"Galatians" (Part 1: The Teacher's Character)

Jesus Christ, The Teacher

Often times as we progress in the faith we still act like sucklings and at worst we tend to be "cry-babies" so bad that what we need isn't a pat in the back but a good hard-hitting spanking.

This is what Galatians is all about.
But the Christians of Galatia were not just bickering at each other- they were on the verge of apostasy.

St. Paul's exasperation was unmistakable: 

"O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you?" (Gal. 3:1)  

St. John Chrysostom had this to say in his commentaries: 

"The exordium¹ is full of a vehement and lofty spirit, and not the exordium only, but also, so to speak, the whole Epistle. For always to address one's disciples with mildness, even when they need severity is not the part of a teacher but it would be the part of a corrupter and enemy."

In one breath, St. John Chrysostom tells us that sometimes in faith being "soft" doesn't work. That we aren't a teacher but rather an enemy and corrupter if we don't know how to be severe at someone (in the fold) who is erring and who obviously doesn't want to be corrected.

I think this true also of the teaching profession.
Though I'm not yet what anyone would call a "seasoned teacher" (as opposed to "aged teacher-- but that's another story), I've seen teachers who tolerated the wrong-doings of students or worse, turn a blind eye on them. I'm not saying I'm not like that; I'm guilty as charged too. But I need to voice this one out: that we would be indeed "corrupters" if we don't at least add severity to a teacher's list of virtues. This isn't to condone the physical brutalities of some sadistic teachers, but sometimes we have to apply some strictures of law to keep our students from falling into damnation.

NOTE: commentaries are from: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf113.iii.iii.i.html
(I don't own any of the commentaries)

  

My First Music Video

The Meaninglessness of Life and the Impact of FAITH

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Life is all about beginnings-- starting all over again, taking life as it is and taking whatever it has to offer-- sorrow and joy, pain and healing, marrying and divorcing, anything under the sun.

Ecclesiastes of the Bible tells us that, yes, everything has its own time. Yet everything can become meaningless.

Even faith becomes meaningless.

How does it happen? How CAN it happen?

One Christian philosopher said that meaninglessness could come out of pain but often we forget that meaningless could come out of being weary of pleasure! (I am paraphrasing Ravi Zacharias)

Sitting in a lecture class today, I found simple things in life where I could draw inspiration from. 

A smile that sparked friendships.

Kindness shown to each other by each other.

Honesty here and there.

A little faith that accumulates to BIG FAITH...

I believe the reason why we tend to think everything under the sun is meaningless is because we are not grateful for the little miracles that happen in our lives. We dismiss the very reason that we exist is God. We readily exclude Jesus in our small and big thoughts; our God-inspired beliefs, we shun in favor of so-called intellectual pursuits both in secular and religious fields. We abandon the reality of our Orthodoxy: that our bodies, hearts, and souls belong to God; that no matter what we do, we must consecrate it to the Lord and ask Him constantly for guidance and light.

Our attempts to "enlarge" or to "simplify" faith without God's bidding can weaken us and ultimately bring us to the feeling of meaninglessness. When we boost our energies only to find in the end that everything is for naught, it is distressing... We undoubtedly sin that leads to "losing definition of our selves" (R. Zacharias). Because utter meaninglessness or emptiness, without God's filling, is a vacuum ready to be occupied by Satan! And as the life of the Ecclesiastes author suggests, he lived a life of intellectual, spiritual, mental, and physical ecstasy that the moral decay was so intense he had no choice but to cry out to God!

Now what do we do when we are in the throes of ecstatic energies that lead to sin when we have no God? What happens to the soul so enraptured in pleasure when there is no reality such as God? 

The soul dies a thousand Kafkaesque deaths.

So if there's no faith, everything's meaningless, if there's no God, our wanton desires would break loose that it would be impossible for us to contain it and that the end result would be the Dorian Gray moment-- we'd fall down looking at the bloodstained portraits of ourselves... 

EXCITE Experience (September 3-7 2012) BATCH 41

One week. That's what it took for moments to last forever...

Thanks for the memories!

This is how'd I feel after we part ways...

But seriously, THANKS!

New Beginnings, Desires, Battles

The Prodigal Son Icon:
Story of new beginnings, desires, and battles.

Obviously I have started a new blog.

I have closed gatsbyfaulkner-foundbychrist.blogspot.com because I was feeling that whatever I had put there was nothing more but a product of a non-spiritual life.

How come it was all for naught? Let me begin by telling that-- I am a Christian-- but not an ordinary Bible-hugging, street-chanting kind of Christian. I have embraced Eastern Orthodox Christianity as my religion. The Church whom I want to be baptized into is the Ecumenical Church, Annunciation Orthodox Church in the Philippines.

Did everything change? Have I become truly transfigured? (To use Fr. Seraphim Cardoza's--of St. innocent Church in America--words) 

To be honest, I am not yet a Cathecumen. But through the help of supplementary readings of writings of Othodox Saints, listening to Patristic Sermons, having fellowship with other Orthodox Christians through Facebook, listening/watching liturgical music, and reading the Bible, little by little, I have become "clingy" to this new-found faith. I feel that everyday I have to hear liturgy, sermons, and chats about Orthodoxy. 

Yet, I feel like the more I desire to be closer to God, the more I am being pulled back, back to my lusty, evil, debauched self... I believe that I have just entered the Arena of the battle between good and evil-- something that non-believers haven't have the privilege of entering one.

And this is what's been missing in my previous blog-- no article in there dedicated to this struggle as a babe-in-Christ. 

Bottom line: I am now proclaiming in my heart, mind and soul:

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made:Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets;And we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.We look for the Resurrection of the dead,And the Life of the age to come."

Amen.