Michael Jackson's Death: A Sense of a Life Badly Misdirected

Dear Parish Faithful,

I am not all certain how to react to the death of Michael Jackson, perhaps the last in a line of "kings of pop" that has run its course for about a half-century in America. Or, at least there is no "heir-apparent" on the horizon waiting to lay claim to that crown and mantle. My lack of any coherent reaction is primarily due to the fact that his music and pop persona held no attraction for me. (Perhaps some of you just breathed a sigh of relief and reassurance). Yet, that is not at all meant as an implicitly condescending dismissal of pop culture, as if I am somehow claiming to be "above" something like the Michael Jackson phenomenon. Since my birth was pretty much coterminous with the mainstreaming of "pop culture" in the meteoric rise of the first - and for many the "true" - king, Elvis, I have had my share of attractions within that ever-expanding field over the years. But Michael Jackson struck no chord with me. I have no recollection of "Thriller" and "Bad" whatsoever, never watched MTV, and only a rather vague recollection of the innovative "moonwalk." (Impressive as that "step" was, I will still give the nod to James Brown as an electrifying dancer). I do recall the appearance of the Jackson Five, but my interests were elsewhere, and my reaction to them rather tepid: even for "pop" it was just "too pop." I pretty much missed the 80's and 90's outside of being aware of what my children may have been interested in. This also spared me from the whole "Madonna thing" - both name and persona - which I consider "unfortunate."

If poor Elvis at the time of his demise was a mere shell or, even worse, a bloated caricature of his early days; then it seems almost impossible to describe what Michael Jackson turned into. The word that most readily comes to my mind is "bizarre." Even his most loyal followers must have felt some unease at the spectacle of this baffling transformation. The attempts at trying to somehow get a handle on the later persona that both attracted and horrified the public - "man boy," "Peter Pan," " a person of arrested development," etc. - were inadequate stabs at trying to provide points of reference toward some kind of recognizable prototypes for his baffling change and character. I am left with the impression of a kind of latter-day Howard Hughes who sought semi-reclusion from the dangers of the public world at large (even though he was planning a massive comeback). Here was a star adored by many but who seemed totally distant and cut-off from that very adoring public. One recent commentator - David Brooks of the NY Times(!) - said, that at one of Micheal Jackson's concerts that he attended, there was no rapport with the audience; but that Jackson was somehow performing "above" the crowd. I wonder if this disconnect is one of the reasons that the "grieving" process for his countless fans around the globe was quickly turned into a "celebration" of his life and art. If the only recent comparison to Michael Jackson's death in terms of global response was the untimely death of Princess Di, then it is clear that there was a far deeper and longer-lasting sense of grief over her death. If he was indeed "addicted" to a massive quantity of prescription drugs, then this only heightens his personal tragedy. Actually, others can judge as to whether or not he was truly a tragic figure or "only" a sad or pathetic figure in the end.

I am just sharing a few thoughts since we are all aware of the death of Michael Jackson, unless you just returned from the North or South poles. I will leave all of the moralizing essays to others - though God knows how one can moralize here! He was a cultural phenomenon of massive proportions witnessed to by massive media coverage. I would readily agree with anyone who dismissed all of this concentration on Michael Jackson as a massive overdose. Some of the "testimony" that I am reading about his greatness and place in history makes me wince. One may be sympathetic or one may be repulsed. Yet, if in the end, there is a sense of a life that became badly misdirected; and if there is a sense of something basic to our humanity missing in his life; then our 'better side" must be saddened to some degree when thinking over his untimely death. Or perhaps that is only the perspective of someone who is getting older.


Fr. Steven

The Incredible Shrinking Summer Bible Study

Dear Parish Faithful,

This evening the Bible Study will begin at 7:45 p.m., following Vespers at 7:00 p.m. We will be reading and discussing ACTS 19-20.

So far, in my humble opinion, the Bible Study has been rewarding on the qualitative level. Our participants are prepared and our discussions have been very stimulating. I appreciate the time and energy dedicated to our communal study of the Scriptures. Yet, quantitatively, the Bible Study is rather poorly attended and, I believe, shrinking from summer to summer. In a contemporary, urban-centered parish with highly educated parishioners living in a world with every conceivable intellectual, moral and spiritual challege hurled at us on a daily basis; with an almost militant attack upon the very integrity of the Scriptures and various speculative attempts to "deconstruct" traditional Christianity; and within a parish of the "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church" - the "true Church" as we like to style ourselves - that claims to properly understand and interpret the Bible; one would think that a Bible Study would be an eagerly-anticipated and rather widely-attended event. That, however, is not the case.

Nevertheless, the Bible Study will be an ongoing "summer event" of the parish and all Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians (and non-Christians) are invited. So, if you are available, perhaps you will decide to avail yourself of the opportunity to study the Holy Scriptures together as a parish community enlivened by the Word of God.

Fr. Steven

On Suffering and Prayer: An Indelible Image

Dear Parish Faithful,

Our parish Prayer Request List is currently, as is often the case, filled with the names of men, women and children who are in some condition of illness, suffering or loss. We have recently been praying for our own beloved parish child, Elias Wendland, who has been in the hospital struggling with pneumonia; and a child in our sister parish in Columbus who appears to have been born with a debilitating or fatal illness. In fact, such prayer lists are by nature a sustained chronicle of the kind of human suffering and misery we pray and hope to avoid. As we pray to God for relief and recovery from these flesh-and-blood manifestations of our "human condition," we fulfill a ministry that all Christians need to embrace with seriousness. Our part is to hold these persons before God in prayer. The results we leave up to God. It is only human to pray with greater intensity when a particular person in need of prayer is close to us. But we need to pray for everyone who is on our "list" as the names come to us. That is one of our roles as the "people of God" who are aware of living in a fallen world that has yet been redeemed by Christ.

I am not going to embark on a meditation concerning God's mercy, justice, and love in the face of human suffering: the question of "theodicy" as it is often called. That will always remain a mystery. However, we should always bear in mind that the New Testament makes no promise of a life free of precisely the kind of human suffering we are speaking about here. There is no "bargain" or "deal" with God, that in return for our faith and belief in Christ, we will be given a long, peaceful and prosperous life! That fantasy may exist in the minds of TV evangelists and "name it and claim it" preachers, but it is not in the Scriptures. Christians with a mature faith know better. (We of course believe in the possibility of "miraculous" recovery, and have countless instances of such healing throughout the Church's long history. In fact, the Sacrament of Anointing is based on our openness to just such a possibility. But that is a different issue. ). Jesus Christ suffered and died on the Cross. His resurrection from the dead transformed that suffering into a passage that leads to a glorified life with God. As the Lord, He is the "first-fruits" of that promised resurrection and glorified life. That is the hope of Christians in the face of suffering and death, both of which are absolutely inevitable. And that is a hope that unbelievers cannot share regardless of how "optimistic" they may be about life - in my humble opinion, a very unconvincing optimism. That hope may be realized here and now in the recovery that we pray for, or it may have to patiently await its eschatological fulfillment at the end of time.

To move this reflection from the general to the particular, I would like to bring up a recent experience. In a prayer request submitted by Presvytera Deborah just last week, I read the following: "Please pray for Juana, a young beggar girl we encountered in Antigua who has no hands or feet. Pressing on my heart." I would like to further provide a bit of background about our short and unsettling encounter with this little girl. Our Mission Team made a trip to Antigua toward the end of our recent stay in Guatemala, after visiting the monastery of the Holy Trinity and celebrating the Liturgy there with Madres Ines and Maria. Antigua is a very old Guatemalan city popular with visitors and tourists. This is a typical one-day excursion for most Mission Teams - an opportunity to "wind down" and relax a bit after a week or more of work at the Hogar. It is a kindness organized by the Hogar which also provides the transportation in the person of Jorge, brother of Madre Ivonne and indefatigable Mission Team coordinator - a wonderful and good-hearted man. As is our "tradition" on our many parish teams, we visit one of the many fine restaurants in Antigua for a group meal together. This year we took eight of the senoritas with us so that we could treat them to a meal and some shopping.

While in the restaurant I noticed an obviously poor young girl enter carrying a large purse. She may have been ten years old or so. Sadly, I noticed that her one arm was missing from just below the elbow, but she managed to hold up the purse at her elbow joint. A fuller glance revealed that both arms were missing at about the same point. It then became clear that the girl entered the restaurant in order to "beg," as she began to move from table to table with a rather awkward gait. (During her time in the restaurant, someone also noticed that she walked in a peculiar manner because she obviously had no feet. There was only a rather primitive contraption at the end of each leg, resembling a shoe, that helped her maintain her balance). The way the patrons were reacting told me that this was not so unusual of a sight. Reflect for a moment on how the management in one of our nicer restaurants here would "protect" their patrons from such an encounter! For all we knew, that same girl may have come to this restaurant often to seek alms, and I appreciated that possibility. It seems much more organic and honest, perhaps even breaking down some of the usual social stratification that we are so accustomed to. Yet, since our social and cultural setting does shelter us from such encounters, it proved to be unsettling for everyone, I believe, as mentioned above. It was impossible not to feel great pity for this girl.

Unfortunately, though, it appeared from my perspective that she was not being very successful that day. Christ taught us that our left hand should not know what our right hand is doing in terms of almsgiving (MATT. 6:3-4). I do not want to violate the Lord's teaching, but I do not want you to think that we also ignored this poor little girl's request for assistance as others may have been doing. We called her over and put something in her purse. Presvytera asked her "what is your name?" and she answered with a very warm and friendly smile, "Juana." That smile alone rendered rather meaningless and empty a great deal of our "talk" about the "quality of life." With that same smile on her face, she turned and left the restaurant. We will probably never see Juana again - or perhaps on our next Mission Team visit to Antigua? Be that as it may, she left an indelible and haunting image that will be hard to forget. Hence, she is now a unique person and child of God not forgotten in our prayer. .

Such is the world we live in for countless human beings, including children. Juana is representative of the flawed and fallen world we inhabit. Think, just for a moment, of her future. Yet she, and the world as it is, are the "object" of God's continuing love. That love - incarnate in Christ - does not make suffering disappear, but it has transformed its meaning. Christians have to now incarnate that love in their care for others, making Christ present in a tangible manner whenever called upon to do so. That may be the most convincing "proof" of Christ's presence among us as a living reality, and not just as an ideal from the past.


Fr. Steven

Things to Remember for the Summer

Dear Parish Faithful,

In yesterday's newsletter/bulletin I included a short list entitled "Things to Remember for the Summer." For those of you who were not in church; and for those who are not inclined to read what is printed there on a weekly basis, I would like to share that list and the points made there as we now officially embark upon the summer. I will expand upon the list as I share it with everyone today, adding some further commentary.

Things to Remember for the Summer

There is hardly a good reason to be less "Church-centered" in the summer than during the other seasons of the year. When that mysteriously happens, it means that the "summer vacation" mentality has intruded upon our ecclesial consciousness. The fact that the Church School is no longer in session can contribute to this unfortunate impression among parish families with Church School-age children. Be that as it may, we know full well that there is nothing "seasonal" about God. If the God Who exists, and Who we believe in, were to withdraw His presence for a moment - for the "twinkling of an eye" - then we would simply cease to exist! God is "everywhere and fillest all things." As St. Paul told the Athenians while proclaiming the Gospel to them in the middle of the Areopagus (quoting a Greek philosopher/poet in the process!): "In him we move and have our being." (ACTS 17:28) The "unknown god" that the Apostle was appealing to is, of course, for the Church, the "holy, consubstantial, and undivided Trinity." This is the most basic theological and existential Truth that we live by.

Here, then are some suggestions meant to maintain our vigilance with the arrival of the summer months:

+ Inform me if you are travelling, so that we can pray for your safety and well-being in the Liturgy.

+ While travelling, make a point of of trying to be near an Orthodox parish on Sunday for the Liturgy when you are out of town. Sunday is the Lord's Day, from which a "vacation" makes no theological/spiritual sense. In addition to this over-arching liturgical principle, it is good to avail ourselves of the opportunity of visiting other Orthodox parishes. It strengthens our sense of "connection" with other Orthodox Christians and allows us to experience some of the "variety" within our common liturgical tradition. If you intend on receiving Holy Communion on a given Sunday, inform the priest of the parish ahead of time as much as that is possible.

+ Think of making a pilgrimage to an Orthodox monastery. If you are "on the road" there is the possibility that a monastery may be in "striking distance" at least for a brief visit. Not all of our vacation time needs to spent in the atmosphere of entertainment and "fun." A visit to a monastery can make a strong impact on an impressionable child and enforce his/her faith. Possibly stronger and longer lasting than any "Disneyworld-type" experience. And, of course, there any many good Orthodox summer camps for our children.

+ Remain vigilant is preparing for Holy Communion: respect and keep the weekly fast days of Wednesday and Friday; and keep a total fast (no food or drink) from at least midnight on the eve of the next day's Liturgy. Periodically confess your sins, etc. Make your evening before the next day's Liturgy peaceful. Come to Great Vespers!

+ Participate in the Summer Bible Study, usually preceded by Vespers, thus "connecting" the Sundays in a meaningful manner.

+ Be aware of, and keep the "summer fasts," further fulfilling the fasts by participating in the Feast Days they lead up to. We are currently in the Apostles' Fast and the wonderful "summer pascha" of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Aug. 15) is preceded by a two-week fast that all serious and practicing Orthodox Christians need to observe (Aug. 14). There is also the beautiful Feast of the Transfiguration and the blessing of fruit on August 6.

+ Choose another quality book related to the Faith for summer reading. We now have a good parish library in the Education Center in the church basement. I would be glad to suggest titles or offer guidance in any particular subject you may want to read about.

+ Do not let your daily rule of prayer lapse during the summer months. Perseverance, according to the saints, is one of the keys to an effective prayer life.

If it is any longer even possible to experience anything resembling "leisure" in our fast-paced, high-pressured, and endlessly demanding schedules, it would most probably be during the summer months. Actually, we may now have the opportunity to actually do some of the things mentioned above without the same pressures that we normally experience - beginning with such basic Christian practices as prayer, reading of the Holy Scriptures, attending more church services, etc. Again, this means resisting any temptation that leads us toward a "vacation" mentality away from our life in the Church. "Redeem the time" with mindfulness of God rather than just "fill the time" with mindless distractions.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (MATT. 6:21)


Fr. Steven

"Have No Fear of Them..."

Beginning June 5, responses to this meditation will be posted on our Orthodox Q&A Blog.


Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


I discovered while reading The New York Times, that a new and "provocative" DVD has been released entitled "The God Who Wasn't There." According to Newsweek, this film "irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed."

That sounds a bit too ambitious - if not patently absurd. An anti-Christian film directed and produced by, and "featuring" some of the world's most prominent atheists - "the usual suspects" such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, etc. - should be more modest in its goals if it is going to be taken seriously. That Jesus never actually existed is an old 19th c. thesis that has easily been discredited and now relegated to the level of perhaps intriguing, but ultimately useless, trivia material. (If it appeared on Jeopardy, as "this 19th c. person proposed the theory that Jesus Christ never existed," I highly doubt anyone would come up with the answer. I know that I wouldn't). Such an approach, therefore, sounds desperate. Atheists should stick with their usual material of Christianity's historical failings, hypocrisy, fanaticism, and "fundamentalism." It sometimes sounds as if a politically active "Christian fundamentalist" strikes more fear into an atheist's heart that a fully armed legion of Muslim terrorists right outside the door. But the film will probably not disappoint on this level either. The extensive, full-page ad I read through in the Times promises a great deal of material that will also take on these other issues just mentioned. So, in case the skeptical viewer is not impressed by the arguments gathered together to disprove Jesus' existence; then the full frontal attack on the integrity of Christianity and Christians will be there in reserve to convince you that even if Jesus did exist, the Church and Christianity should not.

The promo mentions coverage of the following:

• The early founders of Christianity seem wholly unaware of the idea of a human Jesus.

This sounds more than a little odd, when you simply think of the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. Also, the trend among skeptics today is to claim that the New Testament writers were unaware of a divine Jesus.

• The Jesus of the Gospels bears a striking resemblance to other ancient heroes and the figureheads of pagan savior cults.

Another 19 c. theory from the "History of Religions" school of thought that has been thoroughly discredited through good historical scholarship.

• Contemporary Christians are largely ignorant of the origins of their religion.

This is much more interesting, because it rings true whether or not we are willing to admit it. Let us imagine, then, that you decided to watch this video, and a series of scholars are being interviewed who make radically skeptical comments about Jesus, the origins of Christianity, etc. Would you be able to respond informatively and intelligently? Would you be able to immediately pick up the huge gaps in their claims, or the one-sided distortions, etc.? Or would you be forced to concede "I didn't know that," and then feel uneasy about their "scholarly" deconstruction of long-held beliefs that you assumed were unassailable? Finally, would your faith be shaken?

I am not making the claim that we must all read a library of scholarly books on this or that historical or theological subject so that we can answer any conceivable objection to Christian belief. Some of our great saints were, according to worldly standards, fairly illiterate! Our belief does not simply rest on scholarly "proof points." Ultimately, we cannot definitively and irrevocably "prove" that Jesus is risen from the dead, or even that God exists. Our knowledge of these truths is based on faith. And yet our faith will never contradict historical probing or veracity. But we should know enough to see through bogus and groundless claims and criticisms. Or to see right through some of the flimsy arguments posed by angry atheists determined to discredit everything noble and good about Christianity, beginning with the very existence of Jesus Christ! "Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence." (I PET. 3:14-15)

Since we live in an "information age" we do need to be fully prepared for the barrage of (mis)information that will endlessly come our way through various forms of the media concerning Christianity. It is "open season" these days on any conceivable aspect of Christianity, and even against Christ Himself. Uninformed non-believers are not only entitled to question the truthfulness of Christianity, they are now free to throw any filth that they want onto Christ. If the Lord "bore" the Cross, then He can certainly bear this also. Instead of getting angry or frustrated, we should accept this as rather inevitable and either ignore it, or respond to it with some knowledge and intelligence. That places the responsibility on us to prepare ourselves as well as possible. We should not expect our parish priests to answer all these questions on our behalf. Every Orthodox Christian should be "interested" enough to make this a priority in his/her life. (By the way, please let me know what you consider to me more interesting. I am very curious).

For the most part, the contemporary Orthodox parish is equipped through its seminary-educated priest to offer substantial teaching, guidance, direction and insight into the types of issues that the skeptically-minded will probe as possible areas of weakness in Christianity. No one can answer all questions or rebuke all challenges. But we should be able to get the basics right. This is done partially through homilies, but also through non-Sunday programs such as Bible Studies and education classes. If and when these parish-wide events are ignored or poorly-attended it is not a good sign of that "healthy hunger" that leads parishioners to learn more about their faith. Rather, it could be a sign of indifference, complacency or sheer distraction. If atheists spend a great deal of time familiarizing themselves with the New Testament and Christian theology and history just so that they can later debunk it; then certainly the faithful should be able and willing to "keep up" with an even greater enthusiasm! Participation in such "parish programs" needs to be ever-expanding and not slowly shrinking as the challenges of the postmodern world are themselves not shrinking but exponentially expanding. However, besides all of that, it is a matter of where the heart is centered: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (MATT. 6:21)

For those who may be interested, the DVD "The God Who Wasn't There" is selling for $24.95 (free shipping!) If you see it, let me know what you think of it.


Fr. Steven

Beginning June 5, responses to this meditation will be posted on our Orthodox Q&A Blog.

Hastening to be Present for the Feast of Pentecost

Dear Parish Faithful,


"For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost." (ACTS 16:20)


The Apostle Paul's so-called Third Missionary Journey lasted about five years (A.D. 53-58), and he spent most of that time in Ephesus, on the western coast of ancient Asia Minor (present day Turkey). Yet, for some reason, he felt compelled to return to Jerusalem. And, as the above verse makes clear, St. Paul strongly desired to be in the Holy City for the celebration of Pentecost. Was this for the traditional Jewish celebration of Pentecost? Or was there an already-existing Christian celebration of the Feast by that time? It would seem that by the mid-50's, the early Jewish Christians of Jerusalem would have marked the great Feast of Pentecost with their own experience of having received the gift of the Holy Spirit on that fiftieth day after the Passover (ACTS 2:1-11). These great commemorations of Passover and Pentecost that were so essential to Jewish life and piety, had been "Christianized" or "Christified" by Jewish Christians who understood the Death and Resurrection of Christ, together with the descent of the Holy Spirit, as the divinely-ordained fulfillment of the already-existing feasts that revealed God's special relationship with Israel. The crucified, risen and glorified Messiah had renewed Israel, and the emerging Church was the "holy remnant" of Israel that would take the Good News to the ends of the known world in order to bring salvation to all - Jew and Gentile alike. This is why the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES is such an exciting book, as we read there of the Spirit-guided mission of the apostles - especially the Apostle Paul - in extending the presence of the Church "in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." (ACTS 1:8) We are the recipients of that "extension" to this day.

Everyone is invited to (re)experience that excitement as we read and study the ACTS together in our Spring/Summer Bible Study. We will do our best to bring to life these great accomplishments of the early Church and to actualize them in our own quest to share the Gospel to this day with the world around us.

Be that as it may, I would like to concentrate on the Apostle Paul's desire and commitment to arrive in Jerusalem by the Feast of Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost, seven weeks following Pascha, is not just "another Sunday" (in itself a poor expression that we may be prone to use at times). It is the Feast that brings to fulfillment and completion the paschal mystery of the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ. Without the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the risen and ascended Christ would no longer be present to us, but rather absent, and thus making us "spiritual orphans." The Holy Spirit is the other Parakletos (Advocate/Comforter) that Jesus spoke of as recorded in the Gospel According to St. John.

"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth ... " (JN. 14:16-17)

"But when the Comforter comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify to me." (JN. 15:26)

"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth ... " (JN. 16:13)

The Risen Lord sends the Spirit, and it is the Spirit who makes Christ present to us. As Lev Gillett wrote: "The Spirit is sent to us by the Son, the Son is revealed to us by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a substitute for Christ, but prepares us for Christ, forms him in us, makes him present in us." It is precisely here that we are so aware of the reciprocal work of the Son and the Holy Spirit - the "two hands of God" according to St. Irenaeus of Lyons. On the Day of Pentecost, we liturgically actualize the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit as did the apostles on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection. Then, following the Liturgy, during the Vespers of Pentecost, we "bend the knee" for the first time since Pascha, as we offer special and theologically-rich prayers to the Holy Spirit, seeking His abiding, healing, and transforming presence among us.

For these reasons we too "hasten" to be in church for Pentecost, as did the Apostle Paul. For St. Paul that meant another potentially perilous journey by sea, with shipwreck or pirates an ever-present danger. We will travel a shorter distance and with much greater comfort. Only unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances would give us a "reason worthy of a blessing" not to be present for the Feast. The church should be packed for Pentecost! And for those who would like to partake of the Feast on a fuller level, there is Great Vespers on the eve on Saturday evening. This festal Vespers further reveals to us the meaning of the Feast through its rich hymnography as well as allow us to experience the liturgical cycle to a greater extent. The Feast of Pentecost will test our "ecclesial consciousness," and yet simultaneously "reward' us with the fruits of the Spirit if our minds and hearts are open to the outpouring of the Spirit.


Fr. Steven

The 'Lost' Feast

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!

I don't know how much of Pascha still remains in anyone, but today is the "official" Leavetaking of the Feast. Where did those forty days go? That means that tomorrow is the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. This is probably the most "lost" of the great feasts, in that Ascension is always forty days after Pascha, and so always on a Thursday. Great Vespers on Wednesday of the eve and the Liturgy on Thursday, would thus draw a smattering of the faithful. That may be more or less unavoidable, but the unfortunate effect is to minimize our awareness of the glorious, awesome and essential celebration that the Ascension is. Pascha does not just disappear or vanish into thin air by some arbitrary decision. We don't just stop singing "Christ is Risen!" because we have had enough. Pascha culminates, or is "crowned," with the Ascension. And the Scriptures reveals to us that that was forty days after the Resurrection. Christ was raised from the dead in order to ascend into Heaven. This feast fulfills the paschal mystery. The Son of God "returns" to the Father, now glorified on His "right hand." When we "miss" the Feast, we "miss" a great Truth that reveals the full mystery of Christ - incarnate, raised, ascended and glorified.

Trying to respond to this situation pastorally, as announced we will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord with a Vesperal Liturgy this evening beginning at 6:00 p.m. I am hoping that this will make it possible for many more of you to participate in the Feast and thus be more aware of this highly significant liturgical cycle of the forty days between our Lord's Resurrection and Ascension (ACTS 1:1-11) Being present in church for the service makes the reality of the Feast more of something experienced than simply an ecclesial event noted on the calendar. Preparing for, and then receiving the Eucharist, is the profoundest way that we celebrate a Feast, so again I hope that we can ascend in spirit as we gather together for this glorious Feast of the Ascension.

Christ dies, descends to hell (hades), arises, and goes back up toward the heavenly Father. Between hell (hades) and heaven, between death and the resurrection, lies an uninterrupted line, an irresistible movement from the lowest to the highest point.... The lowest point of the descent into hell (hades), the lowering of Christ into the infernal regions, where God is not, coincides with the point of departure for heaven. In the kenosis (self-emptying), in which Christ abases himself, to the point of glory, there is a single, uninterrupted line, a single movement. By ascending, Jesus pulls all of us up with him, toward his Father who is also now our Father. (From The Incarnate God, Vol. II, p. 194-195).

Fr. Steven

The Decline of Christianity in the Holy Land

Dear Parish Faithful,

(I actually wrote this last week, but failed to send it out before I left for my trip. The subject matter, however, remains quite relevant.)


Christ is Risen!


I just completed an article entitled "Mideast Christians Declining in Influence" from today's New York Times. It was more than a little depressing. The article was prompted by the fact that Pope Benedict XVI is now on a pastoral visit to the region. The author of the article, Ethan Bronner, writes the following:

"But as Pope Benedict XVI wends his way across the Holy Land this week, he is addressing a dwindling and threatened Christian population driven to emigration by political violence, lack of economic opportunity and the rise of radical Islam. A region that a century ago was 20 percent Christian is about 5 percent today and dropping."

He then quotes the Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, Roman Catholic archbishop of Baghdad, who shared this bleak forecast for the future: "I fear the extinction of Christianity in Iraq and the Middle East." Speaking of the effects of the war in Iraq, we are informed that "of the 1.4 million Christians in Iraq at the time of the American invasion in 2003, nearly half have fled." Christians were attacked for working with Americans, and church bombings together with the murder of both clergy and lay members of the various Christian communities, have led many to flee.

A few more distressing statistics reveal that in 1948, Jerusalem was about one fifth Christian, while today the Christian population of the city is 2 percent. Also, in Bethlehem, "where the Church of the Nativity marks where Jesus is said to have been born, Christians now make up barely a third of the population after centuries of being 80 percent of it."

Further, we read that "A century ago there were millions of Christians in what is today Turkey; now there are 150,000. There is a house in Turkey where the Virgin Mary is believed to have spent her last days, yet the country's National Assembly and military have no Christian members or officers except temporary recruits doing mandatory service. Violence against Christians has risen."

The cradle of Christianity is now facing the harsh reality of being empty of any real signs of a Christian presence:

"Since it was here that Jesus walked and Christianity was born, the papal visit highlights a prospect many consider deeply troubling for the globe's largest faith, adhered to by a third of humanity - its most powerful and historic shrines could become museum relics with no connection to those who live among them."

There is no comfort to be taken when looking ahead into the future. There are no current forces at work that would arrest this slow but steady exodus to the West on the part of Middle Eastern Christians. The Christian communities of the West are there to absorb them and give them a spiritual home free from persecution, as well as the possibility of some economic stability. The prospects for a Christian revival in the Middle East are, therefore, pretty dim. This "bad news" must always be evaluated within the greater context of the Good News of Christ crucified and risen. As disheartening as the demise of Christianity in the historic Middle East is, we must always be open to the providence of God working within these conditions. What may be obscure to us in the present, may yield meaning and purpose in the future. As of now, we should be mindful and prayerful toward the remaining Christians of the Middle East who believe and worship under difficult conditions.


Fr. Steven

Photo: Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. More photos of the Holy Land at OrthodoxPhotos.com.

For a strong elaboration of the issues in this meditation, proceed to our Orthodox Q&A Forum.

I Look for the Resurrection of the Dead...

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!


"I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life in the world to come." (Nicene Creed)


Presvytera Deborah and I spent a few days in London last week - London, Ontario, Canada, that is. With a population of 350,000 inhabitants, it can be described as a large town or a modestly-sized city. Either way, a delightful place to live or visit half-way up the 401 between Detroit and Toronto. We were visiting former parishioners and friends that we have stayed in contact with over the years. (I served in a mission of the Antiochian Archdiocese in London between 1985-1989, "on loan" from the OCA). We stayed one evening with a very pious and deep-believing Greek Orthodox couple, named Dimitros and Dimitra. The timing of our visit was such that we were there for the tenth anniversary of the death of their son, Peter (Panayioti) who was killed in a single vehicle car crash at the tender age of nineteen. He was a fine young man who was a good friend of our children growing up. There is also an older sister in the family, now married with three children. On a beautiful spring evening we went to the cemetery together for a memorial service that I was honored to serve. (We returned to London for Peter's funeral in 1999, at which I also served). The deep Christian faith of Peter's parents is their strength in the daily struggle of living with his untimely death. Singing "Christos Anesti" together at his graveside was deeply moving and a great source of consolation as the perfect expression of our ultimate hope in the victory of Christ over the "sting of death."

Peter is buried in a section of this cemetery that is filled with members of London's Greek Orthodox community. There is also a section in the cemetery reserved for members of the local Russian Orthodox Church. As Dimitra was pointing out the various graves and monuments to us, we came upon the resting places of other former parishioners and friends that died either during our stay in London, or at some point after our departure. These were people that we knew well, worshipped together with, and often were guests of and recipients of their warm and generous Greek-style hospitality. Every meal was an epic feast! As the saying goes, there was a "flood of memories," both joyful and sad. We stopped at certain graves for the offering of a prayer and the singing of "Memory Eternal." These were persons that we knew particularly well and were very close to.

First, there was Soterios, one of the most good-hearted and loveliest boys we have ever known, who died of cancer at the age of fifteen. This was an extended ordeal that lasted for about two-three years. Soterios first lost his leg from the hip down while we were still in London. I remember this well, as it was a deeply-traumatic experience for the entire extended family. The vigil at the hospital during the amputation surgery was particularly sombre. When you know someone well who has lost a limb, you acutely feel their sense of diminishment. Yet, as a deeply religious and cheerful teen-ager, Soterios handled this well and learned to walk with a prosthetic leg. Right before we left London, Soterios invited Presvytera Deborah and me to his Junior High graduation. With great sadness, we learned of his death in September 1991. He was very mindful of his parents and was always preparing them for his death with words that revealed a wisdom well beyond his fifteen years. We returned for his funeral, at which I both served and delivered the homily. To this day, we have remained in touch with his family. An unforgettable teen-aged boy. Memory Eternal!

We next came to Angeliki and her son, Antonios, a thirty-five year old mother and her ten year old son, who were killed in a car accident returning from a wedding late one night from Toronto. Her husband Vasilios, a restaurant owner and, I believe, the other children - two or three - survived the crash and death of their mother and brother. They would often come to our small mission church and we got to know them pretty well. We can only imagine the impact of this tragic event on the entire family. Presvytera Kyriaki, the wife of the local Greek Orthodox priest, Fr. Eustathios, was also killed in a car accident at the young age of about thirty-five back in 1989. Her death and funeral occurred very shortly before we left London for Cincinnati. She, however, was buried in Greece.

One other tragic victim whose grave we prayed before, was Soterios' uncle Nikolaos. Nick was a very pious man who went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in around 1996. Part of his itinerary was to also travel to some of the ancient monasteries of the Egyptian desert. While in Egypt, Nick was killed with about six other pilgrims by an Egyptian militant/terrorist group. Their van was machine-gunned. I was unable to attend Nick's funeral, so it was good to be able to visit his gravesite and offer a prayer and sing "Memory Eternal." Nick and his family often came to and supported our mission, and we were often visitors in their home.

Although the Greek Orthodox community in London, Ontario, is of substantial size, the above is in itself a good deal of tragedy for one community within a fairly-limited span of time. Such tragedy is unavoidable as we know from our own parish experience. I noticed that on the gravestones of these various people, one would invariably find the final statement of faith expressed in the Nicene Creed - "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." This is significant, for it was the Greek mind that gave the world belief in the immortality of the soul, but it was the biblical revelation that conveyed to us the greater truth that the whole person, body and soul, will live together with God in the age to come. The preaching of the Gospel converted the Greek mind to accept the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the body. So these gravestones admirably reflect a sound Orthodox faith that is built upon the bodily Resurrection of Christ. As I mentioned above, the various persons that I wrote about above were all deeply-believing and practicing Orthodox Christians, as are their respective families to this day. Although severely tested to say the least, their faith sustained their lives, and this same faith sustains the lives of their remaining family members. As Demitrios said to me at the graveside of his son, Peter: "I better lead a good life so that I can be joined together with my son one day."

This trip to the cemetery made our short and enjoyable trip significant in addition to adding some depth to it. And we thank God for that.


Christ is Risen!

Fr. Steven

Our Double Atitude Towards Death

Dear Parish Faithful and Friends in Christ,

Christ is Risen!


A Paschal Meditation:

"The Son of God, the Redeemer and Savior, absolutely sinless and holy, had to accept death, and thereby He sanctified death. Hence the double attitude of Christianity to death. Christ has destroyed death by His death. His voluntary death ... is a blessing and supreme value.... Through the cross death is transfigured and leads us to resurrection and to life. The whole of this world must be made to pass through death and crucifixion, else it cannot attain to resurrection and eternity." (The Destiny of Man, Nicholas Berdyaev)

A Shuddering Awe

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS RISEN!
INDEED HE IS RISEN!

In the Gospel According to St. Mark, we hear of the discovery of the empty tomb by the myrrhbearing women "very early on the first day of the week." (16:1) This would be the day after the Sabbath, or our Sunday - the "Lord's Day." Since that astonishing morning until this day, Sunday is the most prominent day of worship for Christians, for it was on this day that the resurrection of the Lord was made manifest to the world. And that manifestation was first made to the group of women disciples we know collectively as "the myrrhbearers." St. Mark specifically mentions "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome" who "bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him." (16:1) These loyal and loving women had come, somewhat counter-intuitively, to anoint the body of the dead Jesus, though they were aware of the large stone that had been rolled "against the door of the tomb." (15:46) Or, perhaps it was a deeper intuition that brought them to the tomb in the hope that they could fulfill their ministry to the Lord. St. Mark narrates: "And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen." (16:2) The "risen sun" is certainly a wonderful anticipation of what the women were soon to discover. Yet, having arrived at the tomb where Jesus had been laid, "looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; for it was very large." (16:4)

The myrrhbearing women will now enter an empty tomb. Indeed, why was it empty? The empty tomb needed interpretation, or the women would be lost in distressful and fruitless speculation. The interpretation of the empty tomb will simultaneously be the proclamation of the "Good News." The interpreter and proclaimer will be "a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe" (16:5), clearly an angel. And that means that was he proclaims will be a divine revelation. In his presence, the women "were amazed." (16:5). The strength of the Gk. word for "amazed" (used only here in the entire NT by St. Mark) has been further translated as "a strong feeling of awe and agitation in the face of the numinous" (D. E. Nineham), or even a "shuddering awe." (A. E. J. Rawlinson) It is at this point in the dramatic narrative that we hear the "Good News" referred to above: "And he said to them 'Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him'." (16:6) The tomb is empty because Jesus had been raised from the dead! It was the will of God, that the women have the privilege of discovering this. In the words of Peter Chrysologus:

He did not roll back the stone to provide a way of escape for the Lord but to show the world that the Lord had already risen. He rolled back the stone to help his fellow servants believe, not to help the Lord rise from the dead. He rolled the stone for the sake of faith, because it had been rolled over the tomb for the sake of unbelief. He rolled back the stone so that he who took death captive might hold the title of Life. SERMON 75.4

This is a bodily resurrection, and not in some vague spiritual or "metaphorical" sense. Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified and buried, had been raised. The "Jesus of history" and the "Christ of faith" are one and the same. The resurrection reveals an awesome transformation, but it is Jesus of Nazareth who is transformed, thus assuring the continuity that is essential to reveal the victory over death that occurs in the resurrection.

The myrrhbearers then hear a further revelation from the angel: "But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." (16:7) This is in fulfillment of Christ's earlier words: "But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." (14:28) The Gospel According St. Matthew will record such an appearance of the Risen Lord to His disciples in Galilee. (MATT. 28:16-20) Then the women, apparently in that same state of amazement "fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid." (16:8) I hope and pray that at some point in the paschal season; or at any time during the year - or during our lifetime! - we too can "tremble" and be filled with "astonishment" that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Is this an enigmatic ending to the initial discovery of the empty tomb and the proclamation of the resurrection? Did the myrrhbearing women fail in their ministry as "apostles to the apostles" because of their (initial) silence? I believe that St. Mark is leaving us with the overwhelming sense of precisely encountering a divine reality that initially did leave the women speechless. As a scholar of this Gospel has written:

The women's profound emotion is described in order to bring out the overwhelming and sheerly supernatural character of that to which it was the response (see also 4:41, 6:30, 9:15), and perhaps to suggest to the reader that if he has even begun to understand the full significance of what had occurred, he too will be bound to respond with amazement and godly fear." (D. E. Nineham, St. Mark, Pelican New Testament Commentaries, p. 447-448).

It is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that the Orthodox Church proclaims to this day with faith, conviction and the certainty that God has acted "in Christ Jesus" within history in a decisive and "eschatological" manner, in order to reclaim, restore and renew His fallen creation. Of course, other Christian churches proclaim the very same victory over death in the Resurrection of Christ. However, the Resurrection understood as the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ has been challenged, "reinterpreted," or rejected by a fair share of biblical scholars and theologians. We need to be fully aware that the bodily resurrection of Christ does not refer to a resuscitated corpse. There is a tremendous element of transformation in the "spiritual body" of the Lord. The mysterious aspect of this transformation is conveyed in many of the scriptural texts that try and describe - perhaps less than adequately, or at least not exhaustively - the risen life of the Lord. Also, a resuscitated Jesus would have died again, as did Lazarus, the daughter of the elder Jairus, and the son of the widow of Nain. But St. Paul affirms: "For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him." (ROM. 6:9) There has "arisen" a sad division amongst Christians over this essential issue. To follow Jesus or to believe in Him apart from His bodily resurrection and all that that implies for Christology, anthropology, and eschatology, etc., is to follow "another Gospel." (GAL. 1:7) Such a Jesus did not "trample down death by death." It is a different Jesus and a different religion.

The further words of Peter Chrysologus captures the choice before us when contemplating the empty tomb:

Pray that the angel would descend now and roll away all the hardness of our hearts and open up our closed senses and declare to our minds that Christ has risen, for just as the heart in which Christ lives and reigns is heaven, so also the heart in which Christ remains dead and buried is a grave. May it be believed that just as he died, so was he transformed. Christ the man suffered, died and was buried; as God he lives, reigns, is and will be forever. SERMONS 75.4

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!


Fr. Steven

Marriage and Essential Equality

Dear Parish Faithful,


Christ is Risen!


We have a few marriages coming up in our parish life - two over the next two weekends - so I wanted to make a few comments, forward some sound interpretive texts, and try to make some sense, in a contemporary setting, of our use of scripture in the wedding service. At all Orthodox Christian marriage services, one of the prescribed readings is from the Epistle to the Ephesians (5:22-31). In today's social and cultural context, that reading is more than a little controversial. So, in a loud and clear voice - and no longer covered up by an "old world" language! - we hear the Apostle Paul's admonition:

Submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife she that she respects her husband. (EPH. 5:21-33)

At that point in the service, eyes roll in disbelief, heads shake in disagreement, and glances are exchanged in dismay. If you look and listen very carefully, you may even detect a knowing smirk or even an unintentional snort among the many gathered people. Of course, many Orthodox simply accept the reading as part of an unchanging tradition; regard such quaintness as part of Orthodox conservatism; and "move on" with the flow of the service. The bride and groom are convinced that the passage does not reflect contemporary attitudes toward marriage; or that it certainly does not apply to their upcoming life together. They convey this to each other in mutually reassuring and loving glances; or a warm squeeze of the hands. They, too, then settle in for the remainder of the service. The non-Orthodox present may feel as if they have been transported back in time by a few centuries. "Colorful," perhaps, but ultimately irrelevant. It is like an unexpected bad note at a wonderful symphony that creates a modestly perceptible wave of uneasiness, only to be absorbed into the greater beauty of the whole service which leaves everyone deeply impressed. Yet, is the passage in point that unendurable? Or, more pointedly, is the Apostle Paul actually a glorified misogynist?

My intention is not to defend the Apostle Paul, nor is it to compel assent to his teaching by an attempt to convince everyone of how "right" he actually is. My concern here is very modest: to at least try and understand what the Apostle Paul is saying before we dismiss him as "patriarchal" or "chauvinist." The passage from Ephesians is indeed jarring and it does indeed seem to be at the very least outdated. But who takes the time and makes the effort to try and come to terms with the Apostle's goal and the context out of which this passage emerges? Is he (ab)using his authority to subordinate women to the dominance of men? I, for one, do not find such charges very convincing. Many scholars have gone a long way in demonstrating that the Apostle Paul can hardly be labeled a misogynist. In fact, considering contemporary attitudes to women in the Apostle's Paul's social, cultural, and religious context, he had a liberating attitude toward women - as indeed Christ Himself had. It is the Apostle Paul who also wrote: "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." (I COR. 7:4) It is impossible to conceive of a Jewish or pagan contemporary of St. Paul's to say anything like that.

An excellent contemporary Orthodox commentary on St. Paul's Ephesian text comes, in my opinion, from Fr. John Breck, found in his remarkable book THE SACRED GIFT OF LIFE. In this book he has a wonderful and insightful chapter entitled "Sexuality, Marriage and Covenant Responsibility." This chapter is seventy-two pages long, and is itself like a small book on marriage from an Orthodox Christian perspective. I cannot recommend this chapter highly enough for any Orthodox Christian who would like to have a better grasp of these essential topics. Under a section entitled "Equality of the Sexes," Fr. John does not hide the "facts of history:"

Within ancient Israel and throughout most of the life of the Church there has been a striking and, to most people's minds, an unjust balance with regard to the requirements for sexual fidelity and responsibility. The burden has weighed far more heavily on women than on men. This is due in part to a legacy of disproportion that we can call in today's jargon "sexist patriarchalism." (p. 83-84)

In his usual balanced style, Fr. John responds to this with a paragraph where he directly deals with some of the teachings and implications of St. Paul's Ephesian text used in our Marriage Service. Agree with him or not, I believe that Fr. John has something worth thinking about as he reflects holistically and deeply on the Apostle's teaching :

In theory, if not in practice, this condition has been done away with by the "great reversal" brought about by Jesus Christ. St. Paul's declaration, "in Christ there is neither male nor female," means that the socially and culturally conditioned inequality between the sexes is abolished: it does not exist in the mind of God and has no place within the church communities. It also means that in Christ men bear equal responsibility with women for upholding a moral ethos which is conducive to preserving the integrity of family life.
Consequently, the husband is no less responsible than his wife for preserving familial structure, stability and nurture necessary for the proper raising of their children. The husband is also as responsible as the wife for fulfilling the prescriptions of Ephesians 5. If the wife "submits" herself to her husband as to the Lord, her submission mirrors that of the Church in relation to Christ. Conversely, if the husband exercises headship, he does so by reflecting the actions and attitudes of Christ toward his Body, the Church. (The verb hypotasso is correctly rendered "submit" in this context, not "subject," as in so many English translations. It denotes a voluntary act of love rather than subjection to constraints imposed by the husband or social convention.) The husband is to love his wife "as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her" in a sacrificial self-offering of disinterested love. The key to this mutual relationship is provided in Eph. 5:21, a verse that introduces the entire passage: "Submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ." The submission, in other words, is reciprocal. It involves both parties equally yet in different ways: the wife through acceptance of the husband's responsibility for "headship," and the husband through loving service offered to his spouse. (p. 84)

Fr. John, in a very revealing footnote, honestly expresses our own difficulties with such a term as "headship:"

The concept of "headship" is one that needs a great deal more explanation than it has received to date. To what degree is it inherent in the conjugal relationship, and to what degree is it culturally conditioned? And in modern society, where both spouses are often the breadwinners, or where the husband assumes domestic chores while the wife pursues a career, how is the husband's "headship" to be exercised? (p. 84)

Nevertheless, even with such an honest reservation, Fr. John goes on to say this of the life between husband and wife:

The responsibilities and obligations of the conjugal relationship are mutual and fully equal. Husband and wife exercise different "functions" within the family, just as the priest and laity do in the "family" of the parish community. Those functions, however, are complementary. They are effective only to the extent they are based on the full and unconditional equality of each party with regard to ontological status and spiritual value.

Authentic hierarchy, in the Holy Trinity or in the Church, presupposes just such equality ... (p. 84-85)

These few passages may not do real justice to the richness of Fr. John's thoughts on "sexuality, marriage, and covenant responsibility," but they may at least indicate some of the direction of his thought. As quoted above, Fr. John is courageous enough to even explores the terribly unpopular concept of "hierarchy" raised by the Pauline teaching on "headship" But in a truly holistic Orthodox fashion, he makes it clear that if that concept is not to be rejected as anachronistic, or abused in a conservative manner, then it must be understood in its most exalted trinitarian application before applying it to human life. His conclusion is very important:

Hierarchy presupposes and in fact requires the essential equality of its constituent members, an equality that derives from the fact that each member is created in the image of God and each one is called in equal measure to attain to the divine likeness. (p. 85)

I repeat, the Apostle Paul does not need any defense, but I am hoping that we can make the effort to understand what he is saying in the light of his teaching that "there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (GAL. 3:28) That makes more sense to me than an unenlightened dismissal of the scriptural text when we hear these words in church, as we will in the very near future.


Fr. Steven

The Art of Breaking the Fast

Dear Parish Faithful!


Pascha: The Fourth Day


CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!


If there is an "art" to fasting, then there is certainly an "art" to breaking the fast. Feasting is not synonymous with a total lack of restraint in which - excuse the expression - we stuff ourselves beyond the point of satiation and into a kind of food-induced stupor. Hence, what we learned during Lent can be wiped out in a couple of days! This pastoral reminder was prompted by a letter I just received, in which, among other topics, I read the following insightful comments: "Oddly enough we already miss the Lent season! I was looking forward to having some freedom again, but somehow we are all changed from this experience. Also, I didn't realize how careful we needed to be with breaking the fast. I thought we were being cautious, but it seems whatever I put on the table was too much for us...." This family's comment that "we are all changed from this experience" are more than a little interesting.

If you discount the fasting rules for a moment, we could say that Great Lent is a disciplined reminder of how Christians should be living throughout the course of the year and in their lives. This would be manifesting the freedom of the children of God, by regular prayer, almsgiving and fasting, with an eye on struggling with a very self-indulgent culture that enslaves us to our appetites. If we intensified our prayer and almsgiving during Great Lent, should we now abandon all of that as we get back to "normal?" Do we now "take a break" from prayer and almsgiving? As a related extension to that, we could say that even though we are not now fasting, this again does mean to open the door to an excessive self-indulgence that knows of no restraint. To carry some of the good practices renewed during Great Lent over into the paschal season can only be healthy for both soul and body.

I am thoroughly enjoying Bright Week. It reinforces and sustains the very foundation of our Christian Faith - the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. I bless the non-lenten food on our table in the name of the Risen Christ and enjoy partaking of it. And yet I am glad that someone from our parish wrote in such a way as to remind me and all of us by putting our celebration of Pascha - and the breaking of the Fast - in a sound perspective. It makes no sense to lose what we may have gained once we transition from Lent to Pascha.


Fr. Steven

PASCHA: More than Easter

Dear Parish Faithful and Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS RISEN!
INDEED HE IS RISEN!

If you celebrated Easter yesterday, then today you awoke with the realization that Easter is already over. If, however, you are celebrating Pascha, then you realize that even though we have already been through the explosive paschal service of the other night/early morning, Pascha is actually a forty day celebration that is the counterpart and fulfillment of Great Lent and Holy Week. Bright Monday and the rest of Bright Week is the beginning of a sustained season that is dominated by our faith that

"Jesus is risen from the grave, as He foretold, granting us eternal life and great mercy."

However, experience may have already taught us that it is much easier to "keep" Lent than it is to "keep" Pascha. So we are faced with the challenge of not allowing Pascha to become Easter (at least as it is conventionally understood and celebrated). No simple solution to this dilemma because often our tired bodies fail to cooperate. But we should not feel helpless in the inevitable onslaught of the post-paschal parish swoon. Here is one possible remedy: As we try and do some "lenten reading" we can also do some "paschal reading." A new website is now up and running: "The Feast of Feasts - An Orthodox Christian Celebration of Holy Pascha and the Resurrection of Christ." It is co-sponsored by the OCA and Antiochian Archdiocese. It is filled with many remarkable articles by prominent Orthodox theologians, but also by many fine articles by various parish faithful who offer some excellent reflections on the place of our Lord's Resurrection in our lives.

As an example, the home page has a copy of the very Resurrection icon that we venerate in our parish, written by Fr. Gregory Krug, with an accompanying commentary on the icon's significance by our own parish iconographer, Fr. Andrew Tregubov. I would also suggest, under "articles," one written by Daniel Manzuk entitled "Great and Holy Saturday." This is an excellent explanation of the theological and spiritual meaning of Holy Saturday and how it relates to us the reality of the Resurrection.

Please take advantage of this wonderful website. This reading will provide you with many insights from many perspectives on the paschal mystery, concentrating on the resurrection of Christ. Our webmaster has already provided a link to it on the home-page of our own parish website. Otherwise, the address is: http:www.feastoffeasts.org/

In Christ,
Fr. Steven

Only At His Death

Dear Parish Faithful and Friends in Christ,

As Holy and Great Friday gives way to Holy and Great Saturday, and the humiliation of the Cross is about to be transformed in the glory of the Resurrection, here are some final insights into the mystery of the Cross taken from the biblical scholar, Donald Senior, from his excellent book The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark:

"One of the most startling and provocative features of Mark's Gospel is that the true identity of Jesus is acknowledged by a human witness only at his death. "Seeing how he died" the Roman centurion recognizes Jesus as Son of God (15:39). Conversely only in the passion does Jesus seem to accept without hesitation the messianic titles of "Christ" and "Son of the blessed" used in the High Priest's interrogation (14:63). This clarity stands in contrast to preceding parts of the Gospel where Jesus seems to be diffident about reactions to his miracles, where the disciples themselves fail to understand him and his opponents label him as demonic. In short, the true identity of Jesus as God's Son is manifested not in acts of marvelous power but in an event seemingly devoid of any power, his passion and death." (p. 144)

"Therefore the cross stands as a sharp challenge to worldly concepts of what is "powerful" or important. God does not work through the grandeur of human might but through the compassionate and tenacious loving service unto death of the Christ. The Cross in Mark's Gospel stands, therefore, as a challenge to all abusive and oppressive notions of power." (p. 146)

"Mark's death scene redefines what a "Christian death" must look like. To die in faith need not mean peaceful death, or pious decorum. The Markan Jesus struggles in death, crying out to God in a piercing lament, and breathing his last with a scream. Yet the God of Jesus is present even - and especially - in these moments when human dignity seems shredded. No corner of human existence is closed to God's presence. No body is too broken, no spirit so bent that the God of the crucified would recoil from it." (p. 147)

We see that the "wisdom of God" is expressed in the "foolishness of the Cross."


Fr. Steven

Challenging Our Claims of Discipleship

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


On Holy and Great Wednesday we are presented with a stark and striking contrast about choices and destiny. The Church on this day has us contemplate the radically different fates of "the sinful woman" and the disciple Judas. The former, though a great sinner, was forgiven through an act of repentance; the latter, though a close disciple, was lost through an act of betrayal. What an overwhelming difference between repentance and betrayal! This is a veritable "reversal of fortune" of the greatest intensity possible. The hymnography portrays this contrast with a heightened rhetoric worthy of the interior drama brought before our gaze:

As the sinful woman was bringing her offering of
myrrh,
the disciple was scheming with lawless men.
She rejoiced in pouring out her precious gift.
He hastened to sell the precious one.
She recognized the Master, but Judas parted from
Him.
She was set free, but Judas was enslaved to the
enemy.
How terrible his slothfulness!
How great her repentance!
O Savior, who didst suffer for our sakes,
grant us repentance, and save us.

(Praises, at Matins)

The harlot spread out her hair to Thee, O Master;
Judas spread out his hands to lawless men;
she in order to receive forgiveness;
he in order to receive some silver.
We cry to Thee, who was sold for us and yet didst
set us free:
"O Lord, glory to Thee!"

(Aposticha, at Matins)

There is more than one account of an anointing of the Savior. He was anointed right before His passion as a prefiguration of His burial (MK. 14:3-9; JN. 12:1-8). And He was anointed during His earthly ministry by an unnamed woman while dining with Simon the Pharisee (LK. 7:36-50). It is clearly this anointing that the hymnography refers to when speaking of the "sinful woman." (Not St. Mary Magdalene, by the way). St. Luke relates the story very beautifully:

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was sitting at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Disregarding the rebuke of Simon the Pharisee, who reproached Christ for even allowing "this sort of a woman" to touch Him, the Lord declares: "Therefore, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much." (LK. 7:47)

In stark contrast to this, we hear of the treachery of Judas, told somewhat laconically:

Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him. (MK. 14:10-11)

Jesus, fully aware of this, later uttered these terrifying words about the fate of Judas at the Mystical Supper:

"For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." (MK. 14:21)

On the eve of the Lord's passion, we are reminded of the need to be repentant, and not self-satisfied and self-content with the content and depth of our faith. The human heart is a mysterious realm wherein "dragons" and "angels" both dwell according to St. Macarius the Great. It can change allegiances "in the twinkling of an eye." As we are moved by the sinful woman's repentance and troubled by Judas' betrayal, we must guard our hearts so that this is not simply an emotional response that does not touch the quality and direction of our lives. We can always shed tears over a good story. Have we had an experience of repentance and love for Christ that in anyway resembles that of this sinful woman? Or, are we sure that we have never betrayed anyone, including our Lord? Betrayal does not have to be spectacular. It can manifest itself in little things including apathy and indifference. We can pay "lip service" to the teaching of Christ, but actually live as if Christ was hardly "the Lord and Master" of our lives.

The services of Holy Week are intent upon challenging our claims of discipleship. Not to point out our failings, but to remind us of the seriousness of those claims and the need for God's grace to remain loyal to Christ before all other things. Jesus said that "he who is forgiven little, loves little." (LK. 7:47). But on the Cross we were forgiven everything! Are we now able to "love much?"


Fr. Steven

Holy Week: The Ultimate Perspective

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


At the beginning of Holy Week we contemplate "The End" - of the earthly ministry of Christ, of our own lives and the judgment that will lead to, and of the "end of the world." In other words there is something of an "apocalyptic edge" to the texts of the services, beginning with the Scriptures and extending into the hymnography. Another term would be "eschatological," meaning the "last things" in relation to the fulfillment of God's design for the world. That may initially sound like a strange combination of themes. After all, our major concern and focus is upon our Lord voluntarily going up to Jerusalem in order to ascend the Cross in the flesh. But right before the Son of Man ascends the Cross, He solemnly declares: "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out." (JN. 12:31) In judging Christ, "the world" judges itself. Sin and darkness seem to prevail when the Innocent Christ is led away to be crucified. The triumph of such darkness can freeze the heart and lead many to despair, the very fate of the disciples at this time. As the prophet Amos said: "The one who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked on that day." (AMOS 2:16; cf. MK. 14:51-52) Where do we stand?

It is striking that in the hymns for the Bridegroom Matins of Holy Tuesday, for example, there is not much direct reference to the Passion of Christ. There is much more of a combination of exhortation and warning to us - the contemporary disciples of Christ - concerning our relationship to Christ, to the world, and to our neighbor. Are we loyal to our Lord as we remain in the world? As we await the Second Coming of the Lord in glory do we manifest true discipleship by fulfilling His commandments? If the Bridegroom were to come "at midnight," would He find us "watchful" or "heedless?" Are we "weighed down with sleep" - the sleep of spiritual sloth and torpor - or do we "rouse" ourselves in order to glorify God through our faith and deeds? Do we have a "wedding garment" with which to enter the "bridal chamber" of the Lord? To come to the service is to "subject" oneself to this deep probing as the Lord searches our hearts for signs of faith and love. This is done through the hymnography which in turn elaborates upon the parables of the talents, the wise and foolish virgins, the wedding banquet, etc. Firmly, but rather relentlessly, the hymns reveal the true state of our souls in order that we turn to the Lord and seek His healing forgiveness:

How shall I, the unworthy one, appear in the splendor of Thy saints? For if I dare enter Thy bridal chamber with them, my garments will betray me; they are unfit for a wedding. The angels will cast me out in chains. Cleanse the filth of my soul, O Lord, and save me in Thy love for mankind.

O Christ the Bridegroom, my soul has slumbered in laziness. I have no lamp aflame with virtues. Like the foolish virgins I wander aimlessly when it it is time for work. But do not close Thy compassionate heart to me, O Master. Rouse me, shake off my heavy sleep. Lead me with the wise virgins into the bridal chamber, that I may hear the pure voice of those that feast and cry unceasingly: "O Lord, glory to Thee!"

Thou art more beautiful than all men, O Bridegroom. Thou hast invited us to the spiritual banquet of Thy bridal chamber. Strip me of the ugly garment of my sins as I participate in Thy passion. Adorn me in the glorious robe of Thy beauty that proclaims me a guest in Thy Kingdom, O merciful Lord.

Contemplating "The End" at the beginning of Holy Week provides the necessary and ultimate perspective on the events of Holy Week that culminate with the Cross of our Lord. "This world" will judge itself - a judgment that we flee from by remaining loyal to Christ. But to do this meaningfully, we must make a choice: are we like "innocent," but apathetic bystanders, who safely flee from any engagement in the passion of Christ or of any self-denial and a willingness to bear our own personal crosses? Or do we heed the Gospels and the call of the hymnography to rouse ourselves to both the active and contemplative life of authentic discipleship? The "end" of Christ's ministry on the Cross is the "beginning" of the New Age of the Kingdom of God's presence in this world. The Son of Man will be raised from the dead and glorified to the right hand of the Father on high. We anticipate that as we move through Holy Week, but it will be as "stewards of grace" that the Kingdom will be an experience in our lives and not simply an idea.


Fr. Steven

Holy Monday - The Bottomless Depths of Love

Dear Parish Faithful,


HOLY AND GREAT MONDAY


"Because of the ontological unity of Christ with the whole human race (i.e. on the level of being), the sacrifice was a bloody crucifixion. United with us in being and in love, Christ took on Himself all the hatred, rebellion, derision, despair - 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' - all the murders, all the suicides, all the tortures, all the agonies of all humanity throughout all time and all space. In all these, Christ bled, suffered, and cried out in anguish and in desolation. But as He suffered in a human way, so was He trustful in a human way: 'Father into thy hands I commit my spirit.' At that moment death is swallowed up in life, the abyss of hatred is lost in the bottomless depths of love."

Roots of Christian Mysticism - Olivier Clement
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If you go to the official webpage of the OCA, you will find a brief but helpful article by Fr. Thomas Hopko about the meaning of the sequence of services and their principle themes for Holy Week.

Fr. Steven

The 39th Day: A Sacrifice of Love

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT - The Thirty Ninth Day

"On the cross, everything is ended, all is accomplished: the Lord reigns, the prince of the world is thrown out, the kingdom of Satan is abolished. Voracious Hades devours the Master of life but is unable to contain Him, for nothing in Jesus belongs to hell by right: no mark of shadow or of sin. The full and pure light of love illuminates hell and swallows up the source of all suffering. Let us not be afraid to speak of the death of Jesus - and of His resurrection - as a sacrifice because the sacrifice is an essential aspect of the love of the Father and the Son. The Father required no sacrifice to appease His wrath - this image of The Father's anger is secondary in the Bible. Rather, this is a sacrifice of offering, of descent and then of ascent, in search of the lost sheep. It is a sacrifice of consecration, of the exorcising of human nature corrupted by sin, of the healing of humanity sick through sin, and of the consolation of humanity bewildered in loneliness, far from the sources of living water. Jesus reaches and heals the intimate depths of humanity. This is a sacrifice of reintegration by which all of creation is brought back to the Father."

From "The Lamb of God Takes upon Himself Human Suffering," by Boris Bobrinskoy

The 38th Day: A Love Stronger than Death

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT: The Thirty Eighth Day

"But as the antidote to sin, the death of Jesus Christ has broken its momentum. Christ has consumed its infernal roots and extracted its sting. The seed of justice sprouts in our humanity, which Christ bears. In loving obedience to the Father, Jesus in His humanity suffered to the end. He took on the anguish, deadly sadness, lonely agony, judgment, and the passion. Jesus also confronted suffering - not as a mythological hero or a stoic, impassible under the blows, but by anticipating, accepting, and refusing to hide from them, in 'a love as strong as death', as the Song of Songs says (8:6), or rather, in a love that is stronger than death."

From "The Compassion of the Father," by Boris Bobrinskoy