In God We Trust

Life in the world is seen to require a practical orientation: one must be practical to succeed. Methodical, too, and persistent. Otherwise we risk failure, and that must be avoided at all costs. That's why we run after modern gurus of business, fashion, health and, yes, even religion.

Even Christians, those who claim to follow Jesus as well as those who prefer only to identify themselves as church members, can fall into the mindset of the priority of practical wisdom which, first, is no wisdom at all, and second, isn't ultimately practical.

Why isn't it wisdom? Because all wisdom is from the Lord and leads back to the Lord, and it comes to us when we have decided to make the Lord the priority ‘…seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…’

Why isn't it practical? Because all that is practical is included in following the commandments of God, which assure us of receiving everything good that He has in store for us, ‘…and all these things will be given to you as well’ (Matthew 6:33 NIV).

So the question for every man or woman, but especially for every Christian, is… Whom do you trust?

Practical wisdom teaches, God helps those who help themselves.
As any worldly proverb, this is both true and false at the same time. These words are not found in scripture, which reveals the mind of Christ. Some say they are, but the Word does not tease us with riddles.

The saying actually comes from Aesop's fable of the wagon driver and Hercules. The wagoner gets stuck in a rut and prays to Hercules to get his wheel out. Hercules appears to him and says, ‘Sluggard, put your shoulder to the wheel, and push! The gods help those who help themselves!’

Yes, this attitude of practical wisdom goes a long way back, and many Christians actually follow Hercules’ doctrine without realising it. Like those described by the psalmist, they claim to be devoted Christians when it is convenient, but ‘when push comes to shove,’ they honor the gods.

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…
Psalm 16:1-4a Jerusalem Bible

What should be more natural, and more sympathetically regarded by everyone, than that parents should watch out for their children's welfare, not only when they are under age, but even after they reach adulthood?

Yet how often does this protective attitude stem not from the mind of Christ, but from that other mind, the mindset of practical wisdom? I have seen it again and again, even in my own church, parents leading their children to serve Mammon in place of Christ.

Instead of holding Christ before their offspring, by teaching, by example, by exhortation, by guidance, by love, as the One whom they should not only emulate but follow, they hold up successful businessmen, engineers, politicians, athletes, and even clergymen.

Is it any wonder, then, that the children outstrip their parents in worldliness, as they are only trying to please them? Is it any wonder that they take husbands and wives from among the denizens of this world instead of from the City of God?

There is a scene in the film The Hiding Place, in which Corrie Ten Boom, who was later to become a world renown evangelist, was asked by a Jewish cantor she was hiding in her home during the Nazi occupation, ‘Wasn't marriage ever in the picture for the daughters Ten Boom?’

She replied, ‘Betsy was always sickly, and was told she couldn't bear children, so she didn't marry. Myself, I had a young man, but we didn't marry, because his parents didn't think I was cut out of good enough cloth.’

These are all Christians we are talking about, in 19th century Holland. But the same situation obtains today. In the selection of life partners, husbands or wives, Christian parents are still bent on making a good match for their son or daughter, rather than seeking the will of God.

Putting Christ out of the picture is very unwise. He is not only the unique Mediator between God and man, but also between man and man, and in these particulars, between husband and wife. It is only Christ who can bring them together in truth, and hold them together.

It is not a woman's background, culture, educational level, social status, wealth, intelligence or physical beauty that is getting married to a man's family heritage, prowess, worldly success, ability to provide well, social connexions, possessions, talents or stamina.

No, all these are what they will bring into the marriage in order to complement each other's weaknesses with strengths. They are the resources that God has given them and which they will use to fulfill His will for them. It is not these things that are getting married.

A man and a woman are getting married, nothing else. They are as naked as Adam and Eve were. This is how it is when God is allowed to bring them together. ‘This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body’ (Genesis 2:24 JB).

The alternative, which all too often happens, is what happened to Corrie Ten Boom and her young man, Christian parents restricting the pool of available mates for their children to those who are practical like they are, those who are successful, ‘known entities.’

The justification for this is, ‘We only want to do what's best for him/her. We want to prevent heartbreak and disaster down the road.’ This attitude, though, is not restricted to the practical parents, but to the religious as well. Both, however, are following the same mind, their own.

This post is not especially about the relationships between parents and children, but essentially about trust, the word we see prominently displayed on every piece of United States money, from the humble penny to the hundred dollar bill.
In God We Trust. It's so pervasive, that it's no longer persuasive. Like many another monument of formal Christianity in America—Ten Commandments plaques in court houses, the Pledge of Allegiance to ‘one nation under God’—it too may cave in under secular pressures.

Where it can only truly be written, in our hearts and minds, is all that matters. Will it prevail over the practical and worldly wisdom of success, allowing true liberty, true freedom of choice, to mold not only individual lives but families, churches, and nations?

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ … ‘Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.’
John 8:31-32, 36 NKJV

A new gospel

There is a new gospel, a fresh gospel, that is preached to every person, in every circumstance, and that gospel is going to always be slightly different from the gospel preached to the next guy. That is the strength of the gospel, not its weakness: that it can be all things to all men.

Paul was not saying something astonishing or scandalous when he says he is all things to all men: he was only saying of himself (since he was the servant of that gospel) what is true of the gospel itself, fitting itself into the ears of each one, for ‘faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’

Isn't that what is so good about the good news? That Christ who is Himself one person of the Divine and Holy Triad, sheds the might of His divinity, coming down to our level, to live among us, to speak our language, not just to feel our pain and endure the temptations we suffer.

If He must die on the Cross for our salvation, that cannot be conveyed to us, placed within our reach, without it being sized and fitted to the broken hearts of each of us. Yes, the Man of Sorrows, but also, the God of Joys. The latter doesn’t balance the former; it engulfs it like the sea engulfs a pebble, leaving no trace.

Hence, the gospel, always new, always fresh, containing all, supporting all, adapted to all, welcoming all, transforming all, but one by one, even as one by one we each receive the call, and one by one are seated at our places in the banquet of the Divine Nature, the wedding feast of the Lamb.

The kiss

What is wrong with this picture? Well, first, it looks like a former Roman pope, John Paul II, in the company of an Arab Muslim. And second, is it a large copy of the Qur’an that the pope is kissing? Or am I dreaming? When I first saw it, I asked myself the question at the head of this paragraph. I then went on to ask myself, If the pope is kissing a copy of the Muslim scriptures, why doesn't the Muslim—probably a Saudi prince, but who knows?—kiss a copy of the Christian bible?

This is very old news, but when I first saw it, it was news to me. The image touched me in a number of places, bringing a lot of memory, even racial memory, into my active mind, but not much to my emotions. When the Bible says, ‘the world of the past is gone’ (Revelation 21:4), for me it's gone, really gone. I can think about it, study it, but my emotions as well as my life, are in the world of NOW, the ‘New Order of the World’—and that's not the ‘new world order’ proclaimed on the back of the dollar bill, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, but the one inaugurated by Christ—the Kingdom of God.

But what about this disturbing image?
Why is it disturbing?
Who is this man and what is he kissing?
And why does he kiss it?

I gather from doing a bit of online research that this incident provoked quite a heated response among not only Roman Catholics, but also among Protestants and other Christians. Roman Catholic apologists were at pains to explain it away as merely a gesture of friendship and respect, that the pope was not affirming the Qur’an or its teachings. Others said he was affirming those good things that are in the Qur’an and in Islam, but not the bad things. To me, this latter defense seems completely absurd. All these excuses and explanations came from American observers, from people who are evidently completely cut off from traditional culture. The pope, however, was not.

To answer the questions asked above, this image is disturbing because it is the pope (self-proclaimed ‘father of all Christians’ and de facto head of the Roman Catholic confession), and he is kissing a ceremonial copy of a book, namely the Qur’an, which its proponents say refutes and replaces the Bible of both Old and New Testaments. As to why he kisses it, that has to be a profound mystery. In modern Western, particularly Americanized, culture the act of kissing has limited meaning. Generally it is a token of familiar or romantic relationship, occasionally a token of formal respect. People know about and generally think anachronistic such things as kissing the pope's ring. Americans feel a little uneasy and flustered at the idea of the formal cheek kissing of politicians. Only those Westerners who belong to Orthodox Christian and Jewish faiths know the deeper significance of the kiss. Not all could explain it, if asked. They just do it.

Even within Roman Catholicism the kiss still forms part of the ceremonial of religious services. Though few Roman Catholics privately kiss the Bible, they see priests and others kissing it during worship. Not generally having ikons, they are not accustomed to kissing sacred images. You can't kiss a statue. So from the Roman Catholic point of view, the kiss, even in the context of worshipful acts, takes on more the current meaning of showing respect than its original meaning.

In the ancient world (which is still alive today in traditional cultures) the kiss means more.

Even the ancient Greeks and Romans showed their worship of the gods by kissing their hands and then raising them and blowing the kiss towards a favored statue. The early Christians considered this an act of idolatry, which it certainly was, and refused to participate; hence, they were termed ‘atheists.’ But the innate urge of mankind to kiss as an act of worship would not be eradicated: it was passed on to the early Christians from two directions, from the Greeks and from the Jews. The latter kissed the scrolls of Torah and anything associated with the Holy One of Israel, ‘the Being.’ This became the act of kissing the Book of the holy and divine Gospels, and then of the Old Testament, the New Testament and, finally, of the graphic representations of both—the ikons.

But wait! There had to be a change in the meaning of this action—the kiss—or else the Christians would, like their pagan predecessors, be guilty of idolatry as well. After much deliberation and a sometimes violent history of confrontation, the Orthodox Church declared that the kiss was not an act of worship, which was due to God alone, but only an act of veneration: The kiss is a tangible testimony of both faith in and assent to That which is represented by the Book of the Gospels, the Bible, and the pictures, all of which are forms of the ‘ikon,’ visible evidences of the Invisible, Only God. The kiss is not, or should not be, given thoughtlessly. It is the visible place of meeting between our personal faith and the plan of salvation of our man-loving God.

This may be a mystery or a novelty to some, but not to the pope, especially as one who came from a traditional culture like Poland, where Roman Catholicism still includes vestiges of the more ancient practices of Orthodoxy. That he should kiss the Qur’an was indeed disturbing. It was not, as some of his apologists have said, the same as giving the diplomatic kiss to a head of state. Another evidence of the ignorance of the kiss prevailing in the West was the incident where the United States President bowed and kissed the hand of the Sa’udi monarch. Far from being a sign of his submission to the Muslim king, the President was simply a glaring and embarrassing example of the ignorance of his people, few of whom even cared that he did it.

The point of this post is not to judge the actions of the late Roman pope, nor of the current United States President, nor of the Orthodox Christians who kiss everything and everyone in sight; not to label and define idolatry, apostasy, dissimulation, or false witness. It is just to remind us that what we do is important, is an act of testimony, and hence is even an act of worship. To worship is to consider someone or something ‘worthy,’ which is the origin of the word ‘worship.’ Of course, for us, only One is worthy, and we know Who That Is. That the pope should have sacrificed his testimony to the Truth of Christ by kissing the false scripture of antichrist is indeed deplorable. He knew better, but the pope is, after all, a politician, and we all know what compromises a politician is prepared to make. It is for God to judge them, not for us, who have only to keep in mind the words we pray before receiving the Holy Mysteries…

Receive me today, Son of God, as a partaker of Your mystical Supper. I will not reveal Your mystery to Your adversaries. Nor will I give You a kiss as did Judas. But as the thief I confess to You: Lord, remember me in Your kingdom.

Choice

Hell is an itch that only gets worse the more you scratch it. It is the home of everything that the Lord God would divide us from as far as the East is divided from the West. It is the jaws of every destructive, every consumptive, cruel thing that Christ descended to pluck us out of. It is the land where every dark dream comes true that men desire to inhabit, until they arrive there, only to realize it was not where dreams, but nightmares, come true. It is the fear, uncontrollable, for which fear was given us. And yet, for all this, the wonder is that men actually choose it, choose hell, over heaven.

Addiction, a word much made fun of, until it becomes one’s state of being. There is no slavery quite like it. Other types of slavery, at worst, must be endured until death, but death at least means liberation. Not so with addiction. Addiction prepares its bearers for an eternity of ever increasing terror, just as devotion prepares its companions for a world of ever increasing joy without end. Death is always a door, never a wall, always the entrance to the land we have chosen, never an exit from the prison we built for ourselves. Hence, the dreadful truth of ‘she made her bed, now let her sleep in it.’

God, the Divine Rescuer from all calamity, He whom we can wait upon for unconditional mercy, who makes even our worst choices and their results null and void in the end, whom we praise with songs of deliverance, ‘He tore the net, and we escaped, blessed be the name of Yahweh,’ Him we call Holy God, Mighty and Immortal, for all He is, all He can do, and eternally, yet does not annul our choice, but subjects Himself to our rejection, or joyfully accepts us all who truly turn to Him from the depths of our being, that He may show us the good things He has laid up for those who love Him.

Religion, as men call it, not really knowing what it is they name, is a switch. We walk into a room. It is dark. We feel for the switch to turn on the light, and when we find it, we flip the switch and the light comes. We can see our way. We can find what it is we came into the room for. No one has to tell us the switch is there. We just assume it is, because a dark room must have a switch to turn on the light. There’s no other reason to have a room. Sometimes, if we doubt the room has a switch we might enter it with a torch, a flash light, but when we find the switch, we flip it, and put the torch away.

Words are metaphors. They carry us over and above themselves, raising us high enough, if they are well spoken, to see over obstacles we find blocking our way. Sometimes they even reveal to us our destination, why there is a way at all, why we find ourselves already travelers when we awake, why we waken to know that where we are is not home, that we really live somewhere else, and that we must get back there. Thus the gift of language, proof of the Divine Word who speaks and it is done, and who has spared nothing but our choice, to lead us back to Himself and to the Father by the Spirit.

Even in Jesus

How ironic it is, that the Blessed Virgin Theotokos is the apostle and abbess of Mount Athos, an isolated peninsular republic composed only of male monastics! How she came into that inheritance, becoming the apostle of that ‘almost island’ of the Chalkidhikí is a little known story that I have recounted elsewhere.

My favorite ikon of the Theotokos as Abbess of Mount Athos is the one shown right, recently written in Byzantine style. It has replaced an older image that is still frequently found, painted in Western style.

One of the strangest but most potent proofs of the status of the Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of God is her constant, sometimes visible, presence on the Holy Mountain. At times the monks literally see her standing among them during services, or walking abroad on the mountain. True, she has reposed, yet her body has disappeared, and so her state resembles that of the ‘raptured’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17, αρπαγησόμεθα, ‘snatched away’), almost a sort of ‘first fruits of the New Creation’ in a similar way to Christ being the ‘first fruits of the Resurrection.’ These facts, at least, should commend her to the attention of Christians, even if only as their model. The Virgin Mary is, after all, the first Christian, and everything that happened to her can and will happen to every follower of Jesus, if we only allow it.

Sometimes the Church’s use of the saints as our role models is totally off the mark! An example of this is the emphasis on the Virgin Mary as a role model only for women: this misrepresents both the Mother of God and the Christian woman. Though I am not sure that in Roman Catholic hagiography you ever hear women called ‘equal-to-the-apostles’ as in the Greek Church ‘isapóstolos’, yet not only the Theotokos, but Photini (the woman at the well) and Mary Magdalen among others have this distinction. Perhaps since the Virgin Mary never became a ‘priest’ it is safe to make her the role model for women, and bolster it with such images of her that conform to a mistaken ideal of feminine virtue and piety.

The fact that the Mother of God’s life ended in the extraordinary way that is recorded in the Orthodox Church points to the fact that her example and existence is for all Christians to imitate. She is the first Christian as well as the last faithful Jew, and so she retains her position among all of humanity—not just among Christians, ‘all generations shall call me blessed’—as, if nothing else, at least our first and most transparent model of what a follower of Jesus is. Far from waiting on our prayers and devotions (though she is aware of them and offers them to God the Holy Triad) she is walking the world beside her Divine Son as He searches each one of us for hearts that can be saved—hearts, not just souls, for as the Desert Father says, ‘If you have a heart you can be saved.’

There are some Christians who simply don’t believe in the ‘communion of saints,’ that is, their living but invisible presence among us, because they haven’t really grasped the significance and power of the Resurrection—that is, Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

The saints are only present because they are in paradise, and paradise is a Person, not a place. It is Jesus. Lack of attention to Mary is part of this failure to appreciate what the Resurrection means. From their point of view, Jesus ‘ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.’ They have grasped that but have neglected His words, ‘Lo, I am with you to the end of the age.’ They confine His real presence to the sacraments if they still accept these at all, and they make ‘Christ is in our midst’ into a mere metaphor, to be applied as a consolation for the aridity and sterility of their devotions.

At worst some of them don’t even have a clue as to what eternal life, even what salvation, is, or how it applies to our earthly life. This is where the atheist and agnostic find ample opportunity to mock what they think Christianity is, but which is only a ghost of it, an attenuated parody of authentic Christianity, which does not reside in mere systems or institutions, but in the arena of spiritual struggle in which the saints have toiled from the beginning till now. Yes, these things are understood and lionized in the traditional Church, Catholic and Orthodox, yet even there, they are often reduced to systems of self-serving spiritual materialism, and finally, church imperialism.

How deeply the true knowledge of the meaning and power of the Resurrection can transform our lives, if we only believe. ‘All things are possible, if you only believe.’ Yes, even in the communion of saints. Yes, even in Christ in our midst. Yes, even in Jesus.

Seek the good wine

Greek bishop Hierotheos of Nafpaktos asks, ‘Do figures like elders Païsios and Porphýrios exist today?’ and then continues…

Fortunately, we knew these really enlightened elders, Fathers Païsios and Porphýrios and other patristic personalities, who showed us what the Church is and how God shows, through the Church, His friends. Many of us felt God's love near them. These elders comforted thousands of people and in many cases brought rest to the most unruly children of God. We must feel unworthy of such a gift.

However, since God and the Church exist, such holy figures always exist. As I said before, the saints are the offspring of the Church, having passed through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, and Pentecost, and they testify of the new life which God brought to earth.

Alas, if there were no such figures today. It's like thinking that the Church has ceased to exist or is barren and cannot give birth. The truth is, that when saints cease to exist, then will occur the Second Coming of Christ.

On Mount Athos today there are many blessed monks who glorify God and are glorified by Him. Mount Athos is still a great light, which, when those who see it do not have adequate vision, they are blinded and they blame the monks who live there. And outside Mount Athos also, in monasteries and communities there are blessed children of God and the Church, which illuminate those who understand this and have need.

The problem is that we do not see the saints, do not feel them, do not smell their presence. This is because we do not have high pursuits, we do not have spiritual senses to recognize them and to feel them. We can apply in this case the words of Christ: ‘For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened’ (Matthew 7:8).

Those who truly seek God and His saints, they will certainly encounter them, or rather the living modern saints themselves will go to find them and fill them with the gifts of God. Such is our God. He comes secretly, He likes to reverse all logical possibilities, He shows His love loudly, suddenly and surprisingly to those who hurt and are looking for Him. Soberly intoxicated are those who seek the good wine, the strong wine.

— original text translated by John Sanidopoulos and posted at Mystagogy

To believe in the Saints

Not that I reject or ridicule other Christians, those who are not of the Orthodox Catholic faith, for it is not mine, nor anyone else’s, to judge, condemn, ostracize, or conquer people who belong to another faith, not other Christians (for they too believe in Christ), nor Jews (for they did not crucify Him, I did), nor Muslims (for they seek the God who has found me), nor polytheists (for God is still One even when we worship Him as many), nor atheists (for their life itself is the gift of the only God who is).

Not that I reject their beliefs or unbeliefs in God or about God, but what sets apart the Orthodox Catholic Christian from others is, not that we believe in God, but that we believe in the Saints, that we believe that they are alive, even more alive than ourselves, that we believe they are present with us always, even as Jesus is, who says ‘lo, I am with you till the end of the age,’ that we believe in their help, their love, their presence, their example, and that we expect their resurrection with our own.

Anyone can believe in God, and most do, because conscious existence is proven by reason, just as nature is proven by science, to be reflections and creations, respectively, of the Mind upon which the mind of man is modeled. But to believe in the Saints is more difficult, because that is a belief in something and someone who is not always invisible or ancient or far away. To believe in the Saints requires that we believe in people, in each other, even as we see them, even in ourselves.

Yes, to really believe, and accept, ourselves—and all that must follow from that—is what sets the Orthodox Catholic apart from others, to believe in the Saints.

In His poor disguise

So, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, founder of the order Missionaries of Charity, can now be officially known and venerated as, Saint Teresa of Kolkata. Here we have someone who almost everyone has heard of, many of us have studied during her lifetime, some of us have actually met, and a very, very few got close enough to know her personally. Although, the last is debatable. It may just be that all those whom she personally ministered to as they were dying got to know her as personally as anyone will ever know her. There was so little of her left to know. She was nearly gone. Like Paul, she could have said, it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

I’m a Greek Orthodox Christian, but I’ve always respected (I wanted to say ‘loved’ but I don’t know what that would mean) Mother Teresa, and I’ve tried my best to read her sayings, and to watch her in action through the medium of videos. Her theology, very simple, ‘when I am touching the poorest of the poor, I am touching the body of Christ,’ has a very definite Roman Catholic feeling to it, a brand of mysticism that is not usually found in Orthodoxy. When she says ‘the body of Christ’ she means ‘the physical body of Jesus,’ not what we usually mean when we say ‘the Body of Christ’—either Holy Communion, or the Church itself—how confusing!

But this is not unbiblical, no matter how radical it may sound to our ears. The gospel reading of the Sunday of the Last Judgment is the source, in Orthodoxy, of this strange, embarrassing idea that Christ is somehow present in those who are suffering. That presence teeters always on the brink between literal truth and symbolic. Because Christ can do anything, can manifest Himself in any way He desires, there’s no telling how real (whatever ‘real’ means) His identification with the suffering is. In the end it cannot matter. Jesus says to us without mincing words, ‘Whatever you do to the least of these, that you do unto Me.’ God help us! There’s no escape!

Mother Teresa is now a saint. Well, she always was, of course, except in the opinions of her critics. I am sure people asked for her help and intercession while she was alive, but only those in touch with her. Now, the lines are open for anyone of us to ask for her help. Heaven’s long distance calls may be infinite, but their cost is little, only faith. But yes, she had and has critics. I have studied these too, along with studying her. People have a way of coming round to criticize whenever someone is actually doing something, whether good or bad. There were former Sisters of Charity who came forth to testify to Mother Teresa’s inhumanity. Yes, that’s right!

They accused her of being harsh with them, and caring little for the recovery of those at death’s door. Instead of trying her best to mobilize local medical agencies to help those who might be able to recover, she just attended to their immediate needs, relieved them of some (but not all) of their pain (because that would require drugs she didn’t have), and prepared them to die. Others, not so religious, or of other faiths, accused her of using the extremity of death as a device to convince non-Christians to accept Jesus and let themselves be baptized. In Roman Catholicism (and in Christianity generally), this would ensure their salvation, their ‘going to heaven.’

What else did they, and do they still, accuse her of? Misuse and wasting of funds, covering up for malpractice, bullying people, and just being hard to be around. The last accusation is one that can be leveled against most of humanity at some point or points in their lives. Orthodox saints of both sexes are known to have been regularly grouchy, dismissive, even sometimes coarse and violent—it was their way of keeping people off their backs, making people not like them, not worship them, because they knew themselves to be unworthy. Women admirers of male solitaries would cook them sumptuous meals, only to be told, ‘Take it away! It stinks!’

There’s one other type of detractor of Mother Teresa. These are some of the ‘born again’ Christians, the ones who set up their own churches because the Church isn’t good enough for them. Well, I’m not surprised, then, if Mother Teresa isn’t good enough for them either. They say she wasn’t a real Christian because she didn’t have a regenerate heart, and so all her good works were for nothing, were in vain, because before regeneration (being born again), no one’s works are acceptable to God. A planer pail of hogwash than this has never been found, that people can set themselves up as appraisers of the faith of others, and tell us whether someone is ‘born again’ or not.

I am happy that Mother Teresa is thus glorified, even though Orthodoxy will not recognize her officially. And if she were the greatest sinner who has ever lived, and if she were totally Godless, and if she had no faith at all (a preposterous idea in view of her life and work), and even if she doubted God, or didn’t do all the things other people have said she should’ve done, one thing is clear, to me at least. Like Christ she brought a fire to earth, the fire of love, which gave her and her followers the strength and courage to literally ‘go where no man has gone before,’ to the slums of Calcutta, to rescue the poor Christ from a shameful death, and to welcome Him, in His poor disguise, into Paradise.

Legal and illegal

'Death Star', a strain of marijuana

It is a filthy habit. It has spawned a culture of self-indulgence, addiction, laziness, disrespect for family, church, and state, cultural degeneracy, and anti-social if not outright criminal activity. It perpetuates this culture, even though its cultivation, sale, and use is now becoming legalized across the country.

Like legalized gambling in the form of lotteries and other anti-social, culturally degrading activities which were once outlawed for their obviously harmful effects on the individual and on society, the legalization of pot is bringing with it side effects which will either be downplayed or suppressed in the public media.

My local newspaper, Mid-County Memo (Parkrose neighborhood, Portland, Oregon), ran a laudatory and promotional propaganda piece in the September, 2016 issue. It opened, ‘If anyone wants a boost of positive energy, the perfect way to get it is to stop in at one of Parkrose’s four marijuana dispensaries.’

A boost of positive energy? Well, I suppose if you want to be surrounded by people making lots of fast, easy money out in the open that they used to have to collect illegally and ‘catch as catch can,’ well, yes, I suppose there’s a lot of positive (meaning ‘feel good’) energy where criminals operate free without bail.

The two owners of one of the dispensaries were pictured in a photo that accompanied the article, one smiling coyly as he held up a plastic tube which (I guess) held some of his product line, the other looking up into the camera with a poker-faced expressionlessness. I wonder if the tube contained ‘Death Star.’

That is what is in the picture that I have added to my rant. I got the photo off the dispensary’s FaceBook page. Now that marijuana is legal, does it mean that my opposition to it, if expressed verbally, is hate speech? I can’t answer that. My guess is that any marijuana users reading this will freely comment.

Continuing from the newspaper article, according to Mingus Mapps, Historical Parkrose District manager, ‘I have no doubt that our fastest growth sector has been retail marijuana trade. It creates jobs and brings people into the neighborhood.’ No doubt it brings people into the neighborhood—the wrong type.

And the opium trade in 19th century China that was foisted on that country by the British also created jobs and brought people ‘into the neighborhood.’ Its side effects were the weakening and demoralization of China, which was what Europeans wanted, so that they could eventually carve China up.

Along with any introduction of socially disruptive products or practices will come at first a great deal of ‘positive contributions’ to the society which is being set up for conquest. Continuing from the article again quoting Mingus Mapps, ‘The businesses also take part in community meetings and events.’

‘Their desire to be good neighbors is transparent,’ Mapps said. ‘We’re doing everything by the book and even going above and beyond,’ says the owner of one of the dispensaries in the article. Whatever he means ‘by the book’ and ‘even going above and beyond’ is beyond me. What was he doing before?

I can only surmise. Before marijuana was legalized here, this man and thousands of others were engaged in illegal and possibly criminal activity, building an underground sub-culture, so that, when it became legal—voila! There it was, already fully developed, highly organized, and rip-roaring ready to go.

Makes me think of the sudden appearance of high civilization among the ancient Egyptians, where barren desert sands suddenly sprouted the Great Pyramids, cities, agriculture, and the gift of writing—only in the reverse. Here we have something that turns civilization into a desert, the other way round.

The propaganda piece continues, ‘Another thing Mapps likes about the cannabis trade is its respectful attitude toward architecture.’ Oh my gosh! So they’re joining the ranks of gentrification, turning shanties into profitable places of business! Yes, and what about the kids whose moms and dads partake?

Who cares if the city’s architecture is being restored, embellished, and inhabited? It’s the real people who have to live, work, and raise families in these pot-infested neighborhoods, people who don’t want themselves or their children to be infected with this mania, they are what’s important, not architecture.

Finally, the article confidently reports, ‘There is not really any opposition, and definitely no mobilized opposition to cannabis retailing in Parkrose… [Mapps] characterized its reception in the neighborhood as a big shrug.’ Well, yes, what do you expect? The people feel defeated by what they cannot control.

A minority, maybe in Portland (known as Potland to many people, and weird to others) a majority, has finally had their way. There are some changes in society which are progressive, and others which are not, which are in fact, retrogressive even when called ‘progressive.’ These shall fall when people care enough.

‘What’s on your list today?’ is a well-known jingle in the local area because of the Fred Meyer department store chain. I’ll tell you what’s on my list today. To work and to pray for the repeal of the ‘woman’s right to choose’ (abortion on demand), the state and local lotteries, and the legalization of pot.

I am actually quite confident that these three blights on American society will be shortly eliminated, but they won’t go away as if by magic. People have to get involved, have to speak up and out, have to show up at demonstrations, have to write letters to politicians—or become citizen-statesmen themselves.

I also know for sure, I never want anything called ‘Death Star’ coming anywhere near me or those I love.

Satan will bring them all together for battle, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. They spread out over the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people and the city that he loves. But fire came down from heaven and destroyed them. Then the Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:8b-10

Saying our prayers

Prayers. Yes, not prayer, but prayers. We like to talk about prayer, but prayers, that is, written prayers that are read, or said, or offered ‘by rote’ we tend to play down. And for good reason, we want to have a real relationship with our living and true God, we want to speak to Him in our own words, we want to feel the intimacy which does not come from reading rote prayers. But are we actually praying, if we are not reading those written prayers?

We go to church. Yes, we attend the Divine Liturgy, we stand together, or sit, during the chanting of the petitions, we hear chanters, maybe the people, maybe even ourselves, singing the responses, ‘Lord, have mercy,’ and ‘Grant this, O Lord.’ Are we uniting ourselves to those liturgical prayers, are we standing ‘in the Presence’ silently agreeing with what is going on? Are we actually praying? And if we are, is this all of our prayer for the week?

People wonder why they are plagued with domestic discord, family members treating each other as if they were enemies, letting arguments drive deep wedges between siblings or between marital partners, allowing resentments to build up, even while they are church-goers. They may have started out as a praying family, the parents leading the children in daily prayers, yes, from the prayer book, even doing prostrations, even the kiss of peace.

Then, at some point, perhaps as the children grew older and became self-conscious, to pray with the family seemed embarrassing, or maybe the family’s gradually changing needs interfered with keeping a regular prayer rule and prayer time. And so, little by little, the common prayer of a family breaks down, and so slowly that it isn’t at first noticed, behaviors begin to change, to take on a worldly aspect, and soon it is unthinkable to pray together.

Unthinkable to pray together? Unfortunately, yes. Even to make the sign of the Cross before eating, let alone signing the Cross and audibly blessing the food and thanking God, becomes unthinkable. Reading prayers has already long disappeared and, if anyone is still praying, still talking to God, it is in frustrated tones, because it is tied to immediate problems, sometimes even in blaming tones, and instead of healing, such prayer only anesthetizes.

Many people, individuals and families, find themselves in this predicament. We have abandoned the traditional prayers that we learned as children. If we even remember them, maybe because we hear them in the services, we still avoid the bother of saying them at home. We don’t start the day, especially those dark, cold, winter mornings, by waking up, going to our prayer corner, lighting the lamp, and with no further ado, reading or reciting them.

The funny thing is, God already knows everything about us. Even if we didn’t articulate in our own words what it is we want to ask of Him, He knows, and He is more than willing to answer us. The traditional prayers, and the physical actions of standing, of bowing, of prostrating, of lighting the oil lamp, of burning a pinch of incense, none of these are needed by God. All of these things are His gift to us, to heal us, teach us, preserve us in this world.

Why is it that we are so afraid to yield to what is good for us and instead seek our own way? Young people who were brought up to pray with their siblings and their parents can no longer bring themselves to do so. They develop personal problems, are rent by resentments, languish in laziness, become addicted to intoxicants and narcotics, self-diagnose or wrongly entrust themselves to ‘professionals’ who lead them along instead of healing them.

But the best way is always God’s way, always the way of Christ, yes, even the way of the Cross. Yet it is not a bitter road that leads to life, as long as it is life that we really want. And can we want life, when we busy ourselves with every distraction we can find, rather than returning to God in the easy and satisfying way He has provided, by prayer? This has got to be the road we take, if we want wholeness, if we want peace, if we want health, bodily and mentally.

Back to written prayers, back to simple ceremonies that teach humility and love. ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. O heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who are in all places and fill all things…’ and ‘Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, pardon our sins. Master, forgive our transgressions. Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Your name’s sake. Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy…’

And the reason, if we want to hear it, comes from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.’ If our way is troubled, if our lives are distracted, if we need to be set right, we know what to do, it’s as simple as saying our prayers.

Read also: On Prayer XIV: Family Prayer

Psalms of the 3rd Day

The word of God is so sweet! Yes, the holy and divine scriptures, they speak to the soul, they loosen the bonds of worldly care, they heal, because they are love, they are the love of God the holy Triad falling upon us daily as manna in the wilderness of this earthly life. No, He has not left us orphans, He is with us just as He promised. He was, is, and always will be with us, with us long before we knew Him, in our midst before we ever recognized Him, but He is here now, reflected in all things, living in all beings who rest in Him, and revealed to all who humble themselves to enter through the lowly portal of His written word, into His inner chambers, whose vault is high and veiled in mysteries.

The gates of awe are open in His psalms. To return to them after journeying far is to come home to His arms open in embrace, to His welcoming face. The psalms of the third day waited for me to arrive, and here I am. Though I am unworthy, they treat me as if I were the Son of God, breaking the vial of precious ointment over me, to soothe my spirit, and to strengthen me for all that lies ahead. Following the Son of God, we too must needs be drenched in the divine mercy, for only mercy can win us for ourselves, and the world for Him. And so, after meeting Him here in the vesper light, I want to linger and celebrate Him in song, to return to Him love for love, yes, grace for grace, all that is His He made mine, and mine His.

Yahweh, who has the right to enter Your tent,
or to live on Your holy mountain?

The man whose way of life is blameless,
who always does what is right,
who speaks the truth from his heart,
whose tongue is not used for slander,

who does no wrong to his fellow,
casts no discredit on his neighbor,
looks with contempt on the reprobate,
but honors those who fear Yahweh;

who stands by his pledge at any cost,
does not ask interest on loans,
and cannot be bribed to victimise the innocent.
If a man does all this, nothing can ever shake him.
Psalm 15 Jerusalem Bible

The Hebrew text is a little different, scattering more light. ‘Looks with contempt on the reprobate’ seems somehow out of character with the rest. The Hebrew says, ‘the contemptible person in his eyes is repulsive,’ enabling us to grasp the disfigurement of sin, what it does to others, but also to myself, ‘who of all sinners am the chief.’ Yes, let us honor the saints, those who fear the Lord, but let us despise all that is vile and contemptible in ourselves, yes, in myself. The psalmist, holy prophet-king David, is right to sing these words, to assure us who struggle, that we cannot be shaken if we do these things. And how are we to do them, without God's help?

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;
I keep Yahweh before me always,
for with Him at my right hand nothing can shake me.

So my heart exults, my very soul rejoices,
my body, too, will rest securely,
for You will not abandon my soul to She’ol,
nor allow the one You love to see the Pit;
You will reveal the path of life to me,
give me unbounded joy in Your presence,
and at Your right hand everlasting pleasures.
Psalm 16 Jerusalem Bible

No, I can only do what is right if He takes me by the hand and leads me, and so I pray, ‘Look after me, God.’ My accusers rise up and attack, taunting my trust in the only trustworthy One, throwing in my face their own blasphemies and insinuating me into their number. But no, even if I fall, no, when I fall, He bids me rise, graciously forgiving me all before I ask, making me loyal by His unconditional love. ‘Shall I pour…? Not I! Take their names…? never!’ To them who accuse me by day and by night, inside and out, I confess, ‘Yahweh, my heritage, my cup…’

For it is all true what the psalmist declares. My security, yes, my very sanity, is secure because He holds me. I need not wander, indeed I cannot wander. Why? Because ‘the measuring line marks out delightful places for me.’ The world I have chosen to live in is His world, and though from the outside it seems small and confined, it is instead immense, its frontiers are beyond human reach, its ceilings are vast ‘and veiled in mysteries.’ By day He leads me in His paths, while others sleep in ignorance and call it ‘life.’ By night He teaches me, who is my ‘inmost self’ who ‘instructs me,’ while the world wastes itself in debauchery.

Following behind Him, ‘I keep Yahweh before me always,’ who reveals ‘the path of life to me’ and closes the gates of Hades to me forever, having ‘trampled down death by death and to those in the tombs bestowed life.’

Yahweh, hear the plea of virtue,
listen to my appeal,
lend an ear to my prayer,
my lips free from dishonesty.
From Your presence will my sentence come,
Your eyes are fixed on what is right.

You probe my heart, examine me at night,
You test me yet find nothing, no murmuring from me:
my mouth has never sinned as most men's do.

No, I have treasured the words from Your lips;
in the path prescribed walking deliberately
in Your footsteps, so that my feet do not slip.

I invoke you, God, and You answer me;
turn Your ear to me, hear what I say,
display your marvelous kindness, Savior of fugitives!

From those who revolt against You
guard me like the apple of Your eye;
hide me in the shadow of Your wings
from the onslaughts of the wicked.

My enemies cluster around me, breathing hostility;
entrenched in their fat, their mouths utter
arrogant claims; now they are closing in,
they have eyes for nothing but to see me overthrown.
They look like a lion eager to tear to pieces,
like a young lion crouching in its hide.

Rise, Yahweh, subdue him face to face,
rescue my soul from the wicked with Your sword,
with Your hand, Yahweh, rescue me from men,
from the sort of men whose lot is here and now.

Cram their bellies from Your stores,
give them all the sons that they could wish for,
let them have a surplus to leave their children!

For me the reward of virtue is to see Your face,
and, on waking, to gaze my fill on Your likeness.
Psalm 17 Jerusalem Bible

I wonder at prophet-king David as I hear him singing ‘my mouth has never sinned as most men's do,’ but then I pause to consider this: ‘I have treasured the words from Your lips; in the path prescribed walking deliberately in Your footsteps.’ So, it is no accident, then. We do not slip quietly into peace and safety, not here, not now, not in this world or in any other. The psalmist prefaces, ‘hear the plea of virtue.’ He is not saying to God, ‘Hear me, because I am virtuous.’ No, he understands full well that only virtue itself, unswerving loyalty to Yahweh the Holy One and God of Israel, can say such things.

Yet he mouths the words, as one practicing to speak a new language rehearses dialogues. With the prophet-king I also know that following Him, I may speak His words, for ‘the word of God is my utterance’ and ‘I have treasured the words’ from His lips. So, it is a choice. We can speak His words, or theirs. Whose? Those who ‘breathing hostility, entrenched in their fat… utter arrogant claims… the sort of men whose lot is here and now.’ Even here, Christ speaks through His prophet the psalmist, teaching us the ‘pray for your enemies and those who spitefully use you.’

Yes, Lord, help me to pray with sincerity as You have commanded, ‘Give them all the sons they could wish for, let them have a surplus to leave their children,’ even if they have robbed me for it, because ‘for me, the reward of virtue is to see Your face, and, on waking, to gaze my fill on Your likeness.’ Yes, ‘this is the day of Resurrection. Let us be radiant in the festival! Let us embrace one another. Let us call brothers, even those who hate us, and forgive all things…’

I love You, Yahweh, my strength,
my Savior, You rescue me from violence.

Yahweh is my rock and my bastion,
my deliverer is my God.
I take shelter in Him, my rock,
my shield, my horn of salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge.

From violence You rescue me.

He is to be praised; on Yahweh I call
and am saved from my enemies.

The waves of death encircled me,
the torrents of Belial burst on me;
the cords of She’ol girdled me,
the snares of death were before me.

In my distress I called to Yahweh
and to my God I cried;
from His Temple He heard my voice,
my cry came to His ears.

Then the earth quivered and quaked,
the foundations of the mountains trembled—
they quivered because He was angry—
from His nostrils a smoke ascended,
and from His mouth a fire that consumed,
live embers were kindled at it.

He bent the heavens and came down,
a dark cloud under His feet;
He mounted a cherub and flew,
and soared on the wings of the wind.

Darkness He made a veil to surround Him,
His tent a watery darkness, dense cloud;
before Him a flash enkindled
hail and fiery embers.

Yahweh thundered from heaven,
the Most High made His voice heard;
He let His arrows fly and scattered them,
launched the lightnings and routed them.

The bed of the seas was revealed,
the foundations of the world were laid bare,
at Your muttered threat, Yahweh,
at the blast of Your nostrils' breath.

He sends from on high and takes me,
He draws me from deep waters,
He delivers me from my powerful enemy,
from a foe too strong for me.

They assailed me on my day of disaster,
but Yahweh was my support;
He freed me, set me at large,
He rescued me, since He loves me.

Yahweh requites me as I act justly,
as my hands are pure so He repays me,
since I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
nor fallen away from my God.

His judgments are all before me,
His statutes I have not put from me;
I am blameless in His presence,
I keep sin at arm's length.

And Yahweh repays me as I act justly,
as my purity is in His sight.

Faithful You are with the faithful,
blameless with the blameless,
pure with the one who is pure,
but crafty with the devious,
You save a people that is humble
and humiliate eyes that are haughty.

Yahweh, You Yourself are my lamp,
my God lights up my darkness;
with You I storm the barbican,
with my God I leap the rampart.

This God, His way is blameless;
the Word of Yahweh is without dross.
He it is who is the shield
of all who take shelter in Him.

Who else is God but Yahweh,
who else a rock save our God?
This God who girds me with strength
and makes my way without blame,

who makes my feet like the hinds'
and hold me from falling on the heights,
who trains my hands for battle,
my arms to bend a bow of bronze.

You give me Your saving shield—
Your right hand upholds me, with care You train me—
wide room You make for my steps under me,
my feet have never faltered.

I pursue my enemies and overtake them,
nor turn back till an end is made of them;
I strike them down, and they cannot rise,
they fall, they are under my feet.

You have girt me with strength for the fight,
bent down my assailants beneath me,
made my enemies turn their backs to me;
and those who hate me I destroy.

They cry out, there is no one to save,
to Yahweh, but there is no reply;
I crush them fine as dust before the wind,
trample them like the mud of the streets.

You deliver me from a people in revolt,
You place me at the head of the nations,
a people I did not know are now my servants,

foreigners come wooing my favor,
no sooner do they hear than they obey me,
foreigners grow faint of heart,
they come trembling out of their fastnesses.

Life to Yahweh! Blessed be my rock!
Exalted be the God of my salvation,
the God who gives me vengeance
and subjects the peoples to me,
who rescues me from my raging enemies.

You lift me high above those who attack me,
You deliver me from the man of violence.
For this I will praise You, Yahweh, among the heathen
and sing praise to Your name.

His king He saves and saves again,
displays His love for His anointed,
for David and his heirs for ever.
Psalm 18 Jerusalem Bible

Nothing less than the Cross

Photo from The Dwelling Place blog

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God’ (Matthew 5:9), a saying of Christ we all know by heart and give lip service to, but if it comes right down to it, none of us really wants to be that blessed, though we’d love to be called ‘sons of God’ as long as it required nothing more of us than to say, ‘Jesus is Lord!’ We don’t reflect on that fact that the only One who really was ‘Son of God’ by nature and not merely by name, was a peacemaker, in fact the ultimate peacemaker, for He makes peace between God and man, and between man and men—if we let Him.

Yes, I know He also says, ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword’ (Matthew 10:34), and I think I know why He says it. If we follow Him, if we do what we see Him doing, say what we hear Him saying, yes, if we decide once and for all that we want to be peacemakers, we will be cut off from the bulk of humanity, yes, cut off, with a sword that will not be put away from us until we surrender.

We work for peace, yet we are denied peace. It is when we work for war, between people, between nations, that we are approved—not by God, of course, but by man.

No, there will always be people who say they want peace, and some of them may even give those who do work for peace a nod of approval, but they do not lift a finger to help. Peace is too threatening, because in that environment, our every failing is laid open to the eyes of all, and we would rather not be discovered. In war all crimes can be hidden, even ours, and so war is what we wage with our tongues and sometimes our bodies, the better to hide what we are, and what we have chosen.

When you choose to be a peacemaker, the world no longer looks the same. You can see ‘the sin of the world’ in a way you could not before, in the world, and in yourself. It is an awakening, but one without worldly glory. To work for peace does confer enlightenment, but not of religion. It is the enlightenment of Christ, which He shares willingly with you, to see whether or not you will accept it. And why wouldn't you? Because it is nothing less than the Cross.

‘He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near’ (Ephesians 2:14). ‘For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the Cross’ (Colossians 1:19-20).

Yes, ‘blessed are the peacemakers, 
                          for they shall be called sons of God.’

Growing up

Historically, from early Christian times till now, we read the stories of Christians who are put to various tests of a blasphemous nature to break their resolve. Those that withstood them are usually killed and become martyrs. As a young Christian I wholly approved of and adulated this kind of ‘witness,’ especially because it is ancient, even going back to the apostles themselves (maybe).

Now, as an older (and rather over-tested) Christian, though never made to trample a cross or offer incense to Caesar—what would be the modern equivalent of the latter? Perhaps, treating the President as if he were God?—I hold to a different view, which is either more mature, or maybe just pragmatic.

I believe that the Divine Nature (God) is above blasphemy just as He is above envy. As for jealousy, yes, you can say, following the Bible itself, that God is a jealous God, but still, He is not an unreasonable One. He wants our full attention, our full obedience to His commandments, but He knows us, He knows He can’t get it, and so He accepts such love as we in our weakness can muster. He waits for us.

The Bible says, ‘precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints’ (Psalm 116:15), and so people have put two and two together, and decided that they will die (like the ancient Hebrews) rather than do anything to dishonor their God. Far be it from me to judge them, but for me there is a different imperative.

You see, God cannot be dishonored, and He knows our hearts. If my soul hangs in the balance between life and death depending on whether or not I will commit a blasphemous act, or even renounce verbally my faith, then to do anything that will cause my death is almost a kind of suicide.

Can the ‘death of His saints’ that the Bible speaks of refer to death in another sense, such as death to sin, death to self? I don't pretend that that was the original meaning of the text, but the text grows as we grow. The Bible then becomes not so much a book of literal laws and commandments, but a gauge of human progress.

Progress toward what, or whom? Towards God, of course, who lets the laws be our caretakers during our racial infancy, but who really wants the true law, that of indefectible love, written on our hearts. That concept is found in the same Bible too, and literally
(cf. Jeremiah 31:33).

I think that we as a race are at a critical moment. I think that the Church is at a critical moment.

The Church needs to understand that its mission is much larger than it once thought. Its mission is to incorporate the entire race into the Body of Christ, because that is where the race must go, where it has been evolving to, since it became a conscious, reasoning entity. To accomplish its mission, the Church must grow up in the sort of way I am alluding to, whereby it knows that there is no such thing as ‘blasphemy’ just as there are no such things as ‘gods’
(cf. 1 Corinthians 8:4).

The Church has been christianizing the universe. Now, the universe expects christification.

The human race needs to understand that religion must be left behind in its evolution, but that leaves no other destiny or objective than to become the Bride of Christ. Neither theists nor atheists will find much comfort in this idea, once they understand that the dichotomy between them loses all meaning when confronted with an ultimate reality neither recognized.

Far from losing ‘God’ in the abandonment of the static structures we know as ‘religion,’ we will find ourselves not merely believing, confessing, or worshiping, but actually being wed to the real God of whom all our religions had only images. Finally, we shall, as a race, be able to honestly follow the first of the Ten commandments, ‘I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me,’ which will unleash us to fulfill the other nine as we enter with Him the Bridal Chamber.

‘The time is near’ (Revelation 1:3), which has been repeated generation after generation in anticipation, at long last will be pronounced with finality. The critical moment—κρίσις (KREE-sees), ‘judgment’—of the race’s stepping up, or falling down, ‘to be, or not to be,’ has arrived, as Christ Himself proclaims, ‘The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:15)

When he prays

All power and authority given to man on earth by God is given to him when he prays.

‘How can this be? I pray all the time and I don’t have any power, I have no authority. What are you talking about? But I do see power and authority given to people who have status, who have money, who are educated, who know how to pull the strings. As for the rest of us, right, we pray, but we pray because there’s nothing else we can do.’

With a sigh of resignation the words of barely hidden contempt are mouthed. Men for whom Christ died and who say they believe in Him, men on whom ‘all authority in heaven and on earth,’ given to Christ by His Father has been bestowed, men who can read the words for themselves, ‘anything you ask for in My name,’ are reduced to practicing magic they don’t even believe in.

‘Glory to You, O Lord, glory to You!’ I hear muttered constantly under his breath, and ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!’ cried out in lonely and forsaken places, moaned even, mingled with sobs of sorrow for his sins. Of little account, the world passes the saint and thinks him mad, yet his prayer is genuine and not for show or for sale.

The religious are even baffled. ‘We do more than he does, keep the fasts, drink tea without sugar, never touch flesh or oil or cheese during the prohibited times, never miss a service, and we greet each other nicely. Why does everybody go running to him? He scares us. He doesn’t follow the rules. He’s proud and wants his own way. Why does God answer his prayers and not ours?’

He can battle the devil, he can even drive him out, because he knows him personally. He has locked himself in battle with him in an invisible ring many times. His weapons? The words of holy and divine scripture, outbursts of mighty psalms, supplications to God Himself and his shameless asking for what he doesn’t deserve, his confession of his own sins, his laying all at the feet of Jesus.

The irreligious, bent as they are on what profits them, can come closer to the Truth than those who were suckled by it, who feel so sure that they know what works and what doesn’t, that they do neither. Seeking himself, the worldly man can stumble upon his own corpse and, asking, rise from the dead. The religious polish their coffins, but the saints lie down in theirs in peace, expecting life.

‘In peace I lie down, and fall asleep at once, since You alone, Yahweh, make me rest secure. (Psalm 4)

For me the reward of virtue is to see Your face, and, on waking, to gaze my fill on Your likeness.’ (Psalm 17)

As one having authority

A Christian brother in seminary with whom I sometimes engage in dialog, finally said one day, ‘but you speak as one having authority’ and he felt that since that is the case I should have to reveal my source of authority. He often asks questions which I do not respond to, and he does the same to me.

This immediately brought to mind the Gospel in which the Pharisees ask Jesus a similar question.

One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?” He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Luke 20:1-8 NIV

Now, believe me, I am not comparing myself to Jesus, but if any of you want to, go ahead. You’ll find me a hopelessly poor copy. Yet, I know I irk not only my friend, but many others, because here I am, not ordained, not seminary-trained, without even a college degree, having read who knows what, living God knows what lifestyle, and writing publicly ‘as one having authority.’ That’s even worse than ‘teaching the people in the Temple courts’!

There are two authentic sources of authority, but really only One. Jesus Christ spoke, speaks and will always speak with authority because He is the Source of all authority in heaven and earth, He is the Word of God. He speaks as One having authority yet He never changes anything of the Torah, only deepens it, reveals it—root, branch and leaves—yet His enemies say He sets the Law aside and changes it. He does have the authority to do that, but He doesn’t do it, and yet they accuse Him, and ask, “Who gave you this authority?” Such a question seems silly to us, because we know the answer. It didn’t seem silly to those who asked it at the time. No one knew for sure, not even His Mother, who He was, even as He hung on the Cross to die. Only by His Resurrection, Ascension and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit was the full mystery (or at least as much as we can know on earth) revealed.

The other source of authority is the holy and divine scripture, the Bible, the written ikon of the Word of God.

Already you can guess why I just wrote there is really only one Source of authority. Practically speaking, the Bible has authority because it is the True Ikon of Christ. It encloses and discloses what He speaks. Now, an ordinary man can speak or write ‘as one having authority’ when he keeps as close to the Bible as possible, without adding his comments and interpretations, but merely speaking it into situations, which are then revealed in their true perspective by its light. Its light, mind you, not his light. An ordinary man who speaks ‘as one having authority’ cannot change anything in the Bible, and because he doesn’t, he’s accused of teaching ‘without a license.’ On the other hand, if he has a degree, a title, a pastorship, letters after his names, or wears special clothing, the question doesn’t even come up. Why not? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? He’s qualified.

My seminary friend is an evangelical, dedicated to their concept of sola scriptura. Why then does it make him so uneasy when I reason using only that authority? I’ve learned how to let the Bible texts speak for themselves by placing them where what they are saying simply can’t be missed. This should offend no one. Who cares who I am? Truly, I am no one, and thankfully, I don’t have followers. If I did, I’d have to keep them happy with my words of wisdom.

Instead, I just want to follow Jesus. There’s a lot of ways to do that, and I just thought of one of those ways right now. Time to go back and look at His road map. Mine has a white leather cover and each page is trimmed with gold. What about yours?