Tue Apr 12, 2011
Repentance According to St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople
Would you like me to list also the paths of repentance? They are numerous and quite varied, and all lead to heaven.
A first path of repentance is the condemnation of your own sins: Be the first to admit your sins and you will be justified. For this reason, too, the prophet wrote: I said: I will accuse myself of my sins to the Lord, and you forgave the wickedness of my heart. Therefore, you too should condemn your own sins; that will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for a man who condemns his own sins is slower to commit them again. Rouse your conscience to accuse you within your own house, lest it become your accuser before the judgment seat of the Lord.
That, then, is one very good path of repentance. Another and no less valuable one is to put out of our minds the harm done us by our enemies, in order to master our anger, and to forgive our fellow servants' sins against us. Then our own sins against the Lord will be forgiven us. Thus you have another way to atone for sin: For if you forgive your debtors, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
Do you want to know of a third path? It consists of prayer that is fervent, careful and comes from the heart.
If you want to hear of a fourth, I will mention almsgiving, whose power is great and far-reaching.
If, moreover, a man lives a modest, humble life, that, no less than the other things I have mentioned, takes sin away. Proof of this is the tax-collector who had no good deeds to mention, but offered his humility instead and was relieved of a heavy burden of sins.
Thus I have shown you five paths of repentance; condemnation of your own sins, forgiveness of our neighbor's sins against us, prayer, almsgiving and humility.
Do not be idle, then, but walk daily in all these paths; they are easy, and you cannot plead your poverty. For, though you live out your life amid great need, you can always set aside your wrath, be humble, pray diligently and condemn your own sins; poverty is no hindrance. Poverty is not an obstacle to our carrying out the Lord's bidding, even when it comes to that path of repentance which involves giving money (almsgiving, I mean). The widow proved that when she put her two mites into the box!
Now that we have learned how to heal these wounds of ours, let us apply the cures. Then, when we have regained genuine health, we can approach the holy table with confidence, go gloriously to meet Christ, the king of glory, and attain the eternal blessings through the grace, mercy and kindness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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Tue Apr 05, 2011
The Relics of Saints
[An excerpt taken from Fr. Gus G. Christo’s book: "Martyrdom According to John Chrysostom: To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain" (ISBN10: 0-7734-2290-0 ISBN13: 978-0-7734-2290-2)]
The relics of saints belong to the very fabric of the divine beliefs, tradition, liturgical practice and scripture of the early Church -- the One, Holy, Catholic (Universal) and Apostolic Church of Christ, God. The term "relics" refers to the physical remains of a saint (martyr) after his/her death ("first class relics"), as well as to the sacred objects that have been in contact with his body ("second class relics"). For our purposes here, relics shall mean bone fragments from a saint's body.
Since God takes the martyrs' souls and gives mankind their relics until the final Resurrection of the Dead, relics are treasures that contain innumerable goods for human beings to harvest. They are symbols of Christ's bodily and perfect Resurrection, of the future age and of the unwaning day of the Kingdom. They serve as means of transforming corrupt human nature into the image and likeness of Christ.
How does God sanctify saints' relics? The grace and holiness of the Spirit of God moves from the martyrs' souls to their bodies and then to their clothing. From their clothing it spreads to their shoes and, finally, it moves into the very shadows they cast. For example, the shadow of St. Peter the Apostle, once it passed over a human corpse, raised the deceased back to life.
The veneration of relics by the faithful stemmed from the martyrs' imitation of Christ's baptism in death, suffering and sacrifice, and their subsequent emigration into heaven, call to a better and more spiritual life, change from corruptibility to incorruptibility, and spiritual wedding to Christ the Master. Resulting from a martyrdom by death, or a baptism in blood, a martyr became a channel for the power of God and an intercessor between God and human beings. The martyr's holy relics served as the visible and concrete manifestation of all this to the early Church.
Holy relics, adorned with the stigmata of Christ, become vehicles revealing God's power and love toward mankind in several ways.
First, they thwart the devil's attack upon Christians and endlessly wound him, as they remind him of Christ's saving death and resurrection that the holy martyrs imitated. Hence, Chrysostom states in the Homily on St. Julian the Martyr: “Take someone who is possessed by a demon and by madness, and bring him to this holy tomb (St. Julian’s tomb), there where the bones of the martyr are resting, and you will see him (the demon) jump and leave (out of the one possessed).”
Second, the relics impart great benefits to the Christians who honor them at special shrines and seek the assistance of the martyrs to whom they belong. The benefits given include: God's compassion and forgiveness of any sin committed, restoration of physical and mental health to the ill and preservation of the healthy, great boldness before God, instruction about Christ's Gospel, leadership towards virtue (or excellence), and, cleansing from the unclean spirits that are exorcised. Even the dead may be brought back to life.
Third, martyrs' relics function as Altars for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, and thus grant great benefits to the faithful throughout Salvation History. For, they are imbued with invisible power, dominion and the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, the power of the relics of the glorified saints in heaven is the nobility of the Christians and the crown of the Church. Therefore, unlike material treasures, relics are neither diminished nor dangerous when divided. Since they are spiritual things, they increase in value when they are partitioned and multiply when they are divided.
Furthermore, someone who has venerated a saint's relics is readily recognized by his countenance, form, gait, feeling of piety and devotion, and by the collection of his thoughts. He feels all-fiery, shy, humble, sober and lively. The movements of his body and the proclamation of his philosophy distinguish him as someone who paid such homage. Scripture proves this point when it remarks: "A man's attire, grinning laughter and gait show what he is" (Wisdom of Solomon 19:30).
The locations where the relics of God's saints have been deposited are according solely to God's providence. God selects the location for the deposition of a saint's relics with the specific purpose of edifying the people with the truth and power of the Gospel, which is clearly revealed by the saint's triumph over his executioners. At these locations or shrines He guides the pilgrim to exhibit the same zeal for the faith as the martyr who presently resides in heaven. The pilgrim's acceptance of this guidance gives God the opportunity to prepare a safe harbor for him and provide comfort for his misfortunes. The shrines become sites of refreshment and renewal as the pilgrim's consciousness is unburdened and his perspective relating to his salvation is recaptured and secured. The pilgrim then leaves the shrine as an "ensouled" and "spiritual shrine" because the saint and his achievements dwell within his thoughts and heart.
[This entry is in honor of the one year anniversary of the placement at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Wilmington, Delaware, by Fr. Gus G. Christo, of the Holy Relics of the Apostles Among the Twelve James the son of Zebedee, Simon the Zealot, and Matthias; the Apostle Among the Seventy Timothy; and of St. George the Great Martyr.]
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Tue Mar 29, 2011
The Holy Eucharist
“Our bodies, when united to Christ's Body, gain a beginning of immortality, because they are united to Immortality.”
[St. Gregory of Nyssa]
http://www.theworkofgod.org/Devotns/Euchrist/Topics/teachings.asp?key=592
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Tue Mar 22, 2011
The Holy and Life-giving Cross of Christ
The manger and the cross are not far removed. We tend to picture the Nativity as a pastorally-pleasing, sweet scene with admiring parents and grateful shepherds. We tend to view Golgotha as a horrid, ugly hill surrounded by hate-filled rejectors of the glorious majesty of God. Of course, truth exists in both these images, but often we fail to recognize that the Cross was planted in Bethlehem.
A Savior was born that day to die for our sins–the shadow of the Cross falls over the baby Jesus as he rests in the manger. Our kinsman redeemer, our sin-bearer, our ransom, our sacrificial Lamb was born that day in Bethlehem. The Cross and the manger meet in Bethlehem – Jesus is born to die for your sins and mine.
God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf.
http://www.canonglenn.com/tag/early-church-father/
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Tue Mar 15, 2011
The Precious and Life-giving Cross of Christ
How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.
This was the tree on which Christ, like a king on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord like a brave warrior wounded in hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our nature. A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should become immortality, that shame should become glory! Well might the holy Apostle exclaim: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world! The supreme wisdom that flowered on the cross has shown the folly of worldly wisdom's pride. The knowledge of all good, which is the fruit of the cross, has cut away the shoots of wickedness.
The wonders accomplished through this tree were foreshadowed clearly even by the mere types and figures that existed in the past. Meditate on these, if you are eager to learn. Was it not the wood of a tree that enabled Noah, at God's command, to escape the destruction of the flood together with his sons, his wife, his sons' wives and every kind of animal? And surely the rod of Moses prefigured the cross when it changed water into blood, swallowed up the false serpents of Pharaoh's magicians, divided the sea at one stroke and then restored the waters to their normal course, drowning the enemy and saving God's own people? Aaron's rod, which blossomed in one day in proof of his true priesthood, was another figure of the cross, and did not Abraham foreshadow the cross when he bound his son Isaac and placed him on the pile of wood?
By the cross death was slain and Adam was restored to life. The cross is the glory of all the apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the sanctification of the saints. By the cross we put on Christ and cast aside our former self. By the cross we, the sheep of Christ, have been gathered into one flock, destined for the sheepfold of heaven.
From a sermon by Theodore the Studite, 9th century
http://www.rc.net/wcc/cross12.htm
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Tue Mar 08, 2011
Gregory Palamas, On the Holy Icons
The following extracts are taken from St Gregory Palamas' longer work, The New Testament Decalogue:
'You shall not make an image of anything in the heavens above, or in the earth below, or in the sea' (cf. Exodus 20.4), in such a way that you worship these things and glorify them as gods. For all are the creations of the one God, created by Him in the Holy Spirit through His Son and Logos, who as Logos of God in these latter times took flesh from a virgin's womb, appeared on earth and associated with men, and who for the salvation of men suffered, died and rose again, ascended with His body into the heavens, and 'sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High' (Hebrews 1.3), and who will come again with His body to judge the living and the dead. Out of love for Him you should make, therefore, an icon of Him who became man for our sakes, and through His icon you should bring Him to mind and worship Him, elevating your intellect through it to the venerable body of the Saviour, that is set on the right hand of the Father in heaven.
In like manner you should also make icons of the saints and venerate them, not as gods --for this is forbidden-- but because of the attachment, inner affection and sense of surpassing honour that you feel for the saints when by means of their icons the intellect is raised up to them. It was in this spirit that Moses made icons of the Cherubim within the Holy of Holies (cf. Exodus 25.18). The Holy of Holies itself was an image of things supercelestial (cf. Exodus 25.40; Hebrews 8.5), while the Holy Place was an image of the entire world. Moses called these things holy, not glorifying what is created, but through it glorifying God the Creator of the world. You must not, then, deify the icons of Christ and of the saints, but through them you should venerate Him who originally created us in His own image, and who subsequently consented in His ineffable compassion to assume the human image and to be circumscribed by it.
You should venerate not only the icon of Christ, but also the similitude of His cross. For the cross is Christ's great sign and trophy of victory over the devil and all his hostile hosts; for this reason they tremble and flee when they see the figuration of the cross. This figure, even prior to the crucifixion, was greatly glorified by the prophets and wrought great wonders; and when He who was hung upon it, our Lord Jesus Christ, comes again to judge the living and the dead, this His great and terrible sign will precede Him, full of power and glory (cf. Matthew 24.30). So glorify the cross now, so that you may boldly look upon it then and be glorified with it. And you should venerate icons of the saints, for the saints have been crucified with the Lord; and you should make the sign of the cross upon your person before doing so, bringing to mind their communion in the sufferings of Christ. In the same way you should venerate their holy shrines and any relic of their bones; for God's grace is not sundered from these things, even as the divinity was not sundered from Christ's venerable body at the time of His life-quickening death. By doing this and by glorifying those who glorified God --for through their actions they showed themselves to be perfect in their love for God-- you too will be glorified together with them by God, and with David you will chant: 'I have held Thy friends in high honour, O Lord' (Psalm 139.17 LXX).
http://monachos.net/content/patristics/patristictexts/160-palamas-on-icons
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Tue Mar 01, 2011
Cheesefare Sunday
“On this day we commemorate the fall of Adam the first-created from partaking of the fruit of Paradise, which our holy and divine Fathers have appointed for the Sunday before Great Lent in order to demonstrate the great healing effect of the fast upon human nature and the great harm of intemperance and disobedience. Setting aside the countless instances of these vices in the world, the Fathers have put forth a vivid example in first-created Adam, who suffered great harm in his total failure to fast and brought this harm upon our nature. He did not keep the first commandment of a beneficial fast which God had required of mankind, but yielding to the desires of his belly and of the serpent through Eve, he not only did not become godlike, but he gave rise to death, bringing perdition upon all our race. For the sake of Adam's intemperance the Lord fasted for forty days and was obedient. It was for this reason that the holy Apostles conceived this present forty-day fast, so that as Adam forfeited incorruption through his intemperance, we may regain it through abstinence. Also, as was stated earlier, it was the intent of the Holy Fathers through the Triodion to relate in a condensed form all of God's acts from the beginning to the end of the world. Since Adam's transgression and fall through the eating of the fruit of the tree is the principal cause of the state of mankind, the Fathers exhort us who are observing this commemoration to avoid Adam's sin and to shun intemperance in all things.
Now it was on the sixth day that Adam was created by the hand of God after His own image and through His life-giving breath. Receiving God's commandment, he lived in Paradise up until the sixth hour, when he disobeyed God's command and was driven out. And as he stretched out his hand at the sixth hour to touch the fruit, so the new Adam, Christ, at the sixth day and hour stretched out his hands upon the Cross, annulling the sentence of perdition brought about by the former Adam. For he was created in the midst of corruption and incorruption through providence with the freedom of choice. God could have made Adam sinless, yet His providence was to provide for reparation. For this cause He gave His commandment that Adam might partake of all in the garden, save the one tree. Does this not mean that Adam was meant to understand the essence of all created by the divine power, but was not to attempt to understand the essence of the Godhead; That is to say God commanded Adam to concern himself will all other elements and qualities, reasoning with his mind to the glory of God; for this is true nourishment. But he was not to search for the divine essence: God, who He is, where He is and how He brought all things into being out of nothingness. Yet to his own harm Adam, having no care for the other things, sought to examine God and to determine His essence; and since he was not perfect but still a simple child, he failed in his undertaking, when through Eve Satan planted in him the desire of becoming Godlike.
Some say that the tree of disobedience was a fig tree, and becoming aware of their nakedness, Adam and Eve used its leaves to cover themselves. For this reason Christ cursed the fig tree as the cause of that disobedience, attributing to it a sort of resemblance to sin. For having transgressed becoming clothed in mortal flesh and receiving the curse, Adam was driven from Paradise. And at God's command a flaming sword guarded its gates. Adam sat before the gates of Paradise and lamented the many blessings he had lost in his failure to observe a timely fast. And through him the entire race shared in that sentence, until our Creator, taking pity on our nature which because of Satan was perishing, was born of the Holy Virgin and lived an exceptional life, showing us the path away from the devil, that is abstinence and humility, and valiantly gaining the victory over the deceiver, returned us to our former state.
In their desire to lay all these events before us, the God-bearing fathers have begun with the Old Testament: the creation of the world, the fall of Adam through the eating of the fruit, which we commemorate today, and later on the words of Moses and the prophets and the poetry of David, which impart grace. Afterwards in order the events of the New Testament, of which the first is the Annunciation, which always occurs during Lent through God's ineffable providence, the raising of Lazarus, Palm Sunday, the reading of the sacred Gospels during Holy Week, and the profound texts of the holy and saving Passion of Christ. After this the Resurrection and the rest up to the descent of the Holy Spirit read in the book of Acts, how this event became a proclamation that assembled all the saints together, for in the book of Aces the Resurrection is confirmed through signs and wonders.
Since we have so suffered from Adam's failure to keep the fast, this event is commemorated today at the beginning of Great Lent, so that keeping in mind the enormous evil brought about by Adam's intemperance, we may make joyful haste to accept and keep the fast. And as Adam sinned in his desire to become godlike, we may thereby receive godliness through fasting, tears and humility until God visits us; for without these it is impossible to regain that which we have lost. It should be also noted that the holy forty-day fast is the tenth part of the entire year. Since out of indolence we are not willing to fast constantly or to rid ourselves of evil habits, the Apostles and divine Fathers have passed down the Fast to us as a sort of first offering of the harvest of our lives. And as we have acted inappropriately for the entire year, we may now cleanse our souls through fasting, contrition and humility. We should keep the Great Fast with the utmost care. For as there are four seasons in the year, so there are four fasts. Yet the divine Apostles have entrusted Lent to us as the greatest of the fasts, since it honors the Holy Passion of Christ, His fast and His glorification. Moses also fasted forty days before he received the Law, also Elijah, Daniel and all who found favor in God's sight. Adam illustrates for us the benefit of the fast as opposed to intemperance. For this reason Adam's banishment from Paradise was appointed by the Holy Fathers to be commemorated on this day."
Translated from Triodion, siest' Tripesnets: Triod' Postnaya, Moscow, 1904, by Robert Parent.
http://www.holy-trinity.org/liturgics/synaxarion/4-cheesefaresunday.html
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Tue Feb 22, 2011
St. John Chrysostom on the Art of Fasting
“Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of the body which is to take it, the weather conditions and the season of the year and the appropriate diet of the sick and many other things. If any of these things are overlooked, the medicine will do more harm than good. So, if one who is going to heal the body needs so much accuracy, when we care for the soul and are concerned about healing it from bad thoughts, it is necessary to examine and observe everything with every possible detail.
Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the fast. Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show him mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! If you see a beautiful woman on the street, pass her by.
In other words, not only should the mouth fast, but the eyes and the legs and the arms and all the other parts of the body should fast as well. Let the hands fast, remaining clean from stealing and greediness. Let the legs fast, avoiding roads which lead to sinful sights. Let the eyes fast by not fixing themselves on beautiful faces and by not observing the beauty of others. You are not eating meat, are you? You should not eat debauchery with your eyes as well. Let your hearing also fast. The fast of hearing is not to accept bad talk against others and sly defamations.
Let the mouth fast from disgraceful and abusive words, because, what gain is there when, on the one hand we avoid eating chicken and fish and, on the other, we chew-up and consume our brothers? He who condemns and blasphemes is as if he has eaten brotherly meat, as if he has bitten into the flesh of his fellow man. It is because of this that Paul frightened us, saying: "If you chew up and consume one another be careful that you do not annihilate yourselves."
You did not thrust your teeth into the flesh (of your neighbor) but you thrusted bad talk in his soul; you wounded it by spreading disfame, causing unestimatable damage both to yourself, to him, and to many others.
If you cannot go without eating all day because of an ailment of the body, beloved one, no logical man will be able to criticize you for that. Besides, we have a Lord who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because he neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things. If we regulated our life with a sober mind and directed all of our interest toward spiritual things, and if we ate as much as we needed to satisfy our necessary needs and offered our entire lives to good works, we would not have any need of the help rendered by the fast. But because human nature is indifferent and gives itself over mostly to comforts and gratifications, for this reason the philanthropic Lord, like a loving and caring father, devised the therapy of the fast for us, so that our gratifications would be completely stopped and that our worldly cares be transferred to spiritual works. So, if there are some who have gathered here and who are hindered by somatic ailments and cannot remain without food, I advise them to nullify the somatic ailment and not to deprive themselves from this spiritual teaching, but to care for it even more.
For there exist, there really exist, ways which are even more important than abstinence from food which can open the gates which lead to God with boldness. He, therefore, who eats and cannot fast, let him display richer almsgiving, let him pray more, let him have a more intense desire to hear divine words. In this, our somatic illness is not a hindrance. Let him become reconciled with his enemies, let him distance from his soul every resentment. If he wants to accomplish these things, then he has done the true fast, which is what the Lord asks of us more than anything else. It is for this reason that he asks us to abstain from food, in order to place the flesh in subjection to the fulfillment of his commandments, whereby curbing its impetuousness. But if we are not about to offer to ourselves the help rendered by the fast because of bodily illness and at the same time display greater indifference, we will see ourselves in an unusual exaggerated way. For if the fast does not help us when all the aforementioned accomplishments are missing so much is the case when we display greater indifference because we cannot even use the medicine of fasting. Since you have learned these things from us, I pardon you, those who can, fast and you yourselves increase your acuteness and praiseworthy desire as much as possible.
To the brothers, though, who cannot fast because of bodily illness, encourage them not to abandon this spiritual word, teaching them and passing on to them all the things we say here, showing them that he who eats and drinks with moderation is not unworthy to hear these things but he who is indifferent and slack. You should tell them the bold and daring saying that "he who eats for the glory of the Lord eats and he who does not eat for the glory of the Lord does not eat and pleases God." For he who fasts pleases God because he has the strength to endure the fatigue of the fast and he that eats also pleases God because nothing of this sort can harm the salvation of his soul, as long as he does not want it to. Because our philanthropic God showed us so many ways by which we can, if we desire, take part in God's power that it is impossible to mention them all.
We have said enough about those who are missing, being that we want to eliminate them from the excuse of shame. For they should not be ashamed because food does not bring on shame but the act of some wrongdoing. Sin is a great shame. If we commit it not only should we feel ashamed but we should cover ourselves exactly the same way those who are wounded do. Even then we should not forsake ourselves but rush to confession and thanksgiving. We have such a Lord who asks nothing of us but to confess our sins, after the commitment of a sin which was due to our indifference, and to stop at that point and not to fall into the same one again. If we eat with moderation we should never be ashamed, because the Creator gave us such a body which cannot be supported in any other way except by receiving food. Let us only stop excessive food because that attributes a great deal to the health and well-being of the body.
Let us therefore in every way cast off every destructive madness so that we may gain the goods which have been promised to us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
[http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles4/ChrysostomFasting.php]
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Meat Fare Sunday in the Orthodox Church
“The Sunday of the Last Judgment or Meat Fare Sunday is the third Sunday using the Lenten Triodion, the liturgical book used in the services of Great Lent. It is the Sunday after the Sunday of the Prodigal Son and Sunday before Forgiveness Sunday. This is the third week of the pre-Lenten start of the Paschal cycle of worship in the Orthodox Church.
This Sunday is called Meat Fare Sunday since it is traditionally the last day before Pascha for eating meat. Orthodox Christians observe a fast from meat all week, but still eat dairy products and eggs till the start of Great Lent.
The Gospel reading this Sunday remembers Christ's parable of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). This adds to the previous pre-Lenten Sundays and teaches that it is not enough to see Jesus, to see ourselves as we are, and to come home to God as his prodigal sons. The Church teaches that, in addition, one must also be God’s sons by following Christ, his only-begotten divine Son, and by seeing Christ in everyone and by serving Christ through them.
Salvation and final judgment will depend upon deeds, not merely on intentions or even on the mercies of God apart from personal cooperation and obedience. All piety and prayer is ultimately directed towards the goal of serving Christ through his people.
From the reading, the faithful hear:
‘… for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and in prison and you visited me. …. For truly I say to you, if you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25 ).”
[http://orthodoxwiki.org/Sunday_of_the_Last_Judgment]
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Tue Feb 15, 2011
The Art of Fasting According to the Fathers of the Church
Saint Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215)
“Fasting is abstention from foods according to the meaning of the word, but the food does not make us either more just or more unjust. Yet, in its mystical meaning it declares that as the life of each one depends upon food, total abstention is the sign of death. Thus we ought to abstain from worldly things, for we would die as far as worldly matters are concerned, and after that, when we partake of food of divine nature, we will live in God. Above all, total abstention empties the soul of matter, and presents the soul pure and nimble to the body according to the divine words. Then, on the one hand, worldly nourishment consists of temporal life and iniquities, while divine nourishment is faith, hope, love, patience, knowledge, peace, prudence as our Lord said in Matthew: ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled’ (5:6), where truly He attributes this longing to the soul and not to the body.”
Saint Isidore (360 AD)
“Fasting in respect of food is of no benefit for those who fail to fast with all their senses; for whosoever is successfully waging his battle must be temperate in all things.”
Saint John Chrysostom (345-407)
St. John Chrysostom (345-407) said that the purpose of fasting is to prepare for partaking of the Holy Eucharist and for the Christian solemn celebrations. Chrysostom taught many times that fasting is not merely the abstention from certain foods, but mainly an abstention from evil doings.
Chrysostom also warns against hypocritical fasting:
“It is possible for one who fasts not to be rewarded for his fasting. How? when indeed we abstain from foods, but do not abstain from iniquities - when we do not eat meat, but gnaw to pieces the homes of the poor - when we do not become drunkards with wine, but we become drunkards with evil pleasures; when we abstain all the day, but all the night we spend in unchastened shows. Then what is the benefit of abstention from foods, when on the one hand you deprive your body of a selected food, but on the other offer yourself unlawful food?”
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Fri Feb 04, 2011
The Publican and the Pharisee
This parable adds to the two previous parables about God's grace, showing that a man's humble recognition of his own depravity is more important to God than the mock virtues of the proud.
"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Lk. 18:9-14).
It is quite likely that the Pharisee depicted in this parable was not a bad man; he did no harm to anyone. The parable does not say, however, that he has done any real good works; rather, he strictly follows the various, minute, secondary religious rites, even those of them which were not required by the Old Testament laws. Following these rites, he had no mean opinion of himself. He fits this expression of St. John Chrysostom, "He judged the whole world but justified himself!" People of this disposition are unable to evaluate themselves critically, repent and start a good life. Their moral self is dead. More than once, the Lord Jesus Christ publicly castigated the hypocrisy of Judaic scribes and Pharisees, but in this parable Christ only remarks that it was the tax collector who ‘went down to his house justified rather than the other’; in other words, it was the tax collector's sincere repentance that was accepted by God.
This parable lets us understand that a human being is fallen and sinful. A human has nothing to boast of before God. But with sincere repentance he must come back to his Heavenly Father and expose his life to the leadership of God’s grace, like the lost sheep who passed the work of its salvation to the good shepherd!
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