What I want to do today is to continue on a talk I gave a couple of months ago, on the Maronite liturgical year. And I just want to give another look at what I'm trying to do here, and making this presentation. You know, we say Maronite liturgical year or liturgical year of the Catholic Church. Basically what we're saying that as believers, when we come to church, for example, on Sunday, we already have our faith. We already know why we are Catholics, why we are Maronites, but the whole idea here is we want to get deeper into what that faith is. And that's why the Church, not only the Catholic Church, but other religions sometimes, go through a whole series of celebrations, reflections on what it is that we believe in. And so that's why we have the liturgical year. My purpose, of course, was, as I mentioned in the last talk, how much can we learn from the Maronite tradition, with its own thinking on what we're doing when we celebrate each Sunday of the year? So, what is our new insight or our different approach. Most of us here, grew up with a Roman mentality, whether we grew up here in the United States or in Lebanon. I say that because in Lebanon most of the time, when you hear your sermons from your priests in Lebanon, they are giving you the Roman theology because they don't know our own Maronite theology. And so, the whole idea here is, we want to be good Catholics, we want to learn as much as we can, we want to be able to enrich our own faith. Now, when we talk about the liturgical year for the Maronites or for Catholics, we're dealing with three different approaches. 

The first one is, we recall what happened in the past. Obviously, that's what we're doing when we celebrate each Sunday of the year, as we mentioned last time, and we start with the season of announcement. And the season of announcement, we go through the history of what happened. In other words, dealing primarily with two announcements, the birth of John the Baptist, and the birth of Christ, two announcements. We could spend a whole year trying to meditate on why we give so much significance to the birth of John the Baptist. But in those two announcements, what we have is the announcements of miraculous births. The most miraculous one, of course, is about the Blessed Virgin Mary, because She conceives by the Holy Spirit. But please remember the story of Zachary and Elizabeth is presented as miraculous. He's an old man and she's an old woman. And she conceives, how is that possible? And of course, if you read the Old Testament, with Abraham, and Sarah, Abraham was 90 years old. That's an achievement. And for Sarah, who is probably almost the same age, that's even a greater achievement. And so the point I'm trying to make here is that right away, we're starting with historical events that have been handed down to us. But the events give us what happened factually. But then it's up to us to try to understand: what do these events mean? The fact is that Elizabeth conceived and the Blessed Mother conceived. Those are the facts. But then we try to figure out what does it mean. And in the same way, when I mentioned the Feast of Epiphany, you have an event that apparently happened, what we notice is all four gospels talk about it, of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River. That's an event. But the question is, what does it mean? What are the ramifications? Because tied in with that event, is the idea that the voice was the Holy Spirit descended over Jesus as a similar way to a dove. And Jesus heard the voice: “You are My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.” So we go from a historical event to a faith event, that this really happened. 

And in the same way when we talk about the public life of Jesus, that we talk about when we're talking about Lent, Jesus did have a public life. Jesus was tempted in the desert, Jesus preached, Jesus performed miracles. There were the ups and downs that went on. Jesus called the disciples. So we have all this written out for us. But then the question is, what were the ramifications there? What was the whole idea there? What was going on there? And then finally, you know, we go through the rest of the liturgical year, the death of Christ, the experience of Christ being risen from the dead, Pentecost that we're going to talk about today. All those other events that take place, the discovery of the Cross of Christ by Helena, the mother of Constantine, the season on the Holy Cross. How did it start? It started with Helena, saying here is the Cross that Christ was crucified on and building the church of the Holy Sepulcher or the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. So my point is, through the liturgical year, we recall events. And we recall events that happen, factually, historically. But then, those events take on a meaning and faith, and that we celebrate the faith that comes out of those events. 

But there's a third point, which is extremely important. And that is, we know what the events are supposed to mean to our faith. How does that apply to us? How does that event that we're celebrating, applied to us? How does Christmas apply to you and me, other than saying Happy birthday Jesus? How does it apply to our lives? And I say, wait, how does the baptism of Christ or the Feast of Epiphany? How does that apply to us? Now in the Roman Rite, as I mentioned, the last time we talked about the Roman Rite talks about the Magi. The Eastern churches talk about the baptism of Christ. But what was important, what I stressed and spent a lot of time on last time, was the fact of the baptism that we have, because of Christ, because He was baptized in the Jordan River. And what that baptism means for you and me. And what it really means, as we talked about last time, is that we are born a second time. The Word of God was begotten of the Father, the first time, He's begotten in the flesh, a second time. We were begotten by our parents the first time, at baptism we’re begotten a second time, a new birth. And I'm going to digress for a moment about this because I hope you understand this. Baptism, certainly for the Syriac Church, is one of the most important features of being a Christian. Baptism exposes the fact that you and I now are anointed by the Holy Spirit. You and I now have the dwelling of the Holy Spirit within us. And this is why the Syriac world, the Maronite world, when we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, we're celebrating that and that's how I read about that time. Now, the problem I have is most of the time, most of us don't even think about the fact that we were baptized. Unless you know you're filling out a form and ask you what religion are you? You say Maronite, you know. But baptism is not a one event. Baptism is a whole new beginning. And being a disciple of Christ is a whole lifetime of activity. And it all goes back to our baptism. And not only that. If you read our own spiritual writers, the Spirit of God that comes in baptism never leaves us, so that we're always experiencing the action of the Spirit if we allow the Spirit to act in us. The Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God is acting in us all the time, but you and I don't even think about it. We don't even listen to it, half the time. You know, it's like somebody, I use an example that somebody didn't realize that, when they were making his pair of trousers, they sewed in $100 bill on his pocket. And he doesn't know what's there. And he's starving to death. And he doesn't know he has $100 bill. And the same thing happens here. When you and I experienced a baptism, you know parents baptize their children. They're very happy, they call their friends, they have a big party. And depending on how much of a party you want to have, they make sure you get the video, the presets to worry about how he stands to get the right pictures. You know, but the point is, you're happy. Your kid is baptized, he is a Catholic, if he dies, he's going to go to Heaven and all that. But then we don't think about baptism again. We don't think about. But if you read our liturgy, and if you read the spiritual writers, especially in the Syriac world, they keep going back to baptism. Because in baptism, you have become a temple of this Trinity, a place where the Trinity resides, you have become a disciple. You were anointed, by the sacred Chrism “Mairoun”, you are now a disciple of Christ, a disciple of Christ. 

The interesting thing is, and I've mentioned this in other contexts. The point is that, you know, we celebrate these events and then we forget what they mean. And the problem I think we have, and please understand, I am not trying to tell you something shocking. I think I mentioned this once before, sometimes I tell people, baptism is wasted on infants. Because in the early Church, if you want to be baptized as a Christian, they spent two years, where people checked you out. They didn't want you to be a spy for the Romans. But on the other hand, they wanted to make sure they wanted you as part of their group. It's like if you're if you're joining some kind of fraternity or something, they wanted to make sure you're serious. So when I say it's wasted on infants, this because most Christians have never said to themselves: Do I really want to take on the responsibilities of what my baptism means? Sometimes we do that if we have a good preacher during Lent who reminds us of our baptismal promise. But that's why converts sometimes, are more zealous than people who are baptized as babies. Because if somebody becomes a convert to Christianity, he or she made a decision as an adult, that I really want to do this, I really want to get involved in this. And so, to get back to my point is that on the Feast of Epiphany, we're not just celebrating the baptism of Christ. But we're celebrating the beginning of our own Christian lives, with all the commitments and responsibilities that life involves. And so that's why we have to say, how does this apply to me? And the same way we celebrate the Resurrection. And I did bring this up last time. It's one thing to be happy for Jesus. It's one thing to say Jesus was persecuted, He was killed. He's alive. That's one thing. But the real question in our own liturgy, and our own Divine Office that brings that up: What does it mean for you and me? What does the Resurrection being for you and me? Now, you might say, well, like we used to study back in college, when we went to school. You know, the idea is, the Resurrection proves that Jesus was the real deal. In other words, He came from God. He's got the final seal of approval. He doesn't need that. And the Resurrection, you might say, well, that makes that makes it for me, He rose from the dead. Great? Where do I sign up? The real question is: What changes in your life when we say that Jesus rose from the dead? And we tried to answer that last time, when we went through all these various quotations I cited for you on the sheets you have. For the Syriac world, the first thing that means is that Jesus defeated death. The death is nothing to be afraid of. Emotionally, we might, but death has been destroyed. Death is not a punishment for sin, any longer. Death is a transition to a larger life. And so that's what it's supposed to mean for you and me. If Jesus of Nazareth, rose from the dead, then death has no control over Him. And so this is the first thing it means. Now, a lot of times we focus on the other aspect which we have, and that is that Jesus died for our sins. No doubt about that. He died for our sins, but His death. The whole idea here is how does that apply to you and me? You and I should never be passive observers. Let me go off on this for a moment. 

What I mean by this is, isn't it interesting that you and I as Christians, all Christians, Protestants too of course, we say, God created Adam? Adam was bigger than life. Adam had all kinds of gifts. Adam had a choice. He could either go for that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or avoid it. Thanks to Eve and that’s why every woman is already in trouble, because Eve was the troublemaker, Adam sinned, and what happened when Adam sinned? Everything goes bad. You and I don't even know Adam. Adam lived for 4 million years ago or whatever. If you want to say 4 thousand, go ahead, you Americans and the fundamentalists would be very happy. We don't even know him. And yet we carry the burden of Adam's sin. And then what happens next? Jesus comes and He dies on the Cross. And because He died on the Cross, God says everything is fine now. What part did do we have in that? Nothing. We had nothing with the sin of Adam, we had nothing with Christ dying on a Cross. That's what I mean about being a passive observer. That is not my theology. Now, if you want to burn me at the stake, go ahead. That is not my theology. My theology is, Adam was the first one that sinned, and you and I, in our own freedom have done something similar. That in the same way, when we see that Jesus died for our sins, God was already forgiving people before Jesus died on the Cross. God forgave David, for his sin. God was forgiving people all the way through the history of the human race that people turned to God and their sorrow. So it's not a matter that God has to be made happy before He forgive us our sins. But the question is, what does Christ dying on the Cross mean for you and me? And what it means is, He showed us that we should be willing to die to the old person, die to our own sins, because of His example of how He confronted evil and didn't allow evil to compromise him and died on the cross. That's why Christ died for our sins is good for you and me, because we want to imitate him in our own lives. And so this is what I mean about how does it apply to you and me? Same thing with the Resurrection. Now to turn to the last three events of the Maronite liturgical year. 

So at the end of the last time, we were talking about the Resurrection. Pentecost, we know the events of Pentecost, right? The Gospel, well, the Acts of the Apostles to give us a description of what happened. The disciples of Christ were in the room, they were praying. They were praying hard. In fact, they prayed so hard to set the room shook. And please remember who else was there besides the disciples of Christ? The Blessed Mother. And they experienced a wind that came through the room, and they experienced tons of fire coming down upon them. That's what they described. So that's the event. And we see the result of the event, by the very fact that after this event happened, Peter, and the apostles went out and changed the world. And so we know the fact of the event. Because before that time, Peter, and the apostles were afraid to get out of the door, out of the house. And so we know the event. The question then is: what does the event mean? What does Pentecost mean? Well, what it means here, is that manifested to Peter and the apostles, was the actual activity of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit, gave them courage, gave them zeal, took away any fear of death, gave them knowledge. And so they, you know, how do you change the world? Think about that for a moment. I mentioned this to you once before. 

The apostles of Christ were good guys. There's nothing about them that tells us they were that special. Half of them were fishermen. One belongs to the zealot party. In other words, he was a bomb thrower. They're trying to get the Romans out. One of them was a tax collector. How did they change the world? Now, of course, you have other religions that have spread too, you know, Islam spread by overcoming people killing them off, believe or die. Christians didn’t go around saying, If you don't believe in Christianity, I'm going to kill you, they tried to do that later. But, so we see the facts and what they meant to the disciples. So the question that is, what does that mean for you and me? And here's where we have our Maronite liturgy. So for example, on your sheet on page two, page two of your sheet where it says glorious Pentecost, and the opening hymn, on page 406 of your missal, and the waters John baptized, calling people to repent. In the spirit, Christ made us children of the loving God. And then in the opening prayer, through His death and Resurrection, He gave us life and pour the Holy Spirit upon us, the spirit of adoption, through whom we call God, our Father. So what does it mean for you and me? What this Pentecost mean? Well, as our Maronite tradition tells us, that means a couple of things. 

As I mentioned last time, and the Gospel, John the Baptist says, I baptize you with water. The one coming after me, will baptize you with fire and spirit. And so the idea here on Pentecost, we're not just celebrating what happened to the apostles. But we're celebrating what now is available to you and me. That we have received fire and the spirit, fire and the spirit. Are you going to change the world? Maybe you could. First of all, try to change your family. Then try to change your neighborhood. Try to change the people who are to work with you. Not by proselytizing them, not by handing out a catechism, saying: We Read this, read this Bible, by your example. By your example, by what you fight for, what you want to try to achieve. This is how you change the world. As I mentioned a few moments ago, you are disciples of Christ, you can always retire, you know, you can say I don't want to be a disciple anymore. But you're stuck with your baptism. So, the whole idea is, you're baptized with fire, and the Spirit. Now, if you allow me to digress for a moment, since today, we had this feast to the Transfiguration celebrated. What does this feast to the Transfiguration tell us? What it tells us, is that Christ, at one point, allowed the disciples to see what He was really like, that He was God on earth. And the people who have meditated on a Transfiguration tell us that the light they saw was what they would call uncreated light. That was a favorite theme by the Byzantine spiritual writers. That's why the Byzantine church, like even here in Washington, the main Melkite Church is called what? Holy Transfiguration. Because the idea here is the divine light that was in Christ shone forth. And if you're paying attention to today's epistle, what did they talk about? Moses. And you remember the story about Moses, when he went up to talk to God, when he came back, they had to put a veil over his face, because he shone with light. And so the idea his uncreated light, as divine light is able to exist here on earth. And so to get back to my point, if you and I are baptized with fire, and the Spirit, then we have divine light within us. Before the Quakers started talking about that, we have divine light. In fact, if you read the spiritual writers, the Syriac writers, they take the idea that we, you and I are an image and likeness of God. And they use the idea of a mirror, until we talk about that you and I being in the image and likeness of God are not just a coin, but a mirror. And when we purify our minds and hearts, the light of God has reflected in us. In other words, the light of God bounces off us, goes out from us. And so this is something of an idea of what we can learn from a gospel like today's gospel, that you and I, because of our baptism, have light within us. 

Now, what is the other quote I read here? The other quote was, through His death and Resurrection, you gave us life, and poured the Holy Spirit upon us, the spirit of adoption, through whom we call God, our Father. Now, I mentioned this last time. You and I are part of the divine family. We are direct relations to Christ. We are related to Christ. And one way by DNA, because we're part of the human race, and another way by adoption. And remember, what St. Paul said about adoption, he said by adoption, we have the same rights as the biological heir. We are adopted children of God. And because of that, through the Spirit, and that's right, in St. Paul again, by the Spirit, we can call God “Abba”. We can call God our Father, our intimate Father, not just Father by honorary designation, we're not honorary children, we are adopted children. And so we can call God Father, Abba, as in Hebrew, you know, Syriac, “Ab” means father. “Abba” means daddy. That's what a baby says in his father's arms “Ab…ba, Ab…ba, baba”. And so, if God is your Father, Who unconditionally loves you, how can you ever be afraid? How can you ever depart from that love? And so, this is why you know, when you I say the Lord's Prayer in church, and I at the altar I can see and I said this before, our Maronite community of Washington praise, you’re devout people. I'm not trying to compliment, you are devout people. When you put out your arms and pray Our Father, you are praying with a real sincerity. But do you know what you're saying? In fact, one of our Lapras uses that term. We call it God “Abba”. So we're loved, no matter what we do, we're loved no matter how we sin, we're loved no matter how horrible we are, we are loved. Now again, it comes from faith, it doesn't come from scientific data. So that's part of the meaning of Pentecost. 

Now, let's go on to the next feast, the season of the Holy Cross. Now, that's an interesting season, isn't it? You don't have it in the Roman Church. We have the Feast of the Holy Cross. The Roman Church has the Feast of the Holy Cross, September 14, but we Maronites have a whole season. You know, we have like, two months of the Holy Cross. So, that means we draw a lot more meaning out of the feast, than somebody who normally would. Now, the Feast of the Holy Cross itself is interesting, isn't it? Why do we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Cross on September 14? Well, if you research that at all, you'll find out two bits of fact, again, the first fact is that when Helena, the mother of Constantine went to the Holy Land, she was in search of the Holy Cross.

Now, please remember our boy Constantine, interesting person. He was in the Orthodox Church and turned him into a saint. I'm not sure about that. But who am I? I mean, I don't want to question anybody's morals. Although we're told he didn't agree to be baptized till he was dying, because with baptism, all your sins are forgiven, you don't have to confess anything. So he was a catechumen until he was dying. But what is the story of Constantine and we have that in our Maronite liturgy of the Holy Cross. The story of Constantine is that he was involved in a real tight battle, to be emperor. And he claims that he saw in the sky, in Latin of course, and this sign you will conquer and he saw a cross in the sky. And as a result, he claimed he had the soldiers put that cross on their shields, and he won the battle. And so Constantine, of course, knew about the Christian faith, he studied it again, might not know this, but he studied in in Asia before he went back to the west, when he was a young man. So his mother was a devout Christian. And so once he was Emperor, she had the means to go to the Holy Land and search for the Holy Cross. And the story is that she found the Holy Cross. And when she found the Holy Cross, they built a church in Jerusalem. The Latins called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Interestingly enough, in the East, they call it the Church of the Resurrection. This is the end. That in itself tells you the difference between East and West. Think about it. When did she build this church? September 13, 325. Or 335. I don't remember. That is when the Feast of the Holy Cross came into the church. September 13. The story goes on. A couple 100 years later, the Persians came, took over the Holy Land, took the cross from the church and took it back to Persia. The emperor Heraclius in the six hundreds went and defeated the Persians and he got the cross back. And so when he returned, put it back into the Church of the Holy of the Resurrection was on September 14. And that's why we have the feasts of the celebration of the Holy Cross, September 14. So it's an interesting thing that here we have a celebration of something that you don't find in the Scriptures. But something had happened historically. 

Now, why is this feast, the glorious Cross, so significant? Because it is a cross, a victory. Here's a cross of life, not of death. It is a cross that shows that God's actions are stronger than dying a humiliating death. And if you study Christian archaeology, you find that in the first couple centuries, you did not have on the catacombs or in the murals, you did not have a picture of Christ on the Cross. It was too humiliating to insult Him. But after Constantine, you have the glorious Cross, sometimes in great splendor, sometimes they weren't afraid to show the Son of God dying on a cross. And so, the whole idea between behind the Feast of the Holy Cross is that God is victorious. Death is victorious, cross the Cross as a source of life. And so what do we have in our liturgy? Here again, on your sheet page 2, notice the entrance hymn, page 606 of your missal “Lord, Your Cross was taken from the tree in Eden, and your death upon the Cross has granted new life to all the world. And then in the main prayer, the Sedro: Blessed are you o wood of the Holy Cross, for you have erased Adam's curse, and restored his banished children to their inheritance. And blessed are you o wood of the Holy Cross for you, united, heavenly and earthly beings, Lord, and the most moral Lord Your cross is a ladder, leading us to heavens height. So what do we have here? We have here an event that originally was an event of shame. Now we have a relic, a holy relic. And that holy relic gets us thinking, what does this all mean? And as I mentioned last time, they believe that arose among our Syriac thinkers is that the Cross the Christ died on, as a direct descendant of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. But the Cross is, represents the tree of life that was lost when humans sinned in the Garden of Eden. And that's why you have a quotation here, notice, Lord, your cross is taken from the tree in Eden. So the idea here, in fact, that one theory among the Syriac writers, was that the wood that were chosen, the tree that was chosen for Christ to be nailed on a cross, was a direct, you know, vegetative descendant of the tree of Eden. I mean, that's quite a stretch, that was our kind of thinking that it's a direct descendant. But notice what the whole idea is. It's a tree of life, it gives fruit. And so, the whole idea here is that, the cross is something that shows us that Adam's sin is now over. And the cross now is able to give life to human beings. And not only that, it talks about the fact that the cross being wood is a ladder that unites Heaven and earth. And so that's how they meditated on the meaning of the Holy Cross. Now, as I mentioned last time, when we're talking about the Resurrection, I went into that whole description of how the blood and water that comes from the side of Christ on the Cross represents the baptism of Christ instituted and the Eucharist of Christ instituted. So, that helps us do understand why the Maronites decided to have a whole season dedicated to the Holy Cross. So in a sense, that's our liturgical year, the Romans don't have, they have the one day, the one feast. 

Finally, I want to turn to the last part of the liturgical year. And remember, we usually talk about the dedication and consecration of the Church at the beginning of the liturgical year. But I prefer to put it at the end. Because now what we're celebrating, is the final result of what Christ achieved here on Earth. And that is His Church. This is the final event in the story of Christ's work of salvation, and the actual Church. But not only that, a Church that is strong, a Church that will not be defeated. A Church now that is found all over the world. And here again, there is a historical reason. Why do we have the feast of renewal of the Church, because the first time they started celebrating it was when they consecrated the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem.

So, please remember the Maronites have these two. Now, not only the Maronites have the renewal of the Church, other Eastern churches do too. But those two feasts, the Cross and the Consecration of the Church are there because we live in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is only a few 100 miles away. Jerusalem was the mother of all churches, according to an anaphora of St. James. And so again, it has a kind of a historical basis. But I think that the feast, the way we Maronites celebrated, gives us a lot of good summation of what it is to live as part of a believing community. So let's look at the final quotations I have here on page 2, the first one, the entrance hymn “Come and shine in purity at the altar of the Lord, where the priest stands in between God and humanity. He takes what the people give, and lifts it up heavenward on high”. So please notice that first sentence there. What is the role of the consecrated priest, the ordained priest? What does the priest role? What does he serve? And what is saying there is the priest is the mediator between the people and the heavens, and God, he is the mediator. God and His wisdom wanted to have a living image of how human beings connect with God. And that's why we have the ordained priesthood. We're servers of the people of God. We are ones who mediate between the people and God, by the gifts that people bring to the altar, by the prayers people offer. We stand as mediators. Hopefully, we do it in a humble way, hopefully. 

But now, notice, it takes what the people give, and brings it on high. Part of what the people give is what we have in our possession like we had in today's Church, the bread and the wine. And what happens next, and the spirit full of life is called down to sanctify the cup and the bread. Great and awesome sacrifice, sinners come receive the flesh and blood of Christ for the pardon of your sins. So the Spirit is called on again, we've been talking about the Spirit all day today. So we have the words of institution. But please remember in the words of institution, we're narrating, we're recalling what happened at the Last Supper. So it's a narration. Now, the narration itself has its own power, I mean, the words of Christ, the words of the priest, have a power over the bread and the wine. But notice what it mentions here, and the Spirit, full of light is called down to sanctify the cup and the bread, the epiclesis, when the priest kneels on both knees and calls down the Holy Spirit. So this is how we make God manifested in the bread and the wine. And why do we receive the Eucharist? Because the Eucharist reminds us of Christ's action to bring us the forgiveness of sins. Now, the next sentence here, “In Your love you betrothed the Church of all Nations, and by Your grace, You built her foundation on Peter, and the 12 apostles, the Church of all Nations, You betrothed the Church.” When Saint Ephrem talks about the Church of Christ, He makes a distinction between the Church of the Old Testament and the Church of the nations. The Church of the nations is the Church of the whole world, the Gentiles. And that was, as you know, the great distinction that occurred after Christ departed this world. The Christians at first saw themselves as Jews. And even the Gentiles who join the Christian Church, they were exempted from the Jewish laws. And that was a big fight between Paul and others. But at first they kept going to the temple. And then they would celebrate the Eucharist in the evening. But as time went on, they realized that the message of Christ gives priority to all people, not just as someone who belongs to the Jewish faith. And so, that's why we have the Church of the nations. But notice, betrothed the Church. As I mentioned last time, I'm not going to repeat what I said last time, but please understand what that means. We talk about it, the Church is the bride of Christ. What does that supposed to me? Well, it means the ideal marriage. Christ is the groom. The Church is the bride. All of us are part of the Church. All of us are loved by the groom. And we are called to love back. That is what the Church is, the Church is based on love. I know we sometimes talk about the militant Church and the Church going out the fight, and the Crusaders, you know, all these other things. The Church is a Church of love. Everything we've ever done, that was authentic, had to do with love. Christ laid down his life, out of love. Christ told “Peter put away your sword.” So the Church can only be authentic if it is a loving Church, and loves everyone. It is not out to destroy anyone. It's out to push away the powers of evil, push it away to triumph, love triumphing over hate which again, should apply, always. So this is why we talk about the betrothal of the church. Now, final quotation. Blessed are you holy and most faithful Church for the Groom, betrothed to you, brought you into pastures green. Come eat fire and the bread, drink the spirit and the wine. Clothed in Spirit and fire, you shall be with Him, His bride.” I mentioned this before. Just let me remind you again, this phrase, fire and the bread, Spirit and the wine. I gave you the story before but I'll repeat it.

When Ephrem is meditating on the Eucharist, what is his meditation about? How does bread happen? How do you go from flour to bread? Through fire? Do you have a “foron”? You have an oven and the fire makes the flour bread. With the Eucharist, the fire of the Holy Spirit makes the bread the Body of Christ. So fire, fire again going down in the Spirit. What about wine? What gives wine its kick, alcohol. What is alcohol? It's a spirit. It's a material spirit. The Holy Spirit makes the wine the Blood of Christ. And so again, it's poetic. But please remember, poetry often gives us truth. So, you're not just receiving as some of the Protestants say, a memorial of the death of Christ, or a representation of the death of Christ in the Eucharist. You are receiving a union with Christ in the Eucharist. And this is what happens with the fire and the bread and the spirit and the wine. This is what makes us Church, baptism and Eucharist. If we believe in both and their ramifications, you and I are on your right way to being disciples of Christ. Thank you.