Weekly Reflection
Weekly Reflection
On Wednesday of this week we read: ST. PAUL'S SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 6:1-10
“We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
Life and death, sorrow and joy, poverty and wealth… We, as Christians experience this dichotomy, because a dichotomy exists at the very heart of Christianity.
On Christmas day, a little child was born in a cave, was laid in a manger, was held in the arms of His mother, was bathed by midwives. This baby is the one of whom St. John the Evangelist says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…” (John 1:1). For our sake, God the Word deigned to become one of His own creations, to become like us in all ways, except for sin. The mind rebels at the magnitude of such an impossibility, that the One who created us became us, out of love for us, that we may become like Him!
Brought to the Temple, according to the law, God Himself was held in the arms of the righteous Symeon. The author of the Law, the One who made covenants with Noah, and Moses, and king David, submits to the Law, in order to perfect it and fill it with Himself.
On a Friday before the Passover, the God who became man died for us. The one who is life, underwent death. Hanged upon the tree of the Cross, His death annulled death and fills it with life.
Our faith is filled with dichotomy, and we who are Christ’s live this out. We belong to Christ, but live in a world that has rejected Him. We participate in eternity in the Holy Mysteries, but await eternity in the second coming. We give away our temporal treasure, and in return are given eternal riches. we mourn, but our weeping gives way to the joy of the Resurrection. We are humiliated, persecuted, and put to death, but in our humiliation, we are glorified, and crowned. In Matthew 20:16 Christ reveals how we are to do this: “The first shall be last, and the last first.” We must become imitators of Christ, we must set aside our ourselves and put others before us, as Christ became Incarnate, and in our humility, we participate in eternity.
