"Elizaveta Iurievna Kuzmina-Karavaeva Skobtsova, later known as Mother Maria, was a Russian Orthodox religious thinker, poet and artist. Her multi-faceted legacy includes articles, poems, art, and drama. In the 1910s she was part of the literary milieu of St. Petersburg and was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. She fled Russia soon after the Bolsheviks' takeover and lived in Paris, where she became a nun. In 1935, she participated in organizing the so-called Orthodox Action, which was designed to help Russian immigrants in France. She and her fellow-workers from Orthodox Action opened a house for homeless and sick immigrants in Paris. During the Nazi occupation of the city, the house was transformed into a refuge for Jews and displaced persons. Mother Maria and her son were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and died in the Ravensbruck camp in Germany. Mother Maria's selfless devotion to people and her death as a martyr will never be forgotten. In 2004, the Holy Synod confirmed the glorification of Mother Maria." - from Columbia University Libraries Special Collection link

Encounter, Engagement, and Transformation

There tends to be polarization in people's minds concerning worship and suffering.  People see worship as one thing and our ability to deal with suffering as a completely separate thing.

I believe that worship is really all about encounter, engagement, and transformation.  Regardless of the liturgical nature of the worship (high church, low church, or free church worship) it is all about encountering the ONE, engaging with the ONE, and being transformed by the ONE.

Worshiping without turning away from the altar and walking out into the world and relieving suffering (by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned) is purely selfish.  The whole experience of worship is about setting things right and communing.

We set things right by approaching the Divine and we commune with the Divine via the very aspects of the worship (song, word, sacrament, silence).  This is a coming together and a vivifying of life: man and God.

To walk away from this encounter and not desire to be an embodier of this same process for the life of the world is to disengage from the process of encounter, engagement, and transformation itself.  If we meet God and are transformed, how can we not go out into all the world and be agents of that transformation for the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned and alone.

Encounter with the HOLY always supposes that it changes the individual.  This change is an agent of change itself.  It is to provoke us into changing the world.  Evangelism is nothing more that encountering, engaging, and being transformed by the HOLY and turning around and enabling others to encounter, engage, and be transformed.

Does not our encounter with ABBA remove our suffering, help us redeem (by suffering with us -"com-passion" - or for us, i.e, the Incarnation) our suffering, or in someway relieve (lessen even if by granting understanding of our suffering) our suffering?  How do we enable encounter without also removing or redeeming (by suffering with or for) or relieving (lessening even if by granting understanding) others' suffering?

We cannot.  Worship without visiting the sick and the suffering is hollow.  Encounter with the ONE without encountering the suffering neighbor is no encounter at all.

Is there a belief that we can remove all the suffering?  I do not believe so.  This, however, is not a reason to not remove, redeem, and relieve suffering or be about the tasks of doing so.  At the very least, if we cannot remove, or redeem suffering, we should look to relieve it.

Again, the Incarnation becomes the rule.  He came to live with us.  We are to live with others.

There is no spiritual journey for the individual alone.  It is always a spiritual journey for all mankind.  As in the teachings of the Buddha, no one Buddha is ever "saved" until all beings are "saved".

On one hand we encounter, engage, and become transformed with God.  On the other we encounter, engage, and become transformed with our neighbor.  It is one circular act; each fed by the other.

Ciao!

+Tom

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