Acts of Generosity

“Helping a person in need is good in itself. But the degree of goodness is hugely affected by the attitude with which it is done. If you show resentment because you are helping the person out of a reluctant sense of duty, then the person may receive your help but may feel awkward and embarrassed. This is because the person will feel beholden to you. If, on the other hand, you help the person in a spirit of joy, then the help will be received joyfully. The person will feel neither demeaned nor humiliated by your help, but rather will feel glad to have caused you pleasure by receiving your help. And joy is the appropriate attitude with which to help others because acts of generosity are a source of blessing to the giver as well as the receiver” — St. John Chrysostom.

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The Sunday After Ascension

The Feast of the Ascension ends the liturgical singing of “Christ is Risen,” transitioning us from the joys and symbols of Pascha to the anticipation of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. As with the disciples, this transition can be disorienting and distressing for the faithful.

The appointed gospel reading for the Divine Liturgy on this day (John 17:1-13) is Jesus’ priestly prayer before His passion and crucifixion. It seems that much of the content of Jesus’ prayer was intended not only to strengthen the disciples prior to His impending death but also to prepare them for His eventual physical separation from them on Ascension.

As with most departures, those left behind are often filled with sadness, anxiety, and insecurity. This is likely true of the disciples at the time of the Lord’s ascent from earth to heaven. They likely wondered why He was leaving them? Why did He have to ascend? After all, He had risen from the dead and was victorious. His presence among them proved the resurrection. His enemies would now be compelled to believe in Him and to bow down before Him as Lord and King. They sensed victory within their grasp. But Christ did not remain on earth, but rather ascended with the promise to them of sending God’s Spirit. Why didn’t Jesus stay on earth after His glorious resurrection?

The Lord’s mission was never to be an earthly king. He repeatedly told the disciples that His kingdom was not of this world. He taught His followers that they must transition from hearing God’s voice directly from Him to hearing God’s voice in the depths of their hearts from where the promised Holy Spirit would speak. They had to not only trust in what they were physically able to touch and hear, but had to develop faith in the invisible and intangible indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This was true then and remains true for Christians today.

The world around us is troubled and in upheaval, triggering fear and anxiety for many. We live in a state of hyper-vigilance of terrorist attacks and threats of nuclear war. Amidst such fear and suffering, we long for safety, solace, and peace. And while we pray that God’s “will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we remind ourselves that Christ did not come to establish earthly empires or governmental systems. Although it is often difficult to feel stable, solid, and safe in this unpredictable world, we are nevertheless called to remain steadfast in our faith, remembering that God’s kingdom is not of this world and that ultimate truth and justice cannot be legislated. True liberty dwells not in the decrees of parliaments but rather in human hearts sanctified by God’s Spirit.

Like the disciples after the Lord’s ascension, we must trust that God has not abandoned us. We must believe that God has not forsaken us. We must have faith that no matter what happens around us, God’s providence sustains us. Let us cast off despair as we pray for renewed strength and hope in anticipation of the comforting grace of God’s Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

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The Ascension of Our Lord

After His Resurrection, Jesus remained on earth to manifest that He had truly risen from the dead and to complete His final instructions to the apostles. Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus and His disciples went to the Mount of Olives. Before taking leave, Jesus promised the disciples that He would not abandon them, but that He would send the Holy Spirit, the breath of God’s own Spirit, to comfort and to guide them. And while blessing them, He ascended into heaven.

The heaven to which the Lord ascended is certainly not the starry sky that we see above us. And it is not the universe’s outer space, but it is the highest heaven, the place of the eternal presence of the Eternal God. The ascending Lord continued His blessing of the disciples until the cloud concealed Him. This all-affirming and all-consecrating blessing of God was forever imprinted in the memory of the disciples. It was then spread around the whole world by the holy apostles and preachers of Christianity.

The ascension affirmed that Jesus had accomplished everything He had come to do. The messianic promise ended with a fulfillment and a new promise of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ ascension did not end His relationship with the faithful, but rather instituted a new way of living in God’s transcendent presence in the here and now. We continue to receive the grace of His blessing.

Although the Feast of the Ascension commemorates Jesus’ physical departure from earth, it’s not a cause for sadness. When Jesus completed His earthly mission of bringing salvation to all people, He ascended from this world back to heaven. The meaning and the fullness of His resurrection culminated in the ascension. Having completed His mission in this world, Jesus returned to heaven, raising earth to heaven with Him! And that’s why both the Western and the Eastern Church solemnly and joyously celebrate this holy day.

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Healing of the Blind Man

Christ is Risen!

The miracle of healing the man born blind by Jesus is one of the miracles recorded in Saint John’s gospel and is read in Eastern Christian churches on the sixth Sunday of Pascha.

The gospel text relates that Jesus together with His disciples come upon a man blind from birth. The disciples ask the Lord why the man had been born blind. After answering their question, Jesus spits on the ground to make clay with which to anoint the blind man’s eyes. Jesus then orders the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. After doing so, the blind man receives his sight.

According to Christian tradition, the name ascribed to the man born blind is Celidonius. This tradition is attested in both Eastern and Western Christianity. Saint Dmitri of Rostov, in his Great Synaxarion, also mentions that the blind man’s name was Celidonius. Tradition ascribes the founding of the Christian church at Nîmes in Gaul (present-day France) to Saint Celidonius.

The commentary on this gospel text by Saint Macarius the Great expounds on Jesus’ healings as revelation of God’s expansive love for humanity:

“Let us fervently hasten to the inviting Christ, pouring out our hearts before Him. Let us not persistently despair in our salvation, because it is the trick of the evil one to cause us despair by reminding us of our former sins. We must remember that if the Lord, when He came, was a physician and healer of the blind, the crippled, and the deaf, and that He even resurrected the dead, He will also heal the blindness of the mind, the weakness of the soul, and the deafness of the negligent heart. There is no other who created both body and soul. And, if God is so merciful and gracious to those who transgressed and died, then will not that same one who so intensely loves humanity also heal the tainted immortal souls of those ask?”

May our most gracious and merciful Lord, Physician of both soul and body, grant health and healing to all who ask, through the intercessions of Saint Celedonius and all of the saints. Amen!

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Mother’s Day

In the United States, the second Sunday of May is Mother’s Day, a special day to honor all mothers, both living and deceased. While having no mention in our liturgical calendar, we nevertheless unofficially consider Mother’s Day as a day to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Our Blessed Mother, for she is called in scripture “blessed among women.” Through Mary’s humble acceptance of the will of God, the trajectory of human history was forever transformed.

While their are are numerous titles in the Church for the Virgin Mary, one of my favorites is Our Lady, Untier of Knots. This title is not associated with an apparition, but rather originates from an ancient text of Saint Ireneus in the late 2nd century. He wrote “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by Mary’s obedience.” We see here the beginnings of the devotion to Our Lady, Untier of Knots.

I am especially fond of this title, because it reflects a primary task of our earthly mothers… helping to untie the many “knots” in the lives of one’s children. Even when she can’t make everything better, a mother will try with a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry on, a kiss, a joke, or just being there.

Mary reflects a mother’s generosity, love, and compassion for their children and to all they meet. Mary exemplifies how to be a model of deep faith and great courage as in facing the joys and challenges of life.

On this Mother’s Day, we pray that our Blessed Mother will wrap her mantle around all mothers, and through her powerful intercession, strengthen them in their maternal role. We ask her to watch over all of our wonderful mothers who have given us life and love!

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Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Christ is Risen! Христос Воскресе!

On the Fifth Sunday after Pascha, the Eastern Church commemorates the meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. In order to appreciate the meeting and exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, it helps to know some history.

To the Jew, the Samaritans represented the two worst abominations: schism and idolatry. Samaria was the capital of the schismatic Northern Kingdom. The land was inhabited by Canaanites, Syrians, Cutheans, Arabs, and other gentiles, who combined worship of the the God of Israel with idol worship and child sacrifice. Jacob’s well was located in Samaria’s capital together with the schismatic and idolatrous temple of Mount Garizim. As for the city of Jacob’s well, Sichar or Sichem, it was a Sichemite who violated Dina, Jacob’s daughter, as recorded in the Book of Genesis. The Samaritans were utterly despised by the Jews.

The Samaritans equally detested the Jews. When the Jews returned from the exile of Babylon, God instructed Zorobabel the Prince of Juda and Jesus the High Priest to rebuild the Temple of Solomon. The Samaritans offered to help in the building of the Temple, but Zorababel spurned their offer. After that, the Samaritans, by intrigue, attempted to stop the building of the Temple.

The gospel relates that Jesus with some of His disciples was passing through Samaria on the way from Judea to Galilee. At about noon one day, Jesus arrived wearily at a well in a town called Sychar. There He found a woman from whom He asked for some water. Since the disciples had gone off to buy something to eat, Jesus was alone with the woman. She expressed surprise that a Jew would dare speak with her, a Samaritan woman. Aside from the fact that Samaritans and Jews despised each other, private conversations between unwed men and women were not considered proper at that time.

Then Our Lord says to the woman that, if she knew who He was, she would ask Him for living water, and He would give it to her. When she noted that He had nothing for taking water from the very deep well, He simply affirmed the excellence of His water and how those who drink it never thirst again. She then asked Him for it, not yet realizing that the “living water” was a metaphor for divine grace.

Before agreeing to give her the water, Jesus told her to get her husband, ostensibly so that He might give it to both of them. The woman confessed that she had no husband. At this admission, Jesus told her that she had had five husbands and was then living with a man who was not her husband. Stunned at the stranger’s knowledge of her life, she took Him to be a prophet and proceeded to probe Him for His thoughts on the religious issue which most divided the Jews and the Samaritans: whether to worship in the Jewish temple on Mount Moriah or the Samaritan one on Mount Garizim.

In response, Jesus revealed Himself to her as the Messiah:

“’A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’ The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you—I am He’” (John 4:21-26).

At that moment the disciples arrived with the food. They were surprised at their Master for speaking to such a woman, but dared not question Him. Jesus taught them a lesson on doing the will of God. He then taught them that the harvest of souls was about to begin.

The woman had left her waterpot and went to tell the townspeople about Jesus. Upon hearing, a crowd of Samaritans arrived on the scene. They begged Jesus to stay with them, which He did, preaching to them for two days. So great was the success of the mission, that the townspeople said to the woman:

“We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

What further do we know about the Samaritan woman? The apostles of Christ baptized her and gave her the name of Photina which means “the enlightened one.” Photina and her family left their homeland of Sychar, in Samaria, to travel to Carthage to proclaim the Gospel of Christ there.

Eventually Photina left Carthage in the company of several Christians and joined the confessors in Rome. Emperor Nero ordered the believers to be brought before him, and he ordered them to renounce Christ. All the confessors refused to renounce the Savior. The emperor then gave orders to smash their finger joints.

Photina and her five sisters, Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva and Kyriake, were then sent to the imperial court under the supervision of Nero’s daughter, Domnina. Photina converted both Domnina and her servants to Christ. She also converted a sorcerer, who had brought her poisoned food that was meant to kill her.

After three years of imprisonment, Nero had Photina brought to him and asked if she would relent and offer sacrifice to the idols. Photina spat in his face and said:

“O most impious of the blind, you profligate and stupid man! Do you think me so deluded that I would consent to renounce my Lord Christ and instead offer sacrifice to idols as blind as you?”

Hearing such words, Nero gave orders to throw Photina down a well, where she surrendered her soul to God in the year 66 AD. She is remembered by the Church as a Holy Martyr and Equal to the Apostles.

Through the prayers of the Holy Martyr Saint Photina, may Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us!

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Healing of the Paralytic

The fourth Sunday of Pascha in the Byzantine Rite Church is dedicated to Christ’s healing of the paralytic. In Saint John’s Gospel, we read the account of the paralyzed man who is miraculously healed by Christ while waiting for assistance to be immersed into a pool of healing water.

Each of us is challenged to ask ourself a similar question that the Savior asked the paralyzed man: “Are you ill in soul and body? Do you want to be healed and become whole?” Most would probably answer: “Of course, I want to whole!” But Christ’s question requires us to think about what it means to receive healing from God.

If we want to be healed, we must understand that it carries with it the responsibility of the newly acquired wholeness. To be healed by the power of God – whether in body, soul, or spirit – means to be transformed as a person who strives with all one’s soul, mind, heart, and strength to love and serve God and neighbor as self. Thus, in the gospel, we are told together with the paralytic “to sin no more that nothing worse befall you” (Jn 5.14).

Wholeness also means a new relationship with God, a new relationship with oneself, and a new relationships with the world. In relation to God, this means the end of separation. In relation to oneself, this means daring to live honestly, rather than superficially. In relation to the world, it means to live thoughtfully and compassionately, seeking goodness and avoiding harm and destruction.

This is how we are to live if we want to answer Christ: “Yes, Lord! I want to be whole!” But before we boldly respond, we must ponder: “Are we ready to bring integrity to our life for God’s sake, for ourselves, and for our neighbor’s sake?” And only then will we be ready to answer: “Yes, Lord!”

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