We Must Publicly Commit to Living Lives in Repentance
We’ve entered an age when families no longer eat dinner together, children watch movies on their laptops, play computer games, and text message their friends from their bedrooms. Adults can be seen walking in our cities text messaging on their cell phones, oblivious to others around them. This is a time when people can be sitting in a cafe with friends, all the while talking to someone else on a mobile phone. Is it any wonder we have become a people living together in isolation?
I remember from my youth visiting my elderly grandmother, always finding her radio and TV blasting away. You’d walk into her kitchen and hear a radio, while in the living room you’d find her TV on, even though she rarely was listening to either. I knew this was a sign that she was lonely and the noise kept her company. Yet, when she did have someone there to visit, all the other sounds would be shut off.
On many occasions I’ve had to ask people if they wouldn’t turn off their TV’s when I’d arrive for a pastoral call. People don’t often notice the distractions that they’ve allowed to intrude into their homes, having become so accustomed to these foreign invaders. Many husbands are shocked when their wives file for divorce, having been so consumed with outside entertainment, they failed to notice the line of communication between themselves and their spouses had been lost years earlier.
Children are no longer supervised with their homework because their parents are uninvolved, partly because the technology has left them in the dark. They therefore trust their children are working on their homework. The truth is often the case that their children are watching music videos on youtube, while text messaging their friends (I once taught both in a high school and a college, so I know this to be true).
Even in our spiritual lives we tend to be living in isolation. Many reserve their prayers to issues revolving around finances, or prayers offered regarding their health, or that of a family member. Yet these people rarely think of the importance of corporate prayer with family and friends apart from the Sunday Liturgy. Prayer to them is a private matter, rarely shared with others. The fact that public prayer outside one’s parish is now forbidden by the government, has further eroded our sense of corporate prayer as being something we, as a nation, value.
Entertainment has also taken on a central role in our lives, becoming so important as to have replaced visiting neighbors or friends. I’m old enough to remember the day when neighborhoods were filled with homes sporting large front porches. On those hot summer nights families would be sitting on their porches, sipping lemonade and waving at passing neighbors who were actually out for a stroll. Now we all have air conditioners, and front porches have been replaced with private back patios, where no one can see us. Gone are the days of neighborliness.
As Christians we have an obligation to turn our backs on this demonically inspired culture that is destroyed any semblance of community. We can, by our own actions, return God to a place of centrality in this world gone mad. By our willingness to publicly live as Christians committed to living lives in repentance, we can turn this world around. It is late, but not too late.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: This is my younger brother, Dwayne Parsons, playing a concert at the Pend d’Oreille Winery in Sandpoint, Idaho. Dwayne is an accomplished composer and pianist, and I am very proud to call him both my brother, and a dear friend. The photo was taken by Sandpoint artist, Dan de Alba. The piano was made by Decker Brothers in 1886 in New York, before Steinway came to America.
Sunday December 11, 2022 / November 28, 2022
26th Sunday after Pentecost. Tone one.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). Fish Allowed
Martyr Stephen the New of Mt. St. Auxentius (767).
Martyr Hirenarchus and Seven Women-martyrs at Sebaste (303).
New Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov), metropolitan of St. Petersburg (1937).
New Hieromartyrs Alexis Veselovsky, Alexis Smirnov priests, Hieromartyrs Raphael Tiupin, Vincent Nikolsky , Basil Zavgorodny deacon and Virgin-martyr Anysia Maslanova (1937).
Virgin-Martyr Paraskeva (1938).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas priest (1941).
Uncovering of the relics of Venerable Sergius Srebriansky (2000).
Blessed Theodore, archbishop of Rostov (1394).
Martyrs Basil, Stephen, two Gregories, John (near Constantinople), Andrew, Peter, Anna, and many others (741-775).
Martyrs Timothy and Theodore, bishops; Peter, John, Sergius, Theodore, and Nicephorus, presbyters; Basil and Thomas, deacons; Hierotheus, Daniel, Chariton, Socrates, Comasius, and Eusebius, monks; and Etymasius at Tiberiopolis (361).
New Martyr Christos of Constantinople (1748) (Greek).
St. Theodore, bishop of Theodosiopolis in Armenia (end of 6th c.).
St. Oda, virgin of Brabant (726) (Neth.).
Virgin-Martyr Juthwara of Cornwall.
The Scripture Readings
Luke 24:1-12
He Is Risen
24 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”
8 And they remembered His words. 9 Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.
Ephesians 5:8-19
Walk in Light
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
Walk in Wisdom
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
Luke 13:10-17
A Spirit of Infirmity
10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.