THE PATH OF SALVATION - Introduction

Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus 

Wishing one and all a very blessed and happy Easter (Pascha). I have decided to read some writings of our Holy Fathers and coincidentally my hands came upon a book written by a father from the Russian Orthodox Church - St. Theophan the Recluse. This series of my blogs will be from one of his books - The Path of Salvation. 

We all understand that our life on earth is a sojourn towards our Heavenly Kingdom and the main task on this way to salvation is to live in the spirit of Christ. But it is very difficult to answer all the questions and so it is very much necessary to explain nearly every step of this way. 

Man's final goal is communion with God, and the way to this goal lies through faith in Christ, together with constantly keeping His commandments with the assistance of God's grace. 

It is very easy for a person to say that "This is the way! Follow it!" But how is one to follow this path? Mostly because people have no desire to move in this direction. Their souls, pulled by one passion or another, stubbornly refuses every gentle invitation and every call. The soul alerts its gaze from God and does not want to look at Him. The law of Christ does not conform to the soul's liking. The soul does not even have disposition even to hear this law. 

Therefore, the questions that will be addressed through these blogs are:

1. How does one reach the point where the desire in born to move towards God by way of Christ?
2. What does one do so that the Law imprints itself, not just a ink on paper, but as the Spirit of the Living God imprints itself on the living flesh of the heart? 
3. How can a man act according to this Law willingly and unconstrainedly, not as though like a burden, but proceeding from his deepest nature? 

If someone has turned towards God, and has come to love His Law, is this enough to ensure the success of the journey? Will the journey be successful merely because we desire it? No.

In addition to the desire, it is necessary to have the strength and the ability to act, that is active wisdom or the practical knowledge of how to act (praxis). Whoever enters this true way of pleasing God, whoever begins with the help of grace to strive towards God in the way of Christ's Law, will inevitably be threatened by the danger of losing his way at the crossroads, of going astray and perishing while under the illusion that he is working out his salvation. These crossroads are unavoidable because of our sinful inclinations and the disorder of our faculties, even in those who have accepted Christ. These sinful inclinations and disordered faculties are capable of presenting things to a man in a false light, and deceiving and destroying the man.

Moreover, there is flattery from Satan, who is reluctant to leave his victims. Whenever a person goes to the light of Christ, he pursues him and sets every manner of trap in order to catch him again. He prowls like a lion waiting for its prey. Hence, the spiritual traveler who already has the desire to follow the way to the Lord must be informed of all the possible deviations, so that he may be warned beforehand, may see the dangers that are to be encountered, and may learn how to avoid them. 

These unavoidable things, which are encountered on the way to salvation and are common for everyone, require special guiding principles that are indispensable for the Christian life. These principles define how to acquire the saving desire for communion with God, the fervent desire to remain in communion with Him, and how to come to God safely through all the crossroads that must be negotiated on the way and at every stage on the way. In other words, how to begin to live the Christian life and how, having begun, to perfect oneself in it. 

These guiding principles must take the man who is separated from God, turn him towards God, and then being him into God's Presence. They must show to the man the practical development of the Christian life in all its manifestations and levels, from its very beginning to the end. That is how the Christian life germinates, develops, and becomes mature. In other words, we must give an account of the unfolding of the active life for every Christian, to show how he must act in every possible case so that he may stand firm in his calling. 

When comparing the gradual growth of plants to that of a Christian, the growth of the plant is easy and unconstrained, while it is not so with a Christian. He rather has a hard struggle with himself, intense and sorrowful, and he must dispose his faculties towards things which they have no natural inclination. Just like a warrior, he must win every inch of land, even his own, from his enemies by means of warfare. He must use the two-edged sword of self-constraint and self-coercion. And finally, after long hours of hard labor and exertions, Christian principles emerge victorious, reducing without oppression. These principles bestow upon man the bliss of those who are pure in heart, so that the man can see God in himself in the most sincere communion with Him. 

Such is the condition in us of the Christian life. It has three stages, which we can describe as follows :

1. Turning to God, which is conversation 
2. Purification or self-amendment, and 
3. Sanctification.

In the first stage, a man turns from darkness to light, from the reign of Satan to God. In the second, he cleanses the dwelling Chamber of his heart from every impurity, in order to receive Christ, the Lord, who is coming to him. In the third, the Lord comes, makes His home in the heart of a man and sups with him. This is the state of blessed communion with God-the goal of all ascetic labors and endeavors. 

To show the way to salvation means that we describe all these things and define the rules which govern this operation. Full guidance in this matter takes a man on the crossroads of sin, leads him through the fiery way of cleansing, and raises him up to the highest pitch of spiritual perfection attainable, to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 

In other words, this guidance must show us:

1. How Christian life begins in us 
2. How it is perfected - that is, how it grows and is strengthened, and 
3. How the Christian life appears in its full perfection.

As we start this journey of writing and reading, I ask you all to keep me and my writing in your prayers. May this series enlighten us and help us to walk on the way to salvation. 

Your brother in Christ

Prepare O Bethlehem - King Herod and the Holy Innocents

Herod was filled with alarm 

When he saw the righteous wisemen. 

Overcome by fury, 

He determined when the child was born 

Mothers were robbed of their infants:

Their tender lives were reaped as a bitter harvest. 

Milk stopped flowing and breasts dried up 

Great was the suffering! 

Therefore assemble in holy fear, O faithful, 

To worship the birth of Christ! 

- Stikhera for Ninth Hour of the Royal Hours of Christmas 

(Byzantine Orthodox Church)

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

The story of King Herod and the death of the holy innocents stands out grimly in the birth narratives of Jesus Christ. While Herod is never seen in crèche scenes and he seldom is represented in Parish tableaus, he is mentioned in the birth narrative. While Herod is not formally commemorated on the Church calendar, we do remember the martyrdom of the holy innocents in Bethlehem on the first Sunday after Christmas. I'm 2015, we remembered them on Dec 27. This post and the coming couple of posts are delayed as I was busy with my secular work and did not get time to write on these topics.

King Herod was King Herod the Great, the father of the Herodian dynasty and the father of Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist and assisted Pontius Pilate in condemning Jesus to death (Luke 9:7, 23:6-7). The Scriptures offer little information about King Herod except that he was the King of the Jews. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Herod was an ambitious politician and a strong leader. He was alive when Julius Caesar was killed, and befriended Mark Anthony. Herod was later summoned to Rome to receive the title "King of the Jews", and he returned to Jerusalem as their King. By the time of the birth of Jesus, the Roman Empire controlled most of the known world around the Mediterranean and was organized into smaller kingdoms. Herod, the King of Judea, was unpopular with many Jews because he was a foreigner and only part Jewish. Although Matthew does not tell us directly, it is likely that any news about a newborn King would not be welcomed by Herod or his followers. The mere mention of a newborn "king" would cause anxiety in most people, and especially to someone as the unpopular Herod.

Herod told the wise men that he too wanted to visit the Christ child (Matthew 2:7-8). Joseph, after being alerted in a dream, took Mary and the infant Jesus and fled to Egypt, where they remained until the angel told them to return to Nazareth.

Herod, in a rage, had all the make children who were two years old or younger killed so that he could kill the baby Jesus.According to Matthew, this fulfills a prophesy in Jeremiah,

"A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more. This says the Lord: 'Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, says the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country'" (Jeremiah 31:15).

Jeremiah speaks of the exile of the northern tribes and uses the example of Rachel weeping for her children who were taken away.

The story of Herod and the Holy innocents is strikingly similar to the beginning of the Exodus story. In Exodus, Pharaoh wanted all the male babies killed because the Israelites were over populating Egypt. Yet, we know that Moses was miraculously saved, ironically, by Pharaoh's daughter (Exodus 2:1-6).

Moses survived this ordeal, and he later became the leader in the house of Pharaoh. He eventually led the people on their exodus journey, and died just before they entered the promised land (Deuteronomy 34).

Herod went after the baby Jesus as soon as he heard from the Magi that they saw a star in the East. The Magi refer to Jesus as a king, a title which is used again and again throughout the New Testament. In the beginning of the Gospel of John, Nathaniel says of Jesus, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" (John 1:49). Later in the same Gospel, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, refers to Jesus as King, although in order to mock Him (John 18:33-38).

Throughout the Scriptures, other people affirm that Jesus is a king, but Jesus never referred to Himself as a king. In His passion narrative, Luke tells us that some from the crowd told Pilate that Jesus called Himself a king and forbade people from paying tribute to Caesar. This would be considered an act of rebellion, because all Roman citizens had to pay their taxes and honor Caesar as the Roman Emperor (Luke 23:1-5). Yet, Jesus never stirred up a rebellion against the Romans nor did He forbid people to pay their taxes. Actually, the opposite is true, on one occasion, He told His disciples to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's (Matthew 22:21).

While Jesus never sought political authority and power, He frequently spoke about His Father's Kingdom. His parables describing the kingdom of God show a different Kingdom from what people assumed. He used everyday images, such as a mustard seeds, yeast and a camel through an eye of a needle, to show that God worked in ways unknown to man. As the prophet Isaiah says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55:8). Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven throughout most of His ministry. Yet, at the end of His life, it is ironic that this peaceful, loving, Jewish carpenter was sentenced to death for the charges of blasphemy and treason, for supposedly calling Himself a king and rebelling against Rome. All four Gospels mention that there was a sign on the cross which read "Jesus King of the Jews," and the Gospel of John emphasizes that this was written in Greek, Latin and Hebrew (John 19:20).

Herod's attempt to kill Jesus' life in the beginning of the Gospel foreshadowed what is to come, since at nearly every step, there were opponents of Jesus and His ministry. Throughout the Scriptures, the Pharisees, Scribes, and Jewish leaders seek to destroy Jesus and put Him to death (read Matthew 21:45-46). Likewise, even Judas, one of His own disciples, betrays Him, and Peter, His favorite disciple, denies Him three times! So, we should not be surprised that Jesus was in danger even from the very beginning of His life. Yet, Jesus managed to perform meant miracles and proclaim the Kingdom of God to the people, and some did hear and accept the Gospel, the same Gospel that is proclaimed to us. Unfortunately, there are still people who do not want the Gospel to grow and, therefore, they try to prevent it from growing. However, the Gospel is continually preached throughout the world and is under the power of God Himself who gives the growth. Our job is to stay out of His way and allow Him to keep planting those seeds of the Kingdom.