Bulletin for 2020-03-01 – St. Stephen
Pastoral Letter Lent 2020
Dear brothers and sisters,
God gives us the time of the Great Fast (Lent) so we can pause, quiet down, and turn ourselves toward Him. We are invited to grow in our spiritual life, to get closer to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to prepare ourselves well for the celebration of the feast of Pascha – Resurrection.
Missionaries are often asked: “Why did you have to leave for a mission to a foreign country, to a culture of which you are not part? Hadn’t you better stay home to proclaim the Gospel among your own, in your own language?” One answer is this: “People need to be told of what they do not see on themselves, and they need to be told by someone who is capable of seeing from the different perspective, from the outside, from a different culture.” That is why Christ sent his apostles throughout the world.
Our Church is called to be missionary. My intention is to proceed with opening new parishes in our Eparchy, since the goal of the missionary work of the Church is to create communities where the Eucharist can be celebrated. In so doing we are emulating the works of the apostles, especially the apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles. In his Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, Pope St. John Paul II tells us, “one of the central purposes of mission is to bring people together in hearing the Gospel, in fraternal communion, in prayer and in the Eucharist.” (¶ 26) I am pleased that the faithful in our parishes often receive the Holy Eucharist. On one hand, you are to be commended for such devotion and commitment.
On the other hand, we recognize that the Holy Eucharist is also a source of strength in our weakness. The Holy Eucharist helps us to be like the one who we follow – Jesus Christ. We will never be quite like him, but we can at least approach Him. Here, in the Eucharist, He offers forgiveness for venial sin and a cure for our shortcomings. Thus, we understand the words of the Holy Father Francis in his Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, “the Eucharist, although it is the fulness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” (¶ 47) Of course, the Eucharist is not intended for the forgiveness of mortal sins, which are actually an obstacle blocking us from worthily receiving the Eucharist (this is why we also have the sacrament of Confession). You can check the list of those mortal sins on our website www.parma.org
Recall the story in the Book of Exodus. The Hebrews journeyed to freedom from the slavery of the Egyptians. First, they had to recognize that they were indeed slaves. If they did not recognize this fact, they would never understand the desire for freedom. On their passage to freedom God fed them with manna. This is exactly what the Eucharist is doing for us. It is nurturing us (slaves to sin) on our journey to freedom. But we should also remember that the initial enthusiasm of the Hebrews at receiving manna diminished. In fact, after, this awe-inspiring “bread from heaven,” became for them something rather ordinary. After losing proper perspective, they began to murmur and grumble about almost anything. They were even starting to feel sorry for the slavery they had left in Egypt. That was the reason why God ordered an altar built where they could bring sacrifice for reconciliation. Is there any among us who has the audacity to say that he is free from vices or bad habits? It would be a miracle. Who is untouched by temptations from power, money, prestige, praise, uncommitted relationships, TV, internet, smart devices, pornography, sex, alcohol, or sport?
This underscores the necessity of Confession. The confessional has distinct advantages:
- It’s the place where, after the thorough examination, I admit my failures and where I am begging God and people for forgiveness (both psychologically and spiritually)
- It’s the place where I can renew the spirit. My spirit was ignited at my baptism. Reconciliation is like a repetition of baptism. Not literally, but figuratively. Our resolutions have a tendency after a while to become lukewarm, and they need occasionally to get refreshed.
- Confession is help from above. It is not only the place where we receive forgiveness for our sins, but also a source of strength to resist temptation. This is part of the mystery of the sacrament. Sacrament is a visible sign of God’s invisible grace. I need God’s grace not only as a sinner, but even to give me the strength to avoid sin. Our lives are, after all, an effort to follow Jesus Christ. But what kind of following would it be without Christ helping us. He has chosen you, and He will surely give you everything you need so you can fulfill the call. God will never lead you where he cannot sustain you.
- Confession has a great psychological effect. Its ironic when people, instead of going to confession, would rather pay big money for all kinds of manmade therapies and counseling. At the same time, they look at Confession as some kind of goofy practice. Well-known psychotherapist Carl Jung said that, among the countless people he treated with therapy, he found nobody who would go to Confession. Priests are delighted to provide this service for free, by hearing your Confession. Not only is it free, but it comes with some measure of expertise and experience – consider the hundreds of Confessions each priest hears every year. Do not underestimate us priests. Many of us are well qualified and educated, and all have acquired a certain pastoral “wisdom” by hundreds of hours hearing the stories of people who are hurt or broken and in need of healing.
Maybe in our Eparchy we too need to rediscover the grace of Confession. Perhaps in your life this sacrament of healing has been long-forgotten. I sincerely and warmly recommend to all the faithful in this time of the Great Fast to go back to Confession and to get ready for Pascha. You can find some helpful material on our eparchial website www.parma.org
Brothers and sisters, I pray that we all discover the awesome power of the sacrament of Reconciliation as the authentic way of penance, and as a precious meeting with the loving and forgiving Christ.
+Milan
Bishop of the Eparchy of Parma
Bulletin
A person in need is the coming of the Lord.
Today is Meatfare Sunday – the third Sunday of the Triodion already – the Sunday of the Last Judgement. This means that we are now but one week and some hours away from the beginning of the Great Fast – and today is the last day before the lesser fast of Cheesefare Week. So, we now prepare ourselves to embrace again the rigor of a penitential season.
The three pillars of every penitential season are – as is well-known – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These means of bringing us to repentance are revealed to us in scripture – especially in the Sermon on the Mount – and are recommended to us by the fathers of the Church – for example by St. Maximos the Confessor.[i] Today, I would like to focus in on that last pillar, which I feel is often somewhat neglected and which is particularly important when it comes to our Last Judgement.
Jesus – the son of Sirach, that is, in the book known as Sirach – teaches us not to neglect the giving of alms (Sirach 7: 10). And Jesus the Christ, in his Sermon on the Mount, assumes that we will give alms. He says “when you give alms,” he doesn’t say “if you give alms” – just as he says, “when you pray…” and “when you fast….” These things are not optional if we are Christians.
Whatever good things we have are not truly our own alone but belong also to those who do not have these good things. Giving simply helps to restore balance to the cosmos upset and distorted by all kinds of sin. We can be covetous even with what we regard as our own property, let alone the property of others, and this covetousness separates us from the God who gave us everything we have so that we can be generous with others.
Jesus also tells us how to give – in secret and not so that we may be seen by others (Matthew 6: 2). Today, he might have said, when you give to the poor, do not film it and post it on YouTube under the guise of a social experiment, but give in secret, and your Father who watches in secret will reward you (Matt 6:4).
It’s interesting – I just want to point out – we often hear this list of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving – and there’s a logic to this order. After all, in one sense, almsgiving results from prayer and fasting – so it comes after. Fasting leaves us with more to give and prayer inspires us to give. Nonetheless, it’s worth pointing out that, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus puts things in a different order – he speaks first about almsgiving and then about prayer and fasting (Matt 6). So maybe this gives a little more primacy to the issue of almsgiving then we are generally wont to do.
In the Book of Tobit, the Archangel Raphael says that “prayer and fasting are good, but better than either is almsgiving accompanied by righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than abundance with wickedness. It is better to give alms than to store up gold; for almsgiving saves one from death and expiates every sin. Those who regularly give alms shall enjoy a full life” (Tobit 12: 8 – 9).
Now, first of all, what constitutes almsgiving? Well, it’s giving dollars to beggars, right? Or, it’s donating to charitable causes? Something like that. Well, these are good things and almsgiving encompasses them, but it’s interesting to look at the Greek word here: ἐλεημοσύνη. Maybe this sounds a little bit familiar because we so often repeat the phrase, Κύριε, ἐλέησον, which means Lord, have mercy. The word here has “mercy” as a root.
So the word means a bit more than giving alms as we tend to think of it, though it carries that meaning as well. It refers also to compassion and to practicing the virtue of mercy. In other words, it refers to doing the works of mercy – including the very works upon which we will be judged when the Son of Man comes in his glory, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ today (Matt 25:31).
When we give something to eat to someone who is hungry, when we give something to drink to someone who is thirsty, when we welcome a stranger with hospitality, when we give clothes to someone who needs them, when we take care of someone who is sick, when we visit someone who is in prison or bound by whatever circumstances – all of this is ἐλεημοσύνη – these are all ways of showing mercy and compassion – and they are all forms of almsgiving (Matt 25:35-36). Just note that – according to what Jesus is teaching us today – it is our practice of mercy in these ways that will determine whether or not we are entering the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the cosmos (25:34). It is on the basis of our almsgiving – and not our fasting, for example – that we are judged.
Remember that the desert fathers kept a strict rule of prayer and fasting. Well,
A brother came to see a certain hermit and, as he was leaving, he said, “Forgive me abba for preventing you from keeping your rule.” The hermit replied, “My rule is to welcome you with hospitality and to send you away in peace.”[ii]
That’s almsgiving. Love is the highest rule and the greatest commandment and hospitality is the clearest expression of love.
It was said of an old man that he dwelt in Syria on the way to the desert. This was his work: whenever a monk came from the desert, he gave him refreshment with all his heart. Now one day a hermit came and he offered him refreshment. The other did not want to accept it, saying he was fasting. Filled with sorrow, the old man said to him, “Do not despise your servant, I beg you, do not despise me, but let us pray together. Look at the tree which is here; we will follow the way of whichever of us causes it to bend when he kneels on the ground and prays.” So the hermit knelt down to pray and nothing happened. Then the hospitable one knelt down and at once the tree bent towards him. Taught by this, they gave thanks to God.[iii]
Fasting is good because it teaches us self-control, discipline, and detachment from the things of this world and, when we have learned these things, we can be more hospitable. Again, as Raphael teaches Tobit and Tobias, “Prayer and fasting are good, but better than either is almsgiving,” and the Eastern Christian tradition is right, I believe, in emphasizing hospitality as its most cherished form of almsgiving. In giving hospitality, we sometimes give of ourselves in a more personal way than when we give money, food, or clothing. Hospitality causes us to share our homes, our time, and our very way of life. [iv]
Indeed, we must “not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrew 13:2). Remember the hospitality of Abraham to the three strangers who came to his home (Gen 18:1-5). By this, he showed hospitality to the Lord and, through his hospitality, the Holy Trinity is revealed to us. Jesus teaches us today that whatever we do to the least of these, we do to the Lord (Matt 25:40, 45). This is never more clear than in the case of Abraham showing hospitality to the three strangers who are in truth of the appearance of the Lord to him. It’s really something – isn’t it? – that the icon that we know as the Rublev Trinity was first known as the Hospitality of Abraham. When we show hospitality, the Lord is revealed to us. When we see the face of Christ in the face of all of our brothers and sisters and in every stranger that we meet, we will welcome him in them, show them hospitality, and give them all we have to give. Every person in need who comes to us is a coming of Christ and a theophany of the Lord, if we have eyes to see.
[i] “Almsgiving heals the soul’s incensive power; fasting withers sensual desire; prayer purifies the Intellect and prepares it for the contemplation of created beings” (Maximos the Confessor, First Century on Love, 79).
[ii] from The Paradise of the Desert Fathers
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Light for Life, Part Three, 48
Bulletin
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 158
- 159
- 160
- 161
- 162
- …
- 180
- Next Page »