The world’s religion maintains that to live for and take care of yourself is the ultimate test of your “quality of life.” We’re encouraged to indulge in those activities and pursuits that make us ‘happy,’ that are satisfying to our wants. Indeed, this is part of our American identity, “the pursuit of happiness.” This is what for many makes them feel truly ‘alive.’
The reality is that this self-indulgence has made us spiritually lazy, lethargic; it’s subordinated life with God and that which is eternal in perspective for a shallower existence that too often demands little in the way of discipline or self-denial. We as a people are too often like little children let loose in a candy store with no one to tell them when they’ve had too much.
Adherence to this philosophy, this way of life, has made us sick. It promised us our independence, our freedom, but has, instead, enslaved us to the pursuits and pleasures of this life, while hindering our preparation and pursuit of our relationship and communion with God—that which alone is eternal. In thinking that we’re living life to the full by focusing on our own individual wants, we’ve actually lost what it means to truly live.
We as Orthodox aren’t immune to the pressures of our culture and its influence in our lives. We’re often conditioned to see prayer as a “break” from reality rather than restoration to Reality. We easily adopt the attitude that God should be grateful to us for the break time we spend praying and worshiping Him.
The truth is, however, that God Himself is our ‘reality check.’ He is the Author of our lives. He it is who calls us from nothingness into being and Who has purposed us for eternal life—life with Him. He calls us into adoption as sons, co-heirs with Christ. He desires to make us like the angels, but too often we exchange this divine purpose and calling, this offer of eternity for the temporal pleasures and escape from Reality that our culture offers us in plenty through entertainment, pursuit of financial ‘security’ and the passions of the flesh.
God offers us His love. He offers us forgiveness. He offers us new life, restoration to that life through confession. But we have to make the choice: we presume on God’s grace at our own peril. If we’re to partake of His kingdom, we must repent, return to God, struggle against our passions, and truly strive to come outside of ourselves to love and to serve: “We do not live for ourselves, but for Thee, our Maker and Benefactor.” (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).
This is the key: it’s in coming outside of ourselves, our pettiness, our wants, abandoning the false idea that life should just be about us, that we truly become like God and are able to commune with Him. Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel, saying, “whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it.”
The world has it all wrong: it’s not in hording life for ourselves, our own pursuits, our own passions that frees us, makes us happy. Instead, it’s by serving, giving, tithing, worshiping, praying, interceding, and making use of the tools of repentance in the Church, that bring us true fulfillment, healing, and the joy of the Kingdom. By coming outside ourselves, we learn what love truly is, we learn how to love, by becoming more like God who is the Author of that love.
This is the way of the cross, the way of self-denial, the way of true love. It’s shocking by worldly standards like humility is a shock to the proud and shocking like the way of love is to those who would sow the seeds of enmity and strife, and secularism: As St. Paul says, “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (I Cor. 1:23).
Those who resent what Christ and His Church demand of us don’t yet understand that what Christ is showing us, what the lives of the Saints demonstrate to us, is not burdensome, but part of that “light yoke,” that is the recipe of healing, growth: the way of becoming truly deified humanity, the only way to true enlightenment, and, salvation.
Christ asks, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Ask yourself that question and we will not so easily presume on God’s grace. Our eternal salvation, life with God, depends on our life with God now, each day. If we find we only have time for the things of God now and then, how are we to prepare to spend eternity with Him and in His near presence?
We remember Christ’s closing words in today’s Gospel: “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
This way of the cross, this way of Christ, which demands our denial of self—even our very death to the old man, is an invitation not to abandon the world, but to live as that “new creation,” in the world, so that we may become that ambassador for Christ, that shining light-bearer of His Truth that He calls us to be, as St. Paul reminds us this day, “… it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:6).
We hold this treasure Christ has given us in “earthen vessels.” We know that the power He gives us to love, to live, to speak the Truth, comes from Him. Living out our faith, growing in our faith, serving and contributing to the needs of the Church—this is the way of love for the world, the way to transfigure the world with the presence of Christ working in and through us sinners.
If we are willing to struggle against our passions, our worldliness, our false gods and idols we’ve made, the Holy Spirit will bring us healing and growth. As we say yes to God’s invitation moment by moment and day by day, He will aid us in our battle against the forces of the evil one, against our own passions, and enable us to stand, to serve, and to love in His holy name. With St. Paul we too can say, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (who) lives in me.” May this be our desire, the fervent prayer of our hearts.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Mission
15th Sunday after Pentecost/Sunday after the Cross
16 September 2012
Epistle: Galatians 2:16-20 (Sunday after); II Corinthians 4:6-15
Gospel: Mark 8:24-9:1 (Sunday after); Matthew 22:35-46
