Take Heart! Christ Is With Us: The Orthodox Priesthood (Part 2)

This is the second installment of my exploration of Orthodox Priesthood and why the Priest is an Icon of Christ. 

Orthodox Priest serving Communion 

to the Orthodox Faithful

May 19, 2013, Sunday. This day was the first time I witnessed not only the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, but also the baptism and confirmation of young man into Orthodoxy at the House Church of Father Andrew Ricky Lim, an Antiochian Orthodox Priest who resides at Pasig City. I was wholeheartedly welcomed by Father Andrew and his Khouria/Presbytera (a Priest's wife) into their home. It was quite an experience because after the Divine Liturgy, I got to talk to the couple about certain things especially Orthodoxy. And I thought, without the Divine Liturgy, the Church would have lost Her connection to the roots of her Tradition. Indeed it was more than a very beautiful Tradition, something that, as St. Paul said to his letters to the Thessalonians, we should hold fast to, it was the very heart and soul of the Orthodox Church. Having said this, for the Divine Liturgy to be celebrated (or to have her beating as a heart), she must have a celebrant. That is, she MUST have a priest. (A common joke around the Orthodox is "well, a Priest can't celebrate the Eucharist without the laity either"-- but that's another story haha.)  

Delving deep into Orthodoxy slowly teaches me that the Priesthood, as a Sacrament, as a Mystery, is certainly NOT an institution as some vocal opponents of Priesthood contend it as such. The Priesthood is made sacred first and foremost by Jesus Christ Himself (because some priesthoods were indeed pagan and thus not biblical). Historically so, today's Orthodox priests can trace their lineage back to Christ and the apostles themselves, their predecessors. A simple google search can lead one to sources (religious and secular alike) that can confirm the Orthodox Church's claims on the subject... Now if one is a Christian he/she must accept the Historicity of Jesus and His Disciples, and in doing so, I do believe that they couldn't just rule out the evidences for the Orthodox Church's claims of Her Holy and historical Priesthood. Because if one denies the Priesthood, he/she should also deny Christ.

Ordination into Priesthood 

Some may argue that according to Orthodoxy, the laity is also the Priesthood; that's true, if one is speaking about GENERAL PRIESTHOOD. In short, if you are a member of the Orthodox Catholic Faith, you are being saved by God's Grace. Now this has got nothing to do with what an Ordained Priest's calling should be; just because an Orthodox Faithful doesn't wear a Priest's clerical garb does not mean that the faithful has no place in the Orthodox Priesthood. He/she belongs to the Church thus giving him/her the right to partake in the Communion of Saints; so if he/she is able to partake in the Communion of Saints, he/she belongs to God's "Priestly nation".  What then is the "job" for the Priest? 

As I have said earlier, the Divine Liturgy (or The Eucharist) is one of the Holy Church's link to Her roots to Christ Himself. It is a Holy Sacrament or Mystery celebrated by Christ Himself; which what he passed on to His Disciples while telling them "Do this in remembrance of me..." Now, honest and grateful to their Master,  and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the celebration of the Eucharist was passed on by the Disciples to other MEN whom they taught to continue the Traditions they received whether by an oral statement or by the Disciples' letters (2nd Thessalonians 2:15). Therefore, as an Icon of Christ, the Priest's calling is to celebrate the Liturgy the way Christ and His Disciples celebrated Her. By doing so, the Orthodox Faithful are growing in faith and are being confirmed of their life in Christ.

To conclude this chapter, the Divine Liturgy or the Eucharist is the link to the Holy Church's roots to Christ. But she is more than that; she is the heart of the Church's life. For her to beat, the Priest, the Icon of Christ MUST celebrate Her together with the Orthodox faithful.

To be continued...   

Photo credits to:
http://theroygene.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/img_6349.jpg?w=300&h=200
http://www.antiochian-orthodox.co.uk/images/frjohn-ordination-2013.jpg

Take Heart! Christ Is With Us: The Orthodox Priesthood (Part 1)

This is the beginning of the series where I will explore the magnificence of the Orthodox Priesthood and why the Priest is an Icon of Christ.

Treat myself to a short trip to my bathroom mirror and take a good look at myself. I do this everyday. And what I see depresses me. Don't get me wrong. I love the lines slowly showing on my face as signs of aging. I'm not afraid of them. I see these lines as wisdom marks etched on my face; because I believe that the more we age, the more we desire and gain wisdom... 

What depresses me, then, are the marks of worldliness I see in my eyes and my whole being.

Realizing this weakness was never easy for me. I have had my strong bouts of denial and I shunned anyone who tried to help. I didn't shove God aside; I just didn't let Him near me-- anywhere near. But how could I resist His Grace? His Grace chased me. And finally I succumbed.

Sometimes I am thinking: what kept me from Him in the first place? I mean why did I avoid Him for so long? Have I really gone far away from Him; so far that I would never be able to come near Him again? 

As I journey through the faith that leads to the Orthodox pathwalk, I slowly learn about why Christ's face is shown in every human being; but most especially why He is shown in the Holy Priesthood of The Church. See, before I saw the beauty of Orthodoxy (through the written works of Saints though, because I am yet to be baptised in The Church) I was taught by a man-made religion that the priesthood is no longer necessary because Christ Himself established and completed this priesthood. And since there's no longer priesthood, there was no need for traditions that requireth a priest anymore. This actually explains a lot the hate for even the term Father; the priest was reduced to a Brother or Pastor and the sanctity of God's truth was reduced to Sunday Worship or Bible Sharing or Sunday School. The music, although good,  rock-and-roll-ey, and emotional, bore little or no resemblance to the correct way of expressing TRUE WORSHIP as prescribed in the Bible and in the early Church's Tradition). Even words like sacrament and tradition were alien to my ears and when thus they were spoken, they were spoken as taboo.

For a time I enjoyed all these. But then I became lukewarm; slowly I felt I didn't belong. I felt as though that church was no longer relevant and I, to that church. Evil crept inside me, subversive as ever, creating a spiritual vacuum within me. 

It's God's saving grace that, just like what He did to Job, He limited the encroachment of the evil one, allowing me to believe in Him still. That's when I started searching for the Correct Glory. God was good.

And so I do believe now that I never lost faith IN GOD. I just lost faith IN THAT CHURCH that taught no priesthood, no prescribed traditions, no true worship, no Father... And then I thought 'If we no longer need the sacraments and traditions because Jesus fulfilled them all... then what are we doing HERE? What's the essence of all these Bible study, praise and worship? If I follow that logic to the T, and applied it: Jewish Law, in accordance to Faith in Jesus, is no longer valid because Christ Himself fulfilled it, thus, the new covenant. That's correct. SO (this is THEIR logic), we do not have to adhere to any priest or traditions (i.e Eucharist, and confession, repetitive prayers) anymore because Christ has fulfilled them already... Then what is it left with us to do then? Did Christ not taught His disciples to wash each other's feet? Didn't He say that the woman's story, who poured perfume on the Savior's feet, shall BE TOLD where the Gospel IS PREACHED? Didn't He told the young man to leave everything behind, carry his cross, and follow Him? Didn't He say, at the breaking of bread and drinking of wine, "you DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME?"-- ALL of these ARE in the and in the Holy Bible and IN the Traditions of the Holy Church whom THEY so denounce because of Her strong emphasis on the Priesthood and Sacraments. Why not when Christ Himself TOLD it to BE SO?

As I continue my investigation in the Orthodox journey, I learn that the Priest, indeed, is the Icon of Christ. Because Christ set up His priesthood not as an end on the priesthood itself or for itself  but for the continuation and succession of the faith that they received. Sacraments were given by Jesus Christ to those whom he commissioned to spread the Gospel, and He expected nothing less than laying their apostolic hands on those whom Jesus will send their way to continue the Holy Traditions.

Well I guess it's the lack of Icon of Christ in that church that made it repellant to me.

For without the Icon of Christ (the Priest), there would be no sacred mysteries, there would be no correct worship. Where there is no sacred mysteries and no correct worship there is also no living faith.                 

"Thus,... through the Mystery of Priesthood, the participant is united with Christ and through him with all those who like himself had partaken of Christ's priestly function at his passion. Thanks to them, i.e. to the new priests who will partake of Christ's priestly office to the end of time, his passion and sacrifice will be repeated anew in a mystical way “until he comes again” (1 Cor. 11,26). The Christian priest acts in Christ's stead and in his name offering the bread and the wine, i.e. those very elements which he himself blessed at his Last Supper and gave them to his disciples to eat and drink as his real flesh and blood. And it is Christ himself who is invisibly present each time the priest offers the bread and the wine in his name and stead who turns them into his own flesh and blood in a mystical way. The idea of representation is from the outset the fundamental factor that lies at the bottom of the Mystery of Priesthood."

TO BE CONTINUED... 

Footnote:

http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/dogmatics/voulgaris_priesthood.pdf

Photo credit:

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwb9xv51ij1qkynm4.jpg

http://orthodoxbridge.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/liturgical_worship.jpg

Voting Rights Abused

In the light of today's election (May 13, 2013- Senatorial, Mayoral, Governor, and Party List elections), I must say that the election had been relatively "peaceful". No news of 'deaths related to elections violence' yet, no news of 'election-related harassment' yet, and no 'winners' yet.

As I look at the purple indelible ink on my index finger, I keep thinking 'Did I really vote for the good of my country? Or did I vote to merely exercise my rights? 

When I looked at my ballot, I couldn't help but shudder in disgust; none of the candidates expressed crystal-clearly the  terms of their platforms (if they had ANY) and the parties enlisted for the most part were vague parties-- there was no assurance of any sort that these parties were not shills for any money-grubbing candidate. I do not, honestly, consider the rulings of the COMELEC on these Parties because in my City alone, Parties have sprung out of nowhere making themselves comfortable with the title "party list". Up to the point of the election, ALL of the voters were kept in the dark it seemed.

Yes, I exercised my 'right' to vote. But in a country like the Philippines even the "right to vote" is one twisted knot in the stomach. 

According to Wikipedia RIGHTS:

are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory.^[1] Rights are of essential importance in such disciplines as law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology. Rights are often considered fundamental to civilization, being regarded as established pillars of society and culture,^[2] and the history of social conflicts can be found in the history of each right and its development. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "rights structure the form of governments, the content of laws, and the shape of morality as it is currently perceived."^[1] The connection between rights and struggle cannot be overstated — rights are not as much granted or endowed as they are fought for and claimed, and the essence of struggles past and ancient are encoded in the spirit of current concepts of rights and their modern formulations.    

And voting is an example of:

Legal rights,...are based on a society's customs, laws, statutes or actions by legislatures. An example of a legal right is the right to vote of citizens. Citizenship, itself, is often considered as the basis for having legal rights, and has been defined as the "right to have rights". Legal rights are sometimes called civil rights or statutory rightsand are culturally and politically relative since they depend on a specific societal context to have meaning. 

It makes me feel utterly disenchanted; that the right to vote has been used by these politicians to have themselves take the seat in various offices which we, as citizens, have the right to hold accountable for the improvement and progress of our country. It seems to me that too much abuse has been done against the simplistic faith of most of the Filipino people: this simplistic faith implores the newly elected hoodlums este servant-leaders that the Filipino can finally be at ease to do his job of feeding his family, making his dreams come true, and/or see his country become the tiger of Asia as it envisions itself to be... Now it's easy for some people to say: "Well, you shouldn't have voted for hooligans-- that's what you get for voting them---it's your fault, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!!!"

I don't believe that ordinary Pinoys didn't have the goggles to see through the election candidates; I do believe that for some reason we've become more astute as to whom to vote for and as to whom not to vote for. But can we really blame the ordinaryong Juan for repeatedly voting for the same stack of politicos when he had not been given more than adequate information concerning the politicians whom he desires to win? Even I, a bourgeois member of the society, chose to vote for the lesser evils, felt like being choked and forced to vote simply because I had to shade those ovals even though very few of those Politcos passed my scrutiny and litmus test! 

Pretty telling as to why most of the candidates, who won the 12 remaining senatorial seats,  belong to one major party. Most of the propaganda machinery was used by a single major political party (And it was all YELLOW), so given the fact that even Manong Basurero has, at least, limited access to the communications media, he was still given yellow junk. Now can we honestly think that he would vote for otherwise when all he had been fed were yellow lies???

In my opinion there is something fundamentally wrong with how we apply our rights. How can we call voting our rights when it is being abused-- abused  in the sense that people have very limited information on politicians and all they clung to were misleading candidacy commercials and catch phrases hatch by the politicos' PR men?   


Information about Rights:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights#Rights_and_politics

Photo credit:
http://manilastandardtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013_Mar01_editorial.jpg

Just Like Jean Valjean: Bearing The Truth All Along

"Are we human,

Or are we dancer?

My sign is vital

My hands are cold.

And I'm on my knees

Looking for the answer;

Are we human,

Or are we dancer?"

-- The Killers (from the song: Human)

 "Behold, I am now captive to death because of unlawful counsel. 

And I who was for a time robed with the glory of immortality 

have become like one dead, wrapped pitifully in the rags of mortality" 

--Matins of Meatfare Sunday, Einos, Tone 5  (1)

"But what does it mean, 'for all have sinned' (Rom. 5.12) This: he having once fallen, yet they that had not eaten of the tree inherited mortality ... From this it is clear that it was not Adam's sin, his transgression — that is of the Law — but by the virtue of his disobedience that all have been marred. What is the proof of this? The fact that even before the Law all died: 'for death reigned,' St. Paul says, 'from Adam to Moses, even over them who had not sinned' (Rom 5:14). How did it 'reign'? After the manner of Adam's transgression, he who is 'the type of Him that was to come.' Thus, when the Jews ask, how was it possible for one Person to have saved the world? you will be able to reply, in the same way that the disobedience of one person, Adam, brought its condemnation" (Commentary on Romans, X). (2)

                                                                                                -- St. John Chrysostom 

Jean Valjean

I grew up in this generation-- Generation Y. 
Born in the year 1989, I spent my elementary days playing The Super Mario on playstation, crying over the death of a friend's Tamagotchi, drooling over cuties such as The Hansons and The Moffats, and going bonkers for the animated series Voltes V and Pokemon. 
Then I had a "religious phase" during my first year in high school which persisted through my College days: abandoning Roman Catholicism for Born Again-ism. I went to Youth Jams, joined youth/group sharing, almost became the drummer of that protestant church and other stuff which my mother condoned for the most part because she believed (and rightly so) those would keep me from doing drugs, but it was my own convictions that kept me from societies "bad elements" (I think).  

My soul-searching went deep and troubling that during my fourth year of high school I joined a mainstream Communist youth group which, sadly, was (and still is) a shill for the larger umbrella of the Communist Party of the Philippines; I almost ended up mastering in ARAK (short for Aral-Aktibista or, since I don't know how to translate this, Commie Activist crash-course). I even tried to develop my own "liberal theology" by trying to infuse biblical admonitions to Marxist-Lenninist-Maoist thought. I experienced going from house to house ( of mostly friends who were already in-the-know) to study how guerilla warfare works and Jose Ma. Sison's life. I would probably have gotten more A+ for those than I would have gotten C- for Math. Yet, I felt like I was the most unreliable ally to myself, because at the bottom of it all I realized that the very thing lacking was my "identity". I desperately assumed and tried to get my identity from all of my associations-- be they a religious group or a Commie party.   

Through-out my youth, I had a "spiritual wanderlust";  I couldn't rest my head on one cornerstone. It had to be a one, up-and-down spiral, search. Yet I was (and still am) asking, as Jean Valjean asked: "Who am I?" 

I can't run away from who I am: I was born wrapped in mortality as a result of Adam and Eve's sin, in the same vein that Jean Valjean could not run away from who he really  was: An escaped convict for a loaf of bread. Ultimately, and I am proud to say this, because it is the only thing I can be proud of, like my hero Jean Valjean, I chose to face the truth: though not born bearing the guilt of my forebears, I was born with DEATH stamped upon me. Death is unnatural because we were made in God's image thus we were supposed to be immortal. But sin entered the world, and in God's perfect mercy, He banished the first man and the first woman from the Paradise so that they would not become immortal in sin. 

It's God's gift that I chose; that I couldn't stop looking for answers for the question "Who am I?". Not even my faith could ever take account for what happened to me. And as I continued my quest, I ended up looking for the true faith Christ Himself established on earth through His apostles.

Like Jean Valjean, I let myself be swept away in God's truth and forgiveness. I'm close to home  


Footnote: 
1&2 http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/dogmatics/golubov_rags_of_mortality.htm 

Photo credit to:
http://ysfaye.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/jean-valjean.jpg

Glory to God On The Highest: The Death of Death

“Then the LORD God said to the serpent:  ‘Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures;  On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.   I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;  He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.’ ”     Genesis 3:14-15 NAB

"Do Not Lament Me O, Mother"

Mary, The Mother of God, weeping for her Son

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”     Matthew 28:5-10 NAB

Latin Icon Of the Risen Christ

For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?     1 Corinthians 15:53-55 Douay-Rheims 1899

***

The Bright Week, in Orthodox Christianity, is a celebration of Christ's Resurrection.

So far from "a cult dedicated to the dead Christ" as some protestants lovingly put it, Orthodoxy teaches Christians to live and love life; to give glory to God by living out the faith we receive from Jesus Himself because He is the author and finisher of our faith, to stop weeping and feeling afraid, because He destroyed Death by dying on the Cross; HE IS INDEED RISEN and is coming back. 

Let's celebrate life by glorifying God's resurrection this Bright Week.

Now, a volume of words from St. Justin the Martyr:

"If He had no need of the flesh, why did He heal it? And what is most forcible of all, He raised the dead. Why? Was it not to show what the resurrection should be? How then did He raise the dead? Their souls or their bodies? Manifestly both. If the resurrection were only spiritual, it was requisite that He, in raising the dead, should show the body lying apart by itself, and the soul living apart by itself. But now He did not do so, but raised the body, confirming in it the promise of life. Why did He rise in the flesh in which He suffered, unless to show the resurrection of the flesh? And wishing to confirm this, when His disciples did not know whether to believe He had truly risen in the body, and were looking upon Him and doubting, He said to them, You have not yet faith, see that it is I;Luke 24:32, etc. and He let them handle Him, and showed them the prints of the nails in His hands. And when they were by every kind of proof persuaded that it was Himself, and in the body, they asked Him to eat with them, that they might thus still more accurately ascertain that He had in verity risen bodily; and He ate honey-comb and fish. And when He had thus shown them that there is truly a resurrection of the flesh, wishing to show them this also, that it is not impossible for flesh to ascend into heaven (as He had said that our dwelling-place is in heaven), He was taken up into heaven while they beheld, Acts 1:9 as He was in the flesh. If, therefore, after all that has been said, any one demand demonstration of the resurrection, he is in no respect different from the Sadducees, since the resurrection of the flesh is the power of God, and, being above all reasoning, is established by faith, and seen in works." (from Apologetics On The Resurrection Chapter 9) http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0131.htm

Arise O God! Alleluia, for You Are Risen!

Bright Week!!!

Orthodox Christians around the world continue to witness and live this magnificent celebration of Bright Week or Easter Week (for Western/Latin Rite Orthodoxy).

Icon of the Resurrection of The Lord

 According to Wikipedia:  

The entire week following Pascha is to be set aside by Orthodox Christians for the celebration of the Resurrection. According to the 66th canon of the Council in Trullo:
"from the holy day of the Resurrection of Christ our God until New Sunday (i.e. Thomas Sunday) for a whole week the faithful in the holy churches should continually be repeating psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, rejoicing and celebrating Christ, and attending to the reading of the Divine Scriptures and delighting in the Holy Mysteries. For in this way shall we be exalted with Christ; raised up together with Him. For this reason on the aforesaid days that by no means there be any horse races or any other public spectacle".^[1]

This is a celebration, but a holy one. And so, even "little partying" isn't allowed:

In Imperial Russia, the taverns used to be closed during Bright Week, and no alcoholic beverages were sold.^[2]

HAPPY BRIGHT WEEK!!!!




Infos are from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Week


Photo belongs to:
http://antiochian.org/assets/writer/MemoryEternalANewPageforRemembranceofOur_F27F/Resurrection_web.jpg

The Cost of Truth Is The Essence of Being Human

The Raising of Lazarus

"The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus."--- John 12:9-11 NASB

What is the cost of knowing the Truth?
What is the cost of believing the Truth?
What is the cost of  the Truth coming true to you?

WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS ALERT!!!

John Chapter 12 is breath-taking. It paints the scene where Jesus Christ ate supper with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus whom he had just raised from the dead. It details Mary's unabashed exposure of herself to Jesus by anointing Him with expensive perfume, the row Jesus had with Judas Iscariot about Mary's non-economy, plotting of the Pharisees against Lazarus and Jesus, Jesus Christ's triumphant entry on a donkey, and His sermon which was described as "thunderous".
Reading the chapter, I felt like reading through a movie instead of watching it; it was so fast-paced. No, it's like a multi-scened Act in a play. Everything just moves simultaneously. Indeed reading John is like listening to a renegade Philosopher; he gets to the point no matter how thorny and poignant it is, cuts you off when you start protesting because he knows he's right, reports what he witnessed, what he knew, and never apologizes for being blunt. Indeed The Book of John lacks Matthew's knack for orderliness, Mark's discretion, and Luke's sophistication.
Now I finally realized why the Church Fathers put Matthew first in the New Testament collection-- John's not a book for the faint-hearted, it's a shocker... LOL.
(Naaah, I don't really know why they put Matthew first, still doing research on that.)

Nope. I'm not done reading John's Book. But Chapter 12 really arrested me.
Which prompted from me the questions:


What is the cost of knowing the Truth?
What is the cost of believing the Truth?
What is the cost of  the Truth coming true to you?


NOTE: Read The Great Gatsby or at least search Wikipedia so you don't get off tangent.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's magnum opus: The Great Gatsby (the book, not the movie), you will read a scene where in Tom Buchanan, his wife  Daisy, and Jay Gatsby confront each other finally: Tom discovers that Daisy's still in love with Jay Gatsby and that she never forgot her love for Jay, Daisy discovers that she could no longer keep the truth: she still loves her first love Gatsby yet she can't turn away from Tom because she has learned to love her husband (perhaps much to the surprise of the two men) and Jay Gatsby discovers that no matter how much he reinvents himself, there's no way he can win back Daisy. There's just no way he can convince Daisy to leave Tom (this makes Tom believe he has won, seriously, this is in the book).

For Fitzgerald's characters (as Fitzgerald obviously intended them to be), knowing and believing the truth DO NOT end in knowing and believing . The truth must be played on their very person, on their very psych. In  other words they have to work out on that truth.

Human beings are limited, as can be inferred from the Ancestral Sin doctrine of the Holy Orthodox Church. Though we do not inherit the sin of Adam and Eve, we do inherit the effect of that sin which is death. And death according to The Holy Orthodox Church, according to God, is unnatural. The Natural state of human beings is this: That which was shown by Lazarus's resurrection AND Jesus Christ's resurrection. Although Lazarus died again, it was in Jesus that the natural immortality of human beings is displayed: immortal in a new body and with God. Lazarus' death and resurrection was a foretaste of what Jesus would indeed display: His crucifixion, earthly death, bodily resurrection, and heavenly ascension. ALL these are guaranteed by God Himself. 

Knowing THIS truth is risky business (if I may use the crassness of that), how much MORE SO in believing!
Surely this IS more terrifying than anything else if this truth that we know is what we believe and what we live for!          

Now, what is the cost of  Fitzgerald's characters' discovery? Tom promises Daisy to be a better man and husband. For Daisy it means choosing what can save her; by sticking with Tom, she escapes the hounds of justice (she kills her husband's mistress in a car accident), and for Jay Gatsby, this means mustering courage to face the truth and begin shedding off his Jay Gatsby veneer, the mysterious millionaire, to reveal James Gatz, a poor boy blinded by love for a faithless woman. All three of them, in the limited world of the novel, know the truth, believe the truth, act on the truth, no matter how gruesome the results are.

In John chapter 12, the Book concludes the questions in a non-pessimist vein:
knowing the truth means sitting at the table with Christ and giving up whatever we have to Him (Lazarus and Mary), in doing so, we intensify our belief; in intensifying belief, we act on it through the active participation in the Church's mysteries and studies. But the COST of all of these? John chapter 12 gives us the gist of knowing, believing, and acting on the truth... That will cost us everything just as Christ gave everything to defeat death and to restore unto us our true image. 

    

"Salvation is the restoration of the wholeness of God’s image in us, of the possibility of our union with God. It is the restoration of our original essence. “Holy Tradition teaches that… we will be saved when we becomelike Christ… Because of our faith in Him and our desire to become God-like, we are not so much saved all at once as slowly changed into the creatures we were created to be.”[18]"

Frank Schaeffer, Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1994), 207.

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/46463.htm

Icons:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILvj34BHn5ToJKhsKV88IpJMrzl1d83-hQLEuSZGBP94dUuDg50DUirVXL6mGP2dJ6FlmyBm3tMKxl_sblG85PEZbPUWsRnDotZ4OlVPQqBaGW_swL278E34UL-bmX2-HIh4VT4Ljl2rL/s1600/Lazaruscst03Flyer.jpg

Great Gatsby photo:
http://i2.listal.com/image/81309/936full-the-great-gatsby-(penguin-modern-classics)-cover.jpg

My Top Five "What-Happens-After-The-How I Wish I Can Boycott This-Elections???"

No need for drum roll.... yep, drum roll pls... 

(kinda used talking to myself this way every time I force myself to be ummm... too political)

May 13, 2013 is the date on my calendar with a red lipstick mark. 

And my numero uno Philippine elections consequence:

1). For Worse Or For Worst!

I was supposed to write "Not Much Will Going To Change After The Elections" for I'm expecting a rehash of all that were said and done by my beloved politicos. As it turns out it seems to me that CHANGE is the only permanent thing in the whole world (cliche I KNOW).

For some it's the question of "Are we gonna change for the better?" and "Are we gonna change for the worse?"  

Yet, for Filipinos who think and feel too much it just gets worse and worst. 

We may find ourselves again in a sea full of left-over angst, cry-babies, media lackeys, and politician-commandos doing mop-up operations.

My Hopes In Western Rite Orthodoxy

“Never, Never, Never let anyone tell you that in order to be Orthodox you must also be Eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies.”                            

- St. John the Wonderworker

When Orthodoxy touched me for the first time, I naturally became inclined towards Eastern Orthodoxy. Why not? I was born in this part of the world: South East Asia. The Orient. 

Having said all of these, I remember considering the relations between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. And I remember: 'Wait a minute, Roman Catholicism is indeed a Western Theology!' 

Then I hear and read about the thing on Uniates-- I'm not going into details (read Wikipedia, darn it). But suffice it to say that some people see the creation of Uniates as a sort of go-between for Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism; like the "missing link" in Darwinism. 

Yet something troubled me about it. I have no intentions of lambasting someone or something and my views do not in any way shape or form reflect the standing of the Holy Orthodox Church (wherein someday in God's timing, I will be baptized) on the Uniates issue... But if speaking one's mind is allowed and part of my inalienable rights, then I'll just spill it...

I don't believe that the Uniates is the healing ointment for what happened in the 1054 Schism. The Uniates, though in communion with the Roman Pontiff, is still riddled with objections from some Roman  Catholic hierarchs and of course, from Orthodox hierarchs. 

At that point of discovery I told myself what then can be done? Now, I know that everything will be in God's timing and with God's own hands He can heal. But in continuously pondering about the two lungs and the Schism-- there must be something else that God has in store.

At this point of my Orthodox exploration, I came across some Youtube channels that have WESTERN RITE Orthodoxy practice: 
Their services resemble some Anglican and Roman Catholic      hymns-- Oh, especially THE hymns! My ears enjoy Orthodox and Roman Catholic hymns.

After seeing these videos the Eureka-like feeling in me evaporated and was gone just like that. As I have discovered soon Western Rite Orthodoxy IS NOT an attempt, unlike the Uniates, to bridge the gap between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.

Western Rite Orthodoxy is a Rite USED by the Western part of the world who embraced the religion that was established by Christ Himself. The Western Rite is the correct practice of the western world prior to 1054 AD Schism. And as a movement within the Orthodox Church, it does not seek dissension. It does not pull itself away from the core teachings of the Orthodox Faith rather, as a movement, it seeks to reclaim "The West" back to the loving fold of Orthodoxy by reviving the hymns, the services that were lost after the Schism.

So what am I hoping for?

First I am praying that the Western Rite, like the Eastern/Oriental Rite, will be revived in it's fullness and beauty for God's glory. Second, I am hoping and praying that the Roman Catholic Church will once again search for Her Orthodox roots through the Western Rite and be once again 'Orthodox Catholic'.

It's not too much to ask of God.

PEACE!!!


Photo above, not mine, just got it from google.

My Top Five "What-Happens-After-The-How I Wish I Can Boycott This-Elections???"

Going on Top 2

2). Philippine Elections: Mopping-Up Operations 

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.-- Napoleon Bonaparte 1

Useful and necessity was always  the tyrant's plea-- CS Lewis 2

Recently, a relative of mine giddily told me a story of how the incumbent Mayor of our city, at once sitting in his honorable office, decided not to "kick-out" any personnel who was once installed in the municipal's cubicles by the former Mayor. 
Yeah sure. That's really helping alleviate the tears and fears of small municipal/capitol workers AND the municipal/capitol scholars who know that someday they are going to lose their jobs and scholarships when a new tyrant---ahemmm---leader steps in and puts on the hard-hat.
It's not a new phenomena, this mopping up operations. 
My students who graduated from our high school and some of my co-teachers are very apprehensive of this "mopping-up" operations. It's as if they are looked upon as enemies of a politico. 
Say, Congressman 'A' provided 500php scholarship allowance for 15 aspiring high school students within this district. Now Congressman 'A' lost his post to Congressman 'R'... Now I don't want to believe but a relative of mine said, rather than risk creating "roaches" within their ranks, politicians would rather have ensured "loyalty" from their ranks by waxing off the ones who benefited from the former Congressman 'A'-- this includes janitors, stamp-pad people, chauffeurs, etc. who served during a former administration's terms. Anybody whom Congressman 'R' perceives as remaining 'Judas Iscariots' must be weeded out-- yes even students who expect stipend from the government. 

Now I know certain "notables" will try and excuse this mopping-up operations.

But one thing is clear; tyrants have a way of snaking itself out of the equation... We have a very turbulent elections aftermath ahead of us.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/napoleonbo166656.html#PIQtAqVUkuRslJLE.99

Somebody Who Is Jesus Christ

"I see Christ as a combination of man and God. He is a man who went against the political winds of the time. He is not an angry Christ, though he is capable of extreme indignation. Nor is he a cozy man. He never does anything by degrees and expects the same from others. His followers must give away not a few thing, but everything, before they come with Him."-- Robert Powell 1

[Romanian Orthodox Icon, wooden artwork] 

I will not attempt to delve into philosophical or mystical mumbo jumbo about THE MAN. 
Jesus Christ is simply who He is: Savior and God.
So what are the things said about Him? 
Here are some. 

New Covenant:

John ch. 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through Him. What has come into being was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines into darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. 2

Colossians ch 1:15-18

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 3

Old Covenant: 

Isaiah 53: 1-12

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
³ He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
⁹ And they^[a] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
¹¹ He shall see the labor of His soul,^[b] and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors. 

Jeremiah 33:14-18

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt-offerings, to make grain-offerings, and to make sacrifices for all time. 4

Philosophers:

Soren Kierkegaard:

Lord Jesus Christ! A whole life long didst thou suffer that I too might be saved; and yet thy suffering is not yet at an end; but this too wilt thou endure, saving and redeeming me, this patient suffering of having to do with me, I who so often go astray from the right path, or even when I remained on the straight path stumbled along it or crept so slowly along the right path. Infinite patience, suffering of infinite patience. How many times have I not been impatient, wished to give up and forsake everything; wished to take the terribly easy way out, despair: but thou didst not lose patience. Oh, I cannot say what thy chosen servant says: that he filled up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh; no, I can only say that I increased thy sufferings, added new ones to those which thou didst once suffer in order to save me. 5

Noam Chomsky:

Jesus himself, and most of the message of the Gospels, is a message of service to the poor, a critique of the rich and the powerful, and a pacifist doctrine.  6

Church Fathers:

St. John Chrysostom:

Do you wish to honor the Body of the Savior? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold. He who said, “This is my body,” and made it so by his word, is the same that said, “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me.” Honor him then by sharing your property with the poor. For what God needs is not golden chalices but golden souls. 7

St. Ignatius of Antioch

Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. 8

Sources:

1.http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2013/04/robert-powell-and-his-portrayal-of-jesus.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mystagogy+%28MYSTAGOGY%29 

2. http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=50 

3. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1&version=NKJV 

4. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+33%3A14-18&version=NRSVA

5 http://www.worldofquotes.com/quote/41148/index.html

6  http://thegreypilgrim.tumblr.com/post/46660031664/jesus-himself-and-most-of-the-message-of-the

7 http://www.quoteid.com/John_Chrysostom.html

8 http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=362555