The True Christ

TRUTH? LAUNCH INTO THE DEPTHS

     Where can genuine truth be found other than in the living Truth who came down from heaven? Jesus is the source of all truth being the eternal Truth, Son and Logos of the Father. As God He descended and became a man like unto us, and He dwelled among us full of grace and truth. When he came into the world He became the  most important man that ever lived, the one for whom everything exists. Why is it that so many people who are baptized into Orthodoxy, and are well educated having knowledge of the Son of God, fall away from the Faith  and fall into various philosophies and alternate ways of life. 

     The biggest reason is that they never really recognized Christ, having had only a superficial knowledge of Him and the Orthodox Faith. This resulted in their remaining superficial lacking a firm attachment to truth from heaven. We cannot be superficial in our faith but should be simple and sincere also God knows our many thoughts and feelings which cannot be hidden. There is also  pernicious sin which can assault a person who is not well prepared with a defense, and sin can cause us to fall away from truth. Having fallen away makes it more difficult to return. It is difficult but not impossible, for God will guide a soul that is sincere, and  sincerity with the desire for truth will lead a soul to all truth. 

     The Lord commanded His disciples to “launch into the depths”. For that’s where the better fish will be. If we go into the depths of the Gospels they will lead us forward and upward into heaven. If we read or hear the Gospel and fail to put into action what we learned, we can find ourselves in danger of falling away. We need to arouse zeal in our souls to quickly abandon evil and put into practice all the good we can as soon as we know our responsibilities. This involves having Christ and the Gospels as the guiding light of our entire lives. We need to abandon our bad habits and acquire virtues such as faith hope and love, honesty, kindness, justice, etc.

 Living according to the Gospels, and keeping Christ’s commandments will result in our becoming more like Him in our words. deeds and thoughts. This is the main object of our lives, to become like Christ, who instructs us to “learn from me for I am meek and humble in my heart.” This is not accomplished by words alone but by action, by self-accusation and  keeping His commandments.

     A man or woman may meet a desirable partner and seek to know each other better which may lead to mutual love and perhaps result in marriage. A similar beginning relationship with Christ is when we meet the desirable Christ, and seek to know Him better, then we find that He is most worthy of all our love for He is a good and merciful God who forgives all our sins and loves us with perfect love, even going to His Passion and the being crucified out of His love for us 

“Launch into the depths.” 

If we descend into depths of Christian behavior we will find delightful treasures like humble mindedness and meekness the opposite of ugly pride, boastfulness and unreasonable anger. Thsi behavior is superior to everything possessed by man. We become what God meant us to be. Man was created to be virtuous and compassionate like his Creator who formed him. Although we live among prideful and boastful men we must avoid copying their manybad habits and should acquire the genuine sweetness and goodness that dwells in Christ and His Saints.

“Launch into the depths” 

     Launching to the depths of love we will find more wonderful treasures, such as our love for the Lord who loves us first. We learn to love the Lord by observing His example. First he created matter out of nothing, and formed the heavens and earth. Then creating man from the soil, in His love He breathed His own Spirit into Him, giving him life and being. He formed the man to become just like himself in His own image which was His loving desire. He did not need man but wanted this creature He formed to know and share of His happiness and love. God is completely happy in himself and is always giving and sharing this happiness with creatures. He created man and gave him the complete freedom to obey or disobey, to love or hate as he chooses. This complete freedom makes love possible for only a totally free person is capable of genuine love. We humans have this ability and it is somewhat visible among us such as we see love of a father and mother toward their children, and the love ofchildren toward their parents and husbands and wives toward each other. 

     God is love and St. Paul calls love the greatest of virtues above every other virtue, saying: “the greatest of these is love.” But what is love and why is it so exalted? Love is basically giving all the good you possess to the one you love. In fact, we have heard it said: “My sweetest one, everything I have is yours.” This is a fine expression of love, for God says the same things to us: “Everything I have is yours.” He made all creation and placed man as its ruler. He holds nothing back but offers all that is necessary tohelp us become just like Him.  We have “launched into the depths”.