Tag Archives: Schmemann

Sadness That Brings Joy

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Alexei Ivanovich Korzukhin’s painting from 1877, “Before confession,” shows people waiting to make their confessions–waiting to out their repentance into words–in order to make right their relationships with God and their neighbors.


For even if I saddened you by my letter, I do not regret writing it. Even if I did regret it–because it saddened you for a brief time–I now rejoice, not because you were dad but because your sadness led you to repent. You were saddened according to God so that you did not suffer damage from us. Sadness according to God produces repentance without regrets and leads to salvation; the sadness of the world, however, produces death. (2 Cor. 7:8-10)

St. Paul tells his readers in Corinth that he did not intend to make them sad or depressed but he is glad that their sorrow–depression?–led them to repent and correct themselves. Their sorrow proved to be life-giving; secular sorrow and depression leads the other way and results in death … metaphorical death if not literal death. Certainly, spiritual and emotional death. The sadness he provoked in the Corinthians was a good thing, finally. It was, as Fr. Alexander Schmemann calls it, a “bright sadness.”

The person who is sad with a Godly sorrow repents for his sins; sorrow because of one’s iniquity produces justice. First, let what you are displease you so that you may be able to become what you want to be …. Will you, my brethren, ever find dung in a pile of sifted wheat or flour? Nevertheless, the wheat or flour is beautiful because of the dung; the foulness was the path to a beautiful result.

St. Augustine of Hippo, Easter Sermon 254.2

Sin gave birth to pain; pain destroys sin. Just as a worm is born by a tree consumes the very same tree, likewise pain, which is born of sin, kills sin when it is supplied by repentance …. Pain is good for those who repent sincerely. Mourn for the sin so that you do not lament the punishment.

St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Repentance and Compunction 7.6.19

Sometimes we are not patient enough to see the good thing that results from a painful–or at least, uncomfortable–process. We want results RIGHT NOW and we don’t want it to hurt in the process. But we live in time and everything we do is a process. Time–and pain–are the gift and opportunity we have to set right what we got wrong before. As Fr. Jay Smith–who serves the Church of St. Mary the Virgin Times Square–wrote recently, the ashes we are smudged with on Ash Wednesday are precisely that: reminders that we live in time and that we have a limited time to get our relationships with God and our neighbors set right. Death is coming for all of us and although death is not the end, it is a definite change in our circumstances and we can’t postpone our repentance to when our circumstances change. We have to take advantage of the time we have now. Even if it hurts–like taking a bandage off a wound that is healing but needs exposure to the air to finish the healing process.

See more about Bright Sadness here.

Amen=Ascension

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The people acclaim AMEN to the Eucharistic Prayer offered by St. Clement of Rome in this 8-11th century fresco in the 4th century Roman church dedicated to St. Clement, one of the first bishops of Rome. He wrote to the Corinthians, just as St. Paul had, urging them to maintain their fellowship with the bishop and the clergy appointed by him.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you … was not Yes and No; but in him is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. (2 Cor. 1:19-20)

Christ is the fulfilment, the “YES!” to every promise the Father has made. Christ is the realization of everything Israel hoped for in the Old Testament. Because Christ is the Father’s YES to us, we can–in Christ–say yes (AMEN) to the Father.

Paul’s preaching promised many things. He talked about being raised to life again and of being taken up into heaven. He talked about incorruption and those great rewards which awaited them. These promises abide unchanging …. They are always coming true.

St. John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on II Corinthians

Amen is a word that people often seem to think means “the end” at church. I have heard readers add “Amen” to the conclusion of almost any text as a way to announce, “I have finished the reading.” But Amen does not mean, “I’m done;” Amen means, “Yes! I agree! You took the words right out of my mouth. I ratify and endorse everything you have said!”

That’s why we respond Amen to a prayer. We endorse what the pray-er has offered on our behalf, especially a priest who speaks on our behalf, on behalf of the whole Church and also speaks on God’s behalf to us: “We endorse what you have said over these Holy Gifts of bread and wine!” “We ratify what you have said and make those words our own words as well!” “Yes!”

AMEN is one of the most important words in the world, for it expresses the agreement of the Church to follow Christ in his ascension to his Father, to make this ascension the destiny of man. It is Christ’s gift to us, for only in him can we say Amen to God, or rather he himself is our Amen to God and the Church is an Amen to Christ. Upon this Amen the fate of the human race is decided. It reveals that the movement toward God has begun.

Fr. Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World

The AMEN to the Eucharistic Prayer, the anaphora, is the seal of the prayer in which we ascend to the Kingdom and give thanks for all that has been done, is being done, and will be done by the Holy Trinity on our behalf. To ratify that movement, that ascension, is the single most important thing we can ever do.