“let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light”
The so called ‘slogan’ which we hear throughout Great Lent is the recommendation by Paul the Apostle, who calls upon us to cast off all our dark deeds and dress into the armor of light. “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” (Rom. 13, 12)
The first thing the Apostle points out is that we ought to accept that we often fall under the spell of darkness, namely of sin, and therefore our deeds are sinful. Indeed there is no man, particularly no Christian, who does not readily confess in a general and vague manner, that he is a sinner.
“Is there anyone who is not a sinner?’ we are often asked when we engage in this kind of talk. Nevertheless, such a general and vague acknowledgement is not what the Apostle seems to have had in mind. Because the vague recognition of our sinful condition most probably serves as an alibi of sin itself in the sense that we are all in the same boat so… In other words, we profess the sinfulness of human nature in order to justify it as something normal!
The Apostle however gives a dramatic tone to his call that we need ‘to cast off the works of darkness’ and of sin: Namely that whatever we do, whatever we talk about or even think about, if it is cut off from Jesus, who is the source of light, constitutes a sin and therefore is darkness. At the end of the day, he who does not act and live Jesus’ life, he lives a nonexistent life, even if his deeds seem great and important.
Our times are probably described by spiritual nonexistence since, not only those outside the Church but also we, the devout Christians, live in a manner which has nothing to do with Jesus; it is as if we are still living in the pre-Christ era. This been described as the ‘secular’ condition long ago; i.e. our lives are disengaged from Jesus’ presence. Therefore, practical atheism is distinctive of our era.
However, this tragic condition has already been pointed out by the Lord Himself. We are living dead. He, whose life is not distinguished by the Lord’s preconditions, is dead. Jesus’ words sound loudly and morbidly: “let the dead bury their dead” ( Matt.8,22). He, who does not receive Him and does not wish to become His disciple, is dead.
Therefore, ‘casting off the works of darkness’ means: we ought to cast off everything which causes our spiritual death and deprives us of the vitality of life. How is this possible? How can we get away from the snares of death? The Apostle says so clearly and precisely: by turning towards the light- “…putting on the armor of light”. We are only able to overcome what is negative by adopting what is positive. We cannot overcome darkness by shooting at it! It just naturally disappears when light approaches. The darkness of the night always gives way as soon as dawn and sunlight approach. Similarly, the darkness of sin disappears as soon as man turns towards the spiritual light- the Sun of Righteousness, the Lord, Jesus Christ. As the Apostle says: turning towards the light means: to ‘put on Jesus Christ’. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13, 14).
However, there is a problem here. How am I being asked to put on Jesus Christ, since I have already done that through my baptism? The Word of the Lord has already stipulated that “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3, 27). How am I to put on the same cloth that I am already dressed into? St Paul’s call means that all Christians who are already clothed into Jesus Christ ought to restore their garments. For we unfortunately continue to commit trespasses even after we have been baptized. Our negligence causes the dilapidation of that which ought to have been preserved as new.
Therefore ‘putting on Jesus’ means: that I, being baptized, ought to live in repentance. I am being asked to live a life of repentance in order to cleanse the cloth I have put on during my baptism. This is the reason why the Holy Fathers have described ‘repentance’ as a ‘second baptism’. Therefore, I stop being in the darkness if I chose the path of repentance, which assists me to restore my true self; to regain the light which flooded me on the day of my regeneration and my initial integration into the Church.
He, who manages to restore his cloth through repentance, lives a powerful and authoritative life. He says: ‘put on the armor of light”. Jesus’ light gives us the necessary armor and signifies the authority we have been given as children of God. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1, 12).
What kind of armor are we talking about? We are talking about the armor of the Lord’s grace, the armor of the Cross. The hymnographer of our Church, guided by a similar description by St Paul, says: “The stadium where virtue is being accomplished has been opened. Those who wish to take up the fight against the enemy may enter… By taking on the whole armor of the Cross, let us fight the enemy. Let us use faith like an unreachable wall, prayer like a breastplate and alms giving like a helmet. Let us use fasting in the place of the knife, since it rips out any vice from the heart”.
Faith, prayer, love and alms giving and fasting: These are the weapons which belong to our spiritual armor. We ought to take them up not only during the blessed period of the Great Lent but also throughout our entire lives.
The only thing we have to do is to recognize the authority which was given to us and use it. Our final destination peers from afar full of glory and grace. This is where we will fully participate in the Resurrection; we will enter the Kingdom of Heaven which is our true abode!
Have a Great Lent and Happy Easter!
http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-slogan-of-great-lent.html
The great teachers of the Church and of the Greek nation, Makarios Notaras, Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and Athanasios of Paros, who lived and worked in the 18th and early 19th centuries, form a new trinity of shining lights of the Church, like the three Fathers of the Church in the past, relatively speaking of course and bearing in mind the historical circumstances they lived through with their similarities and differences. To these three must be added Neophytos of Kafsokalyvia, who started the movement, although he was not as important or active as the other three would later become, thus earning their place in the Communion of Saints. They were nicknamed Kollyvades by their opponents on the Holy Mountain because they objected to the transfer of the memorial services (involving kollyva) from Saturday to Sunday in defiance of tradition, rightly judging that services for the dead are incompatible with the resurrectional and festal nature of Sunday.
This of course was a minor detail within their greater work of renewal and enlightenment. It was deliberately stressed and exaggerated in order to obscure the importance of their other work, and also to denigrate them as being people who concerned themselves with petty matters, as memorial services and kollyva supposedly were. Even today there are scholars who belittle them and their work, seeing the whole through the distorting prism of the memorial service controversy. Fortunately in recent decades, during which Greek historical and theological research has begun to free itself from Western ties, dependency and influence, their work has been reassessed as an 18th century philokalian renaissance. This renaissance had a decisive impact in strengthening and reinforcing the education of the enslaved Orthodox peoples and in preserving their awareness of who they were, not only vis-à-vis the Ottoman conquerors but also vis-à-vis the Western missionaries who spread out all over the Orthodox world, proselytising by unfair means, and especially by exploiting the ignorance, enslavement and poverty of the Orthodox faithful.
There was a great danger that the Orthodox would convert either to Islam or to a Western form of Christianity. Indeed, the second was the greater danger due to the West’s high level of civilisation, which made assimilation easier, whereas the feeling of superiority to Islam raised some barriers and reservations. There is the classic statement by the other great teacher and saint of that period, St Kosmas Aetolos, explaining why God allowed the Orthodox to be enslaved by the Turks rather than by the Franks [Westerners]: “Three hundred years after Christ’s Resurrection, God sent us Saint Constantine and established the kingdom for 1150 years. Then God took it away from the Christians, and for their own good gave it to the Turk for 320 years. And why did God bring the Turk and not some other nation? For our own good, because the other nations would have harmed our faith, but the Turk, as long as you give him money, will let you do as you like.”
However, after the dark ages of ignorance and illiteracy of the previous centuries, the roots of education were needed to raise a barrier against conversions to Islam or Western Christianity, to prevent a multitude of small streams becoming a river that would sweep away the Nation. What St Kosmas Aetolos did by travelling around the country and founding schools for the people, the Kollyvades Saints did at a higher level by publishing and interpreting texts from Scripture and the Fathers, Lives and Services of Saints, hymns, and even grammar, rhetoric and philosophy textbooks and also ancient Greek and Western classical writers. The aim was to enlighten the Nation and maintain it in its faith and in the traditions of the Fathers, to preserve Greek Orthodox culture. They wanted to ensure that in the schools, which were appearing in increasing numbers, the teachers, monks and priests would be able to understand Greek texts through school education, but also to publish these texts, since the manuscripts were few and far between, either hidden away in monastic libraries or looted by crafty foreign travellers.
One can even discern in their truly impressive educational and literary efforts a special emphasis on action to meet the danger of conversions to Islam or Western Christian denominations. It is well known that many Neo-Martyrs had as mentors, who supported them psychologically on the road to martyrdom, Kollyvades Saints such as St Makarios and St Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain. It is certain that what many Neo-Martyrs proclaimed before the Turkish judges regarding the superiority of the Christian faith to the religion of Muhammed, which they disparage and reject, echoed the teaching of the Kollyvades Saints. Many of these exchanges between these Neo-Martyrs and the Turkish judges, which recall the martyrologies of old, were preserved by St Nikodemos in his “New Martyrology”. The same interpretation must be put on the anti-Western works of St Athanasios of Paros; “The Antipope”, “The Judgement of Heaven”, “That Palamas” and other works on the aberrations and errors of the Latins.
The contribution of the Kollyvades to education and culture was not limited to raising the self-awareness of the Orthodox peoples vis-à-vis the twin dangers of assimilation by East or West, which were very great. It had another, equally broad, dimension, in which they appeared to have less success, not because their teachings were without effect, but because unfortunately, from 1821 the modern Greek state was violently cut off from the Greek Orthodox tradition. It abandoned traditional Greek Christian education and, guided by and in tutelage to the West, turned against its Byzantine heritage, against the Saints and the Church Fathers, against all that was holy for the Nation.
It is known that the Kollyvades Saints, and especially St Athanasios of Paros, clashed with the European and Europeanising supporters of the Enlightenment in modern Greece, who adopted the ideas of the French Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and even the atheism of Voltaire, and who attempted to direct the course of modern Greek culture towards classical antiquity, extolling and stressing the worldly wisdom and knowledge of antiquity while underrating or ignoring divine wisdom. Rationalism, science, knowledge and freedom were the new deities in the Enlightenment creed. The Byzantine synthesis, in which the healthy elements of the ancient Greek spirit were preserved and strengthened and pressed into the service of the divine message of love, humility and reconciliation that derives from the teaching of the Gospel of the Cross, was abandoned and disparaged. It was essentially a new form of persecution of the church, similar to the attempts by the Emperor Julian the Apostate in the fourth century to revive pure Hellenism in the place of Christianity, and by Barlaam the Calabrian in the fourteenth century to introduce into Orthodox Byzantium the scholasticism and rationalism of the Western Renaissance, rejecting the tried and true method of enlightenment and perfection used by the Fathers of the Church which emphasised divine wisdom, but without rejecting worldly or human wisdom. The three Fathers of the fourth century, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, with their fine classical Greek education, like St Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth century, barred the way back to an unwholesome classicism that places the created above the uncreated, human wisdom above divine wisdom, as was said by the blessed monk Christoforos Papoulakos on observing the wrong course taken after 1821 by westernised Greek scholars and clergymen, who adopted in their entirety the ideas of the European Enlightenment.
It is worth noting that the revolutionary heroes of 1821, Kolokotronis, Makrygiannis, Papaflessas and others, who had been brought up in the spirit of tradition, felt betrayed on this point. They had struggled to free the Greeks from the Turks in body, and now they saw Greece becoming enslaved spiritually, surrendering her soul, to the Europeans.
Latinisation returned in the form of Europeanisation and Westernisation. The West, which had been unable to “enlighten” free Byzantium with Barlaam the Calabrian, that is to plunge the Greeks into darkness, because St Gregory Palamas reacted with the Hesychast movement, nor again under the Turkish occupation due to the Hesychastic movement of the Kollyvades, attempted again after 1821 by placing the modern Greek state, education and culture under its spiritual tutelage. It seems, however, that it is once again being defeated.
The Kollyvades, reviled even in the name they were given, profoundly influenced Orthodox faith and life as true successors of the patristic Hesychast tradition. Both the Holy Mountain, which bred them, and St Gregory Palamas can be proud of these great teachers of Orthodoxy and the Nation.
Λέγει ο δίκαιος Ιώβ: «Αλλά άνθρωπος γεννάται κόπω» (Ιώβ 5,7). Ο Απόστολος Παύλος λέγει ότι όλα τα έργα γίνονται με κόπο και πόνο (Ρωμ.8,21). Ο πόνος στον κόσμο είναι καρπός της πτώσεως του ανθρώπου από τον παράδεισο (Πράξ. 3,16). Είναι καρπός της αμαρτίας (Ψαλμ.7,14-16).
Αλλ' όμως, εάν δεχώμεθα κάθε πόνο με υπομονή και ευχαρίστησι, λαμβάνουμε μεγάλη πνευματική ωφέλεια πολύτιμη για την σωτηρία της ψυχής μας. Γενικά βλέπουμε ότι, όσο πολλαπλασιάζεται η αμαρτία και η πλάνη στον κόσμο, τόσο αυξάνεται και ο πόνος, δηλαδή η πείνα, η σύγχυσις, οι πόλεμοι, οι παντός είδους ασθένειες και ο θάνατος. Η φροντίδα ημών των χριστιανών είναι να εγκαταλείψουμε την αμαρτία, να συμφιλιωθούμε με τον Θεό, να αποκτήσουμε τον φόβο του Θεού, την ταπείνωσι, την υπομονή και τότε όλα τα βάσανα μας θα ολιγοστεύσουν και θα έλθη μεγάλη ωφέλεια στις ψυχές μας.
Ο πόνος είναι αρραβών των αιωνίων βασάνων, η το αντίλυτρο των αμαρτιών μας; Ποιος είναι ο σκοπός της υπάρξεως του πόνου;
Ο σκοπός του πόνου για τούς χριστιανούς είναι ένας και μοναδικός: Η συγχώρησις των αμαρτιών εδώ στην γη με κάθε είδους ασθένειες, στενοχώριες και θλίψεις, επίσης ο εξαγνισμός και η σωτηρία της ψυχής μας. Γι' αυτούς που δεν θέλουν να διορθωθούν και μετανοήσουν, ο πόνος είναι ο αρραβών των αιωνίων βασάνων. Ενώ αυτοί που δέχονται τον πόνο με υπομονή και με ευχαριστία στον Θεό και ζουν με μετάνοια, τότε είναι γι' αυτούς ο καλλίτερος δρόμος για την διόρθωσι και συγχώρησι των αμαρτιών των, διότι λυτρώνονται από τις αιώνιες θλίψεις της κολάσεως.
Βλέπουμε ότι εδώ στην γη αυτοί που υποφέρουν περισσότερο, είναι ειρηνικοί με τη συνείδησί των, ενάρετοι και ισχυροί απέναντι των πειρασμών, πλησιέστερα στον Θεό από τούς άλλους και σώζονται ευκολώτερα, όπως ο δίκαιος Ιώβ, ο πτωχός Λάζαρος, οι Άγιοι Απόστολοι, οι Μάρτυρες, οι Όσιοι και τόσοι άλλοι. Ενώ αυτοί που ζουν άνετα, είναι υγιείς, έχουν περιουσία και κάθε απολαυστικό στην γη, είναι συνήθως αδύνατοι στην πίστι, άσπλαχνοι, τυραννικοί, γαστρίμαργοι, εγωϊσταί, φοβούνται τον θάνατο και πεθαίνουν με βαρείες αμαρτίες, προς αιώνια τιμωρία των.
Ο πόνος επετράπη άνωθεν για την σωτηρία και την συγχώρησι των αμαρτιών μας και για την πνευματική μας πρόοδο, εάν εμείς τον δεχόμεθα με ευχαρίστησι, ως από το χέρι του Θεού, όπως λέγη ο προφήτης Δαβίδ: «Η ράβδος σου και η βακτηρία σου, αύται με παρεκάλεσαν» (Ψαλμ.22,5). Οπότε λοιπόν, η ράβδος και η βακτηρία του πόνου τους ευσεβείς και πιστούς χριστιανούς τους στηρίζουν, τους εμπνέουν στα καλά έργα, τους καθαρίζουν από τις αμαρτίες και τους καταξιώνουν μεγαλυτέρων στεφάνων και απολαύων στον ουρανό. Ενώ για τους κακοπροαίρετους, η ράβδος του πόνου είναι τιμωρία επάνω στην τιμωρία και χαλινός στο στόμα, διότι δεν θέλουν να πλησιάσουν τον Κύριο (Ψαλ.31,10).
Γέροντος Κλεόπα Ηλιέ Πνευματικοί Διάλογοι Εκδόσεις "Ορθόδοξος Κυψέλη" θάνατος. Η φροντίδα ημών των χριστιανών είναι να εγκαταλείψουμε την αμαρτία, να συμφιλιωθούμε με τον Θεό, να αποκτήσουμε τον φόβο του Θεού, την ταπείνωσι, την υπομονή και τότε όλα τα βάσανα μας θα ολιγοστεύσουν και θα έλθη μεγάλη ωφέλεια στις ψυχές μας.
Ο πόνος είναι αρραβών των αιωνίων βασάνων, η το αντίλυτρο των αμαρτιών μας; Ποιος είναι ο σκοπός της υπάρξεως του πόνου;
Ο σκοπός του πόνου για τούς χριστιανούς είναι ένας και μοναδικός: Η συγχώρησις των αμαρτιών εδώ στην γη με κάθε είδους ασθένειες, στενοχώριες και θλίψεις, επίσης ο εξαγνισμός και η σωτηρία της ψυχής μας. Γι' αυτούς που δεν θέλουν να διορθωθούν και μετανοήσουν, ο πόνος είναι ο αρραβών των αιωνίων βασάνων. Ενώ αυτοί που δέχονται τον πόνο με υπομονή και με ευχαριστία στον Θεό και ζουν με μετάνοια, τότε είναι γι' αυτούς ο καλλίτερος δρόμος για την διόρθωσι και συγχώρησι των αμαρτιών των, διότι λυτρώνονται από τις αιώνιες θλίψεις της κολάσεως.
Βλέπουμε ότι εδώ στην γη αυτοί που υποφέρουν περισσότερο, είναι ειρηνικοί με τη συνείδησί των, ενάρετοι και ισχυροί απέναντι των πειρασμών, πλησιέστερα στον Θεό από τούς άλλους και σώζονται ευκολώτερα, όπως ο δίκαιος Ιώβ, ο πτωχός Λάζαρος, οι Άγιοι Απόστολοι, οι Μάρτυρες, οι Όσιοι και τόσοι άλλοι. Ενώ αυτοί που ζουν άνετα, είναι υγιείς, έχουν περιουσία και κάθε απολαυστικό στην γη, είναι συνήθως αδύνατοι στην πίστι, άσπλαχνοι, τυραννικοί, γαστρίμαργοι, εγωϊσταί, φοβούνται τον θάνατο και πεθαίνουν με βαρείες αμαρτίες, προς αιώνια τιμωρία των.
Ο πόνος επετράπη άνωθεν για την σωτηρία και την συγχώρησι των αμαρτιών μας και για την πνευματική μας πρόοδο, εάν εμείς τον δεχόμεθα με ευχαρίστησι, ως από το χέρι του Θεού, όπως λέγη ο προφήτης Δαβίδ: «Η ράβδος σου και η βακτηρία σου, αύται με παρεκάλεσαν» (Ψαλμ.22,5) Οπότε λοιπόν, η ράβδος και η βακτηρία του πόνου τους ευσεβείς και πιστούς χριστιανούς τους στηρίζουν, τους εμπνέουν στα καλά έργα, τους καθαρίζουν από τις αμαρτίες και τους καταξιώνουν μεγαλυτέρων στεφάνων και απολαύων στον ουρανό. Ενώ για τους κακοπροαίρετους, η ράβδος του πόνου είναι τιμωρία επάνω στην τιμωρία και χαλινός στο στόμα, διότι δεν θέλουν να πλησιάσουν τον Κύριο (Ψαλ.31,10)
Γέροντος Κλεόπα Ηλιέ Πνευματικοί Διάλογοι Εκδόσεις "Ορθόδοξος Κυψέλη"
http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/03/blog-post_12.html
Ένας ηλικιωμένος ξυλουργός κόντευε να βγει στη σύνταξη, και είπε στο αφεντικό του τα σχέδια του για να φύγει και να ζήσει πιο ξεκούραστα μαζί με τη γυναίκα του.
Βέβαια δεν θα συνέχιζε να βγάζει τόσα λεφτά, όμως έπρεπε να βγει στη σύνταξη. Θα τα κατάφερναν.
Ο εργολάβος του στεναχωρήθηκε που θα έφευγε ένας τόσο καλός μάστορας, και ζήτησε από τον ξυλουργό αν θα μπορούσε να του χτίσει άλλο ένα σπίτι σαν προσωπική του χάρη.
Ο ξυλουργός είπε ναι, όμως όσο περνούσε ο καιρός δεν ήταν δύσκολο να παρατηρήσει κάποιος πως δεν δούλευε με όλη του τη καρδιά.
Χρησιμοποιούσε υλικά κατώτερης ποιότητας, και έκανε επιπόλαιη δουλειά.
Ήταν ο χειρότερος τρόπος για να τελειώσει μια καριέρα γεμάτη αφοσίωση και επιτυχίες.
Όταν ο ξυλουργός τελείωσε το έργο, ήρθε ο εργολάβος να επιθεωρήσει το σπίτι. Έδωσε το κλειδί της εισόδου στον ξυλουργό και του είπε,
"Αυτό το σπίτι είναι δικό σου, ένα δώρο από μένα για σένα."
Ο ξυλουργός έμεινε άναυδος!
Τι κρίμα!
Αν μόνο ήξερε πως έχτιζε το δικό του σπίτι, θα το είχε κάνει εντελώς διαφορετικά.
Το ίδιο συμβαίνει και με μας.
Χτίζουμε τη ζωή μας, μέρα με την μέρα, πολύ συχνά μη κάνοντας το καλύτερο μας σε αυτό που κτίζουμε.
Και μετά μένουμε εμβρόντητοι όταν αντιλαμβανόμαστε ότι πρέπει να κατοικήσουμε στο σπίτι που κτίσαμε.
Αν μπορούσαμε να το κάνουμε ξανά, θα το χτίζαμε εντελώς διαφορετικά. Να όμως που δεν μπορούμε να επιστρέψουμε ...;.
Εσύ είσαι ο ξυλουργός στη ζωή σου. Κάθε μέρα βάζεις μια πρόκα, τοποθετείς άλλη μια τάβλα, ή ορθώνεις ένα τοίχο.
Οι προθέσεις και οι επιλογές που κάνεις σήμερα χτίζουν το αυριανό σου "σπίτι" ...;
Γι' αυτό να χτίζεις με σοφία!
Ζήτησε από το Θεό να γίνει Αυτός ο εργολάβος στη ζωή σου!
Αυτός θα σου δείξει πως να φτιάξεις ένα γερό θεμέλιο για να χτίσεις το σπιτικό της ζωής σου.
Αν βιάζεσαι να δεις τον κόσμο να γίνεται καλύτερος, άρχισε από τον εαυτό σου.
Είναι ο συντομότερος δρόμος.
http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/03/blog-post_5692.html
“let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light”