The True Self

The true self is composed of both body and soul

Unlike angels, who are entirely spiritual beings, God has made each of us as spiritual creatures dwelling in a material world. Thus, because we are both physical and spiritual, we must commune with our Creator God in both body and soul. This is central to our Christian faith and is an affirmation of the sacramental nature of this material world.

Because of this profound truth, icons have played a central role in Christian history, proclaiming Jesus Christ’s physical reality as God Incarnate. Our Lord told his disciples that “he who has seen me, has seen the Father”, and from those ancient times the Church as proclaimed this truth by venerating (not adoring or worshiping) images of Christ. The reality of the Incarnation is further depicted by the use of icons representing Christ’s mother, the Holy Virgin, whose submission to the will of God made her the living tabernacle of the Most High, and becaming the New Eve, by which Salvation entered the world.

Icons depicting the Holy Virgin show the Christ Child with bare feet, reminding us that He walked the earth among us. The very Word (the Logos) through Whom all that is was brought into existence. He condescended to take on our flesh and walk among us, and He joined His divinity to our humanity, that we might become gods. He was born, lived, died and rose from the dead in this material world. He broke bread with disciples, ate fish with his friends, and invited Thomas to feel the wound in his side, after His holy resurrection.

At the Last Judgment the Lord’s words, “I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you gave me shelter, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”, will echo in our minds. It is by our care and concern for others, in this material world, that we will be judged. It is in our demonstrated love of others that we will have demonstrated our own personal love of God, for we know the truth in Our Lord’s words when He said, “How can you love God Whom you’ve not seen, when you do not love your neighbor?”

Because of the Incarnation, our prayers must not be allowed to remain centered in the head. Our use of icons while praying, and keeping our eyes open during the liturgical services in the temple, allow us to behold the beauty of God’s creation, for we involve our whole nature, both body and soul. This physical nature of prayer is what connects us to our true self, which is composed of both body and soul. It is in this created world where God reaches down to embrace us.

Icons are wonderful aides in our communion with God in this material world, because they serve as bridges to Christ and links with the Holy Virgin and the saints. They are by no means necessary, for sitting on the top of a mountain, or walking on the seashore, eyes open, allow us to behold the beauty of God’s creation, and His love for us, His children. But the beauty of icons, and the truth of the Incarnation that they depict, become windows for us into eternity, and links between ourselves, and the saints who have already entered into Eternal Glory, and dwell with God. We venerate the these icons of our friends, the saints, because Christ Himself dwells in them, and He dwells in us.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Monday February 9, 2015 / January 27, 2015

Week of the Prodigal Son. Tone two.

Translation of the relics (437) of St. John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople.
Venerable Peter of Egypt (5th c.).
New Martyr Demetrius at Constantinople (1784) (Greek).
Venerable Titus the Soldier, monk of the Kiev Caves.
New Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev) of Voronezh (1929).
St. Demetrius Klepinine, priest of Paris (1944).
Venerable Leonty (Stasevich) of Ivanovo (1972).
New Hieromartyr and Mystic Leontius of Tarnopol and Jablechna (Poland) (1972).

Scripture Readings for the Day

Deceptions of the Last Hour

18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the[a] Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

Let Truth Abide in You

24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.

26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

The Children of God

28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God![e] Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Sin and the Child of God

4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

The Imperative of Love

10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

Mark 11:1-11

The Triumphal Entry

11 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; 2 and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”

4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?”

6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”

11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.