From our Book Club text, Everywhere Present, chapter two, “we live in an altar,” we read, “On the one hand, we say that ‘God dwells in heaven.’ But the church also says that He is ‘everywhere present and filling all things.” Metropolitan Kalistos Ware goes so far as to say Christianity is panentheistic. This is the belief that God is in all things. Certainly, the apostle Paul agrees that he “upholds all things by the word of his power.” The point is, the clear line between the sacred and the profane is the result of the fall. All of creation will eventually be renewed according to the Book of Revelation. This is what we see in the garment Christ wore which healed a woman, or when his saliva is mixed with dirt unto the healing of the blind man. We see when Peter’s shadow heals a man. We see this in the sacraments, in icons, in the blessings of holy water, in relics, and in all holy objects, not least sanctified in mankind. The theologian Alfaev points out that creation always had the potential of corruption because it was other than God, but it also has the potential of restoration with God’s presence. The new heavens and the new earth will one day be one. The job of the Christian is to realize this in our own lives. Let us make our families and ourselves holy. Let us make our property holy. Let us make our houses holy. Invite God into all of your life and all of your life will be made holy.
Fr. Nathan Symeon
Sunday, August 29 –
