DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Mark 13:1-8
(2/15) Gospel for
Friday of the Week of the Publican & the Pharisee
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, credentials, or world-wide recognition. “Take heed that no one deceives
you” (Mk. 13:5)! Remember,
deceivers usually come often with conviction 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: 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, the Spirit brings Christ to us
through the accounts of the lives of the Saints and the writings of the Holy
Fathers and Mothers, for 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.
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