Returning God’s Love For Us With Our Own Love for Him
Back in the days when I was teaching I knew my students had a prayer life for I could see their collective lips moving when I was handing out an exam. My youngest former students are now in their mid forties, and I suspect that most of them are still practicing the same limited prayer life.
We hear it might rain on the weekend, and we’ve been planning a hike in the mountains, so we pray to God, asking that He provide the coveted sunshine. We’re taxiing down the runway, so we pray that God will give us a safe journey and not let there be engine problems. Our boss seemed irritated with us on Friday, so we pray that we still have a job on Monday morning. We spot a house on the market, one we’ve driven by for years, and ask God to make the price within our range.
Prayer, for most people, is all about ME, about MY wants, MY needs, MY fears. For many of us, it is never about God, or our relationship with Him. God, for many, is like a good luck charm, relevant only when needed. Yet, the Biblical God, the Creator of the Universe, who condescended to take on our flesh, and Who has adopted us as His own children, and has invited us to have a relationship with Him, is not Santa Claus. Our prayer life should not be like a little child’s visit, once a year, to ask Santa to give him a new tricycle.
Many years ago, I was counseling a couple who were having marital problems. The wife had decided that she wanted a divorce, feeling, as she did, that the marriage lacked love, and that the spark had long gone out of their relationship. The husband was dumbfounded, for he’d been under the impression that all was well, and that they had a great marriage. He told me that he came home every night, and spent the whole of the evening with his wife. They spent weekends together, and, of course, loved each other. When I asked if he’d regularly told his wife that he “loved her,” his response was expected. He said he didn’t need to tell her he loved her because she knew he loved her. She sat, glaring at him, and responded that she’d long ago decided that she’d become nothing more than the cook, housekeeper, and mother to his children, but not a woman loved by her man. By the time this all came out, the marriage was already past tense.
When was the last time we told God that we love Him? When did we simply sit, praying before our holy icons, and invite the Lord to fill us with Himself? When was the last time we thanked God for difficult times, and trials, and losses, and illnesses, because we know that all these difficulties have been allowed by God, because they have the potential to draw us closer to God, and lead to our salvation?
When Christ said, “he who has seen Me, has seen the Father,” Jesus was telling us that we can have a relationship with the God Who created us. Christ revealed God to us as a loving Father Who wants His children to return that love. It is not about demanding love, or else, for that would not be love. A child does not love his mother, because she’ll beat him if he doesn’t, but, rather, because she’s loved him all along, even when he wasn’t so good. God is like that with us, and all He wants in return, is for us to love Him.
The husband who never told his wife that he loved her destroyed their marriage. He didn’t see the necessity in telling of his love for her because he assumed she “must know” it. Are we like this with God, or are we simply moving our lips, and pretending we have a relationship with Him? Had the husband come for counseling a year earlier, there could have been hope for the marriage, and he’d have realized his wife needed to hear him say those all important words, “I love you.” Are we going to wait until the end of our life, when it is too late, or are we going to tell God now, how we love Him, and want a relationship with Him? A relationship has to be based on communication. A one sided relationship is no relationship at all.
With love in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Friday May 24, 2024 / May 11, 2024
Third Week of Pascha. Tone two.
Fast. Fish Allowed
Hieromartyr Mocius (Mucius), presbyter of Amphipolis in Macedonia (295).
Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Methodius (885) and Cyril (869), first teachers of the Slavs.
Equal-to-the-Apostles Rostislav, prince of Greater Moravia (870).
New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1920).
New Hieromartyr Alexander archbishop of Kharkov (1940).
Venerable Sophronius, recluse of the Kiev Caves (13th c.).
St. Joseph, metropolitan of Astrakhan (1671).
St. Nicodemus of Pech, archbishop of Serbia (Mt. Athos) (1325).
New Martyrs Dioscorus and Argyrus of Thessalonica (1808) (Greek).
Commemoration of the Founding of Constantinople (330).
Venerable Comgall, founder and abbot of Bangor (ca. 603) (Celtic & British).
St. Bessarion, Archbishop of Larissa (Greek).
Martyr Acacius of Lower Moesia (Greek).
New Martyr Olympia, abbess of Mitylene (1235) (Greek).
Blessed Christesia, called Christopher (1771) (Georgia).
St. Theophylact, bishop of Stavropol and Ekaterinodar (1872).
St. Wiro, Irish missionary bishop to the Netherlands, in Limberg (710) (Celtic & British).
St. Cathan of Bute (6th c.) (Celtic & British).
St. Asaph, bishop of Llanelwy, Wales (6th c.) (Celtic & British).
St. Mayeul, abbot of Cluny (994) (Celtic & British).
St. Tudy, abbot of the Tudy.
St. Comgall, bishop and founder of Bangor Monastery (601).
St. Bassus.
The name day of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. May God grant His Holiness many years!
The Scripture Readings
John 10:9-16
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Acts 8:40-9:19
40 But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.
The Damascus Road: Saul Converted
9 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. 8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Ananias Baptized Saul
10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, “Ananias.”
And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”
11 So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. 12 And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”
13 Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
17 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.
19 So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.
John 6:48-54
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Hebrews 7:26-8:2
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
The New Priestly Service
8 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
Matthew 5:14-19
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Christ Fulfills the Law
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.