Truths Behind the Tea Parties

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Steve Chapman
April 19, 2009

The banking collapse and the economic meltdown have prompted many Americans to turn to the federal government as indispensable savior, telling Congress and the president: We hope you can fix it; we want you to do whatever is necessary to fix it; and we don’t care what it costs.

That was not the sentiment in evidence at the tea-party protests held on Tax Day.

There, the message was one of great skepticism about the efficacy of the government’s remedies and great apprehension about the expense (along with some of the extremist lunacy that accompanies any mass movement). The scale of the federal response to the crises has come as a frightening surprise to many Americans, who suspect the cure will be worse, and less transitory, than the disease.

Since September, a federal budget that was already growing steadily has accelerated out of control. The ride began in the winter of 2008, when Congress and President George W. Bush agreed on a fiscal stimulus package of $170 billion in tax rebates and incentives. It picked up speed in the fall, when the Treasury spent $85 billion to take over insurance giant American International Group Inc. and Congress approved $700 billion to rescue failing financial institutions.

The Rest of the Story

Posted on by Fr. Peter
† D A N I E L
BY THE WILL OF GOD ARCHBISHOP OF BUCHAREST
METROPOLITAN OF MUNTENIA AND DOBRUDGEA
LOCUM TENENS OF CAESAREA OF CAPPADOCHIA
AND PATRIARCH OF THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

TO THE CLERGY, MONKS, NUNS
AND BELOVED FAITHFUL OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BUCHAREST

GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE FROM CHRIST, OUR LORD, AND FATHERLY BLESSINGS FROM US

„And I will be with you always, till the end of time” (Matthew 28: 20)

Fathers and monks, Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

(…) After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord, ap-peared, for forty days long, from Easter till Ascension, several times in several places. First of all, He was seen by the women of myrrh, then by his disciples and by several people whom He convinced of the truth of His Resur-rection, teaching them: “about the King-dom of God” (cf. Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24; John 20-21), Acts (1,3) and a few writings of Saint Paul the Apostle (cf. I Corinthians 15:6).

Saint Evangelist Matthew shows us that after his Resurrection from the dead, Christ-the Lord appeared to his disciples in Galilee “at the hill where Jesus had told them to go” (Mathew 28:18-20) and told them: “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all peoples every-where and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything I have com-manded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Saint Evangelist Mark speaks similarly about the meeting of the Risen Lord with His disciples “when they were eating” (Mark 16:14-18). Saint Evange-list Luke shows us clearly that Jesus Christ Risen from the dead travelled with his disciples, Luke and Cleopa, on the way to Emaus, when He explained them what the Holy Scriptures had pre-dicted about His death and Resurrection (Luke 24: 13-32). During this journey, the Lord seemed a stranger whom they invited into the house not to let him travel alone by night. After entering the house, he sat down at the table, blessed and broke the bread and gave it to his disciples to eat. Then, their spiritual eyes opened and they recog-nised the Crucified Jesus. But suddenly, He disappeared. Luke and Cleopa went back to Jerusalem and told the other eleven disciples of Jesus and those who were together with them about their encounter with the Lord Risen from the dead. While they were talking, Jesus appeared among them and explained them everything that happened to him that is about his Passions, Death and Resurrection, fulfilled just as predicted “in the law of Moses, the writings of the prophets and the Psalms.” (Luke 24:44). After telling them He will send “what the Father has promised” (Luke 24:49), that is the Holy Spirit, the Risen Jesus took them out of Jerusalem and “raised his hands and blessed them and was taken up into heaven. They worshipped him and went back to Jerusalem, filled with great joy and spent all their time in the Temple giving thanks to God.” (Luke 24: 50-53). So, we see how the blessing of the Christ Risen and Ascended to heaven brings joy to the Church, and the joy brings about thanksgiving to God.

Saint Paul the Apostle, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, speaks about the appearances of Jesus Christ, our Lord, after his Resurrection from the dead, saying: “that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. Then he appeared to James, and after-wards to all the apostles. Last of all he appeared also to me – even though I am like someone whose birth was ab-normal.” (I Corinthians 15:5-8). These appearances of Jesus Christ, our Lord, after His Resurrection from the dead, show us He is mysteriously present and appears to the people when, where and how He wants.

We also see that the life of Jesus Christ, our Lord Risen from the dead is not a simple return to the life He lived among people, but a different one. His risen body passes through the locked doors (John 20:19), although Apostle Thomas sees He bears, even after death, the insignia of the nails and spear during his crucifixion (John 20:19). Although He tastes the fish and honeycomb after Resurrection (Luke 24:42; John 21.10), the Lord does it not because He needs to feed his body, but to prove his disciples He is Jesus, not a ghost or apparition. In other words, although He appears from time to time, for forty days, to his disciples and to some other persons on the earth, the Risen Christ lives the heavenly eternal life, that is free of any limit of space and time. Nobody and nothing in the earthly life can keep him, not even by sight, unless He wants to. The Risen Jesus does never dies, as He is always alive: “death will no longer rule over him” as Saint Paul the Apostle teaches us (Romans 6:9). Jesus Risen from the dead lives a new life, unlimited and everlasting, immortal, with no sufferance or decay, that is: the eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

The promise that Jesus Christ, our Lord, Risen from the dead, makes to his disciples: “And I will be with you always, to the end of the age“ (Matthew 28:20) is fulfilled in his Church and lived as such by his Church especially after the Ascension of Christ, the Lord, to heaven and the coming down of the Holy Spirit, as He himself predicted to his disciples before his Passion and Resurrection: “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the spirit who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you. When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you.” (John 14: 15-18). So, we see that the same as the Holy Spirit from heaven was present in Christ when He was living on the earth, so is Christ from heaven present now in the Holy Spirit who came down and worked in the Church of Christ, which is His Body mysterious and full of the Holy Spirit.

The feast of the Resurrection of Christ and the feast of the Pentecost are mysteriously linked together through the work of the Holy Spirit of Christ, so that through His crucified body, risen and ascended in glory, to bestow then the divine-human eternal life of Christ into his Church in order to prepare it as a bride for the eternal life (John 6: 40 and 47. Romans 6:22-32; Ephesians 2:6), for the glory of the Kingdom of God or the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21).

So, the Risen Christ is present in the Church through the Holy Spirit, enlightening the Church to understand the Scriptures, to celebrate the Holy Sacraments and to observe everything He commanded, always improving the life of the Christians for the final Resurrection and for the Heavenly Kingdom of the Holy Trinity (John 16:13).

The ways of the presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the Church and of communicating his saving grace to those who believe in Him and fulfil his will are many and wonderful, holy and saving.

The Risen Christ is present in His Church and dedicates himself to the faithful through the obedience to the word of His Gospel and through the fulfilment of His commands, as He Himself teaches us saying: “whoever hears my words and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. He will not be judged, but has already passed from death to life” (John 5:24); “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remained in his love.” (John 15:10); “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it.” (John 15:7).

The word of the Gospel by which Christ Himself together with the Holy Spirit is working in the hearts and minds of the faithful feeds and inspires our thanksgiving and praying to God (Romans 10:17). So, the working presence of Christ in us is felt especially in and through prayer, as this is our answer to the call Christ addresses us through the words of His Gospel. This is why before and after listening to the Gospel of Christ in the church, we sing: “Glory to you, God, glory to you!”

Another way in which Christ is present in the Church and dedicated to those who believe in him is the Holy Sacraments that the Church calls “the divine, holy, pure, eternal, heavenly and life giving, fearful Sacraments of Christ.” Rev. Dumitru Stăniloae defined the Holy Sacraments of the Church as the multiple dedication of Christ to us by which the unification of the people with Christ is done.

In the Sacrament of the Holy Baptism, Christ baptised in the River Jordan and the One who baptised his disciples first with Holy Spirit and then with fire flames, is present and united with those who believe in Him: “You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ Himself” (Galatians 3:27). His Baptism is the Holy Sacrament by which we have the communion with the saving grace of the Holy Trinity and receive the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that is the Christian name which means anointed with the Holy Spirit, as the ceremony of the Anointment Sacrament says to the one anointed with Holy Spirit: “The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit”. Through faith and through the grace of the Holy Spirit received at the Holy Baptism, Christ lives in the hearts of the baptised ones (Ephesians 3: 17-18) and prepares them for the eternal life, as Saint Paul the Apostle teaches us when he says: “If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death, will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of the Spirit in you” (Romans 8:11).

The Risen Christ is present and working in the Church through the Holy Sacrament of Wedding, blessing with His presence and grace the relationship between bridegroom and bride as holy icon of the relationship between Him and His Church, as the Apostle says at the wedding: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one. There is a deep secret truth revealed in this scripture, which I understand as applying to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32). Christ present with His Mother and His disciples at the Wedding in Cana Galilee (John 2) is present through His grace at every Christian wedding celebrated with faith and piety in the Orthodox Church.

The Risen Christ is present and working in the Holy Sacrament of Priesthood as the steps and name of deacon, priest and bishop are Christological names, that is proofs of the work of Christ in His Church, because He is the servant (Deacon), High Priest and Bishop (The Shepherd, guardian and Bishop of your souls) (I Peter 2:25). The Saviour Himself promised he would be present in those whom He sends to confess Him: “whoever listens to you listens to me” (Luke 10:16) or “whoever receives anyone I send receives me also” (John 13.20). So, we can see how great and holy is the work of Christ through His priests consecrated by the Holy Spirit “to be shepherds of the church of God” (Acts 20:28).

The Risen Christ is present in the Sacrament of Healing, he is “the doctor of our souls and bodies” (Healing Sacrament) or the Healing Source (Service for consecrating the water), the One who healed lots of sick people. This is why Saint John Chrisostom called the Church of God “a spiritual pharmacy, where new remedies, to heal the wounds caused by the world are prepared”.
The Risen Christ is present in the Sacrament of Repentance and of the forgiveness of the sins as the One who healed the sinful woman, the weak in Capernaum, the sick at Vitezda pool and many others. The gift of forgiving the sins for getting the eternal life is the greatest gift that Christ the Lord gave to his disciples on the first day of his Resurrection from the dead, when He said: “‘Peace be with you! As the Father sent me, so I send you’. Then he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven, if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven’” (John 20: 21-23). Saint John Chrisostom says, when he speaks of the forgiveness of the sins through the Holy Sacrament: “Go into the church and confess your sins, repenting for them; because you will find there the doctor to heal you, not a judge to punish you; they do not want to punish the sinner there, but to forgive the sins.”

Christ Risen from the dead is present and dedicated to his faithful especially in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, according to his promise: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him to life on the last day” (John 6:54) or “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him” (John 5:56).

When explaining what Saint John the Evangelist says, Saint Kyril of Alexandria (+444) says: “As the life giving Word of God lived in the body, turned it to his own good, that is into life, and showed it, through mysterious union, becoming as he Himself is by nature, through a life giving adding. This is why the body of Christ makes alive those who take Him as communion, because when He comes to the mortals, He chases away death and removes decay, as He has in Himself the power to do completely away with decay.”

Another way of the mysterious presence of the Risen Christ in the world is His presence and call through our fellow beings who need our brotherly presence and help. Christ, the Lord, waits for our answer to His merciful love, in them, as well as in our willingness to become His merciful hands for our fellow beings in need. This truth is given by the Holy Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 25, when He speaks about the love for our neighbour as the criteria for the Last Judgement, when Christ, the just judge will tell everybody: “I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me” (Matthew 25: 40 and 45). Saint John Chrisostom teaches us that the union with Christ through the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is fruitless unless it fulfils the deeds of the Christian mercy: “Do you want to honour the Body of Christ? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honour it here, in the Church, through silk clothes if you let him outside to suffer from cold with no clothes.

The one who said: this is my body and changed it saying these words, is the same one who says: I was hungry and you gave me to eat (…). Remember it also Christ when we see your fellow being roams like a homeless stranger.”

The presence of the Risen Christ in the Church and in the world is a mysterious, spiritual presence, which is not conspicuous and which does not constrains us physically or morally, because Christ, our Lord respects our freedom to receive or to refuse Him. The Risen Christ does not force the doors of our soul, does not annul our freedom; His way meets the way of our life, but He does not enter the house of our soul and body unless we are willing to receive Him. He tells us rather often, in many ways and circumstances: “Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and eat with him, and he will eat with me” (Rev. 3:20). Whoever receives Him receives eternal Life and joy, receives the heaven in his heart and house. Whoever does not open the door of his heart to Christ, locks himself outside the Kingdom of God, as the liturgical chant says during the Lent: “Here the bridegroom comes at midnight and happy is the servant whom he will find watching, and useless is the one whom he will find idling. So, see my soul not to oversleep and not to die and lock yourself outside the Kingdom….”

The presence of the Risen Christ is invoked in prayer. When we say “God help me”, God have mercy, God, be with me, God, save me, all these expressions whom we learned from the Gospel of Christ, are calls of Christ in our soul, life and activity, as His presence is offered, not imposed. The Risen Christ never misses his encounter with us, but we often forget to look for Him, to call Him and to receive Him. The best-known evidence of Christ’s presence amid us is the Orthodox liturgical greeting: “Christ is amid us”, followed by the answer: “He is, will always be, for ever and ever, Amen! So, the promise of Christ’s presence in His Church is confirmed, based on the experience of His Church, which lives in and is feeding with the loving, holy and saving presence of Christ.

The same as on the day of His Resurrection the Risen Lord came to His disciples gathered together, sat with them and blessed them, so does He come and sits amid the faithful met in His name, in any place and any time, according to His promise: “For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them” (Matthew 18:20). While using the priest’s voice and hand, Christ meets and blesses us with His peace. This is why in the Orthodox rite the priest conveys, through word and gesture, the blessing of Christ, saying: “Peace to all of you!”, while he blesses making a cross with his right hand.

The heavenly peace that the Risen Christ brings in the souls of the faithful is the peace of man’s reconciliation with God, the power of victory over the sin and death, the power of the sacrificial love, which helps them to overcome the troubles, temptations and trials of the earthly life. This power is confirmed by Saint Paul the Apostle when he says: “I have the strength to face all conditions, by the power that Christ gives me” (Philipians 4:13). The power of the Cross and Resurrection, as mysterious but true presence of Christ in the Church, is confirmed by the apostles and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for Him, by the hierarchs, priests and deacons who fought for defending the right faith, by the monks and nuns who lived in monasteries and sketes fasting and praying, by the Christian families who gave birth to children and grew them in faith, as well as by all those who carried with joy the cross of many trials and sorrows, with the faith in the help of God and in the hope of Resurrection.

The Church lives in the presence of the saving love of Christ (Romans 8:35), in the living relationship with Him, as a result of the “faith that works through love” (Galatians 5:6) and waits with faith, hope and love the fulfilment of His promise: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).

I mentioned in the previous pages of the Pastoral letter, when I underlined the importance of the saving presence of the Risen Christ in the Church, proofs especially from the Holy Scripture and from the Divine Liturgy, chiefly because this year, 2008, is the jubilee year of the Holy Scripture and of the Divine Liturgy in the Romanian Patriarchy, when we celebrate 320 years since the printing of the Bible from Bucharest (1688), the first complete edition of the Holy Scripture in the Romanian language, and 500 years since the printing of the first Orthodox liturgical book, namely the Slavonic Liturgical Book published in Târgovişte in 1508. When obeying the words of God in the Holy Scripture and participating in the Divine Liturgy, we feel as strongly as possible the loving, consecrating and saving presence of Christ in the Church, in order to give us joy, peace and eternal life.

Let us enjoy the loving cones-crating presence of Christ on these days of the feast of the Holy Easter, in our souls and houses. Let us glorify Him thanking Him at the same time for the blessing and peace that He gives us when we seek Him. At the same time, let us spread joy and peace around us, by word and deed, helping especially the sick, poor and old people, those in need and distress. Let us not forget in our prayer and love our brothers from abroad, especially those far away from Romania. Let us use the time of the Holy Easter in order to strengthen the communion of love between parents and children, between spouses, friends, and neighbours and let us try “to be at peace with everyone and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it.” (Hebrews 12:14).

We address you, in the light of the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and of the prayers of His saints, best wishes of good health and salvation, of peace and joy, of help from God in every good deed, together with the Pascal greeting “Christ is Risen!”

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (II Corinthians 13:13).

† DANIEL
Archbishop of Bucharest,
Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrudgea,
Locum tenens of the throne of Caesarea of Cappadocia,
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

Holy Friday

Posted on by Fr. Peter
When Friday dawned, Christ was sent bound from Caiaphas to Pontius Pilate, who was then Governor of Judea. Pilate interrogated Him in many ways, and once and again acknowledged that He was innocent, but to please the Jews, he later passed the sentence of death against Him. After scourging the Lord of all as though He were a runaway slave, he surrendered Him to be crucified.

Thus the Lord Jesus was handed over to the soldiers, was stripped of His garments, was clothed in a purple robe, was crowned with a wreath of thorns, had a reed placed in His hand as though it were a sceptre, was bowed before in mockery, was spat upon, and was buffeted in the face and on the head. Then they again clothed Him in His own garments, and bearing the cross, He came to Golgotha, a place of condemnation, and there, about the third hour, He was crucified between two thieves. Although both blasphemed Him at the first, the thief at His right hand repented, and said: “Remember me, O Lord, when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom,” to which our Saviour answered, “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” As He hung upon the Cross, He was blasphemed by those who were passing by, was mocked by the high priests, and by the soldiers was given vinegar to drink mixed with gall. About the ninth hour, He cried out with a loud voice, saying, “It is finished.” And the Lamb of God “Which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) expired on the day when the moon was full, and at the hour when, according to the Law, was slain the Passover lamb, which was established as a type of Him in the time of Moses.

Even lifeless creation mourned the death of the Master, and it trembled and was altered out of fear. Yet, even though the Maker of creation was already dead, they pierced Him in His immaculate side, and forthwith came there out Blood and Water. Finally, at about the setting of the sun, Joseph of Arimathea came with Nicodemus (both of them had been secret disciples of Jesus), and they took down the all-holy Body of the Teacher from the Cross and anointed it with aromatic spices, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. When they had buried Him in a new tomb, they rolled a great stone over its entrance.

Such are the dread and saving sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ commemorated today, and in remembrance of them, we have received the Apostolic commandment that a fast be observed every Friday.

Holy Thursday

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I would have to say that one of my favorite Liturgy of all of Holy Week is the Holy Thursday Liturgy. On this night we read the 12 passion Gospels during the matins service. Sometimes it is very confusing to be Orthodox as we like to anticipate things. So yesterday morning we did vespers at 10am and matins at 7pm. Very confusing.
After the fifth Gospel passage the priest takes the cross and in procession around the church carrying the cross on his shoulder. Our church is small so it does not take long. While the procession is going on the cantor is singing very slowly, “Today is hung upon the Cross, He Who suspended the Earth amid the waters.” At the end of the procession the corpus is “nailed” on the cross and the cross is lifted up in position for veneration. Here the corpus is screwed on the wood of the cross but we use some dramatics and actually pound nails into the small block of wood. The Church is in darkness and silent and the sound of the pounding nails in only drowned out by the faithful weeping. A very moving service indeed. I believe this is the longest of the services of Holy Week, although tonight’s service is almost there.
Now the cross remains in the Church until the 3:00 service when the corpus is taken down and placed on the altar, then it will be placed in the tomb for the burial service tonight.

Holy Wednesday

Posted on by Fr. Peter
This post is coming a few days late but I have been reflecting on the prayers from the Unction Service of Holy Wednesday and wish to focus on one particular prayer. During this service the Holy Oil is blessed that will be used to administer the Sacrament of the Sick during the coming year. In the Orthodox Church, the priest is the normal celebrant of this blessing. Oil can be blessed at any time during the year for need, but the bulk of it is blessed on this night. At the conclusion of the service the faithful come forward for the anointing.
During the service seven Gospel pericopies are read that deal with healing during Jesus ministry. Each of these pericopies are followed by a prayer. As has become my custom here I move to the vessel that contains the oil and pray these prayers out loud. In the Holy Week Service Book that I use the prayers are written in small type which usually means they are optional.
As I was reading the 5th prayer it struck me and a well-spring of emotions began to build up in me. I will re-print part of it below and then comment on it.

O Lord, our God, You chasten, and again heal; You raise up from the ground and dunghill the indigent; Father of orphans, and Haven of tempest-tossed; Physician of the ailing, Who without toil bears our weaknesses, and accepts our infirmities; it is You, Who cheerfully shows mercy, and passes over our iniquities, taking away our unrighteousness; quick to help and slow to wrath; You breathed on Your Disciples, and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit; whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them;” It is You, Who accepts the repentance of sinners, and has the power to pardon countless and grievous sins, bestowing healing upon all, who continue in weakness and long-enduring illness.
It is You, Lord, Who has also called me, Your humble, sinful and unworthy servant, intertwined in many sins, and wallowing in the pleasures of life, to the Holy and exceedingly lofty degree of the Priesthood, and to enter within the innermost Veil, into the Holy of Hollies, where the Holy Angels desire to penetrate and hear the voice of the Lord, God, announcing glad tidings, and to behold with their own eyes the presence of the Sacred Oblation, and to enjoy the Divine and Sacred Liturgy.
You, Lord, deemed me worthy to minster Your Heavenly Mysteries, and offer You gifts and sacrifices for our sins, and the ignorance of people; and to meditate for Your reason-endowed sheep, so that through Your great and ineffable love for mankind, You may blot out their transgressions…

You who has called me… intertwined in many sins, and wallowing in the pleasures of life, to the Holy and exceedingly lofty degree of the Priesthood… WOW, I read this and almost fell on the ground and yelled, “I AM NOT WORTHY…” It never ceases to amaze me when I come upon one of these prayers and it stops me in mm tracks. This is the third year of my Priesthood and I have read this prayer two times before, but I guess this year I am not as worried about the service this year and more into the prayers and I am actually listening to what I am reading. This is BIG! It is hard to think of the “Lofty Degree of the Priesthood,” when you have your hands in the toilte cleaning it before the people arrive for services, or when you are doing some other task around the church, but I guess it is true. It is all part of the job, and you can be cleaning a toilet one minute and anointing a person the other. Man this is going to need more reflection.

A Ha Moment

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Ever had one of those A Ha moments? You know when you just stop and say A Ha! Well I had one of those whilst cleaning my kitchen bin not that long ago. There I was scrubbing the bin and it came to me… That’s what that means. No matter how many times you read Scripture there is always something new to learn. We can always learn something and I believe that things are revealed to us as we need them or understand them.

Now I have read this Gospel passage, well I am not sure how many times I have read it. But for the last four Holy Weeks I have read this passage on Monday night during the Bridegroom service. Matthew 21:14-43. More especially vs. 36-40

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

The last part of this is what I would like to focus on. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the faith part. We need to believe and we need to give all we have to God, not just the bits that are left over but the whole of ourselves.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is the works bit. It is not just enough to love your neighbor we need to put that faith in action. We need to be concerned about your neighbor and we need to care for them, feed them, visit them, care for the sick amongst them and provide clothing to them. This is out job we are in fact our brothers keeper! It is not the governments job to do this it is our job to do this.

This is our faith in a nutshell. Everything else depends on this… We are our brothers keeper. Have you checked on your brother lately?

Palm Sunday

Posted on by Fr. Peter

On Sunday, five days before the Passover of the Law, the Lord came from Bethany to Jerusalem. Sending two of His disciples to bring Him a foal of an ass, He sat thereon and entered into the city. When the multitude there heard that Jesus was coming, they straightway took up the branches of palm trees in their hands, and went forth to meet Him. Others spread their garments on the ground, and yet others cut branches from the trees and strewed them in the way that Jesus was to pass; and all of them together, especially the children, went before and after Him, crying out: “Hosanna: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord, the King of Israel” (John 12:13). This is the radiant and glorious festival of our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem that we celebrate today.

The branches of the palm trees symbolize Christ’s victory over the devil and death. The word Hosanna means “Save, I pray,” or “Save, now.” The foal of an ass, and Jesus’ sitting thereon, and the fact that this animal was untamed and considered unclean according to the Law, signified the former uncleanness and wildness of the nations, and their subjection thereafter to the holy Law of the Gospel.

Saturday of Lazarus

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Yesterday we saw the final service of the Lenten season for the Orthodox, well almost the last service Palm Sunday is th e bridge between the two so I guess you could say it was the last. This is the Saturday that we recall the rasing of Lazarus. One of my favorite Gospel passages is read at this liturgy with the most amazing verse of all, “and Jesus wept” This shows his humanity and although he knew he was going to raise his friend from death he still wept for him I find this a truly amazing thing and will be the center piece of my sermon today.

Here is a little snipit from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website on the Saturday of Lazarus:

According to an ancient tradition, it is said that Lazarus was thirty years old when the Lord raised him; then he lived another thirty years on Cyprus and there reposed in the Lord. It is furthermore related that after he was raised from the dead, he never laughed till the end of his life, but that once only, when he saw someone stealing a clay vessel, he smiled and said, “Clay stealing clay.” His grave is situated in the city of Kition, having the inscription: “Lazarus the four days dead and friend of Christ.” In 890 his sacred relics were transferred to Constantinople by Emperor Leo the Wise, at which time undoubtedly the Emperor composed his stichera for Vespers, “Wishing to behold the tomb of Lazarus . . .”

Brother of Mary and Martha and friend of Jesus we recall his raising from the dead. The troparion of the feast tells the entire story. Again from the GoArch Website:

O Christ our God, before Your Passion, You raised Lazarus from the dead to confirm the common Resurrection for all. Therefore, we carry the symbols of victory as did the youths, and we cry out to You, the victor over death, “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. “

… to confirm the common resurrection of all. … we carry sysmbols of victory… Much of our theology is contained in this little verse that unfortunatly almost no one heard yesterday as the church was mostly empty. Could you not wait an hour with me?

Lazarus is symbolic of all of us and, as the troparion says, the common resurreciton of us all. The difference between the raising of Lazarus and that of Christ is very interesting. When Lazarus came forth from the tomb his head was still wrapped and for Christ is head wrapping was left behind. Lazarus remained covered because he was to die again. Not so for Christ as he will be raised of all of us.

Easter blessing to my family and friends of the Western Tradition and please pray for us as we enter the holiest of weeks on the church calendar. Pray also that one day we may truly be as the Creed states, “One”

Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Nicolae

Posted on by Fr. Peter
PASTORAL LETTER FOR THE FEAST OF THE LORD’S RESURRECTION 2009

† NICOLAE
through the mercy of God
Archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas
To our beloved clergy and right-believing Christians,peace and holy joy from Christ the Lord,and from us hierarchical blessings.

Most Reverend Fathers,
Beloved Faithful,

Christ is risen!

On the morning of the Resurrection, following the reading of the Holy Gospel proclaiming the discovery of the empty tomb by the myrrh-bearing women and the angel’s explanation of the Lord’s rising from the dead, we sing the troparion Christ is risen from the dead…. We hear first the announcement of the historical event related by the first witnesses, the myrrh-bearers, and only then do we proclaim to one another the wonder of the Resurrection. The historical event takes on an eternal significance by means of this proclamation throughout the ages until the end of the world.

The Lord’s Resurrection is the feast of feasts and the holiday of holidays. We call this feast Holy Pascha, using the name of the Hebrew feast of Passover or Pesach, which means passing over. For the Jews, Passover meant the passage from Egyptian slavery to the freedom promised by God. This change was effected through an actual passing through the Red Sea, under the guidance of the Prophet Moses, after many punishments suffered by the Egyptians because of Pharoah’s hardness of heart. The last of these was the death of the firstborn males of the Egyptian families and the salvation of the firstborn of the Hebrews. This meant that the passage from slavery to freedom took place through suffering and human sacrifice because of a failure to understand the commandment of God.

The Savior’s Resurrection is also a passage; not simply a passage from one state of being to another, but one which shakes the very foundation of human nature, for it is the passage from death to life, as we witness in the songs from Resurrection Matins: Today is the Day of Resurrection! O nations, let us shine forth; for this Pascha is the Pascha of the Lord, in that Christ did make us pass from death to Life and from earth to heaven, who now sing the song of victory and triumph! Christ has taken us also from the bondage of sin to the freedom of being sons of God. Through His sacrifice on the Cross, Christ has gained our liberty, transporting us from earth to heaven. He set us free from the death of sin, which was the result of our alienation from God and our ignorance of His will, and he brought us into the life of communion with God which flows from the intimacy of being sons of God by grace. Christ descended into the deepest abyss of earth, into the darkness of death, in order to bring to the light those who awaited redemption, liberation from the bonds of hell, and eternal life. This is the first passage accomplished through the Resurrection of Christ: man’s passage from the death of ignorance and estrangement from God to the life which flows from communion with God.

The second sense of the Lord’s Resurrection as passage refers to the abolition of death as the failure of human existence, as the seal of sin, of man’s separation from God. Witnessing Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, we affirm that the death of the believer no longer means the end of earthly life, but passage from this life into one of more perfect communion with God. Earthly life is not terminated in the grave; the Christian does not pass into nonexistence as unbelievers say, but passes into another life. It is about this meaning given to death, as a passage, that the Church Fathers speak when they talk about the remembrance of death as a call to mindfulness and to keeping God’s commandments. St. Anthony the Great says, Death, if one keeps it in mind, is immortality; but to not keep it in mind is death.

But there is yet another sense of the Lord’s Resurrection as passage. St. Paul the Apostle speaks about this to the Christians in Corinth: Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (1 Cor. 15:51-53). Our passage from death to life will be completed at the end of the ages, when the dead will rise, and those still alive will be changed. This is a change of our bodies, their passage from corruptibility to incorruptibility, from death to life. St. Paul speaks very clearly about the changing of our bodies and their being clothed in incorruptibility. At the end of the ages, when the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God (1 Thess. 4:16), the soul will be reunited with the body and together they will present themselves at the judgment. And this passage, this transformation of the human being at the end of the ages is a proof of the Savior’s Resurrection. For St. Paul continues the revelation of this mystery: When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”(1 Cor. 15:54-55). The victory of life over death brought by Christ will be fulfilled thus at the end of the ages, when the body and matter will be clothed in immortality.

Beloved believers,

Through the Resurrection, Christ gives us the opportunity to attain immortality, eternal life. Through baptism, each of us receives this gift. The entirety of Christian living has as its purpose the cultivation of this gift. The gift of the Resurrection works a gradual change, a progressive passage of the Christian from death to life. The passage will be completed, in the words of St. Paul, at the second coming of the Lord, at the resurrection of the entire creation. My challenge to you at this glorious feast is that we may receive the revelation of Holy Scripture regarding the Savior’s Resurrection, and our own resurrection as passage, in several stages, from death to life; that we may receive the gift of the Resurrection and make it operative in our lives; that we may proclaim to everyone that because of the Resurrection of Christ we too will arise to true life.

The year 2009 is an anniversary year, for 80 years have passed since the founding of the Orthodox Episcopate for Romanians in America. Let us ask the Risen Lord to grant us the wisdom and power this year to complete the plan of uniting the two Romanian Orthodox Eparchies on the North American continent. And let us bear our own witness to the fact that the gift of the Resurrection is functioning and fulfills all things that are necessary for our salvation.

May Christ the Lord grant you the light of His Resurrection together with His peace and the joy of proclaiming to the world the triumph of life over death!

With a brotherly embrace in Christ the Risen Lord, I wish you Happy Holidays!

Christ is risen!

Your brother in prayer before God,
† NICOLAE
Chicago, the Feast of the Lord’s Resurrection, 2009

Update on Mom

Posted on by Fr. Peter
If you follow me on either Twitter or Facebook you know that yesterday afternoon I received a call from my father that my mother had yet again gone to the hospital. She had gone to the doctor for a follow up to a procedure she had earlier in the week and was not feeling well so the doctor had her sent to the emergency room.

I just got off the phone with her and she is home and feeling a little better. She is having trouble standing on her own two feet for very long and they told her she needs to drink more water and eat regular meals. So the mending begins.

Thanks to all for your prayers and this shows why facebook and twitter are such great tools. In a moment of hearing the news I posted and I got word that people were praying. Odd thing is just before I posted my friend Huw posted about his dad having a heart attack and he did the same thing and in an instant prayers were being said all around the world. This is why I belong to all of these social networking sites. Keep those prayers for Huw’s dad Walter and my mother Barbara if you would.

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