The Stream
Page 4 of 9
Faith and Religion
Looking Forward to a Year Centered in Christ - Fr. James Cheriyan
Plato sounds authentically Orthodox when he
says, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
We live our lives in a haze. A simple observation
of our own lives and lives around us will
underscore the reality of how unexamined our
lives are. Our attitudes, lifestyle and everything
about us bear witness to this. In such
circumstances the beginning of the liturgical
year of the Church, called ‘Kudosh Idtho’
becomes so relevant for our times and personal
lives.
Sanctification of the Church is a very personal
experience of every individual of the Church.
This can only become a personal experience only if there is a through examination of the depths of our very
existence. It is precisely this lack of introspection that leads us into a comfortable oblivion of the true calling
in our lives, as the members of the Body of Christ and as the sons and daughters of the God most High.
The true experience of the presence of Christ reveals the
areas that requires catharsis or cleansing in our lives. This
can never be a one time experience neither can it be a ‘once
in a while thing’. A continuous life in Christ not only
separates the weeds of our souls but also sows and irrigates
the virtues that leads one from glory to greater glory. The
greatest curse of Christendom are Christians without an
experience of Christ on a daily basis. The day we make
pleasing God as the priority of our lives, we would truly be
bears of His light and life. A lack of zeal for Christ and His
Church is what drains us of many a great blessing and fills
our lives with darkness.
Christ is always born in a sanctified and dedicated place. It
does not matter even if it is a place of dumb animals
surrounded by the most humble lives on earth. As we
prepare to partake in the feast of the Incarnation of our
Lord, let us sanctify and dedicate our lives and everything
about it for Him to be born in us.
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself for me."
Gal. 2:20 (NKJV)