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by Fr. Patrick Viscuso –
\nWhen imparting God\u2019s sanctification and doing good, I can also say that there will be obstacles, for, as a 14th century Byzantine hieromonk once wrote, \u201cWhere is it necessary not without blood to struggle on behalf of the Truth?\u201d That blood is the joy of the priesthood in its total dedication \u2013 mind, heart, soul, and body \u2013 to a loving a God, for whom our efforts are persistent and determined.<\/p>\n
This struggle, on behalf of Truth, is to sustain the flock of the Church<\/strong> \u2013 an apostolic charge of Christ. As a minority, in a sea of disbelief and secularism, as \u1f01\u03bb\u03b9\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03c9\u03bd, \u201cfishers of men,\u201d we are continually challenged to work for the spiritual perfection and the salvation of the faithful. The upholding of canonical standards that reflect the strength of our faith and our community will be tested, over whom the \u201cgates of hell\u201d will not prevail. <\/p>\n In the poetic words of a late Byzantine hieromonk, the holy canons \u2013 the canonical standards of the Church \u2013 are the \u201cprecious stones\u201d that are \u201cvaried\u201d and \u201cdifferentiated\u201d used in the building of a house constructed on the foundation of Jesus Christ. They are a divine-human reality parallel to the two natures of the Savior and are an expression of the Church\u2019s Theandric economy. They express truth in the circumstances of history to address specific situations and circumstances, categories of behavior, specific persons, and institutional structures. In a word, our canonical standards are incarnational; they are the application of Truth to the specific circumstances of history and an expression of our Church\u2019s pastoral life.<\/p>\n The parish priest is the practitioner of this canon law par excellence<\/strong> when he celebrates the Mysteries and administers them to the people of God; preaches and teaches; and acts as a shepherd in counseling, supporting, and manifesting this foundational love of Jesus Christ. In each case, he is applying the dogma of the Church to the practical lives of Christians.<\/p>\n As a practitioner \u2013 as the representative of Holy Tradition or \u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03b4\u03bf\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 \u2013 he has a sacred obligation to obtain a sufficient knowledge of that Tradition. He must become a historical theologian \u2013 one who knows the history of the Church\u2019s pastoral life \u2013 and one who can recognize the application of the Church\u2019s teachings to the present \u2013 preserving \u2013 while at the same time dynamically creating solutions for the present.<\/p>\n Again, returning to some simple advice, based on experience in the priesthood, when walking among your flock and acting as a shepherd in serving and ministering to the people of God, please keep in mind, that when you are most tempted not to do something because you are too tired; not to stay and help; not to take the turn to celebrate; to allow yourself the indulgence of talking instead of praying in the altar; and not to take the time to reach out to that person that needs you, but to postpone and put off to another time \u2013 more often than not \u2013 this will be a sign that the one who opposes all good is active.<\/p>\n Satan is the cause of great suffering and confusion<\/strong> \u2013 and is described at various times in canonical texts, as being a \u201cwolf\u201d and \u201cimposter;\u201d and as \u201ccounterfeit,\u201d \u201cdeceptive,\u201d as a \u201cwithering into non-existence\u201d and possessed of \u201cmadness.\u201d His attempts at temptation will be a sign for you to know that at that moment, the opportunity to do the greatest good is present.<\/p>\n Part of your persistence and determination should be to never minimize or ignore the activity of Satan in this world, but to be aware and on guard, lest, in the words of one Byzantine commentator on the canons, \u201cthe evil one might not appear to derive an advantage, blazingly pilfering the eternal from the one performing priestly functions.\u201d<\/p>\n Satan must be opposed in your sermons<\/b>, in the Mysteries that you celebrate, and especially in the confessions that you will hear, through which you may be able to help people turn away from sin and be healed.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 by Fr. Patrick Viscuso – When imparting God\u2019s sanctification and doing good, I can also say that there will be obstacles, for, as a 14th century Byzantine hieromonk once wrote, \u201cWhere is it necessary not without blood to struggle on behalf of the Truth?\u201d That blood is the joy of the priesthood in its total … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68,15,5,130,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-moral-issues","category-orthodox-christianity","category-orthodox-church","category-orthodox-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nExcerpts from: The Rev. Dr. Patrick Viscuso Commencement Address<\/a> (Minor organizational edits and bolding of key phrases done by blog editors done to enhance readability.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"