February 2nd

The fortieth day after His birth, the All-holy Virgin brought her divine Son into the Temple of Jerusalem, in accordance with the Law, to dedicate Him to God and to purify herself (Leviticus 12:2-7; Exodus 12:2). Even though neither the one nor the other was necessary, the Lawgiver did not want in any way to transgress His own Law, which He had given through Moses, His servant and prophet. At that time, the high-priest Zacharias, the father of John the Forerunner, was serving in the Temple. Zacharias placed the Virgin, not in the temple area reserved for women, but rather in the area reserved for virgins. On this occasion two very special persons appeared in the Temple: the Elder Simeon and Anna, the daughter of Phanuel. The righteous Simeon took the Messiah in his arms and said: Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29-30). Simeon also spoke the following words about the Christ-child: Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel (Luke 2:34). Then Anna, who from her youth had served God in the Temple by fasting and prayer, recognized the Messiah and glorified God. She then proclaimed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem the coming of the long-awaited One. But the Pharisees who were present in the Temple, having seen and heard all, became angry with Zacharias because he had placed the Virgin Mary in the area reserved for virgins, and they reported this to King Herod. Convinced that this was the new king spoken of by the Magi from the East, Herod immediately sent his soldiers to kill Jesus. In the meantime, the holy family had already left the city and set out for Egypt under the guidance of an angel of God. The Feast of the Meeting of our Lord in the Temple was celebrated from earliest times, but the solemn celebration of this day was established in the year 544 A.D., during the reign of Emperor Justinian.

St. Nikolai Velimirovic reflects: “Speaking about the gradual spread of the celebration of Christ’s Nativity, St. John Chrysostom said: “Magnificent and noble trees, when planted in the ground, shortly attain great heights and become heavily laden with fruit; so, it is with this day.” So it is also with the day of the Meeting of our Lord. From the beginning this day was commemorated among Christians, but the solemn celebration began in the time of the great Emperor Justinian. During his reign, a great pestilence afflicted the people in Constantinople and its vicinity, so that five thousand or more people died daily. At the same time a terrible earthquake occurred in Antioch. Seeing man’s inability to prevent these misfortunes, the emperor, in consultation with the patriarch, ordered a period of fasting and prayer throughout the entire empire. And, on the day of the Meeting itself, he arranged great processions throughout the towns and villages, that the Lord might show compassion on His people. And truly, the Lord did show compassion, for the epidemic and earthquake ceased at once. This occurred in the year 544 A.D. From that time on, the Feast of the Meeting began to be celebrated as a great feast of the Lord. The tree, in time, grew and began to bring forth abundant fruit.”

Taken from the Prologue from Ohrid. 

This Sunday February 4^th begins the cycle where the Church asks us to slow down a bit and look towards a magnificent season that is coming upon us. It is a prelude, if you will, as we inch towards the Triodium period – a brief season with specific Gospel readings that prepare us for that time of Bright Sadness – the seven-week period of Great Lent, ripe with rich services, more prayer, more fasting, and more grace that get us ready for Holy Pasca.

In Luke 19:1-10, we see Zacchaeus as the far outlier of the story due to his status among his people as a tax collector. But what truly makes him stand out is that he raises the banner for us all to prepare as Christ is coming! Just like Zacchaeus, we have the choice to be among the crowd parroting the culture, or to rise above it.

The Gospel states that Zaccheaus was a little fellow, a man of small stature, who hears that Christ was in his midst. Could it be that his heart was set on fire towards repentance by the previous miracle Christ performed in Jerico when He healed Blind Bartimaeus? Regardless, he was intent on seeing Christ at all costs.

That is why Zacchaeus climbs the tree to be above the crowd as the Church Father’s have likened his action to an attempt to come out of this world, to stop seeing everything through worldly eyes, and to raise his sight to a spiritual place. From that spiritual place he sees Jesus coming and Jesus knows that he’s looking for him as He commands Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and allow Him into his house, into the inner chambers of his heart.

And of course, all the people are astonished at his because what does it tell us about Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector, also known as a Publican. Publicans were not popular among the crowds due to an on-going reputation as miserly and merciless merchants. At this time in the Roman empire taxes worked like this:

The emperor would say I need to raise X number of coins from this province and the elites would have an auction about who was going to get that concession to raise taxes and then whomever paid the most to the emperor got that concession. Then for the whole of the next period, whether it was a year or sometimes longer, that family was the only one that could collect those taxes. Meaning they essentially were like the elites of the day who had the power to break people, to subjugate them. They held control of all facets of life.

This is a form of Tax farming, which is not so uncommon in the world even today. Practiced by those who already had abundance, but what they have is not enough. In essence, overwhelming their fellow man. Thus Publicans, we read, have such a horrible reputation in the Gospels almost to the point of being irredeemable in the eyes of their countrymen. But we see here with Zaccheaus this is certainly not the case. The good news, brothers and sisters, is that we’re all redeemable in the eyes of the Lord Who is among us.

St Nikolai Velimirovic says: Zachaeus was a lover of money and had spent his entire life up to that time amassing money in every possible way; mostly sinful ways. He calls it a sickness that inevitably drags a man down to perdition. A fire that burns the more fiercely as more wealth is amassed. There is no sum of money that can satisfy the lust of avarice as fire is incapable of saying, “Don’t put any more wood on me, this is enough, so the passion of avarice does not know how to pronounce the word, “enough.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, avarice is not so much a want or need to make money, rather it is a condition of those who already make an abundance and due to this sin, they think themselves under appreciated and seek retribution or justice. They put themselves in a position of power to lord it over people – to make themselves gods on earth. But our sense of justice in this world does not always follow the path of the Lord.

Zacchaeus had already set himself apart from the world. He recognizes that these activities had wounded him and had broken his heart. He repented. He does not run from his broken heart but does everything in his power to bring his heart to Christ. This is exactly what Christ seeks from us. Zacchaeus climbs the tree to seek Christ, but the way the Gospel reads it states that Christ sees him first. As He does for any of us when we too bring our broken heart to Him. He says, I see you. Come down from your place and I will come into your home, I will come into your heart.

Zaccheaus is so overjoyed at this union with the Lord that he doubles down on his repentance, and he proclaims that if he has defrauded anyone (which he has) he gives them back fourfold. As we see, his repentance shifts from the basic justice of paying back what he overcharged to that of almsgiving and giving away all that he had. The perfect icon of the almsgiver who shows us that this ministry should always be tied to our repentance and in conjunction with Christ. A broken and contrite heart God will not despise. Psalm 50:19.

Beloved, the one thing that always sticks out to me in this Gospel is, which is never fully answered, if Zacchaeus were to pay everyone back what he had defrauded fourfold, what does that leave him? Does he even have enough in his own treasury to not only pay people back but to do so fourfold? What we can logically conclude here brothers and sisters is that Zaccheaus is more than paying people back or restoring justice, he is indebting himself to his neighbor; he is embodying the sacrificial love Christ has for us.  He is sacrificing his wealth – his worldly possessions. He is so overjoyed that Christ has come into his heart, that there is nothing in the world that is worth saving or amassing that would even come close to what he has already gained in Christ’s healing. Rather, he is more interested in loving others properly.

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra says about this type of love: “Today some people say that we don’t need love, we need justice. But we say that we’ll find justice up in heaven; here we need love. And because we know that justice depends on true love, it is justice which guides us, and gives the scepter to love. The aim of love is for one person to give joy to another; for me to voluntarily deprive myself of something so that someone else has more; for me to sacrifice myself so that the other feels at ease, feels secure in his life.”

Let us embrace this good news. That Christ, like He did with Zacchaeus, will see us even before we find him. Only by our intention to seek Him He will see us first and ask us to come into our home – our heart. St. John Chrysostom says, The Lord accepts not only deeds, but intensions.

If we are not ready yet to climb the tree, let us start here, brothers and sisters. Acknowledge that perhaps some of the things we have habitually incorporated in our lives may have wounded us – may have caused us to have a broken heart. Like Zaccheaus, let us not run away from this but turn to the Lord. Most of us do this in our parishes, our new missions.

These missions are our Tree of Zacchaeus. Let us start with an intention and climb up to the Lord.

Fr. Dn. Christopher Purdef

Proverbs of Solomon 23-25: My Son Give Me Your Heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

The Gospel Reading for this Sunday January 28^th  Luke 18-35-43 leads us to Christ’s final journey through the Jordan Valley on His way to Jerusalem towards His ultimate mission to meet the Pharisees and Romans where He will be unjustly slandered by mouth, unrecognized as the Messiah by eyes, and physically crucified by contact. Of course, we know the good news of what is to occur to our savior after His tragic death, and how He will trample down death by His death opening the door for the Christian Orthodox to pick up our own cross and follow Him. This Gospel is one in line prior to the Triodion period, which prepares us for Great Lent where we endeavor towards the Bright Sadness of Christ crucified and Christ resurrected.

St Nikolai is accurate in depicting this Gospel as one that focuses on our senses as we see in reading this account of Blind Bartimaeus encountering the Lord as he walks through Jericho – the blind man being an Icon for us regarding our spiritual sight. Although unable to physically see, he can recognize the Lord as the source of his healing and salvation. While those who walked before Christ, those who were embarrassed by Blind Bartimaeus’ shouts to heal him, were more zealous in trying to silence him than help him. Followers who could physically see yet lacked the spiritual sight to recognize the Lord in their heart.

Furthermore, those who awaited Christ in Jerusalem, the Pharisees, as learned and versed in the scriptures as they were, were more apt to the academic discourse of the Law than the required humility and mercy needed to recognize the Living Lord.

Through this Gospel encounter we learn that our own spiritual blindness can also abound even with all the knowledge we work to obtain in reading books, esoteric debates, and senseless scrolling on the internet. Our hearts too full of everything other than what is needed to recognize Christ.

Brothers and sisters, if we’re to honestly ask ourselves in what condition do we find our spiritual sight if Christ was to approach us and say, what do you want Me to do for you, are we closer to Blind Bartimaeus or those who walked before Him in Jericho? Would we recognize Christ among the crowds?

St. Nikolai Velimirovic gives account of what Blind Bartimaeus’ spiritual sight was able to see: “his thirsty soul sensed that this Jesus, of whom he had heard so much about whom he had pondered, carried heaven on His Head, wisdom on His tongue, mercy in His heart, and healing in His hands.” Is this also our spiritual reality when we encounter the Lord?

As we advance toward the Triodion period, let us draw near to Christ and heed the Father’s words. St. Nikolai preaches that Christ’s Church is given to us to hone these senses and to learn how to see the Lord. Parish life is crucial, brothers and sisters, if we are to shed our worldly man and approach Him. Let this call embolden us to continue to support our parish priests and new missions.

Rev. Dn. Christopher Purdef