7

Angels. Words. Fire. Beings. Light. Energy. Power.

.................I LOVE the number Seven........................

Allow me to take you into my day:

Father John Takahashi reclines in his black cassock, long grey-black hair tied behind him, a hint of a smirk asking me to search harder for the answer to the simple question I've asked. A brilliant chain of gold links shines from his chest and terminates in a huge golden cross. In all the time I sit in his office today, in every moment, I am mindful of this cross.

"What links us to the Saints?" His question to answer mine. He is the image of wisdom: unmoving in his black office chair, one leg casually crossed over the other, coffee mug poised on the armrest. His black eyes are unreadable. He is waiting.

"Ummmm...." I shift uncomfortably in my seat, not sure if wearing a beanie in the office of the priest is something I'm actually allowed to do. I sluff off my hat. "I, uh..." The silence is becoming unbearable. "The Holy Spirit?"

He says nothing for a long time. He blinks once.

"Do you know what a wild card is?" His voice is deep - not booming deep but grating deep, pleasant to hear for the slight foreigness, but wonderfully intimidating. He waits again until I am clearly not going to answer for sheer confusion.

"Do you play cards?"

"Ummm.... yes?" I am uncomfortable to the point of sweating, now. My jacket needs to come off, but too obvious a gesture of discomfort may be an even greater deviation from standard priest protocal. I leave the jacket on.

"Then you know... what is the wild card?"

"The... eh hem... the uh... Joker?"

His eyes betray the slightest twinkle of amusement. A pause. He smiles.

"Yes, the Joker. Once you play the Joker, you win. It's easy. It's too easy." I can't believe that the Joker is becoming a way into my lesson for the day with Father John. "In Orthodoxy," he says in a way that makes me subtly brace for what's coming next, "we do not take the easy way out. Saying 'the Holy Spirit' as an answer to a question from the priest is like playing the Joker in the first round. Too easy. Let's try again."

Have I found the right mentor or WHAT??

For obvious reasons, I LOVED the talk with Father John. For almost forty minutes after the Divine Liturgy (today's the Feast of John the Baptist!), I grilled Father John with questions about Saints, the Orthodox vision for holiness, and even purgatory (which the Orthodox don't subscribe to, I discovered; it was an invention of the middle-ages merchant class that gained widespread acceptance in the Catholic Church). Here are a couple ideas that lingered with me all day:

In the Orthodox understanding, holiness is dynamic. Moving. We Christians have the ability to become more or less holy after we're baptized. My specific question was in regard to the Saints... basically, who are these guys and why are they important enough to pray to? So the first question first. Who are they? ...or what makes saints Saints?

Father John put it this way: many can swim, but not all are Olympic swimmers. He pointed out that Paul calls all Christians 'saints' [there's a good chance he'd point to a passage like Col 1:12 to back this up], and went on to explain the power of holiness conferred to a believer at baptism. At baptism it's like: Boom. Holy. Covered with Christ and Annointed by Spirit. Yet that just begins the process of sanctification. The 'Saints' celebrated in Orthodoxy are the ones that really did what Jesus taught. They lived the words to completion in their God-given situations. This idea makes a lot of sense to me, how you might be a "swimmer," but not an "Olympian." Furthermore, we might say people are "born with an abundance of talent that allows them even the chance at the Olympics." In the same way, perhaps we could say God blesses some with the Grace to become Saints. I don't mean in any way to diminish our role to actually work out the faith. Holiness is, in a huge part, up to us. I like how Orthodoxy calls that one as it is: you gotta work for Sanctification. ...and it ain't easy.

To the other question - why pray to them? - Father John had a couple interesting things to say. He first redefined prayer: "We do not pray to Saints; we pray to God." That made me curious, because I've seen many "prayers to Saints." He said, "Prayer is our language of conversation with God, and it can take many forms. Crossing yourself is a form of prayer. Doing good works is a form of prayer. Reciting the Creed, or speaking the Psalms, or asking for counsel can also all be forms of prayer." So, it seems to me that by his definition, prayer is an intentional mode of being. Prayer is living your life in relation to the Other. It's a much larger view of prayer. So in this context, it makes total sense: "We do not pray to Saints, we pray to God." But, he said, we ask Saints for guidance, and we ask Saints to pray for us. His example was again helpful: "If your kitchen faucet doesn't work, what would you do?" We set up a little scheme where I'd try to fix it myself, then call a friend if I couldn't fix it, then call the plummer if we both couldn't fix it, etc. The chain would go to the SF dept of Water, then the Mayor, the Governor, the President. (Apparently, this was a really bad kitchen sink problem.) His point was that "it's the same in Orthodoxy." It was kind of the do-it-yourself method of Sanctification. When the problem is too big for you to handle on your own strength, have a friend help you, then the Priest, and then the Saints, and if none of them can help you, you pray to God. Now, obviously, Father John would tell me to pray, and to invoke the Saints help even if I wasn't in a dire situation. But this helped me to see the value of asking the Saints for help; they are certainly farther along than I in the whole Sanctification process.

So, there you have it. Notes from the Office of Father John Takahashi, Holy Trinity Cathedral, San Francisco, CA.

Lord, teach me to pray. Teach me the hard road to Sainthood. I fear I may not understand what I'm praying... but there it is. As it is written, let it stand. Lord, have mercy. Amen.