| Samurai Frank's profileSamurai Frank's spacePhotosBlogNetwork |  Tools  Help |
Samurai Frank's space |
||||||
|
January 02 True Religion(I wrote this in response to a person in one of my yahoo groups. He shared that he lives a good and clean life and doesn't believe in God because religion has been a major problem in today's world).
Happy New Year ! It's great that you live such a straight life. But we all have unresolved issues that some individuals hide behind a "euphoric" feeling and believe that's all and no introspective work. This is the biggest fallacy among people in ALL religions. They observe the outward rituals and believe that's enough not knowing that they begin to be complacent and have no intiative to resolve past resentments, guilt and depression. Psychotherapy is very helpful but we are more than just "mental" we are spiritual as well and psychology used together with religion can be a powerful tool in being a more peaceful person.
We live in a society where Truth is relative (my truth is not ur truth and vice versa) which then makes everybody "right". But if everybody's right then we all blind to what's wrong? For there to be a right there's has to be, genrally a wrong. But being "politically correct" is the shield people hide behind to justify their actions and beliefs. Religion, in general, gives us timeless values that cannot be compromised because it's Author is changless which is a good thing in a ever-changing world where things has to be always "updated" as if inidividuals were computers. Society today is being made more and more into the Computer's image and likeness and not in God's. We become what we spend more of our time with.
Lastly, when I mean religion it's not only the external rituals but the internal condition of the person. In the same way we have an external and internal side to us, religion has an internal and external side as well. The rituals are external and spirituality is the internal. Some people mention the word "religion" as if it is a dirty word claiming we ONLY need "spirituality" or a "relationship with God". This is not original Christianity that looks upon the Risen Christ as its model par excellance. Christ rose BODY and SOUL, thus a "bodiless" Faith is just a ghost. It needs to have external and internal sides to it. Feeling good is not spirituality. Conversion and healing is. So I hope this can help clarify certain things because we all need to know ourselves better. The more we encounter God in prayer and Faith, we either: a) run and deny there's nothing wrong with ourselves and today's world or b) we confront ourselves and start the painful but worthy process in healing of self and creation. Thanks for ur patience. December 04 Spiritual Healing One of the main points of Orthodoxy, which really helped me convert from Roman Catholicism, is the notion that the Church is a spiritual hospital where all of us who suffer from sin and vices can go and experience healing. Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos has written many books concerning this. Check out "Orthodox Psychotherapy" and "The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition" which elaborates more on this concept. We all are ill because we are born in a world where sin and death abounds (Psalm 51:7). This is due to Adam and Eve's disobedience of God (Romans 5:19) and we follow this pattern of not listening to God thus living in pain and spiritual unrest. There are many (common folk, all the way up to popes) who experience this on a daily basis. We may be very familiar with the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ and be very knowledgeable in Theology and the Bible but fall short of living His Commandments. St. Paul tells us sinful passions are only strengthened when we attempt to obey the letter of the law. Without Christ's healing and power, they only get worse, resulting in the second death (Orthodox Study Bible, com. on Romans7:10-25). This is present in today's society as well with all the various forms of addictions, depression, rage and suicide. People of all ages live in this dark, grim and painful spiritual reality to the point of numbness. Some of us are so enwrapped in our sick selves we cannot listen to God. This is where the Church comes in with its healing message of peace and empowerment.
In the Church, especially in the Holy Divine Liturgy, we can encounter the Living God whom we always heard about but seemed distant or even absent. Distant or absent because we have are spiritually blind. the late great Metropolitan Anthony Bloom gives us a great metaphor illustrating this. Paraphrasing him, he says Christians have 3rd dimensional vision (faith) whereas everybody else has 2nd dimensional vision. These are the Christians who can see beyond what we see.This is why so may marytrs and saints were persecuted because of misunderstanding. Depending on our individual spiritual condition we can see and hear God(1Corinthians 2:14-15). The Holy Mysteries (Sacraments) are the medicines the Lord Jesus offers us for our healing. But because of our stubborness and ignorance of things Christ we find it boring and becuase it's boring we don't go to Church. But if Church is boring, it's because our spiritual condition is boring! We get what we put in, we reap what we sow. If we are also responsible for our physical needs then so are we in our spiritual ones. The holy writngs of the Saints and Ecumenical Councils are there at our disposal if only we realize our sinful state, repent and say yes to Christ. We were made for God, we are allergic to sin. Lets surrender ourselves to Christ and His Body, the Church. More shall be shared next time. Glory to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. |
|||||
|
|
