Feast Day Of Brigid
(February 1st)
(February 1st)
Fr. Dale Matson
"For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you
were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were
of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is
low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing
things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us
wisdom from God, righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one
who boasts, boast in the Lord.'” (1 Cor. 1:26-31, Epistle reading for Feast Day
of Brigid).
Do I worry about
righteousness and redemption and sanctification? I think not if I am in Christ.
If I am in Christ, I am a new creature. I am putting off the old man and
putting on the new, empowered by God the Holy Spirit. Does this mean that our personality is being
destroyed? Is this self-naughting a kind of self-destruction? Of course it
isn’t. It is our false self that is being burned up. Christ has baptized us
with the Holy Spirit and fire. God the Holy Spirit is the refiner’s fire
burning up the dross of our old nature.
As St. Seraphim stated, “The true aim of our Christian life consists of
the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God."
Paul states in Colossians, “"To
whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). “Paul then passes beyond
the mystery of the church and comes to the words of the text, "Christ
in you, the hope of glory." The church consists of souls in whom
Christ lives. This is another mystery, never to be explained by or to the
unspiritual, never to be perfectly
explained even by the spiritual. The mystery of individual souls in whom Christ
dwells lies at the back of the mystery of the church.” (G. Campbell Morgan).
But is it not also that we are born again by
our baptism into Christ and His body the Church? Christ is the light of the
world and the lamp inside me searching my inwards parts. Just as Brigid
transformed a pagan location into a Christian community, Christ is exposing the
darkness in us by the brightness of His light. He is transforming us so His
Father may be glorified. He is not
making new things. He is making all things new. Just as Brigid took the pagan
land and water and fire and consecrated it for Christian purposes and
posterity. He is the tree of life within us and we live eternally on this fruit
of the Spirit. So, we are in Christ and
He is in us. His body is the Church and we are members of it. The good deeds we
perform, we do for Him and through Him and He does them through us. It is no longer we who live
but Christ who lives in us and for us. Amen
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