This sure has been a Slurpee week!! Although it was not as hot as last week, the gentle breeze failed us as we began to put the asphalt on the parking lot. If you have worked alongside me in the heat of the summer, you probably already know that on the way home, I usually stop and buy a big tall Slurpee at the 7 eleven store, I even have the App for that. I like to mix the flavors as I have always done since my little league days in Norfolk, Va. The older boys back then encouraged us younger ones to always mix the flavors and they called it a suicide. I didn’t quite believe them when they said mixing the flavors would literally cause my brain too freeze up so of course I had to try it, and the habit was rooted deep from that time till today, and as long as my sugar level can tolerate it!
At my fourth little league game, as I was assigned to the right field towards the end of the game where the ball is seldom hit, which seemed to really balance my skill set in my first year. With a runner on 1st , sure enough in a tightly contested game, the ball was hit towards me; I wasn’t looking for four leaf clovers at that moment, but actually was paying attention. The ball bounced in front of me and I gracefully scooped it up as I neared the 2nd baseman, and tossed it underhand since I was so close, and don’t you know the ball scuffed the side of my leg as I released it and it slowly rolled, rolled, rolled to the 2nd baseman, it seemed like it took forever, but he tagged the bag and threw the ball to the 1st baseman which reached his glove before the batter could tag the base. That’s right, a double play. The coach gave me the game ball for, I don’t know, not looking for a four leaf clover or not messing completely up or something! It was not my finest athletic outing! My teammates were muttering about how I didn’t deserve the “game ball”, and they were so right. I didn’t even deserve to wear the uniform, but there I was. Give me an “E” for effort, and of course a Slurpee!
Maybe the lawyer in today’s Gospel reading should also get an “E” for his effort in testing Christ! (Matt 22:35-46) There are 613 commandments in the Holy Scripture, and the Pharisee came to debate which one was central. Jesus answers with the first and the second as He quotes Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 and 5, which constitutes the grand summery of the law. And according to St. Mark, this lawyer is converted by Christ’s answer, maybe an early form of a double play! (Mark 12:28-34)
This type of love that Christ speaks of in these 2 commandments is not egotistic and it instructs us to practice the great triple play: patience, forbearance and forgiveness. We all seem to have a somewhat selfish demand of our church family that will hopefully meet our needs as we see them. This is a blindness that Christians sometimes hide behind, like putting your best lipstick on a pig; it doesn’t address the root of the true issue. It may look more appealing, but the stench of sin greets us as the color of the lipstick comes into focus.
St. Silouan writes: “Love for that which is earthly makes the soul empty, and then she is sad, and grows wild, and does not want to pray to God. The enemy then, seeing that the soul is not in God, shakes her and freely places in the mind whatever he wants, and he drives the soul from one thought to another, and thus the whole day the soul remains in such disorder and cannot purely gaze at the Lord.” (St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, IV.5)
Now I was never a great athlete, but God is calling us all to be great athletes for Him. And all great athletes have one big thing in common: practice, practice, and more practice. We can all help if we quit gossiping and being mean, when we are only trying to nurture our blind needs, and remember the triple play we have been called to take part in practicing : patience, forbearance and forgiveness! Orthodoxy is a team sport, we need each other. And He needs more than an “E” for effort on our part. It’s going to take practice, practice and more practice! It is going to be a sacrifice!
I’ll end here with this reflection from St. Justin Popovich: “A man in this world must solve a problem: to be with Christ, or to be against Him. And every man decides this, whether he wants to or not. He will either be a lover of Christ or a fighter of Christ. There is no third option.” (St. Justin Popovich, Explanation of I John, 4.3)
Fr. Gabriel Weller 9-13-2026
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