St John the Theologian: have confidence, God will not abandon you

Ὡς καθαρὸς ἠγαπημένος γέγονας, τῷ ἀκροτάτῳ φωτί, καὶ τοῖς αὐτοῦ στέρνοις, ἐπαναπαυσάμενος, πεπαρρησιασμένῃ ψυχῇ, ἐξ ἀβύσσου σοφίας, τὸ φῶς τῆς γνώσεως εἵλκυσας, μάκαρ Ἰωάννη, Ἀπόστολε.

WHEN thou hadst become pure, hadst become full beloved, and didst lean upon the breast of the  uttermost Light, in thy most intimate soul didst thou draw up the light of knowledge from the deeps of wisdom, O blessed John, Apostle.

Ὑπερφυῶς θεολογῶν ἑβρόντησας, ἠγαπημένε Χριστῷ. Ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ Λόγος, ζῶν καὶ ἐνυπόστατος, πρὸς τὸν αὐτοῦ Γεννήτορα, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ σάρξ ὁ Λόγος ἐγένετο, καὶ Θεὸς διέμεινεν ἄτρεπτος.

WHEN thou didst exercise thyself in theology, O beloved to Christ, rising superior to nature, thou didst thunder: In the beginning the Word, living and subsistent, was with his Father; and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh, and remained God without alteration.

Theotokion

Ὑπὸ τὴν σκέπην σου ἀεὶ προσφεύγοντες, ἀποτρεπόμεθα, τῶν πειρασμῶν πᾶσαν, καταιγίδα ἄχραντε· διὸ καὶ νῦν αἰτούμεθα, πεπτωκότας εἰς βάθος, πλημμελημάτων ἀνάγαγε, θείαις σου Ἁγνὴ παρακλήσεσι.

FLEEING ever beneath thy protection, O immaculate Lady, we turn aside from every lowering storm of temptation; wherefore we now ask also this, that thou wilt bring us up again, for we have fallen down into the depths of trespasses, by thy divine intreaties, O pure Lady.

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TODAY is the Feast of St John the Divine and Theologian, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is the author of no fewer than four books of the New Testament: the Fourth of our Gospels, three letters, and the Apocalypse or Revelation.

θεολογῶν — “theologizing”. Evagrius the Solitary wrote, “If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly, you are a theologian”. St Diadochus of Photiki cautioned against theology in the sense of allowing the thinking mind to speculate about God without the reins of tradition to keep it in check.

OUR intellect often finds it hard to endure praying because of the straightness and concentration which this involves; but it joyfully turns to theology because of the broad and unhampered scope of divine speculation.

Therefore, so as to keep the intellect from expressing itself too much in words or exalting itself unduly in its joy, we should spend most of our time in prayer, in singing psalms and reading the Holy Scriptures, yet without neglecting the speculations of wise men whose faith has been revealed in their writings.

In this way we shall prevent the intellect from confusing its own utterances with the utterances of grace, and stop it from being led astray by self-esteem and dispersed through over-elation and loquacity.

ἑβρόντησας — “you thundered”. Brother to St James the Apostle, these two sons of Zebedee and Salome were step-cousins to Jesus through Joseph the Betrothed. Due to their impetuous character, they were dubbed ‘sons of thunder’ (boanerges), to which our prayer makes reference.

ἠγαπημένος — “perfectly beloved”. This is the perfect tense form, implying completion, intensity. Throughout his Gospel, John refers to himself as “the beloved disciple”, with humble astonishment that he could have become so close to one whom he recognised to have been God himself.

πεπαρρησιασμένῃ — related to παρρησία, meaning boldness in conversation, confidence, intimacy. The Apostles pray for παρρησία in Acts 4:24-34:

GRANT unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

But what our prayer is talking about here is not simply nerve, but the free speaking and honest conversation between those who share intimacy, personal friendship, affection. John is speaking of this kind of παρρησία when he writes:

BELOVED, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. (1 John 3:21)

This confidence means that “if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14). St Symeon the New Theologian prescribed the following prayer for those who felt that God’s grace was being diminished in them by sins.

‘YET now, Lord, if it is Thy will and to my benefit, let Thy grace enter Thy servant once again, so that, aware of it, I may rejoice with tears and compunction, illumined by its eternal radiance. Guard me from unclean thoughts, from everything evil, from the sins I commit daily in word or act, consciously or unwittingly.

May I be given the confidence to call upon Thee freely, O Lord, from amidst all the afflictions that I suffer daily at the hands of men and demons; and, cutting off my own will, may I be mindful of the blessings stored up for those that love Thee. For Thou hast said, Lord, that he who asks receives, that he who seeks finds, and that the door will be opened to whoever knocks (cf. Matt 7:8).’

In addition to saying these and other things that God puts into your mind, persevere in prayer, not allowing yourself to grow slack through listlessness.

And God in His love will not abandon you.

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THE entire world hath been bathed in light by thy resurrection, O Lord, and Paradise opened once more; while all the creation doeth thee honour, and each one offereth its hymn unto thee.

“Our sweet Jesus. The only love.” (Elder Joseph the Hesychast.)

The Precious Cross: once tasted, it fills with longing

Ἔφανας ἐπὶ γῆς, τὰς ἀκτῖνας τοῦ Σταυροῦ, ἐν ᾧ τὸν διάβολον καταβαλῶν, τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἔσωσας, τὸ γένος Κύριε· διὸ ὑμνοῦμεν τὴν δόξαν σου.

Γεύσεως ἀπειθοῦς, τῷ Σταυρῷ ὁ Λυτρωτής, ἔλυσε τὸ δέλεαρ, τῇ τοῦ Πατρὸς εὐδοκίᾳ· ᾌσωμεν αὐτῷ ᾆσμα καινόν, ὅτι ἐνδόξως δεδόξασται.

Σκῆπτρον νικοποιόν, κατεφύτευσας Χριστέ, ζωῆς ξύλον ἄχραντον, ὡς ἐν Ἐδὲμ τὸν Σταυρόν σου, ὡς φωτοειδὴς ἐξέλαμψεν, ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ ἅγιον.

Θεοτοκίον

Ἥν περ τῶν Προφητῶν, προεώρακε χορός, ὡς πύλην οὐράνιον, καὶ ἀκατάφλεκτον βάτον, σὲ Παρθενομῆτορ ἄχραντε, Θεὸν τεκοῦσαν ἔγνωμεν.

THOU didst shine the bright rays of thy Cross upon the earth, by which thou hadst cast down the devil, and saved the race of men, O Lord: wherefore we sing hymns unto thy glory.

BY the Cross, O Redeemer, thou didst embitter [lit. ‘loose’] the beguiling taste of disobedience, at the good-pleasure of the Father; let us sing unto him a new song, for gloriously is he glorified.

WHEN formed with light it shone out upon the holy hill, thou didst plant thy Cross, O Christ, like a sceptre of victory, an immaculate tree of life as in Eden.

Theotokion

WE acknowledge thee, whom the choir of Prophets foresaw, to be the gate of heaven, the bush unconsumed in the burning: Virgin mother, immaculate, who gavest birth to God.

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“He who has not tasted something, says Basil the Great, does not know what he is missing; but once he has tasted it, he is filled with longing.”

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THESE prayers come from Mattins on the Feast of the Commemoration of the Precious Cross which appeared, in broad daylight and for several hours, over the hill of Golgotha just outside Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified, in the year 351. St Cyril of Jerusalem recorded the event, which was witnessed by hundreds of people, in a letter to the Emperor Constantius.

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Γεύσεως ἀπειθοῦς ἔλυσε τὸ δέλεαρ, “you dissolved the bait of the disobedient tasting”, i.e. the eating of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. When we look on the Cross, self-gratification becomes distasteful to us, we lose our appetite for sin, and hunger and thirst for God instead.

St Theodoros the Great Ascetic explains what has happened to Adam’s race.

ADAM used the senses wrongly and was spellbound by sensory beauty; and because the fruit appeared to him to be beautiful and good to eat (Gen 3:6), he tasted it and forsook the enjoyment of intelligible things.

So it was that the just Judge judged him unworthy of what he had rejected — the contemplation of God and of created beings — and, making darkness His secret place (cf. 2 Sam 22:12; Ps 18:11), deprived him of Himself and of immaterial realities. For holy things must not be made available to the impure.

What he fell in love with, God permitted him to enjoy, allowing him to live according to the senses, with but faint vestiges of intellectual perception.

The effect of seeing the Cross with spiritual eyes is to change our priorities completely. Things which once entranced us, held us captive, no longer appeal to us in the same way. St Peter of Damaskos says,

‘BLESSED are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness’ (Matt 5:6). He becomes as one who hungers and thirsts for all righteousness, that is, both for bodily virtue and for the moral virtue of the soul. He who has not tasted something, says Basil the Great, does not know what he is missing; but once he has tasted it, he is filled with longing.

Thus he who has tasted the sweetness of the commandments, and realizes that they lead him gradually towards the imitation of Christ, longs to acquire them all, with the result that he often disdains even death for their sake.

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At Mattins on Monday following the Sunday of the Paralysed Man.

COME, all ye nations, feel the power of the awful mystery: for Christ our Saviour, who in the beginning was the Word, has been crucified for us, and willingly buried; and he arose from the dead, to save all that is: let us worship him.

The healing of the Paralysed man: the tender pity of the Word

Ῥῆμα Παράλυτον, μόνον συνέσφιγξεν, ὡς ὁ παγκόσμιος, λόγος ἐφθέγξατο, τοῦ δι’ ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὀφθέντος δι’ εὐσπλαγχνίαν· ὅθεν καὶ τὸν κράββατον, ἐπιφέρων διήρχετο, κἂν οἱ Γραμματεῖς ὁρᾶν, τὸ πραχθὲν οὐχ ὑπέφερον, κακίας κατεχόμενοι φθόνῳ, τῷ ψυχὰς παραλύοντι.

A SINGLE word gave strength unto the Paralytic, when spake the Word that is in all the world, who in tender pity appeared upon earth for our sakes; whereupon taking up his bed, he went on his way, though the scribes saw what was done, and could not endure it, for they were seized by that envy that doth paralyse the soul.

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An icon of the healing of the paralytic by the Sheep-pool. “Let us remember” said St Macarius, just as in our prayer, “and consider how our Lord, when in His goodness He sojourned here, made the blind to recover their sight, healed the palsied.”

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THIS prayer comes from Matins on the Sunday of the Paralysed Man. The story can be found in John 5:1-16.

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Orthodoxy does not rationalise miracles of bodily healing away as contemporary Western theology often does; neither does it hold that miracles ended with the period of the Primitive Church, as Reformation Protestantism did.

At the same time, it is understood that spiritual disease – that is to say, our tendency to ‘fall short of the glory of God’ in countless ways – is a much more significant problem, and in fact may underlie many distressing and difficult-to-treat physical and emotional conditions, as well as contributing to problems in personal relationships.

One such disease is dejection. There is a kind of spiritual paralysis, says St John Cassian, in dejection.

OUR fifth struggle is against the demon of dejection, who obscures the soul’s capacity for spiritual contemplation and keeps it from all good works.

When this malicious demon seizes our soul and darkens it completely, he prevents us from praying gladly, from reading Holy Scripture with profit and perseverance, and from being gentle and compassionate towards our brethren. He instills a hatred of every kind of work and even of the monastic profession itself.

Undermining all the soul’s salutary resolutions, weakening its persistence and constancy, he leaves it senseless and paralyzed, tied and bound by its despairing thoughts.

St John Cassian, “On the Eight vices”

But whether we suffer from dejection or envy, there is no disease of body or soul which the Physician cannot heal. Far from asking us to diminish our expectation of physical healing, St Macarius holds we should be inspired by it to be confident of spiritual healing too.

IF it seems to us hard and impossible to be converted from such a multitude of sins, because we are in their possession — a thought which, as I said, is a device of wickedness and a hindrance to our salvation — let us remember and consider how our Lord, when in His goodness He sojourned here, made the blind to recover their sight, healed the palsied, cured all manner of disease, raised the dead when they were already in decay and disintegration, gave back hearing to the deaf, cast out a legion of devils from a single man, and restored him to his senses, though he was so far gone in madness. […]

He who created the body, made the soul also; and as in His sojourn on earth, when men came to Him seeking help and healing from Him, He granted ungrudgingly in His kindness according as their needs were, like a good physician, the only true physician, so is it with spiritual things.

St Macarius of Egypt, “Spiritual Homilies” IV.25.

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SHINE upon my lowly soul, O Christ, with thy light which knoweth no evening, and guide it into thy fear; for thy commandments are light.

“Our sweet Jesus. The only love.” (Elder Joseph the Hesychast.)

Jeremiah the Prophet

Κύριε, σὺ πρὸ τοῦ πλασθῆναι προέγνως, Ἱερεμίαν τὸν ἔνδοξον, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τεχθῆναι ἐκ μήτρας, ὑποφήτην καθηγίασας, ὡς προειδὼς ἀληθῶς, τῆς γνώμης τὸ ἐλεύθερον, οὗ ταῖς πρεσβείαις ἡμᾶς σῶσον, ὡς ἀγαθὸς καὶ φιλάνθρωπος.

O LORD, thou didst foreknow Jeremiah the glorious before he was formed, thou didst also consecrate him as thine interpreter before his birth from the womb (Jer 1:5), for thou didst truly know beforehand the free-spirit of his will; by whose intercessions, save us, as thou art good and lovest mankind.

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— τῆς γνώμης τὸ ἐλεύθερον, “the free-spirit of his will”. ἐλεύθερος (“free”) has the connotation of confidence and boldness. God consecrated Jeremiah to his prophetic service because of his independent spirit.

The royal court and the Temple in late 7th century BC Jerusalem were treating ‘brand Israel’ as permission from God to behave as they pleased without fearing any consequences (Jer 7:1-15; cf. Lk 6:46-49). They thought that because they had the Temple called after God’s name, because they were ‘the chosen nation’, they could ignore the core values and duties of their Covenant with him.

Jeremiah was sent to warn them that God would deprive them of their land and Temple if they did not match them to the spirit of the Covenant. Jeremiah had to be able to stand up to them, despite persecution and attempts on his life.

— προέγνως … πρὸ τοῦ τεχθῆναι ἐκ μήτρας, “foreknowing … before his birth from the womb” is a welcome reminder that the Orthodox Church is unequivocally pro-life.

St James the Apostle: fervent in the meekness of grace

Νέος ὥσπερ Ἠλίας, ζήλῳ πυρακτούμενος, τοὺς ἀπειθήσαντας, τῷ κηρύγματί σου, καταφλέξαι ἠθέλησας Ἔνδοξε, ἀλλ’ ἐκώλυσέ σε, ὁ θελητὴς τῆς εὐσπλαγχνίας, ἐκδιδάσκων τὸ πρᾶον τῆς χάριτος.

A YOUNG man like Elijah, burning with zeal, it was thy desire to consume the faithless by thy preaching, O glorious saint; but he prevented thee, who desired tender pity, teaching the meekness of grace.

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— ὥσπερ Ἠλίας. For the stories, see 2 Kings 2:2-17 and Luke 9:51-56.

— τὸ πρᾶον τῆς χάριτος. Being meek [or gentle] is not the same a being a personality-free zone. It is the virtue of turning one’s natural anger on its proper targets, viz. the demons and one’s own weaknesses of character, never other people. See Evagrios the Solitary: “We must keep this watchdog under careful control, training him to destroy only the wolves and not to devour the sheep, and to show the greatest gentleness towards all men”. So actually, a meek person has a very lively, but well-controlled character.

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O APOSTLE and Martyr James, sheep of the Good Shepherd, chosen by God, who together with thy kinsman dost rejoice on high: ask, for them that keep the feast of thy honoured memory, forgiveness of sins, and the Great Mercy.