CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20170101

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During these winter feasts we hear the call to holiness truly expressed by the call to embrace personal transformation and to do all in our power to become more like Jesus – to grow in our likeness of God. Jesus is God’s real revelation to humankind with regard to the meaning and purpose of life. As we work to become more like Him, we in fact become more like the person that God created us to be. When God created us He had a vision of “all that we can possibly become” during this lifetime. He came Himself to show us that it is possible for us to become deeply aware of the fact that we are His adopted children. In order to truly be His children, we must learn how to allow His Spirit, which is within us, to guide us through this earthly life. His Spirit gives us the power or ability to imitate Jesus.

It is always important to remember that what we “intend” is critical. So we are called to think about our lives and then decide/intend to do all in our power, in cooperation with God’s Spirit, to work towards the goal of becoming like Jesus.

If we do this, then we achieve the meaning and purpose of our life. We are here on this earth and at this in history, to accomplish something. What? To truly become “children of God.” If God had not become incarnate in the Person of Jesus – if He had not become a human being – we would not know how to accomplish this. As it is, He came into our world and lived among us in order to show us how this can be accomplished. He did all this out of love for us.

Hopefully, all of us will come to a point during this lifetime that we will have no doubt about the meaning and purpose of our lives. Finding our true meaning and purpose is the only way that we can also achieve true and lasting happiness. Happiness comes knowing who we are and why we exist.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20170101

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In the last edition of this article, I was sharing thoughts about Jesus as the word – the revelation of God. I ended the last edition of this article sharing this: “as the resurrection appearance at Emmaus indicates, the very first generation of Christians situated proclamation of the Word in an ecclesial-liturgical setting. The risen Lord draws near to two of His disciples and inquires as to the subject of their animated conversation. As in other resurrection appearances, “their eyes were kept from recognizing Him”. In response to His question, Cleopas offers a summary of the events concerning Jesus’ condemnation, His passion and death, as well as an account of the empty tomb. In all, his account represents a portion of the earliest kerygma, modified by the Evangelist Luke to provide a dramatic setting for Jesus’ reply: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” Then, retracing the typological events of the Old Testament that He Himself fulfilled in His life and sacrificial mission, Jesus “interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

Although their “hearts burned within them” at Christ’s proclamation, their eyes remained veiled. Only at the table of which He is both guest and host, do they finally recognize this stranger to be their crucified and risen master. “When He was at table with them, taking bread He blessed, and having broken it, He gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him.” As the parallel passages recounting the institution of the Lord’s Supper make unmistakably clear, the meal at Emmaus, shared by the risen Christ and His disciples, is an image of the Eucharistic celebration of the early Church.

What will subsequently be called the “Liturgy of the Word,” proclamation on the basis of scriptural revelation occurs on the Jerusalem road leading to the village. In ancient Byzantine rites, preserved and celebrated today by Our Church, this act of revelation and proclamation is preceded by the Small Entrance. Originally the bishop entered the church at this moment. Now, at this point, the bishop makes his”entry” into the altar, preceded by the elevated Word. Until this moment, the Gospel book has rested upon the altar table: the Word of God remains invisible, yet is ever present, as in the period of the Old Covenant. With the singing of the Second Antiphon, the Word of God comes into our midst… To do what?

Acquiring the Mind of Christ — 20170101

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In the last issue of the article, I began sharing thoughts about prayer being essential not only for salvation, which indeed is achieved by acquiring the mind of Christ. The Apostle Paul exhorts all Christians to “pray without ceasing”. This task is great and is often one of the most difficult to pursue, precisely because prayer affords such great reward: peace, life, renewal, enlightenment, joy in the Holy Spirit, and ultimately our salvation. Our Lord asks each one of us: “Could you not watch with me one hour?” “Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation” and fall away from your spiritual life. “What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

In this context of prayer, watchfulness is the key to our inner life. It allows for a healthy distance from our thoughts and potential release from our passions. The Jesus Prayer is essential in helping us to build up a sense of watchfulness in our hearts and thoughts, enabling us to detach from them to some degree; for we are not our thoughts. St. Theophan tells us that the principle asceticism of the spiritual life is keeping our mind and heart from passionate movement and thought. The Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” (our just the name Jesus, or Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) is an essential tool of enabling us to overcome the deadly sinful movements of the mind and heart. The Jesus Prayer has become one of the most powerful prayers in the Eastern Church. This short prayer is a remedy and defense against every kind of darkness. St. Isaac the Syrian even says that the Name of Christ is light. When we use this light against the onslaught of temptations, we dispel their darkness.

Elder Zacharias explains that the easiest way to become the Temple of the Holy Spirit is through the invocation of the Name of Jesus Christ. In this way, we open the heart to the grace of God. However, Elder Sophrony reminds us that it is essential to love the One we invoke. And how do we love Him? The Lord tells us, as St. John shares in his Gospel: “If you love me, then keep my commandments.” Since these commandments exceed human measure, they can only be fulfilled with the power of prayer.

To which commandments is Jesus referring? Think about this! The Jesus commandments are how many? Do you know the answer to these questions?

Reflections on the Scripture Readings for this Weekend — 20161225

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The readings assigned for our celebration of the Nativity of Christ, God Incarnate, are taken from Paul’s letter to the Galatians and a part of the infancy narrative in Matthew’s Gospel. They are not, perhaps, the readings that one would expect for this feast.

Our Epistle reading is taken from the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter and deals with “free sons of God in Christ,” which directly deals with the true meaning and impact of God’s Incarnation. Paul writes:

God sent forth his Son born of a woman … so that we might receive our status as adopted sons. The proof that you are sons is the fact that God has sent forth into our hearts the spirit of his Son which cries out “Abba.” You are no longer a slave but a son. And the fact that you are a son makes you an heir, by God’s design.

So our feast is not meant to focus on a real, historical event but, rather, to reveal to us what God intended by becoming a human. We get so caught up, sometimes, in the story of the birth of Jesus that we don’t recognize why God did what He did. He revealed that we are the heirs of His Kingdom. It calls us to live like God’s children.

Our Gospel reading also does not dwell on the historical event but, rather, God’s revelation to the world, through the astrologers, that He is very intimately connected to us, His creation. The story also shares, through the person of King Herod, the deception and self-centeredness that can possess humans who don’t want to change and who tend to hang onto their old ideas of what life is all about. This is one reason why God came into the world – to show us the truth about human life and how to live it in order to achieve, with God’s help, the meaning and purpose of this earthly life.

The story of the astrologers tells us two very important things: (1) they believed Jesus to be a king and (2) they brought Him gifts. The fact that they thought Him to be a King, highlights the recognition of Jesus by the Gentiles. The gifts are the products for which the East was famed. Myrrh is interpreted by the Fathers as being an omen of Jesus’ death – perhaps not without real reason for it occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in this connection.

As we celebrate this glorious feast, we must ask ourselves: Do I see Jesus as God’s revelation to me about my life.

Christ IS Born! Glorify Him!

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Christ IS Born! Glorify Him! Христос Раждається! – Славіте Його! – Ukrainian

Kristus De Je Rodil! – Slavite Ga! – Slovenian

Christos Gennatai! – Doxasate! – Greek

وُلِد المسيحُ، فَمَجِّدُوه – Arabic

My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we come to the end of 2016, we again join in a celebration of our belief that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity became incarnate in the Person of Jesus to reveal to us that we share in God’s own Divine Life. Our celebration expresses our belief that God voluntarily made Himself a part of His creation, keeping it and us in existence. We believe that He gave Himself to His creation out of love.

Because of this belief, we understand that to properly celebrate this feast we must extend our love unconditionally to one another. This love, however, is not expressed by material things but, rather, in the way we interact with and treat others. As God gave Himself to us in this most unique and miraculous manner, we are called to give ourselves in an unique manner to all others who are a part of our life.

This requires, however, that we do all in our power to remove crass commercialism from our celebration. This requires that we make an effort to witness to the true reason why we celebrate this feast – witness to our belief that this feast recalls the fact that God became man.

As we celebrate this day, I would extend my sincerest and warmest greetings to all those who have joined me in the celebration of this feast. It is my priestly prayer that God bless each of you with an abundance of happiness, love, joy and health. May you truly know that God IS with you, not only now but always.

I would extend special greetings to all who have helped in any way to make my job easier as your pastor and to bring unity to our spiritual communities. I would also extend greeting to all those who joined with me in celebrating this wondrous feast. It is my hope that it was spiritually rewarding to you and hope that it helped you to know that God IS with us.

I would extend greetings to all who, because of age or health, were not able to be here with me but are reading this Bulletin. Know that you were thought of and missed.

Finally, I would extend Christmas greetings to those who helped with the services in any way to make them truly more prayerful.

Father Wayne

Christmas: One of Our God’s Manifestations — 20161225

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Icons are theology expressed in color, lines and form, expressing humankind’s experience of God. The goal of icons are to lead us to an experience of God.

The traditional icon of the Nativity of our Lord is packed with theology, all of which is based on Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition. It begins with the ray of light coming down from the heavens. It is God becoming incarnate as a man.

A number of different persons are depicted in the icon. There are angels. Some just stand in awe at this great mystery while others announce the news to shepherds.

The Magi, known also as Astrologers or the Three Kings, are depicted to affirm our belief that God became man to bring salvation of all humans

Midwives are depicted bathing the Christ Child to affirm our belief that Jesus is truly human, while His second image connects Him to God.

In the lower left-hand part of the icon, Joseph is shown being tempted by an evil spirit, depicted as a shepherd, to doubt Mary’s story that the child is special and that she is a virgin. It should be noted that Joseph, by Eastern Christian tradition, is shown as an older, widowed man. Joseph overcomes this temptation because of his love for Mary. He becomes the protector of the Virgin Mary and the guardian of Jesus.

There is also one lonely shepherd playing a flute, representing the joy of humankind at this news.

The Virgin Mary is shown looking towards Joseph, praying that he will not listen to the tempter. Mary is lying on a red blanket signifying the color of life.

The Child is also depicted lying in a manger in a cave. Next to Him are an ox and donkey to remind us of Isaiah 1:3, “The ox knows his owner and the donkey knows his master’s crib. But Israel does not know, and my people do not consider me.”

Christ is shown in a dark cave to represent that He is the Light of the World. The cave symbolizes the future tomb that He will be laid and the swaddling clothes the shroud that will cover Him in His burial. This illustrates that the purpose of the Incarnation of God as Jesus, the Christ, was to make possible the Crucifixion and Resurrection which resulted in the destruction of Death. The entire story of Christ, as presented by iconography, starts with His death and Resurrection in mind and looks back to His birth. What a great mystery.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20161225

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Since we celebrate this weekend the glorious feast of God’s Incarnation as made know to us through the Birth of Jesus, the Christ, I would diverge from my commentary on the Divine Liturgy to reflect upon some of the special prayers that we offer during the Divine Liturgy on this feast. I would first reflect on the Tropar for the feast (i.e., the special prayer which captures the essence of the feast). The Christmas Tropar reads:

Your birth, O Christ our God, has shed upon the world the light of knowledge; for through it, those who worshipped the stars have learned from a star to worship You, the Sun of Justice, and to recognize You as the Orient From on High. Glory be to You, O Lord.

The first statement is important to understand: Your birth … has shed upon the world the light of knowledge. What is the knowledge that this event has given to our world?

First, Christ’s birth has revealed to us that God brought humans into existence by freely fusing Himself to human nature, vivifying it with His own Divine Life. By being born as a human, God revealed that we are created in His image, expressed in the Person of Jesus.

Second, God also shared with us the knowledge of how to live this earthly life so that we might grow in His likeness. The purpose of this earthly life is to grow in His likeness.

The second prayer unique for this feast of the Nativity is the Hirmos.

We pray this:

I contemplate a divine and marvelous mystery: heaven has become a cave; the throne of Cherubim, a virgin; and the manger an honorable place in which lays Christ God, the Incomprehensible. Let us praise and extol Him.

The image painted by these words is one wherein heaven and earth are joined, they are not separate. By God becoming incarnate and voluntarily making Himself an intimate part of His own creation, He shared with us the knowledge that He is not far-off and distant from us but, rather, that He is WITH US and WITHIN US. This was the great revelation that God made to humankind through His own incarnation.

So on this Christmas we join with the angels, shepherds and wise men in proclaiming that God IS With Us and, because He is with us, we have seen “the true light” and have “found the true faith.” Let us rejoice!

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20161225

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In the late fourth century, the meaning of Theophany began to shift from Christ’s birth to His baptism, thereby emphasizing the divine or theophanic character of this feast over its earlier more human aspect. The Nativity, which falls only twelve days previous, formed a fitting complement to the Theophany by emphasizing the human nature of Christ through the celebration of His birth.

Like the Ascension, the Theophany was observed locally in some churches before the introduction of the Nativity. The Theophany’s connotations as the birth feast lingered, as Jerome’s homilies indicate, so this probably accounts for the later adoption of the Nativity at Alexandria (sometime around 430) and at Jerusalem slightly later than at Alexandria. It is also probably that the Council of Ephesus of 431 and the Formulary of 433 – an attempted compromise between the Church and Nestorian views of the nature of Christ – encouraged the acceptance of the Nativity in these cities.

On December 20, 386 or 388, St. John Chrysostom announced in a sermon to his faithful that in that year for the first time Antioch would be celebrating the feast of the Nativity of our Lord on the 25th of December, independently from the feast of the Theophany. He also added that this feast “can without mistake be called the mother of all the feasts”, for “from it the Theophany, the holy Pasch, the Ascension and the Pentecost have their origin and foundation. If Christ had not been born in the flesh, neither could he have been baptized, and we would not have Theophany; had he not been crucified – we would not have the Pasch; had he not sent the Holy Spirit – we would not have Pentecost. Thus, from the Nativity of Christ, all the other feasts flow like different streams from the same source. This feast justly occupies first place not only because of this, but also because the event which this day commemorates is, of all events, the most worthy of wonder.”

Truly, Christ’s Nativity is the most significant event in the history of the human race. This event inaugurated the Christian era and became the point of reference from which we date the events of world history.

For the first three centuries, as I have stated, the Christians did not have a separate feast of the Nativity of Christ. At that time the only feast known was the Theophany, which was celebrated on the 6th of January. This feast included the Lord’s Nativity and Baptism, celebrating the manifestation of God in the flesh to humankind.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20161225

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On this feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, I would briefly suspend my reflections on St. John’s Ladder and, rather, speak to the spirituality of the Christian East relative to the Nativity of Jesus. It is, as you might expect, different from that of the Christian West. The emphasis in the East is not placed on a baby in a crib but, rather, on the impact of God making Himself known as a human being. The Church recognizes that for God to come into the world as a real human being, He should go through the birthing process and enter as an infant and then grow intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and socially like all humans. That is just a given! We don’t celebrate, however, that He was an infant but, rather, that He is with us and one of us. This is the great mystery!

So there is not an emphasis on His being an infant. Our Christmas Icon does not stress His infancy as much as it does the revelation that God became a human being. This truth has brought light (i.e., knowledge and truth) to the world, blotting out the darkness of ignorance.

Further, the fact that the infant Jesus is placed in a dark cave, serve as a prophecy that He will grow as a human and then face death, burial and resurrection. The Eastern Church stresses these events that are a part of being human: Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection. What is true about Jesus is true about all humans. This is human life. So in the Icon this is also represented.

So our celebration of the birth of Jesus does not dwell on the event of His birth as much as it does on God’s revelation to us about the human life that we have. This revelation, hopefully, allows us to embrace the way of living that God showed us through Jesus – a way that will allow us to grow spiritually to the fullest and truly become the children of God as He intended.

CALLED TO HOLINESS – 20161225

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As we celebrate the great mystery of God’s Incarnation as a human, we are reminded that the call to holiness is a call to take time and reflect upon the great revelation that God as made to us about human life through this action. It is important that we develop a genuine understanding of this action and the implications it has for the way we live. It is not an event that we can simply ignore if we are serious about our spiritual life. I would implore all of my readers to take time during this blessed season to think about what God is revealing to you as you celebrate this feast. Don’t just think about the story and how and what happened. Think about its meaning for you! The Church celebrates these feasts for a reason. That reason is to help us genuinely respond to God’s call to holiness. So make the most of the feast by allowing yourself to delve into God’s revelation. It is intended personally for you whether you are aware of it or not. The way our society, unfortunately, celebrates this feast, has helped distort its meaning for many. Don’t allow yourself to be diverted from the real meaning of Christmas. It really and truly is about your life!

The call to holiness is a call to having a genuine faith and a realistic understanding of our religion. We do not support superstition and our view and image of God is not of an all-powerful Judge who is just waiting to catch us in an infraction of some law so that He can punish us. He also did not establish a Church that threatens us with punishment if we do not obey its rules. This view is a distortion, in my humble opinion and faith, of what Jesus, Who is our God in human form, taught. I, like Him, truly believes that if we know how much we are loved we will do everything and anything to bring praise and honor to our Father. I, like Him, truly believes that life is given to us in order to become who God intended when He created us, namely His children. To be His children, we must undergo personal transformation.