June 9th, 2024
Always a Spiritual Focus, First
Dearest Parish Family Members,
This week, we have a chance to examine and better understand some fundamental aspects of (fallen) human nature. In this week’s case, it is the phrase “the sins of the fathers.”
Who wants to be judged by what somebody else has done? Certainly, not us. Why should we be held responsible and charged for what somebody else did?
But that’s how it goes, sometimes. This is where we get the phrase “sins of the fathers.” We oftentimes inherit situations that other people put us into. We inherit the habits and foibles that our parents created. We inherit their wealth or their poverty. We inherit a climate-changing world that previous generations wasted and ruined for us. We inherit the social culture that others created for us.
In the time of Jesus Christ, the Jewish culture always blamed “the sins of the fathers” for whatever their children inherited. This was their way of explaining why an innocent child could be born blind or infirm. This is fallen human nature at its worst: trying to justify circumstances.
And just look at how “officious” the Jewish culture had become, all rules and regulations to explain the unexplainable. Read in between the lines of this Sunday’s Gospel lesson to see how rigid and officious their culture had become, by then: their imposing an “official” recognition of the man born blind, their repeated insistence on recognition, acknowledgement, and blame, the fearful response of the man’s parents, their translation of “Don’t ask us; ask our son, he is of age.”
Only Jesus avoids the pitfall of blame and justification. Only Christ heals beyond the natural. The only “sin” the rest of us are “born into” is mortality. Christ provides healing and immortality. All we need to do is open our eyes and participate with him.
This is why it helps us to attend our worship services regularly—so we may hear and understand continuity and context, to hear and understand the culture of the Jewish nation, to overcome our superstitions and justifications, to hear and grow in spiritual growth closer to our Lord. This is why we are here in church—to provide for you, and for you to participate and join, being strong in our parish family and strengthening our family.
Faithfully, Father Samaras
8th Morning Gospel:
Sunday of the blind Man. On June 9th, 2024, we commemorate our Father among the Saints Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria. And today, the sixth Sunday of Pascha, we celebrate the miracle that our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ performed on the man born blind.
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2024 PARISH COUNCIL
President - Theo Christ
Vice President – Yvonne Anastasiou
Secretary – Dina Mastoras
Parish Council Member - Evdokia Sofos
Parish Council Member - Dialecti Voudouris
Parish Council Member - Anastassios Mentis
Parish Council Member – Paula Refolo
Parish Council Member - Theodore Vougiouklakis