Mission Monthly Newsletter September 2000

...Meditate on These Things. Phillipians 4.8

"Indeed, [Elijah] was exceedingly perfect, but in his own times, when the mind of men was in some degree childish, and they needed this kind of schooling... nevertheless [the Apostles] have more required of them than [Elijah]"

St. John Chrysostom

     As priest and spiritual father I am often asked the question, “What is required of me?”  I always try to answer according to the questioner’s level of spiritual, emotional, mental and physical maturity.  The Church has always acknowledged the uniqueness of each person’s struggle and the crosses God may be asking him to bear.  We can thank God for His abundant sensitivity to the variety of needs unique to each one of His children.  We can thank God that what is “required of us” as individuals is exactly what should be required of us for our salvation, nothing more and nothing less.

     For this meditation I am more interested in the Church as a whole.  In St. John Chrysostom’s commentary on the Transfiguration of our Lord from St. Matthew’s Gospel he compared the requirements of the Apostles to that which was required of Elijah and Moses, not merely as individuals but as individuals within a particular era or time in salvation history.  St. John believed that by the time of Christ Israel had made much progress in its “wrestle with God.”  Moses lead Israel from slavery to Pharaoh to God’s giving of the Ten Commandments to the edge of the promised land.  Elijah lead Israel in the confrontation with Jezebel, the seductive idolatry of the Canaanite religion and the priests of Baal.  According to St. John, the Apostles (especially Peter, James and John) were given even greater gifts than Moses and Elijah.  They received the fulfillment of the promise in the brilliant light of Tabor; “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power” (Mark 9:1).  The Apostles healed the infirm, raised the dead, witnessed the Resurrection of Christ, received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and preached the Word of God, for most of them, unto death.  Indeed, Israel had progressed and by the time of Christ much more was required of those who followed Him.

     We are faced with similar challenges today, the greatest of which have nothing to do with world and domestic peace or economies, job security and retirement planning, home maintenance and family scheduling, health care and personal fitness.  Our greatest challenge encompasses all these and more.  Our greatest challenge is to discern and fulfill what is required of us in our own era and time in salvation history.  We are recipients of an intensely rich spiritual tradition which all too often is left by the wayside of personal opinion and worldly pursuits.  Over one hundred years into Orthodoxy’s immigration to this continent and we are still often more concerned about the language of worship than about preaching the Word of God with rightful Apostolic authority to ourselves, our nation and our world in dire need of repentance.  Over one hundred years into our immigration and we are still more zealous to maintain the customs of our ethnic cultures than to embrace our American neighbor with a sincere and inviting expression of “koinonia,” the community of the faith.  Over one hundred years into our immigration and we are still being seduced by the American dream and its validation to build our bank accounts and indulge in material excess rather than generously sacrificing to build our churches, support our priests, and be full participants in all aspects of faith.  After two thousand years of Christianity it is time to realize that much is required of us in our own era and, like Moses and Elijah, the Apostles and holy fathers, and especially our most recent Saints, empty ourselves to the calling of a disciple sent to live and proclaim the Good News to the time and place to which we’ve been given.