Many of us have heard people, including many Christians, say that they don’t go to church because of the hypocrites who go. I just had a conversation with a person who falls into this category, interestingly a science professor (and it was a very interesting and non-offensive conversation), two weeks ago. The real problem here is not that Christians, especially those who go to church, are hypocrites, but that the people who make that judgment have an idea of utopia when they think of going to church.
The word utopia as most of us have heard essentially means a perfect and ideal place. The word “utopia” was coined in the 16th Century in the English language, taken from two Greek words, which mean “no” and “place.” Hence, utopia means “not a place.”
The Bible does teach that we as Christians tend toward ideals that would be considered a utopia, but also emphasizes the fact that that vision will not be fully realized in this age, but in the one to come, after God judges humanity and those who are deemed righteous will spend eternity with Him in Heaven, and those who are deemed unrighteous will spend eternity in Hell.
Heaven is the only Utopia, and in a sense it meets the definition of “not a place,” in that it is not like what we know now on earth, but something that is beyond our understanding now as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
The word utopia also applies to this world in that “not a place” can be found which sin has not damaged. This is why, only the Kingdom of Heaven, is the real Utopia.
As for the complaints that critics raise about church-going Christians being hypocrites, and they are the reason why they themselves don’t go to church, the Bible has an answer to this complaint.
In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven.
He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn”’” (Matthew 13:24-30).
Here the Church (the community of believers) is likened to Wheat, while the community of nonbelievers, Christians who are not concerned with their spiritual life, and all other groups, is likened to Tares. Now the interesting thing about Tares are that while they grow in the early stages, as well as also while growing, they are very hard to distinguish from Wheat, in that they look very similar.
The enemy in the Parable is Satan; in fact that is what “Satan” and “Devil,” mean. Satan sows seeds while men, those in the Church most likely the clergy, sleep.
They wake up and find that there are Tares growing among the Wheat and ask their lord what to do. They make a suggestion to uproot the Tares while they are still growing. Their lord answers “no” because uprooting some of these Tares might also uproot Wheat with them.
The Harvest is the judgment day at the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels God will send to “gather together His elect” (Matthew 24:31).
The separation of the Wheat and the Tares at the Harvest is the actual judgment, and the Tares are first burned up, go to Hell that is, and the Wheat is gathered into the barn, go to the House of God, Heaven that is.
This Parable gives us an answer to give to the critics, and to Christians as well if they reply that they don’t go to church because there are hypocrites there. Jesus Himself addressed this issue prophetically before it happened.
Satan planted certain people in the Church to counter God’s work, and God will leave the Tares (those Christians who aren’t so in truth), to continue in the Church until the Judgment Day. He directly says so to the “men” in the Parable who symbolize the clergy or even the laity.
It is important to point out that Jesus tells the men not to gather the Tares, because telling Tares from Wheat is hard, and if one tries to remove Tares he might accidentally remove Wheat as well. This reminds us not to judge others as Jesus also commanded. We cannot be judges because then we are raising ourselves to God’s perfection who knows everything and thus that is the reason why He is fit to judge because He has all the facts, hidden and unhidden, while we have very limited knowledge.
So let us not be tempted by the idea that we should not go to church where “hypocrites” are, not listen to teaching that says going to church with hypocrites is not right. Both these ideas do not agree with the Bible and are temptations from Satan to keep us away from church and away from edification.
Therefore let us keep our eyes only on God, and judge only ourselves, so we may grow in Him and remember that a utopia is “not a place” that is here, and the only Utopia will be Heaven.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
The Martyrs
“The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.” -Tertullian the Scholar
I was recently talking with a Protestant acquaintance of mine and asked him if he knew about the Martyrs. He referred to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (which is a Protestant Reformation era book about the early reformers). Then I told him that the martyrs I was talking about are about a thousand years older than the martyrs mentioned in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. However when I said really old, he mentioned St. Polycarp (who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle), who as I was told, was actually mentioned by Fox. This made me think that the martyrs are not really that well known in the West, even more so in the Protestant Church.
The Martyrs, however, were of extreme significance in the early church up until even after the Protestant Reformation. The fact that a book like Foxes Book of Martyrs was written bears witness to this.
The word “Martyr” comes from a Greek word which originally meant “Witness.” This is because the Martyrs are those who bore witness to Christ, even giving up their lives for that witness. Jesus called us His friends in the Gospel of John, and right after that He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). Just as Jesus laid down His life for all of us, we lay down our lives for Him. It is the mutual love that causes us to do this. And just as He rose again by dying for us, we will rise again by dying for Him. This sort of language of the mutual death can be seen in the Epistle to the Romans applied to Baptism. But the interesting thing is that the early fathers saw Martyrdom as also a Baptism in itself. In Orthodoxy, Baptism is essential to Salvation, for without it one cannot put on Christ and become a member of the Church. But there were those who were catechumens (those coming to the faith and about to be baptized) that were killed. So what happened to them? The early church had this doctrine of “The Baptism of Blood.” This doctrine said that if one was killed as a Martyr for Christ, this was counted as Baptism. This doctrine actually goes back to the Bible, and we see Jesus referring to it when he says to the Apostles (11 of which became Martyrs), “‘Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able’” (Matthew 20:22).
Martyrdom also has a paradox that is even though Christians are killed for their faith, the number of Christians increases afterward. This is what is meant by Tertullian the Scholar when he says, “The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
The most severe ancient persecution of Christians came under the reign of Diocletian the Emperor, who ruled beginning in 284 A.D. up until about 303 A.D. The longest list of ancient Martyrs comes from this period.
Some examples of these Martyrs are Saints like St. Maurice and the Theban Legion. Saint Maurice was the leader of a Legion of soldiers from Thebes in Egypt. He and his Legion were very successful in military campaigns and they were summoned by the Roman Emperor to go to Switzerland to fight off the Empire’s enemies. They succeeded, so the Emperor asked them to offer up sacrifices to the idols in celebration of the victory. They refused saying that even though they were loyal to the emperor and would obey him, they would not obey him concerning something that was against their faith. Following the example of St. Peter and the other Apostles, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The emperor then began decimating the Legion, who numbered at 6600 to try to intimidate them and cause some of them to offer up the idols. But they remained steadfast, and all of them ended up being martyred for their faith in Christ.
Another example of these Martyrs is Saint Demiana and the Forty Virgins. This young lady was of a noble family, with her father being the governor of a city called El-Borollos in Northern Egypt. She told her father that she wanted to dedicate her life to Christ, so he built her a palace. St. Demiana might have been a sort of proto-nun, because essentially what she established was a convent for her and her forty companions. One day the Emperor called her father to come and offer sacrifices to idols with him. Her father weakened and did. St. Demiana heard about and went to her father and rebuked him. So her father went back confessed his faith in Christ and was martyred. The emperor who happened to be infuriated sent soldiers to St. Demiana and her companions, tortured them, and killed them because of their confession of Christ.
One more example of is St. Hripsime the Armenian. St. Hripsime’s story is a little bit similar to St. Demiana. St. Hripsime was also a sort of proto-nun who lived in Rome. The emperor Diocletian sent painters all over the empire to paint the most beautiful women so he could see them and choose to marry one. That one ended up being St. Hripsime who had dedicated her life to Christ. When she heard this, she fled to Armenia with some of her companions and hid in a beat up garden. However, some reports arrived to Diocletian and the king of Armenia, Tiridates found out that she was hiding and the emperor wanted her. But when he saw her, he decided that he wanted her too. So he brought her before himself and asked her to marry him and she refused saying that she had dedicated her life to Christ. He asked her again and again, and the answer was always the same. So he tortured her in the most gruesome ways along with her companion and finally killed her and they threw her body and her companions in some heap. The king afterward was upset and was advised to go hunt so he could get over this episode. While he was hunting he became possessed by some demon. One of the ladies in Tiridates’ court, maybe his sister, I don’t remember clearly, prayed to God, and she remembered something after her prayer. Fourteen years earlier, Tiridates had thrown a Christian bishop who was evangelizing Armenia into a pit. This lady told some of the people in the king’s court to go to the pit, so they threw a rope and the rope tugged, and the bishop, St. Gregory the Illuminator, came out. Shortly after he was thrown into the pit, a woman living nearby was warned by an angel to throw a loaf of bread everyday into the pit. She did this for fourteen years. They brought St. Gregory to the king, and he told the king if he was to pray for him, he would stop persecuting the Christians and would convert, the king agreed, and St. Gregory exorcised him. St. Gregory then went to find the bodies of St. Hripsime and her companions and gave them a proper burial and a church was later built over their bodies. This church is one of the holiest churches in Armenian Orthodoxy. Tiridates declared Christianity as the official religion of Armenia in 303 A.D., and is now known as Tiridates the Great.
All these examples of martyrs come from the period of Diocletian’s reign, however St. Maurice was killed by Diocletian’s companion emperoror, Maximian.
The Martyrs gives us the greatest example of the love of Christ because as He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). They also give us the greatest example of showing us that the Christian life CAN be lived. Let us learn from them and always keep their life stories in front of us.
May their prayers be with us and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
I was recently talking with a Protestant acquaintance of mine and asked him if he knew about the Martyrs. He referred to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (which is a Protestant Reformation era book about the early reformers). Then I told him that the martyrs I was talking about are about a thousand years older than the martyrs mentioned in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. However when I said really old, he mentioned St. Polycarp (who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle), who as I was told, was actually mentioned by Fox. This made me think that the martyrs are not really that well known in the West, even more so in the Protestant Church.
The Martyrs, however, were of extreme significance in the early church up until even after the Protestant Reformation. The fact that a book like Foxes Book of Martyrs was written bears witness to this.
The word “Martyr” comes from a Greek word which originally meant “Witness.” This is because the Martyrs are those who bore witness to Christ, even giving up their lives for that witness. Jesus called us His friends in the Gospel of John, and right after that He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). Just as Jesus laid down His life for all of us, we lay down our lives for Him. It is the mutual love that causes us to do this. And just as He rose again by dying for us, we will rise again by dying for Him. This sort of language of the mutual death can be seen in the Epistle to the Romans applied to Baptism. But the interesting thing is that the early fathers saw Martyrdom as also a Baptism in itself. In Orthodoxy, Baptism is essential to Salvation, for without it one cannot put on Christ and become a member of the Church. But there were those who were catechumens (those coming to the faith and about to be baptized) that were killed. So what happened to them? The early church had this doctrine of “The Baptism of Blood.” This doctrine said that if one was killed as a Martyr for Christ, this was counted as Baptism. This doctrine actually goes back to the Bible, and we see Jesus referring to it when he says to the Apostles (11 of which became Martyrs), “‘Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able’” (Matthew 20:22).
Martyrdom also has a paradox that is even though Christians are killed for their faith, the number of Christians increases afterward. This is what is meant by Tertullian the Scholar when he says, “The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
The most severe ancient persecution of Christians came under the reign of Diocletian the Emperor, who ruled beginning in 284 A.D. up until about 303 A.D. The longest list of ancient Martyrs comes from this period.
Some examples of these Martyrs are Saints like St. Maurice and the Theban Legion. Saint Maurice was the leader of a Legion of soldiers from Thebes in Egypt. He and his Legion were very successful in military campaigns and they were summoned by the Roman Emperor to go to Switzerland to fight off the Empire’s enemies. They succeeded, so the Emperor asked them to offer up sacrifices to the idols in celebration of the victory. They refused saying that even though they were loyal to the emperor and would obey him, they would not obey him concerning something that was against their faith. Following the example of St. Peter and the other Apostles, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The emperor then began decimating the Legion, who numbered at 6600 to try to intimidate them and cause some of them to offer up the idols. But they remained steadfast, and all of them ended up being martyred for their faith in Christ.
Another example of these Martyrs is Saint Demiana and the Forty Virgins. This young lady was of a noble family, with her father being the governor of a city called El-Borollos in Northern Egypt. She told her father that she wanted to dedicate her life to Christ, so he built her a palace. St. Demiana might have been a sort of proto-nun, because essentially what she established was a convent for her and her forty companions. One day the Emperor called her father to come and offer sacrifices to idols with him. Her father weakened and did. St. Demiana heard about and went to her father and rebuked him. So her father went back confessed his faith in Christ and was martyred. The emperor who happened to be infuriated sent soldiers to St. Demiana and her companions, tortured them, and killed them because of their confession of Christ.
One more example of is St. Hripsime the Armenian. St. Hripsime’s story is a little bit similar to St. Demiana. St. Hripsime was also a sort of proto-nun who lived in Rome. The emperor Diocletian sent painters all over the empire to paint the most beautiful women so he could see them and choose to marry one. That one ended up being St. Hripsime who had dedicated her life to Christ. When she heard this, she fled to Armenia with some of her companions and hid in a beat up garden. However, some reports arrived to Diocletian and the king of Armenia, Tiridates found out that she was hiding and the emperor wanted her. But when he saw her, he decided that he wanted her too. So he brought her before himself and asked her to marry him and she refused saying that she had dedicated her life to Christ. He asked her again and again, and the answer was always the same. So he tortured her in the most gruesome ways along with her companion and finally killed her and they threw her body and her companions in some heap. The king afterward was upset and was advised to go hunt so he could get over this episode. While he was hunting he became possessed by some demon. One of the ladies in Tiridates’ court, maybe his sister, I don’t remember clearly, prayed to God, and she remembered something after her prayer. Fourteen years earlier, Tiridates had thrown a Christian bishop who was evangelizing Armenia into a pit. This lady told some of the people in the king’s court to go to the pit, so they threw a rope and the rope tugged, and the bishop, St. Gregory the Illuminator, came out. Shortly after he was thrown into the pit, a woman living nearby was warned by an angel to throw a loaf of bread everyday into the pit. She did this for fourteen years. They brought St. Gregory to the king, and he told the king if he was to pray for him, he would stop persecuting the Christians and would convert, the king agreed, and St. Gregory exorcised him. St. Gregory then went to find the bodies of St. Hripsime and her companions and gave them a proper burial and a church was later built over their bodies. This church is one of the holiest churches in Armenian Orthodoxy. Tiridates declared Christianity as the official religion of Armenia in 303 A.D., and is now known as Tiridates the Great.
All these examples of martyrs come from the period of Diocletian’s reign, however St. Maurice was killed by Diocletian’s companion emperoror, Maximian.
The Martyrs gives us the greatest example of the love of Christ because as He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). They also give us the greatest example of showing us that the Christian life CAN be lived. Let us learn from them and always keep their life stories in front of us.
May their prayers be with us and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Freedom and Discipline
Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
Today we are discussing the Christian understanding of freedom, and to understand and apply the Christian understanding of freedom, discipline inevitably comes into the picture.
First off, let’s define what we are talking about for clarity:
Freedom basically means (as defined today) to be in control of your own life with no one forcing you to do anything. We will see another definition below, the more appropriate one.
Discipline means to live by some type of rules.
Moving on we will discuss the origin of freedom, how it is misunderstood, and how to use freedom to glorify God.
Freedom’s origin is God; God gave us freedom because He created us in His Image. We are free because God is free, and an image must reflect its source. This is why we also as humans have many other capabilities which animals do not have such as language and speech which allow us to share our thoughts with each other, animals have no such faculty; their form of communication is limited, not like language and speech.
To be free allows us to do so many things which we might not think of at first, such as love. Unless one is free, one cannot love, because love requires the person to act in a selfless way toward one another. As Pope Shenouda III, current Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, observes, “Love is always giving.” We cannot give if we aren’t free, therefore we can’t love if we aren’t free.
This also allows us to enjoy our relationship with God. He didn’t just create us to worship Him, He doesn’t need our worship, He is God and has glory whether or not we choose to glorify Him. He created us out of love, and just as when we love others we want the best for them, He also wants the best for us. He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him. But we can’t do that if we aren’t free, kind of how if you pull out a woman from society today and you tell her that she is going to marry a man she doesn’t really know against her will, it will not be as enjoyable (if at all), as if she willingly entered into the marriage relationship. The same with God, in fact this analogy of marriage is used quite a few times in the Bible to signify God’s relationship with humanity.
Real Love is always shared, and God created us to worship Him so we could also share in love. His love toward us is always perfect and complete, but our love toward Him is always struggling toward perfection, not really quite there, but this is why He condescends to our level, while we are always ascending. His condescension ultimately manifested itself in the Incarnation of the Son who united His divinity with our humanity taking it to Heaven as He ascended. God is love, and when we love Him by first loving those who are around us created in His Image, we become in union with Him and start sharing in the grace of His divinity. This is known as deification (theosis in Greek). This doesn’t mean that we become gods, but rather that we share in His nature through the grace of the Son’s Incarnation (because He united His divinity to our humanity in the Son).
Today, however, some people reject this idea of God giving us freewill, but the greatest evidence that we have been given freewill by God is the fact that most of humanity has rejected Him.
The world confuses freedom with shameless behavior.
The world defines freedom as doing ANYTHING you want to do. However this definition is very seductive and misleading.
The real definition of freedom, in addition to above, is being able to say NO to anything. That is the very essence of freedom, that nothing is controlling you.
If the world would apply that definition to their actions, they would really find that they are under the control of so many things, and in essence they are enslaved by the things they think they want to do.
You see, how is it freedom when you aren’t able to control what you are doing?
Jesus applied this to sin (that which separates one from God), “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:35-36).
Here Jesus is telling us about the Church, the house that is mentioned. After we were baptized we become a part of the Church, but not all even after Baptism follow God. Some follow their sins, those become enslaved to sin, and those cannot abide forever, meaning the full realization of the Church’s goal, that is to be with God in Heaven. However we should understand that there is a difference between occasionally sinning, and walking in sin. Occasional sins are covered by Jesus’ blood which He shed on the Cross. Walking in sin is different, because it becomes an outright rejection of Christ, and is what St. Paul refers to as trampling “the Son of God underfoot,” and “counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing” (Hebrews 10:29).
The latter part of this passage says, “A son abides forever.” If we follow God and Christ, we become sons of God by grace, not by nature like Jesus Christ, but by adoption by God. Just like every family has rules set up by the parents of the house, and the children should obey them to show their parents that they indeed love them, God (Our Father), sets up some rules for us, as well as the Church (Our Mother).
This is where discipline comes into the picture. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). Here Jesus connects for us freedom with discipline.
Freedom by itself is very, very dangerous. A while ago, I was having a discussion with someone, and this person said that there should be no government, and the world should be an anarchy. So I said, “Suppose for one day all government was suspended, and you got your wish, that this world would be an anarchy,” I told him, “This city that we are in would not be left standing by nightfall, it would have burned down to the ground.” Now the reason this person was saying all this stuff was probably not because of malicious intent but because this person thought that the world was really good (this person at this time had some type of Christian belief, but not Orthodoxy). But the truth is, this world is not really good, in fact it is quite the opposite, it is really evil. People are malicious, they don’t care about each other, they want revenge, they don’t forgive, and all this because they are far away from God. If the world was granted to be an anarchy for even just one day, I am convinced that most of it would be burned down to the ground.
This is why the Christian understanding of freedom is inseparable from discipline, and this is exactly why Jesus has them connected when He talks about them.
So what type of rules should we follow to keep our freedom?
They are mentioned in 1 Corinthians, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor 6:12), “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify” (1 Cor. 10:23).
So unless these things build edify (build us up) in the faith, we should keep away from them. Now this doesn’t always happen, but God’s grace is upon us. But this should be our guide, that’s what discipline essentially is, a guide. Also this verse too, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
These things we should keep in mind because we are free: are we being controlled by anything, does it build other people up, and are we showing love to others and to God?
Our freedom should be used to glorify God.
Here is an example, if someone attends an Orthodox school, and on Wednesdays and Fridays except in the Holy Fifty Days, only fasting food (vegetarian) is served in the Cafeteria, so everybody, including this person, is essentially “forced” to eat that type of food. But someone else not attending an Orthodox school is in the school cafeteria and they offer him hamburgers and chicken wings, and he does not eat from that food and only eats the acceptable food for fasts, this person has glorified God and used his freedom in the correct way, in that he said “NO” to the non-fasting type foods from his own will.
So how do we acquire this discipline?
Well, of course we have to ask God in prayer, if we don’t have it, and if we do have it we should thank God for giving it to us. But we should force ourselves (self-control as mentioned in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit). Self-control is not passive (a reaction), but it is active (you actually doing things), such as fasting.
The Psalm says this concerning spiritual progress, “I have kept back my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Your words” (Psalm 119:101)
What are the benefits of discipline?
We can actually get things done!
As it says in the Psalm, “You word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths” (Psalm 119:105). Without light one virtually cannot do anything. Our spiritual life is likened to a walk along a road, and unless we see the road, we will not be able to follow it easily, if at all. So we should always remember to read the word of God for guidance.
What should we do to ease the way to discipline?
“Turn away from me, you evil-doers; for I shall search out the commandments of my God” (Psalm 119:115).
This is Bible language for saying “Get away from me!” to those who are always hindering us in being close to God, whether it be friends at school, or co-workers, we should be cautious because their influence might rub off on us.
So, looking back, freedom without discipline is a path to destruction, this is why in the Bible freedom and discipline are connected. God gave us freedom so we could enjoy our relationship with Him, just as a man and woman mutually entering into a marriage relationship enjoy it.
So we should pray, and practice our discipline so we can use our freedom in the right way. In the Bible, read Galatians 5, it talks about freedom, I cited a verse from that chapter above, and it ends with the famous fruits of the Spirit.
And remember, the word disciple comes from discipline, so if we want to be good disciples of Christ, we should have discipline in our lives.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Today we are discussing the Christian understanding of freedom, and to understand and apply the Christian understanding of freedom, discipline inevitably comes into the picture.
First off, let’s define what we are talking about for clarity:
Freedom basically means (as defined today) to be in control of your own life with no one forcing you to do anything. We will see another definition below, the more appropriate one.
Discipline means to live by some type of rules.
Moving on we will discuss the origin of freedom, how it is misunderstood, and how to use freedom to glorify God.
Freedom’s origin is God; God gave us freedom because He created us in His Image. We are free because God is free, and an image must reflect its source. This is why we also as humans have many other capabilities which animals do not have such as language and speech which allow us to share our thoughts with each other, animals have no such faculty; their form of communication is limited, not like language and speech.
To be free allows us to do so many things which we might not think of at first, such as love. Unless one is free, one cannot love, because love requires the person to act in a selfless way toward one another. As Pope Shenouda III, current Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, observes, “Love is always giving.” We cannot give if we aren’t free, therefore we can’t love if we aren’t free.
This also allows us to enjoy our relationship with God. He didn’t just create us to worship Him, He doesn’t need our worship, He is God and has glory whether or not we choose to glorify Him. He created us out of love, and just as when we love others we want the best for them, He also wants the best for us. He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him. But we can’t do that if we aren’t free, kind of how if you pull out a woman from society today and you tell her that she is going to marry a man she doesn’t really know against her will, it will not be as enjoyable (if at all), as if she willingly entered into the marriage relationship. The same with God, in fact this analogy of marriage is used quite a few times in the Bible to signify God’s relationship with humanity.
Real Love is always shared, and God created us to worship Him so we could also share in love. His love toward us is always perfect and complete, but our love toward Him is always struggling toward perfection, not really quite there, but this is why He condescends to our level, while we are always ascending. His condescension ultimately manifested itself in the Incarnation of the Son who united His divinity with our humanity taking it to Heaven as He ascended. God is love, and when we love Him by first loving those who are around us created in His Image, we become in union with Him and start sharing in the grace of His divinity. This is known as deification (theosis in Greek). This doesn’t mean that we become gods, but rather that we share in His nature through the grace of the Son’s Incarnation (because He united His divinity to our humanity in the Son).
Today, however, some people reject this idea of God giving us freewill, but the greatest evidence that we have been given freewill by God is the fact that most of humanity has rejected Him.
The world confuses freedom with shameless behavior.
The world defines freedom as doing ANYTHING you want to do. However this definition is very seductive and misleading.
The real definition of freedom, in addition to above, is being able to say NO to anything. That is the very essence of freedom, that nothing is controlling you.
If the world would apply that definition to their actions, they would really find that they are under the control of so many things, and in essence they are enslaved by the things they think they want to do.
You see, how is it freedom when you aren’t able to control what you are doing?
Jesus applied this to sin (that which separates one from God), “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:35-36).
Here Jesus is telling us about the Church, the house that is mentioned. After we were baptized we become a part of the Church, but not all even after Baptism follow God. Some follow their sins, those become enslaved to sin, and those cannot abide forever, meaning the full realization of the Church’s goal, that is to be with God in Heaven. However we should understand that there is a difference between occasionally sinning, and walking in sin. Occasional sins are covered by Jesus’ blood which He shed on the Cross. Walking in sin is different, because it becomes an outright rejection of Christ, and is what St. Paul refers to as trampling “the Son of God underfoot,” and “counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing” (Hebrews 10:29).
The latter part of this passage says, “A son abides forever.” If we follow God and Christ, we become sons of God by grace, not by nature like Jesus Christ, but by adoption by God. Just like every family has rules set up by the parents of the house, and the children should obey them to show their parents that they indeed love them, God (Our Father), sets up some rules for us, as well as the Church (Our Mother).
This is where discipline comes into the picture. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). Here Jesus connects for us freedom with discipline.
Freedom by itself is very, very dangerous. A while ago, I was having a discussion with someone, and this person said that there should be no government, and the world should be an anarchy. So I said, “Suppose for one day all government was suspended, and you got your wish, that this world would be an anarchy,” I told him, “This city that we are in would not be left standing by nightfall, it would have burned down to the ground.” Now the reason this person was saying all this stuff was probably not because of malicious intent but because this person thought that the world was really good (this person at this time had some type of Christian belief, but not Orthodoxy). But the truth is, this world is not really good, in fact it is quite the opposite, it is really evil. People are malicious, they don’t care about each other, they want revenge, they don’t forgive, and all this because they are far away from God. If the world was granted to be an anarchy for even just one day, I am convinced that most of it would be burned down to the ground.
This is why the Christian understanding of freedom is inseparable from discipline, and this is exactly why Jesus has them connected when He talks about them.
So what type of rules should we follow to keep our freedom?
They are mentioned in 1 Corinthians, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor 6:12), “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify” (1 Cor. 10:23).
So unless these things build edify (build us up) in the faith, we should keep away from them. Now this doesn’t always happen, but God’s grace is upon us. But this should be our guide, that’s what discipline essentially is, a guide. Also this verse too, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
These things we should keep in mind because we are free: are we being controlled by anything, does it build other people up, and are we showing love to others and to God?
Our freedom should be used to glorify God.
Here is an example, if someone attends an Orthodox school, and on Wednesdays and Fridays except in the Holy Fifty Days, only fasting food (vegetarian) is served in the Cafeteria, so everybody, including this person, is essentially “forced” to eat that type of food. But someone else not attending an Orthodox school is in the school cafeteria and they offer him hamburgers and chicken wings, and he does not eat from that food and only eats the acceptable food for fasts, this person has glorified God and used his freedom in the correct way, in that he said “NO” to the non-fasting type foods from his own will.
So how do we acquire this discipline?
Well, of course we have to ask God in prayer, if we don’t have it, and if we do have it we should thank God for giving it to us. But we should force ourselves (self-control as mentioned in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit). Self-control is not passive (a reaction), but it is active (you actually doing things), such as fasting.
The Psalm says this concerning spiritual progress, “I have kept back my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Your words” (Psalm 119:101)
What are the benefits of discipline?
We can actually get things done!
As it says in the Psalm, “You word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths” (Psalm 119:105). Without light one virtually cannot do anything. Our spiritual life is likened to a walk along a road, and unless we see the road, we will not be able to follow it easily, if at all. So we should always remember to read the word of God for guidance.
What should we do to ease the way to discipline?
“Turn away from me, you evil-doers; for I shall search out the commandments of my God” (Psalm 119:115).
This is Bible language for saying “Get away from me!” to those who are always hindering us in being close to God, whether it be friends at school, or co-workers, we should be cautious because their influence might rub off on us.
So, looking back, freedom without discipline is a path to destruction, this is why in the Bible freedom and discipline are connected. God gave us freedom so we could enjoy our relationship with Him, just as a man and woman mutually entering into a marriage relationship enjoy it.
So we should pray, and practice our discipline so we can use our freedom in the right way. In the Bible, read Galatians 5, it talks about freedom, I cited a verse from that chapter above, and it ends with the famous fruits of the Spirit.
And remember, the word disciple comes from discipline, so if we want to be good disciples of Christ, we should have discipline in our lives.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Racism
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." -Galatians 3:28
Racism is something that plagues society, causes division among humans, and is by no means a stranger to our society. Not even fifty years have passed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which so many people consider as the end of racism in America.
Outside of America, in South Africa for example, who are hosting the World Cup this year, racism was a regular part of life, until very recently, 16 years ago, when the elections were held in 1994, and Nelson Mandela was elected. It was then that apartheid (segregation in South Africa) ended.
These are just some stories among many others of racism throughout the world over the years.
But it makes us wonder, where did this idea of race come from?
Well, it is hard to say.
We can look at the origin of the word “race” and see what the word originally meant, maybe from there we can start determining how it began. This process of examining the original meaning of a word and from where it is derived is known as etymology.
Many dictionaries say that the origin of the word “race” comes from the French word “razza” which is unclear as to what it actually means. The French word is derived from an Italian word “razza” which is also obscure.
So the original words for race, were just words without meanings, maybe a sort of slang. This actually helps us understand more about the origin of racism.
This shows that racism, just as the original meaning of the word race, has no meaning. As many slang words are made in society for the purpose of denigration and hatred, it is possible that the word “race” was made in the same way.
It is safe to say that racism is a result of hatred which is in turn based off strange ideologies as is clearly seen throughout history with such events as the lynchings (murder hangings) that occurred in the Southern United States. And also with such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan who were devoted to maintaining the power of those who were of Northern European descent and were Protestants at the same time. And even the Mormons in their beginnings, with their ideas that black people should not receive the gospel, and that they were cursed.
We have seen the effects of racism in history and even sometimes today.
Slavery is probably the first thing that we think of as Americans when we hear the word “racism.” Slavery of Africans lasted in America for at least three hundred years before it was abolished because of such people as Abraham Lincoln. However, the end of slavery did not mark the end of racism by any means. Abraham Lincoln lost his life because of his actions that helped free the slaves. The Ku Klux Klan was still at large and even reformed a couple of times up until the 1960s, and segregation (legally) ended in the United States only around the decades of the 1950s and the 1960s.
An interesting note is that birth control (in the way we think of it now) began as propaganda in the early 1900s to try to get working class people, many of whom were of “undesirable races” to stop reproducing and according to the hopes of the racists that their physical features would eventually disappear. The racists did this in a deceptive way because it appeals to people. Birth control will help them avoid having ten children, which was not uncommon back then, and instead maybe having 2 or 3 children. Just an interesting note, the opposite of their expectations has happened, these “undesirable races” have actually continued to give birth to many children, while it is the “favored races” meaning white to them, that have actually begun to decrease and even disappear. A famous example of this is that of the Germans, their “race” is running out faster than the amount of children they have; in order for a country to maintain its population size they have to at least have two children (called the replacement rate), if they have more they will grow. The Germans are having 0-1 kids on average these days. As someone I know says, “Their own sorcery has worked (turned) against them.”
Racism is still present today, though hidden. It is clear in the workplace, when less qualified people are given jobs or promotions and such, and more qualified aren’t then when you compare them, you see there is a correlation (connection) between whiter people, less qualified, and getting jobs. I was sitting in my microeconomics class earlier this year, and my teacher was talking to me and the group I was working in about how racism is still around. She is white and her husband is black, and the city they live in is predominantly white and not “friendly” in terms of race. She talked to us how an obese, black woman, is the least likely to get hired for a job, because people like hiring based on outward appearances. I personally know, non-European white people who have been discriminated against, just because of their nationality, in very professional jobs. It’s a sad and vicious continual repetition and failure to learn from history and change that causes this sort of discrimination.
Now what does the Bible teach about race?
Well, race is nonexistent.
The Bible teaches that all human beings are descended from Adam and that Eve is "the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20).
St. Paul the Apostle told the Greeks that God "has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26).
As seen from the above verse there is only nationality present in the Bible, not race. There is no such thing in the Bible as all Europeans are “white,” or all Africans are “black.” Rather there are Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and so on for Europe, and for Africa, there are Egyptians, Libyans, Ethiopians, and so on. There are no hasty generalizations which lead to racism.
The history in Genesis preserves the fact that the entire world as we know today, are descended from Noah and his three sons: "Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth… These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated" (Genesis 9:18-19).
In Genesis 10, sometimes referred to as the Table of Nations, it talks about Shem, Ham, and Japheth’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and in some cases even further. This chapter shows from where such people as the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans, Jews, Greeks, Russians, and others came from. Of course, the names written here are the Hebrew names. For example Egypt is called Mizraim in Genesis 10 (because Mizraim is Egypt in Hebrew), and we still call it Misr in Arabic.
If one wants to generalize and isolate groups from these three sons of Noah (not for the sake of racism but of study), then Shem is the father of those who became Middle-Easterners, Ham is the father of those who became Africans, and Japheth is the father of those who became Asians and Europeans. The Bible doesn't refer to people by skin color (race), but by nation. It is never racist.
What about God’s choosing the Jews as His people for approximately 2000 years until the Advent of Christ?
God chose them to prepare them and give them His Holy Law, so that there would be a people on the Earth that preserved the history of God’s working in the world. He also did this so that the people from whom he would become incarnate, would be following the Law of God, and would not be living in total sin. But God revealed Himself and appointed prophets also from the Gentiles even after He had given the covenant to the Jews. Job the Righteous, was not a Jew, nor were his friends. He was an Edomite, yet one book is devoted to his story in the Bible as an example for us from which to learn, and God spoke to him. Balaam also was a prophet (Gentile), although he had issues with fulfilling what God told him.
After the New Testament has come into effect, the people of God are no longer limited to a geographical and ethnic line. There are a couple of prophecies in the Old Testament pertaining to the creation of a new people that will worship God, other than the Jews.
In Psalm 22, which talks about Our Lord’s Crucifixion, it says, “A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this” (Psalm 22:30-31). So this psalm links the Christ to the birth of a New People.
Another prophecy says, “This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD” (Psalm 102:18). This psalm refers to the psalm itself, saying that a purpose of the psalms is for the people who are not yet created to praise the Lord. And this is in fact what happened. Ever since the beginning, the Church has used the psalms to pray the canonical hours (known as the Book of Hours, also known as the Agpeya in the Coptic Orthodox Church).
At this point it should be noted that the word “Christian” does not mean “little Christ” as some assert, but it actually means “From the nation of Christ.” The ending of the word Christian, the –an, is like the word American, or Armenian, or Mexican, or Italian. It designates a nation.
Jesus commanded His disciples saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The Apostles fulfilled this commandment by preaching all over the world from Britain to India.
The Book of Acts highlights three cases of conversions, they can best be remembered as Acts 8, 9, and 10, which show one person who is descended from each of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, becoming Christians. This is to signify that all of humanity was saved, not just certain "races." It is also interesting to see that God Himself intervened directly and clearly to bring these people to the faith.
The first of these was the Ethiopian Eunuch, who was descended from Ham (Acts 8).
The second of these was Saul of Tarsus, who we know better as St. Paul the Apostle, was descended from Shem (Acts 9).
The third of these was Cornelius the Centurion, who was descended from Japheth (Acts 10).
So what can we conclude about racism from our faith?
It is wrong. It has no basis in the Bible. It is in fact hatred. St. Paul the Apostle writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him" (Romans 10:12). "The new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:10-11).
So when we hear the word “race” let us think of the race that we have to run as Christians, which is symbolic of the spiritual life.
Therefore the only races there are, are the ones to run.
And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Racism is something that plagues society, causes division among humans, and is by no means a stranger to our society. Not even fifty years have passed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which so many people consider as the end of racism in America.
Outside of America, in South Africa for example, who are hosting the World Cup this year, racism was a regular part of life, until very recently, 16 years ago, when the elections were held in 1994, and Nelson Mandela was elected. It was then that apartheid (segregation in South Africa) ended.
These are just some stories among many others of racism throughout the world over the years.
But it makes us wonder, where did this idea of race come from?
Well, it is hard to say.
We can look at the origin of the word “race” and see what the word originally meant, maybe from there we can start determining how it began. This process of examining the original meaning of a word and from where it is derived is known as etymology.
Many dictionaries say that the origin of the word “race” comes from the French word “razza” which is unclear as to what it actually means. The French word is derived from an Italian word “razza” which is also obscure.
So the original words for race, were just words without meanings, maybe a sort of slang. This actually helps us understand more about the origin of racism.
This shows that racism, just as the original meaning of the word race, has no meaning. As many slang words are made in society for the purpose of denigration and hatred, it is possible that the word “race” was made in the same way.
It is safe to say that racism is a result of hatred which is in turn based off strange ideologies as is clearly seen throughout history with such events as the lynchings (murder hangings) that occurred in the Southern United States. And also with such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan who were devoted to maintaining the power of those who were of Northern European descent and were Protestants at the same time. And even the Mormons in their beginnings, with their ideas that black people should not receive the gospel, and that they were cursed.
We have seen the effects of racism in history and even sometimes today.
Slavery is probably the first thing that we think of as Americans when we hear the word “racism.” Slavery of Africans lasted in America for at least three hundred years before it was abolished because of such people as Abraham Lincoln. However, the end of slavery did not mark the end of racism by any means. Abraham Lincoln lost his life because of his actions that helped free the slaves. The Ku Klux Klan was still at large and even reformed a couple of times up until the 1960s, and segregation (legally) ended in the United States only around the decades of the 1950s and the 1960s.
An interesting note is that birth control (in the way we think of it now) began as propaganda in the early 1900s to try to get working class people, many of whom were of “undesirable races” to stop reproducing and according to the hopes of the racists that their physical features would eventually disappear. The racists did this in a deceptive way because it appeals to people. Birth control will help them avoid having ten children, which was not uncommon back then, and instead maybe having 2 or 3 children. Just an interesting note, the opposite of their expectations has happened, these “undesirable races” have actually continued to give birth to many children, while it is the “favored races” meaning white to them, that have actually begun to decrease and even disappear. A famous example of this is that of the Germans, their “race” is running out faster than the amount of children they have; in order for a country to maintain its population size they have to at least have two children (called the replacement rate), if they have more they will grow. The Germans are having 0-1 kids on average these days. As someone I know says, “Their own sorcery has worked (turned) against them.”
Racism is still present today, though hidden. It is clear in the workplace, when less qualified people are given jobs or promotions and such, and more qualified aren’t then when you compare them, you see there is a correlation (connection) between whiter people, less qualified, and getting jobs. I was sitting in my microeconomics class earlier this year, and my teacher was talking to me and the group I was working in about how racism is still around. She is white and her husband is black, and the city they live in is predominantly white and not “friendly” in terms of race. She talked to us how an obese, black woman, is the least likely to get hired for a job, because people like hiring based on outward appearances. I personally know, non-European white people who have been discriminated against, just because of their nationality, in very professional jobs. It’s a sad and vicious continual repetition and failure to learn from history and change that causes this sort of discrimination.
Now what does the Bible teach about race?
Well, race is nonexistent.
The Bible teaches that all human beings are descended from Adam and that Eve is "the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20).
St. Paul the Apostle told the Greeks that God "has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26).
As seen from the above verse there is only nationality present in the Bible, not race. There is no such thing in the Bible as all Europeans are “white,” or all Africans are “black.” Rather there are Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and so on for Europe, and for Africa, there are Egyptians, Libyans, Ethiopians, and so on. There are no hasty generalizations which lead to racism.
The history in Genesis preserves the fact that the entire world as we know today, are descended from Noah and his three sons: "Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth… These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated" (Genesis 9:18-19).
In Genesis 10, sometimes referred to as the Table of Nations, it talks about Shem, Ham, and Japheth’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and in some cases even further. This chapter shows from where such people as the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans, Jews, Greeks, Russians, and others came from. Of course, the names written here are the Hebrew names. For example Egypt is called Mizraim in Genesis 10 (because Mizraim is Egypt in Hebrew), and we still call it Misr in Arabic.
If one wants to generalize and isolate groups from these three sons of Noah (not for the sake of racism but of study), then Shem is the father of those who became Middle-Easterners, Ham is the father of those who became Africans, and Japheth is the father of those who became Asians and Europeans. The Bible doesn't refer to people by skin color (race), but by nation. It is never racist.
What about God’s choosing the Jews as His people for approximately 2000 years until the Advent of Christ?
God chose them to prepare them and give them His Holy Law, so that there would be a people on the Earth that preserved the history of God’s working in the world. He also did this so that the people from whom he would become incarnate, would be following the Law of God, and would not be living in total sin. But God revealed Himself and appointed prophets also from the Gentiles even after He had given the covenant to the Jews. Job the Righteous, was not a Jew, nor were his friends. He was an Edomite, yet one book is devoted to his story in the Bible as an example for us from which to learn, and God spoke to him. Balaam also was a prophet (Gentile), although he had issues with fulfilling what God told him.
After the New Testament has come into effect, the people of God are no longer limited to a geographical and ethnic line. There are a couple of prophecies in the Old Testament pertaining to the creation of a new people that will worship God, other than the Jews.
In Psalm 22, which talks about Our Lord’s Crucifixion, it says, “A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this” (Psalm 22:30-31). So this psalm links the Christ to the birth of a New People.
Another prophecy says, “This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD” (Psalm 102:18). This psalm refers to the psalm itself, saying that a purpose of the psalms is for the people who are not yet created to praise the Lord. And this is in fact what happened. Ever since the beginning, the Church has used the psalms to pray the canonical hours (known as the Book of Hours, also known as the Agpeya in the Coptic Orthodox Church).
At this point it should be noted that the word “Christian” does not mean “little Christ” as some assert, but it actually means “From the nation of Christ.” The ending of the word Christian, the –an, is like the word American, or Armenian, or Mexican, or Italian. It designates a nation.
Jesus commanded His disciples saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The Apostles fulfilled this commandment by preaching all over the world from Britain to India.
The Book of Acts highlights three cases of conversions, they can best be remembered as Acts 8, 9, and 10, which show one person who is descended from each of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, becoming Christians. This is to signify that all of humanity was saved, not just certain "races." It is also interesting to see that God Himself intervened directly and clearly to bring these people to the faith.
The first of these was the Ethiopian Eunuch, who was descended from Ham (Acts 8).
The second of these was Saul of Tarsus, who we know better as St. Paul the Apostle, was descended from Shem (Acts 9).
The third of these was Cornelius the Centurion, who was descended from Japheth (Acts 10).
So what can we conclude about racism from our faith?
It is wrong. It has no basis in the Bible. It is in fact hatred. St. Paul the Apostle writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him" (Romans 10:12). "The new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:10-11).
So when we hear the word “race” let us think of the race that we have to run as Christians, which is symbolic of the spiritual life.
Therefore the only races there are, are the ones to run.
And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
After High School
Well the school year is pretty much up for all high schoolers throughout the country, so I thought it would be a good time to share some of my experiences with you, especially Seniors who have just graduated, and give some advice.
Life is going to start moving very quickly now that you are finished with high school. The atmosphere that we have been used to as high schoolers: a place filled with young people, seeing many of our friends everyday, same teachers throughout the year, being dependent on mom and dad, this is all going to change.
Whether you decide to go to college or decide to go to work, or any other path within or outside of these, that atmosphere is going to change. That vibrant, life-filled environment that we were once in (high school) will disappear. I remember after my graduation (in 2008), life quieted down tremendously. Graduation was like a movie coming to its climax and resolution toward the end. I remember a student who was in front of me in the line said as we entered the stadium for the ceremony that she felt like she was on a really high roller coaster about to go down the track really quickly. Commencement was like one of those big musical scores at the second to last scene of a movie, where the entire orchestra holds a note (fermata) and then fades away.
I haven’t seen the majority of my class since graduation; the same is true for many other graduates. I remember a couple of weeks after graduation I was sitting with two of my closest friends from high school at a Starbucks we often used to go to during our Junior and Senior years, and we were talking about friendship and if we didn’t see or talk to each other after high school, then was that friendship a Christian friendship, or was it just because we happened to be in the same geographic location for a while? This is one example of a question we should ask ourselves.
Afterward we saw a student we had known from high school, same class, and she also remarked that “everybody disappeared” after graduation.
It makes us think, why do we have friends? Is it just because we don’t want to be called loners and we want to run with a pack or be included in a circle? If these are the reasons, maybe that’s why this country is getting spiritually sick, because there is no real basis as to why this friendship exists other than a fear of exclusion (a type of selfishness). And these “circles of friends” become major influences in our life whether good or bad.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the example of friendship; He Himself called us His friends in the Gospel of John (15:14-16). We see from His example that He gave us what He had. This brings up the reminder that love always gives. The type of friendship we should offer, as Christians, should be like that of our Lord Jesus, we should give, and not just take. And just like His friendship is lasting, we should try to make our friendships last. With the advent of such facilitators as e-mails, cell phones, text messaging, and facebook, we can make our friendships last better even if our friends are far away from us. Most importantly we should be very concerned with the salvation of our friends as our Lord Jesus was with us.
About a month and a half before my graduation, I started thinking a lot about the future. I started thinking long about things I had only given a couple of seconds at a time in the past such as my future career, marriage, and having children. I started thinking about marriage a lot more than any other subject. I had not really contemplated on the subject until this wave of thinking started.
Marriage is not a small thing, it is very important in the Church; it is one of the Seven Sacraments. Someone was arguing with me about Monasticism and Marriage, and accusing the Church of glorifying monks more than married people, and I answered him, “Marriage is a Sacrament; Monasticism is not.” Also there would be no monks without marriage. I also listened to a set of sermons delivered by Father Anthony Messeh about marriage to high schoolers and he said something very profound, he said that the time to start preparing for marriage is not during the engagement, but it is now. He said this because if we start thinking about this VERY IMPORTANT subject now, then we will prepare better for marriage. These thoughts of the future then are a blessing.
But we shouldn’t dwell on it as our Lord Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 5:34). His advice for us concerning life is simple “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 5:33). If we do this, then we will be led by Him.
I feel safe to assume that while in high school these sorts of thoughts never really cross the minds of students on a profound level such as this.
Some things, however, will not change in life. There will still be groups of people you will hang out with, people who will cause drama, people who will become really good friends of yours, and people who will hate you, people who will like to show off, and people who will cause you to change for the better.
Always remember that your faith is the most important thing.
Focus on God this summer (both graduates and non-graduates alike). Thank God, glorify Him, pray, read your Bibles, go to Church, grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ, and enjoy the beauty of the wonderful creation of God.
Let us also take St. Augustine’s advice, "Pray as if everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."
God will do what He knows is best for you.
I will leave you with the words of this following quote, let it be a guiding principle, and a source of encouragement, “Don’t worry about tomorrow; God is already there.”
Glory be to God forever. Amen.
Life is going to start moving very quickly now that you are finished with high school. The atmosphere that we have been used to as high schoolers: a place filled with young people, seeing many of our friends everyday, same teachers throughout the year, being dependent on mom and dad, this is all going to change.
Whether you decide to go to college or decide to go to work, or any other path within or outside of these, that atmosphere is going to change. That vibrant, life-filled environment that we were once in (high school) will disappear. I remember after my graduation (in 2008), life quieted down tremendously. Graduation was like a movie coming to its climax and resolution toward the end. I remember a student who was in front of me in the line said as we entered the stadium for the ceremony that she felt like she was on a really high roller coaster about to go down the track really quickly. Commencement was like one of those big musical scores at the second to last scene of a movie, where the entire orchestra holds a note (fermata) and then fades away.
I haven’t seen the majority of my class since graduation; the same is true for many other graduates. I remember a couple of weeks after graduation I was sitting with two of my closest friends from high school at a Starbucks we often used to go to during our Junior and Senior years, and we were talking about friendship and if we didn’t see or talk to each other after high school, then was that friendship a Christian friendship, or was it just because we happened to be in the same geographic location for a while? This is one example of a question we should ask ourselves.
Afterward we saw a student we had known from high school, same class, and she also remarked that “everybody disappeared” after graduation.
It makes us think, why do we have friends? Is it just because we don’t want to be called loners and we want to run with a pack or be included in a circle? If these are the reasons, maybe that’s why this country is getting spiritually sick, because there is no real basis as to why this friendship exists other than a fear of exclusion (a type of selfishness). And these “circles of friends” become major influences in our life whether good or bad.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the example of friendship; He Himself called us His friends in the Gospel of John (15:14-16). We see from His example that He gave us what He had. This brings up the reminder that love always gives. The type of friendship we should offer, as Christians, should be like that of our Lord Jesus, we should give, and not just take. And just like His friendship is lasting, we should try to make our friendships last. With the advent of such facilitators as e-mails, cell phones, text messaging, and facebook, we can make our friendships last better even if our friends are far away from us. Most importantly we should be very concerned with the salvation of our friends as our Lord Jesus was with us.
About a month and a half before my graduation, I started thinking a lot about the future. I started thinking long about things I had only given a couple of seconds at a time in the past such as my future career, marriage, and having children. I started thinking about marriage a lot more than any other subject. I had not really contemplated on the subject until this wave of thinking started.
Marriage is not a small thing, it is very important in the Church; it is one of the Seven Sacraments. Someone was arguing with me about Monasticism and Marriage, and accusing the Church of glorifying monks more than married people, and I answered him, “Marriage is a Sacrament; Monasticism is not.” Also there would be no monks without marriage. I also listened to a set of sermons delivered by Father Anthony Messeh about marriage to high schoolers and he said something very profound, he said that the time to start preparing for marriage is not during the engagement, but it is now. He said this because if we start thinking about this VERY IMPORTANT subject now, then we will prepare better for marriage. These thoughts of the future then are a blessing.
But we shouldn’t dwell on it as our Lord Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 5:34). His advice for us concerning life is simple “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 5:33). If we do this, then we will be led by Him.
I feel safe to assume that while in high school these sorts of thoughts never really cross the minds of students on a profound level such as this.
Some things, however, will not change in life. There will still be groups of people you will hang out with, people who will cause drama, people who will become really good friends of yours, and people who will hate you, people who will like to show off, and people who will cause you to change for the better.
Always remember that your faith is the most important thing.
Focus on God this summer (both graduates and non-graduates alike). Thank God, glorify Him, pray, read your Bibles, go to Church, grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ, and enjoy the beauty of the wonderful creation of God.
Let us also take St. Augustine’s advice, "Pray as if everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."
God will do what He knows is best for you.
I will leave you with the words of this following quote, let it be a guiding principle, and a source of encouragement, “Don’t worry about tomorrow; God is already there.”
Glory be to God forever. Amen.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The First Day of the Week
Happy Feast of Pentecost!
Has anyone ever wondered why we as Christians worship on the first day of the week, on Sunday?
One of the reasons we worship on Sunday is because God began His work within this universe on the first day of the week. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… so the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:1, 5).
Another of the reasons we worship on Sunday is because the Resurrection, our hope, also happened on the first day of the week. (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1). Jesus Christ rose from the dead on this day, bringing eternal joy to us, and the hope that we will follow Him. As God began the original creation on the first day of the week, He also began the new creation on the first day of the week. It is the new beginning of humanity, and it is sometimes called the Eighth Day (the number of eternity), because for us it is our entrance into eternity.
The Pentecost, which we are celebrating today, was seven weeks after the Resurrection, making it a Sunday. This is the day that the Promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the likeness of tongues of fire. And the end of days began. As St. Peter the Apostle preached quoting Joel the Prophet, “‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams… And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved’” (Acts 2:17, 21). As such Pentecost then is the birthday of the Church, because all that was promised for the Church to start its mission was fulfilled.
The Apostles also from the beginning began to meet on Sunday for fellowship and this tradition carried on to the rest of the Church by the will of God, as St. Luke the Apostle records in the Acts emphatically, “On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).
Therefore let us as Christians following in the Holy Tradition of the Lord and His Apostles keep the first day of the week as the day we as the Body of Christ meet and have fellowship.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Has anyone ever wondered why we as Christians worship on the first day of the week, on Sunday?
One of the reasons we worship on Sunday is because God began His work within this universe on the first day of the week. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… so the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:1, 5).
Another of the reasons we worship on Sunday is because the Resurrection, our hope, also happened on the first day of the week. (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1). Jesus Christ rose from the dead on this day, bringing eternal joy to us, and the hope that we will follow Him. As God began the original creation on the first day of the week, He also began the new creation on the first day of the week. It is the new beginning of humanity, and it is sometimes called the Eighth Day (the number of eternity), because for us it is our entrance into eternity.
The Pentecost, which we are celebrating today, was seven weeks after the Resurrection, making it a Sunday. This is the day that the Promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the likeness of tongues of fire. And the end of days began. As St. Peter the Apostle preached quoting Joel the Prophet, “‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams… And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved’” (Acts 2:17, 21). As such Pentecost then is the birthday of the Church, because all that was promised for the Church to start its mission was fulfilled.
The Apostles also from the beginning began to meet on Sunday for fellowship and this tradition carried on to the rest of the Church by the will of God, as St. Luke the Apostle records in the Acts emphatically, “On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).
Therefore let us as Christians following in the Holy Tradition of the Lord and His Apostles keep the first day of the week as the day we as the Body of Christ meet and have fellowship.
Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
St. Patrick
We just had the feast day of St. Patrick the Bishop of Armagh and the Enlightener of Ireland, and it might be that not many people know the story of this saint, so I have decided to write a little about Patrick’s life based off his own work, The Confession.
St. Patrick was born in Britain to Calpurnius the deacon, and his grandfather, Potitus was a priest. At the age of sixteen, pirates captured Patrick and took him to Ireland where he became a slave. He had not really known the true meaning of Christianity and had not had a relationship with God when he was captured. One day as he was shepherding his sheep he came to believe. From that day on he began to pray long hours of the day and also in the night. He sat on mountains that were filled with snow and under freezing rain when he prayed.
One day, he heard of a ship going back to Britain, and he decided to board it. He ran away from his master whom he had served for six years. When Patrick arrived, the sailors didn’t want to take him. He turned aside and prayed, and when he came back they asked him to board the ship. After three days they arrived on land, but it was uninhabited. They kept wandering for twenty-eight days and ran out of food then they started asking Patrick that if his God was all powerful why he was leaving them to die. Patrick told them that if they believed, God would save them. He turned aside and prayed and then they received food and ate until they were filled. When they ran out of food the second time, it happened to be that they finally reached inhabited land.
Patrick went back to his family in Britain with his Christian faith. One day, as he was asleep, he received a vision: “And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: ‘The Voice of the Irish’; and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: ‘We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.’ And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke.” Now, God speaking to him to go preach to the Irish, Patrick became a Bishop and went back to Ireland.
Patrick is most famously known for using the Shamrock or the Three Leafed Clover to teach the Irish about the Trinity. The Shamrock, even though it has three leaves, has one stem and is one plant. Patrick, in his work the Confession, always gives glory to God the Trinity. In his icons, he is usually holding the Shamrock in his right hand. Here is something that Patrick wrote concerning evangelism, “According, therefore, to the measure of one’s faith in the Trinity, one should proceed without holding back from danger to make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation, to spread God’s name everywhere with confidence and without fear.”
Overall, Patrick is a good example of prayer, obedience, and evangelism. He prayed regularly and whenever he was in trouble, instead of just being discouraged. Even though he loved his home country of Britain and wanted to travel abroad to Gaul (France), he obeyed when God in a vision told him to go and preach to Ireland. This is a prayer that Patrick said that we should all share in and say, “I pray God that he gives me perseverance, and that he will deign that I should be a faithful witness for his sake right up to the time of my passing.” Let us learn from this saint’s example.
May his prayers be with us and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
St. Patrick was born in Britain to Calpurnius the deacon, and his grandfather, Potitus was a priest. At the age of sixteen, pirates captured Patrick and took him to Ireland where he became a slave. He had not really known the true meaning of Christianity and had not had a relationship with God when he was captured. One day as he was shepherding his sheep he came to believe. From that day on he began to pray long hours of the day and also in the night. He sat on mountains that were filled with snow and under freezing rain when he prayed.
One day, he heard of a ship going back to Britain, and he decided to board it. He ran away from his master whom he had served for six years. When Patrick arrived, the sailors didn’t want to take him. He turned aside and prayed, and when he came back they asked him to board the ship. After three days they arrived on land, but it was uninhabited. They kept wandering for twenty-eight days and ran out of food then they started asking Patrick that if his God was all powerful why he was leaving them to die. Patrick told them that if they believed, God would save them. He turned aside and prayed and then they received food and ate until they were filled. When they ran out of food the second time, it happened to be that they finally reached inhabited land.
Patrick went back to his family in Britain with his Christian faith. One day, as he was asleep, he received a vision: “And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: ‘The Voice of the Irish’; and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: ‘We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.’ And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke.” Now, God speaking to him to go preach to the Irish, Patrick became a Bishop and went back to Ireland.
Patrick is most famously known for using the Shamrock or the Three Leafed Clover to teach the Irish about the Trinity. The Shamrock, even though it has three leaves, has one stem and is one plant. Patrick, in his work the Confession, always gives glory to God the Trinity. In his icons, he is usually holding the Shamrock in his right hand. Here is something that Patrick wrote concerning evangelism, “According, therefore, to the measure of one’s faith in the Trinity, one should proceed without holding back from danger to make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation, to spread God’s name everywhere with confidence and without fear.”
Overall, Patrick is a good example of prayer, obedience, and evangelism. He prayed regularly and whenever he was in trouble, instead of just being discouraged. Even though he loved his home country of Britain and wanted to travel abroad to Gaul (France), he obeyed when God in a vision told him to go and preach to Ireland. This is a prayer that Patrick said that we should all share in and say, “I pray God that he gives me perseverance, and that he will deign that I should be a faithful witness for his sake right up to the time of my passing.” Let us learn from this saint’s example.
May his prayers be with us and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Olympics
Well, today’s article has been inspired by my watching the Olympics these past two weeks. I love the Olympics, it is thrilling just to watch these athletes compete in the various events and I look up to them as role models because I myself take interest in athletics. It has also been an interesting two weeks, A LOT of things have happened.
A few hours before the opening ceremony our Orthodox Christian brother Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia was killed after a practice run at the luge track where he reached a speed of almost 90 miles per hour and flew off the track hitting a steel post. The opening ceremonies of the XXI Winter Olympic Games were dedicated to his memory. The Georgian team wore black armbands and left a space for him in their march. The flags also flew at half staff with a minute of silence for him.
Also I don’t think I have seen as many crashes in the Olympics as I have in these games, practically all the events I have watched in these Olympics from Alpine Skiing to Speed Skating all have had big crashes.
And I have enjoyed watching my favorite Olympic athlete Apolo Anton Ohno speed skate in his third Olympics.
Anyway aside from the details of the games I wanted to write about the analogy of the athlete.
This analogy of the Christian being an athlete was used a few times in the Bible and I would like to expand on that.
First of all, athletes train, they don’t just sit around and expect to become Olympians. They train long and hard. So we too as Christians need to train ourselves through praying to God, reading the Bible, spiritual books, going to church, serving, showing love to others, controlling ourselves, and practicing the rest of the virtues.
When athletes train their bodies burn because of the acids secreted in their muscles. If you have ever tried to run a long time without stopping you know what I mean. But the athletes don’t give in to these feelings they keep going, they have a strong will and their will is stronger than the discomfort they feel in their bodies. We too have to have a strong will, especially in times like these when we are fasting. When we see, smell, or think of a hamburger, or chicken, or eggs, or whatever other type of food that is not permitted for fasting, we have to control ourselves and make our will stronger than our desires. And also not only in fasting but when an opportunity comes for us to sin, we don’t. We should be able to say no to these types of things when they come up in front of us to tempt us.
Training also increases endurance. This takes time, nobody can exercise one day and expect to become superman tomorrow. This process takes time, and sometimes a long time at that. Same with us, we can’t all of a sudden want to pray all the hours of the Book of Hours, memorize several psalms, finish the Bible quickly, and most importantly (and dangerously) want to instruct others in Christ. All this has to be done gradually. If we want to pray the Book of Hours, we should start praying one psalm in the beginning. If we want to memorize several psalms, how about we start with one verse. If we want to finish the Bible, how about we start by reading a couple of chapters at a time instead of an entire book. And if we want to instruct others in Christ, we should have spent a long time in the faith and in practicing virtues, so we can teach being both doers and hearers of the word (James 1:22). This is why patience is a virtue because we wait on God to work in us until we clearly see the end result, when we become likened to His Son Jesus Christ.
Training however, especially in the level of the Olympics, requires coaches. Coaches, firstly, are athletes themselves, and specifically to the sport they are coaching. So they know very well how the sport works, and most importantly they see things that you don’t. For example, figure skaters might be happy with their performance, but their coach might see that they land in an unsafe way so he advises them to do it another way. Even though it might be a little change in landing form for the figure skaters, it might be much more physically challenging on them. But if the skaters take the advice, they are safe now, and are perfected in their technique. Because of these qualities, coaches are able to guide their athletes to the highest of levels. For us our spiritual coaches are our Fathers of Confession. They see things we don’t, and they advise us on how to change (repentance), even though it might seem hard on us, it will perfect us in the end. This also requires humility to achieve, which the athletes have, because sometimes our Fathers of Confession might tell us things we don’t like or even want to hear, but if we are humble, we will see that what they are saying is true and we will obey.
Athletes also have a strict diet, so they can maintain their weight and maintain their performance ability. We should have a strict diet both with physical eating and with spiritual food. Physically eating too much is a sin in itself (or having a strong uncontrollable desire for food), gluttony. Even if one is thin, and doesn’t gain weight after eating too much, this is still gluttony. Fasting helps us exercise control over gluttony, and if one breaks a fast (unless they have a reason pertaining to health or another reason absolved by the Father of Confession), this is gluttony, even if it’s one small piece of food, because one’s desire for food was stronger than the desire to fast and spend time with God. With spiritual food we have to take in as much as helps and this differs between believers, not all believers are on the same spiritual level of progression. Maybe when we read the Bible we read an entire book at a time, but do so once in a long time. But one who reads three chapters a day from the Bible everyday for a year will finish the Bible in one year. It’s like the story of the Hare and the Turtle. The hare got into a race with the turtle, which is a very slow animal, and to show off the hare used to run much farther ahead of the turtle then rest for a while, but the turtle had patience and never stopped moving until the hare lost focus after his many runs and rests and the turtle won. So we should have a spiritual diet where we are constantly growing and becoming stronger.
The final point, and the one that I think to be most important, is that the athletes know themselves. They know who they are, their sport, their abilities, their weaknesses, their strategies, routines, and their goals. We too have to know ourselves, if we don’t we can’t continue in the faith. We must know our abilities so we can know how to serve God and the Church. We must know our weaknesses so we don’t do something that tempts us or causes us to fall into sin. We must know God, the Bible, our Church and goals, otherwise we will be easily shaken. We must know how to grow, going back to the patience and temperance. As St. Paul says, “Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Therefore we should learn from the analogy of the athletes and start during this Holy Fast to spend more time with God, and we should do everything as our Church prescribes, because the Church is our Mother and She brings us to Christ. So let us be athletes: “If anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules” (2 Timothy 2:5).
And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Monday, February 8, 2010
The Great Lent
The Great Lent is the holiest time of year, and also the longest fasting period of the Church. We should then make the season holy by devoting whatever time we can to God, through prayer of course, almsgiving, and service to Him.
St. Athanasius called the Great Lent, “The Holy Season,” and again it is a period full from start to finish with fasting. We should consecrate the fast, as we should for other fasts, for something we need or would like to do in our spiritual life. If we need to pray more often, let’s consecrate the fast to pray more often; if we need to read the Bible more often, let’s consecrate the fast to read the Bible more often.
In the Bible sacrificial worship is described in three contexts; Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.In the Great Lent, these are meant to be united, not only in our spiritual life at once, but also by the Church altogether so our will would be one.
When Bishop Serapion was at St. Demiana Coptic Orthodox Church, on the eve of the beginning of Jonah’s Fast in 2008, he said something that started to make the church think about the way we organize things. He said, “In the Old Testament they had the Law, (and they obeyed it), and in the New Testament we have the organization, so let us be of one mind and all of us would fast together from the beginning of the Great Lent.”
In the Early Church, in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, it said of the Church, “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” -Acts 2:44-47
So we should be of one accord during the Great Lent, and if we work we should give, because if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t receive anything. So we should have all things in common, most importantly our accord (our oneness in mind). Just as our examples, the Apostles and the early Christians were.
Finally we should consecrate this time to God, and the only way to do that is through prayer, because it is only through prayer that we speak to God. Although don’t get it confused as to what prayer is, prayer is not just one activity, it is a variety. The degree of prayer that most people are familiar with is when you say “Our Father,” or recite Psalms, or to ask God for something, but prayer really covers much more than that. Prayer is a life, and if you make your life with God, your life is a prayer life. You can pray by reading the Bible, you can pray by doing what your supposed to do as the Book of Sirach speaks of those who hold various jobs, says, “And their prayer is in the practice of their craft.” –Wisdom of Sirach 38:34. You can pray by singing hymns and spiritual songs, you can pray by reading spiritual books. There is more to prayer, but I won’t get into that now. But keep your thoughts lifted up, as it said in the liturgy, “We have them [our hearts] with the Lord.” St. Ephraim the Syrian said, “Virtues are formed by prayer,” and St. Isaac the Syrian said, “Prayer is superior to all other virtues.” And as Solomon says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come.” -Ecclesiastes 12:1
So let us set aside all our excuses (because there can be no excuse when talking to the Creator) and remember our Creator and make Him the focus of our lives. We might complain because of certain things, but remember, you wouldn’t even be here to complain about those things if he hadn’t given us the gift of life.
So let us make Him our focus, and pray.
And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
St. Athanasius called the Great Lent, “The Holy Season,” and again it is a period full from start to finish with fasting. We should consecrate the fast, as we should for other fasts, for something we need or would like to do in our spiritual life. If we need to pray more often, let’s consecrate the fast to pray more often; if we need to read the Bible more often, let’s consecrate the fast to read the Bible more often.
In the Bible sacrificial worship is described in three contexts; Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.In the Great Lent, these are meant to be united, not only in our spiritual life at once, but also by the Church altogether so our will would be one.
When Bishop Serapion was at St. Demiana Coptic Orthodox Church, on the eve of the beginning of Jonah’s Fast in 2008, he said something that started to make the church think about the way we organize things. He said, “In the Old Testament they had the Law, (and they obeyed it), and in the New Testament we have the organization, so let us be of one mind and all of us would fast together from the beginning of the Great Lent.”
In the Early Church, in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, it said of the Church, “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” -Acts 2:44-47
So we should be of one accord during the Great Lent, and if we work we should give, because if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t receive anything. So we should have all things in common, most importantly our accord (our oneness in mind). Just as our examples, the Apostles and the early Christians were.
Finally we should consecrate this time to God, and the only way to do that is through prayer, because it is only through prayer that we speak to God. Although don’t get it confused as to what prayer is, prayer is not just one activity, it is a variety. The degree of prayer that most people are familiar with is when you say “Our Father,” or recite Psalms, or to ask God for something, but prayer really covers much more than that. Prayer is a life, and if you make your life with God, your life is a prayer life. You can pray by reading the Bible, you can pray by doing what your supposed to do as the Book of Sirach speaks of those who hold various jobs, says, “And their prayer is in the practice of their craft.” –Wisdom of Sirach 38:34. You can pray by singing hymns and spiritual songs, you can pray by reading spiritual books. There is more to prayer, but I won’t get into that now. But keep your thoughts lifted up, as it said in the liturgy, “We have them [our hearts] with the Lord.” St. Ephraim the Syrian said, “Virtues are formed by prayer,” and St. Isaac the Syrian said, “Prayer is superior to all other virtues.” And as Solomon says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come.” -Ecclesiastes 12:1
So let us set aside all our excuses (because there can be no excuse when talking to the Creator) and remember our Creator and make Him the focus of our lives. We might complain because of certain things, but remember, you wouldn’t even be here to complain about those things if he hadn’t given us the gift of life.
So let us make Him our focus, and pray.
And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Martyrdom
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” -Tertullian the Scholar
Zakaria Toma, Mina Helmy Said, Bishoy Farid Labib, Boula Atef, Ayman Zakaria Hanna, and Abanoub Kamal.
Martyrdom is the highest form of love one can offer to God. This is so because, the Savior Himself says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:13-14).
Life is the most precious thing that we have, and if we give that to God as an offering for witness (“martyr” is a Greek word meaning “witness”), then we have given God the most precious thing we could have given.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His Humanity, was a Martyr, because He gave His life to God for us, His friends. As He said, “Greater love has no than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” and we are His friends. So if we lay down our lives for Him, then we have shown the greatest love. We believe that martyrs are the closest people to God in the Kingdom of Heaven, because they have given the greatest love.
St. Clement of Alexandria clarified, "We call martyrdom perfection, not because the man comes to the end of his life as others, but because he has exhibited the perfect work of love."
Martyrdom also likens us more to Our Lord Jesus Christ because He Himself was martyred, and He referred to this as a baptism. He said to His disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Mark 10:38). And also, “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). This baptism, as it is referred to in the writings of the Church Father is called the Baptism of Blood. Even if there was a catechumen who was not baptized and died as a martyr, this baptism saved them, and they went to Heaven.
The Martyrs hold a very high place in the Church, they are venerated as the greatest of Saints. Martyrdom is something that has been there since the beginning of the Church, in fact the Church began with a Martyrdom, that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, when water and blood ran from His side at the same time (John 19:34-35). This is why Tertullian made the observation that, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” His observation is also an observation of a paradox; that when Christians are killed for their faith, Christianity grows, not decreases.
St. Augustine records the situation at his time, and this situation is still the same in the Orthodox Church, “Now, who hasn't heard of martyrs, or in what Christian mouth does the word "martyrs" not daily dwell? (And would that it might also dwell in our hearts such that we may imitate the martyrs' sufferings and not trample them underfoot!)”
Eleven out of the Twelve Apostles died as martyrs to show us this example because Christianity is not ideas, but it is a life, and these martyrs show us that this life can be lived. One example after the Apostles is St. Cyprian of Carthage who used to write a lot in praise of the martyrs, he himself was martyred, and here is one account of his martyrdom,
“The proconsul Galerius Maximus ordered Cyprian to be brought to him…
Galerius: Are you Thascius Cyprianus?
Cyprian: I am.
Galerius: Do you appear as the pope of these impious men? [The word ‘pope’ was used of all bishops down to the fifth century. It means ‘father’]
Cyprian: I do.
Galerius: The most sacred emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites.
Cyprian: I refuse.
Galerius: Take heed of yourself.
Cyprian: Do as you are bid; in so clear a case I may not take heed.
Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial council, with much reluctance pronounced the following sentence: ‘You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the most pious, most sacred and august Emperors, Valerian and Gallienus, and the most noble Caesar Valerian, have endeavored in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; - whereas, therefore, you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you; the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood.’ He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet: ‘It is the sentence of this court that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword.’
Cyprian: Thanks be to God.”
Christians are martyred because of persecution, and persecutions happen because people hate the Truth and don’t want to change. Even in this country there is a saying that is said many times, and all of us have heard it at least once, it is, “You can’t handle the truth.”
Martyrdom is not something of the past, it is still occurring, and a very recent example of this is what happened in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, on January 7, 2010 (Coptic Orthodox Christmas). The names mentioned in the beginning of this article are the names of the martyrs of Nag Hammadi. What happened was, it was Christmas Eve in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, and the Bishop of Nag Hammadi, Bishop Kyrillos, received threats that a group of Muslims were going to attempt something against him and his church. So he let the service out two hours earlier than usual for Christmas, between 10:00 to 10:30. A group of youth as they were exiting the church, were gunned down by three Muslims with machine guns. These six were martyred and others were injured.
A group of youth martyred, because of openly practicing their faith and confessing Christ.
What an example!
“Can the lover of the martyrs ever have enough of their memory?” -St. Basil
May their prayers and their holy blessing be with us all and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
Zakaria Toma, Mina Helmy Said, Bishoy Farid Labib, Boula Atef, Ayman Zakaria Hanna, and Abanoub Kamal.
Martyrdom is the highest form of love one can offer to God. This is so because, the Savior Himself says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:13-14).
Life is the most precious thing that we have, and if we give that to God as an offering for witness (“martyr” is a Greek word meaning “witness”), then we have given God the most precious thing we could have given.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His Humanity, was a Martyr, because He gave His life to God for us, His friends. As He said, “Greater love has no than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” and we are His friends. So if we lay down our lives for Him, then we have shown the greatest love. We believe that martyrs are the closest people to God in the Kingdom of Heaven, because they have given the greatest love.
St. Clement of Alexandria clarified, "We call martyrdom perfection, not because the man comes to the end of his life as others, but because he has exhibited the perfect work of love."
Martyrdom also likens us more to Our Lord Jesus Christ because He Himself was martyred, and He referred to this as a baptism. He said to His disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Mark 10:38). And also, “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). This baptism, as it is referred to in the writings of the Church Father is called the Baptism of Blood. Even if there was a catechumen who was not baptized and died as a martyr, this baptism saved them, and they went to Heaven.
The Martyrs hold a very high place in the Church, they are venerated as the greatest of Saints. Martyrdom is something that has been there since the beginning of the Church, in fact the Church began with a Martyrdom, that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, when water and blood ran from His side at the same time (John 19:34-35). This is why Tertullian made the observation that, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” His observation is also an observation of a paradox; that when Christians are killed for their faith, Christianity grows, not decreases.
St. Augustine records the situation at his time, and this situation is still the same in the Orthodox Church, “Now, who hasn't heard of martyrs, or in what Christian mouth does the word "martyrs" not daily dwell? (And would that it might also dwell in our hearts such that we may imitate the martyrs' sufferings and not trample them underfoot!)”
Eleven out of the Twelve Apostles died as martyrs to show us this example because Christianity is not ideas, but it is a life, and these martyrs show us that this life can be lived. One example after the Apostles is St. Cyprian of Carthage who used to write a lot in praise of the martyrs, he himself was martyred, and here is one account of his martyrdom,
“The proconsul Galerius Maximus ordered Cyprian to be brought to him…
Galerius: Are you Thascius Cyprianus?
Cyprian: I am.
Galerius: Do you appear as the pope of these impious men? [The word ‘pope’ was used of all bishops down to the fifth century. It means ‘father’]
Cyprian: I do.
Galerius: The most sacred emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites.
Cyprian: I refuse.
Galerius: Take heed of yourself.
Cyprian: Do as you are bid; in so clear a case I may not take heed.
Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial council, with much reluctance pronounced the following sentence: ‘You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the most pious, most sacred and august Emperors, Valerian and Gallienus, and the most noble Caesar Valerian, have endeavored in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; - whereas, therefore, you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you; the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood.’ He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet: ‘It is the sentence of this court that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword.’
Cyprian: Thanks be to God.”
Christians are martyred because of persecution, and persecutions happen because people hate the Truth and don’t want to change. Even in this country there is a saying that is said many times, and all of us have heard it at least once, it is, “You can’t handle the truth.”
Martyrdom is not something of the past, it is still occurring, and a very recent example of this is what happened in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, on January 7, 2010 (Coptic Orthodox Christmas). The names mentioned in the beginning of this article are the names of the martyrs of Nag Hammadi. What happened was, it was Christmas Eve in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, and the Bishop of Nag Hammadi, Bishop Kyrillos, received threats that a group of Muslims were going to attempt something against him and his church. So he let the service out two hours earlier than usual for Christmas, between 10:00 to 10:30. A group of youth as they were exiting the church, were gunned down by three Muslims with machine guns. These six were martyred and others were injured.
A group of youth martyred, because of openly practicing their faith and confessing Christ.
What an example!
“Can the lover of the martyrs ever have enough of their memory?” -St. Basil
May their prayers and their holy blessing be with us all and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
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