Annoying, Inconvenient and Cumbersome

Daily Readings: Is. 13:2-11; 2 Corinthians 7:4-16; Mark 7:31-37
Ընթերցուածքներ` Եսայ. ԺԳ 2-11; Բ Կորնց Է 4-16; Մարկ. Է 31-37

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

Back when I was in high school, I was very active in sports. I remember there was one weekend where both Saturday and Sunday I had 2 sporting events back-to-back. Saturday morning, I had a weightlifting competition, during which time, as I attempted to lift 225 lbs over my head. As I lifted, I lost my concentration and the weight swung too far back and I end up hitting my lower back. But I was young and though it hurt, I didn’t think much of it. On Sunday, though a little sore, I had a football game to get to. During the game, the coach put me in as a half-back and gave me the ball to run for short yardage. In one of the plays, I was blindsided and hit hard from the back. I was young and though it hurt, I didn’t think much of it. Monday morning, when I woke up, I could barely walk and needed special crutches to move around. Though they helped stabilize me to get around, the crutches were annoying, cumbersome and inconvenient. Therefore, I was grateful that after several months of physical therapy and chiropractors, my back finally recovered and I got rid of the crutches.

You know my dears it is interesting, that when we are hurt, when we break our leg, or arm, or God forbid something much worse, we place all our hope and trust in crutches, in slings, in wheelchairs and so forth. The moment we are better, we throw it away without any thought. If we have difficulty hearing, we use hearing aids and special tools, until our hearing improves and immediately, we are grateful to get rid of those as well. If a blind person, who walks around with a cane to guide his path is somehow eventually able to see, and we see this in movies, he immediately throws away that stick that helped guide his path. And while being healed of our ailments is wonderful and if someone who is blind is miraculously able to see is a blessing, and we are no longer in need of the tools that helped guide us, how often do we approach our faith in the same manner?

In fact, Karl Marxx, Sigmund Freud, and many atheist philosophers, often refer to religion being an “opiate of the masses”, “a momentary illusion for the weak” or as former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura stated that “organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers”. Sadly, the truth is, for many of us our faith in God is like a crutch. We pray, we seek help and guidance in times of need; when we are hurting. Yet, we also see it as limitation, an inconvenience, something cumbersome that when things get better, we are often far more grateful to discard it, throw away. My dears, our faithfulness, being a Christian and having Communion with God is not about prayer in difficulty, or words of encouragement in times of need, an “illusion” that if we pray hard enough or go to Church enough then somehow life will be better. Nor is it a opiate to numb us, merely a belief to lean on when we need support. To a be Christian is to daily recognize and respond to one thing only – the love of God.

God’s love is what created life; God’s love is what protects us and illuminates us; it is God’s love that sent His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus to die for us on the Cross. To heal us not only from broken hearts or broken bones, but from sin and death. Yes, the Cross, our faith, at times will be like a crutch, like a walking stick, a guide, that we can lean on to help us keep moving forward. However, the Cross also must bring us discomfort. Faith has to be cumbersome and even feel inconvenient at times in life. That is why St. Paul in his letter today says, “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it), for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation” (v.8-10) When Paul is writing his second letter to the Corinthians, he is again being very strict and some might say hurtful to his readers, who had ignored his teachings. Those in Corinth are not living faithfully and are in fact abusing what he has taught them, they had chosen to justify sin in their lives. And so, he says, I know what I am saying is difficult to hear, it is hurtful, but I am glad because that hurt has produced in you a desire to better yourself, to repent and receive what God truly intends for us.

My dears, being a Christian is sometimes hurtful and difficult; it is sometimes cumbersome, and inconvenient like a crutch, especially when the world says, “do what makes you happy”, “do what you want with your own body”, “seek pleasure, avoid discomfort”, etc. But faith protect us always, guide us always – even when we feel inconvenienced by it. When we recognize that this moment of discomfort is permitted by God in our life for us to pause and reflect on how we live, how we think, how we go about our day to day, how we ended up in the situation we are in regardless of what it may be, then we through faith, through our spiritual eyes recognize that even in our hurt, in our pain, in our darkness, our suffering, our addiction, even when we fall, and the world we followed says we have no value, the love of God is with us and gives us the opportunity for to turn back to Him. Not throw Him away, not push faith aside until another rainy day, or when we get hurt again. But turn to Him every day and ask to be renewed, healed, transformed and lifted through His love. This my dears, is experienced in our daily tasks, seen in our daily movements, how we think about ourselves and others; how we speak, how we eat, how we drive, dress, work, play. In our relationships, in our alone time.

Perhaps, like me, when I got hurt when I was younger, I didn’t think much about it. Perhaps we have not thought about how we use faith merely as a crutch to lean on but too often discard when not needed. May today be that opportunity, that moment of reflection to face whatever pain and struggle we have in our life and ask for God to guide us through His love. Pray, read the Holy Scriptures and if it feel hard, annoying and cumbersome, ask for God to open our eyes and ears to understand. Ask the priest! Ask for strength and direction in all decisions so that with renewed faith we can respond to His love and live a life the proclaims that love to others, and brings glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.