Tag: praxis

Homily: Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

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“A faith without fruit, and fruits without faith are collectively bitter things that are of no spiritual or genuine benefit to anyone baring them.  But a faith bearing fruit and those fruits born in faith are precious gems of our good stewardship and God’s love unto the world. May we all be good stewards of our faith, bearing good fruits into the world, that by them, the whole world may know Christ.”

We Must be Fruitful

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; One God!  Amen.

In today’s Gospel and Epistle readings we hear much about fruit.  We hear much about good fruit and bad fruit; of false prophets and slaves to holiness; of good trees and bad.  Yet, what does it all mean? Throughout the totality of scripture we read, see and hear various parables and metaphors about fruit-bearing, and it seems to present an idea for us of what it means to be a part of Him, a part of the vine to which we have all been grafted.  Let us recall the words of Christ in the Gospel of John:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He [a]takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. “

As the vinedresser, God is a patient and purposeful farmer who seeks a spiritual harvest from each of us, His branches, grafted to His Son.  As such he expects us to be more than just branches, but fruit bearing branches; to do more than just hold an ethical and religious identity, but to become living icons of that identity; to do more than just consider ourselves Christians, but to actually be and become Christian, living out our faith in such a way that we not only become good fruit of the vine, but bear the good fruit of faith in our lives, bringing forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that our whole lives may become a harvest of holiness for our King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

We are grafted to the vine through holy baptism and chrismation.  We are watered by a persistence of prayer, both in our own lives and corporately within the body of Christ, the Church.  We are thus fertilized by the teachings of both the Scriptures and the Fathers, the fullness of Truth found wholly within Holy Tradition.  And we are pruned and preserved through our Orthodox praxis of faith and ascesis, those spiritual exercises so important to us all- prayer, fasting, and alms giving, but also a simplicity of life, unfettered and unburdened by the superfluity of this world. It is only here, and only in this manner, that we may become fruits of the vine.

But what does Fruit mean in this context?  The underlying Greek work translated as “fruit” is Karpos (καρπός), a word used 66 times throughout the canon of the New Testament. Anyone who has studied koine Greek in at least a cursory fashion will know that context is important in the proper understanding of what is being said in all things.  In one sense the word quite literally means fruit, or harvest.  Towards that end we are all living fruits of the vine, that is Christ.  We embody truth and embolden others to partake of it, becoming that which is pleasing to the hearts and minds of all men, that they may see Christ in us and through us.  We do this in faith, but we also do this in fearful remembrance of the fig tree for which Christ cursed and condemned for bearing no fruit.  Love has no season, and Truth has no end.  Christ is unceasing, and so should we be also.

Another meaning of the word karpos is deed, activity, or “produce of a person.”  In this we are understood to be bearers of good fruit.  Just as we need the vine for life, for there is no life apart from it, the vine needs its branches so that good fruit may be born into the world.  If Christ is the head of His Church, and we are living stones a part of that body, then we are His hands and feet within the world.  The Orthodox Church wholly rejects any theology that violates the free will of men, but Christ calls each of us to Him, and it is our choice but also our duty to lead others to him by our own examples of faith, by our good fruits given to and done unto others, by the Grace of God and the Holy Spirit.  Christ calls all men, that we may be brought into the fullness of Truth, grafted to the vine, and spiritually nourished by the sacramental life therein. 

What does good fruit look like? Saint Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Galatians “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  Notice here that fruit is singular.  These are all attributes of a single fruit. Love is first and foremost.  If we possess a Godly love, and truly love God as we should, then we will possess all the other attributes listed here.  Yet, if we have love, or simply say we have love, and lack any of these, then the love we possess is neither Godly nor the love of God.  Yet, such love can only be achieved through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit

How does one acquire the Holy Spirit?  We turn to the words of Saint Seraphim of Sarov regarding the acquisition of the Holy Spirit:

“Prayer, fasting, vigils and all the other Christian practices may be, they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life.  Although it is true that they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.  As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, are the only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God.”

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three great ascetic practices of our faith,  the exercise and growth of our spiritual lives. Yet, our spiritual life is far more than just our thoughts and feelings, and inward spiritual practices of our faith, but in fact it comprises the whole human experience, the full depth  of our humanity: thought, feeling, heart,  soul, vision, mind, and body.  Not only this, but our spiritual lives should consist of our everyday experiences – work, school, our social life, family life, home life – and not just be compartmentalized to Church on Sunday mornings.  This is what it mens to become good fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that peculiar fruit we are to bear unto the world, that by it and through it we may lead others into the fullness of Truth, the Life of Christ and life eternal.  It stands as a perfect counter image to that of Eve enticing and leading Adam into sin through her half truth, or heresy, bringing death unto the world.

Who, by your example of faith, have you brought into faith, and the fullness of Truth? Whose life have you enriched, enlivened, and elevated by being the light of Christ in their life?  Who have you helped and uplifted by meeting the other wherever they had need?  What joy have you brought into the life of another? What kind words have you spoken today? What prayers have you said for those who hate you, and for those that others would deem worthy recipients of such enmity?  Where have we sown peace, and have we been a cause for any enmity or discord anywhere within the lives of others?  Are we honest with ourselves when we look upon the contents of our own hearts?

A faith without fruit, and fruits without faith are collectively bitter things that are of no spiritual or genuine benefit to anyone baring them.  But a faith bearing fruit and those fruits born in faith are precious gems of our good stewardship and God’s love unto the world. May we all be good stewards of our faith, bearing good fruits into the world, that by them, the whole world may know Christ.

Oh Lord, Jesus Christ our God, by the prayers of thy most pure mother, the holy and God bearing fathers, and the saints, and the martyrs and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

Sunday of the Paralytic

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“Like the paralytic, we are also expected to go into the world, and sin no more.  We have been given a far greater deposit of faith, of Tradition, found in the Church; of Love, found in obedience to the commandments of Christ, once given, and always echoing in our ears, in the scriptures, in our liturgies and services: Go, and sin no more, for anyone who loves Christ will keep his commandments, in faith, and in simple obedience to His word.  For, obedience is the natural fruit of faith, and is born of humility, the mother of all virtue.”

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  One God!  Amen.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear the story of The Paralytic, a man who had been afflicted for thirty eight years with paralysis, waiting by the sheep’s gate of the pool called Bethesda for the stirring of the waters by the Angel of the Lord.  We do not know how old this man was, nor do we know the cause of his affliction, but whatever the cause of his condition, some fathers have considered it to be the result of some sin he had committed in his life.  This is further affirmed by the command that Christ had given him when he later found him in the temple after he healed him of his infirmity.:

“See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

Christ gave one other person a similar command, the women taken in adultery and condemned to stoning, wherein he told her likewise, after no one was left to condemn her, “go, and sin no more.”

It is a simple command that should be heeded by all of us, but not so simple to carry out, as I am sure many of us have learned with great difficulty, and an often unexpected humility,  during the Lenten season that is now behind us. Yet, sin is an illness, a spiritual illness, afflicting us all till the end of life, and we can no more fault one another for our own affliction than we could a cancer patient dying of their disease.  The difference comes in how we respond to it.  What manner of life do we choose to live? How do we present ourselves to the world and before God?  For the command has been given, and it only requires a simple obedience.  Consider that the paralytic man likely did not know who Christ was, did not know that He was the son of God, or even able to perform such a miracle; but, by his obedience to the simple command of Christ, quickly found that he could walk once again.  By his faith in what he was told to be true, he found he was healed of his infirmity and made whole once again. 

Like the paralytic, we are also expected to go into the world, and sin no more.  We have been given a far greater deposit of faith, of Tradition, found in the Church; of Love, found in obedience to the commandments of Christ, once given, and always echoing in our ears, in the scriptures, in our liturgies and services: Go, and sin no more, for anyone who loves Christ will keep his commandments, in faith, and in simple obedience to His word.  For, obedience is the natural fruit of faith, and is born of humility, the mother of all virtue.

In the words of Thomas Hopko of blessed memory:

In the Orthodox spiritual tradition, obedience is a basic virtue: obedience to the Lord, to the Gospel, to the Church, to the leaders of the Church to one’s parents and elders, to “every ordinance of man”, “to one another out of reverence for Christ.” There is no spiritual life without obedience, no freedom or liberation from sinful passions and lusts. To submit to God’s discipline in all of its human forms, is the only way to obtain “the glorious liberty of the children of God,” disciplines us as His children out of His great love for us. “He disciplines us for our good, that we might share His holiness.”. Our obedience to God’s commandments and discipline is the exclusive sign of our love for Him and His Son.

It is within the Church that is found the fullness of this deposit of faith: The Gospels; her liturgies and prayers; her praxis of faith and liturgical rhythm of life; an Orthodox prescription of life found in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; and the Holy Sacraments from which we are given and provided the means or our healing from the clutches of this illness, of which the symptom is sin. For, the Church is after all a hospital for our souls, but more than that, it is the pillar and foundation of Truth, established upon the foundation of the teachings of the Prophets and the apostles, with Christ as the cornerstone, of which we are all living stones. It is within the Church that we find our eternal remedy and food in the body of blood of Christ, the prescriptions of life for our own eternal life and edification, but so many of us find ourselves in the same condition as the paralytic, unable to move because of our own spiritual infirmity; unable to act upon what we know is right because of the weight of our own sin. Yet, Christ bids us all, get up and sin no more.

Life is a choice.  Death is a choice. We are not punished so much as we are recipients of the fruits of our decisions.  Whoever sincerely desires their own salvation does everything for the sake of their salvation. Whoever truly desires their salvation will distance themselves from everything that hinders them in the work of their salvation.  For while our salvation is a gift freely given to us, a clenched fist, or a hand grasping something else receives nothing. For if we are not obedient in all things to the best of our ability, then we are at risk of receiving nothing, and losing all things.

In the words of Saint Anthony the Great:

The truly intelligent man pursues one sole objective: to obey and conform to the God of all. With this single aim in view, he disciplines his soul, and whatever he may encounter in the course of his life, he gives thanks to God for the compass and depth of His providential ordering of all things.

For it is absurd to be grateful to doctors who give us bitter and unpleasant medicines to cure our bodies, and yet to be ungrateful to God for what appears to us to be harsh, not grasping that all we encounter is for our benefit and in accordance with His providence. For knowledge of God and faith in Him is the salvation and perfection of the soul.” 

Do you want to be healed?  It is the question Christ asked of the paralytic.  But, it is a question that should be asked of all of us. Do we really want to be healed?  Through the Church we have been given the tools, the means, and the prescriptions of an authentic spiritual practice to find such a thing.  The Church awakens in us those spiritual gifts God has given to all of us through its sacraments, prayers, liturgies, and Tradition.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, has come to set us free from the illness of sin, but it is our choice alone to follow the prescriptions we have been given.  It is of our own free will that we receive that gift we have been given.

Do we partake of all that has been given us? Do we foster within us a genuine desire to become better men and women then what we are by nature? Do we try to observe and maintain our purity of life not only in our own conscience, but in the eyes of God?  Do we live vigorously to fight against the passions of the flesh, but also against the vices of this world without concessions to the vagaries of this world? Do we turn to God for help and assistance when trouble finds us, and do we use those means we have been given for our own salvation rightly and as prescribed?  Are we zealous about reading the word of God with introspection, to see and identify those things we need to correct when we examine ourselves in the mirror of Truth? Do we confess ourselves before God that we might be absolved of our many transgressions? Do we imitate those Saints that have gone before us, and have we developed a relationship with the one who’s name we bear? Do we help our fellow men, and rejoice when we find the opportunity to do s

We must strive so that our earthly life resembles that heavenly life we all strive towards.  We must compare all things earthly to those things heavenly, and not the other way around as so many are wont to do.  We must see that which is invisible and eternal in favor over that which is visible and temporal. Be ready to give up anything and consider everything as dung so that no earthly thing may stand between us and Christ.  Our thoughts should be given to eternity.  Our desires should be the perfection of virtue.  Our greatest pleasures should be our reflection, consideration and conversations about the blessedness of those who have gone before us, and our greatest sorrow should be when we feel no spiritual draw nor attraction to heavenly things.  We are not troubled by this life, but only the next, and the concerns of not only our own salvation, but those of our brothers and sisters around us. Our life should be a visible expression, image, and preparation for that better life in the age to come. Our prayer life, and our life within this world, should be equal and parallel expressions of the same faith we seek to live day by day.

So, as we move forward in this Paschal season with the joyous exclamation, Christ is Risen! Let us also rise with Him.  Let us rise from our sins.  Let us rise with the strength He has given us to overcome them.  Let us rise, no more shackled by fear of this world, or fear for the sake of our failures, but move forward, day by day, into the eternal Joy of the Kingdom of God.  So let us all take up our own beds, and sin no more, that me we might walk together in the joy of eternal life.

He is Risen!  He is Risen!  He is Risen!

By the prayers of thy most pure mother, the Holy and God bearing Fathers, all the saints, the martyrs and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

Homily: The Publican and the Pharisee

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Today we take the first step in preparation for the great fast of the approaching Lenten season. We enter the weeks of preparation in the Triodion period of the Church.

The Publican and the Pharisee

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  One God.  Amen.

Today we take the first step in preparation for the great fast of the approaching Lenten season. We enter the weeks of preparation in the Triodion period of the Church.  Over the course of the next three weeks, starting with today, we begin to prepare ourselves for renewal and repentance as we return ourselves to God, so that when we celebrate that Christ has risen from the dead, we may rise with him a new creation.  It is a time where we turn ourselves to God with a renewed and particular compunction of heart with that special prayer upon our lips: “My Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We give to God what God has given us: our lives.  We return to Christ that which is broken and contrite: our hearts.  We take back from the world that which it has taken and in turn return it to our King of Kings and Lord of Lords: our time, attention, and our veneration. “O Creator of all, above and below, as Thou receivest the thrice-holy hymn from the angels, so also from mankind receive the Triodion .”

This first Sunday establishes for us not only the cornerstone of our Lenten journey, but that as well of our Orthodox faith: Humility and repentance. I have said before, just as the desert Fathers before us have said, and the voices of the Fathers throughout the ages have exhorted us, humility is the root of all virtue, and as such is the mother of all virtue.  Humility precedes love, without which there can be no salvation, for genuine love places the other before itself.  Humility allows us to repent, for the prideful cannot admit they are wrong.  Humility allows us to forgive others, for without which there is no forgiveness for us, for the prideful cannot release the least offense committed against them.  Humility allows us to accept any poverty or lowliness of life, for pride assumes we deserve all things and holds on to all things for itself.  There lies the crux of pride, an assumption of greater self worth than we actually hold; an assumption of greater importance to others and over others; and a belief of greater worth and value than the other.  This is, in part, what the Gospel lesson is showing us for today embodied within the Pharisee.

Humility is a most pragmatic vision of self, and others.  We truly know ourselves, and see ourselves as we really are.  This is one of many reasons we commonly pray the Jesus prayer. We recognize what we are, and never assume to be of greater importance than this.  Nor do we see the other in this same light and see them for their sins.  No, humility is introspective, to know what one’s self is, and what we would be without the grace of God: nothing but dust, and dead. Yet, it is also the compass by which all virtue finds its way. But this is not to say that humility is a state of self degradation, self deprecation, and a demeaning of one’s self.  Christ had perfect humility, and even He did not do these things.  God is humble, for though he created all things, contains all things, and is the breather of stars, He cares about the least of all things: the mustard seed, the dandelions, the fig trees, the faithful, and most of all the worst of sinners, even a publican.

Humility and Pride.  The Publican and the Pharisee.  One stands as a trait of the faithful, for without humility there can be no faith, for as the blessed Augustine says, “faith is not a gift of the proud, but of the humble.”  The other stands as a trait of the world, where pride, as the great commentator of scriptures Theopholact has said, “beyond all other passions disturbs the mind of man.”  Pride distorts our view of self and of the world, whereas humility helps remove the detritus of this world that clouds our vision.  We see ourselves clearly.  We see the other clearly. We can then see God clearly, and in all things.

First we look at the Pharisee, the living image of pride.  The Pharisees as a whole were one of the several religious sects of Jews in the days of Christ.  They became the religious teachers of the people. They became the teachers of the law in the synagogues.  To borrow the words of Paul, who himself was a Pharisee, they were the Jews of Jews.  They were strict adherents to the law, so much so that they generally developed an outlook of life and others that was very rigid, and often unforgiving.  If the law brings death, as the Apostle Paul  has said, then the hearts of many Pharisees died with it.  This is certainly true of the Pharisee in our parable today

He prays with himself, that is, not with God, as Saint Basil has observed. He places himself apart and above all others at the condemnation of those he sees beneath them.  He extols his own righteousness before God and over other men.  Yet, he may see and read the law correctly; he may do all the right things prescribed of him; he may speak the right words and say all the prayers that he should; but while his righteousness may bring him to God, if he shall be clothed with pride, he shall be cast into hell.

The Publicans were not righteous men like the Pharisees, and were often seen as traitors by their fellow Jews.  They were contracted servants to the Roman empire, who were commonly and collectively seen as oppressors, and those Jews who worked for them were seen as traitors to their people.  Even more, many Publicans lived lavish lifestyles acquired from their dishonest collection of money, taking more than what was owed to Caesar, stuffing their own pockets. So, the Publican in our parable had nothing of himself to extol or uplift before God, but he offered himself in humility, which is more than the Pharisee gave through all his righteous acts, prayers, and almsgiving. We are reminded of the words of psalm 50: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart, God will not despise.”

The Publican and the Pharisee.  Humility and Pride.  Two paths, one of faith, and the other of the world.  The story provides for us cautions in the manner in which we pray and live our lives, but also gives us a glimpse of God’s grace and mercy, that even the worst of us can be redeemed before God in nothing more than our humility.  Humility, over time, can often soften the hardest of hearts, like water over stone.

Humility is the living stream that will change the face of the world, and the hearts of men, and Christ is the font of living water from which we must all flow.  If all creation is a living psalter of God, then what lessons of humility can one find in water?  Water rests in the lowliest of places, and so we should accept the lowliness of our estate, whatever it may be. Water is unassuming and takes the shape of the vessel in which it rests, in our case we conform ourselves to the Church.  Water provides life and refreshment to everyone around it, so should we also amidst the spiritual deserts of this world.  Water in its stillness reflects a perfect image, in our case the image of God, for when we are still, we shall know that He is God.  In its purity, one can see through to the deepest parts of its being, and therefore the truth therein. Water is patient.  It does not fight, but takes the path of least resistance.  Yet, it is persistent, and in time can change the face of the world. 

So, be like Christ, a living water unto the world, and by our humble persistence, patience, and peace of heart, may all those around us be saved.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, for the sake of the prayers of Thy most pure Mother, our holy and God-fathers and all the saints, the martyrs, and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.