? Should we? Is it a gradual growth in experience?
No, I don�t think they understood it. Yet, I do believe that the Lord opens our mind�s and spirit�s understanding to what it means, as we are able to understand it and at the time He knows we have achieved the proper level of spiritual development to understand it. In that light, perhaps the people did understand it, or at least something of it. My understanding of what it means to have the Spirit of God in me has undergone a tremendous growth over the past few years. I believe that as St. John of the Ladder tells us each of us is given the ladder he needs to come to the height that God wills for us in our growth of relationship with Him. I believe that, for me, this experience has been and is a gradual growth experience whereby God has revealed something of Himself as I have been ready and receptive to growth in relationship. It has not been an even process. Sometimes there have been long periods of seeming dryness wherein I have felt unable to grow or even to pray. But this has also been a process of emptying out �the me� in me (perhaps the bits and pieces of self-centeredness) so that the space could be filled with Him. Others tell me that they have experienced the type of experience that St. Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. Recently, for example, I stumbled onto the idea in some reading that God is working with each one of his creatures in some way and that His working may not be readily apparent. It indicated that there were different levels of spiritual experience and that God works with each one on the level that He knows the person is on with Him. That is why it is important not to disturb the faith of �one of these little ones� as the Lord tells us. Another truth that I have seen repeated by the saints is that the one who thinks himself advanced in the spiritual life has not even begun to enter it. The Desert Fathers take that in a similar direction when they tell us that if we could see ourselves as nothing that that would be some advance. I came away with the suggestion that each of us is a clay pot�like those that are used for growing flowers: they come in different sizes, from the little ones that hold a few tablespoons of soil to the ones that are large enough to hold shovels full. Each of us is created by God. Each of us is loved equally by God. Each of us has been given a measure of gifts to grow, develop, and nurture for the good of the others in the community. In that way, �to him to whom much is given, much will be expected.� We need to teach by word and example in a spirit of service and true humility. That supports the saying that we may be the only Bible some people ever read.
2. Am I closer to being in �the spirit of God� this year? Should I pray for more of the Spirit of God in me, whatever my level of experience of Him now?
I�ll leave that first answer to Our Lord. Yes, I should pray for more of the Spirit of God.
3. What is St. Paul referring to here when he speaks about flesh and spirit?
A footnote in the Revised NAB for this section of Scripture says that
�Christian life is therefore the experience of a constant challenge to put to death the evil deeds of the body through the life of the spirit.� (Note for Romans 8:13)
What�s this all about?
Evil is defined as something that is bad but which someone tries to convince us is actually good or good for us. That is what makes it evil: defining something bad as good or good for us. The pull of this world and its values gives our earthly nature (body) its rationale for believing that this world is all there is of life and for believing that it is silly to live or believe otherwise. We, being born again of water and the Holy Spirit, know better. So we have a constant struggle to root out the pull of this world and the tendency to do the works of this world, which are counter to Christ and to our commitment to Him. In this light, the Crown of Thorns that Our Lord had beaten into His scalp is not only physical but symbolic: from the Parable of the Sower, the thorns are distractions or sins that threaten to choke out the focus on the Father�s Will and the Father�s Life (of grace) in us.
4. A commentary article I read refers to being �in the flesh� as being someone who lives for himself alone on a purely human level. What does that mean?. Can we label this as being �self-centered� or �selfish�? How does this compare to what we are called to be in Christ? Where should we be?
The phrase is self-defining and I agree with it totally. We can label it two ways: selfish and self-centered. It is the opposite of what we are called to be in Christ. We should be constantly developing our relationship with Him, knowing that without Him we can do nothing (�I am the Vine and you are the branches. . . �), that His grace (life) is sufficient for us, and that His help is just a prayer-breath away. We need always to be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to prayer and asking for help. We also must come to the stature of Christ in being more loving, more generous, more concerned for the neighbor God places in our paths each day.
5. The whole of Christianity can be summed up by saying that �God became man in order that man might become like God.�
How do we do this and how does it compare to being �in the flesh� as just defined? How do we become �like God�?
By becoming more loving, charitable, generous, virtuous; by becoming less centered on self and more concerned with incorporating the Gospel into the pattern and fabric of one�s life.
6. We have a promise of resurrection in this passage. Is it spiritual only? Or is there something more?
Resurrection from the dead is something that is meant to include our mortal body, though in a way that is like Christ�s. After the Resurrection, His Body had attributes that we do not now have: He was not limited by the constraints of time, space, and distance. I believe that we get glimpses of the reality when we hear Job saying �I know that my Redeemer lives and on the Last Day I will rise again and in my body I shall see God my Savior. I, myself, shall see Him, with my own eyes I shall gaze on Him . . . �; when we read about the experiences of some of the saints who describe the experience of the Divine and Uncreated Light; and when we read the witness of the Gospel of those who met the Risen Lord and interacted with Him.
7. How do we know if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us?
I believe that the closer we come to having the Spirit dwell and work in us the less conscious knowledge or awareness of this experience we have. To come closer to God, we must come to the measure of His Holiness and the measure of His Holiness is the degree of humility we come to. Humility at this point translates to not claiming to have the Spirit dwelling or working in us. Rather it is the quiet thanking of God in the inmost part of our being when someone else tells us that he/she sees Christ working in us. As St. Paul has it, �Christ must increase and I must decrease.� We are to be the magnet that draws others to Christ because they see something of Him in us and they want it too. We are to be a mirror, to mirror Christ and let others see His reflection in us and in our words and deeds, making us disappear at the same time. Alternatively, the Spirit of the One Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us when someone else tells us that he/she was moved by our example or life to make a greater commitment to Christ or that our example and/or life so edified him/her that he/she was reminded of Christ and His Gospel.
Last edited by theophan; 04/17/08 05:34 PM.
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