Archive for the ‘Holy Pascha Week’ Category
"Sit here while I pray"
His disciples were clinging to Him inseparably. So He said to His disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." (Matt 26:36) For it was usually with Him to pray apart from them. He did this to teach us how to pray, how to use silence and solitude to pray for great matters. And taking with Him the three, He said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with Me." (Matt 26:38) Why does He not take all of them with Him? that they might not be more sorrowful. He took only thode who had been spectators of His glory.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:01:02.
What is the wedding garment? (Matt 22:1-14)
Put off, I beg you, fornication and uncleanness, and put on the brightest robe of chastity. This charge I give you, before Jesus the Bridegroom of souls, come in and see their fashions. You have been allowed a long notice; you have forty days for repentance. You have had a full opportunity to both put off and wash; and to put on and enter. But if you persist in an evil purpose, the speaker is blameless. But you must not look for the grace; for the water will receive, but the Spirit will not accept you. If any one is conscious of His wound, let him take the salve; if any has fallen, let him arise. Let there be no Simon among you, no hypocrisy, no idle curiosity about the matter.
Originally posted 2006-04-18 19:44:12.
How should you hate your life?
“Let him follow Me” means this: Let him walk in my ways, and not in his own; as it written elsewhere, “He that said he abides in Christ, should himself also walk just as He walked.” For he should, if supplying food to the hungry, to do it in the way of mercy and not of boasting, seeking nothing else but the doing of good. In other words, all of that kind of self seeking should be completely separated from a work of charity. He that serves in this way serves Christ, and will have it rightly said to him, “Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of those who are My, you did it to me.” And thus doing not only those acts of mercy that pertain to the body but every good workm for the sake of Christ (for then will all be good, because “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes”), he is Christ’s servant even to that work of special love, which is to lay down his life for the brethren, for that were to lay it down also for Christ. For this also will He say hereafter in behalf of His members: Inasmuch as you did it for these, you have done it for me.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 20:02:24.
Wisdom and instruction
Wisdom is the science of things both human and divine, and of their causes. He, therefore, who is an effective theologian knows wisdom.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 20:04:17.
Why does Christ tell the apostles about His passion in advance?
Whenever the Lord speaks of future disaster, He always teaches its close relation with the joy of redemption, so that when disasters suddenly come they do not terrify the apostles, but may be borne by hearts that have meditated on them beforehand. If it saddens them because He is going to be killed, it should make them rejoice that it says, ?On the third day He shall rise again.? For their distress- in fact their great distress-does not come from lack of faith. They knew that Peter had been rebuked for not considering what belonged to God but what belonged to men. But their love of their Master did not let them hear anything threatening or humiliating.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 20:02:53.
Wars and Rumors of Wars (Matt 24:6)
He is speaking of wars in Jerusalem…for there are many wars and calamities in the world at large, which have always been and will always be. For before this, were wars, and tumults, and fights. But, He speaks of the Jewish wars coming upon them at no great distance, for henceforth the Roman arms were a matter of anxiety. Since then these things also were sufficient to confound them, He fortells them all.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:48:19.
Isaac’s obedience (Genesis 22:1-19)
Isaac himself carries the wood for His own holocaust: this is a figure of Christ. For He bore the burden of the Cross; yet to carry the wood for the holocaust is really the duty of the priest. He is then both victim and priest.
Originally posted 2006-04-19 22:21:17.
The Kiss
And the traitor says to Jesus, “Master.” Indeed, all heretics, like Judas, address Jesus in the same way, “Master.” They kiss Him even as Judas did. Jesus speaks peacefully to them all, since they are all Judases who betray Him: “Judas, is it with a kiss that you betray the Son of Man?” As for Judas, he is approached by Christ for his false friendship. “Friend, why are you here?” We hear of no one who is good called by that name in the Scriptures. Moreover, to the wicked and the one not weaing a garment he says, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment.” (Matt 22:12) Wicked too is that man in the parable of the denarius who hears the words, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I chose to give to this last as I give to you.” (Matt 20:13-14)
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:15:51.
What is the difference between being "snatched out of the Father's hand" and out of Christ's hand? (John 10:29-38)
Do the Father and the Son have one hand, or is the Son Himself, shall we say, the hand of His Father?…the Father's hand is the Son Himself, which is not to be so understood as if God had the himan form, and as it were, bodily members: but that all things were made by Him.
For men also are in the habit of calling other men their hands, by whom they get done what they wish. And sometimes also the very work done by a man's handis called his hand; as one is said to recognize his hand when he recognizes what he has written. Since, then, there are many ways of speaking of the hand of a man, who literally has a hand among the members of his body; how much rather must there be more than one way of understanding it, when we read of the hand of God, who has no bodily form? And in this way it is better here, by the hand of the Father and the Son, to understand the power of the Father and the Son; lest, in taking here the hand of the Father as spoken of the Son, some carnal thought also about the Son Himself should set us looking for the Son as somehow to be similarly regarded as the hand of Christ. Therefore, "no one plucks them out of my Father's hand;" that is, no one plucks them from Me…
Originally posted 2006-04-19 21:56:31.
What is the hen and how does it relate?
I came as a hen to protect them, but they received Me in hatred and betrayel, I came as a mother, and they assumed I came to kill them, so they killed Me.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:28:30.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Actually, we are the Jerusalem that Jesus wept over. After we came to know the mysteries of Truth, the words of the Gospel, and the teachings of the Church; and after we have seen the mysteries of the Lord, we still commit sins! The Lord wept over Jerusalem due to its sin, for the enemies besiege it, and ruin its buildings in it, and they leave no stone one on top of the other….
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:38:39.
"One of you will betray me"
Did Judas also fall from the apostolic order in which he too, being once in a condition similar to the other disciples, was exalted?
This is how I understand the statement, "Behold Adam has become of us," (Gen. 3:22), since it is said there, neither "as we," nor "as I," but because of the one who had fallen from blessedness,"as one of us." [And the phrase],"as on" seems to me to agree also with the statement, "But you indeed die as men, and fall like one of the princes." (Ps. 81:7)
For of the many who are princes, one has fallen, with whom sinners fall in close imitation of his fall. For just as that one who partook of deity has fallen, so too have those to whom the Word says, "I have said, you are gods and all sons of the Most High," (Ps. 81:6) fallen from blessedness and, although they were not originally men, they die as men, and fall as one of the princes.
[audio:Yahooza.mp3]
Originally posted 2006-04-19 23:06:01.
The soul heated like a burning fire will not be quenched until it is consumed; a man who commits fornication with his near of kin will never cease until the fire burns him up. 17 To a fornicator all bread tastes sweet; he will never cease until he dies" (Sirach 23:16-17)
Youthful lust is wild, but requires many governors, teachers, directors, attendants, and tutors. After all these, it is happiness if it is restrained. For as a horse not broken in, or a wild beast untamed, such is youthful lust. But if from the beginning, from the earliest age, we fix it in good rules, much pains will not be required afterwards; for good habits formed will be to them as a law. Let us not suffer them to do anything which is agreeable, but injurious; nor let us indulge them, as forsooth but children. Especially let us train them in chastity, for there is the very bane of youth. For this many struggles, much attention will be necessary. Let us take wives for them early, so that their brides may receive their bodies pure and unpolluted, so their loves will be more ardent. He that is chaste before marriage, much more will he be chaste after itl and he that practiced fornication before, will practice it after marriage. "All bread," it is said. "is sweet to the fornicator." (Sirach 23:17) Garlands are wont to be worn on the heads of bridegrooms, as a symbol of victory, betokening that they approach the marriage bed unconquered by pleasure. But if captivated by pleasure he has given himself up to harlots, why does he wear a garland, since he has been subdued?
Originally posted 2006-04-18 20:18:59.
Why is the door narrow and why is the path so broad?
Whoever enters must have, among everything, an upright and uncorrupted faith. Second, he must have a spotless morality, in which there is no possibility of blame, according to the measure of human righteousness…Nevertheless those who live in a holy manner cannot do so without labor. For constantly, so to speak, the pathway that leads to virtue is rugged and steep, and is difficult for most men to walk on. For labors spring before us and we need strength, patience, and good conduct…[The broad path] means an unrestrained tendancy to carnal lusts; a base and pleasure loving life; luxurious feasts, parties and banquets; and unrestrained inclinations to everything which is condemned by the law and displeasing to God…Those who enter by the narrow gate must withdraw from all these things in order to be with Christ and feast with Him.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:25:11.
Created in His image and likeness
You have printed Your traits on us! You created us in Your image and according Your likeness! You made us Your currency; yet Your coins should not remain in darkness. Send the ray of Your wisdom to scatter our darkness, for Your image to shine in us…Do not think how to return the reward to Him …Reflect back on His image; He does not ask for more…He wants His coin back…Do offer Him something of yours, because when you do this, you would only offer Him sin.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 20:03:31.
