20091227 God's Invitation, and an Interview on Chastity

20091227 God's Invitation, and an Interview on Chastity

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In this episode, Fr. Anthony talks about the need to take up God on His invitation to His house; then interviews Demetra Perlegas, PhD, about chastity in relationships.

20091220 Snow, Bad Science, and Leadership

20091220 Snow, Bad Science, and Leadership

In this edition, Fr. Anthony talks about the gratitude of the Samaritan leper, share's St. Paul's lesson, talks about the news, and finishes with advice to seminarians.

Show notes at www.orthoanalytika.org and www.stmichaeluoc.org.

20091213 Children of Light and Paranormal Movie Picks

20091213 Children of Light and Paranormal Movie Picks

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony continues to present St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, talks about recent news, shares his top 30 paranormal movie picks, and exhorts everyone to quiet down and get ready for the Nativity.

For show notes and links, visit www.orthoanalytika.org.

20091129 Prisoners of God and News Roundup

20091129 Prisoners of God and News Roundup

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In this episode, Fr. Anthony encourages everyone to join St. Paul in prison, goes over the scientific and international news, and explains why he is a priest in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

20091122 Community, Authenticity, and the Paranormal

20091122 Community, Authenticity, and the Paranormal

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony shares the steps needed to enjoy the fruits Christ promised to all who love Him. He also answers the mail about "Authentic" Ukrainian Christianity, the martyred priest, Daniel, the global warming e-mail scandal, and the paranormal.

20091115 Baptismal Liturgies

20091115 Baptismal Liturgies

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In this edition of OrthoAnalytika, Fr. Anthony provides an apology for Baptismal Liturgies, shares some news from Ukraine, and describes how the Baptismal Liturgy he celebrated was structured.

20091108 Segregation, Unity, and Music

20091108 Segregation, Unity, and Music

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony talks about what St. Paul's condemnation of the Judaizers has to do with us today; discusses news (including advice on how to react to H1N1); and provides a brief summary of the talk he gave on the Resurrection Prokimena.

20091101 Pluralism and Spiritual Warfare

20091101 Pluralism and Spiritual Warfare

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In this edition of OrthoAnalytika, Fr. Anthony attempts to provide an Orthodox way to understand and thrive in a pluralistic world. He also briefly covers the news and gives a summary of the talk on spiritual warfare that he gave at the recent UOC-USA clergy conference. Rumors are that Pawlo snuck in a "bonus track" at the end of the show.

20091018 Giving, News, and Globalization

20091018 Giving, News, and Globalization.

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony continues the theme of selfless giving, then talks about local and international news, and asks how we should counter the relativizing effects of globalization.

20091011 Giving, Autocephaly, and Gadgets

20091011 Giving, Autocephaly, and Gadgets

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony talks about how to give up our tyrannical desire to control (or worry) and become the kind of "cheerful giver" that allows for salvation through Christ. He also talks about local news, autocephaly in Ukraine and America, and gadgets. Enjoy!

20091004 Mail, Music, and Priestwives

20091004 Mail, Music, and Priestwives

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony answers mail about stigmata, 40 day memorials, crosses w/ crescents, and nostalgia. He also gives a preview of an upcoming talk on the Harmony of the Spheres and Prokemin, interviews a participant in the recent Pani Matka Retreat, and talks about a recent personal struggle.

For show notes, see www.orthoanalytika.org.

20090927 Rationality and Suffering

20090927 Rationality and Suffering (and an interview with Fr. Dn. Borislav).

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony gives a homily on Light and Rationality; interviews Fr. Dn. Boris about his ordination; and gives a homily on the Cross and the meaning of suffering. Enjoy!

20090913 Feasting, GI Joe, and Afghanistan

20090913 Feasting, GI Joe, and Afghanistan

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony again asks us to listen to the real God - not the mundane one we have created, then he answers the mail, talks about the news, and ends with a discussion of equilibria and Afghanistan. NOTE: this one runs a bit long!

20090906 Christ is coming... look busy!

20090906 Christ it coming... look busy!

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This week I talk about how we act as the vinedressers in the parable of St. Matthew 21:33-42; then answer the mail about discernment and culture, podcasts, and curses; he was going to talk about a lot more... but ran out of time!

20090830 Vanity and Communitarianism

20090830 Vanity and Communitarianism

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony explores why St. Paul worries that our faith might be "in vain", then talks about the news, some movies (Haunting in Connecticut and Caprica), and how we need to sanctify both ourselves and our communities.

20090823 Principle, Symphonia, and Nostalgia

20090823 Principle, Symphonia, and Nostalgia

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In this podcast, Fr. Anthony continues with his lessons on St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, answering the question "what does clergy compensation have to do with humility?"; then answers the mail; talks a little about his personal health care decisions; discusses local news; then finishes with some of his thoughts on nostalgia and evangelism.

20090816 Bishops, Health Care, and a Missionary

20090816 Bishops, Health Care, and a Missionary

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In this edition I talk about bishops in the context of St. Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthians, then answer the mail, then interview Mark Meschisen about his recent missionary trip to Ukraine. Enjoy!

20090809 Temples, Three Little Pigs, and Confederate Birthers

20090809 Temples, Three Little Pigs, and Confederate Birthers

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In this episode, Fr. Anthony stresses the need to build your body-temple well; answers mail about autocephaly, scripture, and health care; guest hosts Pawlo's segment on Living Green; talks a bit about local goin's on; and finishes with his thoughts on what the flap over Confederate Birthers really means for us.

20090802 Divisions, Outhouses, & Autocephaly

20090802 Divisions, Outhouses, and Autocephaly

In this edition I talk about the need for unity, interview diaconal candidate Sbdn. Borislav, listen to Pawlo talk about ways to conserve water (outhouses!?), and rant about health care, zoning, and autocephaly.

20090726 UOL Convention

20090726 UOL Convention (and my calling)

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Because I was at the UOL Convention over the weekend, this edition follows a different format: in place of a homily/lesson, I talk about my calling to the priesthood. It also includes an interview with Yuri Hladio, a young Orthodox Christian man from Canada; and the next in Pawlo "Zhitozalenko" Amerikanchuk's series on "Living Green".

20090719 Battle

20090719 Defending the Right Hilltop

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In this edition: Stubbornness and even anger can be a virtue, but only if they are used to defend the right thing. Which standard are you rallying around - if it isn’t the Cross of Christ, then you are defending the wrong hilltop!

Also: Pawlo talks about how to be a better steward of time and Fr. Anthony talks about the goings-on in Woonsocket.

[more mis-speaks than usual - forgive me!]

20090712 Belief

20090712 Belief in Christ (and your doctor)

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In this edition Fr. Anthony compares confessing Christ to confessing your doctor's prognosis. Pawlo calls in his Green Segment and talks about sound. Fr. Anthony finishes up this edition talking about the local and national news. Enjoy!

20090705 Freedom

20090705 Freedom

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony celebrates Independence Day, introduces a new segment, "Living Green w/ Pawlo", and talks about the news.

20090628 Hammer

20090628 If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail!

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In this edition, Fr. Anthony gives a homily on the "Lamp of the Eye" and "Serving Two Masters" (St. Matthew 6: 22-33); then goes on to develop this theme and how faulty vision affects our lives, our parishes, and our country. Enjoy!

20090614 For all the Saints

20090614 For all the saints (who from their labors rest)

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Fr. Anthony talks about the need to be charitable regarding the intentions of those who hurt and offend us; and then extends his views on the instrumentality of historical symbols to include melodies (and in particular the Western Christian standard: "For all the saints").

20090607 Pentecost and the Language of Love

20090607  Pentecost and the Language of Love.  

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  Fr. Anthony talks about the utility of God's language, how to learn it, and shares some of the music from Sunday's Liturgy and Kneeling Vespers service.

20090531 Joy and Unity

20090531  Joy and Unity

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    This edition talks about the perfect communication between Christ and His Father; and uses the metaphor of the war deployment to help us understand how we can have joy in difficult times.  During the last half of the podcast, Fr. Anthony talks about living green and looking for vacation homes.

20090524 Blindness, Language, Sacrifice, and Music

20090524  Blindness, Language, Sacrifice, and Music

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   On this edition, the homily touches on the themes of blindness (Gospel lesson), language (Sts. Cyril and Methodius), and sacrifice (Memorial Day), but the real feature is the music from the Divine Liturgy.  The consensus favorite?  The Paschal Tropar near the end will have you bouncing with the tenors/basses as thy sing "the tombs" (FWIW, there are several good Ukrainian versions of this tropar in both Ukrainian and English).  Enjoy!

20090510 Paralytic, Muddy Water, and Orthodox Historiography

20090510  The Paralytic, Muddy Water, and Orthodox Historiography

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    In this edition, Fr. Anthony talks about how we should want more than the muddy water the world offers us; the news on the AF/PK COIN, increases in unwed births, and post-Paschal habits; a discussion of Orthodox historiography; and an interview with Pawlo Amerikanchuk on the history and culture of the Autonomous Cossack Sich of Rusivka.

20090503 Myrrhbearers Sunday

20090503  Myrrhbearers Sunday

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  After a brief talk on sanctification via mundane works, Fr. Anthony talks about the recent consecration at St. Nicholas in C'ville, VA, the insurgency in Pakistan, and the HINI virus.

20090426 St. Thomas and Q & A w/ Pawlo Amerikanchuk

20090426  St. Thomas and Q & A w/ Pawlo Amerikanchuk

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    In this podcast, Fr. Anthony talks about the need for belief in something real; and continues his conversation with Pawlo Amerikanchuk about life in the Autonomous Sich of Rusivka (the Capital of All-Rus).

20090419 PASCHA

20090419 PASCHA
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Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
In this episode, Fr. Anthony interviews an Ukrainian Orthodox, Pavlo Amerkanchuk, from a longstanding settlement of Ukrainian Cossacks in the Appalachians. He shares a bit about the history of Ukrainian immigration to the Appalachians and sings a traditional cossack Easter song.

20090412 Palm Sunday

20090412  Palm Sunday

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  In this edition, Fr. Anthony contrasts the worldly view of church with what it looks like in the light of Christ.  Then he answers some questions on Church unity, the rite of Churching, and whether we can get sick from Communion.  The show ends with a short plug on how much there is to love about Lent.

20090405 Culture, Unity, & St. Mary of Egypt

20090405  Culture, Unity, & St. Mary of Egypt

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  In this edition, Fr. Anthony talks about Ukrainian culture, St. Mary of Egypt and the need for repentance, what the Annunciation teaches us about the value of unborn life, the politics of Church unification, and his return from Afghanistan.

20090329 Help My Unbelief

20090329  Help My Unbelief

  

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    In this edition, Fr. Anthony talks about belief, local news, and how singing with a friend in Afghanistan reaffirmed his belief in Christ and His Church.

20090322 Of Whom are YOU Ashamed?

20090322  Of whom are YOU ashamed - Christ or the World?

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In this podcast I discuss the deals we make with the devil, share some local Lenten music, discuss the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, go over some of the material from this past week's parish and seminary classes***, and share the latest installment about meeting God in Afghanistan.  I hope you enjoy it!

*** Includes a little bit on how our instinct for comformity helps and hurts us; and the role of St. Petro Mohila in the Orthodox Church.

20090315 Where do You meet God?

20090315  Where do YOU meet God?

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  In this podcast, I discuss the encounter of the paralytic with Christ and how it informs our own; talk about international, national, and local news; and finish with the beginning of a series on my Lent in Afghanistan.

20090308 Encounters with Christ

20090308  Encounters with Christ

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  In this podcast, I describe encounters with Christ, ranging from Nathaniel, to Volodymyr, to Woonsocket, to three young Muslims who visited St. Michael's this past Sunday.

20090301 Forgiveness

20090301  Forgiveness, Stewardship and Mother Earth

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  Part I:  A world made in Love rewards forgiveness with happiness (now and forever).

  Part II:  Kyivan notions of stewardship were informed by its agrarian paganism; what is ours informed by?

Part I:

Living according to the Law of Love 

Romans 13:11-14:1

St. Matthew 6: 14-21

People still mystify me.  If you ask them what it is that they truly desire, most will tell you that they desire happiness.  This part makes sense:  we were not designed for fulfillment and love, not for misery and hopelessness.  We were created for loving fulfillment.  The part that mystifies me is that these same people who deeply desire happiness, do nothing to bring it about.  Worse yet, they act in ways that virtually guarantee their misery.  I can kind of understand it for people who don’t know what it takes to be happy: they might be excused for their failure.  Like mice in a maze, hungry for the cheese they smell; they strike out in different directions, but the dead-ends they find leave them only hungry, tired, and frustrated.   The world is full of frustrated people.  

But we are not like them: as Christians we not only smell the cheese, we know exactly how to get it.  God has not hidden happiness in a maze (the world does this): He has made it very clear.  As we learned last week, He made this world in love and to run according to this love.  We are a part of this creation.  To be happy, we need only learn to love; to submit our lives to love; to become love. How hard is that? A world made in love will naturally reward this.  It certainly could be much worse.

A Brief Aside:  Systems of Lies and Selfishness

[Can you imagine a system that was based on something else? One that rewarded something other than love?  I doubt that you have to work hard to imagine such a system:  most of you are familiar with communism. Communism created a huge bureaucracy that ran on fear and lies.  To get ahead, you had to tell lies and seek alliances with powerful people; people who were powerful in part because of who they knew and in part because lying came so easily to them.  Historians describe how Soviet citizens developed a kind of double-mindedness in order to preserve a little bit of sanity and honor.  Devotion to love and truth gets you martyred in situations like that.  Some of our predecessors here fled their homes at the first opportunity in hopes of finding something better.   I pity those that did not make it out.  Communism did more than destroy the economies of the former Soviet Union, it created a vast moral wasteland that will take generations to correct.  High levels of abortion, alcoholism, adultery & divorce are just part of the communist legacy; the list of symptoms goes on and on.

But communism is not the only system that rewards something other than love.  The maze we have built in our own country rewards some some virtues that are derived from love, like hard work and sacrifice; but it also promises to reward false virtues like selfishness, consumerism, and hedonism.  Capitalism and democracy are the most efficient ways to organize production and government, but if they are separated from love they will still lead to misery.  The same goes for our marriages, our families, and our parish: if they are built on something other than love then they may survive, but they will not bring what we really desire.  Staying in unloving relationships adopting the same kind of pathologies and double-mindedness that communist did; and the legacies of living in such systems also take years of constant effort to heal. 

We need only look at troubled and broken marriages, workplaces with unhealthy environments, and communities with poisoned cultures to understand the point I am trying to make:  institutions that are not based on love do not bring lasting joy.  They may bring other things, like the redistribution of wealth [communism], fully stocked grocery stores [capitalism], children [marriages/families], and beautiful churches [communities/parishes], but they cannot bring real happiness.]

The Real World and the Rule of Forgiveness

So while I can understand why some people spend a lot of energy that takes them further and further away from the joy they claim to want, I cannot understand why Christians do this.  God is very clear and very specific about what we need to do if we want to be happy. He tells us how to bring joy to ourselves, our families, and our communities:  we must live a life of love.  Last week He told us about charity and how we must care for those in need.  This week He gives us detailed instructions about three more things: forgiveness, fasting, and investing.  As today is Forgiveness Sunday, let me focus on it.

Happiness requires that we forgive people.  Salvation requires that we forgive people.  You cannot live a life in love if you do not forgive.  So why aren’t we doing it?  This is what I meant when I began my homily by saying that people mystify me; I do not understand the disconnect.  Let me make the puzzle clear:  We want to be happy.  Happiness requires love.  Love requires forgiveness. But we refuse to forgive.  As a result we cannot love and you cannot be happy.  

As a teacher, I have wracked my brain trying to understand which part we do not understand, but I can’t.  I daresay that we understand the logic, but that it has not sunk in; love remains something that we choose to do rather than who we are.  But as long as that is the case, as long as love remains one of several reasonable responses then happiness will be similarly fickle.  If we can honestly chose to love one person but not another; or if we can honestly chose to forgive one person and not another; then we remain part-time Christians.  If we can do this, then love for us is like an accessory.  But like the baptismal Cross we wear about our necks, love has not been given to us as an accessory, worn only when it matches the clothes we are wearing.  It was given to us in order to become the center and basis of our lives, just as it is of the God in whose image we are made.  If we do not learn to do this, then we will not be happy.  Not now, not ever, and not “forever and ever”.   

We must learn to forgive.  If we do not, then we must admit that we do not really care about happiness; [we must admit] that we are selfish and vain; and [we must admit] that we prefer gnawing on poison misery than the Body and Blood of Christ.  I am not saying that it is easy.  People have hurt us.  Some of this pain may even have been intentionally inflicted.   Overcoming this will require effort.  But we have to start now. Hate does not become us; spite deforms us and makes us ugly.  Moreover, its poison threatens the health of our relations and this community.  We must let go of it and forgive.   We must let go of it and love.  Unlike spite, love will heal and beautify us.

God knows this is difficult, and as Our Great Teacher, He has given assignments that will help us gain mastery.  One of these is our daily prayer rule. Repeated often enough, the prayers in our Prayer Book will teach us how to forgive.  For instance, we cannot say; “Lord, save and have mercy on those who hate me and deal wrongly with me by doing me harm and do not permit them to come to condemnation because of me, as sinner” on a regular basis without it changing and healing our hearts.  That is why Orthodox Christians are supposed to say it and similar prayers every morning.  Today, we will complete another assignment our Great Teacher has given us: after Liturgy we will perform the Rite of Mutual Forgiveness.  Each of you will forgive and ask forgiveness of everyone else.  This is not empty ritual: it is one of the many things that we do to become happy. 

After all, we want to be happy don't we?

Part II:  Stewardship, Mother Earth, and the Invisible Hand

It’s been a real blessing to teach a course at seminary this semester.  It’s not just that I love teaching no matter what the context (I do); it is just much more satisfying to work with people who share the same assumptions and goals I do, and to do so in a forum where we can actually talk about these and work out their implications.  FWIW, I am pretty sure that my students at the Naval War College (where I just finished teaching) shared many of the same assumptions and goals as I, but the secular setting demanded that these be left untouched.  This was completely appropriate and enjoyable in its own way, but it really is nice to be able to talk about the most important things (both eternal and local) with beautiful people, and to do so with undisguised love and delight.  This is one of the many reasons I love our seminary of St. Sophia’s.

Earth, the mother of Rus’

One of the topics of study this past week was to explore paganism in pre-Christian Rus’ and how it informed (and perhaps continues to inform) Kyivan Spirituality.  The data are pretty spotty, so we risk learning more about the historians themselves than about the people of pagan Rus’ (always a risk when good data are rare; in the IC I often learned a lot more about other analysts than I did about Islamist insurgency), but reliable historians (e.g. Fedotov) suggest that Rusyn paganism was heavily informed by her agrarianism.  Mother Earth was less a deity than an integrated part of the pattern of life.  While the Rusyn pagans had other “deities” such as Perun, Mokosh, Stribog, Dajbog, rusalki, and domovoi, there was less an established pantheon than local expressions of a grounded and local pantheism.  Water and forest spirits were important, but the over-riding strength of nature was in the earth and her soil.  Spirituality was not directed to gods above, but toward the ground that sustains and enfolds.  This was the loam that accepted the seed of Christ, and you have to know that it earthiness affected the nature of the harvest.  

We have to remember that Christianity takes on local expressions as it baptizes local cultures: it is imperial only in the sense that it draws out the best of what went before and fills in the empty spots, and draws it all toward the light.  Kyivan Spirituality thus took on a special folk/earthy character (more so as you moved down the social ladder and away from the direct influences of Greece and the Northlands).  I think we can assume that the Christians of Kyiv had a natural appreciation for God’s creation and man’s place in it.  The stewardship they felt toward the earth was that of the husbandman and nurturer.  Natural affinity for the soil was less a vestigial remnant of paganism than a stunted remnant of life before the fall; restored, ennobled, and sanctified by Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection.  Kyivan Rus’ had its own temptations to deal with, but at least in this the Church had something it could work from.

The Invisible Hand that Guides Us

What about us here in America?  What is the culture that Christ is baptizing here?  In particular, what kind of ingrained attitude towards the earth do we give the Church to work with?  How do approach stewardship? I’m afraid that the answer is not so flattering.  There are many parts of our culture that are easily baptized (we are a post-Christian nation, after all!), but this is one that needs some serious work.  Even the best among us think of stewardship in terms of “sustainability” and “do no harm”; the rest of us approach it as a manager does his factory and workers, a master - his plantation, or (the most popular approach) a consumer - his grocery store.  Some visionaries (e.g. PETA) recognize how unhealthy this is for us and our world, but without the Church/Truth to guide them, their sentimental relativism makes them less true prophets than dangerous activists of absurdity.    

Thank God, the solution to this problem does not need to be created from scratch.  Many of us have spent less than a generation or two isolated from the earth.  Our culture retains  hints of traditional agrarian values that can be drawn out and augmented with those which many of our newer immigrants have brought.  We may not remember how to plow a field, but most remember how to till a garden.  We can also educate ourselves.  Reading Christian authors such as Vigen Guroian, Wendell Berry, and Rod Dreher (and meditating on Genesis and the Psalms) may not turn us into true stewards, but it can at least help us to see and feel how much we have lost.  Perhaps then we can begin the difficult transformation from consumers to husbandmen. 

Things I’m working on

In addition to reading Guroian, Berry, and Dreher, I have been trying to nudge my habits in a healthier direction.  I’m new at this, so suggestions are welcome:

1. Replacing almost all of our lights with CFL’s and LED’s and opening areas up to more sunlight.  If I were building from scratch, I would set up the lighting to rely exclusively on sunlight and LED’s (or whatever technology replaces it... bioluminescence?).  This would mean darker evenings, but perhaps submitting our own biorhythms to that of the earth’s rotation might not be such a bad thing!  It would also require almost no energy.  Replacement style LED light bulbs use 1-2 watts, and while they are not bright, I find them to be bright enough.  Hopefully mass production will bring the cost and down and the quality of the light (which tends to be blueish) up.  [Yes, I really do dream of building a comfy cabin “off the grid”... as long as it had internet!]
   

2. The parish has begun installing new windows in the rectory.  This helps with #1 and means that it takes much less oil to keep the house at a comfortable 60 degrees (well, it’s comfortable if you wear a coat...).  Until local power generation comes down in cost cutting use through improved efficiency is the only real leverage we have (we’d make our own energy, but solar would cost at least $15k, wind about $10k, geo-thermal about $20k, and zoning does not allow for the splitting atoms in the basement).
   

3. Buying organic (and healthier) food and supporting stores that offer it.  Here, that means spending time at Trader Joe’s and (believe it or not) Job Lots.  If we had to rely on Whole Foods or the selections at the local chains stores, we’d go broke.  We also frequent Chipotle and other places that are a bit more earth-aware.
   

4. Buying shares in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm’s crop.  For a few hundred dollars, we get enough fruits and vegetables each week to feed a small army (time to learn the lost art of canning!).  I don’t know if it saves any money, but being the friend of a real farmer is one step closer to the land than I was before.  This supplements the wonderful bounty parishioners share with us (and what we’ll grow in our own garden if I ever get over what seems to be a terminal case of “Oblomovshina”.
   

5. Other random things: Driving less.  Getting in better shape.  Being nicer (sin and hate actually harm the world; the world is messed up because we have used our power as “little creators” to mirror our fallenness.  It will be sustained in perfection when we are remade at the end of days).

20090222 Gravity and Love

20090222  Gravity and Love

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1 Corinthians 8:8 - 9:2

St. Matthre 25: 31-46

Gravity and the Consequences of Poor Decisions

The better we understand the world, the more effectively we function in it.  Part of the duty of parents and teachers and of the broader community that supports them is to help children and youth learn about how things work so that they grow up to become productive and healthy members of the community.  If we neglect this duty, they will learn many more lessons than needed “the hard way” and will suffer as a result.  We do not want to see our children suffer, so we teach them as best we can.  God is our Loving Father, and He desires the same for us: that we grow in understanding so that we can become productive and healthy members of the Community of Love that is in Him.

One of the most fundamental things that must be learned, both by children if they are to grow into good men and women and by all of us if we are to grow into saints, is that ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.   More specifically, we must learn that good decisions have positive consequences, and that bad decisions have negative consequences.  With children, we set up a series of punishments and rewards to teach them this fundamental truth.  These systems are largely artificial: there is no eternal connection between going to the potty and eating candy; or of finishing homework and playing video games; or of throwing a fit and loosing access to entertainment.  As adults, we set up these artificial systems to prepare children for the “real world” where the consequences of poor decisions are more brutal and damaging; and where the unyielding logic of “action and consequence” are often final.  

Our family rules may be somewhat arbitrary, but there is nothing arbitrary about the way most of the real world works.  And if you do not understand how the world works, you will get hurt and you will end up hurting the people around you, even the people you love.  We have to learn how the world works. 

Take the example of gravity: it is part of the way the world works.  We can say that there are “laws of gravity”, but that is just a figure of speech.  There is no Court of Gravity; no lawyer that will plead your case when you violate it; and no judge that will consider the merit of granting you mercy for extenuating circumstances.  When we say that there are “laws of gravity” it is just another way of saying that gravity works in such and such a way; that things fall when dropped, that the speed of the drop increases with distance, and so on.  Gravity works a certain way.  We have to learn it, we have to respect it, and we have to order our lives accordingly if we want to be healthy.  Actions have consequences.  Making decisions that are in accordance with the “laws of gravity” will have positive consequences; making decisions that ignore the “laws of gravity” will have negative consequences.  That is just how the world is. [Note that I say “ignore” rather than “break” the “laws of gravity” because you cannot actually “break” the laws of gravity… they are not that kind of law.] 

The study of Physics provides many such obvious examples, but the wise man realizes that there is an order to every aspect of life, and that everyone must learn of and live according to this order if they are to thrive.   Actions have consequences; if you don’t submit your plans and decisions to the way the world works, the consequences will be harmful.  Let me give some more examples from other scientific disciplines.

In economics, if you produce more of something than people want, or price it too high you will end up with extra product on your hands.  If you don’t produce enough or if you price your goods too low, you will run out of product too early.  You can call this the “law of supply and demand”, but as with the “law of gravity”, this is just shorthand: there is no economic court.  But just as in physics, if you act as if there was no order to economics, then you will hurt yourself and those around you.  You cannot pay bills from an empty account.  As with gravity, we can pretend economic reality is subjective; but not even the government can sustain such a fantasy for long.  All actions have consequences.

In biology, your body is made to function a certain way.  If you interfere with these functions, you will suffer.  For example, if you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.  If you gain too much weight, then systems within your body will begin to break down.  Your body requires constant care; if you violate this “law”, you will suffer the consequences.

In sociology, there is a fundamental logic to relationships and the way they work.   If you want to sustain a relationship, then you have to understand and act in accordance to this logic.  Again, you can study this and develop “laws of marriage” just like scientists have developed the “law of gravity” and the “law of supply and demand”; but all you are really saying is that actions have consequences; and that just as a dropped ball falls, if you engage in things like pornography, gossip, extramarital flirtation, adultery, leaving the seat up, nagging, refusing to communicate, laziness, pre-marital sex, and so on, then your relationship with your spouse will suffer.  We can pretend that the “laws of marriage” are subjective; we can pretend as if we can change them or opt out of them; but the underlying reality they describe cannot be changed and the dreadful consequences of such insanity are inevitable.  [Of course there are “Marriage Courts”, but while a judge can grant a divorce or recognize a marriage, she cannot undo the years of cumulative damage done by ignorant, mean, or unbalanced people do to themselves and their spouses.]

The Logic of the Spiritual World

The spiritual world is inseparable from the physical world, and it, too, has an underlying logic that cannot be ignored.  In the spiritual world, actions have consequences just like they do in the world we see with our eyes.  Today, God is trying to teach us, His children, a little bit more about this world and how it works.

Today the Apostle Paul uses the example of violating kosher to teach us that we must always consider how our actions affect those weaker than ourselves; and that if we don’t then we will do damage to them and ourselves.   He teaches us that the strong must make allowances for the weak; and that we can often do more good through humble, generous, and loving condescension than we can by an unyielding example or even a gentle word of correction. 

Christ Himself uses the Final Judgment to teach about the underlying logic of charity:  we learn that just as gravity rewards the dropped ball by pulling it to the earth; God rewards charity and love by pulling charitable and loving people closer to Him.  We learn that just as those who deny gravity will be punished with broken bones and the like; those who deny charity will also suffer the very real and inevitable consequences of their willful ignorance.

Love is the most fundamental reality there is.  Even the effects of gravity are relative: they diminish as you distance yourself from the Earth; and there are places in this world (such as in space) where dropped objects do not fall.  But there is no place that Love does not reach, and there is no way to avoid its logic.  You can deny it and pretend it does not exist; you can ignore the beggar; you can refuse to share your life and your goods with others; you can convince yourself that you are good just the way you are.  But all these things are foolish because they ignore the logic of love.  You can describe this situation in many ways.  You can say hatred, selfishness, and apathy violate the “Laws of God”; you can call God the Judge that enforces His Laws; You can say that He punishes those who refuse to love others; you can even step away from theology and use labels like “immoral”, “sinful”, or mean” to describe such hard-heartedness; but all these things are just ways of saying the same thing:

Actions have consequences.  

Brothers and sisters: live your life in love.  Give generously to the poor.  Sacrifice yourself and your pride for the person beside you.  God built the world around Love.  Live according to this Love, and the consequential blessings will be both real and eternal.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

PS  It is true that we get no lawyers when we break the laws of gravity, economics, biology, & sociology, but we do get one when we break the Law of Love:  Christ-God Himself (e.g. 1 John 2:1)!  

PPS  Approaching the question of judgment in this way shows just how shallow attacks on the morality of it are:  First, would we prefer a world based on something other than charity and love (e.g. “tooth and claw”)?  Second, (and forgive my simplicity) God has given us an automatic “get out of jail free” card in the form of His Son, if we just submit to Him and the power of His sacrificial love.  Third, those who live outside of Love and reject Christ’s offer to represent them get an eternity of exactly what they wanted - a life apart from the Love they did not want.  The last may sound harsh, but what could be more moral?!