English

A Medical Opinion On The Common Cup Of Communion

to the Healing of soul and body...
By Emanuel Kolyvas, M.D., The Sign [of the Theotokos], Montreal

Contrary to popular opinion, wine, and other beverages of antiquity
produced through fermentation, were probably more important in
providing disease-free drinking fluids than in their tendency to
intoxicate. Ancient Greeks drank their water mixed with wine, and
also used wine to cleanse wounds and soak dressings. More recently,
military physicians of the last century observed that during epidemics
of cholera, wine drinkers were relatively spared by the disease, and
troops were advised to mix wine into the water.

Wine has been shown to be an effective antiseptic even when the
alcohol is removed. In fact, 10% alcohol is a poor antiseptic, and
alcohol only becomes optimally effective at concentrations of 70%.
The antiseptic substances in wine are inactive in fresh grapes because
these molecules are bound to complex sugars. During fermentation
these antiseptic substances are split off from the sugars and in this
way become active. These molecules are polyphenols, a class of
substances used in hospitals to disinfect surfaces and instruments.
The polyphenol of wine has been shown to be some thirty-three times
more powerful than the phenol used by Lister when he pioneered
antiseptic surgery.

Same year wines can be diluted up to ten times before beginning to
show a decrease in their antiseptic effect. The better wines
gradually improve with age over the first ten years and can be diluted
twenty times without a decrease of the antiseptic effect. This effect
then remains more or less constant over the next twenty years and
becomes equivalent to a new wine after another twenty-five years.
(Modern antiseptics and antibiotics for disinfecting wounds have
surpassed wine effectiveness because the active ingredients in wine
are rapidly bound and inactivated by proteins in body tissues.)

In preparing communion, the hot water that is added to the wine will
increase greatly the antiseptic effect of the polyphenols
Disinfection occurs more rapidly and more effectively at 45 degrees
centigrade than at room temperature (22-25 degrees). Another
contribution to the antiseptic effect comes from the silver, copper,
zinc that make up the chalice itself, ensuring that microbes are
unable to survive on its surface.

Throughout the centuries n o disease has ever been transmitted by
the taking of Holy Communion. Diseases, such as Hepatitis B, known to
be transmitted by shared eating utensils, have never been acquired
from the communion spoon. HIV is known not to be transmitted through
shared eating utensils, and considering the antiseptic qualities of
the Holy Communion received by the faithful, there is no likelihood of
acquiring HIV infection through the Common Cup.

Communion--Take it Seriously

     In our parish, we have developed the habit of receiving communion frequently. This is a good thing, in that we can keep ourselves connected to God. If we come to receive communion we both make ourselves accountable and also seek God's help, healing and salvation.
     But most often we receive communion casually, without any preparation, and without reckoning what it is that we receive and we commit to by receiving. This is not good. So it is that we must remind ourselves what communion is all about.
     Let us begin with the question of "salvation." What is salvation? When we think of salvation in the secular, non-religious sense, we think of rescue out of life-threatening circumstances. The fireman saves a child from a burning building, or a perhaps a brave person rescues someone from a situation of torture or abuse. We don't like to think of our lives as being that threatened. We don't like to think that we can be or are so weak as to be utterly dependent on "someone else" to deliver us. We fall into the trap of machismo, acting as if we were thoroughly independent beings.
     But the reality is that we are radically dependent on the God who created us and continues to sustain us despite all the man-made evil that goes on in the world. And we must admit that there is an awful lot of evil and weakness in the world. We are weak through domination by one or another passion: greed, stinginess, gluttony, drinking, lust, etc. Sometimes we are weak through illness. Eventually we are all weak in the face of death and the ways it, even at a distance, reduces the way we live. We may even be stricken by more radical evil through gossip, slander, deception, violence, theft, etc. Even if we do none of these things ourselves, we must acknowledge that our happiness is built on others' oppression: the abused child who makes cheap clothing in the third world; the poor farmer whose children starve (or get sold into slavery or prostitution) while providing Americans an excess of food; the new immigrant who lives in constant fear of deportation while working in sweatshops. The world is messed up! But instead of coldly saying "that's just the way the world is," we must repent and grieve over evil.
     To repent, we turn our spirit, soul and our bodies from all the things which contribute to evil and focus on the One who has saved us through the cross and resurrection: Jesus Christ. He did not defeat evil by participating in it, but was the image of human repentance from evil. He did not become an emperor or dictator: He shamed the "powers" of this world by showing that he had no need of their ephemeral domination-God is beyond that. He became "weak" to give us strength in weakness. He was silent before the face of human, unrighteous judges.
     Salvation, for Christians, is inseparable from repentance. When Jesus began preaching, he said: "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." In the Gospels, Jesus rewards those who acknowledge their need for his help; he does not help those who feel that everything is good as it is, as his enemies did. When we receive communion, we acknowledge that we need the help of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We should understand that with communion-his presence-comes unspeakable, indescribable help. He purifies us of all evil. But this purification does not last long if we don't continue to pray and seek to do good and to participate in the life and love he has prepared for us.
     Indeed, we will have a very hard time "repenting," facing God (and receiving communion), if we know that we are filled with sins that we have not brought out, examined and asked God to take away from us. We do this is by making Confession of our sins in front of the priest, who can witness the truth of our desire to change, and can assure us of God's help and "cleansing" of our sins.

Fasting: Why and How

     Fasting is a useful tool. It has no merit in and of itself. If we fast from food and certain pleasures, we do this simply to learn more about ourselves and to push ourselves to rely upon God more. Fasting is a test of of the strength of our desire for God. We fast from certain foods, because God is our food, and he nourishes our hearts and sustains our lives. If we want to be very strict, we fast also from alcohol, because God is our comfort and we can be 'drunk' with his presence in prayer. If a husband and wife can mutually agree to it, they can fast from sexual relations because they want to recognize that it is God that is truly the 'bond', 'unity', and source of all that is good in the love between them.
     So fasting is simply a means to an end. What is the goal of fasting? Prayer. When Jesus rebukes his disciples for their lack of faith he says, "this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting." We fast because it helps us to leave our preoccupations so that we can seek God.
     Fasting connects us to the experience of the Israelites as they left their 'slavery' to the Pharaoh in Egypt. Fasting reminds us of the story of Adam and Eve's first sin through eating. Fasting connects us to the great repentance of kings and prophets in ancient times. Fasting is a practice-throughout many of the religions of the world-in preparation for spiritual visions and revelations. These are the reasons why we fast before the great holy days set up as memorials of Christ's deeds. In the Resurrection Christ frees us from slavery to death and sin; he forgives our sins; he shows us the vision and revelation of the human body and soul restored to life and made into the glory and "light which can never be overtaken by night" (as the priest sings when he brings out the candle in the midst of the darkened Church on Pascha/Easter).
     So to recap: fasting is a useful tool and meaningful if it focuses on God and leads to prayer. But how do we do it? Bit by bit. Do we have to do it all? No. Traditionally, the strict rule was to eat no meat, dairy products (cheese, milk, butter), eggs, vertebrate fish, wine (or any alcohol) and oil-perhaps also to eat nothing during the day; and also to abstain from sexual relations. Very few people can or will do all of that. Usually just monks, nuns, widows and some priests. Fasting is simply a matter of challenging yourself to give up some things for the sake of seeking God in prayer. The best thing is to do a little more than you have before. Nobody can or should judge what anyone else does in terms of fasting. If you have never fasted, fast from meat all of Lent or at least on the weekdays. If you have fasted from meat, then try to fast from cheese. And so on. Everyone should, to the best of abilities, challenge themselves. Some people who are taking medication or who have diabetic, metabolic or other problems should simply be practical-follow doctors' orders. We don't fast to 'show strength', but to realize our need for God.
     Fasting should always be put aside for the sake of giving or receiving hospitality. When you have guests who may not understand the rules of fasting, don't make a point of keeping the fast. When you are visiting someone's house, eat what is set before you without question and with gratitude. Love and generosity are more important than fasting.
     Fasting should free your time: don't cook so much, but come to pray and receive communion more often (see the schedule inside). Learn a little bit about your own heart and soul. Try to desire God more.
Fr. Elijah

First Among Sinners?

First Among Sinners?

     In the prayer before communion we hear these words:"I believe, O Lord, and I confess, that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners of whom I am first." We hear these words frequently, each Sunday, and it is right that we should do so, for they sum up succinctly our faith and our personal rela-tionship with God. We should interiorize them, learn them by heart.
     And yet, from time to time, people will come to me and say: "How can I make these words my own? I don't really believe that among all sinners I am first. A sinner, yes, and a bad one. But not the worst of the lot." For such a person the requirement of truth seems to prevent them from making this prayer their own.
     St Paul's Epistle to the Romans (14:1-3) offers an answer to this question, and does so by means of a very simple image. St Paul says, to begin with: "Let not him that eats despise him that does not eat; and do not let the one who does not eat judge the one who eats..." And then he adds: 'Who are you who judge another man's servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls." In other words, judgement belongs to our fellow Christian's mas-ter, to Christ, and not to us. The particular relationship of the master and his servant is not one into which we can enter, we cannot know it from within. And there-fore, we cannot pass judgement on its true nature.
     But if we turn aside from judging our brothers and sisters in the Church, there is just one relationship left where the judgement of God concerns us and where we can feel free to judge: our own relation-ship with Christ, our own relationship with the Savior. We are "first" among sinners because we are the "first". And when we judge ourselves, then, we are both "first" and "last", since there is no one else we can take into account.
     St Paul, by the image he has chosen, encourages us to look upon ourselves as servants, servants of Christ, and therefore to apply to ourselves the words used in every weekday Vespers: "As the eyes of servants look to the hands of their mas-ters, as the eyes of the maidservant look unto the hands of her mistress, so do our eyes wait upon the Lord our God." (Psalm123:2)
     To be a good servant is to be attentive, to be sensi-tive to the smallest sign, to be alert for the softest word. How can we have time to look at and judge others, if all our attention is directed towards Christ?
     So let us today resolve not to judge one another. Instead, let us inwardly turn ourselves towards Christ. Let us clear our hearts and our minds of the background noise of judgement and criticism, so that we can hear what Christ has to say to us, and can find His hand guiding us in the most ordinary moments of our lives. Amen.

By Bishop Basil Osbourne, from Speaking of the Kingdom

meditations on the Bible

A bishop's opposition to capital punishment.

A bishop's opposition to capital punishment.


I am saddened whenever I hear Orthodox Christians defend capital punishment, even though I know that there are, were, and always will be various and opposing opinions in our Church, and that these opinions may be justifiable within their own systems of logic.
I cannot square capital punishment with any of my Christian experience. The Old Testament may be quoted, but I do not see it in the New. I cannot square it with the introduction to the Ten Commandments. I cannot square it with the Gospel. I cannot square it with the words of the "Our Father." I cannot square it with "The Beatitudes." I cannot square it with my knowledge of our canonical tradition. I cannot square it with my knowledge of the teaching of the Fathers. I can not square it with my reading of any one of our saints. And most certainly I cannot square it with the teaching of Saint Silouan, that the real test of a Christian is being able to forgive one's enemies.
Since we Christians stand for repentance, and are called to live this daily, it is perhaps our responsibility to help the persons incarcerated for serious crimes to move in that direction also.
Perhaps we Orthodox Christians should at last take seriously our call to visit those in prison, to become qualified for a prison ministry, even, and to bring some hope, consolation, and witness of something better to these persons who otherwise could well die without knowing anything else except misery.
We always say "Talk is cheap." Perhaps it's time we proved we are Christians by doing something instead of philosophizing.


+ Seraphim
Bishop of Ottawa and Canada
a letter published in The Orthodox Church, January 1999

Blessed are the Meek: Capital Punishment and the Gospel

Blessed are the Meek: Capital Punishment and the Gospel
by Fr. Thomas Mueller
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies . . ." Mt 5:43
In September 1995 the Wisconsin state legislature once again considered enacting capital punishment. Wisconsin abolished capital punishment 141 years ago. Of course, states can enact such laws as the majority endorses. These laws may be morally good, neutral, or evil. A new capital punishment statute would put the state in the business of killing. What is most appalling is the fact that many religious people are saying that capital punishment is morally good, righteous, and even compatible with the Gospel. Some political organizations that label themselves Christian loudly advocate capital punishment as well. If the state conducts executions, it will be another triumph of violence. That will be one thing. But for Christians to promote such state violence is another thing. And this is the unrighteousness I address -- not that of a violent state, but that of Christians.
I am grateful that the Orthodox Church in America, at its All American Council in St. Louis in 1989, passed resolutions condemning both abortion and capital punishment as unrighteous and evil. Both are killing. The distinction of innocent and guilty victims, that it's evil to kill the first and all right to kill the second, is not a New Testament concept at all. Some use such a distinction to condemn abortion on the one hand (as it must be condemned) and then to advocate capital punishment at the same time. Such a distinction and contradiction cannot be found in the Gospel or justified by it. In reality, all such killing harms not only its victims, but also its perpetrators -- and the society that espouses it.
In the case of capital punishment, the basic motive (if truth be told) is not deterrence but retribution -- vengeance, to use a less polite word. In fact, the public outcry for capital punishment is clearly and admittedly a cry for vengeance. Vengeance not by God at the Last Judgment, but by men here and now. We can find many references to such vengeance in the Old Testament; but how can the Gospel of Christ be twisted and misconstrued to justify it? Can the spirit of the Gospel be so misinterpreted? What's more, how can those who claim to be Biblical literalists and fundamentalists so ignore the direct meaning of Jesus' words? To his credit, Pope John Paul II in his recent encyclical calls both abortion and capital punishment evils, unconscionable acts of violence.
The Gospel's Testimony on Killing & Vengeance
"And forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors." (Matt. 6:12)
"Forgive us our sins, as we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us." (Lk. 11:14)
What are we to say to the condemned criminal? We forgive you, but now die to pay your debt to society? To kill is an act of absolute unforgiveness. In killing, we do not affirm life but attempt to destroy it. Whatever worldly sense this may make to some people, it cannot be squared with Christ's words, or with our taking them to our mouths in prayer -- the Lord's Prayer.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth . . ." (Matt. 5:5)
Before someone suggests that a prosecuting attorney can call for the death sentence in a meek way, or the judge meekly pass a sentence of death, or the executioner carry out the state-sanctioned killing in all meekness, let us look at what the Greek word -- -- used in the Gospel implies. When Plato used the word "meek," he referred to people who are mild and gentle rather than hard or violent. For Epictetus, it indicated a nature that is not inclined to become embittered or angry at what is unjust: the attribute of a generous and magnanimous soul. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament, the prophets use the word to describe those who endure the severity of exile with patience and hope that God -- not man-- will eventually bring forth justice.
"For I will leave in the midst of you a meek and lowly people. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord, those who are left in Israel . . . For they shall pasture and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." (Zepheniah 3:12-13)
God expects his faithful people to be meek and lowly. He will bring justice and peace to them -- not in this age, but in the age to come.
The clearest interpretation for Jesus' use of the word "meek" is seen in Psalm 37 (LXX 36:8-11):
"Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off; but those who wait for the Lord will possess the land. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Though you look well at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall possess the land, and delight themselves in an abundance of peace."
The psalm tells us to leave vindication to God. We are to be meek --gentle, patient, long-suffering -- until God brings about His justice in His time. Will the state ever exist in such patient meekness? Evidently not -- but the state belongs to this age which is passing away. Christians belong to the age to come. It cannot be Gospel-loving Christians who cry out for the state to carry out vengeance. It is the meek, not those who demand an eye for an eye, who are the blessed inheritors of the Kingdom. So says the Word of God. In fact, He says that He Himself is "meek and lowly in heart," and that we are to take up ourselves the "light" and "easy" yoke of this lowly meekness. (Matt. 11:29)
Jesus is the King who comes to us "meek and sitting upon an ass." (Mt 21:5) The mission of Jesus takes place on earth in lowliness and meekness. His life is not a life at court. In Matthew 21:5, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is depicted as that of a nonviolent, non-warlike king of salvation and peace. In this respect, Jesus stands radically opposed to the Zealots and to all champions of a political Messianism.
In the Beatitude of Matthew 5:5 we read of the "meek" who, out of their oppressed situation, depend not on their own will but the gracious will of God. To them Jesus promises the inheritance of the coming aeon, which includes secure dwelling in their own land. (V. Hauck, S. Schulz, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. VI, p. 649)
We who assume the name Christian are to follow Him in the way of meekness and lowliness. We cannot venerate the Lord while we follow a way other than the one He treads before us.
On several occasions, Jesus Christ comes face to face with the issue of violence for retribution or self-defense, with the issue of capital punishment. In John 8, Jesus comes to the Temple, sits down as a rabbi would, and teaches the people. The scribes and Pharisees gather to put Him to the test. They bring forward a woman caught in adultery, presumably a married woman. The penalty prescribed for this in Deuteronomy 22 is death by stoning. (There are still some countries, like Saudi Arabia, where adultery is a capital offense for women today.)
As we know from John 18:31, the Romans had taken away from the Jews the right to administer capital punishment. The hypocrites who test Jesus ask him about applying the Deuteronomic law, and demand, "What do you say about her?" This is meant as a trap for Jesus, involving both the Jewish law and the prerogatives of the Roman state. But Jesus simply bends down and writes with his finger on the ground, just as His divine finger once inscribed the Law upon the tablets of stone on Sinai. Then He says, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And again He bends down to write in the dust.
The words He writes send the strict enforcers of the law of retribution stealing away in silent confusion. Jesus asks the condemned woman: "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She answers, "No one, Lord." No one -- neither the self-righteous nor God. "Neither, do I condemn you," He says. "Go and do not sin again." (John 8:2-11)
The point is this: The Word of God foregoes enforcement of the strict law of retribution. This is not just a personal commutation of sentence. For He also dispels the condemners who would take God's authority over life and death upon themselves. To avoid falling prematurely into a political trap, Jesus does this silently, by shaming the devotees of capital punishment. By His actions He sets aside the law of retaliation.
Likewise, in the Sermon on the Mount, He overturns the principle of retaliation (Exodus 21:24, Deuteronomy 19:21):
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth . . . 'But I say to you: Do not resist one who is evil. But, if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matt. 5:38-39)
Do you see how much farther the Word of God goes than just forbidding vengeance? He commands forgiveness and even love of persecutors. (Matt. 5:43-44, Luke 6:27-28) We poor sinners may fail to carry out this command, but let us not confuse the spirit of the Gospel with the barbaric cry for blood-vengeance that rise from the same mouths that dare to say, "Our Father . . . forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
Jesus Provides the Example
Does Jesus merely tell us how to deal with those who offend and transgress? No. He provides the example that we can only set aside if we want to give up Christ altogether and return to the Old Law. When the evildoers come to seize Him in Gethsemane so that they can inflict upon Him an unjust death, an apostle takes a sword and slashes off the ear of one of those who come to seize and slay the Son of God. But Jesus says to him: "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matt. 26:52) Then, according to Luke 22:51, He touches the ear of the wounded man and heals him.
The constant interpretation of this passage in early Christian times was that wielders of the sword of vengeance -- the judge, the executioner, (by modern standards, the judge or jurist seeking the death penalty) -- all these fall under this threat. They all participate, as the murderous criminal does, in the shedding of blood, the taking of life. And they too become marked by the experience, cursed by their own bloodletting.
St. Cyprian, the third century bishop-martyr of Carthage, makes it clear that it doesn't matter whether the murderous retaliation comes from an individual or from the state. Killing is killing.
The world is drenched with mutual bloodshed. When individuals slay a man, it is a crime. When killing takes place on behalf of the state, it is called a virtue. (To Donatus, 6)
Whether or not the state sanctions it, says St. Cyprian, the Christian can have no part in the shedding of blood: " . . . after the reception of the Eucharist, the hand is not to be stained with the sword or bloodshed." (On the Goodness of Patience, 14)
Finally, we have Jesus' ultimate sermon of active love on the cross. The mob cries out for capital punishment for him, marking themselves with blood: "His blood be on us." (Matt. 27:25) They call for the death penalty for Him -- one of the countless times from that day to this that innocent people have been sentenced by courts to die. But the God-Man, hanging beaten, mocked, and naked upon the cross, wants no vengeance. His words resound in our ears and throughout all time, the living testimony of God for all who really look to Him to know the way of life: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:24)
Not avenge them, not slay them, but "forgive them." The answer to this question of capital punishment, and to every question of violence, is not to be found in the words of political theorists, of demagogues, of talk show babblers, or even of the aggrieved victims of violent crime. The answer is to be found in the words and actions of Jesus Christ, who is always the Father's positive answer, His "Yes" to life.

Fr. Thomas Mueller is pastor of SS Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Dean of the Chicago Deanery of the Orthodox Church of America. He is a member of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.
Reprinted from In Communion (issue 6, Octo

On Sunday before the Lenten Fast

     Fasting is about a single and whole spiritual disposition. Fasting is for only one thing: to manifest our desire for God and the kingdom of God in our whole person. We fast in order to look toward God and find him. We fast to clean our sight to see him: "The eyes is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light."
     So how do our eyes have anything to do with eating our not eating? Very simple-everything we eat is something which our eyes or some other of our senses present to us as an object of desire. We see, we want. We want, we eat. Sight represents all of our desires, both physical and spiritual. Eating represents all of our attempts to fill and satisfy our desires. We even call our desires needs.
     But every one of our desires must be broken down by the desire for God. Only God can provide us with true satisfaction and fulfillment. The tragedy of human life is two sided: either we lack and desire something we do not have; or we acquire what we desire and we find out that it lacks depth or satisfaction.
     God knows what we need. We need love and life and he has given both to us richly, in Christ. Only the cross overcomes the tragedy of our neediness or dissatisfaction. The cross has put the peace of God in the midst of sorrow. The cross has put life in the place of death, in the tomb, where before there was only loss and the blindness of oblivion.
     Fasting is putting the cross, and what seems to be dryness, poverty, suffering, and absence in our lives so that we can look to God by ignoring all the other "sights" in our life: food, drink, anxiety about time and work and clothing. Fasting is not eating richly and it is not thinking about riches. Fasting is taking time away from our satisfaction of desires which lead to nothing by themselves, toward the ultimate beauty and satisfaction of heaven and the light of God. In fasting, we leave aside the temporary goals and satisfactions of this life, so that we might learn more about God and heaven, which are ultimate.
     If we restrain our desires a little bit, we learn to trust God and can desire him enough to overlook anything: our sufferings, our pride, and wrongs done to us. Even if we are unable to desire God properly, we will learn to seek to desire him. We will uncover our troubles, weaknesses and sadness so that we can see that we do need God and desire a heavenly and divine kingdom beyond this world.
     When we fast, through forgetting all the desires and goals which are not ultimate, we can learn to give up pride and hate and grudges and fixations which bind us to the temporary nature of the foolish world we live in. God is ultimate. God will give us everything we need. We do not need to go running after possessions and food and ambition and pride and constant measuring ourselves against others. We can never be truly wealthier than a person who has acquired the presence of God in their heart. None of us are wealthier than the saints, because they live out of the bounty of God's wealth, which is a wealth of love and life. The rich will die and their wealth means nothing to them at death. The famous will die and almost all will be forgotten. "But those who seek the Lord shall lack no good thing" (Psalm34:10). The strong and the proud will die and their strength and pride will be nothing but dust and decay. But God and his life are forever.
     Feast your eyes on God's incarnate Son, who has enriched our hearts with life and love and love which destroys the ultimate disappointment and dissatisfaction of life lived under the "shadow of death". Feed on God. Receive his body and taste his life in the prayers and services and time for meditation in this season. Drink in the wealth of light that comes when we seek his presence with all our hearts.

On the Prodigal Son

When we listen to the words of the Gospel, we should always apply them to ourselves. We should ask, "What character in this story am I?" We are never Christ, except when we share his sufferings or feel the joy and love that he feels. But we are almost always able to apply the lessons learned from those who are shown as sinners, repentant or those who do not understand or reject Christ.

we are like the prodigal son

     In this parable, for instance, we are like the prodigal son. We have received such grace and beauty from God. We have been created from nothing, given life and even crowned by being the greatest sign of God's authority and power by being "in his image". We say "in his image" not because we are like God in some static natural way, but because we are like God in that we have been created for life in his perfect image, Jesus Christ. But throughout human history, and in our own life story, we leave aside our perfection in Christ to follow the passions, sins and wastefulness of the world. Like the prodigal son, we end up dirty in the mud of our own disordered desires, impoverished in heart and yearning for the good, solid heavenly food given by God the Father. It is truly an amazing thing-if we seek the nourishment that God gives in the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we are returned to our divine sonship, we, all together become the body of the great Son of God, Jesus Christ.

we are like the jealous son

     But much worse than being like the prodigal son, who realizes his need, is to be like the jealous son. He has remained in his father's house, eaten his food and does not feel thankful to his father; he simply becomes jealous when his brother is rewarded for returning. His problem is that he has forgotten how very good it is to be with his father. He gets jealous because he does not have enough love for his father or brother. And this is commonly the way we are when we go to Church. We receive the body and blood of Christ, yet turn around and think we can decide for God (the Father) who He should be merciful and kind to. Our attitudes are secretly saying within us, "You have done everything right; who deserves what you deserve? How dare God let this sinner return to his table and receive his hospitality." Brothers and sisters, we must never be stingy and small minded like this.

let us all accept mercy together

     If we realize that we all have sins like the prodigal, even if they are secret and seem small to us, then we will never be jealous out of a lack of love for God and our sisters and brothers. If you want to question God's mercy and forget that you yourself need it, then even the priest must stand with the unworthy, and we would all be silent, put away the communion, close the Church and go home to await God's damnation. Let it never be so!! But no one could ever be so great among us, as to question God's mercy. But we all are to love this beautiful Father who accepts us before we even get close to him. He takes us into the Church before we even know how to pray or even can see or understand who he is standing far off.

     This God is so gracious to us that he has sacrificed his immortal and most beautiful Son for us. This God is so generous that he doesn't care how rich, honorable and exalted He is. He still sent his Only Son to be killed by those who were too important in their own eyes, and too important by worldly standards to even recognize that God's mercy and the rich banquet of God's love stood in front of them in Jesus Christ. They could not recognize that God would give his mercy to sinners. And so they did not recognize Christ: who came to give the rich food of his love and teaching to prostitutes, tax collectors, fishermen and peoples of other nations who the Jews felt were impure and ruined their neighborhood.

     If we think we have been living with God and yet we do not find love spilling out of our hearts for any and every human being, let us go find those sins within ourselves. Our sins are like secret things within us that make us distant from and unable to see God's love-that make us more like the prodigal. When we have searched out those sins, let us walk back with the prodigal from that "far country" so that we might see God in a new way, with repentance; so that we might be warmed by his mercy. We have been receiving God's mercy up close through the blessings received in Church, but in our hearts we were far away. Sometimes our whole week is spent doing nothing to seek God: how do we expect that we will have any idea who God is for the two hours or twenty minutes we spend at Sunday Liturgy? We spend more time watching a sports game, or going to work and back.

     Come back to God. Leave the famished wasteland of this world. Come to receive God's welcome at the Liturgy. Seek God's mercy in prayer, secretly within your heart. Ask God, "how can I leave my passions: anger, lust, pride, despair, coldness, agitation, emptiness, or whatever they may be. Send me your mercy.

Let me be your child, let me receive life in Christ, and 'taste the fountain of life' and the solid food of your love."

On the Tax Collector and the Pharisee

How Not to Be the Pharisee

     We always want to be “not as other people” as the Pharisee says. If we have never been “thieves, rogues, adulterers, or extortionists” we feel secure in our goodness. But Jesus himself has told us “no one is good but God alone.”
What were Pharisees? On “Zacchaeus” Sunday last week we heard what these “publicans” or “tax collectors” were like: the worst kind of profiteers, people to whom the government had sold the license to collect tax, adding their own extortionate fees. The tax collector in that place and time was someone who had no scruples about the consequences of calling in a debt, even if it meant children might be sold into slavery. But the Pharisees were righteous: they went regularly to the temple; they gave money to support the work of the religion of Israel, they even gave money to the poor. Why did Jesus have so much trouble with these righteous men? It is very simple. Jesus had problems with the Pharisees because they did everything which was externally right and proper in the religion, but they did not have a desire for God. They had no humility, their heart was hard and their ears were unreceptive to the message of God’s salvation and holiness in their midst. They did not see God, Jesus Christ, standing right in front of them. They also did not like that Jesus was bringing sinners into salvation, making them equal to the Pharisees in the eyes of God.
     Jesus did not come to congratulate people for being good. Jesus, the Word of God, the very face of the God the Father in the world, came to unite us to him. As Christians we don’t stand separate from each other: this one rich, that one poor; this one good, that one bad; this one happy, that one sad. What does this lack of separation mean? It means that we must feel the sting of every sin in the world, because every sin belongs to humanity, and we all share in the common humanity of all. We are all one in Christ: we do not say as Cain did after he killed his brother, “I’m not my brother’s keeper.”
     What should that Pharisee have done instead of judging his brother and separating himself from a sinner through his own ego and pride? The Pharisee should have rather mourned the sin of the unrighteous tax collector. He should have said, “Lord let your grace also be given to him, just as you have mercifully helped me.” Or even better, he should have said, “Lord give me the depth of repentance and the desire to see you, such as this humble man has.”
     We know what sins we have not committed. The sins we have not committed are always easier to identify. We always want to proclaim our own goodness. But “no one is good but God alone.” What does this mean? It means that we cannot be good unless we desire God and seek him. We cannot be good unless we seek to see the face of God. We may never on this side of death have a mystical vision of God; but we may clearly see God in as much as we desire to grow in our faith. Faith consists of two motions: on the one hand rising up to meet Jesus Christ, the perfect Image of God in Communion and prayer; and on the other going down to meet and comfort and assist our fellow human beings, who are also the image of God. The Pharisees throughout the accounts of the Gospels fail to see Christ because they did everything which was externally right and proper in the religion, but they did not have a desire for God or a love for other human beings. God came to them and they didn’t need him because they thought they were good enough. They didn’t want any trouble, they were happy with the good being good and the bad being bad. They liked the separation which would allow them to feel righteous because they weren’t bad like other people. They didn’t love other human beings enough to throw aside their own pride and the separation which their self-righteousness allowed them.
     But Jesus did not come to congratulate people for being good. Jesus didn’t come just to make all things good and right. He came to change the very way the world functions. He came to make the sinners righteous, to make the evil become good, to make sinners into saints. But this wounds the egos of those people who are good, but less than perfect, and who want to take the pride of first place among the good. They don’t want the sinners to suddenly pass them up. They like being the leaders and they don’t want others to earn the reward from God which they have appropriated for themselves. They say to others: “become more like me; a good upright citizen. I am good and God rewards me. Be like me, but don’t challenge me, you’ll shake my notions of what is wise and good, maybe you’ll even force me to go beyond that to what is holy—and holiness is impossible in a world of practically minded people. Maybe you’ll even make me realize I’m a sinner in need of God’s help and salvation.” These are the kind of things which we know that we really say to ourselves by being proud and not seeking God, not really feeling that we are sinners in need of God’s help to rescue us from our weakness and inability to stand boldly before death. And this world is all vanity in the face of death. Without God it is all a joke.
     People who proclaim their own goodness and yet fight, gossip, slander, hide their sins, judge other people based on race or ethnicity… People who proclaim their own fearlessness but are afraid to truly and fully admit their own sins… such people don’t feel the need or desire for God. Such people: gossips, slanderers, self-righteous egotists, people who don’t want a difficult sermon or a God who demands hard things of us, like repentance and generosity—such people have no eyes to see God. And not seeing God they cannot make a community of true love and support.
     Pride, separation from each other and self-righteousness is not what we are here for. That is not what a Church is. We are here in the Church because we are all weak and need God. We are here because we all fall far short of God’s intentions and desires for us. We are here to learn love and not vanity and separation from each other. We are here so that we can repent to see the Image of God, Jesus Christ, and the image of God in our brothers and sisters. When we come in these doors, we must resolve to “lay aside all earthly cares” and to “know nothing except Christ and him crucified”: the foolishness of God which is wiser than the wisdom of this world. So let us be foolish in the eyes of the world, and quickly and humbly admit our sins and submit ourselves to the mercy of God the Father in Jesus Christ, flowing down on us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Orthodox Practice & Episcopal Etiquette

Q: What is the proper and accepted manner in which to refer to a bishop when one is engaged in conversation with him?
A: Your Grace, or Hieresi.

Q: How would I make reference to the bishop when speaking to another person?
A: His Grace, Bishop ________

Q: If I were to write a letter to the bishop NIKON, how would I address the letterhead.
A: Rt Rev. NIKON (Rt Rev, means Right Reverend).

Q: What is the respectful manner in which one asks for His Grace's archpastoral blessing?
A: First, we approach him and make a small veneration ("metania"). Then we rise and prepare our hands to receive his blessing The right hand on top of the left with our palms slighty cupped "The left hand is a throne for the right hand", according to Saint Cyril of Jerusalem.

Q: What then?
A: We askfor the bishop's blessing, by saying: "Bless, Master" or 'Master, Bless. " The bishop then blesses us with the sign of the cross. His right hand will rest for a moment in our hands. We then kiss his right hand, and then bow gently and reverently towards him. It is extremely disrespectful to simply shake the bishop 's hand.

Q: Is that the only time when we kiss the bishop's hand.
A: No. Whoever is serving with the bishop - priest, deacons, subdeacons, altar servers should always kiss the bishop 's hand when he is handed any liturgical item, such as the Cross, censei~ dikiri & trikiri, and pastoral staff

Q: Why do we kiss the bishop's hand?
A: Just as when we kiss and venerate a holy icon, we show reverence and respect for the bishop 's episcopal
office which is to be an iconographic image of Christ., the one Great High Priest The bishop is the image of Christ in our midst

Q: What do we do when the bishop enters a room - and even the church - when we are already seated?
A: Stand The bishop is the icon of Christ. We also stand out of respect to His Grace's episcopal office.

Q: Very often during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy the choir sings, "Eis polla eti, Despota."or "Per Shume Vjet O kryezot" What exactly does that mean?
A: "Many Years, Master."

Q: What are the hymns that the choir sings when the bishop enters the church, then is vested? A: Entrance Hymns, followed by Vesting Prayers and Hymns

Q: What is the rite referred to when a priest or monk becomes a bishop?
A: Readers are tonsured, deacons and priests are ordained; and bishops are first elected, then consecrated
this is the sequence each must pass through before becoming an Orthodox hierarch.

Q: When the bishop first enters the church, he is presented bread and salt. What is its meaning?
A: In the Russian tradition, rye bread and salt signifies the gift of hospitality.