Tag: orthodox

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Offering the Bread of Life

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

The Jews came to the Lord and said, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

“       Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

         “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

         Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

         At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

         “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

         Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

         Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

         On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

         Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

         From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

         “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

         Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

         Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve?”

(John 6:27–70)

In the Gospel of John, this story comes immediately after the stories of the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on the water. The crowd speaking to Jesus saw the feeding of the five thousand. They did not see him walk on the water, but they were puzzled that he could be on the other side of the lake without a boat. They come to investigate. Jesus tells them, “You are only interested in me because I do practical things for you.”

Jesus knew that he was “suspected” of being the Messiah. They wondered if they should make him a king after he fed the people. His reply to them was “You’re only interested in food,” but it was actually a roundabout way of saying, “You want me to create a new nation. You want me to resolve conflicts and bring peace and the rule of law and prosperity to our people. You want me to rescue the nation. You want me to be the messiah as you have imagined him.

I, however, want to give you something else – something from God. I do want to rescue you, but not in the way you imagine it.”

So they ask, “What should our vision be then? What kind of new nation are you going to create? How does it work?”

Jesus says, “Following me and trusting me is the new law and the new way of living. You must see me as your only hope. Then, you will be part of my new nation – the people of God. Being one with me is the solution to all your problems.”

They ask Jesus for a sign. We could express their question like this: “Can you prove that you truly are the one who is going to save our nation? Is there some kind of divine proof, like when God rescues the Israelites out of Egypt?” Incidentally the feeding of the five thousand happened right around the time of the Passover, according to John. All the miracles, plagues, parting of the Red Sea etc., these were called “signs” in the Old Testament. After the Passover, the people ask Jesus for a “sign.”  

Jesus had just multiplied the loaves and fish and fed the five thousand! And they want him to convince them now by another miracle. Jesus says, “You have to make up your mind. At some point, it becomes evident that you don’t want to understand.”

The people talking to Jesus did not want to understand that the only possible explanation for Jesus’ miracles was that he truly was the Son of God. No one else could have done what he did. But if these people recognized his divinity, they would have to allow him to teach them and reshape their expectations.

When do we not want to understand? We love the stories of the lives of the saints. We don’t love the lifestyle of obedience, faithfulness, and prayer that those saints lived. Do we want to understand that the former is dependent on the latter? We pretend that faith is a matter of dogmatic statements and incense.

We pretend that we can separate theology from our mundane calling to make our spouses feel loved even when they are not acting like someone who deserves to be loved. When someone has hurt our pride and doesn’t give us the recognition we think we deserve, where is our unshakable belief in Christ’s way at that moment? We don’t want to understand that serving and forgiving others is the greatest miracle possible. We want “the divine” brought to us on a platter at a convenient time.

What the people in the gospel story needed was to go from being the people for whom miracles are done, to being the people who follow their God into the desert. At the first Passover, God invited his people to a meal in which they would eat the Passover lamb. They would paint the blood of that lamb on the doorposts of their houses, and wait for their God to deliver them.

Now, Jesus offers the same invitation, even though few of them would have the patience to accept it. In his Passover, the new Passover, the true Pascha, Jesus offers his flesh and blood. We offer our lives together with his. That is the great miracle, the sign that saves the world.

That meal is the place where the people for whom God has done wonders (previously the plagues in Egypt, at this time the healing of the blind and the casting out of demons), become the people who follow God and learn his commandments. Previously the people followed Moses into the desert on their way to the promised land. Jesus invites us to follow him on the road to the cross.

We know about this story, but we are often forgetful. What can we do to rediscover a sense of wonder at this calling? How can we see the difficult road to the cross as a miraculous sign of God’s strength? Can we be dumbfounded at the miracle that God has called us to drive the speed limit? God called me to do the dishes: Oh great wonder! How can we see this narrow path as miraculous, to the point where it pushes all ambivalence away?

The crowd that listened to Jesus expected their Messiah to recreate the ancient nation of Israel. Jesus says, “I am not going to call you into a geographical area to be a nation in the usual sense. I will perform a miraculous intervention in your life, but it will not be what you expect.

I am going to call you to be one with me. That is how you will be the invincible and blessed people of God.”

Jesus says, “How does God save his people? He sends me. I am what God is giving you. I am the bread of life. You can live and prosper if you have me.”

And he goes even further. “You must eat my body and drink my blood!”

Consider for a moment that Jesus teaches about the Eucharist to people who refuse to acknowledge the power of his miracles. God not only teaches us about the holy Mystery of the Eucharist, he also invites us to receive his holy body and blood – even though we do not always acknowledge his divinity with our actions, attitudes and words. Jesus offered his teaching and his miracles to people who were ambivalent about him at best. He allows himself to be received into the house of a sinner. In our case, he accepts being received into the house of our bodies though we are full of sin and faithlessness. This is his extreme humility and self-emptying. And the self-emptying is the proof of his Divinity. His love and patience is his awesome power! That is the sign that Jesus promises his people.

What kind of miracle happens in the Eucharist?  Someone baked the bread we use in communion. You gave tithes to buy the wine and to pay for this building. Someone built the iconostasis. The choir showed up to sing. You showed up to pray. These are all divine miracles. The power of God to make humans holy is a miracle. Jesus describes the miracles with these words (go back and read the passage slowly): Come to me. Believe. “Look to me,” which means we rely on him. Be drawn (up) by the Father. We are taught and hear the Father. We eat!

The miracle is that God is working inside of you so that you may offer the sacrifice of the Eucharist. You and I offer these things to God. God sends down His holy spirit upon us and upon the gifts spread forth. The miracle is not only in the presence of Christ in the bread and wine, the healing is not only in your receiving it. The fact that you offer it is also a miracle. When you obey your calling to offer it, that is also healing for you. The miracle is both Jesus’ sacrifice that we partake of, and also your sacrifice. That is what happens when we receive the body and blood of Christ.

This is eternal life. This is theosis. Eternal life is offering your work, time and worship. Eternal life is a clean heart that Christ has created in you. Eternal life is coming back time and time again to that which is your only hope, receiving something that you cannot receive anywhere else: oneness with God and the presence of God within you.

Eternal life is saying “Where else can we go?” Jesus gives us moments of crisis in our life where we have to choose. We need moments when it’s do or die; moments that put you up against the wall and say, “make up your mind.”

Jesus’ teaching about the Eucharist at that moment, in that place, to those people, was just such a “make up your mind” moment. Most of the people left. But the ones who stayed came to the realization – you might say they received the revelation – that they had nowhere else to go!

You are in dire need of a crisis. You need to be put in a position of being forced to choose. You need to find out that Jesus really is your only hope. Whatever challenges God sends you, and whatever makes you suddenly “find religion,” this is for your salvation. That helps you not to be of two minds.

Then you have an easier time believing that the hard work God is calling you to is the only hope you have. Giving is the only hope you have. Faithfulness is the only hope you have. These are the words of eternal life that Jesus gave his disciples. This is what no one beside Jesus can offer us.

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Fall Retreat at St. Vincent’s, 2024

Fall Retreat 2024 at St. Vincent's, Saskatoon with Mother Melania. "Be Who You Are in the Body of Christ

November 22-23

Be Who You Are in the Body of Christ

Mother Melania, Abbess of Holy Assumption Monastery, California

Sessions

  • Friday 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
  • Saturday 9:30 am – 3:30 pm lunch provided
  • Saturday Youth Time 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Please RSVP for lunch by contacting Sarah S.

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Orthodox Christian life is liturgy.

An Orthodox Christian is responsible for saving the world. We do this by joining our lives to the life of the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ. We are part of the body of Christ who is always saving the world.

In order to save the world, Orthodox Christians provide their community with life-giving worship. We provide a holy space, liturgical services and a community life. We keep a flame burning at the end of the candle.

We hire a priest. We bear the expenses of owning the building. We offer our time and our work. We cultivate the life of Jesus in our hearts and homes through prayer, fasting, giving and learning. All of this brings about worship here in our city. That will save the world. We listen to the words of St. Saraphim of Sarov (a Russian monk who lived in the 1800’s) who said, “acquire the spirit of peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.”

We call our worship and our work liturgy. The word liturgy is Greek, and means the “work of the people” or the “work on behalf of the people.” In ancient Greece, a leading citizen of a city who was the head of a large family would be called upon to fund a new public amenity. This was a “liturgy.” Or perhaps he was obligated to pay for one week’s cycle of sacrifices to the gods on behalf of the city in order to ensure the gods’ protection. That was also a “liturgy.” It was his duty as a citizen of means to provide that which benefited the whole city.

We, of course, believe in one God. Our God who saves us in order to enable us to become worshippers in spirit and in truth. Our God invites us to his Liturgy. When Jesus died, he was offering his life and his death as a liturgy. When Orthodox Christians meet together to pray to our God, we are adding our lives to the Divine Liturgy.

Today, when we use the word liturgy, we are usually talking about the Sunday service that culminates in communion. Technically, funerals and weddings are also liturgies, but normally we mean the eucharist. We offer bread and wine as a sacrifice to God along with all the work we do to make the liturgy happen. In return, Jesus gives us that which he sacrificed: his body and blood. Every time we add our offerings to the timeless offering of Christ, this benefits everyone in the whole world, especially the people who receive the communion directly.

In Liturgy we offer God:

Our minds
When we encounter each new situation in life, we encounter it with our minds. So our minds must be healed from the corruption of sin. By praying the words of the Church we start to think like the Church. By reading the Bible we start to think like the Bible. We start to think like Jesus. We act more like Jesus. We live like Jesus and we die like Jesus. By reading the lives of the saints, we start to have the attitude of the saints. A life of prayer and worship moulds our minds and makes us holy, so that our actions in every new situation may be holy.

Our time
We attend church as often as possible. Church is the gas station where we fill up our tank. You do not know when you may be called upon, as a fellow sojourner in the next seat. Perhaps you will be the one whose kindness and listening are needed. Perhaps you have the words that need to be spoken in that moment. You might make all the difference just by being there and being available. But you are not available if you are not there.

Our money
No one pays the church’s bills except us the members. Giving to God is an act of great faith, and it helps the giver to become bold in prayer.

Our conscience
We offer our conscience to God. We ask for forgiveness constantly. We confess our sins (to a priest) as often as possible. We find hope in learning more about our own shortcomings because then we can cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit which heals us and changes our attitudes and our habits. As a result, we cause others less pain and sorrow.

Our hearts
By investing our energy in prayer, confession, worship and work, we grow to be emotionally invested in the Kingdom of God. We begin to long for other people to find the same hope. We feel this longing deeply. We become like family with the other people in the church. In the Divine Liturgy, the priest says, “let us lift up our hearts.” And we answer, “we lift them up unto the Lord.”

The one who loves is taking a great risk. We take the risk of being grieved when those we love are hurt. That is the cost of loving in a corrupted world. Jesus paid the cost of his infinite love for us who are dying, by entering the grave with us. He calls us to the same work. We weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).

We offer our heart’s hope. The more we come to church, the more we find that we have become dependent the Divine Liturgy for our peace of mind and wellbeing. We deliberately foster a dependence on God. God becomes our only hope. And many of the things we used to hope in are of no use to us now. We are no longer trying to love two masters (Matthew 6:25), but love the one master who said, “abide in me.” (John 15:4)

Orthodox Christian life is a gift of love which we give to God. We pray, “thine own of thine own we offer unto thee in behalf of all and for all.” We do this not because God needs it from us, but because this is the only way truly to be alive. Life that is truly human, fulfilling, healthy and joyful is the life of a person who offers this sacrifice to God together with the rest of the church.

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Easy Forgiveness

“Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus ), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.

Then he said to him, “Follow me!” (John 21:1–25)

Who are the sheep? Jesus says this figuratively to mean us. We are a group of people who need a leader like a flock of sheep have a shepherd. The word bishop means overseer, the one who watches over sheep. Pastor simply means shepherd. This image was used in Ancient Israel to refer to the relationship between a king and his subjects. Jesus is calling Peter to lead the Christian community.

What is this leadership that Jesus is calling Peter to? Is Peter the leader we need? And when we discuss Peter, we must remember that he was the leader of the apostles. What we say of him as a leader we are also saying of all the apostles.

What kind of person was it that Jesus was calling to leadership? Peter is the man who walked on the water, but began to sink because of his lack of faith. Peter is the man who swore he would die with Jesus. But when Jesus was about to die, Peter ran away and swore an oath that he did not know Jesus. Peter swore that he wanted nothing to do with Jesus. Three times. All the apostles except for one abandoned Jesus. These are the ones who will feed Jesus’ sheep!

When we sin, we harm ourselves and we harm others. When we sin it is easier and easier to do it again. When we sin, we lose our boldness in prayer. We lose sight of our high calling. We lose faith in the hope of growing into the stature of Christ; the noble and honourable stature of a child of God. We stop believing that is possible when we sin because sin is the opposite of that nobility.

When we have been weakened by this sin, any suffering or hardship or disappointment we endure will be perceived as a much heavier and oppressive torment than it really is. When our feelings are hurt, we are more likely to despair and think of a relationship as broken beyond repair. When we failures in our work or have setbacks in life, we are more likely to despair and see ourselves as irredeemable. We think, “I am the problem.” This is what happens when we are weakened by sin

And our despondency is contagious! We resent those who have the hope that shows itself in innocence, in obedience, the hope that manifests itself as guilelessness. We see such people as childish. We begin to resent those who have the hope that we so desperately wish we had. Sin makes us bitter. Bitterness makes us cold-hearted. Cold-heartedness kills our relationships and that makes us lonely and isolated.

The Christian life is like a marathon. It is hard enough to run a marathon, but when we sin it is like putting on a heavy backpack while we are running. It is like putting a sharp pebble in our shoe. How much harder is it then not to quit?

What if we had someone who could show us how to not end up with that extra burden? When we have failed, and hurt others, and humiliated ourselves, and shown how selfish and arrogant we are, when we have harmed our relationships, what if we had someone who could lead us back? What if we had someone who would give us the strength to withstand despair and despondency? What if there was someone who has done this before?

That is the ministry of a pastor. That is the apostolic ministry of the Church; of the priest and the bishop. That is the ministry of the Holy Fathers, That is the ministry of a confessor. That is the ministry of Christ, as it is practiced by the body of Christ.

When Jesus appointed Peter and the other apostles as shepherds for his flock, he gave them the gift of repentance. Jesus gave Peter the fearsome experience of being confronted with his failures; confronted by the living God, the judge of the universe. St. Isaac the Syrian says, “The suffering that grips the heart as a result from sinning against love is sharper than all other tortures.” The Creator of the world asked Peter, “Do you love me?” three times, to correspond to the three times that Peter denied him. Peter was invited to do the opposite of what he had done wrong. He failed to confess his love for Jesus when Jesus was about to die, now Peter confessed his love three times. Peter swore he would die with Jesus but ran away, Jesus promised to give Peter a new opportunity to share in his death.

Notice that Jesus did not say to Peter, “Ok, now that you have confessed me three times: now I forgive you.” Jesus had already forgiven Peter. Jesus did not have this conversation with Peter because it was necessary before forgiveness. Forgiveness is not the whole story of our salvation. Forgiveness is the beginning of salvation, not the end. Anyone who wants to make forgiveness the only thing that happens in the story of salvation is robbing us of our shepherd.

There are two things in the Orthodox Church does that I have never seen anywhere else. One is that we speak so much about remission of sins. We are always talking about how we are sinners. We say, “Have mercy on me the sinner” every day. We are constantly talking about repentance. I have never been anywhere that does that as much as we do.

The other thing we do that no one does quite as much is to offer detailed guidance about askesis: fasting, obedience, confession, prostrations. No one seems to have as many services as we do, especially during lent. Hours and hours of long services.

And I have never seen as many services in any other church that focus so much on calling out for help: “Help us, Jesus, to stop sinning. Save us, O Theotokos, for we are sinners. Because salvation is not reduced to forgiveness, it makes all the sense in the world to ask the Theotokos to save us by her prayers. “Help us, O blessed Theotokos, we are lost; we are perishing in our passions and in our sins. I do not know any other church that does that to the same extent. Is that because we think it is really hard to be forgiven? Do we do all that extra work because while other people think forgiveness is difficult, we think it is not only difficult but almost impossible? Is that Orthodoxy? Do we need to convince Jesus?

On the contrary, we do not teach the heresy of the angry God who must be placated. Our understanding is that forgiveness is easy. St. Isaac the Syrian says, “Just as a grain of sand will not balance in the scales against a great weight of gold, such too is the case with God’s justice when it is weighed against His compassion. When compared with God’s mind, the sins of all flesh are like a handful of sand thrown in the sea.”

Saint Isaac the Syrian says that if all that God needed to do was to forgive us, then Jesus did not need to die on the cross. He says, “The entire purpose of our Lord’s death was not to redeem us from sins, or for any other reason, but solely in order that the world might become aware of the love which God has for creation. Had all this astounding affair taken place solely for the purpose of the forgiveness of sin, it would have been sufficient to redeem us by some other means.”

Forgiving us is easy. Jesus died on the cross in order to show us how to leave the way of sin and become holy. He died on the cross so that when he fills us with his Holy Spirit there is a content to the life that the Holy Spirit leads us towards. He died on the cross so that if we die with him, we will trample down death as he did.

All of the apostolic Church’s pastoral guidance is a comfort to us because we need a guide to show us where to go. It is the light yoke, the nobility and dignity of Christ which is given to us. Being led on the right path is the continuation into the fullness of salvation. Calling ourselves sinners is not oppressive when we know that we have a trustworthy guide Our mothers and our fathers in Christ have all been through this same journey of repentance and ascetical struggle. The extreme focus on repentance is the antidote to despondency! Despondency is not from knowing that you are a sinner but from not facing it, not having anything to run to, being left on your own.

The apostolic ministry of the Church gives us the opportunity to be guided and taught. It gives us the opportunity to do the opposite of the sins that are weighing us down: rebellion, militant ignorance, rejection of communion with God. The Church offers us the nativity fast. The chance to do the opposite of our thoughtlessness, to do the opposite of our selfishness. The Church offers us repentance as a way back to the nobility that God created us for. It is best for each person to go to confession once during Advent. The Church is the community of sinners who have found a way to follow Jesus again, and have returned to the true path. Will we accept that opportunity?