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The Father Looks for Our Return

“But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him… and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

The father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son was looking for his lost child the entire time the young man was away. He wasn’t sitting inside, nursing a grievance or waiting for an apology to slide under the door. This is the posture of our God—always watching, always waiting, and always desiring our return.

Notice that the father did not wait for the son to close the gap. He could have stood his ground to make a point. Instead, the moment he saw him, he made no effort to conceal his overwhelming love and joy. He bridged the distance himself, refusing to let his son walk that last mile home by himself.

Whatever distance we feel between us and God in our hearts, we can rest in the knowledge that He is not waiting for us to be perfect before He embraces us. He is not holding back to teach us a lesson. The moment we make the slightest turn toward Him, He is already running toward us, ready to greet us not with a lecture, but with a kiss. We are loved, we are missed, and we are welcome home.

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Essential to the Plan: Find Our Place in the Body

In 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul reminds us that the Spirit distributes gifts “to each one individually as He wills.” This variety is intentional; if we all possessed the exact same talents, we could not serve Christ effectively. God grants us different strengths specifically to bind us together as a true community.

As Romans 12:5 affirms, “we, being many, are one body in Christ.” Just as a physical body needs every part to function, our spiritual community requires each of our specific contributions in order to be complete. No one in the Church is superfluous to God’s plan.

Our task is clear: to identify, nurture, and apply the unique gifts God has entrusted to us. We cannot let these talents lie dormant; they were given to us for the benefit of all. When we use these gifts to serve others, we fully step into the role we were created to fill.

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A Living Gateway to Christ

The Old Testament is a living gateway to God’s love. Its books speak to the heart of God’s people, telling the story of creation and the fall, promise and covenant, exile and return—all leading to the saving work of Christ.

The burning bush, the Passover lamb, the Exodus, and the voices of the prophets all lead us to the Crucified and Risen Lord, who “opened the Scriptures” for His disciples and set their hearts ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:27).

Abraham’s trust, Moses’ obedience, David’s repentance, the prophets’ courage, and Israel’s hope anchor us in faithfulness. These stories are signposts pointing to Christ and to the healing of our souls.

So when we pick up the Old Testament, our prayer becomes the cry of the Psalms: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Reveal Thy face, that we may be saved” (Psalms 26:8; 79:4).

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An Ancient Mystery Revealed in the Jordan

The faith of the Old Testament wasn’t strictly unitarian. Ancient believers saw the one God of Israel, Yahweh, as existing in more than one “person” or hypostasis. The Old testament speaks about Yahweh, the Word of Yahweh, and the Spirit of Yahweh as three distinct divine beings.

This experience of God became clear with the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. At Jesus’ Baptism, the Father’s voice spoke from heaven, calling Him His Son, and the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove. God reveals himself as Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This moment relates directly to what Jesus later told His disciples in the Great Commission: to baptize people “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Christian baptism’s triple immersion “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” connects us with our Lord’s Baptism in the Jordan, as every baptism is itself a glorification of God in Trinity.

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The Word Creates

The opening of Genesis and John shows that the world is made by God’s Word. Genesis 1 depicts God speaking the universe into existence: God does not build or struggle with raw materials; he simply speaks, and the Cosmos comes into being. Creation itself is a kind of liturgy, ordered and sustained by the living Word of God.

This shapes how we understand both the world and Jesus Christ. When Scripture says that God creates by speaking, it teaches that his Word is not just information but life‑giving power. God’s speech is supremely effective; it accomplishes what it declares. Every creature exists because it has been personally addressed by God.

The Gospel of John then makes this personal Word explicit: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Before anything was made, the Word already is, in perfect communion with the Father and truly God. “All things were made through him” means that the same divine Word who speaks in Genesis is the eternal Son, the one through whom all things came to be.

Creation is therefore Trinitarian: the Father creates through the Son in the Holy Spirit. The order and beauty of the world reflect the wisdom of the Word, the signature of Christ on everything that exists. The One who will later walk the roads of Galilee is the same One through whom galaxies, oceans, and atoms were brought into being.

The Holy Evangelist John then makes a staggering claim: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The eternal Word who called light out of darkness enters the very world he made, taking on our nature without ceasing to be who he is eternally. The hands that shaped the stars become the hands of a carpenter and are later stretched out on the Cross. The voice that said “Let there be light” will cry, “It is finished,” bringing about a new creation.

To say that Jesus Christ is the Word of God is to say that the Savior of the world is also its Maker. In him, the first creation and the new creation meet. He still speaks, calling each of us out of darkness into his light, and when he speaks, things change: the Word who once created now re‑creates, restoring in us the image first spoken into being at the dawn of this age.

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Christ’s Compassionate Mission: Healing the Gadarene Demoniac

The account of the Gadarene demoniac begins with Jesus intentionally traveling into Gentile territory — a region where no one expected a Jewish teacher to go — to seek rest. Instead of respite, He encounters a man who is possessed by many demons and has been completely cast out by his own community, living among the tombs and bound by chains.

Despite the man’s terrifying condition and social isolation, Christ is not afraid or offended; He approaches the demoniac with profound compassion. The Church Fathers see this moment as symbolic of Christ’s entire messianic mission. No one, no matter how lost or broken, has drifted so far as to be outside the reach of God’s love and saving power.

The healing of the Gadarene demoniac assures us that Christ’s grace extends to the lonely, the forsaken, and those on the very edges of community. Jesus invites all to experience dignity and new life in Him, drawing us from the fringes into his loving embrace, where we stand together as brothers and sisters in a communion of Divine love.

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“Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly”

People were deeply moved by St. John the Forerunner’s warning of the coming judgment and wanted to know how to amend their lives. St. John’s answer was grounded in mercy and justice—the same command proclaimed by the prophet Micah, that we “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.”

John was not giving a detailed code of behavior for every circumstance, but rather revealing the heart of the law. Repentance meant a shift away from “each man for himself” to becoming one’s brother’s keeper. True turning to God always includes turning toward the neighbor, because love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated.

In practical terms, this means that part of faithfulness to God is found in serving others. Just as our sins often make life harder for those around us, repentance produces the opposite effect: making another’s life a little lighter, even through small acts of mercy. These are the fruits worthy of repentance, the visible sign that one’s heart has truly turned toward God.
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A Cross of Tragedy and Victory

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom said that the Cross is both a tragedy and a victory, revealing what is perhpas the greatest and most beautiful paradox in the Gospel. The tragedy lies in Christ’s innocent suffering and the shameful nature of crucifixion—a punishment for criminals and political outcasts—yet Christ willingly endures it out of  selfless love.

Our Lord did not will to be lifted up on the Cross for his own sake. He did it for us. Because Christ’s death was freely offered, the Cross becomes the act of sacrificial love that transforms death from tragedy to glory. “The Cross,” he said, “an instrument of infamous death… because Christ’s death was that of an innocent, and because this death was a gift of self in an act of love—becomes victory.”

Christians are called to embrace this paradox: taking up the Cross means denying selfishness and opening ourselves to divine love, which is, in Metropoltian Anthony’s words, “love sacrificial, love crucified, but love exulting in the joy of life.” This transformation demonstrates how defeat leads to glory through self-emptying love and ultimate hope.

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Judgment and Grace as One

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16) The same divine fire brings warmth to the repentant and burns the unrepentant. God’s presence doesn’t change—we do. 

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The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee: Insights from Luke 4:14-15

In this excerpt from my online Bible Study, we explore Luke 4:14-15, where Jesus returns to Galilee empowered by the Spirit and begins teaching in synagogues, earning widespread praise. Saint Ephraim the Syrian and Origen emphasize Jesus’ spiritual power and the significance of teaching within the synagogue. The discussion highlights the centrality of the worshiping community in experiencing and learning the faith. The episode concludes with a reflection on facing temptations with God’s strength and becoming ambassadors of His grace.