Daily Journey Through the Great Fast With the Early Churchنموونە

Some people have a great sense of awareness of where they are at, cardinal directions, and where they are going - it’s like they are born with some kind of internal navigation GPS system. I am not one of those people - driving without directions is not my thing. What you may relate to: if I am in a new area or have not been to the destination several times, I am at a loss of where to go.

Even with directions we may get too confident and think “I know where I am headed”, take control of the car and go our own way. Whether we want to admit it or not, all of us need directions at some point or another in our life...all of us.

Anytime I think of guidance in my spiritual life, I think of two things: having a good teacher and humility. A good teacher to guide us properly and humility to listen to the teacherandapply the teaching. By His grace, we have the faith to trust in this structure, that there is wisdom beyond our own to lead us on the right path. The danger of leaving me to make my own decisions to attain salvation is like a person who goes to the gym to lift weights, not wanting a trainer to help, but only works out the muscles they can see when they look directly at the mirror - after some time, they may appear to be strong in the mirror but where the mirror cannot see, their back muscles, their leg muscles, will all be weak, vulnerable and deficient. The one who trains with someone who knows what they are doing will get the benefit of seeing what they cannot see, having someone who will push them hard enough but not hard enough to tear a muscle completely - they will be complete, not lacking, no vulnerabilities, and strong.

The Coptic Orthodox Church, as the other Orthodox Churches, has planted Herself firmly upon the rock of faith and the Traditions given to Her by the Lord to His Apostles and so on to us. If we remove the landmarks of the faith and the Holy Traditions and introduce new ideas that are contrary to these dogmas/teachings, we undermine the structure of God’s Holy Universal Apostolic Orthodox Church - little by little we will find ourselves to be like the gym-goer who does not want a teacher that can examine appropriately and we will be destroyed.

When Jesus addressed the scribes and Pharisees, He exposed them as hypocrites, revealing the things that they took upon themselves to contradict their commitment to God (Matthew 23:25-26). Jesus was giving them an opportunity to see their ways and to fix them, like any good trainer. I am pretty sure it must have been tough for the scribes and Pharisees to hear their sins finally exposed - they were living a false life and Jesus was showing them the Way. The Way that did not overcomplicate, the Way that gave a clear expectation of the importance in living a life for God. (Matthew 23:23)

God is with you and His compassion for His children is endless. There is hope! Whatever it is that contradicts your love for Him, give it to God for Him to remove it. Whether it be pride, lust, addiction, or whatever it is that you have taken in your own hands, give it to God to guide you through. Whatever it is that makes your heart ache and makes you feel lost, give it to God to direct you. Let your faith be guided by Him and put into His hands. Let Him train you up, so that our faith muscles may be complete, lacking nothing, whole, well-defined, and strong!

“You have been counted worthy to become temples of God. But you have instead suddenly become more like sepulchers, having the same sort of smell. This is dreadful. It is extreme wretchedness that one in whom Christ dwells and in whom the Holy Spirit has worked such great works should turn out to be a sepulcher, a place for death. What wretchedness is this? What mourning and lamentation does this call for! The members of the body of Christ have become a tomb of uncleanness? Remember your sonship and how you were born. Consider of what things you have been counted worthy. Recall what sort of garment you received in baptism. You were intended to be a temple without fault, beautiful, not adorned with gold or pearls but with the spirit that is more precious than these. You are hardly ready to appear in the city above if you remain a sepulcher below. For if here this is forbidden, much more there. Even here you are an object of scorn. You carry around a dead soul. You are shunned. Be honest. If anyone were to go around carrying about a dead body, wouldn’t everyone else rush for cover! Wouldn’t they all flee? But this is what you are like. You go about carrying a corpse far more grievous than this. It is a soul deadened by sins, a soul paralyzed” [St. John Chrysostom, the 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople and a “doctor of the Church”]