Saturday, May 28, 2005
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Hieromartyr Eutychios, Bishop of Rostov
Kellia: Deuteronomy 3:21-29 Apostle: Acts 12:1-11 Gospel: St. John 8:31-42
St. John 8:31-42, especially vs. 31: "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." This
passage from St. John's Gospel details the steps which Christians undertake by committing themselves to the Lord Jesus.
A sequence follows the commitment to be united to Christ; that holy choice is revealed in St. John 8:21-30. First, one
commits himself to Christ as King and God in the Christian Mystery. This begins a lifelong labor to grow in one's
relationship with the Lord. Traditionally, the Fathers call such work a "struggle," and a battle it is! Many forces work
against our drawing closer to Christ. The most difficult aspect of this battle is that it is a struggle within one's self to
submit all choices and actions to the Lord.
Sustaining the struggle to be united to the Lord is what He calls "abiding in His word." He illumined what "abiding"
means when confronting a group of "Jews who believed Him" (vs. 31). Just a little later in the Gospel, these believers
would be called those who sought "to kill" Him (vss. 37,40). Is this surprising? St. John amply portrays how those who
believed Him could soon after seek His death, sternly warning us against a superficial Christian commitment. Beloved, let
us consider prayerfully how we may "abide" truly in the word of the Lord.
First, the Lord says "If you abide in My word...you shall know the Truth" (vs. 32). Let us remember that Scripture typically
uses the word "know" to express relationship - as in knowing someone rather than for acquiring information. Since the
Lord calls Himself "the Truth" (14:6), knowing the Truth essentially means knowing the Lord Jesus - being in relationship
with Him. The Holy Fathers teach us that the more we know Him, the more we are changed into His likeness. Thus, to
know Christ our God is to think, feel, desire, reason, and will as He does. In submitting in this way, one becomes like Him
which results in freedom (vs. 32), but this is not freedom politically, economically, or socially, but inward freedom of the
heart, soul and mind.
The Lord next refines our understanding of the nature of the inward freedom He imparts. It is release from domination of
the passions that invariably accompany our sin. For the Orthodox Christian, "to abide in Christ" is to repent, develop the
virtues, and acquire the Holy Spirit, since one is no longer a "slave of sin" (vs. 34). As this happens, one is set free from
bondage to sin, slavery to the passions, servitude to the desires to indulge in and live for the flesh. One's impulses become
stilled so that he is even free from the pressures of others who are controlled by sin. The Lord frees: "if the Son makes you
free, you shall be free indeed" (vs. 36).
Abiding in the word of the Lord also means to "give place" to His words, that is, to His teachings and doctrines (vs. 37).
As one grows in the Lord, one's vision of reality is conformed to the Lord's mind, until, at last, one finds himself thinking
the Lord's thoughts after Him. One develops what Fr. Florovsky called "the Scriptural mind," a mind wholly attuned to
God's heart.
Finally, abiding in the word of Christ means to "do the works of Abraham" (vs. 39). The ancient Patriarch consistently
trusted God, always walked before Him blamelessly, and in all that he did, he worshiped and honored the Lord reverently
and in complete humility.
What then shall we say of "abiding in Christ"? The soul that abides in the Lord strives to obey His word, to cultivate
relationship with the Lord, to throw off bondage to sin by repentance and the cultivation of the virtues. The Faithful who
abide gain moral and spiritual freedom and grow to think God's thoughts after Him, ever trusting in God unquestioningly.
They become those for whom God truly is Father through love for the Son (vs. 42) in the Holy Spirit. O Lord, Thou has
permitted us to partake of Thy holy, divine, and life-giving Mysteries. Also establish us in Thy Sanctification, that we may
meditate upon Thy righteousness. Alleluia!
