Sunday Psali for the Virgin (English)

moving backward

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Curfew in Philly due to teens' violence, violent protests in England, a massacre in Norway, Genocides in Syria and Libya, Egypt is already gone with the wind ...

economical depression, conflicts, scandals, crises, collapses ...

wars, strikes, crimes, catastrophes of an angry nature ...

diseases, hangers, droughts, hungry souls and spirits ...

looks like we (human race) are moving, with steadfast pace, backward. Towards violence, anarchism, poverty, barbarism and hating the other. All of which, believe, are rooted in selfishness, greediness and pride. Both on the individual as well as the social levels.

We need to take stand, starting by oneself. To get outside oneself...

Apostolic Age - Ministry

"So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor wth all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:46,47 NKJV)

Reading the Book of Acts, one stands amazed in front of the the ministry (i.e., service) in the apostolic age, which enjoyed many blessed merits! Specifically, the service in the apostolic age was, among other merits:

+ Prayerful [Acts 1:14, Acts 2:42, Acts 3:1, Acts 4:24, Acts 12:5, Acts 16:16]

+ Praiseful [Acts 2:47, Acts 16:25]

+ Liturgical [Acts 2:42, Acts 2:46, Acts 16:5, Acts 20:7, Acts 2]

+ Oneness of spirit [Acts 4:32, Acts 5:12]

+ Meekness and obedience [Acts 8:26, Acts 9:10-17, ]

+ Led by the Holy Spirit, and full submission to God [Acts 8:29, Acts 10:19, Acts 13:2, Acts 15:28, Acts 16:6, etc.]

and therefore it was:

+ Joyous in midst of tribulations [Acts 5:41, Acts 13:52]

+ Powerful [Acts 4:31, Acts 4:33, Acts 13:10,11]

+ Continuous [Acts 2],

+ Miraculous [Acts 3, Acts 5:12, Acts 9:33,34, Acts 9:37-40, Acts 12:11, Acts 19:11,12], and

+ Zealous

While these all merits are different aspects of ministry, they are all essentially rooted, or rather blossoms out of the same virtue: strong love towards God and towards His creature. Each of these merits is a subject by itself to meditate and discuss. In this article, we focus on the Holy Zeal in ministry [1].

"Cursed is he who does the work of God with slackness" (Jeremiah 48:10 - SEV)

We will try to answer three questions: (1) what is the holy zeal & what are its symptoms? (2) why is holy zeal important to my service? and (3) how to attain the holy zeal in my ministry?

What is Holy Zeal

Holy Zeal is a fiery spirit; a fire of purification that eats the sin, a fire of jealous love towards people, a fire of submissive love towards God.

The Holy Zeal is that fire that first eats up the sin in my heart, this is the essential first step in the spiritual path which is yet a gift of God the Holy Spirit. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ commanded the apostles to wait until they are first baptized by the Holy Spirit [Acts 1:6], Who appeared in form of divided tongues, as of fire [Acts 2:4]. The best example is when our Lord Jesus Christ made a wipe of chord and drove the sellers and money chargers out of the temple. We are the temple of God [1Corinthians 3:16], and when the apostles saw this they recalled the verse of the psalm: "the zeal for Your house shall consume Me". (Psalm 69:9). Similarly, the Holy Spirit moves in us a fire of repentance to drive out of our hearts all envy, temptation, hypocrisy, malice and the remembrance of evil [Liturgy of St. Basil].

The Apostles ministry was based on this fire of continuous repentance, and they always called others to do like them. For as we grow in repentance, the fiery spirit of repentance grows in us a fire of jealous love towards mankind. Jealous here means that we love them, and care about their salvation so much to the extent that - as if - we feel jealous if they don't care about their own salvation, or simply put, are away from God. St. Paul epistles are full of examples to demonstrate this trait of the Apostles ministry. For instances;

+"Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?" (2Corinthians 11:29)

+ "For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen[a] according to the flesh"(Romans 9:3)

When we have such loving fire of zeal, we imitate our Lord Jesus Christ who "who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1Timothy 2:4), "For our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29)

The main motives behind the apostle fiery spirit in repentance, i.e., hating sin, and in calling all the world to repent, i.e., loving people, is their fiery love to God. A servant is essentially a person who tasted the mercy of God, and God's love towards mankind, which ignites a fiery love back towards God, towards his children, towards all mankind and all the creature. That is, through repentance, one realizes the immaculate love of God and the sweetness of His fellowship. Then the servant roams proclaiming "be reconciled to God" (2Corinthians 5:20), seeking God's Kingdom, forsaking the world and its matters, fully submitting to God in love, chanting in joy with the psalmist "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You." (Psalm 73:25)

Why Holy Zeal

When the servant reaches the level of forsaking worldly matters for the sake of Christ, the servant fulfills God's will in her/his life; "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1Thessalonians 4:3), and works with God: "we are God's fellow- workers" (1Corinthians 3:9) in establishing His Kingdom. And what is more sweet and more beloved and more beautiful than fellowship with God in His ever ceaseless work? [John 5:17] It is indeed a downpayment of Heaven on earth.

The main gaol of the Holy Zeal is repentance. First my own repentance, then my brethren repentance. Thus, the Holy Zeal helps the servant to walk in the path of their salvation, in and with Christ. It also pleases the servants heart to work and see God's kingdom being established, in Christ. It also lefts up the servants hearts towards a full submission and unity with God, which is the ultimate goal of our existence!

The Holy Zeal also turns God's anger away from sinners. "The Lord said to Moses, Phinehas son of Eleazor, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned My anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for My honour among them, so that in My zeal I did not put an end to them" (Numbers 25:6-11). We saw also Moses interceding on behalf the Israelites that God forgives them, or else erase his, Moses', name from the book of life! What a true and zealous love!

Finally, and as we began, if we are to labour with God, we need to be prepared with Holy Zeal for "Cursed is he who does the work of God with slackness" (Jeremiah 48:10 - SEV) How fearful is this verse to the servants of God! But indeed I fall short and in my weakness I am many times lukewarm in service!

How Holy Zeal

"O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24)

I better of be away from ministry lest I be condemned not being zealous righteously, right? WRONG! For God was clear in this regard:

+ "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul." (Ezekiel 3:17-19)

So how can I have Holy Zeal in my service?

Three steps:

1) Continuous and steadfast stand in front of God through prayers. For through prayers, we get closer to God, the true light. And as we get closer to the true light, we see our sins clearers, we repent and tastes God sweetness on higher and higher levels, we love God more and more, we love His creatures more and more, we get filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and the fiery holy zeal. After all, the Holy Spirit descended upon the holy Apostles on the Pentecost as they were gathered in one spirit in prayers in the attic.

2) Daily meditation in God's word. This is very crucial for a lawful service too. If through prayers we talk to God and gain power for service from Him, through His word, i.e., the Holy Book with both Testaments, God speaks to us, prevailing His wondrous secrets to us, and thus we attain the mind of Christ [1Corinthians 2:16] And since He is The Holy consuming zealous fire, the more we meditate in His word, the more we shall become on His image and likeness, in holiness, and in being a holy zeal ourselves. Again, this was indeed the Apostles methodology, like St. Peter who used Joel's prophecy and the psalms in his Pentecostal sermon, St. Phillip who started from the prophecy of Isaiah to evangelize to the Ethiopian eunuch, St. Stephen who summarized the Old Testament in his speech in the trial, and St. Paul who always quotes the Old Testament.

3) Holy Confession and Holy Communion. This was, in fact, the center of the Apostles ministry [Acts 2:42, Acts 2:46, Acts 16:5, Acts 20:7, Acts 2]. Through Holy Confession we remember always our need for repentance, which is the main gaol of our service, and the main goal of the Holy Zeal. Whereas as through Holy Communion we increase in our love to God and to our neighbor. St. Macarius of Egypt says that no one has salvation apart from her/his brethren. The Holy Communion is not only a communion with God, but it is essentially a liturgical communion, that is all believers are in communion together with God. Through Holy Confession and Holy Communion we maintain our humility (the root of all virtues), lest the honor of service, being fellow-workers with God, gives chance to the enemy to strike us through pride (the root of all vices), for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6 & 1Peter 5:5 & Proverbs 3:34 ).

May God bless and lead our service, and protect us all, through St Mary the mother of God intercessions and the prayers of all the saints.

+ + +

References:

[0] The Holy Book

[1] Pope Shenouda III, Holy Zeal

[2] Fr. Markos Milad, Sermon on Jealousy, Sep 16th, 1999