Reflections

Personal reflections, meditations, and ongoing series tied to the liturgical calendar

  • Hevoro Friday – Fifth Day of Brightness

    ByJobin

    Hevoro Friday – Fifth Day of Brightness – The Harrowing of Hades – 1 Peter 3:17-22

    The Oriental Orthodox icon of the Resurrection shows Christ standing on the broken gates of Hades. His hands grasp the wrists of Adam and Eve. He is lifting them out of their tombs. The personification of Death is beneath His feet. Defeated.

    Behind Adam and Eve, the patriarchs and prophets are visible. David. Solomon. John the
    Baptist. The righteous of every generation since Adam. They had been waiting. Centuries upon centuries. And now they are coming out.

    The Second Adam grasping the first Adam. Reversing the Fall by undoing it from the inside. Death has been entered and emptied.

    This is what Christ was doing on Holy Saturday.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

  • Hevoro Thursday – Fourth Day of Brightness

    ByJobin

    *Hevoro Thursday – Fourth Day of Brightness* – 1 John 4:19-5:15 – _He First Loved Us_

    The entire Lenten series in one sentence. Every reflection. Every passage. Every healing. Every Cross. Every empty tomb. All of it was love. And all of it was first.

    Day 28: Christ found the bent woman without being asked. Day 36: Christ invited Himself to Zacchaeus’s table. Day 41: Christ came to Lazarus’s tomb on His own initiative. Day 50: Christ stood behind Mary in the garden before she turned around. Hevoro Monday: Christ joined the Emmaus disciples before they knew who He was.

    The love went first. Always first. And because it went first, we can love. The brother. The community. The world.

    John does not soften this. If you say you love God and hate your brother, you are a liar.

    The brother you can see is the examination. Not the feeling in your heart during prayer. Not the tears during the Qurbana. Not the discipline of the fast. The brother.

    St. John Chrysostom: the love that goes up to God must also go out to the brother. Otherwise it is not love. It is religious performance.

    The Lenten fast was vertical. Between you and God. The Hevoro Days are revealing the horizontal. Between you and the brother. The love of God needs both dimensions. Like the Cross.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

  • Hevoro Wednesday – The Third Day of Brightness

    ByJobin

    Hevoro Wednesday – Third Day of Brightness: Do Not Harden Your Hearts: Hebrews 3:1-13

    The Israelites saw God’s works for forty years. Plagues. Sea parting. Manna. Water from the rock. They saw it all.

    And their hearts went hard.

    The seeing did not prevent the hardening. The miracles did not inoculate against the rebellion.

    St. John Chrysostom: the Hevoro Days are the Church’s wilderness. Not deprivation. Testing. The deliverance has happened. The tomb is empty. The question is whether the heart will stay soft.

    Today the Spirit says: do not harden. The fast softened you. Stay that way.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

  • Hevoro Tuesday – The Second Day of Brightness

    ByJobin

    Hevoro Tuesday -Matthew 28:11–20: The Lie and the Commission

    Two responses to the empty tomb, side by side in the same passage.

    The institution’s response: pay money. Buy silence. Spread a lie. “His disciples stole the body while we slept.”

    Christ’s response: go. Make disciples. Baptise. Teach. “I am with you always.”

    St. John Chrysostom: the suppression is the evidence. You do not pay people to be quiet about nothing. The money proves the guards saw something the chief priests could not afford to have reported.

    The lie is still being told. The truth is still being preached. And the truth has authority.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

  • Hevoro Monday – The First Day of Brightness

    ByJobin

    Hevoro Monday. The First Day of Brightness. Luke 24:13-35

    Two disciples walked seven miles away from Jerusalem. Away from the resurrection. They had the facts. They did not have the faith.

    A Stranger joined them. Opened the Scriptures. Set their hearts on fire.

    At a table in Emmaus, He took bread. Blessed it. Broke it. Gave it. And their eyes opened. And they knew Him. And He vanished.

    “Did not our heart burn within us?”

    St. Ephrem: the Emmaus road is the road every Christian walks. Hearts burning from Scripture. Eyes opening at the bread. And between the two: a walk with the risen Christ. Unrecognised. But present.

    For our journey today:
    – Stay on the road
    – Invite Him in
    – Look for the breaking

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

  • Lenten Reflection – The Feast of Resurrection

    ByJobin

    The Feast of the Resurrection. John 20:1-18

    Mary Magdalene stood weeping at the empty tomb. She thought the body had been stolen. She turned and saw a man she assumed was the gardener.

    He said one word. “Mary.”

    And she knew. Not by sight. By voice. The shepherd’s sheep know the shepherd’s voice.

    “Rabboni!” My Teacher. My Lord. You are alive. You said my name.

    St. Cyril: the resurrection is not a doctrine believed from a distance. It is a Person standing behind you while you weep, about to say your name.

    Fifty days. The fast is finished. The tomb is empty. Christ is risen.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

  • Lenten Reflection – Day 48 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    The stone was sealed. The soldiers were posted. The women went home to rest.
    And inside the tomb, the Lord of life was making the most powerful journey in history – to the place where the dead had waited since Adam.
    Holy Saturday is not the absence of God. It is God hidden. And hiddenness is not the same as absence.
    Day 48 of the Great Lent

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 46 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Lenten Reflection – Day 46 of the Great Lent: Maundy Thursday – Luke 22:14–30 & John 13:1-20
    The Table, the Towel and the New Covenant

    “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

    Christ longed for this meal. Not dreading it. Longing. Because this is the meal that changes everything. The Passover that fulfils every Passover. The lamb of Egypt giving way to the Lamb of God.

    St. Cyril: the words “this is My body” create what they declare. The bread becomes the body. The wine becomes the blood. Not symbolically. Really.

    After forty-six days of fasting: the bread that was denied is now the body that is given. Receive.

    Further, the washing of the feet is participation. Not spectacle. We must be washed. We must receive. We must let the God of the universe touch our dirt.

    That is harder than any act of service. Letting ourselves be served by the One who made us.

    Tonight: sit still. Extend your feet. Receive.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 45 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Wednesday of Holy Week – John 12:19-50: The Last Day of the Light

    “A little while longer the light is with you.”

    The most urgent sentence in Holy Week. A little while. Hours. By tomorrow evening, the light will be arrested. By Friday afternoon, extinguished. By Friday evening, in the tomb.

    “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.”

    The fast has been forty-five days of walking in the light. Every reflection. Every prayer. Every Scripture. The light has been saying: walk while you have Me.
    Wednesday asks: have you walked? The little while is almost over.

    For our journey today
    – Let the grain fall
    – Speak the secret belief
    – Walk while you have the light

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 44 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Tuesday of Holy Week – Matthew 22:15–33: Two Traps, Two Truths

    The Pharisees and the Sadducees both tried to trap Christ in the Temple on Tuesday. Both failed.

    The tax trap revealed the truth about identity. The coin bears Caesar’s image; give it to Caesar. You bear God’s image; give yourself to God.

    The resurrection trap revealed the truth about God. “I AM the God of Abraham.” Present tense. God does not preside over corpses. The dead are alive in Him.

    The traps failed on Tuesday. By Friday, the enemies will bypass the arguments and use soldiers instead. But by Sunday, the resurrection argument will be proved. From inside an empty tomb.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis