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Morning Meditations 2002 |
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I just finished serving the Liturgy for the commemoration known as the MIDFEAST OF PENTECOST. (At this Liturgy we literally put into effect the words of Christ, "Wherever two or three are gathered in my Name...") The hymnography of the Feast expresses its meaning nicely:
The hymns tells us that Pascha ("the first") and Pentecost ("the last") "glisten with splendor." What a wonderful phrase! In our lives today or in the world around us do we experience anything that we can honestly say "glistens with splendor?" This phrase may even sound archaic to our ears. Nowadays, some event or other may be "interesting," "neat," "cool," or, of course, it may receive the highest of all possible praise when it is said to be "fun" (I have even heard Pascha described as "fun!"). But "glisten with splendor!?" Yet further, do either of these Feasts "glisten with splendor" for us today? Do we recall the Paschal Feast of (only!) twenty-five days ago when, indeed, the Church - and we ourselves - truly "glistened with splendor?" Do we anticipate the Feast of Pentecost which is only twenty-five days ahead of us when the Church will again "glisten with splendor" at the descent of the Holy Spirit? Perhaps only if we "perceive ... the Mystery of Christ" (EPH. 34) in our ecclesial assemblies, as the following hymn for the Midfeast declares:
"Mystery" or the "miracle of your Mysteries" means that "something" directly coming from God is being disclosed to us for our salvation and eventual glorification. This is Christ Himself. The resurrected and glorified Christ "glistens with splendor" as do the souls of those who believe in Him as "Lord and God" and who rejoice in His presence. Fr. Steven Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
Since that first mysterious and ineffable morning - described by St. Matthew as the "dawn of the first day of the week" (MT. 28:1) - when the empty tomb and the reason for its emptiness were revealed to the myrrhbearing women, countless believers have joyfully proclaimed "Christ is Risen!" Truly risen. Not metaphorically, "spiritually" or poetically - but really. That is, the whole person, body and soul, was raised to life. Jesus of Nazareth died and was buried; and it was Jesus of Nazareth who was raised from the dead. No part of our human nature assumed in the Incarnation was "lost" following the death of the Lord on the Cross:
In his wonderful book, THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW CREATION, Prof. Veselin Kesich writes this about the nature of the Lord's victory over death:
And yet we are not to think of the resurrected Lord in crude or in an overly materialistic manner. His body may have been "sown in dishonor", but it has been "raised in glory." If it was "sown a physical body," it has been "raised a spiritual body." (see I COR. 15:42-50) The body of the Lord is now the "spiritual body" of the resurrection. Lazarus was not raised to a life beyond death, but the Lord was:
The Lord now is what we await to become by grace. That is why St. Paul refers to the risen Christ as the "first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." (I COR. 15:20) And in a beautiful passage filled with hope and expectation, St. John writes:
This is why at the conclusion of many of our liturgical services we cry out in prayer: "Glory to Thee O Christ, our God and our hope, glory to Thee!" The Church is filled with the inexhaustable radiance of the Risen Lord. As Nicholas Arseviev writes in his book MYSTICISM AND THE EASTERN CHURCH:
In times of persecution, this is what kept believers coming together for worship - wherever that may have been. Do we need any other reason(s) for coming to church faithfully and joyfully? Or perhaps it only becomes "boring" or "long" if we are there for other reasons. May the Risen Lord continue to bless us with His presence until "the end of the age." (MATT. 28:20) Fr. Steven Dear Parish Faithful,
The Day of Pascha so joyously celebrated yesterday was the beginning of the paschal season that extends for forty days until Ascension (thus balancing Great Lent); or the fifty days until Pentecost (thus balancing both Great Lent and Holy Week). The point is that Pascha has just begun - it is not over even though everyone is back to either work or school and life begins to take on its normal (somewhat predictable and boring) pace. Christ is truly Risen; but alas, there is a new battle in the never-ending series of battles the Christian warrior engages in: to struggle against the 'post-paschal blues' or the (inevitable?) 'post-paschal swoon.' You may totally disagree with me, but I think this could just well be a harder battle than fasting, abstinence, self-discipline, etc! Out of sheer fatigue - both of mind and body - we are in need of rest this week. Thus, for many Bright Week becomes Recovery Week. Clearly, there is no 'technique' by which to maintain paschal joy. It is a matter of faith and the heart:
But, the practice of the Church encourages us to maintain the paschal spirit. The 'forms' are intact so that we can fill them with 'content' based upon the depth of our faith. Sometimes, maintaining the forms, though not the ideal, 'keeps us going,' so to speak, awaiting to be filled with meaning and purpose. What are some of these liturgical and personal forms for the paschal season:
These are perhaps a few of the more concrete forms that remind us of, and extend the paschal spirit into our churchly and daily lives so that the promise of the Risen Christ - "Behold, I am with you until the end of the world" - will further penetrate into our minds and hearts.
As Orthodox Christians, we are perhaps beginning to sense the upcoming Paschal celebration to some degree as we have passed the midpoint of the Fast according to the above hymn; and in addition, we have heard the Lord in the Gospel on the last two Sundays prophesy His impending Passion and Resurrection once He enters the holy city of Jerusalem. There is not only 'relief,' but joy on the way: "For through the Cross, joy has come into world!" And yet each day demands of us a Christian response based upon an evangelical way of life, meaning a way of life based upon the Gospel image of Christ. This way of life is extensively and intensively expressed by St. Benedict of Nursia (+547) in his famous RULE. This is a longer meditation than those I usually include, but this one so well sums up the revelation of God's will as expressed in both the Old and New Testaments, that I am sure you will 'save' it for further reference and inspiration:
Perhaps this is why is seems rather absurd to speak with certainty about 'being saved.' The Christian life is a process in which each person is meant to grow from "one degree of glory to another ..." (II COR. 3:18) as we each struggle to assimilate and then to actually incarnate the life envisioned above in the concrete circumstances of our lives. Yet, no sense spoiling this with any lengthy commentary. Or rather, the saint's summation speaks for itself, let us say. May the rest of your day be blessed. Fr. Steven Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, The BOOK OF PROVERBS is prescribed to be read during the forty days of Great Lent, and indeed we hear passages from this work of wisdom duing the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The following text is representative of the teaching encountered in this book, and can certainly serve as a 'check list' of sorts as we make our way through Great Lent:
With the exception of "hands that shed innocent blood," the other forms of unrighteous behavior here may enter our lives both consciously, as when we plan or plot our evil; or unconsciously, as when such actions become habitual or "second nature" due to constant repetition - and at this point they do not even seem that sinful, though we will dutifully enumerate them in confession. But notice that the Lord is not "suggesting" that we refrain from such actions; or that such behavior is "rude" or "impolite." No, to God Himself these actions are an "abomination," the Lord "hates" these things! The Lord is not a celestial version of a pop psychologist, but rather the holy One of Israel. He does not abide in the murky realm of "situation ethics" but in the light of moral choices that spring forth from the heart. When our bodies accumulate a list of illnesses or ailments, the whole organism begins to suffer and seemingly to "break down." The same principle applies to our souls. Of the list of seven abominations above, how many can we "take on" before our souls begin to suffer something of a spiritual meltdown? Let us run to our Lord Jesus Christ, falling down before Him and confessing our sins with true compunction of heart, that we may receive from His inexhaustable love. He awaits our conversion. He forgives us "seventy times seven." Since He is "gentle and lowly of heart" we will "find rest for our souls" (MAT. 11:29), for He is the "Physician of our souls and bodies."
Fr. Steven Dear Parish Faithful, As we all know, Great Lent is a forty day period of intense fasting, prayer and almsgiving as we journey toward Holy Week and the glorious Feast of Pascha. Our ascetical efforts continue, with perhaps an even more marked intensity, during Holy Week. Forty days (plus Holy Week) is not that long of a period, but certainly long enough (far too long?!) to test our capacity to sustain a life of discipline centered around God and the Church. Who is not experiencing a spiritual "tug of war" as the world, oblivious to the Christian life we are engaged in, pulls us in the opposite direction? In the Bible, the number forty - be it years or days - represents a significant event begun and completed: Israel in the wilderness or Our Lord in the desert. In the following passage, Bp. Kallistos Ware reminds us as to why any effort to draw close to God is such a struggle for us:
The Tradition is consistent on this point. From a Saying of the Desert Fathers:
And, from St. Theophan the Recluse:
All of this sounds like extended commentary on the words of Christ Himself:
"Holy rest" comes after "holy labours." But can anything be greater than to rest in Christ? Fr. Steven Additional note: the above passages were taken from the book THE ORTHODOX WAY, by Bp. Kallistos Ware. We will have copies of this book for sale in our bookstore on Sunday to coincide with Bp. Kallistos' visit to our parish. Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, For Orthodox Christians it is (only) the second week of Great Lent, while other Christians are preparing for this Sunday's approaching celebration of Easter. At this point in time, I am not that aware of the fasting practices of non-Orthodox Christians, but perhaps some fasting is expected of them in during their current Holy Week. In today's world, however, we realize that the fasting discipline of the Orthodox Church can seem more than a little bit austere! Yet, Orthodox spiritualiy is really about discovering the "royal path" that seeks balance, sobriety and moderation in asceticism (especially if someone is not under the guidance of an experienced spiritual director), together with appreciating the unique individuality of each person - his/her age, health, life circumstances, etc. To be nominal in our approach is hardly fruitful, but to be excessive or too demanding is to foolishly "ask for trouble" in the form of irritability, exhaustion, frustration, etc. I came across some insightful excerpts from the letters of the 19th c. Russian staretz (elder) Amvrosy of Optina. These passages can be found in the Appendix to a remarkably fine book entitled STARETZ AMVROSY, by John Dunlop. I would highly recommend this book. Especially if you would like to read about a near-contemporary Orthodox saint (Staretz Amvrosy was recently canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church) and the training, perseverance, steadfastness, faith, hope and love that is essentially demanded of a genuine spiritual guide entrusted with leading others along the straight and narrow path to the Kingdom of God. He met with and counselled such famous Russian writers as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and the philosopher Solovyov. To get back to our topic of fasting and the elder's letters: here are three excerpts from three different letters taken from his voluminous correspondence. They were written to specific individuals in response to their questions or even complaints, so it may be somewhat hazardous to look for general principles that apply to everyone here. Nevertheless, I find them quite insightful and balanced in their over-all approach to the ascetical practice of fasting and hence worthy of our meditation and possible actualization in our own lenten efforts.
The balanced advice of the elder is remarkable in that it what said of him that "he never ate more food than could be eaten by a three-year-old child." He simply realized that people are different and have different capacities. Fasting is a weapon in the arsenal of weapons given to us within the Church in our spiritual warfare against the evil one in the 'arena' of life. St. John Chrysostom likens it to a 'sword' and a 'sickle' by which we cut a path leading to heaven. Used with care, sobriety and moderation it is a discipline worthy of our attention and practice. Fr. Steven Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, For Orthodox Christians, Great Lent begins today, as it always begins on a Monday. So, on this Monday morning Orthodox Christians awaken and 'enroll' in the 'School of Repentance,' which defines Lent in terms of its purpose - our repentance and return to God. This means there will be a "change in our way of life," as expressed in the following hymn:
If our way of life does not change significantly, then we can hardly be said to be keeping the Fast. This will demand 'eagerness' on our part, not reluctance. The following hymn from the book of lenten hymnography, THE TRIODION, captures the whole spirit of the Great Fast well:
If we are entering into a 'combat' then Lent is assuredly not the fainthearted; yet the hymns above do not speak of grimness or longsuffering, but of 'gift' and 'joyfulness,' etc. The English word lent, by the way, originally meant 'springtime:'
Our Lord Himself told us to "anoint your head and wash your face," (MATT. 6:17) when embracing the difficult challenge of fasting. And why do we fast? Perhaps the contrast between Adam and Christ, as expressed by Fr. Alexander Schmemann, will explain this for us:
To my ear, everything offered above for our meditation, sounds truly liberating - and thus not only meaningful, but exciting. However, we could be getting ahead of ourselves if we fail to take into consideration our weaknesses, habits and propensity for comfort and ease. There is the 'lenten vision' and there is the reality of our concrete situations. There is the pattern for holiness set before our spiritual gaze; and yet there are the patterns of our daily lives that resemble something far different. There is that 'passion for God' that overcomes many obstacles; and there are our many 'passions' that enslave us to this world. If Great Lent is the time of year that we begin to break our old, boring and lifeless patterns (what else does sin bring into our lives?) in order to fashion new patterns of virtue and holiness, then we must realistically assess the 'cost:' struggle, effort, patience, perseverance and self-denial. St. John Climacus expressed it perfectly when he spoke of a 'joy-creating sorrow.' Let us aim highly for that liberation that comes from Christ; and yet not be disappointed or deflected when we stumble along the way. A saying from the monastic tradition captures this well:
I am quite certain that this describes my experience of Great Lent. If it also describes your experience, then let us together be assured that Our Lord always extends His hand to lift us up. May your lenten journey be a blessed one! Fr. Steven Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
In our fast-paced, acquisition-based, don't-stop-or-you'll-be-left behind, non-metaphysical, religion-as-therapy, social and cultural world around us, it is difficult indeed to maintain the "fear of God" in our minds and hearts on a crisp, sunny Monday morning. Difficult, but essential. At least if we are serious about the Parable of the Last Judgment that we heard as the Gospel reading just yesterday morning in the Liturgy (MATT. 25:31-46). In the Orthodox Church, this Gospel is always read on the second Sunday before Great Lent begins (this year, March 18). Hence, this day is called the "Sunday of the Last Judgment." How are we to possibly balance the overwhelming images of the Gospel - the Lord in glory as universal Judge, holy angels, sheep and goats being divided and sent to an everlasting existence, together with the dispossessed and downtrodden crying out for relief - with the mundane concerns of everyday life, concerns which often are means of getting us ahead in a Darwinian-shaped "survival of the fittest" struggle covered up with a veneer or civility, etiquette and polite discourse?! If we are "good people," an assurance that floats our way with a disarming regularity from like-minded "good people," then certainly there is nothing to fear! God is practically obliged to reward us for our goodness. The mere hint of anything different would leave us speechless if not offended. Then is the Church hopelessly "medieval" by presenting to our minds and hearts such hymns as the following?
Successive waves of secularization over the centuries now, have made it difficult for us to respond to such Scriptual images as: - the "throne of glory" - the "river of fire" - the "outer darkness" - the 'unquenchable fire" - the "eternal bridal chamber" But does that only mean that we have lost the "scriptural mind" and replaced such images in our mind with others drawn from other sources? And if so, how well, then, do we "relate" to the "mind of the Church" which has nourished the minds and hearts of the faithful since the First Coming of our Savior? The impending Last Judgment does not reveal God to be the Supreme Terrorist or an arbitrary Tyrant that whimsically toys with His creation. It does mean, I humbly believe, that God takes us seriously. That all of our deeds, words and thoughts "count." That we are responsbible for what we have made of the lives given to us as supreme gift in the beginning. That much is expected of us because we are made "in the image and likeness of God." That if God was and is merciful to us in our need (languishing in sin and death), than we must be merciful to others in their need. As the saints teach us, the last judgment will be a time of clarification, for the Lord Jesus Christ is a "Just Judge." We will be saved or condemned according to what the Lord will uncover for us to see in our own consciences and we will understand. There will be no room for debate, for all will be made clear. That we will die and that we will be judged by God according to the revelation received from Christ and kept alive in the Church are two realities that the Christian should ever keep before the eye of his/her mind. There is nothing morbid, pessimistic or negative about this if we place this within the over-all context of the Gospel proclamation:
If there is no judgment to come than what does that mean for our actions, even the basest and most horrible crimes? This is what Dostoevsky meant when he said, "If there is no God than everything is permitted." There is, then, a spiritually-healthy "fear of God" that is constantly nurtured by a sober and vigilant awareness of that final accountability that we must make for our lives before the Son of Man who will return in glory. It concerns the "neighbor," the very one we often miss as our lives unfold in all of their complexity. The following hymn from the Sunday of the Last Judgment captures this essential dimension:
The students in my Orthodox Church class were assigned to read a particular article for this morning entitled "Lent and the Consumer Society" by Bishop Kallistos Ware. Since Monday morning comes after the weekend - weekend being defined, according to student theory and practice, as Friday and Saturday night; all others times, including Sunday as the "day of rest" are designated for sleeping in - I will be most fortunate, indeed, if ten per cent have actually read the article. Too bad, for this is a wonderful article that pours forth insight after insight into the meaning, purpose and practice of Great Lent. Bp. Ware's article, in turn, is found in a book entitled LIVING ORTHODOXY IN THE MODERN WORLD (SVS Press), described on the back cover thus:
The quality of the articles throughout the book is of the highest level. In other words, a good book for one's personal library to be read with care! As Orthodox Christians are preparing for the "Great Fast" or the "Great Forty Days" that will commence two weeks from today, I thought to pass on a few of Bp. Kallistos' many insights, some of which may just dispel some less than accurate notions we may have of Lent. Of immediate interest is the fact that in a twenty-page article, Bp. Kallistos does not speak in any detail concerning the dietary rules of the Fast until the last third of the article. He wants to create a greater, more wholistic context, an integral part of which is our actual fasting from certain foods, because we have the tendency to limit the Fast to that aspect. His Grace states it simply:
Now that I have "jumped" ahead into this realm of the Fast, I will pass on Bp. Ware's "three useful guidelines:
Is such self-denial "negative" or "positive"? Bp. Kallistos assures us:
So, what is that greater, wholistic context in which we place our fasting? For this article, Bp. Kallistos presents the following:
A mere "taste" from these three beautifully written sections would render the following for our meditation: Sacrifice affirms our sense of gratitude and stewardship before God. We simply give back to Him that which we have received as gift:
Based upon the notion that Lent can be loosely viewed as a tithe of the year, Bp. Ware asks the following:
(I figured it out. Bp. Ware is generously allowing for a full eight hours of sleep each night!). As for schooling, Bp. Kallistos is refering to the early Christian practice of making the forty days of Lent a time of final preparation for the baptism of the catechumens through intense fasting, prayer and learning. Yet, very early on, the entire Church joined the catechumens in this effort:
We thus re-affirm our own baptismal vows and our missionary sense of spreading the Gospel to others. Yet this leads to a searching, if not searing, question:
And as to the third point, sharing, Bp. Kallistos first reminds us of our vocation to restore koinonia or community is a world that has lost that precious sense of belonging together.
We must discover the person in the "other," our neighbor, or else we have fasting in vain:
I have already gone on a bit lengthily in trying to convey something of this rich article's quality. Therefore, let Bp. Kallistos's own conclusion draw our Monday Morning Meditation to a close:
Who can possibly not look forward to Great Lent? Fr. Steven Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, It is actually cold enough today to make one realize that it is, indeed, winter after all. The Gospel this past Sunday was the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (LK. 18:10-14) Basically, pride (the Pharisee) was contrasted with humility (the Publican); or, we could further say, religious self-righteousness with genuine contrition of heart. Christ makes it clear that the proud will be forcefully - and by implication, unpleasantly - "humbled;" while the humble will be graciously - and by implication, wondrously - "exalted." This reveals an evangelical "reversal of fortune" so characteristic of the Gospel and so challenging to us. The challenge comes from within and from the surrounding culture, described by Fr. Schmemann in the following terms:
In a somewhat different style, we learn some valuable insights from the famous 19th c. Russian elder, Amvrosy of Optina:
"Holy humility" - this wonderful phrase goes back at least to St. John Klimakos and his LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT. There it is described as the "queen of virtues." In Step 25, St. John describes a humble person in the following manner:
Turning again to Fr. Schmemann, he offers a straightforward but essential answer to the question: "How does one become humble?"
Now that is a lenten goal worthy of puruing. Fr. Steven Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, Certain that the Super Bowl would have been over, I turned the television on well past ten o'clock last night. Lo and behold, I caught the last few plays and the dramatic finish! I have consistently failed to watch the Super Bowl for the last quarter century or so - give or take a quarter here or there. The particular, if not peculiar, admixture of professional sports, patriotism and profiteering (advertising) somehow awakens in me an "interior protest" of sorts to the whole extravagant affair. Or, at least, there is no real attraction. (And by the way, whatever happened to the LOS ANGELES Rams; the St. Louis CARDINALS; and the BOSTON Patriots? This mercenary, corporate, vagabond city-hopping leaves me glancing back into the past for a seemingly purer time). An NPR report earlier in the week stated that the advertising costs were "down" to two million dollars per minute! A hefty fee indeed to entertain us with beer, blue jeans and Broncos (or whatever commodity was being promoted). The point was that this meant a loss for the network covering the game. I cannot quite feel their pain. Anyway, the Super Bowl is behind us and everyone has awakened to another Monday morning alive and well I trust. Monday mornings, however, can seem less than super. Perhaps we now need to hear these striking words of the Apostle Paul as we have "risen" to a new day:
The simple and effective way to do this is through prayer, the "wings" that lift our spirits above into that mysterious realm of God's presence and grace. Do we have the opportunity to pray before racing out of the door in the morning, clutching in our hands a briefcase, a backpack or even a baby! Perhaps we first need to arrive at our destination and then, before settling down to the day's work, pause and offer up a prayer to God. In the past, I have passed on the beautiful Prayer of the Hours; and many are familiar with the now widely-used Prayer of the Last Optina Elders. Keeping things simple this morning, I thought to perhaps add to your collection of morning prayers a couple which also powerfully express those daily needs for an authentic "life in Christ." The first is from St. Macarius of Egypt (4th c.), and has been called a "Prayer for the beginning of the day:"
The second is from St. Philaret of Moscow (19th c.) and it has been entitled by some a "Prayer for the acceptance of God's will:"
Wherever anyone is right now, or whatever anyone may be doing, let us call upon the Lord with the petition of the Liturgy:
Fr. Steven Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, Glad to be able to greet everyone on a Monday morning after a couple of "delayed" Midweek Morning Meditations - although our spiritual condition may be more desparate by Wednesday and a good text from the Holy Scriptures or the Fathers will help us to lift up our "drooping hands" and strengthen our "weak knees"(see HEB. 12:12) so as to complete the week with our sanity intact. (Tuesday is eliminated for it has no alliterative value). Our sanity, of course, depends upon God. For without God we are faced with the insane task, within the confines of a rather insane world, of finding meaning and purpose in the face of the void, that emptiness from which we came accidentally and to which we are racing toward with a disheartening inevitability that can drive you insane. Our Lord Jesus Christ never spoke a word about "proving" the existence of God. The One Who revealed Himself with the words: "I am Who I am" simply exists. He dwells in "light unapproachable" (I TIM. 6:16) and yet speaks to us as a "friend" as St. Symeon the New Theologian teaches. In the Book of Deuteronomy, we read this magnificent passage:
The pious Jew in the time of Christ, and beyond, would solemnly recite these words - the Shema - on a daily basis. This consciousness of God, to use a more contemporary term, is essential in a world that seeks to relegate God to the artificially-conceived realm of "private religion." What did some of the "ancients" or Church Fathers have to say about God? With what words, images or concepts did they describe the One Who, ultimately, is indescribable? There are some short definitions meant to establish a sense of God as "ultimate reality" when we seek to understand Him:
Then, there are more comprehensive attempts - as the following from St. John of Damascus, a great synthesizer of the 8th c. - to somehow capture the overwhelming inclusiveness of all reality, all thought, all meaningful concepts in God:
The great Fathers knew that all words and concepts were wholly inadequate in describing God, that ultimately He is wholly Other, and that we can only understand God through His actions toward us:
And yet, ultimately, our God is a personal God - a Friend - as we said above. God is not a concept, an idea, a theory, the unmoved Mover, a philosophical notion, etc. If so, the psalmist would never have cried out:
We do not long for an Idea, but for a living, personal Reality. St. Gregory of Nyssa makes this point in a beautiful passage about coming to God as the One who quenches our thirst:
Yes, let us imitate this thirsting one! As St. Herman of Alaska once said:
The Feast of Epiphany/Theophany celebrated on January 6 - and thus yesterday for us on this wintry Monday morning - is different from the feast of the same name as celebrated in the Western churches. In the West, the Feast has always been a commemoration of the gift-bearing Wise Men coming to Christ as representative of the Gentile world acknowledging the true Light of the world in the newborn Infant. (How perceptive are our contemporary, postmodern "wise men" when compared to the Magi of old when it comes to humbly recognizing Truth?) This is an epiphany or "manifestation" of Christ to the greater world, thus anticipating the conversion of the Gentile world that would begin following the Death and Resurrection of Christ. In the Orthodox Church, this particular Feast commemorates Christ's baptism in the Jordan, the great inaugural event of His public ministry that would culminate in His victory over death following the Crucifixion. More precisely, this is a genuine Theophany of God, for the trinitarian nature of God is revealed at the Jordan when the voice of the Father and the presence of the Spirit in the form of a dove accompany and confirm the messianic role of Christ as He is baptized. To paraprhase St. Irenaeus of Lyons: the Father anoints, the Son is anointed, the Holy Spirit is the ointment. Human nature was anointed and renewed when the Lord humbly submitted Himself to baptism. As two of the hymns of the Church say:
For a Christian, Baptism is a cleansing, an illumination, a regeneration, a sanctification, a restoration, and a purification together with being for the "remission of sins." It is a putting on of Christ, of dying and rising with Him to a new life and a new creation. For this reason, Baptism is a Mystery/Sacrament of the Church, a grace-bestowing event which is a gift from the Lord. (In the Orthodox Church, the Sacraments are referred to as the Mysteries). The life of grace that flows through the sacramental life of the Church has been beautifully described by St. Nicholas Cabasilas, a 14th c. Byzantine theologian:
In another fine passage about Baptism itself in which he comments on the ancient rite of triple immersion, St. Nicholas writes:
Once baptized and conscious of it, we must respond to Christ by manifesting the fruit of baptismal grace working in our lives. This is essential, for the baptismal rite and the accompanying grace is not some sort of "water magic" that will continue to be active in our lives independent of our willful co-operation. St. Gregory of Nyssa makes this point strikingly:
We need to act, speak, and think as "baptised people." For in baptism, we claim to belong to Christ and not to the world:
Fr. Steven |
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