Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

108 JANUARYI reflected afterwards about what Abuna Elia had shared withme, comparing it to my own experience of these few months in thedesert and to my own earlier reflections on the Baptism of Jesusand his subsequent wilderness sojourn. It seems to me that whatAbuna Elia said is an appropriate measure of the ambivalence ofthe desert, for it is certainly a hostile environment. It is one whichimpoverishes its inhabitants and intimidates anyone who passesthrough it. Yet, at the same time, if one is patient and does not rushthrough it too quickly, he can discover its hidden springs. There isa kind of silence, for instance, in which the word of God can echoand be better heard in his heart. There is a peace in the desert thatrelativizes all the stresses and troubles of human life in the city.The desert baptizes us into the worst of our human weakness, butit transforms that weakness into genuine poverty before God.Rather than a place that fosters our pretenses and illusions aboutourselves, it is a means by which we are baptized into the truth ofdivine love, divine life.I remember the closing words of the Latin Mass: “Ite, missa est—Go, get out!” which we try to soften in the English translation as“Go in peace.” But the Mass is a dismissal: missa, dismissa. We aresent away; we are shown out. We are driven by the Spirit of affirmationwe have enjoyed in the Mass to go out into the desert ofthe world around us to be emissaries of Christ, occasions of blessing.We are to draw the springs up from the desert in which wewalk, so that, wherever our steps take us, the secret running riversof divine friendship and grace will flow. What does the Psalmistsay? They walk through the barren desert and they make it a place offlowing springs (cf. Psalm 84:7).Of Paul and JohnJANUARY 31, SATURDAYMy discussion today with Abuna Elia considered the relationshipof St. Paul and St. John and their messages. For St. Paul,Abuna Elia said, the whole purpose and work of Christ Jesus issummed up in his Cross. He preaches Christ and Christ crucified;he preaches the Cross of our Lord Jesus. He doesn’t preach anyparticular miracle of Jesus or any particular message of Jesus.Rather, he continually sums up the mission of Jesus by his death