What would you say is the biggest barrier to people in finding a peaceful and happy life? Bad habits? Not enough money? external enemies that oppress them? Human philosophies and religions have been trying to answer that question for a long time, with limited success.
But what if I told you there is an answer to that question that, frankly, is a bit frustrating and even upsetting?
What if I told you the reason you don’t have peace and happiness in your life has little to do with external circumstances and everything to do with you?!
And to make matters worse, what if I told you that the only remedy for this internal reality is something that doesn’t make sense?!?!
This is exactly what the message of Normal Orthodoxy extends to every person. The deep brokenness of we humans has, as its biggest barrier, our ego, our pride. The only medicine that is going to heal this brokenness is by showing us that our intellect, our self-assured belief we know how to change is based on a weakness. The Message of Orthodoxy attacks this spiritual sickness in us all through the reality of paradox!
Look at our Gospel Lesson today in Luke 9:23-27:
The Lord said to his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
Our Lord is once again offering His disciples insight and wisdom into how to embrace this mystery of life as an invitation to be truly human, to be truly free. And the purpose of this humanity, this freedom, is to enter into the amazing invitation by God, the Uncreated, to become His companions. And the only way to do this is the paradox of faith: Whoever saves his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. What good is it to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul? Our short-sightedness will simply not be healed unless we are confronted with this paradox.
The power of this wisdom means I cannot reduce my faith to automatic pilot. The Fathers insist that wakefulness is always necessary to actually break the “gravitational pull” of a selfish world and escape the all too easy selfish focus on my own pleasure. But this wakefulness will “feel” like death in the sense that I am really invited to “die” to the shallow expectations of success and achievement as measured by this world and “come alive” to the real measure of success in becoming what we were all created to become: fit companions for the Uncreated God. It is only this cosmic goal that is worth abandoning the fantasy of success and achievement that ends at the grave!
The story of the great Prophet and Saint, Hosea, is a perfect illustration of the power of paradox. St. Hosea is the most ancient of the 12 Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. He was a tribal leader in Israel at the time when the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel separated from the 2 Southern Tribes. This time of divide was never healed in the Nation of Israel and Hosea was called by God to powerfully display God’s love for His wayward children. In the book of Hosea, God calls Hosea to marry a prostitute. What?!? A prostitute? Are you sure, God? Of course, St. Hosea didn’t ask any of those questions. He obeyed God and he married this woman. And the woman was unfaithful to Hosea. We see the powerful devotion and faithfulness of Hosea as he goes out in the night seeking his wife to bring her home. All of this was to illustrate the reason why the Northern Kingdom was being Unfaithful as they abandoned the true worship of the God of Abraham to worshipping the pagan gods of the people around them, and the Southern Kingdom was committing spiritual “adultery” by all the right worship practices and a true priesthood but they had hearts that didn’t love God. They were just going through the motions! Hosea’s life and the paradox of his ministry was a powerful invitation from God for His people to WAKE UP to the spiritual sickness that was killing them!
Today, please know that this struggle to enter into the paradox of faith is a daily struggle, and necessary, sometimes it’s moment by moment! Don’t let that surprise you or discourage you. No, turn once again today to the invitation of your faith through Christ and shoulder the cross of paradox, knowing it will take you to the place where your fantasy life will die and your authentic self will be revealed. Know it is the daily practice of the Faith that enables you to “not be ashamed” of the paradox of Jesus Christ and His wisdom in a world that seems to always offer us the exact opposite of His wisdom. Embracing the paradox of Orthodoxy will enable you to be Orthodox on Purpose.
P.S. Initiated by divine illumination, you were deemed worthy of the lofty gift of prophecy and foretold of the promise of grace, O Prophet. O Hosea, since you dwell in God’s glory now, do rescue from all manner of adversity us who cry to you: Rejoice, you vessel of grace divine.
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