Lost in New Year Resolutions

Every New Year countless resolutions are sworn into completion: I want to be more fit I want to lose weight I want to quit smoking I want to speak Spanish and so on. Most of these ambitious dreams however remain just that dreams left behind together with the prepaid fee for the gym program that never happened.

I for one  have always enjoyed taking the challenge of learning a new language and so I’ve been trying to learn proper Greek for a while but somehow the mastering of this tongue continues to elude me despite my best efforts. I even prayed for it with no success well it was mostly my fault. See many years ago before my ordination I visited the Holy Mountain Athos and I was gifted there an icon of St. Ephraim. Being named Vasile after St. Basil the Great I knew the touching story of St. Basil conversing in Greek with Saint Ephraim the Syrian who spoke Syriac at his turn and I always wondered how they completely understood each other in the Spirit. I was even more amazed when St. Basil blessed St. Ephraim and upon his blessing he actually started immediately to speak Greek. So upon my return I put the new icon in my prayer corner and prayed to St. Ephraim to help me learn Greek. As I started learning the alphabet and some words with the loving help of a few wonderful people around me at some point I was able to read the Greek inscription on my icon now a few years old and to my surprise I discovered that I was praying to the wrong saint! The icon I received was not of St. Ephraim the Syrian but of St. Ephraim the Newly revealed of Nea Makri… I guess getting lost in translation is a real thing.

Embarrassing story aside learning a language requires not just memorization and dedication it also requires a certain level of immersion and this is where I think I fell short. Immersion means to be completely under the surface of a liquid. Language immersion puts you as well in a place that doesn’t give you a chance to go back to what you know and are familiar with like English. Once immersed you have to do everything in the new idiom you are trying to learn. At the beginning simple things became suddenly painstakingly difficult and nothing can be taken for granted. In such an environment one is led to become more attentive the senses are sharpening and unprompted connections start forming. Soon enough though the difficult becomes gradually simpler the unfamiliar becomes ordinary and communication just happens. What was gibberish some time ago now is coherent conversation and most desired understanding.

In a way learning to speak God’s language to really understand our faith takes a similar process. Since we perform infant baptism faith is a complete blur to begin with. Is something that our parents and God parents surround us lovingly with but is something that does not yet makes sense. It sounds good it tastes good it smells good but we don’t really get it. Then as we grow and we go more to Church to Sunday School we observe our parents we start getting it bit by bit until without realizing it we find ourselves fluent living our faith with understanding.

What helps the most in this process of divine language absorption is that everything around us:  the churches the icons the Scriptures the sermons  the psaltic music the vestments the  incense the Holy Communion all speak the same language. They all May communicate it in a different way but they understand each other perfectly like St. Basil and St. Ephraim.  They all speak profoundly the same Mother’s tongue and the Mother is the Church.

Immersed in the Liturgical space of the Church one looses communication with the created and learns in time with perseverance and patience to communicate with the Uncreated. “Unceasingly pray” says the Apostle Paul ; prayer is the language of God. We can pray in English Greek Russian Romanian we can worship God in hymnology or in the colors of the icons at the end they are all attempts to communicate with Him. Each one is a different (imperfect) form of reveling to us Who God is and together they start a coherent conversation that can take place only here where this full immersion happens. Dissociating them or taking them out of the context of the Body of Christ will generate huge gaps in understanding.

Take the icon out of the Church’s space put it in a museum and it losses meaning. The people who come to see it admire the form but fail to understand its meaning fail to see Christ glorified in the midst of the Saints. Put the icon of Christ back in the Church and the koinonia the Communion of the people of God is revealed. Take the Byzantine melody out of the psaltiri chant it in a concert hall and it will convey an ancient heritage to the audience maybe a strange oriental vibe but it will fail to make known the angelic choir that unceasingly praises God together with the people during Divine Liturgy. Take even the Gospel and try to convey the Good Tidings to everyone and you will soon realize that many will misunderstand it many will criticize it and many will even try to change it.

The language spoken inside the Church is not very well understood by the people outside.  This is nothing new however Christ God Himself experienced this and continued preaching and healing the people of Israel who rejected Him. The hope remains that even with this gap in understanding some will hear the message and will decide to come in and agree to be immersed for a full understanding.  Interestingly enough the Greek word for immersion is actually baptismso there you go”.

This is why the Orthodox Church’s missionary motto was always “come and see”.  We have no marketing we offer no easy scenario of salvation in Christ we promise no mansions only an open invitation to come in. Once you’re in the Church everything here points to Christ in a way that is not superficial is not just lip talk but real life. What is missing from the language of the secular world with all its theories and sciences and logic is the ascetical dimension of a life lived in Christ. The conversation we have with God inside the Church is not just empty theorizing but is leading us to a better understanding of Him so that we could be transformed in His Image. This is what askesis is: training preparation for a total transformation. How about that as a New Year resolution?

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One Reply to “Lost in New Year Resolutions”

  1. Your website contains the Small Compline service I’ve been looking for and I’ve found x. other helpful things here including last Sunday’s sermon. I’d like to visit here frequently.
    – Laura Woods member of St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church Miami FL

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