In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Matushka and I were raised Roman Catholic in Columbus, and the overwhelming majority of our family is Roman Catholic. Specifically, we were raised in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, which is what everyone thinks of when they hear the word “Catholic”, even though there are 24 different Rites in the Catholic Church. We both went through 8 years of Catholic grade school, went to the same Catholic high school, and began dating during her sophomore year in 1986 - that’s 33 years ago for those of you who are trying to quickly do the math. In 1987, as part of an assignment she had, we visited St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church in Columbus, and from that day forward we never went to church anywhere else, unless we were with our parents or attending some special family event. For those of you who may not know much about Byzantine Catholicism, the rites and rituals, including the Divine Liturgy, are essentially identical to those we experience as Eastern Orthodox Christians. The only discernible difference is during the litanies, where there is an additional petition, praying for the Pope. We were married at St. John Chrysostom, and our four children were baptized, chrismated, and received first communion there. That parish and that church hold a very special place in our hearts.
Needless to say, when we moved to Cincinnati we were disappointed that there wasn’t a Byzantine Catholic church there. We tried to go to a mission parish in Dayton, but for various reasons we eventually decided that we needed either to return to the Latin Rite, or take a serious look at Orthodoxy. It should be obvious which way things turned out.
The reason I mention all of this is that we often get the question, “Why did you convert to Orthodoxy?”
The usual assumption from our Orthodox friends is that it was because of the beauty of the liturgy, which is sort of true, but not for the reasons they suspect. You see, we had the same liturgy as Byzantine-Rite Catholics, so there was no need to become Orthodox solely for that. However, familiarity with the liturgy was certainly part of the reason we chose to become Orthodox.
The usual assumption from some of our Catholic friends and relatives is that we were somehow looking for the old Latin-Rite Mass, and the Divine Liturgy was the closest we could find. But being raised in the late ‘60s and through the ‘70s, we never experienced the Latin-Rite Mass, and to this day we’ve never been to a “real” Latin Mass. So this certainly wasn’t the reason we chose to become Orthodox.
Ultimately, the correct assumption comes from others who have come to Orthodoxy. The reason I hear time and again from other converts about why they chose to become Orthodox, and the reason we experienced, is that Orthodoxy is the truth. It alone expounds the whole truth about Who God is. Other faiths - even non-Christian faiths - may have certain aspects that they get right, but in Orthodoxy alone we found the fullness of the truth. It’s that simple.
It’s that simple, and it’s also that important. Many would claim that the details of Who God is are not nearly as important as just believing in Jesus. In fact, some would claim that believing in Jesus is the only thing that’s important, and that the rest of the details do nothing but divide us as Christians. However, the Gospel this morning makes it plain that the most important question we need to objectively answer is, “Who is God?”. You see, the common notion of eternal life is that it is going to heaven to be with God, and that believing in Jesus is enough to make this happen. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16) is often interpreted in this way, and therefore if we believe Jesus is the Christ, we will go to heaven when we die. But it’s not that simple. You see, John 3:16 says that we should not perish, not that we will not perish. The opportunity for eternal life is provided, and the first step is to believe in Jesus, but that’s not quite enough. So what else do we have to do? We hear the answer in the Gospel this morning, from Christ Himself, as He gives us the actual definition of eternal life. He says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life isn’t primarily about going to heaven, although that is certainly one of the side effects. Likewise, it isn’t just about believing in Jesus; rather, it’s about actually knowing Him. This “knowing” is not some surface-level acknowledgement that Jesus is the Messiah. The word used here for “know” means “deep, experiential understanding”. To have eternal life means we have to have a deep, experiential knowledge of God and of His Christ, and the only way to do that is to actively participate in a relationship with Him, so that every day we draw closer and closer to Him.
Of course, to have a real relationship with anyone, we must be honest about who we are and about who they are. We must know the truth about ourselves, and we must know the truth about the other person. Anything less, and the relationship is built at least partially on lies. Unfortunately, our relationship with God tends to be built on lies. We are very good at lying to ourselves about who we really are, about what is right, and what is wrong. We are incredibly adept at convincing ourselves that whatever it is we are doing is good and right, and that God approves of it. As a result, we often find ourselves creating God in our image, rather than striving to know who He really is, and then allowing ourselves to display that we are made in His image.
To display that we are made in His image requires us to have at least some small sense of who He truly is, and to continually work toward getting to know Him better so that we have a goal in mind as far as what we are trying to accomplish. In other words, it is imperative to know who God is if we are going to try to be like Him.
And therefore, it matters that we seek the depths of the truth about God. It matters that we find the fullness of the truth. It matters that we listen to and do our best to understand the truth.
This is why Matushka and I became Orthodox. We knew we had found the fullness of the truth. And with that, we now have the responsibility to listen to and to do our best to understand the truth.
This is why the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council found it necessary to expound the truth of Who God is in the Creed.
This is the challenge for all of us as Orthodox Christians. We have the initial truth, because we believe that Jesus is the Christ. We have the access to the fullness of that truth through the Church. But now it is up to us to work daily to build our relationship with Him so we can know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent. In other words, we must work daily to gain eternal life.
Doing this on our own is impossible. Which is why next week the Church reminds us of the great gift of the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost.
May we spend the next week striving to deepen our relationship with God every day, understanding that we cannot fully realize that relationship on our own, so that we appreciate the gift of the Holy Spirit as one more essential step toward gaining eternal life.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
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