Tag: #passionweek

Journey of Resilience

Journey of Resilience

Adapted from a sermon by HG Bishop Angaelos

There are many elements of our ‘journey’ during passion week. Most are inspiring and uplifting, for this is a wonderful journey to be with our Lord. It is a time of joy, growth, power and faith. It is a time to witness and a time to serve. 

Tonight, we see another element of this journey – a journey of perseverance. A journey of resilience and focus, where we come to understand the direction this journey is heading in… 

We see the obstacles that the Lord must face in the space of a few hours. He is betrayed by one of his disciples and abandoned by all his disciples. He was arrested, rejected, captured unjustly, tried, and had false witness borne against him. And of course, he was subject to extreme insult and injury. Yet our Lord, the incarnate word, continued in His mission. 

It is a beautiful journey, but it is a journey to an end. It’s end that doesn’t come easily. For our Lord suffered this to give us a completely countercultural message. He went against every norm and He did it with power, strength, grace and love, with a divine perseverance and endurance that inspires us. 

On our personal journeys, we may face some or all of these obstacles. For most people, that’s the end of it. We get angry, upset, disappointed or disillusioned. We often forget that there are people who have been offended by these obstructions and have left the church. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have resilience or strength – but what we need to consider is what we are doing about it. How are we, in our journeys, inspiring them to return? How are we trying to fix the betrayal, the denial, the rejection and marginalisation? 

I can’t imagine going into a life-threatening situation, where my life depended on your witness, and one of you, after all these years, suddenly says, “I don’t know him”. Not once, not twice, but three times. What effect would that have on me or you? 

What effect would it have on me if I thought I was speaking the truth, and quite blatantly saw someone bearing false witness? How would I react or feel? 

We put ourselves in the place of our Lord in this situation, maybe we can put ourselves in the place of those who have been mocked, abandoned, marginalised, persecuted and denied. And then we can try to see how we can heal that. 

We often focus on the message that we need to be resilient. Which is true. But we also need to care for those who may have been less resilient, whether through intention or negligence, whether through their fault of ours. For the journey of our Lord, in flesh, to the cross and beyond the cross was a journey for us. He walked every mile for us. 

If we come out of this week with anything, let it be that we remember to walk in the footsteps of our Lord beyond this week. Now we have a constant reminder, but on Saturday, the black drapes are gone, the hymnology’s changed, the readings are different to suit the new season.

Does that stop us from journeying in his footsteps? Does it stop us from remembering that His journey was for those who were outcast and living in darkness and the shadow of death? He didn’t discriminate based on whether we were intentional or negligent, but he came for all. 

It’s easy for us to focus on the cross this week and it’s important, but the cross should be something we carry with us always in our hearts throughout our Christian journey. We carry it, we persevere, but we know that it is the Lord who carries the cross with us, and sometimes for us as well. 

It’s easy for us to lose steam and become bored of these same issues. But thankfully, this is not how God looks at us. Every day He deals with the same issues, same insecurities and inadequacies and sinfulness, but he is resilient and persistent. We are able to journey regardless, courageous and confident that we are not alone. 

In tonight’s setting, He was completely alone. Being brought before a counsel, He was tried and sentenced with all those He had known, mentored, taught, supported and healed all gone. There was not an adulteress or leper or even disciple in sight. No one. 

Yet for us, our situation is never so dire because there is always someone there for us. Even if we don’t feel it or believe it, we are there for one another. The Church is there. The body of Christ is there. Your confession father is there. Your spiritual guide is there. Your companion is there. Your servant is there. This is a journey that we take together, and we are never completely alone. 

Satan often tells us that we are completely alone. Yet we are not, and we are confident in that.

So as we journey tonight, and as we continue in the knowledge that beyond the cross there is a resurrection, we are confident that our God is with us. We are confident that we are never alone. The Lord says to us that in our patience, we will possess our souls. He tells us to be brave. Not to worry. He tells us that He will never leave nor abandon us. These aren’t empty words – they are divine promises.

Our God is a God of fulfilled promises. 

We persevere because we know what the end is. Beyond this life, there is a life to come, and that is what we are aiming for. But we don’t want to go there alone – we need to remember all those who may be feeling exactly the same as we are. Those who are deceived into feeling that they are alone. 

This is where it is important for us to not only see God’s actions in our lives, but how He desires our actions to be in the lives of others. We do not deceive, we do not abandon, we do not betray, we do not bear false witness, we do not perform acts of injustice, because if they hurt the Lord, they will hurt us. If they hurt us, they will surely hurt everyone else. 

It is a blessed journey, but one that needs focus, resilience and the confidence that it is a journey alongside our Lord, Who takes us beyond the cross and resurrection into the life that He has promised us. 

The Cross

The Cross

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Augustinos Nada

Crucifixion started in about 600 BC by the Babylonians who were crucifying people on trees. The person would be nailed to the tree and their body would be left for the animals and birds to prey on. Very barbaric!

The Romans modified this method of punishment and became experts in crucifying people. The word excruciating comes from a Latin word which means crucifixion, and it describes the severe pain which is exactly what the Lord endured. A very severe pain both on the cross and leading to the cross. In icons, you notice that a lot of the crosses are very high and tall, but in reality, some of the scholars say that Roman crosses were not that high, only about two meters or so. This allowed for anyone to approach the person on the cross to slap, spit, curse or abuse them. It was quite humiliating, in addition to the pain.

Christ was crucified outside Jerusalem as the Jews believed that if anyone was to die, especially criminals, they should not to be executed or put to death in Jerusalem, in their holy city, because that was regarded as defiling the land. They wanted Christ to be crucified in accordance to the law in Deuteronomy that said anyone who hangs on a tree is, “cursed by God” (Deut. 21:22-23). The Lord was crucified outside the city and on a place called Golgotha. Some traditions say that this is the place where Adam was buried and this is quite ironic. The second Adam, the one who lifts the curse from us and opens the doors of Paradise outdoes the consequence of the first Adam’s actions.

The greatest miracle witnessed on the Cross was the acceptance of the right hand thief, who acknowledged and accepted the true faith. In itself, this is the greatest miracle. The Lord rose many people and performed countless miracles, including Lazarus, but all those died again. The situation with the right hand thief was the raising of the spiritually dead person who was granted everlasting life. Even while on the Cross, the Lord was still giving and performing miracles.

More still, there was darkness all over the land from the sixth hour (Matt 27:45). In 55 AD, a Jewish historian recorded that there was some kind of eclipse during the year of the Lord Jesus Christ although it was later confirmed that there was no eclipse, as this was not the time for it. Something clearly dramatic happened at this time that had the appearance of the darkness of an eclipse but was beyond what Science could explain. This is why the church switches off the lights from the sixth hour to commemorate this unusual darkness at the time Christ gave up His soul.

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). A lot of people think that He is praying to the Lord because He is in agony. He was in fact directing us to Psalm 22. Psalm 22 describes the Lord’s crucifixion and all the things that happened to Him in those hours. When the Lord says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me,” He was simply directing them to the Psalm. In those days, psalms were not numbered and so, the people would know the psalm by its opening line.

The Lord also said “I thirst.” In response to this, they gave Him sour wine, which is very old wine. The aim of this was to lessen the pain, as an analgesic but instead, the Lord refused it. The reason for this was because Christ didn’t want to soften the blow. He wanted to feel the full extent of the pain. He wanted to feel the pain and the suffering for the salvation of humankind. He was not forced to die, He went to the Cross willingly and accepted every bit of suffering for our sakes.

In the Gospel of St John, it says that the Lord bowed His head, and gave up His soul (John 19:30). Normally, at death, a person will die and then bow their head. Christ did the opposite. It was almost a display of honour to the Father as He gave up His soul. Christ was in full control throughout all His suffering. The Lord was so unique and so wise in all these happenings. If the Jews still could not see this, the veil of the Temple was torn, a declaration that the self-righteous Jews were not worthy of the Holiest of Holies.

The splitting of the veil of the Temple was a prophecy about the destruction of the Temple while Christ opened the Holies of Holy for all mankind to enter into the joy of the Lord. This allows Christians to come and partake of the Holies of Holy. It is no longer only the Jews that were God’s chosen people but all people.

We are so privileged to be Christian! We are so honoured to be Christians; to know and understand what the Lord did for our sake. To see how much suffering and how much pain He experienced, the nails, the scourging, the humiliation, that was on the Cross and all this was for our salvation.

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Do I qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven?

Do I qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven?

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Antonios Kaldas

If we look at Tuesday Morning of Pascha, the last Gospel introduces the theme of two different kinds of people who relate to God. We hear Jesus talking about the end of the world and He asks, “Who will be on my left and who will be on my right.”

The criteria Jesus gave for who will be on His left and who will be on His right says, “I was hungry, and you fed Me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was naked, and you clothed Me” (Matthew 25:36).

The gospel tells us it’s hard to judge who will be where. When we look at those who Jesus speaks to at the end of the world, do you think it would be easy to tell who fed the hungry, who visited the sick and who clothed the naked and who didn’t? When you look around yourself and look at other people in your day to day life, do you know who feeds the hungry? Do you know who has visited the sick? Do you know who has clothed the naked? Chances are, those that do, aren’t walking around boasting about it. We simply, do not know.

The Gospels of Wednesday help us to try and understand how a person qualifies to be at the right hand of Jesus. Not so that we can look at the people around us and say, “you’re going to heaven,” it is so we can look at ourselves and determine if we qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven. The first hour of the Gospels is about the marriage banquet, here there are two types of people, those are invited to the wedding feast and refuse and those who rejoice to attend the wedding feast of Christ.

The second Gospel was the coming of Christ, here we see two types of people again. Two men in the field, one to be taken and one to be left. “Watch their fall because you do not know what hour the Lord is coming” – which one of them qualifies for heaven?

The third Gospel speaks of the two groups of virgins. The five foolish virgins on the left – they weren’t ready and the five wise virgins – they were ready. The fourth Gospel then talks about the hypocrisy of the scribes and pharisees.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves.” (Matthew 23:29-31)

These are the people who think they’re going to heaven.

I give God my 5 minutes of prayer, I pay my tithes. What do I have in my life that is important enough for me to rush my prayer? What is more important than giving God my attention when I speak to him? Our prayers tell us something about our relationship with God, our prayers in itself give us a glimpse of which group we fall into.

There are people who believe that God created us to love Him and there are people that believe we create God to love us. The first group says, I exist for God. God is the one who made me, without God I would not exist, He wants me to experience the Joy of love. Therefore, all I do is for God and anybody else. Then there is the other group where, they make up a god in their image and their likeness. He is a god that is kind and merciful and doesn’t mind the sins I am committing. They never feel they have any problems. The problem is, they haven’t met the real God.

We have to be awfully careful to not create our ‘fantasy’ god. The god who will give me everything I want. A god who must make my life very successful. We can’t lead our real God into what we want Him to do.

In the famous words of C.S Lewis, “He is not a tame lion.” We must not think he will come and lick our hands; He has a mind of His own. We are His servants, that is why we say “thy will be done” when we pray Our Father. There are no footnotes at the bottom of Our Father saying, “but let my will be Your will. Please Lord want what I want. Please Lord give me what I want.”

We must deal with the real God, not this fantasy god.

Judas, created a fantasy god. He created a fantasy Jesus. Judas didn’t like it when he had to face the real Jesus, the real Jesus, didn’t approve of his greediness. Ask yourself this question, “Are my thoughts, my motivations, my actions, my words motivated by care for myself or are they motivated by genuine and sincere care for God and my neighbour?”

In recent times, the Church has been tainted with Western ideas. We think of our relationship with God ultimately as standing before a judge. A judge in a “legal” sense where He has a law, He has witnesses of what we’ve done. If we’ve broken the law, we take our punishment. If we haven’t, we will meet Him in heaven.

The Orthodox view has a different emphasis. Those who are going to go to Heaven are those who live in Heaven on earth. It’s not going to be a matter of getting there and having your accounts checked. If we start to live in Heaven on earth, when we get to meet Jesus and ask “Lord, can I please go to heaven,” His answer will be “No, because you’re already in heaven”.

What does it mean to live in Heaven on earth? It is to live united with God while we’re here on earth. Heaven is not defined by a location or characteristic, it is defined by the presence of God.

We can create our own hell on earth by turning away from God. By turning into ourselves and not to God, we turn away from Our God who is everywhere. God has said to us, your soul and your heart is free, God does not force Himself upon us or into our heart. This is why in oneself; we can turn away from God. We become selfish and self-centred. The person who lives in hell on earth, goes up and stands in front of Christ and says “no, I don’t want to be with you. I prefer myself.” And Christ would say “okay, I won’t force you.”

So, as it turns out, it is not God who decides where we go. We choose ourselves. This is the free choice God has given to every one of us. The choices we make in our lives, makes us who we are in the end.

Let us ask ourselves:

Who am I? What kind of person am I? Who is the real person I am that nobody sees? Have I met with the real God, or am I dealing with my fantasy god?

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”

Matthew 25:34

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A Warning to the Fruitless

A Warning to the Fruitless

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Yacoub Magdy

In Holy Week, we live hour by hour so we remember exactly what the Lord did in His final week.

On Monday, we remember the day that the Lord was in Bethany. He woke up and was hungry. From afar, He saw a fig tree that appeared to be full of fruit because of the amount of beautiful leaves that were on it. As He approached the tree, He noticed that were no fruits. The tree falsely appeared to be full of fruit but it was merely an appearance of goodness.

The Lord then cursed the tree. For three years, He was with the disciples pouring blessings of healing – raising the dead, curing the sick, giving sight to the blind, cleansing lepers and expelling demons – but to the fig tree, He cursed. The next day as He was passing by the same tree with His disciples, Peter remembers what the Lord says and exclaims, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away!” (Mark 11:21).  For the first time, something living had died at the hands of our Lord.

This was an important event that opens our eyes to the nature of our Lord. The Lord is telling us that the worst sin is hypocrisy. Its underlying sin is arrogance but hypocrisy is the manifestation.

Hypocrisy is to pretend you are good when are not, to hold an inner life that is vastly different to your outward appearance. To appear holy, to appear blessed, but when the Lord looks to your heart, it is withering away like the fig tree with no fruits.

He speaks firmly to the Pharisees and the Scribes to draw their attention, to overcome their pride and hypocrisy. What is the issue of pride?

Pride repels repentance. The hypocrite cannot see their need to repent. They are satisfied with their outward appearance. It is a disease that can manifest upon those living in the church for many years. Their pride sustains them and they carry on living with no cause to repent.

As St Macarius was passing away, there were two monks with him who asked him to give them lessons to live by. His advice was to live your life as a beginner. This is how you remain protected from pride. As we grow, in service, in knowledge, we think we are doing better and we leave ourselves exposed to attacks of pride. The label of “beginner” protects us.

St Yostus implemented this same principle all his life, so that others would not see his goodness and there was not even a hint of hypocrisy within him. One night he knocked on the door of another monk. The other monk awoke from sleep in haste to see what was wrong. St Yostus asked him what time it was. The other monk responded, “Father, you wake me in the middle of the night to ask me what time it is? It is after midnight, what difference does the time make?” He turned around angry, and as he was about to get into bed, he saw scorpions on his bed. St Yostus protected him from the scorpions by asking a silly question so that he would not receive any credit. He preferred to appeared crazy before others than have them think of him as a saint.

This is how the saints protected themselves. The ones that were focused on the opinion of God over the opinions of people. They did what they needed to do protect themselves from the sin of hypocrisy.

As St Moses the Black grew in repentance and spirituality, he was given the gifts of healing and prophecy. Word spread throughout surrounding countries and people began to travel to the desert to ask for his prayers. Some overseas travellers found a tall, dark monk in the desert as they were traveling to the monastery to see St Moses. They asked him if he knew St Moses and the monk responded, “why would you travel all this way to see him? The stories you hear are false, do not waste your time, he is no saint.” They continued walking to the monastery disturbed by what they heard. When they arrived at the monastery, they asked about the monk they had encountered. When asked to describe his appearance, the monks of the monastery were quickly able to identify that the monk they had seen in the desert was, in fact, St Moses. He didn’t like to be described as a saint, he wanted God to reveal what was within his heart.

St Seraphim of Sarov was a Russian hermit and is very well known till today. He was falsely accused of wrong doing. There was a court case before the Russian Synod of bishops and he was asked to defend himself. His disciples implored him to answer but he opened not his mouth, he insisted upon this. The Synod had no choice but to excommunicate him. He left joyful and continued in prayer and fasting. Many miracles were performed while he was in excommunication. This was extremely embarrassing for the Synod that had found him guilty. His excommunication was reverted and he was canonised a saint after his passing.

The saints hid their sainthood to prevent them from falling into hypocrisy. While we are not at the level of the saints to show we are bad but we must protect ourselves too. We must not try to convince people that we are good. If we do good, this does need to be broadcasted. Many times, the church is given huge gifts or donations and no one knows where they came from.

As a safeguard;

  • Never speak in a way that glorifies yourself
  • Never speak of yourself in a way that will cause others to conclude that you are good or a high achiever
  • Always give thanks to God.

How will we be saved if we accept glory of earth?

2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. – Matthew 6:2-4.

Do not be angry. Turn accusation into correction. Apologise often, even if you didn’t do anything wrong. Blame yourself, and you will live happy.

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