Self-emptying Archives - Page 3 of 3

Self-Emptying: We Love by Letting Go

06/02/2020

We cannot love God unless we love God’s world. Christians [should] have always known this, because an incarnate God is a world-loving God; but now it takes on new meaning and depth as we realize the radical interrelationship and interdependence of all forms of life. . . . In sum, we are not called to love God or the world. Rather, we are called to love God in the world. We love God by loving the world. We love God through and with the world. But this turns out

Fasting

02/26/2020

The Lord condemned the Pharisee, not because he fasted, but because his motivation was based on pride. The Pharisee wished to be seen by men, and he had no fear of God. He dared to stand before the Lord in pride and arrogance, while the Publican stood afar off, beating his breast, begging for the Lord’s mercy. Whereas the Publican saw his sins, and repented, the Pharisee stood before the Lord in arrogance, thinking he

The Right Choice

01/31/2020

Fr. Stephen Freeman, June 23, 2015 “If you come to a fork in the road – take it.” – Yogi Berra Nothing is more common in our day than making choices. Our culture celebrates the freedom we have in our choices and points to this as a hallmark of its greatness. Contemporary Christianity echoes the same theme and urges us to “choose Jesus.” But strangely, choice is not a fundamental part of Christian virtue –

Self-Emptying

10/15/2018

Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being born in human likeness. —Philippians 2:6 Could this stanza of the great Philippian hymn be applied not only to Jesus but also to the entire Trinity? I believe so. The Three all live as an eternal and generous kenosis, the Greek word for self-emptying. If

The Moral Path of Being

09/21/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 9, 2015 If Christian morality is not a legal or forensic matter, how are we to think about moral behavior? Does the word have no use for Orthodox Christians? What do we think about when we confess our sins? If morality is ontological – a matter of being – what does that look like? To say that morality is ontological, a matter of our being, is to confess that the commandments of God are

The Fore-Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross

09/13/2018

“He who penetrates beyond the Cross and the Tomb and finds himself initiated into the mystery of the Resurrection, learns the end for which God has created all things.” –Saint Maximus the Confessor Christ assumed our nature; He voluntarily submitted to all the consequences of sin; He took on Himself the responsibility for our error, while remaining a stranger to sin, in order to

Jesus is the Way

08/20/2018

Jesus is a person and, at the same time, a process. Jesus is the Son of God, but he is also “the Way”—the way of the cross. He’s the goal and the means. For all authentic spiritual teachers, their message is the same as their life; their life is their message. For some reason, we want the “person” of Jesus as our “God totem,” but we really do not want his message of “descent” except

Trinity: Kenosis

06/18/2018

The Trinity is unhindered kenosis or self-emptying, self-giving, holding nothing back. Jesus modeled such vulnerability and surrender: becoming human, serving the poor and the sick, and giving up his life. As Paul writes: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Second Week of Pascha: Through the Cross, Joy! (Part I)

04/16/2018

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT antinomies or paradoxes of Christian faith are the incarnation of the Son of God and His resurrection from the dead. Both of these find their fulfillment in the celebration of Easter, known in Orthodox tradition as Holy Pascha: The Passover of our Lord from death to life. A resurrectional hymn sung at each eucharistic celebration reminds us that every such celebration commemorates and actualizes for us Christ’s victory over death. The

Self-Emptying. The Body of Christ.

06/19/2017

Make my joy complete by being of a single mind, one in love, one in heart and one in mind. Nothing is to be done out of jealousy or vanity; instead, out of humility of mind everyone should give preference to others, everyone pursuing not selfish interests but those of others. Make your own the mind of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be

Archive

Self-Emptying: We Love by Letting Go

Fasting

The Right Choice

Self-Emptying

The Moral Path of Being

The Fore-Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross

Jesus is the Way

Trinity: Kenosis

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Second Week of Pascha: Through the Cross, Joy! (Part I)

Self-Emptying. The Body of Christ.

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