Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Theodosios the Great, Head of Monasteries in Palestine
4th Vigil of Theophany: Joshua 3:7-8, 15-17 Epistle: Hebrews 13:7-16 Gospel: St. Matthew 11:27-30
St. Matthew 11:27-30: "All things have been committed to Me by My Father. No
one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to
reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and
learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My
burden is light." To know God is to enter into the very life of the Holy Trinity. We have come to know the Father through
the Son as the Son reveals Him to us by the Holy Spirit.
Knowing God is not simply acknowledging His existence nor even bending to His sovereignty and dominion. Knowing
God is a personal knowledge that grows from living a relationship. It is similar to relationships with other human beings,
in which intellectual concepts play only a minor part. Knowing God is greater, permitting infinite and eternal growth of
interpersonal knowledge unknown in human relationships. The path to this knowledge is through union with and
submission to Christ by Whom one is filled with Divine life. As He "knows the Father," He enables us to enter a
relationship with the Unoriginate "Father." For the Father has given over all things to Christ including access and
knowledge of Himself. "No one comes to the Father but by Me" (Jn. 14:6).
We cannot say that those who claim to believe in God know the True God. There are many false gods of human creation
and speculation. Men have inclined to invent and worship these in place of the True God, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Pride leads men to create gods having a human image, human likeness, and human limitations. Mankind,
without the light of the knowledge of God given in Christ, prefers the idolatrous service of gods who fulfill human desires
at the beck and call of finite creators. Idolatry allows men to blame the gods they have fashioned for the disorder and
failure which they themselves have created. Men are able to project responsibility onto "the gods," onto the works of their
own hands. But the service of false gods leaves no peace, no joy, and no fulfillment - only giving place to demons.
Beloved, idolatry is a temptation and a "religious solution" into which we who call ourselves Christians may fall.
Enthroning a lesser god, and calling it "Christ" or "our Father" is actually a contrivance which conveniently avoids the real
difficulties and the actual demands of a living knowledge of the God Who is God. Such "packaging" and modification of
true faith is death to the soul, for the Source of true Life is replaced with a manageable god, an tidy little distortion that
allows us to pursue our passions and desires. Let us guard against those self-created, subtle movements of our hearts and
minds that would raise up false gods to suit our pride and our ego. When we refuse to surrender to the True God we
presume to bear the whole world and our own sins upon our own shoulders. In fact, these bear us down to hell.
Let us remember: knowing God requires surrender of our preoccupations and of our petty, inadequate delusions about self
and especially about God. But if we will struggle for union with Christ and submit to Him, if we will answer His call and
take up His yoke and His Cross, then He will bless us with rest in Himself. We shall be able to cry out from our ongoing
relationship and to say, "Our Father." It is in our surrendering to Christ that the Lord Jesus lifts away the heavy yoke of our
sins from us and then yokes us to Himself (Mt. 11:28,29). He shoulders the unbearable burden now made light for us.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit," who mourn meekly before God (Mt. 5:3-5) to whom He grants His own life and Sonship
with the Father.
Save us, O Lover of mankind, in the multitude of Thine infinite compassion and mercy!
