Reflections by Fr. David September 2019
”You have ordered all things for us"
( St Basil's Divine Liturgy Anaphora)
On September 1st of each year we begin the new ecclesiastical year. We begin a new opportunity to live more, more purposefully. The New Year can become for each of us more "ordered”. WE can attempt to become more” ordered" in our lives than we have in the year just past.
The Way of Orthodox Christianity is to follow the "ordering" which has been established for us through the defining of our belief in the One, the Holy, The Catholic, the Apostolic Church. God has through the last 2000 plus years presented us the means so we may join Him in the future Kingdom....Paradise! A Paradise which we lost because of our human intention being manipulated through the ignorance of the wonder and joy of being given purpose in our lives where error could only occur because of ill-tempered acceptance of our own fondness for that which is beyond our capacity. The knowledge of the good ,the and the knowledge of evil. The forbidden fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The tree where the serpent, the tempter rested waiting for our curiosity to manifest as we looked upon the beauty and loveliness of fruit produced by that tree. WE were naked in our curiosity,
Now we are "clothed with the garments of skins" and our curiosity remains the most prominent of our relationships. It is about the nature of the world order, our personal life within that context, our "set of rules" we have accepted as directions, our being called to become members o\f God's Kingdom....."in heaven so on earth"! We have become "wily as the serpent"! We are "not peaceful as the dove".
The Holy Spirit that is our breath of life in most often of mere secondary importance. The voice of the Father who implores us to honor Him in all that we do and to give glory to Him remains our most difficult challenge. He awaits our fascination with Him as the Divine Creator and Artist.
Yet, so often, we claim our judgment about opportunity as solely created by our ingenuity and our achievement. Meekness alludes us! We become subject to vanity and vain thoughts about the order in our lives.
September!, the new ecclesial (Church) year offers us opportunity to correct our errors of disbelief in His "ordering of the world”. We can learn to be careful about our delusions of greatness and celebrity which we in our poor vision of His intent for us make errors. We sin.
Our acceptance of ourselves as tempted to be other than God's child is to give way to our being breathed into life as His child, His artwork. We are to be partakers of the obedience exhibited by Christ. We are to be persistent in achieving our belief and the belief in His Kingdom which is yet to be fulfilled with OUR co-operation. It is in our receiving Him into our body of His Body and His Blood thankfully that initiates and nourishes the vision of our future with Him. It is with the aid of the Church year and it's feasts, it’s fasts and the stored resurrection" on the third day" we fulfill His plan for us! Our salvation is in the practice of what we say when we say "I believe".....in the consubstantial and Life giving Trinity!
