A Reflection on Jesus the “Samaritan”
23/09/2009
From the Gospel of John:
Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father–God.”
Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would have loved Me, for I came forth and have come from God; nor have I come from Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I say? Because you are unable to hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar, and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say well that You are a Samaritan, and You have a demon?”
Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks it and who judges. Most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall by no means experience death.” (8:41-51, MKJV)
From Sermon 171.2 of the blessed Augustine:
“In this Samaritan the Lord Jesus Christ wanted us to understand himself. ‘Samaritan’ you see, means ‘guardian.’ . . . He could have answered, ‘I am not a Samaritan, and I do not have a devil.’ What he did answer was ‘It is not I who have a devil.’ What he answered, he refuted; what he kept quiet about, he confirmed. He denied he had a devil, knowing himself to be the expeller of devils; he did not deny that he was the guardian of the weak.”
Our Lord was especially hard on those who claimed to know God and do His will, but through their actions and attitudes, revealed only their own hubris. Jesus never denied the needy. Rather, he sacrificed himself over and over to heal, to feed, to comfort, and to save.
Are we not all needy? The more I grow in Christ, the more my hubris grows, and therefore my need increases.
Will Christ ever deny us in our need? He did not deny that he was brother to the outcast and the despised. Those He did deny during His earthly sojourn were those who denied Him and who denied mercy and comfort to His people, His “sheep.”
The prayer of a servant:
Father God, what a struggle it is to sacrifice myself! I cling to my selfish ambitions, my indulgences, and my prejudices like a man shipwrecked clings to his float. I have yet to share my own energies hand-in-hand with those in most need. Forgive me when I boast and prattle, failing to serve you and your beloved with sweat and true sacrifice. Help me to cooperate with Your grace in becoming the Good Samaritan as did Jesus.
In the name of Jesus Christ, grant me, Father God, your Holy Spirit. Amen.
A weekly Sunday series that began 31 May.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to his apostle Peter: And I will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven to you. And And whatever you may bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in Heaven. Mat 16:19
Our Lord, speaking to all his apostles: Truly I say to you, Whatever you shall bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven; and whatever you shall loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in Heaven. Mat 18:18
The apostle John, from his vision of the New Jerusalem: And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Rev 21:14
In 1995, a remarkable profession of faith was put forward by a group of mainstream hierarchs. It proclaims:
The Church of Joachim and Ann, Yabroud, Syria
“I believe in everything which Eastern Orthodoxy teaches; I am in communion with the Bishop of Rome, in the limits recognized to the first among the bishops by the holy fathers of the East during the first millennium, before the separation.”
This profession originated with an archbishop of an apostolic church of the East, in fact, from the largest Christian community in the Holy Land and Middle East. It was signed by all but two of the bishop members of their Holy Synod. It became the genesis of a movement by that synod to concretely rebuild a church of the First Thousand Years.
Who were these hierarchs and where were they from? The Church of Antioch, where Christians first received that name (Acts 11:26); today they are known as Melkite Greek-Catholics. The profession of faith originated with Greek-Melkite Catholic Archbishop Elias Zoghby.
Here were churchmen who realized that the schism of 1054 A.D. is only shadow, not form. They chose to move decisively and boldly in an attempt for real Eucharistic unity between Catholic and Orthodox. The events that followed from the 1995 profession will be reviewed here in weeks to come.
A Sunday series that began 31 May.
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Church in Corinth:
“For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For also by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, even all were made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If all the body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If all hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body as it has pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where would be the body? But now indeed many are the members, yet only one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. But much rather the members of the body seeming to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we put more abundant honor around them. And our unpresentable members have more abundant propriety. For our presentable members have no need, but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member having need; that there not be division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it. And you are the body of Christ, and members in part. – 1 Co 12:12-27 (MKJV)
St. Basil the Great (4th century), from On the Judgment of God :
“With those among whom harmony is not secured, however, the bond of peace is not preserved, mildness of spirit is not maintained, but there is dissension, strife, and rivalry. It would be a great piece of audacity to call such persons “members of Christ” or to say that they are ruled by him. 
It would be the expression of an honest mind to say openly that the wisdom of the flesh is master there.”
The prayer of a servant:
My Lord God, I love the beauty of Your house. I confess the real presence of the body and blood of Your Son in the Eucharist. I insist on the oneness of Your saving message. I work to reveal Your Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. And yet I fall far short of the perfection my Jesus says I can attain.
Lord, grant me your grace and help me maintain the strength and discipline to cooperate with it. Help me root out of my flesh anything dark and not pleasing to you. Graft me to Your root, so that when I stand before the awesome judgment seat of Christ in the New Jerusalem, You will recognize me as belonging to You. May you find me worthy of Your mercy and welcome among the saints.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Amen.
A weekly Sunday series that began 31 May.
From A Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo:
“Today the Holy Church piously remembers the sufferings of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised Apostles Peter and Paul.
“St. Peter, the fervent follower of Jesus Christ, for the profound confession of His Divinity: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,’ was deemed worthy by the Savior to hear in answer, ‘Blessed art thou, Simon … I tell thee, that thou art Peter [Petrus], and on this stone [petra] I build My Church’ (Mt.16:16-18). On ‘this stone’ [petra], is on that which thou sayest: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God’ it is on this thy confession I build My Church. Wherefore the ‘thou art Peter’: it is from the ‘stone’ [petra] that Peter [Petrus] is, and not from Peter [Petrus] that the ‘stone’ [petra] is, just as the Christian is from Christ, and not Christ from the Christian. Do you want to know, from what sort of ‘rock’ [petra] the Apostle Peter [Petrus] was named? Hear the Apostle Paul: ‘Brethren, I do not want ye to be ignorant,’ says the Apostle of Christ, ‘how all our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ’ (1 Cor.10: 1-4). Here is from whence the ‘Rock’ is Peter.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the final days of His earthly life, in the days of His mission to the race of man, chose from among the disciples His twelve Apostles to preach the Word of God. Among them, the Apostle Peter for his fiery ardor was vouchsafed to occupy the first place (Mt.10:2) and to be as it were the representative person for all the Church. Therefore it is said to him, preferentially, after the confession: ‘I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in the heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth: shall be loosed in heaven’ (Mt.16: 19). Therefore it was not one man, but rather the One Universal Church, that received these ‘keys’ and the right ‘to bind and loosen.’ And that it was actually the Church that received this right, and not exclusively a single person, turn your attention to another place of the Scriptures, where the same Lord says to all His Apostles, ‘Receive ye the Holy Spirit’ and further after this, ‘Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, are retained’ (John 20: 22-23); or: ‘whatsoever ye bind upon the earth, shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosened in heaven’ (Mt.18:18). Thus, it is the Church that binds, the Church that loosens; the Church, built upon the foundational cornerstone, Jesus Christ Himself (Eph 2:20), doth bind and loosen. Let both the binding and the loosening be feared: the loosening, in order not to fall under this again; the binding, in order not to remain forever in this condition. Therefore ‘Iniquities ensnare a man, and everyone is bound in the chains of his own sins,’ says Wisdom (Prov 5:22); and except for Holy Church nowhere is it possible to receive the loosening.
“After His Resurrection the Lord entrusted the Apostle Peter to shepherd His spiritual flock not because, that among the disciples only Peter alone was pre-deserved to shepherd the flock of Christ, but Christ addresses Himself chiefly to Peter because, that Peter was first among the Apostles and as such the representative of the Church; besides which, having turned in this instance to Peter alone, as to the top Apostle, Christ by this confirms the unity of the Church. ‘Simon of John’ — says the Lord to Peter — ‘lovest thou Me?’ — and the Apostle answered: ‘Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee’; and a second time it was thus asked, and a second time he thus answered; being asked a third time, seeing that as it were not believed, he was saddened. But how is it possible for him not to believe That One, Who knew his heart? And wherefore then Peter answered: ‘Lord, Thou knowest all; Thou knowest that I love Thee.’ ‘And sayeth Jesus to him’ all three times ‘Feed My sheep’ (John 20:15-17).
“Besides this, the triple appealing of the Savior to Peter and the triple confession of Peter before the Lord had a particular beneficial purpose for the Apostle. That one, to whom was given ‘the keys of the kingdom’ and the right ‘to bind and to loose,’ bound himself thrice by fear and cowardice (Mt.26:69-75), and the Lord thrice loosens him by His appeal and in turn by his confession of strong love. And to shepherd literally the flock of Christ was acquired by all the Apostles and their successors. ‘Take heed, therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock,’ the Apostle Paul urges church presbyters, ‘over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of the God, which He hath purchased with His own blood’ (Acts 20:28); and the Apostle Peter to the elders: ‘Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly: not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind: neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when is appeared the Prince of pastors, ye will receive unfading crowns of glory’ (1 Pet. 5:2-4).
“It is remarkable that Christ, having said to Peter: ‘Feed My sheep,’ did not say: ‘Feed thy sheep,’ but rather to feed, good servant, the sheep of the Lord. ‘Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?’ (1 Cor.1:13). ‘Feed My sheep’. Wherefore ‘wolfish robbers, wolfish oppressors, deceitful teachers and mercenaries, not being concerned about the flock’ (Mt.7:15; Acts 20:29; 2 Pet 2:1; John 10:12), having plundered a strange flock and making of the spoils as though it be of their own particular gain, they think that they feed their flock. Such are not good pastors, as pastors of the Lord. ‘The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep’ (John 10:11), entrusted to Him by the chief Shepherd Himself (1 Pet 5:4). And the Apostle Peter, true to his calling, gave his soul for the very flock of Christ, having sealed his apostleship by a martyr’s death, is now glorified throughout all the world.
“The Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, was changed from a robbing wolf into a meek lamb. Formerly he was an enemy of the Church, then is manifest as an Apostle. Formerly he stalked it, then preached it. Having received from the high priests the authority at large to throw all Christians in chains for execution, he was already on the way, he breathed out ‘threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord’ (Acts 9:1), he thirsted for blood, but ‘He that dwells in the Heavens shall laugh him to scorn’ (Ps 2:4). When he, ‘having persecuted and vexed’ in such manner ‘the Church of God’ (1Cor.15:9; Acts 8:5), he came near Damascus, and the Lord from Heaven called to him: ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’ and I am here, and I am there, I am everywhere: here is My head; there is My body. There becomes nothing of a surprise in this; we ourselves are members of the Body of Christ. ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me; it is hard for thee to kick against the goad’ (Acts 9:4-5). Saul, however, ‘trembling and frightened’, cried out: ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ The Lord answered him, ‘I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest.’
“And Saul suddenly undergoes a change: ‘What wantest Thou me to do?’ — he cries out. And suddenly for him there is the Voice: ‘Arise, and go to the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do’ (Acts 9:6). Here the Lord sends Ananias: ‘Arise and go into the street’ to a man, ‘by the name of Saul,’ and baptize him, ‘for this one is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel’ (Acts 9: 11, 15, 18). This vessel must be filled with My Grace. ‘Ananias, however, answered: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints in Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Thy Name’ (Acts 9:13-14). But the Lord urgently commands Ananias: ‘Search for and fetch him, for this vessel is chosen by Me: for I shall show him what great things he must suffer for My name’s sake’ (Acts 9:11, 15-16).
“And actually the Lord did show the Apostle Paul what things he had to suffer for His Name. He instructed him the deeds; He did not stop at the chains, the fetters, the prisons and shipwrecks; He Himself felt for him in his sufferings, He Himself guided him towards this day. On a single day the memory of the sufferings of both these Apostles is celebrated, though they suffered on separate days, but by the spirit and the closeness of their suffering they constitute one. Peter went first, and Paul followed soon after him. Formerly called Saul, and then Paul, having transformed his pride into humility. His very name (Paulus), meaning ‘small, little, less,’ demonstrates this. What is the Apostle Paul after this? Ask him, and he himself gives answer to this: ‘I am,’ says he, ‘the least of the Apostles… but I have labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me’ (1 Cor.15:9-10).
“And so, brethren, celebrating now the memory of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, remembering their venerable sufferings, we esteem their true faith and holy life, we esteem the innocence of their sufferings and pure confession. Loving in them the sublime quality and imitating them by great exploits, ‘in which to be likened to them’ (2 Thess 3: 5-9), and we shall attain to that eternal bliss which is prepared for all the saints. The path of our life before was more grievous, thornier, harder, but ‘we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses’ (Heb 12: 1), having passed by along it, made now for us easier, and lighter, and more readily passable. First there passed along it ‘the author and finisher of our faith,’ our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Heb 12: 2); His daring Apostles followed after Him; then the martyrs, children, women, virgins and a great multitude of witnesses. Who acted in them and helped them on this path? He Who said, ‘Without Me ye can do nothing’ (John 15: 5).”
From the Great Vespers of the Feast:
The whole world, let us praise as its champions the Disciples of Christ and foundations of the Church, the true pillars and bases, and inspired trumpets of the doctrines and sufferings of Christ, the Princes, Peter and Paul. For they passed through the whole breadth of the earth as with a plough, and sowed the faith, and they made the knowledge of God well up for all, showing forth the understanding of the Trinity. O Peter, rock and foundation, and Paul, vessel of election; the yoked oxen of Christ drew nations, cities and islands to knowledge of God. While they have brought Hebrews again to Christ and the intercede that our souls may be saved.
Pray for the unity of the faith and the reconcilation of our Churches in the love they shared during the First Thousand Years.
| Print Life of Saint | Print IconTroparion & Kontakion
Commemorated on June 29 Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Today the Holy Church piously remembers the sufferings of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised Apostles Peter and Paul. St. Peter, the fervent follower of Jesus Christ, for the profound confession of His Divinity: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” was deemed worthy by the Savior to hear in answer, “Blessed art thou, Simon … I tell thee, that thou art Peter [Petrus], and on this stone [petra] I build My Church” (Mt.16:16-18). On “this stone” [petra], is on that which thou sayest: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God” it is on this thy confession I build My Church. Wherefore the “thou art Peter”: it is from the “stone” [petra] that Peter [Petrus] is, and not from Peter [Petrus] that the “stone” [petra] is, just as the Christian is from Christ, and not Christ from the Christian. Do you want to know, from what sort of “rock” [petra] the Apostle Peter [Petrus] was named? Hear the Apostle Paul: “Brethren, I do not want ye to be ignorant,” says the Apostle of Christ, “how all our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor.10: 1-4). Here is the from whence the “Rock” is Peter. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the final days of His earthly life, in the days of His mission to the race of man, chose from among the disciples His twelve Apostles to preach the Word of God. Among them, the Apostle Peter for his fiery ardor was vouchsafed to occupy the first place (Mt.10:2) and to be as it were the representative person for all the Church. Therefore it is said to him, preferentially, after the confession: “I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in the heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth: shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt.16: 19). Therefore it was not one man, but rather the One Universal Church, that received these “keys” and the right “to bind and loosen.” And that it was actually the Church that received this right, and not exclusively a single person, turn your attention to another place of the Scriptures, where the same Lord says to all His Apostles, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” and further after this, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, are retained” (John 20: 22-23); or: “whatsoever ye bind upon the earth, shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosened in heaven” (Mt.18:18). Thus, it is the Church that binds, the Church that loosens; the Church, built upon the foundational cornerstone, Jesus Christ Himself (Eph 2:20), doth bind and loosen. Let both the binding and the loosening be feared: the loosening, in order not to fall under this again; the binding, in order not to remain forever in this condition. Therefore “Iniquities ensnare a man, and everyone is bound in the chains of his own sins,” says Wisdom (Prov 5:22); and except for Holy Church nowhere is it possible to receive the loosening. After His Resurrection the Lord entrusted the Apostle Peter to shepherd His spiritual flock not because, that among the disciples only Peter alone was pre-deserved to shepherd the flock of Christ, but Christ addresses Himself chiefly to Peter because, that Peter was first among the Apostles and as such the representative of the Church; besides which, having turned in this instance to Peter alone, as to the top Apostle, Christ by this confirms the unity of the Church. “Simon of John” — says the Lord to Peter — “lovest thou Me?” — and the Apostle answered: “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee”; and a second time it was thus asked, and a second time he thus answered; being asked a third time, seeing that as it were not believed, he was saddened. But how is it possible for him not to believe That One, Who knew his heart? And wherefore then Peter answered: “Lord, Thou knowest all; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” “And sayeth Jesus to him” all three times “Feed My sheep” (John 20:15-17). Besides this, the triple appealing of the Savior to Peter and the triple confession of Peter before the Lord had a particular beneficial purpose for the Apostle. That one, to whom was given “the keys of the kingdom” and the right “to bind and to loose,” bound himself thrice by fear and cowardice (Mt.26:69-75), and the Lord thrice loosens him by His appeal and in turn by his confession of strong love. And to shepherd literally the flock of Christ was acquired by all the Apostles and their successors. “Take heed, therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock,” the Apostle Paul urges church presbyters, “over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of the God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28); and the Apostle Peter to the elders: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly: not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind: neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when is appeared the Prince of pastors, ye will receive unfading crowns of glory” (1 Pet. 5:2-4). It is remarkable that Christ, having said to Peter: “Feed My sheep,” did not say: “Feed thy sheep,” but rather to feed, good servant, the sheep of the Lord. “Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor.1:13). “Feed My sheep”. Wherefore “wolfish robbers, wolfish oppressors, deceitful teachers and mercenaries, not being concerned about the flock” (Mt.7:15; Acts 20:29; 2 Pet 2:1; John 10:12), having plundered a strange flock and making of the spoils as though it be of their own particular gain, they think that they feed their flock. Such are not good pastors, as pastors of the Lord. “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11), entrusted to Him by the chief Shepherd Himself (1 Pet 5:4). And the Apostle Peter, true to his calling, gave his soul for the very flock of Christ, having sealed his apostleship by a martyr’s death, is now glorified throughout all the world. The Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, was changed from a robbing wolf into a meek lamb. Formerly he was an enemy of the Church, then is manifest as an Apostle. Formerly he stalked it, then preached it. Having received from the high priests the authority at large to throw all Christians in chains for execution, he was already on the way, he breathed out “threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), he thirsted for blood, but “He that dwells in the Heavens shall laugh him to scorn” (Ps 2:4). When he, “having persecuted and vexed” in such manner “the Church of God” (1Cor.15:9; Acts 8:5), he came near Damascus, and the Lord from Heaven called to him: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” and I am here, and I am there, I am everywhere: here is My head; there is My body. There becomes nothing of a surprise in this; we ourselves are members of the Body of Christ. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me; it is hard for thee to kick against the goad” (Acts 9:4-5). Saul, however, “trembling and frightened”, cried out: “Who art Thou, Lord?” The Lord answered him, “I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest.” And Saul suddenly undergoes a change: “What wantest Thou me to do?” — he cries out. And suddenly for him there is the Voice: “Arise, and go to the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 9:6). Here the Lord sends Ananias: “Arise and go into the street” to a man, “by the name of Saul,” and baptize him, “for this one is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9: 11, 15, 18). This vessel must be filled with My Grace. “Ananias, however, answered: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints in Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Thy Name” (Acts 9:13-14). But the Lord urgently commands Ananias: “Search for and fetch him, for this vessel is chosen by Me: for I shall show him what great things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:11, 15-16). And actually the Lord did show the Apostle Paul what things he had to suffer for His Name. He instructed him the deeds; He did not stop at the chains, the fetters, the prisons and shipwrecks; He Himself felt for him in his sufferings, He Himself guided him towards this day. On a single day the memory of the sufferings of both these Apostles is celebrated, though they suffered on separate days, but by the spirit and the closeness of their suffering they constitute one. Peter went first, and Paul followed soon after him. Formerly called Saul, and then Paul, having transformed his pride into humility. His very name (Paulus), meaning “small, little, less,” demonstrates this. What is the Apostle Paul after this? Ask him, and he himself gives answer to this: “I am,” says he, “the least of the Apostles… but I have labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me” (1 Cor.15:9-10). And so, brethren, celebrating now the memory of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, remembering their venerable sufferings, we esteem their true faith and holy life, we esteem the innocence of their sufferings and pure confession. Loving in them the sublime quality and imitating them by great exploits, “in which to be likened to them” (2 Thess 3: 5-9), and we shall attain to that eternal bliss which is prepared for all the saints. The path of our life before was more grievous, thornier, harder, but “we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12: 1), having passed by along it, made now for us easier, and lighter, and more readily passable. First there passed along it “the author and finisher of our faith,” our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Heb 12: 2); His daring Apostles followed after Him; then the martyrs, children, women, virgins and a great multitude of witnesses. Who acted in them and helped them on this path? He Who said, “Without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15: 5). |
A weekly Sunday series that began 31 May:
The Apostle Peter, writing to the Church Militant:
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those good and forbearing, but also to the perverse ones. For this is a grace, if for conscience toward God anyone endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if you patiently endure while sinning and being buffeted? But if you suffer while doing good, and patiently endure, this is a grace from God. For you were not called to this? For Christ also suffered on our behalf, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps, He who did no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth, who when He was reviled did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but gave Himself up to Him who judges righteously. He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that dying to sins, we might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray, but now you are turned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. - 1 Pe 2:18-25 (MKJV)
The Hieriomartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (3rd century A.D.), from Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church:
“
This sacrament of unity, this bond of a concord inseparably cohering, is set forth where in the Gospel the coat of the Lord Jesus Christ is not at all divided nor cut, but is received as an entire garment, and is possessed as an uninjured and undivided robe by those who cast lots concerning Christ’s garment, who should rather put on Christ. Holy Scripture speaks, saying, “But of the coat, because it was not sewed, but woven from the top throughout, they said one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots whose it shall be.” (John xix. 23, 24.) That coat bore with it an unity that came down from the top, that is, that came from heaven and the Father, which was not to be at all rent by the receiver and the possessor, but without separation we obtain a whole and substantial entireness. He cannot possess the garment of Christ who parts and divides the Church of Christ…But because Christ’s people cannot be rent, His robe, woven and united throughout, is not divided by those who possess it; undivided, united, connected, it shows the coherent concord of our people who put on Christ. By the sacrament and sign of His garment, He has declared the unity of the Church.
“8. Who, then, is so wicked and faithless, who is so insane with the madness of discord, that either he should believe that the unity of God can be divided, or should dare to rend it—the garment of the Lord—the Church of Christ? He Himself in His Gospel warns us, and teaches, saying, “And there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (“John x. 16.) And does anyone believe that in one place there can be either many shepherds or many flocks? The Apostle Paul, moreover, urging upon us this same unity, beseeches and exhorts, saying, “I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that ye be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (1 Cor. i. 10.) And again, he says, “Forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph. iv. 3.) Do you think that you can stand and live if you withdraw from the Church, building for yourself other homes and a different dwelling, when it is said to Rahab, in whom was prefigured the Church, “Thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all the house of thy father, thou shalt gather unto thee into thine house; and it shall come to pass, whosoever shall go abroad beyond the door of thine house, his blood shall be upon his own head?” (Josh. ii. 19.) Also, the sacrament of the Passover contains nothing else in the law of the Exodus than that the lamb which is slain in the figure of Christ should be eaten in one house. God speaks, saying, “In one house shall ye eat it; ye shall not send its flesh abroad from the house.” (Ex. xii. 46.) The flesh of Christ, and the holy of the Lord, cannot be sent abroad, nor is there any other home to believers but the one Church. This home, this household of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and points out in the Psalms, saying, “God, who maketh men to dwell with one mind in a house.” (Ps. lxviii. 6.) In the house of God, in the Church of Christ, men dwell with one mind, and continue in concord and simplicity.
“26. But in us unanimity is diminished in proportion as liberality of working is decayed. Then they used to give for sale houses and estates; and that they might lay up for themselves treasures in heaven, presented to the apostles the price of them, to be distributed for the use of the poor. But now we do not even give the tenths from our patrimony; and while our Lord bids us sell, we rather buy and increase our store. Thus has the vigor of faith dwindled away among us; thus has the strength of believers grown weak. And therefore the Lord, looking to our days, says in His Gospel, “When the Son of man cometh, think you that He shall find faith on the earth?” (Luke xviii. 8.) We see that what He foretold has come to pass. There is no faith in the fear of God, in the law of righteousness, in love, in labor; none considers the fear of futurity, and none takes to heart the day of the Lord, and the wrath of God, and the punishments to come upon unbelievers, and the eternal torments decreed for the faithless. That which our conscience would fear if it believed, it fears not because it does not at all believe. But if it believed, it would also take heed; and if it took heed, it would escape.”
The prayer of a servant:
Lord, At my Baptism, the Church called me to become a “reason-endowed sheep.” Instead, I confess that I have become a pride-filled goat. I often fall, believing I can chart the course of my own salvation without direction. I do not follow the example of Christ and his Apostles. My vanity does not want me to bend my stiff neck and see myself as a servant, while my timidity keeps from speaking up as is my right as a member of the Royal Priesthood. My weakness tempts me to flee from conflict and responsibility, while I complain and gossip from the sidelines. I do not work at mending the frays in Christ’s garment; rather I twiddle and pull at loose threads and make a small tear larger.
My Jesus, my Lord and my God, you promise me Christian peace and joy if I follow you, but peace and joy in the midst of suffering and strife and labor. Give me the grace and strength to live with You and stay faithful to Your Church, realizing all Your promises in my own life. May there be less of me, and more of Thee. Son of David, have mercy on me, the sinner.
St. Cyprian, pray for me; pray for the unity of the faith, so dear to you, and for the reconciliation of the Churches. Amen.
A weekly Sunday series that began 31 May.
What kind of life within the Church would we live if we inwardly accepted that the divisions that separate our Churches are shadow, not form, and that that the walls that segregate us do not reach to Heaven? Division and tribalism are a product of our worst natures, not the holy nature that Christ calls us to.
Paul, writing to the Church in Corinth:
And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual ones, but as to fleshly, as to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with solid food, for you were not yet able to bear it; nor are you able even now. For you are yet carnal. For in that there is among you envyings and strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and do you not walk according to men? For while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. So he planting, and he watering, are one, and each one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For of God we are fellow-workers, a field of God, and you are a building of God. - 1Cor 3:1-9 (MKLV)
St. John Chrysostom (ca. 354-407 A.D.), from his Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians:
“It was the factionalism of the Corinthians that produced jealousy, and that in turn made them carnal. Once they were carnal, they were no longer free to hear truths of a more spiritual kind . . . The building does not belong to the workman, but to the master. If you are a building, you must not be split in two, since then the building will collapse. If you are a farm, you must not be divided but rather surrounded with a single fence, the fence of unanimity.”
From the writings of Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I (1886-1972):
“But we Orthodox: are we worthy of Orthodoxy? Up till the efforts we have made in recent years, what kind of example have our Churches given? We are united in faith and united in the chalice, but we have become strangers to one another, sometimes rivals. And our great tradition, the Fathers, Palamas, the Philokalia: is it living and creative in us? If we are satisfied to repeat our formulas, hardening them against our fellow Christians, then our inheritance will become something dead. It is sharing, humility, reconciliation which makes us truly Orthodox, holding the faith not for ourselves – if we did that we should simply be affirming yet one more historic confession of faith – but for the union of all, as the selfless witnesses of the undivided Church.”
Pray for the unity of our faith and the reconciliation of our Churches. Please pray with your heart, but also with your hands.
Part II of a weekly series that began 31 May.
What would the life of a hierarch who embraced the New Testament call to maintain the One Body of the Church look like? One could do no better than to emulate the example of Athenagoras I. He represented the communion of the Eastern Orthodox Churches as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1948 until his death in 1972 (memory eternal!). It was he who joined with Pope Paul VI in 1965 to lift the mutual anathemas that had been wrongfully issued in 1054 A.D. 1964 marked the end of the formal break between the particular institutions of the Vatican and the Phanar. Though the anathemas were lifted, the consequences that rend the entire body of Christ of course live on. But they live on in spite of the efforts of Athenagoras I:
“He was meek, ascetic, tolerant of others, patient, physically as strong as iron, persevering, never yielding to outside influences, prophetic in his visions, a man of prayer, intelligent, and able as a pastor to confront extremely delicate storms and violent oppositions…
“The dangerous tendency to overemphasize differences and to compare traditions and approaches, concluding that the differences are insuperable, is ever present. But Athenagoras was against making such comparisons. He was convinced that, on the whole, Orthodox and non-Orthodox hold the same views on basic issues of Christian faith and live the same Christian experience. East and West are not as divergent as some would believe. Traces of eastern thought can be found in the western mind, and western influence discovered in the East. There is an interpenetration which causes all believers in Christ to face the same spiritual realities. Athenagoras was not just patriarch of a limited See: he belonged to the whole oikoumene. In fact, it was his vision that the whole of Christendom should see the oneness of the saving message of the Gospel through the same eyes. The legacy left to us is to follow his example of seeing with the eyes of Christ in order to ensure that the obstacles to unity do not prove stronger than the will to unite.”
- From a review of the book, A MAN SENT BY GOD: THE LIFE OF PATRIARCH ATHENAGORAS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, by DEMETRIOS TSAKONAS. Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1977
Part I of a weekly Sunday series
In early summer months of 1054 A.D., papal legates who represented a dead Pope (Leo IX, who expired not long after dispatching them) and a pharisaical Patriarch of Constantinople (Michael Cerularius) issued mutual anathemas and excommunications after weeks of petty bickering and blustering, much of it of a personal nature. The issues behind the catfight might have been weighty, but the triumph of egotism and invective over Christian charity and reasoned dissention was a moment of great triumph for the forces of darkness.
Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI
Because it was a moment in history that crystallized the tensions between the apostolic Churches, our ”Discovery Channel/Reader’s Digest” (pick your generation) approach to history asserts that the separation of the undivided Church of the First Thousand Years can be marked at that point.
Not really. Few churchmen of that era saw it as such. Serious efforts at reunification did not end with that event. In fact, the Great Schism of 1054 itself was laid to rest in December 1965. Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I met and rescinded the specific excommunications issued by their dubious representatives in the 11th century.
Surprised? Does much of anything look different on the ground between the apostolic churches since the removal of the anathemas? Why do so many of the consequences of the schism remain unresolved over forty years later?
The New Testament call for unity could not be clearer; it was the focus of the last lessons of Christ as written in John’s Gospel.
Our own hardness of heart maintains our continued division. How would we act if we really believed that the barriers that divide the apostolic churches don’t reach all the way to Heaven?
Our Churches in Scandal
23/05/2009
From the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 27, 37-43
Above his head they put a sign that told why he was nailed there. It read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” The soldiers also nailed two criminals on crosses, one to the right of Jesus and the other to his left. People who passed by said terrible things about Jesus. They shook their heads and shouted, “So you’re the one who claimed you could tear down the temple and build it again in three days! If you are God’s Son, save yourself and come down from the cross!” The chief priests, the leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses also made fun of Jesus. They said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the king of Israel, he should come down from the cross! Then we will believe him. He trusted God, so let God save him, if he wants to. He even said he was God’s Son.”
Our Lord was bloody, beaten, and humiliated. Remember, while it was the secular powers who so abused him, it was the hierarchy of the Old Testament church who were faithless and abandoned him to torture and death. How could anyone look at this beaten man and imagine, much less accept, that he was the divine Son of God?
Our Churches today are bloodied and beaten. The Orthodox Church in America is only beginning to recover from the damage done by years of financial malfeasance. The totality of the apostolic Christian witness is diminished by our competing jurisdictions and our hard-hearted divisiveness. The Roman Catholic Church is reeling yet again from the abuse reported within its Irish institutions. While it is the secularists who would drive in the nails for the crucifixion of our Churches, it is the hierarchy of the New Testament church who has led us to these painful moments of church history. How can anyone look upon our Churches and imagine, much less accept, that they are the Body of Christ, the Kingdom of God on Earth?
And yet, Christ is Messiah, King, and Lord; the Apostolic Churches are His Body. The damage done to the Body does not lessen the Divinity. To our faith was the promise given:
Jesus came to them [the apostles] and said: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. Mat 28:18-20
In the Eastern Church, we know that it is not the Synod, not the Bishop, not a Pope, who safeguards the faith. We are the ones, the Royal Priesthood of the laity and the monastics ministering before God and the Hosts of Heaven, who sustain the Kingdom of God on Earth across history. Some may wish us to forget this. We may choose to ignore it, escaping responsibility by joining the Protestors or abandoning Christ himself. Heaven have mercy on us when we stumble!
Now is not the time, indeed it is never the time, for the faithful to abandon the Church to the wolves. It is the response of the faithful, that great and glorious repository of the Holy Spirit, which is the guarantor of our faith.
The prayer of a servant:
Today, Lord, I will serve You and your Body. I will witness within my Church to the truth. I rightly seek instruction in matters of faith and the preservation of my soul from my bishop and my priest; may I always do so humbly and obediently. In the business and the administration of the institutions of my Church and my parish, give me the wisdom to see clearly and the love to speak well, but, as my Lord was not humble before the money-changers, neither will I be. As my Lord spoke truth to all, so will I.
If I take pride in this endeavor or seek the praise of men, O Lord, strike down my self-righteous spirit. Preserve me in my faith within your Church and make my loving witness strong.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner. Amen.
[Jesus said] “For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all are alive to Him.” Luke 20:38
Then he [the thief on the cross] said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come in Your kingdom.” Luke 23:42
In November 1997, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington DC as part of his American tour. One phrase of his talk stayed with me: he spoke of the members of the Orthodox Churches as “the children of memory.”
The faithful within the Eastern Church rejoice that we have the Son, the living Word of God, and the Scriptures, the written Word of God, to guide, guard, and guarantee our profession of faith. But our reason to rejoice is even greater: our liturgy, our veneration of the saints, and our prayers for the dead are all anchored in the memories carried from the church of the Old Testament Church into that of the New. The living memory of the Church, what the apostolic churches call Holy Tradition, contains those words and acts of Christ and those around him that John alludes to at the end of his Gospel, those volumes that were not written down. These lived on in the early church as oral tradition, eventually integrating themselves into our liturgy, our devotions, and our beliefs,under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Samaritan Woman, Photina
This past Sunday in the Orthodox Churches was devoted to the Samaritan Woman at the well. In Holy Scripture, she has no name; nothing is noted concerning her fate. Through Holy Tradition, she is remembered in the Church, the Kingdom of God on Earth, and is therefore alive in God and alive to us. We know her as the Holy Martyr Photina. Her family is known to us as well: her sons Victor (known as Photinus) and Joses; and her sisters Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva, and Kyriake. During the time of the emperor Nero (54-68), who displayed excessive cruelty against Christians, St Photina lived in Carthage with her younger son Joses and fearlessly preached the Gospel there. Her eldest son Victor fought bravely in the Roman army, and was appointed military commander in the city of Attalia (Asia Minor). After Victor was called to Italy, his faithful witness lead to the salvation and sanctification of Sebastian, an official in Italy, and his household.
Having seen through the Lord the coming persecutions, St Photina left Carthage in the company of several Christians and joined the confessors in Rome. At Rome the emperor ordered this faithful family to be brought before him and had them tortured them when they refused to apostatize. During the torments, the confessors felt no pain, and were said to escape the wounds that such torture should have inflicted upon them. Eventually, the men of the family were blinded and locked up in prison. St Photina and her sisters were sent to the imperial court under the supervision of Nero’s daughter Domnina. Just as St. Paul did among so many of his captors, St Photina converted Domnina and all her servants to Christ.
Three years passed. Messengers from the prison reported to Nero that Sts Sebastian, Photinus and Joses, had completely recovered, and that people were visiting them to hear their preaching, and indeed the whole prison had been transformed into a bright and fragrant place where God was glorified. Horrible tortures fell upon the family afterwards. The saints prayed for their persecutors and were consoled and healed by angels of the Lord. They cared for their fellow prisoners; their examples led to more conversions. One by one, the family members were killed in terrible ways as they refused to renounce Christ.
In her final days, St. Photina was whipped, thrown in a well and then returned to prison. She was again brought before Nero and asked if she would relent and sacrifice to the idols. St Photina spit in the face of the emperor and laughed at him. Nero again gave orders to throw the martyr down the well, where she died and entered into the eternal kingdom of Christ. As she was saved by Christ at a well, so too did a well end her earthly persecution.
May her memory be eternal!
Kontakion – Tone 8: The Samaritan Woman came to the well in faith; She saw You, the Water of Wisdom, and drank abundantly. She inherited the Kingdom on High and is ever glorified!
