Homily for the Sunday After the Nativity of Christ with Commemoration of Joseph the Betrothed, David the Prophet and King, and James the Brother of God in the Orthodox Church

 

Matthew 2:13-23

        Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

As we continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world, we must resist the temptation to think that we have heard the story so many times that we no longer really have to pay attention.  Like the other great feasts of the Church, the Nativity provides us with an invitation each year to enter more fully into the mystery of our salvation.  The miracle of the Word becoming flesh does not change, but we must change in order to welcome Christ into the temple of our hearts more fully each year of our lives. 

        We live in a culture with a sentimental view of Christmas focused on superficial family happiness and commercialism.  Our culture also prizes youth and encourages us to think that we should be ashamed of gray hair, wrinkles, and other perfectly normal aspects of aging.  Today the Church calls us to mature in our understanding of the Lord’s Nativity by commemorating Joseph the Betrothed, an elderly relative of the Virgin Mary who reluctantly became her guardian when she had to leave the Temple where she had grown up.

One of the verses chanted for Joseph states that “a strange betrothal fell unto his lot.” Joseph certainly thought so. This betrothal was an arrangement in which a man became the guardian of a woman without the intimate relations of marriage.  As an 80-year-old widower, he was reluctant to take on this responsibility for a teenaged girl, but he obeyed God’s command nonetheless.  He played an essential, but often overlooked, role in how salvation came into the world. 

The story of Joseph resonates with so much of the heritage of the Old Testament.  An evil ruler wanted to murder the young Savior because he viewed Him as a threat.  Pharaoh had ordered the deaths of Hebrew male infants long ago in Egypt, and now a wicked king like him reigned in Jerusalem.  Herod slaughtered the young boys in and around Bethlehem when he realized that the wise men had tricked him.  In the Exodus, the Hebrews had fled Egypt on the night of the Passover.  Now the young Messiah flees Israel to go to Egypt at night.  Once the danger had passed, Joseph brought the family back to the Promised Land, just as the Hebrews eventually returned after wandering in the desert for forty years. Recall also the story in Genesis of another Joseph.  He went to Egypt unwillingly as a slave, but eventually saved his whole family from a famine by bringing them there.

These connections are surely not accidental, for Matthew’s gospel describes Joseph’s role in the Lord’s early life with obvious Old Testament symbolism.  Joseph’s story is a challenging reminder that God calls us in unanticipated ways to cooperate with His gracious purposes for bringing salvation to the world.  He does not call us to serve Him in a realm of imaginary perfection or according to our own preferences, but in the same world with pregnant women and children whose lives are in danger of deadly violence and with families who must flee for their lives as refugees.  There are surely many rulers and regimes every bit as vicious as Herod today. 

The story of Christmas also magnifies the importance of our free response to God’s calling. We cannot tell that story properly without celebrating the Theotokos, who freely chose to say “yes” when the Archangel Gabriel visited her with the good news that she was chosen to be the Virgin Mother of the Son of God.  Despite his reluctance to become her guardian in the first place, Joseph accepted the responsibility.  After being horrified to discover her pregnancy, he had the faith to believe the message of the angel that the Child was conceived of the Holy Spirit.  Despite his advanced age, Joseph successfully guided his family to Egypt as they fled the murderous Herod.  He had certainly not anticipated or desired involvement in such a dangerous set of circumstances, but he accepted the calling to do what had to be done for the safety of the Theotokos and her Child. 

Joseph reminds us that God uses our cooperation to accomplish His gracious purposes in the world.  That was certainly the case in the Old Testament:  Abraham, Moses, David, and countless others responded to God’s initiative, and He worked through them, despite their many failings.  And through the free response of a teenaged girl came the Messiah in Whom the ancient promises to the descendants of Abraham are fulfilled and extended to the entire world.

The details of our Lord’s conception, birth, and infancy show that God does not force people to obey Him.   We can disregard God and refuse to live as those created in the divine image and likeness.  It is tragically possible to become like Herod in moral depravity and spiritual blindness to the point of disregarding even the basic humanity of innocent children and ruthlessly destroying anyone who stands in the way of getting what we want.  Such corruption is a possibility for anyone, not only for the rich, famous, and powerful. Violence, hatred, and lust for revenge and domination so easily corrode the character of people in all walks of life today. 

Our vocation is not simply to avoid becoming as wicked as Herod, but to become like the Theotokos and Joseph the Betrothed. Her life plans changed at the Annunciation, and we must accept that the healing of our souls will likely not occur according to our own preferences or schedules.   That was certainly the case for Joseph, who took on unanticipated responsibilities because He accepted them as God’s will for him.  Through the free obedience of this unlikely couple in their respective callings, the Savior came into the world. Such obedience is a form of martyrdom in the sense of dying to self-centered desire out of faithfulness to the Lord. 

We also remember today James, the son of the widower Joseph, known as “the Brother of the Lord.”  James wrote in his epistle, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” (Jas. 3:13) He also famously taught that faith without works is dead.  (Jas. 2:17) In order to bear witness to the good news that the Son of God has become truly one of us, we must freely pursue the vocation of becoming like Him in holiness as we grow in our participation in His divine life. Our fundamental vocation remains the same:  to undergo a change of mind such that we offer ourselves without reservation in obedience to God.  As with the Theotokos, Joseph the Betrothed, and James, there is no telling what that will mean for the course of our lives, but saying “yes” in free obedience as we take the steps we have the strength to take today remains the only way to participate personally in the healing of the human person made possible by the birth of Jesus Christ.   Let us look to those we commemorate today as brilliant examples of how to enter into the joy of the Babe of Bethlehem, Who calls us all to salvation.

 

 

 

Homily for the Sunday of the Forefathers (Ancestors) of Christ in the Orthodox Church

 

Colossians 3:4-11; Luke 14:16-24

 

             If you are like me, you know how easy it is to come up with excuses for not focusing on what is most important when you would rather be doing something else.  When that happens, the problem is not so much with the circumstances of our lives as with ourselves, for we have chosen not to keep our priorities in order and to become distracted from putting first things first.    

 

            The people in today’s gospel reading did precisely that when they rejected the invitation to enter into the joy of the great banquet that represents the Kingdom of God.  They made excuses based on the blessings that they had received:  One owned real estate, another had animals, and a third was married.  These commonplace conditions are certainly not evil or even temptations in and of themselves.  They preclude no one from seeking first the Kingdom of God.  They provide opportunities for offering all the good things of this life to the Lord for the fulfillment of His gracious purposes for the salvation of the world.  Nonetheless, all the invited guests in the parable used them as excuses to refuse the invitation to the feast.  That is when the master commanded his servant to “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.”  Because there was still room, the master ordered him to go out even further to “the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”  

 

There may be deeper spiritual significance to the symbolism of the yoke of five oxen in the parable, for there are five books of law in the Old Testament.  Having a field of land may represent those who wanted the Messiah to set up a nationalistic religious kingdom in the Holy Land.  Marriage may represent the belief that God’s blessings were only for their particular family line or ethnic group.  Many rejected our Lord because He interpreted the law in a way that challenged the legalism of the Pharisees, repudiated the temptation to become a military or political leader, and extended the blessings of His Reign even to those considered foreigners and enemies.

 

In the historical setting of the passage, “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” and those brought in “from the highways and hedges” represent us as Gentiles who are not the descendants of Abraham and have no ancestral connection to the law and prophets of the Old Testament.  Especially as we prepare for Christmas, we must remember that we have no claim to the blessings of the Messiah on the basis of nationality. Apart from the mercy of the Savior, which extends to foreigners and outcasts like us, we would have no part in the great spiritual heritage of those who foreshadowed and foretold the coming of the Christ across the centuries before His birth. To see ourselves and our neighbors in light of the divisions of our fallen world is simply to make yet another excuse for not embracing the gracious healing that He offers even to unlikely people like us.  As St. Paul wrote, “Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.”

  

The Hebrews who looked forward in faith for God’s fulfillment of the promises to Abraham did not do so simply on the basis of their observance of the law, which came later through Moses.  The law was necessary for sinful people as a tutor in preparation for the coming of Christ.  The ancestors of the Lord longed not merely for a great teacher, but for liberation from slavery to sin and death, which the law lacked the power to accomplish. The forefathers of the Savior trusted God that their hope would not be in vain.  Though often overlooked at the time, the original promise to Abraham extended to the Gentiles, for God told him, “In you all the nations of the world will be blessed.”  (Gen. 22:18) Now all who are in Christ “are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29) Jew or Gentile, “those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” (Gal. 3:9) The Savior is born to bring all who bear the divine image and likeness into the joy of the heavenly banquet.

 

The Hebrews of the Old Testament who prepared for the Messiah’s coming through faith did so of their own free will in response to their calling as the children of Abraham.  That is true also for the Theotokos, who is the highest offering of the Jewish people and became the God-Man’s living temple in a unique way as His virgin mother.  She was chosen for this astounding vocation and responded in freedom to the message of the Archangel Gabriel.  No one forced her, but she chose to remain focused on hearing and obeying the Word of God.  Likewise, no one forces us.  No matter what excuses we have made so far in our lives, we all have the ability to respond to Christ with the obedience of humble faith. Doing so means that we will obey the Apostle’s teaching: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

 

Unfortunately, those in the parable who had convinced themselves that the normal cares of life excluded them from entering into the joy of the heavenly kingdom responded differently.   As the master said in the parable, ‘”For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.”  Those who are chosen are those who follow the Theotokos’ example of making receptivity to Christ the top priority of their lives.  Like her, we must use our freedom as those who bear the image of God to seek first His Kingdom.  Doing so requires that we obey the Apostle’s teaching: “But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.”

 

Contrary to what we like to tell ourselves, the conventional responsibilities of life are invitations to love and serve Christ in our neighbors each day of our lives.  Nothing but our own lack of mindfulness can keep us from making our daily responsibilities points of entrance into eternal joy.  What St. Porphyrios taught about the spiritual possibilities of our daily work applies to the rest of life also: 

 

At your work, whatever it may be, you can become saints—through meekness, patience and love.  Make a new start every day, with new resolution, with enthusiasm and love, prayer and silence—not with anxiety so that you get a pain in the chest.[1]

 

Let your soul devote itself to the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” in all your worries, for everything and everyone.  Don’t look at what’s happening to you, look at the light, at Christ, just as a child looks to its mother when something happens to it. See everything without anxiety, without depression, without strain and without stress.[2]

 

We make the choice every moment whether we are going to offer our blessings and struggles to the Lord as opportunities for finding the healing of our souls or whether we are going to use them as excuses to fuel our passions.  The path we take will lead us either into the joy of the heavenly kingdom or into the despair of those who have wasted their lives on what can never truly satisfy the living icons of God.  Before His holy glory, we are all “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” from “the highways and hedges” who must open our hearts for healing through prayer, fasting, generosity to our needy neighbors, and confession and repentance of our sins.   That is how even unlikely people like us may accept His gracious invitation to dine at the Heavenly Banquet with those who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah with faith across the ages.    Let us use the remainder of the Nativity Fast to do precisely that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] St. Porphyrios, Wounded by Love, 144.

[2] St. Porphyrios, 145.

Following the Theotokos into the Temple During the Nativity Fast: Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost & Ninth Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church

 

Ephesians 2:14-22; Luke 12:16-21

 

Having begun the Nativity Fast on November 15 in preparation to welcome the Savior at Christmas, today we continue celebrating the Feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Her elderly parents Joachim and Anna offered Mary to God by taking her to live in the Temple in Jerusalem as a young girl, where she grew up in prayer and purity as she prepared to become the Living Temple of the Lord in a unique and extraordinary way as His Virgin Mother.  This feast directs us to the good news of Christmas, as it is the first step in Mary’s life in becoming the Theotokos who gave birth to the Son of God for our salvation.  She is the epitome of our cooperation or synergy with God, for she freely chose to say “Yes” to the Lord with every ounce of her being.

Joachim and Anna had a long and difficult period of preparation to become parents, as they had been unable to have children for decades until God miraculously blessed them in old age to conceive.  They knew that their daughter was a blessing not simply for the happiness of their family, but for playing her part in fulfilling God’s purposes for the salvation of the world. Their patient faithfulness throughout their years of barrenness helped them gain the spiritual clarity to offer her to the Lord.  They knew that their marriage and family life were blessings to be given back to God for the fulfillment of much higher purposes.  They foreshadowed the proclamation in the Divine Liturgy: “Thine Own of Thine Own, we offer unto Thee on behalf of all and for all.” 

Joachim, Anna, and the Theotokos are the complete opposites of the rich man in today’s gospel lesson who exemplifies the way of life that is so appealing and popular in our world of corruption.  His only concern was to eat, drink, and enjoy himself because he had become so wealthy.  He was addicted to earthly pleasure, power, and success, and saw the meaning and purpose of his life only in those terms.  When God required his soul, however, the man’s true poverty was revealed, for the possessions and accomplishments of this life inevitably pass away and cannot save us.  As we read in the Psalms (48/49), “Do not become afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases.  For when he dies, he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.”

This man’s horizons extended no further than his dreams of the large barns he planned to build in order to hold his crops.  Before the ultimate judgment of God, he was revealed to be a fool who had wasted his life on what could never truly heal or fulfill one who bore the divine image and likeness.  He had laid up treasure for himself, but was not rich toward God in any way. The problem was not simply that the man had possessions, but that he had made them his god, which is another way of saying that he worshipped only himself and surely was not concerned about the needs of his neighbors.  His barns were a temple of the greed to which he had offered his entire existence in a vain effort to satisfy his self-centered desires.   

In stark contrast, the Theotokos followed the righteous example of her parents.  She was prepared by a life of holiness to agree freely to become our Lord’s mother, even though she was an unmarried virgin who did not understand how such a thing could happen.  When she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” this young Palestinian Jewish girl bravely made a whole, complete offering of her life to God.  She did not ask what was in it for her in terms of money, power, or any kind of earthly success.  She was not enslaved in any way to the worship of any of the false gods of this world. Unlike the rich fool in the parable, she was not blinded by passion and had the purity of soul to put receptivity and obedience to the Lord before all else. That is how she became the Living Temple of the Lord and the greatest example of what it means to unite ourselves to Christ in holiness.

The world is full of tragic circumstances today that are caused by people who are so blinded by their self-centered desires that they think nothing is more important than doing whatever it takes to gratify their lust for possessions, power, and pleasure.   But even if they succeed in gaining dominion over the whole world, they will lose their souls because they have offered themselves to idols which lack the power to heal people from the ravages of sin, let alone to raise anyone up from the tomb.   Doing so will inevitably impoverish us spiritually, for it is the complete opposite of following in the way of the Theotokos as God’s holy temple.  There will be no true peace in our souls or in our relationships with other people if we wander in such spiritual blindness. To indulge in self-centeredness will make us isolated individuals who view others either as enemies to be feared and conquered or as pawns to be manipulated.  Nothing could be further from the way of true personal union with the Lord exemplified by the Theotokos and in the ongoing life of the Body of Christ.  

St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that “Christ is our peace” Who “has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” between Jews and Gentiles, making “in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,” reconciling “us both to God in one body through the Cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.”  That is why the Apostle told Gentile Christians that “you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord…” That is something that the self-centeredness of the rich fool could never accomplish, for making success in the world our highest goal inevitably perpetuates division and resentment.  We will never become persons united in a communion of love with God and with our neighbors if we refuse to embrace the peace and reconciliation brought to the world by Christ, in Whom “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)    

The Nativity Fast calls us to wrestle with the passions that keep us from becoming “rich toward God.” Even small steps in restraining our appetites and investing ourselves in prayer and generosity help to direct our hearts and lives in the way of the Theotokos as living temples of the Lord.  They help to heal us from the paralysis of self-centeredness so that we may gain the strength to embrace our identity as members together of the Body of Christ, in Whom the petty divisions and resentments of this world may be overcome.

The Theotokos entered the Temple, living there for years in preparation to become the Son of God’s Living Temple through whom He took on flesh. The Nativity Fast provides us blessed opportunities to become more like that obscure Palestinian Jewish girl who said “Yes” to God definitively and without reservation of any kind.  It calls us to become more like Joachim and Anna in the patient trust in God that enabled them to offer their long-awaited daughter to Him.  They show us how to enter the Temple by embracing the difficult struggle of learning to offer ourselves and all our blessings fully to the Lord. Like it or not, our lives are temples to one thing or another, for we will offer our time, energy, attention, and resources to something or someone.  Instead of becoming fools who give our lives to that which cannot satisfy or save us, we must follow in the way of the Theotokos and her holy parents.  Their choices were of crucial importance for their own salvation and for that of the entire world.  As hard as it is to believe, the same thing is true of us.  Now is the time to mindfully reject our self-imposed distractions from focusing on “the one thing needful” of hearing and obeying the Word of God, Who is born for our salvation at Christmas.  Now is the time to prepare to follow the Theotokos in becoming His holy temples, for that is the only way to become “rich toward God.”   

 

Homily for the Sunday of the Forefathers (Ancestors) of Christ in the Orthodox Church

 

Luke 14:16-24

              Even before the internet and cell phones, people struggled to remain focused on what was truly important.  Now we must contend not only with constant messages, images, and other forms of electronic distraction, but also with passions that tempt us to be mindful about just about anything other than preparing to welcome Christ into our lives and world at His Nativity.  All the more is that the case when worrying about everything from the persistent problems of the world and of our families to meeting the challenges of paying for presents, travel, and other seasonal expenses threatens to convince us that there are matters more important than accepting the Savior’s gracious invitation to enter fully into the joy of the banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven.  He calls us to embrace our true vocation not only during divine services or in the eschatological future, but in every moment of our lives, regardless of the circumstances in which we live.    

             The people in today’s gospel reading had made themselves blind to the urgency of their calling, for they rejected the invitation to enter into the joy of the great banquet that represents the Kingdom of God.  They did so for the most mundane reasons:   One owned real estate, another had animals, and a third was married.  They somehow convinced themselves that the commonplace circumstance of having regular responsibilities justified their refusal.  After the invited guests refused to attend, the master commanded his servant to “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.”  Because there was still room, the master ordered him to go out even further to “the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”   Even as God wants all to be saved, the master in the parable wanted as many people as possible to share in the blessings of the festival.

        There may be deeper spiritual significance to the symbolism of the yoke of five oxen in the parable, for there are five books of law in the Old Testament.  Having a field of land may represent those who wanted the Messiah to set up a nationalistic religious kingdom in the Holy Land.  Marriage may represent the belief that God’s blessings were only for their particular family line or ethnic group.  Many rejected our Lord because He interpreted the law in a way that challenged the authority of the Pharisees, repudiated the temptation to become an earthly king of the Jews, and extended the blessing of His Reign even to those considered foreigners and enemies.

In the historical setting of the passage, “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” brought in from the streets to the great banquet represent the Gentiles, who were not the descendants of Abraham and did not know the law and prophets of the Old Testament.  Especially as we prepare for Christmas, we must remember that we are those with no ancestral claim to the blessings of the Messiah.  Our hope for entering into heavenly joy has nothing to do with having the right ethnic heritage or mastering a set of religious laws.  Apart from the mercy of the Savior, we would have no part in the great spiritual heritage of those who foreshadowed and foretold the coming of the Christ across the centuries before His birth. We must never, then, fall into the idolatry of thinking that serving the false gods of nationality, ethnicity, or political ideology has anything at all to do with entering into life eternal.  If anything, they easily become obstacles to our salvation in light of our passionate attachment to seeing ourselves and other people light of the categories of the fallen world.   

         The Hebrews who looked forward in faith for God’s fulfillment of the promises to Abraham did not do so simply on the basis of their observance of the law, which came later through Moses.  The law was necessary for sinful people as a tutor in preparation for the coming of Christ.  The ancestors of the Lord longed not merely for a great teacher, but for liberation from slavery to sin and death, which the law lacked the power to accomplish. The forefathers of the Savior trusted God that their hope would not be in vain.  Though often overlooked at the time, the original promise to Abraham extended to the Gentiles, for God told him, “In you all the nations of the world will be blessed.”  (Gen. 22:18) Now all who are in Christ “are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29) Jew or Gentile, “those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” (Gal. 3:9) The Savior is born to bring all who bear the divine image and likeness into the joy of the heavenly banquet. Nationality, ethnicity, and political affiliation do not limit God’s gracious purposes for us in any way.

             The Hebrews of the Old Testament who prepared for the Messiah’s coming through faith did so of their own free will in response to their calling as the children of Abraham.  That is true also for the Theotokos, who is the highest offering of the Jewish people and became the God-Man’s living temple in a unique way as His virgin mother.  She was chosen for this astounding vocation and responded in freedom to the message of the Archangel Gabriel.  No one forced her at all, but she chose to remain focused on hearing and obeying the Word of God.  Likewise, no one forces us.  Despite our personal brokenness, we all have the ability to respond to Christ with the obedience of humble faith.

         Unfortunately, those in the parable who had convinced themselves that the normal cares of life excluded them from entering into the joy of the heavenly kingdom responded very differently.   As the master said in the parable, ‘”For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.”  Those who are chosen are those who follow the Theotokos’ example of making receptivity to Christ the top priority of their lives.  Like her, we must use our freedom as those who bear the image of God to seek first His Kingdom.  Otherwise, we will bring judgment upon ourselves as those who refused to orient our lives toward “the one thing needful” of hearing and obeying the Word of God.   

         Contrary to some of our favorite excuses, the conventional responsibilities of life are in no way incompatible with uniting ourselves to Christ, for they provide opportunities to reorient the desires of our hearts to God as we love and serve Him in our neighbors.  Nothing but our own lack of mindfulness keeps us from making our daily responsibilities points of entrance into eternal joy.  What St. Porphyrios taught about the spiritual possibilities of our daily work applies to the rest of life in this and at all other times of the year: "At your work, whatever it may be, you can become saints—through meekness, patience and love. Make a new start every day, with new resolution, with enthusiasm and love, prayer and silence—not with anxiety so that you get a pain in the chest.[1] Let your soul devote itself to the prayer 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me' in all your worries, for everything and everyone.  Don’t look at what’s happening to you, look at the light, at Christ, just as a child looks to its mother                when something happens to it. See everything without anxiety, without depression, without strain        and without stress."[2]

We make the choice every moment of our lives whether we are going to offer our blessings and struggles to the Lord as opportunities for finding the healing of our souls or whether we are going to use them as excuses to become further enslaved to our passions.  The path we take will shape us decisively, leading us either into the joy of the heavenly kingdom or into the despair of those who have wasted their lives on what can never truly satisfy the living icons of God.  If we remain so enslaved to our passions that we refuse to welcome Christ into our hearts and lives with integrity on a daily basis, then we will exclude ourselves from the joy that He is born to bring to the world.  Before His holy glory, we are all “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” who must open our hearts to receive Him through prayer, fasting, generosity to our needy neighbors, and confession and repentance of our sins.   That is how we may accept His gracious invitation to dine at the Heavenly Banquet.  Let us use the remainder of the Nativity Fast to do precisely that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] St. Porphyrios, Wounded by Love, 144.

[2] St. Porphyrios, 145.

Preparing to Follow the Theotokos as Holy Temples of the Lord : Homily for the Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost & Ninth Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church

 

Galatians 2: 16-20; Luke 12:16-21

 Having begun the Nativity Fast on November 15 in preparation to welcome the Savior at Christmas, today we anticipate the Feast of the Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos. Her elderly parents Joachim and Anna offered Mary to God by taking her to live in the Temple in Jerusalem as a young girl, where she grew up in prayer and purity as she prepared to become the Living Temple of the Lord in a unique and extraordinary way as His Virgin Mother.  This feast directs us to the good news of Christmas, as it is the first step in Mary’s life in becoming the Theotokos who gave birth to the Son of God for our salvation.  She is the epitome of our cooperation or synergy with God, for she freely chose to say “Yes” to the Lord with every ounce of her being.

Joachim and Anna had a long and difficult period of preparation to become parents, as they had been unable to have children for decades until God miraculously blessed them in old age to conceive.  They knew that their daughter was a blessing not simply for the happiness of their family, but for playing her part in fulfilling God’s purposes for the salvation of the world. Their patient faithfulness throughout their years of barrenness helped them gain the spiritual clarity to offer her to the Lord.  They knew that their marriage and family life were not simply about fulfilling their desires, but were blessings to be given back to God for the fulfillment of much higher purposes.  They foreshadowed the proclamation in the Divine Liturgy: “Thine Own of Thine Own, we offer unto Thee on behalf of all and for all.” 

Joachim, Anna, and the Theotokos are the complete opposites of the rich man in today’s gospel reading.  His only concern was to eat, drink, and enjoy himself because he had become so wealthy.  He was addicted to earthly pleasure, power, and success, and saw the meaning and purpose of his life only in those terms.  When God required his soul, however, the man’s true poverty was revealed, for the possessions and accomplishments of this life inevitably pass away and cannot save us.  As we read in the Psalms (48/49), “Do not become afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases.  For when he dies, he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.”

This man’s horizons extended no further than his dreams of the large barns he planned to build in order to hold his crops.  Before the ultimate judgment of God, he was revealed to be a fool who had wasted his life on what could never truly heal or fulfill one who bore the divine image and likeness.  He had laid up treasure for himself, but was not rich toward God in any way. The problem was not simply that the man had possessions, but that he had made them his god, which is another way of saying that he worshipped only himself and surely was not concerned about the needs of his neighbors.  His barns were a temple of the greed to which he had offered his entire existence in a vain effort to satisfy his self-centered desires.   

In stark contrast, the Theotokos followed the righteous example of her parents.  She was prepared by a life of holiness to agree freely to become our Lord’s mother, even though she was an unmarried virgin who did not understand how such a thing could happen.  When she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” this young Palestinian Jewish girl bravely made a whole, complete offering of her life to God.  She did not ask what was in it for her in terms of money, power, or any kind of earthly success.  She was not enslaved in any way to the worship of any of the false gods of this world. Unlike the rich fool in the parable, she was not blinded by passion and had the purity of soul to put receptivity and obedience to the Lord before all else.

The world is full of tragic circumstances today that are caused by people who are so blinded by their self-centered desires that they think nothing is more important than doing whatever it takes to gratify their lust for possessions, power, and pleasure.   But even if they succeed in gaining dominion over the whole world, they will lose their souls because they have offered themselves to idols which lack the power to heal people from the ravages of sin, let alone to raise anyone up from the tomb.   Those who serve such false gods, which are merely projections of their own self-centered desires, inevitably lack peace within their souls and act in ways that are contrary to God’s gracious purposes for those who bear the divine image and likeness.   No matter what form our particular temptations take, we impoverish our souls when we indulge in self-centeredness to the point that we cannot even imagine following in the way of the Theotokos as God’s holy temple.

The healing alternative to such corruption is not any form of simplistic legalism, which inevitably leads people to frustration, despair, and even cynicism about pursuing a life pleasing to God.  If we try to make ourselves righteous simply by our own willpower and obedience to a code of conduct, we will experience only our own weakness and guilt before our passions.  No wonder that many scoff at the possibility of pursuing righteousness and instead decide to indulge their passions in the false belief that that is really the only possible way to live as a human being in this world. 

St. Paul identified the only way that we can avoid falling into such despair when he wrote that we are “not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ.”  The point is not to seek some form of illusory religious or moral perfection that makes us superior to our neighbors, but to recognize that we need restoration and healing beyond what even obedience to the strictest code of behavior could ever achieve.  This is possible when turn away from obsession with self-justification and instead gain the spiritual clarity to say with the Apostle “it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  In order for that to happen, we must look the folly of justifying ourselves by our own accomplishments squarely in the face and, instead of falling into cynicism, entrust ourselves in humility to the One Who shares His eternal life with us, having conquered even death itself and made it possible for us to become like Him in holiness by grace. 

We are now in the Nativity Fast, the 40-day period during which we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Savior at Christmas.   The weeks of Advent call us to wrestle with the passions that threaten to make us so much like the rich fool that we become blind to the healing and restoration brought by our Lord.  Far from obsessing about earthly cares and indulging in the richest and most satisfying foods, this is a season for fasting, confessing and repenting of our sins, giving generously to the needy, and intensifying our prayers.  It is a time for preparing to open our hearts to receive Christ more fully into our lives at His Nativity.  

 The Theotokos entered the Temple, living there for years in preparation to become the Son of God’s Living Temple through whom He took on flesh. The Nativity Fast provides us blessed opportunities to become more like that obscure Palestinian Jewish girl who said “Yes!” to God definitively and without reservation of any kind.  It calls us to become more like Joachim and Anna in the patient trust in God that enabled them to offer their long-awaited daughter to Him.  They show us how to enter the Temple by embracing the difficult struggle of learning to offer ourselves and all our blessings fully to the Lord. Like it or not, our lives are temples to one thing or another, for we will offer our time, energy, attention, and resources to something or someone.  Instead of becoming fools who give our lives to that which cannot satisfy or save us, let us follow in the way of the Theotokos and her holy parents.  Their choices were of crucial importance for their own salvation and for that of the entire world.  As hard as it is to believe, the same thing is true of us.  So let us mindfully reject all distractions from focusing on “the one thing needful” of hearing and obeying the Word of God, Who is born for our salvation at Christmas.  Now is the time to prepare to follow the Theotokos in becoming His holy temple even as we live and breathe in this world.  

Homily on the Great-Martyr Kyriaki of Nicomedia & Second Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church

 

Galatians 3:23-4:5; Matthew 4:18-23

            After our Lord’s victory over death at Pascha, He ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit upon His disciples and apostles at Pentecost.  Last week on the Sunday of All Saints, we commemorated all those who have participated personally in the holiness of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost and All Saints remind us that doing so is not a calling for a select few, but the common vocation of all who bear the divine image and likeness as unique, irreplaceable icons of Christ.  He calls us all to obey His commandment to the first apostles: “Follow Me.”

            We might find it hard to see how the Lord’s calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John has much to do with us.  We certainly do not somehow have to repeat their unique roles, but definitely must learn from their examples how to become fully receptive to the healing mercy of the Lord as we discern and obey His calling in our lives. Doing so is completely different from trying to use God to meet our personal needs or desires for anything in this world.  It has nothing to do with impressing other people or making us feel better about ourselves.  The Savior’s Cross demonstrates that following Him is in no way a path to conventional earthly power or glory. 

As living members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we have received the fullness of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit, poured out richly at Pentecost.  We are filled with the Spirit personally in Chrismation and nourished by the Savior’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He has called and empowered us to live each day of our lives as those who participate by grace in the life of the Holy Trinity.  To confront these truths is to know immediately how unworthy we are of such blessings and how far short we fall of living accordingly.  When we recall the Lord’s teaching that “to whom much is given, much will be required,” we should fall on our faces in repentance because of the great responsibility that is ours. (Lk 12:48) The Savior said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) He also said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn. 14:15) As the Lord told His disciples, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5: 20) Struggling to obey the Lord through daily prayer, regular fasting, generosity to those in need, and constant mindfulness are necessary for us to gain the spiritual clarity to discern and follow our path of obedience to the heavenly kingdom.  To identify ourselves as Orthodox Christians without embracing this difficult and humbling journey is nothing but self-righteous religious hypocrisy by which we will condemn only ourselves.  We will do the opposite of obeying the Lord’s command “Follow Me” if we entangle ourselves in the nets of spiritual pride, self-righteous judgment of our neighbors, and the idolatry of seeking first any kingdom other than that of our Lord.  Instead of attracting others to Christ like a beacon in the darkness, we will turn them away by our bad example and reveal how we have shut the doors of our hearts to the healing presence of the Holy Spirit. 

A shining example of someone who heard and obeyed Christ’s command is the Holy Great Martyr Kyriaki, who gave the ultimate witness by refusing to worship pagan gods and giving up her life after suffering brutal persecution by the pagan rulers of the Roman Empire.  A beautiful young virgin, Kyriaki came from a wealthy family, but she refused the offer of marriage to the son of a magistrate who wanted their money.  The magistrate then denounced the family as Christians to the Emperor Diocletian.  Even when offered great riches and marriage to one of the emperor’s relatives if she would worship the pagan gods, Kyriaki refused and miraculously survived horrible tortures from four different rulers.  The Lord appeared to her and healed her wounds.  The next day her prayers destroyed a pagan temple, and the wild beasts to which she was later thrown would not attack her. Kyriaki gave up her soul right before she was to be beheaded.

As we discern what it means to respond faithfully to the Lord’s calling in our lives, the example of St. Kyriaki should remind us that our hope for the healing of our souls does not lie in the pursuit of earthly possessions or success.   She had wealth from her family, great beauty, and a way to become powerful, prominent, and even wealthier by worshiping false gods.  The eye of her soul was so pure, however, that she knew Christ not as a mere religious figure from the past to be manipulated however she found useful, but instead truly as God.  Because she was filled with the Holy Spirit and radiant with the divine light, she saw clearly that the blessings of this life must not become idols that would turn her away from the Lord.  Because they are His gifts to us, she knew that we must offer them and ourselves faithfully to Christ, recognizing that there is nothing more important than seeking “first His Kingdom and His righteousness,” even to the point of enduring torture and death, as did her Lord. 

St. Kyriaki faced a clear choice between obeying the Lord’s calling to “Follow Me” and seeking first the power and glory of this world.  Where we tend to fall into trouble is when our choices are less clear, when the contrast between faithfulness and idolatry is not as stark.  It may seem unlikely that someone will promise us great wealth and power if we will deny Christ and worship another god.  Something very similar happens, however, when we confuse obedience to Christ with the service of conventional political or national agendas, as though His Kingdom would come when one faction imposed its will on another through whatever means necessary to save a nation or even the world.  Such false presentations of Christian mission are especially dangerous because they identify the way of our Lord and His Cross with the powerful temptation that He faced and clearly rejected:  to become a conventional political Messiah who would rule over an earthly kingdom by overthrowing the Romans with military might. He called the first apostles and Kyriaki to become martyrs who bore witness to His salvation by loving and forgiving their enemies as they remained faithful to their Lord, even to the point of death.  Their hope was not in some rearrangement of the powers that be, but in a Kingdom not of this world.   

 

Before their shining examples, we must bow in humility as we humbly embrace the basic spiritual disciplines that help us hear and discern how to obey His call to “Follow Me” in the particular circumstances of our lives.  We will find our salvation not by giving ourselves to any of the false gods of this world, but by taking up the crosses that are so obviously present in our lives each day.  We must not be distracted by idealistic dreams of any kind that divert our attention from faithfulness in the opportunities for obedience that are right before us.  For example, no one else is married to your spouse, is the father or mother of your children, or is the particular friend, worker, or parishioner that you are.  No one else has the vocation to serve Christ in those around you in the unique way that you do. No one else can resist your temptations or keep a close watch on the thoughts of your heart. The present circumstances of our lives present limitless opportunities to become fully receptive to the presence and peace of Holy Spirit.  None of us lacks anything at all that is necessary to grow in holiness, obey Christ’s calling, and draw others into the life of the Kingdom.  We are all without excuse in obeying our Lord’s command: “Follow Me.”

 

Homily for the Sunday of Forefathers (Ancestors) of Christ in the Orthodox Church

 

Colossians 3:4-11; Luke 14:16-24

              As we continue to prepare to welcome Christ into our lives and world at His Nativity, we must remain focused.  There is no shortage of distractions this time of year that appeal to our passions and threaten to convince us that there are matters more important than accepting His gracious invitation to enter fully into the joy of the banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven.  The  Savior calls us to embrace our true vocation not only during divine services or in the eschatological future, but in every moment of our lives.   

             The people in today’s gospel reading had made themselves deaf to the urgency of their calling, for they rejected the invitation to enter into the joy of the great banquet that represents the Kingdom of God.  They did so for the most mundane reasons:   One owned real estate, another had animals, and a third was married.  They somehow convinced themselves that the commonplace circumstance of having regular responsibilities justified their refusal.  After the invited guests refused to attend, the master commanded his servant to “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.”  Because there was still room, the master ordered him to go out even further to “the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”   Even as God wants all to be saved, the master in the parable wanted as many people as possible to share in the blessings of the festival.

           There may be deeper spiritual significance to the symbolism of the yoke of five oxen in the parable, for there are five books of law in the Old Testament.  Having a field of land may represent those who wanted the Messiah to set up a nationalistic religious kingdom on Earth.  Marriage may represent the belief that God’s blessings were only for their particular family line or ethnic group.  Many did reject our Lord because He interpreted the law in a way that challenged the authority of the Pharisees, rejected the temptation to become an earthly king of the Jews, and extended the blessing of His Reign even to foreigners and enemies.

           In the historical setting of the passage, “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” brought in from the streets to the great banquet represent the Gentiles, who were not the descendants of Abraham and did not know the law and prophets of the Old Testament.  Especially as we prepare for Christmas, we must remember that we are those with no ancestral claim to the blessings of the Messiah.  Our hope for entering into heavenly joy has nothing to do with having the right ethnic heritage or mastering a set of religious laws.  Apart from the mercy of the Savior, we would have no part in the great spiritual heritage of those who foreshadowed and foretold the coming of the Christ across the centuries before His birth.

           Those who looked forward in faith for God’s fulfillment of the promises to Abraham did not do so simply on the basis of the law, which came later through Moses.  The law was necessary for sinful people as a tutor in preparation for the coming of Christ.  The ancestors of the Lord hoped not merely for a great teacher, but for liberation from slavery to sin and death, which the law lacked the power to accomplish. The forefathers of the Savior trusted God that their hope would not be in vain.  The original promise to Abraham extended to the Gentiles, for God told him, “In you all the nations of the world will be blessed.”  (Gen. 22:18) Now all who are in Christ “are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29) Jew or Gentile, “those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” (Gal. 3:9) The Savior is born to bring all who bear the divine image and likeness into the joy of the heavenly banquet.

         The Hebrews of the Old Testament who prepared for the Messiah’s coming through faith did so of their own free will in response to their calling as the children of Abraham.  That is true also for the Theotokos, who is the highest offering of the Hebrew people and became God’s living temple in a unique way as His virgin mother.  She was chosen for this astounding vocation and responded in freedom to the message of the Archangel Gabriel.  No one forced her at all, but she chose to remain focused on hearing and obeying the Word of God.  Likewise, no one forces us, but we all have the ability to respond to Christ with the obedience of humble faith.

       Unfortunately, those who had convinced themselves that the normal cares of life excluded them from entering into the joy of the heavenly kingdom responded very differently.   As the master said in the parable, ‘”For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.”  Those who are chosen are those who follow the Theotokos’ example of making receptivity to Christ the top priority of their lives.  Like her, we must use our freedom as those who bear the image of God to seek first His Kingdom.   

         Contrary to some of our favorite excuses, the conventional responsibilities of life are in no way incompatible with uniting ourselves to Christ, for they provide opportunities to reorient the desires of our hearts to God as we love and serve Him in our neighbors.  Nothing but our own sinfulness keeps us from making our daily responsibilities points of entrance into eternal joy.  By mindfully offering them to God every day of our lives, we will gain the strength to obey St. Paul’s instruction to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  Family life, work, and the countless challenges of living faithfully in our culture present opportunities to find healing from “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk,” as well as lying.  This is possible not because we have fulfilled a list of legalistic requirements, but because in baptism we have “put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.” 

          As in the parable, “many are called, but few are chosen.”  As in the parable, many of us have become blind to the profound spiritual significance of living faithfully amidst our daily challenges.  Perhaps we have made work, school, family, our financial situation, or concerns about political or cultural issues into false gods that take precedence over our calling to share more fully in the life of the God-Man born at Christmas for our salvation.  We make the choice every day of our lives whether we are going to offer the blessings and struggles of this life to the Lord as opportunities for finding the healing of our souls or whether we are going to use them as excuses to become further enslaved to our passions.  The path we take will shape us decisively, leading us either into the joy of the heavenly kingdom or into the despair of those who have wasted their lives on what can never truly satisfy the living icons of God.  If we remain so enslaved to our passions that we refuse to welcome Christ into our hearts and lives with integrity on a daily basis, then we will shut ourselves out of the joy that He is born to bring to the world.  Before His holy glory, we are all “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” in need of His gracious healing mercy.

          Christ came to save us who are perpetually distracted by disordered desires in every area of our lives.  He calls us to learn to see all aspects of our life in this world as an invitation to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” with the humble trust that “all these things” we need “will be added unto you.”  (Matt. 6:33) That is our calling every day of our lives and especially now during the busy and often stressful last days before Christmas, when we must remain vigilantly on guard against every temptation to excuse ourselves from focusing on entering into the great joy of the feast of the Nativity in the Flesh of the Word of God. 

          What St. Porphyrios taught about the spiritual possibilities of our daily work applies to the rest of life in this and at all other times of the year:

At your work, whatever it may be, you can become saints—through meekness, patience and love.         Make a new start every day, with new resolution, with enthusiasm and love, prayer and silence—not with anxiety so that you get a pain in the chest.[1] Let your soul devote itself to the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” in all your worries, for everything and everyone.  Don’t look at what’s happening to you, look at the light, at Christ, just as a child looks to its mother when something happens to it. See everything without anxiety, without depression, without strain and without stress.[2]

During the remaining days of the Nativity Fast, let us refuse to exclude ourselves from the great joy of the heavenly banquet by focusing on Christ through prayer, fasting, generosity, confession, and repentance.  That is how we will gain the spiritual clarity to accept His gracious invitation to the blessedness of the heavenly banquet, where “there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] St. Porphyrios, Wounded by Love, 144.

[2] St. Porphyrios, 145.

Becoming Living Temples of Christ, Who Is Our Peace: Homily for the Twenty-fourth Sunday After Pentecost & Ninth Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church

 

Ephesians 2:14-22; Luke 12:16-21

 Having begun the Nativity Fast on November 15 in preparation to welcome the Savior at Christmas, today we anticipate the Feast of the Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos. Her elderly parents Joachim and Anna offered Mary to God by taking her to live in the Temple in Jerusalem as a young girl, where she grew up in prayer and purity as she prepared to become the Living Temple of the Lord in a unique and extraordinary way as His Virgin Mother.  This feast directs us to the good news of Christmas, as it is the first step in Mary’s life in becoming the Theotokos who gave birth to the Son of God for our salvation. 

Joachim and Anna had a long and difficult period of preparation to become parents, as they had been unable to have children for decades until God miraculously blessed them in old age to conceive.  They knew that their daughter was a blessing not simply for the happiness of their family, but for playing her part in fulfilling God’s purposes for the salvation of the world   Their patient faithfulness throughout their years of barrenness helped them gain the spiritual clarity to offer her to the Lord.  They knew that their marriage and family life were not simply about fulfilling their desires, but were blessings to be given back to God for the fulfillment of much higher purposes. 

Joachim, Anna, and the Theotokos are the complete opposites of the rich man in today’s gospel reading.  His only concern was to eat, drink, and enjoy himself because he had become so wealthy.  He was addicted to earthly pleasure, power, and success, and saw the meaning and purpose of his life only in those terms.  When God required his soul, however, the man’s true poverty was revealed, for the possessions and accomplishments of this life inevitably pass away and cannot save us.  This man’s horizons extended no further than his dreams of the large barns he planned to build in order to hold his crops.  Before the ultimate judgment of God, he was revealed to be a fool who had wasted his life on what could never truly heal or fulfill one who bore the divine image and likeness.  He had laid up treasure for himself, but was not rich toward God in any way. The problem was not simply that the man had possessions, but that he had made them his god, which is another way of saying that he worshipped only himself and surely was not concerned about the needs of his neighbors.  His barns were a temple of the greed to which he had offered his entire existence in a vain effort to satisfy his self-centered desires.   

In stark contrast, the Theotokos followed the righteous example of her parents.  She was prepared by a life of holiness to agree freely to become our Lord’s mother, even though she was an unmarried virgin who did not understand how such a thing could happen.  When she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” this young Palestinian Jewish girl bravely made a whole, complete offering of her life to God.  She did not ask what was in it for her in terms of money, power, or any kind of earthly success.  Unlike the rich fool in the parable, she was not blinded by passion and had the purity of soul to put receptivity to the Lord before all else.

The world is full of tragic circumstances today that are caused by people who are so enslaved to their self-centered desires that they think nothing is more important than doing whatever it takes to gratify their lust for possessions, power, and pleasure.   But even if they succeed in gaining the whole world, they will lose their souls because they have offered themselves to false gods which lack the power to heal people from the ravages of sin, let alone to raise anyone up from the tomb.   Those who serve such idols inevitably lack peace within their souls and act in ways that make peace with their neighbors, especially those they consider their enemies, impossible.   

In today’s epistle reading, St. Paul taught the Ephesians that “Christ is our peace, Who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.”  That is why Gentile Christians are now also part of the holy temple “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone…”  Though we had been “strangers” to the blessed heritage of the Hebrews, we are now built into the living temple of Christ’s Body, the Church, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Too many people today insist on preserving whatever “dividing wall of hostility” they can use to promote their vain desires for power, wealth, and other signs of worldly success.  Doing so  enables them to justify in their own minds how they refuse to pursue reconciliation with those who pose real or imagined threats to their dreams of earthly glory.  There are ways to “eat, drink, and be merry” that have nothing to do with food and beverage, but everything to do with impoverishing our souls by indulging in self-centeredness to the point that we cannot even imagine living according to the good news that Christ “has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” and brought peace to those “who were far off, and peace to those who were near.”

The Jewish Messiah Whose ministry extended to Samaritans, Roman centurions, Gentiles, the poor, the sick, the demon-possessed, and those viewed as hopeless cases of depravity has brought all with faith in Him into His Body, the Church, the living temple of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.  He worked that reconciliation through His great Self-offering on the Cross by which He has released us from bondage to the fear of death through His glorious resurrection on the third day.  If we want to pursue reconciliation with those we consider our enemies concerning any matter in this world, we must embrace our true identity as “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.”  We must find healing for our souls as we embrace our identity as a holy temple of the Lord.  We must reorient the desires of our hearts toward His Kingdom and away from any version of worldly glory.  In other words, we must become like the Theotokos who offered herself fully and without reservation to receive the Savior.  We enter into His peace not by gaining wealth, power, or victory over enemies, but by offering ourselves to Him with complete receptivity, as she did.  

We are now in the Nativity Fast, the 40-day period during which we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Savior at Christmas.   The weeks of Advent call us to wrestle with the passions that threaten to make us so much like the rich fool that we become blind to the healing and peace brought by our Lord.  Far from obsessing about earthly cares and indulging in the richest and most satisfying foods, this is a season for fasting, confessing and repenting of our sins, giving generously to the needy, and intensifying our prayers.  It is a time for preparing to open our hearts to receive Christ more fully into our lives at His Nativity.  

 The Theotokos entered the Temple, living there for years in preparation to become the Son of God’s Living Temple through whom He took on flesh. The Nativity Fast provides us blessed opportunities to become more like that obscure Palestinian Jewish girl who said “Yes!” to God with every ounce of her being.  It calls us to become more like Joachim and Anna in the patient trust in God that enabled them to offer their long-awaited daughter to Him.  They show us how to enter the Temple by embracing the difficult struggle of learning to offer ourselves and all our blessings fully to the Lord. It is only by following their righteous example that we will gain the spiritual clarity to provide the world a much-needed sign that the Savior born at Christmas truly “has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” that we know all to well.   Let us use these weeks to find healing for our passions as we embrace our true identity as “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”