"And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me," according to the Gospel words of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Apart from the cross, there is no Christianity--only a system of moral philosophy based upon nothing more than human reason and logic and therefore powerless to save the fallen human race from the pit of hopeless despair. It is only through the cross that we can hope to be delivered from the destructive power of sin, death and the Devil.
If Jesus Christ is not the eternal Son of God begotten of the Father before the ages, having assumed our flesh through the pure blood of the Virgin that by His life giving death and Resurrection He might redeem us from the ancient curse, then our entire Faith--from beginning to end--can only be considered a cruel sham, merely one religion among many, an ultimately futile attempt to make sense of the chaos, corruption and absurdity of a world seemingly consigned to senseless suffering and destined for nothing more than the eternal darkness of the abyss of nonbeing.
It is only through the shining witness of the saints of God--those men and woman who have acquired through the power of the cross the fullness of the Holy Spirit that was sent down upon the Church on the day of Pentecost--that the revelation of God's eternal Kingdom in this broken and fallen world is made manifest.
To be a saint means to be fully illumined by the grace of the Holy and Life Creating Spirit, to be transfigured by the uncreated Light of God, that we might become gods by grace, partakers of the divine nature. This, indeed, is the goal and destiny of every Christian--though few attain it in this earthly life. Nevertheless, we are all called to be saints, which is why--according to St. Seraphim of Sarov--the whole aim of the Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. How this is accomplished depends upon the unique talents and dispositions God has given to each individual soul. Upon the path of salvation set forth by our Lord, it is clear that one size does not fit all. Nevertheless, it is only by means of enduring with patience the pain and suffering He Himself endured for our salvation that we may hope to attain the fullness of eternal life in God's eternal Kingdom.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Monday, June 13, 2016
ON THE FORTHCOMING PAN ORTHODOX COUNCIL
"Holy Father," prays our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, "keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are." This is the theme of unity that runs like a golden thread throughout the Gospel and is, indeed, the underlying principle of all reality--whether uncreated or created. God Himself--revealed as a Holy Trinity--is the perfect, incomprehensible and ineffable union of three Persons in one Divine Nature; the Church--Christ's Body--is proclaimed in the Creed as one, holy and catholic; while the human race consists of innumerable persons sharing a common human nature.
It was the arch heretic Arius who strove to break asunder the unity of the Holy Trinity, rending the seamless robe of our Lord and thereby sowing division and disharmony within the Church--but Christ assures us that against the Church, the gates of hell shall never prevail. And so it was that the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council gathered together in the God preserved city of Nicaea in order to refute this pernicious heresy and to cast Arius out of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, declaring with one voice, "Thus it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit...."
When Christ ascended into the heavens, He sent down upon the Church the Holy and Life Giving Spirit that all men might be drawn together into a unity that reflects that of the Holy Trinity, while the ancient enemy of the human race--Satan--ceaselessly strives to sow the seeds of discord and fragmentation. And while we hear much nowadays about the necessity of restoring the supposedly lost unity of the Church, the Holy Fathers unequivocally teach us that the Church is, always has been, and always will be undivided and indivisible.
There has been a good deal of hoopla of late concerning the long planned and forthcoming Pan Orthodox Council, which is to be convened not in order to condemn a new heresy that threatens to distort the inspired dogma of the Church, but rather to promote--through cunning and deceit--the pan-heresy of ecumenism. Do not be deceived, my friends--the ultimate goal of this pernicious heresy is to unite the One True Church to the heretical Roman confession, and (eventually) to bring together all so-called Christians into the one world religion of the Antichrist. It is therefore vital that we, as true Orthodox Christians, stand firmly rooted in that Faith once delivered unto the Apostles and sealed by the blood of the martyrs, that we might until the end of time remain truly one... even as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. Maranatha! Lord come!
It was the arch heretic Arius who strove to break asunder the unity of the Holy Trinity, rending the seamless robe of our Lord and thereby sowing division and disharmony within the Church--but Christ assures us that against the Church, the gates of hell shall never prevail. And so it was that the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council gathered together in the God preserved city of Nicaea in order to refute this pernicious heresy and to cast Arius out of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, declaring with one voice, "Thus it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit...."
When Christ ascended into the heavens, He sent down upon the Church the Holy and Life Giving Spirit that all men might be drawn together into a unity that reflects that of the Holy Trinity, while the ancient enemy of the human race--Satan--ceaselessly strives to sow the seeds of discord and fragmentation. And while we hear much nowadays about the necessity of restoring the supposedly lost unity of the Church, the Holy Fathers unequivocally teach us that the Church is, always has been, and always will be undivided and indivisible.
There has been a good deal of hoopla of late concerning the long planned and forthcoming Pan Orthodox Council, which is to be convened not in order to condemn a new heresy that threatens to distort the inspired dogma of the Church, but rather to promote--through cunning and deceit--the pan-heresy of ecumenism. Do not be deceived, my friends--the ultimate goal of this pernicious heresy is to unite the One True Church to the heretical Roman confession, and (eventually) to bring together all so-called Christians into the one world religion of the Antichrist. It is therefore vital that we, as true Orthodox Christians, stand firmly rooted in that Faith once delivered unto the Apostles and sealed by the blood of the martyrs, that we might until the end of time remain truly one... even as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. Maranatha! Lord come!
Monday, June 6, 2016
"WHO DID SIN--THIS MAN OR HIS PARENTS?"
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" So... it's a matter of either-or, right? Call it karma or God's just retribution, but someone must have sinned to explain the reason why such a tragedy had occurred. (Though unless we invoke the fallacious concept of reincarnation,
it is difficult to understand how this man might have sinned before his birth).
So why, then, did God permit Herod's slaughter of the Holy Innocents? For what reason or purpose did the 3000 innocent victims perish when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11? Why did hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have to die when the tsunami hit the Asian coasts in December, 2004? I could go on and on, of course, considering that the human race has been subjected to innumerable tragedies and seemingly senseless suffering from the very beginning unto this present day. But consider those eighteen men upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, crushing them to death. Jesus rightly asks his interlocutors, "Think they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay: but, except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13: 4-5).
But why, why, why has so much seemingly senseless and arbitrary (according to human reasoning) death and suffering afflicted both the just and the unjust, both the righteous and the unrighteous, over the whole course of human history? Yet... who do we think we are that we should expect to fathom the depths of divine providence? Or do we really think we can calculate by means of a divine calculus an explanation for the distribution of death and suffering that occurs in this world? In the instance of the blind man of the Gospel, at least, our Lord gives us the answer: "Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." And so... what more do we require?
The truth is, God is not the author of sin, death and suffering--nor do these provisional facts of our existence in this fallen world possess an ultimate meaning or reality. They are, rather, the consequences of our rebellion against God, according to the free will He has so graciously bestowed upon us. In this world of corruption and violence we ourselves have created, sin and suffering are inevitable... and in the end, we must all die. We shall all, however, be judged at the end of time according to the measure of love we have acquired in our hearts during our earthly sojourn. So let us all--no matter how far we may have wondered from God and defiled in our own lives the essential goodness of His creation--beseech our All-Compassionate Creator that He might grant unto us the gift of love in our hearts, that we might in the end--by His grace--prove worthy of the gift of eternal life in His heavenly Kingdom.
it is difficult to understand how this man might have sinned before his birth).
So why, then, did God permit Herod's slaughter of the Holy Innocents? For what reason or purpose did the 3000 innocent victims perish when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11? Why did hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have to die when the tsunami hit the Asian coasts in December, 2004? I could go on and on, of course, considering that the human race has been subjected to innumerable tragedies and seemingly senseless suffering from the very beginning unto this present day. But consider those eighteen men upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, crushing them to death. Jesus rightly asks his interlocutors, "Think they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay: but, except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13: 4-5).
But why, why, why has so much seemingly senseless and arbitrary (according to human reasoning) death and suffering afflicted both the just and the unjust, both the righteous and the unrighteous, over the whole course of human history? Yet... who do we think we are that we should expect to fathom the depths of divine providence? Or do we really think we can calculate by means of a divine calculus an explanation for the distribution of death and suffering that occurs in this world? In the instance of the blind man of the Gospel, at least, our Lord gives us the answer: "Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." And so... what more do we require?
The truth is, God is not the author of sin, death and suffering--nor do these provisional facts of our existence in this fallen world possess an ultimate meaning or reality. They are, rather, the consequences of our rebellion against God, according to the free will He has so graciously bestowed upon us. In this world of corruption and violence we ourselves have created, sin and suffering are inevitable... and in the end, we must all die. We shall all, however, be judged at the end of time according to the measure of love we have acquired in our hearts during our earthly sojourn. So let us all--no matter how far we may have wondered from God and defiled in our own lives the essential goodness of His creation--beseech our All-Compassionate Creator that He might grant unto us the gift of love in our hearts, that we might in the end--by His grace--prove worthy of the gift of eternal life in His heavenly Kingdom.
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