Know Who You Really Are
We are all surrounded by fictional characters, persons who are the invention of filmmakers, promoters, and even self-inventors. The original meaning of the word “hypocrite” was “actor”, and it is ignorance of our true nature as children of God that keeps us living as fictional characters, unaware of our own true purpose, the one God has chosen for us. When we stop relying on our own goodness, and stop deluding ourselves into thinking we do not need God, we can cast our entire focus on discovering our true self.
It is an ignorance of our true nature that is the base cause of so many living as though they were actors on a stage, afraid of what they might see if they were honest about themselves. True self-awareness can only come when we are open to letting Christ into our lives, totally. Continuing to live comfortably behind the mask of self-delusion, we are content to live in a carnal world, where we think happiness has its base in partying, making money, having sex, eating and drinking, living in the best house, and “looking good”.
We become a Hollywood promoter, living behind the mask of our own invention, fearing we will be less interesting to others if we are outwardly religious. We fail to realize it is not enforced austerity and deprivation that is required, but a submission in love to Christ that brings us new found freedom to be true to ourselves. Our new path leads to unspeakable joy and enduring peace.
“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased (C. S. Lewis).”
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Tuesday August 23, 2022 / August 10, 2022
11th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Food without Oil
Holy Martyrs Archdeacon Laurence and Pope Sixtus, Felicissimus and Agapitus, deacons, and others with them (258).
Blessed Laurence, fool-for-Christ at Kaluga (1515).
New Hieromartyr Viacheslav priest (1918).
New Hieromartyr Athanasius priest (1937).
Synaxis of the Saints of Solovki Monastery.
Uncovering and Translation of the relics of Venerable Sabbas of Storozhev or Zvenigorod (1998).
Martyr Romanus, soldier, of Rome (258).
Six Martyrs of Bizin (Greek).
Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Solovki.
The Scripture Readings
2 Corinthians 2:14-3:3
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.
Christ’s Epistle
3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? 2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
Matthew 23:23-28
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.