The Simple Things Have More Effect

This is a short meditation on what types of things affect both our spiritual lives and others, as well as to show part of the nature of Christian love (agape).

I was sitting on a beach in San Diego, on the night of January 16. I was on a retreat with my church and our priest gave a short talk. Among the topics he touched upon was this.

He said in order to live the Christian life, easy, little things have to be done like taking out the trash, washing the dishes, even smiling.

It makes us think how much it will witness to Christ, as well as to open up others to ask about Him, if we do these simple things. For example if someone is having a bad day and a person smiles to him or her, that person might be uplifted and encouraged for the rest of the day. It might even be that this person is waiting for you specifically to smile to him or her. These are the sort of simple things that bear witness to Christ and His love.

Other things like being a help to others will show this character, like working tirelessly.

Sometimes it is the manner of speech, movement, and behavior that will bear witness to Christ. We always have to remember that we are representing Him to those who are not of the Church as St. Paul says, “we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). If people see that we cuss all the time, we treat people with contempt, we ignore others for a dumb reason, and behave essentially no different from anybody else, how is then that people can see a difference in us, the difference that comes from Christ? We are the children of the King, and the children of the King don’t live like the rest of the world, there is a distinction between them and the rest of the people. This distinction, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John where he says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

This distinction will separate us from the world, because the world does not know God, and without knowing God, love (agape) is not realized. This is so because agape is unconditional love, but the world has only tribal love or friendship love. They will not necessarily go help someone who is a stranger to them, and they will not seek justice for all, but only for their relatives or friends, even if they are not just. It is the Christian who looks at humanity as all equal whether they be his family, friends, or even the innocent person who he does not know. So impartiality is part of Christian love.

This last part about impartiality is part of Christian love reminds us to show love to everyone and to love only requires the simple things. Don’t think of getting big gifts or taking great trips, the simple, little things here and now will have more effect overall than those big things and will be remembered by those who receive it.

So remember smile, say hi, greet a person, take out the trash, wash the dishes, and do all similar “little things,” and you will live in the way Christ showed us and commanded us.

Thank God for them.

Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.

Simplicity

"The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me." -Psalm 116:6

Without simplicity of heart faith is nearly impossible, and without faith everything else that is Christian is impossible.

Faith is essentially simple because through faith we know that God is and what he wants us to do and how to live in the beauty of God.

We don't need anything else if we have faith, just as we don't need to do any more things than to eat, drink, and breathe to live. So this is the same with the Christian life.

Expanding on the above, it is like when we go to biology class and start learning HOW the body works and HOW it converts food into energy or HOW it maintains itself. These things are interesting but we don't NEED to know them to live, because living itself is way beyond understanding how the body works. So the same is with our faith, even though the Church Fathers wrote many things about God, what they wrote is not LIVING the faith. What is essential to our faith is praying and living in the way Jesus showed us. The rest is the how, not the Way.

Jesus referred to the Kingdom of Heaven of being like the little children that were coming to him, and no doubt little children are simple, therefore we have to be simple in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now simplicity does not cause trouble between friends, it doesn't hold grudges for a long time, and is quick to forgive.

A simple person might be bothered by something someone said to him, but after a while, whether shorter or longer, they forgive the person who bothered them and are reconciled with him or her.

Simplicity also doesn't judge. It's only through complication and loss of simplicity that people start changing and entering into sin. Loss of simplicity leads to gossip, judging, malice, lying, hatred, shamefulness, disobedience to parents, hurting others around you, and the rest of the sins.

The Ten Commandments if contemplated upon can be seen to be simple in nature.

In Commandments I-IV, a simple person knows who his God is, and worships Him in Spirit and Truth.

In Commandments V-VIII and X, a simple person is content with life, so he or she doesn't want to disobey parents for anything else's sake, nor to murder, nor to steal, because nothing can be gained with these; with these only loss can come.

In Commandment IX, a simple person loves all unconditionally, not some more than others, this is why one won't bear false witness.

Therefore simplicity's nature causes one to live in virtue. If one tries to lead a complex life, it is hard to live in the Christian way. Simplicity of heart is essential in Christianity because through it faith, hope, love and the rest of the virtues come.

Live in simplicity.

May the grace of Jesus Christ be with us all, and glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.

Faith

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith is the gateway to Christianity.

Faith is the first step in the Christian life.

We do not need to know every single detail to believe (as St. Augustine said, “I believe in order to know”), but to trust.

Trust and faith go together.

An analogy would be if I were to tell people about myself and my life story. They would believe me first and through believing then they would know. The reason they would believe is because they trust me therefore faith and trust go together. They are almost inseparable.

Patience and faith go together.

To keep the faith that we start in we must have patience. Patience when something troubles us in the faith, and we wait for an answer from God. The virtues of the Christian way are like a network; when you grow in one virtue, the others grow as well. Faith and patience go together, because without other virtues growing, faith won’t grow as well.

Humility and faith go together.

In Hebrews 11:1, St. Paul the Apostle says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Substance in Greek (as well as Latin from where we get our English word), means “standing under.” Therefore in order for us to have true faith we must be humble, not focusing on ourselves but on God our hope. We have to submit to God and to our spiritual fathers if we are to continue in the faith of Jesus Christ.

Finally we have to be simple to have faith. There were many great theologians in the past, as well as in the present, who were very studious and they were great apologists and wrote so many things about the Christian way. They studied a lot of theology, a lot of history, a lot of languages, and a lot of many other subjects, yet in the end they came to the realization that ultimately the faith is simple. Also if we are to be worshippers of God in spirit and truth, we have to be simple, as Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Children are simple and believe, therefore we have to be the same according to the words of our Lord Jesus.

Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.

Utopia

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Auld Lang Syne

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun.” -Ecclesiastes 1:9

Well, today is December 31, 2009, and it’s that time of year of again, New Year’s Eve. At this time of year it’s always good to reflect about the entire year and what we did in it.

As for me, it just makes me think that one year ago I was on a retreat with the youth in my diocese, and we were coming back to Pomona in the mid afternoon, then I was going to take a bus back home, which is very far from Pomona, and the busses ended up being full so I became stranded in Pomona. However, back at the church where we arrived there were many activities going on and a midnight liturgy, so glory be to God, I had a place to stay and it was an excellent way to start the New Year. I remember many choir groups went up and presented, and we sung Christian songs, and then the senior priest of the church led us in a heartfelt prayer starting a few minutes before midnight until about midnight, then I saw the date turn on my cell phone from December 31, 2008, to January 1, 2009. I liked seeing the number 2008, it was the year that I graduated from high school, but everything has its time, and we must use time wisely because we can never get it back. So we ended 2008 in prayer and started 2009 in prayer, and it was quite an event at the church, some churches aren’t even as packed on Easter as that church was on New Year’s.

Now comes the time for reviewing what actually went on in 2009. The first six months of 2009 were relatively peaceful, at least to me, and quiet, which is the ideal of the Christian life. Not many things went on there was just a good opportunity to focus on the Lord. But the last six months were horrible and it made me think about many of the problems in the world such as the recession in this country. All the problems we have in the world, especially this country, are because of a lack of virtue, specifically love towards God and towards people. The funniest thing I hear in this world is that people want peace and all the Christian virtues, but without Christ Himself. To want virtue without the One who made it is like wanting a light bulb to light up without electricity; it’s not going to happen. In order to have virtues like peace and love, we must know Jesus, otherwise, don’t expect to get the virtues. The recession in this country came as a result of people not really knowing Jesus and loving God, but by loving money. Greed is what caused this recession, greed on all parts, from many of the buyers and sellers of houses, to the CEO’s of big corporations, and banks lending people on interest only loans which is essentially gambling. These are just a few to name who are behind the problem, there are many, many more. But the fact that greed is one of the seven deadly sins has become fully realized to us in this past year.

What’s going on now reminds me of what Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:9-12). And this exactly is what’s going on, the world hates us Christians, for no reason, even though it’s because of Christ, and Christians doing what He commanded, that we live the way we live today, in civilization. And the biggest problem in this country is that people fear each other with pathological fear, this is why many “will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.” So many people in this country have a weekly cycle of sin, go to work, cuss, gossip, complain, go home do it ten times more than at work because they feared those at work, get off on Friday and drink and do drugs, then on Saturday night party, and so on. Many people in this country don’t naturally love other human beings as they should, there is hatred and malice, the world is becoming a very dark place to live in, even in our own homes, this is what is meant when our Lord Jesus Christ said, “And because lawlessness [sin] will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Essentially, most people in this country don’t love one other, they only think “what will I get out of it,” which is selfishness, before doing any act appearing to be of love. This is why the number of spouses divorcing each other has become so high, the common statistic I have heard is 51%, but I have heard studies that suggest it might have climbed to 66%. Truly the world has become a much darker place and people are still playing in their sins, instead of repenting and turning to God.

But our Lord and Savior tells us right after, “But he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13), and He also tells us, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus Christ is our Hope, and in Him we are complete, without Him we are like a body without a head, we are useless that is, and can’t do anything.

Let us start following Him sincerely starting next year, or I should say tomorrow, and not even tomorrow, let us start following Him today, now, from this moment on. As St. Ignatius said, “It is fitting, then, not only to be called Christians, but to be Christians.” If we do what this saying says, many of the troubles that we are in will end, and we will start preserving the creation of God, as is our responsibility, and we will bring many to Christ. Let us not be Christians by name, but by truth, faith, and deed.

Please Lord Jesus Christ, the afflictions of our hearts have been widened, bring us out of all our distresses.

So let us have our Joy and Peace restored to us in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Joy and Peace. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

And glory be to our God and Savior both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.

Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas of Myra)

“And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” -Acts 20:35

The name Santa Claus is French for Saint (Santa) Nicholas (Claus actually being a modification of the last six letters of his name). The name Nicholas itself is Greek and it means “The Victory of the People.”

St. Nicholas of Myra was born in the latter half of the 3rd Century A.D. in Patara, Lycia (in what is today Turkey) to Theophanes and Nona, wealthy parents. He was the result of prayers by his parents to have a child because they were formerly barren. From his youth he had been educated in the Scriptures.

As time went on he entered a monastery and became a monk, and he had a vision that he would be ordained a bishop. In this vision he saw the Lord Jesus appear holding the Gospel adorned with jewels and St. Mary with the bishop’s vestments; this is one of the reasons that in his icon Jesus and Mary are portrayed this way. He became the bishop of the city of Myra.

St. Nicholas is known for his gift of giving, and one story of such giving is recorded among us. There was a rich man in the city of Myra who had three daughters and lost all his wealth. He thought to himself that there wasn’t going to be any way to get his daughters married so he was set on selling them as prostitutes to make money. God revealed to St. Nicholas what the man was thinking so he went by the window of the man’s house at night and threw a sack filled with gold and the man was able to give his first daughter in marriage. Then Nicholas repeated this again and the second daughter also got married. The man wanted to know who was doing these acts of kindness and charity for them so he was watching by the window and when the sack came in he went out immediately and found Nicholas. He thanked him for doing this because he brought the family out of poverty and prevented a life of sin from them. Nicholas told the man to give thanks to God, not to him.

St. Nicholas also saved three people from being unjustly executed. These three were unjustly condemned because the governor had been bribed. Nicholas went up courageously as they were about to be executed and held the sword from the executioners hand, he then rebuked the governor for dealing with them in that manner and the governor repented.

He was also present at the First Ecumenical Council which was held in Nicea in 325 A.D. He was arguing with Arius about the Lord Jesus Christ and His divinity and he wasn’t able to stop Arius in his words so he struck him in the face. Now when the bishops heard about this they defrocked (took off his bishop’s vestments and he no longer remained a bishop) him because this act is unacceptable for Christians even if the person is a heretic because the Lord taught us otherwise, and banned him from the rest of the Council of Nicea. Yet later that night, as they were asleep, many of the bishops saw the Lord holding a Gospel and St. Mary holding Nicholas bishop’s vestments and the Lord put it on Nicholas. This is the second reason Jesus and Mary are portrayed specifically over his right and left shoulders in the icon. After this the bishops returned Nicholas to the rank of Bishop and his vestments and knew that what Nicholas had done was not an act of wrath but of zeal for the Lord.

St. Nicholas also worked wonders among the people and he lived to be 80 years old.

Let us remember the real Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) during this month and imitate his virtues. Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.

Being Social

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” -John 13:34

Today it is so easy to be in contact with people than ever before. We can literally pick up the phone or go to the computer and talk to people who might be halfway across the world.

Being social is one of the greatest blessings, but can also be one of the greatest curses.

Sociality is a gift from God. God expressly saw that all His Creation was good except for one thing, that the human being was alone: “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” (Genesis 2:18). So God made Eve for Adam, another human being, for him, comparable to him. And Adam responded by saying, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23). This is the holiest relationship; the Sacrament of Matrimony. It is the first human relationship, instituted by God and from it all other relationships come. We wouldn’t have brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, and all other relationships if it wasn’t for the Sacrament of Matrimony; the union of one man and one woman in Christ.

The first blessing of being social is that we grow strong in our faith. God did not give the revelation of Himself to one person at one time, but always to more than one. The Church was not born with only one person in it, but more than 120 believers (without the others who had believed in Jesus through His ministry) were gathered on the Day of Pentecost when the Promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. And through the Church we receive our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

When Jesus was asked as to what the greatest commandment was in the Old Testament, “Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these’” (Mark 12:29-31) and “‘On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matthew 22:40). It is interesting that Jesus says that loving one’s neighbor is like loving God. How can this be? God is infinite by nature and humans aren’t. How can they be compared? This is because unless one loves his neighbor (others) he cannot love God, because we can know that we love God only when we keep His commandments. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments … whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:3, 5). God created us, humans, and His plan for how we should deal with each other is in love. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). So unless we love one another as Jesus commanded us, we have no hope of ever being with God. These are some of the blessings of being social.

Now some of the curses of being social are hatred, gossip, malice, arrogance, envy and so on. People who have these problems exist even in the Church itself. And the curses are magnified when we deal with these people. These above characteristics have no part in love, and therefore cut themselves away from God, and those who live in these also cut themselves away from God.

It is easy to see gossip in any church, but where in gossip is it love to make fun of people and talk bad about them behind their backs for that sake only. Why do you talk about them badly? Don’t you also have the same problems? And if not the same, you have other problems that they can talk about and you won’t be happy when you find out that they are?

Malice is also common, which is tightly interconnected with hatred. When people bother you or hurt your feelings because they want to make themselves feel good.

And arrogance when we start to lose sight of our goal which is God Himself and our goal is now to do more than other people and we are puffed up and we think we are better than other people because we read the Bible more often than they do, or fast longer hours, or even fast at all, and do other spiritual activities. These activities then lose all their purpose and meaning because we have separated them from God and have now made them a means for our own gain. St. Augustine said, “Pride extinguishes love; consequently humility strengthens love; love extinguishes offenses.”

These above mentioned qualities are all very interconnected and result either from hatred or selfishness. Either way they are the result of putting aside the love of God from our hearts and putting the love of our self there instead.

Let us pray that God would grant us the greatest gift, love, and that we would live in it. And glory be to God both now and ever. Amen.

Thanksgiving

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” -1 Chronicles 16:34

Today our country celebrates the holiday of Thanksgiving. Its origins lie in the early Christian settlers coming to this continent hundreds of years ago. We portrayed it every year in elementary school by dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians so that the story would always be fixed in our heads. We should take this holiday as an opportunity for thanking God for all that He has done.

In Church, for any liturgical gathering, we always begin with the Thanksgiving Prayer which starts off with, “Let us give thanks to the Beneficent and Merciful God.” And why is it that we give thanks to the Lord, because He has “covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto Him, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour.” But we are supposed to also thank Him, “for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition” for these very same reasons and we must always remember that He gave us our life, both physical and spiritual, the greatest gift. So why is it that because of one or two things we shouldn’t thank him for the rest of the innumerable things he has done for us. We should thank Him for everything and every condition.

Thanksgiving glorifies God and causes us to come closer to Him. In this sense it is also a witness to God, because when people see that we actually live by what we preach it receives much more magnification and realization than just preaching principles. Thanksgiving should therefore also be an act of love. It should be a very high expression of that love, showing God that we appreciate what He is doing and that we are humbled by these experiences. As it is written that if it, “have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Love is “that which is perfect” (1 Corinthians 13:10), and we must never forget that.

The Greek word for thanksgiving as used in the Bible is “eucharistos.” This then points us back to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is called so because before Jesus broke the bread and gave it to His disciples as His Body and gave them the cup of wine as His Blood giving the New Covenant, it says He gave thanks. Jesus giving Himself for us on the Cross and the Sacrament is our ultimate Thanksgiving that He has been merciful to us in His goodness as to give us eternal life and fellowship with Him, which is why in the Church’s hymns we say the verse, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:34) so often.

So let us be like St. Paul and say with such conviction, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Happy Thanksgiving and Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.

St. Ignatius of Antioch

“Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” -Mark 9:36-37

St. Ignatius of Antioch is one of the earliest Church Fathers that we have, having been born around 30 A.D. and martyred 107 A.D. There is a tradition that says that when Jesus was talking about the toddlers and they were coming to him, that St. Ignatius was one of them.

He was ordained as Bishop of Antioch by St. Peter the Apostle and he was very zealous for the Lord. This led him to be called Theophorus (God-Bearer).

He was arrested by the Romans because of his faith and was led to Rome to be martyred. On his way to Rome he stopped in Smyrna and strengthened the Christians there. He also wrote seven epistles, several of them from Smyrna and a couple from Troas. These sevens letters are the letters to the churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, Smyrna, and to Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna. These letters were treasured as soon as they were written because St. Polycarp himself started collecting them right after they were written. These letters are still available in their original Greek today and have been translated into English.

St. Ignatius wanted to be martyred to the degree that he wrote to the Roman Christians in advance not to do anything to prevent it. He finally arrived in Rome after passing through Asia Minor and met with the Christians there. He was led into the arena, probably the Colosseum, and thrown to the lions who ripped him up and made his martyrdom complete. After he was martyred, he appeared to many Roman Christians to comfort them.

He is one of the Apostolic Fathers, which are the earliest group of Christians writing after the New Testament. His seven letters are included and are very deep for spiritual instruction. I have included a few of his sayings below for your benefit.


“Love is the way leading up to God.” -Epistle to the Ephesians 9

“It is fitting, then, not only to be called Christians, but to be Christians.” –Epistle to the Magnesians 4

“Study, therefore, to be established in the precepts of the Lord and the apostles that so all things, whatsoever you do, may prosper both in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son and the Father, and in the Spirit.” –Epistle to the Magnesians 13

“Do not be deceived, my brethren. If any man follows him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If anyone walks according to a strange opinion, he agrees not with the passion.” -Epistle to the Philadelphians 3

“I endure everything because He Himself, who is the perfect Human, strengthens me.” –Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 4

“Let not a high place puff anyone up: for that which is worth all is faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred.” –Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 6

“Flee from divisions as the beginning of evils.” –Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 8

“Stand firm, as does an anvil which is beaten. It is the part of a noble athlete to be wounded, and yet to conquer.” –Epistle to Polycarp 3

Holy Youth: St. Joseph the Righteous

“You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” -Genesis 50:20

St. Joseph the Righteous, as he is called in the Orthodox Church, is one of the earliest examples of Holy Youth, if not the earliest mentioned in the Bible.

Joseph is a great example of how God can use youth to do extraordinary things. We see this in that he was granted the gift of prophecy at the age of 17 when he had the dreams of the 11 sheaves bowing down to his, and also the dream of the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars bowing down to him. Also he had the gift of interpreting dreams, which he used when he interpreted the dreams of the butler, the baker, and Pharaoh. But we are focusing on his virtues.

The first of Joseph’s virtues that we see is his obedience, specifically his obedience to his father. “And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come I will send you to them.’ So he said to him, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said to him, ‘Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.’ So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem” (Genesis 37:13-14). This obedience was very strong because what Jacob asked Joseph to do was not easy; it required a lot of walking, miles, and walking alone too. But Joseph answered, “Here I am.”

We also see that God was with him. In Genesis 39, when Joseph began his service to Potiphar, to whom he was sold, it says that “The Lord was with Joseph” or “with him,” four times. This brings us to a very important subject in Christianity which is synergy. Synergy is derived from a Greek word which means “working with.” Synergy in Christianity means working with God. This is as simple as it gets, without God we can do nothing! Jesus confirmed this when he told His disciples the night before He was crucified, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; FOR WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING” (John 15:4-5). In order to get to this level where God will work with us we must devote as much time as we can to prayer. Prayer that thanks and glorifies God, deep prayer in which God starts to reveal Himself to us and we see His works in the Creation more and more clearly, where we contemplate the wonderful things He has done, from the Creation itself, to virtue, to all the works of the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Incarnation to the Ascension.

Joseph had a very strong relationship with God and this is what caused the Lord to be with him. We see the words prosper or success come when it says “the Lord was with Joseph.” This comes before even the first psalm was written which says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly… but his will is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by streams of water that produces its fruit in its season, and his leaf shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper” (Psalm 1). This strong relationship Joseph had with God caused God to work with him (synergy), and this is what led to the rest of his virtues. Pope Shenouda III talks about synergy in his book Holy Zeal, talking about partnership with God, “Another example is that of an electric light and an electric current. You can find electric lights which are very beautiful, very powerful and of quite an exquisite type, which emit a light that gives people great joy to see. But in actual fact, such lights can only give light as long as they are connected to an electric current. If they are cut off from the electricity supply then they cease to work; their usefulness, beauty and attractive shape are worth nothing. So too will all your zeal be in vain if you are far away from God, who is the source of power.”

Joseph was also trustworthy. We see that Potiphar made Joseph the overseer of his house and everything in it because he “saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority” (Genesis 39:3-4). Even the unbeliever saw God working in Joseph, and because of this he exalted him to the position of overseer. We also see that “the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake” (Genesis 39:5). Synergy causes us to be filled with God’s Spirit as Christians and through this God’s power rests on everything we are entrusted with. Joseph’s trustworthiness also caused the keeper of the prison to have Joseph oversee the prison, and not just any prison, the prison of Pharaoh’s prisoners, “But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper” (Genesis 39:21-23).

This trustworthiness leads to faith in a person, and this faith will lead those who deal with us to believe in God because they will see us reflecting God who is the Most Trustworthy. It even led Pharaoh to commit all Egypt into Joseph’s hands and he confessed Joseph’s God saying, “And Pharaoh said to his servants, ‘Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?’ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.’ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.’ Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him, ‘Bow the knee!’ So he set him over all the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:38-43).

Joseph was also humble. When the butler and the baker asked Joseph if he was able to interpret their dreams he answered, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Genesis 40:8) And also when Pharaoh told Joseph that he had heard that he interpreted dreams, Joseph answered, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (Genesis 41:16). We can learn from this because today, unfortunately, we tend to exalt ourselves instead of giving God the glory. We say, “I did this, I did that,” and such. An interesting thing, the word for “I” in Greek is “Ego.” Humility is not only making nothing of ourselves, but more than that it is giving God the credit and glory. Many times if we parade a virtue or talent we have, God might take it away to teach us a lesson, then we will know what we had after it is gone, but our eyes will be on God because then we will know that he was the one giving that talent or virtue to us.

Among other things Joseph was wise (40:38-39), which Pharaoh confessed was because God was with him. But the most important virtue which Joseph had was his forgiveness. Even after all the things that his brothers did to him; betraying him and selling him to the Ishmaelites and causing him to bondage for more than 13 years when he was a slave to Potiphar and later a prisoner, up until the time Pharaoh appointed him over Egypt, he forgave them. He said to them, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

Joseph is a great example of all the things we should be, even youth, because he kept his eyes on God all the time, which is why even after his brothers betrayed and sold him, he said what God did, which by far was greater, “to save many people alive.” And as it says in the Epistle to the Romans, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

So we should pray to God and ask him to be examples to others that our youth isn’t a stumbling block, but a great chance to witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, like St. Paul exhorts St. Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).

And glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.