Christ is Head to One Body


Since St Paul feels that he is obligated to fulfil the "Mystery of Christ" through the grace, enduring all difficulties for them, it is befitting that they realize the divine call by which they were called.

The servant should not be the only one who works, but every member has to play his role, or in other words, has to keep his church membership through hard work. The focus of that work is to abide in fervent love, which grants the unity of the spirit through the harmony of all the members as one body to the One Head.

Fr Tadros Yacoub Malaty
 

Church Attendance

Don’t be tempted to indulge yourself in not coming to church at the beginning of the service or leaving before it is over. Remember, each service is a complete unit and it can provide its full benefit only in its entirety. Just as food is tasty only when it is fully seasoned, so the service can completely satisfy the spiritual taste only when it is heard in full. Thus, he who misses the beginning or does not remain until the end is laboring, but he deprives himself of the fruit of his labor; he creates with one hand and destroys with the others.

Further, one must go to church not inattentively. For, it is always possible that one may go to church not in a way worthy of praise but rather of condemnation, i.e., by going and not receiving any spiritual benefit. Approaching the church, you must leave every care and worry about your affairs at the threshold in order to enter with a serene mind. Entering the church, you must put on reverence like a garment, remembering to Whom we are coming and to Whom we intend to address our prayers.

Having taken your place in the church (best of all, the same place each time), you should gather your thoughts and mentally stand before the face of the omnipresent God, offering Him reverent worship in body and spirit, with a contrite heart and in humble reverence. After this, you must follow, without wandering thoughts, everything that is going on — what is being sung and read in the church — all the way to the end of the service.

That is all! In this way, we won’t be bored in church, looking here and there and starting conversations, and we won’t be wishing that the service be over soon. Instead, passing from one prayerful feeling to another and from one reverent thought to the next, we will be like those in a fragrant garden, moving from one group of flowers to another.

St. Theophanes The Recluse


 

Salvation Through the Death of Christ

For Christ suffered all this on our account, that we might be saved. 

And he really suffered, as he really raised himself.

St. Ignatius

Human and Divine

I perceived that you are settled in unshakable faith, nailed, as it were, to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in flesh and spirit.  With firm foundations in love in the blood of Christ, with full conviction, with respect to our Lord that he is genuinely of David's line according to the flesh, son of God according to the divine will and power. 

Really born of a virgin and baptized by John that ‘all righteousness might be fulfilled’ by him. Really nailed up in the flesh for us in the time of Pontius Pilate and the tetrarchy of Herod — from this fruit of the tree, that is from his God-blessed passion, we are derived — that he might ‘raise up a standard’ for all ages through his resurrection, for his saints and faithful people, whether among Jews or Gentiles, in one body of his Church.  

For he suffered all this on our account, that we might be saved. And he really suffered, as he really raised himself. 

Some unbelievers say that he suffered in appearance only. Not so — they themselves are mere apparitions. Their fate will be like their opinions, for they are unsubstantial and phantom-like.

St. Ignatius 

The Early Church Fathers



13 - BE RELEASED FROM THE INFLUENCE OF THE SENSES - By H.H. Pope Shenouda III

13 -  BE RELEASED FROM THE INFLUENCE OF THE SENSES    
By H.H. Pope Shenouda III

The following is a collection of articles entitled, "The Release of the Spirit" written by HH Pope Shenouda III for the Sunday School Magazine from the year 1951 before starting his monastic life. 

These articles were published in the form of a book in the year 1957 including some of his poems which were published in the magazine as well..

It was his first published book and it gained the approval of many and was reprinted many times.

13 - BE RELEASED FROM THE INFLUENCE
        OF THE SENSES    

You trust your five senses to a far extent and if your spirit opposes these senses, you reject your spirit.. When will you be freed from the influence of your senses and attain the release of the spirit..

You only believe the thing which you see with your eyes, hear with your ears, or touch with your hands.. You suspect anything else.. What is the reason for this!! The reason is simply that you still live in the flesh and believe in the flesh and its senses.

You look here and there and when you find no one to see or witness you, you commit the fault which you avoid to commit in the sight of others.. But do you think that really no one sees you! There are certain eyes which look on you in compassion and censure.. You do not see those eyes because you still live in the body... It is God who observes you and you do not see Him.. If you are in the Spirit, released from those deficient senses, you will be able to say along with Elijah the Prophet, "As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand... "  (1 Kings 18:15)

Whenever you are encompassed with dangers, you look to the right and to the left and seeing yourself alone, you become afraid and terrified... In fact God is at your right hand that you may not be shaken (Acts 2: 25). You do not see Him because your eyes cannot see everything, for they are material and cannot attain the spiritual matters.. I wish, dear brother, that you would release your spirit from the influence of such bodily senses.. This spirit of yours, to "..searches all things yes, the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10). Let is soar freely to see God at your right hand and whisper joyfully, "... though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me." (Ps. 23:4)

The poor Gehazi, the servant of Elisha was very afraid seeing the great army of the enemy nearby and there was no hope whatever.. But Elisha who lived in the spirit was confident.. He saw with the spirit things which no eye could see and heard what no ears could hear.. He felt pity towards the young man and prayed to the Lord to open his eyes... "Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha" (2 Kings 6:17).. So he was comforted..

Do not trust your senses for they are weak and cannot comprehend the matters of the spirit. The widow of Zarephath of Sidon, saw with her human eye only a handful of flour in the bin and a little oil in the jar.. She thought that was only sufficient to make a cake for her and her son that they might eat it and die... But Elijah, the man of God saw something else with his spirit.. he saw that neither the bin of flour nor the jar of oil would dry whatever she took from them.. This actually happened as we see in 1 Kings 17:14-16

Elisha was standing at the River Jordan. His bodily eyes saw a river were one would drown if one walked through .. But his spiritual eye was not confined to this vision.. He saw the Jordan as a ground fit for walking through. So, Elisha took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him while he went up in the chariot of fire and struck the water. The water was divided and Elisha crossed the river(2 Kin 2:14). The bodily eye would see the mantle of Elijah just as a mantle but Elisha saw it with the spirit as a great power given by God and not a mere garment.

My dear friend, your eyes are deficient even regarding material things.., for there are some substances which you cannot see.. Though they exist, they defy your weak eyes.. You may only see them through a microscope..

If there is not a microscope available, and you cannot see such tiny bodies with your naked eye, would you then deny their existence, merely because you do not see them? If this is the case regarding material things.. what would you say concerning spiritual matters?
With respect to spiritual matters, let your spirit guide you, and do not force it to submit to the body.. Let it soar freely and swim in a world of divine matters as it is said: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29)

Certainly, my beloved brother, you have heard before of the visions in which the spirit swims in the world of the angels and saints and see things which no mortal can see.. In such cases, the spirit is released from the influence of the body and uses the members of the body merely for its spiritual purposes.. Hence, the senses yield to the spirit and not the spirit to the senses..

One day, someone told me that he had heard that St. George appeared in a certain church but he did not believe. He went to see by himself and to prove that it was only a false superstition and he went and saw nothing..

I do not want to make any comment concerning this story but I only present a point of view ie. such a person and others like him cannot see any visions because of their weak faith. They want to subjugate the spiritual matters to the senses of the body, while God reveals to the simple only the mysteries of His Kingdom.

 The Release of The Spirit
 By H.H. Pope Shenouda III

GOD - The Unity of God

The Father of all is far removed from the emotions and passions which are common to men. He is simple, uncompounded, without diversity of parts; wholly identical and consistent; since he is all understanding, all spirit, all thought, all hearing, all seeing, all light, and the whole source of all that is good. 

It is best for us to begin with the first and greatest principle, that is with God the Creator … and to show that there is nothing above him or beyond him. It was of his own decision and free act that he made all things, not moved by anything; since he is the only God, the only Lord, the Only Creator, the only Father, the only Sovereign, and it is he who bestows existence on all things.

How could there be any other Totality beyond him: or another Principle or Power or another God? For God who is the totality of all these must needs include all things in his infinite being, while he himself cannot be included by any other thing. If there is anything outside him he is then not the totality of all things, nor does he contain all things.  

 ~ St. Irenaeus of Lyons  

3 - HUMILITY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS

"I am among you as he that serveth."  

Luke 22: 27

In the Gospel of John we have the inner life of our Lord laid open to us. Jesus speaks frequently of His relationship to the Father, of the motives by which He is guided, of His consciousness of the power and spirit in which He acts. Though the word humble does not occur, we shall nowhere in Scripture see so clearly wherein His humility consisted. 

We have already said that this grace is in truth nothing but that simple consent of the creature to let God be all, to surrenders himself to God's working alone. In Jesus we shall see how both as the Son of God in heaven, and as man upon earth, He took the place of entire subordination, and gave God the honor and the glory which is due to Him- And what He taught so often was made true to Himself: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18:14) As it is written, "He humbled himself …. therefore God also hath highly exalted him."   (Phil. 2:8-9)

Read the words from John's gospel, in which our Lord spoke of His relationship to the Father, and see how unceasingly He uses the words not, and nothing, of Himself.  The "not I" (Gal.2:20), in which Paul expressed his relationship to Christ, is the very spirit of what Christ said of His relationship to the Father.

"The Son can do nothing of Himself"  (John 5: 19) 

"I can of mine own self do nothing….. My judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will"  (John 5: 30)

"I receive not honour from men" (John 5: 41) 

"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will" (John 6:38) 

"My doctrine is not Mine" (John 7:16)

"I am not come of Myself" (John 7:28)

"I do nothing of Myself" (John 8:28)

"Neither came I of myself, but He sent Me" (John 8: 42) 

"I seek not mine own glory" (John 8:50)

"The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself {on My own authority}" (John 14: 10) 

"The word which ye hear is not mine" (John 14: 24)

In His teaching, Christ said, "I am nothing; the Father is all." 

These words open to us the deepest roots of Christ's life and work. They tell us how it was that the Almighty God was able to work His mighty redemptive work through Him. They show what Christ counted the state of heart which became Him as the Son of the Father. They teach us what the essential nature and life is of that redemption which Christ accomplished and now communicates. 

Christ was nothing, that God might be all. He resigned Himself with His will and His powers entirely for the Father to work in Him. Of His own power, His own will, and His own glory, of His whole mission with all His works and His teaching, He said, It is not I; I am nothing; I have given Myself to the Father to work; I am nothing, the Father is all.

Christ found this life of entire self-renunciation, of absolute submission and dependence upon the Father's will, Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy. He lost nothing by giving all to God. God honored His trust, and did all for Him, and then exalted Him to His own right hand in glory. And because Christ had thus humbled Himself before God, and God was ever before Him, He found it possible to humble Himself before men too, and to be the Servant of all. His humility was simply the surrender of Himself to God, to allow the Father to do in Him what He pleased, no matter what men around might say of Him, or do to Him.

It is in this state of mind, in this spirit and disposition, that the redemption of Christ has its virtue and effectiveness. It is to bring us to this disposition that we are made partakers of Christ. This is the true self-denial to which our Saviour calls us, the acknowledgment that self has nothing good in it, except as an empty vessel which God must fill, and that its claim to be or do anything may not for a moment be allowed. It is in this, above and before everything, in which the conformity to Jesus consists. It is the being and doing nothing of ourselves, that God may be all.

Here we have the root and nature of true humility. It is because this is not understood or sought after, that our humility is so superficial and so feeble. We must learn of Jesus, how He is "meek and lowly of heart." (Matt. 11;29)  He teaches us where true humility takes its rise and finds its strength-in the knowledge that it is God "which worketh all in all" (1Cor. 12:6),  that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and to do nothing of ourselves. This is the life Christ came to reveal and to impart -a life in God that comes through death to sin and self. 

If we feel that this life is too high for us and beyond our reach must, even more urge us to seek it in Him; it is the indwelling Christ who will live in us this life, meek and lowly. If we long for this, let us, meantime, above everything, seek the holy secret of the knowledge of the nature of God, as He every moment works all in all; the secret, of which all nature and every creature, and above all, every child of God, is to be the witness,-that it is nothing but a vessel, a channel, through which the living God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power, and goodness. The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it.

Jesus considered Himself the servant for the men God loves. 

It was because this humility was not only a temporary sentiment, awakened and brought into exercise whenever He thought of God, but the very spirit of His whole life, Jesus was just as humble in His fellowship with men as with the Father. He considered Himself to be the Servant of God for the men whom God made and loved; as a natural consequence, He considered Himself the Servant of men, that through Him God might do His work of love. He never for a moment thought of seeking His own honor, or asserting His power to vindicate Himself. His whole spirit was that of a life yielded to God to work in. It is not until Christians study the humility of Jesus as the very essence of His redemption, as the very blessedness of the life of the Son of God, as the only true relationship to the Father, and therefore as that which Jesus must give us if we are to have any part with Him, that the terrible lack of actual, heavenly, manifest humility will become a burden and a sorrow. Our ordinary religion be set aside to secure this, the first and the chief of the marks of the Christ within us.

Brother, are you clothed with humility?  Look closely at your daily life. Ask Jesus. Ask your friends. Ask the world. And begin to praise God that there is opened up to you in Jesus a heavenly humility of which you have hardly known, and through which a heavenly blessedness you possibly have never yet tasted can come in to you.
Humility - Andrew Murray

Accept God's Comfort

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;


He leads me in the paths of righteousness
 

For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
 

I will fear no evil;
 

For You are with me;
 

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

 Psalm 23:1-4

These words have often been the source of solace and peace.  Few other biblical passages contain such beautiful imagery.  The reason why people are so uplifted by the Shepherd's Psalm is because it describes the comfort we dream  of having during trials.  But it doesn't have to be a dream! It is available in Jesus Christ right this minute.

This comfort doesn't come with a mere snapping of our fingers.  We must accept God's comfort or we will not possess it.  To receive this emotional healing we cannot cling to our hurts.  They must be dropped just outside the gate to the green pastures.  Then both hands and heart will open to receive soothing restoration of soul and spirit.