St. John Chrysostom, in his famous Paschal Homily, shows us the true spirit of Easter in the way he says everyone is called to come and celebrate the joy of the resurrection. His message is one of inclusion and love, not of hate and exclusion, so that even those who might have thought they should be excluded from the Paschal feast are told they are welcomed and wanted at it: Come you all: enter into the joy of your Lord.... Read more
God created the world and saw it was good. As God is the source and foundation of every good, it would be incredulous to think that God would ever seek to have anything which is good to be utterly destroyed. The problem with sin, what makes it evil, is not that sin or evil is a substance, but rather, it seeks to corrupt and destroy that which is good. Indeed, if evil is left unchecked, if it is able to... Read more
Christ is Risen! The doctrine of the death and resurrection of Christ is not about a man who died and then was later resuscitated. Resuscitation is different from resurrection, for resuscitation brings one back from death to the kind of life they had before death, which resurrection is transformative and the one who is resurrected will never die again. In the resurrection of Christ, we have been shown that death itself has an end, that it can be and has... Read more
The cross. It had come to this. It was always coming to this, ever since he was born. The God-man, Jesus Christ, experienced murderous hatred toward himself all his life (as can be seen by the way Herod wanted the infant Jesus killed). And yet, with all that hate, he came to the world to reveal God’s love, a love which transcended such hate, because it was a love which would not allow itself to be anything but love. Jesus... Read more
On the night on which Jesus was betrayed, a betrayal which he expected and was ready for, Jesus first handed himself over to his disciples at the Last Supper, giving himself completely to them in the institution of the eucharist. Then, later, when the soldiers came to arrest him, he did not resist arrest. In all that he did that night, Jesus revealed to us some aspect of God’s love for humanity. Jesus let himself be taken, judged, condemned, and... Read more
There is something very interesting which happens when Holy Monday, a day on which the Byzantine tradition remembers Jesus’ reaction to the barren fig tree, is celebrated on the same day as that of the Annunciation: we are shown that, contrary to the way some read Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree as indicating that the Jews should be considered accursed because they produced no spiritual fruit, they produced the greatest fruit of all, Jesus himself, even as their whole... Read more
While it might often be difficult, because of the trials and tribulations of life, including those given to us by our fellow Christians, we should always strive to find the good things we have in our life and use them to help us experience the joy God wants for us. Human nature, in and of itself, is good, and even if we individually have cut ourselves off from that goodness due to our sins, we can find ourselves restored back... Read more
God created the world, and therefore created us, out of love. Through what the God-man did in his temporal ministry, we are shown the extant of God’s love for us. One of the ways he did this is through his friendship with Lazarus. When he went to see Lazarus in his death, Jesus wept (cf. Jn. 11:35). Even though Jesus knew Lazarus would partake of eternal glory, and that he would soon bring back Lazarus from the dead, he still... Read more
Throughout Christian history, we find Christians promoting the value of women, indicating how and why their dignity and honor should not be neglected. But, sadly, that is not the whole story. While Christians might have said such things, and on some level, believed them, their actions, and other words they said, contradicted such an important principle, showing that the reality of history is far from what apologists using only the noblest sentiments from the past would suggest. St. Paul told... Read more
“He who keeps the commandment keeps his life; he who despises the word will die” (Prov. 19:16 RSV). Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, if we love him, we will keep his commandments. They are not burdensome commandments, meant to break us down and keep us weary; rather, they are the reverse, they are meant to build us up, as they are the commandments of love. Jesus expressly told us that we should love both God and... Read more
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