Passionless-ness and Me!

I have been aroused within by the passing of my most dearest friend, companion, brother, priest and Bishop (an apostle) in the lines of Succession; Father +Jeffery “Matthias” Hammons.  He went to his repose on my birthday at 2 a.m. of 2/4/2010 and I miss him still.  I feel his presence and know somehow that God, in His Love, compassion and understanding, allows for much for those of us who suffer within over the loss from this life of our loved ones as we too will enter into the next life sometime soon.  Yet, once we do, where?  That is the question of questions!

          A very dear friend, sort of brother who has been known to Father +Jeff and my unworthy repentant self for many, many years, who cannot be named, will be visiting me in the next month or so.  He asked the meaning of the idea of “Passionless” and I could only indicate to him a part of its meaning by saying;

“It is a ‘mental’ thing! ‘Passionless’ means striving to negate and rid one's self of things of materiality especially bodily things relating to sex and sexuality... Remember, Priests (for those who are supposed to be celibate...) it means we must overcome sexual desires, hence... passionless! Your understanding of ‘castration’ is one of inner being, that is to say mental castration of sexual passions which has become one of the most serious of problems for all humankind, especially those who call themselves ‘Christian,’ and I mean ALL, human beings considering the manner, way and approach of our school systems as well as the government which is proved out to be true when you turn on the television in these present times with all the political scandals of sexual immorality and worse,”.

          The passion of Jesus is a sea of sorrows, but it is also an ocean of love. Ask the Lord to teach you to fish in this ocean. Dive into its depths. No matter how deep you go, you will never reach the bottom. - Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775).

            Not all things of the Roman Jurisdiction is to be shunned because of their errant theological issues.  And, it is that Saint +John Maximovitch was very correct when he said; “Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies." - Blessed St. John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco

          Then, later in the day, I told one of the new room mates that I was having trouble dealing with this loss and pray often for the soul of Father +Jeffery, asking that his sins be placed upon me because I am where the proverbial ‘buck’ stops at in this life.  Asking God, as I have since Father +Jeff’s passing, that his soul be in Paradise with Saint Dismiss (the one who hung on the right side of Jesus Christ)… remember what Jesus told Him?

          With emotional and spiritual tears, I recall something I had authored some time ago… and refer you to it in this writing… How Many Times … The loss of Father +Jeff was much closer to “home” than I’d wished to have admit, but admit it I do!

          It is because of these many things that what has come to my mind is something Jesus Christ said … “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:57).

          Love for the truth is a gift of the Creator… for it is our Creator who is the source of all Life and abundance!  “Amen” to that so I say…

          Yet it is true that curiosity is pitiable when it pursues illusory objects in this life.  Among the Savior’s disciples was one who did not like to believe easily, but who like to think about the truth.  And, not only did the Savior not condemn Thomas… He Himself provoked his disciples to thoughts and questions about the truth.  When He said to His disciples, “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” He was speaking to them about their knowledge, in order to arouse them to thoughts and questions about important subjects.  And, Thomas understood His Lord’s intention.

“Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5).

One cannot help but note that when it was necessary to ask the Lord about anything, it was usually Peter who asked and Peter would come up with bold, and even sharp, objections. Now he is silent for the duration of the entire farewell conversation. Why is this? The foretell­ing of his fall (John 13:38) had made him pensive, and he was occu­pied with his own conscience and feelings. But let us turn to Thomas.

How did Thomas' question take form in his soul? In light of the disciples' faith in an earthly kingdom of the Messiah, which they shared with the Jews, they partly did not have a clear understanding and partly did not want to accept what the Lord was saying about His departure. They wanted to believe that He was speaking of some earthly location to which He was going, and they neither knew of this place nor how the Lord would go there, (Euthymius Zigabenus, Homily on the Gospel of St. John, vol. 3 ). Their souls were now occupied with one thing—sorrow over parting with the Master. And it was in this sorrow that Thomas said, "Lord! I cannot say that we know where Thou art go­ing. No, we cannot know Thy way."

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me (John 14:6).

The Lord saw Thomas' heart. He saw that, although his objec­tion was seemingly not a gentle one, it was the fruit of sorrowful love, which desired to know the truth about his beloved Master. The Lord replies to Thomas with meek love. Saying nothing more about the way by which He Himself is going to heaven. He indicates the way by which Thomas and everyone else must go to heaven. He turns the thoughts of the disciples to His spiritual kingdom.

I am the way, He says. There is no need to seek any other way to the highest goal of earthly life. Every other way is unreliable and even dangerous. Such was the way of the Jewish scribes, who dreamed of the earth, of earthly happiness, of the earthly glory of the Messiah. Christ Jesus is our only sure guide to heaven. He is not only the way to the highest goal; He Himself leads us to that goal. He who follows after Him will not err and will not go astray. He shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).

How can this be? How is Christ Jesus our way? "I am ... the truth and the life," He says. Humanity had distanced itself from God through falsehood, and lost both the truth and the life (cf. John 8:44). No matter how humanity tried to find the truth on its own, the truth could not be found. There is nothing to say about the teachers of worldly vanity: these are shallow, pitiful people. Philosophers, legislators, and founders of religions have sought the truth, but their teachings were more or less imbued with falsehood, errors, delusions and prejudices. These teach­ings confirm their own groundlessness by their mutual contradictions. The truth is in God, and God is truth. Christ Jesus is the Son of God—He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Therefore He is the truth in and of Himself, and He is the truth for men. He is pure, clear, unclouded light. Therefore, in His teaching there is not a shadow of falsehood or misunderstanding. He is the light of every man, no matter who he is, no matter where he is, no matter when he has lived, in every land, in every society, and in every time. Mankind—whose mind is damaged by innate sin, by inherited falsehood—could in no way have been freed from falsehood without His light.

Christ Jesus is not only truth, but life. The most important defect of human teachings is that they do not give life to mankind, corrupted by sin; they do not give a man the power to change himself as he must change for the sake of the highest aim of human existence. Sick man­kind, with all its human remedies, remains sick. Christ Jesus, as the Son of God and True God, is life in and of Himself, and life for all men. He is the bread of God, Who came down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:33, 35). He goes to death on the Cross, but not only does He Himself resurrect—His death on the Cross also rec­onciles heaven with mankind and opens streams of life for humanity, which is corrupted by sin. This is what the Savior said about Himself to the Jews: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life (John 5:24). If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death (John 8:51).

No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me (John 14:6).

This is the explanation of the name the Lord had given Himself when He had called Himself the way, and therefore it fixes the bound­aries of the meaning of "truth" and "life." As a "way" serves as the means to reach a goal, so is it impossible to reach the Heavenly Father, the highest goal of the best of human desires, other than by means of Christ. Thus, if Christ is the truth, then He is that truth without which it is impossible to go to heaven. If He is life, then He is that life without which it is impossible for anyone to live, outside of which all are dead to God.

If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also,” (John 14:7).

This is the direct consequence of the fact that Christ Jesus is the truth, a consequence applied to the disciples. The Lord shows the dis­ciples what their ignorance was dependent upon when Thomas said, We know not whither Thou goest. If they had known Christ the Lord, Who is truth itself, they would have known the Heavenly Father as well, since the truth is one. Then they would have known that the Son is the image of the Person of God (cf. Heb. 1:3), and that His teach­ings, His works, and His whole life reveal the Heavenly Father to men. Then they would not have wavered with doubts, either about the goal toward which Christ was going, or about the goal toward which the disciples, as well as all men, must go. The Savior had spoken this way to the Jews as well (cf. John 8:19).

From henceforth ye know Him (the Father), and have seen Him (John 14:7).

The disciples of the Lord Jesus were more attentive to -His teach­ings and works than were the Jews. The disciples were at least prepar­ing themselves for a correct knowledge of the Son and the Father. Therefore the Lord Jesus added this response concerning them, some­thing He never said about the Jews.

What is the meaning of the boundary from which the disciples would begin to know the Father? From henceforth, as Christ draws near to His death on the Cross. Now is the Son of man glorified (John 13:31), said the Lord Jesus, as soon as Judas left the supper of love with the total resolve to betray his Master into the hands of evildoers. Thus, by Christ's death on the Cross, the revelation of the Heavenly Father's glory begins for man. Jesus' disciples understood that their beloved Master was going to death. They did not want to believe it, but it was impossible not to believe the clear words of the Master, and therefore they grieved over their imminent parting from Him. They heard His clear words: No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. And they heard that He was going to prepare a place for them. Thus they began to un­derstand that the glory of the Heavenly Father would be revealed in His sufferings and death. This understanding of the truth was weak, not firm, but it had already begun. It already existed, and these sparks of light would soon be turned into full light, under the influence of the Comforter, Who was so close to the disciples— And have seen Him. Christ's disciples had already seen the might and glory of the Heavenly Father in the works of their Master, Christ the Lord, although their sight up to that point had not yet been very keen.

In this way the Savior confirmed what He had said previously to the disciples: "You know where I am going, and you know the way by which I am going." His words are true.

Sweetest Jesus! To whom shall we go? Thou art the way, the truth, and the life for us. Our generation has grown weak from our passion for sin. We see the truth, but great is our infirmity. Strengthen us, O our Life! By Thy power let us glorify Thee with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is much I would like to say to you who read this.  However, many of you have fallen (like I had, over time from my youth) in falling into the passions of this life as a means to overcome the guilt of childhood upbringing and much, much more… even the guilt of recognizing that while he was alive in this life, Father +Jeff and even Sister Marie for that matter; I failed them in ways that would take to long to go into…

          Because of what I find has been and is happening as I write this, feeling his presence, I also must admit that shortly after The Most Rev. +Karl Barwin went to his repose, I felt his presence as well, but many wonderful and beautiful things took place in our (Father +Jeff’s and my unworthy self’s) lives that truly aided us. 

          Now, I find similar things happening as regards Father +Jeff.

          What I pose for your minds is the fact that we learn from the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ that those who are, according to their nature and degree of ability, faithful to HIM, are they, after their repose, counted among the saints, as it is said???

          Going back to my teachings that none of us can count ourselves as being TRUE CHRISTIANS until after we’ve drawn our last breath because we are still strugglers in this life for the life to come.

          Thus, it would therefore be true that far too many have opted for so many passions of this life without forethought while considering themselves “Christian” and “saved” when they have no right to do so because they have appropriated from God, from Jesus Christ, that which they have taken and not earned.  It is, after all, Jesus Christ who is the Judge.  And it is that far too many have misinterpreted the bible to suite their own arrogant and elitist attitudes, teaching the same to others which is the cause (as many will find in the next life) for why many have fallen into the chasm, the great divide.  Amen!

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