5 posts tagged “christ”
The Gospel reading during today’s Divine Liturgy included Luke’s accounts of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter and of the woman with an issue of blood who was healed when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. I was more engaged during the whole service today than usual, including during the readings. Twelve years this woman struggled with her health crisis, which became also a financial crisis. And Jairus’ daughter was 12 years young when she… died. One family had a joyous event 12 years prior, and one woman began her personal nightmare that same year. Now both the woman and the girl’s father ended up in the same place this day, both showing up with faith in Christ, and both drew near at about the same time. And the woman’s faith ended up bolstering the faith of the father when, after he heard the news of his daughter’s death, Jesus turned to him and used very similar words as He just used with the now-healed woman – she’ll be "made whole”. Our priest emphasized the woman’s faith that brought her there, and said she received more than she came for – she was made whole.
Sometimes when I feel that maybe it’s been too long since I’ve last been to confession, I figure that I shouldn’t go forward to receive communion. I was in that situation today – should I go forward or wait until after confession. In these situations, the words of the Church always strike me, “in the fear of God, and with faith and love draw near”. The woman with the health crisis did just that, and my mind was drawn back to her when I decided to go forward. I need Christ, and I want to push through the crowd and at least touch His hem and be made whole.
In the back of the line, I couldn’t see what was happening up front, only the back of people’s heads. But I could see people way at the front bending down (kids receiving communion), doing things… commotion. The activity up there showed that He was here, and everyone wanted to get forward (“…as he went the people thronged him”). We were more orderly than the crowd that day. As I got closer, I thought about the woman getting closer to her turn. And as always, I got more nervous the closer I got. Judging from the woman’s reaction after her healing (“…she came trembling, and falling down before him”), I’m thinking she was also pretty nervous when she first approached, before anyone knew she was there. She wasn’t so brazen as to approach from the front (she “came behind Him”), and she used anonymity to cloak herself. I had no such anonymity. It was my turn, and I was “outed” just before I got there, (as she was after her encounter)… “the servant of God, George…” Announced by name no less, and with every reason to tremble and fall down before Him as the woman had when she “saw that she was not hid”. Being immediately before the King of Glory who is surrounded by throngs of angels, and your name gets announced. I didn’t fall down before Him, but I did tremble, if only inwardly, and received the Body and Blood of Christ.
The Epistle reading today (from Ephesians) serves as a most appropriate commentary to the Gospel - "by Grace you are saved through faith, not of works..." and, we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works". The woman was clearly saved by Grace through her faith, and apparently continued in good works. We know from the Church historian Bishop Eusebius that she later erected a statue honoring Christ in Ceasaria Phillipi. Eusebius actually saw this statue sometime around 300 A.D., and mentioned a plant that grew up onto the hem of the sculpted cloak and had healing properties.
Psalm 31:8 ...thou hast set my feet in a large room.
Gentle readers, know that this vox blog space has been to us a comfortable little room, cozy, dark, rich hued, safely small, and with comfortable furnishings... yet we share with all humanity a need for wide open spaces, a very large room or the great outdoors, the unknown, unprotected and unpredictable. So we have opened a second blog space, at
Our initial post there is a compilation of the Ostrov post and comment series from here, because I found the responses so insightful. Where else the big-space blog will go, we cannot predict. We may double-post there and here, or we may direct writings to the venue they fit best in.
The banner image over the Wordpress blog comes from the ROCOR Monastery at Jordanville, during a service when the novice Brother Daniel became Fr. Daniel, the monk - thanks to Fr. Daniel for the photograph. Maybe I'll figure out how to get that same banner here, because I like it.
By the way, that same photo and others like it are available here.
Having consumed a number of classics by Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, and Pushkin over the past year, I should have turned out a lot smarter and insightful by now than I actually did. But maybe I picked up on a thing or two.
Amongst the things these writers have in common seems to be this - they are most aghast at the travesty of a life lived and completed with no impact whatsoever on anything - a creature having existed then perished without anyone having taken notice.
The writers' descriptions of such people usually focus on their mundane existence, their clockwork striving for the next scrap of food or clothing. I think some of the novelists writings are meant to redeem the existence of these poor souls, to give some meaning to their life if only by proxy through fictional archetypes.
It seems to me that the poor and unnoticed characters sometimes represent the lost'ness of the well-to-do as well, sort of a mirror showing the reverse image of the same thing. Those who are endlessly attending balls or counting their rubles may end up with just as meaningless an existence as their unbathed counterpart.
And all of this serves as a mirror for ourselves. Those in the novels whose life is actually rich, worthwhile, and with lasting effect are the ones who live the Gospel - sometimes represented in Dostoevsky for example as the naive one, the one who suffers the scorn of others simply because they care deeply (Alyosha, the idiot, etc.). And so we ask, how does one become like that, assuming they are prepared for ridicule?
I like the Church Father's discussions about developing a "habit of virtue", and St. Seraphim of Sarov's instructions to do all in order to attain the Holy Spirit. Those two together, the practice of virtue and the reason for doing so, seem key to becoming one who's existence is not wasted. Their memory becomes eternal, as they take on the attributes of God Himself. Like this - "eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality" (Romans 2:7). Here's a synopsis of the practice as derived from St. Maximus the Confessor by Dr. Farrell, one in a series of explorations by my dear wife.
From theologian and professor Olivier Clement in his "On Human Being - A Spiritual Anthropology", who is helping me to re-understand what Christianity really is from the viewpoint of the Fathers...
"Our whole spiritual progress is a 'search for the place of the heart'. Little by little, the conscious self frees itself from idols, strips away the dead layers and illusions, and 'descends', like Psyche holding a lighted lamp, into the dark crypt of the heart. Sanctuary, crypt and tomb become the bridal chamber, the 'heart-spirit' is remade in the fire of grace, it trembles with joy, it bursts into flames, the world and humanity are in it, and already Christ comes again in glory.
This life-giving discipline is that of the beatitudes: self-denial, love in action, tears of grief and wonderment dissolving the heart of stone."
From the blog Notes from a Commonplace Book
"Franz Rosenzweig, that most Jewish connoisseur of Christianity, believed that the Church of Peter (Rome) and the Church of Paul (Protestantism) would yield place to the Church of John (Orthodoxy) - that the churches of works and faith would be transcended by the church of love."
I find this observation to be very insightful, even though it's wrong in the following ways:
1. Church of Peter (Rome) - I don't think a correct understanding of Peter leads to "the Church of Rome" as we know it today. Still, it makes sense that a modern commentator would make the connection, since Peter did become Bishop of Rome and the Latin Church claims such strong ties to him.
2. Church of Paul (Protestantism) - I don't think a correct understanding of Paul leads to "Protestantism". Still, it makes sense that a modern commentator would make the connection, since most of Protestantism emphasizes teachings that trace to Paul.
3. Church of John (Orthodoxy) - I don't think one can make this limitation, since Orthodoxy is also the Church of James, of Matthew, of Mark, of Peter, of Paul, of all the Church Fathers and Doctors, because it's the Church of Jesus Christ. Still, it makes sense that a modern commentator would make the connection, since they see in St. John the beauty of mystery and the disciple "Jesus loved".
4. Rome, Protestantism... would yield place to... would be transcended by... - I don't think the term "would", in the sense of a future event, is correct. It already happened. It only remains for people to make that discovery and begin the process of deep purging, cleansing, healing and theosis made possible by Christ's Incarnation and so expertly handed to us through the Apostolic doctrine.
