DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

Monday, January 22, 2007                                        The Holy Apostle Timothy of the Seventy

3rd Vespers Monastic: Wisdom 4:7-15    Epistle: 1 Peter 2:21-3:9     Gospel: St. Mark 12:13-17

 

God-pleasing Perfection: Wisdom 4:7-15, especially vs. 13: “Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long years; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore He took him quickly from the midst of wickedness.”  The Prophet David acquaints us with that which the Lord decrees concerning ripe old age: “He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High....With length of days will I satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation” (Ps. 90:1,16 LXX).

Throughout Scripture, old age is perceived as the Lord’s reward for those who fear Him (Prov. 10:27).  Therefore, the seniors among God’s People are held in high honor.  In the present reading from the Wisdom of Solomon, the wise Seer modifies this affirmation significantly, yet without weakening its truth.  He does this by delineating honorable old age as the equivalent of spiritual maturity: “For old age is not honored for length of time, nor measured by number of years; but understanding is gray hair for men, and a blameless life is ripe old age” (Wis. 4:8-9).

Having shifted the true measure of honorable maturity away from accumulated years to godly “understanding” and a “blameless life,” Solomon illustrates his point with the example of Enoch (vss. 10-15).  One of the earliest ante-diluvian patriarchs, Enoch was so pleasing to God that he was taken “quickly from the midst of wickedness” (vs. 14), “lest evil change his understanding or guile deceive his soul” (vs. 11).  Along with Noah, he is the one patriarch after Adam who “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24).  Close communion with God is the stated reason his life was shortened and that he was assumed directly into heaven (Gen. 5:24).

Enoch’s case is especially important because he embodies Solomon’s more exacting definition of true old age.  Among the antediluvians, Methuselah is remembered as the longest lived at 969 years.  Most of the rest lived nearly nine hundred or more years, with the exception of Lamech, Noah’s father, who lived 777 years, and Enoch, who lived a much shorter 365 years (Gen. 5).  Let us more closely examine what Solomon tells us about Enoch.

First, we learn that Enoch “was one who pleased God and was loved by Him” (Wis. 5:10).  He met Solomon’s criteria of spiritual “understanding” and a “blameless life.”  His example challenges us to see how “bereft of the life of the righteous” we have stripped ourselves, as St. Andrew of Crete notes when he prompts us to strive for closer communion with the Lord.

Second, Enoch’s abrupt assumption is presented as God’s provident solution to his living among gross sinners and the attendant danger that the evil all around him might “change his understanding or...deceive his soul” (vs. 11).  Let us beware of our soul’s health.

Third, Solomon provides a keen analysis of the seductive nature of evil for the human heart, soul, and mind, highlighting especially its fascinating, obscuring, restless, and perverting power on the “innocent mind” (vs.12).  “Mind” in the Septuagint (LXX) is “nous,” the inclusive term for the whole interior life, but especially for the deep-most center of one’s heart or spirit.

Next, Solomon rests his case for redefining “true old age” on the fact that Enoch was “perfected in a short time” (vs. 13), thus fulfilling God’s purpose in granting anyone years of life.  It is a point to consider whenever we hear the prayer, “Many Years” sung or chanted.  God in His goodness suffers long with us to lead us “to repentance” (Rom. 2:4), as the Apostle teaches. 

Finally, let us recognize that most people, hopefully not including ourselves, see but do “not understand, nor take such a thing to heart, that God’s grace and mercy are with His elect” (Wis. 5:15).  Time is short, Beloved of the Lord.  Let us strive for God-pleasing perfection.

My soul, arise!  Why are you sleeping?  The end is drawing near.  Awake, then, and be watchful, that Christ our God may spare you, Who is everywhere present and fillest all things.

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