(Memory of King David, Saint James and Saint Joseph)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
There is a tendency especially in these days (as there was in other times), to re-make the Christian faith into something that is an intellectual exercise, or into something that is equal to one philosophy or another. As long as we pander to this idea, we can adjust all sorts of things to our liking. This is what is happening now in our day in North America, and in the western world in general. People try to reduce Christianity to some sort of philosophy, and we try to tinker with it to make it more suitable to our whims, fads and fashions. What we easily forget is what the Apostle Paul is saying today in the Epistle. He encountered Christ personally. Christ appeared to him, and in His compassion, He straightened him out from his wrong way of thinking. The Lord put the Apostle on the right path by leading him in the right direction.
As Saint Seraphim of Sarov said, it is most important for us Orthodox Christians to acquire the Holy Spirit first. By that, he meant that we must allow the Holy Spirit to be fulfilled in us, to work in us by virtue of our baptism and chrismation when we were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We must allow the Holy Spirit to work in us in order to renew and build up this relationship of love between us and Christ. The way of the Orthodox Christian is not only an intellectual way. It is a way of love between us and Christ, a way of loving harmony with Christ. In harmony with Him, we lovingly and willingly obey His will. This harmoniousness might even become instinctual.
This is exactly the way of the Mother of God. In every part of her life, she said “Yes” to God’s will, even though it was not logical. At the time of the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her, and told her that she would bear a child although she was not yet married, and still a virgin. She asked how this could be. The Archangel answered her (as it were) : “Not to worry. The Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and all will be well”. When she heard this amazing assurance, she accepted this, and it came to be as the Archangel had said. The rest of her life was a life of obedience, even though she still asked questions. Sometimes, she even prepared the way for her Son, as at the marriage of Cana. She prepared His way by ordering the servants to do what He was going to ask them to do.
It is high time that we, ourselves, like the Mother of God, learned to be lovingly and willingly obedient to God’s will. Even though we are often afraid of it, God’s will is always life-giving, and saving for us. It is always Life for us, even though we do not know where it will lead us, and what will happen to us. If our hearts tell us that God wants us to do something, or to go in a particular direction, then what He asks is not to endanger us but to increase true life in us. We are often afraid of losing our temporal life, of losing the sense of being comfortable in the world. However, the Lord does not want us feel that we are so comfortable in this world that we will be afraid of leaving it when the time comes. Our life in this world needs to be fulfilled in the Kingdom. Our end is eternal life with Him in the Kingdom. We have no idea what this means except that it is eternal life, eternal light, eternal love. Life in the Kingdom is far better than anything we could have in this life. This life is a vale of tears, pain and difficulty as a result of the Fall. However, in His mercy, the Lord shows us His love. He gives us hope. He gives us a sense of direction. He puts us on the path to the Kingdom and to eternal life with Him.
Today, as we are keeping the memory of King David, Saint James, the Lord’s brother, and Saint Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, it is important that we correctly understand the will of God in their lives. It is especially important today when we are so prone to distortion. David, the King, was the direct blood ancestor of the Lord. Christ was born of the house of David. However, David is also two other things to us. In the first place, in his Psalms, David wrote many prophesies about the coming of and the life of Christ. When we read the Psalms, we are reading the life of Christ. Many Psalms are very explicit about the Birth, Life, Suffering and Death of Christ, as well as about His kingly reign. David prepared the way of Christ. In the second place, as we all know, he fell into temptation very severely. He was not a small sinner when he sinned. However, he knew how to repent, and when he repented, he repented greatly. David sinned as we all do. Being a king and head of government, as well as an autocrat, he was subject to many temptations. This is why we have to pray that our leaders be protected from the great temptations of their office. Nevertheless, even in the face of these temptations, David turned about, repented, and became an example of repentance for us. He accepted God’s correction, turned about completely, and tried to follow the Lord’s will. This happened more than once in his life, as it happens in our lives, too.
There are those who like to say that since James is the “brother” of the Lord, the Theotokos had children after she gave birth to Christ. This has always been incomprehensible to Orthodox. From the beginning, Orthodox have believed that the Mother of God was ever-virgin because she gave birth as a virgin. It is incomprehensible that she would then have children in the normal way, after she had given birth to God the Word. She gave herself to the service of God in purity and love. This is why we venerate her to this very day. Then why is it that, in the Holy Gospels, James is called Christ’s “brother” ? An article in the Canadian Orthodox Messenger (Winter 2003/2004) explains this quite well. In short, brotherhood and sisterhood is not confined to the immediate blood family in oriental, Semitic (Hebrew) thought, but means all the close relatives. Therefore, first cousins can be called brothers and sisters in popular, everyday terms. That is exactly who James, the brother of the Lord, was to Jesus Christ. He was a brother as in first cousin.
Saint Joseph, the Betrothed, is also an example for us. Although we often forget about him, and treat him as a nice piece of furniture, a convenient person to have around, we should understand the service that he rendered to our Lord as the foster-father of Christ. He provided a home for Christ and protection so that He might grow up in a good atmosphere. All these things are important, as is the fact that he was a good person, a man of prayer, and one who understood God’s will. Out of negligence, we often dismiss him. At the time of the Annunciation, he could not comprehend what was going on, and wanted to send Mary to what we would call a home for unwed mothers. According to the Law of Moses, she was supposed to be stoned because she was expecting out of wedlock. However, being a merciful man, he wanted to hide and protect her until she gave birth. When God revealed to him in a dream what was going on, he accepted the whole thing, and provided protection for Mary and the Child. When he learned in a dream that God wanted him to take Mary and the Child to Egypt in order to escape from Herod (who was going to kill all the small children in the region of Bethlehem in order to protect his kingship), Joseph obeyed the dream. When he was in Egypt, God told him when it was time for him to go back, and where he was to go. Joseph did as God had directed him. We see that Joseph was not just anyone. He was a man of God. His heart was open to God’s direction. He was worthy, like the Mother of God, to prepare the way of Christ.
The important thing in all of this is to emulate, to try to be like these people. James was the leader of the Jerusalem community from the very beginning as its apostle and bishop at the centre of the early apostolic community. All these holy persons were people who loved God. God perfected them, and they became His instruments for good. The same thing is true for you and for me. We must love God and allow His love to grow in our hearts. He wants you and me to be His instruments for good.
Here in n, people are not going to take this small community very seriously, because it is small and hard to find at the present time. Nevertheless, by God’s love and mercy, this community is going to take a big step, and become more independent and visible. People will be better able to find this community, and perhaps to find the Orthodox Faith in the process. Our responsibility is to love our Lord Jesus Christ, to befriend the persons He sends to us, and to be loving to them. The Lord will send yet more people to come to this community to encounter Christ’s love, and to experience healing, encouragement, hope, and joy. They will perceive Christ’s love, and will follow Christ in the same way, loving others and living in His love. Despite what is often mistakenly believed and done, the Orthodox Faith is not taught ; it is caught. Love is not taught ; it is caught. We want to be contagious with the love of Jesus Christ, so that people around us will sense this love, will be encouraged by this love, and will be attracted to it. Let us open our hearts with loving devotion to the Lord in order to receive Him, and allow Him to increase in us, so that we may glorify the all-holy Trinity : the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.