7 Lenten Journey to Eden - Wake Up Praying

 On this journey to Eden Eve and I are not riding in a car, boat or plane, yet there is no doubt that we are moving. Everything around us looks and feels different. We travelers appear more determined than ever to find Eden. Some of us seem so serene; bright faces are beginning to radiate light, while others look tormented. These are the ones who are being challenged. The thorns and thistles planted by demons on the Lenten path are tearing at their flesh. God help them.

 “Eve, tell me what you liked most about living in Eden.”

She replied, “I miss my conversations with God. We spoke so freely. Out here the knowledge of good and evil is so loud and noisy I can hardly hear myself think, lest converse with God. I often don’t even know when He has come to visit me in exile.” Looking up Eve exclaimed, “There’s the bridge I was looking for; let’s go!”

I didn’t see a bridge but followed her anyway.

We arrived at a pile of words. Eve bent over and with her long slender fingers she lifted the corner of a letter as if it was a delicate petal. Like a ribbon whole sentences waved threw the air. “See! Here are the prayers of the saints, those who live in Eden.” Then she gently laid down the ribbon of words in a long thin line. “Walk on these words that form the bridge. It is very narrow and there are sharks on either side. This bridge will help the bleeding ones the most. As long as we walk on the prayers of the saints we will be safe.”

Stepping carefully onto the bridge of words that Eve made, I looked down and read: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. O Trinity uncreated and without beginning, O undivided Unity: accept me in repentance and save me a sinner. I am Thy creation, reject me not; but spare me and deliver me from the fire of condemnation, both now and forever and unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

Those words brought tears to my eyes and for a moment I thought I could see a Garden. Then I heard Eve’s confirmation, “The words of those saints who have already arrived in Eden will transport us there, but we must say them with our whole heart. God spoke the world into being with words and with words we can awaken our sleeping and injured souls. I love words, the pictures they paint, the emotions they stir, the way they can illuminate the deepest caves.” Eve bowed her head and fell to her knees.

Looking up and around she said, “See the sharks are gone. I think we are out of danger and can step off the bridge. We can always hop back on if we need to.”

I looked around and among us and noticed that many of the wounded were healed.

“Now, that we are less afraid, let’s use our own words, ‘Oh God of life, God of the word, take my hand, I can’t reach you. O Father of light, miracle worker who never stops giving and loving, please show us the way to the Tree of Life that you planted for us in Eden. How hungry we travelers are for its fruit. How tragic is this deadly world of good and evil; will I ever be able to forget what you never wanted me to know?’

Whispering Eve added, “Now let’s be quiet and listen. Perhaps God will answer me.  Oh I hope we are almost there! God, can you hear me? I’m coming home!”

Sweet sweet Eve; I actually think she was beginning to wake up. I only hope she takes my hand!

The Good Family

So far the family reunion is everything I hoped for. The first couple of days were spent getting ready. My brother Lar and I were determined to obey our strict but loving Mother by not eating anything, not even a crumb of bread. We had never done that before, but you know, it wasn’t so hard. In fact it made me think about how Jesus didn’t eat for forty days and then he was hungry. Yes, I felt weak but I was supposed to. She said that the hunger would make me more aware of my dependence on God. If only I could always be aware of my dependence on God more than on my dependence on food, I would probably be thinner and less cocky.

Then, on the third day my dream came true. I still didn’t eat anything and I was amazed that I hadn’t so I started to feel hungry. That was like when Peter tried to walk on the water. When he became aware of how crazy that was he started to sink. Afraid of angering Jesus too, I stopped thinking about being hungry. In the evening Lar and I went to visit Mother and the family at a place called Saint George. We read psalms and prayers with lots of brothers and sisters and we broke the fast with the Body and Blood of Christ. He tasted so good and felt so warm and smooth as He traveled into my heart. Then, like the family we are, we all went into a big room full of tables and ate bean soup together. I gave Lar two bowls because he is so big and there was enough left over. He ate them faster than you can spit.

The best part was, and I’m so glad to have this to tell you, that the most important brother in the whole wide world came to be with us and talk to us about God. When he was born his mom named him Timothy and his father ended it with Ware, but now his names have more syllables than most. Met-ro-pol-i-tan-Kal-li-stos. Try to say that fast three times! This man turned a giant light on for the English speaking world by translating so many saintly writings and by writing about the Mother [Church], her background and her ways, things that Greeks and Russians took for granted but had been all darkness to English speakers until God sent Timothy on his mission. I could cry when I think about how different my world would be if little Timothy didn’t love God so much.

I can’t tell you everything he said to us but I will tell you what struck me like little bolts of lightning and made me smile. He came to tell us about how our God is a trinity and even though that concept is a mystery, some of the multitudinous mysterious aspects of it can be described, first by contrast with the one monolithic God of the Jews and Moslems. A monolithic idea of God isn’t very sociable. But a triune Godhead is very sociable because it loves each of its Selves and in the same way God loves each and every one of us humans. So, when Kallistos says God, he thinks all three-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together. Then, he got all intellectual and quoted Lossky to tell us that he said “The doctrine of the Trinity is the cross for human thought.” I suppose he said that so we wouldn’t get too comfortable by thinking that everything else he would say was really so simple. I wonder if Lossky’s powerful quote means that we have to completely surrender to the whole intricate concept of a triune God like Christ surrendered to death.

What really hit me was that the Trinity doesn’t have free will like we humans do who go this way and that and who change like butterflies. Each Person, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit conform to one will, called the will of God. It is probably better to think of it as the Will of the Father. We are so hot about having free will like it is everything, but when I think that Jesus and the Holy Spirit don’t have free will, well, I have to tell you, I am glad. That’s why we can trust God so much. Because He isn’t going to change His mind tomorrow about what He wants to do with us. Maybe free will isn’t so great; maybe not as great as joining God in His will. Wait a second; that reminds me! “Thy Will be done.” Maybe the best of us don’t want free will either; those who give their free wills back to God.

Because God is social, to be social is Godlike. Hell is self cut off from others. Kallistos went on and on about how wrong it is to be alone or to love yourself, which I suppose is an oxymoron since love must involve another person.

Kallistos said there is only one choice and that is to either join the Trinity or hell. Then he really opened it up by adding that all forms of community, schools, governments, businesses, families, churches should all be forms of the Trinity where mutual love and respect are free from oppression, and coercion.

When he prays, Kallistos is aware that it is not a dialogue between him and God, but rather he is taken up into their exchange of love. Sometimes he sees flashes of the Trinity inside of him conversing with each other. I suppose that happens when you and I pray too but we aren’t looking out for it, not until now at least.

I asked him how God could love everyone since so many people were so self absorbed or mean. He gave me a good answer, something I can think about for a long time. It was a gift.

He said that God made each person to be very unique. That sure is true! Well, so God loves each person uniquely. He expects different things from each person. Not us, we expect the same thing from everyone which is why we get so angry with them. What a better way God has!

This wonderful family gathering gave me two Lenten homework assignments, 1) to love people as God does by remembering the uniqueness of each person, and 2) when I pray, to listen for God talking to Himselves. 

The Wonderful Baptasion!

Today is my very favorite holy day in the whole wide world and it’s not just because August 6th was the holy day my old grandfather, Emmanuel, went to be with the Lord which I always thought was very cool! It is because God told me once a long time ago that Transfiguration Day is the culmination of the most spectacular baptism that ever did and ever will happen, of course I mean Jesus’ baptism.

Think about it. On January 6^th Jesus Christ walked into the Jordan River with John the Baptist, no sooner did he descend into the depths of the watery grave than God the Father bellowed for everyone to hear, “This is My Son in whom I am well pleased!” No greater introduction has human flesh known than that.”

But Jesus’ baptism did not end there because on August 6^th, nine months later...enough time for a baby to go from seed to ripe fruit, God lifted his Son Jesus from the holy font of the Jordan River way up high in the sky. High as the tippy top of a mountain and said it again! “This is My Son, whom I love, listen to Him.” And Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

So, the next time you see a cute baby go into the baptismal font, naked and slippery and then lifted up out of the waters and as high as the priest’s hands can lift it, be very quiet. Maybe you too will be able to hear God say, “This is my child whom I love.”

God told me, and now I am telling you that the spectacular transfiguration of Jesus was actually the finale of His amazing baptism! May this Transfiguration Day find you full of light too. Shine on!