Glory be to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
We had a wonderful visitation with some of our faithful and catechumens at the Monastery this past week and had a chance after dinner to sit with Mother Macrina, to listen to her speak about what we as Orthodox Christians can take from the monastic way of life. One of the things that she mentioned, was the need to see our entire life, each and every day, through the lens of the Church. Even though we aren’t in Church every day for 7 hours of services, Mother Macrina impressed upon us that it is vital to still keep the memory and the importance of Christ at the forefront of every waking moment of our lives. This includes things like:
Waking up every day with our morning prayers to give Glory to God.
Saying the Jesus Prayer as we work in the yard or at our jobs.
Crossing ourselves and to bless our food at each meal.
Reading Scripture daily and asking: “How does this reading impact my day today?”
Singing “O Gladsome Light” around sunset, reminding us of the light of Christ in our life.
All of these little reminders that the monastics remind us who are living in the world about, brings up an interesting litmus test for us. When we examine our daily routines, where does our faith fall in the rank of importance?
As devout Christians, we all know what the answer to these questions SHOULD be! Yet it is so easy for us to forget about the Divine Life, and to focus on the things of the world. We saw this illustrated for us in the Gospel last week when our Lord came and healed Legion, a man who’s life was destroyed by demonic possession. This poor man was dominated by darkness and evil, until Christ came and put him in his right mind! What was the response to this miracle? The people of the Gadarenes were too focused on what happened to the pigs, than the restoration of man. Rather than praising Christ for sending the devil packing, or giving thanks for this incredible miracle, they drove Him away. The people wanted Christ out of their lives!
Contrast that with the scenes from when Christ returned to Galilee. As soon as He arrived, we hear how the people RAN to Him. They surrounded Jesus and were elated that He had returned!
In the midst of the crowd, the gospels tell us about the simple faith of one woman who had decided in that very moment, nothing was more important in this life than getting to Christ. As a result of that simple orientation, her life was changed forever.
One of the truly wonderful things about Holy Orthodoxy, is that we have been handed down throughout the centuries, a more complete picture of the Bible. We embrace Church History and Holy Tradition, which adds color, depth, and reality to the black and white letters on parchment. The woman with the issue of blood is not a nameless person whose story ended after these verses. Her name was St. Veronica, and for the same amount of time that Jairus’s daughter (who we also hear about this morning) had been alive, Veronica had been suffering from non-stop bleeding for 12 whole years.
Today, we have modern ways of dealing with these types of diseases, but back in the time of Christ, to have this burden placed on your shoulders was the ultimate humiliation. Veronica had to change and wash her clothes constantly. Everything that she wore became ruined, and because of the way the Jewish laws were at the time, she couldn’t be caught out in public with blood on her clothes without being punished.
In a very real way, as soon as she contracted this disease, Veronica’s life was over. The hemorrhaging consumed and destroyed her in ways we could not possibly imagine in the modern world. All of her money, her reputation, and her livelihood was spent on physicians, who had tried to give her back her life and had failed.
When our Lord came back to Galilee, Veronica made the decision that at all costs, she needed to get to Christ. She ignored the world that day. She wasn’t distracted by the noise of the crowd or its size. She didn’t care if she broke any mosaic law about being ritually pure. She didn’t pay any mind to her suffering, or her lack of assets, or the way that she was dressed. Veronica’s mind was focused on one thing: “Simply touch the garment of Christ, and I will be healed.”
Simple and pure faith, with Christ at the center. This is what changed Veronica’s life and it is the same reorientation that we all need to take to heart each and every day. Somehow, someway, we have to overcome the world, and live our lives in complete obedience to our Lord.
Our life in the Church needs to be at forefront of everything that we do. The lessons that you take from Holy Scripture, from the Divine Liturgy, and from the fathers, needs to be the lens with which we view what is going on in the world. This is only done by echoing not only the lives of the Saints like St. Veronica, but also by echoing in a small way the lives of the men and women in our monasteries, who spend their entire life in prayer and contemplation of God.
As Mother Macrina said, let Christ be the focus of everything that we do…even the small things. When you get into your cars to head home, cross yourself and your steering wheel, asking God to protect you as you begin the most dangerous task of driving. When in the car, spend time in silence with the Jesus prayer in your heart.
Tomorrow morning, rather than logging onto to your favorite website when you wake up, go to oca.org and read from the Holy Scripture readings for the day.
Invoke the name of God throughout the day. Cross yourself before beginning every task. End each day with silence, prayer, and contemplation. Start these small devotions in your life now, and I promise you that your view and disposition of life will be transformed, just as St. Veronica’s life was changed when she simply touched the garment of Christ.