Third Finding of the Precious Head of the Holy, Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John; Passing into Eternal Life (1951) of Blessed Mykola (Nicholas) Tsehelsky, Priest and Martyr.
Polyeleos Feast.
Acts 25:13-19; 2 Corinthians 4:6-15; John 16:23-33; Matthew 11:2-15.
Read John 16:23-33
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Jesus tell his disciples: The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone.
Being scattered in a feeling that most of us can probably relate to. We endure the frantic pace of modern life with all its competing priorities (work, family, parish life, personal needs and desires…) feeling that there is too much to get done and never enough time to do it. We end our days overwhelmed and exhausted but feeling like we accomplished little.
In addition, to everything that comes from without us, we also face the struggle of being scattered within our hearts. St. Paul describes our situation in his letter to the Romans: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Romans 7:15-20).
The temptation is try and fix this situation for ourselves. In a word, we retreat, every man to his home, and leave Jesus alone. But this is not the solution to what ails us. Our illness is to be overcome in Him: I say this to you so that IN ME you may have peace.
We may be scattered and divided but Christ is stable. He is the great I AM, always with the Father, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). In fact, as we reflect on it we come to realize that at the very core of our being we share in this stability because we are made in the image of Christ and incorporated into him in Holy Baptism. To paraphrase St. Gregory of Nyssa: Anything that is unstable in us, is not truly us.
Knowing this, our task becomes to divest ourselves of anything that is not truly us, and to cling to that which is most real in us – that is, to Christ!
In his commentary on the third chapter of the book of Exodus, St. Gregory of Nyssa tells us that God’s command to Moses ‘Take off your shoes” is a exhortation to strip ourselves of all that is dead and lifeless within us. Moses’s shoes, being made of the skins of dead animals, represent our attachments to everything that is unable to give us life and peace.
If we are feeling scattered today let us stop, take off our shoes and recognize that we are standing on holy ground. Jesus is present before us and within us, and he overcome the world – Glory be to him forever!