the story of the prodigal son and it occurred to me that the man returned was, at one time, part of the family. Perhaps the story is less about the “unsaved” , in some ways, than it is a call to those of us who have wandered from the faith, forgotten our priorities, and left, through a myriad of ways, our home in the Faith to return home. In these times, especially, perhaps one of the most important things is for people who identify as Christians to come to their senses, cease their wanderings, and return to what they had left.
Category: Faith
On Forgiveness…
Following a wrong against us a crucial part of the recovery is the attempt to make sense of what has happened, to provide an explanation for the vulnerability and pain we’ve experienced. We see ourselves with all our complexities, our history, the interwoven moments of our life and within that fabric we see the damage done. We look for an explanation and simple ones are easy to find. Among them is to see the one who we believe has wronged us in one dimensional, cartoonish, form. We are a tapestry full of subtleties but the person who has hurt us is a piece of cardboard, simply and easily defined by what they did to us. The story we seek to construct to help us move through our experience of hurt and pain is made so much easier if the good guys are completely good and the bad guys completely evil, especially if we are the good guy. Yet this won’t suffice when it comes to forgiveness.
The person we believe hurt us is, like us, multidimensional, a person with complexities, a story, a history before they encountered us and a lived experience after us. Part of the process of forgiveness, and it is often a process more than a moment, is to become aware of the larger story, the context of the person who has harmed us. Doing us forces us to humanize them, to see them as more than a simple villian. To forgive a stereotype we have created can sometimes be no forgiveness at all and even a kind of revenge. Our pride, wounded, strikes back at the evil done by making the one who harmed us something less than a person and our words of forgiveness an act of reasserting power over them and keeping them in a place of perpetual obligation to us. Forgiveness is much deeper and harder than this.
Forgiveness, in its most authentic sense, requires us, over time, to rediscover and uphold the image of God which is present even in the most evil of people. This is not about excusing actions but rather about seeing the larger context, the humanity of the person who has wronged us and and hoping, if at all possible, that our refusal to destroy in return even if it is warranted will somehow, some way, help restore the person whose evil against us is a symptom of our shared human frailty, illness, and mortality. This is difficult and the greater the amount of harm that is done to does only increases the difficulty. Yet it is even in this great difficulty that we ourselves are restored and healed. It is in this great struggle that we discover the depths of the love and grace of God for us and the whole world even as we ourselves become partakers of it as well.
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In Some Parts…
of the Orthodox Church in the United States there are a surplus of Priests. Now this could be seen as a problem. Not enough places for Priests. Those who have parishes staying on, recent seminarians placed over more senior clerics because their particular jurisdiction has invested in their education and needs to get a return, and more than a few serving in the potential never land of bi-vocational life. Or it could be seen as an opportunity to envision new ministries, even non traditional ones, and release the pent up energies of “excess” clergy in new ways. Certainly the demand for what Orthodoxy offers is not limited to currently existing parishes and just because we have an ancient faith doesn’t mean we can’t anticipate the future and actually be prepared for it when it arrives. The key just might lie in challenging and supporting the “excess” Priests to think outside the box, not the Faith, but the box of our limited horizons.
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Scripture and Tradition…
via Byzantine, Texas. Worth reading.
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St. John the Forerunner…
is a small church in rural Wisconsin, the oldest Orthodox parish in the state and if no one told you where it was you’d probably not find it. Still there was a joy there this morning, the joy of people who come from miles away to worship and keep this venerable parish alive.
Yes, there are fancy parishes all over the large cities, parishes with every convenience. Yet, in Huron, Wisconsin, truly a wide spot in the road, it costs something to attend liturgy. Mileage, time, convenience. it all adds up. The people who were there this morning had to want to be there. God knows the reasons but there was effort involved.
I think God remembers such things and perhaps one day this tiny parish will flourish again, so full of people, as one of the regulars said, that they worried about the choir loft collapsing under their weight. Until that day the bell rings, everyone who can tries to sing, and God is glorified in this little temple where the farms start to give way to the northern forests.
May all the good that comes from God be with them. I hope to be back some day.
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To Cut Corners…
shade truths, round off the challenging edges, and live without thought of eternity is most always, in the short term, easier than following the higher calling. Yet there is a quality of being alive that belongs only to those who take a step away from easy compromise. The higher calling can be a very narrow road, traveled only by a few. Those few, however, seek and find life.
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Christianity Close to Extinction…
in the Middle East?
The “lion’s share” of persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the dominant faith, the report says, quoting estimates that between a half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or been killed in the past century.
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Probably True…
An article on a study regarding gossip in the work place. The power of words indeed. I wonder what the percentage would be in church?
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On Peace and Despair…
Sometimes in nature a warm, healthful wind blows, pleasantly and lightly, permeating and coming in contact with the body, and the sky is serene; whilst at other times a cold wind blows, one feels, somehow, distressed and feverish, the wind pierces to the very bones and affects the body unpleasantly, the earth and sky are darkened; or else sometimes the state of the atmosphere is warm and warmth-giving, and at other times cold, benumbing. It is likewise in the spiritual life: sometimes our soul is surrounded and penetrated by a light, pleasant, warmth-giving, vivifying breath, we feel ourselves happy and tranquil; whilst at others our heart is touched by a heavy, deathly breath, accompanied by complete spiritual darkness. The first state proceeds from the Spirit of God, the second from the Devil. It is necessary to accustom ourselves to everything: as in the first case, not to grow self-conceited, so in the last, not to fall into despondency, into despair, but to fervently have recourse to God.
St. John of Kronstadt
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On the Nativity…
A Sermon by St John of Kronstadt on the Nativity of Christ
The Word became flesh; that is, the Son of God, co-eternal with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit, became human – having become incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. O, wondrous, awesome and salvific mystery! The One Who had no beginning took on a beginning according to humanity; the One without flesh assumed flesh. God became man – without ceasing to be God. The Unapproachable One became approachable to all, in the aspect of an humble servant. Why, and for what reason, was there such condescension [shown] on the part of the Creator toward His transgressing creatures – toward humanity which, through an act of its own will had fallen away from God, its Creator?
It was by reason of a supreme, inexpressible mercy toward His creation on the part of the Master, Who could not bear to see the entire race of mankind – which, He, in creating, had endowed with wondrous gifts – enslaved by the devil and thus destined for eternal suffering and torment.
And the Word became flesh!…in order to make us earthly beings into heavenly ones, in order to make sinners into saints; in order to raise us up from corruption into incorruption, from earth to heaven; from enslavement to sin and the devil – into the glorious freedom of children of God; from death – into immortality, in order to make us sons of God and to seat us together with Him upon the Throne as His royal children.
O, boundless compassion of God! O, inexpressible wisdom of God! O, great wonder, astounding not only the human mind, but the angelic [mind] as well!
Let us glorify God! With the coming of the Son of God in the flesh upon the earth, with His offering Himself up as a sacrifice for the sinful human race, there is given to those who believe the blessing of the Heavenly Father, replacing that curse which had been uttered by God in the beginning; they are adopted and receive the promise of an eternal inheritance of life. To a humanity orphaned by reason of sin, the Heavenly Father returns anew through the mystery of re-birth, that is, through baptism and repentance. People are freed of the tormenting, death-bearing authority of the devil, of the afflictions of sin and of various passions.
Human nature is deified for the sake of the boundless compassion of the Son of God; and its sins are purified; the defiled are sanctified. The ailing are healed. Upon those in dishonour are boundless honour and glory bestowed.
Those in darkness are enlightened by the Divine light of grace and reason.
The human mind is given the rational power of God – we have the mind of Christ (Cor. 2, 16), says the Holy apostle Paul. To the human heart, the heart of Christ is given. The perishable is made immortal. Those naked and wounded by sin and by passions are adorned in Divine glory. Those who hunger and thirst are sated and assuaged by the nourishing and soul-strengthening Word of God and by the most pure Body and Divine Blood of Christ. The inconsolable are consoled. Those ravaged by the devil have been – and continue to be – delivered.
What, then, O, brethren, is required of us in order that we might avail ourselves of all the grace brought unto us from on high by the coming to earth of the Son of God? What is necessary, first of all, is faith in the Son of God, in the Gospel as the salvation-bestowing heavenly teaching; a true repentance of sins and the correction of life and of heart; communion in prayer and in the mysteries [sacraments]; the knowledge and fulfillment of Christ’s commandments. Also necessary are the virtues: Christian humility, alms-giving, continence, purity and chastity, simplicity and goodness of heart.
Let us, then, O brothers and sisters, bring these virtues as a gift to the One Who was born for the sake of our salvation – let us bring them in place of the gold, frankincense and myrrh which the Magi brought Him, as to One Who is King, God, and Man, come to die for us. This, from us, shall be the most-pleasing form of sacrifice to God and to the Infant Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Beautiful Path 