Those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved

II Lent Wednesday - Genesis 4: 16-26

So Cain went forth from the presence of God and dwelt in the land of Nod over against Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and having conceived she bore Enoch; and he built a city; and he named the city after the name of his son, Enoch. And to Enoch was born Gaidad; and Gaidad begot Maleleel; and Maleleel begot Mathusala; and Mathusala begot Lamech. And Lamech took to himself two wives; the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the second Sella. And Ada bore Jobel; he was the father of those that dwell in tents, feeding cattle. And the name of his brother was Jubal; he it was who invented the psaltery and harp. And Sella also bore Thobel; he was a smith, a manufacturer both of brass and iron; and the sister of Thobel was Noema. And Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Sella, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, consider my words, because I have slain a man to my sorrow and a youth to my grief. Because vengeance has been exacted seven times on Cain’s behalf, on Lamech’s it shall be seventy times seven. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and called his name Seth, saying, For God has raised up to me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And Seth had a son, and he called his name Enos: he hoped to call on the name of the Lord God. – Genesis 4:16-26

Contrary to the myth of evolution, man did not evolve from a grunting beast to homo sapiens. “Primitive” man did not advance from “hunter-gatherer” to civilized man. God brought man into the world fully formed and highly intelligent. There have never been more intelligent people than at the beginning of the human race, when, as today’s reading testifies, the children of Cain invented the arts of civilization.

The Flood came later to destroy all of their achievements, however, because their hearts were not right with God. Lamech witnesses to their merciless character: seventy times seven-fold vengeance! Thus greatly gifted people can accomplish truly great things and still be far from God.

Today, as then, the spirit of Cain and of Lamech ravages abroad. Man, proudly standing on a pinnacle of material cleverness, is really accelerating in free-fall to ever-greater depths of spiritual corruption: the breathtaking mercilessness of the genocidal infanticide and demonic sacrament of abortion, the unthinkable sexual filth not simply approved but hailed as virtue, the organized extinction of the natural family and therefore the possibility of human love, the intentional destruction of reason and the very concept of the stable and knowable natures of things, endless wars of the mighty preying upon the weak, and everywhere, fueling all of it, the love of money with its political outcome: world-domination by a cabal of devil worshipping usurers.

Today, as then, the sons of Cain, though they are the vast majority, are not all the people there are. The sons of Seth are still to be found in the dens and caves of the earth, those who hope to call upon the name of the Lord God. God stays His vengeance in answer to their prayers, their weeping, and their acts of penance on behalf of the human race.

Though we are baptized Orthodox Christians, the spirit of Cain still afflicts us, and day by day we struggle to reject the pride and filth that surround us and, yes, live within us. May we, this Great Lent, decisively choose to call upon the name of the Lord God by the continual Prayer of Jesus, place all of our hope in Him, and consistently seek that final purity of heart in which alone we shall find the wisdom to live in the joy of our salvation.

This commentary was taken from The Eternal Sacrifice: The Genesis Readings for Great Lent by Fr. Steven Allen. You can order a copy from Lulu at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/FrStevenAllen

Today’s reading from Esaias (Isaiah), with commentary:

Thus saith the Lord: But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness. 17And they that were spoiled shall be fed as bulls, and lambs shall feed on the waste places of them that are taken away. 18 Woe to them that draw sins to them as with a long rope, and iniquities as with a thong of the heifer’s yoke: 19 who say, Let him speedily hasten what he will do, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. 20 Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; who make darkness light, and light darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter. 21 Woe to them that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own sight. 22 Woe to the strong ones of you that drink wine, and the mighty ones that mingle strong drink: 23 who justify the ungodly for rewards, and take away the righteousness of the righteous. 24 Therefore as stubble shall be burnt by a coal of fire, and shall be consumed by a violent flame, their root shall be as chaff, and their flower shall go up as dust: for they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and insulted the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the Lord of hosts was greatly angered against his people, and he reached forth his hand upon them, and smote them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses were as dung in the midst of the way: yet for all this his anger has not been turned away, but his hand is yet raised. - Esaias 5: 16 - 25

We are surrounded today by those who call good evil and evil good – neighbors, colleagues at work, our own relatives, even, sad to say, people who call themselves Orthodox Christians, even bishops and priests. They believe in sacrificing infants to the demon of fornication and calling it “women’s rights.” They believe in mutilating children and calling it “transgender rights.” They believe in the most gross and unnatural sins of the flesh as legitimate expressions of conjugal affection on par with the chaste acts of a marriage bed sanctified by the blessing of God and ordered towards the procreation of children. They embark upon the Promethean insanity of altering the human genome and they call it medicine. All of this is beyond immorality; it is demonic lunacy. Those who believe in such things and practice such things are not simply wicked. They are trapped in a make-believe mental world of meaninglessness and despair; they live at a spiritual level at which the concepts of “good” and “evil” do not even exist. Their minds being utterly destroyed, their wills have nowhere to go. Thus the “enlightened” society of 2023.

At this point, then, the range of human expedients available to us to survive as free and moral human beings – much less Orthodox Christians – is narrow, and, more than ever, it is obvious that only God can save us. The Good News is that He wants to save us: His will for our salvation is infinitely greater than our own. What lesson can we take from today’s reading to help us do something – that is, to cooperate actively with His gracious election and His all-powerful will that is directed entirely to our eternal happiness?

The first thing to remember is that our minds too are easily led astray; when we look at the benighted folk described above, our first thought should be, “There but for the grace of God go I.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn came to treasure his years in the Gulag for the spiritual insight he gained there: it was there that he learned the great truth, that the line between good and evil is drawn primarily not between political parties or armies or governments, but right down the middle of the heart of every man. If we really want to oppose evil, we have to understand what it is, and that means we have to know ourselves. The precondition for self-knowledge is humility, and we can strive successfully to humble our wills only if we begin by humbling our minds. Calling good evil and evil good comes about because of a prior mistake which our prophet today accuses as well: “Woe to unto them that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own sight!”

Among the life-changing passages in that bedrock spiritual classic all of us should read and cherish, Unseen Warfare, here is one we would do well to memorize and repeat to ourselves daily

…pride of will, being visible to the mind, can sometimes be easily cured by forcing it to submit to the yoke of what is good. But when the mind is firmly grounded in the self-relying thought that its own judgments are better than all others, who can cure it in the end? Can it ever obey anyone, if it feels certain that the judgments of others are not as good as its own? When this eye of the soul—the mind—with whose help man could see and correct pride of will, is itself blinded by pride and remains uncured, who will cure the will? Then everything within is so disorganised that there is neither place nor person for applying a healing poultice. This is why you must hasten to oppose this pernicious pride of mind, before it penetrates into the marrow of your bones. Resist it, curb the quickness of your mind and humbly subject your opinion to the opinions of others. Be a fool for the love of God, if you wish to be wiser than Solomon: ‘If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise’ (I Cor, iii. 18). – Unseen Warfare, chapter nine.

No doubt we all agree with this, but how do we do it? We know that all virtue is a mean between extremes: How do we acquire this saving distrust of our own opinions without falling into the opposite extreme of so great a distrust of self that we give up our convictions and fail in our resolutions, because of the opinions of others? On the one hand, we don’t want to be the tiresome know-it-all that the prophet decries above, wise in our own conceits. On the other hand, each of us, according to his own station in life, must firmly and courageously make moral and practical choices to fulfill his responsibilities without the incubus of a foolish self doubt ever riding his back and vitiating an active life that should by rights consist of a well-directed, unremitting, and intransigent combat against the visible and invisible enemies of our salvation.

Here are a few words of advice:

1. Learn to distinguish between revealed and natural truth on the one hand, and practical applications of truth, prudential decisions, on the other hand. Never give up your Faith and never give up fundamental commonsense insights into the nature of reality. When you must make spiritual and moral choices in the practical sphere, ask the Lord for a saving humility about your own capacity for judgment and for His divine inspiration to make good choices. Ask Him also for the supernatural grace of true Christian courage, which paradoxically always reveals itself as genuine by its combination with meekness, to carry out your resolves. This is a divine grace, and as such it is not within the capacity of fallen nature. But we are Christians, we can ask for it with a good hope of getting it, and God wants to give it to us.

2. If you do not have a wise counselor or counselors in your life, pray earnestly and repeatedly until God sends you one or more, and sends you the insight to realize that “Yes, these are the ones.” When you find them, don’t let them go. Usually the consensus of a few wise counselors will steer us right. That doesn’t mean to hand over to them your will and your mind: that’s not spiritual discipleship; that’s just mindless slavery. It means to defer to their judgment in most cases, unless your conscience screams “No!”

3. Remember the words of the wise Ss. Barsanuphius and John: When faced with important choices, “Pray three times and do as your heart inclines.” But once you make a firm resolve, don’t look back.

4. Never think that you have already learned all you need to know about Orthodoxy or about life. Constantly immerse yourself in some kind of spiritual study as well as fruitful practical studies. “Exceedingly spacious are Thy commandments,” as we read in the psalm. That is, truth is inexhaustible. Not only the infinite perfections of God, but even the truths found in His creation, are the study not only of a lifetime, but of eternity. Always consider yourself a learner not a teacher.

5. When you find that your thoughts have been mistaken, and that by being corrected you have acquired some new and genuine wisdom, rejoice. You have now become more of a grownup (much less a Christian!). What freedom, to be absolutely unattached to the idea that I am right all the time!

Let us close today by reading carefully this passage from our Holy Father Gregory the Great, the Dialogist, Pope of Rome:

Consider how holy men have a remarkable ability to keep before their inner eyes what they do not know in order to safeguard the virtue of humility. On the one hand they consider their weakness, and on the other they do not allow their hearts to be puffed up just because they have done something good. Knowledge is a virtue, but humility is its guardian.

One’s mind, then, should be modest about everything it knows, lest the winds of pride blow away what the virtue of knowledge has gathered in. When you do something good, always call to mind the evils you have done. If you keep your faults in mind, your heart will never be heedlessly happy because of its good works…Let everyone strive to be great in the practice of virtue, but nevertheless let each one know that to a certain extent he is in fact nothing. If not, one will attribute greatness to oneself and lose whatever good one has done. This is why the prophet warned: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight (Esaias 5:21). And Paul: “Do not be prudent in your own sight (Romans 12:16).” And because of his pride, it was said against Saul, “When you were little in your own eyes, I made you head of the tribes of Israel (I Kings 15:17).” It is as if he had been told, “When you considered yourself little, I made you greater than the rest; but when you thought of yourself as great, I considered you little.” – Homilies on the Gospels 7.4

May we always consider ourselves little before God and man, and pray to be made great in the inner man, in the humility of wisdom. Thereby shall we dispose ourselves to be taught what is truly good and truly evil, and to act with a God-pleasing resolve on the wisdom we shall have undeservedly received from the right hand of the Most High, unto our salvation.

Holy Prophet Esaias, Holy Apostle Paul, Holy Father Gregory, and All Ye God-inspired Teachers of the Old and New Testaments, pray to God for us!

Do not be prudent in your own sight! (St. Paul, Romans 12:16)

Today’s reading from Proverbs, with commentary:

[My son,] 15 Drink waters out of thine own vessels, and out of thine own springing wells. 16 Let not waters out of thy fountain be spilt by thee, but let thy waters go into thy streets. 17 Let them be only thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee. 18 Let thy fountain of water be truly thine own; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 19 Let thy loving doe and thy graceful foal company with thee, and let her be considered thine own, and be with thee at all times; for ravished with her love thou shalt be greatly increased. 20 Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold thyself in the arms of a woman not thine own. 21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths. 22 Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins. 23 Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly. 6:1 My son, if thou become surety for thy friend, thou shalt deliver thine hand to an enemy. 2 For a man’s own lips become a strong snare to him, and he is caught with the lips of his own mouth. 3 My son, do what I command thee, and deliver thyself; for on thy friend’s account thou art come into the power of evil men: faint not, but stir up even thy friend for whom thou art become surety. - Proverbs 5:15 - 6:3

St. John Chrysostom, following the favored method of the Antiochene school of Scripture interpretation, derives a practical moral lesson from verses fifteen through twenty. They speak about marriage: they exhort the man to be happy with his wife and to be faithful to her.

Here is what he says about verse 15:

“Drink water from your own pitchers,” where there is enjoyment and security. It is a proverb, and would be better expressed, “Enjoy your own wife”; as Paul put it, “Do not deprive one another, except by mutual consent,” and again, “…to avoid fornication, let each man have his own wife (I Corinthians, chapter seven).

The saint is talking straight here, as did St. Paul: One fundamental reason to get married is to avoid fornication. St. Paul recognizes that women, too, have this temptation, which is why the entire verse finishes with the words, “…and let every woman have her own husband.”

St. John Chrysostom, however, does not see marriage in purely negative terms, only as a way to avoid sin. He takes for granted that there is enjoyment in marriage, and he says that this enjoyment is pure:

“Let they loving doe and thy graceful foal company with thee…” Note how he urges him to form close ties with his partner, showing the purity of the enjoyment by mention of the animal, and by mention of the foal presenting his wife as skittish and desirable.

But of course there will be many temptations to separate, and so the sacred author of Proverbs immediately adds, “…and let her be considered thine own, and be with thee at all times; for ravished with her love thou shalt be greatly increased.” Chrysostom comments,

…And since he knows there are many causes of friction between them, he proceeds to mention the bond of love between them as secure and unbreakable, visualizing it as indestructible.

Marriage, then, is a strong protection against leading an immoral life, its natural enjoyments are considered pure, and divine law decrees it to be permanent.

“Well, what about us?” The lifelong celibates and monastics may be asking at this point. “Do these verses have nothing to say to us, too?” Well, they do have something to say to you, according to various other Holy Fathers, who interpret the verses in a more figurative way. St. Ambrose of Milan, for example, says that the image of “thine own vessels” and “thine own springing wells” in verse fifteen refers to the pursuit of the spiritual life within one’s own soul. In other words, do not look for happiness outside of oneself, but within oneself:

Bear fruit for your own joy and delight. In yourself lies the sweetness of your charm, from you does it blossom, in you it sojourns, within you it rests, in your own self you must search for the jubilant quality of your conscience. For that reason he [Solomon] says, “Drink water out of your own cistern and the streams of your own well.” – from the Six Days of Creation of St. Ambrose

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says that the cisterns and wells of Christians are the Holy Scriptures. In other words, do not run after secular wisdom, but seek your happiness in God’s wisdom:

Let us return to the sacred Scriptures and “drink water from our own cisterns and running water from our own wells.” Let us drink of the living water, “springing up unto life everlasting.” …not visible rivers merely watering the earth with its thorns and trees, but enlightening souls. – from the Catechetical Lectures

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Christ Thou Wisdom of God, enlighten us always and give us delight in the inexhaustible delights of Thy love, revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Amen.