October 18 & 25, 2009

Dialogue:

How do we express love?

         By prayer.

         By trying to instill peace and calm in someone's heart:

                 Through kind words.

                 Through a gentle demeanor.

                 Through a humble attitude.

                 Through refusing to use harsh or angry words.

         By forgiving harsh or angry words spoken against us.

         By serving others -- washing their feet.

Examine the Icon of the Transfiguration.  What do you see in it?  Read Luke 9:28-36.

What does the blue-green orb represent?

         The light of Christ.

"It was atop Mount Tabor that the disciples, stunned and in a state of ecstasy, saw the deified body of Christ, standing on a cloud between Moses and Elijah (the two seers of the Old Testament): 'his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.'  At this point the disciples 'fell on their faces,' struck by the rays of 'uncreated' light, which shone from the luminous aura enveloping the body of Christ."    Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church, p. 125.

What do we take into ourselves during Holy Communion?

          The Body of Christ.

What is the Body of Christ?

          Mystically, God Himself.  We take into us the uncreated energy of God.  We take into us the same light that shown

          on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration.

What does this mean for us?

          We can become transfigured human beings, by the power of God's love.

What does it mean to become a transfigured human being?

          We value our brothers, and all the "least ones" immensely, for we see that God is mystically present in all.

          "Do not despise one of these little ones: for I tell you their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father."

                      -- Jesus Christ, Matthew 18:10.

           We begin to shed our patterns of selfish disregard for God and neighbor.

           Our lives, inside in our hearts, outside in our actions, invaded by God's love, become alive to others.

           Our hearts begins to look like the Icon of the Transfiguration!

                      Our frail humanity, ready to die, on our knees before the majesty of God, like Peter, James and John.

                      The eyes of our heart, that part of us that yearns for God and can see Jesus Christ, stand straight and confident,

                      like Moses and Elijah. 

                      Christ stands at the center of our hearts, like a burning flame, only bigger, radiating like the sun.

When the light of the Transfiguration of Christ shines on us, what two difficult Christian acts become easier for us?

            Confessing our sins -- the light of Christ helps us see our sin, which we like to avoid.

            Forgiving others -- when we become aware of our own many, many sins, the sins of others against us do not bother

            us so much.  We are less troubled by them, and we start to no longer notice them.

Quotes of the Day:

Brothers, have no fear of men's sin.  Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth.  Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand of it.  Love every leaf, every ray of God's light.  Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.  If you love everything, you will preceive the divine mystery in things.  Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day.  And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.             

                                                    -- Father Zossima, in The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men's sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love.  Always decide to use humble love.  If you resolve on that once and for all, you may subdue the whole world.  Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things.  There is nothing else like it.

                                                    -- Father Zossima, in The Brothers Karamzov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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