EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The Ability to be Empathetic to the Needs of Others

When we are in our head, we are more judgmental, yet when we are in our heart, we become non-judgmental. Being critical of others is not an Orthodox trait, for being critical, whether of other people, or even the way we approach our faith, can be a sign we are not centered in the heart. Holiness is about being made whole, and this wholeness depends on being centered in the heart, wherein we find the Kingdom of God.

In the world of psychology, emotional intelligence is the ability to be sensitive to the feelings, or to the view point, of others. Emotional intelligence helps us avoid hurting another person’s feelings, and allows us to be open to how they might feel. It helps us refrain from judging them, and even appreciate their point of view, even when we disagree with them. Emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.

Orthodoxy, because of the emphasis on the heart, opens us to possibilities that are often closed in other Christian traditions, for the image of the Church as the Hospital of the Soul allows us to see ourselves, and others, as needing the healing that comes with a relationship centered in the God Who loves us. It is a relationship with a God Who desires to transform us, and make us holy (whole). In this relationship, we see ourselves as ill, so we don’t judge others, for they are just like us, and in need of healing. We don’t even exclude those whose views are different from ours, even if they hold beliefs, be they political or religious, that seem in total opposition to the ideas we hold dear.

If the other person is an atheist or a believer, a Buddhist or a Muslim, a liberal or a conservative, they are not a threat to us, for we are secure, for we see ourselves and everyone else as a patient in need of healing. As an Orthodox Christian, we are able to see everyone, even unbelievers, as impacted by Jesus Christ, the Word of God, through Whom the cosmos itself came into being. We know this very Christ desires that all come to the knowledge of the true, and be saved. We judge no one, and make no distinction between those who are like us, and those who are different from us. We love everyone, because Christ loves everyone.

Emotional intelligence enables us to work together for the common good, while avoiding self-serving power trips that serve us, but keep others from succeeding. Emotional intelligence enables us to see things through the eyes of others, and enables us to desire the best for them. It even enables us to further the salvific message of the Gospels, because we don’t get in the way of the message. Others can experience God’s love because the empathy we have for their feelings is imaged in how we interact with them, and how we demonstrate our respect for their life experiences, feelings, viewpoints, and beliefs.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Friday July 2, 2021 / June 19, 2021
2nd Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. Food with Oil
Saint John the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco
Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn (1192) (movable holiday on the 1st Friday of Apostles’ Fast).
“Tabynsk” and “Kursk-Root” Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos (movable holiday on the 9th Friday of Pascha).
Holy Apostle Jude, the Brother of the Lord (80).
St. Job, patriarch of Moscow (1607).
St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco the Wonderworker
Venerable Barlaam, monk, of Shenkursk (1462).
Martyr Zosimas the Soldier at Antioch in Pisidia (116).
Venerable Paisius the Great of Egypt (400).
Venerable John the Solitary of Jerusalem (586).
Venerable Paisius the Bulgarian, of Hilandar, Mt. Athos (18th) (Bulgaria).
Venerable Zeno, hermit of Egypt (late 4th c.).
Holy Myrrh-bearer Mary, mother of the Apostle James (1st c.).
New Martyr Parthenius, bishop (1937).
New Hieromartyr Priest Sergius Florinsky of Estonia (1918).
Hieromartyr Asyncretus, martyred at the Church of Holy Peace by the Sea in Constantinople (Greek).
Venerable Romuald, abbot of Camaldoli (Ravenna) (1027) (Celtic & British).
St. Macarius of Petra (4th c.).

The Scripture Readings

John 21:15-25

Jesus Restores Peter

15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”

And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. 18 Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.”19 This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

The Beloved Disciple and His Book

20 Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” 21 Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”

22 Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

23 Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”

24 This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.

25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

Romans 5:17-6:2

17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting

14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Jude 1-10

Greeting to the Called

1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,

To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:

2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Contend for the Faith

3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Old and New Apostates

5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.

John 14:21-24

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

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 a