Justin Appel

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today’s Gospel lesson contains a great promise, that those who believe in Christ through their word experience a special kind of unity. Even as the Son and the Father are one, or to use the biblical language, Each are ‘in’ the Other: so are we found ‘in Christ’.

According to John’s Gospel, this unity means we are ‘sanctified in truth’, which is another way of saying the same thing, because truth is nothing less for us than the person of Jesus, God’s incarnation in human flesh. We are found ‘in Him’.

This unity with God also manifests itself in a special relationship to others. The saints speak of this dynamic, and it can serve as a guiding principle for us. Saint Silouan, about whom I wrote last week, found in this unity a kinship that will manifest itself in particular ways.

One of Silouan’s most prominent themes is the need to ‘come to know’ the love of God, which can only be done by the grace of the Holy Spirit. When we become aware of the depth and profundity of God’s love for us, given as a gift by the Spirit, it espouses in us a response, a longing for God, a desire that flows from us back to God.

Even at night, though a person’s body ‘may succumb…and would fain lie on his pallet, even there the soul, unwearying, reaches up in longing towards God, her Father.’ (As a side note, much is lost if we cannot appreciate this language, with its particularly gendered expressions.)

The result is that the grace of the Holy Spirit ‘instructs us in the humility of Christ’ which ‘gladdens her and at the same time fills us with sadness for mankind: and she weeps and prays that the people may know the Lord and find delight in His love.’ (The Writings of Staretz Silouan 1866-1938, Archimandrite Sophrony, trans. by Rosemary Edmonds, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974)

So then, our unity with God and the Spirit’s grace evokes a response in us. Not simply a response of acceptance, but a spiritual awareness of brokenness in the world and of our connection to others. It’s a recognition that looks more like sorrow than anything else, yet sorrow with hope.

Yours in Christ,
Justin