Believing

Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.  He was the only disciple absent; on his return he heard what had happened but refused to believe it.  The Lord came a second time; he offered his side for the disbelieving disciple to touch, held out his hands, and showing the scars of his wounds, healed the wound of his disbelief.

               Dearly beloved, what do you see in these events?  Do you really believe that it was by chance that this chosen disciple was absent, then came and heard, heard and doubted, doubted and touched, touched and believed?  It was not by chance, but in God’s providence.  In a marvelous way God’s mercy arranged that the disbelieving disciple, in touching the sounds of his master’s body, should heal our wounds of disbelief.  The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples.  As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened.  So the disciple who doubted, then felt Christ’s wounds, becomes a witness to the reality of the resurrection.

               Touching Christ, he cried out: My Lord and my God.  Jesus said to him: Because you have seen me, Thomas, you have believed.  Paul said: Faith the guarantee of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.  It is clear, then, that faith is the proof of what cannot be seen.  What is seen gives knowledge, not faith.  When Thomas saw and touched, why was he told: You have believed because you have seen me?  Because what he saw and what he believed were different things.  God cannot be seen by mortal man.  Thomas saw a human being, whom he acknowledged to be God, and said: My Lord and my God.  Seeing, he believed; looking at one who was true man, he cried out that this was God, the God he could not see.

               What follows is reason for great joy: Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.  There is here a particular reference to ourselves; we hold in our hearts one we have not seen in the flesh.  We are included in these words, but only if we follow up our faith with good works.  The true believer practices what he believes.  But of those who pay only lip service to faith, Paul has this to say:  They profess to know God but they deny him in their works.  Therefore James says: Faith without works is dead.                Saint Gregory the Great Pope

               The challenge to us:  Do we deny him in our works, or lack of them?  Do we give of ourselves, our time, our talent and our treasure?  Do we serve or expect to be served?             kvs

              

Love is Stronger!

Death is strong, for it can rob us of the gift of life.  Love too is strong, for it can restore us to a better life.

               Death is strong, for no man can withstand it.  Love too is strong, for it can conquer death itself, soothe its sting, calm its violence, and bring its victory to naught.   The time will come when death is reviled and taunted: O death, where is your victory?

               Love is as strong as death because Christ's love is the very death of death.  Our love for Christ is also as strong as death, because it is itself a kind of death; destroying the old life, rooting out vice, and laying aside dead works.

               Our love for Christ is a return, though very unequal, for his love of us.  For He first loved us, and, through the example of love he gave us, he became a seal upon us by which we are made like him.  We lay aside the likeness of the earthly man and put on the likeness of the heavenly man; we love him as he has loved us.  For in this matter he has left us an example so that we might follow in His steps.

               This is why he says:  Set me as a seal upon your heart.  It is as if he were saying:  "Love me as I love you.  Keep me in your mind and memory, in your desires and yearnings, in your groans and sobs.  Remember, man, the kind of being I made you; how far I set you above other creatures; the dignity I conferred upon you; the glory and honor with which I crowned you; how I made you only a little less than the angels and set all things under your feet.  Remember not only how much I have done for you, but all the hardship and shame I have suffered for you. Yet look and see:  Do you not wrong me?  Do you not fail to love me?  Who loves you as I do?  Who created and redeemed you but I?"

               Lord, take away my heart of stone, a heart so bitter and uncircumcised, and give me a new heart, a heart of flesh, a pure heart.  You cleanse the heart and love the clean heart.  Take possession of my heart and dwell in it, contain it and fill it, you who are higher than the heights of my spirit and closer to me than my innermost self!

               You are the pattern of all beauty and the seal of all holiness.  Set the seal of your likeness upon my heart!  In your mercy set your seal upon my heart, God of my heart and the God who is my portion for ever!  Amen.                 from a treatise by Baldwin, bishop of Canterbury

               And Again, Amen!!  kvs

                             

The Better Wine

On the third day there was a wedding.  What wedding can this be but the joyful marriage of man’s salvation, a marriage celebrated by confessing the Trinity or by faith in the resurrection.  That is why the marriage took place “on the third day,” a reference to the sacred mysteries which this number symbolizes.

            Like a bridegroom coming from his marriage chamber our God descended to earth in his incarnation, in order to be united to his Church which was to be formed of pagan nations.  To her he gave a pledge and a dowry: a pledge when God was united to man; a dowry when he was sacrificed for man’s salvation.  The pledge is our present redemption; the dowry, eternal life.

            To those who see only with the outward eye, all these events at Cana are strange and wonderful; to those who understand, they are also signs.  For, if we look closely, the very water tells us of our rebirth in baptism.  One thing is turned into another from within, and in a hidden way a lesser creature is changed into a greater.  All this points to the hidden reality of our second birth.  There water was suddenly changed; later it will cause a change in man.

            By Christ’s action in Galilee, then, wine is made, that is, the law withdraws and grace takes its place; the shadows fade and truth becomes present; fleshly realities are coupled with spiritual, and the old covenant with its outward discipline is transformed into the new.  For, as the Apostle says: The old order has passed away; now all is new!  The water in the jars is not less than it was before, but now begins to be what it had not been; so too the law is not destroyed by Christ’s coming, but is made better than it was.

            When the wine fails, new wine is served: the wine of the old covenant was good, but the wine of the new is better.  The old covenant, which Jews follow, is exhausted; the new covenant, which belongs to us, has the savor of life and is filled with grace.

            The good wine, that is, good precepts, refers to the law; thus we read: You shall love your neighbor but hate your enemy.  But the Gospel is a better and stronger wine:  My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for you persecutors.         From a sermon by Faustus of Riez, bishop.

Triumph of the Cross

We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light.  As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above.  So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure.   Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.

            Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified.  Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree.  And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ's side, blood and water for the world's cleansing.  The legal bond of our sin would not be canceled, we should not have obtained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open.  Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

            Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation-very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory.  The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God's suffering and the trophy of his victory.  It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death.  But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world. 

            The cross is called Christ's glory; it is saluted as his triumph.  We recognize it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake.  If you would understand that the cross is Christ's triumph, hear what he himself said:  When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself.  Now you can see that the cross is Christ's glory and triumph.  (Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop)

            We are drawn to Christ in his glory and triumph.  He draw us to himself.  Do we allow ourselves to be taken up to him?  All over the Middle East, Christians are drawn to Christ, they follow him, and they die for him.  What is our answer?  Do we take the sufferings as Christ did so we may share the glory and triumph, or do we settle for what this earth has to offer us?  Would we too die for him and with him?     kvs

It is good for us to be here

Upon Mount Tabor, Jesus revealed to his disciples a heavenly mystery.  These are the divine wonders we celebrate today;  this is the saving revelation given us upon the mountain; this is the festival of Christ that  has drawn us here.  Let us listen, then, to the sacred voice of God so compellingly calling us from on high, from the summit of the mountain, so that with the Lord's chosen disciples we may penetrate the deep meaning of these holy mysteries, so far beyond our capacity to express.

            Jesus goes before us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven, and it is for us now to follow him with all speed, yearning for the heavenly vision that will give us a share in his radiance, renew our spiritual nature and transform us into his own likeness, making us forever sharers in his Godhead and raising us to heights as yet undreamed of.

            Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John.  Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration.  Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the Creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy: Lord it is good for us to be here.

            It is indeed good to be here, as you have said, Peter.  It is good to be with Jesus and to remain here forever.  What greater happiness or higher honor could we have than to be with God, to be made like him and to live in his light?

            Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry with joy: Lord it is good for us to be here-here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen.  For here, in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying as he enters:  Today salvation has come to this house. With Christ, our hearts receive all the wealth of his eternal blessings; and there where they are stored up for us in him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the first fruits and the whole of the world to come.     (from a sermon by Anastasius of Sinai, bishop)

            After Sunday, do we remember God is in our hearts?  Do we retire from the world to feel His peace in our hearts?  He told us he would be with us always.  And he is.  Do we let him transfigure us as he transfigured?  kvs