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Published
by the Orthodox
Christian Network,
November 14, 2005
HE
WHO IS MIGHTY HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR ME
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Father
Christopher Metropulos
A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!
Dear faithful CRTL Newsletter reader,
As you might have noticed, we have not sent out
a newsletter for a few weeks. All of this is the
result of the effects of Hurricane Wilma that
swept through south Florida a few weeks ago.
This damaging storm hit us at CRTL particularly
hard from a technical standpoint. The storm
peeled back the roof where our computer servers
were housed and shut down our web site, email,
and newsletter capacities until today. The fact
is there are actually people here in south
Florida who are still without power, so we are
grateful to our web master, Garry Paxinos, for
getting us back up and running as quickly as he
did.
Please know we are so grateful for your prayers
and support during this challenging time. By
God's grace, we will continue building a
national media ministry tool for our Orthodox
Churches. I pray you enjoy receiving our
newsletter once again.
Here's last week's newsletter that talks about
the program currently avaialble on our web site
www.receive.org.
Fr. Chris
Throughout the centuries women have been seen as
the very first teachers of children. They are
mothers, nurturers, and protectors of that most
sacred creation of God – the family. The
Fathers of the Church called the family “the
first church.”
Cultures and nations have instinctively known
that to protect mothers is to protect the
nation. Stories of the heroic deeds of mothers
abound, and grateful children have sung songs
about their own precious “mother.”
Women who have not been able to bear children
were at one time considered cursed by God, since
female identity was so closely tied to
motherhood. Women who were “bad” mothers
were ostracized by their communities, while
“good” mothers were held up as examples for
the community.
So is “motherhood” central to the core
identity of every woman? You may be surprised to
hear that the issue isn’t as cut and dried as
the biological truth that only females can give
birth.
No, the core identity of women is found in
communion with their Creator, no differently
from that of men. It is only as any of us knows
God that we can ever truly know ourselves. If my
relationship with God is weak or even
non-existent, then it follows that I will never
authentically
know myself. And being ignorant of myself, I will forever be
“missing the mark” of my true calling and my
true meaning.
No wonder so many people grope around in the
“thick darkness” of their own souls. No wonder
people try to fill this “God-shaped void” with
all kinds of poor substitutes for authentic
identity. No wonder our society consistently fails
to live up to our self-imposed high ideals
(derived from God’s image in us) and constantly
fail to come to even know ourselves.
And no wonder women today (like men) are so
confused about their true purpose.
With The painful spiritual and cultural poverty of
abortion, the modern obsession with sexual
convenience seen in society’s search for an ever
more effective “birth control” device, all in
the name of individual “freedom.” Ultimately,
our precious women are condemned to think their
purpose is reduced to either the empty search for
pleasure or worse yet to a flawed notion of
“equality” that reduces them to mere men. Yet
they alone have the power to mimic their Creator
in bringing new life into the world. They alone
can know the unique joy of motherhood.
But this gift of motherhood is not simply biology.
Women seem to be gifted by God with an ability to
“mother” even if they, themselves cannot or
choose not to have children of their own. I have
watched as women nurture those around them and
truly heal broken hearts and bodies by their
ministry to others. This wonderful giftedness has
been called weakness by modern society, as
contemporary philosophy has sought to reduce all
of humanity to power struggles and base animal
instincts. But over and over again, the wisdom of
the Church calls us to our true selves.
Here are three guidelines to follow as we search
for our true selves:
First, We are Creations, Not Accidents.
Being created in God’s image to be made into His
likeness, we must understand that we are called to
a higher goal than the mere search for existence.
We were MADE to be like our Creator. Both men and
women were made, fashioned, and meant to reflect
the glory of God uniquely through their unique
giftings and callings. Both men and women were
made with PURPOSE, and it is in discovering that
PURPOSE that we find our true selves.
Second, We are Unique, Not Common. While we
each share a common human nature, each person,
created in the image of God, is free, unique, and
unrepeatable. This means that while we are all
human, each of us has been given a unique way of
expressing and living out our common human nature.
That means you have never met a “mere” human.
Each person you meet is another unique opportunity
to interact with an _expression of the image of
God that has never existed before and will never
exist again.
Finally We are Loved, Not Rejected. As
purpose-filled and unique persons, we also know
ourselves only when we come to the glorious
revelation that we are truly loved in all our
uniqueness. This sure knowledge of being loved for
who we are causes us to both reach for the best we
can be and to forever banish from our minds the
lie that God rejects anyone. It is those
who reject God and His
never-failing love who never know themselves, and
in rejecting Him they will one day discover they
have condemned themselves to an eternity of
ignorance and darkness.
This week Emmy and I visit with Fr. Stanley
Harakas and Nancy Tentzeras. They will help us
understand the power of motherhood and what
happens when a woman who desires to have a child
discovers that she cannot. Join us as we talk
about a very heartfelt struggle through
disappointment to discovery.
Until next week.
Yours for the spread of Orthodoxy,
Fr. Chris Metropulos
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