The Miraculous Healing of the Man Born Blind (John 9:1-38)

After learning from the healing of the paralytic that God allows us to suffer affliction because of our sins, naturally, the apostles wondered if someone's sin was responsible for this man being born blind. It is not impossible that it could have been a punishment on the parents because many times God allows children to be afflicted with physical ailments to help teach an important truth that deals with our soul but is demonstrated in the flesh. But in this case of the man born blind, we are told by the Lord that it was not because of the sins of his parents that had brought it about, but rather so that the works of God should be made manifest. The Lord and Creator of man, Jesus Christ purposely withheld the creation of the eyes of the man at birth to later create them as indicated in the Gospel reading to help us to identify Who it was that came to us for our salvation; the Creator Himself.

But some might say that it was unjust to deprive this man of his sight so that the works of God should be made manifest in him and that He could have used some other method, but the man was not treated unjustly. For although he was deprived of material light for a time, he was given the enlightenment of the eyes of his soul along with his physical sight. The man's physical blindness was of benefit to the man because by his healing he came to know the True Sun of Righteousness, while many others born with their physical sight proved to be blind in spirit to the Truth and suffered greatly for their material vision. This event benefits all of mankind because by it we are confident that it was God Himself that came down from Heaven and became man. He comes to the man in this account without the man seeking Him or requiring any faith in Him as He did in other instances to further prove His divinity.

The Lord spoke many spiritual truths in the presence of the blind man before He healed him so that the blind man could hear His words and be healed of his spiritual blindness first, as his spiritual sight was of far more value than his physical sight. To heal man's spiritual blindness is far more difficult than to heal man's physical blindness, and far more important. To demonstrate the ease of healing physical blindness and to show that physical sight is nothing in comparison to spiritual sight, the Lord spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle and smeared it on the blind man's eyes, showing that physical sight could be given by scorned spittle and dust. The man’s spiritual sight however would take more effort to restore, and would need to be tested by trial, just like gold being refined in the furnace. He would have to pass the test of obedience and show himself to be meek when the Lord sent him with clay-smeared eyes to wash in the pool of Siloam. He then would have to pass the test of perseverance under persecution and temptation when the Pharisees tried to make him deny Christ even though they had the power to put him to death. To show God's great love for us, we see our Lord coming to the blind man immediately after he passed these tests to console him and to grant him a crown of victory. The Lord confronted him with a third and final test, the greatest test, that of true faith. He asks him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" The Lord bestowed upon him knowledge and a more exact faith, and the healed man fell prostrate and worshiped Christ, Who appeared as a lowly man but is also the Son of God.

St. Theophylact also reminds us of the universal message of the story; "Understand also the spiritual meaning of this miracle. Every man is blind from birth, as a result of being brought into existence by coition, and being yoked thereby to corruption. From the moment we were punished with mortality and our race was condemned to increase by a passionate means of conception, a thick cloud covered our noetic eyes, like a cloak of flesh, as the Scriptures say." We are all in a way born incomplete because of our connection to our first parents that lost their spiritual vision. We are all one organism, fellow members of each other, not separate entities, completely cut off from one another. In God's Providence, He makes our physical weakness a means to help us to see spiritually. We are able to grow in humility, seeing the death and darkness that accompany withdrawal from God, the source of Light and Life. May we learn the valuable lessons from this miracle and receive spiritual sight from our loving God Who lowered Himself and came down to us in our blindness to raise us up to His Heavenly Kingdom, where he gives beggars the power to confess Christ boldly and to rebuke the high and mighty of the Earth. Amen.

The Giver of Living Water and the Samaritan Woman

    Our Lord in His great Providence made possible a conversation with a woman from Samaria from which we learn very great lessons. Although He came to the children of Israel, He took advantage of their rejection to demonstrate that Faith and Obedience were indications of being true descendants of Abraham, not merely being born from him physically. Creating the opportunity, our Lord was able to be left alone to have a conversation with this Samaritan woman about the Gift of God of Living Water that is able to quench our Spiritual thirst. As the psalmist said, "My soul is athirst for God; yea, even for the Living God!" Only God is able to quench our soul's thirst because our soul is not made of the earth like our bodies are. We try to capture Life by pursuing all types of worldly pursuits, but are never able to, and are constantly hoping that one day we will find Life in an unexpected source.

    The Samaritan woman asks our Lord, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?" She was expressing the physical wonders of the well which was able to provide water for Jacob and his children and cattle, but our Lord desired to provide her with a spiritual lesson from God's great and marvelous creation. Just as how this well was able to quench the thirst of all of Jacob’s family, down to even his cattle, the Source and Maker of all creation is able to quench the Spiritual thirst of the man of God, down to his children, his thoughts, and his cattle, the powers of his soul that are not endowed with reason such as anger and desire. The water bringing physical refreshment, is symbolic of the spiritual waters of purification in Holy Baptism and in the hot tears of repentance that bring one over from a life of wickedness to one of blessedness.

    "Jesus saith unto her: 'Go, call thy husband and come hither.' The woman answered and said: 'I have no husband.' Jesus said unto her: 'Thou hast well said: 'I have no husband', for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband; in that saidest thou truly." How quick we are to judge this woman for being on her 6th partner, thinking to ourselves, “no matter how bad I may be, at least I haven’t been married and divorced 5 times and still living in sinful relationship”. Spiritually, all Christians are only to be wedded to one person and that is Christ. Are we able to confidently say that we have not had 5 husbands already? Can we surely say that the current partner we have is Christ and not someone else? We are addicted to this sensual world, and give over our 5 senses to it and find ourselves in the same state as the Samaritan woman. Having been let down with finding any lasting happiness in the 5 senses, we have divorced them, and have gone to live with our sixth partner, the successor of the 5 senses, Falsehood and Filth. We have become fornicators with Heresy, erring grievously in doctrine. But now that Christ has come and offered us Living Water, we have the choice of asking Him to stay with us as did the Samaritans, or we can be like the Nazarenes that sought to cast the Lord down from the hill to destruction for His words, or like the Gadarenes who begged Him to leave them and go away.

    The Lord is asking this most important question of us: who is it that we are wedded to? We can answer that we are wedded to the world, sin, or the Devil, and be destroyed along with them. We will be drinking a water that will only make us thirstier the more we drink from it. Or we can acknowledge Christ the Lord as our lawful Husband, and espouse ourselves to Him with faith and love, and drink of His living water, from which we will not thirst and on which we will float into the heavenly Kingdom and Eternal Life.

Ephrem the Syrian on Salvation

I've been reading through St. Ephrem the Syrian's homily "On our Lord" found in His collection of "Selected Prose Works", published by CUA and thought I would share a few of the beautiful thoughts of this God Bearing Father.  His words are very inspiring and bring a refreshing feeling to the soul after reading them.  I am amazed at His ability to explain the whole of Salvation and the Christian way of Life from short accounts in the Gospels such as the account of the Sinful Woman and the Pharisee recorded in the 7th Chapter of St. Luke's Gospel.  Here are a few quotes from St. Ephrem in His homily "On our Lord".

In speaking of God's great condescension and ultimate Justice for the righteous, he says the following: "The Only-Begotten journeyed from the Godhead and resided in a virgin, so that through physical birth the Only-Begotten would become a brother to many.  And he journeyed from Sheol and resided in the Kingdom, to tread a path from Sheol, which cheats everyone, to the kingdom, which rewards everyone.  For our Lord gave His resurrection as a guarantee to mortals that He would lead them out of Sheol, which takes the departed without discrimination, to the kingdom, which welcomes guests with discrimination, so that we might journey from where everyone's bodies are treated the same, to where everyone's efforts are treated with discrimination."  Like St. Gregory of Nyssa, He teaches that our Loving Lord came down to rescue us and our brothers lying in death from the inescapable prison of sin and death that rightfully contained all of mankind.  He also teaches the same imagery that St. Gregory of Nyssa used to describe the purpose of the Incarnation, namely that he took a body from the Most Holy Virgin in order to be able to be devoured by death and Sheol in order to break into its vaults and carry off its treasures.  "When death came confidently, as usual, to feed on mortal fruit, life, the killer of death, was lying in wait, so that when death swallowed life with no apprehension, it would vomit it out, and many others with it."  He speaks of Christ disguising Himself to be killed on the Cross, but supernatural Life killed death, thus with the very weapon that death had used to kill Him, He gained the victory over death.  This is why we as Orthodox Christians love the Cross, because it has become for us a great weapon and bridge to Heaven.  It is as if the Cross itself is used to tread this new path out of Sheol to the Kingdom of Heaven.  And in God's great Providence, He has allowed all of us to taste of death so that we could mature and become dispassionate especially in the area of Pride, which is what began our downfall in wanting to become our own gods at the tempting in the Garden.  So we as offspring of Adam and Eve are devoured by death without discrimination, from the Holy Patriarchs to the wicked Judas, but once brought out of Sheol, we will be rewarded for our Faith and good deeds or punished further for our obstinate vices in the face of God's great mercy and patience.

Continuing to contemplate on the ineffable condescension of the Incarnation St. Ephrem also says, "The Firstborn, who was begotten according to His nature, underwent yet another birth outside His nature, so that we too would understand that after our natural birth, we must undergo another birth outside our nature.  As a spiritual being, He was unable to become physical until the time of physical birth.  And so too physical beings, unless they undergo another birth, cannot become spiritual."  He teaches the great love that God has for us in showing us what it is we must do to enter into adoption as Spiritual children of God.  It is not enough for us to try to live in this world as if it is our only life, forsaking our future immortal life.  We must be born again or anew in the Spirit so as to enter into the God-Man Jesus Christ and share in Divine Life for all eternity.  We do this by dying to the old way of life and allowing God's Will to become our will, and not worrying over things of this life as if they were in any way permanent.  So our Loving Lord chose to be born as a baby to the Holy Virgin Mary to show us the need of being born again, if we are to share in both physical and Spiritual Life.

Then the Holy Father explains the Mystery behind the event of the sinful woman and Simon the Pharisee saying, "Our Lord was not hungry for the Pharisee's refreshments; He hungered for the tears of the sinful woman. Once He had been filled and refreshed by the tears He hungered for, He then chastised the one who had invited Him for food that perishes, in order to show that He had been invited not to nourish the body but to assist the mind. Nor was it as the Pharisee supposed, that our Lord mixed with eaters and drinkers for enjoyment, but rather to mix His teaching in the food of mortals as the Medicine of Life. For just as the evil one had given his bitter counsel to the house of Adam under the guise of food, the Good One gave His living counsel to the house of Adam under the guise of food."  We see such brilliance given by the Holy Spirit to our Beloved Father, St. Ephrem.  He uncovers the real motive for all that Christ does in His humbling act of the Incarnation.  We, living in the world, often become blinded to eternal realities and can only look at the decaying things of the world right in front of our eyes.  The Pharisee, who was supposed to be the most educated and pious Jew at that time, could only think about temporary, ever-changing, decaying things such as physical food.  He who had seen our Lord do all kinds of miracles such as healing the blind, deaf, and mute, couldn't believe that our Lord would allow a sinful woman to wash His feet with her tears of repentance if He knew what kind of woman she was.  He failed to be hospitable to the One that he had previously seen re-create eyes in one born without eyes, and even began to question whether or not our Lord was even a Prophet at all!  When we are filled with such attachment to worldly things, we quickly forget the miracles that we have personally seen and look rather foolish in questioning God's Providence.  We see that God wants from us tears more than anything.  He does not lower Himself to our level to eat of decaying bread, but rather to give us the medicine of Immortality in the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist and the other Holy Mysteries of the Holy Orthodox Church.  We partake of these Life-giving Mysteries with fear and trembling, Faith, and Love, only with many tears of repentance and longing for God's Will to be done in place of all the wickedness that we were once a proponent of.  We see the proper use of cunningness here as well as in His tricking death by death, by using the wicked one's own methods to destroy Satan, as the Holy Prophet David foretold in His Psalms by saying that they "shall fall into their own net."  We must become "wise as the serpents and guileless as the doves" as our Lord taught us, meaning that we too must use the world in a way to bring about great Spiritual progress as our Lord demonstrated in this account.  We can use things as food to mix in the Holy Medicine that is our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Holy Scriptures that reject Jehovah's Witnesses' innovations

Seeing as how I was raised in the Jehovah's Witness religion since I was about 5 years old or so, I thought it would be beneficial to expose their contradictions to Holy Scripture in order to help others to be able to defend themselves from Jehovah's Witnesses,  who try to claim to be the only true followers of the Bible while condemning everyone else as being followers of men and the devil.  I will use seven of the most glaring contradicting Scriptures to their doctrines to contrast the ancient Faith to this late 19th century offshoot of Darby and innovating dispensationalists. 

First and most clear is John 20:28 where Holy Thomas exclaims to our Savior, "My Lord and my God."  This statement that has always been held to explain the deep theological understanding that was only fully expressed at the end of St. John the Theologian's Holy Gospel, clearly shows that only after all things had been fulfilled concerning the Life, Death, and Resurrections of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, was man able to understand that Jesus was God, redeeming man in the flesh.  To call a creation "My God" would have been idolatry and makes the Arian argument, that JWs have resurrected, null and void because they claim that we commit idolatry for worshipping Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet it is they that have to admit that St. Thomas called a creation his God.  

We also have the account in St. Matthew 17:3 where we are privileged to hear of Christ's Holy Transfiguration, "And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him (Jesus)."  The whole theology of the JWs is shattered with this event alone, as are many Protestant theologies that claim that the dead have no dealing with this world.  JWs would like to make this event purely made up because it is too contradicting to their false teachings, but there is no indication that this event was fictitious but rather its similarities to Christ's Holy Baptism only solidify that the event was literal.  We hear God the Father exclaim that He is well pleased with His Son and that the three there with Christ should hear Him.  How is it then that our Lord and God, Jesus Christ was talking to the Holy Fathers Moses and Elijah if they are non-existent as advocates of soul-sleep teach?  What business did our Lord have talking to these Holy Old Testament Saints?  Clearly, the three exalted Apostles were instructed that Christ was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets as represented by Moses and Elijah respectively.  But there is more to it than this, because we see that there is a conversation going on between them, signifying the communion with God that we hope to enjoy for all eternity that was begun once the Holy Incarnation occurred.  The fact that they were for a moment shown to be three and then suddenly only Christ was present indicates surely that it was Christ that was being spoken of by the Father, but it also indicates that we all will be one in Christ.

Another strong opposition to the JW doctrine is recorded by St. Luke 24:39 "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."  JWs teach that Jesus did not have a bodily resurrection, but rather only was raised as a spirit creature.  They go as far as to teach that His holy Body vanished into thin air.  This teaching contradicts the whole Gospel message and the point of our Lord's Incarnation.  As St. Luke expresses, our Lord wanted to make very clear that He had risen in the flesh, to give assurance to all of His followers that we too will rise in the flesh at His glorious second coming.  Our whole faith is based on the fact that the Word of God ascended into Heaven in the flesh, raising man from earth to Heaven.  We are able to share in this by Holy Baptism if we die to the old man and live as brothers of Christ.  As the Holy Fathers said, "God became man so that man might become God."  We are made gods by adoption.  

Then we have Saint Paul writing to the Colossians 2:12 "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead."  Jehovah's witnesses teach that they must be baptized to demonstrate their dedication to God in front of witnesses, a concept clearly taken from Protestant theology.  They err tremendously however when they claim that the great crowd of other sheep that will not receive the kingdom of Heaven must be baptized.  Holy Scripture always indicates that baptism is burial with our Lord and God Jesus Christ, so that we also will rise with Him and be where He is always, in the Heavens.  To be consistent, they would need to stop baptizing those of the great crowd (the great majority of all JWs), but they know to do this would not sit well with all of those that have been doing so for many years now. 

And then there is the Eucharistic situation at John 6:53 "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."
Like Protestants, they deny that the Eucharist that Christ instructs His Faithful to celebrate is really the Body and Blood of Christ.  But to make things even worse, the vast majority of JWs refuse to even eat of the "symbols" of Christ's Body and Blood.  They claim that only those of the "anointed class" may partake of the "emblems".  In no way can this scripture be read to say that there can be life for those of the great crowd to not eat the body and blood of Jesus.  We know as Faithful Slaves of Christ, that only His Body and Blood is nourishment for us who have been born in Sin, but died to the old man and raised in Christ.  All other food is transitory and finds it way to the toilet.

Then there is the Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah 44:24 "Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself."  Clearly God is making the point that there is none other that makes anything but Him alone.  Then in the New Testament we know that our Lord Jesus Christ says that He made the Heavens and Earth.  We as Trinitarians have no problem with this because we believe that Jesus is of one essence with the Father.  But JWs believe that Jesus is a creature, therefore teaching that Isaiah was wrong when he said that God made all things alone and by Himself.

And finally we have the problem of the supposed apostasy of the Church that JWs and many Protestants believe in, when St. Matthew 28:20 clearly quotes our Lord saying, "and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."  Our Lord set up His Church before He died and rose from the dead.  This Church has existed since then in the Holy Orthodox Church, but unfortunately has been muddied by all of the schisms and heresies that have developed over the years.  Many born today have no clue about the Holy Orthodox Church, but believe lies that have been hurled at Her by ignorant people.  JWs think that Christ lied about being with His Bride until the end of the world, and rather teach that it apostatized after the first century and it is only since 1918 that Christ chose the JWs as the only organization that was teaching truth, leaving 1800 years of mankind without His Presence.  

Hopefully it is very clear that the JW religion does not follow Scripture when it contradicts their presupposed doctrines and that only in the Holy Orthodox Church are all Scriptures able to be fully understood in the way in which the Holy Spirit inspired the Faithful to write.  May we be ever humble and thankful for being worthy to be instructed by Christ's Bride about such important topics and not deceived as many of our fellow man have been.  May we all be corrected according to the measure of Christ and be found worthy to be called into the presence of God.  Amen.

The Saints are alive and powerful in Christ

There was a boy named Joseph who was raised in an upstanding family, being taught to love and respect all of mankind and all of God's creation.  He was taught to take the shirt off of his back to clothe the naked, to share his lunch with someone hungering, to help the elderly, and so on.  He was taught from a young age to ignore insults aimed at him as much as possible, knowing that it was usually better to put up with having your name tarnished than to start a fight.  He had immense love for his parents because they were able to guide him into the most beautiful way of living, free from enslavement to hatred and selfishness.  One day at school, a very mean boy started to insult him and accuse him of all sorts of evil.  Joseph was able to endure the insults and lies, and tried to find ways to stop the conflict, but the mean boy would not back down.  Then the boy frustrated that he was not able to cause Joseph to stumble and retaliate, began to insult Joseph's dear Mother.  He began to call her all kinds of names and accuse her of all sorts of sinful behavior.  Here, Joseph could no longer let the insults and false accusations go without response.  It was one thing to put up with attacks to himself, but another thing to publicly shame his Mother, who was the most important person to him.  He now found himself willing to fight on behalf of someone he loved very much.

This fictitious story that is not at all too uncommon for many growing up only a few decades ago, illustrates the beautiful love ingrained in the human soul for those we know to be Holy.  Much like how the Saints in the Old Testament were willing to endure fire, lions, and other forms of torture before they would ever dream of denouncing God or allowing His name to be disgraced, we likewise are willing to suffer harm to protect the name of our loved ones.  Why is it that we can treat humans in a similar way in which we respect God?  Could it be that these holy people that we respect and love really are icons, images of our God in their godly virtues?  Could it be that the whole purpose of our lives is to grow together in this world recognizing the need to love one another as members of Christ, whether actual or potential?  Is the everyday life we live really detached from the spiritual life that we think about when we ponder on "religion"?  Wouldn't it make more sense that our life events and relationships are more important than just mundane happenstances that are completely unrelated to our spiritual life? 

Many people outside of the Orthodox Church have developed the idea that it is wrong to pray to and venerate the Saints.  They have been taught that when we die as Christians, we no longer have any concerns for our fellow man still struggling on the Earth, but are in Heaven experiencing some form of bliss.  This mistaken view really undermines the whole Christian Faith.  What is it to be in Heaven?  What is the Kingdom of God?  Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ clearly taught that the Church is Christ, and that each person in the Church is a member of the Body of Christ, with Christ as the head.  We are interconnected and dependent on each other on this side of death and on the other side.  We must become Holy as God is Holy and have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.  The Orthodox Faith has always taught that the prayers of Holy men are powerful and able to make the seemingly impossible, possible.  We even believe that we can pray to God for the forgiveness of our brothers' sins as taught by St. John the Theologian in his first general epistle.  We also believe that our Lord calls Holy men His friends and that when they die in the flesh, He receives them into His heavenly mansions so that where Christ is, there they also may be.  These ones receive the Glory of God and become one with God as mentioned by St. John in the 17th chapter of his Holy Gospel.  If while on Earth, Holy members of Christ's Bride where able to peer into Heaven and read men's hearts and see invisible choirs of angels and other such mystical experiences, all the more when they are in Heaven are they capable of knowing what is happening on earth and hearing those who appeal to them.  In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, it is very clear that Abraham knows all of the dealings that were going on on Earth with the Jews, which occurred long after his death in the flesh.  Our God is a God of the Living, not of the Dead.  If while alive in the flesh as recorded in the Holy Book of Acts of the Apostles, Philip was able to be transported wherever Christ needed him to help bring others to the Church, imagine the power of the Saints when not limited by the heaviness of the mortal body.

From all of these examples it is clear that heavenly life right now consists in nothing else but fighting for the salvation of mankind that is still struggling against the demons, the world, and our passions.  God has made man with the reality of living amongst others to teach us how to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others, the most effective way to teach us to Love as God Loves.  We failed at learning from lessons in the Garden and fell into darkness and death as a result, but God in His Providence knew that we would learn from experience once we experienced the harsh realities of sin and death.  We now must die to the prideful rebellious man that we once were and live in Christ in humility, obedience, and Love.  We must sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of others as Christ did for us.  Our Loving God made salvation dependent on each other in a secondary way to his loving forgiveness.  Without the Most Holy Mother of God, Christ could not destroy the power of death in the flesh.  Without the Holy and Righteous Apostles, the Faith would not have been preached in all of the earth.  Without the holy martyrs of the first few centuries, the Church would not have grown and developed such committed members.  Without our parents or friends or family we would not have learned the beautiful truths of the glorious revelation of God to man.  We are all indebted to many of mankind for being passed down the Faith of the Church.  As icons of Christ, the Holy Saints are very worthy of our veneration.  May we always remember the great cloud of witnesses that we have in Heaven that have gone before us and pray night and day for our salvation.  May we be found worthy to join their ranks in this life and in the life to come.

The Prodigal Son Luke 15:11-32

Our Lord's parable of the prodigal son is one of the most famous and remembered parables in the Gospels. It is such a detailed parable of our whole existence. It clearly makes known many truths about our human condition and God's Love for us. We see that it is the younger son that falls into sin and betrays his Father and homeland, showing that it was a later development in which sin began to corrupt mankind. The elder son being righteous shows that God made us originally without sin. When the prodigal son began to desire his own way of life apart from his Father, he went off to a distant land, showing that once we sin it is we that depart from God, our source of sustenance and Life. God has made man with free will, which is the greatest and godliest characteristic that He has bestowed on creation. He does not force his son to stay against his will.

The life that the prodigal son experienced began to turn sour after the momentary sweetness wore off. We are never satisfied with the husks of pigs because we are made to be in constant communion with God, the only true source of nourishment. 

God also allowed a famine to occur in the land that he was living in. "Thus, often the Lord sends external calamities to a sinner who has become mired in his sinful life, to force him to become sober. These misfortunes are at the same time both the punishment of God and His call to repentance." - Archbishop Averky

He repents and rises up from the filth of the swine which represent the passions of the flesh that he was feeding. But he does not stop there. He begins a journey back towards his Father, indicating the need for us to not just repent, but to begin acting towards our correction. 

He plans to beg his Father to treat him as a hired servant since he is no longer worthy to be called His son. "This is an expression of profound humility and a confession of his unworthiness, both of which always accompany true repentance in a sinner." -Archbishop Averky

It is on his journey home that His Father, Who was continually watching for His return, goes out to meet him before even reaching His Father's house, which is a symbol of the Church.

Here the three Holy Mysteries/Sacraments of initiation are described. We see that the Father has his servants, the Priests, put the Chief/First robe on His son, Holy Baptism, bringing him back to his original state, being clothed in God's likeness that he had before the fall in when he was made naked. He is given the ring of his Father, as a symbol of the power of his Father and as a seal and pledge of the future blessings in the world to come, just as the symbol of chrismation is given to those baptized. Along with the ring, shoes are put on his feet to trample on snakes and scorpions, demons and the devil himself that had dominated him previously. Then the gift of the slayed wheat-fed young bullock is given him to eat and be merry, because the son that was dead was made alive again, and he that was lost was found. When we begin this life of repentance and journey toward God, we are joined to the Church, and then God in His love allows us to partake of Holy Communion to be fed spiritually on wheat that has become the flesh of Christ, the Lamb of God.

Christ became man, closely like becoming a beast in comparison to His Godly nature, to trample down death by death. In His being slayed, He destroyed death because death had no hold on Him because of His being without sin and having fulfilled all of the Law of Moses, not incurring guilt. By partaking in Christ, the Lamb of God, we partake of the Life of Christ and we too can become conquerors of death and rise with Him at His future second coming.

When the elder son heard of what had happened, he was very upset and began to sin himself. He who had victoriously conquered all of the sinful pleasures, was defeated by the sin of envy and lack of mercy for the repentant. He refused to go into his Father's house and made himself like a hired servant by speaking of his deeds as serving his Father. He made His Father's ways mere commands to be followed, not seeing how He lovingly was training him to become godlike. He asks why his Father never gave him a goat to be slain to make him merry. He is asking why God never destroyed his wicked enemies, the goats, and instead allows them to continue on living a life of sin causing trouble for the righteous. God does so, because he desires the repentance of all. The elder son also does not realize that he has sinned, and that if he would come into the house of God, the Church and feast at the table that the Father has made for the prodigal son, he too will be brought back to life.

May we learn from both sons and return to our Father's homeland, and once there remember the great blessings that our Father has given us and never stray from His house. And remembering how merciful God is with us, let us also be merciful to those that have sinned gravely and welcome them back to communion with God and His Church, to whom be the glory honor and worship, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Publican and the Pharisee - Luke 18:10-14

Our Lord Jesus Christ not only came to destroy death and open to us the gates of heaven, He also taught us very clearly how to become partakers worthy of these gifts.

In the first Gospel reading of the famous parable of the pharisee and the publican, we are instructed how to pray to God. He had just finished giving another parable of the importance of praying constantly.

He lovingly “teaches us in what manner we ought to make our requests unto Him, in order that the act may not prove unrewarded to them who practice it; and that no one may anger God, the bestower of gifts from on high, by means of those very things by which he imagines that he shall gain some benefit.” -St. Cyril of Alexandria

First, we see that the two men went up into the temple to pray. “This is the nature of prayer, it brings a man up from the earth into heaven before the God who is over all.” - St. Gregory Palamas

The Pharisee prays with himself. How often we see those that don’t know how to pray, use prayer to give a speech. Many times, these prayers go on and on and never beg God to have mercy.

The Pharisee says that he is the only man that is not sinful and then adds the publican to the ranks of sinners. He then lists his ascetic accomplishments without acknowledging that it was with God’s help that he accomplished anything.

“In all his words seek out for any one thing that he asked of God, and you will find nothing.” - St. Augustine

The Pharisee compared himself to sinners to lift himself up to great heights. We all do this at one time or another when we think to ourselves, well, at least I haven't killed anyone or have done some of the bad things that criminals do daily. We take comfort in the fact that there are people out there more wicked than ourselves, because it allows us to feel better about our own sins. If all these evil people were not there to compare to, our conscience wouldn't be so clear and we would actually have to face the fact that we are not as holy as we have tricked ourselves into believing. We do not want the salvation of all these sinners, because they are our method of coping.

St. Cyril of Alexandria says: “No man because he is in health ridicules one who is sick for being laid up and bedridden: rather he is afraid, lest perchance he become himself the victim of similar sufferings. Nor does any man in battle, because another has fallen, praise himself for having escaped from misfortune. For the infirmity of others is not a fit subject for praise for those who are in health.”

The Pharisee was all too happy to have the Publican there to compare himself to, never stopping once to think of him as a fellow member of God’s people in need of help. His sin was using the weak for gain and not desiring their salvation. It is not wrong to notice the sins of others. Only by doing so, can we find ways to bring back people to correct living and to pray for God to give them eyes to see their sin. Saint John the Baptist called many of the Jews sons of vipers, intent on their conversion, not on lifting up his ego.

Also, “The circumstances of our lives are directed by a higher providence and often, with little or no effort on our part, by God’s help we have stayed out of reach of many great passions, delivered by His sympathy for our weakness. We should acknowledge the gift and humble ourselves before the giver, not be conceited.” - St. Gregory Palamas

Even if we lead an excellent and elect life, we shouldn’t “exact wages from the Lord; but rather ask of Him a gift.” - St. Cyril of Alexandria

If we pray with pride and arrogance, our “labor will be unrewarded; for we have mingled dung with our perfume. Even according to the law of Moses a sacrifice that had a blemish was not capable of being offered to God.” -St. Cyril of Alexandria

Then we hear how “the publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

“The Publican stood afar off; and yet he was in deed near to God.” - St. Augustine

“He did not dare to look upwards, his conscience pressed him down: but hope lifted him up.” - St. Augustine

“He was ashamed to lift up his eyes to heaven, for he considered his eyes unworthy of heavenly vision because they had desired to see and to enjoy the good things of earth. And he smote himself upon the breast, striking his heart, as it were, because of its evil designs, and awakening it because it had been sleeping.” - St. Theophylact

It is not a coincidence that only in the Orthodox Church do we apply both teachings of our Lord in our Liturgy, to pray constantly, and to humbly ask God to have mercy on us sinners. The Jesus prayer also applies the two teachings of our Lord.

St. Caesarius of Arles explains the lessons learned in this parable nicely saying: “Men who think more attentively about the salvation of their souls throw the good which they do behind their back, and place before their eyes the evil which has overtaken them. In the present life they blush over their sins, striving with all the devotion of faith to heal what was wounded, to revive what was dead, and to cleanse what was defiled.”

As we prepare to enter into lent, let us learn from our loving Lord’s parables on how to pray. Then we will be able ascend to the heavens in prayer, to share in Christ’s resurrection, to whom be the glory, honor, and worship, with the Father and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Gregory the Theologian on Pascha

I thought I would reflect a little on some of St. Gregory the Theologian's words on Pascha since it was his feast day yesterday.  St. Gregory is one of the most important fathers of the Church, and I am honored to be named after him, even if unknowingly by my own parents.  His understanding of the Holy Incarnation and Death and Resurrection of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ are still the standard by which we test all man's words to this day.  He was inspired by God to see through the veil into the Heavenly realities and describe in coarse words, things unspeakable because of their brilliance.  But as a great teacher, he brought things down to the level of sinful man in order to inspire us and raise us up to his level of holiness.  A few thoughts that struck me when I first encountered them years ago and still inspire me today are as follows:

When speaking about the fall and its consequences, he has this to say about death:

"Yet here too he makes a gain, namely death and the cutting off of sin, in order that evil may not be immortal. Thus, his punishment is changed into a mercy, for it is in mercy, I am persuaded, that God inflicts punishment."  

Here a great dogma is stated and many misunderstandings are made clear.  There is nothing that happens that doesn't in a way benefit mankind.  No punishments are inflicted out of justice to God, because God has no need of anything creaturely.  We can then look into how seemingly dire realities are in a way a sign of God's mercy.  Physical death becomes a way to destroy sin and to teach man to not take for granted the gift of being made in the image of God.  Only with our Salvation and betterment in mind did God allow man to fall into sin and undergo death and all that has happened.  We in fact deserve all that we have fallen into because  we have turned away from Life and Light itself toward the absence of both, namely death and darkness.

Later on St. Gregory goes on to say:

"Let us sacrifice ourselves to God; or rather let us go on sacrificing throughout every day and at every moment. Let us accept anything for the Word's sake. By sufferings let us imitate His Passion: by our blood let us reverence His Blood: let us gladly mount upon the Cross. Sweet are the nails, though they be very painful. For to suffer with Christ and for Christ is better than a life of ease with others."

St. Gregory was well aware that our Lord and God did not come to rescue us in a purely legalistic manner that sadly has become a very popular way of thinking about His Holy Passion.  Rather, St. Gregory knew that Christ came to reveal the real meaning hidden in the old Law regarding sacrifice.  God allowed man to continue to offer sacrifices under the old covenant, just as long as it was only to God that they offered sacrifices, not idols.  It was a step forward, but still was incomplete.  Christ when He came showed us that the real sacrifice is to die to this world and it's pleasures that run contrary to God's will.  He used the occasion to show us the way, being humiliated and tortured for refusing to conform to the world and its evil ways, but rather reproving the world and exposing its dark and deadly traps that have been imprisoning man since the days of Adam.

And finally, a third point that was made by our Holy Father Gregory speaking about the events that occurred at the moment of our Lord's death:

"Many indeed are the miracles of that time: God crucified; the sun darkened and again rekindled; for it was fitting that the creatures should suffer with their Creator; the veil rent; the Blood and Water shed from His Side; the one as from a man, the other as above man; the rocks rent for the Rock's sake; the dead raised for a pledge of the final Resurrection of all men; the Signs at the Sepulchre and after the Sepulchre, which none can worthily celebrate; and yet none of these equal to the Miracle of my salvation. A few drops of Blood recreate the whole world, and become to all men what rennet is to milk, drawing us together and compressing us into unity."

Here again He makes clear that it was not without the creation that Christ suffered in the flesh.  He who is likened to the sun makes the sun to darken for us to see that the very creation that He entered into can now share in all of the events of Christ's life on Earth, and even in those that are in Heaven, symbolized by the rekindling of the Sun.  All of mankind has been given the opportunity to enter into the Body of Christ by Baptism, but only those willing to take up the Holy and Life-giving Cross of the Lord truly enter into the life of Christ.  We suffer temporarily with Christ, to enjoy freedom for eternity.  Our shed blood becomes one with Christ's blood.  His blood conquered death because He had no sin, but we can share in his blood by becoming part of His Holy Body.  He dripped his Holy Blood on creation and those willing to be united to it are allowed to by His great Love.  We must partake of the Holy Blood that is offered by joining ourselves to His Bride, the Holy Orthodox Church and partaking of Her Holy Mysteries.

A few thoughts on St. Cyril of Alexandria's comments on death

I have just begun reading St. Cyril of Alexandria's "Glaphyra on the Pentateuch, Volume 1 Genesis", and am already immediately excited about learning from this great teacher of the Church by reading some of his thoughts on the Fall and on Christ's restoration or recreation.  He like St. Gregory of Nyssa clearly explains the purpose of God allowing sinful man to die physically.  The physical death of the man that had become inclined to base acts allows for the deliverance from those things improper and the removal of corruption, as well as the return to a better state and the restoration of those good things that were there in the beginning.  He likens it to the refashioning of a vessel that had been smashed and later was made whole.  St. Gregory uses a very similar image of a vessel that had been contaminated and that by dissolving back into dust is able to part with the contamination and by the Resurrection being reformed anew after the original pattern if in this life he has preserved the image.

We can feel confident that death is more of a cleansing and that if we preserve the image of God that is hidden in us, we will be refashioned in the Resurrection because Christ has destroyed death and death has no more dominion over us.  Our Baptism can take on a greater meaning knowing that death of the old man and death to the world is our way of preserving the image and being ready for our physical death, knowing that we will finally be cleansed of all impurities and base desires.  We can see that when God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son, He wanted to demonstrate Abraham's understanding of all of this for all that would later hear and read about his actions.  Abraham was God's friend and was enlightened to know that physical death is nothing but a cleansing of the corruption that we have developed, and that God will resurrect us allowing these impurities to be removed.  That is why St. Paul commends Abraham saying that he reckoned "that God was able to raise even from the dead" because Abraham "was waiting for the city which hath the foundations of which the artificer and maker is God" a "fatherland, that is, a heavenly one."  (Hebrews 11:10,16-19)  He knew that Christ would restore and refashion man one day, even though the Incarnation had not happened in time.  He was enlightened to know that from the beginning, in God's foreknowledge, the resurrection and conquering of death was already a reality to have faith in.  How much more should we living in the time of Grace, where death has already been conquered and Christ and the Saints are already ruling in the Kingdom of Heaven, should have the faith that Abraham had, and that Holy Cyril and Gregory had.  May we remember our death and also Christ's victory.

Man's Sinful Condition and Jacob I loved but Esau I hated

Another discussion that I had with my Protestant friend was on the topic of man's sinful condition.  He struggled to see that anything good could be left in man once Adam and Eve sinned against God, and thought the Orthodox view of man being severely crippled yet retaining some good after the fall could make Christ's Sacrifice unnecessary.  He thought that scripture clearly taught that only by God's grace are the elect saved, and that this choosing is a mystery of God's that does not have anything to do with our lives or God's foreknowledge of our lives.  He chose the famous line of scripture where St. Paul quotes the Old Testament remembering God saying "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."(Romans 9:13)  The argument boiled down to whether or not works are important for salvation and whether good works are a result of God's election, or if God's election results from our good works.

Once again, the Orthodox position does not have an either/or mentality, but sees both as truths.  To be completely clear, every Father of the Church that I have read interprets these scriptures to be showing God's power of foreknowledge to teach God is in full control of the events of life.  Never is it taught by the Fathers that God chooses to grace randomly some instead of others, but it is always made clear that "God is no respecter of persons." (Acts 10:34)  There are many scriptures that if taken very literally seem to contradict each other.  So it is up to the Church to interpret which if any is literal, and which is written in a way that is expressing a truth yet is not to be taken literally.  Examples of Scriptures that cannot be taken literally would range from the scriptures that speak of God being informed about things as if He did not already know them and walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve to scriptures that tell us that we must hate our wives and children, and other such seemingly extreme views.  So when comparing scriptures that either demonstrate God's impartiality or seem to speak of His election outside of foreknowledge, it must be decided which is more literal.  The Orthodox Church chooses God's impartiality, where Protestantism seems to choose God's mysterious election, afraid to attribute anything to man's good deeds.  Rather than show all of the examples of Holy Scripture that clearly show that our salvation involves our own struggle, I would rather use the technique of St. Paul in comparing this struggle to an earthly figure.

One thing that Orthodoxy recognizes that seems to be lost by many Protestants is that all the things in life are for our instruction and symbolize a spiritual reality.  Why is it that in our daily lives that we do not ever teach children that they are worthless and incapable of doing anything of their own and that they can only do something because someone else is actually responsible for doing it.  We all of course should teach our children that  it is only by God's love that we exist and can think and move, but that we must work hard and strive to love others and develop all of the Godly virtues that we know to be good.  No one should think that it is improper to reward children that advance in virtue and to discipline children that advance in vice.  But if it is purely God that makes the virtuous children to be so, there is no need to reward the children, but we do not do this.  And it is also very silly to think that just because a child was virtuous at one point in time, they do not have the possibility of losing their good habits and developing sinful vices.  So we constantly are on guard to keep them advancing in virtue and are aware of the danger of falling into vice.

So it seems that the confusion has to do with taking thoughts of St. Paul and others out of context.  In places he clearly is trying to help us to develop humility by emphasizing our origin of coming from nothing, for us to remember that it is only by God's grace that we exist and can do anything.  What is missed is that this is speaking more to our great God-like potential, not our specific actions, which are very much dictated by our choice as is made clear by God's constant warnings about choosing the Good over evil.  It is also true that God does give the righteous further grace, but it is incorrect to think that this grace is not available to the wicked if they would repent.  All of the Fathers speak of God giving more grace to the virtuous as they increase in virtue.  But this is in response to the person's wise choices.  This is the only way that we can become God-like, having perfect discernment.  But to think that this is purely God-given without any effort in man is to make God guilty of favoritism and the damnation of the wicked, and stripping the crowns from the elect that even St. Paul spoke of obtaining.

So if God loved Jacob only because God made him become virtuous without any contribution from Jacob, love becomes a very sick reality because it means that God really just loves Himself and does not love us in the sense of appreciating us personally.  And if God hated Esau only because God did not give him the Grace to overcome temptation, God is responsible for evil.  It makes little sense that God would not just create each individual either Good or evil in isolation since there is no influence from man's choices in God's election anyway.  The Orthodox know that what is meant in this statement is that God is not ignorant of what will come and is in full control of the world even though it sometimes appears that God has forgotten us because of the trying times.  It was before they did anything that He prophesied the future to let us know we can trust Him.  We also know that in God's wisdom it was Good for man to experience the darkness of sin, to truly appreciate the Light of God.  So it makes sense that our choices in the face of Light and darkness are what God either Loves or hates.

The different meanings of "The Church"

Recently I was in conversation with a very nice friend who expressed his concern with the contrasting views of what "The Church" is from the Orthodox point of view and from a protestant point of view.  The Church in his view was the body of the faithful that were saved.  And in his opinion, the Orthodox view the Church as the institution of Hierarchy with priests and laymen that is a means by which the faithful become sanctified.  I don't think that what my friend was saying was wrong, but I don't think he realized that the Orthodox Church doesn't view things like many of us in the West do, namely as an either-or scenario minimalism, but rather as maximalists that embrace the many facets of truth in each of God's interactions with us.  The best example being that many in the west struggle with giving honor to the Holy Virgin Mary and the Holy Saints and Angels, somehow thinking that this detracts from the honor given to the Holy Trinity.  We as Orthodox do not think of it as a competition at all, but fully know that without God there is nothing.  We don't hold back love to the Saints out of fear of forgetting this, but rather our love for the Saints helps us grow in love for God.   

So it is not that we as Orthodox don't see the Church as the body of the faithful that are saved, but that we also recognize that the Church can also mean a method of salvation.  The key is to understand that Jesus Christ himself likened the Kingdom of God and Heaven as many things that fall into both of these realities.  Our Lord spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven being likened to 10 virgins with lamps, 5 of which were wise, but the other 5 were foolish.  But He did also speak of the Kingdom as a mustard seed that grew into a great tree.  But then again He spoke of it as a man that sowed good seed in his field but while he was sleeping an enemy sowed tares among the wheat.  But then again he likens it to leaven that secretly grew.  And many more of course, but it is clear that there are many facets of the diamond that is The Kingdom of Heaven, which we can logically equate to the Church.

St. Gregory the Great and Dialogist says in his homily on the parable of the 10 Virgins, that "Often in the sacred scriptures the Church of the present time is called the kingdom of heaven.  In another place the Lord says: The angels will come and gather in all causes of sin from the kingdom of my Father(Mt13:41), although in that kingdom of blessedness, in which there is the greatest peace, there will be no causes of sin to be gathered in.  Again it is said: But whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others' will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever observes and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 5:19) In fact, anyone who preaches in words what he does not fulfill in his life is breaking a commandment and so teaching others.  But no one who won't fulfill through his works what he is teaching can reach the kingdom of eternal blessedness.  How will such a person, then, be called least in it, when he is not allowed ever to enter it?  Accordingly, what does this passage mean by 'the kingdom of heaven' but the Church of the present time?  The teacher who breaks a commandment is called least in the Church since his life is contemptible and therefore his teaching is despised."- Homily 10