Tag: creation

The Realest Relationship

The Realest Relationship

Adapted from The Purpose Podcast, hosted by Christina Ibrahim and Daniel Mawad, featuring Fr Mark Basily

To understand the concept of having a relationship with God, we look back at the beginning of creation of man. This begins to give us an explanation of the necessity of a relationship with Christ, or the purpose of even knowing Him.

This begs the question, why did God create us? Sometimes we need to look beyond the standard answer of, “God is Love,” or “He did it because He loves us.” Anything more than this may seem too difficult to comprehend.

To answer the big questions, we can start with smaller questions; why do I want to have children?

If you think of it logically, it doesn’t make sense. Kids are a drainer; they drain your money, your time, your sleep. And they give you nothing in return. The reason why there is an inherent desire for children is the promise of a potential relationship. This compels us to have children. To share love. To enjoy life.

From here, we begin to see why Christ wants to have a relationship with His creation. The purpose of creation is to form a relationship, God is Love, and wants to share that love. This may suggest that God was missing something before the creation of man. The belief in the Trinity and the three Persons of the Trinity nullifies this theory.

God was not alone, and therefore did not need creation. He was already in a relationship with the Persons of the Trinity. What makes Christianity unique is that it was always about a relationship. God wanted to be in a relationship with humanity.

Thus, sin can be seen as a break in the relationship with Christ. Religion poses a series of rules, if you break one of these rules then you have sinned. This is a constrained way of living, because if I step out of line that would make me a sinner.

As Christians, this is not how we perceive our all-loving God. All throughout scripture, God presented Himself to the church as the Bridegroom. If this is the relationship – as close as a bride and groom – then any break is not just sin but adultery. It is being unfaithful to your Beloved. Christ presented it in this way is to show that sin is missing the mark in your relationship with Him; not a set of rules.

A key difference in our relationship of God compared to our relationships with others is that God will never give up on us. God gives us free-will and the ball is always in our court to make a change. For as long as there is breath within us, we are given the opportunity to know Christ. He presents Himself as a waiting Father, take the parable of the prodigal son for example. The father waits for his son’s return. He never gives up on creation.

Despite this, we, as humans do not always want a relationship with Christ, even as Christians. As humans, we’re clever at burying our heads in the sand. We search for happiness and are often willing to pursue Christ if this doesn’t bring us immediate satisfaction. Christianity can be too much, sometimes I just want to live day to day, enjoy life. I don’t want to think too deeply. It can be a struggle to be happy when trying to maintain a relationship with Christ.

How do we get to a point where we are happy to strive for a relationship? There are so many dimensions to take into consideration. If we have a journey with Christ, we progress toward a destination, we should be quite confident that we are developing a relationship. We are all at different levels, but on a journey. I know Christ and I’m growing in faith over time. I haven’t reached the destination but I am on a path that will lead to Christ. I’m not proud because I’ve made it and I do not despair because I haven’t reached my destination yet.

What should we expect on the journey? We all have a cross to carry, and the answer can seem to be that if you have relationship with Christ then that is the solution. A relationship with Christ transforms our life. It transforms the good times and the tough times. When you are connected to Christ, you have His support, you have power, you have patience, you have hope for a better tomorrow. The reality is that we receive power by being connected to Him. When going through difficult times, they don’t go away but I am given strength to push forward. In times of joy, He magnifies my joy.

Having a relationship with Christ is transformative, and pleasantly surprising even at the start. We are more than physical beings, we have spirits and souls, we have been breathed on by the breath of God. If we only live physical lives, then we cannot be fully content. As soon as we embark on a relationship with Christ, the void begins to be filled and this is most transformative part of a relationship with Christ.

Our life should be viewed in the context of eternity. Some people have extremely difficult lives. A relationship with Christ helps, but it doesn’t make our problems disappear. Christ Himself said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33.

He doesn’t say, I will take away your problems, He says I have overcome the world. Be of good cheer because there is another world to come. Even when I struggle, I have another life to look forward to, and this is my hope in Jesus Christ. Will the relationship help with my issues? Yes, it definitely helps, and there is power and strength to help me overcome, but they do not disappear.

If we want to start a relationship with Christ, the journey begins with communication. Narrow is the path that leads to life and not many find it. The followers of Christ are the minority. People come to realise that there is a place for Christ.

When you come to realise that nothing in this life satisfies you, there is only one conclusion – that you were created for another life

C.S. Lewis

We must have been created for something more than the temporal world we know. Not only do we claim eternity, but we enjoy life on earth in a different way. When you taste God, the struggle becomes more beautiful, all good things take hard work. Doesn’t mean that it’s not genuine because it’s a struggle. On the contrary, anything that is precious, requires effort.

Our lives can be transformed if we see Christianity as a relationship with Christ. It is the pearl of great price.

The Battle in Eden

The Battle in Eden

By Sarah Beshay

How long would you have lasted in the garden of Eden?

‘For no one is clean from the stain of sin even if his life on earth has been but for one day’ (Letter 133.2 – Saint Jerome).

As Saint Jerome wisely spoke, I have come to realise that my strive to live a sinless life, for even a day, is impossible. Not just impossible, but a never-ending battle. It’s a spiritual war. One where I’m ‘wrestling against powers and principalities’ (Ephesians 6:12). For I am warned, that the Devil, the ‘highest of angels’ who by his pride fell, is the ‘father of lies’ (John 8:44). The cunning deadly beast. He slithers around observing his prey before he attacks them at their most vulnerable, lowest moment. I wonder what Eve was doing at that moment? As for myself, I imagine I would have been pondering and drifting into my own thoughts whilst strolling for the first time down through the Garden.  So just as Eve was deceived into the Serpent’s craftiness at that solitary moment, I, without a doubt, wouldn’t have been any stronger nor wiser than the Mother of All the Living to surpass his temptation. The matter as to how long I would have lasted in Eden, well for me, that answer is, at most, not even a day following my creation. But before my Creator, the answer is irrelevant, ’for a thousand years in His sight, are like yesterday when it is past’ (Psalm 90:4).

‘For what I will to do, [abide by the Law], I do not practice, but what I hate, [that which is evil], that I do’ (Romans 7:15-20).

For in the end, I am only human, like Eve, limited in the flesh. For ‘my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak’ (Mathew 26:41). Not that my flesh is evil, but that my roaring flesh is not as great as my soaring spirit. For my flesh has less of reason and discretion. If it is not led by the spirit it will eventually indulge in what it pleases and become carnally minded. I whose body obtained mortality, because it became an easy prey to sin (St John Chrysostom). For once Eve was tempted, ‘she saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, and ate of its fruit’ (Genesis 3:6). So, it is true, that for ‘all that is in the world are the desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes and the pride of life’ (1 John 2:16). I know not where the Garden of Eden was located, but it truly was a slice of paradise on earth. One that I lost at first sight. Therefore, I was prone to sin at any instant, by one of these ways or another, being born in the flesh on earth. I too am ‘bound to have fallen by the guile of the enemy and by my own free will disobeyed God’s holy commandments, [separating myself from my Creator] and bringing upon myself the sentence of death’ (The Liturgy of Saint Gregory the Theologian).
 

‘When your enemy presses in hard do not fear. The battle belongs to the Lord! Take courage my friend, your redemption is near. The battle belongs to the Lord’!

The Battle Belongs to the Lord by Petra (Hymn)

What this means for me is that this is not a war that I can conquer alone. So, what can I do? I can only lean on God, for it is God’s war, for He is my divine spiritual source. I will firstly ‘come to the holy font, wash in saving baptism and be renewed in the bath of rebirth’ (Sermons 213.8 – Saint Augustine). In Eden I ate what was hanging from the tree and thereby died, in the Holy Liturgy I eat what was hanging from the tree and thereby live. For by both Baptism and the Holy Eucharist I will come into union with God again. Now He has given me the Holy Spirit to work within me. And as long as I am feeding the flame of the Holy Spirit by living in the spirit, ‘He shall convict me of sin’ (John 16:8) and encourage me to do what is right. I shall ‘put on the full armour of God’ (Ephesians 6:10). to defend myself in this battle. That is by dwelling in Faith, the Word of God and by Prayer in the Spirit. I shall rise, repent and return to my Creator.   


So at an end, in my daily reality and challenges of life, I will confirm to these things, and I will unworthily cry to you my Master: ‘to forgive those sins I have committed this day, whether by action, by word, by thought or any of my senses’ (The Absolution of the Twelfth Hour – Agpia). And ‘to absolve, forgive, and remit my transgressions; those committed willingly and those committed unwillingly, those committed knowingly and those committed unknowingly, the hidden and manifest’ (Holy, Holy, Holy – Agpia). I plead to You oh Lord, ‘for ten thousand times ten thousand sins are too few for Your mercy to forgive in one hour’ (Saint Athanasius of Alexandria).

Good Friday

Lead me to the Cross

Good Friday

by Bethany Kaldas

‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’

Genesis 2:24

When we think of Good Friday, we do not tend to think of it as…well, good. The closest we come is in acknowledging the fact that it is because of the Crucifixion that we have been saved from sin. But even so we do it in a sombre, regretful tone, the same way we talk about the deaths of soldiers on a battlefield. We shed tears for a horrific and tragic event that happened to Somebody else, a long time ago, very far away.

But Good Friday is about as far from the commemoration of a terrible misfortune as you can get. It is not a commemoration at all. Good Friday is the resolution of the greatest love story in all Creation. And it did not merely happen. It is happening to us.

It is a story that begins with the fitting words, ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’ (Genesis 1:1). The world is created—marvels upon marvels that had yet to be seen in the universe! Substance where there was once nothing! Light in a cosmos which had been blind! Water to a land that had never tasted a drop! Living creatures of boundless forms inhabiting a once lifeless world! Each day something more and more wonderful!

…And yet it was incomplete.

Then came the sixth day of Creation, and something… Different happens.

‘Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”’

Genesis 2:26

We know this story well. This is the creation of the first humans. But this is not just some distant tale about Adam and Eve. This is the beginning of us.

As Fr John Behr puts it, this is the announcement of God’s own project—humanity—a project that, unlike His other countless wonders, ‘is not completed by His word alone’ (Becoming Human, p. 35). God has said that humanity is to be in His ‘image and likeness’ (Genesis 1:26), and yet the creature that is formed of the dust falls away. Broken and confused, mankind comes to barely resemble the Being it was made after. Of all of Creation, humanity is the only work which is begun but not yet finished.

Fr John goes on to claim that through all of history, from the sixth day of Creation, not one human being has been seen on Earth. Until Good Friday. Until the Creator Himself came down to His Creation, and hanging on the Cross, on the verge of death, declared with utter finality:

‘It is finished.’

John 19:30

And finally, the sixth day of Creation comes to its end.

Good Friday is the day we are completed. It is the day we become the glorious Bride of Christ. It is the day we become the Church—we finally fulfil that image and likeness we were made for. This when we become the True Eve, who is to the True Adam, ‘of His flesh and of His bones’ (Ephesians 5:30). With the sacrificial death of the first True Human in all the universe, Christ Himself, human kind is finally born and finally united with Her Creator.

‘Thus the day of Jesus’ crucifixion is His wedding day, when He, the new Adam, is ‘joined to His wife’, the Church, in an everlasting marriage covenant.’

Brant Pitre, Jesus the Bridegroom

But it is not enough to know this happened—we must see that it is happening.

In his book, Jesus the Bridegroom, Brant Pitre describes Christ’s sacrifice in this way:

‘Jesus is united with His bride through the sacrifice of His own flesh and blood, poured out literally on Calvary and then miraculously in the sacraments of the Church.’

Whenever we partake of the Eucharist, we are participating in the very same sacrifice that was given on that Cross, the Cross we too often feel is only a distant historical event to be commemorated in ritual.

But it is even more than that. Through this sacrifice, the sacrifice that birthed humanity and wed us to our Maker, we see a reality that the saints before us realised centuries ago. An uncomfortable reality, perhaps, captured so perfectly in Romans 6:8: ‘Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.’ It is the reality that we can only live if we first die.

We see this reality portrayed most potently in examples such as Saint Ignatius of Antioch. In his letters, he begged his friends not to do anything that might prevent his martyrdom. He pleads to them with all sincerity, ‘Do not hinder me from living.’ He realised that one cannot really have a life by trying to preserve it for oneself—true life comes through unity with Christ, and that through death with Christ.

Martyrdom seems like a radical idea to the modern, western mind—and by no means am I suggesting that we cannot be real, living Christians unless we hop on a plane and find someone who will kill us for our beliefs. We need not travel so far for martyrdom. For true martyrdom is not mere physical death, but the sacrifice of one’s whole self for the sake of Christ.

‘Until you have given up yourself to Him you will not have a real self.’

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

And it is in this that we find the goodness of Good Friday.

God’s greatest work—the human race, the Church, His Bride—was completed and wed to Him through the voluntary sacrifice of His whole self. In precisely the same way, we can only be wholly ourselves—that most glorious creature, that image and likeness of God—if we give our whole selves away for His sake.

Good Friday is not a commemoration of a tragic event. Good Friday is when we find life in the giving up of life, when we die with Him in order to live with Him.

‘Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.’

Romans 7:4