Hope

Let others see in us hope for a better world

Many years ago I taught in a small college, and can still remember, with great fondness, many of my students. Although I loved them all,  I did have my favorites, especially those who challenged me with their inquisitive minds. These students kept me on my toes, and forced me to be fully prepared for each class. They  came to class prepared, having read their assignments and finished their papers. It was a joy to teach students who would  push my own limits. Their enthusiasm sparked my own. These were the students who expected more from their professors than simply someone who repeated material from the textbook. They wanted a lecture that challenged them, and would stretch their minds.

I respected them, and they knew I respected them. I never talked down to them, and always listened to their ideas and suggestions. They knew I valued them as individuals with good minds and good hearts, and because of the good relationship we shared, we all learned together, and grew together. Since I came fully prepared for all my classes, I was always able to impart information they did not know. Yet, because they also had insights to share with me, we all came away, having learned something.

Young people are filled with ideas, dreams, goals, and their youthful exuberance is full of hope and vitality. It is with this very energy and vitality, hopes and dreams, and even innocence, that our young people will bring to the table the very tools that will help them replace this present generation, and become the leaders of our world.

What will they have received from us that will enable them to be the very best leaders for the future? It is my strong conviction that the most important gift we can impart to these young people, is the gift of Faith. I believe the best way to impart this gift, is by loving them, respecting them, and, most importantly, demonstrating the truth of our faith by living the gospel! We must be authentic Christians, before they will want to emulate us. If they see not Christ in us, but only posturing, they will see nothing they want. They must see in us a people who are transformed by our relationship with Christ. They must see Christ in us, people who love them. They must see in us people who reach out to them with respect and hope. They must see us as a prayerful people who truly have a relationship with Christ.

It is not enough to be regular church attenders, if we do not fully live our Orthodoxy throughout the week. If our Orthodoxy does not extend beyond the door of the temple, we will have failed them. If our Orthodoxy is no deeper than an “ethnic preservation society”, we will have failed them, and they will not want what we have.

We are all living in very difficult times, ruled by a pandemic, and institutions that seem to be collapsing. Unemployment is spreading, and many are losing all hope. Respected corporate leaders have been exposed as thieves, men driven by greed. Many political leaders are seen as self-serving, do-nothings.

The day of reckoning is upon us, and we must step up to the challenge. Nothing new is happening in our present age that has not happened in ages past. And, just as it was men and women, saints even, who brought past generations out of darkness and despair, so too must this older generation come forth with hope and faith, bringing the light of Christ to an age that is fast losing hope. Since many of our young are facing bleak prospects for their future, they must see in us, hope. The only hope for this world is to be found in Christ, so now is the time for a new Age of Faith. Only in Christ will the world find true wealth and lasting peace.

Let the light of Christ shine forth throughout the world, in us! Let our young see the joy of Christ in us, lighting the way to true happiness and everlasting prosperity. Let them see in us, hope.

With love and blessings,
Abbot Tryphon

Prayer request: His Eminence Archbishop David of Sitka and Alaska (OCA) has received a diagnosis from his doctors in Anchorage of renal cancer. Please keep Vladyka David in your prayers.

Friday October 9, 2020 / September 26, 2020
18th Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Fast. Food with Oil
Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian.
Canonization of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow (1989).
New Hieromartyrs Athanasius, Alexander, Demetrius priests, martyrs John, Nicholas (1937).
New Hieromartyr Vladimir priest (1939).
Venerable Ephraim, abbot of Perekop, wonderworker of Novgorod (1492).
Righteous Gideon, judge of Israel.
Neagoe, prince of Wallachia (1521) (Romania).
Venerable Nilus of Rossano (Calabria) (1044).
Arrival of the Iveron Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in Georgia (1989) (Georgia).

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.

1 John 4:12-19

Seeing God Through Love

12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

The Consummation of Love

17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.

John 19:25-27

Behold Your Mother

25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

John 21:24-25

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.

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.

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.