“But when the truth rose, like the sun, from the earth for those who sate in darkness and shadow of falsehood, then righteousness stooped down from heaven and, for the first time, appear to men in its reality and perfection. We were justified, first by being set free from bonds and condemnation , in that He who had done no evil pleaded for us by dying on the cross. By this He paid the penalty for the sins we had audaciously committed; then, because of that death, we were made friends of God and righteous. By His death the Savior not only released us and reconciled us to the Father, but also ‘gave us power to become children of God’ (John 1:12), in that He both united our nature to Himself through the flesh which He assumed, and also united each one of us to His own flesh by the power of the Mysteries. In this way, the, He makes His own righteousness and life to rise, like the sun, in our souls. Thus it becomes possible for men, by means of the sacred Mysteries, both to know true righteousness and themselves practice it” (Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ, 53-54; emphasis mine).
Category: Orthodoxy
Forgiveness as the Life of Christ
“…This life of forgiveness, which is nothing other than the life of Christ within us, is our inheritance in the faith. The life of blame, recrimination, bitterness, anger, revenge and the like are not the life of Christ, but simply the raging of our own egos, the false self which we exalt over our true life which is “hid with Christ in God.”
The rightness of a cause or the correctness of our judgment do not justify nor change the nature of our ragings. For none of us can stand before God and be justified – except as we give ourselves to the life of Christ, who is our only righteousness.
The question of forgiveness is not a moral issue. We do not forgive because it is the “correct” thing to do. We forgive because it is the true nature of the life in Christ….In the same manner, the refusal to forgive, the continuation of blame, recrimination, bitterness, etc., are not moral failings. They are existential crises – drawing us away from the life of Christ and Paradise, and ever deeper into an abyss of non-being…”
On Repentance
“Justification in the New Testament does not mean a transaction – a kind of deal; and repentance defies mechanical definition. It is a continual enactment of freedom, a movement forward, deriving from renewed choice and leading to restoration. The aim of the Christian is not even justification but a re-entry by sinner and saint alike into communion in which God and man meet once again and personal experience of divine life becomes possible. Both prodigal and saint are “repenting sinners.”
Repentance is not to be confused with mere remorse, with a self-regarding feeling of being sorry for a wrong done. It is not a state but a stage, a beginning. Rather, it is an invitation to new life, an opening up of new horizons, the gaining of a new vision. Christianity testifies that the past can be undone. It knows the mystery of obliterating or rather renewing memory, of forgiveness and regeneration, eschewing the fixed division between the “good” and the “wicked,” the pious and the rebellious, the believers and the unbelievers. Indeed, “the last” can be “the first,” the sinner can reach out to holiness. Passions are conquered by stronger passions; love is overcome by more abundant love. One repents not because one is virtuous, but because human nature can change, because what is impossible for man is possible for God. The motive for repentance is at all times humility, unself-sufficiency – not a means of justification for oneself, or of realizing some abstract idea of goodness, or of receiving a reward in some future life. Just as the strength of God is revealed in the extreme vulnerability of His Son on the Cross, so also the greatest strength of man is to embrace his weakness: “for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I render glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12.9). To be flawed is the illogical, perhaps supernatural characteristic of humanity in which one encounters God.”
Read the entire article on Repentance and Confession – An Introduction
Orthodoxy on Justification
“In Western theology we often see a distinction being made between justification and sanctification. And one feels that we are dealing here with two separate stages which are clearly distinguished from each other. Justification is considered the first stage, the starting point, after which follows the second stage, sanctification. I maintain that in Orthodox theology the matter is placed on a different basis. What is stressed in not the distinction between justification and sanctification, but the dynamic character of justification. It is this very dynamism of justification which constitutes sanctification. Thus, man can become an infinite being with immense potentialities opening before him. Through baptism he puts on Christ; that is to say, he participate in the justification which Christ himself created, while finding the way open for him to raise himself ‘unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph 4:23). Justification is a given fact, but at the same time it is a reality towards which man continuously advances. It is, in the final analysis, the process towards the unending end of perfection” (69, Constantine B. Scouteris; “Church and Justification” found in Ecclesial Being: Contributions to Theological Dialogue).
55 Maxims from Fr. Thomas Hopko
- Be always with Christ and trust God in everything
- Pray as you can, not as you think you must
- Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline
- Say the Lord’s Prayer several times each day
- Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occupied
- Make some prostrations when you pray
- Eat good foods in moderation and fast on fasting days
- Practice silence, inner and outer
- Sit in silence 20 to 30 minutes each day
- Do acts of mercy in secret
- Go to liturgical services regularly
- Go to confession and holy communion regularly
- Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings
- Reveal all your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person regularly
- Read the scriptures regularly
- Read good books, a little at a time
- Cultivate communion with the saints
- Be an ordinary person, one of the human race
- Be polite with everyone, first of all family members
- Maintain cleanliness and order in your home
- Have a healthy, wholesome hobby
- Exercise regularly
- Live a day, even a part of a day, at a time
- Be totally honest, first of all with yourself
- Be faithful in little things
- Do your work, then forget it
- Do the most difficult and painful things first
- Face reality
- Be grateful
- Be cheerful
- Be simple, hidden, quiet and small
- Never bring attention to yourself
- Listen when people talk to you
- Be awake and attentive, fully present where you are
- Think and talk about things no more than necessary
- Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly
- Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out
- Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance
- Don’t complain, grumble, murmur or whine
- Don’t seek or expect pity or praise
- Don’t compare yourself with anyone
- Don’t judge anyone for anything
- Don’t try to convince anyone of anything
- Don’t defend or justify yourself
- Be defined and bound by God, not people
- Accept criticism gracefully and test it carefully
- Give advice only when asked or when it is your duty
- Do nothing for people that they can and should do for themselves
- Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice
- Be merciful with yourself and others
- Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath
- Focus exclusively on God and light, and never on darkness, temptation and sin
- Endure the trial of yourself and your faults serenely, under God’s mercy
- When you fall, get up immediately and start over
- Get help when you need it, without fear or shame
Father Tom explains this list of maxims in an excellent podcast for Ancient Faith Radio.
HT: Oh Taste and See
Just Saying No is Not Enough
” ‘Just say no’ is an insufficient principle. The strongest man or woman in the world is not nearly strong enough to triumph over his or her sin simply by saying no to it. What we need is the strength-giving grace occasioned by our saying yes to something else, by our saying yes, and yes, and yes—ceaselessly—to Someone else. It is not our finally turning away from sin that frees us from sin’s recurrence; rather it is our turning toward Christ–and the mystery of our continuing to turn into Him–that puts sin behind us” (The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain, Scott Cairns, 67).
Friday, 2nd Week of Lent
Matins, Canticle Five
“Crucified, Thou dost release me from corruption; pierced by a lance, Thou makest me immortal. I glorify Thine ineffable mercy, O Christ, for Thou hast come to save me” (Lenten Triodion Supplement, 110).
Matins, Canticle Nine
“Through Thy Crucifixion Thou doest open Paradise again and deliver me from the eternal death of disobedience. With rejoicing I partake of life, and magnify Thee as my God, O Thou who lovest mankind.
O Lord, Thy lifecreating Cross has turned the instrument of the curse into a seal of blessing. Beholding Thee upon it, we who before were dead are brought back to life, and singing Thy praises we magnify Thee as our Master” (Lenten Triodion Supplement, 113).
Monday, 2nd Week of Lent
Matins, Canticle One
“O Thou who alone art full of love, fountain of mercy, Lamb of God, who in Thy divine power takest away the transgressions of the world, save me, for I am sinking in the waves of sin, and guide me to the haven of repentance” (The Lenten Triodion Supplement, 75).
Metropolitan Jonah on Great Lent 2010
To the Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy,
Monastics, and Faithful of
The Orthodox Church in America
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The gateway to divine repentance has been opened: let us enter eagerly, purified in our bodies and observing abstinence from food and passions, as obedient servants of Christ who has called the world into the heavenly Kingdom. Let us offer to the King of all a tenth part of the whole year, that we may look with love upon His Resurrection. [Cheesefare Monday, Matins sessional hymn]
We approach the Great Fast as our preparation to celebrate the life-giving Passion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Great Lent is a time of great beauty and profundity, a time which the Church calls the “tithe of the year” which we give to Christ in a spirit of fasting and self-denial. We fast, we pray, we go to services, and we give alms. But what is different in us the very day after Pascha? Have we attained inner peace? Have we come to self-control over our passions? Has my soul been healed, even a little?
Lent is the time for repentance. But that repentance does not simply mean feeling sorry for our sins, much less trying to do some kind of penitential acts to atone for them. Rather, the goal of repentance is the transformation of our minds and hearts, our very consciousness. It means a transformation of our whole life. To engage it means that we have to embrace change. This change not only affects our diet for a few weeks, or abstaining from some bad habits. It means a different way of behaving, of perceiving God, ourselves, our neighbors. It means a rejection and renunciation of the ways we have been living and treating others, and the adoption of a new way of life. We have to come to the recognition that how we have been living and behaving does not lead us deeper into communion with God and our neighbors, but rather alienates us from both, and from our very self.
So often we become trapped by our own self-righteousness and pride, thinking that we do not have to change. This is delusion. If we are so sure of ourselves, how have we left room for God to even show us our shortcomings? We fall into the trap of the Pharisee. This is especially the case when we let ourselves criticize and judge our neighbors. If we allow ourselves to judge and criticize, then we can be sure that we have cast God out of our lives. Who needs Him, if I can judge everyone and everything? We pick and pick at our neighbors, from external appearances to deep judgments about their integrity. And in so doing, we destroy our own souls. We project all our own insecurities on those around us, not caring whose feelings we hurt or whose lives we destroy. And in reality, it has nothing to do with that other person; our judgment is only an image of myself and my insecurities, and the sins we don’t want to admit to ourselves.
If we judge and criticize our neighbor, our fasting is in vain. Our repentance is hypocrisy. And we make a mockery of Jesus Christ. We receive the Eucharist unto damnation. And we are oblivious to it, in our own self-righteousness.
Repentance, being “transformed in the renewal of our minds,” means that, like the Prodigal, we have “come to ourselves,” and recognized that our minds and hearts have taken the wrong road. We can perhaps see some of the damage we are causing to ourselves and others. We recognize that our minds are filled with angry, suspicious, judgmental, and self-righteous thoughts, and that we have no inner peace.
How do we repent? The first thing we must do is withdraw from the stimulus: to stop exposing ourselves — temporarily — to the issues and people that bring up these angry thoughts and judgments. We have to stop ourselves from rehearsing the wrongs done to us (and hence our judgment and condemnation of the person who wronged us), and realize this is just our own self-justification rooted in pride and vainglory. Then we need to pray that God will forgive us for our anger and pride, and forgive the other for what he or she has done. Then we can let it go. So long as we are provoked by thoughts of the remembrance of wrongs (resentments), and react with anger, we have not worked it through. But when the remembrance of something no longer disturbs our peace, we know that God has worked in our hearts.
Great Lent can be a clinic, a hospital, for our souls that are sick with the passions. Have we been healed? We can have our minds and hearts lifted up to heaven itself, if we want. We can use Great Lent to lay the foundational stones of discipline, and build habits that will stay with us the rest of the year. We can emerge from Lent with our hearts illumined and our minds cleansed, with a new way of being. Will we allow ourselves to change and be transformed in repentance?
It is only this transformation that will open our spiritual eyes, that in our hearts and with all our being we will be able to shout with joy, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!”
With love in our Merciful Savior,
+JONAH
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada
Homily for Forgiveness Vespers
“I thought it might be helpful to us if we began the fast with an exhortation which matched the beautiful Paschal Sermon of our Father among the Saints, John Chrysostom. May the Lord bless our ascetical effort and sanctify us all thereby!”
“If anyone be devout and love God,
Let him commence this radiant fast with joy!
If anyone be a wise servant,
Let him, rejoicing, enter into the school of repentance.
We who have wallowed long in sin,
Let us now begin our return.
If anyone has strayed from the first hour,
Let him today repent with zeal.
If anyone has sinned from the third hour,
Let him with gratitude embrace the fast.
If anyone has fled God from the sixth hour,
Let him have no misgivings about his prompt return;
Because he shall in nowise be turned away therefore.
If anyone has indulged the flesh since the ninth hour,
Let him draw near, fearing God alone and trusting in His mercy.
And if anyone has turned away only at the eleventh hour, Let him also not hesitate to turn back with haste.
For the Lord, who is longsuffering and full of compassion and mercy, will accept the last even as the first.
He restores him who repents at the first hour,
As He does him who turns back at the eleventh.
And He shows mercy upon the last,
And cares for the first;
And to the one He gives,
And upon the other He bestows gifts.
And He both accepts the confession,
And welcomes the intention,
And honors the contrite heart and rejoices in the return.
Wherefore, enter all of you into the holiness of your Lord;
Offer your repentance,
Both the last, and likewise the first.
You rich and poor together, repent, for today we stand outside the closed gates of paradise.
You sober and you heedless, prostrate yourselves before your King!
Return to the Lord today, both you who have sinned with knowledge and those who have done so in ignorance.
Your pantries are full; empty them to the hungry.
The belly enslaves us, let no one be dominated thereby.
Enter all of you into the Great Fast;
Stripped of heavenly wealth by sin, all draw near to God’s rich loving-kindness!
Let no one despair in his sinfulness,
For the Bridegroom comes at midnight.
Weep all of you for your iniquities,
And draw near to the life-giving Cross of our Lord.
Let no one put confidence in the flesh,
For the Devil has deceived us all thereby, and therewith enslaves us to sin.
By turning from God, we are made captives.
We have called good evil and evil good, and put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry:
Woe to those who put darkness for light, and light for darkness!
We are embittered, for we are banned from Eden.
We are embittered, but it is we who have mocked God.
We are embittered, for now we shall surely die.
We are embittered, for we have succumbed to the serpent.
We are embittered, for we are fettered in chains.
We partook of a fruit, and met the deceiver.
We were entrusted with paradise, but we chose Hell.
Our eyes were opened to see the nakedness of sin.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver us!
O Lord, make haste to help us!
This is the acceptable time, let us repent!
This is the day of salvation, let us crucify the passions!
The end is at hand and destruction hangs over us!
The end draws nigh, let us come again to our senses!
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, what first-fruit shall we offer?
Let us delay not, lest we remain dead in the grave, sold under sin!
For God desires not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn from his wickedness and live!
So, let us choose life, and live, for the mercy of God endures forever!
To Him be glory and dominion, unto ages of ages. Amen.”
Caveat Lector 