Sunday, January 29, 2006              Tone 7             Translation of
the Relics of Ignatios of Antioch
Kellia: 1 Kings 1:21-2:11 LXX (1 Samuel MT)     Epistle: Hebrews
10:32-38     Gospel: St. Mark 15:21-28

Struggle: Hebrews 10:32-38, especially vs. 32: "But recall the former
days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle
with sufferings."  In the Christian Mystery - Holy Baptism, Holy
Chrismation, and Holy Communion - we enter upon the life in Christ. 
Therein, we are regularly reminded of  "all those things which have come
to pass for us: the Cross, the Grave, the Resurrection on the third day,
the Ascension into heaven, the Session at the right hand, and the second
and glorious Advent" - events by which God holds out great promises.   
Alongside the many reminders of what Christ has done, St. Paul also asks
us to recall that the life in Christ demands from us a primary struggle
for purity as a step toward attaining the full promise in our initial
illumination (vs. 32).  In this struggle, the Lord Jesus strengthens us
with His Holy Gifts that we may persevere, looking for His coming again
(vs. 37).  How blessed we are to know the great "promise of God" (vs.
36) revealed in the Christian Mystery.

    The Apostle also reminds us - as at first he reminded those to whom
the Epistle to the Hebrews was addressed - that there must of necessity
be a real life struggle every day to live in and for Christ.  In this
present passage, the Apostle recalls some very specific events in the
struggle through which he had passed, as well as some of the
tribulations that his earliest readers faced (vss. 33,34)  -
imprisonment, public ridicule, looting of property, and anguish at
witnessing the depredation of others.  So how, we may ask, does the sort
of struggle he describes relate to our circumstances?  The majority of
us have not had to endure repressive trials such as St. Paul describes
just because we have commended "ourselves and each other and all our
life unto Christ our God."  What, then, is the essence of the Christian
struggle?  Does it apply to us?

    For Christians, struggle takes many forms, but the most common, and
the one shared by all, is not even outward tribulations, but the
struggle within.  As the Holy Spirit enlightens our spiritual eyes to
the image of God within us, He also reveals to us the grave distance
between what God is in His perfection and what we are like within
ourselves.  God's image is there in us, but the likeness is badly
deformed, disfigured, and corrupted.  The Christian Mystery only sets us
on the road to struggle to recover that pristine beauty which Adam had
before he sinned.  It is humbling, as St. Theodore reminds us, to be
awakened "from the slumber of negligence, to be cleansed of the filth of
indifference and of the sluggishness of worldly thoughts and [the
coldness] of the flame of our recitation [of prayers] night and day." 
There is severe inner struggle before each one who has united himself
unto Christ and bowed down before Him.

    Very quickly, for those who do take up the painful interior struggle
to live in and for Christ, there forms a bond with all others who
likewise are endeavoring - with the help of the Holy Spirit - to grow in
Christ and to become victors "even unto the end."  A true companionship
develops with any one else who is struggling (vs. 33), a tender
compassion for one's fellow sufferers (vs. 34), and an inextinguishable
joy even at worldly losses; but only so long as our "enduring
possession...in heaven" remains firmly fixed within our heart (vs. 34).

    The true issue is holding fiercely to the "great reward," to the
Divine "promise" of God in Christ (vss. 35,36).  Once one has truly
sampled that which God graciously offers all, the great fear becomes any
sign of a loss of faith by one's self - that one has fallen into living
by rote or habit and is not keeping up a truly vigorous struggle to
claim the blessed heritage.  Easing back is such a subtle course by
which to "cast away" God's promise and to "draw back" from His grace.

    O Christ our God, keep us ever as warriors invincible in every
attack of those who assail us; and make us all victors even unto the
end, through Thy crown incorruptible.