Episode 132 - How to Truly Feast

Octave of Easter 2022

It seems to me that we know how to fast better than we know how to feast. Which is odd, if you think about it, I mean who would not rather feast than fast? Why would we do a better job at fasting than feasting? I think perhaps we have a a much better idea of the tools or instruments of fasting, and we are a bit fuzzy on the means of feasting. We simply don't know how to feast properly.

Episode 131 - The Way of the Cross

Good Friday 2022

The crucifixion took place near a busy road for maximum impact on the populace. And there were many passing by. The Jews vehemently hated Jesus, they thought he was a blasphemer, unclean, possessed by an evil spirit, one who wanted to defile their temple. They wag their heads in derision as they revile him with taunts and ridicule. There were three categories of mockery which resembled the three satanic temptations of Jesus, this is a return of Satan to try and torment him.

Episode 130 - If I Wash Thee Not, Thou Hast No Part in Me

Maundy Thursday 2022

Ultimately, Jesus washing the disciples' feet was a prophetic act predicting His death. That is why they did not yet understand, that is also why Jesus said if I don't do this, you have no heritage with me. If you do not embrace the scandal of the cross, you are none of mine.

In addition to a prophetic act, the foot washing also has the symbolic power of demonstrating humble servitude as the norm amongst his family. But it is a humble servitude rooted in the willingness to die for one another because Christ has died for us. It is not just about servitude, it is about dying.

Episode 129 - Judas the Betrayer, not Judas the Hero

Spy Wednesday 2022

There was no noble motivation for Judas' betrayal, no deeper logic to it. It is a dire warning to all Christians that Judas fell into such depths of wickedness, his heart was utterly blackened as a culmination of repeated petty sin. It shows the power and danger of sin if it is not dealt with. How many people have betrayed Christ, perhaps not as famously as Judas, but nevertheless they have walked away one small step at a time, ever so slowly, just as John tells us they did in his day.

Episode 128 - Breathing in the Sufferings of Christ

Holy Tuesday 2022

The Collect for Holy Monday mass says: "...that we who amidst so many adversities do fail by reason of our weakness; may be renewed through the pleading of the Passion of thy Only- Begotten Son." But the phrase in last night's collect rendered in English: "may be renewed..." is far more powerful and startling in the Latin. What it says in the original Latin is: "That we... may breathe in the suffering of your Only-Begotten Son."

The physical act of taking fresh clean air into our lungs, moment by moment, as a natural, life sustaining rhythm of assimilation is a very good metaphor for what this collect says we are to be doing, and this is how we avail ourselves of God's pardon, this is how it becomes real, and immediate in our life, prayer is breath.

Episode 127 - Beauty In The Midst of Ugliness

Monday In Holy Week 2022

Today in this very holy week, six days before the Passover we have a story of beauty. Not just any story of beauty, and there are many, but this is a beautiful story for the ages according to Jesus' own reckoning. This is one of His personal favorites and He immortalizes it with his prophetic Word, He sanctions this story of his anointing by Mary as the beautiful story which will be remembered and adored for all time. Thank you, Mary, for showing us how to love our Lord, how to be beautiful in the midst of ugliness.

Episode 126 - Prefiguring the Entry Into Heavenly Jerusalem

Palm Sunday 2022

Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem which we celebrate this day comes before His Passion- the great joy and triumph of this event replete with cries of hosanna and praise is going to be shortly followed by another journey of the greatest sorrow, suffering and death.

What happens today is a foreshadowing of His ultimate and final entry into the heavenly Jerusalem, which occurs at His bodily Ascension into heaven. This is the significance of our procession halting at the doors of the Church and the Subdeacon banking on the door with the cross. Lift up your heads oh ye gates, that the King of Glory may come in- who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty- it is through the cross that the doors are opened to the heavenly kingdom.

Episode 125 - Christ Undoes Adam's Failed Attempt at Autonomy

Passion Sunday - V Sunday In Lent 2022

Jesus rejected any semblance of individual autonomy, He never fought for himself as an independent individual, He never put himself forward to gain something for himself, never succumbed to the temptation to secure himself, even in his darkest hour when he felt alone.

Christ's perfection through suffering was, essentially, the reversal of the human attempt for autonomy. Christ took our humanity to subjugate the human will and person to the Heavenly Father- even in the midst of suffering, even unto death, especially unto death, it was a destruction of autonomous human will: a total burning and holocaust of our independence from God.

Episode 124 - Arguing Over Bread While Forgetting Christ

IV Sunday In Lent 2022

We have so many needs in this life, so many fears, so many insecurities, so many wants and desires, there's so much discontentment in our life, we're searching searching search. Trying to fill up something, running about, looking here, there... looking for some kind of satiety. Answers. And we forget about Jesus. We forget about him like he's not even there. Like he's an afterthought. We forget to pray. We forget to pray! We grab everything, except go talk to Him about it. We don't hound Heaven. We don't look to Him as our Source, as our Helper, for everything. For your headache! Pray, before you pop the asprin! Pray first. Seek him first. If you're happy, who are you going to go to first? Go tell Jesus you're happy! First! Before you tell anyone else! He should be, in Deacon David's words, your best friend.

Episode 123 - God Protect Us From Evil Thoughts and Evil Words

III Sunday In Lent 2022

I can think of no better representation of Satan in pop culture than King Théoden's counselor, Grima Wormtongue. If you've seen that movie, you can't get that image out of your head. Grima means "mask" in old english, and so Grima Wormtongue means a "masked deceiver". Théoden is trapped under this spell, he becomes a shell of a man. He's basically lost his marbles. He's held under this force of darkness, both his mind and his body is riddled with disease. This is a good depiction of the effects of how the devil works. Saint Paul writes in his epistle, "Let no one deceive you with empty words", and going on he says, "The wrath of God falls upon the sons of disobedience, do not be partakers with them". But the source of their power to enslave, is evil words, empty words, words that are not of the truth.

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