The importance of honesty in discovering God for oneself
As I approach my seventieth birthday I find myself spending an increasing amount of time on area campuses, and hosting growing numbers of young people making pilgrimages to the monastery. At an age when many of my contemporaries are grandfathers, or even great grandfathers, I’ve discovered the truth of something I read about while still a college student. Grandparents are often more sympathetic to the burdens and challenges that young people face than their own parents. Age seems to mellow us out and make us more sympathetic to the challenges young people face. We become less judgmental because we’ve been down the same road and know that, in the end, these young people will come out just fine.
Most young people struggle with questions about things eternal, and even whether God exists. It is part of relationship building. My own undergraduate days were filled with anxiety about what the future might bring, and fearful of making decisions that would negatively impact my future. In my own struggles with truth, as a young man, I even found myself embracing atheism. Because of this, I understand the issues facing young people today. Yet I know the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the One Whom I’ve personally encountered, is not the same god I rejected in my youth.
If we are to have a personal relationship with God we must be open and honest and unafraid to question. The Lord wants us to be real with Him. Like the sound relationship that one sees in a long and successful marriage, a relationship with God must first and foremost be based in honesty and truth. Love and trust come with time and experience. Our relationship with God is something that builds over time, and like all true relationships, results in an embrace of love and peace.
It is this peace and joy that I want to impart to young people. My personal relationship with Christ is something I want to share, and not just with Orthodox youth that may make a pilgrimage to the monastery. I KNOW God exists because I’ve experienced His great love in a personal way, and it is this certainty of the reality of God that leads me to reach out to the college students, and faculty, of the Puget Sound’s area colleges and universities. They, like me, need to discover God for themselves, and build upon a relationship that began with their conception.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Monday August 31, 2015 / August 18, 2015
14th Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Afterfeast of the Dormition.
Martyrs Florus and Laurus of Illyria (2nd c.).
New Martyrs Archimandrite Augustine of Orans Monastery, Proto-priest Nicholas of Nizhni-Novgorod, and 15 people with them (1918).
New Hieromartyr Gregory priest and Martyr Eugene and Michael (1937).
Martyrs Hermes, Serapion, and Polyaenus of Rome (2nd c.).
Martyrs Hilarion, Dionysius, and Hermippus, Hieromartyr Emilian, and others (about 1,000) of Italy (4th c.).
Sts. John (674) and George (683), patriarchs of Constantinople.
Venerable Macarius the Monk of Pelekete (830).
Repose of Venerable John, abbot of Rila (946) (Bulgaria).
The Hodigitria Icon of the Mother of God.
Venerable Barnabus and his nephew Venerable Sophronius, monks of Mt. Mela near Trebizond (412) (Greek).
Venerable Christopher, abbot of Mt. Mela Monastery (1694) (Greek).
Venerable Sophronius of St. Anne’s Skete on Mt. Athos (Greek).
Venerable Arsenius the New of Paros (1877) (Greek).
Martyr Juliana near Strobilus (Greek).
Martyr Leo, drowned near Myra in Lycia (Greek).
St. Christodoulos the Philosopher, called the Ossetian, of Georgia (12th c.) (Georgia).
Scripture Readings
2 Corinthians 12:10-19
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Signs of an Apostle
11 I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. 12 Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. 13 For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!
Love for the Church
14 Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.
16 But be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning! 17 Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? 18 I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps?
19 Again, do you think that we excuse ourselves to you? We speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, beloved, for your edification.
Mark 4:10-23
The Purpose of Parables
10 But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. 11 And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, 12 so that
‘Seeing they may see and not perceive,
And hearing they may hear and not understand;
Lest they should turn,
And their sins be forgiven them.’”
The Parable of the Sower Explained
13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
Light Under a Basket
21 Also He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
As a parent of a 21 year old, today’s reading was very insightful. I do struggle with being sympathetic to her burdens and challenges. She has chosen to turn away from what she has been taught. Knowing that you have walked down the same path she is starting on, it gives me great hope that she will turn back to God.
Thank you for your daily comments. They have become a morning ritual for me, and continue to be inspired by your Christ-like thoughts. May Our Lord keep you safe!!!!
What an interesting sentence — “Yet I know the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the One Whom I’ve personally encountered, is not the same god I rejected in my youth.” I also had issues with God in my younger life and denied him to my friends and family and even myself. I used to worry that I was locked out of heaven forever, because of Christ’s saying that the one unforgiveable sin is the denial of the Holy Spirit. Can you elaborate on your statement and on the scripture?