Category: Relationships

Some years ago in my early teens, we had recently moved into a rental with a large yard of grass that always needed mowing. That was my job; I was the guy who could keep the push mower running in the humid beach weather and let me tell you, grass grows quickly in that climate! Granddad told me he had an old 5 hp Simplicity riding mower he would give me if I could make some repairs and get it running. After spending a number of days fixing it and just when I had things running as smooth as a used-car salesman’s tongue, the main drive pulley guide broke. I didn’t have the money to order a new one and I was really frustrated. Granddad said: “Why don’t you make one?” Now this part was made out of heavy 8 gauge wire with several bends and 5/16 bolt eyelets on each end.

Make one? Me? “There is no way one can be made” as I snapped back at him. I was leaving that weekend heading back home and had really hoped this 5 hp Simplicity riding mower was going to be a blessing in that large field of grass. After my snappy response I heard the screen door shut and saw Granddad heading out and I was thankful he didn’t thump me on his way out the door! Some two hours later, much to my disbelief, Granddad returned to the house with this belt guide he had made with his old arthritic hands, an exact replica!

Here in the Gospel this morning we hear another story about someone who can make the impossible, possible. We know that “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground.” (Gen 2:7) and it was from this dust that the blind man was thus healed, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return!” (Gen 3:19) St. Basil the Great wrote: “We should understand in the creation the original cause of the Father as a founding cause, the cause of the Son as a creative, and the cause of the Spirit as an implementing one.” Thus God the Father is the “Creator of all things”, the Son is the one “through whom all things were made”, and the Holy Spirit is the one “in whom are all things”. “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.”(Gen. 1:31) “First He conceived, and His conception was a work carried out by His Word, and perfectly by His Spirit.” Now after his encounter with Christ, the man born without eyes gained vision and recognized Jesus the Nazarene carpenter as truly the Son of God.

Now days, folks whose eyes seem to be functioning in this world are still blind from the eyes of their soul. When we see ourselves as inclined towards sin and everything in the world as God’s creation, our eyes are rinsed in the “pool of Siloam” [Jn. 9:7] and our soul gains a glimpse of light! If we fully acknowledge that we are need of repentance and act in love towards others as Christ has shown us, the Divine carpenter can bend and mold us into an exact replica of the One who walked on Earth and made the impossible, possible! Christ Is Risen!

Fr. Gabriel Weller 6-2-2019

Some of the great saints of the church have taught us correct theology and true worship. Some of the great saints have sacrificed their lives for others. Some of the great saints have been brutally tortured and executed for being a follower of Jesus the Christ. What kind of a saint do you hope to become? I ask this question as we all wonder how great our faith is. Of course we reflect upon our failures and laziness as we stand in the midst of these mighty saints and all that they have offered but sometimes forget the little things in life we do or need to be doing.

Today the first church remembers the death and very vaguely the life of one saint from many years ago, Saint Tabitha of Joppa. Saint Tabitha did not teach, she did not challenge the heathens with her great knowledge, she was not tortured for her faith; she simply lived day by day sewing, giving alms. And so it was that when she died the woman of the village wept. And when Apostle Peter came to see he heard of her great almsgiving and saw the widows weeping for their great loss and he said: “Tabitha, rise up.” And she opened her eyes. [Acts 9:40] She was no doubt, well loved! She helped others by using what talent she had for God’s glory, the glory of loving by helping others. She took time to make time for others!

My grandmother Hazel was also a good seamstress and she took time to help others. As a young boy I remember my grandmother telling me I needed to fix my holes in my jeans before they became unusable. She would say: “A stitch in time, saves nine!” Repairing the little holes and tears would prevent larger holes that would need a more lengthy repair or cause the garment to need to be discarded, beyond repair! My clothes were filled with patches and I did not see them as identifying me as poor boy, but as a hard worker who was tough on his clothes. Growing up poor, repairing clothes was necessary. So in this, we all know how much St. Tabitha helped those poor folks in the village of Joppa who could not afford new garments.

As far as helping others, I usually plan my day and know which things I want to get done. Each day for me is a task of finishing my list with my talents and not letting my hands be idle. This usually gives me a bit of tunnel vision and I sometimes miss the helpers God sends my way to help me with my list or to divert my efforts to another task that may be a greater need than the ones I had planned myself. Maybe by allowing a diversion I would be sewing a stitch in time that would save us from an enormous failure or obstacle later on.

The church wants us all to become saints! That is why she teaches us how to pray, how to fast, how to love God’s creation more than ourselves. We hear again and again the great teachings of Christ and all these things are stitches holding our garment of salvation together. And when we fail, as we all do, more stitches of confession are necessary as we mend our wounds, closing the hole of the evil ones opportunity that would deem us useless, beyond repair. And it is preciously this that our Lord is the greatest seamstress of all in that His love can mend and repair the greatest of rips and tears we have allowed in our garment. Those wounds that we think have made us disposable and unwanted when repaired with His touch are as good as new, ready to return to work in His vineyard.

Becoming a saint is not always about the big things so much as it is about being willing to stitch up our rips and tears every time we fall, and helping each other with their mending instead of ripping them to shreds. A great saint is one with many patches and repairs on their garment, which is exactly what faith is. You must believe that God loves you so much that He is waiting to help you fix your shredded and torn garment. Rise up from the death of sin and stitch on. Christ Is Risen!

Fr. Gabriel Weller 5-19-2019

On occasion I believe we all sometimes are oblivious to our surroundings. Wither we are sleep-deprived or mentally stuck on something, someone or somewhere; we focus only on ourselves and our pain or pride, ignoring our precious limited time on this Earth and blinded of everyone around us. The Pharisee in the Gospel reading today was way past this point of self indulgence. His love-of–self had written a fiction novel that portrayed himself as truly the unstained knight in shining armor! He had in his abundance of pride, covered himself with fig leaves hiding from God.

St. Paisios of Mount Athos writes: “The person who has too high an opinion of himself remains in the fog of pride and has neither spiritual health nor spiritual vision, and is therefore unable to see the gifts and talents of others.” (Passions and Virtues) Our Lord reminds us in the Gospel reading this morning: “for everyone who exalteth himself shall be humbled, and the one who humbleth himself shall be exalted.” [Lk. 18:14]

So many times I find myself thankful I am not like the bunch of crazies I see protesting on the video feed from the cable network. It is so much easier to be intolerant of their viewpoint then it is to hear their story and somewhat understood how they came to that place of action. Recently I was on my pro-life bandwagon after the outbreak of infanticide support when someone with an opposite view started dialoguing about why she has come to believe that a woman should have the right to choose. She has certainly lived a different life and neither one of us was going to change each other’s mind. At the end of the day, I felt a bit like the Pharisee as I was thankful that my life-story had led me on higher ground, safely inside my fig leaf.

How do we help folks find a true understanding and not fiction? We have to honestly study our pages of life and realize we too are in need of a Savior. People are hurting; the evil one has successfully separated us all from God in one way or another. So how can we help each other? If we can learn to practice philotimo {fil-o-te-me-a},”the most grateful love of a humble person who does not put his own self whatsoever into whatever he does, and whose heart is full of spiritual refinement, sensitivity and gratefulness to God and to the images of God, his fellow human beings. Philotimo is a most polished love of a humble person and a grateful love which is all goodness and humility.” (Passions and Virtues)

I won’t give up my firm stance on the sanctity of life but I will try to love others as He loves me. He hasn’t given up on me and I shouldn’t give up on others, no matter how crazy they seem! And I shall pray that God transform the fictitious chapters that still exist in my life into hopefully one day being a true story about a man in love with Christ!

Fr. Gabriel Weller 2-17-2019

Some summers ago, I was offshore in about fifty inches of warm ocean water about twenty five yards from the shoreline when I found myself moving further and further down the coastline. I could still see my beach chair and umbrella but as I would try to go ashore, the current would drag me down the coast. I was beginning to panic as I struggled to get closer to the shore.

 

When these incidents happen in life we tend to reflect upon our life choices and our relationship with our Maker. We also come to a realization of how little control we have at these times. It was quite a battle to fight the strong currents and arrive at a safe place. I was exhausted or as my Grandma Hazel would say, I was spent! I had no more to give, no more energy to draw from. Another twenty minute or so of struggle and it may have led to a different outcome.

 

At these moments in our lives we tend to realign our priorities because we have felt the fragileness of human life as we catch a glimpse of our mortal death. Wither we are struggling with our health or a close call in our daily activities, our time here on this Earth is temporary. St Anthony the Great said, “If you want to be prepared for death, live every day of your life as if it’s the last one!”

 

In the Wisdom of Solomon, we see: “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.”(Wisdom of Solomon 1.13) And from the prophet Ezekiel: “For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD, “Therefore turn and live!” (Ezek 18:32) “Sin spread to all men because all men sinned” (Rom 5.12); and in sinning, man brought death to their children. In our world, everyone is caught up in the sins of the world. Death is the final victory of the evil one. We are made in God’s image and inspired with the Holy Spirit but we continue to choose sin and its death over a righteous life. (cf. Gen 3, Rom 5.12–21).

 

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15.52–57) Brothers and sisters there is still hope! By the power of Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians can and must transform their deaths into acts of life. They must face the tragedy of death with faith in the Lord, and defeat the “last enemy—death” (1 Cor 15.26) by the power of their faith in a loving Creator. Christ has defeated death and offers you one way to live! Pull yourselves up out of the dark, earthly Rip-Tide that is moving you further away from Divine love!

 

If you do not love God with all your heart and all your soul, you will not find life before you die and you will not find it after death, and when death overtakes you and you enter into the presence of pure love you will resist it, it will cause you unrest. St. Ambrose puts it like this: “You must not be greatly troubled about many things, but you should care for the main thing — preparing yourself for death.”(St. Ambrose of Optina, quoted from Living Without Hypocrisy: Spiritual Counsels of the Holy Elders of Optina)

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) St. John of Damascus writes:” What earthly sweetness remains unmixed with grief? What glory stands immutable on the earth? All things are but feeble shadows, all things are most deluding dreams, yet one moment only, and death shall supplant them all. But in the light of Thy countenance, O Christ, and in the sweetness of Thy beauty, give rest to him whom Thou hast chosen, for as much as Thou lovest mankind.”

 

Fr. Gabriel Weller 2/10/2019