Dear Baba

Dear Holey Holy; 

Unfortunately, we live in a society where we’ve become so jaded that we don’t recognize holiness.  At most, now days, it is a relative thing – only holy for the person who wishes it to be and quaint for everyone else.  Now before we get started, I do wish very much that you will sit down and enjoy a nice hot cup of tea with me.

Your explanation of the grape juice was very helpful to me.  Thank you.  And it is with that I think we should begin our chat.  The grape juice example you gave represents a temporary usefulness or purpose.  So first and foremost we will need to shift from immediate need to eternity.

Holy and hallowed are beautiful words don’t you think?  You can see easily where the halo comes from that.   And the halo we talk about isn’t the tinsel and wire that makes up a costume worn on the outside – but the light of Christ brightly shining through a person who has opened their very life to Christ.  

We say in the wedding service – what God has joined together let no man put asunder.  Imagine how much more powerful that is when the union is with God Himself.   The bond with God is the very definition of heaven and we were created for that very purpose.   That bond was meant to last forever, and my dear, that is a key point.

God does not use us for an immediate purpose and then discard us.

Can you imagine the hopelessness of us trying to worship a God who will only use us when we suit His immediate purpose and knowing we’d get cast aside after He was done with us?  Of course God wouldn’t do that.

This is absolutely a critical thing to understand when we talk of the Theotokos.  God did not use her for an immediate purpose of giving birth to His Only Begotten Son and then discard her either.  And yet so many in society today believe she has served her purpose and is now relegated to a part in a Christmas pageant.  What hope is there for any of us if she whose womb contained the uncontainable is discarded after use?  We may have become a throw-away society but thankfully God has not.

 In His love for His creation, He wishes nothing more than we choose a life-transforming restoration to the purpose for which we were created - worshipping Him and communing with Him.  And that is meant to be for all eternity.

Because of the chasm between heaven and earth that we created with The Fall, we lost sight of the fact that all of creation is called to be restored to its original purpose.  It is beautifully expressed in the Pantocrator icon of Christ on the ceiling or in the top of the dome of many Orthodox churches.  He is God over all creation. 

So in the holiest moment of the liturgy, a miracle happens.  Our gifts of bread and wine become the body and blood of Our Lord and Savior and it is never to be undone. 

At a consecration of a church several years ago, Archbishop Dmitri spoke of our call to return all of creation to God.  In the case of that church – the little plot of land it stood on was now restored.  Wood and pigments used to write an icon are restored to their purpose of glorifying God.  Water too, infused with the working of the Holy Spirit,  becomes holy and not just for a moment but transformed permanently.

The question becomes – If something becomes a piece of the Garden again should we not tread as though we are on holy ground?  It isn’t a cerebral thing or just holy in theory.  When we are in the temple of our Lord where the Holy Spirit actively works, that space becomes holy. 

There is a beautiful Persian parable about a traveler in the desert.  He keeps smelling roses but obviously can find none anywhere near him.  Finally, he traces the fragrance to a piece of clay so he questions the lump of clay how this could be and as can only happen in a parable, the clay replies “I am but a lump of clay  incapable of such a fine fragrance, but I have dwelt with a rose.”

Now my dear, your tea cup needs to be refilled and you simply must try some of this delightful rosehip marmalade. 

With enveloping hugs;
Baba