ORATORICAL FESTIVAL JUDGES’ CHOICE

DIMITRI SHADID, DIOCESE OF WICHITA AND MID-AMERICA

His Hand Is Much Bigger

A young boy went to the local store with his mother. The shop owner, a kindly man, passed him a large jar of jellybeans and invited him to help himself to a handful. Uncharacteristically, the boy held back. So the shop owner pulled out a handful for him. When outside, the boy’s mother asked why he had suddenly been so shy and wouldn’t take a handful of jellybeans when offered. The boy replied, “Because his hand is much bigger than mine.”

God’s hands shaped the earth and brought order to chaos. We can never forget that God will always provide for us, and that His plan for us is greater than anything we could ever imagine. He has given us free will so that we can have the choice either to let His hand guide us, or to let the ways of the world determine our path. It is for this reason that in so many of our services, we ask for strength “to commend ourselves and each other and our whole life unto Christ our God.” This is what Adam and Eve failed to do.

God had given them the whole of the Garden of Eden and only asked one thing in return – that they be obedient. Instead of listening to the Creator and Benefactor Who desires their complete well- being, they chose to listen to the deceiver who only seeks their downfall. This reminds me of myself with my parents. They continuously provide for me and only ask that I obey them. Yet I still disobey from time to time.

Both God and the devil seek our obedience, one for life and eternal joy, the latter for death and permanent destruction. Like a blazing fire turning into struggling embers, the image of God was present in humanity, but the likeness had been greatly diminished.

We lost the likeness by constantly walking away from God and into sin. As we hear in an ode of the Funeral Service,

When in the beginning, Thou did create man after Thine own image and likeness, Thou did set him in Paradise to reign over Thy creatures. But when beguiled by the malice of the devil, he tasted of the food, he became a transgressor of Thy commandment. For which cause, O Lord, Thou did condemn him to return again unto the earth whence he was taken, and to entreat repose (St. John of Damascus, 7th Idiomela of the Funeral Service).

Adam was supposed to be the perfect man, but through sin and disobedience he brought death into the world. Christ, being the New Adam, remained sinless, and through perfect obedience, even to the point of death, brought life to fallen Adam.

God could have easily decided to destroy His creation and start anew, but chose instead to show mercy upon us. While humanity is dependent on God, God has no need of us. For the Trinity has perfect unity within itself. In this year’s verse, the words Us and Our represent the Trinity, showing that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all exist in union.

As a teenager, or even an adult, this is extremely hard to comprehend. For God is not to be figured out, but obeyed. Unlike Adam, the Son obeyed the Father fully. We recall Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).

God the Father did not abandon His creation. He gave us the Law and the Prophets, but humanity constantly rejected them all. Instead of giving up, He sent His only begotten Son down to earth to save us. As we hear prayed in the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great,

For You did not forever reject Your creature whom You made, O Good One, nor did You forget the work of Your hands, but because of Your tender compassion, You visited him in various ways: You sent forth prophets; You performed mighty works by Your Saints who in every generation have pleased You; You spoke to us by the mouth of Your servants the prophets, announcing to us the salvation which was to come; You gave us the law to help us; You appointed angels as guardians; and when the fullness of time had come, You spoke to us through Your Son Himself, through Whom You created the ages (Anaphora).

Through his mercy and compassion, God has shown us the way back to the Father. Only Christ has been resurrected to glory at the right hand of the Father. Through the Son, however, we are invited to walk the path leading to eternal life. Through baptism and chrismation, we answer the call to be on the side of Christ. It is this initiation that sets us on the road to salvation.

But this is only the beginning. We must not waiver in obedience to Christ, as we continue our journey to walk in His footsteps. Everyone starts somewhere. For some, like myself, this journey may begin as an infant.

Having grown up in the Church, I have seen and heard of a priest’s many responsibilities, whether sources of joy or of sorrow. When I asked one priest what was his favorite thing to do in church, he boldly replied, “churching a baby.” As he walks down the aisle towards the altar, with the infant raised in his hands, he imagines what those young eyes must be gazing at – the saints and angels the baby can purely see, as the child looks upward with wondering eyes. We were created to be holy and innocent without corruption. This is the image that has been stamped on us: to relate to each other just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to each other in perfect unity. As humans, we do fall into sin; pride, hatred, and selfishness take control, and we lose this harmony. Yet it is our obligation to turn around, to repent, for God’s mercy is endless and His love for us can never be broken.

Some people may realize this later in life, as did St. Paul, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Moses the Black, and many others. God is constantly calling us, whether infants or adults, to walk in the path of righteousness. While this may not be an easy walk, He is with us all the way. As he told His disciples after the resurrection, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). My football coach says, “You can have a bad moment, minute or even an hour, but don’t let it turn into a bad day.” We all sin, but we can choose not to drag ourselves further into sin and despair.

Metropolitan ANTHONY Bloom of blessed memory writes,

Everyone is in the image of God and every one of us is like a damaged icon. But if we were given an icon damaged by time, damaged by circumstances, or desecrated by human hatred, we would treat it with reverence, tenderness, with broken heartedness. We would not pay attention primarily to the fact that it is damaged, but to the tragedy of its being damaged. We would concentrate on what is left of its beauty and not on what is lost of its beauty. And this is what we must learn to do with regard to each person as an individual.

We are blessed in this Archdiocese to have so many wonderful programs, such as Teen SOYO and the camping ministry, that give us the opportunity to live in a Christian community. These programs make it easy to expand and improve our relationship with God. We learn the way we should treat God is the same way we should treat others, with love and respect. If the lesson doesn’t continue to be lived out when the retreat or camping session is over, however, what have we done?

Bishop THOMAS told us at the Antiochian Village that when we come back home from camp, we are not to go back to the same way we were living. If we don’t change, then camp was a waste. We must therefore learn from the lifestyle we lived there and continue to live in fellowship and unity in our daily lives and interactions at home. If we continue to go to camp year after year and have to start anew each time, then it defeats the purpose of building and strengthening a solid relationship with God.

For example, if you see one friend only a few times a year, that friendship relies on the amount of effort you exert to stay close to each other. If you decide not to make an effort to stay connected, then you both must spend that first portion of your time together catching up and rebuilding that relationship and its trust. On the other hand, if you put in time and effort to strengthen your relationship yearround, then little by little it flourishes and grows. The same is true with our relationship with God. By consistently praying and actively participating in the life of the church and being kind to each other, these habits and actions become a lifestyle. By denying sin and dedicating our lives to God, we may begin humbly to imitate the great Apostle Paul, who wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

My brothers and sisters in Christ, while the devil challenges us with temptations every day, to make us forget that we are in God’s image and likeness, we are called to be “mini-Christs” in all that we do, and to shine the light to others. As a baby being churched, we gaze up to our heavenly Father and the saints who have already paved the way for us. We must desire, day by day, minute by minute, to keep His image alive in us through obedience to His way. Like the child and the bowl of jellybeans, if we choose to stay on His path, God’s hands, which are larger than our brokenness, will be outstretched to grant us more than we could have ever imagined of life in His heavenly Kingdom.