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

54 NOVEMBERits life-giving water from a spring and, therefore, its leaves nevergrow old and its fruit is always fresh (cf. Psalm 1:3).While I might be inspired by this natural sequence of eventswhereby a miraculous tree grows in the desert, the tradition of thestaff of the abbot who founded the monastery has deeply symbolicmeaning. The monks are describing the value of drawing up from asecret recess of the past, a long-standing tradition: a great and wideand deep heritage around which the faithful can gather in high aspiration,in holiness of life and holy charity in the middle of thedesert of this world. They gather around that great tree, like a centerof their world, an axis around which the rhythm of their life revolves.I believe that this is really a better way to see and appreciatea tradition.Tradition is not just a static thing, a dead standard againstwhich we make comparisons. Like that tree, it is something livingand organic. It is something around which we can find life and inspiration,something upon which we can look with wonder. Wewonder at how those who went before us did what they did, andhow we might be able to follow their example, under their inspiration.Ultimately, a miraculous tree like this is a sign of the Resurrection,a sign of the power of the Lord to be alive in our midstand to call us out of our aridity, out of our deadness, into a fully realizedhuman life.Abuna Arsenious told me that the staff of the founder abbot islike the staff of Aaron in the Book of Exodus. That staff bore freshblossoms and leaves when Aaron planted it in the ground. Aarondid so because the people of Israel were faithless at that moment.He wished to give them a sign that God was alive and present intheir midst, and that he was greater than all of their doubts andfears. If dead wood could come to life, then a people filled withdeath could also rise to new life.It is perhaps in the same way that the Church continually celebratesthe iconography of the Crucifix in so many ways, in so manyart forms, in so many sculptures. Here, what seems to be deadwood is a life-giving tree planted in our midst. The power of theliving Lord is shown forth upon it so that we might be invigorated,that we might be inspired and take heart.The monastery is like the Ark of the Covenant made by Moses.The “staff of Aaron,” the universal, holy priesthood of Christ, isplanted therein in their common prayer. Life in the monastery re-