Martyrdom

Martyrdom—this is a word we’ve heard a lot lately, especially on the news. Muslim fundamentalists commit martyrdom. Christians suffer martyrdom. But what is martyrdom, really?

It comes from the Greek word μαρτυρια, meaning “witness”. It’s one of the four characteristics of Orthodox Christianity: liturgía “worship” literally “the people’s work”, dhiakonía “servanthood”, martyría “witness”, and kinonía “fellowship”.
A modern addition to this foursquare scheme is paidheía “instruction”.
It used to be considered sufficient that the idhiótes, that is, the laity, were educated and edified by the original four. But the modernist Orthodox wants to make sure the world understands that we are “educated” too. “Nobody who speaks only Greeks is anybody!” as Spiro exclaimed in the film My Family and Other Animals.

Back to martyrdom.
Muslims commit it,
Christians suffer it.

A Muslim terrorist firmly believes in the reward of paradise and seventy-two black-eyed virgins if he commits martyrdom by, for example, strapping a bomb to himself, walking into a crowd of “enemies of Allah”,
and blowing himself and them up.

A Christian who suffers martyrdom
at the hands of unbelievers
because of his testimony,
his witness to Jesus as Lord and Savior, firmly believes that Christ will stand up for him, based on His word of promise, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32 NASB)

The Christian doesn’t know the particulars or details of the reward, if you can call it such (though Jesus does, cf. Matthew 10:42), but he believes in it just as firmly, and with good reason.
“The Word of God says so.”

So, martyrdom means “witness”.
It seems strange that witness can be committed as an act of violence towards oneself and others by the followers of Muhammad, and at the same time suffered as violence committed against oneself by others. But that’s how it is. Has it always been this way?

Have there been Muslim martyrs who suffered rather than committed martyrdom?
Well, yes, of course there have. Think of the Crusades, when Roman Catholic armies attacked the Muslim states of the Near East. Of course, they were only trying to win back what the Muslims had conquered in the first place. Maybe that’s not a good example.

How about the case of Mansur al-Hallaj (AD 858-922), who was martyred for his faith? Well, yes, it was by his fellow Muslims. He wanted to testify of his relationship with God to others, even at the price of his own life. He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die ‘in the supreme confession of the cross’. Many Muslims of his time criticized him as a crypto-Christian for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way. Well, maybe that’s not a good example either.

Have there ever been Christians who committed martyrdom?
Well, again I think you could cite the Crusaders, though reliable contemporary sources, Francesco of Assisi for example, expressed the opinion that the Crusaders needed Christ more than the Saracens did, so that’s probably not a good example.

I think the closest I can come to finding a Christian equivalent to ‘committing martyrdom’ is the acts of the Greek neo-martyrs during the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. These were (usually) men who had gotten into trouble with the Turks, but who escaped punishment, fled and lived in hiding. Later, after repenting for their apostasy (most of them had been forced to become Muslims, and then had backslid), they would return to the places where they had denied Christ and ‘commit martyrdom’ by boldly confessing Christ and denouncing Muhammad in front of Turkish authorities, who then had them executed (not without trying to induce them to recant, rejoin the Muslim fold, and be pardoned). They could have stayed in hiding (and most former apostates did), but something inside these men couldn’t be silenced. Perhaps they read the passage in Matthew, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men…”


Are we any closer to defining martyrdom?
I think not. What martyrdom really is can be learned only by following Jesus, going where He goes, doing what He does. Here’s what martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about some aspects of martyrdom:

Neither failure nor hostility can weaken the messenger’s conviction that he has been sent by Jesus. That his word may be their strength, their stay and their comfort, Jesus repeats it. ‘Behold, I send you.’ For this is no way they have chosen themselves, no undertaking of their own. It is, in the strict sense of the word, a mission. With this the Lord promises them his abiding presence, even when they find themselves as sheep among wolves, defenceless, powerless, sore pressed and beset with great danger. Nothing can happen to them without Jesus knowing of it. ‘Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.’

… Jesus never called his disciples into a state of uncertainty, but to one of supreme certainty. That is why his warning can only summon them to abide by the Word. Where the Word is, there shall the disciple be. Therein lies his true wisdom and his true simplicity. If it is obvious that the Word is being rejected, if it is forced to yield its ground, the disciple must yield with it. But if the Word carries on the battle, the disciple must also stand his ground. In each case he will be combining wisdom with simplicity. But wisdom, however spiritual it may be, must never lead the disciple along a path which cannot stand the test of the word of Jesus.

… It is not our judgment of the situation which can show us what is wise, but only the truth of the Word of God. Here alone lies the promise of God’s faithfulness and help. It will always be true that the wisest course for the disciple is always to abide solely by the Word of God in all simplicity.

… The return of Jesus will take place suddenly. That fact is more certain than that we shall be able to finish our work in his service, more certain than our own death. This assurance that in their suffering they will be as their Master is the greatest consolation the messengers of Jesus have. As is the Master, so shall the disciple be, and as the Lord, so the servant. If they called Jesus a devil, how much more shall they call the servants of his household devils. Thus Jesus will be with them, and they will be in all things like unto him.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (martyr, 1945)
The Cost of Discipleship,
Ch. 24 The Suffering of the Messengers

Modern Martyrs Website

Stay the course!

We Orthodox are not Always Perfect,

but Stay the Course!

Orthodoxy is not always easy, and there are many parishes that seem to make living our Orthodox faith far more difficult than needs to be. The lack of joy in some quarters is not about Orthodoxy, but about the fallen people who make up the Church. This is to be expected, of course, since the Church is a hospital for the soul, and therefore home to a lot of sick people. The good news is, we are all in the right place for the needed healing to take place, and wholeness and lasting joy will come to everyone who stays the course.

Don't ever let a mean spirited parishioner, nor a harsh speaking priest, drive you from the Church. This is your home as well, and, just as in a dysfunctional household, a lot of growth can take place, even when the parish is not ideal. Pray for your priest, and for the people who have made you feel uncomfortable. Pray to Saint John the Wonderworker of San Francisco, who was such a loving father and pastor, for help. Although a good confessor and great preacher would be preferable to the priest who never has the time for you, the Church is still the place for you. He may deliver lousy homilies, and may seem harsh in confession, and devoid of people skills, the reality is the Church is still the place for you.

There is an old saying in Orthodoxy: ‘The people get the bishop they deserve.’ Instead of walking away from Orthodoxy, look around for a parish that might be a better fit for you and your family. If language is a problem for your children, find a parish that uses English. If your parish priest serves like a sorcerer, with all the correct and lengthy formulas, but is devoid of the love of Christ, pray for him. Yet if you and your children would benefit, by all means look into the possibility that another parish might be a better fit, and a place where you can all grow in the faith. Better to leave a dysfunctional parish, than to leave Orthodoxy.

If you have no other options, and your parish is the only Orthodox church in the region, make the best of it. Remember, most parishes were closed down completely during Soviet times. The priests and bishops sent off to their deaths, yet the Church lived on with the faithful making do under the harshest of times.

Ultimately, your life in the Church is all about Christ, and Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will not betray you, for He is the source of all joy and goodness. It is Christ Who is the Great Physician, the Giver of Life, and the Healer of Souls. The Church belongs to Him, and in spite of the fact we priests sometimes fail to be the Light of Christ to our people, does in no way negate the fact that the Church is still the Fountain of Life, and the place wherein we can receive healing of all that ails us.

— Abbot Tryphon

In His arms

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, the sinner.

The fast of Christ’s holy Mother’s repose is in its fourth day, reminding us that we must prepare, we must repent of the sin which clings so closely, that we may, like her, be received in His arms and carried as a newborn infant to Paradise. For all that Christ did for her He has promised to do for His disciples and lovers, whom He declares to be His very own relations, saying, ‘My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice’ (Luke 8:21). Let’s not only hear His words, but do what He commands and so stay near Him, following behind Him closely. Christ goes on before, clearing the path ahead endlessly, preparing a place for His disciples. Have mercy on me, Lord, and let me be counted among them, even as the least.


Some words, brethren, to keep us on the path of illumination which has only one destination, the holy death which is life immortal. First, a word on prayer…

Bishop Theophan the Recluse used to say that praying only with words written by another is like trying to talk in a foreign language using only textbook dialogues. Like many other Church fathers, he said that we must look for our own words in order to pray. I suppose that this is truly possible for us (if we dismiss artificially “invented” prayers of our own) only in moments of desperate need, real anguish, either for ourselves or for others. In such moments we do not “recite” prayers, we simply cry out to God, “Lord, please come to him and comfort him!” The audacity of prayer is born only in the audacity of love. Saint Makarios said, “Love gives birth to prayer.” Therein lies the mystery and the meaning of prayer.

We can recite endless litanies, we can endlessly finger our prayer ropes, but unless we have love, unless we have learned to grieve for others, we have not even begun to pray. We can thus go through all our life without having begun to pray. That’s why Abba Antony said, “Let’s learn to love sorrow in order to find God!” He did not say, “Let’s look for sorrow,” but “Let’s love it,” because sorrow is a cup offered us by Christ, and drinking it, we begin to partake of prayer.

Unless we are truly sympathetic to human suffering, we are merely carrying out a “prayer rule,” not really praying. To carry out a prayer rule is good and necessary, but only when we realise it is a means, not an end in itself. We must realise that it is only a spur to encourage our efforts.

Imagine a man peacefully fishing from the shore. Everything is fine, everything is according to fishing rules, the brightly colored float bobs on the surface. The man does not realise that there is no baited hook attached to the line. The float is just a pretence, and actually there is no fishing taking place. To many people their prayer rule is such a baitless float. Only the hook of suffering can catch real love.

And now, just a few more words, this time on fasting…

Fasting means trying to overcome that which is “too human” in us. It means trying to overcome the limitations of our nature and to introduce it to limitlessness, to make it breathe eternity.

Fasting must be understood, in the first place, as abstention from non-love, not from butter. Then it will become a time of light, a “joyous time of Lent.”

Non-love, animosity, is the most terrible form of indulgence, a gluttony and intoxication with the self. It is the very first, the original offense against the Holy Spirit of God. “I appeal to you by the love of the Holy Spirit,” writes Saint Paul (Romans 15:30).

Love is the opposite of pride and hatred. In our evening prayers, we ask forgiveness for those sins which are a breach of love.

…if I have reproached anyone, or become angered by something; or slandered anyone in my anger; or have lied or slept unnecessarily; or a beggar has come to me and I have despised him; or have saddened my brother and quarreled with him; or have judged someone or have allowed myself to be haughty, proud or angry …or have laughed at my brother’s sin…

It seems to me that I have been found out. It’s all written down in the prayer book, all the things I’ve done! And before I was halfway through the prayer, my internal advocate was already reasoning my defense, making excuses for me. Why is that advocate so silent in me when it comes to defending others and overlooking their sins, not just my own?


Lest this post devolve into an academic exercise, I want to bring it to a close by returning to the theme of the time we have just entered.

Someone is coming for us. Someone who loves us more than our parents, our spouses, our kids, our friends. Someone is coming for us and in His arms we will be gently carried into the land of all joy, into Paradise. Actually, in His arms we find Paradise, because it is all in Him. The New Adam is Paradise, and just as His earthly Mother was made all-holy by being His chosen dwelling-place, so each of us is transfigured to the degree we let Him live in us while we live in this world. And as her repose prefigures the rapture of all who “will be taken up in the clouds,” we can look forward with confidence to our own repose, because like her “we shall stay with the Lord forever”
(1 Thessalonians 4:17).

With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.
1 Thessalonians 4:18 Jerusalem Bible

Ωστε παρακαλειτε αλλήλους εν τοις λόγοις τούτοις.

Metamorphosis

Everything about this day bespeaks transformation.

But the feast, as always hidden from the world—God is so shy! He doesn’t want to frighten us into submission. Yes, hidden from the world, but hidden also from ourselves. The grape harvest is in too, and how fitting, as the holy day of Christ’s transfiguration on Mount Tabor was anciently appointed as the day of blessing of the grape harvest—and so I blessed and ate grapes for my lunch!

Metamórphosis, transformation, or as the normal English translation of the name of this feast day, Transfiguration. These words all have something to do with the change of shape or form, but what we are celebrating in this event is not that kind of change. True, the three disciples, Peter, James and John, saw Jesus standing, talking to the prophet Elijah and the lawgiver Moses, and His face was as bright as the sun, and His garments whiter than any bleach could make them, but their experience was not just visual, it wasn’t something only taken in by their eyes.

They heard a Voice, ‘This is My Son, the Beloved, hear Him!’ issuing from the depths of a bright cloud, words which down the ages every false prophet and religion-monger has taken to himself, claiming to be somehow what Jesus is, but always failing, miserably. No one has ever had these words spoken about him, but Jesus, son of Joseph, Messiah of Israel, who was proclaimed by His resurrection from the dead, the God-Man. The Voice could have spoken these words of Jesus as His body hung on the Cross, shamefully mutilated and despised, but it did not.

Instead, in the dead of night, the darkest night, on a mountain top, a very high mountain, in the presence of only three mere humans, and two human souls suspended in the loving memory of the Father, two souls whom He brought into His active memory to show them His Son, rewarding them for their labors and suffering. We do not know what Jesus was saying to them. We do not know why He chose that day and hour to reveal to the dead and the living the One who was the Life of both, but that is what the Father did, and not without the Holy Spirit.

Here we have the second ikon in the New Testament record of the revelation of the Divine Nature as Holy Triad, the first being at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. There too the Voice spoke. There too the Spirit Holy descended and stayed on Him. Now, for a second time, for the second and last time, the Divine Nature reveals Himself, Father speaking His word of command, Son revealing to man the very face of the Father in all glory, Spirit enfolding and brightening not just the Father and Son, but the dead and the living as well, welcoming man into God Himself.

There is another ikon of the Divine Nature as Holy Triad, and it’s the one most people think of when they remember the Holy Trinity. It is the three Angels seated at table, usually with Abram and Sarai in the background, serving them. This ikon is yet a premonition of the Reality that would unfold in the events marking the beginnings and endings of the earthly ministry of the Messiah of Israel, an ikon shadowy as it were, obscure and full of mystery, questions not answers. The ikons of Theophany and Metamorphosis, the Baptism and the Transfiguration, not so.

Not shadowy, obscure, but full of light. Both feasts are associated with the Light of Christ—Theophany is called ‘Tón Photón’ or ‘[Feast] of the Lights’—and here we have the feast in which Christ is revealed as not only the Light but the Source of all Light, the Metamórphosis, the transformation, matter transmuted into energy, which is what it always was, is, and will be. Even human science itself may one day catch up to this Truth, which much of theology has fruitlessly busied itself speculating about rather than experiencing. What Truth are we talking about? No, not what, but Who.

Once again, the Divine Nature breaks in upon our private conversations, both inner and outer, to reveal Himself as not what, but Who, as One, yet Three, as Divine, yet Human, and opens a door of welcome into Himself not as things but as persons, welcoming human beings to become what He created them to be, partakers of the Divine Nature, not cosmic dust, co-workers with Him in the garden universe, co-redeemers with Him of all of nature, which waits with longing and expectation for the revelation of the sons of God, for Metamórphosis, the restoration of Creation.

Now, let’s go and finish blessing the grapes…

Originally posted August 6, 2011

For a short story told in the first person by holy apostle James son of Zebedee, recounting what happened on Mount Tabor, see I witness, and I wait.

Where all the saints repose

Near the end of June, my newest godson received ‘the call that [he’d] been dreading for years,’ that his mother was dying—not sometime, but soon, perhaps even at that very hour—and that he’d better come flying home to Detroit as soon as he could get a seat on an airplane.

I can imagine how he must’ve felt. My mother was a rugged survivor of numerous sicknesses from the time right after I was born, when to save her life the doctors removed three-quarters of her badly ulcerated stomach. She was, as I am, very high strung. As a child I was always afraid she would die.

Over the course of my childhood years, I prayed that God would let her live, especially when her health problems frightened me. From the way Jason describes his mother and his family’s and his own dependence on her, she and my mom must have been very similar, remarkable women, our strength.

Had my mother passed away before I became an adult, I think it would’ve crushed me too, so fixated was I upon her presence and the refuge she provided. I outgrew that dependence when I moved out on my own and got married. I now had a wife and kids, and I was beginning to understand providence.

I don’t think anything opens wide a door to knowing the Father better than becoming a father yourself. Also, nothing teaches you—ever so gently!—that moms and dads are not God, so that you love and appreciate them more, than being married and, with your spouse, raising that little family.

We visited my mother for the last time, driving cross country in a compact car with an already tall twelve-year old son and his two little brothers, a toddler and an infant, from Portland to Chicago. She had suffered a debilitating stroke six or seven years earlier. She saw her grandsons, hugged us close, and then let us go, waving goodbye from her wheelchair at the nursing home entrance as we drove away. [*]

We never saw her again. In a few months, I received the call I knew would come, but I was no longer afraid, nor even sad. ‘The strife is o’er, the battle done, the victory of life is won, the song of triumph has begun, alleluia!’ Remembering her trust I prayed, ‘The God who loves me is coming.’

Her departure came at an impossible time for our little family on the West Coast. Everyone else still lived in the home area of Chicago and could attend her funeral, not I. Darkness lurks in the bloodlines of unforgiveness and, instead of pulling everyone together to console one another, by intrigue stripped me of my membership in the family. What was the real reason I was banished? My emigration? My marriage to someone outside our tribe and religion? My closeness to our mother? who told me, ‘You have visited me while I was alive. If you cannot come to my funeral, don’t worry. I won’t be there.’ Or was it my faith?

Back to my godson and his recent loss, he is a new Christian, baptized last Easter, coming over from Buddhism without abandoning it. Like many of his generation who are artsy and educated and progressive, he has never married. He can’t be faulted, then, for the severity of his grief. A mother’s death is worthy of grief.

He hasn’t been taught, hasn’t been prepared by a life that he hasn’t yet begun to live. Though I am his godfather, we belong to different parishes at opposite ends of town. Mutual friends of ours at his parish didn’t notify me, perhaps thinking someone else did. He didn’t tell me either. I found out quite by accident.

It was probably all for the best, because my condolences would possibly have seemed as stoic and unintelligible to him in his sorrow as they would sound to a child. God never pushes us beyond where we are at the moment, never forces illumination on us, nor does He let His servants push either. Wisdom and mercy are His.

Everyone’s path is different, yet all who seek to follow Him who says, ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’ find that their paths lead them to the same place—the Cross. Even those who do not follow Him arrive at the same destination, but how different it looks! Pain, sorrow, vile injustice, betrayal, rejection, death.

Yet those who answer Him, ‘I believe,’ when He asks, ‘Do you believe this?’ find not pain but peace, not sorrow but joy, not injustice but mercy, not betrayal but faithfulness, not rejection but reconciliation, not death but life. This is what we are born for, what we inherit, endless mercy, life, eternal happiness.

With the spirits of the righteous made perfect Give rest to the soul of Your servant, O Savior; and keep it safe in that life of blessedness that is lived with You, O Friend of Man. In the place of Your rest, O Lord, where all Your Saints repose, give rest also to the soul of Your servant, For You alone are immortal. You are our God Who went down to Hades to loose the pains of the dead that were there; give rest also to the soul of Your servant, O Savior.

O Virgin, alone pure and immaculate that in maiden-motherhood brought forth God, intercede for the salvation of the soul of your servant.

God grant to you, beloved brother and co-sufferer, comfort in your grief beyond what I can give, and healing to your heart, for your mother is now assuredly at peace, ‘where all the saints repose.’

Aiónia í mními aftís. Eternal be her memory.

When we deny a life

An unwed mother. An unwelcome, an unwanted condition in almost every culture, time and place. Well, at least until the present generation. Colombia leads the world in babies born out of wedlock at 74%, but something must happen after birth, because single parent households stands at 33%.

In Africa, Nigeria takes the lead with 59% born out of wedlock, and 58% in single parent household. It must be assumed that ‘single parent households’ means the mother with her children, even though it can be widows or widowers, or divorced parents of either sex.

In Asia, the Philippines wins hands down with 37% of babies born of unwed mothers. Not surprisingly, family-venerating countries with a conservative, if politically camouflaged, Confucian ethic score very, very low. Taiwan is highest with a measly 4%, with the same percentage of single parent families.

I guess once you make a mistake, no one will have you. China at less than 1% doesn’t surprise me. I was surprised at less than 1% for India. I think I underestimated the effect of Hinduism on its people. Their gods and goddesses procreate freely, just as our pre-Christian gods did, but their example has had the opposite effect, apparently.

Coming to Europe, Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom topped the charts, all above the 32% out of wedlock births that was a tie between Germany and Spain. The two most Catholic countries, Poland and Italy, were lowest on the chart (which only showed medium and high rates) at 20% and 18% respectively.

In the world of Islam, only two countries were represented, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both with under 1% births to unwed mothers. I suppose one reason their scores are so low is the dreadful punishment dealt out for committing such a sin.

Canada and the United States are both in the medium range, at 25% and 41% respectively. I dread to think what this really means when we remember that abortion is legal in both countries.

Abortion in Canada is not limited by criminal law but by the Canada Health Act. While some non-legal obstacles exist, Canada is one of only a few nations with no legal restrictions on abortion. It is simply a decision made by a woman with her doctor. In 2005, there were 97,254 abortions reported in Canada. I don’t know what it means when this number is footnoted by ‘It is estimated that this number represents approximately 90% of all abortions performed in Canada involving Canadian residents.’ Supposedly, this number has been decreasing since at least 1998.

In the United States, abortion is a living political issue, one that will probably come to a head after the next presidential election, as a populace frustrated with the perceivedly weak performance of the current president elects his possibly equal opposite—God grant he not be white supremacist!—and along with him a Republican dominated Congress. Though we may have homosexual ‘marriage,’ that will probably stay, because it kills no one. The short catechism in my old prayer book lists four sins ‘crying to heaven for vengeance’—murder (Genesis 4:10), sodomy (Genesis 17:20-21), oppression of the poor (Exodus 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (James 5:4). In my book, abortion should be listed as well. Maybe it will be, if removing ‘sodomy’ makes room for it. Or perhaps people will soon wake up to the sober truth: abortion is murder. It does kill. It kills the most defenseless.

An unwed mother. An unwelcome, an unwanted condition in first century Palestine. Sure, marriage customs were different, as they are even today in traditional cultures. Maryam of Nazareth, a virgin daughter of Israel was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter. According to the story found in the gospels, she is visited by an angel, who announces that God has chosen her to become—it’s too much to even say it, but we do, and we must, because now we know for sure what it means—the mother of His son. Maryam is no learned theologian. Holding strictly to Jewish monotheism, she doesn’t object, ‘Seriously! How can God have a son?’ Instead, indicating that she has already accepted as true what the angels says, her concerns are very practical, ‘How is this possible, for I have known no man?’

We know the rest of the story. When and how the Holy Spirit—was Maryam the first Jew to meet the Eternal, HaShem, Adonay, as a Trinitarian Being? John the Baptist did, but not until many years later—conceived in her womb the New Adam, we do not exactly know. But after her snap decision, did she regret it? Did she experience ‘the morning after’ those misgivings that people feel when they have ‘gone too far’ with a relationship that should have been consummated in the marriage bed? It cannot have been easy to tell them, first her mother Anna, then her betrothed—how she must have feared it!—that she was ‘with child’ and have nothing, not the father’s name, not when and where it happened, only some unbelievable and wild tale of an angel pronouncing what to pious and orthodox ears was enough to make every Jew rip his garments to shreds.

Abortion existed then as it does now. It was a dangerous process, part magic, part sorcery (drug use), part mechanical, but completely secret. It had to be, because everyone knew it was wrong. They might let the child live, but by Jewish law the mother could be stoned. People may think me very impious to even mention abortion when speaking of the Theotokos, but I mean her no disrespect. I do not believe such a thought would have entered her mind, even though like the rest us she was born a sinner. But I want to point out that what to us is a charming story and a beautiful ikon did not just happen like magic. Maryam must have struggled with it. Like Jacob she must have struggled with God. Maybe this struggle began long before the angel came to her in her room. Maybe his appearance was the last match. Maybe she was at the point where a soul knows for sure that to lose is to win. Maybe she knew that what God had in store for her was a betrothal other than the one arranged by her mother with the carpenter Joseph. ‘God works in mysterious ways.’

Almighty God, Creator of all that exists, in heaven and on earth, seen and unseen, chose to become a human being by means of conception, growth as a fetus in a woman’s womb, birth as an infant, experiencing not only every human life before and after, but the life of every living creature He ever created in the unbroken, irresistible chain of evolution, recapping in nine months what His instantaneous command ‘let there be’ unfolded in uncountable ages.

And that birth of the New Adam consecrated the human womb as the gestation place of the Divine Nature, making every pilgrim who ever passes, passed, or will pass through that narrow way, a divinity, a brother or sister of the Most High, pre-eternal God, and every mother ‘more honorable than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim.’

And this is what we throw away and despise, when we deny a life.

Homily on true happiness

I am happy with the ancient Church of which I find myself a member. I delight in her endless cycle of lavish worship, poetically crafted and lusciously ceremonious. I even love the unscheduled pauses in worship when the cantors have to fill the time with nonsense syllables till the next stage of the liturgical dance is reached. All these things were carefully designed centuries ago to administer teaching and healing to barbarous nations who knew nothing of reading or writing, and were fallen into sometimes hideous diseases of body, mind and morals. This the ancient Christian architects knew prophetically would have application and relevance from their time till the end of the age. Human nature never changes, except when it is joined by transfiguration to the Divine Nature, in the God-Man, Jesus Christ.

Yet, there is an horrific proviso to my happiness with and delight in the elaborate, soul-fulfilling and mystical tangibles (but not the faith) of this Church. All that is seen, heard, smelled, tasted and touched in the conveyance of the mystírion to the logical flock of the great Shepherd King Jesus must be rooted in, must rest upon, must grow out of, must lead to, and must nourish in us, the evangélion, the eternal gospel, the living good news of the living God, which alone makes us disciples, alone heals our iniquities, alone frees us from bondage, alone empowers us to be passion-bearers, alone realizes in us our divine sonship, our royal priesthood, and finally brings us to the threshold of incorruption and life eternal. For all that is grasped by our senses is worthless unless we are made worthy by Christ to enter Paradise.

The world enthralls us and purchases our loyalty by its false promises and tantalizes us with the fear that we will be ‘left behind’ if we do not conform to its every demand. This is true of the world outside the walls of the ancient Church, and of the world within. But no matter, for all have been given equally the privilege of the yoke of Christ, from hierarch to humble believer. If you are a bishop, you are shepherd of souls in place of Christ, and your worldly life is forfeit for the sake of the burden laid upon you by your own choice. If you are a presbyter, your life is now and forever hidden with Christ in God and no longer your property, and you too must be willing to be broken but not divided, eaten but not consumed, as your Divine Prototype. If you are a deacon, your call begins with ‘waiting tables,’ but where does it end?

As for the rest of us, there is next to nothing to do, who live in the ancient Church, but to worship the Lord, to glorify Him by our every move, to consecrate our every thought and all our words to the work of mercy enjoined on us by Him who says, ‘blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.’ To this nothing superfluous can be added, nor anything essential cut away. Our lives in Christ are all or nothing, and we know where our treasure is. No, not our treasures, for there is only One, and everything else is His gift to us, who says ‘and all these other things shall be added to you as well.’ How can any of us forbear to be in Christ and not just say we are, when God has revealed Himself to us, face to face, in Jesus, who unashamedly tells us by way of invitation, ‘If you have seen me, you have seen the Father’?

Yes, the ancient Church, the one built on the Rock, no, not on St Peter though his name means the same, but on that Rock of which the psalmists chanted and to whom they cried incessantly for salvation. That Rock followed them in all their wilderness wanderings watering their bodies and souls, and then, when they least expected it, reappeared among them, as He does among us, as a Rock against whom all our iniquities crash and break. They rejected Him and refused the water He gives that wells up forever and gives drink to all who thirst, and still He offers without stint that life-giving spring to us who ring the miraculous font of new birth. Will we allow ourselves to be triply immersed, yield all our members to that death-defying plunge, and come out truly alive to join the cherubim, and not just represent them?

The only measure of all things

The evangelical spirit of religious consciousness "blows where it will," but woe betide those ages and those peoples upon which it does not rest. And at the same time, blessed are they that walk in its paths—even those who know it not.

What is most characteristic of this path?
It is a desire to "Christify" all of life.
To a certain degree this notion can be contrasted to that which is understood not only by the term "enchurchment," but also the term "Christianization."

"Enchurchment" is often taken to mean the placing of life within the framework of a certain rhythm of church piety, the subordination of one's personal life experience to the schedule of the cycle of divine services, the incorporation of certain specific elements of "churchliness" into one's way of life, even elements of the Church's ustav.

"Christianization," however, is generally understood as nothing more than the correction of the bestial cruelty of man's history through inoculation with a certain dose of Christian morality. And in addition to this it also includes the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world.

"Christification," however, is based on the words, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). The image of God, the icon of Christ, which truly is my real and actual essence or being, is the only measure of all things, the only path or way which is given to me. Each movement of my soul, each approach to God, to other people, to the world, is determined by the suitability of that act for reflecting the image of God which is within me.

If I am faced with two paths and I am in doubt, then even if all human wisdom, experience, and tradition point to one of these, but I feel that Christ would have followed the other—then all my doubts should immediately disappear, and I should choose to follow Christ in spite of all the experience, tradition and wisdom that are opposed to it.

— Mother Maria Skobtsova, Types of Religious Lives

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

Confident and certain

The Christian life is not to let oneself be crushed and overwhelmed by sin, in others or in oneself, but even while confessing one’s sinfulness, to profess the mercy of God, to be confident and certain about it. So confident and certain, in fact, that one is unhindered in following Jesus, in copying His thoughts, words and deeds in such a manner, that another window to His mercy has been opened for others. We may be just holes in a wall, but what Light we let into this world of darkness! We do not make that Light, we are not that Light, but by voiding ourselves, that Light shines. Not by works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:9).

Confident and certain of the undeserved mercy of God to our sinfulness, rather than being successful in winning worldly blessings—even in winning souls—this is the Christian life, this is what the call of Christ is all about. Again, it is not what we do, but what He does, about sin in the world and in us. Yes, we will do the same works that Jesus did, and even greater works because He has gone to the Father, yet it is not we who live, but Christ who is alive in us, and it is He who living in us does these works. Not by us, Yahweh, not by us, by You alone is glory deserved, by Your love and Your faithfulness (Psalm 115:1).

They said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
John 6:28-29

Keep me awake

In the dawn...
keep me awake, O Lord
keep me awake
I want to see You
and sing to You a hymn of praise and honor

Lord, our Good Shepherd,
may You find me
because I am lost and weak
but I really long for You and Your Love
Cleanse me O Lord and grant me Your mercy
to come near, closer to You

My sin is ever before me
and I am ashamed
Lord, heal me and restore me
so that I might gaze upon Your Beauty in awe
and Your faithfulness and deliverance
shall be in my heart and mouth

Lord, how great and trembling it is
to follow behind You
in the steps of Your Holy Feet
Joy! Joy! Joy!
even the way is narrow
and the thorn bushes along the side
but gazing upon Your Humility and Love,
strengthens us and comforts us

in the day light...
May Your blessing be upon us
teach us and guide us with Your commandments
to walk patiently in the rocky, stony roads

Lead me in the Beautiful path among the loving brothers and sisters,
Your rational flock
those through whom You also manifest Your Love
may we be united in one voice, mind and spirit
to glorify You, our Master!
and to love our neighbors

In the night...
let us rest and take shelter in You
because You are our Only Joy!

Keep me awake,
keep me awake O Lord,
that I may sing to You
in fervent Joy that comes from You!

— Yudi Kristanto

You love me beyond me

The crown of meaning and beauty is You, O my Joy!

my Lord and Savior
how beautiful it is to pause and remember
How You love me beyond me

That Your heart rejoices upon everything good that You set on me
You gave that trust, that love, that joy
so pure as the glimmering stream of fountain
'Cling on me! Feed on me. I am Good Shepherd'
You call gently
Your embrace warms my soul, the sweetest of all
Everything is on Your mighty hands O Lord
Everything good is from You

Lord, it is trembling for me to draw so close to You
because Your beauty is so splendorous
You are the source of all
of all beauty and joy
Holy are You O God!

Lord, have mercy on Your little servant
which You have created from dust
and that You have given life and gift of being
I am sinful, full of disgrace
but Your mercy I plea and Your love I trust...
that You love me beyond me

May my life be totally for You and for Your Joy O Lord, nothing else
because I find nothing outside You
I can do nothing if not from Your mercy
There's no meaning but in Your bountiful blossom

Lead me, O Lord...
Save me, I am Yours
may I live for You and You alone, O Lord
in loving whom You love, the mankind and my neighbors
in rejoicing in Your joy
in weeping and caring for those who are in need
in taking care and being mindful of Your creation

in each step
in each breath
I am Yours

Bless, O Lord! Ameyn!

— Yudi Kristanto

In the night

We have seen the true Light,
we have received the heavenly Spirit,
we have found the true Faith,
worshiping the undivided Trinity,
for He has saved us.

O Lord,
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.

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

Yes, in the night.

— Romanós

The immensity of love

In the Spirit, Christianity is neither moralism nor ritualism, but calling, power, and light. Christianity is no longer ideological constraint, that heresy of the ‘Christian era.’ Nor is it simply one aspect of culture, alongside so many others, the heresy of modern times. Rather, Christianity is exorcism, it is substance, the profundity of all existence, available to everyone who desires it in love and freedom. It exists for the sake of love and freedom.

Today, many historical forms of Christianity are dead or dying. Trying to preserve them through blind conservatism can lead only to the creation of malicious and distrustful ghettos which idolize formalism, or to ‘fascist’ adventures that lead nowhere. On the contrary, we must trust in the ‘newness of the Spirit,’ who will transform this death into resurrection. New approaches are already developing, approaches which rediscover and develop the deepest intuitions of thinkers such as Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, or Isaac of Syria. The sadism of expiatory conceptions of salvation is being replaced with paschal joy. The notion of hell as an eternal concentration camp is being replaced by prayer for universal salvation. The obsession with individual salvation (for which only a few, in any case, are destined) is being replaced by a sense of limitless communion. Fear of the flesh is being replaced by the call to transfigure it, whether through monastic ascesis, the love between a man and a woman, or the struggle of the creative act. Escapism into the heavenly realm is being replaced by a union between heaven and earth, by ‘fidelity to the earth’ and all its creatures, so as to transfigure them. The list could go on and on.

The sacred is dying, as the Gospel has predicted. The Sabbath is for man, and not man for the Sabbath. It is not that which enters into the mouth that defiles man, but that which comes from his heart. Regulations concerning purity and impurity are being rejected. And particularly regulations concerning woman, who is no longer seen as the necessarily inferior ‘complement’ of man, but as a person of infinite importance, called to be human in a feminine mode, destined for the free and reciprocal encounter with the male.

The Gospel, therefore, reveals the ultimate value of the person and of the communion of persons. The Decalogue—which is revelation and not ‘natural law’—forbids murder and idolatry. And in the light of the resurrection, the Gospel introduces an ethic of creative love. In the Holy Spirit, man discovers his vocation as ‘created creator.’ To the frozen opposition between sacred and profane, between pure and impure, the Spirit substitutes the power of sanctification. Israel has transformed the cosmos into history. The Spirit assumes both the cosmos and history into the Body of Christ: Gaia becomes the prefiguration of the Virgin-Mother, and the ancient myths are transformed into a poetry of communion. Holiness can therefore reinvent the sacred, which is the poetry of creation and of faces, a trembling before the immensity of love.

— Conversations with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I,
pp. 229-230.

Their self-fulfilling prophecy

‘Will God or the Messiah Build the Third Holy Temple?’ blares the headline of a pseudo-Jewish/pseudo-Christian ezine, asking a question which is actually meaningless for most Jews and Christians. After recapping what progress is being made in Israel to build just such a temple, the article moves on to discuss the question it headlined. It’s hard for me to decide which is more insane and fantastic, the deluded reasoning that produced the very idea, or the horde of believers, each one trumpeting their own version of the scenario. All they seem to agree on is that a Jewish ‘temple’ must be built in Israel, so that the ‘End Times’ can officially start. What happens after that is anyone’s guess, literally.

Not to infringe any copyright, I refrain from quoting from the article. To demonstrate the divisive delusion that has these people in its grip, I quote what some of the readers have commented on the article. (I have corrected spelling errors but left capitalization and any other emphatics, grammar errors, and quotation marks ‘as is’.)

— The true messiah is G--. Be aware that according to prophecy the idle shepherd will come (the false messiah) and he will be accepted as Messiah by some, but he will set up the abomination that maketh desolate... therefore watch carefully. 

— Yes, you are right. However, the third Temple WILL BE BUILT according to God’s Holy Word in order the chips will fall in place for the ‘End Time’ prophecies to take place. Just HOW it will be done is God's Mystery. I cannot wait ! 

— As stated in Daniel, correct. After that happening, but who is behind it all? And God will allow because of prophecy. The Vatican. As they have to set up a temple, on the mount. To allow its construction, approved by that UN body. Marble the Pope owns the plot. As stated in Ezekiel, Satan was bold and said, I will ascend as God? On the North side. So he the Devil is manifested into a Pope, after desolation. Because the Prophet, said, and seen in a vision, Russia dropping a device down the Vatican chimney. So the Pope will be in the Israel, not Rome. For the sake of their false God, Satan? 

— Neither of the proposed builders, Messiah or descending from heaven is correct. The temple must be rebuilt by human hands at the beginning of the Tribulation period because it has to exist for the anti-messiah to cause the sacrifices to stop and to desecrate the temple at the midpoint of the tribulation, where he will declare that he is God. This is right at the start of the great tribulation, or Jacob's Troubles, which will be WORSE than the Holocaust (Shoah). There will be a temple, as described in Ezekiel, after the end of the tribulation when the true messiah comes to rule and reign the whole earth from Israel. 

— This is correct. The antichrist shall desecrate the ‘Temple of God’, not build it. There are no types in the scriptures where the anti-christ build the temple, he desecrate the Temple like Antiochus Epiphanes, Nebuchadnezzar and Titus. The Temple in Jerusalem is holy, because it’s God's temple.

— My first thoughts were, ‘Oh of course it will be in the New Jerusalem in the Heavens.’ But then I was reading what was written and I’m not so sure. I don’t know the verses but I believe Revelation describes a temple that will allow the last people on earth to repent. Most will not though. There will be a false prophet who will make people believe he’s rebuilding the temple, but his heart is evil and is looking for a way to destroy. It will be a false prophet for Jews. And some will be taken advantage of. It’s so important all of us read the scriptures so we can be discerning. As the days go by. Jesus will come in the clouds, there will lights and trumpets. I expect lots of joy and happiness. 

— Zion is, the city of God, the New Jerusalem, its Temple, the heavenly City, the Heavenly Country. Zion are all believers in Christ Jesus, the Kingdom of the Lord, whose destiny depends upon the Lord God Almighty alone, all which, together by ‘faith’ in Jesus Christ our Lord (faith in Christ being a gift to us), Savior and Redeemer, in Him we are God’s Holy Mountain, God’s possession, Zion. All that Jerusalem and Israel and the chosen from mankind are to be, in heaven, in relationship to God, is ours in spiritual reality as well, in Jesus Christ our Lord in our God.

— There just may be a man-made temple built in Jerusalem, but as Solomon said, ‘Will God really dwell in this temple made with human hands...’ 

— ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool, where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,’ declares the Lord. ‘But to this One I will look... (He is speaking of Yeh’Shua, who came to save men from their sins, and will return to receive them to Himself)... ‘To Him who is humble... ...and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word...’ 

— There have actually been four already. Ezra's temple was built following the return from exile. Herod, with his design to raise the plaza approximately 10 meters, was forced to take the older temple down and replace it with a much grander design. That’s three. The fourth was built by Bar Kochba. Textual references in several historical accounts of the rebellion mention that Hadrian entered into and destroyed the temple of the Jews. So logic dictates that the next, or fifth temple, would also be built by human hands, as were all others. 

— After the great victory of Israel over all nations, which coming against Israel, a false leader will raise and demand the building of the temple, saying, ‘I am the one who protect Israel.’ The world will be in bad chaos. This will be an atomic war. Confusion, destruction and great tribulation around the whole world.

Enough already! My head is spinning! Who let these people out of the nut house? The comments continued on and on. Finally, near the end, I was astonished to see someone quote from Thomas Aquinas. I am not sure that it’s a genuine quotation, but I want to end with this one last comment. Maybe there’s some hope above or below all this cantankery and braggadocio.

— Some scripture is meant to be literal and some figurative. I have no doubt that the Creator Can Do Everything, but that doesn’t mean He will always do it the way any particular denomination says. I believe the point of the article was that there are two opinions. I don’t believe the Last Temple will drop from Heaven any more than I think a giant finger etched The Ten Commandments on the tablets. God only needs to will something to be, and It Will Be. And sometimes He wills His Children to Do It - and They Do. There were two sets of tablets, one was willed into existence and the other was man-made. ‘How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.’ (Thomas Aquinas)

Agree and disagree, that is the rule of the jungle that reigns among the Kingless. They call Jesus by various fanciful names, false Hebraisms, and put Him to work fulfilling their dreams. How much energy is wasted by those who have no faith! Imagine, try being your own God, and then covering up your tracks (because you must) by dousing them with bible prophecies and starting them on fire. Luckless, ignorant, lost, utterly deluded wretches! God have mercy on them, but if their madness prevents them from showing mercy to others, what then? Yes, maybe it really is a madness. Maybe they’re not really responsible for their ravings. Yet they fill the world with their destructive doctrines and, trying very hard to force God’s hand to end the world, come close to ending it themselves.

Third temple? fourth or fifth, or even last temple? Who’s counting? Who needs to count? Yes, we have it all written down, simply and directly. We’ve always had it written down. The Bible, if it does nothing else, shows us how wrong we’ve been about every religious guess we’ve ever made, how deluded our false hopes and how blinding our fantasies. ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts.’ And here we are, as if the world, the flesh, and the devil that assault us every moment of every day weren’t enough, there are these ghastly bellows that blow clouds of hot smoke from the pit of hell at each other and at us, scalding, even searing, us with their flaming fantasies. Who needs Islamic jihad, when we have our own breed of world-destroyers intent on killing most of us at their earliest opportunity. All in Jesus’ name, of course!

The end is near, yes, though not the end these falsely prophesy. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega… who is, who was, who is to come.’ The temple must be built, though that is the work of every disciple of Jesus. ‘Let yourselves be built as living stones into a spiritual temple.’ The words of the prophets are spoken to refine us as fire purifies gold, not to incite a universal tribulation. Jesus still looks on at all this with pity, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I would have gathered you…’ while they rumble forward into the jaws of their self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Red Balloon

Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn’t have said.

— Dr. Laura (Laura Catherine Schlessinger)

Reading this quote brought back the memory of a foolishness I committed as a young dad. Yes, it is confession time. Teller of tall tales, I was at it again. I will tell it as I remember it, not another story embellished to entertain or to persuade, just what really happened. The other person in the story may remember it differently. I found this to be true when I publicly confessed another, more costly misdemeanor, where the other person involved was my dad. After reading what I wrote, he said matter-of-factly, ‘That’s not how I remember it,’ but said no more.

My first-born son, Jacob, was a precocious but impressionable lad, trusting to a T. Whatever mom or dad told him, he believed on the spot as if God Himself had said it. He was an obedient and thoughtful child. That has never changed, only now he knows who is really worthy of obedience and trust. He even warns his Sunday school students, ‘Don’t believe and trust absolutely what anyone tells you, unless He has risen from the dead.’ An enigmatic saying? Not really. Just a confession of the relativity of merely human knowledge, even religious. Back to my confession.

We were blessed from the beginning of our family life with poverty of riches, but not of spirit. As our ‘only son’ we treasured Jacob, and lavished all our attention on him as gardeners over a precious plant. His godparents, by a strange twist of fate, were very wealthy, and supplied him several times a year with gifts that we would never have been able to afford, sometimes toys, sometimes practical things. He always had the latest educational ‘toys’ and by the time he entered kindergarten could already read fluently, even words whose meaning he didn’t yet know.

When Jacob’s grandfather passed away, we inherited his color television, an old Hudson Bay Company model (he was a Canadian) and started watching Children’s Television Workshop programs together. My favorite was Sesame Street. He learned to read and sing, and we often mimicked the skits we saw. I am still very thankful for that time. Jacob was learning to grow up, and I was learning to stay young. We also borrowed movies from the public library and watched them on our television, using a VCR player. One of these films was the French film, The Red Balloon (1956).

Here comes the tall tale part, and the confession. Jacob was not yet in kindergarten when we used to watch that movie. A lot of our play time involved bringing into our life what we saw on television or in movies. Trying to connect more with The Red Balloon, I pretended that I had been the little boy in the film. It was almost believable. I almost believed it myself. I would have been a five-year-old boy the year the movie was made. I told Jacob, ‘That little boy being followed by the red balloon was me, when I lived in France as a child.’ Yes, and he, believing, repeated me word for word.

Where? Well, where else? At school. When one day he turned five and was enrolled in the kindergarten, it so happened that his teacher showed the film to his class. Yes, The Red Balloon. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know quite how it happened, but somehow he told the teacher that his dad was the little boy in the movie, when he lived in France as a child. Did the teacher really believe him? I don’t know. If she read the credits at the end of the film, she would know that the child’s name in real life was Pascal Lamorisse, and she would know Jacob’s surname was not Lamorisse.

What I do remember was that I had to confess to a very crestfallen young son, that I had been only pretending. He may have had to defend his trust in his dad to his teacher in the classroom, who may have told him it was impossible. He came home that day still believing I was the little French boy. Perhaps this was his first glimpse of the truth that even dads are not infallible. He wouldn’t have had the verbal or philosophical vocabulary to think that yet, but it was undeniable that another impression had been made on him that afternoon. And that, his initiation into the ‘real world.’

And mine as well. Never again, though I’ve since told many a tall tale, even regretting some of them, did I ever pull so great a blooper as that one. Something as small as this, a ‘little white lie’ in disguise of playful make-believe, I wonder, how much of this has shaped, or misshaped, the world.

Always yes, or no

Humanity can get smarter,
but humanity will never be smarter than God.

Is there ‘progressive revelation’? Yes, and no.
Jesus says,

‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’
John 16:12-15

τα ερχόμενα, tá erchómena, the [things that] are to come.

What things? Events, or ideas?

His first words seem to imply ideas,
‘he will guide you into all the truth.’
His later words seem to imply events,
‘he will tell you what is yet to come.’

But everything that can ever be known by us as humans about God is already written in His great book, the Universe, and His little book, the Bible, and they always agree.

What is ‘progressive’ is not His revelation, but our awareness of it.

Christ has appeared to personally start the fire of understanding,

‘I have come to bring fire to the earth. How I wish it were blazing already!’
Luke 12:49

He has come to walk with the disciples and explain everything,

‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’
Luke 24:44

This He has done, but though He has ‘disappeared’ as the man Jesus of Nazareth, He appears continually and forever as the God Jesus Christ,

‘Lo! I am with you till the end of the age.’
Matthew 28:20

Do we see Him? hear Him? follow Him? do what we see Him doing?

If we do, that is progressive revelation. Otherwise, nothing.
If we do, that is being smart, otherwise, very, very dumb.

God is training us, educating us, in a school that He prepared for us before we ever appeared.
Always free, always up to us, always yes, 
or no.

Belief and unbelief

There’s a lot of Christians out there, dogma’d to their teeth, who live and even think atheologically, and a lot of professed Atheists who are awesome theologians without realizing it. You have to ask an Atheist exactly which god he doesn't believe in, just as you have to ask (if you dare) a Christian exactly which god he does. Belief and unbelief are both tunnels that you may choose to live in permanently, or simply journey through in order to ‘get out alive.’ And while we’re in the tunnel, everyone knows it’s very dark, and no one can see too clearly. But if you really do want to ‘get out alive,’ no matter what you believe or disbelieve, you will.

Does this make personal faith or doctrinal religion pointless? No, not really, but it puts both in perspective, and deglorifies both, for nothing that pertains to this transitory life, even the means we make use of to go beyond it, is worthy of praise.

Only One is worthy, and His sovereignty without qualification unthrones all our self-salvation mechanisms. Whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not, His life and salvific work has an effect on you. In fact, He does not wait for you to recognize Him before He will save you. This may sound like doctrinal monergism, but it is not. The synergy that intertwines the human and Divine natures is so pervasive, so total, that from some vantage points, it may look like predestination, or some other human construct we can name. Yet He does nothing without us.

So, an Atheist can be saved? Isn’t that what some claim the Roman pope has recently opined?—that is, if popes can be said to ‘opine’. Normally they dogmatize, and keep the tracks of their holy predecessors covered. If Atheists can be saved, then what’s the point of believing, being a Christian, and putting up with all those religious obligations? Well, that’s a very good question believers need to ask themselves, because their answer may lead them to a more deliberate, more honest, posture. If he meant nothing else, perhaps the pope meant to draw to our attention not the fate of Atheists, but of ourselves. What is it we want? What is it we are working for?

‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’
(Matthew 6:21)

Just to make sure

Defined by what I don’t more than by what I do.
That’s how many people look at themselves and the world.
It’s a ‘me against them,’ or if they’re some kind of Christian,
it’s an ‘us against them’ mentality.

I am, or we are, right and everyone else is wrong,
and they’re gonna know it.
I speak up and stand up for what I believe.
Who cares who’s listening.
Who cares if someone’s feelings get hurt.
Somebody has to tell the truth.
I like what you say, but as for those other guys,
they’re just plain wrong, and I don’t mind telling you.
Yeah, you can be my friend, but watch out!
You’re under my gun the same as those other fellows.
If you don’t think like I do, you’ll hear from me.
Though as a Christian man I can’t say this out loud,
‘it’s my way or the highway.’
But God approves, because I’m rightly dividing His word.
If you know what’s good for you, stick with me.

Yes, brothers, this world is an arena, not a battlefield.

In a battlefield, we are heavily armed and we know who our enemy is, and we fight, we fight for our lives, and it all depends on us.
It’s a ‘winner takes all’ scenario. If we lose, well, we lose our lives.
No one is watching, no one cares.

In an arena, we are competing. Some enter the arena thinking like they are entering a battle against an enemy, and they fight tooth and nail, not caring if they fight fair. All they want to do is win and make sure everyone watching knows it.

But that’s not how we enter the arena, brothers.
That’s not how we are sent into the ring.
For us, if there is a battle, it is only against ourselves, not an opponent. For us, the arena is where we are tested, where we are trained, to be what our Teacher is, to show Him that we have learned how to present ourselves, blameless, in a fair fight.

He knows we have no choice but to be placed in the arena, so He has taken us under His wing and teaches us, day by day, letting us enter the ring now and again to see how we are learning our lessons, to see if we’ve absorbed His martial arts technique. Violence, but not for its own sake, passionless and without hate, respectful and generous in courtesy. We spar with our partners, knowing them to be under the same Teacher. As for the spectators, some of whom will soon join us, what will happen if they see us make a false move?

In the end, perhaps, but not now, not at present, the arena will be our last encounter. We may be thrown into the ring with a real gladiator, or worse, thrown weaponless into the lair of wild beasts, and there will be no exit for us except through the gate of death, death to the world, which is life’s Gate for us.

But until then, let us be merciful, brothers, to ourselves and to each other, and mince our words and deeds so that they will not choke our neighbor, but gently feed him. For the love that is shown us now by our Teacher, for the sake of the prize that awaits us, let us also be at peace, and love one another.

Let’s live by what we do, not by what we don’t, just to make sure.

Run for your life

Psalms for the 24th Day
116 117 118 119:1-32

Reading the psalms,

reciting them and breathing them into me, 

fragrant as my bible is right now 

with the smell of basil 

from the feast day of the finding 

of the holy Cross, 

there I found some ρηματα 

(rhímata, living words) 

that nourished my soul, 

reminders of my path.

(You alone, Lord, know my path.)

I have faith, even when I say,
‘I am completely crushed’.

Psalm 116:10

(Lord, You know what I mean when I recite this verse in prayer.
And at times, I do feel completely crushed,
yet there is no place I can be,
or feel myself to be,
where I do not have faith.)

Yahweh, I am Your servant,

Your servant, son of a pious mother,
You undo my fetters.

Psalm 116:15-16

(I can’t undo my fetters.
I can’t do anything to free myself from bondage, Father.
It is You alone who can free me,
because You alone have freed me.
You undo my fetters.)

I run the way of Your commandments,
since You have set me free.

Psalm 119:32

(In my distress I cried out to You,
‘Lord, why have You given me yet another day?’
Your answer was instant,
Your will to me was clear.
You said, ‘I have raised you again to life,
so that you can carry out My commandments.’
Nothing more, nothing more had to be said.
I heard Your voice, Lord, and I am satisfied.
I run the way of Your commandments, 
since You have set me free. 

Glory to You, O God, glory to You!)

Draw me in Your footsteps, let us run.

Song of Solomon 1:4