In the night

Είδομεν το Φως το αληθινόν,
ελάβομεν Πνεύμα επουράνιον,
εύρομεν Πίστιν Αληθή
αδιαίρετον Τριάδα προσκυνούντες,
αυτή γάρ ημάς έσωσεν.

We have seen the Light the true,
we have received Spirit heavenly,
we have found Faith True,
undivided Triad worshiping,
for She us saved.

Literally, somewhat awkwardly in English translation, the sung testimony of my heart awakened me in the night, to heal the ligaments torn by the over-exercise of the will, the zeal of unwisdom, the factiousness of unfriendly friendship.

I now know for sure where the True Church lives, how it lives, why it is True, what Faith makes it true, what Light shines on it, in it, from it, and to it, Who it is I have believed in, what has been done to me and by Whom, and where my only Home is.

It is as the desert father has said, ‘Love is God.’ It is as the holy beloved evangelos of the Divine Word has proclaimed, ‘God is love.’ It is where, and only where, true peace and good will among men is, and can ever be, found. The True Church.

Of the Redeemed, of the Free, of those who do not eat the flesh of their brothers, whose fast is pure without fasting, whose wills are One, whose mind is One, in One, for One, to One, in perfect harmony, who do not rely on words written on paper, or unwritten.

The voice of strife does not disturb their rest, who have entered already into the peace of the Saints, who have paid the Cost of discipleship with acts and words of healing, whose Bread is to do the will of their Father who is in heaven, hidden from the world.

I thank you, Father, for hiding the True Church from the worldly wise, who rely on their own strength, their own wisdom, their pride of life, their standing on what they think is the Word of God but which is not the Foundation that no one can lay, because You have laid it.

I thank you, Christ, for You have saved us, beyond the works of men, for You have gone to prepare a place for us, You have returned with mansions, how deep, how broad, how high, in which we can dwell, whom the Father has drawn to You, the True Church, beyond war.

I thank You, Spirit, for where You are there is heaven, there is the paradise of the Saints, even now, where among us is the tabernacle of the Most High, where none can enter who have taken strong drink, but whose Drink You are, the True Light, the True Faith.

Now I know for sure, Holy, Unearthly, Divine Triad, where true Life alone is, true Fellowship, true Friendship, true Home, true Welcome and true Love, without name and number, beyond counting, weighing, beyond all human judgment.

Yes, Lord, and again I say ‘Yes,’ and I thank You, again and again, for Life Eternal, for the Light the True Light, for the Spirit the Heavenly Spirit, for the Faith the True Faith, for the Church the True Church, for that You, Undivided Triad, have saved us. We are Yours.

Miktam of David.

Look after me, God, I take shelter in You.

To Yahweh you say, ‘My Lord,
You are my fortune, nothing else but You,’
yet to those pagan deities in the land,
‘My princes, all my pleasure is in you.’

Their idols teem, after these they run:
shall I pour their blood libations?—not I!
Take their names on my lips?—never!

Yahweh, my heritage, my cup,
You, and You only, hold my lot secure;
the measuring line marks out delightful places for me,
for me the heritage is superb indeed.

I bless Yahweh, who is my counselor,
and in the night my inmost self instructs me…

Yes, in the night.

New and old

In our Christian life we have to strike a balance between following the tradition and creating it. Those who only follow tradition stifle the Spirit in them, pruning the buds and never harvesting the fruit. Those who only create tradition, uproot the tree altogether. But to follow tradition as well as create it is to be the ‘tree that is planted by water streams, yielding its fruit in season, its leaves never fading’ (Psalm 1:3). This is what Christ expects of us, what indeed happens to us as we follow Him. We are transformed into the steward ‘who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old’ (Matthew 13:32).

A Christian brother wrote, ‘Many years ago I was at a symposium on “Youth and the Church,” and a sociology professor had been asked to speak. He said that the church could play an important role in helping youth to adjust to the demands and values and mores of society. I asked him what if society’s values were wrong, and the youth were revolting against them. He got very emphatic, and said “Youth must adjust!” I almost expected him to throw up his right arm in a Nazi salute.’

I hope the professor's emphatic response was just a careless enthusiasm for his own ideas (such it often is), and that he did not intend to circumscribe so closely the idealism of youth. This is, unfortunately, how some in the Church feel, that youth (indeed anyone) must ‘adjust to the demands and values and mores of society.’ By this, of course, they mean the status quo of churchly life. These same people are adamant that one must consult one’s ‘spiritual father’ in everything, before making a single move in one’s life. For them, an act, even a thought, done without
‘authorization’ is at best foolish and at worst brazen pride. The independent spirit, to them, is pure sin. But I don’t think so.

Christ does not turn us into robots. He did not come to destroy tradition, but He frees us from its stranglehold. He calls us to follow Him, but that call always includes our free will and implies the right use of it—something that requires independence. If His call and our following does anything, it transforms us into creatures capable of, and desirous of, living for ever with Him. It charges us with an independence of spirit that even angels do not share.

Only the independent spirit can undo its will and enter into the life of the Holy Triad, where three wills are one will from eternity, without confusion, without disorder, but in total freedom. Often what shows as a submissive will is a mercenary subservience, brazen pride concealed under an outward humility in order to reign in splendor.

The Holy Tradition is the life of the Holy Triad as lived by the Church throughout the ages, and every cell in the Body of Christ is both nourished by it and nourishes it, every father is a son, every son a father, and like its outward sign, an Orthodox temple, the walls once white and empty fill up with ikons, generation after generation. To follow tradition as well as create it is to be the ‘tree that is planted by water streams, yielding its fruit in season, its leaves never fading’ (Psalm 1:3), and we can ‘know the tree by its fruit’ (Matthew 7:16).

Worship

This is an important topic, even today, even for people who are not religious, who don't even believe in God. The word itself is related to another word that people use a little more often—worthy. Worship has been explained as the movement of the mind, heart and will, the whole person really, to acknowledge something or someone as worthy. Is it an accident that the Greek words for ‘worthy’ and ‘holy’ are so similar? Axios, worthy, and Agios, holy. Perhaps not.

What we regard as worthy, we worship. Well, maybe not exactly, but almost. I remember as a young man, I was being trained in the operation of some sophisticated woodworking machinery—I was a cabinetmaker by trade—which my company had purchased in Germany at a trade show. The German company shipped the machines to us, and also a couple of men, one to install the machines for us, and later, another older man to train us in the operation of them.

Neither of these men spoke English, but I spoke German fluently, so it was my job to assist them and meanwhile learn from them all I could about the machines, in order to operate and maintain them, and teach others how to use them. The older of the two men was a very wise and intelligent mentor on many levels. I would bring him home with me to have supper with us each night. Before he left, I thanked him, and tried my best to let him know how much I appreciated him as a mentor.

‘Ich verehre Sie,’ I told him, using what I thought was the word for respect and honor. ‘Nee, nee, nee! Nicht verehren! Nur ehren, vielleicht!’ he responded emphatically but with a smile. ‘No, no, no, not adore, but maybe honor!’ Since that time my command of the language has improved, I know that adding ver- to a verb intensifies its meaning. How silly I felt at the time. I made a mistake out of ignorance, but many, including myself sometimes, make a similar mistake. We worship or adore what may only be honored or appreciated.

Here’s some Greek now. Eis Agios, eis Kyrios, Yisus Christos eis dhoxan Theou Patros. ‘One [is] Holy, One [is] Lord, Jesus Christ in [the] glory of God [the] Father.’ This is sung at every Orthodox liturgy, as a reminder to the faithful who or what is alone, not only Holy, but also worthy. Here's that similarity between the two words I pointed out earlier. We can speak of only One Holy, that is, God, and as for the rest of us, by His grace, we become worthy. He adds the ‘s’ from Sotiría, ‘salvation,’ to the word Agios, ‘holy,’ and calls us that, Axios, ‘worthy.’

Now here’s some Hebrew. Something like that happened to Abram and Sarai in the book of Genesis. After meeting with them, and blessing them with the promise of a child, the Lord changed their names, by adding a letter from the Divine Name YHWH to each of their names. Adding an ‘h’ to Abram, the name Abraham was formed. Adding an ‘h’ to Sarai, we have Sarah. The meaning of their new names? ‘Father of multitudes’ and ‘Princess.’ The Divine Nature never lets you go without taking away far more than you came with. Hence, we never approach without an offering.

That is worship.

Perfect

大帝 on the man's shoulder, read ‘Da Di’ (Daddy)
literally means ‘Great Emperor’

A simple message, the Message, at least what it looks like when people accept the Message and live it, building their houses on the Rock and not on sand, that is what I heard last Sunday from the soléa of my local church. Fr Demosthenis, thank you.

As always, he reads his homily. Coming to America recently from Greece, he expresses himself better when he has time to measure his words and match what they say to the words of holy and divine Scripture. As always, he speaks, but it is Christ’s voice we hear.

Be perfect. We are not called to be good. We are called to be perfect. This is impossible for human beings who are merely trying to be perfect, trusting in their human strengths, for those strengths are incapable of perfecting us. Only Christ can perfect us.

Be perfect. What can this possibly mean? We hear the words of Jesus, ‘He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:45-48).

The single word that sticks in my mind that I heard Fr Demosthenis say, is ‘categorize.’ It stayed with me because he spoke it, giving it the Greek accent, ca-TE-go-rize, placing the stress on the third syllable from the end. It also stayed with me because I know its meaning. It is actually a Greek word taken into English, and it means ‘to accuse.’ It also made me think of the description, in the book of Revelation, of satan as ‘the accuser of the brethren.’

Yes, the message of Jesus Christ is very simple. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do not accuse each other. Do not judge one another. True, there are doctrines to be believed, laws spiritual and commandments earthly to be followed. Christ is risen from the dead. He is with us now, and to the end of the age.

That is exactly why we can, and indeed we must, follow Him, do what we see Him doing in the holy gospel, speak as He speaks, to comfort, not to slay. Our words can do either of two things: bring life, or bring death. They issue out of what we have inside us. Rather than ‘accusers of the brethren’, let us be ‘menders of the breach’ and ‘rebuilders of the ancient ruins.’ For such is the human world, the people around us. They, as well as we, need mercy, expect mercy.

Yes, be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.

Feast days

Today is the feast day of the protecting veil of the Mother of God, as well as the commemoration of my name day saint, Romanós the Melodist, who some say is the author of the Akáthistos Hymn. This hymn is all about Mary’s role in salvation history, and it is the one place where most, if not all, of her epithets are collected, that is, all the prophetic types that she fulfills, and that is not a few. I love this hymn because in the original Greek it is supernaturally poetic. Even in English translation it is an awesome piece of poetry, but you must read (or sing) it in Greek to immerse yourself in its many nuances.

Fr Stephen, obviously one of my favorite symblogothetes (Greek, sym > together with, blogothete > blogger… I just coined it a moment ago), posted on the feast day of the protecting veil, which drew varied comments, one of them from a classical mainline evangelical (not mainline protestant, there’s a difference). She countered the Orthodox veneration of Mary and the saints, but said it was not so much asking for their prayers, but the idea that we exalt Mary above the saints and make her semi-divine, that irked her. I’m not sure that she was telling the whole truth about her feelings, but along with Fr Stephen, I give her a sympathetic response, while holding the line on where Orthodoxy stands, especially in contrast to Roman Catholicism, against which her arguments really are directed.

About Mary, I want to repeat what Fr Stephen wrote, but just add a bit of organisation:

We do not think of her as Divine.
We do not see her as possessing the singular mediation of Christ.
We do not worship her or expect that she do anything that substitutes or distracts from God.
It would be blasphemy to us were these the case.

But we are very aware of how God has used his servants throughout history, and continues to do so.
She is within that ‘great cloud of witnesses’ in Hebrews.
Her prayers are among those that rise continually before the throne of God as mentioned in Revelation.
She is unique among the saints…
“a sword pierced her own soul also.”

Obviously, Mary is more than the “just anybody” that some Christians say she was, sort of an incubator for the Son of God, who then went on with her life as if nothing extraordinary had happened, having more kids and being a typical Jewish mama. There are enough hints even in the scriptures that somehow she was alone during Jesus’ ministry, that her husband was no more. True, she sometimes came to see Jesus with “his brothers” and so we know for sure He had other relatives, but the fact that He entrusted her to His best friend John tells us something.
Aside from her virginity, which is an act of God in her life, the Orthodox also see Mary as the first Christian, the first to have received (accepted) the first words of the Good News of salvation, preached not by flesh and blood, but by the angel Gabriel,

Rejoice, so highly favored!
The Lord is with you.
Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor.
Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son,
and you must name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called
Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne
of his ancestor David;
he will rule over the House of Jacob forever
and his reign will have no end.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will come
and cover you with its shadow.
And so the child will be holy
and will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1: 28-35 passim

Mary’s response?

I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Let what you have said be done to me.
Luke 1:38

She was not “just anybody.”


The symbol of Nicæa says that Christ was born of a virgin, and that is what we believe. Something extraordinary about that birth carried itself forward and colored everything in its path, to be sure, and as the early Christians pored over the scriptures (of the Old Testament) they began finding what they felt were prophetic utterances that could be applied to Mary. Hence, the Akáthistos Hymn, written by a convert from Judaism who was a deacon in the Church of Antioch, my name day saint, Romanós.

Fr Stephen ended his comment with these words:

It is not an argument. Sometimes the protestant opposition to the communion of saints is puzzling to some Orthodox, just as much of Orthodoxy is a puzzle to many protestants. May God help our hearts that we may all know Him in the fullness of the Truth.
That which is called ‘Orthodoxy’ is the common heritage of all followers of Jesus, all confessors of His name, and as such it encompasses all those who do not resist Him. Our denominational skirmishes and problems are all at our end, not at His. They are caused by all of us being somewhat imperfect in understanding, in experience, and in love. We have enemies who like to arouse our contempt for one another by abusing history to enflame us. But really, we are Christ’s, all of us, and whether we honor the saints outwardly and dogmatically or not, we worship one Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords. There really is only ‘One Lord, One faith, and One baptism,’ as the holy apostle Paul puts it. Whoever honors and worships the Son of God, also honors the saints by gratitude and worships the Father by faith. As holy apostle and evangelist John writes,

My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
…
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.
John 4:7, 11 Jerusalem Bible

Hidden and revealed

The Truth never changes.

All praise for every good thing belongs to God alone, because it is Only He that prepares us for every good work and gives us the means to do the work.

If my actions and love for anyone can teach any lesson, it should be this: The Kingdom of God has already begun, even here on earth while we are alive and waiting for Jesus to come in glory.

The proof that we are the Church, His Body, is that He is among us even now, as the Risen Christ, and if we believe this, we will see Him walking among us and hear His voice speaking. Then, all we have to do is follow Him every day, and do the work we see Him doing, and speak the words we hear Him speak.

This seems like a mystery, but really, it is also quite practical. Holy apostle Paul says that the mystery is Christ among us, that gives us the strength to do every good work. We are still the Early Christians, and we can keep living as they lived, even now.

Love one another as I have loved you, says the Lord Jesus, and no greater love is there but for a man to lay down his life for his friends. Jesus is not asking us to lay down our lives and die for Him, not yet anyway, but we can at least be kind to one another, and help each other whenever we can.

If God provides the means, we do the work. If He withdraws the means, then we stop working, and wait for Him to move again, and wherever He goes, we follow.

No worry, no anxiety.

Why? Because it is not we who are working, giving, suffering, loving, being patient, being generous, being helpful, no, it is not us, but Christ in us.

Again, as holy apostle Paul calls it, the mystery of Christ among you. So, it is not I, but Christ living in me.

You are called to this very same kind of life, but it is not your job to try to make yourself into what you think God wants. All you have to do is follow closely behind Him, and you will begin to change into His image, as you do what you see Him doing. It is the easiest thing in the world to do.

That's why Jesus says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:25-26, 28-30 NIV)

Yes, and pray for Romanos the sinner.

God's work of art

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed,
to bring you to full knowledge of Him.

May He enlighten the eyes of your mind
so that you can see what hope His call holds for you,
what rich glories He has promised the saints will inherit
and how infinitely great is the power
that He has exercised for us believers.

This you can tell from the strength of His power at work in Christ,
when He used it to raise Him from the dead
and to make Him sit at His right hand, in heaven,
far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination,
or any other name that can be named,
not only in this age but also in the age to come.

He has put all things under His feet,
and made Him, as the Ruler of everything,
the Head of the Church, which is His Body,
the fullness of Him who fills the whole creation.

And you were dead,
through the crimes and sins in which you used to live
when you were following the way of this world,
obeying the ruler who governs the air,
the spirit who is at work in the rebellious.

We all were among them too in the past,
living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires
and our own ideas, so that by nature
we were as much under God's anger as the rest of the world.

But God loved us with so much love
that He was generous with His mercy:
When we were dead through our sins,
He brought us to life with Christ—
it is through grace that you have been saved—
and raised us up with Him and gave us a place with Him
in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

This was to show for all ages to come,
through His goodness to us in Christ Jesus,
how infinitely rich He is in grace.

Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith;
not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;
not by anything that you have done,
so that nobody can claim the credit.

We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus
to live the good life as from the beginning
He had meant us to live it.

Ephesians 1:17 - 2:10 Jerusalem Bible

How? What? Where?

Why we come up with so many excuses for not following Jesus and doing what He commands is, we are unable to see Him. Honestly, we just don’t know what He looks like. Besides that, we also don’t seem to be able to recognize His voice among so many that claim to be His, but aren’t. Who or what are we to believe? All that must be settled, so we think, before we can follow Him or, if that is too extreme for us, then at least do what He commands. This is true, of course, only for those Christians to whom faith is not just a religious experience, but the initiation into the mysteries of Christ. If you are satisfied just to be a believer, don’t read on, but please make sure you attend church this Sunday.

What does Jesus look like? That’s a question we dare not ask ourselves, either because it seems too bold, even irreverent, or because deep down we think it doesn’t really matter. Yet in either case, we use it as an excuse for staying put. We dream of the open road, but don’t really want to travel it.

          ‘You road I enter upon and look around!
          I believe you are not all that is here;
          I believe that much unseen is also here.
          I think heroic deeds were all conceiv’d in the open air,
          and all great poems also;
          I think I could stop here myself, and do miracles…’

(Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, ‘Song of the Open Road’)

Leave it to unchurchable poets to sing about and to enjoy the freedom of the sons of God, while we who say we know Him transhumanize ourselves into icy statues, caricatures of the Divine Image on whom we are modeled, instead of accepting Life from Him who raised Lazarus after four days of death, and who robbed Hades of the rest of the dead universe, and for ever.

How do we want to see Jesus? returning to our excuses. Is it the historical Y’shua ben Maryam, the Aramaic-speaking artisan’s son turned baffling rabbi and then incomprehensibly rejected messiah? He hung on the scaffold while day turned to night and the earth shook, breathed His last, all the while we and the rest of the world, believers and unbelievers, not knowing what He was doing, or why, or how.

We see His humanity walking on a spit of history engulfed between empires, hear the words He spoke to others—never to ourselves—watch Him work wonders that we could never do, and the longer we watch and think about Him, we grow less and less able to follow Him or hear His voice. He retreats farther into dark history than He ever retreated into bright heaven at His ascension. He’s a little brown man who doesn’t speak our language, doesn’t know what we have to put up with, and so we’ve no choice but to just believe, and let Him slip through our midst as He did the crowd that wanted to stone Him.

Or we see His divinity re-imaged to fit the cultural sensibilities of ours and earlier ages, now a white, American Jesus—at least we don’t crown Him with a baseball cap!—or a black man curiously resembling a muscular antebellum slave, as He invites an adoring woman with arms raised to be loosed. When He reveals His deity to us in the Bible we downplay it and make Him out to be ‘just a man,’ and when He shows us His humanity in the only Book where it is depicted, we exalt Him to divine status and entrench ourselves in ‘I could never do that!’ ignoring the evangelist’s closing remarks, ‘all the world wouldn’t be big enough to contain all the books’ that would have to be written to describe the acts of Jesus Christ.

All the world wouldn’t be big enough? All the books? What books? Now I’m getting confused. What about our reasons for not being able to follow Jesus and do what He commands? We can’t see Him. He is not just the historical Jesus, yet the Jesus of theology belongs to the saints. We can’t hear His voice, or at least can’t distinguish it from everyone else’s. We can’t know His teaching because of all the interpretations. Our road isn’t open like that lying poet’s. It’s full of road blocks that we didn’t put there. Like the Greeks who came and said, ‘We want to see Jesus!’ what’s the answer given us? Did they get to see Him or not? Do we? Is it our fault that we can’t ‘stop here’ ourselves ‘and do miracles?’

Gentleness, meekness, a child’s trust, a Jew’s shrewdness, a gypsy’s innocence and sense of adventure. ‘If you want to see well, pluck out your eyes and be blind. If you want to hear well, be deaf. If you want to walk well, cut off your feet,’ says ludicrously wise brother Giles of Assisi, and he seems to know what he’s talking about. He’s not talking about the Lord, but about this world. If you want to see Jesus as He really is, stop imagining Him as you want Him to be. If you want to hear His voice, stop listening to other voices, even ones that claim to tell you about Him: just listen to what He says. And if you want to follow Christ in this world, cut off your programs and plans, and just walk in His footsteps. How? What? Where?

The books of the Holy Gospels. The lives of the Holy Prophets, Apostles and Saints. Yes, keep to what is written, whether on paper in ink, or on flesh in blood. The Book, yes, the holy and divine scripture, is not primarily written in human words on parchment, but in human works on skins—our own. Yet not to depart from the unchanging Message, make it your home, your clothing, your food, your wealth. What is this Message? It is the life of Christ written in your flesh. It is living the life of heaven on earth. But it all begins in the Bible, in the written Word of God, especially in the Holy Gospels. So, you and I can see Jesus and hear His voice, today.

In the beginning was the Word: 
the Word was with God, and the Word was God…

John 1:1

They say

They say, this is the year of the End.

They have made movies and documentaries about it, to entertain us, to enlighten us or to frighten us. They must think, ‘we’re on a roll’ and they roll with it, yes, all the way to the bank.

Ahmadinejad, the Mahdi, and Jesus. Were his hearers at the United Nations amused, as they listened to a man spout stories while deep underground in faraway Iran another story rumbles?

The all-knowing Maya anciently ended their calendar in this year we call twenty-twelve. No need to continue the thing, since the reason for counting time will have been worn out by then.

We never seem to run out of prophets of doom, whether geo-political, economic, or merely natural. In my short sixty-one years I somehow have survived half a dozen earth-ending comets.

Am I standing with the crowd of mockers who say, ‘Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ I think not.

I profess the Symbol, ‘He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.’ And, ‘I expect the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.’

I notice there is no talking of the End in this confession, except to say what is real ‘will have no end.’ They know they would play with fire who mock the judgment, so they are silent about it.

Instead, they offer fantasy for sale, the kings of this world, and the prophets of the next, both false. They know which side their bread is buttered on. They know how to feather their own nests.

‘I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, but I do not talk of the beginning or the end. There was never any more inception than there is now, nor any more youth or age than there is now, and will never be any more perfection than there is now, nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.’
(Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, ‘Song of Myself’)

No, the world will not end this year, and when it does end, it will not even be noticed by those who threaten or prophesy, who promise perfection or hell or heaven which they cannot deliver.

The end does not come like that, but in the way the blessed Revelator writes, ‘for the Time is near,’ yes, the Time is always near. Moment by moment it is not dribbled out. We are drenched in it.

‘There was never any more inception than there is now, nor any more youth or age than there is now, and will never be any more perfection than there is now, nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.’

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

Revelation 1:8

Outside the world

This is the life we live outside the world.

We still have to live in this world, but that world to come is for us so fully present that we feel its breezes blowing on us, even while we walk in this world.

That world to come is for us so fully tangible that we sometimes scrape ourselves on the door jambs of that narrow gate as we pass through it, going in and out.

That world to come is for us so fully real that we feel truly at peace and at home only when we are together, following the Lord, in this world strangers in a strange land.

Heaven is no more a pious dream for us than God Himself is, who is our Father, Friend and Guide, who welcomes us into His presence beyond all worlds, and sets our feet down in heavenly places.

This is the life we live outside the world, which is so rich that we are willing to leave all behind even before death’s door, to inherit the world to come, prepared for us before the foundation of the world.

Glory to You, Christ our God, for You have made mere fisherman wise by sending upon them the rain of fire of Your Spirit, as You said,
‘I have come to bring fire to earth! O, that it were ablaze!’

We follow You, Jesus, in this world,
and You refresh us in the world to come, even now.

Barukh ha-ba ba-shem Adonay.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Barukh ha-olam ha-ba.
Blessed is the world to come.

Brethren,
this is the life we live outside the world.

This fiery pillar

Anyone who departs from the laws of life is, involuntarily and inevitably, self-destructive and responsible for his own disintegration.

‘For there are many still in need of cleansing from the life they have led, people who have the garment of their life unwashed and filthy, who dare to attempt the upward path on the basis of their own irrational perception. As a result, they are destroyed by their very own reasonings. For heretical opinions are nothing but stones which kill the very person who has devised the evil doctrines’ (Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses 2:161).

Above the whole of creation, the ‘transcendent cause’ holds everything in its power. The whole rhythm of life is directed towards the end and perfection. In our work all of us serve the ‘one’ aim in one way or another. In the struggle one is either transfigured by partaking in and submitting to the strange Power, or one destroys oneself by opposing it voluntarily or involuntarily. Either way, the work calmly proceeds. Such is the superior power of the Eternal.

Heresies are self-destructive; in the created universe they cannot put down roots to nourish them eternally. The one area of indestructible power is occupied by that which truly exists. It acts and moves with all the mystical splendor proper to its nature, to its boundless and sure omnipotence. Thus the ‘ill-founded impudence of heresies’ becomes apparent, and at the same time the unfailing operation of the truth is underlined.

The universality of the Truth is something we can only feel and approach when we have reached the point where all comments and disputes have ceased, and everything is tested in the mystery of silence: ‘Words are an instrument of the present age; silence is a mystery of the age to come’ (Abba Isaac, Letter 3).

Truth conceals within it the whole. It contains the beginning and the end: it has self-awareness and the capacity for adapting itself, defending itself and respecting all things.

It is necessary that Orthodoxy should exist. The Orthodox must spread their roots into the bottomless depths of their faith. In this way they fulfill swiftly and quietly every obligation they have to love God and their brothers, those near and those far away. ‘Owe no one anything, except to love one another’ (Romans 13:8).

The faithful do not have a mission to persecute heresies, irrespective of the way they themselves live, for this only creates a climate congenial to the tares of heresy. ‘Because of you My name is blasphemed among the gentiles’ (cf. Isaiah 52:5), the Lord would say in such a case. One is not truly Orthodox simply by virtue of persecuting heresies, anymore than one is in Paradise if one simply curses hell.

Orthodox life is of great importance. It is ‘what is perfected before God,’ in the words of St. Ignatius. It is fulness and divine self-sufficiency: it is a confession, the persecution of falsehood, and the salvation of man. ‘For the clear knowledge of that which is, serves as a purification of notions about that which has no real existence.’ (Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses 2:22). Orthodoxy does not have the fire of the holy inquisition. It lights an incorporeal flame which cools the holy but burns the impious. This fiery pillar of uncreated grace and life gives the path of the faithful shade by day and light by night.

Magic disappeared in the Middle Ages not as a result of the obstinate insistence of the Inquisition, but because of the progress of natural science. Our obstinate insistence, even when cloaked with a good disposition, cannot prevail. ‘It reigns, but does not last forever.’ The course of history is in itself a cleansing process. Led mysteriously by the Holy Spirit, history brings us to Orthodoxy. Before Abraham was, there was ‘Orthodoxy.’ Every age is an age which opens up new paths, which offers new potentials for Orthodoxy, for knowledge of the Truth, because it brings new crises. It puts to the test all systems grounded on the face of the earth which ‘passes away’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:31).

— Archimandrite Vasileios, Hymn of Entry, pp. 97-99.

That eye which is single

Tradition.

In a positive light, the word brings to mind images that speak a sense of welcome familiarity, of comfort, ‘there’s no place like home,’ and maybe of security as well, safety from unwanted change. In a negative light, the word conjures up notions of irrational and oppressive conservatism, ‘it’s always been done this way, don’t ask why,’ and a challenge to personal freedom.

Considered from a Christian perspective, tradition is also viewed both positively and negatively. As one would expect, ancient Christian communities like tradition; ‘reformed’ and modern sects hate it resolutely, basing their rejection on Christ’s indictment of the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees.

Tradition, as it has been handed over to me (for that’s what tradition means, ‘handing it over,’ παραδοσις, parádhosis) is something at once progressive, efficient, practical and effective.

Though many think tradition hidebound, it is actually progressive in the sense of moving us forward without hindrance, without waste, without danger to ourselves or others. Having evolved over time, it is not the product of a single individual or even a small group. It’s not limited either to time or place. For all these reasons it is uncontrollable, and rather than being controlling, which is one of the chief criticisms against it, it liberates. We just go along with it, and with no direct effort on our part, it ploughs furrows in us which it then plants with good seed. It’s when we harden ourselves to it as dry, thirsty soil ironically repels water, that we remain sterile.

When does tradition become the enemy? When it is no longer true to itself, when men of today try to capture it and harness it to their own ambitions for personal power and advantage. In doing so, they actually depart from tradition while they say they are enforcing it. Tyranny then replaces the free give and take from which tradition draws its very life. Again, the paradox that those who force tradition on others are in fact distorting and betraying it. Why? Because tradition is life being aware of itself and living in that awareness, not allowing itself to be eclipsed by temporal demands, not sacrificing truth for the sake of ideologies. Tradition is no ideology. It simply is.

Those who consider themselves progressive and believe most firmly in evolution are ironically the chief opponents of tradition. Yet tradition is the proof of evolution and a demonstration of God’s hand in it.

That God should create things instantaneously and that we should experience these creative acts as evolutionary trails stretching over immensely long periods of time only adds more weight to the probability that creationism is true. It is a function of scale, that what is instantaneous for the Being should appear verily to take ages from the viewpoint of those whose existence is part of the act of creation. The chasm between the Creator and His creation is more than one of size or even of being; it is immeasurable because it is unfathomable. This makes it all the more remarkable that the Being has bridged the chasm for us, and opened to us a possibility of transformation that defies analysis and reveals evolution itself to be very much ‘an indoor affair’.

The door that has been opened to us gives us egress out of what we thought was an immensity but upon looking back turns out to have been nearly nothing. The nihilist is right after all, but of what use is being right, if you cannot have what really is.

One final thought, brothers, and then I will quiet down before I do any more damage.

Without human society the individual doesn’t exist. The individual is a construct based on ideas, whereas the true state of humanity is that of an organism composed of a multitude of coordinated units. It is for this reason that the Body of Christ is so significant a perspective on human history, and why becoming ‘one body and spirit’ with one another is more than a mere metaphor. He shouldn’t have revealed this truth to His holy apostles if it weren’t significant, nor spoken to us so insistently about His being in the Father, and with the Spirit as well, in us and among us. What has been revealed is so much more than any one of us can imagine or behold.

Hence, back to tradition.

It is that eye which is single,

so that the whole Body can be full of Light.

Open to us the gates of repentance

The Day of Atonement has come and gone. The veil once rent to admit every sinner into the Imperishable Presence, clasping the fringe of the garment of the Eternal High Priest as He goes in to plead for us till the end of Time, has disappeared. The Pharisee in me writhes with embarrassment, knowing that he can’t hide much longer, and the publican in me hasn’t yet arisen from the floor, where his face is cast downwards, his forehead kneading the pavement and drenching his pillow with tears. Why is it that we stone one another so frequently? Why is it that we love to triumph over our defects in others but not in ourselves?


The heartless reasoning that we put on as mental clothing, wrapping ourselves in the very vanity that we thank God we’ve been delivered from! Don’t we understand yet that fig leaves will not cover our nakedness before the Lord? Don’t we understand yet that He has already provided for us a covering, the fleece of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world? We stand proud and cast glances of pious false pity at everything and everyone we feel ourselves superior to. We are caught dead in our tracks as we ready ourselves to stone our infidelities in the other harlot, while ignoring the written Word of God, that His own finger carves not on tablets of stone but doodles in the dust of our hearts.

O heavenly God hidden in weakness and rejection! Becoming sin for us, You have taken away our shame and hold out to us in Your open, pierced palms the Bread of Life, yet we turn away to consume the bread of suffering, of tears, we prefer to remain in our camps and grumble at manna and quails! Forty years are not enough to purge us of our insane cravings, we want to enter the land of promise but without walking there on the only road possible, following Jesus. Instead, pining after dead Moses whose body has disappeared, we collect fragments of broken tablets and stay in the wilderness.
Save us, O Lord! Save Your people and bless Your inheritance!

Help us, heavenly Shepherd. Guide us, quietly but firmly, back to the flock, back to dwell close by the shepherd’s tents. Make us meek again, renew our childhood, open to us the gates of repentance.

The original artwork in this post is by the hand of Darlene Slavujac Thau.
You can see more of her oil paintings, pastels and watercolors by clicking here
or on her link in the sidebar, Slavujac Biblical Artist.

Το ευαγγέλιον αιώνιον

Και ειδον αλλον αγγελον πετόμενον εν μεσουρανήματι, εχοντα ευαγγέλιον αιώνιον ευαγγελίσαι επι τους καθημένους επι της γης και επι παν εθνος και φυλην και γλωσσαν και λαόν,
λέγων εν φωνη μεγάλη, Φοβήθητε τον Κύριον και δότε αυτω δόξαν, οτι ηλθεν η ωρα της κρίσεως αυτου, και προσκυνήσατε τω ποιήσαντι τον ουρανον και την γην και την θάλασσαν και πηγας υδάτων.

וארא מלאך אחר מעופף במרום הרקיע אשר היה לו בשורת עולם לבשר את ישבי הארץ ואת כל גוי ומשפחה ולשון ועם׃

ויאמר בקול גדול יראו את האלהים והבו לו כבוד כי באה עת משפטו והשתחוו לעשה שמים וארץ את הים ומעינות המים׃

Va’ére mal’ákh ’achér me‘ôphéph bimrôm ha-raqí‘a ’asher hayáh-lô besôrat ‘ôlám l’vassér ’et-yosh’véy ha-’áretz v’et-kol-gôy ûmishpacháh v’lashôn va’ám:
Vayyomer b’qôl gadôl yer’û ’et-’Elohîm v’havû-lô kavód kî va’áh ‘ét mishpatô v’hishtachavû la‘oseh shamàyim va’áretz ’et-hayyám ûma‘yenôt hammáyim:

Then I saw another angel, flying high overhead, sent to announce the Eternal Gospel to all who live on the earth, every nation, race, language and tribe. He was calling, “Fear God and praise Him, because the time has come for Him to sit in judgment; worship the Maker of heaven and earth and sea and every water spring.”
Revelation 14:6-7

The Good News, the Gospel, the Evangélion, there is only one, but because it is the Word that contains all that is, was and is to come, the seen as well as the unseen, the expressible in human language and the inexpressible, we find it described in the Holy Scriptures in various ways, we see its contents never fully but pieces of it here and there. Why? Because the Good News is the life of Christ, the Gospel is our lives in Him, the Evangélion is the summation of all things, all being in Him Who Is. Sounds mystical? Well, it is the Mystery, the Mystírion, the meeting of God and man, of God as Man, and of man in God, but as for it being mystical, no, it is not, at least not in the way that people think.

There is only one Good News (cf. Galatians 1:7), and though it reaches us in various times and places (cf. Hebrews 1:1-4), expressed in parts, all of these parts form a single whole (cf. Ephesians 4:16), which clothe the soul gradually, dressing us up in what becomes our wedding garment (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:3), eventually clothing us in the Bridegroom Himself (cf. Galatians 3:27), as the Bride is enfolded by Him and folds into Him. Again, it is the Mystery. ‘My Beloved is mine, and I am His. He pastures His flock among the lilies’
(Song of Songs 2:16).

The first words of the Good News are spoken by an angel standing on the earth (cf. Luke 1:26-38) before the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David (cf. Revelation 5:5) is sown in the fruitful field of the Virgin Daughter of Israel, and they are spoken to her alone. The last words of the Good News are spoken by an angel ‘flying high overhead’ before the Day of Judgment begins for the whole world, and they are spoken to everyone who lives on earth, ‘every nation, race, language and tribe’ (Revelation 14:6).

Between the words ‘Rejoice, so highly favored!’ and ‘Fear God and praise Him’ the door to heaven has been flung open, the gates of paradise have been unlocked, ‘the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the Good News is proclaimed to the poor’ (Luke 7:22). This is the Day of Redemption, the Day of the Good News, the acceptable Day of the Lord. Why? Because between the first and last words the Eternal Gospel, we have been granted this time to enter into the Living Word.

Brethren, let us enter into the Living Word and, casting aside all worldly cares, receive and be received by the King of All.

The ikons are scenes from the book of Revelation painted in the portico of Dionysíou Monastery on Mount Athos.

A servant's heart

One virtue that nearly all ethnic and religious groups pride themselves on is their hospitality, or at least what they perceive as their spirit of hospitality. For those whose spiritual roots are in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures of the Holy Bible, their hospitality is the obvious response to such verses as,

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19 NKJV

Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.
Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV

The Greeks among whom I live call this virtue philoxenía, literally, love of strangers, and the remembrance of Abraham’s hospitality to the three strangers when he was camped at the oak of Mamre is always at the back of our minds, visually in the form of the ikon, emotionally in the feeling of gratitude we have for God’s kindness to us.

Hospitality, though, has its limits for most people, even for Christians, even for me. The different kinds of hospitality we offer others, from shallow and formal to deep and unconditional, almost makes it hard to imagine them all being one and the same virtue.

I want to say that at some point, hospitality crosses a line. It ceases being just making people comfortable and happy and then seeing them on their way. The author of the letter to the Hebrews writes, “Let brotherly love continue,” and though that is a good thing, must it stop there?

Or perhaps he meant more when he wrote, “Let brotherly love continue.” Could he have been thinking along the lines of holy apostle John? who writes, “This has taught us love—that He gave up His life for us; and we too ought to give up our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16 JB)

One genuine virtue that seems to go unnoticed by Christians (I can only remark on them, since they are my social and religious group)—even while they are busying themselves with “works of hospitality”—is having a servant’s heart.

No, I don’t mean talking about having it and praising others who we say have it, but actually having it—a servant’s heart.

Those who have a servant’s heart are like women, as women used to be by and large before the changes wrought in them by feminism. Having a servant’s heart is not thinking of the virtue of hospitality, not limiting it by what we are willing to do for others, but being watchful, being careful of the ones we want to serve, and then
doing all we can.

Like the eyes of a servant watching his master,
like the eyes of a maid on her mistress’s hands,
so we keep our eyes on the Lord our God,
as we wait for His kindness.
Psalm 123:2

But having a servant’s heart is not only for women:
Putting the other before yourself in everything is what makes a man a man in the truest sense. The Man of men Himself demonstrated it, and His manhood was not diminished but attained the image.

How can it be so hard for us to see that it is by emptying ourselves of the glory of our individual being, in living for others with a servant’s heart, that we have been proven to have already passed over from death to life?

Regarding Christianity at least, what holy apostle Paul has written to his younger colleague Timothy is true, “The only purpose of this instruction is that there should be love, coming out of a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5 JB), and in this he was only handing over what he had heard from the Lord,

For the Son of Man Himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45 Jerusalem Bible

Manna

They asked him, ‘What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘always give us this bread.’

Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’

John 6:30-40

Whenever I turn to the Holy Bible, I am always refreshed. No matter what I am thinking about, or what I am doing, whether I am happy or sad, full of motivation or simply bored, whether I am feeling well or sick, whenever I turn to the Word of God, I am always refreshed: Thought yields to wonder, sadness dissolves and joy crowns mere happiness, boredom evaporates and motivation is purified, sickness and health are shown to be left and right hands of Divine providence. God is good. He speaks our language. Without leaving heaven, His presence fills the earth, renewing all who receive Him.

The written Word of God, the Holy and Divine Scriptures, partake of the Divine Nature of the Only-Begotten Son and Word of God, He who is also called the Holy One of Israel, who lives amidst our praises, who alone is the Savior of the human race. The Bible is manna. It falls freshly upon us every day and must be gathered freshly each morning. When it is only gathered occasionally and saved ‘for future use’ it only ‘breeds worms and stinks.’ Yes, the Bible gathered once and hoarded (or hidden) breeds worms and stinks, literally, becoming death for them who disobey the command.

What command?

When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. This is what the LORD has commanded: Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’ The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. Then Moses said to them, ‘No one is to keep any of it until morning.’ However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

Exodus 16:15-20

It was to fulfill the will of God that Jesus Christ came and pitched His tent among us, revealing the secret hidden from the world, that the manna that rained down on the people of Israel in the wilderness was still only a type and a prophecy of the Manna that was to come. Christ is Himself that Manna, that Bread of Heaven, as He taught the incredulous Jews. Though many doubted, yet some believed. Now that we know that the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, is not only the Son but also the Word of God, uniting in Himself the Divine and the human natures, it is easy for us to believe His words, ‘I am the bread of life.’ It wasn't so easy for His first hearers. And yet, knowing this, do we really believe?

Pick up and read. Go, gather the manna early and eat it before it spoils. He has rained Himself down on us from the beginning and continues to rain down on us, drenching our dry, crusty furrows with His truth. His mercy has been revealed in the Holy and Divine Scriptures till the end of time. Pick up and feed. He is the Bread that comes down from heaven. He is the Manna that conforms to the taste of each one—not that our desires change Him, but that He changes our desires, purifying us as He is pure, uniting our wills to the will of His Father in heaven. As His Word unfolds He brings light, and the simple understand. Pick up and read. Remember His promise, ‘The amount you measure out is the amount you will be given…’

Yes, the Word of God is Manna, now and always, unto the ages of ages.

Love and hate

We love those whom we want to love, and we hate those whom we want to hate. Reasons why we love someone are real, but love itself has a greater reality than those reasons. Love is its own justification. It’s different with hate.

Hate knows that it’s unreal, that it’s an intrusion of nothing into something, and without an army of reasons to justify it, it can’t support itself. Once we’ve decided to hate, we have to work very, very hard, making up reasons to justify it.

Reasons we can find, reasons we can fabricate, whatever it takes to prove our hate, to justify ourselves for hating, we make the effort. It doesn’t matter that we pay a very high price. We’re even willing to stake our lives on it, when we want to hate.

Who goes searching through the Bible to look for proof texts to justify his love for his neighbor? Sure, the words are there, even voiced as commands, ‘You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 20:37-39).

The passages enjoining love do nothing for our ego. They neither magnify nor diminish us in our own eyes; they are simply there to be followed, and if we want to love, we don’t need them to justify ourselves. Love is its own justification.

When we hate, our ego is like a drowning man grappling for a plank to hang on to, and if he finds enough planks, he feels safe. So passages enjoining not hate, but providing what we think are reasons to hate others, are found, and we cling to them.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that has given Christianity a very bad taste in the mouths of those who are haters in the second degree. They justify their hate of Christians not by bible proof texts, but by the behavior of the haters of the first degree.

The haters of the first degree carry signs that they say speak for God, for righteousness. They say they are His witnesses, but I doubt very much that the god for whom they are witnesses is any different than the god of terrorists. Hate is hate, and it cripples.
It doesn’t matter what name we place on love or on ourselves when we love: it is obvious to all what we are, and what we are doing. They may not like us, they may not like our love, and they may persecute us for it, as did pagan Rome, but they can’t deny it.

It doesn’t matter what name we place on our hate or on ourselves when we hate, either: it is obvious to all (but ourselves) what we are (for hate blinds those who practice it). Even the world, all on its own, can raise itself above hate sometimes, though not ingloriously.

But we know where love comes from, and wherefrom is hate. ‘Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God’ (1 John 4:7).
‘Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother’ (1 John 3:12).

Yes, we love those we want to love, and hate those we want to hate. The better way is to hate no one at all, but to love our neighbor as God has loved us, for that is truly the yoke that Christ calls ‘easy’ and the burden that He calls ‘light.’

Merciful

If a man readily and joyfully accepts a loss for the sake of God, he is inwardly pure. And if he does not look down upon any man because of his defects, in very truth he is free. If a man is not pleased with someone who honors him, nor displeased with someone who dishonors him, he is dead to the world and to this life. The watchfulness of discernment is superior to every discipline of men accomplished in any way to any degree.

Do not hate the sinner. For we are all laden with guilt. If for the sake of God you are moved to oppose him, weep over him. Why do you hate him? Hate his sins and pray for him, that you may imitate Christ Who was not wroth with sinners, but interceded for them. Do you not see how He wept over Jerusalem? We are mocked by the devil in many instances, so why should we hate the man who is mocked by him who mocks us also?

Why, O man, do you hate the sinner? Could it be because he is not so righteous as you? But where is your righteousness when you have no love? Why do you not shed tears over him? But you persecute him. In ignorance some are moved with anger, presuming themselves to be discerners of the works of sinners.

Be a herald of God's goodness, for God rules over you, unworthy though you are; for although your debt to Him is so great, yet He is not seen exacting payment from you, and from the small works you do, He bestows great rewards upon you.

Do not call God just, for His justice is not manifest in the things concerning you. And if David calls Him just and upright (cf. Psalm 24:8, 144:17), His Son revealed to us that He is good and kind. ‘He is good,’ He says, ‘to the evil and to the impious’ (Luke 6:35).

How can you call God just when you come across the Scriptural passage on the wage given to the workers? ‘Friend, I do thee no wrong: I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is thine eye evil because I am good?’ (Matthew 20:12-15).

How can a man call God just when he comes across the passage on the prodigal son who wasted his wealth with riotous living, how for the compunction alone which he showed, the father ran and fell upon his neck and gave him authority over all his wealth? (Luke 15:11 ff.).

None other but His very Son said these things concerning Him, lest we doubt it; and thus He bare witness concerning Him. Where, then, is God's justice, for whilst we are sinners Christ died for us! (cf. Romans 5:8). But if here He is merciful, we may believe that He will not change.

Far be it that we should ever think such an iniquity that God could become unmerciful! For the property of Divinity does not change as do mortals. God does not acquire something which He does not have, nor lose what He has, nor supplement what He does have, as do created beings.

But what God has from the beginning, He will have and has until the [unending] end, as the blest Cyril wrote in his commentary on Genesis. ‘Fear God, he says, out of love for Him, and not for the austere name that He has been given. Love Him as you ought to love Him; not for what He will give you in the future, but for what we have received, and for this world alone which He has created for us.’

Who is the man that can repay Him? Where is His repayment to be found in our works? Who persuaded Him in the beginning to bring us into being Who intercedes for us before Him, when we shall possess no [faculty of] memory, as though we never existed? Who will awake this our body for that life? Again, whence descends the notion of knowledge into dust?

O the wondrous mercy of God! O the astonishment at the bounty of our God and Creator! O might for which all is possible! O the immeasurable goodness that brings our nature again, sinners though we be, to His regeneration and rest! Who is sufficient to glorify Him?

He raises up the transgressor and blasphemer, he renews dust unendowed with reason, making it rational and comprehending and the scattered and insensible dust and the scattered senses He makes a rational nature worthy of thought.

The sinner is unable to comprehend the grace of His resurrection. Where is gehenna, that can afflict us? Where is perdition, that terrifies us in many ways and quenches the joy of His love? And what is gehenna as compared with the grace of His resurrection, when He will raise us from Hades and cause our corruptible nature to be clad in incorruption, and raise up in glory him that has fallen into Hades?

Come, men of discernment, and be filled with wonder! Whose mind is sufficiently wise and marvelous to wonder worthily at the bounty of our Creator? His recompense of sinners is, that instead of a just recompense, He rewards them with resurrection, and instead of those bodies with which they trampled upon His law, He enrobes them with perfect glory and incorruption.

That grace whereby we are resurrected after we have sinned is greater than the grace which brought us into being when we were not. Glory be to Thine immeasurable grace, O Lord!

Behold, Lord, the waves of Thy grace close my mouth with silence, and there is not a thought left in me before the face of Thy thanksgiving. What mouths can confess Thy praise, O good King, Thou Who lovest our life? Glory be to Thee for the two worlds which Thou hast created for our growth and delight, leading us by all things which Thou didst fashion to the knowledge of Thy glory, from now and unto the ages. Amen.

— Isaac the Syrian, Homily 60

“Remember who your teachers were…”
2 Timothy 3:14