Author: ramez

Staring into the Universe

By Mourin Youssef

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Salome must have been one lucky woman. Imagine being able to witness the birth of Christ. She, sometimes interpreted as the midwife of St Mary, would have seen a sight to dream of. A beautiful, sweet baby swaddled and nestled, peaceful and undisturbed. Even if she was standing across the room, the mere opening of His ethereal eyes could have penetrated the entire atmosphere and melted her heart.

A physical description of the eyes of our Lord can only really be found in the book of Revelation. You know… that book that people often fall asleep to during the apocalypse night prayers. It describes the eyes of the son of God in “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire.” (Revelation 1:14) A “flame of fire” St John the beloved wrote. How amazing must it be to even catch a glimpse of these glorious eyes that can set our spirits and souls ablaze with a heavenly fire!

The eyes of God are mentioned much more frequently in the Bible in a spiritual sense. One of the most comforting and beautiful qualities of God is that He does not view the exterior of a man, “…For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) We are often told to not ‘judge a book by its cover’ and to always make excuses for people, but how often do we really do this? How often has someone wronged us and we still view them with the same softness and love as Christ?

Just as He looks to that person with love, we must also try to do the same, otherwise, how can we possibly expect to be treated with the same mercy? In the same manner that God views someone else’s heart, He views ours. It aches Him when He sees that we are holding a worthless grudge that weighs us down and diminishes that fire He sets in us.

So, why is it important for us to view others with the same eyes as God? “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) We were not formed to do the bare minimum… forgiving someone on the outside but harbouring feelings of resentment. Conversely, we were created to not only forgive but to take extreme measure to ensure the person we forgave feels loved. Otherwise, we cannot expect, nor can we experience or feel the love of Christ in a similar manner.

Seeing others through the loving eyes of Christ will give us countless daily opportunities to be more like Him. To be Him is to feel Him. In this manner, when our time of judgement comes, we will not feel estranged or bewildered by the beauty that we will behold. Life in the eternal kingdom will be an extension of the life we create for ourselves on Earth if we maintain this effort to be as much like Christ as possible.

So, what if someone doesn’t live through the eyes of Christ? There is a greater and deeper displeasure for the one that views the world with hate as they will become a product of their own internal hatred. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) If we go about our days with a thick darkness clouding our eyes, we will never experience God’s magnificence in our lives. A lot of the time we overlook it and can even refuse its presence. How often during our day does the Lord try to communicate with us? How often does His heart yearn for our attention? And yet, we are the ones that reject Him.

Another issue arises when we do less than the bare minimum. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…” (2 Chronicles 16:9) We are always under His observation. This might be a scary thing to think of. He sees our wickedness and all our flaws. He sees what others don’t see. But this is not only a point of warning, our Lord cannot help but love us. He sees our sorrows and the desires of our heart and grants them to us if we pray fervently and with humility.  “The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.” (Proverbs 16:1-3)

How wonderful would it be to witness and experience the eyes of God? To witness them is to stare into the universe and to experience them is to be a mirror image of His love.

“But above all things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” (Colossians 3:14)

Co-Crucified with Christ: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

By Anthony Tawadross

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This story is from Plato’s Republic. It’s very lengthy so I will try to condense it:
Imagine that there were some prisoners, and from childhood, they were tied up with chains facing a wall of a cave. And they hear sounds echoing off the cave walls. All they have seen were shadows that were on the wall from the fire that was burning behind them. Nothing else.

On the wall they see shadows from the people that were behind them holding up artifacts, statues and figures of animals and other things of creation. They have never seen anyone, not even their fellow prisoners because they were bound with chains from their necks, only facing the wall.

Throughout their whole lives, they have only seen the shadows and only heard the echoes that were from the wall. Nothing else. They think that these shadows are real, and all there is to society and to truth.

Plato says, imagine if one of these prisoners were set free. And you told him to look at the fire that was burning behind him. The prisoner’s eyes wouldn’t be able to handle the light from that
fire. His eyes would burn and ache from looking at that source of light. He sees the statues of the animals, and refuses to believe that the statues are real, only the shadows. He begs to be chained
again to live in his reality of the shadows.

Now imagine you took the same prisoner again, and you dragged him into the sunlight. He wouldn’t be able to see anything at all. He moved from a pitch-black cave into a flickering light, and now going into direct sunlight, after being there for the entirety of his life. Not for a day, nor an hour, but through his entire life. His eyes have never seen bright light like that. He is so overwhelmed by the sun. And only after a while, when his eyes are able to adjust, then he will see. Then he will be able to discern, and feast his eyes on the sun, and on reality. Now, what if that very same prisoner came and told the others the real truth? Wouldn’t they say that he was delusional? Or that he came back with eyes ruined? Wouldn’t they say that they knew the truth and that he was psychotic and stupid? Perhaps they would kill him or anyone else that would try to set them free and bring them up towards the sunlight.

Now concerning the crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ, here are a few things that are outlined in this story (I refer to capital “T” and “L” of Light and Truth as being Christ):

1. In order for us to actually live in the Truth and under the true Light, there must be suffering that takes place. Yes, it is nice and cozy to live in our chains and to see comfort in the “shadows” of a false reality, especially if we have been living in it for quite some time. But we must suffer the burning pain of looking and living in Light, if we were to yearn to fully live in real Truth, i.e. : being co-crucified with Christ.
2. To live in the true Light, which shines on everything that is True and good, we must acknowledge Light and Truth, and reject shadows and false imitations of truth. When the prisoner in the story was exposed under the light of the sun, he came and told his fellow prisoners about his experience. In response, they accused of him of being psychotic, delusional, and stupid. They were convinced that the shadows on the walls were real and that everything else was not. They threatened to kill him and anyone that would try to set them free and drag them into the sun. As for that freed prisoner, he enjoyed the beauty of the True Light that touched everything. Every True thing that he saw was under the Light. He wouldn’t continue to live in Truth, if he did not understand his error and reject his previous understanding of truth.
3. To continue living in Light and in Truth, we must resist darkness and pursue Light. Notice that in the story, living in darkness is extremely comfortable and going to the Light is very painful and hard. Even getting a glimpse of light is difficult. To pursue light is to live in Christ all the time and to discover beautiful things of the Truth. By understanding and living the Bible through the lens of the Church fathers and mothers and those who were fully obsessed with Truth (the monks and nuns), reading spiritual books, and partaking of the Eucharist, our minds and hearts will be constantly enlightened. In this we become “the Light of the world”, just as our Resurrected Savior said. In this we become agents of Truth, witnessing to those who don’t live in it. We will be like Christ; little Truths living in the world. (ie: Deification).
4. The last point about this story that immediately came through my mind are two sayings of St Antony: “To say that God turns away from the sinful, is like saying that the sun hides from the blind.” “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.” Yes, by following the True Light (Christ) we will be called “psychotic, delusional, stupid,
   and crazy”, as the prisoner in the story. But in reality, it is the opposite. (Pulling a UNO-Reverse card). By being co-Crucified with Christ on the Cross, we experience pain, sadness, suffering, and even abandonment and criticism from our friends. We die with Him. But we are Resurrected and glorified with Him. Let us fully and freely live in the Light of the Resurrection.

Christ is Risen.

The Beauty of the Beginning

By Mourin Youssef

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Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed, it was very good

Genesis 1:31

Everything in the beginning was made to be good.

Genesis. So many of the stories we would’ve learnt as kids originate from the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve and the story of creation, Cane and Abel, Noah’s Ark, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and the list goes on.

However, what wasn’t emphasised as much was the immense beauty and strength of each of these characters and how pivotal their stories are in setting the concrete foundation, we, as Christians, require to sustain a deep spiritual connection with our creator.

For most of these characters, their reliance on God was what got them started on their divine path. And when fallen or hindered, they offered their imperfections to the Lord for Him to utilise, and make a tool out of to execute his perfect plan. We are not called as equipped but rather made equipped through His perfect calling.

Joseph near the end of Genesis can be recognised as an extremely influential figure. He saved his family and their livestock from a severe famine. One might observe the story of Joseph through a superficial lens and think that a lot of his success was given to him because he was a follower of God. “the Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man”, (Genesis 39:2) right? But when one digs deeper what they will see is that the context of this verse holds more power than what a mere skim read would expose. A poor, helpless slave, abandoned by his brothers, trodding on unfamiliar land all alone, soon to be imprisoned. What type of success is that? How did it all go so wrong if Joseph was a man of the Lord? “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) This is the answer.

The beginning of Joseph’s life was full of tribulation and he was faced with so many moments anyone would describe as impossibly redeemable. The beauty is His beginning was that He did not define success by an arbitrary means of gaining secular pleasures. He defined it as a reliance on God so powerful that “the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand” (Genesis 39:3).

Joseph was a prisoner like no other. Not only did God turn the hearts of the prison guards to favour him but he then went on to manifest the power of God by interpreting the dreams of the prisoners and later on, pharaoh.

The magnificence of Joseph does not stop there. Yes, he was ready to serve God and yes, he accepted tribulations but furthermore, Joseph acknowledged the sovereignty of God. “Then Joseph said to them, ‘Do not interpretations belong to God? Therefore, relate them to me.’” (Genesis 40:8) He glorified God and not himself for he recognised that anything he could offer as a man was a gift presented unto him by God.

Joseph was showered with the blessings of God. Not only was he released from prison, but he was made to be ruler of Egypt. “Joseph gathered very much grain as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable” (Genesis 41:49). Immeasurable! Our God is not a god of holding back, he pours His rich grace upon us and loves us, but only if we keep him close.

How did he manage to turn his life around so significantly? It’s simple. He projected his love towards the Lord at all times. He trusted in the Lord. He waited for the Lord.

Joseph was successful.

Let us always carry around this spirit of patience and longsuffering, aspiring to be reborn everyday to remain close with Christ. The beginning will always be the best, the peak of motivation and in some cases the highlight of the journey. Just look at Joseph, he was his father’s favourite, clothed in a colourful garment to testify for this very fact. The beginning of his journey retained some of the best moments, but he did not forget the Lord. In joy and in misery.

The success or failure of an endeavour is solely dependent on the beginning, and this beginning will be prosperous if made as sacred as the relationship Joseph upheld with God.  Whether it’s study, work, getting active or even starting a new spiritual cannon. Did you build a strong enough foundation to ensure that failures are limited? If fallen, did you ensure that you have something to lean on to get back up? “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear.” (Psalm 56:4)

We must never feel comfortable with our current state of spirituality. This sensation of comfort is prime time to be under the strike of the enemy. Just as the beginning was good, striving and praying for the end to be equal is the best form of preparation we can do to be able to reach our ultimate goal.

When a man completes his search, then he starts over; and when he stops, he will still be perplexed.

Wisdom of Sirach 18:6