By His Eminence, Metropolitan Moses

At Mid Feast give Thou my thirsty soul to drink of the waters of piety, for Thou O Savior didst cry unto all, whosoever is thirsty let him come to Me and drink. Wherefore O Well-Spring of Life, Christ our God, glory be to Thee.
- Dismissal Hymn for Mid-Pentecost

Beloved Christians,

Christ is risen!

We keep the feast of Mid-Pentecost, wherein we bask in the grace of Pascha and look to the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. In the dismissal for this feast we hear the voice of our Savior, as it is recorded in the Gospel, crying unto all, “Whosoever is thirsty let him come to Me and drink.” Our Savior calls, but it is for us to come unto Him. Our Savior Himself explains how this is accomplished:

If any man would do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but He that seeketh the glory of Him that sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. (John 7: 17-18)

And thus is explained the workings of grace. By responding to our Savior’s call through doing His will, we gain the capacity to know of the doctrine of God. Our Savior warns us that there will be those that speak of themselves and seek their own glory, but they are not of God. Seekers of grace and truth need great vigilance and discernment and we are called to “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7: 24).

Righteous judgment acknowledges that doctrine is essential to our salvation. When He offered the Cup of Salvation, our Savior Himself said, “Drink ye all from it, this is the Blood of the New Testament.” To be united to our Christ, we must acknowledge that the Testament or saving doctrine is inextricably intertwined with Eucharist and the Eucharist is the Blood of self-sacrificing love, shed by the God-Man.

It is through the priesthood that we partake of the grace of Holy Baptism and the Sacred Eucharist. For this reason the saints taught that God’s greatest gift to mankind is the priesthood. The priesthood is an awesome ministry that is accomplished by fallible men. The human element at times intrudes into the sacred and our faithfulness is tested. We see in the history of God that many were allowed to endure much at the hands of vain men. Today we live in an age of confusion wherein churchmen act arbitrarily and Holy Tradition and Canonical order are trivialized. People lose heart and some begin to say that they “don’t believe in organized religion, etc.” Let no one be confused by this. The Church is not “a religion,” or a human construct. The Church is a mystical union with the God-Man Christ. Where there is the genuine Eucharist and self-sacrificing love, there is Christ. The exalted can fall away and the humble sinner can be lifted up. We cannot confuse the sacred ministry of the priesthood with the failings of the individual.

Our Savior Himself foretold that there would be scandal and false teachers. One can gain solace by reading the history of the people of God in Old Testament and the lives of the saints in the New Testament. At times these stories rival or surpass the scandals found in fiction. But the thread that is woven throughout is God’s call to repentance and return to His will.

Let us return unto God by our works, hearkening to the words of Saint Peter:
Be diligent to add faith to virtue and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things be in you and abound, … ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

In Christ,
+Metropolitan Moses

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Words of solace and a call to vigilance, by Saint Cyprian of Carthage...