My Beloved the benevolent                                               October 2021

Grace and peace wishing you all goodness and blessings

+ God created man in his image and likeness. He created him in glory and granted him to see God’s glory. The first man Adam was in the Garden of Eden, saw God and talked to Him, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Gen. 2:7 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” Gen. 2:15 “Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.” Gen. 2:22 “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” Gen. 2:19 “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” Gen. 1:27-28 This beautiful image of Adam and Eve’s relationship with God changed by the falling and expelling of man, “Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.” Gen. 3:23 The first man was looking at God and seeing His glory, and after the fall he looked down at the ground from which he was taken. “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Gen. 3:19 

+Man has longed to see the glory of the Lord, despite the evils that entered this life. In every generation, righteous people appeared looking forward to the paradise from which they were expelled and waiting for the coming of the Savior.

Moses, the Prophet, longed to see the glory of the Lord, and said to the Lord, “Please, show me Your glory” Ex. 33:18, and the Lord said to him, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” Ex. 33:20 Because man had lost the grace that was given to him; and his nature, which was created in the image of God, had been corrupted; but the Lord gave Moses and all of mankind hope in seeing His glory. “While my Glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” Ex. 3:22-23 The rock is Christ, and the hand of the Lord is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The mystery of the Incarnation is the mystery of the declaration of God’s glory to man, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jn.1:14 “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Jn. 1:18 Christ came to grant us to see the glory of God, but we see Him through the Incarnation. “Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father;” Jn. 14:8-9.     

+ We see the glory of God when we unite with Christ. The Lord put the prophet Moses in a cleft of the rock, which is inside the rock.  We unite with Christ through the mystery of the Eucharist. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” Jn. 6:56 We see the glory of God in the mystery of the Eucharist; the Church expresses this in the Communion Hymn: “The Bread of Life”, which is said in the distribution at the end of the Divine Liturgy; with these phrases also found in the Monday Psali of the Midnight Praises. 

“Around you stand the Cherubim and the Seraphim, and they cannot look at You.

We behold You upon the Altar and we partake of Your body and Your precious blood.”

+We see the glory of God when we abide in love. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” 1 Jn 4:16 

Love must be practical love, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” 1Jn. 3:18

Helping those in need is love in deed and truth, so we see Christ in His brethren in need, “for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in Prison and you came to Me.” Matt. 25:35-36. “And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”” Matt. 25:40

The work of mercy is a way to meet Christ, the Lord of Glory, and it is also a way to enter the Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Lord of Glory, who will sit on the throne of His Glory to judge the living and the dead, and put those who have done mercy on His right and say to them, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  Matt. 25:34

+God calls us to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful.

He calls us to love each other with practical love.

He calls us to take care of His brethren, the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned.

He calls us to meet Him, see His glory, and inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for us since the foundation of the world.

May the Lord grant us to respond to His calls and grow in good deeds.

May God bless your gifts to support Santa Verena Charity programs, which give you the opportunity to meet the Lord of Glory in the person of His brethren.

Metropolitan Serapion