Ivan Gavaisky

Here are some of my inchoate thoughts on Pentecost. Obviously they shouldn’t be taken as authoritative by anyone.

For a very long time I wondered why Jesus had to ascend into Heaven in order to send the Holy Spirit. Why couldn’t He have stayed on earth with His apostles? It would’ve made it a lot easier for the Church. If anyone tried to persecute Christians, Jesus could’ve come up and showed His wounds and said “Here, see? I’m alive!”

Yes, if Jesus stayed with us we could’ve achieved worldly glory. But we wouldn’t have had the Holy Spirit, because according to the Gospel today, Jesus had “not yet been glorified.” Our Lord was glorified through His Cross and Resurrection, yes, but this glorification was not complete until He ascended to the Father. Through His resurrection, death was defeated and human nature was restored to its original state, but it was not enough. Human nature had to be glorified, it had to be deified. And thus through Christ’s Ascension human nature becomes deified, at least potentially so, allowing for us to receive the Holy Spirit. As someone raised with a Western mindset, focusing on Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, Pentecost made no sense. But now, as an Orthodox, it makes complete sense to me. Hopefully I will go beyond mere words, and be made worthy of the deifying power of the Holy Spirit.

O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere and fillest all things, treasury of Blessings, and Giver of Life, come and abide in us and cleanse us from every impurity and save our souls, O Good One.

Groan after you have sinned, not because you are to be punished (for this is nothing), but because you have offended your Master, one so gentle, one so kind, one Who loves you so much and longs for your salvation as to have given even His Son for you. On account of this, groan.

–St. John Chrysostom

No one would be an idolater if we were true Christians: if we kept Christ’s commandments if we are wronged and our property is stolen; if we blessed if we are abused; if we did good when we suffered hardships. No one would be such a brute, that he would not hasten to piety if we kept this approach.

–St. John Chrysostom, quoted in “Witness to the Ethos of Orthodoxy or Syncretistic Coexistence?” published by the Cyprianite Synod in Resistance.

Bless mine enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitter against me—
so that my fleeing to Thee may have no return;
so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;
so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;
so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger;
so that I might amass all my treasure in Heaven;
ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.
Enemies have taught me to know—what hardly anyone knows—that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.
One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.
It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.
Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and mine enemies.

From Prayers by the Lake, by St. Nikolai Velimirovic.

“Behold, the Judge stands before the door” (St. James 5:9).

Brethren, in one day, you can gain all eternity. And in one day, brethren, you can lose all eternity. You are given thousands of days on earth to determine your own personal eternal salvation or for your own personal eternal damnation. But blessed be a hundred-fold that day in which you repent of all your unclean deeds, unclean thoughts and return to God crying out for mercy! That day will be worth more to you than a thousand other days.

What kind of day is that blessed day? That is a day of self-condemnation. When that day dawns a man who, thus far, judged the entire world, looks all at once and sees himself as the greatest stain on God’s world. He becomes ashamed before God, becomes ashamed before every man and becomes ashamed before every created thing of God in the world. Shame begins to burn him as fire. Then he recognizes and confesses: truly, I am the greatest blot in God’s world! Truly, all men are better than I! Truly, all things are more pure than I! I am blacker than burned wood and I, until now, thought that I was white! I am uglier than the frogs and, until now, I thought that I was as beautiful as an angel! Lord, Lord, Lord, have mercy on me a sinner and wash me from the mud of sin, so that I can, as much as possible, begin to resemble Your creation!

Brother, do not wait, do not wait for that blessed day of repentance comes by itself. You alone brother, seize firmly the first day that comes to meet you and say: “You are that, my blessed day, by which I will purchase life eternal!” Do not wait, brethren do not wait for “Behold, the Judge stands before the door!” That Judge is the Living Lord Who also created you and, until now, has seen and numbered all of your transgressions. In a day or two, He can draw you to the judgment where you will not have, not even a word of justification. Seize the day! Seize the day of repentance! Seize the day before death has seized you! “Behold, the Judge stands before the door!”

O Lord, awesome and just, prolong the days of the sinner until he repents.

To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.

–From the Prologue from Ohrid, by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

“My brother, if your soul were pure and upright before the Lord, you would be able to profit from all things of this life. If you were to see a wandering peddler, you would say to yourself: ‘my soul, from the desire to earn fleeting, earthly goods, the peddler toils a great deal and endures much, concentrating on things which will not ultimately remain under his domain. Why, then, do you not look after those things which are eternal and incorruptible?’ Once again, if you were to see those who dispute in court over financial matters, you would say: ‘My soul, these people, often having not a single need, show such ardor and quarrel with such shouting between themselves. You, who owe to God a myriad of talents, why do you not implore God, bowing down as one should, to obtain cancellation of that debt?’

“If you were to see a builder making houses, you would again say: ‘my soul, these same, even if they build houses from mud, show such great zeal to finish the work they have laid out. You, why are you indifferent to eternal structures and why do you not struggle to erect the abode of God within the soul, forming and joining the virtues by the will?’

“Now, in order not to be prolix in citing various cir­cumstances one by one, let us say that we must take care to transform our worldly thoughts and observations, which are born of our material perspective on things of the present life, to spiritual ones. Thereby, we shall profit from all things with the help and assistance of Divine Grace” (Saint Ephraim).

–Taken from Archimandrite [Archbishop] Chrysostomos’s The Ancient Fathers of the Desert, Copyright 1980, Hellenic College Press, Brookline, MA.

It’s rather presumptuous to call myself The Impractical Christian, isn’t it? Especially since there are so many other “impractical” Christians out there, most of them even more impractical than me!