The American essayist and humorist, Mark Twain, once said that “it’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand.”  In his inimitable way, Twain zeros in on a central truth about Christianity —  Christ has given us much work to do in His preaching and continues to raise new challenges for us in our everyday lives.  At times, our Christian faith can seem a burden to us!

Christ Himself reminded the Apostles that He had already taught them all that they should need:  “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.” (Matt. 13)   Though we find it hard to believe, that statement now applies to all of us who have entered into the fullness of the Orthodox Church.  We share, with all the other members of the Body, the great responsibility of being faithful to what the Lord has revealed.

Sunday’s Gospel text (Luke 8: 5-15) reminds us all of the importance of being responsible for what we have received, for growing in the faith and bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God. In a real sense, this Gospel passage speaks about “reception” – about receiving the Divine Encounter. Where and how do we see God in our everyday living? Are we poised for His “intrusion” into our chaotic time and space?  Do we, in fact, look for God? And most importantly, do we ever honestly examine our disposition (attitude) when God knocks at the door of our heart?  It is this lesson that Jesus imparts to his disciples. Biblical scholar, Fr. Raymond Brown, writes: “In explaining that the seed falls on four different types of surfaces — a pathway, a rock, among the thorns, and finally into what St. Luke writes is the “good ad honest” heart—the Master is telling them God will persist in coming to you, in approaching you, in attempting to ‘get through to you.’  He cannot do otherwise, for in His essence He is self-communicating love. It is of His very nature.”

It is not often that we actually “look for God’s persistent presence” in our lives. More often than not, He tends to be but a “concept” of our minds, an idea, a carry-over from our early catechism days, or an abstraction. As such, He easily slips out of our active consciousness into obscurity – unless of course we are in crisis or in need. It is then that we storm Heaven with our cries, aware of the truth that in suffering and struggle, God speaks the loudest and at last gets our attention!.  Still He persists at us.

The British poet Frances Thompson (1859-1907) in her work “The Hound of Heaven” masterfully expresses our reticence  to engage God as He comes to us:  ”I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him down the arches of the years; I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind, and in the mist of tears I hid from Him under running laughter.” The sower’s seed fell on stubborn hardness, on pathways under foot, among the thorns that strangled it – dead ends all. How do we greet the Divine Seed as it is cast into our lives? Do we look for Him? Do we anticipate His appearance in people, events, and circumstances?  Do we perhaps consign the Living God to a far-away heaven, remote, distant, and wholly uninvolved in the rush of our important daily busyness? Or, on the other hand, is our heart “good and honest” enough to seek the many theophanies that, in fact, seek us out?

His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh, of blessed memory, quite powerfully expressed these sentiments: “Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so every moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and hearts of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds cannot spring up except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love.”

God seeks to plant Himself again and again in our hearts and souls. The question is are we prepared to receive Him?  The “seed” (the presence of God) needs the good soil of our hearts, the rays of growth by the “sun” of our good deeds, and the commitment of our wills to look for Him, to be aware of Him, to ignore the chaotic distractions of the world and focus every day on the life and spiritual growth of the Divine Unseen within us. It was the Prophet Isaiah who counseled:  “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.  Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon us.” (Isaiah 55:6)

From the agrarian images of the parable of the Sower comes an existential imperative for you and me. Understanding the “seed” as a metaphor for God’s presence, you and I must be about the ascetic work of being consciously aware of that presence in our everyday lives. Going to Church is not enough.  Proudly adopting the identity as “Orthodox” is insufficient. Following the Christian moral precepts is but a partial response.  You and I must engage ourselves in what the French Monk Lawrence (Nicholas Herman) in the 17th century entitled his book “The Practice of the Presence of God.” In this short and easily readable work, Brother Lawrence writes: “I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of God. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth of the center of my soul as much as I can; and while I am so with Him, I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable.”

Or again the Monk advises: “Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.” This is preparing our heart’s soil for the encounter with and implanting of the Divine Presence.  I commend this simple, brief book to your reading. It is rich with spiritual counsels that can help us have, as St. Luke said, “good and honest” hearts.  Reading it will be a dawning, a new revelation, an opening of our eyes to the wonder and majesty of God, working not in dramatic or flashy ways, but in the simple context of our daily lives. He comes to us with His quiet presence through the people we meet, the situations of our daily life, the experiences, good and bad, that confront us.  You and I need to practice how to recognize Him. We need to make certain that the soil of our hearts and souls is ready to recognize Him, accept him, receive Him.  As always, we need to determine exactly what kind of soil we are.

Brothers and sisters, this is the way that we take today’s Gospel parable of the Sower and the seed and live it – not just hear it, or think about it, or analyze it – but live it. This is how we give the written Word of God flesh, we incarnate its meaning, we slowly but steadily discipline our hearts to love God more and more and to see Him in all things.  This is what it means to have an Orthodox phronema —  an abiding attitude where God is at the center of our lives and of every breath we take.  I leave you with the words of Brother Lawrence. Take them to your heart and soul and receive the wondrous and tender God of mercy into your life.

“That we need only to recognize GOD intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment, that we may beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful, and for rightly performing those which we plainly see He requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have done.” (The Practice of the Presence of God)

Faithfully in the Lord,
Fr. Dimitrios