My beloved brothers and sisters in Our Risen Lord, God, and Savior JESUS CHRIST,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!
Man can choose Wisdom or Foolishness, Light or Darkness, Good or Evil.
“Then I saw that wisdom excels
foolishness
As light excels darkness.
The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
But the senseless man walks in
darkness;” [Ecclesiastes 2:13-14].
When Jesus was tempted by the devil He said to him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Jesus reverses Israel’s dallying with temptation in the wilderness. The Israelites were tested, 40 years in the wilderness,during which they were disloyal and disobedient. So God humbled them by letting them go hungry, then feeding them with manna, all TO HELP THEM REALIZE THEIR DEPENDENCE UPON Him [Deuteronomy 8:2-3]. Jesus is tested with hunger for 40 days, but He DOES NOT SIN. Jesus’ answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and all of them call for loyalty to God: WE ARE TO LIVE BY THAT WHICH GOD COMMANDS. Contrary to the opinions of His detractors, in His Messiahship Jesus actually FULFILLS THE LAW. HE IS LOYAL AND OBEDIENT SON WHO TRIUMPHS OVER TEMPTATION.
The Holy Apostle Paul assures us Christ knows everything. Most of this is “hidden” to us, so we must seek Christ alone Who is God’s Wisdom. The incarnate Christ IS FULLY GOD AND FULLY MAN–HE FULFILLS HUMAN NATURE AND ALL LEVELS OF BEING SUBMIT TO HIM. We need no one else but Christ. We go directly to Him, for He is the Sovereign power, “the head” over Angelic beings. We are made “complete in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power” [Colossians 2:10].
Glaring humanity for over 2,000 years or more, stands the Son of God Jesus Christ, the answer to everything mankind could ever want or seek. Jesus Christ is the ultimate truth and the very Savior of the world. He is the perfect God and the perfect Man. He is full of wisdom and knowledge and He knows man for He is the Creator and God. By coming to earth and taking the form of a man He has renewed him and saved him through His Sacrifice on the Cross and through His Glorious Resurrection. The Holy Apostle says, “And He is before all things, and in Him, all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness, should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His Cross” [Colossians 1:17-20].
Saint Paul says clearly that Christ IS HIMSELF THE FULLNESS. Jesus is EVERYTHING, GOD IN ALL FULLNESS, AND IN HIS HUMAN NATURE, RESURRECTED AND ASCENDED Jesus Christ ends the alienation between God and the creation, bringing creation as a sacrament into a living UNION WITH GOD. As Christ has supreme and Life-Giving Authority over the NEW CREATION, where LIFE IS ETERNAL. But now He is Head through the body, “the Church”. The Church, then, is THE SOURCE OF THE RESTORATION AND FULFILLMENT OF CREATION IN CHRIST. Who then, other than Our Lord Jesus Christ, has indeed, the power to transform humanity and restore communion with Him?
Humanity’s woes would end instantly if humanity would believe in Jesus Christ as its Lord, God, and Savior. The world would not become a place free of evil, hatred, wars, injustice, greed, corruption of all kinds, disease, enmity, discord, idolatry, heresy, and man’s passions and pride. We neglect to understand that this was, is, and always will be God’s world. After all He is the Creator, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What mankind has been experiencing is the result of man’s alienation from God, the Source of All Life. It is because man, due to his immense ego, arrogance, and pride, has sought to replace Him with himself. Human history reveals clearly and accurately the result of man’s action and behavior over the many centuries, Man refuses to obey God, he refuses to repent, he refuses to change, he rejects the Son of God and Savior, he refuses to cease all wars, he refuses to love his Divine Creator and instead has chosen to rebel against Him as did Satan. Everything that God created was “very good.” God “made everything beautiful in its time, and He indeed put eternity in their hearts in such a way that man may not find out the work of God made from the beginning to the end” [Ecclesiastes 3:11-12]. Man’s hatred for God drives him to attempt to change all that. God created man in His image and likeness and wicked man now seeks to destroy it.
Evil desires man’s death. Man has, so it seems, joined forces with the evil one. He is a total fool who has been deceived by his new evil master to believe that he is in charge of his destiny and the destiny of the world. The devil himself attempted to tempt Christ when “the devil took Him up on an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve” [Matthew 4:8-10]. Foolish man, however, decided, some time ago, to embrace and accept the devil’s offer rather than to answer him as our Savior Jesus Christ did. And we wonder why the world is in such chaos and devastation? Man is behaving brazenly and lies with boldness. The more frequent word used to describe the contemporary man today is, insane.
Man lacks wisdom. Wisdom that is found in “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” [Matthew 4:4). God teaches us not to love ease and comfort, material things, things which are perishable, but to willingly accept the struggle necessary to purify us from evil. We must not subordinate our souls to the passions of the body but to choose those things which are beneficial to our souls. The Holy Apostle James writes, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” [James 1:5]. “Wisdom” is the practical and spiritual knowledge required for godly living, comes to those who “ask of God,” in prayer. One who possesses wisdom has the ability to discern good from evil and to adhere to the commandments of God faithful and obediently.
“God appeared to Solomon that night and said to him, ‘Tell Me what you want Me to give you.” Solomon replied, “Give me wisdom and understanding, so that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this great people of Yours? [2 Chronicles 1:7-10]. The Almighty God gave Solomon wisdom and “riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings before him possessed, nor shall
any after him possess. In our Holy Orthodox Church wisdom is a gift from God and an experience of God. It is a virtue that is different from knowledge, and is more difficult to quantify. In our Holy Church Divine Wisdom is understood as the Divine Logos/Word Who became incarnate as Jesus Christ. The wide man is the one who sees clearly and deeply into the mysteries of God.
In the Holy Scripture, the Spirit of the Lord is called “the spirit of Wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2). It is this Spirit that the Lord gives to those who believe in Him. In our Holy Orthodox Church, as Saint Paul writes, Divine Wisdom is given to the spiritual person. The wise man, who possesses the Spirit of God, can show forth the “knowledge of salvation to His people…to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” [Luke 1:77-79]. The opposite of Divine Wisdom is sinful foolishness which brings man to calamity, sorrow, ruin, and death” (Proverbs 10-14). In the spiritual life of the Church, it is the wise men and women, the spiritual masters and saintly teachers, who have gained Divine Wisdom and so are made competent to direct and guide the destiny of men’s immortal souls. The Holy Fathers and Mothers of the Church were people who God granted Divine Wisdom to guide the faithful and to defend the Orthodox Christian Faith.
___________
“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in the Glorious and Divine Resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 