Nowadays many people misunderstand God, if they believe in Him at all. Some may think of God as a “cosmic cop” who punishes the guilty and rewards the good. Others may think of God as someone distant and remote who doesn't really care or involve himself in our everyday life. Certainly, there are some who think of God as unfair and unloving, because he allows “bad things to happen to good people.” Sadly, ignorance of God's true identity and character can lead many to distance themselves from Him at best, and at worst, to reject Him altogether. God foresaw that many throughout history would have difficulty rightly understanding Him, so in the fullness of time, He came Himself in the flesh as a human being. God knew that if people could see Him in the context of everyday human life, interacting with people and subject to the same human challenges and limitations as every human being, it would be easier for people to correctly understand Him: His personality, His character, His decisions, and His relationship with all creation and particularly with us.

In today's Gospel, we see Jesus interact with four Jewish fishermen of Galilee. We know from the ending of today's interaction that Jesus's goal was to invite these men to become His disciples and key members of His team of Apostles. How Jesus goes about accomplishing His goal is deeply revelatory regarding His true identity as God and His purpose as our Savior. Instead of using His overwhelming divine power to force Peter, Andrew, James and John to join His apostolic team, Jesus met these fishermen where they were at, on their own turf. Jesus gave Peter in particular a front-row seat to witness His divine authority and wisdom as He taught the people from Peter's boat. This gentle and subtle approach gave Peter time to open his heart through listening to the possibility that this powerful preacher of truth could be the promised Messiah. Next, Jesus invites Peter to go fishing, knowing that Peter and his three partners had fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus was setting up these professional fishermen to witness first-hand His divine power even over the fish of the sea. Despite the low human odds of catching any fish, Peter's nets are so filled with “a great shoal of fish” that they were breaking and Peter needed to desperately call his partners to come and help. Peter, Andrew, James and John knew this event was miraculous. Immediately Peter fell down at Jesus's feet and worshiped Him. No violation of human free will occurred. With gentleness, humility and sensitivity, God in the flesh used the familiar to reveal the mysterious. The fruit of this encounter was that four seasoned fishermen traded in their fishing nets for the “spiritual nets of apostolic evangelism.”

Through this miracle, we and the whole world can see that God does not force Himself on us, but He is gentle and lowly, patient and loving. The God of the universe created us out of love, to participate forever in His love, and therefore meets us gently where we are at to lead us into a relationship with Him in our present circumstances and forever in His everlasting Kingdom.

THE GOSPEL READING IS FROM MARK 8:34-38; 9:1:

The Lord said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of himwill the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

The English language unfortunately has only one word for “love.” We, therefore, use the same word for so many things that we end up trivializing and cheapening our understanding of the ultimate and highest force in the universe. In English, we can say “I love ice cream,” and we can say “I love my children,” using the exact same word, even though we intend vastly different things. The language of the Scriptures, Greek, has four different words for our English sense of “love.” These different Greek words help differentiate the levels of devotion, feelings or commitment a person can have toward various things like ice cream, one's children, a spouse or even God. The Greek word for God's perfect love is agape. This agape love far transcends what most Americans mean by the casual way we use the word “love.” Agape is self-sacrificial; it does not seek its own way but always seeks the good of the other. Agape is creative and life-giving. It is defined by the character of God Himself. When we speak of God's motivation for creating all that exists, we say it is because of agape love. Every action of God toward His creation is determined by His agape love.

One of the most famous biblical quotes about this type of agape love is in today's Gospel Reading: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn. 3:16-17).

All the events of salvation history—what we mean by the Gospel—are expressions of God's perfect love for us: His incarnation, His humble birth, the humility of His way of life, His passion, crucifixion, and His death. Jesus taught us that truly great love is to lay down our life for our friends, but He goes even further than this in His own life. Our Lord Jesus laid down His life for everyone—His enemies, His friends, those who loved Him and even for those who hated Him and put Him to death. The holy Apostles watched their Lord's everyday example as a blueprint for their own lives. This is reflected in St. John the Beloved Disciple's own teaching to the whole Church when he says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn. 4:11).

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus encounters a young Jewish ruler who was very rich. This wealthy man asks Jesus a profound and vital question: “What must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus mentions the importance of following the Ten Commandments. The young ruler replies that he, as a faithful Jew, has been trying to live by these Commandments, but he also realizes that something is still lacking in his life. “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” With this additional question, Jesus speaks about Christian perfection. Please don't misunderstand. Jesus is not asking this man or anyone else to be God in the sense of static perfection. Rather, Jesus is saying to this man and to us that if we truly want to become Christ's disciples and enter into an intimate relationship of communion and receive His divine grace to become holy, we must become free to follow Him. Jesus, as God, looked into this man's heart and saw that he was enslaved by his possessions. They were holding him back from putting God first. He was living an outward life of minimal obedience to the Jewish Law, but in his heart, his attachment to his wealth held him back from loving God and following Him. This is why the young ruler, in the end, departed from Jesus sorrowful. Contrast this man's decision to choose his possessions over God with the decision of Christ's first-called Apostles: Peter, Andrew, James and John. When Jesus asked them to follow Him and become “fishers of men,” they immediately left their boats, their nets, their livelihood and even their father in the case of James and John.

Freedom from attachment to anything above God is essential to the Christian life. This does not necessarily mean leaving our families, selling all we own, or becoming homeless. Rather, it means striving, with God's help, to put Him first and to “lay aside all worldly cares” so that we may “receive the King of all” (Cherubic Hymn of the Liturgy). Worldly cares may include possessions, relationships, or status, but they also include passions and habitual sins. God has given every human being the most powerful force in the universe: free will. Because we are created in His image, we can choose whom and what we will love, follow, and submit our hearts to. When we choose God, we choose heaven. No one goes to hell against their will; those who tragically end up there do so because they chose to place other things above God.

The Apostle Peter once asked Jesus if he should forgive someone who offended him up to seven times. It is important to understand that the number “seven” symbolized completion or perfection in Jewish and biblical language, so St. Peter was trying to emphasize in his question the importance of forgiveness. Jesus, wanting to show how central mercy is to an authentic and true human life, replied, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:22). Jesus, in His response, revealed God's own unfathomable merciful character and desire to forgive far beyond what Peter could even imagine. Furthermore, Peter would see the depth of God's mercy in some of Jesus's own final words upon the Cross: “Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they do” (Lk. 23:34). Undoubtedly, in this moment of Peter's question, however, our Lord knew that Peter and the other apostles were struggling with the selflessness and sacrificial love necessary to forgive as Jesus was commanding. For this reason, He followed up His commandment on forgiveness with the parable of today's Gospel Passage.

In this parable, a servant owed an enormous debt to his master that could never be repaid. Shockingly, the master completely forgave this dept, which would have taken many lifetimes to repay. Almost immediately, this same servant, who had been literally given back his and his family's life, refused to forgive a fellow servant a miniscule debt, throwing him into prison. Word got back to the merciful master, who confronted the wicked servant who had been shown incredible pity and love, saying, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Then, the master delivered the wicked servant to his own horrible but just judgment.

This parable serves to remind us of the enormous debt we owe to God due to our own sins and disobedience; a debt we can never repay. Yet, again and again, our Merciful Lord forgives us. In addition, the example of the wicked and unforgiving servant reminds us of the importance of forgiving others their comparably insignificant “debts” toward us. Jesus's own words in the Lord's Prayer come into clearer focus through this teaching: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” I end with a beautiful and powerful quote from St. Nikolai Velimirovich: “The Lord began His teaching with words of repentance and ended it with words on forgiveness. Repentance is the seed; forgiveness is its fruit. Seed is of no use if it does not bring forth fruit, and no sort of repentance is of any use without forgiveness."

When Jesus was giving His famous Sermon on the Mount recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, He focused on three spiritual disciplines central to Jewish piety: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The Orthodox Church has always considered these same three practices essential and integral to the Christian life. This is because only actions based on faith express true belief and a right relationship with God. Knowledge alone will never transform us, heal us, or make us one with God. St. James teaches, “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. I by my works will show you my faith” (Js. 2:17, 18).

For this reason, Orthodox Christians fast. In fact, we are instructed to fast twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year. Every Wednesday, we remember Judas's betrayal of our Lord Jesus, and on Fridays, we remember Christ's crucifixion. In addition, the Church invites us to fast on a more extensive basis during four different preparatory seasons: Great Lent before Holy Week and Pascha, the Nativity Fast before Christmas, the Apostles Fast before the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and this current fast before the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

It should therefore be no surprise that today's Gospel recounts the deliverance of a young boy from demonic possession. Because the Apostles were unable to help the boy, the father turned to Jesus Who successfully freed the tortured boy. Later, when asked by His disciples why they were unable to cast out the demon, Jesus replied that this type of demon could only be cast out by “prayer and fasting.”

Orthodox fasting guidelines invite the faithful to abstain from all meats, fish, dairy, wine and oil. The goal of a fast is to train the will toward obedience to Christ and the Church's teachings, to align our human will with God's divine will. By abstaining from everyday foods, which are a part of the regular human routine, a fasting person is constantly reminded to remember God, to remember and prepare for the upcoming Church Feast, and to remember the soul and its spiritual faculties over the body. Fasting should never be reduced to a food-centered diet but should always be accompanied by prayer—both personal and corporate. Prayer should give wings to fasting and vice versa. Fasting, as an ascetic practice, is not seen as an end but a means toward drawing closer to God. It is too easy in our fallen society to become materialists, focusing on this temporal world, the things that pertain to the body and the senses, while forgetting about the soul, the kingdom of heaven, and eternal and ultimate things. Fasting provides us the opportunity to rightly orient ourselves toward God and our intended citizenship in His eternal kingdom.

May this current Fast help us to draw closer to our Lord and Savior, help us to remember the life of the greatest Saint, the Holy Theotokos, and realign our own weak wills with our Lord's perfect will.

Mt. 17:1 – 9

At that time, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead.”

Immediately after Jesus fed the 5000 with five loaves and two fish, He sent His disciples away across the Sea of Galilee and dismissed the crowds. Jesus wanted to be alone to pray. He had a regular habit of separating Himself from other people and activities to spend quiet time with His Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was unceasingly in communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, even in the midst of His day-to-day activities, yet He still carved out intentional time alone to enter into deep, concentrated prayer.

This regular habit of prayer is instructional to us. As the perfect Human Being, Jesus shows us the way. His actions instruct us how to live. His habits should become our own habits. In imitation of our Lord Jesus, the Orthodox Church instructs us to form a daily habit of prayer, where we set aside intentional time to be with God both in the morning and in the evening. These prayer times do not need to be long or complicated; they simply need to be regular and heartfelt. Our Church—and social scientists agree—tells us that a habit takes about forty days to form. We need to commit and stick with both a morning and evening routine of about fifteen minutes for six weeks to begin imitating our Lord's practice of prayer. It was prayer that Jesus had in mind when He said, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30). We do not have to make up our prayer routines on our own. Our bookstore sells excellent prayer books with both morning and evening prayers. The Orthodox Study Bible has these prayers in their indexes. You can ask Fr. Theodore, and he will help you tailor a prayer habit that fits your specific needs.

As incentive to help motivate us all to commit to a habit of prayer, allow me to close with this beautiful quote from St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain on prayer: There is no other virtue that is either higher or more necessary than sacred Prayer, because all the other virtues—even though they are ways of imitating God, even though they cannot be taken away from us and constitute the immortal ornaments of the soul—do not unite man with God, but only render man fit to be united. Sacred Prayer, and it alone, unites. It alone joins man with God and God with man and makes the two one spirit.

One day during our Lord's ministry, Jesus taught the multitudes all day and into the late afternoon, healing many with various infirmities. The crowd was big, numbering 5,000 men, not including women and children, so the total crowd numbered much higher. Our Lord's disciples wanted to send the crowd back to the nearby cities and villages to find food, but Jesus refused to send the people away. Instead, He told His followers, “You give them something to eat.” This is significant for three reasons: (1) Jesus worked with and through others to accomplish His will, (2) Jesus can take what little His disciples have and multiply it to meet the need, and (3) Jesus wants to teach us to depend on Him rather than ourselves.

It is also important to notice that when Jesus takes the offering of two fish and five loaves, He uses the exact same linguistic formula as He did at the Mystical (Last) Supper in establishing the Eucharist. “He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave…” Jesus wants us to make the connection between the manna of the Old Testament and Himself as the Bread of Life. Jesus is the Lamb of God, the Sacrifice to end all sacrifices. He is the Living Water, the “true Food” and “true Drink” that brings perfect Communion, the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting Life. The masses were grateful for the meal and amazed at the miracle. In the days that followed, they continued to follow Jesus, seeking more free food and more wondrous signs. Jesus, however, desiring to elevate their thinking and wanting to concretely make the connection between His miraculous feeding of the multitudes with the Eucharist, said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and the Bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:51, 53-54).

Unlike the crowd in today's Gospel, we should not need more miracles or seek only the pleasures of this temporal world or even to struggle alone. Today, through this miracle of the Loaves and Fish, let us realize that Jesus Christ is Lord and Life. If we have communion with Him, then we have everything. All good things come from Him, and all created things should lead back to Him. Through Him, all things are possible, and He will help us accomplish His will in our lives. We are never alone.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ became incarnate, meaning the Son of God became a man, with flesh and blood and lived among the human race for thirty-three years. One reason He came was to give us a living example of true and authentic human life. Everything He did and said was a blueprint for our own human existence. Another way of saying the same thing is that God gave us “commandments” and then showed us how to put those truths into action. This is why Jesus says in today's Gospel: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Further down in the same passage, Jesus says, “He who practices [these commandments] and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” God's commandments are not a set of impositions in opposition to true human life meant to burden us. Rather, His commandments are given to us as a gift of love to help guide us, fulfill us, and make us truly human. It is in this spirit that St. John the Evangelist taught, “He who says he abides in [Christ] ought to walk in the same way in which He walked” (1 Jn. 2:6).

Erroneously, many believe that the center of human existence resides in the reason: “I think, therefore I am.” (Rene Descartes) Our Orthodox Christian Faith teaches, however, that the center of the human being is the soul. Therefore, knowledge is important, but it is not the end all, be all of human existence. Knowledge by itself cannot transform a human being. To be transformed, knowledge must be put into practice. Simply knowing and understanding Christ's commandments is not enough; our Lord's commandments must be put into action. When we say, “I believe…” in the Creed, this word “believe” carries with it follow through in action. I believe, therefore I act. It is in this precise spirit that St. James writes, “Faith by itself, if it has no works is dead. I by my works will show you my faith” (Js. 2:17, 18b). May we thankfully embrace Christ's commandments, knowing that central Christian practices like prayer, fasting and almsgiving are commanded by God simply because they form us and transform us into Christ-likeness, bring us into intimate communion with God, and deeply satisfy our core human yearnings.