Saint Vladimir's Seminary Has Great Food!

Chef Nat Fasciani's Delicious Fare Sustains Faculty, Students, and Staff

A member of the community at St. Vladimir's Seminary recently wrote a note to Chef Nat Fasciani, who caters and prepares all the food served at SVOTS, whether it be for special events or refectory meals. "Your delicious food is becoming famous among our guests!" she enthused, and anyone who has visited the Seminary in recent years would have to agree. While he works behind the scenes, Chef Nat is nevertheless recognized as being one of the Seminary's chief assets. Watch for the upcoming release of his SVS Press cookbook titled When You Feast, which will be a companion title to the best-selling cookbook, When You Fast: Recipes for Lenten Seasons.

Recently Svots.edu captured a few moments with Chef Nat while he was working in his beautifully appointed office in the Germack Building.

November, 2012: Cardinal Dolan thanks Chef Nat for his delicious cuisineTell us a little about your family and your professional background.
I was born and raised in Abruzzo, Pescara, on the eastern shores of Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea, and I lived there until I was 11 years old. Family and work brought my father to Yonkers, New York, and he is now living in New Rochelle (a neighboring town).

After college I began my career working in the banking industry, but throughout my school days I had always worked in restaurants, first waiting tables then working my way up to cooking in the kitchen. My whole family is into food, and I come from a background full of good cooks. I started to really like working with food, and at some point, turned it into my career! My first business was called Cosmos Deli and Catering; I eventually sold that business and opened up Adriano Catering, which I still own. There is always something to do and I love being busy—busy is good!

How did you come to be here at St. Vladimir's, and what is the scope of your job?
My company was doing a job here, and the people at the Seminary loved my service and food! One conversation led to the next. The Seminary wasn't happy with their cook, which they'd obtained through an agency, so they made me an offer: I tried it, I loved it, and in May 2006, we signed the contract.

My obligations at SVOTS are varied. I am the food administrator for the refectory, but also the caterer for all the special events, from the beginning of semester through the end of June. I am responsible for all the refectory meals, all the functions, meetings, special, anything that has to do with food on campus!

I do hire people as needed, and my wife and family help me too. Of course we have a large kitchen crew consisting of the students who live at Germack, usually the ones in their first year. We have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner crew, plus students who clean up, so the kitchen crew is about 20 people. I don't have to physically be here for all of breakfast, lunch, and dinner—it's more an administrative job for some meals, since I'm not cooking every meal.Chef Nat with his signature pie, Thanksgiving 2011

I get the new students every year, and every day we work together. We become friends and it's like a family here. It can be challenging to break them in at first, because they are all different ages and nationalities, whether Russian, Polish, from the Middle East or Serbia, or from all parts of the U.S.

What kinds of food is on the menu at St. Vladimir's?
I find it satisfying and challenging to please everyone, so we try different foods for all the different kinds of tastes: Japanese, Chinese, French. When there are special requests, I try to please when I can. I do plan all the menus—A to Z, they have to go through me! Food is so important and is the source of energy for everyone on campus, so I make sure that everything is fresh and good, from Sunday to Saturday.

Of course, I keep the church calendar handy to help me plan. There are a lot vegetarian and vegan days, especially during the Lenten season. Then people also have allergies and other issues, so it can be complicated!

Several people who graduated several years ago and have come back to visit campus, have said, "It wasn't like this when I was here!" Giving everyone good nourishing food is my top priority.

There are many events in the course of the school year—which have been some of your most memorable?
I've had the pleasure of meeting Cardinal Dolan when he was here, and we had the feast for the whole community after Hurricane Sandy. Before him, I met Cardinal O'Connor when he was on campus, and Archbishop Rowan Williams was an interesting man to meet. Ed Day has been a big event: all the food is finished in my kitchen under my supervision, and it requires a a week of prep work. We serve international food to 1500-2000 people in the tents. For Pascha, all day Saturday is prep work. I go home, come back around midnight, and the food is pumped out at 3 a.m. It's fun—after such a long time of Lent, they look forward to all the meat!

The Thanksgiving dinner is a big job—what's nice about that is that the faculty are serving the students, we have a great time during that. Every year we host several cookouts with the entire campus, including faculty and staff. We do them outside on the lawn, and everyone plays outdoor games. Everyone is friendly and the neighborhood beautiful and well maintained. It's one huge family here!

What about your role as St. Vladimir's Chef and Caterer is especially stressful, or especially rewarding?

I work better under stress, so I have no problem dealing with the last minute changes. When events are getting rained out, for instance, I step back, refocus, and just make it work! Like a captain of a ship I have to stay calm—if a captain of the ship panics, what happens with the rest of the crew? When you have 20, 30 people working for you, someone has to be in charge and take over.

I think my favorite thing about working here is the environment and these people. I also enjoy the fun events like the cook off fundraiser we had a few years ago between Fr. Alexander Rentel and Bishop Benjamin. The installation of Fr. Chad Hatfield and Fr. John Behr as Chancellor and Dean was also memorable—I fed 300 people dinner during that event. After all, good food is what people remember, and what makes the best first impression! 

The Enthronement Speech of His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East

We thank the Lord our God who allowed us, in the two previous months, to celebrate His appearance in the flesh as man and His manifestation as God coming to save us. After Jesus has fulfilled His plan of salvation by dying on the cross and rising from the dead, and after He ascended in the flesh to heaven from whence He had descended, sitting on the right hand of the Father, He prayed the Father to send the Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of each of us. Everyone who desires this and wants the Spirit to dwell in him does this so that Jesus may appear to him, and also that he might be reminded of the Lord’s sayings and teachings. The Holy Spirit shows us Jesus Christ, at first in the Church, which is His Body and which He wanted to be “a glorious church, with neither stains, wrinkles, nor any such thing” (Eph. 5: 27). It also makes Him present in the Church through the word of His Gospel, in the Body and Blood of His Eucharist, in His meeting with His brothers who gathered in His Name, as well as in every human being - especially in the poor, the homeless and the broken hearted, in whom He accepted to dwell. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus wherever it dawns, making Him present yet veiled in all religions and all cultures. 

Jesus, Emmanuel, is always present here and everywhere, present among us. He is always with us, ready to meet us. He rejoices in our joys, He revels in our holiness, and He weeps with us when we are troubled and sorrowed. He also cries when, as shepherds and flock, we neglect to live according to His teachings, and whenever our sins mar His bleeding, yet glorious face, and thus veil the world from seeing Him in His Church, and through us. 

Brethren, let us on this blessed day, when the cross of shepherding the great and glorious Church of Antioch is entrusted to me, join hands that together we may live its glory and reveal it to all. This happens when we listen together to Jesus, and when we pray daily: “teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God” (Psalm 142: 10). 

God is not pleased to see that the unity He wants for His people is shattered, and that His flock is divided into many factions. We, together, constitute the people of God, a charismatic people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Each of us must realize the gifts given to him by the Spirit in the service of others. The shepherd is the first servant who sacrifices himself for his flock; he knows each of them by name, like the Good Shepherd who gave his life for all. The shepherd does not command “as if he was an autocrat” (Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians 3:1), as the great St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote in his letter to the people of Ephesus. The shepherd orders by love and sacrifice. He orders by the cross which he willingly climbs, as his Lord did before. He observes the talents of his flock. He recognizes the good in them to enhance it. He calls us all to participate in the Kingdom’s Design that starts here on this earth, in the Church. And then the flock should put all their resources and their powers at the service of the Church, our true mother. In this way the face of Christ will be revealed under the leadership of the bishop who steadfastly calls for love, service and “cooperation”, “For one is your Master and all ye are brethren” (Mt. 23: 8). Let us practice this brotherhood in mutual respect and rise above ourselves, as our Lord has done by loving us unto death. 

God is not pleased to see His Church which is called upon to care for all —not caring enough about the poor, those little ones whom He loved, and not treating them as its priority and the priority of its institutions. Jesus desires that no one should suffer from poverty, especially when He knows that we ourselves have the necessary means and resources. Why don’t we set as our goal what St. John Chrysostom, the great shepherd from Antioch, taught us: “Do not possess anything that you have. What you have belongs to the others. It is yours and your neighbour’s as well, like the sun, the air and the earth” (Homily n. 20 on the Epistle to the Corinthians). 

Jesus suffers when He sees many of us, and especially the young, drift away, leave the flock or become indifferent. Regaining them must be our utmost priority. Thus, we will rejoice at the return of the prodigal son and that he may resume his place in the work of the Church. Why don’t we seriously ponder the real reasons behind the emigration of our young? Why don’t we develop the methods of our pastoral care that we may reach them, not only with words, but through liturgical revival, and through the teaching that refocuses on the core of our tradition and liberates some of our practices from monotony? We have to find a way that enables them to touch the depths of our inspirational Liturgy, to let them inhale from it, and show them that it will open many opportunities for them to enter into God’s and their brethren’s hearts. We face the huge task of modernising the practice of our pastoral care and of our educational programs. Such a task requires the participation of the priest, the monk, the nun, and the lay men and women. The task has to be founded on the knowledge of the theologian, the specialization of the educator, and on the labor of workers in the pastoral field as well. 

Indeed, our youth are the treasure of our Church. They are its ambassadors in this rapidly changing world. We want them to assume the role of ambassadors in a serious way. We want them to know that the whole Church needs their enthusiasm and commitment. It needs their readiness to consecrate their lives for a goal they want to achieve. We have to make them aware of their special role in the Church of Christ “who loved the rich young man” and was saddened by his departure. The young are rich in their modern outlook, in their passion, and in the many gifts that God bestowed upon them. We need them and urge them, through our love, to always work in the Church’s workshop and to consider themselves responsible for it along with their brothers, and especially those whom God has called upon to watch over His flock. If we love them the way Christ loves them, then our relationship with them would become one of brotherhood, love and mutual respect. In this way they will overcome every contradiction between obedience and authority and will live as the children of one family, obeying those who obey Jesus Christ. Thus, authority becomes obedience and obedience becomes a loving authority. 

God is not pleased when He sees us clinging to the letter of things, emptying the letter from spirit and life. We know that the Church is alive by the Holy Spirit, and through ‘Which’, it has survived throughout history. Ecclesial Tradition is not something motionless or stagnant but a tool of salvation and a way to understand the divine sacrament. We live at a time where tradition is often rejected, and this negatively affects our youth. Our Church is concerned with the developments of our time because Jesus Christ wants it to be His witness at all times. Following up on a time like ours requires wiping off the dust that, due to our sins, has accumulated on our tradition throughout the centuries. It also requires working to reveal what is authentic in it. Modernity is a blessing that calls us to revive the fundamentals of our worship and teachings, and also to differentiate between the one Holy Tradition and the many secondary traditions and practices to which we often cling. The witness of the Church, at this age, is to discern and make choices. Modernity offers many opportunities. We must resort to the good in it to regain our people who are getting increasingly attracted by prevailing globalization. Our Church must not fear to use the methods available in our time to modernise its practices, to build bridges towards its children, and to learn to speak their language. This is what the holy fathers did when they used Greek philosophy, which was widespread in their time, to convey the message of the Gospel in a language that the people understood. We have to follow their example if we are to remain faithful in transmitting the message. The challenge lies in making the life of Jesus Christ glow in our faces, in our worship, and in all the aspects of our Church that the people may find their salvation in it. Finally, renewal is not only to modernise the texts and to make them understandable in the language of our time, but to renew the human soul and bring it closer to the face of Jesus. All its attention must be in His direction. Only then will modernisation interact with the human heart and lead to the salvation of man. 

Needless to say, the Lord is saddened by the violence and killing now permeating many regions, as is now happening in Syria. We have there members of our Church who have been forced to leave their homes and towns; they have become jobless, they have lost their means of livelihood. Love is the enemy of death and of violence wherever they may come from. We have to consider the cause of the homeless as our cause and help those who suffer from this tragic situation. We have to show them our love, to consecrate ourselves to comfort them. Jesus suffers in each one of them; do we see Him in them? Shouldn’t we consecrate ourselves to serve them by donating a part of what we own to them? Shouldn’t we be ‘the administrators of divine matters’, as the great Antiochian St. Maximos the Confessor said? In this respect, we have to carry the cross of our country and to pray and work for reconciliation, brotherhood, peace, freedom and justice in our region, categorically refusing all kinds of violence and hatred. 

Jesus is undoubtedly saddened when He sees some of us, shepherds and flock, behaving in a way totally strange to the spirit of His Gospel. Such behavior transforms our character and becomes a stumbling block in guiding people to imitate Jesus and espouse His ethos. Hence, we have no choice but to repent as persons and as a community, and to rely fully on God, seeking His forgiveness, and trusting that He will guide us to His path. “He who longs after God and finds his ease and comfort in Him, God can be seen in him for God is in all His creatures”, according to St. John of Damascus. 

Here we appreciate the importance of a good clerical education that will provide us with shepherds who will live and behave according to God’s will, who will be committed to the mission of Priesthood and who will participate in the Church’s work. Therefore, I call our youth to approach this ecclesiastical service with humility, steadfastness and boundless love for God, remembering the Lord’s saying to Peter: “If you love me, feed my sheep” (John 21: 15). To help those priests in fulfilling their mission and succeeding in it, we ought to support them and assure them a decent life. The community has a major role to play in this regard. 

The monastic movement plays a central role in the revival of the Church and in its spiritual life. We are thankful that in the past fifty years and with the help of God, we have regained in our Patriarchate, these “spiritual oases”, the monastic orders that arose in the first centuries of Christianity. We need monasteries with members who truly live brotherly communion in prayer, spiritual exercise and physical work, thus carrying us with them in their prayers. We are certain that their fervent prayers will protect the entire world and will strengthen the Church in fulfilling its mission. 

Jesus wants everything among us to be performed decently, wisely, in an orderly manner and abiding by the rules. We respect our institutions and our laws, and we try to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of their proper implementation. Canons are not rigid laws. They are an expression of the life of the Church and of its relationship with its Lord. In addition, we should enable the institutions established by our ancestors, with the grace of God, to be more conscious of the challenges of the modern consumer society. These institutions should continue to inhale from our tradition and from the Spirit manifested in it. If we do that, then the dialogue with the world will become easier and our children will be better equipped to face the challenges of modernity. They will also get acquainted, without fear, with its positive aspects. The only reason for justifying the existence of an institution in the Church is to witness to Jesus and to spread His teachings in its own way, although it may have other important social and cultural roles to play as well. 

Jesus wants his Church to be the light of the world, and the light should not be hidden. It should illuminate the minds and hearts of our people. We have to mobilize all our resources and activate all our brethren to serve their mother, our Antiochian church, that it may preserve its shining light ignited in the past by our Apostolic See. In this respect, we recall the important role of St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology and of the University of our Orthodox Church, the University of Balamand, in renewing the pastoral vision, in offering new possibilities, and in helping to find the right responses to the urgent challenges facing our generation, as well as our institutions. 

We please the Lord when we work as shepherds and flock in strengthening the unity of the Orthodox churches, in helping them in the realisation of the awaited Great Holy Synod, and in resolving the challenges facing it. We cannot, in this respect, forget the basic role of the Church of Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As for us, in Antioch, we shall remain a bridge of communication among all, and supporters of all decisions taken by consensus of all the churches working together. We are also committed to finding solutions that will manifest the face of Jesus in His Church, for the salvation of the world, setting aside all divisive material and mundane concerns. 

Jesus cries when He witnesses the divisions in the Christian world, and the distance among its members, as well as the recent weakening of ecumenical work. We have to pray with Jesus and all brothers belonging to Him, that “the unity Christ wills might grow” (John 17: 1). We must understand that this unity is a necessary condition “that the world may believe” (John 17: 21). The drifting of the people away from faith, their disinterest in God’s love, their reliance on a world without the God who created them in His own image, calling them to His likeness, and offering them a way toward deification, is disturbing. These tendencies urge us to try and instill harmony between the Eastern and Western churches and to strengthen cooperation in the fields of ministry and pastoral care. We need to encourage dialogue, to get to know each other better, and to take daring religious initiatives so that we may reach, in God’s good time, the communion in the one chalice. We may then tell those who ask about our faith: “come and see” (John 1: 46), come and see how our love for each other stems from our love for the One who loved us and gave His life for all. 

God is not pleased to see co-existence with non-Christians with whom we share the same country regress and even vanish here and there for various reasons, for reasons of politics, or for fundamentalist tendencies, that have nothing to do with religion. Love does not know fear or hostility: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast… It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil…” (1 Co 13: 4-8). Love is our byword and our weapon. We, the Antiochians, are an Eastern church; its roots go deep in the history of our region. Along with our Muslim brothers, we are the sons and daughters of this good earth. God wanted us in it to witness to His Holy Name, and in it we must stay, encouraging decent and respectful co-existence, refusing all kinds of hatred, fear and arrogance. To my Muslim brothers I proclaim, we are not only partners in the land and in its destiny, for together we have built the civilization of this land and shared in the making of its culture and history. Let us therefore work together in preserving this precious heritage. We are also partners in worshipping the one God, the true God, the light of the heavens and of the earth. 

We are a church and not just one confession among others. The Church includes the confession and does not deny it, but the Church is not a confession whose concerns stop at its boundaries without thinking of the others. This is so because our Lord asked us to love everyone and to seek the common good. This does not mean that we should neglect the concerns of the community that constitutes the social environment of our church. We have to care, according to an open evangelical spirit, about all its components. We continuously pray for all its members because this is how we “lead them to God” (St. Ignatius of Antioch). We want to listen to them and try to solve their problems and difficulties. We know that many of their members emigrate because they are afraid and anxious about their fate; they emigrate searching for a better life. The Church must deal seriously with these problems which are at the heart of its mission, using all available capacities, resources and endowments to help its children stay in this region. As for those who have already emigrated or are about to emigrate, the Church must find adequate ways to shepherd them abroad, in their respective Antiochian archdioceses. We must always call them to be “imitators of Christ even as He is of his Father” (St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Letter to the Philadelphians 7: 2), reminding them that they are all “fellow-travelers and God-bearers” (St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Letter to the Ephesians 9: 2). Without God and without returning to Him in total humility, all human associations are in vain, with no present and no future. 

My brothers, my sons, our common concern is to please God. This is the main challenge that members of the Holy Antiochian Synod, and our archdioceses in the homeland and abroad, our sons and daughters, and all members of our Church will have to face. The Antiochian See is one and we will continue to work that it may remain united and continue to shine even brighter. Our archdioceses are and should be open to each other and should cooperate at all levels. They should be open to the other Orthodox churches, to the sister Christian churches, and to all people of good will. The goal of our Antiochian Patriarchate is to ensure that Christ is not ashamed of us. Rather, we have to stand united together in love in order to fulfill this goal. Help me to reach this goal, that our church may shine by His light and may serve as a vehicle of peace, brotherhood and cooperation. It is this goal that will ultimately salvage our deteriorating world and infuse it with meaning. We know well that this meaning is in us, but it is often hidden behind our passions and sins. I humbly and collegially call upon all our archdioceses to actively congregate and wipe off the dust of the precious jewel entrusted to them. Through joint solidarity and participation of all members of these archdioceses, we shall together bear witness to the One God who redeemed us with His precious blood, and who wants the Antiochian Church, where we were first called Christians, to recover the leading role it played in its glorious history.

Visit the website of the enthronement of His Beatitude Patriarch John X here.

http://www.antiochian.org/content/enthronement-speech-his-beatitude-john-x-patriarch-antioch-and-all-east

Christian Refugees from the Middle East Head to Russia

» 02/05/2013 10:18
RUSSIA
Syrian and Coptic Christians fleeing to Moscow, but Russia lacks shelters

by Nina Achmatova

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Syrian-and-Coptic-Christians-fleeing-to-Moscow,-but-Russia-lacks-shelters-27050.html

Human rights activists denounce inadequate facilities for the reception of immigrants and the bureaucratic obstacles.

A Copt tells AsiaNews of death threats of the Muslim Brotherhood for failing to convert to Islam.

Moscow (AsiaNews) – A flow of refugees from Syria and Egypt is pouring into Moscow to escape from wars and violence in their country of origin bringing to light the inadequacy of facilities for the reception of immigrants in Russia.

The complaint has been made by a veteran in migrant assistance, the president of the ‘Civic Assistance Committee’, Svetlana Gannushkina. In the past week a family of 10 Coptic Christians, including a child a few months old, presented themselves in their office. The family say they fled religious persecution from Islamist groups taking place in Marsa Matrouh, near the border with Libya. “They threatened us with death if we didn’t convert and make our women and girls wear a veil,” Reda, 26, who fled with his 19 year old pregnant wife told AsiaNews.

“After the revolution many activists of the Muslim Brotherhood came – added his brother Viktor, 30, – who put pressure on us Christians to convert. Our problems started already in late 2011, but are getting worse. ‘Last year, after an argument with the principal of the school who wanted to force my daughter to wear the hijab, we were told that the presence of Christians in the city was no longer welcome. ” “We sought shelter with a local priest – he concluded – but his church had already been burned once and so he did not want to further expose himself to attack.”

Now all 10 Egyptians, plus Iraqis and Sudanese, are forced to live in a room of 20 square meters, with only a few chairs and a table, because there is no temporary accommodation center for immigrants waiting to receive refugee status in the city.

“Everyone is waiting for an answer from the Federal Service for immigration – Gannushkina , who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times told AsiaNews, – which must decide on their possible transfer to Ochyor, in Perm region, where there is one of only three reception centres for refugees in the entire country.”

The process, however, can last for weeks and the authorities have not thought of any temporary accommodation for these people, who do not have a place to live.”The problem is much worse for the Copts – said Gannushkina – because for them here, unlike Syrians, there is no large community or network of countrymen ready to open their homes.” “It is winter, and in these conditions they are likely to die of exposure – she added – so we are forced to accommodate
these people in our offices, but they are not adequate facilities.” The small child Cirillus, who arrived with his mother, father and sister also from Marsa Matrouh, is already sick and was visited by doctors from Doctors Without Borders.

Last year 700 people turned for help to ‘Civil Assistance’, including 80 Egyptian Copts. The new arrivals are in addition to about 30 Syrians who in January of this year already made a request to Moscow for refugee status. One hundred Syrians arrived in the last six months of 2012.

Reception centers for refugees fleeing persecution and war are provided in all countries that have signed the UN Convention on Refugees. In Russia – denounced the Gannushkina – formally, there are three centers, but in fact only one works, that of Ochyor for more than 80 people. “This integration does not exist and the sanitary conditions are very bad,” she added.

According to rumors circulating in the press and among NGOs, the Immigration Service is considering even closing it down. The other two centers are located one in the Tver Region and the other in the south of Rostov, but are not working at full capacity. “In a country as large as Russia three centers for immigrants is virtually nothing, if you think that Poland, which much smaller than us, has 11,” added Gannushkina, who has always declared that if she ever wins the Nobel she will allocate the prize money to building at least another refugee centre near Moscow.

Good Stewardship and Abundant Life: Orthodox Homily on Investing our Lives in the Kingdom of God

2 Timothy 2:1-10

Matthew 25:14-30           

        Today’s gospel text describes what three servants did with the talents, the large sums of money, entrusted to them by their master when he went away on a long journey. The one given five talents invested wisely and produced five more.  The one given two talents did the same and earned two more.  They both doubled their money and earned the praise of their master when he returned.  But the man who received one talent was so afraid of losing what the master had entrusted to him that he simply buried the money in the ground and gained no profit at all. The master was not pleased by this third servant, for at least he could have put the money in the bank and earned interest.  So he took away his talent and gave it to the first servant.             The parable ends with the statement that “to everyone who has, more will be given and he will have abundance, but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”

            Jesus Christ told this story as a reminder of the importance of being a faithful steward of our lives and of all our blessings.   God has given life to us all along with various gifts and abilities. He wants us to invest our time, energy, attention, and talents wisely in ways that help us to grow more fully in the divine likeness, to become more perfectly the sons and daughters of God we were created to be.  He calls us to an abundant life that bears fruit for the Kingdom, blesses others, and becomes a sign of the salvation of the world.

            Maybe we cannot imagine that our lives could ever have that significance.  Perhaps we are so afraid of losing control, falling short, and being rejected that we would rather play it safe.  The problem is that staying exactly as we have been never works.  If we are so afraid of losing our money that we literally bury it in the ground, we will have less than when we started out due to inflation.  In a marriage or a family, to try to keep things exactly as they are and never to grow in love is simply to weaken our relationships and ourselves.  If we are not advancing in the Christian life, we are actually losing ground.  Staying put is like burying our talents in the dirt, where they do not even earn the tiny bit of interest that they would in a bank.

            St. Paul reminded St. Timothy to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”  He compared his calling to that of a soldier who endures hardship and has to stay clear of anything that distracts him from dedicated service.  St. Paul also used an athletic example, for athletes must compete according to the rules in order to win a competition.  The farmer has to work in hard and disciplined ways in order to enjoy the fruits of his labors.  And St. Paul himself endured imprisonment and ultimately a martyr’s death for the sake of Christ and His Church.

            The Apostle was certainly a good steward of his talents, literally pouring out his life for the Lord and for his spiritual children.  He pressed on until he finished the race and joined that great cloud of witnesses that inspires and encourages us to follow their example of holiness.  He had to be as dedicated as a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer, for success in those occupations requires constant vigilance and dedication to improve.  We could say the same about any important endeavor, for we have to pay attention, discipline ourselves, and do what it takes to do a better job. 

            The same is true for each of us every day as we seek to live as followers of Jesus Christ.  We have all received a great gift simply by being made in God’s image and likeness, by being alive as human beings.  As Orthodox Christians, we have been born again in the waters of baptism, filled with the Holy Spirit in chrismation, and nourished with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  We have benefited from the teaching, examples, and prayers of all the holy people who have gone before us.  In so many areas of our lives, a great many people have helped us in some way.  Indeed, it would be impossible to list fully all the ways we have been blessed or all the capabilities that even one human being has. God sustains our life in ways too numerous and wonderful to count.

            The question that we all face, however, is what will we do with our blessings and ourselves.  Too often, we refuse to open our eyes to the great dignity that is ours in Christ.  Instead of recognizing that we are stewards of magnificent gifts, we rest content with being slaves to our own bad habits and distorted relationships.  We define ourselves as victims at the mercy of this or that personal weakness or of the bad deeds of others or of impersonal forces in the world over which we have no control.  There is some truth in those descriptions, for we remain shackled and weakened in important ways by our diseases of body and soul, as well as by the various forms that corruption takes in our world.  

            Nevertheless, the most fundamental truth of what it means to be a human being in God’s image and likeness remains unchanged.  Jesus Christ is the Second Adam and in Him we are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” (1 Pet. 2:9)  Despite our weaknesses of body, soul, and spirit, despite all the problems of the world, we are truly members of His Body and called to grow into the full stature of Christ.  No, that is not really easy calling.  Yes, there are obstacles of all kinds that will get in our way.  But to allow those dangers to keep us from investing our lives fully in the way that Christ has made available to us is nothing put a path to destruction, weakness, and despair.  Remember that the fearful servant buried his talent in the ground and ended up losing it anyway.  That same will be true of our lives if we refuse to offer them to the Lord, if we refuse to invest them in the life of the Kingdom.

            We may think that our talents are small and unimportant.  We may feel so overwhelmed by this or that issue in our lives we do not see how we could have the time or energy to take on a new spiritual struggle.  But let’s not let ourselves off the hook so easily.  For the real question is not what’s easier at the moment, but what kind of life do we want to lead, what kind of people do we want to be.  Some things are worth the effort, the sacrifice, and the self-discipline.  Do we want the abundant life in Christ that triumphs even over the grave, that leads martyrs to lay down their lives with joy, and that enables countless perfectly ordinary people to endure the daily struggles, pains, and frustrations of life in the world as we know it with confident hope for God’s presence, mercy, and strength?

            If so, then we should do what we already know we should do; there’s nothing secret about it at all.  We invest our lives in the Kingdom by prayer, fasting, generosity to the needy, repentance, forgiveness, reading the Scriptures, the lives of the Saints, and other spiritually beneficial writings, and doing whatever we are able to do in the service of the Church, our neighbors, and anyone who is in need in any way.  Being a good steward does not require heroics or extraordinary feats of asceticism, but it does require offering our blessings back to God, the One who gave them to us in the first place, for the fulfillment of His purposes.  As hard as it is to believe, our good stewardship of our talents is part of the salvation of the world, the edification of the Church, and the coming of the Kingdom. By being faithful in small things each day, we will find an abundant life that overflows with blessings and brings us into the joy of the Lord.     

                 

  

             

           

Orthodox Christian Homily on the Greatest Commandments: Love of God and Neighbor

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew 22:35-46

            If you’re like me, you sometimes lose perspective on what is most important in life.  We get so busy, so distracted, and so worried about what is going on around us at the moment at home, at work, or wherever that we sometimes lose sight of the big picture, and instead focus on small things that aren’t really crucial.  So we end up wasting our time and energy on what really isn’t very important.

            The Pharisees were experts at missing the big picture, especially of interpreting the Old Testament law in such rigid detail that they ignored the true point of the commandments.  When one of them asked the Lord to name the greatest commandment in the law, he was apparently trying to trap Christ in a complicated argument.  But the Lord wasn’t about to play that game; He wasn’t about to waste time and energy in pointless speculation that served only to confuse people.  Instead, He got to the heart of the matter:  He quoted from the book of Deuteronomy, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  That fundamental, and often overlooked, central teaching of the Jewish faith is the first and great commandment, according to Christ. 

            But our Savior wasn’t done yet.  He added a second commandment “that is like it,” taken from the book of Leviticus:  ”You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  And He concluded that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.  In other words,  the  10 Commandments given to Moses and all the other legal material of the Old Testament, together with all the prophetic teachings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos and the rest of the prophets, grow from these two basic commandments:  to love God with every ounce of our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

            Jesus Christ got to the heart of the matter, for He knew that the law and the prophets were intended to direct the people to communion with God, to loving fellowship and union with Him which would include their relationships with one another.  Remember His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:  Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.  In other words, those who are blessed in the eternal life of the Kingdom are those who have been purified by the love of God to the depths of their souls and who show that love in their relationships with others.

            No, Christ did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them.  He called His followers, and He calls us, to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.  That doesn’t mean that we will follow more laws than they did, but that the meaning and purpose of the Law will be fulfilled in us:  that we will grow in the likeness of God, that we will be united fully with Him through love; that His love will overflow into every relationship that we have and will become present in the world through us.   In other words, we will become holy through the love of God and neighbor; indeed, that’s what true holiness means, to be purified in love and union with God and with one another. 

            Though we may not yet have the eyes to see it, our entire life in the Church—and every bit of our life in the world as Christians—presents an opportunity to grow in holiness through the love of God and neighbor.  Indeed, that’s the point of it all:  of our services, our prayers at home, our fasting, our feasting, our generosity to the poor, our forgiveness of others, our marriages and family life, our recreation, and all our work on the job or at school.  They are all part of fulfilling our most fundamental calling:  to grow in the likeness of God, to become partakers of the Divine Nature, to grow in loving union with the Holy Trinity and with one another.

            But that may sound strange.  After all, we work to make a living.  We go to school to learn and to prepare to make a living.  We spend time with friends and family, play games and watch sports or listen to music because we like to.  We don’t often think of these activities as religious at all.  So what do they have to do with growing in holiness or fulfilling the commandments?

            Well, the answer is found when we remember that the Incarnate Son of God became a human being with a real body in order to bless, heal, and sanctify us and everything about us and our world. In His resurrection Christ conquered every corruption and distortion of our fallen humanity, and has now ascended into heaven as the God-Man, showing us our destiny for life eternal.  The good news of the gospel is that every single bit of our life presents an opportunity to share in His sanctification of our humanity, to grow in love of God and neighbor, to continue on the path trod by our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.

            For example, who isn’t worried about the economy these days and how it impacts our businesses, our livelihood, and our personal finances?  We don’t like to hear or say it, but bad economic times remind us not to worship the Almighty Dollar and not to look for fulfillment and peace in money or possessions.  We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, not to love wealth or worldly success.  And when times are hard, we are reminded to place our trust in Him, not in what is here today and gone tomorrow and can never truly satisfy us.

            If we want to love our neighbors as ourselves, we never have to look far at all.  Every person whom we meet is a living icon of Christ and is called to life eternal.   No matter the circumstance, whenever we put someone else’s interest above our own, whenever we are generous with our time, our attention, or our resources, whenever we help someone in any way, we serve Christ and grow at least a bit in the divine likeness.   No matter our age, gender, occupation, or circumstances, we all have the opportunity each day to love our neighbors as ourselves and Christ in our neighbors.

And in relation to the Church, let’s remember above all not to be like the Pharisees.  They loved to keep score on how righteous they were in comparison to others.  They thought that obeying laws was an end in itself.  Unfortunately, it’s possible to go through all the motions of religion without love for God and neighbor.   It’s possible to miss the point entirely and to become a self-righteous, legalistic judge of others.   But that’s to miss the point entirely, for we fast, pray, come to Church, and lead upright lives not in order to impress God or other people.  Instead, in humility and repentance, we want Christ to train our souls, to shape our lives in His image.  The point is not simply to follow a bunch of laws, but to grow in love for God and neighbor through the worship and way of life taught by the Body of Christ, the Church, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When we make the time to pray daily and to come to Liturgy on Sundays and Feast days; when we confess ours sins and prepare conscientiously to receive Communion; when we wrestle with our passions through fasting or other forms of self-denial; when we humble ourselves to serve others and to ask for their forgiveness when we offend them; when we live faithfully—though imperfectly—as Christ’s followers, we grow in the love of God and neighbor, and we shine a bit more brightly with the holy light of Christ.  Then we grow in union with the Lord and His righteousness and, despite our unworthiness, we share in Christ’s fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  That is what our life as human beings is about, and it is possible because the Son of God really has become one of us so that we may become more like Him, being truly perfected in love.     

Arleen Spenceley on Chastity

I'm very glad to have heard from Arleen Spenceley about her blog and especially her postings on chastity.  It takes courage, discipline, and great faith to live out historic Christian teaching on these matters in our culture. Check out her article, "Why I'm still a virgin at age 26" By Arleen Spenceley, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Sunday, June 24, 2012, as well as the blog itself:  http://www.arleenspenceley.com/p/my-work.html.

Homily for the Translation of the Relics of St. John Chrysostom

          

          On all but a few Sundays of the year, we celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.  This coming Wednesday, we will celebrate his memory as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs together with Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian.  And today we remember the return of his relics to Constantinople in 438, thirty years after his death in exile due to his prophetic criticism of the abuses of the Empress Eudoxia.

            St. John plays such a prominent role in the history of the Church because his ministry combined bold preaching, faithful biblical interpretation and doctrinal teaching, asceticism, rigorous oversight of the clergy, liturgical reform, love for the poor, and fearless opposition to evil in high places.  A very popular preacher in Antioch where he was not afraid to make clear the tension between God’s requirements and popular forms of behavior, he was essentially forced to become the Archbishop of Constantinople, the capital city.  St. John tightened discipline in the church there and continued to speak the word of the Lord without compromise, which is a dangerous thing to do around powerful people.  He was first deposed and banished for offending the empress and certain church leaders, but was then allowed to return after she took an earthquake to be a sign from God.  Nonetheless, St. John denounced the celebrations surrounding the dedication of a silver statue of the empress near his cathedral.  She exiled him again, and he died as a result of the very rough treatment he received.

            During the reign of the empress’ son Theodosius the Younger, St. John’s relics were returned to Constantinople.  St Proclus had preached a sermon praising St John in which he said, "O John, your life was filled with sorrow, but your death was glorious. Your grave is blessed and reward is great, by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, O graced one, having conquered the bounds of time and place!" At the request of the people, St. Proclus got the approval of Emperor Theodosius to bring St. John’s relics back to Constantinople.  But those sent to carry the coffin literally could not move it until a letter of apology from the emperor was placed on it. 

            When the coffin was opened, his remains were incorrupt, which in the experience of the Church is a sign of holiness, for the bodies of the saints share already in Christ’s victory over death and decay.  (Recall that in the Old Testament a dead man came back to life after contact with the bones of the prophet Elisha.)  The emperor spoke as though he were his mother, begging St. John’s forgiveness and asking for his intercessions for her soul.  When St. John’s body was placed on his episcopal throne, the people heard him say, “Peace be with you all as he blessed them.”

            It may be hard for us to process such an astounding account, but we must remember that those who have died in Christ are alive in Him.  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.  Though it is completely beyond our rational understanding, we encounter in these miraculous events a sign of our salvation, a foreshadowing of the resurrection of the body, and a reminder that there is one Church in heaven and on earth.

            Think for a moment about what kind of person God has magnified in these ways in the memory and experience of the Church.  St. John Chrysostom is not someone who made it easy on himself or on others.  He did not water down the faith so that it would fit easily with a conventional life. He did not seek power, fame, or wealth.  He was not afraid to give his own life for the sake of God’s kingdom or to go against the dominant trends of his society.  His homilies still speak to us with clarity and challenge us to live a holy life in a world that really has not changed that much morally and spiritually since his day. 

            Too often, we remember saints only with a few minutes of chanting and reading or with a good meal.  There’s nothing wrong with those sorts of commemorations, but they should be just the beginning.  For the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us is not simply an interesting part of our religious calendar, but a vital dimension of our life in Christ.  We are members of the same Body with them.  We benefit not only from the fine example that they set and their contributions in theology, liturgy, and hymns, but also from their ongoing prayers on our behalf.  If you doubt that, read the book of Revelation with its portraits of so many martyrs around the throne of God who beseech Him on behalf of those suffering persecution.

            Those whose lives have so clearly manifested the holiness of God are not simply dead and gone, but alive in Christ, worshiping Him constantly and praying that we will join them.  Of course, we do not join them only after our own death, but already now in the worship of the Church.  The Divine Liturgy is our collective participation in the Heavenly Banquet together with all the saints and the heavenly host, but the Christian life does not end there.  As those who have entered into the worship of heaven and been nourished by the Body and Blood of our Savior, every dimension of our lives should manifest the holiness of God seven days a week.   No, we cannot all do everything and no two people are totally identical.  But the even as St. John displayed faithfulness in so many ways, we too are called to offer every bit of who we are to the Lord.  In other words, we cannot pretend that holiness is for this part of our lives, but not for that part.  We cannot compartmentalize who we are, for Christ came to bring us—body, soul, and spirit-- into His.  The Lord wants us all to become incorrupt, to be healed from the decay of sin and evil in all its forms.

            When we proclaim belief in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, we surely want the Lord to remember us as whole persons in His Kingdom, and that includes every dimension of who we are.  We cannot understand it rationally, but eternal life encompasses the whole person and even the whole creation.  If we want an example of how to participate already in that all-encompassing blessedness, we should look to St. John Chrysostom.  He did not keep true Christianity confined to services, sermons, or what was socially acceptable; instead, he lived out what he taught and believed with integrity.  He staked his life on faithfulness to Jesus Christ, Who has magnified him in the memory of the Church.  Let us all follow his example of obedience to the Savior in thought, word, and deed, for that is how we too may become living icons of His salvation together with all the saints who have gone before us.