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A New Look At Suffering

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I do not have a very high threshold for pain; in fact I am a wimp when it comes to pain and sickness.  I don’t know, maybe it is this low threshold or that I am a guy and as a common rule guys do not do sick well at all.  Last week it was my turn to be sick and I did not like it.

Friday night I had my first experience with a kidney stone.  I am not sure how many of you reading this have suffered through this extremely painful event, but I hope I never go through it again.  Not that having a kidney stone was on my bucket list but I added it and then crossed it right off, thanks be to God!

I am always looking for the moral of every story so as I was laying there in the hospital, writhing in pain, the moral of the story became all too clear.  I was looking for something to watch on the television in the emergency room when I happened upon the History Channels presentation of the Bible.  I joined in at the time of the arrest of Jesus by the guards from the Temple and His subsequent trail.  As I was laying there, feeling very sorry for myself, Jesus received the sentence of the forty lashes with the whip.  I was in pain, but my pain paled in comparison to what Jesus was going through.

As the program continued on, Jesus was forced to carry his cross and as my pain started to subside, the drugs were now taking affect; Jesus was nailed to the Cross without any pain medication at all.  As he cried out in agony as those nails pierced his flesh I felt pretty stupid for feeling the way that I was feeling.  But, was I being fair to myself?  In essence I was not.

Suffering and pain are all part of our life and come as a result of the fallen world that we live in.  There are three sources of suffering in this world: suffering from the persecution of others in body and soul, suffering from sickness and disease, and suffering in spirit because of the sins of this fallen world we live in.  When faced with suffering we have to choices on how to deal with it  – we can accept it and transforms our suffering into the way of salvation for ourselves and others or we can give in to our suffering and allow it to defeat us.

I believe one of the greatest examples of transforming suffering into salvation was Pope John Paul II.  His suffering was very public as the world watched him go from a very vibrant man full of life and energy to a man confined to a wheelchair and not able to speak yet he did not give up.  He could have resigned his office and gone off to a monastery somewhere and ended his life sheltered from the watchful eyes of the world, but he chose to teach the world about suffering and not giving up.  He truly transformed his suffering into salvation not only for himself but for the world.

We will never truly know the suffering of another person.  Some are able to hide it better than others but I would hazard to guess that most people are dealing with some sort of suffering each and every day.  Perhaps it is the suffering from sickness, perhaps it is suffering with grief, or perhaps it is the suffering of persecution and bullying that is all too prevalent in our society today.  Whatever that suffering is we have to choose to embrace it and transform it or to let it defeat us.

Jesus chose to take on our flesh and to suffer as we suffer to show us the way of salvation.  Sure, He could have chosen a different way but He chose to be born in the flesh and to die in the flesh, and our suffering became His suffering and because of that He will give us the strength we need to deal with our suffering when it comes.  The pain and suffering I felt in my brief stay in hospital this past week is nothing in comparison to what some of you are going through and I use it merely as an example, but each time we suffer, each time we are in spiritual, mental, or physical pain it brings us closer to those in the world who suffer and our spirits are joined together.

I would be remiss if I did not take the opportunity to thank the great folks at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge for their excellent care.  From the person who checked me in to George my nurse, the lady who performed the CAT scan, and Dr. Stevens who expertly and compassionately diagnosed my illness, thank you from the bottom of my heart and God bless you.

This essay originally appeared in the Quaboag Current, and the Tantasqua Town Common.
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Jesus and the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade

Posted on by Fr. Peter

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If you live in Boston then you know what a big deal Saint Patrick’s Day is.  As the old saying goes, “everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day.”  If you have been following the news these last few weeks you know that there has been an on again off again relationship between the parade organizers and a group homosexuals who wish to march in the parade.  I am not sure why everything has to be about sex but I will leave that for another essay.  As much as I disagree with the homosexual lifestyle I am having a difficult time with this because I believe that discrimination, for any purpose is a sin.

The entirety of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about loving God and loving your neighbor and I find it difficult to reconcile this Gospel mandate with discrimination.  How can you love your neighbor if you discriminate against them?  Jesus surrounded himself with the, shall we say, less desirable in the community.  He accepted them as humans, created in the image and likeness of God, but he did not accept nor did He condone their activities or their lifestyle.  He showed them that God loves them and He also showed them they path to righteousness, but He did not discriminate against them.  The question is often asked “what would Jesus do?” and I think that is the wrong question to ask because well, we are not Jesus.  The question is, “what would Jesus want us to do?”

A survey released last week by the Public Religion Research Institute titled, A Shifting Landscape: A Decade of Change in American Attitudes about Same-Sex Marriage and LGBT Issues, stated that one-third of millennials (adults between the ages of 18 and 33) left the church because of their perceived idea of how homosexuals are treated by the church.  (I also think they were going leave anyway and this is just an excuse.)  I say perceived as I would be interested to know if these same people actually know what the teachings of their church, or perhaps the teachings of Christ, has to say on the issue.  However, perception is a large part of the game.  Again I am not suggesting the Church change their teaching on Homosexuality anymore than I am suggesting the Church change her teaching on sex outside of marriage, which is called fornication by the way and a sin.  But maybe we could show a little bit more love and understanding.

As I suggested earlier in this essay, I believe homosexuality to be a sin, the action that is not the inclination.  But I do not believe that the homosexual person is “objectively disordered” any more than any other person who sins.  As a result of the fall of humanity humans have a propensity toward sin, we have to make a choice between doing what God wants us to do and what the enemy of God wants us to do.  So in essence homosexuality is a choice, the same choice we all have to make between sin and not sinning.  The Church does not need to change her teaching but maybe she needs to change the way she deals with people.

A year ago Pope Francis was elected as the Bishop of Rome and the head of the world wide Roman Catholic Church.  Almost immediately he brought a breath of fresh air into the Church.  I will draw attention to the fact that he has not changed one dot or tittle of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church but he is speaking in a language that is filled with love and understanding and I find that very refreshing.  I am not saying that rules are not important, because they are, but love is more important that the rules as love is the number rule of the Gospel.

But back to the parade.  As an American I am a supporter of free speech, in fact I served and continue to serve, in the armed forces of the United States to secure that right.  Although I have never been in combat, I have served almost half of my adult life and believe I have taken part in securing the freedoms we cherish for the next generation.  But we stand at a cross roads between free speech and morality.  I believe that people have the freedom to pretty much do what they want as long as it falls within the confines of the law, the law of the state that is.  I believe that the group of homosexuals has a right to march in the parade and I also believe that the organizers of the parade have the right to not allow them to march.  The reason given was they did not want the parade to turn into a political statement, I can agree with that.  This is the difficulty of living in a free society as much as I disagree with the lifestyle they have chosen I have to support their right to live that lifestyle.  Just because I disagree with something does not mean I do not support their right to believe it.

A few years ago I attended a rally of the Tea Party folks in Worcester.  This is a group of people who have a vision of America that they believe is right, I do not agree 100% with them but who agrees 100% with anyone about anything?  What discouraged me, and I know this is a small minority of people so relax, but there were some folks holding signs displaying an image of the President of the United States as Hitler.  I find this disturbing on many levels but I also understand that protest is what made the United States, well the United States!  You see freedom of speech has to extend past what we agree with or it is not freedom at all.  As much as I disagree with the Obama as Hitler posters I have to support their right to carry them.

To my belief, and you are free to disagree with me of course, but what we as Church need to do is to love people.  If we demonstrate the love of Christ to those around us we will be a force to be reckoned with rather than a Church that is becoming insignificant in the world.  Sure the world hates us, but we combat that hate with love.

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Blessed are Those Who Mourn

Posted on by Fr. Peter

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As a priest I come into contact with people who are mourning as part of the job if you will.  Grief and mourning is part of our existence as human beings.  We mourn the loss of many things, loved ones, pets, jobs, the fact that our favorite sports team did not win the championship, we mourn all of these things but Scripture gives us hope that our mourning is not is vain.

Spiritually speaking there are various types of mourning.  We mourn over the sufferings of this life.  As I mentioned already, this would include mourning the loss of something or someone.  I know it might sound trite but any sort of loss will being grief into our lives.  It might not last long but the process of grief is important and we must allow ourselves time to grieve.

As a spiritual father I come into contact with people who have not allowed themselves to grieve or to point a finer point on it, to allow themselves to finish the grieving process.  In her 1969 book, Death and Dying, Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced the world to the 5 stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  There is a pattern to our grief and we must be allowed to move through all of the stages.  If we linger too long in one stage, especially the depression stage, it can become clinical.

I will say this as a spiritual father as well, not all things can be cured with prayer.  Prayer is an important aspect and part of our recovery but sometimes more help is needed.  I am a firm believer in the power of prayer, but I am also a believer in the fact that God gave human beings certain talents to help others and we need to seek out that help.

But we also mourn of the sufferings of others.  Who among us is not touched by television images of the people suffering in Syria, Egypt, and now Ukraine?  Or people in Africa or any place where human suffering takes place.  We would not be human if it did not touch us on a very human level.  We mourn the loss of innocence of others and of ourselves.

Many are also concerned about the state of the world we live in, and I am not speaking just about the political sense of things either.  Our world has changed, well the world is always changing, and sometimes not always for the best.  The morals today are much different than they were a generation ago, people are concerned about different things in their lives, and many of them are just trying to survive.  I see this as a pattern and each subsequent generation has mourned the loss, or change if you will, in the morality of the next generation.  Rock and Roll was going to be the ruination of the world but somehow we are still here.

But what we are called to, and what most of us will not do, is mourn for our own sins.  Of course we have to recognize that we are in fact sinners and that is something that the world does not want us to do.  It is fashionable these days in some Christian Churches to ignore sin, sin is only sin if someone else is harmed by it.  That is just plain rubbish.  Sin is multidimensional there is the sin that separates us from God and the sin that separates us from the community because of our separation from God.  So in essence every sin is a sin against the community and therefore, using the logic of modern Christianity, harms another person.

The other is harmed because of the separation from the community.  When an Orthodox Christian comes to confession, they are not confessing their sins to the priest, in fact in the confession service itself we say that, they confess to God.  When I pronounce the absolution on the person it is not me who forgives, how can I a sinner forgive someone their sins?  God forgives and the priest is there to reconcile the sinner with the community.  The priest who is called from the community, stands as the representative of the community and brings the person back into communion with the community.  The priest acts on behalf of those who the penitent has been estranged from, and brings them home.  So when someone asks why we confess to a priest, my response is we don’t, we confess to God.

Because of the ancestral sin we have been cut off from paradise and because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross the way has been opened for us again.  We mourn what we have lost but we have the assurance that we will be comforted as the second half of the verse from the 5th chapter of Matthew reminds all of us, for they shall be comforted.

As Christians we have hope, hope in the risen savior that this is not just folly that there is something on the “other side” of all of this and that is love of God.

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Monuments Men ~ A Review

Posted on by Fr. Peter

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I have never really been a fan of artwork mostly, I think, because I do not understand it.  I can appreciate the work and I find it fascinating that God has given people gifts such as painting and sculpting but it just is not for me.  I do appreciate art from an historical perspective and believe that we need to preserve as much of this as possible and that it should be available to people so I was looking forward to going to see the Monuments Men and I was finally able to get to see it this past weekend.

Set at the tail end of World War II to movie tells the story of a small groups of men, mostly Americans but one Brit and one from France, whose task it is to locate and preserve works of art that had been stolen by the Nazis as they ransacked Europe.  Hitler had a plan for a vast museum that would showcase the war booty and it was up this small group of professionals to get the art back.

These men were not soldiers they were artists and others engaged in like professions such as architects.  They were given basic army training and sent off to Europe to begin their mission.  Not really sure where to start on of the men James Granger, played by Matt Damon, was sent to France to meet with the curator of one of the largest museums in Paris.  As it turned out Claire Simone, played by Cate Blanchett, kept excellent records of all of the art work that passed through the museum and where it was sent.  This gave them enough information to begin their search.

These masterpieces of art were being stored in mines all around France and Germany and as it was found it was cataloged, and if the previous owner was known or could be determined, it was returned.  As it turned out most of the art was owned by Jews who had met their fate in the death camps and it would be next to impossible to return.

One of the most poignant moments of the movie for me was when the men opened a contained in one of the mines and it was filled with gold nuggets.  At first they were puzzled by this, then came the realization that these nuggets came from teeth.  This brought the viewer back to the absolute brutality of the Nazi plan to exterminate the entire race of Jews and others during the war.

The movie is peppered with times of seriousness as well as comedy from comedic masters Bill Murray and John Goodman and along with Damon and Blanchett, George Clooney rounds out the cast as Frank Stokes the leader of this group.

As someone who studies history the men who risked their lives to preserve these works of art was invaluable and we all owe them a debit of gratitude.

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Speech of His Beatitude DANIEL, Patriarch of Romania, at the opening session of the Synaxis of the Primates of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches

Posted on by Fr. Peter

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The Synaxis or meeting of the Primates of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches is not a permanent institution, but a spiritual representative event. The pan-Orthodox Synaxis of Primates has neither formal status, nor competences expressed in canonical juridical terms. It is not a Pan-Orthodox Synod, but a pan-Orthodox representation of the autocephalous synods, presided over by the Primates present in the Synaxis.

The pan-Orthodox Synaxis has at present a consultative and orientating role in order to strengthen the sacramental communion through Eucharistic concelebration, pastoral co-responsibility through dialogue and missionary cooperation through action, among the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches and in the relations of Orthodoxy with the world of today. The spiritual authority of the Synaxis increases mostly by promoting co-responsibility for the unity of Orthodoxy.

The pan-Orthodox Synaxis offers the image of Orthodoxy as being more a spiritual family of Orthodox Churches from different regions, countries and ethnicities than an international religious institution.

The Synaxis foster primarily the fraternal communion and afterwards joint programs of action. Therefore, the pan-Orthodox Synaxes issued so far mainly messages and recommendations for the Church and society.

However, in a pan-Orthodox Synaxis, as in a family, specific issues which negatively affect relations between sister Orthodox Churches and Orthodox witness in the world of today can also be discussed. Although the pan-Orthodox Synaxis is not a Pan-Orthodox Synod, nevertheless it may greatly help in understanding the importance of synodality at universal or pan-Orthodox level.

Since the Holy Canons require that the bishops should gather in Synod at least twice a year (37 Apostolic canon, canon 5 of the First Ecumenical Council, canon 19 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council and canon 20 of the local Synod of Antioch), the pan-Orthodox Synaxes should be organised at least once every two years, in order to intensify today the pan-Orthodox communion, cooperation and solidarity.

Paradoxically, the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches cultivate today more the international official dialogues with other Churches than the dialogue and cooperation among them.

At present, more consultation and cooperation among the sister Orthodox Churches is needed, in front of three major challenges facing the world today:

1.secularism or religious indifferentism, which negatively affects the traditional Orthodox family, the Orthodox parish, the Orthodox monastery and the Orthodox mission in society;

2.migration phenomenon, which generates new social and pastoral problems, especially when migration is caused by war or persecutions, as it can be seen today in Syria and in other parts of the world;

3.economic and financial crisis, which calls us to greater solidarity with the poor, the sick and the lonely ones.

The spiritual, pastoral and social mission of Orthodoxy calls us today to unite more territorial canonical jurisdiction with pastoral responsibility for concrete persons and local Autocephaly with universal or ecumenical Orthodoxy.

In this sense, we thank His Holiness Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Ecumenical Patriarch, for inviting us to participate in this Synaxis, with the hope that fraternal dialogue and cooperation help us to love and serve even more the Orthodoxy and her mission in contemporary society.

We appreciate the spiritual and material efforts which the Ecumenical Patriarchate has undertaken in the preparation of the Holy and Great Pan-Orthodox Synod, through the Pan-Orthodox Commissions and Conferences and the Pan-Orthodox Synaxes, for the well being of the whole of Orthodoxy.

† DANIEL

Patriarch of Romania

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The Necessity of Forgiveness

Posted on by Fr. Peter

This coming week Christians around the world will begin the season of Lent.  For most people, this time will pass just like any other time during the year and that is tragic, as we miss a great opportunity to take a long hard look at ourselves and what needs to change.  Notice I said “what needs to change” and not what we would like to change.

For an Orthodox Christian Lent begins with the Sunday of Forgiveness.  It has become the custom in my church at the end of the Sunday Divine Liturgy for all in attendance to ask forgiveness from each other for things we might have done and those things that have been left undone.  We do this face to face, looking in each other’s eyes, and asking for forgiveness and granting forgiveness at the same time.  This might seem trivial but it is important to forgive if we are to embark on what I hope will be a time of spiritual renewal.

This small ceremony cleans the slate and allows us to begin the holy season of Lent in a peaceful way.  As long as we are withholding forgiveness we will never be at peace. We will not be at peace with God, we will not be at peace with each other, and we will not be at peace with ourselves.  At the very start of the Orthodox Liturgy are the words, “In peace, let us pray to the Lord.”  We cannot pray if we are not at peace.  Forgiveness equals peace!

The withholding of forgiveness is a destructive force in the soul and if the soul is sick the body will also be sick.  There is profound evidence of this link between spiritual health and physical health and vice versa.  We are composed of body and soul and both need to function at their best if we are to be healthy and be in balance, and forgiveness is part of that.

Physical health is a multimillion dollar business in America today and many people spend hours in the gym and on the track.  We watch what we eat and are always conscious of how we look.  The first part of any visit to a physician is to get on the scale and see how much you weigh.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if, as you walked in the doors of the church, there was some kind of device that weighed the health of your soul?  In my opinion if people spent half the amount of time they spend on their physical appearance on their spiritual health they would find their life much better.

Forgiveness is not easy mainly because we feel that if we forgive someone that means we forget what they have done to us and that is just not true.  As long as we withhold forgiveness we are giving the other person power over us and we are giving them permission to continue to harm us.  The moment we forgive that power now belongs to us and we are now in control of our lives.  We must forgive but we do not have to forget.  We should not stew over what has happened, for that is just as destructive as the lack of forgiveness, but we need to learn from that experience and ensure it never happens again.

With all of this said I will admit that forgiveness is not easy.  Some of us have been carrying things with us for years and if we forgive then we become a different person.  Our lack of forgiving the other has become part of us and we use it as a tool that will affect all of our interactions.  If we let go of this we will be required to change, and change does not come easy, especially if we do not want to change.  But I will say this again – lack of forgiveness is destructive to our spiritual health and our physical health.

Sacramental confession is a large part of the spirituality of the Orthodox Church and I find it one of the most essential ministries that I am blessed to provide to my community.  To guide someone to the place where they are ready to forgive is an amazing thing.  I have witnessed people’s entire physical being change from being hunched over to standing straight up once that weight has been lifted.  We may not even notice it about ourselves but once we release all of that negative energy we change, and that change is good.

Who have you been withholding forgiveness from?  Maybe a family member or a neighbor or someone from your past; if so, now is the time to forgive them.  We think we are doing harm to the other person but we are actually only doing harm to ourselves.

This essay originally appeared in the Quaboag Current, and the Tantasqua Town Common.

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Message of His Eminence Archbishop Nicolae for the Sunday of Orthodoxy 2014

Posted on by Fr. Peter
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His Eminence Archbishop Nicolae

Most Reverend Fathers,
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The first Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to Orthodoxy, which is understood to mean the right teaching about God who is one in Essence and three in Persons, as well as the right worship due to God. Established by the Synod of Constantinople in 843, the Sunday of Orthodoxy proclaims the truth of the Christian Faith as opposed to heresy, which truth is also expressed through the honor that is fitting to icons.

The Synod of 843 reaffirms the teaching of our faith regarding the relationship between the icon and the person represented in it, as well as the difference between adoration, which rightly belongs only to God, and veneration, which is fitting and proper to the saints and the holy icons. “The honor shown to the icon passes over to its prototype, and the one who venerates an icon venerates the person pictured in it,” said the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council held in 787 in Nicaea. The teaching of our faith regarding the reality of the Incarnation of the Word, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is also reaffirmed through the veneration of icons. St. John the Evangelist bears witness, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). And also the veneration of icons is a witness to the Savior’s Sacrifice and Resurrection: Sacrifice as redemption from sin and Resurrection as victory over death. For the image of the person whom we honor in the icon is the image of God restored in man. The veneration of the icon of the Savior leads to the veneration of the icons of the saints, those who have put grace to work in their lives and revealed to us, through their illumined and deified countenance, the transfigured world of the Kingdom of God. This revelation of the saints in icons is also a means of communion of the faithful with God and with His saints that are represented in icons.

The Sunday of Orthodoxy is a blessed opportunity for us to discover the icon and its significance. And when we venerate the Savior’s image in an icon, let us not forget that this image can also be found in the face of our suffering neighbor. Our Christian brothers and sisters are suffering in many places in the world. In Syria and in other places, Christians are being persecuted by non-Christians; in Ukraine our Orthodox brethren are divided and in danger of war. Thus the celebration of this year’s Sunday of Orthodoxy is marked by the challenge to bow our knees and pray before the holy icons for peace and good order, for reason and wisdom for those who govern the world. During Lent we learn to pray more and to combine our prayers with fasting and charity. Let us fast and let us fervently pray to God to bring us peace and good understanding. Let us pray that those who suffer will be set free, and that in their faces will shine the light and peace that come from God.

I address you all with greetings of peace and spiritual joys, of increased strength to worthily climb the steps of Holy Lent toward the light-giving Resurrection.

+ NICOLAE

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Giving up things for Lent

Posted on by Fr. Peter

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The annual “what am I going to give up for Lent” has begun.  I find this time of year rather amusing as I listen to and read what people are going to give up for Lent.  I find is very amusing because most of the people who seem to be giving things up have not darkened the door of a church in years.

Yesterday some group in the town where I live, set up shop in the parking lot of the old Friendlies restaurant and was distributing ashes, along with doughnuts and coffee.  “Ashes to go” the sign read and people were flocking to the site while churches remained mostly empty.  Religion on my terms has become the mantra of the “me” generation.  Don’t tell me what to think, don’t tell me what to believe, I’m spiritual but not religious, and I want my ashes in a parking lot of a closed restaurant because I cannot make the time to go to church.

I am sorry if this offends you but I am of the belief, as is the church for the last 2,000 years, that you cannot separate spirituality from Church.  There is no such thing as a Christian in isolation.  People around the world are going to church under the most dire of circumstances and all we want is drive through ashes and a cup of coffee.  Disgusting!

It’s funny how people make time for things they find a priority in life like going to the casino, fundraisers, sporting events, television programs etc. but when it comes to church, sorry I don’t have time.  But we continue to give things up for Lent.

Yesterday I posted this on my Facebook page

If you are still in search of something to give up for Lent how about indifference towards the suffering of your fellow human beings, or perhaps self centeredness, or maybe even materialism. Just some thoughts.

Giving up something is fine but the entire reason that we give things up is to make a change in our lives not to just give up something like chocolate or booze only to return to that behavior when Lent is over.  Change requires a commitment to that change and Lent is a great time to come to that decision but it should be something meaningful and not something silly.  Sacrifice is hard and is supposed to leave a lasting impression on the person.

During this time of the year Orthodox Christian are supposed to abstain from all meat and dairy products or some variation of that in consultation with their spiritual father.  We do this as a spiritual discipline that is designed to get the passions under control.  The theory is if we control what goes into our mouths than we can control what comes out.  The passions are what leads us to sin, I know it is not PC to talk about sin these days so call me old fashioned.

Lent should be a time of intense spiritual renewal and awakening not a silly game of “what can I give up that will not impact me at all” nonsense.

Make Lent real!

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