#anthony bloom

[orthodoxadventure]

[guiltywisdom]

...the Church must never speak from a position of strength. It ought not to be one of the forces influencing this or that state. The Church ought to be, if you will, just as powerless as God himself, which does not coerce but which calls and unveils the beauty and the truth of things without imposing them.

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of Sourozh

[dein-wille-geschehe]

[momentsbeforemass]

Beauty

When someone does something we don’t like. Or just is someone we don’t like. It’s easy to draw lines.

There’s a certain comfort in marking them off as different. In pushing them away.

The thing is, however comforting it might be to push them away, that comfort comes at a cost.

There’s a cost to us to push them away and keep them there, because pushing them away requires us to close ourselves off from something intrinsic in our natures. Something that’s the better part of us.

Something that we share with them, because it’s part of how God made us. And them.

That connection, that similarity that comes from the better part of our natures, gets called a lot of different things. Some people call it spirit or humanity.

Anthony of Sourozh saw it as a spark of God’s grace. A spark that God puts in each of His creations. And called it beauty.

“Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone He met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what He did was to call out this beauty.”

It’s the best cure I know, whenever I feel the urge to push someone away.

Today’s Readings

[dramoor]

God can save the sinner you are, but not the saint you pretend to be.

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

[philipchircop]

DAMAGED ICON?

Always look for the good in people, said Ignatius Loyola.  He said “be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor’s statement than to condemn it.”  (Spiritual Exercises 22)  Alas, this isn’t always my instinctive response to the actions and words of others.  So I take to heart this advice from Anthony Bloom, an Orthodox theologian and bishop:

Every one of us is in the image of God and every one of us is like a damaged icon. But if we were given an icon damaged by time, damaged by circumstances, or desecrated by human hatred, we would treat it with reverence, with tenderness, with broken-heartedness. We would not pay attention primarily to the fact that it is damaged, but to the tragedy of its being damaged. We would concentrate on what is left of its beauty, and not on what is lost of its beauty. And this is what we must learn to do with regard to each person as an individual, but also – and this is not always as easy – with regard to groups of people, whether it be a parish or a denomination, or a nation. We must learn to look, and look until we have seen the underlying beauty of this group of people. Only then can we even begin to do something to call out all the beauty that is there. Listen to other people, and whenever you discern something which sounds true, which is a revelation of harmony and beauty, emphasize it and help it to flower. Strengthen it and encourage it to live.

[orthodoxadventure]

We should never try to squeeze out of the heart any sort of feeling when we come to God; a prayer is a statement, the rest depends on God.

Living Prayer by Anthony Bloom

[orthodoxadventure]

Look at the various passages in the Gospel. People much greater than ourselves hesitated to receive Christ. Remember the centurion who asked Christ to heal his servant. Christ said 'I will come', but the centurion said 'No, don't. Say a word and he will be healed.' Do we do that? Do we turn to God and say 'Don't make Yourself tangibly, perceptively present before me. It is enough for You to say a word and I will be healed. It is enough for You to say a word and things will happen. I do not need more for the moment.' Or take Peter in his boat after the great catch of fish, when he fell on his knees and said 'Leave me, O Lord, I am a sinner.' He asked the Lord to leave his boat because he felt humble-and he felt humble because he had suddenly perceived the greatness of Jesus. Do we ever do that? When we read the Gospel and the image of Christ becomes compelling, glorious, when we pray and we become aware of the greatness, the holiness of God, do we ever say 'I am unworthy that He should come near me?' Not to speak of all the occasions when we should be aware that He cannot come to us because we are not there to receive Him. We want something from Him, not Him at all. Is that a relationship? Do we behave in that way with our friends? Do we aim at what friendship can give us or is it the friend whom we love? Is this true with regard to the Lord?

Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom