WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:04.400 Grace and peace to you from God, our Father our Lord 2 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:08.400 Jesus Christ. n the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, 3 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:09.900 one true God. 4 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:10.600 Amen. 5 00:00:13.700 --> 00:00:20.600 as we all know, we are in the second day of our Symposium and we are 6 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:22.100 talking about the South. 7 00:00:23.100 --> 00:00:25.700 So I thought I would this morning 8 00:00:25.700 --> 00:00:32.000 talk about a petition written by one of the most prominent Church 9 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:33.700 father from the South, 10 00:00:34.900 --> 00:00:36.500 Ephraim the Syrian. 11 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:46.300 Ephraim the Syrian was called the teacher of the Universal Church 12 00:00:46.300 --> 00:00:46.900 13 00:00:47.900 --> 00:00:53.200 One of these chants that is chanted in the in this season season of 14 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:54.200 Lent, 15 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:55.100 Resurrection. 16 00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:58.700 You will first the following petition. 17 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.900 O Lord and Master of my life take from me 18 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:06.900 the spirit of sloth, 19 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:16.300 faintheartedness. lust for power and idle talk. But give me another the spirit of chastity 20 00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:21.400 humility, patience and love to your servants. 21 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:23.900 Grant me to see my own errors 22 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:31.100 and not to judge my brother's. For thou are blessed and to ages and 23 00:01:31.100 --> 00:01:31.200 ages. 24 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.000 Amen. 25 00:01:34.700 --> 00:01:41.200 Why does this short, and simple prayer occupy, such an important 26 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:44.600 position in this season? 27 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:49.700 The answer is because it enumerates in a unique way 28 00:01:49.700 --> 00:02:00.100 the negative and positive elements of repentance. It tell us about the diseases that causes 29 00:02:00.100 --> 00:02:04.300 our spiritual death and what are the antidotes 30 00:02:04.300 --> 00:02:06.600 of these diseases. 31 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:14.400 The prayer enumerates 4 negative and then it gives us 4 32 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:15.100 antidotes. 33 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:21.500 And in this devotional this morning 34 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:26.000 I would like to talk briefly about these 8 elements. 35 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:28.500 Number one first 36 00:02:29.500 --> 00:02:35.300 Ephraim talks about the disease of sloth. And what is sloth? 37 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:40.800 Another word for sloth is apathy, laziness and indifferences. 38 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:43.100 It is that 39 00:02:43.100 --> 00:02:47.900 strange laziness and passivity of our entire being that 40 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.200 always pushes us down 41 00:02:50.200 --> 00:02:58.100 rather than up. Church father calls sloth, the sin that poison our spiritual energy 42 00:02:58.100 --> 00:03:07.000 at its very source. A result of sloth is faint heartedness. 43 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:14.700 It is the state of hopelessness, gloomy, low-spirited, depression, 44 00:03:14.700 --> 00:03:18.900 sadness, it is, called despondency. 45 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:23.700 Spiritual father, considered the great danger for the soul. 46 00:03:23.700 --> 00:03:27.900 Faint heartedness is the impossibility of a man to see anything good 47 00:03:28.900 --> 00:03:34.200 or positive. It is the reduction of everything to negativism and 48 00:03:34.200 --> 00:03:34.800 pessimism. 49 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:42.000 It is truly a demonic power in us because the devil is fundamentally a 50 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:49.100 liar. He lies to man about God and about the Word. He feels life with darkness and 51 00:03:49.100 --> 00:03:49.400 negation. 52 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:51.400 Faint heartedness is 53 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:56.900 the suicide of the soul because when man is possessed by it, 54 00:03:56.900 --> 00:04:03.900 he is absolutely and unable to see the light and to desire it. We call this 55 00:04:03.900 --> 00:04:07.600 depression or suicidal thought. 56 00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:13.600 Sloth, faint heartedness fill our life 57 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:19.200 with lust for power, when the spirit is afflicted with these two 58 00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:19.500 diseases 59 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:26.300 it controls our attitude toward life and making it meaningless and 60 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:26.800 empty. 61 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:32.500 They force us to seek compensation in erratically or wrong attitude 62 00:04:32.500 --> 00:04:33.600 toward other person. 63 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:40.200 Because if my life is not oriented toward God, not aimed at 64 00:04:40.200 --> 00:04:44.200 eternal value, it will inevitably become selfish 65 00:04:44.200 --> 00:04:49.600 and self-centered. And this mean that all other being will become 66 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:52.100 mean of my own self satisfaction. 67 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:58.400 If God is not the Lord and Master of my life, then I become my own 68 00:04:58.400 --> 00:05:03.300 Lord, and Master. And begun to evaluate everything in terms of my 69 00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:12.800 need, my idea, my desire and my judgment. A lust for power is thus a fundamental wickedness in my 70 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:18.200 relationship with others and the search for subordination to me. 71 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:23.800 The fourth negative elements that Ephraim talks about, is idle talk. 72 00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:30.300 Of all created being man alone has been endowed with the gift of 73 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:30.800 speech. 74 00:05:31.900 --> 00:05:37.900 All father see in this gift, the seal of the divine image in man 75 00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:40.900 because God himself is revealed in word. Speech 76 00:05:42.200 --> 00:05:46.500 is the supreme gift yet, it is the supreme danger 77 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:51.900 also. It is the meaning of man self fulfillment and it is the reason 78 00:05:51.900 --> 00:05:54.700 of his fall and self-destruction. 79 00:05:56.100 --> 00:06:02.500 The word is the mean of truth and it is the mean of demonic 80 00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:02.900 lie also. 81 00:06:02.900 --> 00:06:07.800 So having an ultimate positive power, it has therefore a tremendous 82 00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:09.000 negative power 83 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:12.400 also. It is truly negatively and positive at 84 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:18.900 the same time therefore we pray in Psalm 85 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:28.900 19 vs, 14. May, these word of my mouth and this meditation of my heart 86 00:06:28.900 --> 00:06:34.600 be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 87 00:06:36.200 --> 00:06:41.200 After he enumerates these 4 which he calls them, the poison that 88 00:06:41.200 --> 00:06:41.900 kills the soul. 89 00:06:43.200 --> 00:06:45.900 The prayer move to the antidotes 90 00:06:45.900 --> 00:06:51.900 of this for spiritual disease. And number one is chastity. 91 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:57.700 Well, when we hear chastity especially written, from a monk sometimes 92 00:06:58.900 --> 00:07:00.500 we use this word we give it 93 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:02.300 a sexual connotation. 94 00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:09.700 However, chastity, is understood as a positive counterpart of slot. 95 00:07:09.700 --> 00:07:19.500 The Greek word is, soprocene means whole mindedness. If sloth is the brokenness of 96 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:25.700 our vision and energy or the inability to see the whole its opposite 97 00:07:25.700 --> 00:07:32.200 is wholeness Christ, restores wholeness in us. And he does 98 00:07:32.200 --> 00:07:37.800 so by restoring and us, the true scale of values by leading us back to 99 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:38.100 God. 100 00:07:39.200 --> 00:07:40.500 Then we have humility. 101 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:47.100 It is the victory of truth in us. The elimination of all lies in which 102 00:07:47.100 --> 00:07:48.600 we would really live. 103 00:07:54.200 --> 00:07:58.800 Humility alone is capable of truth of seeing and accepting things as they are and therefore seeing God's majesty and goodness and love in 104 00:07:58.800 --> 00:07:59.200 everything. 105 00:08:00.500 --> 00:08:01.800 This is why we are told that God gives grace 106 00:08:04.400 --> 00:08:05.300 to the humble 107 00:08:05.300 --> 00:08:07.300 and resist the proud. 108 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:13.700 Chastity and humility are naturally, followed by patience 109 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:19.200 which is the third antidote. The natural and fallen man is impatient. 110 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:21.600 Being blind to himself 111 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:26.200 he is quick to judge and to condemn other. Having but a broken 112 00:08:26.200 --> 00:08:29.000 incomplete and distorted knowledge of everything. 113 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:35.000 He measure all things, but his test and his ideas being indifferent 114 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:36.600 to everyone except himself. 115 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:40.200 He wants life to be successful right here 116 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:41.100 and now. 117 00:08:42.299 --> 00:08:43.700 So in this petition 118 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:45.300 Ephraim is asking 119 00:08:45.300 --> 00:08:47.900 God to give him the spirit of patience. 120 00:08:48.700 --> 00:08:53.500 The spirit of patience means to see the error and ultimate reality of 121 00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:53.600 things. 122 00:08:54.800 --> 00:08:58.500 We in our blindness cannot see the inner reality of things. 123 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:05.100 But for God, this reality open and clear, so that closer we get to 124 00:09:05.100 --> 00:09:06.100 God, the more 125 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:08.900 the reality is open in our lives. 126 00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:15.300 The more we are patience and the more we grew and the more we reflect the patience 127 00:09:15.300 --> 00:09:16.400 of God with others. 128 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:19.300 Then the last one. 129 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:30.000 He calls love which he called the crowns of all virtues the other way 130 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:33.300 which comes as the gift from God. 131 00:09:34.400 --> 00:09:38.300 In the seventh century, a Church father by the name of John Climacus. 132 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:43.400 He wrote a book about Christian virtue entitled 133 00:09:43.400 --> 00:09:51.000 The ladder of Divine Ascent. In the ladder Climacus describe how to uplift, the believers 134 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:51.300 soul and body to God 135 00:09:51.300 --> 00:09:53.000 through the 136 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:01.800 acquisition of virtues. Climacus used the analogue of Jacob ladder as the framework of this traditional 137 00:10:01.800 --> 00:10:07.900 teaching. Each chapter is referred to as a step and deal with the separate spiritual 138 00:10:07.900 --> 00:10:08.500 subject. 139 00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:13.500 There are 30 steps of the ladder, which correspond to the age of 140 00:10:13.500 --> 00:10:17.500 Jesus at his baptism and the beginning of his Earthly Ministry. 141 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:27.300 Climacus, consider agape love the last and ultimate step in the Christian 142 00:10:27.300 --> 00:10:27.800 virtue. 143 00:10:31.300 --> 00:10:37.400 Climacus teaches us that the agape love its power from the Cross of Christ and his 144 00:10:37.400 --> 00:10:39.300 resurrection that 145 00:10:39.300 --> 00:10:43.900 are in us and given to us as a gift in the deal for baptism. 146 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:50.200 This gifts empower us to abide in the agape love. 147 00:10:51.300 --> 00:11:00.100 Ephraim then summarizes his petition when he prays grant me to see my own 148 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:05.500 errors and do not to judge my brothers. 149 00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:10.100 So ultimately, there is one danger, pride. 150 00:11:11.100 --> 00:11:18.800 Pride is the source of evil and all evil is pride. Yet 151 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:21.500 it is for me to see my own errors. 152 00:11:21.500 --> 00:11:27.900 For even this apparent virtue can be turned into pride. 153 00:11:29.300 --> 00:11:34.500 Spiritual writing are full of warning against the subtitle form of 154 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:39.000 subtitle piety under the cover of humility and self-accusation 155 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:46.500 subtitle can lead to a truly demonic pride but when we see our own 156 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:52.900 errors and not to judge our brothers when chastity, humility, patience, love 157 00:11:52.900 --> 00:12:01.100 but are one in us then and only then the ultimate enemy which is pride 158 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:03.000 is destroyed. 159 00:12:03.900 --> 00:12:07.900 Ephrem ends his long petition 160 00:12:08.800 --> 00:12:11.200 by calling us 161 00:12:12.900 --> 00:12:17.400 and I will quote from his last one, and I will end with this, this is 162 00:12:17.400 --> 00:12:18.000 what he said. 163 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:25.600 Let us first the faithful from corrupting snares, from harmful 164 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:33.800 patience. So that we require life from the Divine cross and return with the good thief to our 165 00:12:33.800 --> 00:12:42.000 spiritual home. Come all faithful let us perform the work of God in light. Let us work honestly as 166 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:48.900 in the day. Let us rid ourselves of unjust accusation, against our 167 00:12:48.900 --> 00:12:49.600 neighbors 168 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:55.800 so that we place no stumbling block in their way. Let us put aside 169 00:12:55.800 --> 00:12:56.800 the pleasure of the flesh 170 00:12:56.800 --> 00:13:01.200 so that we may increase the grace of our souls. 171 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:06.900 Let us give bread to those in need. Let us draw near in repentance to 172 00:13:06.900 --> 00:13:10.400 cry to cross to Christ and say 173 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:14.800 Oh, Lord, have mercy on us. 174 00:13:14.800 --> 00:13:19.300 Amen. And now may the grace and peace of our Lord 175 00:13:19.300 --> 00:13:21.400 Jesus Christ, be with all of us. 176 00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:22.200 Amen.