Category: Religious

Peace on Earth. Is This Really Ever Attainable?

On By dotluvs2writeIn Beauty, Christmas and other Holidays, Cultural and Political, humanity, Inspirational, Life, Musings, Nature, Religious, warLeave a comment

In the last month, I’ve been listening, once again, to podcasts by a dear archpriest who reposed a few years ago. He had several years of podcasts before his repose, and I listened to every one of them and am going through many of them again. His name was/is Fr. Tom Hopko.

I found epiphanies, discoveries, spiritual nourishment, and comfort in his talks.

Last week, I caught one of his talks he had done near Christmastime. He brought up the well-known saying I’ve heard all my life: Peace on Earth and good will toward men.

The first time I listened to his unpacking of that meaning was probably about 10 years ago. And anytime I read anything spiritually-centered, whether through the Scriptures or through books on the Saints, I will pick up different aspects of the verses or things said than I did in the past.

This was so for the meaning of peace on Earth and good will toward men.

This “Peace” is Christ, not the actual meaning of peace all over the Earth.

Fr. Tom explained that peace and good will is supposed to take place in the hearts of every person. They find peace through Peace = Christ. And Him only.

Because I’m one that is against wars and imperialism and the pursuing of power and money, I had been perceiving peace as an outward ability to tangibly have peace in the world through ending wars and people working through their problems diplomatically globally and through discourse within our communities.

So when I listened to what Father was saying, things clicked inside of me. Ah, I got what he meant.

Of course, I know and have known since being a practicing Orthodox Christian, that this world is broken and fallen, and there never can be real peace in this world. There cannot be any type of utopian place on Earth.

What I’ve noticed is when people are striving for that here on Earth, we may forget that the total harmony of humanity, the peace between all life, etc. is only in His Kingdom, and in that life afterward if we are blessed and through God’s mercy, we someday go there.

Pondering all that was said in that podcast, there was the thought that, well, peace within a person or many persons can bring about some peace because when one is in Christ and finds peace in Him, they emit peace toward others.

So, I have seen this in the Saints.

However, I don’t think it’s wide spread, especially in today’s spiritually dark climate.

But we can still work toward finding peace through Christ and trying to acquire it. The Holy Spirit within us helps us toward these spiritual pursuits.

Knowing this different perspective on peace, I see it as just a shifted view of what peace means. In a way, it’s a relief to me because, oddly enough, I think one striving to find this peace in and through Christ within our relationship with Him may be a much more attainable goal than “world peace”.

I say this may be “easier”, but it still feels like quite a mountain to climb. But it’s a good thing to pursue, and so I will continue to do so, no matter how many times I fail.

After all, life is about falling down and getting back up. He who endures to the end is saved, as Christ Himself says in Matthew’s Gospel.

And as Mother Gavrilia said, it’s the effort that counts.

I wish there was a way to permanently stamp those words into my brain. To remember it and have it before me always.

Everyone wants to live in peace, and knowing what that means and Who it is, I believe, helps guide us on the right path toward it.

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The Last Days

On By dotluvs2writeIn Cultural and Political, humanity, Life, Musings, Nature, News Events, Religious, warLeave a comment

“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.’”  ~ St. Anthony the Great

During Orthodox Christian Holy Week before we celebrated Pascha (Easter for other/Western Christians), my church’s bishop came to speak to us on Holy Tuesday evening, as he usually does every year during Holy Week.

In the midst of his homily, he stated (with a bit of paraphrasing), “In 2020, we entered the Last Days.”

This was chilling to hear but not too surprising, as our bishop speaks eschatologically often.

However, it was still sobering to hear him say this. Now, this may be his personal belief, meaning he was not speaking for the Church in a doctrinal or dogmatic manner. Still, it was both sobering and informative.

He uttered the words “Last Days”, not “The End Times”.

We have been in the End Times for nearly 2000 years. But the Last Days is the era that eventually includes the appearance of the antichrist and at some point (we don’t speculate on when this is), our Lord and Savior’s Second Coming.

Having said that, we have no idea how long the Last Days are to be. Days, years, centuries. They could last another 2000 or more years.

However, the state of the world tells us we are in the midst of a spiritual darkness spreading like poisonous tentacles all over the world.

For the past few years, I’ve seen and experienced how the culture and geo-political issues have become alarming.

From flat out denial of scientific biological facts to any sense of sanity or concern regarding our leaders stepping off the cliff into a third world war where mutual nuclear annihilation is certain to occur.

What happened to the leaders that used to understand mutual destruction and made every effort to not take that reckless path but worked for some type of diplomatic solution to world problems?

There is a war on Nature and therefore God, too, and it has been going on for several years now. But all of these issues have culminated quickly in the past two to three years.

Many people, who are blinded with pride, have no problem destroying the environment around them to further their supposed advanced technological discoveries. Nor do they care about the citizens of the globe that do not have the power to stop any of this, who are the main ones paying the price.

Saint Paul said, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial.” (Corinthians 6:12 NIV)

Because we live in a country that promotes never ending oneupmanship that is led by a need to make the most money, there is no off ramp, no halt to examine what we are doing before we take the risk or leap with no return, such as we are learning through AI executives of Google and Apple who are now asking for a moratorium.

Unfortunately, the video I saw on an interview with an ex-Google top official, he had said that if that person doesn’t take the next irreversible step, another person will.

While we are on the precipice of WWIII, we are grappling with this impending AI disaster, as well as no one being permitted to speak the absolute truth that there are two sexes. Science and biology have shown this for millions of years.

I personally think our political and economic systems are broken and need a true overhaul that actually centers on the whole of humanity and not just those who have the power and money to decide what the rest of us are to live with.

The nonsensical rhetoric from radical movements and some political figures regarding the cultural and geo-political situations tells us that we’re at a time in human history that Saint Anthony the Great warned us about.

Throughout the history of man via the Old Testament, we see humanity degrades to evil behaviors, and pride is usually at the root. God had to come in and clean up these messes by us humans, which is done by purging humanity, such as the flood did, giving humanity another chance to make efforts to be selfless and love one another.

Because none of us have the power to stop all of the destruction and evil that is taking place, this purging will take place again, via Orthodox Christian prophecies I’ve read, but this will be the last one where God helps us to walk a righteous path.

The suffering that will increase in the coming days, months, years, that my bishop mentioned, and WWIII being part of it, I’m working to cling to Christ and am struggling to follow Him and His teachings, which include confession and repentance.

I’m praying my focus stays on this:

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

I felt compelled to write this, as I do not want to be lukewarm for which God spits me out, but a good servant and follower of God.

Praying for all. Love to all. God bless.

~*~*~*~