[Arabic Version]
St. Elias (2010)
“Alive is the Lord my God… who I am standing in front of Him”
These are the words of the Prophet whom we celebrate today his Holiday, and our church asks for his prayers and intercessions.
In reality the God of Elias was not only alive, but Elias himself was also alive. He was like a fire and his words lit like a charcoal (Sirak 48: 1). This is the spirit of Elias which Jesus loved. He loved John the Baptist deeply and said :( He is the greatest of the human beings, and this is the reason He said: “John came with Elias ‘spirit, the spirit of truth, the spirit of Elias is from the Holy Spirit. The spirit of Elias does not tolerates the wrong, but lives the truth. A spirit like this does not fear but the sinning against God, and does not hate anything but the mistreating of other human being. Elias used this spirit against the King, and with the same spirit the Baptist reproved Herod.
We are living in a world where the wheat and the tares are mixed, the truth with the lie, and often we try to reconcile the first with the second and to unite the two opposites. But the spirit of Elias is a sword which cuts all hypocrisy and does not accept the tares of the evil. The average person vacillates between the spirit of Elias and the worldly currents, between the truth and the lies, between the essential and the superficial.
We do not have the courage to say to the evil “you are evil “, on the other side the evil has authority through our desires or social tradition etc...over us. The confrontation requires a fearless spirit and courage and is willingness to pay any price. Its purpose is not winning or position, but only the truth, because it is the treasurer which we have found and sold everything to purchase it.
What Compel Elias to prophesize? And who gave him this courage? There are two things which may lead a person through that road: God and sin. When the sin controls the human spirit, God’s spirit finds in that person the courage and personality which enable him to act. When the spirit fills the person, then he will refuses the sin no matter how strong and fearful it is.
Some people, one day, approached Moses and said to him: there are some among us who are prophesising!” Moses replied: “I wish all my people are prophets” prophet (Joel) spokes about the last days, the day when Jesus will appear, and the spirit of God will pour out on the ecumen, and the young and not only the elderly will prophesize. St. Peter said on the day of Pentecost to all the five thousand people present:” the prophecy of Joel materialised today”. The Pentecost is always in the church and in the history, in the sacraments and the worships. The church therefore is the factory of the Prophets. The church is act which mixes the mud with the spirit and produces a prophet. We are all prophets, we were given to be prophet on the day of our Baptism when we were anointed with Holy MYRRH and separated to be his prophets of truth in this world, to be a sword to cut the darkness and the head of the serpent.
What distinguishes Elias ‘spirit, which is given to us also in the Baptism, is that she reads the time from a specific viewpoint. The present is explained by it through the knowledge of the future. The prophet is not a witch who reads the future. This is the Charleston’s Job who read the coffee cup. The stars, the palms, etc… the person who is filled with God can understand specifically the present from reading the future. The spirit of God is in us, does not allow us to accept the present as it is; but as a mean to secure the future which we can see, read and desire. And what is the future but a Divine wish for the human? And what we plan and work for is but what the Lord expect from us and to us?
The spirit of Elias resembles the spirit of the apostles, the prophets, the martyrs and all the saints, and was given to us, helping us to accept all the worshipping as signs or ways to lead us to union with God. We are not allowed to become a habit or tradition from history or folklore’s religions.
“Alive is the Lord whom I stand in front of Him”. And the living God intervenes and changes and mixes with us. Whoever is not changed by the worship of the truth and the spirit, cannot worship the living God, but only a dead god. Christianity is prophetic I.E Dynamic.
Wherever is the spirit of God there is freedom. Therefore, the prophetic spirit does not submit to the relationship or specific understanding. If we look at those relationships, we will find that most of them are the result of our lies, hypocrisy, fear and false values. We do not fear anything more than we fear those relationships; and nothing enslave us as much as they do.
The vices were originally hypocrisies and they became religion and law. The sword of Elias cuts all of these hypocrisies.
Whoever carry a similar spirit of Elias’ will never look at his own power or the power of his enemies; but to the will of God only which enables him to achieve what he wishes. It is not important if we win of loose, it is the obedience to the spirit “when God speaks, everyone prophesize” “Amos 3: 8”. The prophet obeys the spirit even if he had to give up his head to a sinful dancer (as did the Baptist). The Lord only you worship and only to Him you adore”. When you have the real God, then all the idols will disappear. With this God, all the idols will be destroyed and there will be no more hypocrisy in any relationship but a just union with the world of truth. With such spirit we will build our relationship with the others, and will kill the “I” and the “other” will live.
AMEN
In His love.
Paul
Metropolitan Archbishop Paul
Primate of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines
http://www.antiochianarch.org.au