neuroBIBLISTICS

 In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! 

Reverend Fathers, dear brothers and sisters, today we find ourselves in the midst of the Great Lent. As the encouragement to continue what we do, Church gave us the readings to listen to and re-enact. Above all, in Church, we experience more than readings. The presence of God is so close to us, so we can partake of God’s Holy Blood and Body. The Holy Communion enables us to feel the real presence of God and to act likely. 

The Gospel of the holy apostle and evangelist Mark teaches us that the presence of God creates anew. The foundation of creation anew is in the faith, as Christ said: “All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark). The father of the child confesses the faith in a unique way: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark). Our Lord Jesus Christ heals the mute child with a single command in a manner of Genesis, He said – and it was so (Gen.)! The confession of the father is the base of new creation, of the new life of his child because it calls for communion with God. Father’s confession calls for the Presence of God in the life of his son! With his faith he claims life. 

The words I believe – mean I want you in my life, I live in your shadow O, Lord. The words – help my unbelief – mean come, intervene O, Lord, show that you are truly Present.  And the Lord heals. The faith is the living faith when it charges God to act when it confesses the God the Creator. True faith is the faith in the Ever-creating God. 

After expelling the demons from the boy, the child looked like a corpse. “But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose” (Mark). We need continual help from God, and continual help comes in a continual relationship. Christ said that “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” The prayer has the power to invoke the Presence of God. When God is present there is no death, no struggle, but the life that lasts. 

The Orthodox Church is the real Church because our God is Present with us. God so loved us, he gave His Son for our salvation. God loves us, so we can be with him, and partake of the Holy Communion and be with him. Holy Communion makes God present in us. When God is present in us, there is no grief and death, but joyful life in Christ alone. When God is present in our hearts, we are able to create a new, to be truly free and live our potential, to do the work of God, and to see God in each other. 

Tomorrow, the Church celebrates St. John the Climacus who wrote The Ladder of the Divine Ascent. In this work, St. John described what it means to be able to confess “I believe – help my unbelief.” St. Sava and Sent Mardarije lived these words, yearning for the Presence of the Lord. That the Lord was continual with them we see in their continual actions, and in the holy relics in front of us, here at the St. Sava Monastery in Libertyville, for “All things are possible for one who believes”.

Let us yearn for the Presence of the Lord. 

Let us open our hearts for God to enter. 

Let us continually act like we are in the presence of the Lord, and give thanks to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!