That We Might See

Posted: January 19, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Etcetera | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In every Divine Liturgy, before the Gospel reading, The Prayer of the Holy Gospel is read:

Illumine our hearts, O Master who loves mankind, the pure light of your divine knowledge, and open the eyes of our mind that we may comprehend the proclamations of your Gospels.  Implant in us also reverence for your blessed commandments so that, having trampled down all carnal desires, we may lead a spiritual life, both thinking and doing all those things that are pleasing to you.  For you, Christ our God, are the illumination of our souls and bodies, and to you we offer up glory, together with your Father, who is without beginning, and your all-holy, good and life-creating Spirit, and and forever and to the ages of ages.

The Gospel reading for January 19, 2025 relays the account of the healing of the Blind Man of Jericho.  The text comes from St Luke 18: 35 – 43.  Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and he passes through Jericho.  There is a blind man sitting along the way, and he is begging.  He hears the crowd coming to him, and asks what is happening.  The crowd informs him that Jesus is passing by with his disciples.  A portion of the narrative reads,

Those going before him rebuked him so that he might be silent.  But he cried out all the more, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Jesus stood and ordered him to be brought to him.  And as he was drawing near, he asked him, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”  And he said, “Lord, that I might see!”  And Jesus said to him, “See.  Your faith has saved you.”  And immediately he had sight, and he followed him glorifying God.  And all the people seeing [this] gave praise to God (St Luke 18: 39 – 43).

As the text reads, with his regained sight he followed Jesus and gave glory to God.  Hopefully, he was also now following with an illumined heart and with the eyes of his mind opened to walk along the path that leads to salvation.  With such spiritual sight, and being led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, one will not wander from the path required by Christ:

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (St Matthew 7: 13 -14).

With such new, spiritual sight, we also need new and proper clothing for this journey with Christ.  But first, we must discard improper clothing, clothing unfit for walking along the narrow path:  “…and seeing that you have taken off the old man with his practices…put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator”…(Colossians 3: 9 – 10).  Thus, we see the need for a new wardrobe.  From the day’s epistle reading St Paul tells us what we are to be wearing as we follow Christ:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience.  Forbear one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also must forgive.  And over all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.  And, become thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3: 12 – 16).

Let me list the articles of clothing we are to wear:  compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, love (as an overcoat), the peacefulness of Christ, and thankfulness.

There is a saying, “The clothes make the man.”  How are these new clothes to be put on, or better, worked into our lives to make us the man, or woman, of God?  The suit is put on by doing, or practicing, them.  I offer a favorite axiom:  “To become, you must do.”

Therefore, with renewed sight and new holy garments, we must have a new volition — a will that the Holy Spirit can use to accomplish our sanctification.  St Macarius the Great of Egypt informs us:

For those truly believing in Christ, it is necessary to change and transform the soul from its present degraded nature into another, divine nature, and to be fashioned anew by the power of the Holy Spirit…He grants to everyone’s free will the grace of the Holy Spirit, which operates in an individual and directs the life of all who yearn to be saved.

I repeat the axiom:  “To become, you must do.”  We put on these garments of light and life by choosing to “do” them.  As we choose and “do” these garments, these virtues will be worked into our souls — into our very being — by the Holy Spirit.  These holy clothes will be seen and recognized by those who observe them when displayed by our lives of faith.

In closing, I present this prayer which is found near the conclusion of the First Hour:

O Christ, the True Light that enlightens and sanctifies every man that comes into the world, let the light of your countenance be signed upon us, that in it we might behold the Unapproachable Light.  Guide our footsteps in the keeping of Your commandments, by the prayers of your most pure Mother and of all your saints.  Amen.

The following is the corresponding sermon:

In Christ,

Fr Irenaeus

Proper Vision to Discern the Times

Posted: January 15, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Etcetera, The Eucharist and Living the Eucharist | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Light and Life

While on his way to Jericho, there was a blind man begging beside the road. He asked what the crowd what the commotion might mean.  He was informed that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by.  The blind man cries out to Jesus for help.  Even though he was rebuked by the crowd, he calls out all the louder to Jesus who, then, stops and asks,

“What do you want me to do for you?”  “That I might see again,” he replied.  And Jesus said to him, “See again.  Your faith has saved you.”  And he began to see again, and he followed him, glorifying God.  And all those who beheld this gave praise to God (St Luke 18: 35 – 43).

To restore the sight of the blind was exclusively a sign of his Messiahship.  This blind man had his physical eyesight restored.  Now seeing, he followed in the company of Jesus on the way to Jerusalem.

John Newman, in his famous hymn “Amazing Grace,” states this, “…was blind, but now I see.”  The former slave trader had spiritual sight given him to see his sins, and to see his Savior, and to walk in His ways.  Without physical sight it is difficult to move through this world.  In the ancient world the blind were reduced, generally, to abject poverty.

There is a worse type of blindness — spiritual blindness.  Without spiritual sight one cannot move through this world, and exists in abject spiritual poverty.  Without spiritual sight — given only by Christ — we cannot navigate through these darkened, depraved, and evil days brought upon us by this world system.

St Paul

This world system stands opposed to the Kingdom of God.  It is an anti-Kingdom with its names of world rulers, powerful elite in government, commerce and every industry, in education, in entertainment, and in the military.  Many of them, many times, and in many ways, seek to persecute the Church, and the entirety of humanity.  However, St Paul informs us of our true enemies — those who are the puppet masters who manipulate those in earthly, temporal power.

Finally, my brethren, become strong in the Lord, and in the power of his strength.  Put on the armor of God, so that you are able to stand against the trickery of the Devil.  Because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual agents of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6: 10 – 12).

St Paul gives further information regarding these agents:

And you being dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to age of this world, according to the powers of the authorities of the air, of the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2: 1 – 2).

Though at the time of their creation they may have been good, or neutral beings (Colossians 1: 16), they no longer appear to operate in such a manner.  They are at work in the ways and affairs of the sons (and daughters) of disobedience — those who are not in Christ and do not walk in his ways. Who are these bodiless powers, authorities, and rulers?  They are species, or orders, of spiritual, or possibly angelic beings.   Though they have different names, their activities cannot be separated according to their assigned order.   To give more information regarding these creatures, I quote from the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament:

We may gather from Eph 6: 12 that different spheres of influence are allotted to them, probably by their overlord [Satan]…Their abode is now in the lowest of the differing heavenly spheres from which darkness comes upon the world…Strictly, however, the reference is not to dominion over other spirits, but to power over the cosmos and earthly realm…Though now under the foot of Christ and are deprived of any great power…This does not mean, of course, that their power is destroyed.  Man is still engaged in continuing conflict with them.  They are not merely behind those who threaten Christians for their faith; they are also behind all moral temptations (vol. II, 483). They are to be distinguished from demons…they are cosmic powers (vol III, 573).

They influence and manipulate the rich rulers of this age — of this very day.  The names  of these men and women are many.  Though they wish to subjugate humanity to a new feudal society, they are only names of human faces — mere puppets of their spiritual masters.

In the past four years we have observed their intentions and activities in very clear and demonstrable ways. Whether unnecessary COVID lock downs which brought only trouble to uncountable numbers; political collectivist schemes calling for “equity” (any collectivism will demand totalitarianism for its enactment and continued enforcement); the orchestrated mania of gender confusion with its consequent pharmacological poisonings and surgical mutilations (which lead to sterility and is nothing more than a biological alchemy); a digital national / international ID, or a Central Bank Digital Currency (which will lead to a digital prison); the goal is always for the destruction of humanity.  All such plans of these cosmic powers and their human accomplices are hideously anti-human.

But we are not helpless.  Far from it because Christ has subjugated them (Ephesians 1: 20 – 23).  In fact we have power over them by Christ.  St Paul tells us of our defensive tools in Ephesians 6: 13 – 17 as listed here:

Put on the whole armor of God (that you may be able to withstand in the evil day).

The belt of truth is to be fastened around your waist.  (Truth is always victorious over lies.)

Breastplate of righteousness.

Feet shod with the gospel of peace.

Shield of faith to quench all the flaming darts of the enemy.

Helmet of salvation.

Sword of the Spirit (the word of God).

Jesus Christ Conquers

Of course, these provide only defensive protection.  For faith to truly grow so that we may “…become strong in the Lord, and in the power of his strength,” we must go on the offensive.  Faith is not just an abstract noun.  Like love, faith must be a verb:  there must be action.  Faith can increase in us because we are partakers of the divine nature.  And we are primarily strengthened by the Eucharist.  I offer axioms to encourage offensive action:

To do, you must become; to become, you must do.

Do Christ to become Christ-like.

To live God is to prove God; to prove God is to live God.

What about this?  Do one thing every week that takes you out of your comfort zone — something that bears Christ to those around you in your everyday life.  As we “do Christ” here are guiding words from St Paul:

Now I urge you, brethren to warn the idle, to encourage the faint-hearted, and be patient with all.  Do not repay evil for evil, but pursue the good, both for one another and for all.  Rejoice always.  Pray constantly.  Give thanks in, with, and for all things, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5: 14 – 18).

With all that you do in faith — all that forms the strength of the Lord in you — do to the glory of God, and for the release of humanity and creation from the dark powers that hold the world in captivity.

The following is a corresponding sermon:

In Christ who has liberated us,

Fr Irenaeus