Know Him First

Passages: Is. 33:2-22; Rom. 12:1-13:10; Matt. 5:17-48
Ընթերցուածքներ՝ Եսայ. ԼԳ 2-22; Հռոմ. ԺԲ 1- ԺԳ 10; Մատթ. Ե 17-48

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

How many of us have raised children? All of us, even if we don’t have children of our own remember some of the rules we grew up with, such as, “stranger danger” or “don’t take candy from strangers.” Our parents regardless how much they loved us, and how much we begged, gave us nutrition, and proper sustenance over sugary sweets and desserts. For the first few years of our lives, parents try their hardest to protect and care for their children by not ignoring the dangers or negativity of the world but by focusing the child’s attention on them! On the beautiful, kind, and loving. Parent’s clean up and prepare the nursery, filling it with images of love and gentleness. When a child is born, the first thing that doctor does is give the child to the mother, for physical touch so that a familiarity and bond is creating. Yet, in that same hospital there is death and sickness; in that same home where the nursery is built, mom and dad argue, disagree, perhaps face different struggles of their own.

My dears, yes, the world in which we are born in is full of evil and negativity. Yet, because a parent loves their child, despite the evil, they protect and surround the child with love by being with them. In the beginning, when God created all, was there evil? No! When God created humanity, giving us life and birth, and placing us in the Garden of Eden, was there evil? Yes! We read in Genesis that there was 2 trees in the Garden – One of Life and One of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This means that at that time good and evil did exist. What evil? Satan and the demons had already at this time rejected and rebelled against God, my dears. And when God placed us in the garden with these 2 trees, they had a purpose, yet, in He commanded us (Gen. 2:16-17) “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.;’” God blessed humanity with all good things, all that we needed. And without denying the reality of good and evil, God focused our attention, in the infancy of our humanity on Him, on the good, the gentleness, on the life and blessings He has given us.

God desired us to know good first, to know Him first, recognizing that yes eventually we would know evil, we would know the dangers of this world. He wanted us to know Him first in the same way, parent’s desire their child to grow with them first learning love and care before the world causes hurt. Yet, in the same way as children, we start rebelling against mom and dad’s rule, we focus on what we want and not what our parents provide us or instruct us with, we eventually get hurt, we face the dangers, we feel doubt and skepticism, in the same way, Adam and Eve rebelled and in their infancy, when they were not ready, ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and they lost their focus on God, on the good. Their light had not grown to a point where they could keep shining in the darkness – and so they got hurt.

So often I hear people criticize our Christian faith, that we are delusional, or ignorant and pretend that with God all is good, which means we ignore the evils, we numb ourselves as is famously quoted by Karl Marx, “religion is the opiate of the masses.” That we as Christian’s are stupid to love and pray for our enemies or are too weak. However, we do not deny the evil in the world; we do not ignore that dangers. But we are taught that our focus should begin daily with God, on His love, on the good. That by being strengthened by God, we are strong enough to overcome the darkness we see. As St. Paul teaches us, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” (Rom. 12) When we wake up, do we reach for our phones or the remote for the TV first? Where we are bombarded by politics and war, and shootings, and economic uncertainty? Do we perhaps wake up and remember something we forgot to do and now we are panicking? Do we look out see, the snow and want to go back under the covers? Do we start everyday in by focusing on the negative?

Yes, the negativity and hardship of life is there, yet, what do we focus on first? Perhaps we wake up and start our day with prayer. We wake up and thank God for the warmth in our home, the roof over our head, the fact that we, even in our pain and dangers, know that God’s love is greater than all the evil, all my skeletons, and addictions and uncertainties. Do you know how I wake up my dears? When my son wakes up and the first thing he looks for is mom and dad. He will leave his bed and run to us, calling to us. His toys are all over, the sweets he enjoys are at arm’s reach in the kitchen, along with all the areas in the home where has bumps and bruises from. Yet, mom and dad is where he finds his peace, where he focuses on.

My dears, yes, God has provided us with blessings and joys; and yes, evil and danger are abound. Call out, focus on God our Heavenly Father first. Not because there is no evil or danger, darkness and addiction, hurt and pain. But because when we are with God, we learn the good first. We learn to love and care for ourselves, for those around us, for the world. We start with goodness which overcomes evil. But we cannot be good, we cannot be perfect as Christ tell us in today’s Gospel, apart from God. To be with God, starts from our heart and mind, which is why Christ in the Gospel today reminds us that evil and sin isn’t limited to our actions but stems from our heart. How we look and think about ourselves and others. When we start with God, when our focus is not void of the evil around us but centered on God, then like children, we will live daily in His care, through His guidance. So that even if we encounter “stranger danger” even if, the temptations of this world, the skepticism, the evil and hurt come to us, we will not reach out and eat of that fruit but know that what God provides us is far greater than what lies the world reminds us of.

Yes, my dears, just as children of our parents and children of God, we will make mistakes, we will sin and lose focus. Yet, God calls us back to Him, in the same way a loving parent calls us back to them in times of hurt, rebellion and all times. St. Ephrem the Syrian for this teaches us “Do not be ashamed to turn back and say boldly: I will arise and go to my Father!” Come back, refocus. That is what Great Lent is about – refocusing on God and His love. Through His love we will know that when we are with God, the flame of our faith is strengthened, that no darkness will overcome us and that His love, which we learn from our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus will feed and provide us with that we need. By the grace and love of God our Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us begin each day, each moment, by focusing on Him first, Amen.