August 29, 2010
Stewardship Mission Statement of
The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese
(Continued from last week’s bulletin)
Because human beings are able to nurture and develop their Divine nature through the Sacrifice of Christ, the path to heave begins right here on earth. Spiritual life for the Orthodox believer is not only one of imitating Christ, but of participating in His Divine Nature. It is uniting one’s self to Christ. Orthodox call this process theosis in Greek, meaning deification or divinization ~ becoming Divine. And this process is done on earth. Through the process of theosis, humans seek to reach the highest level of perfection~ the image of God. And even though the sinful nature of the ancestral curse continues to be present in the human, in theosis, he chooses to act rather from his inclination to the holy. Life on earth, if it works at cultivating the Divine nature of man, stifles the passionate impulses of sin, making the human on earth reflect that human’s originally created divine nature.
As well, someone restored to Divine form (to the extent that is possible in a corrupted body) calls all around him to holiness and Divinity. Such a person imspires in those who can see with the eyes of their own Divine nature a similar spiritual quest. The role of such a person is to be a warrior against evil, being armed by a partial presence in heaven itself. At the faithful Orthodox believers death, the battle being ended, such a faithful warrior will see the fruits of the spiritual labor in this life. These fruits will be fully revealed in the Last and General judgment, when all humanity will be called to account for its spiritual state.
II. STEWARDSHIP IN THE DIVINE ECONOMY
To be a participant in the “Divine Economy” is to be a participant in the Divine Stewardship. It is to be a participant in God’s plan for salvation. Throughout the New Testament, we find the term “economy” (also originally olxovouia with that other meaning of “stewardship”) often used. St. Paul described his own call to be a missionary as the “stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me” (Ephesians 3:12). He says that he and those working with him should be regarded as “servants of Christ and stewards (oikonomoi) of the mysteries of God” (I Corinthians 4:1). In his description of bishops, Paul tells Titus “A bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless...” (Titus 1:7). The Apostle Peter writes to the laity: “As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).
Thus stewardship is understood, first of all, to be related to the whole mystery of salvation granted by God through our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. Just as God has allowed us to participate in the life of the Holy Trinity for our salvation (the Divine Economy) so we participate in that life in all we do on earth. We are responsible, then, not only for the way we participate in the Divine life, but how we use our entire lives, our bodies, our minds, our possessions as reflective of that participation in the life of the Holy Trinity.
From the moment of illumination (Baptism) our lives have been changed. We no longer live to self, but to Him who lives in us. We have died and risen again~ Buried with Christ in Baptism~ to a new and different life. Having been made “temples of the living God, in that “God’s Spirit dwells in us,” (I Corinthians 3:16), we must however recognize that, as St John Chrysosotom says in his 8th sermon on 2 Corinthians: “This is indeed the chiefest marvel, that an earthen vessel hath been enabled to bear so great a brightness and to keep so high a treasure”. We must still be on our guard, we “earthen vessels.” For, as a roaring lion, Satan still seeks to devour us. That roaring lion works ceaselessly to convince us that we belong to ourselves and not to God. But~ “No man, can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other “ (Matthew 6:14).
Cyril of Alexandria gets right to the point: “If a man has not separated himself from passionate attachment to earthly things, he is unable genuinely to love God and his neighbor” (commentary on Matthew 6:14). Thus Christ’s words “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21) apply directly to the lives of all Christians. The story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19 is an excellent example of someone who thinks he is religious, but his devotion is not turned to God but to love of the world.
It is not a half-way, give-and-take situation. As Christ has redeemed us entirely~heart, mind, body and soul~so all of us belongs to Him entirely. We don’t give to him just a part, or portion, of what we are and what we have. We give everything. Thus when it comes to our earthly possessions, especially our money and wealth, it is not a certain proportion that belongs to God, as though the rest is ours to do with as we please for ourselves. Every penny belongs to God. Even our time is not our own. So-called “free-time” does not exist. “Let us commend ourselves and our whole life unto Christ our God.”
AUGUST 22, 2010
Stewardship Mission Statement of
The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese.
The Orthodox way of life and belief has arisen within world history. This history gives us a look at our long, lost past. Reading the Old Testament prophets of Judaism and the ancient philosophers we learn of their concern for the higher aspects of humanity. They speak of what has been lost by humanity as that has been documented through the ages. History and philosophy have awakened in humanity an awareness of its higher potential. The prophets and philosophers speak of the possibility for participation in what the Eastern thinkers have called the “Divine economy.” The Greek word for “economy” is olxovouia, a word that can also be translated “stewardship” The Divine Economy, first of all, means God’s long-term plan for human salvation. That plan can be traced through the Old Testament, the ancient philosophers, through the New Testament and through the history of the Church on earth.
The idea of “original sin” or what some in the East call the “ancestral curse” is the separation of humanity from its original intention at creation, that Divine economy. The separation is tied to the idea that human beings have always been aware that they are not what they should be. It is like being set out on that Divine Economy, the path set by God, from which men and women have turned aside. Those ancient Eastern philosophers saw this rather clearly. Original sin, rather than being a characterization of human nature as totally depraved,” original sin is seen in the East as something that brings a human being to the awareness of his or her inborn Divinity, of his or her higher side that has been lost. It is in contrast to being in a fallen state with what he or she can and should be. Human beings were created, according to Genesis, in the “image and likeness of God.” Human beings have lost that image, and for millennia have sought to find a way to have it restored.
This brings us to Christ, the sacrifice of Christ and the consequences of that sacrifice. Very simply put, the consequence of Stewardship Mission Statement of The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. Christ’s work on earth is the restoration of Adam and Eve (that is, all humanity) to its former state of being in the image and likeness of God. God had freely offered a course of life in full communion with God Himself. From that course humans by their won will chose to differ. Through Jesus Christ’s selfsacrifice, an act of great condescension on the part of God, humanity is offered the opportunity to once again pursue the course of the Divine Economy.
In the Resurrection of Christ, God become human, broke once and for all the power of death. Death had been introduced into the world by the decision of human beings to seek another course than that which had been laid out by God. By Christ’s Resurrection, the grip that death had upon human beings is released. In the words of the ancient Church Fathers, God became human, so that humans might once again become Divine. That is, so that human beings might, once again, as in the original creation of Adam and Eve, embrace, express and participate in the very Divine nature of God, humanity’s Creator. Humanity can only do this because God chose to become human in Christ, and through Christ’s death and Resurrection, destroyed the power of death over humanity forever. God became human, so that humans might once again become Divine.
Thus heaven, for the Easter Christian, is the final reaching of one’s proper nature, of his or her divinity within God. The Orthodox Fathers clearly point out, however, that by the divine nature of humanity, the Eastern believer is participating in the Energies of God and never in God’s Essence, which is unknowable and beyond human thought or experience. Thus the created being, who is human, never assumes the unknowable majesty of God Himself. The created being only works to return to the state of being which he or she was created~in the image and likeness of God.
From The Desk of Father Dan:
If you or a loved one is being admitted or have been admitted to a hospital, convalescent home, or cannot leave your home please advise Father Dan so that he may schedule a visit with you or your loved one, pray with you, and for you. Hospitals and convalescent homes DO NOT notify your priest of your admission to their facilities. Father can be reached at the rectory office @ 607-962-5285 or on his cell phone @ 607-377-0587
If you would like to include a name in our bulletin’s prayer list please give the name to Father.
All items to be posted in the bulletin should be given or e-mailed to Father by Wednesday in order to be included in the following Sunday’s bulletin
Please keep in your prayers the following people:
His Eminence,METROPOLITAN NICHOLAS; Pani Patricia Duranko; Pani Helen Shutack;
Archpriest Nicholas Timpko; Very Rev. Michael Kleban; SubDeacon Wylie Meath; Matushka Vera Yuschak; Michael and Jacqueline Banik; Marion Korchak; Helen Verno; Richard and Eleanor Adzima; Irene Babey; Dr. Walter & Sandra Pleban; Serge Mihaly; Mary Gorelick; Karen DePalma; Joseph DePalma; Amelia Falcon; Frank & Marianne Gohr; Helen Coons; John Jacewicz (USMC); Stephen Holland; Brian Towner; Andrew Kerrick; Michael Harris; Reginald Morse; Daniel Donnelly; Malia Bauer, Eleanor Paslawsky; Helen Coons, Helen Bassett; Adalberto "AJ" Saez; All members of our Armed Forces serving our country throughout the world
" O Lord, Jesus Christ , the physician of souls and bodies, look down upon your suffering servants, relieve them of their pain and suffering in order that they be able to once again rise from their sick bed and glorify Your Holy Name."
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