Tollhouse Cookies or Tollhouse Road: The Final Ascent Tollhouses 11-20

 

Yesterday we looked at the first ten tollhouses in which God will allow the demons to test your faith on your journey after death. We looked at how one would be judged and the sort of things that will be asked of you by the angels and demons as God makes his judgment regarding your soul. The first ten were relatively concentrated on the pride and the dereliction of your duty with fellow man. We have seen that pride is the root cause of all life’s problems and as we reach further up the ascent into heaven we no doubt will as well encounter the tollhouse of pride. While I would again stress this is figurative language, the journey of the soul is something that we Orthodox take seriously. Especially as it regards to the prayers for the dead and if you haven’t read that blog I suggest you do so.  May God grant us understanding as we continue this discussion on the tollhouse road.

The eleventh torment is that of pride. Yes, after we have endured all our sins that we have committed regarding avarice, envy, and love of riches we come to heart of the matter. We come to pride. It is here at the eleventh tollhouse all of the prideful moments of our lives will be laid bare. All the times we have forgotten to honor our parents, our government, and the superiors God has placed over us, will be exposed. We will be asked to account for our sins as they have taken place. There is often a lot of talk in the media today about pride. The LGBTQ+ community has even rallied around the very term in a sense to be proud of who they are. God does not ask us to proud of ourselves. Because without Him our lives are nothing. God asks us to be humble, to be meek, to seek Him and Him alone. Being self-absorbed in ourselves we lose the focus to focus on those around us. Taking care of others, being kind and in short we become lovers of ourselves.  God does not look kindly on us rejecting his plan for our lives, seeking our own earthly desires. But here the pride we have accumulated in ourselves will be exposed. It is a grave sin brothers and sisters. Do not fall into it.

The twelfth torment is that of anger. Christ himself was once filled with holy anger for the things that he found in the temple, and how he drove the moneychangers and others from the temple in Jerusalem. However, we are not so much concerned with holy anger for the things that God abhors and detests. We are talking about the things said to those out of anger and hatred for our fellow man. How many times do we lose our temper when things aren’t going our way and we lash out because we are filled with such rage that we become hostile to those around us. We speak ill of each other and we harm the salvation and very being of people by our actions. Do we punish our children severely when an encouraging word or a light punishment was sufficient for their actions? Do we show wrath against people who have wronged us? Oftentimes we do. We live in a world today where people are seeking to be first without equals, not among equals. We don’t treat each other with respect. We cancel those who disagree with us, and we shame those with a dissenting voice. We create in ourselves this self-righteousness that is not at all how Christ acted. He could have gotten angry and lashed out at Pilate, Herod, the pharisees and Sanhedrin. But he did not. We must control our temper lest it is laid bare for us at this tollhouse and exposes us as a fraud and hypocrite. We must walk with humility and patience. Knowing that our fellow man is also sinful. Anger and hatred have no place in the heart of a Christian. We must root this out with prayer, fasting and the Holy Eucharist. Otherwise here at the 12^th tollhouse the demons will come and will be able to overcome us.

The thirteenth torment is again exposing more of the same, but it hearkens back to what Christ says, “love your enemies.” The thirteenth torment is that of holding grudges. How many people do we absolutely hate and cannot forgive them for their actions? Here I am convicted again of my own sins in my own life where I have despised someone for a wrong they have committed against me. And I humbly ask you to pray for me that I might forgive them for their actions. I pray that we will forgive all people for their actions. People today do not want to forgive their neighbor, believing themselves to be above reproach and that what they want is more important. Holding grudges and basically already judging them in place of God is a dangerous sin. Are we better than God? Do we have more knowledge and wisdom than the God that created all things? If we believe this brothers and sisters, we must repent immediately. We must turn from our wicked ways and go and seek forgiveness not just from God but from the person we have a grudge against. We must learn to let it go. The thirteenth tollhouse will expose this and I would not want for Satan to have any way of accusing us at the judgement of my failure to love.

The fourteenth torment is murder. Christ says hating one’s brother or sister is already committing murder in the heart. Have we killed? Have we struck someone down because we wanted to? Taking a life is never easy, but so too is holding anger in hearts. Committing murder in our souls against our neighbor. We must restrain ourselves from harming one another. Even if it means rejecting our passion of harming someone who has harmed us.

The fifteenth torment is that of sorcery. Now today’s world places a large emphasis on sorcery with the Harry Potter novels, the Charmed television series, and other books that feature fantastical feats with use of magic. We dear brothers and sisters, must reject it for what it is. We must reject it, because magic is using the power of the demons to achieve our goals. To achieve what we want. Magic is real. Wiccans today perform magic through the use of their spells and other acts that a Christian must reject. It may be enjoyment for us to watch shows and want to have that sort of power. But when we let the demons creep into our minds using their subtle but effective methods we could get the idea that we too should practice witchcraft and use the power of the demonic arts to achieve our goals. Here the sins of sorcery and witchcraft will be laid bare for us. If we have not participated in this we have nothing to fear for we must be reminded that God sees all and forgives all. If we only repent we will not be subject to the terrors of the demons.

Now we come to the sexual torments. Those of which are terrible and great in the world today. We see these most often in the culture that we live in especially here in the United States. The sixteenth torment is fornication. Lust and the power of sex is rampant in the world today. We see this with Onlyfans, with Instagram, and other social media sites catering to our desire to fulfill our sexual urges. Porn is easily accessible to our youth, to everyone really. Pornhub caters to people who are seeking to fulfill a longing for companionship. We do not wish to seek the companionship of God. We want earthly desires to take away the responsibility of living our lives in fellowship with God and do not want to account for our actions. It is said here that these sins will be exposed and the demons as our prosecutors will accuse of us all the sins we have committed in fornication and lusting after those who we find desirable.

Next is the seventeenth torment. Getting closer to paradise, but still a ways to go. Adultery is here exposed. The seventeenth torment will see all that which we have done in relation to the marriage bed laid bare. Have we been faithful to our spouse? Have we sought another while being married to the person God has intended? For most Christians and people this will be an easy tollhouse as for most keeping the marriage bed sacred has been a duty and an honor. They have found the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with and will do anything to keep it pure. But for others, through divorce and their own pride they have sought to destroy it whether openly or secretly. Swinging and websites like Ashley Madison have made it easy for a person to cheat on their spouse with the help of few people or a few simple clicks. People have rejected the love of their spouse and the love of God for love of themselves.  We must not fall into that trap brothers and sisters. We must rise above it, whether we are celibate for the glory of God or have found a spouse. We must keep the marriage bed sacred and love the person God has entrusted to us with the upmost purity.

The eighteenth torment is that of homosexuality and sodomic sins. These sins are those where we have lusted after the person of our same gender our same kind. We have turned from the love between a man and woman and twisted it. We see this with the LGBTQ+ community today, calling for love is love. We see people accept it as natural, as a way in which God has intended but this tollhouse and Christianity in general know that it is not. It is a foreign concept that has invaded the minds and hearts of the people of this generation.  I have known many people who were of this persuasion in my life and it is an unnatural persuasion. It is not the life God has intended for us. Yet, through repentance they too can be saved. It is not that God will condemn them and sentence them, for we know God will forgive everything if we only confess. But confession must be pure, it must be an about face. We cannot continue to live in sin when we know it is not God’s chosen plan.

The next to last torment, the nineteenth torment is that of heresies. I have spoken quite often on heresies here, but this is once again a serious issue and must be taken accordingly. Here we will be asked if we upheld the doctrines of the Church. Whether we held within our hearts the true faith, or if we have allowed false teachings to permeate our lives. Have we clung true to the faith that has been preserved for 2000 years or have we allowed new ideas and teachings to be adopted as our own. The Orthodox Church is unchanging and unrepentant in our belief that we have protected the faith that God established and that everything outside of it is heresy. Yes that will be off putting for some, but you must look and discover the truth for yourself. I nor anyone else can come to a realization of faith for you. Heresy is a dangerous game, one that if not carefully discerned can lead to the corruption of the soul and eventually its condemnation.

Finally the twentieth and last torment. Here the soul will experience the greatest of trials, where nothing else but mercy will matter.  Have we granted mercy in our life time to those who deserve it? Have we rejected giving it when it mattered most? This is the last and greatest trial the soul will take up in the ascension to heaven. But do not fear, for God forgives all. We must only be able to understand and ask for mercy. Here in this lifetime we must seek mercy for all people, not just our own life. We must be willing to give mercy to even those who we believe do not deserve it. It is difficult, but with God’s grace and love in our hearts everything is possible.

We have reached the end of our journey and have completed the road to paradise. The tollhouse road was filled with distressing things. My mother told me other day after reading Part 1, that I need to remember that the demons do not have the power to drag us to hell. And yet she is indeed right. Only ourselves condemn us. The demons do not have the authority to drag us down and bring us into hell. Only by the judgment from God. Though this is figurative language and much of it is misunderstood by even the most scholarly of priests and clergy, we must understand that these torments are indeed real and will be used to judge us as to whether our salvation has been secured through Jesus or if we were simply going through the motions. Our lives are filled with opportunities to turn to Christ or to turn away. I am saved, am being saved, and will be saved. It is not a once saved always saved mentality. It is a living our lives in accordance to the commandments and we must fulfill them to have a true Christian faith. For most they will fall away. Others will rise to the occasion and live out as best they can the teachings of Christ. So I leave you with a question. Will you take up your cross and follow Christ or will you follow Satan and his demons?

Amen.

Cancelling Cancel Culture

 

Cancel Culture. How does it relate to Orthodoxy, and Christianity in general? The most obvious part of cancel culture is that it does fit the loving, caring and forgiving nature of Christ.  At its core, cancel culture seeks to destroy and devalue any and every position that it finds as wrong and distasteful in the sight of the world. At its core, cancel culture has a sense of pride about it. This is pride is that what anyone believes that goes against the collective majority is wrong and must be stamped out for the greater good. Christianity as we will see will indeed have a cancel culture within it, but not what you might think.

            First, we must understand that cancel culture is a mob mentality. It is a sense of pride and arrogance that the person who has been offended has more value to the world than those who they are trying to cancel. The person who is speaking, usually against something that is morally or spiritually wrong is told that their views are outdated, misogynist, homophobic or racist. While there is some of that going on in the world, yes, the majority of it is trying to belittle their fellow man and create god in their own image. They want a world free of the responsibility of sin, a world in which man can do as he pleases and does not answer to a higher power. We have allowed those who want to allow sin to creep into our doors and places of worship to overrun the society in the media, the government, and the schools that teach our children.  They seek to destroy the fabric of our faith with ideas foreign to that of the gospel, to the teachings of the Church. They seek to liberalize Christ and reject the words that he preached. For example, those who speak against homosexuality. We as Christians know from Romans 1:26-27 that, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”  Thus we know from the writings of Paul that homosexuality is a sin. Those who stand up for this belief are told that God is love and that he wouldn’t allow for people to feel this way if it wasn’t natural. The same could be said for me when I want to eat a piece of cake. That cake looks good, its natural to eat food, but if I eat that cake it could cause me to have diabetes down the road. So while it may be “natural” it is a sickness that causes men and women to lust after each other and to commit sins against their own selves. But in the eyes of the world, they are considered pure, almost holy for being homosexual. The same with transgenderism, where men want to become women and women want to become men. The enemy has twisted the minds of people into believing that gender is construct, that people can change who they are based on what they feel in the inside. If you speak against it, you are labeled as evil yourself, and against people being who they are. We as Christians want people to be who they are, but we want them to be built in God’s image, not their own. This is pride. My last final thought on the pride of cancel culture is that of misogyny. People who believe women are devalued in the eyes of the world, the church, and society in general. This in the context of an Orthodox perspective is that the church should allow women priests, because it creates equality, and men and women are equal.  I would argue that Orthodox men and women are some of the most respectable people when it comes to equality, our greatest saint, and the pinnacle of faith is Mary, the Mother of God, called the Theotokos. As far as men and women being equal St. Paul also gives us a teaching regarding this, when he says, “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” Paul clearly says that women should not speak or teach in the church. This isn’t a view that women are inferior, but rather that men should take the roles of leadership and allow women to do what they do best, serve. That is why for 2000 years men have been chosen as priests, bishops, and patriarchs. They have governed the church and preserved the faith. Again, it comes back to pride. Instead of humbling themselves, women who call for a women priesthood are prideful and arrogant, unrepentant of their sin and refusing to accept their role within the structure of the church.

            Secondly we see that cancel culture devalues humanity. Instead of instructing and growing a person to become more knowledgeable or to correct their views on an issue, people want them mocked, removed from society. We are seeing this now with those speaking against Ukraine, with those in support of the Nazis in Ukraine calling for the arrest of anyone speaking against the war. We see this with celebrities who have stood for truth and justice being blackballed and removed from roles and other jobs because they did not agree with the narrative. Instead of showing these people the error of their ways, it has created a “My view is the right view and everyone else is wrong” mentality. Eventually when enough people believe the lies they are told, it becomes a mob mentality where the masses rule and the truth is squashed. Though the truth of the Church can never be overcome, see Matthew 16:18 for that, people want to marginalize the Church and its teachings to a point where it can not have any influence on society. People have established in their hearts that something is amiss, and they can fill this void with everything but Christ. They have tried their best to discover hidden truths, hidden messages, forgotten doctrines, instead of leaning on the understanding of the Church for 2000 years. The scriptures again tell us that this is dangerous, when it says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”  The scriptures remind us that we should not rely on our own thoughts and beliefs but to rely on the Lord. Those that have twisted the scriptures and twisted the hearts and minds of the people have not relied on the Lord, and instead have created this false narrative that permeates through the society and has created this cancel culture. If we are to do anything about it, we must return to the Church and place our faith solely in Christ, nothing else.

            Finally I said I would speak about Christianity having a cancel culture of its own but not in the way you would expect. This of course is the cancelling of sin. Sin cannot abide in the House of God, in the Body of Christ. Sin is a disease that sours the whole loaf. It creates problems and drags down those who even though they might seem strong will break at the very thought of something that goes against their beliefs. Therefore, the Church guards closely against heresies and false teachings. It is why the church only allows members to be entered into the church after a period of reflection and even then some will fall away, either because of their own sins, or because of the sins of others. The Church thus has a system of excommunication in which it expels members for a time to allow the person to repent of their sins and to come back into the fullness of faith. It is a foreign concept to most western Christians, because their churches do not practice it, but it is a custom as old as the Church itself. It when used correctly sees the person living in sin return to the fold stronger and more willing to follow the teachings of the church. When a person rejects the excommunication put on them it leads to further heresies and prelest. The Church cancels sin. It is a part of our culture. We therefore cannot stand idly by when a person is endangering their soul and causing havoc on others. We must stand for what is right and defend the truth.

            I had a lot to say in this article and I hope everyone was able to grow and learn from this today. May God bless you and keep you, guiding you to the place where there is no sorrow or suffering, but life-everlasting.

 

Amen.

On Seeking Earthly Glory

 

            Today’s blog is going to be about something that has been on my heart for a while now, and something that is important to understand in this trying time in the world. We recently just had the Olympics and the Paralympics and watching those athletes was a sight to behold. I was .5 seconds from the Paralympics and know all so well how hard it takes to train, eat and become the champion so many want to become. I never made it. For reasons that are now not so important in my life, but nevertheless I am happy where life has led me and to the people God has placed in my path. So, it is fitting that we should be discussing earthly glory today, and what a Christian should do about it.

            A lot on this blog has dealt with Arius and Nestorius, two early heretics whose teachings have permeated the realms of Protestant and Roman Catholic thought and have largely been rejected by the Church though some still cling to these falsehoods. While both Nestorius and Arius tried to bring down Christ in their rational and logical minds to make God in their own image, we know the Church has preserved the truth about Christ and his divinity for these 2000 years. It is Christ’s divinity that makes it possible for our salvation. Had Christ been a simple man, a good teacher, he would have fallen into the same corruptions that people across the world are falling into today. Whether it be the latest fashion trend, the latest food craze or even among the younger generations the latest TikTok dance, people are drawn to fame and glory like a magnet.  Christ wasn’t. Christ was sent to bring man out of the perpetual cycle of pride that it had fallen into for all those centuries. Christ was sent by God to give us life, hope and fulfillment in Him. We were to be like a bucket of water, filled not with water from the well, but from the living well, that is Christ. People today, they want faster cars, more money, more power, larger titles, larger offices, and to be respected among society. But as we know from the scriptures, Christ never sought this, in fact he told the scribes in Matthew 8:20, “Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus didn’t come to seek a glorious earthly kingdom or money. He came to bring people to himself. People today want followers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, not because they have something wonderful to share with the world, no it is because it is seen as a status symbol and a sense of pride for the person. When I mentioned Jesus didn’t seek an earthly kingdom I was instantly reminded of the conversation between Pilate and Jesus at his trial that reads, “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.” “Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason, I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” (John 18:36-37) Even then Jesus only came to testify to the truth.  John later speaks in his first universal epistle about seeking earthly glory when he says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17) James 4:4 says, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Seeking the things of this world is a dangerous game, one in which we play at the expense of souls.

While not all of us can be monks and live our lives in quiet solitude, it is the goal of each of us to sit and to focus on those things that is holy and pure, St. Paul says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8) Christ also says in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” St Paul says in Hebrews, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Again, we are called to a higher purpose, a better purpose, one that has been ordained for us from God, not of our own devices. In fact, 2 Corinthians speaks of this when St. Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  We should throw off the yoke of servitude that we do to service ourselves and begin to serve God with the same vigor that we put into making YouTube videos, and planning for expensive vacations.  We should be focusing on raising awareness for the poor, for the needy, for our fellow man. We should be in our churches day and night praying for the salvation of all mankind. Holding vigils, saying an Akathist, and reciting the Jesus Prayer. Time after time, we get caught up in the pleasures and life of this world and forget the next. I personally, do not want to spend my eternity in the place of eternal torment, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I want to spend my eternity in the light of Christ, in the Heavenly Liturgy. I may not make it. I may not have the strength to embrace Christ as much as I can in this life. But I pray that God’s grace be poured out not for me, but for those around me. I know that I am weak, and God sees my weakness. I am as much preaching to myself on this issue as I am to all of you.

We have come full circle once again as I wrap up yet another blog article where I judge myself harder and harder the more, I write these. Seeing my own failings is a difficult thing, because we want to be light on ourselves. Yes, as I sit down to play Madden 22 for the 3000^th time this year it would have been nice for God to allow me to be a famous football player for my New York Giants, or to have made the Paralympics and won a medal. But God did not see fit to bless me with those gifts. I no longer wish to seek any earthly glory, and I am content with where I am placed in life. I pray that all of us, whether given much or given little will seek to use what we have, to glorify God and not ourselves. Earthly glory will pass away but Eternal Glory lasts forever.

Amen.

The Triumph of Christ

 

“ As the prophets have seen, as the apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the teachers have set forth in dogmas, as the whole world has understood, as Grace has shone forth, as the truth was demonstrated, as falsehood was banished, as wisdom was emboldened, as Christ has awarded; thus do we believe, thus we speak, thus we preach Christ our true God and His saints, honoring them in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in temples, and in icons, worship ping and respecting the One as God and Master, and honoring the others, and apportioning relative worship to them, because of our common Master for they are His genuine servants.  this is the Faith of the apostles, this is the Faith of the fathers, this is the Faith of the Orthodox, this Faith hath established the whole world.”

 

This was going to be an entirely different post when it was first written, but as I have said before God has a mysterious way of working in the hearts and minds of men.  God has called us to preach Christ and to honor him in our writings, thoughts, churches and in the icons of the faith. And this blog I like to think I am in some small way carrying on the tradition set by the apostles. Which leads me to our discussion today. While yes, the council was restoring Icons to their proper place in the worship of God in the Church all those many years ago, it is not without the Victory of Christ that the Victory and Triumph of Orthodoxy was achieved. Without it, there would be no Sunday of Orthodoxy, Holy Pascha, The Nativity of Our Lord, and so on. The Victory of Christ is the victory over death and the victory for all mankind.

Death is a touchy subject for many, especially those who do not grasp the reality of life, and forget the power Christ defeated with his Holy Resurrection. Death for many in the world today is scary thought, a fear that grips their minds, their hearts, their souls. Death in the minds and hearts of people is the end, the sudden fading into black. We see this in many movies, tv shows, books, and writings of people that surely once we pass from this life, there is no next. But, we know this is not the case. First let me draw you to Mark, Chapter 12, Verse 27, where it states quite clearly, “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.”  If God is the God of the living, then those who have “died” must continue on living, this life is the next, the afterlife it is called. Jesus again in John 5:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Jesus has conquered death by his resurrection. Why should I fear death? In fact Christ also answers this question when says also in John 14:1-4, when says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.  And you know the way to where I am going.” The Book of the Apocalypse, called Revelation says in 1:18, “And the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”  Jesus was of course talking about himself in Revelation, after all it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John, but it remains, that Jesus was dead, and is alive. He is the God of the living, not the dead. He has broken the power of death in our lives to fulfill it with His life, His Body, His Blood. We partake of this life every service when we have The Eucharist at the end of the Divine Liturgy. The living water that Jesus offered to St. Photini at the well is given to us freely at Divine Liturgy with open arms and a willingness to heal our bodies and souls if we only repent and ask for it. And yet, there are still some that fear death. Fear what decay and destruction might come to their mortal bodies, and yet they do not fear what could come to their immortal souls.  1 Corinthians 15:26 is a favorite verse of mine, not just because it was used in one of my favorite books, but rather because it speaks to the hearts of men, telling them with courage to embrace death, because it says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” When we pass into life everlasting, we too defeat death, because it is Christ living in us, that has already and will forever defeat death. There is no need for fear, but joy and happiness. I think that’s what amazes me about Orthodoxy more than anything is the amount of people who when they repose in the Lord, a smile can be seen on their faces, because they are embracing Jesus in all his glory upon their repose.

We have once again come to the opening paragraph. I discussed the Triumph of Orthodoxy, which was celebrated this passed Sunday. But more than anything it isn’t about the Icons, the saints, the churches we gather in. Many in Africa, and the poorer regions of Orthodoxy may have these things, but they are not as grand as in Eastern Europe or here in America. Yet they still celebrate with full vigor and joy unending. Why? It is not because we defeated the iconoclast heresy long ago. No it is because we have a Savior, a Lord, a God who defeated death so that we do not have to fear it. We have Jesus Christ, the God-Man who united the divine with the mortal so that man could be who God meant him to be. We have forgotten that. People today either fear death, or they accept it as something that ends their existence. But to those of us Christians who remain true, death is not something to fear, rather it is something to embrace. Because Jesus has destroyed its power.

Amen.

Restoring America: The Life of Elder Ephraim of Arizona

 

Elder Ephraim of Arizona, the great Elder of American Orthodoxy, was in fact not American himself. This elder perhaps more than any other outside of Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen of America has had more of an impact on my life coming to Orthodoxy.  Elder Ephraim was and is a spiritual stalwart of American Orthodoxy and has many things to teach us in his life and works. We will explore some of those here today and hopefully understand better the man and his life.

            The spiritual son of St. Joseph the Hesychast, Elder Ephraim began to become a shining star of orthodoxy in the 1960s on the Holy Mountain, the garden of the Theotokos, Mount Athos. Elder Ephraim was by all accounts a radiant joy of a human. His face shone with light and a countenance that is not seen by many. Perhaps one of my favorite things about Elder Ephraim was his constant call to draw us to conversation with God, noetic prayer. Of course, what better prayer than to do this with than the Jesus Prayer and the use of a prayer rope. I am sure my love of the prayer rope of which I have gone through many in just my five years of being Orthodox is because of Elder Ephraim’s call to use the Jesus Prayer to be constantly enraptured with the Spirit of God.  He carried with him a slow way of speaking, not hurried, not derived of any earthly time but was focused on his future life, the life beyond this one. He was contrite from my research, especially after Compline, which if anyone has heard me speak, is my favorite service. Elder Ephraim of Arizona was given the sacred hesychia as a spiritual inheritance from his Elder, Joseph, and passed it to his spiritual children of which there are many. But it is the spiritual inheritance of all True Christians, the gift that allows us to unite ourselves with the Divine Spirit of God and to dwell in that otherworldly realm while experiencing life here in the mortal realm. But here in lies the heart of the matter that I want to delve into a little deeper.

            While America maybe considered a realm of Christianity, it is filled with Roman Catholic and Protestant teachings that are at best scholarly and academic approaches to God. Outlining the teachings, one must do to be a Christian and reducing salvation to a basic formula. Orthodoxy, though with its great writers and teachers is not devoid of academic and theological resources and texts is more about experiencing God in His pure form, in having a relationship with God as he intended…face to face. It is not about defining who God is, but just understanding that God is. In Hesychia and noetic prayer we draw ourselves to God into the Heaven Liturgy of which I have spoken about before. We ascend as Paul did into the heavens and fall at the throne of God. We take the bucket of our souls and fill it with the Living Water as St. Photini did at the Well. It is not about knowledge, power, or grandeur. It is about living within Christ. Take away the icons, the gold chalices, the vestments and the building of the church and you would still have Orthodoxy. You would still have the scriptures written on the hearts of all True Christians and life would still go on. Elder Ephraim knew this. Therefore, when he was called away from the Holy Mountain all those years ago, he traveled here, to America to bring the Light of Christ to a darkened world. He brought with him the patristic teachings, the Faith of the apostles, the hope of salvation. 

            I have spoken at length in previous blogs about the spiritual decay that America has experienced whether that be through the charismatic movement of which is not Christian, or the Hindu and Buddhist traditions that call to reject Christ completely. America though largely nominally Christian has lost its center, its perfect balance. While many of the forefathers of America would claim Christianity, America is not a Christian nation. It perhaps was thought of at one time as great Christian nation, one that the West could look to for its scholarly and academic approach to Christianity, but it was not one that ever truly fulfilled this purpose.  It was founded for religious freedom, for the ability to reject God or to accept Him. It never had in its morality the ability to be called Christian. The leaders we have today reflect this, rejecting the sacred writings of the Church, and the teachings of Christ in favor of luxury and ease. We see this with calls for constant war, for the spread of “democracy” and the acceptance of homosexuality and abortion, as basic human rights. Elder Ephraim came to America to call it back home. He left his home, much as Christ did when he came from Heaven to restore man to what it was meant to be. Yes, his way of life is foreign to us here in America where Greek is not the predominant language. Yes, his way of living was foreign to us in America where more stuff, more items, more glory, more prestige is expected from those who are career driven. But it is this call that makes it appealing to me.

            As I have said, hesychia is the goal to unite with God not by letting go as with the Buddhist or Hindu tradition. We are not trying to become devoid of all feelings and earthly thoughts, rather we are trying to instead become what God intended for us. God is love. God wants us to love all people and all things as he loves them. Each person is created in the image of God and should be greeted with such fervor as you would even the Logos. But with the hatred we see today among brothers this is certainly not the case. We are bickering and fighting with each other because we wish to be proven right. Christ himself did not even fight back when accused of crimes he didn’t commit. We are too engrained in scholarly and philosophical debates and try to discover hidden meanings of things. We try to brush our problems on other people, God, and anything but ourselves. We don’t want to confront the reality that God has given us the standard in which we should live and to embrace that standard as the only truth. We have become arrogant in our luxury and arrogant in our ease.

            Before I end this treatise today on Restoring America, I again come to the man who started this. Elder Ephraim. Elder Ephraim though a simple man, who wore the simple schema of a monk was extraordinary. He founded 20 monasteries, bastions of Christian prayer and thought in America. He lived in Arizona, the hot dry desert, where many would consider it to be a wasteland. He taught and lived his life, not for the glory of man, but for the Glory of God. Though the music, speaking, and services were nothing like Americans are used to in their houses of worship today, people flocked to St. Anthony’s to glimpse at the Elder, to seek his counsel. I wish I had been one of them, but I did not get a chance to meet him before his repose. If there is any regret in this life it is that I must wait until the next to greet the Elder and to thank him for his work in trying to bring America hope. May God through Elder Ephraim’s prayers have mercy on us.

 

Amen.

Great Compline

 

One of my favorite services within the Orthodox Church is Great Compline. Great Compline is usually only done during Great Lent, so it’s a very special time and service. Its also not uncommon for many priests to hear confession during service, although it is not so at my local parish. Compline is the last service of the day in the cycle of prayers that the church offers, along with 1^st-9^th hours, liturgy, and vespers. As it is the last service of the day, in Greek it is referred to as Ἀπόδειπνον (after-supper). On Mount Athos this is an especially important service as those who have gathered as both pilgrims and the monks will venerate the relics kept by each monastery and the icons as well. It includes Psalms 4, 6, 12 along with the troparia for the day and the creed and the Trisagion. Other psalms included within the Great Compline are 24, 30, 90, 50, 101, 69 and 142 in order of when they are sung within the service. During the service the Prayer of St. Ephraim will be said as well as the Prayer of St. Basil the Great. The prayer of St. Basil is one of my favorite orthodox prayers and I love it when the service gets to this part. It reads, “O Lord, O Lord, Who hast delivered us from every arrow that flieth by day, deliver us from everything that walketh in darkness.  Receive as an evening sacrifice the lifting up of our hands.  Vouchsafe us also to pass through the course of the night without blemish, untempted by evil.  And deliver us from every anxiety and fear that come to us from the devil.  Grant unto our souls compunction, and unto our thoughts solicitude concerning the trial at Thy dread and righteous judgment.  Nail down our flesh with the fear of Thee, and mortify our earthly members, that in quietness of sleep we may be enlightened by the vision of Thy judgments.  Take from us every unseemly dream and pernicious carnal desire.  Raise us up at the hour of prayer, fortified in faith and advancing in Thy commandments; through the benevolence and goodness of Thine Only-begotten Son, with Whom Thou art blessed, together with Thy most-holy and good and life creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.”  Our aim within Compline like all other services is to contemplate our humanity and to seek forgiveness of our sins. One of the greatest examples of this is the King Manasseh who the Bible records as being a wicked King of Judah, but the Orthodox Church recognizes as a saint because he sought forgiveness for his sins in later life. Even in the Chronicles it says that he repented and turned the Jewish people towards God at the end of his reign. The prayer he wrote is included in compline and I have included it here as well for your viewing pleasure. It reads, “O Lord Almighty, the God of our fathers, of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed; Who hast made heaven and the earth with all their majesty; Who hast bound the sea by the word of Thy commandment; Who hast closed the abyss, and sealed it by Thy terrible and glorious name; of Whom all things are afraid, and tremble from the presence of Thy might; for no one can endure the majesty of Thy glory, and unbearable is the wrath of Thy threatening toward sinners, but immeasurable and unsearchable is the mercifulness of Thy promise; for Thou art the Lord most High, compassionate, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest of the evils of men: Thou, O Lord, according to the multitude of Thy goodness, hast promised penitence and forgiveness to them that have sinned against Thee, and in the multitude of Thy compassions hast decreed repentance for the salvation of sinners.  Thou, therefore, O Lord God of hosts, hast not appointed repentance for the righteous, for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who have not sinned against Thee, but hast laid repentance upon me a sinner, for I have sinned more than the number of the sands of the sea.  Mine iniquities are multiplied, and I am not worthy to look upon and to see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities.  For I am bowed down with many iron bands so that I cannot lift up my head, and there is no release for me, because I have provoked Thine anger, and done evil before Thee, neither having done Thy will, nor having kept Thy commandments; and now I bow the knees of my heart, beseeching of Thee clemency.  I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I know mine iniquities; but imploring I pray Thee: Loose me, O Lord, loose me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities.  Neither in enmity forever keep mine evils, neither condemn me to the nethermost parts of the earth.  For Thou, O God, art the God of them that repent, and upon me Thou wilt show all Thy goodness; for Thou shalt save me who am unworthy, according to the plenitude of Thy mercy, and I will praise Thee continually throughout the days of my life: for all the heavenly hosts hymn Thee, and Thine is the glory unto the ages of ages.  Amen.”

            While not my typical blog post, I wanted to share a few thoughts about Great Compline and why it is so important. If you are near to an Orthodox Church this Great Lent please go and attend.

 

Amen.

 

A Call to Holiness

 

Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

The Model Prayer

 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
 Give us this day our daily bread.
 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

 

Today’s blog deals with Matthew 6:1-13, the account of which you can read above. The Church prepares us for the Great Fast by outlining the need for our spiritual renew and to reject the ways of the world. Today when a natural disaster or an affair occurs the first thing people will do is announce that they are supporting the cause and to make a large show of support. We are seeing this today with the Russian-Ukraine Crisis and the support for both sides. People rush to make their intentions known to not be called out for being on the wrong side and to receive the glory of being on the side that everyone supports. However, this is foreign to the Orthodox Christian because we are called to do our works in secret.  We do not expect to receive great rewards from people here on Earth because of our actions. Satisfaction should be enough that we will be recognized by God for our actions.  Christ also outlines the way for us to pray. I’ve spoken before on prayer on this blog, but we will revisit the subject again today for the purpose of this reading. Finally, we will talk about the goal of all of this and how it impacts our lives.

Christ within this passage of Scripture is talking directly to those who follow Him. He is doing away with the old and ushering in a new wave of spirituality, one that was and is foreign to the way of the world. Those who performed charitable acts, just like today would often announce the act before they performed it to draw a large crowd and receive the applause and admiration of the admiring public. When a celebrity donates money towards a charitable cause or starts a foundation to help the underprivileged, they will most of the time make a big display on social media and in public announcing its arrival or the amount of money contributed, and it will be broadcast on the news stations. As stated in the opening paragraph, this is foreign to true Christianity, because as Christ says, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Giving to charitable causes that are based in morally righteous causes is itself not a bad thing. In fact, it is the job of the Church to take care of the underprivileged and misfortunate who cannot take care of themselves. We see this in Acts with the distribution of the food to the widows.  However, we have failed in this and have allowed the government, especially in the West, to take this role from us and allow them to promote unscrupulous causes like abortion and homosexuality. When was the last time any of us, were involved in a soup kitchen, a campaign, or taking the time to do something nice for someone without expecting something in return? Many of us will admit that we always want to be compensated for our work and want to be honored among men. However, Christ would call us hypocrites! Woe to us! When we take dinner to a family or buy groceries or a meal for someone in line at the store, we should not expect any compensation. We should do our jobs in the same manner. Yes, a salary is nice, but a salary will not matter when we get to heaven. Our impact on the lives of those we touched will. In this same vein I am reminded of the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man. The Rich Man, saw Lazarus every day at his gate, and yet never invited him inside to dine at his table.  The Rich Man eventually was condemned for his actions and suffered eternal torment in the fires of Gehenna. Our actions define our character. I pray that our actions become pleasing to God and that we accept Christ to work in our lives and to tune out the wiles of the devil.

Secondly Christ causes us to prayer. The Church is a Church of Prayer, and we must do as our Lord commands. Prayer should come from the heart, not of the mind. When we intellectually place our own thoughts and feelings into prayer, we lose the focus of what the heart of the matter is. That is why Christ calls us to go to our inner room, our inner sanctum and to close out all distractions that might impede us in our prayer. He also calls us to not use lofty words and repetitions. While repeating a phrase repeatedly is perfectly fine, especially when saying the Jesus Prayer, it is more about tuning our hearts and minds to the will of God. People love to call continuously on the name of Jesus or to call God father, but during their prayer they are focused on what they want, and what God can give them.  Prayer is never to be used solely for our needs, but is to be used for repentance, forgiveness, and spiritual growth. I am again reminded of another passage of scripture the Church has placed in our path before Great Lent, that of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Publican in his humility did not ask anything of God, except for mercy, whereas the Pharisee praised himself and was condemned. The Pharisee used prayer for his own means. Many people do this today during prayer they want people to glorify them in how well they speak, how much knowledge they have and how righteous they are in the eyes of man. But this is delusion. Prayer is our open communication with God. Just like any good relationship, communication is the best way to develop a relationship with God. It is the way our Father speaks to us and we speak to our Father. We might not know the words to say or the things to speak and that’s why the Church gives us written prayers to use because they help focus our minds on what’s important.

These two aspects of the scripture that has been read today is important to understand. I do not claim to know all the answers or have the spirituality that many of the saints had. I am simply speaking from my heart. We are approaching the Great Fast and we must prepare our hearts to receive the King of All. Great Lent is a 10^th of the year, a tithe of our year to the Lord. We are called to holiness, to be set apart from the world. Without these two aspects of faith that I have mentioned above, we cannot be set apart. We are no different than those who reject Christ. Let us pray that our actions be pleasing to the Lord and we are set on the narrow path towards salvation.

Amen.