Blog

Sermon ~ Take up Your Cross

Posted on by Fr. Peter

The Reading is from Mark 8:34-38; 9:1

The Lord said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

I find it amazing that Scripture can challenge us in just a few brief words.  Today, in the Gospel pericope that I just read, Jesus challenges those who were listening to Him.  He challenges them in a way that he has never done before.  He is telling them that if they are going to be true followers of His they must lose their life.  They must give it all up, if they are in fact, going to be authentic followers of His.  He is telling them that being one of His disciples is a full time job.

I often think about the Apostles and how Jesus called them.  You remember.  He simply told them to follow Him or someone, like St. Andrew told others.  They dropped what they were doing and followed Him.  We never hear in Scripture that St. Peter had to take a day off from His Apostles duty so he could go mend his nets, or go fishing.  I get the impression that, for the most part, they followed Jesus wherever He went.

Jesus tells us today that if we are going to follow Him we must take up the Cross.  The cross is a difficult thing to understand.  The cross that Jesus was crucified on was a very large chunk of wood.  We have all seen depictions of this in movies and paintings and Icons.  In fact if we look at the Icon for the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross we can see how large it was.  In order for Jesus to carry that cross he had to use both hands, his shoulder, and all of His strength to do so and at one point, He needed help to carry it because he was physically exhausted.

Jesus carried a physical cross made of wood and instrument of pain, torture, fear, and ultimately death.  But that cross also brought forgiveness, reconciliation, transformation, love, and life.  The hymns of Vespers on the feast of the Elevation of the Cross speak of how the wood of the cross healed the sin that was caused by the wood of the tree.  The cross of Jesus healed the sin of Adam in the garden and opened paradise once again to all of creation.  What had been closed by the sin of one man had been opened by the love of another.

But what is this cross that Jesus is telling us we must take up?  Do we have to go out and find a tree, cut it down, make a cross and carry it around?  No, Jesus is speaking here of our spiritual life, and what we must do to find that paradise that He has opened for us.

The cross is different for each one of us.  Maybe the cross is a physical ailment, perhaps it is that we are getting older, and stuff does not work the same way any longer.  Maybe we have an illness of some kind.  Perhaps that cross is the person sitting right next to you!  Maybe you married your cross!  Whatever that cross is, and I think it changes as we develop our spiritual life, we have to carry it as best we can.  Maybe like Jesus we need help from time to time to carry that cross.  Maybe we need to put it down, or ask another to share the burden with us so we can recover our strength to carry it again.  Whatever we need to do we do not have a choice if we are going to be followers of Christ.

Part of carrying that cross is also bearing the suffering that will go along with it.  This suffering is not a punishment for anything, but rather it is a way to overcome this fallen world that we live in.  Jesus tells us in the same passage today that we must deny ourselves in order to take up this cross.  He tells one young man to sell all he has and follow him, he tells another who wants to go and bury his father who has just died, to let the dead bury the dead and follow him.  He called each of the Apostles away from their families, and their work to follow him.  He does this because he knows we cannot carry the cross if our hands are full.

Again Jesus asks, what benefit there is if we gain the whole world but lose our soul?  Some of us work to live, and we live to work.  For some of us, our identity comes from what we do, not who we are.  In this day and age when everyone is struggling to make ends meet it is easy to worry about the earthly things of this life, but when we are doing that, when we are building bigger barns to store up stuff, we lose sight of what matters and that is our soul.

The spiritual life is a challenge.  It is a challenge in this world that we live in today to be someone who is a person of faith.  Faith is something that is mocked in the world and scorned.  If you are a person of traditional theological beliefs and thinks that sin still exists and that we are all sinners and need the Grace of God, you are looked upon as old fashioned and out of touch.

Some places of worship are more life entertainment venues than hospitals for the sick and wounded.  The church should be a place where you come and are challenged to be better people, but we have become so afraid of offending anyone that we water down the words of Christ so they mean almost nothing.  We have adopted the I’m okay you’re okay way of thinking, and I am sorry to say that is not what Christians are about.

I was recently asked a question about baking Holy Bread.  The question was asked should I still bring the bread to church if it is not perfect.  My answer was yes, absolutely bring that bread to Church to be used as the offering.  And I explained why I feel this way.  You see, none of us are perfect.  We might like to think we are, but we are not.  We all have slight flaws, sins if you will that make us imperfect and that is okay.  It’s okay because, through the power and Grace of God, we can be made perfect.  It’s through the life long journey of our spiritual life that perfection is made possible, but it cannot be done without the Holy Spirit.  So we bring the bread, with all of its flaws and imperfections.  Maybe the seal did not come out right, maybe it puffed up too much, maybe it split or is not as dark as we would like it.  But regardless of how it looks or tastes during the Liturgy, the Holy Spirit comes upon it and makes that bread perfect.  That bread is transformed into something that we could never make it.  The Holy Spirit takes that imperfect work of imperfect human beings and perfects it, and it becomes the bread of Heaven, it become the unblemished lamb that takes away the sin of the world!  That bread is each one of us, and we can be made perfect through that life giving power of the Holy Spirit.

Our imperfections are the cross that we have to carry.  Our weaknesses, our hopes, our fears all of that is taken on our shoulders just as Jesus did when He carried His cross for all of us.  We bring it here, we put it on the holy altar, and the Holy Spirit makes it perfect.  By the Grace and love of the Holy Trinity we find the strength that we need to carry all of it, and by carrying it all we become perfect.

In a few moments, I will carry the bread and the wine out before you.  I will chant prayers for many different people both living and dead.  When I prepare the bread and the wine before liturgy, there are prayers for the sick and the dying as well as for all of you by name.  In a spiritual way, when I turn and carry the chalice and the diskos and put them on the altar all of you are there, I am placing all of you and all of your needs on that altar as well as the bread and wine.  We ask and pray that the Holy Spirit come upon these gifts and to make them holy.  We pray at the end of liturgy in thanksgiving that we have been made worthy, once again, to have the privilege of being present here and to partake of these gifts either physically or spiritually.  It is through that very same Spirit, the Spirit that sanctifies these gifts that sanctifies each one of us and makes us holy.

If anyone is to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me!

Blog

The Life-Giving Cross

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Today, September 14th, is the Feast of the Elevation Life-Giving Cross.  This feast, one of the twelve great feasts of the Church, commemorates the discovery of the Cross of Jesus by Saint Helena mother of the Emperor Constantine in 325 AD.  For more on the feastday, follow this link.

The Cross of Christ, for many, would seem to be the end of the story.  But for Christians we know that it was not the end but only the beginning of the story.  I have written in a previous essay that Christ was sent, by God, to free all of humanity from the bondage of sin.  This bondage began with the disobedience of our first parents in the Garden of Eden.  Since that time, humanity has been enslaved to the human passions.

In the actions of our first parents, it was a tree that led to the destruction of the relationship between humanity and God, and in the actions of Jesus, it was a tree that repaired that relationship between God and humanity.  As the Vespers Hymns for the Feast proclaim:

For he who deceived Adam by a Tree is caught by the lure of Cross; and he who held under his tyranny the creature endowed by God with royal dignity is brought down in a headlong fall.

For it was fitting that the Tree should be healed by a Tree, and that by the Passion of the passionless God what was wrought on the Tree should destroy the passions of man, who was condemned.

Christ, through the Cross, has given us the strength that is needed to overcome the power that the evil one has on us.  We have been given the tools, and the instructions, required to transform our lives from a life that is enslaved to the passions to a life that is totally free in Christ Jesus.

The Vespers Hymns continue:

The serpent’s venom is washed away by the blood of God, and the curse of just condemnation is undone when the Just One is condemned by and unjust judgment.

The way has been paved for us to follow, it is the narrow way and a hard way, but it is right before us, and we need to start the journey down that path.  The journey is long and will be difficult at times, but we will never be alone on that journey.  We will stumble, and we will fall, but Christ will be there to pick us up and put us back on that path if we just call upon Him.

O Lord, save Your people and bless your inheritance!  Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries; and by the virtue of Your Cross, preserve Your habitation.

Blog

Assembly of Bishops Letter to the Faithful

Posted on by Fr. Peter

(AOB) – To our beloved Orthodox Christian faithful throughout North and Central America:

You are the light of the world. (Matt. 5.14)

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

We, the members of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America, gathered in Chicago for our third annual meeting of September 10-12, 2012, greet you with paternal love, as we offer glory and thanks to our Triune God.

Forty-three Hierarchs convened in the unity of our holy Orthodox faith, mindful of our responsibility to each other and to the Church as the Body of Christ. Some of our brother Hierarchs were absent due to personal illness or family loss. We recognize our calling to rightly teach the word of God’s truth as our foremost duty towards the Lord Jesus Christ and His holy Church.

We remember in prayer the recent falling asleep in the Lord of our brother and concelebrant, Metropolitan Constantine of Irinoupolis, First Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA. May his memory be eternal!

We acknowledge the challenges that lie before us and understand our accountability to one another so that our common ministry and witness may be blessed by God.

We reaffirm our commitment to the decisions and expectations of the Primates of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches and the Pan-Orthodox Preconciliar Conferences in an effort to safeguard and deepen Orthodox unity, to promote common pastoral action, to offer common witness in our region, and to overcome canonical anomalies.

Our unity was manifested in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and the sharing of the Holy Eucharist on the occasion of the Feast of St. John the Forerunner (Old Style) as well as in joining our fellow Americans as we mourned the loss of thousands of innocent citizens 11 years ago on September 11, 2001, and prayed for the repose of their souls.

Among the items on the agenda was the work of the Assembly’s Secretariat, its 13 committees, and 14 agencies and endorsed organizations. We praise God for the positive spirit of cooperation that prevailed during the sessions of the Assembly and celebrate the considerable progress already achieved on many levels through the expanding activities of its committees.

In particular, discussion focused on the Assembly by-laws and the progress of the work by the Committee for Canonical Regional Planning. The last of these discussions constitutes the primary concern of the Assembly in its effort to enhance Orthodox cooperation, advance a common Orthodox witness and promote canonical normalization in this region. The Hierarchs spent the better part of the second session focusing – through presentations, deliberations and reports – on this paramount issue.

As we assemble in Chicago, we also take this opportunity to encourage all of you, the People of God, in a world exploited and polarized by greed, godlessness, and immorality. We call upon all Orthodox Christians to be faithful to their calling to be the light of the world.

We recognize the tremendous social pressures to conform to secular standards, but we exhort you to stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught (2 Thess. 2.15) so that your light is not hidden under a bushel but placed on a stand (Matt. 5.15) in order for all to see. Let our Orthopraxy attend our Orthodoxy. In this respect:

  • We must safeguard the sacrament of marriage in accordance with God’s will for the sacred union between man and woman and the sanctity of family as the fundamental nucleus of a healthy society. In this regard, we emphasize regular family worship, particularly at Sunday liturgy.
  • We must strive to eliminate the violence proliferated against innocents of every kind, particularly of women and the unborn. We call for responsibility by individuals, institutions and governments to ensure the welfare of every citizen.
  • We must resist the wastefulness and greed that dominate our consumer society, confessing that our spiritual citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3.20) in order that our witness be characterized by the compassion and mercy as well as the generosity and philanthropy that distinguishes our God who loves humankind.

Finally, we pray for our oppressed and suffering brothers and sisters variously facing oppression or persecution in the ancient Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, as well as in the Balkans and throughout the world. We grieve the loss of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and his staff in Libya. We condemn all forms of violence perpetrated in the name of religion and denounce all expressions of religious intolerance.

Now may the Lord of peace Himself grant you peace at all times in all ways. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. (2 Thess. 3.16,18)

Blog

The Spirit of Peace

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I woke this morning to the news that the United States Ambassador to Libya had been killed in the uprising at the Consulate last night or early this morning.  This is a horrible attack on our Country that seems to be sparked by a movie about Mohamed.  Consulates in other places were also attacked yesterday on the anniversary of 9/11.

I understand the feelings that people have because of this but as Christians we are called to rise above our passions and to find the peace, the peace of Christ in our lives.  The last few days I have been writing about transformation of our lives, and this is part of that.  As hard as this is we have to pray for our enemies, as the Liturgy calls us to pray for those who love us and those who hate us.  Hate is easy it takes no effort at all, but love takes the help of Christ and what we need now is love and peace, peace within ourselves.  This earthly world will pass away but our soul lives on for eternity, hatred darkens the souls we need to turn from that.  All hatred does is harm us, and our soul and that we just cannot do.

I served Liturgy in the monastery chapel this morning and I remembered all those who were killed and those who killed them as well as all of the innocent people who will be caught up in this on both sides.  Lord Have Mercy on all of them.

One of my favorite saints in Saint Seraphim of Sarov.  Hew is often depicted with a bear in his icons and paintings.  This comes from the legend that he was so peaceful in his soul that the wild animals were attracted to him.  There are pictures of monastics who are sitting with other wild animals due to the peace that they have in their souls.  St. Seraphim is credited with a saying about peace, but I am not sure where it comes from in his many wiritings.

“Acquire the spirit of peace, and a thousand souls will be converted around you!”

I am trying, in my own life, to turn towards peace, the peace that passes all understanding, and towards love and forgiveness.  I am choosing to follow the positive path and turn from the negative.

All Christians are called to this transformation and this turning away from the passions.  Rather then posting negative things on Facebook or Twitter about events, turn to prayer.  Spend less time at the keyboard and more time on your knees in prayer for the entire world.  This is what Christ did and He is the model for our lives.

Condemn what has been done, yes, make preparations so that it never happens again, yes, bring those responsible to justice, yes, but we must not do these things from hate because only the Evil One wins when we hate.

 

Blog

On This Day

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Each year, as we approach the anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001, I always debate with myself on whether or not to write something about that day.  I believe it is necessary to remember all of those who gave their lives on that day, and those who gave their lives because of that day, but I also think that we can use days like this for healing.

Last night a friend posted a photo on Facebook of the lights that shine up from the place where the Twin Towers used to stand.  Under the photo he wrote, “will never forget… will never forgive…”  I responded that we are commanded by Christ to forgive and if we do not forgive then we are no better than those who did this.  We are no better because we will be filled with hate, the same hatred that drove those men to fly those planes into the buildings, the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  Hatred is tremendously destructive and has no place in the lives of a Christian.

Over the last few days, I have been writing about transforming our lives to be more Christ-like.  Turning away from hatred is part of that transformation and I suppose it is one of the hardest things that Christ commands us to do.  And, I will add, we not only have to forgive, but we have to pray for those who hates us.  We have to pray for those who are trying to destroy us, because if we don’t, then we have destroyed ourselves.  We destroy ourselves with hatred that turns our heart into stone.

Hatred is easy, and it takes no thought at all, but love, on the other hand, takes an enormous amount of work, and that is the work we are called to.  I can still remember that day.  It is as clear in my mind as this day is.  I remember exactly where I was, and what I felt on that day.  I was mad but at the same time I was scared and terribly sad.  It’s reasonable to be angry and want to exact justice on those who had done this terrible thing.  It is reasonable to want to hate those who took so many innocent lives, but that hatred needs to be turned, and forgiveness needs to start.  It is not instantaneous, but it needs to happen or it will destroy us.

As we do with most things in our lives, we turn to Jesus as our example.  On the last day of his life, He had been beaten and mocked by the Roman soldiers, and He had been abandoned by His closest friends.  As He was hanging on the Cross he looked down at those who had just put Him there, and He asked His Father to forgive them for what they had done.  This is exactly what we have to do, we have to forgive, but we don’t have to forget, and we should never forget.

As we pause, during this day, to remember those whose lives were lost on that day, take time to ask God to help you to heal the hatred that you might have in your heart, not just for this but for every situation.  Pray for those who are trying to take our lives and pray for all of us.

Blog

How do we Change the World?

Posted on by Fr. Peter

This past week I had somewhat of a revelation or an epiphany or something of the sort.  In my preparation for the sermon that I was going to preach this past Sunday, I came to the realization that Jesus, during His earthly ministry, never directly challenged the civil government of the day.  Now I know that sometimes in Scripture it is difficult to tell the difference between the religious government, the Temple officials, and the civil government, the Romans, but Jesus never said anything to the civil government about how they were treating those under their care.

This past Sunday, the Sunday before the Elevation of the Holy Cross, the Gospel pericope came from that of St. John.  This is one of the famous passages of Scripture since it is seen in most end zones at nationally televised football games.  The passage that I am making reference too is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  But what of the passage that comes right after that, John 3:17 “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.”  God did not send His only Son so that He would condemn this world but to save all, all of creation.

This leads right into a discussion about ethics and how we, as followers of Christ, are to live moral and upright lives.  I will state right from the beginning that I believe that the Orthodox Church preaches the right messages.  I believe that our theology is pure and undefiled and has been handed down to us from the Apostles, and it is continually refined and defined by the Holy Spirit working through the Church.  I also believe that the fathers of the first 7 Ecumenical Councils established our dogma, and that is not subject to redefinition and reinterpretation, because the message is timeless, but the way we express that message constantly needs to be redefined and changed to meet the needs of the present reality.

With that said, Holy Orthodoxy has a traditional moral code.  This system has been defined over the years in the writings of, not only the Scriptures, but by the fathers and mothers of the Church.  It has been defined by the lives of the saints and other holy people and is under constant review by the Church to keep up with the times.  I believe that the moral code of the Church is in flux on some things and set in concrete in others.

I have been writing these last few days about how we need to transfigure our lives to that of Christ and His Holy Church.  This transfiguration is a gradual process as we turn from the world and toward Christ and part of that is the transformation of our moral code.  I am going to make a bold statement now and say that we cannot legislate morality, we cannot legislate that transformation.  I say this because what ethical rules are we going to use?  Christianity is much different today than it was in the time of the Apostles.  Christianity is fractured because of so many different interpretations of the message of Jesus Christ.  The politics of the day have invaded the Christian Church to such an extent that it is difficult even to find Christ in some of the, so called, Christian Churches in America today.

Jesus and His Church have established a certain moral code, but He also gave us the free will to turn toward Him or away from Him.  In all of the teachings of Jesus, He never forces anyone to see things the way He was teaching, His desire is that we bond ourselves to Him, but He never forces us to do so.  Jesus presented His message, and it is up to us to take it into our hearts or to reject it.  I will say this, we need to take His message as it was presented and not modify it to fit the current political reality of the day.

As a priest, and a leader of a community of believers, it is my duty to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not my interpretation of that Gospel, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ as has been interpreted by His Holy Church for more than 2,000 years.  The message of the Gospel is a transformation of your life, and if you take it in and live it you will have no other option but to change, and by your changing you will change the world around you.

One of my favorite spiritual writers is Saint Seraphim of Sarov.  I am not sure where this quote comes from, but in one of his works, the Holy Saint said, “Acquire the spirit of peace, and a thousand souls will be converted around you!” That spirit of peace comes from the Life Giving Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that cannot be legislated.

We change hearts and minds by the way we live, as Christians, and the model that we give to the world.  All we have to do is to follow the example of Jesus Christ in our lives, and that will show the world how to live.  We are all called to be evangelists, and we fulfill that calling in our lives by the way we live.  If we call ourselves Orthodox Christians then we need to live as the Church calls us to live and understand what our Church teaches.  The role of the clergy is to teach the faithful how they are supposed to live and to model that behavior in our own lives.

In my way of looking at things, and I do not know the mind of God, but God does not care about what this or that country does but about what you do and how you live your lives.  God does not judge nations, but in the end, we will be judged, not collectively, but as individual Christians based on how we lived our lives.  If, as a community, we are living the pure and undefiled Christian life, then society will reflect that life.  If, as is the case today, we as a society are not living that pure and undefiled life, then society will reflect that as well.  We cannot legislate that any more than we can legislate where someone goes to Church.  If we seek that deep and abiding peace that only comes from God, then we will be able to share that love with others.

Jesus was not sent to us from God as a political or military leader.  Christ was born the poorest of the poor in a borrowed bed to release you and me from the bondage of our sins, not from the bondage of our earthly life.  The community that Jesus left was no better off, politically, then it was when He came.  What He did leave was a people that had been shown the way to be freed from their spiritual bondage, and that is what we need to show society today.  If we transform our morality to that of Christ and His Church then others will follow, but it has to be voluntary.  Just as we cannot force people to be charitable we cannot force people to be moral.

Jesus taught that we must love God and love our neighbor and we do this by keeping His commandments.  I believe that if we spent more time working on our own spiritual life and not that of others, our world would be in a much different place.

How do we change the world?  By changing ourselves!

 

Blog

Sermon ~ Take up your Cross

Posted on by Fr. Peter

The Reading is from John 3:13-17

The Lord said, “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

This weekend on the Church calendar has been a busy one.  On Saturday, we commemorated the birth of the Theotokos and today we commemorate not only her parents, Joachim and Anna, but we also remember the Holy Cross.  This coming Friday we celebrate the great feast of the elevation of the Holy Cross.  These feasts are all tied together with a single purpose, and that is hope!

When Joachim and Anna were aged, we are not sure how old they were, but they were beyond childbearing days, God fulfilled His promise to them, and Anna gave birth to a baby girl, and they named her Mary.  They dedicated this child to God, and she grew up in the Temple and was prepared by God for the awesome task that she was to be called upon for latter in her life.

All of us are called by God, to do something in our life for Him.  We all have our roles to play in this drama that we call our lives, and it is essential for each of us that we learn what that is.  Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the interior life and how we are to grow in that life.  You see our spiritual life is a journey that takes a life time to complete, and there are all sorts of things along the way that we see and do, but the biggest of all of the is the transformation of our very lives.  When we were baptized, we were placed under the water and brought back out again.  This is to declare that we are dying to the old and becoming new creations.

On most feast days of Christ, we change some of the words of the Divine Liturgy.  We do not sing the Thrice Holy Hymn of Holy God; we change those words for As many who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  When we make the commitment to follow Him we cast off the old man and put on the new.  This is not just a nice theological concept, but it is a spiritual imperative that we change the old for the new.

We have to conform our lives to that of Christ and to His Church.  Our thoughts have to be His thoughts, and our actions have to be His actions.  I have said this before, our faith is not just simply a religion or a denomination, but it is a lifestyle.

I had this conversation with someone recently.  In Romania and other Orthodox countries, the Churches are relatively small, and each village has but one Orthodox Church.  Upon entering the Church, you feel as though you have left this mortal world and ascended into another place.  The smells of incense, and the burning candles attacks your sense of smell.  All of the walls are covered with Icons of various feasts and each place you look your eyes try and take it all in.  If you are there for a Liturgical service, you notice the lack of seats except a few that are against the wall.  There is a lot of activity around the sanctuary as the faithful are reverencing the Icons and lighting candles.  On one side, there might be a priest hearing confessions, and on the other side one who is praying for people, all the time Liturgy is going on.  Liturgy is designed to reach us and affect us on a sensory level.  It is not theater where we come and sit and watch a performance, but it is our opportunity to get close to God and to try and fee our minds from all of the worldly distractions, even for a short period of time.  This is why when the emissaries of the Great Prince Vladimir returned from the East they described the Orthodox Liturgy as heaven on earth!  We do not come and sit here like we would the movie theater, we come and sit in the very presence of God!

Our faith is internal and not just external.  Yes we have external expressions of our faith, the sign of the cross, the metanias, the reverencing of the Icons, standing and kneeling, these are all outward expressions of our faith, but similar to an iceberg, the majority of our faith s never seen by anyone, it is internal and is designed to affect us on that level.  Our faith is a deep and abiding faith that requires much effort on our part.  We must conform our inner lives and mind to that of Christ.  In every situation, we find ourselves in we should be asking what would Jesus do in this or that situation.  What does our Holy Church teach about this or that issue and our interactions with each other? Our lives need to be transfigured as was Jesus on Mount Tabor!  Transfigured away from the world and transfigured toward Christ.

The Theotokos had a total devotion to God.  So devoted to God was she that when the Angel came and asked her to take on this role, a role that she could not possibly understand, she said yes.  Not a, well let me think about it and consult this person or that person, no she just said yes!  She was able to say yes because her life had been transfigured, her entire life was pointed in the direction of God and no place else.  Her desire was to do what God was asking of her regardless of the consequences.

Many of you knew Fr. Vasilachi.  He was priest here for many years and to listen to you speak of him, I am of the belief that one day he will be called saint.  There is a painting of him in the museum hanging on the wall.  I used to think it was eerie because the eyes follow you around the room.  Lately, I have been spending some time just sitting in front of that image and thinking about his life.  As you know, he was arrested and spent 18 years in a Romanian jail for preaching what the Gospel of Jesus Christ was about.  This of course is counter to what the government was preaching.  You see in the 1940’s, and 50’s in Romania the Church had been replaced by the state as the salvation of the world.  Political leaders were looked up to more than the saints of the Church, and the government had become the religion of the day.  Part of the socialist plan is to remove, what was called, the opium of people, and replace it with the opium of the state.

Father Vasliachi saw where things were headed; he was able to read the signs of the time and would preach publicly against what the government was preaching.  He was telling the young people that the government will not save you only God can do that.  God sent Jesus, as Scripture tells us today, “so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” No mortal human being can do this no matter what position they hold be they prince or president, “put no trust in princes in mortal men where there is no help.”  Call upon the name of the Lord and He will strengthen you for the battle that is about to commence.  Not a battle of earthly proportions but a spiritual battle for your very soul!

This is the message of the Church, and this is the message that Fr. Vasilachi was preaching, and this is the message that saw his thrown into prison like so many others who we will never know.  He watched countless prisoners die in prison as his own brother did, and he ministered to them and to his captors, by the way, just as Jesus commands us to do.

Each time Father Vasilachi climbed into that pulpit, or stood on that street corner to preach he knew what was at stake, and he took the chance, the chance with his life, but he needed to preach the truth, because dear ones, the truth will set us free!  We can only find freedom in God, if we look for freedom in other places we will delude ourselves.

We celebrate the great feast of the elevation of the Holy Cross on Friday.  One of the 12 great feats of the Church and is a commemoration of the finding of the true from by the mother of the Emperor Constantine.  St. Helena found the cross whilst on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and she brought is out for the world to see.  The cross was a tool. A tool used by their Roman captors to create fear into the lives of the people.  The Cross was used as an instrument of hatred and misery, but one man came along and changed all of that.  Through a tree man was led into sin, the sin of Adam, and through the wood of another tree, the Cross, man was led to redemption.

This is the transfiguration life, a life that thinks with the mind of Christ and with the mind of the Church.  This was the life of the Theotokos, forgetting what could have been done to her by society, she said yes.  Father Vaslichai, knowing full well the fate that would come to him if he kept preaching what he was preaching, sure he could have just rolled over like so many of the clergy of the day had done to save their own skin, but in the end he stood when he needed to be counted and forgetting the danger, he lived his life, not for himself, but for God.

These are but a few examples of how we should live our lives.  Many of us will never be called upon in such extraordinary ways, but it is in the ordinary ways that we might never know, where we can make a difference.

The spiritual journey takes a life time, but it starts with one step, with one decision and that decision has to be that we will begin to conform our lives to Christ.  We simply have no other option.

Blog

The problem with political prayer

Posted on by Fr. Peter
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan (REUTERS)

By 

When New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan accepted a belated invitation to give the blessing at the Democratic National Convention, I wondered whether he would give the same benediction as he did for Republicans or tailor his presentation to his audience.

In Charlotte, we got the answer—the cardinal did some tailoring. While he drew upon the same general template for both conventions, the specific design for Democrats was fuller and more detailed.

When a religious leader gives a blessing in a political context there is a range of content choices from most general to most specific. On one end of the range is the choice to pray for general virtues necessary for public service such as fidelity and truthfulness. On the other end of the range is the choice to pray for specific issues such as the resolution of a war or the breaking of a drought. Lying in the middle is the choice to pray for the recognition of values that connect those personal virtues to specific issues addressed in the political realm.

Dolan chose to emphasize values. But while he did not mention specific policy choices by name, the connections with contentious political issues were clear to anyone who cared to reflect on the substance of his remarks.

Thematically, there was much shared between Dolan’s blessing for Republican delegates in Tampa and his blessing for the Democratic delegates in Charlotte. Both blessings were explicitly Christian: Christ was invoked, but God was identified as “the father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” perhaps to affirm the monotheistic tradition that Christians, Jews, and Muslims share. In both speeches, the cardinal emphasized divine origins of life, liberty, and truth as well as the importance of the common good.

But within these broad themes, there were elaborations and connections that challenged audiences in Tampa and Charlotte to reflect differently about their values and their connection to particular policy choices.

In Tampa, Dolan prayed for the unborn and those at the end of life. But he elaborated and connected this to the issue of immigration, by asking God to “bless…those families that have come recently, to build a better future while weaving their lives into the rich tapestry of America.” Those Republican delegates who listened would have been called to reflect on their party’s position regarding immigration, especially because the cardinal did not single out “legal immigrants” as the only worthy recipients of divine protection. Dolan made mention of poverty as well when he prayed: “May we strive to include your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, in the production and prosperity of a people so richly blessed.” At this, reflective Republican delegates might have paused to consider the GOP’s positions on economic policy, especially since Dolan did not mention the concept of “subsidiarity,” which has often been used as cover for the Ryan budget.

The connections and elaborations were more extensive in Dolan’s blessing at the Democratic convention. Dolan prayed that those present realize that society’s greatness lies in its “respect for the weakest and neediest among us.” When he moved to praise God for “the gift of life,” “without which no other right is secure,” no one present could fail to think of abortion and consider how respect for the born and protection of the unborn are inextricably linked. Dolan seemed to implicitly call Democratic delegates to reflect on same-sex marriage as well when he prayed that we “resist the temptation…to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community.” Interlaced throughout was consistent references to religious liberty, which might have moved some in Charlotte to consider the full complexity of issues surrounding the Health and Human Services mandate.

Taken together, the blessings Dolan offered could be read as an overview of a contemporary Catholic political philosophy. His blessings were thoughtful and well-crafted.

But they do raise an overall question about what prayer in a political context should be about.

By being more specific about the values that influence policy, Dolan was affirming that religion and religious motivations are not simply private matters but have broad ranging implications for how we think about the political life. But by being so specific, the cardinal did open up the question of whether he was privileging one side or the other. House Speaker John Boehner, for his part, seemed to frame Dolan’s appearance in partisan political terms by introducing the cardinal as someone who knows the “preferential option for the poor does not translate into a preferential option for big government.” I don’t think many Democrats will move to identify Dolan as a supporter of their basic policy positions in a similar way.

And therein lies the problem with prayer in political contexts. It very well may be that a particular political party better reflects Catholic ideals at a certain time. But that’s a complex question that cannot be settled by a quantitative enumeration of points of agreement and disagreement. Ideally, prayer offers the means for a more nuanced discernment of the relationship between religious commitments and political affiliation. But there needs to be a space of silence in order for such a discernment to happen. In the clamor of both conventions, I wonder whether anyone had the space to listen to Dolan, let alone to God.

Mathew N. Schmalz is a professor and director of the College Honors Program at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Source

Blog

Prayer and Politics

Posted on by Fr. Peter
His Eminence Metropolitan NICHOLAS of Detroit

As you may know, if you read these pages often, I sometimes comment on politics.  I Tweeted last night that I am a Bipartisan criticizer as I am critical of politics on both side of the ideological spectrum.  I have not been drinking the Kool-aide, as they say, of either party as I believe that, as a Christian, I cannot be a democrat or a republican.

I believe that religion has a role to play in America and in American politics and was pleased to see that the Orthodox Church was represented at both conventions.  However, prayer is not a time to make political statements!

I am extremely surprised by the comments that were left on my Facebook page under the link I posted to both prayers. People commented that the bishops should have prayed for this or that and should have used this time to chastise people for what they believe.  I would agree that one of the roles of the clergy is to call people to faithfulness and to; in the case of Christian clergy, follow Christ, but prayer is not the time to chastise people.

We have many examples in Scripture of Jesus telling people that they need to get their life right with God.  One of the more famous exchanges is with the woman at the well, but in prayer Jesus never did this.  Jesus simply prayed for those around Him for their well-being and their lives.  He never used the opportunity to tell this one or that one that they were wrong.  One of the sure ways to not get invited back is to start yelling at people during prayer.

Prayer is a time to ask for God’s blessing and guidance in all things.  It is a time to be thankful that we live in a country where people can disagree in a peaceful way and where we have elections and peaceful transition of government whether we agree with that government or not.  It is a time to pray for the poor and for those who have no voice, and as we pray in the liturgy when we pray for civil authorities that, by their faithful service we may lead quiet and peaceful lives.  Simply said, that is it.

Clergy should never use the pulpit to promote one candidate or political party; we need to use the pulpit to teach people how to love God and to love our neighbor.  We need to use the pulpit to teach people how to love the poor, the hungry, the homeless and all those in need. But most importantly we need to use the pulpit to teach people about the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ.

As I wrote about yesterday, we are called to transform our lives and our actions and adapt them to what Christ is calling us too, and that is holiness.  We need to be the example to all by our life and our actions that we have the love of God shining not only in us but from us just as the light shone forth from Christ on Mount Tabor at His Transfiguration.  We need, no we are commanded, to love all, even those we disagree with and we need to show them the love of Christ not beat them over the head during prayer to see things our way.

With that said we have an obligation to speak, to teach, to write, and most especially to vote the way our conscious dictates and my hope is that our conscious is in accord with the teachings of our Church.  We are all, including clergy, citizens on this nation and have just as much right to speak on issues as others do.  We have a right to make our voice heard and to influence the debate but during prayer is not a time to do that.

error: Content is protected !!