Greetings From Metropolitan Joseph
To The Participants Of The Holy Theotokos Young Women's Conference
Santa Rosa, CA - June 19th 26th, 2007“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you”(1 Cor. 16:23).
Dearest Beloved our spiritual children,
Welcome to Santa Rosa - our Diocesan Paradise - under the Pokrov of the Most Holy Theotokos!
Allow me to share with you this time my personal experience in one of our Diocesan parishes, where I joined friends in celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. Indeed, it was a great event! The testimonial dinner was inspiring. Not only have these two people been married for 65 years; they met in this same parish as children, have lived out their lives and raised their children there. Other couples from the parish spoke of the inspiration these two have been. They have seen them struggle; seen that it has been very difficult at times for them to overcome obstacles to loving each other and staying together. Yet they have done it, rooted and grounded in Christ, and as their son said, it is truly an honor and an inspiration to see these two people who still love each other very much. Young, newly married couples also spoke of the influence these two have had on their decisions to marry and stay in the Church.
Such an example of stability is rare in our world today. While it has always been the basis for serious spiritual endeavor and Saint Isaac the Syrian and St. John Climacus along with many other monastic saints place it at the heart of the monastic life, such stability is rare even in our monasteries today, peopled with men and women who come from our very mobile culture.
The Christian ascetic life has always been an attempt on our part to return to the life of Paradise as fully as God’s grace on this fallen earth allows. Along with the abstaining from meat, for example, monastics as well as any married couple, are to learn in practical ways to love all they meet as Christ, beginning with those they are to live with in community for the rest of their lives.
In contrast to this you know that in the world today if one stays on at a job for longer than two years, one is not commended for stability but thought to be “stagnating”. In a marriage, when a spouse goes through a difficult patch and seems not to be his or her usual loving self, many are told that the right course of action is to get out of such a difficult relationship. In this thinking, “comfort zones” are not negotiable and people should move on before the “problem” builds up and becomes intolerable.
And it is true that we should take responsibility for ourselves and remove ourselves from situations that we know to be abusive, and thereby not lead others into sin and temptation.
Some seem to feel people are being abused if they are asked simply to “bear another’s burden”, not to take offence at words, glances or gestures, or to put aside their own desires and agendas for a time so that another can have the basic necessities of life.
We cannot accept such definitions of abuse for ourselves and follow the Gospel.
However, when adults behaving immaturely and refusing to accept the sometimes-harsh realities of life bother us, judging them is not the answer. We then struggle with and/or leave a relationship, a family, a parish, a monastery, a mission, a group of friends or a job because we find ourselves able only to see the sins and failures in all around us, it is a great grace if eventually we come to see rather that as the famous cartoon figure, Pogo, put it: “We have met the enemy and he is us”. Part of the instability of our times is directly traceable to our running away from our selves. It is increasingly obvious that people move around us today, as a friend of mine put it, “plugged into everything and everyone but themselves”. Or, maybe, some of you will continue: “And if you run away, where you go, there you are”.
Let us look at this same phenomenon from another perspective. Psalm 91 is chanted almost daily in your Holy Dormition Church there: “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you.” How can this be true? The Psalm continues: “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent”(Verses 7, 10). The key here is: to open your souls to the Lord, to make Him your refuge and the Most High - your habitation. Elsewhere the Psalms tell us: “Put not your trust in princes, in sons of men, in whom there is no salvation”(146:3). If we trust in ourselves, in those around us, in our situation, in anyone or anything other than God, we will be disappointed. Our spouse, our children, our siblings, our fellows in community or at work, our friends and companions, even our careers and the places we live will never be able to live up to our expectations if we want them to replace God in our lives.
If for our own reasons rather than the belief that we belong to God, we enter a monastery, become part of a parish, choose a career or the way of marriage and family, these reasons will ultimately fail us. Our decisions must be made as we open our souls and stand before Him in prayer. The Lord will use “tough love” and allow us to face the consequences of our fallen choices. Our spouse may turn out to be a philandering addict, and technology we have learned for our job may become obsolete, the old ladies (or converts) in our parish may insist on holding on to some very un-Orthodox traditions, our children may grow up to be ungrateful criminals, we may come to see that our community is not filled with clairvoyant, shining lights… And we will feel hurt, betrayed and angry…
But if in our heart we will finally turn to God, He is able to use every mistake we have ever made to bring us to the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven. Even when we have taken His gift of life and tried to remake it according to our own plan, warping it, stunting it compared to the fullness He originally held out for us, we have not hurt Him. Nor does the hurt we have done to ourselves by our behavior, words and actions limit His power to save. St. Paul, who knew the depths of his own betrayal of the Lord was able to proclaim confidently in the powerful eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans: “I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, no principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, no powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”(verses 38-39).
All of us are fallen human beings, and as such, we will make mistakes, we will fail. Our stability, coming from this broken, unstable world, may come in admitting our failure in yet another relationship, our inability to preserve in yet another situation and in that admission finally turning to God to heal or to restore what we cannot. Some of us have to face that “here we have no continuing city” in a very real and tangible way. Our way of stability may be to open our souls, stand before the Lord as literal and spiritual pilgrims (cf. Mark 6:8-11), preparing our selves through repentance, sacramental life and prayer for the Heavenly Jerusalem that is to come. Nor can those who are given the gift to persevere in family or community assume they are on a higher spiritual plane. If we presume that the gifts and position we are given by grace are ours by right or that we have somehow deserved them we will find ourselves like the rich man in the Lord’s parable who built a barn to horde his wealth only to discover that his life was forfeit (Like 12:16-21). God’s gifts are not given to us so that we may take our ease; they are given so that others may find Him through our lives, deeds and words. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us further that: “Everyone to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more”(verse 48). Even our Orthodox Faith is such a gift (Matthew 16:17). Even your Host Church is such a gift. Even your Conference is such a gift. Even every one of you is such a gift to our Diocese and me.
So let us not contemplate our own stability or instability, failures or successes, or those of others. Let us not judge ourselves, or one another, at all. Rather let us find our strength in this Conference, our stability in our life and our salvation in God Who Alone in infinite love is able to perfect us and those virtues He wills to be ours.
Thank you all for your attention!
“ My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen”(1 Cor. 16:24).
With blessing,
