Tag: Orthodox Christianity

The Moment of Small Things

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 16 Leave a Comment on %s
“On the night in which He was betrayed…” These words echo hauntingly through the centuries – this phrase which begins St. Paul’s account of Christ’s institution of the Eucharist. Later usage in the liturgy will make a play on the Greek word for “betray.” Strangely, it is the same word used for “tradition.” It is a word which simply means to “hand over” or to “give over.” Thus the liturgy will say,…

The Specific Truth

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 31 Leave a Comment on %s
The Truth, spoken in general, is, perhaps, the most easily spoken truth in all the world. It smooths over the rough edges of hard truth and says more easily that to which all can agree. If all can agree – it is not probably the truth – or it is not a truth worth speaking. As a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, I find the present time to be one…

From Under the Rubble

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 6 Leave a Comment on %s
Dostoevsky wrote in the mid-19th century, a time when many ideas and cultural forces were only beginning to coelesce. We live in an age after which those forces have come together, and after which they have largely been judged by history to have fallen short of their stated ideals. The world has witnessed more than a century of failed promises and programs (not that we have completely rejected such things) and are,…

The Secular Man and the Christian Man

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 14 Leave a Comment on %s
The Secular Man has been the great threat to the Christian faith over the past two or more centuries. Disguised as the person is only only doing the “normal thing,” he lives in a godless world, where others can be tempted to live as though there were no God. Earlier I quoted Berdyaev, “If God does not exist, then man does not exist.” I would add to that that the God Who…

On Pascha – Melito of Sardis

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 9 Leave a Comment on %s
Among the most powerful meditations on Pascha is found in the writings of Melito of Sardis (ca. 190 AD). His writing On Pascha is both a work of genius as poetry and a powerful work of theology. Its subject is the Lord’s Pascha – particularly as an interpretation of the Old Testament. His writing is a common example of early Church thought on Scripture and the Lord’s Pascha. I offer a short…

Drawing Near to Pascha

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 17 Leave a Comment on %s
We live in a “linear” world. This is to say that we experience time and events in a sequential manner. “B” does not happen before “A”. It would be, perhaps, just as accurate to say that we live on a “flat earth.” Though we may know that the world is round, we live like it is flat. Thus we say, “The Sun rises,” rather than, “the Earth rotates,” etc. “Things fall,” rather…

The End of History

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 22 Leave a Comment on %s
Recent conversations of the trans-temporal character of the Cross suggested I re-post this small meditation. Christianity is sometimes referred to as a “historical” religion – its beliefs are specifically tied to events which have taken place in space and time. The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are events which have taken place in space and time or Christianity is not true. No matter how noble or inspirational its teachings – the space-time…

From the Foundations

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 26 Leave a Comment on %s
Among the more interesting statements in Holy Scripture is found in Rev. 13:8: All who dwell on earth will worship it [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written in the book of life, of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world… That Christ is here described as the Lamb is not at all unusual: the Scriptures use that title for Christ from the time of John the…

Dying We Live

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 45 Leave a Comment on %s
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it (Luke 9:24). The above quote is perhaps the most counter-intuitive thing ever said by Christ – as far as general human experience goes. We do not want to lose our lives – despite the presence of suicides (an entirely different discussion). The instinct for self-preservation is among the deepest…

The Temptations of Church

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 63 Leave a Comment on %s
I have sometimes said (in a light-hearted manner) that God gave us the Church to keep us honest. The truth is, that God gave us the Church that we might be saved. The failure to see why and how the Church is the ark of salvation is a failure to understand some of the most fundamental parts of our Christian faith – and often a failure which transforms Christianity into an ersatz…