From antiochan.org, dynamispublications.org, biblegateway.com and rongolini.com:
Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: Sts. Athanasius and Cyril
Scriptural Readings:
Daily Readings:
Saint Mark 8:22-26 (1/18-1/31) Gospel for Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week after Pentecost
Gaining Faith: Saint Mark 8:22-26, especially vss. 24, 25: “And he looked up and said, ‘I see men like trees, walking.’ Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.” Truthfully, emotional and spiritual dependency on tangible signs and wonders impedes the likelihood of faith in the Lord. Today’s Gospel and the one for tomorrow both touch on different aspects of faith in Christ. The two passages help us explore the true meaning of having faith in the Lord Jesus and how trust in Him is possible.
Today’s Gospel is the account of a blind man whom the Lord Jesus healed in stages. The man’s relationship with the Lord reveals growth in faith as an incremental process. At first, the blind man needed only a tiny bit of trust in Christ - permitting others to bring him near the Lord. See how being healed from the grim darkness of sin - against which we all struggle - requires coming near the Lord and letting Him lead us beyond the secure and familiar to enlarge our faith. Note the blessing: if we take risks with the Lord’s help, He heals our doubt. He assists us in taking little steps, for a tiny risk brings greater faith. Let us see how this happens.
The Lord’s pure light within a person enhances our vision as never before. As the Gospel shows, whatever sight we gain is incomplete because we are limited, finite, and sinful. The blessing comes because the Lord never ceases to cultivate faith within us. He presses on to establish, purify, adorn, and enlighten our faith.
Another miracle occurs when God illumines the eyes of the heart: our vision of others grows clearer. Such enlightenment may disturb, even astound us. It may leave us uncertain. Yet, the Lord thereby creates a new opportunity for faith in Him. What are we to do with our new insight concerning others? Go back to old relationships that are familiar and spend our time with those who formerly made us feel at ease, or shall we turn toward ‘home’? The Lord tells us to ‘go home.’ That means to enter into the Church, the Holy Community of the faithful, where men and women “...worship [Him] in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:24).
At each step, faith is a free action for us. We agree to come to Him. It may seem initially to be other humans that we trust: parents, friends, a spouse, a wise and loving Pastor, the friendship of people in a parish. We do not see clearly at first. In time, however, we discover that truly it was the Lord Jesus Whom we trusted, shining through the faithful. Participation in the life of the Church brings us face to face with the Lord Jesus Himself.
The Evangelist tells us, “...He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town” (Mk. 8:23). In town the blind man had security provided by his senses: familiar smells, sounds, touch, and the words of others. However, the Lord led him out of town. He had to depend on Christ alone. Healing and illumination for an Orthodox Christian means leaving the familiar, natural, comfortable ways of thinking in order to receive new truth and new ways. Saint Clement of Alexandria says that we must “...fling ourselves upon the majesty of Christ,” and He most certainly will take us to faith, beyond what has been comfortable.
Finally, note that we are blind, or, at least do not see perfectly even when the Lord heals one or another aspect of our life. The life in Christ is a process of continuous growth in faith. We pray, receive the Holy Mysteries, study Scripture and the Fathers, hear the word, and His light grows in us. He continues to take us beyond the familiar, to heal us in small steps until we are able to bear the Light. Then He sends us back home into our Church community.
To Thee I come, O Christ, blinded in my soul’s eyes, crying unto Thee in repentance, “Thou art the Light of transcendent radiance to those who are in darkness.”
Hebrews 13:7-16
Hebrews 13:7-16 (King James Version)
7Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
9Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
10We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
11For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
12Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
13Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
14For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
15By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
16But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Mark 5:14-19
Mark 5:14-19 (King James Version)
14And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.
15And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
16And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.
17And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
18And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
19Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.
Festal Readings:
Saint Matthew 5:14-19 (1/18-1/31) Gospel: Athanasios & Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria
Fulfillment: Saint Matthew 5: 14-19, especially vs. 17: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” God is unstintingly lavish and extravagant but never wasteful, a truth both His creation and His saving works disclose. To speak of His munificent design for the world, Orthodoxy employs the term ‘economia,’ a word that draws the heart and mind toward God’s rich generosity and His desire to complete, ennoble, and uplift our lives - in the Lord’s own words, ‘to fulfill’ us (vs. 17).
The Lord Jesus is God’s fulfillment of and for mankind. In coming among us and joining Himself to our race, our King and our God has forever renewed the flesh of mankind and revealed the gracious ‘economia’ of God. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). He is the capstone of the lavish, Divine plan for creation and history. How?
First, the Lord yoked His coming into the world to Holy Scripture (vs. 17), in this case to the Old Testament writings; for, in a preliminary way, they contained the basic elements of God’s design for our fulfillment. Speaking of the Lord’s coming in the flesh, Blessed Theophylact says, “...the painter does not destroy the sketch but rather completes it.” Thus, by His Incarnation, the Lord Jesus became the ultimate expositor of Scripture, the finisher and the goal of the Divine Plan - of the Divine ‘economia.’ He is the first Man to carry out the will of God the Father completely on behalf of all men - so that many after Him might also fulfill God’s will.
As the great expositor of Scripture, Christ reveals the essence of God’s written word. “You have heard it said to those of old...but I say to you...” (Mt. 5:21,22,27,28, etc.). Thus, He takes the reader of the word beyond the formal keeping of the letter of the Law, into the heart of God as author. There we are allowed to ‘read’ the Scriptures through the mind of the Almighty Creator Himself. The essence of the words of Scripture reveals the Uncreated Word, He Who inspired the human authors of Scripture and Who reveals Himself being the fulfillment.
For instance, in His command to do no murder, the Lord desires not only to restrain our deadly impulses, but to draw us toward our brothers. Surges of hatred and anger are bedewed with grace (Mt. 5:22-26). Speaking of God’s Commandments, the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, says “...if there is any other commandment, [they] are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:9-10). The Divine expositor calls us to “...love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12), actively to express love for the good of others.
In ‘action,’ Christ fulfills the ‘economia’ as the Divine finisher. The Old Testament only casts the shadow of Him Who would come. The righteous could ponder on the mystery of the Messiah, “...which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men...[but would be] revealed” (Eph. 3:5). Sin and death too long interrupted and disfigured God’s design for mankind. Then, the Word became flesh, and through suffering, dying, and rising in triumph over death, He plainly opened up the pathway for the restoration of humanity.
The Lord Jesus Christ kept the Law perfectly and thus became the Doer of the Law. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My Own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me” (Jn. 6:38). By obedience, He reversed Adam’s transgression, creating in Himself a new humanity formed by uniting the human will to the will of God. Saint John Chrysostom notes, “...this is the marvel, that He not only Himself fulfilled [God’s will], but He granted this to us likewise.”
O Eternal King, Thou didst cleanse the substance of mankind, anointing and perfecting it by the communion of the Spirit, thereby translating it to life immortal. O Lord, glory to Thee!
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The Synaxarion:
January 18
Memory of our Fathers among the Saints Athanasius (return from his exile, 346) and Cyril (+444), Archbishops of Alexandria
According to the ancient custom of the Church of Constantinople, today we celebrate Saint Athanasius' return from exile, when, upon the death of the intruder Gregory of Cappadocia in 345, he managed to return to his see on October 21, 346. His principal feast is celebrated on May 2. Today the Office of Saint Cyril is also sung, for, as the Great Athanasius was the defender of the Orthodox dogma of the consubstantial Trinity, so also the Great Cyril was the champion of the dogma of the Incarnation of the Word in Mary's womb.
Third Class Feast, follow the general order of a Third Class Feast.
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