For I trust that you are well versed in the Sacred Scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you; but to me this privilege is not yet granted. It is declared then in these Scriptures, “Be angry, and sin not,” and, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Happy is he who remembers this, which I believe to be the case with you. But may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Son of God, and our everlasting High Priest, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, forbearance, and purity; and may He bestow on you a lot and portion among His saints, and on us with you, and on all that are under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His Father, who “raised Him from the dead.” Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings, and potentates, and princes, and for those that persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest to all, and that you may be perfect in Him. — Chapter 12
Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because “alms delivers from death.” Be all of you subject one to another “having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles,” that you may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct. — Chapter 10
Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, “who bore our sins in His own body on the tree,” “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,” but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him. Let us then be imitators of His patience; and if we suffer for His name’s sake, let us glorify Him. For He has set us this example in Himself, and we have believed that such is the case. — Chapter 8
“For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;” and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning; “watching unto prayer,” and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God “not to lead us into temptation,” as the Lord has said: “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.” — Chapter 7
That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked—”just because you have returned; and will rejoice more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; but only if you heartily repent—”if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father’s “hired servants“—”if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd—”if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, “I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Yours.” Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy. — Chapter 8
Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason—”nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world. Moreover, how irrationally they behave in the practice of repentance, it will be enough briefly to show just by this one fact, that they exercise it even in the case of their good deeds. They repent of good faith, of love, of simple-heartedness, of patience, of mercy, just in proportion as any deed prompted by these feelings has fallen on thankless soil. They execrate their own selves for having done good; and that species chiefly of repentance which is applied to the best works they fix in their heart, making it their care to remember never again to do a good turn. On repentance for evil deeds, on the contrary, they lay lighter stress. In short, they make this same (virtue) a means of sinning more readily than a means of right-doing. — Chapter I
Check out the definitive kid answer at Orthodoxie in Kid Church: Instructional Liturgy.
Bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
Suffering. Suffering is mentioned approximately seventy-four times in the New Testament, depending on the translation.
A few examples:
Jesus with his disciples:
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
“So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.—
And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?
A woman asking Jesus to heal her son:
Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly.
Pilate’s wife:
—Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.—
Jesus on Pilate’s killing of Galilean Jews:
And he answered them, —Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
The Acts of the Apostles – after the Apostles were dragged before the Sanhedrin:
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
Suffering is an ever present reality. Some Christians attempt to deny suffering. As they account it those who suffer are apart from the kingdom. They preach a gospel of success and happiness. If you are successful, if you are happy, you are destined for heaven. Others maximize suffering. They deny the beauty and joy that is found in the world – the essential goodness that God created. They account all pleasure as sinful.
Neither of those approaches is correct. The gospel of success closes off those who suffer horribly, denying them the happiness of the kingdom. Those who hunger and thirst, those that are tortured, those who are abused and beaten – even within their own families, the sick. They are equal children of the kingdom and very much in need of the God’s loving care; very much in need of the care, concern, and Good News we followers of Christ must provide.
On the other hand the gospel of pain shuts our eyes to the beauty of the world – the magnificence inherent in creation. It makes us think that it is all coincidence – all an accident, all uncreated chemistry. Further it inappropriately makes us think that God desires pain and suffering, that God is a vengeful sadist. That God made a mistake in creating our senses.
Brothers and sisters,
The reality of life is that we have both suffering and happiness. We have pleasure and pain. We have a dichotomy – and we are lacking in perfection. We know that we do not like suffering. We know there is something more – that there is a better reality.
Jesus offers us a glimpse into that reality. He offers us a shinning moment of perfection – a view into the heavenly splendor that awaits us.
He was transfigured before them;
His face shone like the sun
and His clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,
conversing with Him.—¨
In that moment the voice of the Father is heard:
—This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him.—
As Christians we are to trust that voice. We are to trust the Father. The Son came to teach us about the Father – and to give us the Father’s words. The Father sent the Son to give us life, to give us light, and to open eternity to us. He came to open the better and true reality.
Centuries before Christ’s coming Abram trusted. He listened when God told him to pack up and leave. Abram did all that based on a promise.
Abram went as the LORD directed him.
We too must go and do as the Lord directs – and we can do that because we have more than a promise.
My friends,
We have the promise and more than that – the revelation of God’s might. God has shown himself. Jesus knew that suffering was coming – so He gave Peter, James, and John reassurance in the Transfiguration. Later He showed the ultimate reality. In the resurrection Jesus let us know that the joy and happiness that awaits us is limitless. He has showed us the heavenly – the kingdom where there will be no tears and no suffering, a place of eternal joy and perfection.
As we walk through Lent – and as we reform our lives – let us hold fast to the promise and reality of heaven. Let us rejoice, because no suffering, no persecution, no pain can keep us from God. He is our hope, heaven is our destination.
Amen.
And in this Transfiguration the foremost object was to remove the offence of the cross from the disciple’s heart, and to prevent their faith being disturbed by the humiliation of His voluntary Passion by revealing to them the excellence of His hidden dignity. But with no less foresight, the foundation was laid of the Holy Church’s hope, that the whole body of Christ might realize the character of the change which it would have to receive, and that the members might promise themselves a share in that honour which had already shone forth in their Head. About which the Lord had Himself said, when He spoke of the majesty of His coming, “Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in their Father’s Kingdom” while the blessed Apostle Paul bears witness to the self-same thing, and says: “for I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us:” and again, “for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. For when Christ our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.” But to confirm the Apostles and assist them to all knowledge, still further instruction was conveyed by that miracle. — Sermon 51
Be a lover of poverty, and be desirous of neediness. If you have them both for your portion, you are an inheritor on high. Despise not the voice of the poor and give him not cause to curse you. For if he curse whose palate is bitter, the Lord will hear his petition. If his garments are foul, wash them in water, which freely is bought. Has a poor man entered into your house? God has entered into your house; God dwells within your abode. He, whom you have refreshed from his troubles, from troubles will deliver you. Have you washed the feet of the stranger? You have washed away the filth of your sins. Have you prepared a table before him? Behold God eating [at it], and Christ likewise drinking [at it], and the Holy Spirit resting [on it]: Is the poor satisfied at your table and refreshed? You have satisfied Christ your Lord. He is ready to be your rewarder; in presence of angels and men He will confess you have fed His hunger; He will give thanks unto you that you gave Him drink, and quenched His thirst.