Homily for the Nativity of St. John the Forerunner, Prophet, and Baptist

Today we celebrate the birthday of one of the most unusual and important people in the history of our faith:  St. John the Baptist.  He has the titles of prophet, forerunner, and baptist because he fulfilled all three roles, speaking the word of the Lord as he prepared the way for the coming of Christ, calling God’s people to repentance and baptism, and even baptizing the incarnate Son of God at the very moment when the Holy Trinity was revealed by the voice of the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove upon the Lord in the Jordan.  Even before St. John was born, he pointed to Christ, leaping in the womb of St. Elizabeth at the arrival of the pregnant Theotokos, who contained within her the Savior of the world.  

            John’s own birth was miraculous, as his parents were an old, childless Jewish couple.  We’ve heard that story before with Abraham and Sarah.  But even though Zacharias was a priest actually serving in the Temple when the Archangel Gabriel brought the news that Elizabeth would bear him a son, he did not believe the message.  “How shall I know this?  For I am an old man and my wife advanced in years,” he said. Zacharias used the exact same phrase that Abraham did in Genesis to question how he could know that God would make him the father of a multitude in the promised land.  Zacharias surely knew the story of Abraham, and he should have welcomed this wonderful news with faith and joy.  Instead, he doubted and was disciplined by losing the ability to speak until John was born.

            There had also been silence, no prophetic word from the Lord in Israel in hundreds of years, since the time of Malachi.  Now Zacharias the priest has no voice.    The evil King Herod was not really Jewish and ruled in collaboration with the pagan Romans.  Those holding the three offices fulfilled in Christ of prophet, priest, and king were vacant, silent, or illegitimate.  Now it was time for God to prepare the way for the coming of the true Messiah by means of a prophet like Elijah who would turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord.

            And what a prophet St. John was:   An ascetic who lived in the desert, subsisted on a diet of locusts and honey, and fearlessly called religious leaders, soldiers, tax-collectors, and even King Herod to turn from their sinful ways and to live righteously.  He eventually lost his head for criticizing the immorality of the royal family.  It’s not surprising that one sent to prepare the way for Jesus Christ was killed by those who loved their own power more than God.

            St. Elizabeth hid herself for the first five months of her pregnancy until Christ was conceived, for all the events surrounding John’s birth were preparatory to the coming of the Savior.  Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke as a prophetess to the pregnant Theotokos even as John jumped within her:  “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”   Zacharias himself came to believe the Archangel’s message, receiving his voice back when he wrote on a tablet to confirm that the baby should be named John, even though none of his relatives had that name.

            In his song of praise after the John’s birth, Zacharias blessed God for the salvation that would come in Jesus Christ in fulfillment of the original promise to Abraham.  He must have had some time to ponder what he and Elizabeth had in common with Abraham and Sarah during those months when he could not speak, and he finally saw the connection.  He would die a martyr when Herod’s troops could not find John to kill him in the slaughter of the innocents, when the king had all the little boys of Bethlehem and the surrounding regions murdered.  Elizabeth miraculously hid herself and John in a cave from this terror; after she died forty days later, the boy grew up in the wilderness, fed by angels and protected by God. 

            There’s certainly nothing about John the Baptist that is business as usual.  Not his ministry, his conception, his parents, or what was going on around him.  And that’s precisely the point we should ponder today, for God’s ways are not our ways, His salvation and blessing are not merely spiritually-charged extensions of our own habits, plans, and preferences.  He calls us to a Kingdom not of this world in which barren old married women give birth to great prophets and a righteous virgin carries the Son of God in her womb.  He overthrows political and religious leaders with little babies, pregnant women, and confused old men.   He prepares the way for the Messiah with a prophet who lived anything but a conventional or comfortable life. 

            The same God who worked in such outrageous ways through St. John and his parents continues to operate in our lives, our church, and our world.  And He calls each of us to do what Zacharias originally failed to do:  to believe and obey that salvation and blessing  really are for us, that we have a unique role to play in how the Lord redeems and heals His good creation, here and now, today, in our generation.

            Too often, we have sold ourselves and God short.  We have assumed that our faith does no more than support our prejudices and preconceived notions, and those of our society.  We have rested easy with our faith making us a bit more religious and perhaps less stressed out before life’s challenges.  Too rarely, however, have we taken Christ at His word to make us living icons of the Kingdom, participants in the divine nature by grace.  Yes, our Savior wants to make us perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, to make us shine like irons left in a holy fire.  He wants us to forgive those who have wronged us; to love our enemies; to care for Him in the needy, miserable, and outcast; to refuse to worship the false gods of power, wealth, and pleasure; and to treat everyone who bears His image and likeness with the same love that we would show to Him.

            John the Baptist is a reminder that we won’t be transformed by following business as usual.  We need a radical change, a spiritual rebirth, a new dependence on and openness to the power of a God who does not operate according to our preferences and agendas.  Instead of coming up with the usual excuses as to why we can’t believe and live as Christ taught, it’s time to be shaken out of our complacency. It’s time to recognize that what has brought us weakness, despair, and sorrow will simply continue to make more of the same.  A little bit of convenient religion on the margins of our lives may produce socially respectable people, but not those who manifest the heavenly kingdom even as they live in a corrupt world.

            The Jews of the first century desperately needed a wake-up call, and did they ever get one in St. John the Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist!  We still need his shocking message and witness.  And even as Zacharias eventually came to his senses, we can too.  The Lord wants to replace our spiritual barrenness with an abundance of new life as a sign of the salvation of the world.  Let’s take Him at His word and live accordingly.  That’s the best way to celebrate the birthday of St. John.         

The Power of Christian Marriage

Here's my guest blog on marriage on the website of the Orthodox Christian Network
http://blog.myocn.com/current-topics/guest-post-fr-philip-lemasters-on-the-power-of-christian-marriage.html
Guest Post: Fr. Philip LeMasters on the Power of Christian Marriage               

Orthodoxy Christianity affirms the unique glory of the life-giving union of husband and wife as an icon of the Holy Trinity and of the salvation of the world. Marriage is a holy mystery, a sacrament, which does not simply grant civil sanction to the broken union of Adam and Eve; instead, it heals and blesses their common life as a sign of the relationship between Christ and the Church.

Man and woman wear the crowns of the Kingdom as their love for one another finds its true fulfillment in the Lord. God created us male and female in the divine image and likeness, giving opposite-sex couples the unique ability to bring forth new life from their own bodies out of love for one another. Through this blessed union, parents and children become an image of the Holy Trinity, sharing a union of love that binds them together and enables them to learn to love Christ in one another. By the restoration of the primal unity of male and female in God, Christian marriage becomes a sign of the salvation not merely of two individuals, but of all humanity and of the creation itself. Perhaps that is why our Savior so often used the image of a wedding feast for the Kingdom of God.

The Orthodox Church knows that man and woman are not interchangeable bundles of individual rights; instead, the two sexes play complementary roles in our common salvation. Jesus Christ and the Theotokos, the apostles and the myrrh-bearing women, St. Macrina with her brothers Sts. Basil and Gregory, and so many other examples from Scripture, hymnody, icons, and the saints demonstrate the abiding mystery of the male-female distinction and relationship in our pursuit of theosis. The same God who creates us as male and female saves us in relationship to one another. Instead of abandoning biological distinctions as though our bodies were irrelevant and the two sexes identical, we look to the Lord, His Mother, and ongoing generations of holy men and women to teach us how to live faithfully in relation to one another as male and female. We deal here with a great mystery, as the Logos who spoke the world into existence also made us man and woman in the divine image.

The early Christians impressed even the pagan Romans with their care for the dying and their rescue of exposed infants. It’s time for the current generation of Orthodox Christians to impress our society with the chaste love of man and woman as a sign of God’s covenantal fidelity in Jesus Christ. There is no better response to the challenges posed by the ongoing sexual revolution than the living icon of Christian marriage—of Adam and Eve healed and blessed as they wear the crowns of the Kingdom and bring new persons into the world out of their love for one another. That’s how God intends life to go on in His good creation. It’s precisely the differences between male and female that make the union of marriage life-giving, complementary, and a path to salvation. True marriage manifests the healing of our humanity in the image of God as man and woman.

Our challenge is not only to say words about marriage, but to live them out in ways that draw others to Christ and His Church. That’s the most fundamental political action of the Christian community: to embody a life that conquers death, that heals our broken, corrupt humanity—body and soul, male and female. Jesus Christ still turns water into wine by manifesting His divine glory through faithful, loving marriages that are living icons of what happens to men and women when they together become participants by grace in the divine nature.

In contrast, revisionist claims about “same-sex marriage” distort the truth about what it means to be man and woman in God’s image and likeness. They endorse sexual expression apart from the loving, covenanted unity of male-female difference that alone is blessed to bring forth new life. Though Christian and civil marriage are not identical, Orthodoxy will not embrace proposed redefinitions of the fundamental nature of marriage contrary to what God has established from the origins of the human race. The Church cannot bless same-sex unions as marriages, for that is not what they are. Sacraments restore persons and their relationships according to God’s original intention for us to be like Him; and He created us male and female in His image toward the end of our salvation.

Faithful Orthodox Christians do not, however, hate or shun those who order their lives differently. Like the Samaritan woman who became St. Photini, those who struggle with disordered sexual passions are more likely to respond to genuine expressions of compassion that point them toward the living water that satisfies at a level deeper than physical desire. The Church must speak the truth about sexuality, but also about pride and self-righteous judgment. Given the Lord’s definition of adultery in the Sermon on the Mount, none of us is in the position to condemn others for sexual sin.

No, God does not call everyone to marriage; yes, He does invite everyone to holiness; preserving sexual intimacy for the blessed state of marriage between a man and a woman is part of that calling, as the Church has taught consistently for two thousand years. In our current cultural context, the witness of true Christian marriage simply must become visible, vibrant, and robust, if it is to be taken seriously by mainstream culture. All the more is our need to be vigilant in our parishes and families, in our friendships and neighborhoods and schools, in our choices of entertainment and attire, to form ourselves in chastity both in our bodily actions and the thoughts of our hearts. Of course, we never do that alone, but in communion with the Church and with the support of fellow Christians who want to participate more fully in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity.

The Rev. Fr. Philip LeMasters is the author of Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage and Sex (Light & Life Publishing Company, 2004) and The Goodness of God's Creation: How to Live as an Orthodox Christian (Regina Orthodox Press, 2008). An invited participant in international Orthodox theological consultations in Romania, Greece, and Syria, he has written on topics including the ethics of war and peace, healthcare, environmental stewardship, marriage, and sexuality. Fr. Philip is Dean of Social Sciences and Religion at McMurry University in Abilene, TX. He serves as the Corporate Secretary of the Board of Trustees of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and as the pastor of St. Luke Antiochian Orthodox Church in Abilene. He blogs at http://easternchristianinsights.blogspot.com, records podcasts for Ancient Faith Radio, and has been interviewed on OCN’s “Come Receive the Light.” His books may be ordered as follows:
Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage and Sex, Light & Life Publishing Company, 2004. $15.95. http://www.light-n-life.com/shopping/order_product.asp?ProductNum=TOWA100
The Goodness of God’s Creation: How to Live as an Orthodox Christian, Regina Orthodox Press, 2008 $11.97 (sale price) http://reginaorthodoxpress.com/goofgocr.html

Peace and War in Orthodox Moral Theology

This posting is a revised excerpt from “Orthodox Perspectives on Peace, War, and Nonviolence,” 

The Ecumenical Review March 2011 (63/1):  54-61.

            

            Orthodox moral theology does not view war as unambiguously good, let alone holy; but neither does it require nonviolence or pacifism of the faithful.[1]  The Church tolerates war as a tragically necessary or unavoidable endeavor for the protection of the innocent, the vindication of justice, and the establishment of peace.  The soldier who kills in war is not a murderer, but likely someone in need of pastoral ministry toward healing from the damaging spiritual effects of the use of deadly force.[2]

            Through oeconomia, the Church’s canons are applied pastorally in order to help particular people find spiritual healing and advance in holiness. The peace of Christ--and the non-resistant, forgiving love by which He brought salvation to the world—remains the norm of the Christian life.  Unfortunately, the peace of the world as we know it relies on imperfect arrangements of political, social, economic, and military power, which both reflect and often contribute to the brokenness of human souls and communities. Orthodoxy calls everyone to work toward peace, reconciliation, and justice for their neighbors.   When doing so requires involvement in warfare, the Church provides spiritual therapy for healing and guidance for growth in holiness to those who take up arms.

            The Divine Liturgy demonstrates the legitimate role of governmental and military power in our world.  In the Anaphora of St. Basil the Great, the priest prays for God to “be mindful…of all civil authorities and of our armed forces; grant them a secure and lasting peace…that we in their tranquility may lead a calm and peaceful life in all reverence and godliness.”  Immediately following are similar appeals for God to “be mindful” of the victims of violence and oppression:  “those who are under judgment, in the mines, in exile, in bitter servitude, in every tribulation, necessity and danger…” 

            These petitions indicate that the Church itself benefits from a stable and just social order that enables the Christian community to live in peace.  Of course, the Church has endured terrible periods of persecution from wicked governments with remarkable faithfulness; nonetheless, “a calm and peaceful life in all reverence and godliness” is preferable to all-consuming strife that inflames passions, tempts people to apostasy, and makes the demands of communal survival so pressing that evangelism and other ministries suffer greatly.  It is at least in part through just and peaceable social orders that God is mindful of prisoners, exiles, refugees, victims of crime, and other displaced and marginalized persons. 

            The Church affirms the essential goodness of all dimensions of creation, including the embodied social existence of humanity.  Salvation is not a matter of escaping the limits of the creaturely world or pretending that suffering in the flesh and in society is not real.  The Son of God became incarnate to heal fallen humanity, died on a cross, was buried in a tomb, descended to Hades, and then rose again as a complete, glorified
Person--as the Victor over death. As Orthodox Christians pursue a dynamic praxis of peace, they do well not to downplay the significance of real-life struggles for justice faced by nations and societies in the name of an abstract spirituality. 

            Orthodoxy views all dimensions of creation eucharistically.  The offering of the Divine Liturgy is the paradigm for human life in the world as we fulfill our vocation as the priests of creation.[3]  Bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ through which the Church participates already in the heavenly banquet of the Kingdom of God.  Communicants are then to live the Eucharist by offering all aspects of their lives to the Father in union with the sacrifice of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Such a life should be characterized by peacemaking, forgiveness, and reconciliation; a non-violent approach surely provides the most straightforward witness to the life of Kingdom as revealed in Jesus Christ.[4]   Nonetheless, the process of theosis is dynamic and open to everyone in all walks of life and vocations; hence, the soldier, the police officer, and others involved in the use of deadly force for the protection of the innocent may grow in holiness and find salvation.  They do not fight holy wars and will not become saints simply due to their success in killing enemies. [5]  Their participation in violence may produce a variety of obstacles for their faithful pursuit of the Christian life.  They will need the spiritual therapies of the Church in order to find healing for their souls from the harms they have suffered.  But as the many saints from military backgrounds indicate, it is possible for soldiers to overcome the damaging effects of bloodshed and to embody holiness.  Fr. John McGuckin notes that “most of the soldier saints…went voluntarily to their deaths, as passion-bearers, or martyrs; and some of them were actually martyred for refusing to obey their military superiors.”  Those who returned home as “righteous vindicators” did so because they conquered not only a worldly enemy, but also “the very chaos and wickedness” of warfare and bloodshed.[6]  

            Orthodox moral theology does not view armed conflict as unambiguously good or holy.  It has neither a crusade ethic nor an explicit just-war theory.  Instead, the Church tolerates war as an inevitable, tragic necessity for the protection of the innocent and the vindication of justice.  Peacemaking is the common vocation of all Christians, but the pursuit of peace in a corrupt world at times requires the use of force.  In such circumstances, the Church provides spiritual therapy for healing from the damaging effects of taking life.  In every Divine Liturgy, the Church prays for the peace of the world and all its inhabitants, and participates in the heavenly banquet of the Kingdom to which all—soldier and pacifist alike—are invited by their Lord.

---

[1]See Marian Gh. Simeon, “Seven Factors of Ambivalence in Defining a Just War Theory in Eastern Christianity,” Proceedings:  The 32^nd Annual Congress of the American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, (Montreal:  Polytechnic International Press, 2008).   

[2]See Fr. John McGuckin, “St. Basil’s Guidance on War and Repentance,” In Communion (Winter 2006); Aristeides Papadakis, The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1994), 86-88; and “Canons of St. Basil the Great,” “For the Peace from Above” An Orthodox Resource Book on War, Peace, and Nationalism, H. Boss and J. Forest, eds., (Bialystok, Syndesmos, 1999), 45.

[3] See Fr. Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World (Crestwood, NY:  St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998).

[4] His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Encountering the Mystery: Understanding Orthodox Christianity Today  (New York:  Doubleday, 2008), 207, 227, stresses the centrality of the pursuit of peace to the Christian life.  

[5]  See Fr. John Erickson, “An Orthodox Peace Witness?.” Fragmentation of the Church and Its Unity in Peacemaking, eds. Jeffrey Gros and John D. Rempel (Grand Rapids, MI:  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), 48ff.

[6]  Fr. John Anthony McGuckin, The Orthodox Church:  An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture (Oxford:  Blackwell Publishing, 2008), McGuckin, The Orthodox Church, 402.  See also Fr. Webster’s discussion of soldier saints in The Pacifist Option,  183ff. 

Orthodox Response to Surrogate Motherhood

              

            I heard a radio report today that described single men becoming fathers through the services of surrogate mothers.  The report discussed the practice as though it were a perfectly normal and healthy way for a man to have his own biological children without the trouble of getting married.  On yet another issue involving the relationship between men and women, our mainstream culture has apparently lost the ability even to recognize a scandal.

               In contrast, Orthodox Christians know that God creates us male and female in His image with the calling to grow ever more in His likeness, that is, to become holy.  Husband and wife are uniquely blessed to bring forth new life out of their love for one another as manifested in the joyful “one flesh” union of intercourse.  The family then becomes an image of the Holy Trinity comprised of distinctive persons sharing a common life and united in love.

              Intentionally conceiving children outside of the embodied personal union of husband and wife raises red flags that that anyone should be able to notice.  For example, the practice of surrogacy underwrites a utilitarian view of the most intimate dimensions of a woman’s body, which is sometimes rented for money or loaned out for friendship.  The similarities to prostitution or promiscuity are obvious. Surrogacy also encourages women to separate conception, pregnancy, and childbirth from childrearing.  (Should anyone be encouraged to conceive a child that he or she doesn’t intend to bring up?)  Anything that fosters a weakening of the bond between mother and child can’t be good.   It’s quite dangerous to take steps that devalue women’s bodies and their unique ability to nurture babies. That’s still how we all come into the world.

If the client who intends to raise the child changes his mind or dies during the pregnancy, the surrogate mother would then be pregnant with a baby she had no intention of raising.  Abortion may well be the tragic result.  Many jurisdictions do not allow for the enforcement of contracts for surrogacy, which is an indication that sane people still recognize that we are dealing with matters here far more profound than whatever deals people have made. 

There are also problems with how children are conceived in these circumstances.  When a single man has his sperm united with a woman’s egg, whether through artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, the holy mystery of conceiving children through the personal union of two who become one flesh is obscured to the point of being lost.  What God intends man and woman to do through their steadfast love for one another, which is a sign of the overflowing charity of the Holy Trinity, is reduced to a cold, impersonal lab procedure.  There’s no truly personal union between man and woman in such cases.   

If a married couple conceive through IVF or otherwise and then have the embryo transplanted to a surrogate, they bring a third-party into the most intimate dimension of their life together.  The problem is that the one flesh union of marriage is between one man and one woman.  Our children are the fruit of our bodies, of the intimate “one flesh” union of two people.  To bring someone else’s body into the picture is a form of adultery.  

Orthodox Christians, and others with good moral sense, will see that adoption is a far better solution for the childless than is the scandal of surrogacy.  Children without parents are already living human beings in need.  To provide them homes and families is entirely virtuous. Instead of perpetuating practices that risk disaster for all concerned, our Church and our society should do all that they can to promote adoption.   

  

Homily for the Second Sunday After Pentecost

Homily for the Second Sunday After Pentecost

Matthew 4: 18-23

St. Luke Orthodox Church, Abilene, TX

            Sometimes we long for things to be crystal clear, cut and dried, totally black and white.  We think that it’s easier to decide what to do when the options are laid out before us with no ambiguity or confusion at all.  Unfortunately or not, life usually isn’t like that.  There are shades of grey in our daily lives and we’re not always sure what we should do.

            So we may think that Peter, Andrew, James, and John had it easy.  Jesus Christ walked right up to them and said, “Follow me.”  He told them to stop what they were doing, leave the life they had known behind, and become His traveling disciples. No longer would they catch fish for a living; instead, they would become fishers of men who would draw others into the new life that the Savior has brought to the world. They had to leave their nets behind in order to join the Lord in His ministry of preaching, healing, and casting out demons.   They had a part to play in the coming of God’s Kingdom, which required a radical change of life.  They would now use their time and energy in very different ways.

            To this day, some hear that same clear and radical call.  They leave home and what they have done so far in life in order to become priests, monks, nuns, missionaries, or take up other forms of full-time Christian service.  We may envy them because of the apparently simplicity of their decision to leave the old behind and to undertake a new journey. 

            But things are rarely that easy.  Hardly anyone takes such a step of faith without a lengthy process of discernment, a measure of fear and trembling, their own doubts, and the criticism of others who can’t understand why they left behind a conventional life for rewards that you can’t put in the bank.  The truth is that few become rich and famous through radical discipleship.   And who isn’t concerned about putting food on the table and the happiness and well being of their family?

            Actually, there’s not that much difference between how Christ called His disciples and how He calls anyone today.  The outward details may be different, but no matter what our age or our life circumstance, He invites us all to leave behind whatever nets we’ve become tangled in and to play our part in the ministry of His Kingdom.  He wants to make us fishers of men who have aspirations higher than simply meeting our material needs through our daily work.

            Of course, that’s hard enough to do today when so many people can’t find good jobs or sometimes any job at all.  Christ did not denigrate any honest labor and neither should we, but neither should we accept the lie that the sum total of our lives is how much money we have or how much worldly prestige our profession or education may bring us.  Remember that Christ did not start His ministry by calling the movers and shakers of first-century Palestine to be His disciples.  He went after fishermen:  hardworking, common people who had no illusions that they were important or sophisticated in the eyes of the world. 

            I’m sure that’s not what you learn in business school about how to assemble a leadership team for a new venture.  The wealthy and powerful of that day have been forgotten, but the work of these apostles continues and we honor them for courageously laying the groundwork of the Church. No, it wasn’t easy for Peter, Andrew, James, and John to leave behind the life that they had known to follow a traveling rabbi.  They surely had their own doubts and fears and faced opposition beyond what any of us can imagine.  But they still responded to the call, despite the cost.

            It’s entirely possible that some God will direct some of us to new forms of service that will require a radical reorientation of our lives.  We may have here today future missionaries, priests, deacons, youth workers, or others who will hear a life-changing call.

            For most of us, however, things will be different.  Christ will call us to stay right where we are—in the heat and drought of West Texas—to be living witnesses of His salvation through our service in this mission, in our community, in our friendships and families, and in our current occupations.  Most of us are called to use our gifts and talents in the service of Christ in our local setting, right where we are. 

            On the one hand, that’s comforting because we probably don’t want to quit our jobs and move away.  But on the other hand, it’s never quite as exciting to stay at home, to remain where we have been for years, to face the challenge of being faithful in our present circumstances.  It’s tempting to think that life would be better elsewhere, that it would be easier and more exciting to serve the Lord and our neighbors if we could start over in a new setting.    

            Yes, there is a time to move or to take on a new ministry in a new location.  But the challenge to most of us is to open our eyes to the opportunities for service in the here and now.  Yes, familiarity may breed contempt.  We may be so used to thinking of life here in certain ways that we can’t imagine really doing anything differently.  But that’s our mistake.  Jesus Christ says to each of us, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”   He calls each of us a radical spiritual change, to the new life of the Kingdom.   As members of Christ’s Body by the power of the Holy Spirit, we all have the gifts and talents to participate in the Lord’s ministry, to play our role in strengthening the Church and drawing others to the new life in Christ.

            But in order to discern what we are called to do in the here and now, we have to listen.  We need the spiritual clarity to hear, recognize, and obey the word of the Lord to us.  Jesus Christ is not likely to appear visibly and tell us precisely what to do.  We have to listen for Him in silence and stillness.  This requires prayer, fasting, worship, and a faithful life.  It’s a matter of taking our spiritual lives seriously, of genuinely working at opening our hearts, souls, and minds to God. 

            If something is important to us, we devote time and energy to it on a regular basis.  If the life in Christ is important to us, we will do the same by daily prayer, faithful attendance at services, regular fasting, confession of our sins, generosity to the poor, forgiveness of those who have wronged us, and using our gifts and talents to strengthen St. Luke Mission.     You can’t be a good athlete or musician or member of a profession if you don’t practice your skills, stay up to date on your training, and seek to improve.   You have to work out, practice, and study; there’s simply no other way.  And if we want to be in good spiritual shape to hear and discern God’s calling in our lives, we have to do the same.

            We are members of one another in Christ.  He is the Head of the Body of which we are members.  A physical body won’t be healthy if any of its members is weak or sick.  Likewise, our parish will be weak if each member does not maintain his or her spiritual strength.  The Lord calls not only particular people, but entire churches to fulfill certain roles in the ministry of His Kingdom.   We as a parish will able to discern and fulfill that role only if we all take the necessary steps to find healing and strength in Christ.  The point here is not legalism, but the simple reality that we are members of one another.  We serve the Lord together.  And if we are to serve Him faithfully as a body, we must be faithful as particular people, offering our lives to Him through the spiritual practices of the Church.

            As a parish community, we need to become fishers of men.  We need to leave whatever nets hold us back from hearing and responding to what Christ is calling us to do right here in Abilene.

The same Holy Spirit who made those fishermen supremely wise and wonder-working ministers of Christ has come upon us.  By His power, we may escape whatever holds us back and step forward into the brilliant light of the Kingdom in Jesus Christ, Who still brings life to the world.  So let us leave our nets and follow Him through our personal spiritual disciplines and our life together as a parish family.  Like those first apostles, let us truly become fishers of men.     

           

     

Orthodoxy and the Environment

The Patriarch of Constantinople is a leading voice in Orthodox Christianity for environmental stewardship.  Learn more about his words and deeds on these matters at http://patriarchate.org/environment.

The Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration is an organization likewise dedicated to care for God's creation:
http://www.orth-transfiguration.org/.

IOCC in Syria

Here is a link to an article about the fine work of International Orthodox Christian Charities in Syria.  If you want to help the suffering people there, support IOCC in any way that you can.

http://www.antiochian.org/content/iocc-responds-urgent-needs-syrian-families

Homily for All Saints

     It happens fairly often.  Friends or students tell me that they their churches have taught them that God is someone of whom they should be afraid because of the Lord’s wrath and anger toward sinners.   Instead of the receiving the Good News of Christ’s mercy and love, they have heard only the bad news of judgment and condemnation.  So they are usually pleasantly surprised to hear the Orthodox view of salvation as sharing in God’s life, love, and glory, of being united with the Holy Trinity, of theosis.   They are relieved to know that God really does love us so much that He wants to bring us into His eternal life.

           Last Sunday was the feast of Pentecost, when we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church.  The Spirit has been poured out richly upon all in the Body of Christ, which shows that God wants to dwell in the hearts and souls of human beings, that He wants to make us partakers of the divine nature by grace.

Today is the Sunday of All Saints, when we remember all of those who have been filled with the Holy Spirit, who have accepted and been transformed by our Lord and His love.  The root meaning of the world “saint” is holy, and we are reminded today that most saints haven’t been officially given a title by the church or had their pictures painted on icons.  But they are known by God and glorified in the Kingdom because in ways, perhaps known only to God, they entered into His holiness, they embraced His love and became beacons of light in our world.

But what does that have to do with you and me, who probably can’t imagine ourselves as saints?  Well, the good news of the gospel is that we are all called to become holy, yes, actually to become saints. No matter who we are, what mistakes we have made in our lives, no matter what our circumstances are in terms of health, age, education, money, or anything else, we are all able to find the healing and fulfillment that the saints have known.  We too are able to enter into the holiness of God, to receive and be changed by His love.   He wants nothing more than to make our lives shine with the glory of His Kingdom, right now and throughout all eternity. Of course, it’s a journey, a process for all of us to become holy.  It takes patience, persistence, humility, and a refusal to give up.  Today’s gospel reading gives us some pointers on how to continue on this path to the Kingdom, how to open our hearts and souls as fully as possible to our Lord’s holiness.

 First, Jesus Christ said that He will confess us to His Father in heaven if we confess Him before other people.  But if we don’t, He won’t claim us before the Father.  In some ways, we have it easy in America.  It’s very unlikely that we will be called to confess our faith before a judge or government official who threatens to torture and kill us if we profess faith in Jesus Christ.  But if we want to unite our lives to Christ, we must confess Him every day in word and deed in the small details of our lives. 

Do we treat other people with the love, care, and the dignity that we would show to the Lord Himself?  Do we speak to others in ways that are blessings to them, that help them experience peace and joy?  Don’t think only of your friends or those whom you admire.  What about people who don’t like you, who have wronged you in some way, whom you find it easy to judge and disregard, whom you just don’t like?   The real test is how we treat them.  We confess our faith when we live our faith.   If we don’t act or talk like Christians, we deny Christ.  We give the impression that we want no part of Him, we turn away from Him and judge ourselves.  That’s not the way of the saints, however, and it must not be our way of living if we want to share in His life.

A second pointer that our gospel text gives us sounds really harsh.  Christ tells us that we shouldn’t love family members more than we love Him.  Instead, we have to take up our cross and follow Him.  In order to understand this hard saying, we have to remember that our Lord went to the cross for us;  He bore the consequences of all human sinfulness and corruption to the point of death, burial, and hades  so that He could conquer  them and bring us into eternal life through His resurrection.   That is the ultimate act of love.  If we want to share in the new life that He has brought to the world, we have to keep our blessings in perspective and not make idols of them.   Instead, we must offer them to Father even as the Son offered Himself up on the cross.

We have to bear the cross of sacrificing the idolatry even of our spouses, children, parents, and other loved ones.  For like us, they are simply human beings and not God.  And if we make false gods of them, we will cause them and us many problems by acting as though they are the center of the universe.  We will bend them and ourselves all out of shape, putting more weight on them and us than anyone can bear.  Instead, we must take up the cross of loving others in God, for He is the source and standard of all love worthy of the name.  Out of love, the Father gave the Son for the salvation of the world.  That is sacrifice beyond what we can understand.  And if we share in that love, we must sacrifice the ultimately self-centered illusion that we will find or give other people true fulfillment and happiness apart from Him.   And if we put ourselves or others before faithfulness to the Lord, we end up confessing some false God rather than Jesus Christ.  That’s not the way of the saints, and it must not be our way if we want to open our lives to His glory.

If we really love others in God, we will offer our relationships with them to the Lord as best we can; and by His mercy, they will become holy.  That’s what’s best for them and for us; it works both ways.  For example, parents shouldn’t live through their children or use them to meet their own goals, but instead guide them to become their true selves to the glory of God.  Neither should we indulge our kids as though they are little gods, but we must do everything possible to help them grow into the full stature of Christ, to be those who love God with every ounce of their being and their neighbors as themselves.  We offer our children to the Lord by how we rear them, how we treat them, how we speak to them, all toward the end that we and they will put God first in our lives.    

The same is true of marriage.  If we have an unrealistic romantic or financial or social ideal about marriage--and think that a spouse will meet all our needs and bring us complete fulfillment in life, we will miss the true calling of husband and wife to make their life together an icon, a living image of the Kingdom of God.  Mutual forgiveness, patience, self-sacrifice, self-control, and steadfast commitment are the signs of a holy marriage.  Faithful spouses pray for and with one another.  Faithful parents do the same with their children.  When families pray and worship and serve God together in His church, they make of their life together an offering to the Lord.  They confess Jesus Christ to one another and the world.  They open their lives to the holiness of God and follow in the way of the saints.

Yes, this kind of family life is a cross to bear; it’s not easy and we very often fall short of it.  Unfortunately, there is not much in our culture today that supports this view of marriage and the family.  We face the same struggles in fulfilling our calling to confess Jesus as Lord with integrity each day in all that we say and do.  But these are the crosses that will make us holy, which little by little will purify our souls and open our lives to the healing grace of God.

 Fortunately, we don’t become holy simply by our own power; if that were the case, we would have no hope for we know how weak we are.  Instead, we rely on the power of the Holy Spirit with the strength given us by the boundless love of Christ, Who conquered sin and death through His cross and empty tomb.  Together with all the saints, we will know His holiness and joy if we take up our cross, offer our lives and loved ones to Him, and confess Him in what we say and do each day.

No, this isn’t dramatic or flamboyant and we will sometimes wonder if we are making any progress at all; but it’s the way that ordinary people like you and me become saints.  We fall down and we get up.  We fall down and we get up.  But whatever you do, don’t give up.  Don’t despair.  Through prayer, fasting, and repentance, continue to open your life to the healing power of the Holy Spirit and grow step by step in the holiness and love of God.  That’s the only way to participate in the holiness and salvation of our Lord.   

     

Homily for Pentecost

                

        Here's my homily for Pentecost, which was a week ago on the Orthodox calendar for 2012: 

        Today is the Sunday of Pentecost, when we commemorate the Holy Spirit coming upon the followers of the Risen Jesus, which is the birthday of the Church.  The Lord had already ascended into heaven and had promised to send the Holy Spirit upon His followers.  He would not leave them alone, cut off from the new life that He had brought to the world.  The Spirit is, of course, the third Person of the Holy Trinity and fully God and eternal as are the Father and the Son.  By the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ followers share together in the unity, power, and blessing of the Kingdom. 

          Now the disciples no longer think of themselves as followers and students of a rabbi or prophet.  They no longer struggle to accept the good news of His resurrection.  Instead, they experience the new life of the Kingdom as “rivers of living water” flowing from their hearts.  By the Spirit, they participate by grace in the life of the Holy Trinity.  God is not remote, distant, or removed from them; but present in their souls. 

          The story of Pentecost makes clear that the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles as a group who were gathered together in obedience to the Lord’s command.  The same divine breath which first gave life to humanity now comes upon them as a mighty wind.  The divine glory beheld by Moses in the burning bush now rests upon each of them as flames a fire.   The divided speech of the tower of Babel is now overcome by the miracle of speaking in different languages so that everyone can hear the praise of the Lord.  For Pentecost is not about the spiritual experiences of a select few, but about the fulfillment of God’s promises to the entire world.

          We are all created in the image of God with the calling to grow in His likeness, to become like Him.  But we have not done our best not become like Him; and even if we had, it is no small thing to become like God, holy and righteous and immortal.  We simply cannot conquer death and sin by our own power.  Only God is God, and our only hope is to share by grace in His eternal life.  And this participation in the divine life is made possible to us at Pentecost.  It does not matter what language we speak, the nation to which we belong, the color of our skin, our gender, our abilities and skills, our occupation, education, or resources.  What matters is that God’s Spirit has been poured out on the whole world and on every generation.

          At Pentecost, we are raised to the dignity of members of Christ’s Body.  With the Holy Spirit in our hearts, linking us together organically as one, our fallen, divided humanity is restored.  Just as Father, Son, and Spirit share a common life of love, unity, and holiness, we share a common life in Christ’s Body, the Church.   As particular people, we have the responsibility to believe, repent, and obey the Lord as we participate in the ministries of the Church.   As members of Christ’s Body, we are nurtured by worship, the sacraments, and spiritual instruction in our common life.   The holy Tradition of the Church is the presence of the Holy Spirit, guiding the Body into ever greater knowledge of and participation in the life of the Holy Trinity.

          For we receive the Holy Spirit not as isolated individuals, but as persons in communion, in loving relationship with God and with one another in the Church.  So let us celebrate Pentecost by opening our lives as fully as possible to the healing, transforming power of the Spirit both in the privacy of our thoughts and deeds and in our shared life in the Body.  No, the world does not revolve around us as isolated individuals:  such isolation and division are nothing but symptoms of sin.  But the life of the world has come at Pentecost and we are called to take our place in the new reality born on this day, the Church, the Body of Christ, in which all the divisions and corruptions of humanity since Adam and Eve are healed.  As particular people who are members of one another in Christ, let us open ourselves as completely as possible to the Holy Spirit, for it is through Him—and one another-- that we share in eternal life.             

Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage, and Sex

http://www.light-n-life.com/shopping/order_product.asp?ProductNum=TOWA100

This book from 2004 places Orthodox teaching on marriage, family, and sex in light of the centrality of the Eucharist to our faith.  It includes a discussion of same-sex marriage and speaks to other contemporary debates as well. 

The Orthodox Church celebrates the great feast of Pentecost today.  This link to the website of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America is a good source of information about the feast, which is profoundly important in the theology and spiritual life of the Christian East:  http://www.antiochian.org/pentecost.

Orthodoxy and Presidential Politics

              “Our President, civil authorities, and armed forces, the Lord God remember in His Kingdom, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.”  No matter who is president , what party controls what offices, or how American troops are being deployed at the moment, we pray this petition in the Great Entrance.  We praying for their salvation and for the Lord’s will to be accomplished for and through them.  My Romanian friends remind me that they prayed the same petitions for decades for the Communist head of state.  Even during the early Roman persecutions, the Christians prayed for the emperor.   The Scriptures instruct us to do so.

                As we settle in for another presidential election, it’s important to remember that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between any political ideology and the Kingdom of God.  The history of Orthodoxy includes many different arrangements of politics and religion, and the Church has somehow survived them all.  Political regimes have come and gone, but the Body of Christ lives on.  Some Byzantine emperors became saints and others became heretics.  Some Orthodox rulers, such as Czar Nicholas II, manifested their holiness through the consequences of political failure—at least in worldly terms-- to the point of martyrdom.  Periods of persecution and of peace for the Church have both produced saints.

Orthodoxy is relatively new both to the American scene and to the challenges posed by western democracy.  Our Church is not a partisan political party, and I doubt that American politicians spend much time worrying about how the Orthodox bloc will vote due to our small numbers in most parts of the US.  Nonetheless, it is a good thing for our members to vote according to their consciences for the candidates whose positions best reflect an Orthodox vision of society.  What an Orthodox vision of society is in a western democracy has not been clearly defined, however.  People with identical moral and spiritual values may well at times choose different candidates because of prudential judgments about what policies will be most effective in achieving certain goals.  Politics remains the art of the possible, and it’s apparently impossible to avoid at least some shades of grey.

It’s important to keep that note of realism in mind because human beings often fall prey to the temptation to absolutize the relative, to worship false gods,  to claim more for our feeble schemes than we really should.  Just listen to any impassioned political speech and you’ll hear virtually apocalyptic language about how the world will end if the opposing side wins.  Likewise, the happy narrative of America will flourish if one’s own side wins.  The old heresy of Manichaeism lurks behind such rhetoric about a dualistic struggle between Good and Evil, capital G and capital E, in the choice between two invariably flawed and ambiguous political parties. 

The danger is that we will waste our energy on false messiahs, looking for our salvation in passing schemes for transforming our corrupt world into a realm of perfection.   The odd thing is that many people speak of American politics in such terms, regardless of their party affiliation or political ideology.  They do actually seem to think that the salvation of the world rests on the question of who is in power at any given moment.

 Yes, the United States is the one remaining super power of the world with the strongest military in human history.  The policies that guide our government will certainly impact the world well beyond our borders.  It is perfectly legitimate for citizens to debate which vision of American foreign policy best serves our national interests and reflects the values of our faith.   The same is true for a variety of domestic issues, ranging from the economy to the environment , health care, the family and marriage, religious liberty, capital punishment, and abortion.

But there is a difference between that kind of dialogue and overblown rhetoric about the political decisions of a fallen world amounting to a choice between God and Satan.  The Lord Himself rejected the option of a worldly messianic reign.  We do not live in Byzantium, the Czar’s Russia, or even in a nation with a large number of Orthodox:  no political arrangement has yet ushered in the eschaton.   So I’m certainly not looking for a politician or party to save us in November:   Jesus Christ is in charge of that. But I will pray for “Our President, civil authorities, and armed forces, that the Lord God will remember them in His Kingdom, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.”   No matter who is in power, they need our prayers and our Lord’s mercy and salvation.  Any political ideology that obscures that truth is definitely not Orthodox.  For our salvation is not in earthly princes and their apologists, but in the Lord who reigns from a cross and an empty tomb and Whose Kingdom is not of this world.        

Male and Female in God's Image

            It’s unfortunate when we become so focused on the symptoms of a problem that we ignore its underlying causes.  Some Christian rhetoric on same-sex marriage has done precisely that and has failed as a result to transcend the dynamics of conventional partisan politics.   Instead of illuminating the unique glory of the life-giving union of husband and wife as an icon of the Holy Trinity and of the  salvation of the world, the defenders of traditional marriage often merely skim the surface of public morality.  The fundamental problem isn’t that increasing numbers of Americans approve of same-sex marriage; it’s that many Christians and others have forgotten the holiness and unique vocation of the man-woman relationship.  Once we lose that key link, the possibility of thinking coherently—and faithfully-- about human sexuality is gone. 

In order to speak with integrity on marriage and family issues, we need first to take a sober look at the failure of the churches to equip our members to embody chastity and sexual purity, and thus to be a witness of holiness in stark contrast to the moral corruption so pervasive in our culture and world.   Especially since the dawn of the sexual revolution, Christians have too often turned a blind eye to promiscuity, pre-marital sex, serial divorce and remarriage, and a hedonistic culture that excuses all things in the name of an individual’s pleasure and self-defined happiness.   No wonder so many Americans seem to dismiss opposition to same-sex marriage as self-righteous hypocrisy and arbitrary discrimination.  Those who tolerate—and at times even seem to condone—sex and cohabitation for unmarried men and women have little standing to criticize the prospect of legal sanction for gay unions.  If there is no visible difference between how Christians and others handle these crucial life-shaping matters, why should anyone take seriously what we have to say?  If we do not call heterosexuals to holiness, why all the bother about the much smaller population of homosexuals?

                Likewise, we misdirect our energies when we speak of civil marriage in contemporary America as though it were identical to Christian marriage.   Something accomplished before a justice of the peace and recorded at the court house impacts taxes, inheritance, and other legal matters, but cannot turn water into wine as a sign of the Kingdom of God.  Holy matrimony does not simply grant civil sanction to the broken union of Adam and Eve, but heals and blesses their common life as a sign of the relationship between Christ and the Church.  It is a calling, not a right, for anyone. Man and woman wear the crowns of the Kingdom as their love for one another finds its true fulfillment in the Lord.  God created us male and female in the divine image and likeness, giving opposite-sex couples the unique ability to bring forth new life from their own bodies out of love for one another.   Through this blessed union, parents and children become an image of the Holy Trinity, sharing a union of love that binds them together and enables them to learn to love Christ in one another.  By the restoration of the primal unity of male and female in God, Christian marriage becomes a sign of the salvation not merely of two individuals, but of all humanity and of the creation itself.  Perhaps that is why our Savior so often used the image of a wedding feast for the Kingdom of God.    

                Eastern Orthodox Christianity believes that man and woman are not interchangeable bundles of individual rights; instead, the two sexes play complementary roles in our common salvation.  Jesus Christ and the Theotokos, the apostles and the myrrh bearing women, St. Macrina with her brothers Sts. Basil and Gregory, and so many other examples from Scripture, hymnody, icons, and the saints demonstrate the abiding mystery of the male-female distinction and relationship in our pursuit of theosis.  The same God who creates us as male and female saves us in relationship to one another.  Instead of abandoning biological distinctions as though our bodies were irrelevant and the two sexes identical, we look to the Lord, His Mother, and ongoing generations of holy men and women to teach us how to live faithfully in relation to one another as male and female.  We deal here with a great mystery, as the Logos who spoke the world into existence also made us man and woman in the divine image.  The male Son rose from the dead and ascended into heaven; and the female Mother who bore Him followed into the Kingdom at her Dormition.   Even in the world to come, the distinction of man and woman will remain.     

No, God does not call everyone to marriage, not even all heterosexuals.  Yes, He invites everyone to holiness; preserving sexual intimacy for the blessed state of marriage between a man and a woman is part of that calling, as the Church has taught consistently for two thousand years.    Nonetheless, holy people have—and continue to—struggle with temptations of all kinds.  Through fasting and other forms of self-denial, nourishment by the Holy Mysteries of the Church, participation in healthy friendships and communities, and sincere confession and repentance when we stumble, all of us-- regardless of sexual inclinations—find strength and healing to press forward to the high calling that is ours in Christ Jesus.  The nature of one’s particular temptations is irrelevant; the point is to turn away from them and live faithfully. 

Christian witness on these matters faces serious cultural challenges today.  One hears that the growing support for same-sex marriage reflects positive portraits of homosexuals on both the small and the large screen, as well as the experience of knowing friends and family members who are gay.  Straight people are apparently marrying at declining rates, while many gay couples enthusiastically seek legal recognition of their unions.   Some people seem to be more impressed by the commitment of same-sex partners to one another than by that of the married couples they know.   Appeals to the equal rights of individuals to the benefits of marriage, however defined, clinch the argument for many.

 Until very recently, of course, no culture or world religion recognized same-sex relationships as holy, or even legal, matrimony. From the perspective of Orthodox Christianity the revisionist claims distort the truth about what it means to be man and a woman in God’s image and likeness.  They endorse sexual expression apart from the loving, covenanted unity of male-female difference that alone is blessed to bring forth new life.  They respond to the desires of individuals in terms of the categories of the corrupt world, not of the struggle of disciplining oneself in order to respond more fully to the divine eros.  Though Christian and civil marriage are not identical, Orthodoxy will not embrace society’s official redefinition of the fundamental nature of marriage contrary to what God has established from the origins of the human race.  The Church cannot bless same-sex unions as marriages, for that is not what they are.  Sacraments restore persons and their relationships according to God’s original intention for us to be like Him; and He created us male and female in His image toward the end of our salvation.         

Contrary to popular assumptions, this stance on marriage does not entail that we should condemn, judge, or shun people who are in intimate relationships with members of the same sex.  Orthodox priests concern themselves only with the sexual and other sins named in confession or with the very rare scandalous situation that has to be addressed in the parish.   And confession is not about condemnation, but forgiveness, healing, and growth, regardless of the sin confessed.  Like the rest of us, those who struggle with same-sex attraction need guidance and support throughout their lives as they progress in holiness.  Yes, all really are called to enter into the holiness of God, to become saints. A Church that honors King David, Photini, Moses the Black, and Mary of Egypt can ask no less.   Like the Samaritan woman, all who suffer disordered sexual passions are more likely to respond to genuine expressions of compassion and respect that point them toward the living water that satisfies at a level deeper than physical desire.  Yes, the Church must speak the truth about sexuality, but also about pride, self-righteous judgment, hatred, and gossip.  And given the Lord’s definition of adultery in the Sermon on the Mount, none of us is in the position to look down upon others for sexual sin.  After all, who doesn’t have disordered desires?  And the vast majority of sexual sin is surely between people of opposite sex.  We must be very careful with our words.

In our current cultural context, the witness of true Christian marriage simply must become visible, vibrant, and robust, if it is to be taken seriously by mainstream culture.   All the more is our need to be vigilant in our parishes and families, in our friendships and neighborhoods and schools, in our choices of entertainment and attire, to form ourselves in chastity both in our bodily actions and the thoughts of our hearts.  Of course, we never do that alone, but in communion with the Church and with the support of fellow strugglers who want to participate more fully in the divine nature.

The early Christians impressed even the pagan Romans with their care for the dying and their rescue of exposed infants.  It’s time for the current generation of Christians to impress our society with the chaste love of man and woman as a sign of God’s covenantal fidelity in Jesus Christ.   There is no better response to the challenges posed by the ongoing sexual revolution than the living icon of Christian marriage—of Adam and Eve healed and blessed as they wear the crowns of the Kingdom and bring new persons into the world out of their love for one another.  That’s how God intends life to go on in His good creation.   It’s precisely the differences between male and female that make the union of marriage life-giving, complementary, and a path to salvation.   True marriage manifests the healing of our humanity in the image of God as man and woman.  Our challenge is not only to say words about marriage, but to live them out in ways that draw others to Christ and His Church.  That’s the most fundamental political action of the Christian community:  to embody a life that conquers death, that heals our broken, corrupt humanity—body and soul, male and female.   If we do that, we will address not just the symptoms of the moral decay of our society, but also its underlying causes.