Sunday January 5th, 2014

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You have  revealed Yourself to the world today, and Your light,
O Lord, has shined upon us. We recognize
You and exclaim to You: “You have come and revealed Yourself,
O Inaccessible Light.”

EpiphanyToday we celebrate, as a community, the second greatest feast in our church year. It was the first immoveable feast  (i.e., a feast that occurs on the same day each year) developed by the Church. The feasts of Easter and Pentecost, because they are directly connected to Jewish feasts, are known as moveable feasts. Some believe that Theophany was developed to replace the Jewish Festival of Lights. In the early Church it celebrated all of the various events wherein God manifested Himself through the   Person of Jesus Christ. It included Jesus’ Nativity, the homage of the Wise Men, His Baptism, the miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee and the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. The name Theophany must be understood in the plural sense for it means a feast of Theophanies.
This feast was first celebrated at the end of the second or at the start of the third century. St. Clement of Alexandria (+215) mentions it in his works. The Apostolic Constitutions, a work of the fourth century, also speaks of this feast. In the third century,  Hyppolitus of Rome and Gregory of Neocaesarea mention it. In the fourth century Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom preached about it.
The biblical story of the Baptism of Jesus is recorded in all four Gospels and became the most important of God’s manifestations because this event inaugurated the great ministry of  Jesus. It was after His baptism and the murder of John that Jesus began proclaiming the message originally preached by John: Repent, for the Kingdom of God IS at hand.
God’s real presence in    creation and, especially, in humankind, was made known through the baptism of Jesus. We see from history that God constantly tried to make Himself known. His total manifestation was, we believe, made through the Person of Jesus, the Christ. Let us celebrate  that God IS with us.

Pastoral Message of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Hierarchy of USA

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Pastoral Message of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Hierarchy of USA

This year we Ukrainians conclude the Jubilee Year Commemorating the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of our ancestors in the River Dnipro by the Grand Prince, St. Volodymyr the Great, the Equal-to-the-Apostles. Because of this dramatic and blessed event, our people were illuminated by the light of Jesus Christ and His Word penetrated their hearts.

Pope Francis states in his Encyclical Letter, Lumen Fidei: “The light of Faith: this is how the Church’s tradition speaks of the great gift brought by Jesus.” The Holy Father continues by quoting St. John’s Gospel where Christ says of Himself: “I have come as Light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness”.

That darkness was shattered by the appearance of a bright star followed by the Wise Men from the East. We are able to celebrate anew the great mystery of our faith – the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ – because we inherited this faith from our ancestors. And what a mysterious and magnificent faith this is. The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, took on flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus became man so that all of us can become children of God, inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, partakers of His glory.

All of this is beyond our ability to comprehend. It is astonishing that Almighty God became an infant for our salvation. The Word of God went through the whole process of conception and birth for us.

This “good news” was announced to the shepherds. Together with them we are filled with wonder as the heavenly angelic host praises God and sings, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those who enjoy His favor rests” The Gospel passage continues, “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, in accord with what had been told them”. In one of our Christmas carols we sing: “O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining, this is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.” As with our ancestors, now we are not alone. “God is with us.” Entering into our world, Jesus, the Messiah, affects our every movement, our every action, our every aspiration, in fact our very life and destiny. The  Incarnation, God-becoming-man, is not an illusion. It makes sense. “Through Him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through Him. All that came to be had life in Him”.

Christmas is such an obvious opportunity for renewal. This past “Year of Faith” urged us to rediscover and renew our relationships with Christ that was given to us in Baptism. By virtue of our Baptism we are all called to share the “good news” with others, to evangelize, whether it is in our home in the example of prayer and witness we give, or perhaps at work, or in different organizations, both religious and secular. In some ways we are all given situations in which God is calling us to witness our faith.

1025 years ago, our ancestors were enlightened by Christ and His “good news.” This blessed gift they passed on to us. Now, let us pass it on to others. Let us rejoice on this great feast of the Nativity of our Lord and let us be grateful to Jesus for being born for our salvation. Christ is born – let us glorify Him!

We wish all of you a truly grace-filled Christmas and a very blessed and prosperous New Year. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

Being a Vibrant Parish – 20131229

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vibrantparishVibrant Christians do not see Christmas as some past event of history but, rather, as something that is actually happening today. Our Church declares the reality of the Lord’s birth in the   present tense as we do all of the major holy days of the Church. We declare this day: Christ IS Born! Glorify Him! What can we understand by this religious custom?
Since it is our understanding that there is no time in the spiritual dimension – for God all things are present – we declare that in some mysterious manner God is being born into our world right now. How do we understand this?
Think about it.  At this very moment God is keeping all things, us included, in existence. Life is something that always exists. There is no real beginning or end to life since life is God and we share in this life. This  being the case, all things are present to God in the universe and His birth, while it took place in the past in our world, is really happening at this present moment in the spiritual realm.  To God all is present. There is neither past nor future. There is only the present moment. This is one reason why the spiritual fathers, and some modern-day authors like Eckert Tolle, exhort us to live in the present moment since the present moment is the only thing that is truly real. In fact Tolle wrote a powerful book called The Power of Now. In this book he teaches people how to live in the present moment.
living in the present moment. All of our anxieties, sorrows, disappointments and    painful feelings come into existence when we live either in the past or the future. The fact of the matter is that the things of the past and the future are not real and cannot be controlled or changed. All we have is the present moment – the NOW.
How would your life be different if you really believed that Christ was being born RIGHT NOW? Would you be like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds or the Wise Men? Or would you be like Herod?
Once we are able to translate such major feasts as Christmas into the present moment, life changes. Right at this very moment God is coming into our world to help us discover the meaning and purpose of life.  Right now He is calling us to come and adore Him! Right now the angels are exhorting us to Glorify Him!
While it may not necessarily be easy for some to live in the present moment, it is truly something we all do well to attempt to accomplish!

The Unfathomable Mystery

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The greatest and most profound mystery of the Christian faith is the Incarnation of the Son of God. The eternal God becomes man and does not cease to be God. In the first centuries, the Eastern Fathers  accepted the mystery of the Incarnation with profound faith and great piety. Enraptured by this mystery, they had   nothing but words of wonder for the most wonderful love of God, the sacrifice,  humility and poverty of the Messiah.

As we read the Eastern Fathers of the Church we see that they first directed their attention to the greatness of the mystery. Basil the Great teaches us how to receive the mystery of the Incarnation: “The actual, first nativity of Christ must be venerated in silence”. He suggested that we should not even permit our minds to investigate this mystery since there is no way that our human minds can conceive of how God could become man. Gregory the Theologian, Athanasius the Great, Ephrem the Syrian and others all stress how the Incarnation is absolutely beyond human comprehension.

Athanasius exclaimed this in one of his Christmas sermons: “Who will not speak out, who will not wonder at the Lord’s coming? In heaven he is a freeman, on earth he is a hireling; above he is rich, below he is poor. In heaven he is on a   divine Throne, on earth he is in a cave; in heaven he is in the unfathomable bosom of the Father, on earth he is in the small soulless shelter and manger. Who will not express wonder at the great things above and the small swaddling clothes below! He who loosens is bound; he who nourishes is nourished”.

When you think about what we celebrate on this feast, that God became a human person, you have to be amazed. Only God, who we describe as all powerful, could accomplish such a task – the infinite, became finite.

Of course this immediate question comes to mind: Why did God choose to become man? Perhaps the simplest answer to this    question is: Because He loved mankind, His creation, so much that He wanted to personally demonstrate to mankind how to live in order to become all that God envisioned when He created humanity. God reveled to us creatures how to live in order to experience the fullness of life.The fullness of life is truly experienced when we come to know ourselves as children of God and the    living temples of His Spirit.

Today the Virgin gives birth to Perfect Essence

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Today the Virgin gives birth to Perfect Essence and the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible. The Angels sing His glory with the shepherds; the wise men journey with the star,  for there is born for us an Infant Child, God Eternal.

 nativity

In a sermon on December 20, 386 or 388, St. JohnChrysostom announced to his faithful that, for the first time, the Church in Antioch would celebrate the feast of theNativity of our Lord on the 25th of December, independent of the feast of the Theophany. He added that this feast can, without mistake, be called the mother of all the feasts for from it Theophany, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost have their origin and foundation. If Christ had not been born in the flesh, neither could he have been baptized, crucified, raised from the dead or taken into heaven. From Christ’s Nativity all the other feasts flow like different streams from the same source.
Truly Christ’s Nativity is the most significant event in the history of the human race. This event inaugurated theChristian Era and became the point of reference from which we date the events of world history.
For the first three centuries, Christians did not have a separate feast of the Nativity of Christ. At that time the only feast known, besides Easter, was the Theophany.  It was celebrated on the 6th of January. This feast, since itcelebrated God’s “manifestation” of Himself to mankind, included the Nativity of Jesus, the adoration of the Three Kings, Christ’s baptism, and any other event in the life of Jesus which manifested God’s presence in the world in the Person of Jesus (e.g., the multiplication of the loaves).
St. Clement of Alexandria says that during his time, some regarded the 20th of May as the day of Christ’s birth, others celebrated it on the 6th or 10th of January, butaccording to him it occurred on the 18th of November. St. Cyprian, in the third-fourth century, alluded to the day of the birth of Christ as being the 28th of March.
The fixing of the date of Christmas influenced the fixing of the dates of the other feasts dependent upon it, such as the Circumcision, the Presentation, the Annunciation and the Nativity of John the Baptizer. The Eastern Church slowly followed the example of the Western Church with regards to the separation of the feasts. It seems that Chrysostom is the person who greatly influenced the Eastern Church’s  celebration of the Nativity of our Lord as a separate feast.

In truth we don’t know the date of the Lord’s birth!

 

Christ IS Born! Glorify Him!

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З Різдвом Христовим (Z Rizdvom Khrystovym)
Щасливого Різдва Христового (Shchaslyvoho rizdva Hrystovoho)
Vesele Božične Praznike
ميلاد مجيد  (Miilaad Majiid)

 My dearest Brothers and Sisters,

A great portion of the Christian world rejoices with us today as we celebrate the profound mystery of God becoming man in the Person known to us as Jesus, the Christ. We celebrate this “manifestation” of God because we believe that through His Incarnation He truly revealed to us that

  • we are made in His image and likeness;
  • we are loved by Him beyond all measure; and
  • we are immortal since we are the temples of His Holy Spirit.

The Nativity of our Lord is only one of several “theophanies,” that is God manifestations, that we celebrate. Because of the very    profound nature of these winter feasts, we must do all within our power to celebrate them in a real spiritual manner. This, I know, is difficult in a society that has so   destroyed the spiritual content of Christmas through the rampant commercialization of the day and the secularization of this time of the year. The spiritual nature of this day can be diminished if we don’t intentionally make an effort to reclaim the day as sacred.
It is my hope and prayer, if you are reading this Bulletin, that you will make every effort to pause amidst your celebration and focus your mind and heart on the true meaning of this day. Today is a day, more than any others, upon which we should truly offer a prayer of deep gratitude to God   for the gift of life.
It is my priestly prayer that God will be profoundly present to you as you celebrate His Incarnation. May you embrace the mystery of this manifestation, knowing and feeling the love that this feast     heralds and, knowing this, may you, with gratitude, thank God and share love with others. May this holy season be one of spiritual growth for you and yours as you reflect upon the meaning of this sacred feast.
As a fellow traveler in life, your brother, your pastor and your friend, I extend to you my love and wishes for a very merry and truly blessed Christmas.

Father Wayne

 

 

The Spirituality Of the Christian East – 20131229

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Holy-Trinity-9In the weeks immediately prior to the feast of Christmas I began sharing in this article the Names of Christ that evoked the greatest response from the Fathers of the Church. In the last issue I shared the name: Savior. In this issue I would share the name: Light-Wisdom.
Christ forever opened ‘the gates of light to those who were the sons of darkness and of night and had devoted themselves to becoming the sons of light and of the day.’ For the Greek Fathers the misery of the sinner consists in ‘ignorance’. On this bases we better understand the great importance they       attached to the revelatory function of the Word become flesh. The tradition retained the full run of scriptural names: Truth, Wisdom, Master, the Word, the Light.
You will note that I have consistently stressed the fact that Christ is truly the Father’s revelation to us about the meaning and purpose of life. It is critical I think that we see Christ as God’s revelation about how we should live as human beings. This is also one of the reasons why the Church has stressed the fact that Jesus is truly God and truly and completely human at the same time.
There can be no greater difference than the one which exists between the Creator and the created. And yet, the mystery of Jesus Christ appears as the perfect union of the two, and this is why he is essentially the Unifier.
The need for a ‘mediator’ was seen even in Greek philosophy. How could two antithetical realities – the material and the spiritual – be reconciled? A serious problem. If God must remain transcendent, indifferent to everything under him, then the transition from the divine to the human cannot be conceived of without some intermediary. It is along such philosophical lines that a carefully developed doctrine of the Word-Mediator, the instrument of God, is found in Philo. A similar notion could not be applied to Christ.

Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers / Athanasius of Alexandria – 20131229

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indexIn this article I have been sharing thoughts about Father Athanasius on the Deifying Work of the Redeemer. We have already seen that many did not understand what he proposed. It was not until John of Damascus that the distinction was explicated between the Son’s adoption of our human nature considered as a whole at the Annunciation and the adoption of individual persons or hypostases through baptism and the cooperation of faith. One author believe that the most recent historical research has revealed that the negative critique of Athanasius’ work to be a shortsighted “reduction” of the patristic doctrine of divinization to the acquisition of incorruptibility only.
You will recall that some who critiqued Athanasius’ work deduced that our human divinization was just limited to the acquisition of incorruptibility. The Greek Fathers refused to say that the our redemption is only limited to a “physical” redemption. Rather, our redemption includes every aspect of out human person.  
One author maintains that Athanasius’ theory of deification is not a Greek speculation, but the decisive element in the salvific work of Christ, which, through his true humanity, is very different from a mechanical restoration. Divinization is not limited to a restoration of some sort of original nature but, rather, is the purpose of this earthly existence. We are put here on earth to spiritually grow – to discover who we are as God’s creatures and to learn how to live as He created us to live. It appears that Athanasius understood that the redeemed person may become a son of God only by participation, which implies that far from be-ing mechanical or automatic, the sonship of the redeemed is contingent and mutable: “From this it  clearly appears that men can lose their sonship which they have by participation, and what one can lose one cannot be by nature”.
Hopefully this is beginning to make more sense. While we are called to be children of God, we can preclude our experience of this by how we live. The most interesting aspect of this is that God wills that we come to experience our union with Him and we are given all sorts of opportunities to come to a deep understanding of this. It may take more than one lifetime – remember life after physical death is dynamic, ever changing and growing. We don’t understand, however, what it will be like.
God’s goal for His creation is that it will ever move in the direction of being in union with Him. The challenges and opportunities of life are designed to help us move in that direction. How  we respond to these challenges and opportunities, however, is subject to our free will. Regardless of how we respond, however, God will not discontinue the opportunities to spiritually grow. If we remember that this earthly exixtance is given to us to “learn” how to be spiritual beings, then we look at life in a different manner.

A Look at the New Testament – St Paul – 20131229

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12_stpaulicon_270In the last issue of this article, I began sharing with you the “conditions” of the world into which Christ as born. These conditions and crowding meant that contagious disease was rampant. Life   expectancy was low, about thirty years for those who survived the high mortality rates of infancy and childhood.
The urban working population could be sustained only by continuing migration from rural areas. Roman      agricultural policy virtually compelled migration to cities. Small peasant farms that had provided basic sustenance to the families that had lived on them for centuries were being combined into large estates that now produced grains and other agricultural products for export. Many of the rural class, now without their own land, moved to cities to find work. Most did so out of desperation, not because they desired city life.
When I read this I realize how very much like our modern society the time of Christ was. There are no longer “small” farmers. People have been driven into the urban areas and, at first, entered into manufacturing for a living. Now, however, with the off-shoring of manufacturing jobs, we are in economic trouble.
Migration top cities destroyed the extended family and village relationships that marked traditional rural communities. Newcomers to cities, even if they arrived with their family, were   severed from the familiarity and common concern of village life. They were, in an important sense, alone and on their own. Moreover, cities were populated by many ethnic and linguistic groups, in contrast to the homogeneity of village life. Ethnic estrangement and conflict were frequent.
Thus life was difficult for most of those who lived in cities. Earning enough money to pay for food and shelter was always an issue. Disease and death were constant threats. Community was no longer something that one was born into, but was either absent or newly formed.
Paul’s purpose as apostle was to create and nurture urban communities of Christ-followers – especially from among Gentiles in particular. That was his commission: to go to Gentiles, not Jews. Preaching to the Jews was Peter’s commission.
And yet when Paul arrived in a newc city, he consistently went to a synagogue to tell people about Jesus. Why? Was he trying to convert Jews, in spite of his commission to go to the Gentiles, a vocation and restriction that he and other early Christian leaders had apparently agreed upon?
Almost certainly, the explanation is that synagogues in major cities were likely to have a number of Gentiles who were strongly attracted to Judaism, but not willing or ready to fully convert.
Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit realized also that Christ’s message was for all. He therefore began to preach not only to Jews but to Gentiles. He saw in Jesus the Jesus message something that pertained to all humanity

Being a Vibrant Parish – 20131225

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vibrantparishA person once poured water into a bowl. He stirred the water and said to his friends, “Look at the water.” It was disturbed and they saw nothing but murky waves. After the water was calm, he said to them again, “Look how still the water is now.” As they looked into the water, they saw their own faces in it as in a     mirror. Then he said to them, “It is the same for those who live among men. Disturbances prevent them from seeing their faults. But when a person is still in the presence of God, then he sees his failing.”
Along the same line, Diadochus of Photice says that we have to keep the surface calm so that we can see deep into the soul. He writes: When the sea is calm the eyes of the fisherman can penetrate to the point where he can distinguish different movements in the dept of the water, so that hardly any of the creatures who move through the pathways of the sea escape him, but when the sea is agitated by the wind, she hides in her dark  restlessness what she shows in the smile of a clear day.”
“If a man cannot be alone, he doesn’t know who he is,” said Thomas Merton. “Be still and know that I am God,” says the Lord. Be still! Stop your rushing about, all tensed-up, acting as if everything depends on you; acting as if you are God. Stop! “Be still and know that I am God. “In stillness as we practice the Presence, we discover who God is and who we are.
One author said, “Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone – and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone with God.
Here is how one Christian turns loneliness into solitude. Each morning let the first words you say be, “Jesus is with me. I claim His Presence.” In the middle of the morning, stop wherever you are and whatever you are doing, close your eyes for a moment and say, “Jesus is with me. I claim His presence.” At noon repeat it and sometime during the afternoon when your energies are depleted, repeat it again. Finally, the last thing you do before falling asleep, look up at the darkness and say, “Jesus is with me. I claim His presence.”
Learning to practice the Presence of God is extremely important if we are to spiritually grow as children of God. Why not give it a try and see what happens?