Police

The courageous men and women who serve and protect our communities

With the recent deaths attributed to police shootings of unarmed black men, the nation is once again focused on what is perceived by many as overt racism within our nation’s police departments. As a priest who has served my community as a police and fire chaplain for the past fifteen years, my allegiance, and my heart, are with the police departments all over the country, as they are collectively facing huge demonstrations, with all police as the focus of so much anger and resentment. At the same time, I have worked for racial equality most of my adult life, and have count many black people among my friends, over the past fifty years.

During one of the regional trainings of the International Conference of Police Chaplains, a former police officer presented a seminar called “Tears Behind the Badge.” This seminar was six hours long, and was designed to help chaplains spot potential suicides among police officers, and be prepared to step in and give them the help they need. As startling as it is to hear, twice as many police officers die from suicides each year, than from line of duty death. They face traumatic incidences that would drive most of us to despair, sometimes on a daily basis, and they see, in their work to protect the rest of us, the worst that society has to offer. They intervene in family disputes, rescuing women and children who are being abused, and take children into their protective arms, whose parents have died in traffic accidents. They help the old man with dementia who has wandered away from the care center. And they kiss their spouses and children goodby before a shift, not knowing if they will ever return. They stop speeders and drunk drivers, not knowing if they will encounter a gun pointed in their direction.

Police officers are, by necessity, good actors, able to mask the pain and trauma that comes with their jobs. It has been a blessing for me, as well as an honor, to work up close with these courageous men and woman who put their lives on the line, each and every day, to make our communities safe places to live and work. It has also been a source of personal pain and sorrow, for I’ve had to attend far too many funerals for officers who have died in the line of duty.

Like police officers, chaplains minister to people whose lives have been turned upside down, with the loss of a child, the death of a spouse, the trauma of a fatal car accident, or a homicide. Like police officers, chaplains hold children whose parents have been killed, and comfort the old woman whose husband of sixty years has died. We chaplains suffer, as do police officers, when one of them makes a mistake in judgement that leaves an innocent person dead. The recent shooting deaths of five officers in Texas has brought home the innate danger of this profession, and the children and spouses of police officers are now overwhelmed with the fear their precious loved one will not come home, all because they all stand accused when one officer makes a bad judgement call, and shoots an innocent person.

The pain, sorrow, anger and outrage felt by so many black people following the death of innocent members of their community is understandable. Who among us wouldn’t want to lash out in anger at the perceived source of a racism that would target members of the black community. Who among us, if we be serious about our common bond as humans, can refrain from lashing out at injustice in a country that has battled racist roots yet to be uprooted? Yet we must be careful not to paint a whole profession of men and women with one brush stroke, and thus turn them all into racist killers. To do so would be no different than to paint all clergy as pedophiles, for the sins of a few.

At the heart of this problem is the fact that human beings working in the most difficult of professions, can make terrible, life changing errors of judgement, and in a moment of time, leave a grieving family without a beloved son, husband, father, all the while depriving another family (that of the police officer) of their loved one as well. The answer, I believe, is for all of us to step out of our comfort zones, and learn to respect, even love, those who are of a different culture or skin tone.

I am reminded of the time I was walking in downtown Seattle, and saw three young black men approaching from the opposite direction. That they were all wearing “hoodies” marked them as a danger to an old white man such as myself, yet I know the absurdity of such thinking. Just as we were parallel with one another, I looked directly at them, and with a big smile I said, “isn’t this a beautiful day?”. One of them tried to come up with a polite way of asking me what I was, and, noting he was wearing a Seahawks hat, I said, “are you asking if I am a Seahawks fan? Well yes, I am”. Hearing these words from the old man, they all laughed, and one of them gave me a hug.

Let us all try to reach out to others we encounter, be they a black person, or a police officer. Let us make it a habit of letting others know by our actions that we regard them as family, regardless of their color or religion. Let us make it a practice to thank police officers for their service to the community. Let us learn to smile at everyone we encounter, and not allow ourselves to remain aloof from others who share God’s image and likeness. And, let us pray for our police officers, our fire fighters, our military personnel, our nation, and all good people who struggle for the pursuit of happiness.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Tuesday July 12, 2016 / June 29, 2016
4th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.

The Holy, Glorious and All-praised Leaders of the Apostles, Peter and Paul (67).

The end of the Apostles Peter and Paul Fast
St. Gregory, metropolitan of Iraklia and Redestos (Const.)..
“Kasperovsk” (1853-1855) Icon of the Mother of God.
Venerable Peter, prince of the Tatar Horde, wonderworker of Rostov (1290).
Uncovering of the relics of Venerable Nicander, monk, of Pskov (1581).
St. Mary, mother of John-Mark, nephew of Apostle Barnabas, at Jersusalem (1st c.).

Scripture Readings

2 Corinthians 11:21-12:9

21 To our shame I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.

Suffering for Christ

22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— 28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

30 If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. 31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me; 33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.

The Vision of Paradise

12 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 5 Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities. 6 For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.

The Thorn in the Flesh

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Matthew 16:13-19

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ

13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”