DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Mark 13: 1-8 (1/4)
For Friday of the 31st Week after Pentecost (Fri of
P&P)
Holding
On To Christ: St. Mark 13:1-8, especially vss. 5,
6: “And Jesus, answering them, began to say:
‘Take heed that no one deceives you.
For many will come in My Name, saying, “I am He,” and will
deceive many.’” What a
treasure we have, Beloved of the Lord!
We are joined to the only One Who may be
followed fearlessly, the True One, Life Himself (Jn.
14:6). Therefore, heed His warning
not to be deceived, which St. John of Kronstadt also
urges on you: “Take care; do not forget, Christian, never lose hearty
faith in Him Who is your invisible Life, your Peace, your Light, your Strength,
your Breath; that is, in Jesus Christ.
Do not believe your heart when it becomes gross, darkened, unbelieving,
and cold from plenteousness of food and drink, from worldly distractions, or
finally when you live by the intellect, and not by the heart.” Hold on to Christ Who is Life!
Counterfeit
christs abound, and they
approach the Faithful in many forms, appearing as friends, wise teachers,
renown authorities, persons of fame with credentials and world-wide
recognition. “Take heed that
no one deceives you” (Mk. 13:5)!
Remember also, deceivers come often with fervent belief in their
messages, “deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). So how do we “take heed” not
to lose Christ from our hearts? Let
us take strength frequently and regularly as the Holy Spirit provides, through
the Church: from Her Scriptures, Her Liturgy and Holy Mysteries, Her Sacred
Icons, and Her Holy Fathers and Mothers, the Saints, and Prayer.
For two
thousand years, the Spirit never has ceased to pour out His blessings upon the
Church in abundance, ever making a way for those who entreat the Savior and
Lord with their whole heart (Ps. 118:58 LXX). Carefully, over the centuries, the Holy
Spirit crafted the Divine life into a vibrant grove of fruit-bearing trees,
types of those trees that will line the street of the New Jerusalem,
“each yielding its fruit every month....for the healing of the
nations” (Rev. 22:2). Thus,
let us never be counted among the “many” whom
the Lord told us would be deceived.
Instead,
the Holy Fathers teach us how to read the Scriptures. As St. John Chrysostom says,
“Reading the Holy Scriptures is like a treasure. With a treasure, you see, anyone able to
find a tiny nugget gains for himself great wealth; likewise in the case of
Sacred Scripture, one can get from a small phrase a great wealth of thought and
immense riches. The Word of God is
not only like a treasure, but is also like a spring gushing with ever-flowing
waters in a mighty flood.”
Similarly,
the rich, healing texts of the Liturgy are satisfying fruits written by the
Fathers over many centuries for nourishment. As the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol
reminds us: “The influence of the Divine Liturgy can be great and
incalculable if a person makes it a rule to apply in life what he has heard
there. Teaching all equally, acting
equally on all conditions and all professions, from the emperor down to the
poorest beggar, the Liturgy teaches love which is the bond of all fellowship,
the hidden spring of everything which keeps all life in rhythmic motion.”
The
great scholar of iconography, Leonid Ouspensky, makes
clear how it is that the Icon, as liturgic art,
“does not define itself as an art belonging to one or another historical
epoch, nor as the expression of the national
peculiarities of one or another people.” Rather, “in its essence the
icon...never served religion, but like the word, has always been and is an
integral part of religion, one of the instruments for the knowledge of God, one
of the means of communion with Him.”
If you would hold fast to Christ, reverence Him as the Spirit provides
through His Holy Icons.
Finally,
in the accounts of the lives of the Saints and in the writings of the Holy
Fathers and Mothers, the Spirit brings Christ to us through them as they teach
us and show us how to pray.
O
Eternal King, when Thou didst cleanse the substance of mankind and anointed it
with the Spirit, Thou didst destroy the powers of darkness and translate
mankind to life immortal.
Return
to the January Calendar