As we find ourselves deep into the Dormition Fast, I have to admit at times I feel a bit Hangry and really low on energy! The temptations of failure taunt me like a fruit fly zeroing in on a piece of ripe fruit. The mind sure has some powerful distractions for the body! But we press on because something greater is trying to pull us closer, trying to place our misshaped puzzle piece of hurts and failures into a place where we will fit, a place that is our home.
In my years of old, my family in the winter months would start assembling a hard jigsaw puzzle and after an hour of two with tiring eyes and frustration, you may have seen me pounding with my fist on a puzzle piece that almost fit correctly into the hole, but not quite. After a rest and maybe even maybe a new day we would once again continue this jigsaw assembly. And so it is with our salvation, we fail and we may not yet quite fit the image that we were created to represent, but with some more work, and maybe a little pounding from above, our shape can be transformed. We press on and as the Prophet Nehemiah reminds us: “The joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10)
Now the Joy of the Lord is not an earthly measurement because this type of Joy cannot be contained. True Joy seems to be an experience of God’s warmth and grace into our busy lives. And so it is with Orthodoxy, the more we practice the faith, the more our misfit puzzle piece is molded and shaped, as we try to bring our body, mind and soul into salvific practice, and into harmony with creation. Joy is a measurement of our spiritual condition! Is your tank of Joy full, or are you running on fumes?
There are so many bits and pieces of our life puzzles that need our attention and our surrender to Christ. We heard in the Gospel and the Epistle readings this morning about not muzzling the ox, or the absence of tithing our church and then letting our financial debts exceed a healthy boundary, and not living within our means. (Mathew 18:23-35, 1 Cor 9:2-12) And tithing is also important to us, as we put God first with our first fruit offering and ask His blessing upon our families. It is hard to be joyful in the midst of financial frustrations!
Archpriest John Moses of blessed memory wrote: “The Church teaches the importance of tithing, giving regularly to the Church. Such support is vital to the successful work of the church. Tithing is essential to our own spiritual well being and, if we believe the Bible, it is even essential to our financial well-being. For these reasons, the Church asks us to tithe.” (https://redneckpriest.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/protestant-orthodox)
The readings this morning also spoke about our need to forgive and free ourselves from the taunting of memories of wrong doings. Saint Nicholas Cabasilias writes: "Indeed, we have joy in ourselves to the extent that we love.” Saint Nicholas states that the source of joy is our love for God, and since our joy is in proportion to the greatness of its source, so the potential for our joy is infinite since God is infinite. (The Life in Christ, trans. Carmino J. deCatanzaro (Crestwood, 1974), p. 210, 212-213). We must forgive and release these memories we are dragging along behind us, like an over-packed heavy piece of luggage! Set yourself free!
All these attachments to this perishing world will not save us, but only make us hangry and unhappy. We simply do not belong to this puzzle mess! We don’t fit!! We need to release ourselves from bondage to this life. Our stain-shaped created piece belongs to God and in that; we must transform our existence here and now to be part of a much bigger picture, one in which we are connected in love! True love is Joy.
Fr. Gabriel Weller 8-24-2025
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