TO ALL CLERGY, PEOPLE OF GOD IN THE ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CHURCH AND FRIENDS OF THE CHURCH

I GREET YOU, MY SISTERS AND BROTHERS, IN THE JOY OF NEW BEGINNINGS AND IN THE LIGHT THAT IS OUR LIFE:

The two greatest feasts of the liturgical year, Christmas and Easter, have one theme in common which link them to each other.  Both of them speak to us of life.  At Christmas a new life came upon the earth that would literally change the world forever beginning in his own time and throughout the centuries to come.  At Easter, a life that was temporarily lost to all humankind, returned to challenge us to become truly alive in the Spirit.

Our own life began at a time when there was no time.  Before we even entered the earth sphere, God and we designed a plan for the journey.  First, we set the beginning date.  Then, we carefully sketched a plan that would be best for achieving the goal of loving God to our greatest capacity.  Finally, we determined the moment when all that we planned would be completed and the time when we would make our journey home.

During our journey from heaven to earth, our consciousness of this plan fades into the back recesses of our mind so that we no longer remember it.  It is in the subtle movement from “front to back,” in a manner of speaking, that the drama of the divine takes place.  From the time of this strategic movement, everything that comes into our lives helps the plan we made in heaven unfold because all that God sends or is the result of our choices is a good for us.  The difference between how and whether we accept it is a difference of  perception, that is, of how we define good.   God and we do not always agree on this definition.  If we see that the good brings happiness, we readily accept it.  If we perceive it as bringing disappointment or tragedy, we are more liable to reject it, but in rejecting it, we must face the fact that we have lost an opportunity to show our love.  This is a tragedy!

We may not remember the plan we designed, but God remembers it.  Each event, each person, each scenario has been custom-made, individually refined so that we can fulfill the goal we have chosen for our lifetime.  Everything, every person, every event plays a part in this divine drama to help us on our journey of love.  How we accept each one of these is our choice and will show the measure of our love.

As we learn to live our lives as Master of our Being (in all things we have choice) we have a beautiful example to follow in the Christ of Resurrection.  As the Master of life, he called his body forth and showed every single person that mastery, at its center, is built choice by choice through the acceptance of everything in our plan.  The result of choice and acceptance is a resurrected being.

When Jesus spoke the words, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it,” he spoke, not only of himself, but also of us.  The three days are symbolic of a short time so  he is really telling us, “Say yes to me and in that moment, you will be on the path to living the resurrected life.  For in the instant of acceptance, we rise to a new and more profound intensity of love.  We can realize this resurrection each time we choose to love God more than we love ourselves.  No earthly experience can even begin to equal the heavenly experience of resurrection.

In an effort to live the resurrection experience on a day-to-day basis, a friend of mine told me that when she rises in the morning, she stretches out her arms and symbolically embraces a huge box that God gives her.  This box represents her new day.  She imagines

that it contains hundreds of colorful, exquisitely wrapped boxes.  As she accepts each one, she says “Yes, thank you, God,” without knowing what is inside each box.  It is the greatest act of faith, of trust and of love that she can make.  Some boxes may contain things that will make her happy, even laugh. Some may contain things that will disappoint her or make her sad, but to all she says equally with an abandon of surrender, “For You, my Love, anything.”  And so, as the day unfolds, she opens her boxes one by one, making a love-filled choice to accept each, no matter what it contains. If we can live like this, we will be the presence of joy and beauty to all our sisters and brothers.  We will allow the light of the resurrection to touch everything and everyone who will be in our presence and beyond.  Our life of love will be the gift that will give the Risen Christ to all.  It will bless the giver and the receiver.

During this season of Light and Life, I wish you the passionate vision of seeing your life lived in the Presence of the Resurrected Christ, sharing his overwhelming energy and realizing that there are no limitations to his love or yours. As you open each of your boxes, may the mantra of your daily resurrected life consistently be, “For You, my Love, anything.”

Most Rev. Marilyn L. Sieg

The Most Reverend Marilyn L. Sieg                                           Presiding Bishop                                                                     The Orthodox Catholic Church