Lorica

The Lord will surely come, and will not tarry. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will manifest himself to all nations. Why must so much be hidden from us? Truth is often so shrouded in mystery, and buried beneath symbols and types, that we can hardly see it at all. Fr. Patrick takes on the device of parable itself today, and sheds some light on darkness as a vessel for the truth.

The Day of Candlemas. When at long-awaited last the Ancient of Days returns to his Temple in Jerusalem. He who came down to Moses in a Pillar of Wind and Flame again meets face to face with the keeper of the sacred doors.… As Salvation himself is cradled and presented, the First Age looks upon him with peace. At long last his time has run its course; and the darkened eyes of the Old Man find rest in the Light of the New.

“If God is good, why is there evil?” “If God is all-knowing, how has an enemy snuck something by him?” These questions have plagued Christians since the very beginning, and can be not only disheartening, but destructive to our faith if we are not careful. Today Fr. Patrick presents the answer the Lord himself gives in the Scriptures; along with some hope-filled refreshment for the long road of life.

Epiphany IV 2024

Epiphany III 2024

Epiphany II 2024

Feast Of The Nativity 2023

Episode 211 - Vigil Of The Nativity 2023

Gaudete! Hail! Rejoice! This decree and command has been present for all of human history. But how does the Sunday of rejoicing fall in a season before the feast? Shouldn’t we rejoice when the wait is over? What does rejoicing really mean anyway?

Christ is King, he reigns in our age. Why are we still so restless? How long must things go on this way? And what compass will guide us through the age before the end?

We have an enemy, and he has weapons. The sharpest and most insidious of which may also be the most widely accepted and ignored in our modern day. Where is the barb that awaits us today? Into what net does he most desire us to fall? Let us be watchful as we enter this advent season.

The XXV and final Sunday of Pentecost leads us into Advent, and the preparation for Christmas. Why as we prepare to meet Our Lord are we met with apocalypse, and a warning about his dread second coming? His appearance in the manger begins the end of all ages, it is the call to stock our oil and trim our wicks. Prepare the way O Zion, your Lord is drawing near.

Brethren, be sober and vigilant. Your enemy prowls like a lion hoping to devour you. Cast not your pearls before swine. We are given admonishment and warning time and again in the Gospels. But what ought we watch for? And what must we do with this pearl of great price? A great task lies ahead of us, let us rise to meet it in the Name of the Lord.

Why bother with the Saints? Is Christ not enough? Why ask for help from anyone else? And why does St. Paul tell us to imitate himself instead?

We are not our own. We are not self-generating, self-preserving, self-directed, self-answering, not indepedent beings free from debt and obligation. Yes, we have to get along in this world. So, you know, keep your scruples, but be practical about it. Don't give in to scrupulosity, don't become an ideologue. Have some convictions. But what's really important, and what really matters, is what you owe God.

The proclamation "Jesus Is Lord" not only declares Jesus of Nazareth, Mary's boy, to be eternal God, it also declares him as the fulfillment of all divinely inspired images of King and Ruler in the history of mankind going back to Adam himself.

Imagine a graph which tracks your spiritual life. There is a beginning down here, and an end, a goal up here. We imagine that the line should go straight up to the goal. That is what we want it to do, what we think it should do. But that is not what happens, ever. That is not how it works.

In [the parable of the wedding feast] there are four types of guests. Those who didn't care, and ignored the invitation. Those who cared but manifested in hatred and murder. Those from the streets, the good and the bad, who came and received, gratuitously, the robe of righteousness. And then finally, he who came, but did not put on his garment. When we read a parable like this, obviously, we want to ask a question: who are we, in this parable?

It's very helpful to have one calling. It makes things simple. Life seems so complex sometimes. There's so many choices, so many things tugging at us in so many directions. It's easy to get confused. We end up turning ourselves in circles, trying to decide which way to go, what to focus on. It actually creates an existential crisis, a paralysis, and certainly contributes to our anxiety, which seems to be an epidemic in our day and age.

When Jesus says "Weep not", He means trust me, do not give in to despair, do not lose hope, for I am the Resurrection and the life, and I promise to make all things new, even if for a while there will be suffering.

What we're after is security and happiness. That's what we all want, what we all desire. But in our current condition, we feel this deep insecurity, and everything we do is trying to alleviate this. God made us hungry, that we might hunger for Him. We are vulnerable beings, and God made us vulnerable that we might rely on him.

Often when one reads a passage in the Bible, the first question we ask is "what is the moral lesson here, how does this passage instruct me to live?" There is nothing wrong with asking those questions, but they are not the first, nor most important questions we should ask when seeking to understand a scriptural passage. The first and most important question is always theological. What is the Christological significance of this passage? How does this passage reveal Jesus Christ and his saving work? Our parable today of the Good Samaritan is one of the best examples to illustrate what I mean because, while it has an obvious moral message, it has an even more profound Christological revelation.

Christ came for the sick, not for the healthy. For sinners, not for the righteous. The only way we are going to experience the power of God in our lives is by seeking his mercy. And the only way we can actually, truly, deeply seek his mercy is to truly recognize our need for it.

This is what St. Peter is saying in his second epistle, which was our first reading today, where he speaks of his personal experience when he witnessed Christ's Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. As he writes St. Peter is preparing for his imminent death by crucifixion, when he will put off his tent (you remember he wanted to set up tents on the Mountain). As he prepares for his death, he recalls this event in order to remind the Faithful what they are destined for, what God has promised them- if, and there is an if. If they do certain things.

Episode 211 - Christmas Eve 2023

In your baptism something truly miraculous and powerful took place in your person, something wrought by the Holy Spirit which changed you indelibly. The old sinful man died, and it is completely unnatural for you to continue to behave like you are still that old man. Unnatural but possible. What happened does not function like gravity, it does not impersonally override our will and cooperation, this powerful gift must be embraced daily.

True religion is to offer the sacrifice of worship, to fast, pray, give tithes, care for the needy, abstain for sexual impurity, to conform to the family rules in mutual submission and to do it all with the right interior disposition, with true faith, humility, and love. If you do all the stuff without the right interior disposition, you have false religion. If you try to have the right interior disposition without obedience, you have no religion, and end up with the subjective god of self.

John was the greatest born of Woman, the greatest born of Eve who had become barren and cast into the wilderness because of her sin. After a long line of Adams toiling in the wilderness and the pain of childbirth- in the fullness of time, at the watershed of history, the last and greatest descendent of the old Adam was conceived of a barren woman and lived in the desert. And this man John also happened to be the cousin of the New Man Jesus Christ. These two meet today.

We so often read the gospels as moral admonitions. Which is fine, and good, but that is secondary. The gospels are about God, about Jesus Christ, revealing Him to us so that we can know and love Him as He is. The Scriptures are Christological, they reveal Jesus Christ. Take the Good Samaritan for example, people read that parable as a moral tale of how we should behave, but it is first and foremost a parable about what God has done in Christ to redeem us.

Receiving Christ in the Divine Sacrament is not the only thing we do in this life. We work, we eat other food, we marry and raise children, we enjoy creation, and rest, we buy and sell and go about our business from day to day. But in all these things we do, we are still seeking Christ, to be close to Him, to please Him, to Know Him in our core.

We have holy things among us, holy things to venerate and through which we receive grace and taste the goodness of God. But nothing compares to the very body of God which we receive in the Divine Sacrament. Not the sacred waters of the blessed font, not the sacred chrism, not the holy relics of the saints, not Icons which we venerate, nor the living icons- the saints themselves- Nothing He has given us that we can handle compares with His very body and blood, which is truly divine and worthy of our adoration.

This Orthodox Christian life is not simply about getting all the t's crossed and i's dotted- as important as that is- getting the Faith right is important so that we can authentically know God in the Spirit, and that knowledge, which is intimate and personal results in us becoming faithful and holy.

We must reignite our commitment to the mission. Even in times of persecution we are not to simply hunker down and survive- we are called to bear fruit, to multiply our talents. It is time to put the hand to the plow and not look back, time to do the work of the kingdom. There are souls to save, nations to conquer, cultures to build, there is work to be done.

Someone once said I do not do the things I want to do and I do the things I do not want to do, and this makes me very unhappy- Well, stop! Start doing the things you want and stop doing the things you don't want to do, and be happy. Be obedient to the command of the Lord and declare the praises of His wonder and be joyful.

Jesus tells tells his disciples a short little parable. He says in verse 21, "the woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come, but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has come into the world." This is not a simple, random illustration or some generic narrative about what women experience in childbirth and how that might be comparable to what the disciples are about to go through. That is not what this parable means. This parable is a very particular reference to a very particular Woman, and Human Being which she bore.

The Shepherd nurtures and feeds. The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. Isaiah tells us that God will feed His flock like a shepherd and Jesus says in today's Gospel that "if anyone enters through him they will come in and go out and find pasture... I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly". The shepherd feeds his sheep, not with rations of gruel, but abundantly.

"The Lord is King and hath put on glorious apparel, He hath put on his apparel and girded Himself with strength." Our Lord has transformed the Cross, this ugly, brutal instrument of torture, into something so beautiful and victorious. And then we begin to say the psalms, and something wonderful happens: the same psalms we chant so many times, year after year, are, all of a sudden, completely new. They come alive and are filled with the power and grace, in the wake of suffering and death, and hell, these prayers are all of a sudden infused with such glory and joy and victory.

Jesus was baptized Himself by John in Jordan- that was water without blood, but today when He is glorified in His ultimate act of love, the water comes forth with the blood, and we receive the Spirit in the water and the blood. We do not see Him in the flesh like He once was among us, but still just as John has promised we look upon Him who was pierced for our transgression, we look upon Him in the water and the blood, in baptism through which we are washed and receive the Spirit, and through the Eucharist in which we receive His life giving blood and divine immortality.

We call today Maundy Thursday which comes from the Latin "mandatum", meaning "command", and this is a reference of Christ's words to his disciples on this night "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another". Well that fits nquite nicely with the symbolic act of washing feet, we are to love one another by serving one another in humility. But what he said was "I give you a new commandment, to love one another, just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples - if you have this kind of love for one another." To put it bluntly, Jesus did not love his disciples by washing some dirt off their feet, He loved them by dying for them.

This is what has been going on since sunday, when He rode into Jerusalem to draw demons out of their lair, that they might kill him. As I said last night, all Hell has been unleashed- this is in fact what he says to the mob who came to arrest him- "This is your hour, and that of the power of darkness." He tells us what is going on so that his plan of redemption can be fulfilled.

The Fathers agree that the primary sin of Satan, the sin which caused him to rebel against God and fall from heaven, and the sin that he introduced into the heart of man through his cunning, was the sin of envy. Lucifer was envious of what God had planned for man. He was envious that man had been made in God's image and when he was perfected, man would surpass the angels in glory. Instead of rejoicing in God's goodness, Lucifer was eaten up with murderous envy- He didn't just want what man was promised, he wanted to destroy man and keep him from ever attaining it.

In Leviticus Chapter 23, Moses lays down a law, for a great celebration of joy. The Israelites were commanded, in the sternest possible language, to express their thanksgiving and joy to God with a great celebration. They're actually warned that, if they fail to do this, if they fail to be happy and celebrate, that they will be cut off from Israel. Very interesting, to think that we need to be commanded to be happy and have a party. How many times have you told your kids, "stop sulking around and put a smile on your face"? In this feast of feasts, God tells us the same thing, precisely what he's telling us on this day: Rejoice, and again I say rejoice! The joy of our Lord is our strength.

As we continue to Golgotha may we be sober and circumspect. We are further aided today by the disturbing veiling of our friends and the light of Christ. The Jews tried to stone Him and He hid Himself. Our Lord Jesus, do not hide yourself from us, make yourself known! We want to be closer to God, but something unexpected happens when he takes a step toward us: we often step back away from him. This is just what happens when God shows up at the door of your heart, but if you let Him have his way, your whole house will be illumined and filled with Joy.

All other provisions in this like are secondary to the provision of the Body and Blood of Christ, which is our healing and salvation. We enjoy them, we are thankful when they are given but our very life does not depend on them like it does on the Holy Sacrifice, which will never fail, and never be taken away.

In this combat remember who you are with, you are with the stronger man- Jesus. If you are not with him, then, as he warns- you are against him, and He tells us how to recognize what side you are on: The one with him gathers, the one against him scatters. To be with Jesus, to be holy and good is to gather. It is to reconcile, to make peace, to forgive, to sympathize and understand, to come along side and defend, to remain loyal, to work through conflict with humble sincerity. It is to be loyal to those you are in the fox hole with, not to turn on them and bite and devour- we are on the same side, we have a common enemy, and it is not one another.

Don't be confused by the fact that only three of the disciples were there on the Holy Mount at the Transfiguration. We were not at his Nativity, nor did we witness his miracles or hear his teachings, we did not see Him die or the empty tomb and glorious body, we did not put our hand in the scars or have him breath on us the Holy Spirit. And yet all of these things are ours, as much as those who were there are the time. We have received them by the word of their testimony and through faith, and they are every bit as real to us as they were to them, because we have the Holy Spirit.

This is the power of God's love, that he can through our repentance even make use of our own failures to bring about our salvation and perfection. God's love and power are absolutely triumphant over every evil, He uses the Devil and He even uses our own sin for our salvation. But we have to go willingly, we have to follow the Spirit like Jesus into this wilderness and participate in the great reversal of Adam's disobedience and enslavement to the flesh, by fasting, by renunciation, by dying to self.

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between God’s loving discipline unto redemption and God’s wrath unto destruction- difficult, except for faith and trust in the love of our heavenly Father who sent His son to die that we might be made holy. And this the constant theme in all the prayers we pray tonight, an expression of confidence in God’s mercy, while we are crying out lamenting our woeful condition.

Are you ready to go with Him? We set out this Wednesday, as a family we go up together so that we can walk with him to Golgotha as he bears our sin, so that we can stand at the foot of the cross with our Mother and adore the Savior's sacrifice, so that we can meet him with Mary Magdalene at the tomb as he comes out in glorious victory.

Now the takeaway from this parable is simple. There is one good heart and three defective hearts. What makes the three defective hearts defective is not three complex problems but in the final analysis, essentially just one problem. And the good heart is described as possessing the one thing the defective hearts lack. As I said the takeaway is pretty simple, there is one thing we must avoid and if we are to be good there is one thing we must attain. The defection in each case is to lack perseverance and faithfulness and the essence of the good heart is in Jesus words to cling to the word with steadfast endurance. That word cling is katecho means to hold fast with tenacity, to bind it to oneself and possess it.