Great and Holy Thursday — God and Man Suffer and Love as One

St. Ephrem helps us as we seek to identify with and participate in the suffering-love of the God/Man who was/is/will identify with our suffering and participate in it ”for the life of the world.”

“The evening before our Lord gave himself up to death he shared his own body with his Apostles and offered them his blood, with the command that they were to do what he had done in order to keep the memory of his Passion alive. Then a strange thing happened. Earlier Jesus had charged his disciples not to fear death. Do not be afraid of those who have power to kill ­your body, he had said. But now he himself showed fear, and ­begged to be spared the cup of suffering. Father, he prayed if it be possible, let this cup pass me by. How are we to explain this?

The answer is that our Lord’s petition was wrung from the human weakness he had made his own. There was no pretence about his incarnation; it was absolutely real. And since the donning of our poor humanity had made him puny and defenceless, it was only natural that he should experience fear and alarm. Eating to alleviate hunger, showing weariness after exertion, and revealing human weakness by the need for sleep were all the effects of his taking our flesh and clothing himself with our infirmity. Consequently when the moment of death drew near, he necessarily experienced the ultimate frailty of our human condition; he was gripped by a dreadful horror of ­dying.

It was then that Jesus said to his disciples: Stay awake and pray that you may be spared the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And in answer to our question he might well say: ‘When you are afraid, it is not your spirit that trembles but your human ­weakness. Remember then that I myself tasted the fear of death in my desire to convince you that I truly shared your flesh and blood.’

A further answer to our question is that Jesus wished to teach his disciples how to commit themselves to God both in life and in death. His own divine knowledge made him supremely wise, yet he prayed for what his Father judged to be expedient. How much more ought we ignorant men to surrender our wills to God’s omniscience!

We may also tell ourselves that we too were in our Lord’s mind as he prayed. In time of temptation our minds become confused and our imagination runs riot. By persevering in prayer Jesus was showing us how much we ourselves need to pray if we are to escape the wiles and snares of the devil. It is only by constant prayer that we gain control of our distracted thoughts.

Finally, there is our Lord’s desire to strengthen all who are afraid of death. By letting them see that he himself had expe­rienced fear he would show them that fear does not necessarily lead to sin, provided one continues to resist it. This is the force of our Lord’s concluding prayer: Not my will, Father, but yours be done. He is saying: ‘Yes, Father, I am ready to die in order to bring life to many.’” Source: St Ephrem of Syria, Diatessaron 20.3-4, 6-7 (CSCO 145:201-204); Word in Season II, 2^nd ed.

Plumb the depths of your heart and from that Holy of Holies, watch and pray by the power of the Holy Spirit…

Fr. Thomas

The Church’s Compromise with Secularism

I was born and raised in the context of the Body of Christ — the Church. Over the course of my life I have seen and, unfortunately participated in, in a variety of ways, the spirit of “secularism.” One aspect of my transformation in Christ Jesus has been to adopt a commitment and way of life that results in the rooting out of this spirit under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.)

Now, the reality of “secularism,” in the world and in the Church is not all that easy to define. Nor is it always easy to detect. On the other hand, it is sometimes so obvious and easy to identify. That is, in fact, what makes it so dangerous. You can’t pin it down. It morphs like bacteria, becoming immune to the “cure” we create for it. That methodology, the “this will cure that” approach, is one of its strategies — life according to the formula. That is not to say that the word “cure” is wrong. It is to say that the definition of “cure” is inaccurate. It works for a while. But then, POW, down you go.

I do not propose to define “secularism.” I have several friends who are much more competent in that arena and am happy to refer you to them. For my part, I desire to do two things. First, to remind us of the the danger; and, second, point to a resource that might help in a way that is not just one more “pseudo-cure” but the real therapy that leads to a authentic “cure.”

Fr. Stephen, has posted a wonderful reflection on the subject of “secularism” and how it has crept into the Church and led many outside the Church to a life of emptiness in spite of its promise to provide fullness. It can be read here. In addition, I recommend For the Life of the World, by Fr. Alexander Schmemann, upon which the post is based.

God Bless,

Fr. Thomas

Prayer as the Alpha and Omega of Discipleship

The first and last motivation and action of the disciple is prayer. You might say, “I thought the first and last action was ‘love.’ Isn’t that the greatest commandment? Of course you are right. It is. And the way to authentic love as an action is prayer in its essential form and content.

“What is prayer? What is its essence? How can we learn to pray? What does the spirit of the Christian experience as he prays in humility of heart?

All such questions should constantly occupy the mind and heart of the believer, for in prayer man converses with God, he enters, through grace, into communion with Him, and lives in God. And the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church give answers to all these questions, based on the grace-given enlightenment which is acquired through the experience of practicing prayer – experience equally accessible to the simple and to the wise.

Prayer is the test of everything; prayer is also the source of everything; prayer is the driving force of everything; prayer is also the director of everything. If prayer is right, everything is right. For prayer will not allow anything to go wrong…

What then is prayer? Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God in praise and thanksgiving to Him and in supplication for the good things that we need, both spiritual and physical. The essence of prayer is therefore the spiritual lifting of the heart towards God. Th mind in the heart stands consciously before the face of God, filled with due reverence, and begins to our itself out before Him. This is spiritual prayer, and all prayer should be of this nature.” St. Theophan the Recluse, The Art of Prayer, p. 51 & 53

We have a snapshot of prayer as St. Theophan is describing it displayed for us in the Old Testament.

[1] In the year that King Uzzi’ah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
[2] Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
[3] And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
[4] And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
[5] And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
[6] Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
[7] And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
[8] And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Isaiah 6.1-8)

What is more, we have an interpretive presentation of both of these descriptions in the classic, The Way of the Pilgrim.

“…St. Paul clearly states that prayer should precede all actions. ‘First of all, thee should be prayers offered’ (1 Tim. 2:1). The Apostle’s directive indicates that the act of prayer comes first; it comes before everything else. The Christian is expected to perform many good works, but the act of prayer is fundamental because without prayer it is not possible to do good. Without frequent prayer it is not possible to find one’s way to God, to understand truth, and to crucify the lusts of the flesh. Only fidelity to prayer will lead a person to enlightenment and union with Christ… The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness when we do not know how to pray (Rom. 8:26). Consequently, our only contribution toward perfection in prayer, the mother of all spiritual good, is regularity and constancy.” (pg.8)

What then could the Lord be saying in all of this? If prayer is the first thing and love is its fruit, then the event/reality in experience that is prayer is the life-creating and offering encounter of God and man. It is the intersection and dynamic union of revelation and repentance the fruit of which is love in all of its various forms and effects — purification, illumination, and deification. Is this not, in essence, to borrow other words, “the fear of the Lord”?! Truly, the fear of the Lord is the beginning, end, and essence of all prayer, and the beginning and end of all things that concern the life of the disciple — love.

Fr. Thomas

Reconciliation – The True Way that Offers Life in Fullness

When there is a situation of conflict, what is the disciple of Christ Jesus to do? There are three extreme options:

• Fight-force the enemy to relent or destroy the enemy
• Flight-avoid addressing the circumstance and the enemy
• Surrender-submit to the slavery the enemy commands

In all of these extreme responses, there is aggression and resistance. Even the surrender option is a form of passive resistance. It too, is a form of aggression. All of these options really do not address the dilemma. Rather, they attempt to solve it by making a very big assumption. The other person is the “enemy.” They are wrong and I am right. I am wrong and they are right. Very much of an either/or situation.

What is missing is, at least the opportunity for a meeting or encounter to occur that has the possibility of a new future. All three responses issue forth from a set of givens that will, as a result of the response, continue to be the given.

The Lord teaches us another way. Not one among many ways, but The Way. It is love. The Lord commissioned His Apostles:

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.’” (Matthew 28.18-20)

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13.34-35)

“For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.” (Ephesians 2.14-16)

Love is the Truth that has the power to potentially transform all situations. It is the option that offers a new future – Life – in the face of a set of circumstances that seem to only offer slavery and death in some form or another.

Now, it needs to be said that the option of Love/Loving that Jesus is describing and embodying, is not rigid legalism, nor is it yielding to whatever the other or the circumstance commands. This is the heart of true reconciliation. Reconciliation is not an attempt to create peace between right and wrong, good and evil. Reconciliation is intended to destroy evil so that good may reign. Now, of course that sounds like one of the options mentioned previously that I said didn’t lead to a life-creating result. Herein lives the delusion. The delusion is that reconciliation is the desire to preserve and honor the right of the other to believe whatever “works for them.” This is not the case. The heart of reconciliation is the realization of and commitment to the Truth by both parties. The heart of reconciliation is the destruction of what divides us and the embrace of what unites us – we become the “one new man.” 1+1=1 in Christ ! ! !

Our responsibility is to allow the Holy Spirit to unite us with Christ Jesus and transform our every motivation, word, and action to the likeness of Christ Jesus that we don’t just offer the option of a loving resolution but actually become the very offer we make – reconciliation.

Practically speaking this involves several things:

1. Submitting to the discipline of the Holy Spirit consistently and regularly to develop the ability to perceive others “in truth” and to respond to them with clear and appropriate intent and action. This means being honest about the fact that falsehood and death still reign in areas of my life too. I am not the innocent victim nor am I superior to the other person. No room for pious triumphalism. I am dedicating myself to going forward in a way that will change me too!
2. Letting go of the conviction that the other person is the “enemy,” and realizing that falsehood and death are the enemy that must be defeated. The true enemy wants us to fight among ourselves so he can reign unchallenged!
3. A form of resistance that is aimed at the true enemy that is not simply “fighting fire with fire.” Okay so I need to take a little space on this one… Not aggression but assertion. Death dealing resistance is a shoving match not a way of opposing that offers New Life in Christ. The shoving match triggers a “power up” in the other person and sets the agenda for greater death. When we “turn the other cheek” we are powerfully resisting in a way that does not go the way of death-dealing “power ups”! When we think of “turning the other cheek” as doing nothing, we are, I believe, completely misunderstanding what the Lord’s exhortation means. “Turning the other cheek” is the invitation to another trajectory not simple giving up!
4. Offering, on the occasions when conflict occurs, a practical way forward – The Way of love – filled with the Truth not with spin or fear or hidden agendas to destroy the person who is not the real opponent. This offering needs to be so clear and honest that it becomes the compelling focus and sets the destination for the encounter. This “offering” has some very specific characteristics. They are: “…joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (Galatians 5.23-24)
5. The hard and yet unavoidable possibility that even though love with its reconciling power and hope of a new future cannot and should never overpower the right of the other to make their own decision. The other person may just choose to not cooperate. That calls for us to apply more of the powerful pressure of Love which may mean continuing to do the same things or not. That is God’s call not ours. This calls for flexibility and agility.
6. In the face of the refusal of the other to make the life-giving choice we must, for the sake of Love, continue to Love by simultaneously valuing the other and yet setting appropriate boundaries and taking appropriate actions that neutralize the threat of falsehood and death and therefore preserve and promote Life.

I didn’t say this Way was an easy Way. In fact, it is impossible for you and me – “who can be saved?” To which the Lord doesn’t respond with, “Try harder,” but with, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” You might want to read Luke 18. I don’t say I am very far along in all of this, but I do believe, as far as I can discern, that it is The Way. All things are possible by means of the grace God supplies. It is the Lord. To paraphrase the words of the blind man encountered by Jesus on the road to Jericho later in the same chapter of Luke’s gospel, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!”

Fr. Thomas

Binocular Vision and Living – The Single Eye

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6.22-23) RSV

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6.22-23) KJV

There are many aspects of our life as disciples of Jesus Christ that seem to require us to find and live in a kind of balance or creative tension. Let me name several:

• Unconditional acceptance and authentic boundaries in our expression of love towards others.
• Giving and receiving. The need to know what we need, seek it, and receive it and the need to be pouring out our life to provide for the needs of others before we consider our own needs.
• The need to be silent and the need to speak.
• The need to be sober in our judgments and yet to judge no one.
• Faith and good works in the context of God’s work of salvation.
• Personal and corporate.
• Dynamic/changing and regular/consistent/changless.
• New  being in Christ, zealous for His purpose and an idler and sinner.
• Death and resurrection.

There are, obviously, many more. The Bible is filled with these paradoxes. What are we to do? How do we live out such commands on the part of God?

One answer that is often opted for is to consider these aspects as somehow in an adversarial relationship as if they do not belong together. In such an approach the proponent does, at times, regard the other facet as certainly belonging in the Christian life but not in the vicinity of their favored facet. An example is the classic adversarial relationship that has been set up by many between faith and works. Works belong in the Christian life but not in the vicinity of the provision of salvation which is by faith alone they say. Another approach is not to exclude one facet for the other but rather to craft a kind of détente relationship. Yet another approach is to try and achieve a life in which the facets live in sort of a “tag team” relationship with one another. Or, to put it another way, a kind of pendulum life in which they swing from one extreme to the other to arrive at an average halfway in between. Yet another approach is to adopt the language of a “creative tension” or “balance.” In this approach the facets are portrayed as opposites or antithetical but partners or companions that provide needed balance for the other.

I would like to put forward the conviction that none of these really satisfies the full mandate of the Gospel. Please do not get the impression that I am saying that some of the approaches all too briefly described above do not have their good points or approximate the truth. They do. I am, of course, overstating the other approaches in order to make my point. But…. The Gospel mandates union not simply partnership and companionship and balance.

We are to live the paradoxes not solve them.

Revisit the passage above from St. Matthew’s Gospel. Notice that Jesus does say “eyes,” but “eye.” Jesus speaks of seeing in the singular. I know, Jesus is speaking about good and evil and how we cannot live a dual life. But, permit me to use the statement to make a different point (an ancient Rabbinic practice after all. If you will not allow for this usage, I understand. Disregard the association with the passage altogether and continue with the analogy.)… One eye – one vision. Think of the way in which paradoxes are meant to be lived in terms of your eyes. We have, along with other creatures, a unique way of seeing. We have binocular vision. When you look at something you normally look at it with both eyes at the same time. The eyes do not fight one another; switch off; balance one another; or any other penultimate way of seeing. They see as one eye. We don’t even think about the fact. We simply see. We don’t think about seeing out of two eyes. We experience seeing as seeing with a singular vision. The eyes are united in their seeing. When we see in this way the world ceases to be flat. We see with depth and perspective. Neither eye sees fully. Yet each eye is healthy in its seeing as an eye. They are not simply partners. They do not consider themselves as parties to a contract of cooperation, each complete in and of itself. Neither does one healthy eye compete with the other eye to be the one to see particular things. They both see together. They die to individualistic seeing and surrender themselves to the formation of a unified vision. The analogy, as do all analogies, falls short. Nonetheless, perhaps the analogy does help portray the mysterious union.

Fr. Thomas

Sincerity

1 Corinthians 5.8 “Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with theunleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (See also Joshua 24.14; Tobit 8.7; Wisdom of Solomon 1.1; 2 Corinthians 1.12 Corinthians 2.17)

Our life as disciples needs to exhibit sincerity. But, as I have considered this word, I have realized that, perhaps, I at least have misunderstood it. Quite often, I have confused sincerity with intense emotional content accompanied by dramatic action in contrast with an attribute that is simple, quiet, and yet very powerful.

Sincerity is, simply put, being clear and honest. Notice that in the passage above the word “truth” accompanies the word “sincerity.” Sincerity is not about convincing the other person through muscling tactics such as intense emotion or dramatic action or needless repetition. What is more, the person receiving the expression of sincerity has, quite often, been taught to expect emotion, drama, and repetition as the criteria of sincerity. To make the whole matter more complex, we have been taught to even suspect, on occasions, that when an expression is attended by too much drama, emotion, and repetition it is probably insincere. We suspect that the person is not being sincere and therefore not telling the truth! Once again note the linkage in the passage above between sincerity and truth. This makes for very confusing and ambiguous circumstances and way of life.

Sincerity may be attended by a certain amount of emotion, drama, and repetition. There is no reason why it shouldn’t. However, this is not necessarily the case. Rather, I would like to put forward the conviction that sincerity is an expression of truth that is clear, simple, clean, regular, consistent, and direct (not aggressive). Note that I am not equating sincerity with certainty. Sincerity issues from faith and faithfulness (fidelity) not certainty. Sincerity offers hope by way of its gentle power not necessarily guarantees. It offers by the “follow-through” that accompanies it, a way forward. Sincerity offers love that sets the recipient free to respond to clear parameters that offer life as contrasted with vague parameters that manipulate or offer no clear way forward.

The spirit of sincerity finds its home in the heart, where the “Ruach Adonai” (breath of God) dwells, and issues forth from there integrating different aspects of our inner life – thoughts, motives, identity, character – to give life to others through our words and deeds. “The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33.4)

Fr. Thomas

Stopping to Consider and Commit

My brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,

For the sake of our growth into the full likeness of Christ Jesus by the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the benefit of others bothinside and outside the Body of Christ …

• Let us endeavor to be attentive to the current objects of our attention by keeping track of and considering our current behaviors, words, and a regular examination of the aspects of our life – body, mind, will, and heart. In so doing let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us the current condition of our life in Christ so that we may both rejoice and repent in faith, hope, and love.
• Let us be aware of the fact that the way we live affects our attention/conviction and our attention/conviction affects the way we live. (What we believe affects our behavior and our behavior affects what we believe.)
• Let us begin, once we have some data, to ask the following questions in specific terms: “Why do I pay attention to what I pay attention to? And “How does it affect my way of life in life-giving and life-robbing ways?
• Let us endeavor, by the grace that God provides, to be more regularly and consistently attentive to the Lord throughout the day by:
  • journeying together in a regular and consistent fellowship of accountability and encouragement under the authority of the Holy Spirit.
  • being attentive to the Word of the Lord and the work of God in and through the lives of our brothers and sisters among the saints.
  • being attentive to the aspects of a healthy spiritual life as communicated to us through the rhythms of the “Church Year” and commit ourselves to living in accordance with the themes of the season of Great Lent that we might more deeply live a resurrected life.
    • Scripture – personal and/or congregational according to seasonal emphasis
    • Prayer – personal and/or congregational according to a seasonal emphasis
    • Fasting – addressing, in a serious manner, our bodily appetites
    • Almsgiving – pouring out our life in some way on behalf of the poor/needy
    • It must be noted that our observance of these disciplines should not be based on our personal preferences or convictions of what is appropriate. It is not about what we want or would prefer to do, but about what we need to do. The decision regarding how we observe these disciplines should, therefore, for our salvation’s sake be the result of an authentic conversation with the historical tradition and our current life-giving fellowship of accountability and encouragement.
• Let us count the cost, as Jesus encouraged us to do, for the sake of being able to build to completion not for the sake of never beginning to build.

Fr. Thomas

Suffering in the Flesh and Pre-Lent

We are getting ready to leave the season of Theophany (Epiphany) and enter into Great Lent. Both the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox traditions provide a specific “pre-Lent” time of preparation. There is great wisdom here. As human beings, we are designed to move from one activity or emphasis to another via a time of transition. Transition is designed to, first, keep the best of the past (even the worst can be the best if we submit it to Christ) and bring it into union with “things to come,” forming a unified journey of wholeness. Transition also, secondly, gives us the opportunity to ready ourselves for the “new thing” that God desires to do in our life. We can look/walk forward.

Extreme Humility

The pre-Lenten transition is a time designed to encourage us to embrace the truth that our inner life and outer life affect one another – what we do affects what we believe (our operative convictions) and what we believe affects what we do (our words and deeds). In the middle of this relationship of mutual affect, the Holy Tradition says, needs to be a specific discipline of life that is life-giving in both directions. There are inner disciplines that are designed to transform our words and deeds and outer disciplines that are designed to transform our inner life (thoughts, emotions, will, desires, etc.). There are four disciplines that, during the pre-Lenten mini-season, we are encouraged to begin to practice an observe throughout Lent. They are:

1 &2)Increased reading of Scripture and prayer that are designed to prepare us to die with Christ and be raised with Christ in the particular area of our life where it’s is needed and/or continue to establish that area where such dying and rising has already taken place.

3)Fasting to address the all too powerful domination of our bodily appetites that hinder our growth in Christ.

4)Almsgiving – pouring out our life in some specific way on behalf of the poor and needy.

These four disciplines are, in fact, ways in which we take the admonition of the apostles seriously:

“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (James 4.7-10).

The result is spiritual transformation in the Holy Spirit in due time. This is the reason we endeavor with all the strength that is in us to embrace the Holy Tradition in sincerity and truth – that we might begin to reign with Christ even now in the time of our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11).

With all of this in mind, I include in this post a reflection from the devotional series I have recommended many times before, “Dynamis.”

……………………….

1 Peter 4:1-11, especially vss. 1, 2: “…he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”  

Earlier in this Epistle, Saint Peter declared that Christ suffered death “…in the flesh… ” purposely: “…to bring us to God…” (1 Pt. 3:18).  Now, when he says, “…with the same mind…” (1 Pt. 4:1), he urges us to embrace an intention similar to the Lord’s.

Be sure to note this expression of his, to ‘suffer in the flesh,’ which should not be applied solely to martyrs or confessors, for a vital truth would be lost.  Suffering is common to everyone, having many forms: persecution, injury, disease, financial reverses, even withdrawal from specific sins, vices, and indulgence.  While Saint Peter’s primary concern throughout this First Epistle is with direct, physical persecution; still he knew that ‘suffering in the flesh’ includes far more than afflictions imposed on Christ’s holy martyrs and confessors (vss. 2-6).  He knew well the ‘suffering in the flesh’ that comes whenever one indulges in or approves sinful living as ‘normal’ or acceptable, but then for Christ’s sake, withdraws and ceases to “…run…in the same flood of dissipation…” (vs. 4).  Learn from Saint Peter about the kind of ‘suffering in the flesh’ that comes when we withdraw from the “…flood of dissipation…” (vs. 4).

The chief Apostle here focuses on the sufferings that come to us when we have “…ceased from sin…” (vs. 1).  As we would expect, the Apostle counsels us no longer living “…in the flesh for the lusts of men…” (vs. 2).  We should avoid “…lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties and abominable idolatries” (vs. 3), having determined to withdraw from all indulgence.  Then, he turns to the social isolation that follows when we no longer run “…in the same flood of dissipation…” (vs. 4).  As The Orthodox Study Bible notes, Saint Peter referred to vices prevalent in Asia Minor “…where excessive drinking, along with unspeakable practices took place in connection with the worship of various deities….”  But these vices are well-known today even though they are not part of the worship of deities as in the first century!

Even as a fledgling disciple, Saint Peter had learned from Christ the captivating power of a sinful mind: “…from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, at evil eye, blasphemy. pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mk. 7:21-23).

Saint John of Sinai adds other insights to those of the Lord Jesus and Saint Peter, and he commends the pain of struggling for chastity and purity, both in our inner and outer life, especially now that we have vital hope of ceasing from sin (see 1 Pt. 4:1-2).  Thus, “…purity means that we put on the angelic nature.  Purity is the longed-for house of Christ and the earthly heaven of the heart.  Purity is a supernatural denial of nature….He is pure…[who] expels fleshly love with divine love, and…has extinguished the fire of passion by the fire of Heaven.”

Saint John’s thought is not limited to sexual purity, which the ‘modern’ ear hears: “Chastity is the name which is common to all the virtues.”  In the struggle to gain purity, God’s Spirit helps us take the steps that necessarily bring pain: observe the passions, understand them, repent seriously, confess deeply, accept bodily hungers, abandon self-reliance, and struggle for unceasing prayer.  As, Saint John adds, “Let no one thoroughly trained in purity attribute its attainment to himself.  For it is impossible for anyone to conquer his own nature.  When nature is defeated, it should be recognized that this is due to the presence of Him Who is above nature.”  Indeed, we do not endure such necessary sufferings apart from God, but, rather, in Him.

I am caught in the depths of sins.  O Savior, draw me out of passion, and save me!

………………….

Let us heed the exhortation as we make our way to Great Lent.

God Bless,

Fr. Thomas

Theophany — The Moment of True Knowledge

Archimandrite Sophrony

“Of a certainty no initiative of mine provoked the happenings in my inner life. But God of His providence, which is known only to Him, vouchsafed to visit me and, as it were, communicate His eternal Being. His holy hand mercilessly cast me, His creation, into indescribable depths, where, stunned and appalled, I contemplated realtities that transcended my understanding… By ‘knowledge’ I mean ingress into the Act of Eternity: ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God’ (John 17:3). In the hours when Divine Love touched me I ‘recognized’ the approach of God. ‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ (1 John 4:16). After my visitation from on High I read the Gospel with a different awareness — profoundly and gratefully rejoiced at finding confirmation of my own experience. This wondrous congruity between the most vital elements of my consciousness of God and the data of the New Testament Revelation is incalculably dear to my soul — a gift from above, God Himself praying in me. I believe this.”

Archimandrite Sophrony, We Shall See Him As He Is, pg. 7-8

Inner Stillness — Outer Life

Inner stillness is a paradox on many levels. It is not one thing and then another. It is the union of two things that manifest simultaneously. It is, for example, the union of an inner spiritual state with an outer, practical lifestyle.

The integration/reconciliation/consummation of all aspects of the human person in/as Christ Jesus by grace. The tranquility and ease of complete conscious presence without sluggishness and the vigilance of instantaneous responsiveness as the fruit of unceasing preparedness without rashness or aggression by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Thomas