In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Forerunner is in the wilderness. He is proclaiming the way of the Lord ; he is preparing the way for the Lord. Very soon we will be celebrating the Theophany of the Saviour. We will be celebrating His Baptism. Actually, it is the first of the feasts of the Holy Trinity. We always think of the Feast of the Holy Trinity as being celebrated at Pentecost, but, in fact, this is the first one. When the Saviour is baptised in the waters, we hear the voice of the Father, who says that our Lord is the beloved Son, and the Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
The Prophet and Forerunner is preparing the way for the Lord. This is our universal Christian responsibility since that time. Our responsibility is, as we live our lives, to prepare the way for the Lord. Each one of us, having been baptised into Christ, and having put on Christ, bears Christ. Each one of us bears Christ wherever we go, and whatever we do. Because people are aware that we are Christians, they measure Christ by what they see in us.
People have a hard time accepting Christ. They really do. The whole world resists Christ because people cannot believe that God could love us this much, and in such a way. Therefore, the world is constantly inventing substitutes – every sort of alternative possible – except the real love of Jesus Christ Himself. Our responsibility, therefore, is to be faithful to Jesus Christ, to try our best to live as a Christian ought to live. This is not an easy thing because the Adversary is always looking for ways to undermine and distract us. I cannot remember where it was because I am getting so old, but some years ago I read that forgetfulness is one of the chief tools of the Adversary. In self-centredness, people become separated from each other, concerned only about themselves, forgetting who they are, and why they are. In this case we could check The Great Divorce by C S Lewis.
With this focus on the self in the midst of which we are living in Canada (one might as well say in the whole world now), one could say that we are becoming an insane race. I have come to understood through health care professionals, that one of the chief signs of mental illness is preoccupation with one’s self, obsession with one’s self, thinking only about one’s self. That is what makes a person get completely off balance, and sometimes quite sick. One becomes fascinated with one’s self, and afraid of everything. Everything circles around “me”. Our whole society is like that. That is why I say we are coming to some sort of collective insanity now.
The Orthodox way is the opposite of this. It is true that we ought to have a certain concern about ourselves, because our Saviour says that we are to love others as God loves us. Love for others and concern for oneself must be in balance. God loves us with self-emptying love, and we have to love other people with the same love – self-emptying love, not selfish love : no strings attached. The Saviour came, and what did He do ? He washed the apostles’ feet. He healed people. He taught people. He resurrected people. He cared for people. He served them. He Himself says : “‘The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve’” (Mark 10:45). The Orthodox way is the way of service. If we are going to imitate Christ, and if we are going to show Christ to people around us, we have to be doing what He did and what He still does to this day for us, and with us, and that is, to serve. We serve Him by caring about other people’s welfare, taking care of other people in practical ways, helping other people, saying a good word when a good word needs to be said, supporting, strengthening, nurturing people, praying for people so that God might heal them.
If, however, on the other hand, we allow “Big Red” to mess around with our minds and hearts, we quickly forget. We quickly forget, and get distracted by this and by that. Distraction of all sorts is one of Big Red’s chief tools. Then the Lord has to send someone to wake us up and remind us about who we are, Whom we are serving, and which way we are going. Sometimes, in this distracted forgetfulness, we can end up going quite far down. We have to be careful. We have to watch out. Saint Seraphim, for much of his life while he was living in the desert of the forest, was doing things like wearing chains and sleeping on a bed of rocks. To this day, if we were to go to Valamo Monastery in Finland, or to the museum of the Orthodox Church in Kuopio in Finland, or to other places also, we could see chains there on display, heavy chains that the monks used to wear. Saint Seraphim said that that was not really necessary, so why would they do that ? Essentially, monks would wear these in order to help them remember, in order to help them not to forget who it is that they are – sinners, and Who is their salvation, and Whom it is that they are serving – Jesus Christ. That is not to say that we should be wearing chains, necessarily. I think people might lock us up if we did, and give us all sorts of “nice” medication.
The time of the chains is past. The purpose of them is to help us remember Who is Jesus Christ ; who am I ; and Whom we are serving. Whom am I supposed to be like ? I am supposed to be like Jesus Christ, full of His love. Saint Seraphim said that our first purpose in life is to acquire the Holy Spirit. We have been given the Holy Spirit when we were baptised and chrismated. However, it is for us to allow the Holy Spirit to grow in us, to nurture our hearts, to enliven our hearts, and to give us the ability to live in the love of Jesus Christ. We have to be doing what is necessary to allow the Holy Spirit to grow. What do we do, then ? How do we acquire the Holy Spirit ?
First, we ask the Lord to be with us and to give us the strength to follow Him. We ask Him to fill us, to renew us, and to refresh us in His love. Then we ask Him to help us establish a rhythm in our daily lives. To grow in Christ and to pray, we have to have a regular rhythm. To pray requires that we have to go to the same place approximately at the same time, and say approximately the same things. Repetition, as the Latin saying goes, is the mother of learning. When it comes to spiritual life, it is even more so (because of our strong tendency to forgetfulness). Our spiritual teachers always say to us that we have to have a prayer corner. We have to have a place in our homes, in our rooms, where we pray. We have to go there regularly. We have to go there approximately at the same time. We should be saying the morning and evening prayers if we can possibly do it. However, at least we should be saying “Lord have mercy” over and over again, or the Jesus Prayer in the longest form, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner”. We should be saying this over and over again in front of the icons before the Lord. Saying this prayer before the icons, over and over again, with a bit of concentration, warms up the heart, and, as well, it softens our heart towards people who are not nice to us.
We must say “Lord have mercy” about people who are, shall we say, at the least, irritating towards us, or at a greater level, very tempting to us (as some people are). Even in our families it can be a big temptation when people squeeze the toothpaste the wrong way, or when they eat with their mouths open, or do something else (as in Shrek 2, where the donkey makes noises with his mouth all the time). People do things like this, and it can become a big irritation. Saying “Lord have mercy” under those circumstances can settle things down considerably. I can say this because I have experience. These things do happen. The Lord’s Grace comes when we say this prayer. That is the point of our saying it. We have to open our hearts and be in the Lord’s presence. We have to put ourselves in the Lord’s presence.
People are often saying to me that life is so chaotic, and it is so difficult in the circumstances of daily family life to pray as we are supposed to in the prayer corner before the icons. They find that the only place where it seems that there is time to pray is in the bathroom, in the car, or on the bus. All right – why not, as long as it is regular. If we can pray on the bus, so much the better. It is a good thing for us to pray on the bus, because Canadians, like Britons, do not talk to each other on the bus very much. No-one will disturb us, unless someone starts a conversation. We can sit there and pretend that we are reading a book. No-one will say anything to us most of the time. Thus, we can say our prayers quietly on the bus or on the train. Some people use cassettes. They record the morning or evening prayers for themselves, put the cassette in the car, and they pray while driving. There are all sorts of ways to put ourselves in the Lord’s presence. To pray while we are driving is an important thing, especially because of the way people drive nowadays. People get angry and impatient so quickly. It is good for us not to join the angry, impatient crowd, but instead to be quick to say “Lord have mercy” while driving. All these things help to nurture the growth of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. All these things help us to acquire the Holy Spirit.
How do we know that there is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives ? The only way we can tell is by love. Do we love ? Do we love like Christ ? Is there at least some inkling of this selfless love ? Has serving other people started to be a more primary motivation in my life ? Am I, in fact, not so comfortable in this world as I used to be ? All these are signs that the Lord is active in our hearts. Can I hear and accept it when the Lord sends me someone who says to me : “Wake up. Such-and-such is out of focus in your life”. Can I accept it ? If I can, even if it is grudgingly, there is hope that the Holy Spirit is active and working in my heart. If I play the “Egyptian game” of living in denial, living in “denial” is dangerous, because “de-Nile” is full of crocodiles (not that I saw any crocodiles the last time I was on the Nile, and that was only two months ago). Nevertheless, when we live in denial, when we pretend that everything is all right, when we pretend there is nothing the matter, that is when we become prime prey for those spiritual crocodiles that are ready to eat us up. (I am glad you are able to tolerate these jokes.)
It is necessary for us to remember that forgetfulness of who we are, what we are, and Whom we serve, is the prime tool of the Adversary in our lives. The Adversary’s prime tool is to help us forget. (Indeed, he does not have to work very hard at that ; we seem to do that very easily ourselves.) He helps us along, and greases the way of forgetfulness for us. He distracts us, and we forget. It is important for us to remember this, and to ask the Lord to help us to be watchful, mindful, and to accept His reminders. In remembering, as we live our lives together, we can encourage and strengthen each other by our prayers, by our example, and by the way we serve each other and care for each other. By doing this, in strengthening each other, we can help each other be a clearer witness of the love of Jesus Christ to people who do not yet know Him, or have forgotten Him, having previously known Him. We can be agents of the Lord to renew their memory of Him, or to introduce Him to the people whom we meet in our lives. The world is full of lost, lonely, hungry people, spiritually-starving people. In our lives, let us give them a little food, the food of the living Bread, Jesus Christ, by showing them love in concrete ways, by doing good for them (even when they sometimes bite the hands that feed them). Still, let us do some good for them, and entice them with the net of Christ’s love into His Kingdom. Let us all, together with the saints, glorify the all-holy Trinity : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.