Orthodox Truth

Wednesday of the 8th Week of Luke

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The reading from the Holy Gospel today is Luke 12: 48-59

The Lord said, For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

Most of us have experienced at least somewhat of the conflict which the Lord here foretold: we endure uneasy, strained, or even broken relationships with family and friends because we have chosen to follow our conscience in regards to the Orthodox Faith regardless of the earthly consequences. When this happens not once but several times, perhaps many times, we can certainly start to feel worn out, alone, and discouraged, and may be tempted to think, “What’s the use? It’s time to throw in the towel.”

It helps greatly, however, as Christ Himself says, to “…discern this time.”   It does not require that one be a clairvoyant elder or a theologian to see that the times we live in are times of extreme spiritual deception coupled with social disintegration of unprecedented scale and rapidity.   When everyone around us is bending to the demonic winds that are blowing, and we do not, they are bound to think us uncongenial.   Their discomfort in our presence, however, does not amount to an argument for the validity of their choices.

In order to deal with the constant, kaleidoscopically shifting changes going on around us, you should start with the question: “Do I still believe as I have always believed?”   If the answer is “Yes,” proceed to the next question, “Am I acting according to my conscience, to the best of my ability, God helping me?”   If the answer is “Yes,” then be at peace. As the saying goes, “Either they’re crazy or I’m crazy, and I know that I am not crazy.”

When we are tempted to sentimental or humanistic solutions to theological and philosophical disagreements over what is real and what is not, we need to crucify emotions, imagination, and curiosity, fall down before the holy icons in our prayer corner, and abandon ourselves entirely to God’s Providence, placing everyone we love in His hands.   There really are no halfway solutions, and we cannot make a separate peace in order to escape the inescapable: the conflict between truth and falsehood, between good and evil, between the real and that which is pretending to be real.

There is an old Latin expression: Esse quam videri, “To be rather than to seem.” In regard to where the path to salvation lies, let us desire steadfastly reality over appearance, as the gap between the two widens daily.

Here is a suggestion: When asking God for discernment in regards to your situation in life, read the Seventeenth Kathisma (Psalm 118 in the Church’s numbering, beginning “Blessed are the blameless in the way…”), and struggle for attention while reading. May the Lord, through this holy practice, grant all of us clarity of mind and peace of heart!

Tuesday of the 8th Week of Luke

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The reading from the Holy Gospel today is Luke 12:42-48.

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required…”   The Lord makes the same point in another place, in the Parable of the Talents. He entrusts much to His faithful servants, and He expects much in return.   Recall all that the Lord has given us:

He created us, bringing us from nothing into being, and he upholds us in existence at every moment.   Nothing separates us from the abyss of non-being except His sovereign will, His decision that we continue to be.

When we had fallen away from Him, He became a man like us in all things but sin, and He suffered a terrible death on the Cross for our salvation.

By rising from the dead, He has destroyed the power of sin, death, the devil, and hell.   In Holy Baptism He has granted us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

By ascending into Heaven, He has placed our human nature in the bosom of the Uncreated Godhead, the Holy Trinity.

By sending the Holy Spirit, He has granted us the grace-filled life of the Church. We have infinite divine help for all of our needs and activities, given us in prayer, in the Holy Mysteries, in the intercession of the Mother of God, the Holy Angels, and the choir of the saints. We have access to the countless blessings bestowed on the Church, all of the treasures of Her unsurpassed worship, art, music, and theological and spiritual literature.   We have detailed and supremely wise instructions for conducting the struggle of this earthly life.

All of this is ours, our inheritance.   We are the richest people on earth.   Let us give thanks for this inheritance and at the same time ponder how we may take advantage of all these inestimable blessings, in order to do real work for the Lord, to be his active and vigilant servants.   How can we do this?

First, every day dedicate your day to the Lord. Ask Him to show you His holy will, and express your desire to please Him in all you do in your duties at home and at work.

Second, ask how you can more actively serve your parish, help your priest, and serve the brethren. Do you see the parish as a “vendor” to supply your needs, or as a precious inheritance for which you are responsible and an arena for service and struggle?   In other words, are you a taker or a giver?

Third, recall that without the Lord we can do nothing. Beg Our Lord, as you dedicate yourself to more active work for His glory, to remind you constantly that all is from Him and for Him, so that you do not become puffed up with pride in achievement or fall into despondency over failure.   Be at peace regardless of outcomes: the duty to act is ours, but the consequences are God’s.

As we approach our patriotic holiday of Thanksgiving, let us give thanks to the Lord for all things, and let us dedicate ourselves more completely to His service.

Saturday of the 4th Week of St. Luke

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The reading from the Holy Gospel today is Luke 6: 1-10. 

At that time, the Lord went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungered, and they which were with him; How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

There is a theological lesson here, and there is a moral lesson, as well.   

The Lord Jesus Christ, in responding to the Pharisees’ accusation regarding the disciples’ breaking the Sabbath, proclaims that He, the Son of Man, is Lord of the Sabbath.  He is stating publicly that He is the God Who gave the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.   Then, by healing the suffering man’s withered hand by a simple command, He demonstrates that He is indeed the One Who “spake and they came to be; He commanded, and they were created.”  Because of the blindness that is common to human nature, aggravated by their passions, His accusers cannot see what they are looking at in broad daylight:  their own God, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, become a man and visiting His people, out of His infinite love for them, for their salvation. 

St. Theophan the Recluse draws for us the moral lesson from these incidents:  

 The Lord’s disciples pluck the ears of grain, rub them in their hands and eat them on the Sabbath—a deed very unimportant both in appearance and in essence; meanwhile the Pharisees could not restrain themselves and rebuked them. What made them raise this issue? In appearance—unreasoning zeal, but in essence—the spirit of judging. This sticks to everything and presents all in a sombre form of unlawfulness and destructiveness. This infirmity, to a greater or lesser degree, is common to almost all people who do not watch themselves. Not everyone will express judgmental thoughts in word, but it is rare for a person to refrain from them. Someone sits beside the heart and stirs up judging—it pours forth. But at the same time the judge himself is prepared to do deeds which are not good, as long as nobody sees, and he is unfailingly in a state that is not so good in some way. It is as though he judges and condemns for that very reason—in order to satisfy his inwardly insulted and suppressed feeling of righteousness with attacks on others, groundless as they may be. He who loves righteousness and stands in it, knowing how difficult it is to attain correctness in deeds and even more so in feelings, will never judge; he is ready sooner to cover with leniency not only small, but also great transgressions of others. The Lord does not judge the judging Pharisees, but indulgently explains to them that the disciples did something that anyone would excuse if they thought about it rightly. And it almost always is this way: think reasonably about your neighbor’s actions and you will find that it does not at all have that serious, ghastly character which you saw at first. – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 229

Today, as we know, the invisible enemies of our salvation have convinced the leaders of society, and through them the broad masses of people, that non-judgment means the belief that sins are not sins – the only sin is to believe that there is such a thing as sin.   The society around us is rapidly falling into moral chaos, and in such a situation it is easy to be angry all the time and see only evil in others.   How can we attain the firm yet gentle spirit of Lot when he lived in Sodom; how can we be righteous in the midst of extreme and open sins, without being in a constant state of agitation and giving in to our thoughts of condemnation of everyone around us?  

The first step is to believe unwaveringly in the Providence of God and His care for us.  Fear of harm to ourselves by the evil actions of others incites agitation, and in the midst of this agitation we lash out with anger and condemnation.   By constantly reviewing the providential deeds of God in the Scriptures, in the lives of the saints, and in our own lives, we can usually calm our souls.    Let us beg the Lord for unwavering trust in His will to save us and His all-wise designs for every detail of our lives, which, if understood correctly, will be seen as the unrelenting action of the Lord for our true good.  

The next step is to distinguish between the public arena and our private lives, to understand our place in the body politic and therefore the extent and limit of our responsibilities.  It is a commonplace that during the Christian era ordinary men thought theologically, during the “Enlightenment” era men descended to think only philosophically, and that in the present Revolutionary era the overwhelming majority of men can only think politically – that is, in terms of the contest for power without reference to God or even to higher metaphysical principles.   In such a situation, those of right belief – the Orthodox – have the duty to their fellow man to concentrate on the things that only they can do, that no one else is doing or can do – to preserve and teach the right Faith, to perform the right worship, and to practice the right teachings on pursuing the life of the active and contemplative virtues.  If one does hold a position of authority in the public arena – e.g., a public official, a military officer, a teacher, (above all, a clergyman!), etc.  – then one must, with trust in God,  necessarily risk the improper use of anger, which is, apart from a great grace, inescapable in a fallen world, but without ever canonizing it, and with daily repentance, prayer, and supplication for the grace of preserving his soul while performing the onerous duties of his public station.  If one does not hold such a position, he should concentrate on his private duties, a situation which provides greater freedom from conflict, and he should use this freedom to pray earnestly for his protectors – his “guardians,” to use the terminology of Plato’s Republic – who hold positions of public responsibility and therefore are inevitably faced with innumerable temptations to moral compromise on the left hand and to anger and condemnation on the right hand. 

The next step is to realize that Our Lord’s command of non-condemnation applies first of all and above all to our daily intercourse with the people in front of us – family, fellow parishioners, friends, co-workers, etc.    This is where we really practice the Gospel.  If I take St. Theophan’s advice to heart – simply to think reasonably about my neighbor’s actions – then I shall calm down and see that he is not much different from me.  I shall see that, like me, he is just another sinner, another victim of the devil, but nonetheless another precious soul made in the image of God, for whom Christ died on the Cross.  

Let’s ask Our Lord for the grace needed to cultivate this state of mind, not to indulge in our logismoi about other people, and simply to pray more for them.   All actual experience teaches us that this is what works. 

Monday of the 3rd Week of Luke

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In today’s Gospel, the Lord turns worldly reasoning upside down, and He commands His followers to do that which is above nature:

The Lord said to the Jews which came to Him: woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. – Luke 6: 24-30

St. Theophan the Recluse, in his commentary on these verses, points out that Our Lord is painting a picture of the entire Christian life as a time of exile and pilgrimage, not security and rest:

Woe to those who are rich, who are full, who laugh, and who are praised. But good shall come to those who endure every wrongful accusation, beating, robbery, or imposed hardship. This is completely opposite to what people usually think and feel! The thoughts of God are as far from human thoughts as heaven is from the earth. How else could it be? We are in exile, and it is not remarkable for those in exile to be offended and insulted. We are under a penance, and the penance consists of deprivations and labors. We are sick, and bitter medicines are most useful for the sick. The Savior Himself did not have a place to lay His head for His whole life, and He finished His life on the Cross. Why should His followers have a better lot? The spirit of Christ is the spirit of preparedness to suffer and good-naturedly bear all that is sorrowful. Comfort, conceit, splendor, and ease are all foreign to its strivings and tastes. Its path lies in the fruitless, cheerless desert. Its model is the forty-year wandering of the Israelites in the desert. Who follows this path? Anyone who sees Canaan beyond the desert, overflowing with milk and honey. During his wandering he too receives manna – however, not from the earth, but from heaven; not bodily, but spiritually. All glory is within.   – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, pp. 219-220

We all agree with the truth of this of course, but if we are honest, we admit that we do not feel the truth of it.   Think about it: When is the last time we rejoiced in spirit because someone hated us, cursed us, abused us, physically assaulted us, or stole from us?

How do we do this – rejoice in hardship, love our enemies, and so forth? How do we follow the divine charter for Christian living as found in the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in St. Luke, from which we read today? Here is a short to-do list:

One: Admit that we cannot live the Gospel. Admit that to the end of our lives we will fail. As St. Ignatius Brianchaninov says in The Arena, even the greatest saints fall short of the Gospel. It is beyond the power of human nature; it is “above nature,” as the Fathers say. We should not give in to the temptation from the right side, to be made despondent by the false accusation that we are hypocrites, an accusation usually made by someone who wants to use our weakness as an excuse to deny the truth of our Faith. When a sincere, repenting Christian fails to live up to the Gospel, this is not hypocrisy; a hypocrite is someone who habitually pretends before others to be the opposite of what he really is, not someone with high standards who tries hard but falls short. Even if we are striving, we shall still fall, at least in small ways. Grace comes always if we ask for God’s help to get up again. And remember: salvation, much less Christian perfection, is the free gift of grace.

Two: So we must pray daily with all our hearts that God forgive us for not living the Gospel, that He give us the grace to live it better, and that He give us the grace daily to admit our failure and to ask for more grace.

Three: Force ourselves to thank God when bad things happen.

Four: Pray for those who harm us, both the great and the small, but especially the small, that is, the person right in front of us.

Remember, as St. Theophan points out, that we are exiles and pilgrims in this life. We are on a journey going to our true home, and we should expect discomfort. The warm fire, fuzzy slippers, and comfy armchair are at the end of the journey, not on the road.   All of our problems arise from delusions, and all of our delusions start with the idea that we are little gods creating a nice little world here in this life.   But our true home is in the heavens; our life is hid with Christ in God. This life is an arena, a contest, a struggle, and a trial.   Our Judge awaits us, with the crown of life in His hand for those who do not give up.

It is always later than we think. Death is always at the door. This is indeed a sobering thought, but, if we live in repentance, it is also a thought that conveys ineffable consolation. The Lord is near.

Friday of the 1st Week of St. Luke

In today’s Gospel, the Lord’s own relatives and townsmen reject Him out of envy:

At that time, the people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of Jesus’ mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.   – Luke 4: 22-30

There is something inconsistent here: First they marvel at the Lord’s gracious words, but then they turn against Him.   First they think, “How marvelous, how beautiful, how true!” Then they think, “Wait a second: this is just some other ‘guy’ from our own town, not anyone important. Who does he think he is, anyway? He is not better than we are!” In other words, they were envious. They were so envious that they tried to murder Him.

It was envy that caused the Nazarenes to reject the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was envy that caused the high priests, Pharisees, scribes, and rulers of the people to hate Him.

It was envy that caused Judas to betray Him.

But this is not surprising, because it was envy, at the beginning of creation, which caused Satan to tempt our first parents. God had created man to take the place of the fallen angels, and they cannot rest until they destroy us.   Or, rather, they will never rest for all eternity, because the more they destroy, the more envious they become.  Their hunger grows the more it is satisfied, and they will be endlessly more and more tortured for all eternity.

In the same way, an envious person – and, sadly, such a person may be an Orthodox Christian – cannot rest until he destroys the person he envies. He is constantly thinking about him with anger: “Who does he think he is? Why does the think he is so great?   Why does he get to have such-and-such or be such-and-such?” And this hatred, this anger, this internal torture has no end. Even if he succeeds in utterly destroying the happiness of the other person, even murdering the other person: Far from having rest, he will grow even more tortured, constantly revolving in his mind how bad the other person was and justifying himself. And this torture continues after death and increases endlessly for all eternity.

Today we are all suffering from the consequences of envy.   Once the Christian nations lived under a legitimate and God-blessed hierarchy of Church, king,  aristocracy, intellectual class, merchant class, working class, peasantry, and so forth.   This hierarchy reflected the hierarchy in creation itself, in which God is the king, and the angels and saints in heaven are His ministers, and on earth all men are arranged in stations, ranks, and classes according to the divine constitution of the Church and according to age-old, organically developed and traditional laws of those nations whose laws reflect the Law of God, and according to their birth and ability. Some men are necessarily higher than others. Some cultures are higher and more beautiful than others.   There are men and cultures and traditions that are high and noble, and others that are low and ignoble.   This is reality.

For generations now, however, the formerly Christian nations have listened to the siren song of envy, and now they have handed themselves over to the power of wicked demagogues who promise “equality” and teach, “No one and nothing is better than or different from anyone or anything.” With all boundaries, all standards, all traditions, all true hierarchy abolished, we are now reduced to the law of the jungle: Power is all, and might makes right.  Darwinism, which bases all life on the power of the strong to devour the weak, is laughably bankrupt as science, but it has certainly succeeded as a maniacal religious and political ideology, for we are ruled today by a criminal class of demonized and envious predators.   This is the politics of envy: if I can destroy you, this is the only justification I need.   This is the “revolutionary justice” of Marxism, of “civil rights,” of the sexual revolution, of feminism, homosexualism, and every other -ism that overturns the Christian order of society. It is a revolt against reality itself, ultimately against God.   And – apart from a miracle of repentance by a critical mass of mankind – we are living in the final stages of it. This is the end game.

For our part, let us courageously refuse to be part of this demonic anti-hierarchy of envious pseudo-justice. The first step in refusing the politics of envy is to cleanse our own hearts of all envy of other people, the great and the small. We have no worldly control over the vast changes that are overturning normal life all around us. But we do have the kind of control that counts: We can choose to stay in the Faith, to pray, to obey the commandments, to order our households according to God’s Law as best we can, and to tell others the truth and obey our consciences in the choices that face us on a daily basis.   We do have control over our minds and wills, to turn away from evil and do good.

Let us ask ourselves, “Do I nurture envy in my heart against those who seem to prosper while I suffer? Do I wish evil to others?” And let us fall down and beg the Lord to cleanse our hearts, to give us that peace which He alone can give, which the world cannot give and the world cannot take away. Let us forgive our enemies, and like St. Stephen we will see the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

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Thursday of the First Week of Luke

In the cycle of the daily readings, today we read once again the Gospel passage that we read on the Church New Year: St. Luke’s account of the Lord’s entering the synagogue at Nazareth and announcing His Messiahship by proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord.

At that time, Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? – Luke 4: 16-22

St. Theophan the Recluse points out that, unlike all the prophets before Him, the Lord Jesus Christ not only could preach about the acceptable year of the Lord, He could – and did – make it happen; He brought it with Him.

The Lord not only came “to preach the acceptable year,” but He brought it as well. Where is it? In the souls of believers. The earth will never become a Paradise under the current state of affairs; but it is and will be an arena of preparation for the heavenly life. The rudiments of heavenly life are placed in the soul, and the possibility for this lies in God’s grace – Who brought, consequently, the acceptable year for souls. He who listens to the Lord and fulfills all that is commanded by Him receives grace, and with its power enjoyes the acceptable year within himself. This truly occurs in all who sincerely believe and act according to faith. You will not fill your souls with “acceptableness” by thinking; you must act, and it will enter in on its own.   There might not be any outer peace whatever, just inner peace, yet it cannot be separated from Christ. But it always happens that as soon as inner peace is established, outer disturbances are neither bitter nor heavy. Consequently, the acceptable year is there even in this respect – it only seems like a cold winter on the outside. – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, pp. 210-211

These brief words of St. Theophan address a spiritual malaise most of us share: sluggish inactivity based on a dreamy desire for a phony paradise both without and within.   The phony external paradise we dream of is an earthly life with no problems, in which everyone is just and kind to us.   The phony internal paradise we dream of is a state of inner purity, calm, and happiness based simply on thinking and not on doing.   The heresies associated with these delusions are, respectively, chiliasm and gnosticism, and the two work together and feed each other.

As St. Theophan rightly points out, this earth will never become a paradise in the present, fallen state of affairs prior to the destruction and re-fashioning of the cosmos into a New Heaven and a New Earth.   This earthly life, rightly understood, is an arena in which we struggle for our salvation, a very short trial in which we choose to do or not do that which is acceptable to the Lord. Chiliasm – derived from the Greek word for “a thousand” – is, strictly speaking, the heresy that teaches that the thousand-year reign of Christ spoken of in the Apocalypse is a future event that will take place here on earth, in the form of an outward, global political order.  But there is also a broader application of the concept: anyone who wants “the Kingdom of God on earth” in the literal sense partakes of the chiliast spirit and the chiliast delusion.   Surely we desire for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven – the Lord Himself told us to pray for this. This takes place, prior to the end of the world, in the lives of those who do God’s will, and certainly there have been families, monasteries, parishes, whole national Churches and kingdoms in which God’s light, the light of Orthodoxy, showed forth more brilliantly than in other places: these people and communities were (and, we pray, will be) little icons of the heavenly kingdom, little foretastes of what is to come in eternity.   But there will never be a time in which Christ will reign on earth as an earthly king, either directly or through a vicar like a pope or emperor, or through a “chosen race.”

The ever-present spirit of chiliasm distracts the pious from what they have control over – struggling for their salvation – by entertaining them endlessly with the demonically orchestrated struggles of financiers, politicians, parties, races, and nations for dominance.   Today this is far truer – quantum leaps truer – than ever.   I say “quantum leaps,” because global communications technology has given worldly powers the ability to distract and delude everyone 24 hours per day in such an addictive fashion, it is a wonder there is anyone left who can think straight. Facing this state of affairs realistically, we must beg God for the grace to re-double our efforts to pray and work in a disciplined fashion, simply to pay attention to that over which we have control, and deal with it. We must remember, always: this life is short, death is certain, and judgment is eternal.   Seen in this light, promises of an earthly paradise will not entrap us in the cycle of excitement, failure, disappointment, and despair.

When one despairs over the phony, chiliast earthly paradise, then one is tempted to retreat within selfishly, give up on the moral struggle, and desire a phony, gnostic internal paradise.

Gnosticism is the idea that if you have a certain secret knowledge about “what’s really going on behind the scenes,” you are among the elect.   A gnostic does not have to be moral or receive God’s forgiveness or even try to do anything good. He just has to sit around smugly and say to himself, “I know what’s really going on, unlike all those suckers out there.” And with this he is content. We are not going to join sects and secret societies that offer such a bogus salvation, but, as with the chiliast temptation, we all have the gnostic temptation: to try to think our way to salvation instead of seeking and doing God’s holy will. We can spend endless hours on websites to “find out what is really going on” and thereby feel secure through our “knowledge.” We can turn Orthodoxy into a kind of gnosticism in which, despite the manifest reality that we are enslaved to various passions, we read books on spiritual life and, instead of being brought to repentance, we imagine that we are thinking or feeling the thoughts and feelings of the saints, or in which we read the canons and derive satisfaction from knowing that so-and-so over there is breaking them, and since we are not (or think we are not), we are the good guys. All the while, we are wasting time, skipping prayers, fasting poorly, gossiping, not supporting our parish, neglecting our family, spending money on stupid things, and looking at some kind of screen x hours per day far in excess of what is necessary.

Being “in the know” does not save. The Lord said that the truth will set us free, but this comes true only if, having learned the truth, we obey it.   “If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15).” St. James says that the demons believe – and tremble (James 2:19). Not falsehood only is demonic. Accurate knowledge without repentance, without humility, without morality, without the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, is also demonic.

Therefore, with the ever-present help of the divine grace so abundant in the Church, let us make a short list of our real, daily spiritual and earthly duties, and do them, praying always.   Let us heed the admonition of our Venerable Father Herman of Alaska, and if God be with us, we cannot fail:

“For our good, for our happiness, let us at least make ourselves a vow: that from this day, from this hour, from this minute, we shall strive to love God above all and do His commandments!” – from “Little Russian Philokalia,” Vol. III, St. Herman, St. Herman Press, 1989, p. 108

Tuesday of the 1st Week of Luke

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Today’s Gospel reading is the genealogy of Our Lord according to S. Luke:

At that time: Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge,Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Juda, Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri, Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er, Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim, Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David, Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson, Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda, Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor, Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala, Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech, Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan, Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.   – Luke 3:23 – 4:1

When we get to the genealogies in Holy Scripture, either in Genesis or in the Gospels – the beginning of St. Matthew’s Gospel and here in St. Luke – we may be tempted just to skip over them, thinking, “These names are exotic and difficult, and I am not sure why they are here, anyway.” It may be difficult to derive a spiritual lesson of some sort, and we move on.   But this of course, we should not do. The Holy Spirit told the inspired writers to write down these genealogies, and the same Holy Spirit inspired the Church to appoint the genealogies in both St. Matthew and St. Luke to be read at the Divine Liturgy every year. There must be a reason.

We acquire grace through reading Holy Scripture, and especially the Gospels, whether we think we are deriving a clear meaning from them or not. When we read Scripture, we should read aloud, at a measured pace – not too fast, not too slow – and let the words sink in.   Every word of Holy Scripture is invested with infinite divine power, and the very experience of reading it will change our hearts, confirm us in faith, and bring peace to our souls.

Another thing to remember is that when we read Holy Scripture piously and reverently, especially when we do not understand what we are reading (or why it is there), we are making an act of faith in God’s wisdom, which placed these very words before us, for our salvation.   This small effort, made in Church or made in our private prayers, is an act of quiet militancy against the skeptical and materialistic views of “scientific” Biblical critics, who are always reducing God’s Word to a random product of cultural evolution. There is nothing random or evolutionary about Holy Scripture. Every word was put there at a specific point in history by a specific man specifically inspired by God, Who determined this from all eternity in infinite wisdom. Compared to the endlessly flowing, fresh and pure river of God’s wisdom, the prattling of the critics is a cup of polluted water. From which do we wish to drink?

The genealogies, by the way, do have profound theological meaning.   Here St. Luke, by taking the genealogy of the Lord back to Adam, is saying that Jesus is the new Adam, Who in his sinless but actual human nature restores man to the communion with God that he lost in Paradise. Both evangelists who record the genealogy of Jesus – Matthew and Luke – are also demonstrating that Jesus Christ really is a man like us, with human ancestors. This was necessary to counter the Docetist heresy, which taught that Christ only appeared to be human but really was not.  By showing that Christ was descended from King David, they were demonstrating that He was of the line from which the Messiah was supposed to come.  There is no end to the theology concealed in the Scriptures, even the most seemingly routine or obscure passages.

Let us resolve firmly to drink the pure water of God’s Holy Word every day!   May His Word, purer than gold and sweeter than the honeycomb, enliven us and strengthen us always!

Friday of the 13th Week of Matthew 

The reading from the Holy Gospel today is Mark 4: 1-9 

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At that time:  Jesus began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

St. Theophan the Recluse states confidently that each of us can become the good ground that bears fruit, and he tells us how to do it:  

“Behold, there went out a sower to sow.”  Since the time that this sower went out to sow, He has not ceased to sow. In the beginning He sowed personally, then through the Apostles and at last through Divine Scripture and divinely-wise teachers. To this day the word of God’s truth is being sown everywhere. Just be prepared to show yourself as good ground and you will be sown without fail.  God will raise up what has been sown. How do you make yourself into good ground? With attention and study of the Word of God, sympathy and love toward it, and readiness to immediately carry out what you learn. With such a mindset, not a single word will lie on the surface of your soul, but all will pass within. Uniting there with the elements of the spirit which are native to it, it will take root and sprout. Being nourished then—from above through spiritual inspirations, and from below through good desires and labors—it will grow into a tree, give flower and fruit. God Himself arranged everything around us this way, and this is why we cannot but be amazed at our fruitlessness. But all of this is due to our inattentiveness and carelessness. – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 182 

Becoming the good ground that bears fruit is our path to salvation.   If we want to live with God forever, we have to become that good ground.   And, behold, here a saint gives us a short to-do list, in plain language, on how to do it:  “…attention and study of the Word of God, sympathy and love toward it, and readiness to immediately carry out what you learn.” 

The “Word of God” in this context means, in the strict sense, the Holy Scriptures, but in the broader sense it also includes all of the teachings of the Church found in the Holy Fathers, the decisions of the Councils, the Lives of the Saints, the approved catechisms and sermons of the saints on the the doctrines of the Church and on ascetical striving,  the inner life of prayer, and so forth – in short, everything that can be called “spiritual reading.”    We have to be attentive and studious towards spiritual reading;  we have to acquire sympathy and love towards it; we have to be prompt in carrying out what our reading teaches us and inspires us to do.   If this happens, we will become the good ground; if it does not, we won’t.  Either way, there will be eternal consequences.  

The good news is that the Holy Scriptures, and pre-eminently the Holy Gospels, are invested with divine, infinite, and self-acting power.   And, in that they illustrate the Gospel with inspired accuracy, according to the mind of the Church,  the writings of the saints and approved teachers of the Church also share in this power.  We don’t – we can’t – force ourselves to feel the power in these words; we force ourselves simply to be regular in our habit of reading and to fight vigorously against distraction, paying attention to what we are reading. The words themselves do and will act upon us, often without our knowing it.  

Perceptible spiritual feeling – the warmth of that sympathy and love for God’s Word that St. Theophan refers to – comes with time and patience, as a gift of grace and according to God’s will and perfect knowledge of what is good for us at what time.  We must be patient, and all good gifts that we need for our salvation will be given in time.  

When those precious moments occur in which we are given a genuine spiritual insight during our daily reading, we must cherish this holy thought  – think of it throughout the day and as we go to bed at night, repeating it to ourselves mentally, until the heart is drawn to the thought.  And we must ask the Lord to show us how to put it into action, with zeal according to knowledge, so that we do not act in a self-willed fashion.  He will not disappoint us.    It may be the action of prayer; it may be the action of hating a bad habit and fighting it; it may be the action of practicing an active virtue in showing love to our neighbor in a concrete way.    

The Almighty God and Lord of all is thinking about me this very moment, desiring me with all of His divine desire, and willing eagerly to give me every spiritual insight needed for my salvation.   What am I waiting for?  

Thursday of the 13th Week of Matthew 

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In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ teaches about the sin that cannot be forgiven:

The Lord said: Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit. There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.  – Mark 3: 28-35

What is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Since it is the sin that cannot be forgiven, we should be very eager to find out what it is and to flee it by all means.

St. Theophan the Recluse, quoting a standard Orthodox catechism of his day, relates the following answers: “Great or excessive hope in God’s grace; despair or lack of hope in God’s compassion; contradicting manifest and confirmed truth, and rejection of the Orthodox Christian Faith… (Orthodox Confession, part 3, question 38).”   – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 181

Let us examine these sins one by one.

The first two ways of sinning against the Holy Spirit are related: they are the opposites of each other.   A Christian lives between hope and fear: hope in God’s mercy and fear of God’s judgment. If we lose the fear of God, we will say, “Oh, God forgives, God forgives” carelessly, assuming that anything we do will be forgiven no matter what, and we will live as if God’s judgment does not exist. This is excessive hope in His mercy, taking it for granted. This attitude is typical among certain Protestant sects as part of their teaching, but each of us can consciously or unconsciously adopt this attitude and thereby give up any efforts at repentance.   “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” says the Scripture. We must live in Godly fear and have an intense hatred of sin, revulsion to sin. To adopt a careless attitude about one’s sins and to presume on God’s forgiveness makes forgiveness impossible, because one is not repenting. This is a form of the sin against the Holy Spirit. To combat this, we must ask God for a healthy hatred of sin, for the desire to please Him and do His holy will, and for constant remembrance of death and God’s judgment.

The opposite of this excessive hope is excessive grief over sin, as if God cannot forgive us. To fall into despair and give up all hope is spiritual suicide. This comes from intense pride, a pride so great that we believe that our sin is greater than God Himself.   We must pray daily for true humility, in order to accept completely, with all our hearts, that God alone is the source of our life, while everything that is from us, including sin, is something finite and subject to God’s sovereignty and omnipotence.  There is nothing more powerful than God’s love. There is nothing He cannot overcome. Despair is a denial of God’s love, of His omnipotence, and of His sovereignty over His creation.   It is the ultimate fruit of listening to the lies of the master accuser and liar, Satan. When dark thoughts of hopelessness assail us, we must go into action immediately with prayer, reading psalms, prostrations, and thanksgiving and praise to God.   We should chant Church hymns and psalms that we know, since singing spiritual songs is a great help against despondency. We must run to confession and carefully confess all of our sins in detail, with compunction, since often depression and despair arise from unconfessed sins.  We should also apply ourselves assiduously to productive work, and manual labor especially, which acts very powerfully to drive away despondency.

“Contradicting manifest and confirmed truth” leads ultimately to “…rejection of the Orthodox Christian Faith.” If one stubbornly rejects the teaching of the Church, one loses the saving effect of one’s baptism, even if one does not formally renounce one’s identity as an Orthodox Christian. How many times do we hear, “Oh, yes, I am Orthodox, but, you know, I think the Church is wrong about such-and-such,” or “I just cannot accept such-and-such that the Church teaches because it just does not seem right to me,” and so forth.   To deny Truth is to separate the soul from grace, to kill the soul. If one chooses to kill one’s own soul, God does not force us to be forgiven. Holy Tradition is not a cafeteria from which we choose the items we like, in order to make up our own lunch tray of tasty religious beliefs, leaving off the dishes we find unpalatable. We must wholeheartedly embrace all that the Church teaches.

Let us open our minds and hearts to the Faith. We do not have to understand everything .  We cannot understand everything.  We certainly may and should ask questions, in order to deepen our knowledge and strengthen our commitment to the Faith. But we must do this with the predisposition to be obedient and docile to the Church, to be her loving child, not her critic, accuser, and judge.

May the All-Holy Spirit, sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to lead us into all truth, open our minds and hearts to all the saving truths of our Holy Faith, give us the grace of the fear of God coupled with all-daring hope in His mercy, and guide us securely on the path of salvation, right up to our last hour.   Believing wholeheartedly, repenting humbly, and hoping in God with childlike trust, may we find Paradise. May He bring us all together to life everlasting.

Wednesday of the 13th Week of Matthew

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In today’s Gospel, we see both the Lord’s friends and His enemies stating that He is possessed.

At that time, the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself. And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. – Mark 3: 20-27

This passage reveals that during His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ had friends who were not His disciples.   They were simply His friends, the relatives and neighbors among whom He had lived during the time before His three-year mission for the salvation of the human race. Perhaps these friends were among the people who, in another place, the Evangelist records as saying, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” or, in other words, “Is this not just another ordinary fellow like ourselves?” Their saying that “he is beside Himself” means, according to St. Theophylact, that they believed He was possessed with a demon.   Being His friends, though uncomprehending ones, they say this out of concern for His welfare. They think of Him as a victim of evil. Being His enemies, the scribes from Jerusalem say the same thing out of malice. They call Him a servant of evil.

Does not the same thing occur to us Orthodox Christians?   We have friends and relatives, both non-Orthodox and nominal Orthodox (or even those who claim to be pious!), who try to dissuade us from a Gospel mindset, an otherworldly life, because they believe that it is bad for us, something evil.   It interferes with having a “good life,” and being our friends they want us to have a “good life.”   They think that we are victims of evil. We have enemies who hate the Faith and claim that we are not mere victims but active servants of evil.   Which kind of person, one wonders, does the greater harm to us? Often, perhaps, it is our friends, because we are more inclined to listen to them.

Here is a rule of thumb you can count on: Most human beings – the overwhelming majority (99.9%?), including the overwhelming majority of baptized Orthodox – are, to a greater or lesser extent, in delusion (plani in Greek, prelest in Slavonic). Most are not seeing strange visions or doing obviously crazy things (though that sort of thing is certainly on the rise these days).  Most have garden-variety prelest; that is, they are fundamentally mistaken most of the time about what is really going on outside of them and inside of them.   This includes us. The difference between them and us (God willing there be a difference!), is that we know we are mistaken but we are working on it. We are crying out day and night, “O Lord, deliver me from delusion!”  We frequently repeat the favorite prayer of St. Gregory Palamas:  “O Lord, enlighten my darkness!” 

If we, who are Orthodox – and moreover trying to do something about our delusion – are nonetheless frequently mistaken about what is going on, what about all the other people out there? In other words, why should we listen to them?   I do not mean that they cannot teach us how to grow vegetables or drive a car or do algebra. I mean that they cannot give direction to our lives. They cannot advise us as to what it is all about. Let us not be swayed when they claim that we are out of our minds.   Of course we are, but we know the way back into our minds, and we are trying to go there.   They too are out of their minds, but they do not know the way back in, and they cannot show it to us.

O Lord, only Truth and only Way, deliver us from delusion, heal our fragmented minds and divided wills, and keep us on the straight path to Thee, Who art our only Life! Amen.