Catching Fire 2, Wednesday before Eastern Holy Week

by Andrea Elizabeth

To page 195. Thoughts.

Why do we like reading about stress? For the boost of adrenaline in safety, I suppose.

Is it realistic to think that Katniss is the center of everything? I just heard on NPR about a North Korean ex-prison camp inmate, Shin Dong-hyuk whose every move was watched and acted upon. This is true enough in those totalitarian regimes (and amongst celebrities). It’s weird how much they care. I wonder what escaping is like and finding no one cares what you do or say anymore. I bet some part of you misses the attention.

Along with the comparison I made yesterday about the President of the Capitol being like some people’s ideas of God, it seems Peeta is the Messiah type person. Most people like N.T. Jesus, it’s the O.T. Father they have a problem with. Yet Jesus says, ‘if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father’. So who is the one who sends bad, pain-inducing things in your unsuspecting way? Lots has been written about that. But the reason I can’t be an atheist or divorce the Father from the Son is along Job’s way of thinking, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” The causes and results of bad things can be worked for good. Fear can be negative or positive. Cooperation with evil seems the result of deception and fear. A lot does seem to depend on location. Yet everyone has a choice for which they are responsible.

Since evil is in the world, Fr. Hopko says that it’s all God has to work with. Sad state of affairs, yes. Who will deliver us from this body of sin and death? Sunday’s a-comin.

Guaranteed happiness

by Andrea Elizabeth

In Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Esther is a young woman who was unloved in her younger life. It is natural that she would crave love as a result. Her character is such that she doesn’t solicit it, however. She focuses more on loving others. When love is expressed, though, this is her reaction, “Well! It was only their love for me, I know very well, and it is a long time ago. I must write it even if I rub it out again, because it gives me so much pleasure. They said there could be no east wind [John Jarndyce's term for bad feelings] where Somebody was; they said that wherever Dame Durden [their pet name for Esther] went, there was sunshine and summer air.”

What does love mean? That you will always be enough for someone and they will never need anything else? That you will save each other? The way the story plays out indicates that this is not the case. Only the characters who have consistently exhibited strength of character have happy endings. It is not their strength alone that saves them, but it seems a belief in cosmic karma guarantees that they will get the help they need eventually. I have read that Dickens was a universalist. I don’t know how that plays into his pattern of bad characters getting knocked off.

This is somewhat related in my mind to Whitney Houston’s funeral. I was impressed with T.D. Jakes’ sermon about universal resurrection. It is true that all the dead will be raised. But no one talked about Judgment Day. The last sermon, at the end of the 3 hours, given by an Atlanta pastor who was Whitney’s last, I believe, only addressed the prosperity doctrine. I cannot understand what it has to do with her death or the afterlife. I could stretch it into some universalist belief, I suppose, that God only wants everyone eternally happy and well-fed. This is true, but it takes something on our part. How much and when are the universal questions. The Sinner’s Prayer? Another chance after death of intellectual acceptance of Jesus as personal savior with a guaranteed result? Or only upon repentance and constant vigilance in this life, with some trials still to go though after death?

I was so hopeful for T.D. Jakes being on to something that I looked him up yesterday. Oh yes, he’s in nearby Dallas. Oh, he’s into the prosperity doctrine too. Nevermind.

Holy Saturday in Jerusalem

by Andrea Elizabeth

Jared missed the service of the Holy Fire because at 4 am he and hundreds of other people who were in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre awaiting the service were rounded up by Israeli police and held in a makeshift enclosure outside the Jaffa gate until noon Saturday. This was for crowd control as the city was completely packed for both Eastern and Western Easter. By the time he was let out several people had fainted and had to be lifted over people’s heads to get out. They were so packed in that a person could not even lift up their arms. They were let out so late in the day that Jared could not get into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after that. His Catholic friends that he was traveling with were able to get in the Church that morning because some Franciscan monks were able to get in a group of them from a pre announced meeting place. So they got to see the service and the fire and Jared didn’t. He very much enjoyed the Holy Friday service though.

In the videos of the midnight Pascha service which he was able to attend, one can see the Patriarch of Jerusalem proceeding in as well as hear the neighboring Catholic service. Here is an article about the chaotic crowd conditions in Jerusalem this Pascha. It also talks about how “exciting and splendid” and ecumenical having different services next to each other is.

“For Easter Day, the Patriarch should celebrate Mass in front of the tomb at 10 a.m. but the other confessions are running late in cascade and the Mass can only begin at around 10.45. It takes place in the same meditative atmosphere as the day before but the conditions are more difficult, with the Patriarch saying in his sermon : “Some are perhaps disturbed by the overlapping of prayers and songs of the different rites which can be heard all at once. However, experienced with faith, this apparent cacophony can become a symphony that expresses our unity in the faith and in the joyous celebration of the victory of Our Lord over evil and death, the victory of He who, on the third day, rises from this tomb. Yes, we are the Church of the Calvary, the Church of the Empty Tomb and the Church of the glorious Resurrection!”

Before the Patriarch’s blessing, the priests and the Franciscan seminarians and those of the Patriarchate make a solemn procession around the Empty Tomb. The Gospel is proclaimed four times, at the four cardinal points of the Tomb, because the Resurrection is for everyone.”

I realize that Christ’s resurrection is for everyone, but services aren’t supposed to be conducted by individuals. They are conducted by the Church. This is the problem with ecumenism, in saying that God is not limited in who He saves, they go too far in saying it doesn’t matter what you believe or how you worship. Allowing everyone to do their own thing leads to disorder, and I believe limits people who are taught not to respect the fullest expression of faith. When Pascha and Easter aren’t on the same day, at least the Orthodox service isn’t interrupted or drowned out.

Martyrdom: Death and Resurrection

by Andrea Elizabeth

In looking for the source for the teaching that since Christ united Himself to humanity and conquered death, we now die, not because of sin, but because Christ died, I came across Olivier Clement’s article, Martyrdom: Death and Resurrection. It’s more about how Christian martyrdom unites the Saint to Christ’s death and thus the Eucharist, so I’ll keep looking for the more broad teaching which George tells me comes from one of Clement’s books. Meanwhile I recommend the above.

Lest we forget, Christ is Risen!

by Andrea Elizabeth

From our Church newsletter,

Pascha: Victory of Life

Protopresbyter John Meyendorf

The holy feast of Christ’s Resurrection celebrates the central “Good News” of our Orthodox Christian faith

Do we always realize how much of our day-to-day existence is dominated by the power that death still exercises in the world? Each one of us, from the very moment of birth, is menaced with sickness, suffering, sometimes hunger, and so many other anxieties. All these are only preliminaries of what is the inevitable fate of all mankind. And it is the conscious – or unconscious – awareness of each man and each woman that death is forthcoming which leads them to struggle for existence, most frequently against their neighbors. What is the real origin of all the conflicts, all the wars, all the social injustices, all the terrors and repressions which man wages against man, if not the desire of individuals or groups to gain – at the expense of their neighbors – a little more illusory security, a little delay in the inevitable end? The imminence of death generates this fear and this insecurity, while the latter lead to desperate self-defense, which excuses any action against one’s fellow men

This is the situation of sinful and mortal mankind which Christ came to save through His Resurrection from the dead. The Resurrection breaks the vicious circle of death and sin. It brings to man the hope of immortality, and makes his “struggle for existence” unnecessary. It is only in the light of Christ’s Resurrection, which is also a liberation from fear and insecurity, that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount becomes truly meaningful: “Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you…Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume…Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat and what you shall drink…Do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew, chapters 5 & 6)

These precepts would be empty words only, if we were not “dead and risen” with Christ in our baptism, if the Risen Lord was not with us “always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:29). Our Easter (Paschal) greeting is a cry of victory over death and sin: “Christ is Risen! He is risen, indeed!”

(Fr. Meyendorff succeeded Fr. Alexander Schmemann as Dean of St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Fr. John was a noted Orthodox Patristics scholar and sought after lecturer. For many years he was also the editor of The Orthodox Church newspaper. The above editorial appeared in the April 1973 issue.)

Pascha Holy Fire

by Andrea Elizabeth

George and I watched this video last night on the Pascha Miracle of the Holy Fire at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It has the most detailed footage, including slow motion, and explanation of the occurrence itself that I’ve seen. It is also interesting to see how they do talk shows over there. It seems much more high minded, but just as argumentative as over here. You still have skeptics and believers, but the believers don’t seem as flaky.

He is mindful that we are but dust.

by Andrea Elizabeth

Homeschooling moms might want to read this Orthodox article posted by Father Stephen on the creation of man and evolution! It’s quite different from anything I’ve read from a Christian or secular source before.

Yesterday I was Crucified with Thee

by Andrea Elizabeth

Turtle Mom has posted helpful direction about not slacking off during Bright Week. Her post prompted me to look at the St. Seraphim Cathedral schedule and indeed they had Paschal Liturgies yesterday and today. The Hours are waiting for me to get back to them, though I have kept up with the Kathisma scedule, and the Morning Prayers from the Jordanville Prayer Book and the daily Bible lectionary that we do as a family.

The title is from the Troparian to the 3rd Paschal Ode,

Now all things are filled with light, heaven, and all things beneath the earth. Then let all creation keep festival for Christ’s arising, in which it is established. Yesterday, O Christ, with Thee I was entombed. Today, with Thee arising, I arise. Yesterday I was crucified with Thee: glorify me together with Thyself, O Saviour, in Thy kingdom. (more on the hymns here.)

It is hard to get into the mindset of the Orthodox Calendar. We are invited to participate in the events that are commemorated each day in a way that transcends the time and distance, including that of relationship, separating us from them. We aren’t dramatizing or recreating, but actually participating. I have had a habit of viewing history as that which happened to someone else a long time ago, and all it is to me is a sometimes interesting story or partial explanation of why I’m here now under different circumstances. But the Calendar is meant to bridge the gap of detachment. Through the services, daily readings, and lives of the Saints we are invited to actually time travel and be there. We aren’t to use our imaginations, which is tempting, but to enter in by faith.

If yesterday I was crucified with Christ and today I am risen with Him, then the other circumstances of my day aren’t going to seem so important, not that they are to be neglected. Our perspective changes. Christ our God was crucified last Friday, and then Sunday it was revealed that He is Risen! And He defeated sin and death by His death! The graves were emptied just 2 days ago! We are to await the coming of the Holy Spirit in the city of our God.

We watched Galaxy Quest last night and the nerd fan totally believed that the TV show astronauts were actually fighting for the salvation of the universe and that they needed his help, but still he took out the trash for his mother. That was my favorite part.