The Way, The Truth, and The Light
by Samantha Zabaneh (Apr. ’01)
Have you ever thought about why we breathe, why our hearts beat, or better yet, how blood runs through our veins? There are so many questions that keep us going in life, but very few people know and believe the answer. Do you ever wonder if you have some kind of role to play in life before it ends? Do you ever feel that you have to help a stranger with a problem? We all know and believe that each one of us has a purpose in life — to have an effect on something or someone, and to make a difference. Do you ever wonder what holds the universe in place? Can something so powerful exist? Who can love us unconditionally from the very moment we are born until the end of eternity? Since many people believe in so many different things and also differ in how they practice their faith, the only answer is the one, true God. God gave us His only begotten Son to show us His unconditional love, and for us to believe in His promise of everlasting life. Moreover, it is Christ’s sacrifice and Resurrection that makes “real life everlasting with God” possible.
Love can be defined in so many words, but can only be understood by experience. It is a union between a man and a woman in love; it is a bond that ties families together; it is a sharing between two friends; it is the universal language that holds the world in place. Love is known by some people as something that has a beginning and an end, but Christ’s love for us is endless. Even though it is sometimes the source of tears and sorrow, it is always glorious. God’s love is unconditional for He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the symbol of God’s unconditional love for man. He sacrificed His life for the fulfillment of the Father’s will. Christ has gone to Hades and conquered death to resurrect with Him the old (those who have passed away) and the new (those who have not yet died).
Before Christ’s resurrection, the cross was a symbol of darkness and death. After He had risen, the cross became a symbol of victory for Christians. He died not to abandon His servants, but to open the door of the Father’s Kingdom for His friends. As He spoke in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” Now, as heirs to God’s Kingdom, it is our responsibility and great honor to spread the good news of the Lord to others. Our job on earth is to live by the Word and to teach others how much God loves us and desires a relationship with each person.
We read the Holy Bible and believe in what is written in it even though we didn’t live in the days of the Apostles, nor did we witness the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We believe because we feel in our hearts that it happened, is happening, and will continue to happen. God’s promise is as good as the next breath we take, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Life Out There
by Rebecca Shwayri (Sep. ’01)
Alas, summer is quickly drawing to an end. I’m sure that many of you out there were spiritually renewed at the Antiochian Village and Parish Life Conferences. Summer conferences and camp provide a much needed wake-up call. Many of us (including this author) begin to realize that we established bad habits over the course of the past year, and it is time to start anew. We’ve started to notice the minor spiritual slip-ups that were a part of our way of life. While beginning again may not be easy, it is definitely possible to establish a new and better way of life with God’s help.
One of the reasons that a minor spiritual slip-up can be a cause for concern is due to the fact that minor mistakes can develop into habits. These habits can eventually become part of our way of life and can make becoming closer to God much more difficult. Now that we are aware of these habits we may foolishly think: “Oh, I’m aware of my old habits and so I now can rely on myself never to do that again.”
However, this way of thinking probably got us into our problem in the first place. Of course, we must not rely on ourselves as we strive to lead a new and better life. We must constantly abide in remembrance of God and walk in His presence.
Going back to college makes this constant remembrance of God difficult. Returning to dorm life after a summer break can make moot all our good plans for change. My own concrete advice to those of you going back to school or going to college for the first time this fall is to PRAY CONSTANTLY. Constant prayer serves as a deep and continuing connection to God. Keep in mind that your prayers do not need to be lengthy or elaborate. In fact, your prayer can be as simple as the Jesus prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner.” This sort of constant prayer and reliance on God will make establishing the new way of life attainable.
Communicating with God
by Vicki Sultani (Oct. ’01)
All of us talk to many people during the day. Parents, teachers, coaches and friends are among the many people that we converse with day after day. Most of the time, having a conversation with people such as parents or friends is unavoidable, because there is always a situation we need to discuss. Talking is one form of communication, and communication is imperative if you want to get your point across. How else would you ask your teacher about the homework assignment, or explain to your friend that you would like to go see a movie this weekend? Communication keeps us close to each other. But, who is the most important person that we all need to talk to? God, of course.
There are so many ways that we can all talk to each other, and to God. I can write an email to my friends, or call a cousin on the phone. But how do we talk to God? The answer is simple: prayer. “The distance between heaven and earth is only a prayer away.” There are so many critical problems and so many people that we need to pray for. We pray for people who have passed away, such as all those who perished in the recent attack on our country. We ask God to grant their family and friends peace and comfort. This is central to many of the prayers being addressed to God in the last few days. Many churches held special services for this purpose alone. Yet, there are also many small issues in our lives that also need to be prayed about. When you have a bad day, when you feel frustrated, angry, hopeless, or simply want to thank God for the blessings He has given to you, then prayer is the answer to how we cope. Someone told me that if I put God in the center, then everything else would come together.
What awesome advice: just by making God as the central focus of my life, everything else will be brought together. Whatever is in your heart or on your mind, tell it to God. “My soul is weary with sorrow. Strengthen me according to Your word.” (Psalm 119:28) He is the one who will share in our joy and who will also comfort us in our sorrows. God will always help us. All we need to do is tell Him about what’s going on. Remember, God is always knocking at our door, and we need to let Him in. Prayer is the way. Even though God knows everything, we still need to ask Him to guide us. The only way to do that is to pray. Don’t ever forget to communicate with God, because He will never let us down.
Do You Believe in God? By Madlyne Saba (Nov. ’01)
Do you believe in God? Throughout your lifetime, you are going to be faced with many different kinds of decisions and temptations. Most of these will be small and hard to see coming towards us. Allow me to elaborate on what I mean by that. For example, it’s a Sunday night, and I know I have a test Monday. I have no idea what the chapter is about and I know I must study in order to pass. My friends call me to go to the movies with them. I choose to go to the movies, instead of studying for the test. Therefore, I am faced with a small everyday temptation. Instances similar to this approach us every day. These types of temptations are extremely hard to see coming, and occur many times in a single day. Some of them can affect you for the rest of your life.
There are much bigger and more important temptations that are generally easier to see coming and easier to avoid. For example, let’s say you have a boyfriend of two years. You two are extremely close and you understand and express your love for each other in a nonsexual way. It’s a Friday night and you both go out with a group of friends to a party. Afterward you and he go back to his house for “time alone.” No one is there, so you both cuddle up on the couch. You both independently have thought of this whole sex idea, although neither of you has ever brought up the idea in conversation. This idea of premarital sex is a large temptation that may not hit every day, but we have to be prepared for it.
It seems to me that life is a series of decisions we make and temptations we are faced with. We are put in a position to deny something we believe in. For example, take that study-for-the-test-or-go-tothe- movies situation. Depending on what you decide, you might find yourself opposing your own work ethic belief. And in the after-the-party situation, because of your decision, you are faced with denying the sanctity of your body. But the plain truth is, you cannot blame anybody else but yourself for being in these situations. The decision was all yours, and yours alone.
However, there is a third type of situation. There are, unfortunately, times when people are forced into a situation that they cannot foresee in any way. This has nothing to do with a decision we make for ourselves, but a decision that was made by someone else. However, our response to the situation is what the remainder of this article will discuss. The situation I’m speaking of is this: if for no reason at all, out of the blue, someone walked up to you, put a gun to your head and asked if you believed in God, what would your reaction be? This situation is different and could lead to what I call the “Ultimate Temptation.” It is the denial of God. And just like in the past, it is very real today. This is a very difficult situation to think about, but one that I feel should be discussed.
A lot of people in the past have been faced with situations similar to this. A lot of them were beaten, tortured, and even killed because of their faith. This kind of thing still goes on every day in different parts of the world. For example, in 1960, a monkpriest named Nestor was born in the province of Crimea in southern Russia. All the monks in Russia were required to be registered with the state which was atheist. Nestor did not register, so if he was caught he would be put in jail or killed. He was eventually ordained as a monk-priest. He found a church in Zharky and decided to stay there and serve God.
There were many times that Nestor’s faith was tested. His church was robbed several times. Eventually the people stopped caring about robbing the church; they wanted Nestor’s life. He was held at gunpoint in front of his own house. He ran inside and locked the door. They shot at him, but all he could do was shoot towards them to try and scare them away. He would never shoot at them. This scenario went on for quite a while in his life. Monk-Priest Nestor was eventually found dead outside the window of his house on December 31, 1993. His throat was slit and he had multiple stab wounds. This all occurred only eight years ago.
I’m sure we have all heard about what happened April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado. There was a school shooting by two boys who went to that school. It was a very tragic situation. But there is much more to it than that. Cassie Bernall was a student at Columbine and was in the library at the time of the shooting. One of the boys walked up to her at gunpoint and asked if she believed in God. Her response after a short pause was yes. Apparently they did ask her why, but didn’t give her a chance to answer. She was killed instantly.
The event at Columbine made me very curious, so I decided to ask a lot of people I know the same question that Cassie Bernall was asked by the shooters. The responses that I got were amazing. Some people said yes right away, and others said they wouldn’t be able to respond unless they were in the particular situation. I totally respect the responses I got, and understand where these people are coming from. Christa Shalhoub’s response was that she would be happy to die for Christ. She said “I live my life every day to climb up the ladder of salvation, and when the time comes for me to die, I hope I can reach heaven.” These are very powerful and extremely effective words. Jaclyn Ansara’s reaction to the question was, “The only way for me to answer that question is to actually be faced with the situation. I am a strong believer in God, and I would love to say that if someone held me up and asked that question, I would without a doubt say YES! But until I am faced with this (and hopefully I never am) I cannot give you an answer.” Both of these responses were very helpful in trying to understand different points of view. I hope that by the time you finish reading this article, you have some idea of what your feelings toward this subject really are.
If someone just walked up to me and asked me if I believed in God, I would say yes. Of course I believe in God. But would the circumstances change if that person was a complete stranger and had a gun to my head? Of course it would. I don’t think that I would be so quick to answer. I personally have thought a lot about this for the last couple of months. In the end, my answer would still be “yes.” Christ offered us the promise of eternal life, which means life forever after death. I could either die for Christ and live forever, or live and really die.
You can think about this question and decide right now what your answer would be. In fact, you may not know it, but you have been thinking about it your whole life. Cassie Bernall said yes, she believed in God. Whatever you have believed your entire life is what is going to come out of your mouth. You aren’t going to have time to think about your family or your friends. You can’t tell the gunman, hold on, and let me think about that. The response you give is going to be spontaneous. It’s going to be what is in your heart and what you truly believe.
This may not be a subject that we all would like to talk about. No one likes to think about death and leaving friends or and family. I started this article off thinking that I didn’t want to get my personal feelings involved. But shortly after beginning to write, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to finish it without having my personal opinion or feelings go into it. After doing all the research and reading what I had written, I’ve realized how important this subject is to think about. I hope that by the time you have finished reading this article, you too realize how important this issue is to think about. I hope that you will never have to be faced with the situation or question, but if you are, at least you will have thought about it.
New Year’s Resolution by Leigh Colhmia (Jan. ’02)
What is the value of life? Some might say the value of life can be judged when you accomplish things and are remembered for them. Others may say the value of life is found intrinsically in a human being. While the value of life is a difficult subject to discuss, I will attempt to do my best at showing the meaning I give to the value of life. I feel that as humans we don't know the true meaning of life until something bad happens to us. In America, we take so many things for granted. It took an event like September 11 to bring us all together as one nation. We should be living our lives as Christ did and be thankful for all that we have.
“Christian” literally means "little Christ." Is taking so many things for granted Christlike? Let’s take a look at just how much we in America take things for granted. Food for example. In other countries, people may get asked, “Would you like pizza?” In America we get asked what kind of pizza would you like — pepperoni, sausage, green olives, black olives, pineapple even! Or think about water: would you like bottled water or water from the tap? In some countries they don't even have a tap or water that is clean enough to drink. It is small things such as these that we take for granted.
Sometimes in life one just needs to slow down and look around and praise God for what we have. When comparing our country to others, it is hard not to see why we have so much to be thankful for. There are so many things that are just handed to us that we don't even notice. Whether it is money, food, clothing, or shelter to name a few, we need to understand that all of this is God taking care of us. Our taking things for granted is an affront to God, especially when we ask him for more when we are already in overabundance. However are we willing to give more? Are we ready to give to our greatest potential?
The greatest Commandment God gave us was to treat one another as we would like to be treated. Would we like to be slapped in the face like we do to God? If you were to give someone a gift, would you like it if they said, “Thanks, but I really wanted a new car, not this.”? I didn't think so. This is precisely the reason why we must always be watchful of our actions and thankful for the gifts He has given us. We must ALWAYS be acting like “little Christ children.” I do not recall a story in the Bible in which someone invites Christ to dinner and He says, “Wow, what a great chicken, but I really wanted steak.” We are all guilty of complaining at the dinner table saying how this food is disgusting, or how we really wanted a ham sandwich not a turkey sandwich. But we should really start examining our situation and be thankful for the abundance God has blessed us with. We must be keeping Christ in our minds especially as this new year begins.
At the beginning of every new year we always hear of people who are going to lose weight or watch what they eat or exercise more often. Do you ever hear of people saying that they want to become closer to God? Or people saying they want to increase their prayer life? I think that because this past year was as difficult as it was, we need to make a special resolution to be thankful and to make our lives Christ-filled and Godserving. It’s not a matter of just being thankful around Thanksgiving when the entire family take turns saying, “I'm thankful for this fellowship” or “I'm thankful for this meal we have together.” We must be thankful all the time as Christ was when He was alive. In James 1:17 we read, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." This shows us the perfection of God and how he is the source of all good things. He created everything! A man can make a million dollars and take personal credit for his joy. But who gave him the skills and abilities to make that million dollars? In a way, when we take things for granted we fail to see Him as the cause of all our happiness.
In Psalm 136 it says," O Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endureth forever." God's love will always be here for us unlike the material belongings we acquire in our lives. We should not take life for granted. When someone dies, it seems that there is always someone saying, “I wish I had been nicer to this person” or “I wish I would have done this with them before they died.” We never know the hour in which God can come for a person, therefore we must always be treating others with the love that God shows us, which is unconditional.
The ultimate resolution I think we should all make for the new year is to increase our prayer lives and be thankful for everything. Every day try and discover something new that God has given you that you have never noticed before and thank Him for it. We should also try and do our best not to ask for so many unneeded things this year. Sometimes the smallest thing we ask for is the greatest another can possess. Try this year to be a more giving person instead of always thinking of what more you need. Once you have Christ in your life, what more do you need? As Psalm 136 tells us, "His mercy endureth forever." Can you think of anything else in life that will last you forever? Christ is the One true light that will never fade. I encourage each of you to learn from mistakes in the past and improve on them helping to increase your spiritual life. May God's grace abundantly bless you in this new year and bring you closer to Him who is the Truth and the source of all unfading goodness.
A Note From College
by Isaac Farha (Feb. ’02)
Truly, I have never felt busier in my life than I do now in college. Hurray for the break! Previous articles have discussed the business of the college student's life. How do we balance out everything? We expect of ourselves to study, attend services, exercise, work, and have some sort of a social life. However, even after all these things have been completed, why is it that we still are empty and not able to feel complete? If you've ever taken Communion on Sunday at church, you know for a short while what it is to be complete. Grace is given to us all the time.
Why do we despair of this grace and allow ourselves to be distracted? Sometimes we can avoid distractions, but other times we can't because of the life we have to live. What are the unavoidable and avoidable distractions? This is the ongoing war that we will fight until the day of our death.
Father John Mack was recently talking about a man who said he prays and prays but never hears God's voice. The man prayed all the time but never listened, never waited for an answer, for God's voice to come. He grew very sad because he thought he was doing everything he should.
He asked a spiritual elder what the problem was and the elder replied, "You talk to God all the time but never listen to what He has to say." So the man began to set aside time every day for God. Instead of praying all the time he would listen by quieting his thoughts and exterior noise. After six days his soul began to hear God's voice and he was filled with joy and delight as he knew beyond explanation that he was complete.
Every day we too should set aside time for God, to hear His voice. Bishop Kallistos once spoke of a man who said, "If you are too busy to give God one hour a day, then you should set aside two hours a day." Computers work faster when they aren't so full of junk. When we quiet ourselves, we empty ourselves of this earthly junk. We are able to work more efficiently with a clear mind while praying, doing homework, working, etc.
St. Isaac the Syrian says, "Above all things, love silence." The greatest thing that America hates is silence. The American life would have us completely full of junk. Do we combat this or continually let it happen? Alex Younes, the speaker at the last college conference, spoke of a man who predicted that in our time the Devil would sit on top of every housetop. Alex referred to this Devil as our TV antennas. I still watch TV. I like to laugh and see interesting things, but it's good to have a balance. TV is only one of the many distractions.
Our thoughts may be the biggest distraction. The Devil is like the large shadow on the wall coming from a tiny moth. When we turn on the light it is gone.
Talk to your priest about what you can handle doing every day. Ask him for a few starting points for personal worship, including silence and prayer times that you are able to complete in proportion to the strength God has given you. It's a matter of doing. To our God be all glory, honor, and worship. Amen.
Where Does Orthodoxy Live? By Amy Stephan (May ’02)
For the past three months, I have been living in London. I am in a study-abroad program with my college, the Fashion Institute of Technology. Originally, I intended to tell you about the culture shock you may experience when living in another society. I thought it might be interesting to give you the “scoop” on different countries and share with you how people live there. Each culture has a different way of looking at life. Some find work as the focus of their day; they measure their success by how much work is completed. Others focus their life on God and the church. These major differences and little things, like charging for ketchup in McDonalds, is what culture shock is all about. This is what makes living in a different country special. But I decided not to write about that.
I thought then that you might like to know where you can find Orthodox churches in other countries. When I arrived in London, it was very easy for me to find an Antiochian Orthodox church. That’s because there are ten in Britain. I was also surprised to see Orthodox churches in Australia, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Africa, Germany, and New Zealand. I found churches in all of these by simply using Google’s search engine! My only job now is to find one that does the service in English! I do admit though, that hearing ‘O Pure Virgin’ in Arabic for the first time in a new country was very heartwarming. But I thought that would bore you.
Finally, I decided to write about Orthodoxy, and where it lives inside of you. Studying abroad has been the biggest challenge to my faith. I never realized what a privilege it was to hop into my parents’ car and be driven to church. Attending church, when I was back at home, was much easier to do — not only for the convenience of the ride, but because there was no outside pressure.
Just as people of other cultures live their lives in different ways, my flat-mates do the same thing! There are five people who live in my house back at home, and it is a unanimous decision to go to church every Sunday. However, living on your own is much different. There is no one to push the issue when you don’t feel like going. I can honestly say that if I was not brought up to attend church every Sunday, and if I did not come to love it so much, I would avoid going while I was away from home.
It is important to decide where you stand. Situations like this will be much easier if you are prepared. Everyone should know and do what is important to them. If you allow Orthodoxy to live inside of you, then there is no way you can be led down the wrong path. If you just read through all of the other articles in this publication, you’ll find that truth lives here because Orthodoxy does.
Well, I guess I ended up writing about all three!
Letter to an Arsonist
by Karim Azar (May ’02)
OUR CHURCH HAS BURNED
Amidst the ashes, we heard from God
April 7th, 2002. This day on the Orthodox Calendar marked the Third Sunday of Lent, exactly halfway to Pascha. The Third Sunday of Lent also marks the Ascension of the Cross. It was also the day that someone burned down our church.
When I got the first news of what was happening I was in disbelief. Not until I saw the 7 A.M. news, which showed a gigantic inferno, could I even begin comprehending the idea. It felt like my own home was burning around me. My father and I got to the church at 7:45A.M., not having any clue what to expect. When we got there, there was no church left. The police and the fire department had closed the entire block. They wrapped crime scene tape all around the outside perimeter of the church grounds. It is shocking to see a place of worship become a crime scene.
From the street, we could begin to see some of the damage. Not a single icon could be seen. The Iconostasis was nothing but a frame. The altar was a mound of char. In the middle of the church was a huge frame, the steeple, crushing even the roof that fell underneath it.
For the next couple of days, the thought “Why would we be a target for this attack?” kept running through my mind. Yes, we are a church where the majority of the parishioners are of Arab descent. Many of the parishioners (like myself) are first-generation Americans, if not immigrants of Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria or other Arab countries. However, this is certainly not our church’s entire identity. We have Greek, Russian, Indian, American, Ethiopian, Eastern European, and Chinese families, too.
I guess there is a reason for someone to hate us. We do give money to the poor. We do send money to orphanages to take care of children. Sometimes we even feed people who are hungry! Worst of all, we love every person who walks through the doors of our parish.
In the midst of the ashes, created by hate, we received a message from God. As the firefighters and investigators approached the altar, they allowed Fr. Samer to do the initial search. Unfortunately, there was not much to save. Yet on top of the burnt-up mound that was our beautiful altar, lay the Gospel book. The cover of the Gospel had burned away, as well as all of the outer edges. But there was one part that was readable: Matt 5:38-41:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek; turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.”
I want justice. The person who did this must face earthly judgment, the same justice that is guaranteed to us all under the Constitution and the law. This needs to happen before another place of worship is destroyed or any other crime of hate can be executed. I will be offering the responsible party love and understanding. I have full faith in God that when the arsonist’s time comes, He will judge the offender accordingly. God has the ultimate decision concerning their fate, whether it be in Heaven or in Hell.
The arsonist did not realize that to destroy a church you must destroy the people, their faith, and their good works. Such things are not bound by mere concrete, wood, and steel. We are still worshipping. We are still helping those in need. We are still welcoming all those who seek us out, embracing them in Christian love. Only this time, we are doing all that we did before with even more intensity, more passion, and more focus.
To the person responsible for this crime: You may have burned down the building, but you failed in your attempt to destroy our church.
Karim Azar Teen SOYO Co-Advisor Orthodox Church of the Redeemer