My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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ON CHRIST'S HIGHLY REVERED PROPHET, FORERUNNER AND BAPTIST JOHN (Part II)
By Saint Gregory Palamas
The outcome of living according to the Spirit "is hidden now in Christ with God", and is not yet obvious to all. But when He appears (cf. col. 3:3-4), "we shall be like Him" (I John 3:2), heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17), and shall attain to those everlasting and incorruptible good things, "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man" (cf. I Corinthians 2:9), for they transcend hearing, sight, and understanding. As for those who live according to the flesh, their pleasures are not just fleeting and temporary, but so slight and paltry that they can be compared to the husks eaten by pigs (cf. St. Luke 15:16).
Even if these carnal pleasures were everlasting, we should still of necessity prefer spiritual joys to them, since these are in all respects incomparably more excellent. If, on the other hand, fleshly delights were as great and amazing as spiritual ones, the fact that the former are transitory and the latter eternal would again make the latter preferable because they endure. As spiritual pleasures are both everlasting and beyond compare, and the delights of the flesh are pointless and short-lived, let us, brethren, prefer those which are permanent, ineffable and heavenly, rather than those which are swept away and go to ruin. Let us overlook things that are fleeting, even if they treacherously beguile our senses for a moment, and let us lay claim to the lasting and eternally indestructible good things to come. We should flee from being like Herod and strive as much as we can to imitate the Forerunner's grace, especially those of us who live as monks, whose manner of life in set apart, and is more akin to the solitary life of the Prophet and Baptist in the desert. As a Prophet, he foresaw that it would be the order of monks who would be able to some extent to emulate him, and his head was cut off as he struggled, not for the sake of godliness, but for virtue, so that we too might be ready to resist sin to the point of death, in the knowledge that he who puts the passions to flight through virtue will receive a martyr's crown. Just as sin is a lesser evil compared with godlessness, so it follows that putting yourself at risk for virtue's sake is even better than doing so for godliness. For everyone who lays down his life in this lesser cause of virtue could not fail to do the same, had the need arisen, in the greater cause of godliness.
That is why the greatest "among them that are born of women" (St. Matthew 11:11), the Preacher of Repentance and the Lord's Prophet and Herald, had his head cut off in the struggle for virtue. Nor was he just the Forerunner of Christ, but also of His Church and particularly brethren, of our monastic way of life. He was born of Elizabeth, a barren woman, and we were born of the Church of the Gentiles of whom it is written, "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife" (Isaiah 54:1; Galatians 4:27). After Saint John was born, Herod, the murderer of infants, pursued him with murderous intent, fighting against him out of hatred for Christ, but the Forerunner found refuge in the desert, which he loved more than the world, and there he dwelt. In the same way, the Herod of our minds attacks us after our spiritual birth, persecuting Christ now through us.
So let us too flee from the world, and take refuge in those schools of virtue dedicated to God, that we may escape from Herod's pitiless soldiers armed with spears and swords, who stir up the passions, by means of which he inflicts spiritual death, separating men from God. This is the death that comes upon us through the windows of our senses. It came about originally by means of these senses, and dragged down the human race, banishing our forebears from eternal life. Eve heard the evil one's malicious counsel: she saw, succumbed, ate, did entice the man, and shared the taste and the fall with him. Incapable of withstanding a single trial, they immediately give heed to a treacherous word, and were overcome by a beautiful sight, although they were not yet subject to the passions but dispassionate, wandering about in a place free from passions. So do you think that we, who have been born and brought up in the world, can avoid being harmed, or suffering wounds and a change for the worse in our inner selves, when we are faced with the passions in their various guises, and with hearing and joining in prolonged and unseemly conversations? That would be absolutely impossible.
For these reasons the Holy Fathers of the Church imitated the Forerunner of grace, bade farewell to the world, and fled the company of those devoted to it. Some inhabited the desert and attracted to it man of those born later. Others led ascetic lives within sacred enclosures and organized spiritual communities, and we associate ourselves with various ones of these in emulation of the Holy Fathers, and live in these hallowed folds. We should not, however, merely dwell in them, but also live as the Holy Fathers lived...
"...What else? Saint John always had his head uncovered as a sign of unceasing prayer, and boldness towards God, for when a man prays he should have his head uncovered, according to the Apostle (cf. I Cor. 11:4), that with unveiled face we may reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18)…
"...Let us thank God Who gives us these things, and His Forerunner, for through Him we gather them in effortlessly, as if they flowed towards in from a spring. Let us accept them to His glory, rendering Him thanksgiving through our deeds...
"...May we all attain to this by the intercessions of him who obtained it even from his mother's womb, proclaimed it to those on earth and those under the earth, and guided, and continues to guide, all towards it by his words, deeds and prayers to God, in Christ Himself Our Lord, to Whom alone belongs eternal glory. Amen.
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George