11 posts tagged “life”

Like I just said, I was watching My Dinner with Andre, reviewed and synopted by Roger Ebert here. It was written by and stars two people, one of whom is Wallace Shawn who plays the brainy kidnapper, Vizzini, in Princess Bride. The whole thing is a conversation better described by Roger Ebert in the above link. I find a lot of Andre's ideas similar to how people describe Eastern Orthodox spirituality as seeking to experience the inner truth and beauty of life, yet the pragmatism of Wallace is not to be ignored.

I think the main point is how to be in any given situation. Sort of taking a step back and seeing things for what they are instead of how we are affected. Andre thinks enjoyment is a bit too comfortable, like being tranquilized. Yet he is the more animated of the two. But is being animated and passionate about something the measure of really living? Recently I read a Saint quote about how sometimes during liturgy you may feel as alive as a board, but being distressed about that is unnecessary because we aren't there for a nice feeling. I know some criticize liturgical worship and even judge some services as "dead". This is too shallow a judgment, and to have that perception be the basis for change, the alternative becomes a silly pep-rally elation that many church services strive for today.

The film doesn't really come up with an answer, and I'm glad because who can say that at any time, this side of the life to come, that they personally have permanently arrived?

I'm watching My Dinner with Andre. Roger Ebert wrote an interesting review here.

If only he weren't tired!

I've been trying to realize the difference between God's essence and His energies according to Orthodox teaching, without putting too much space between them. Here is the most succinct and unifying explanation I've heard, from Father (Monk) Patrick who contributes to Energetic Procession:

"Participating in the Life of Christ is participating in His energies. Abiding in Christ is abiding in His energies and abiding in His energies is abiding in Christ. We cannot separate Christ from His energies, although we distinguish them from His nature. We partake of divine nature by means of the energies but not by becoming that nature itself. Even, though we do not become the divine nature we still partake of it because the energies are not separated from the nature. Christ’s nature is in His person and cannot be considered apart from His person. We participate in the life of the person of Christ but we do not become His person (hypostasis) but retain our own unique hypostasis. We are in Him and He is in us. Again, we cannot pull apart abiding in Christ and abiding in His energies. We live in Christ and He is us; God becomes all in all. Thus all that Christ is, we will be but by grace as creatures and not as the only-begotten Son of God of one essence with the Father."

It is important to distinguish Christ from ourselves without diminishing His generosity in giving Himself to us.

*hypostasis according to Wikipedia: 

In Early Christian writers it is used to denote "being" or "substantive reality" and is not always distinguished in meaning from ousia (essence); it was used in this way by Tatian and Origen, and also in the anathemas appended to the Nicene Creed of 325. See also: Hypostatic union, where the term is used to describe two realities (or natures) in one person. The term has also been used and is still used in modern Greek (not just Koine Greek or common ancient Greek) to mean "existence".

It was mainly under the influence of the Cappadocian Fathers that the terminology was clarified and standardized, so that the formula "Three Hypostases in one Ousia" came to be everywhere accepted as an epitome of the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This consensus, however, was not achieved without some confusion at first in the minds of Western theologians, who had translated hypo-stasis as "sub-stantia" (substance, and see also Consubstantial) and understood the Eastern Christians, when speaking of three "Hypostases" in the Godhead, to mean three "Substances," i.e. they suspected them of Tritheism. But, from the middle of the fourth century onwards the word came to be contrasted with ousia and used to mean "individual reality," especially in the Trinitarian and Christological contexts. With regard to the doctrine of the Trinity, hypostasis is usually understood with a meaning akin to the Greek word prosopon, which is translated into Latin as persona and then into English as person. The Christian view of the Trinity is often described as a view of one God existing in three distinct hypostases/personae/persons.

I like the extreme makeover aspect of this blog, called, A Mind in Hell. 

In this excerpt from "The Mountain of Silence," an Orthodox priest answers the question "Do the dead benefit from the prayers of the living?" with a story:

"...There was a priest who had a problem with alcohol. He would often go to church drunk, scandalizing the faithful. The parishioners sent a delegation to the local bishop, imploring him to intervene and do something about it. The bishop accepted their requests and reprimanded the alcholoic priest.

"Unfortunately, the poor old fellow had no control over his addiction. So the bishop finally told him, `Look, Father, since you are unable to quit drinking, then you must quit being a priest. From this moment on you are no longer authorized to administer the sacraments.' The bishop defrocked the alcoholic priest. Feeling guilty, the priest accepted the verdict and humbly walked out.

"During the night, while the bishop was alone in his room in prayer, he had an extraordinary vision. He saw thousands of people in an open field threatening to harm him. When he returned to his normal state he was shocked and wondered what the significance of such a vision could be. Was it perhaps some kind of fantasy, a hallucination? He calmed down and then went back to his prayer. But he reexperienced the same vision. In it he saw people screaming and demanding that he bring back the priest.

"The following day the bishop summoned the defrocked priest to his office. He asked him `What's going on with you? What did you do?' `What did I do, my bishop?' the poor man muttered with confusion. `We just talked about it yesterday.' `But you must have done something else,' the bishop insisted and asked him to report in minute detail how he spent his days as a priest. `You know, your Eminence,' he said, `because of this problem with alcohol I felt great remorse and guilt. So, in order to compensate for my problem I made it a habit of going to the cemetery every single day to conduct memorial services for the dead. I prayed for their souls since I could do nothing for mine. That's all I did.'

"The bishop realized that the people in his vision were the souls of the departed who demanded the return of that priest so that he might continue his prayers for them. That Russian priest knew none of the people buried there."

- from Beliefnet.com

I love this story because it gives me hope that I am not a lost cause. Maybe I can at least minister to dead people in spite of my failings. And may those who have passed on pray for me, too. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. So far I have been able to do nothing about my sin.

Which reminds me, yesterday during the Liturgy for the Ascension of Christ, Father Basil mentioned Sadie and Alton, the names of my deceased grandparents. The only time I ever put them on the list for prayers was at our house blessing some months ago. I do not know why he remembered them yesterday, but I appreciate how this perhaps inspired prayer connects me to them now especially.

I didn't realize how desensitized I had become to the dangers of relativism. As a Protestant, I accepted the fact that people quarreled over such issues as free will vs. predestination, once saved always saved vs. better stick to the straight and narrow, wrathful God vs. loving God, infant vs. age of accountability baptism, active spiritual gifts vs book of Acts only, Real Presence in the Eucharist vs. commemoration-only juice and crackers, etc.

I didn't worry about it too much because I could see how all of these viewpoints could be supported by the Bible, and that was all we had, so people were free to divide themselves into different churches depending on their own individual interpretation. All that really mattered was that a person said Billy Graham's version of the Sinner's Prayer, and you've got your ticket to heaven and everyone else would find out where God stood on these issues at the final resurrection.

Now that I am getting to know the original Apostolic Church's perspective on these issues, which I believe is faithfully maintained by the Orthodox Church, I see what life-giving, joyful, unifying freedom there is in knowing the balanced perspective on these things so that we can be lovingly nurtured in the truth of how God saves us, rather than just arguing and dividing ourselves over it or heaven forbid, saying it doesn't matter. Without the proper perspective on these doctrines, one is left with diluted, insecure truth at best, deviant, divided, damnable, deceptive, deadly heresy at worst.

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

The celebration of Pascha (called "Easter Sunday" in the West) in the Orthodox Church is not merely a historical re-enactment of Christ's Resurrection as narrated in the gospels. It is not a dramatic presentation of "the first Easter morning," and there is no "sunrise service", since the Paschal Matins and Liturgy are celebrated together in the first dark hours of the first day of the week in order to give men the experience of the new creation of the world, and to allow them to enter mystically into the New Jerusalem which shines eternally with the glorious Light of Christ!

The Church teaches that while the body of Christ rested in the tomb on the Sabbath (the day after the Crucifixion), His soul descended into Hades. Prior to the Incarnation, the gates of paradise were closed to mankind. Therefore Hades, not to be confused with Hell, was the place where the souls of all went upon death. It was neither a place of reward, nor a place of punishment. It had been likened to "Death's prison", where the souls of both the just and the sinners were confined. Since Christ actually died upon the Cross, Death claimed His Soul for Hades. However, Hades received more than it expected… it received the Giver of Life, who destroyed the power of Hades. The icon of the Resurrection portrays this concept.

Christ, the central figure of the icon, is robed in white to show His divinity. The aureole (elongated halo) around Him also symbolizes this brilliant Light. At His feet are the demolished brass gates of Hades, with their broken keys and locks. Christ holds the hands of Adam and Eve, depicted to his right and left, as he pulls them from their tombs. Adam is an old man, recalled to his primordial innocence; Eve is also depicted as elderly, and is set free from her sin in Eden by the Incarnation. Behind Christ are aligned the Righteous of the Old Testament (to the left, including Solomon and David) and the New Testament (to the right, including John the Baptist and Joseph the Guardian).

above content from this site.

Psalm 70:4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, "Let God be magnified!" 5 But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay.

We are to continually say, "Let God be magnified". This is how we bring His presence into our lives. By asking for Him to grow in us, in our circumstances, and in our loved ones - everyone. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. Life is God being magnified continually.

These by frequent prayer, by unutterable words
by the flow of their tears purifying their souls.

As they see their soul purified, they are set on fire with love, the fire of desire,
to see it perfectly pure.
But as they are powerless to find perfection of light the process is incomplete.
The more I am purified I, the sinner, am illumined,
the more He appears, the spirit who gives purity.
Each day, it seems I begin again to be made pure, to see.
In a fathomless abyss, in a measureless heaven,
who can find a middle or an end?- St. Symeon the New Theologian

and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh,
shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
we awaken as the beloved
in every last part of our body.
- St. Symeon the New Theologian