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Topic of the Week: Are Our Efforts for Crowns That Decay or Eternal Crowns?

“…We, as Orthodox Christians, are athletes and participate, as ancient Olympians, in a spiritual contest. 

We are competing with the evil one to win by overcoming his evil snares and temptations.

The reward is the crown “of honor and glory” bestowed by the Lord our God….”

Excerpted from THE SPIRITUAL CROWN OF LIFE

Adult/Family:

 

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; 

for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life 

which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12)

 

The spiritual warfare against the Christian believer continues throughout life. The believer is constantly tempted by the evil one who is determined to prevent him or her from retaining his obedience to the Almighty God and Savior Jesus Christ…. Temptation is the tool used by Satan to attack the faithful and to use one’s own sinful passions to separate one from God. Satan manipulates man’s sinful passions to deceive him and lead him into sin. Our Lord God tries us, but He never tempts us…. Truthfully one falls to temptation because he/she is weak and allows himself or herself to do so. Neither the Lord nor circumstances force one to give in. When we yield to evil temptation we must be honest enough to admit that we are at fault and to take the responsibility and not blame anyone else.

The Orthodox Christian must always be aware of Satan’s machinations and snares. No one should ever let his/her guard down but must remain vigilant and always alert. The enemy is cunning and ruthless and seeks our destruction and death….There is a constant need in the life of the Christian of discernment (diakrisis) and testing so as to avoid being misled.… Satan has his demons (‘angels’) to evaluate us individually, looking for our weaknesses….Therefore, we must always be vigilant for his many-faceted attacks, ready to resist him at every turn.

The Christian’s battle against evil continues until his/her very last breath on earth. The enemies and adversaries are relentless and never tire. The harder the Christian struggles to strengthen his/her faith, to be more obedient to the Almighty God, to adhere and abide by His Commandments, the more he/she tries to become more righteous, the greater the effort to have a good prayer discipline, the greater the effort to have a more lasting communion with the Lord, the more fierce will be the attacks from the devil. The evil powers cannot and will not ever give up in their attempt to prevent the believer to win or succeed….

Turning our attention to the Apocalypse written by the holy Apostle John Chapter 2:10 we read, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you in prison, that you may be tested, and you have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” The “crown of life” refers to the wreath awarded to a victor in an arena. It is very clear that “if anyone competes in athletics, he is NOT crowned (awarded) UNLESS HE COMPETES ACCORDING TO THE RULES.” (2 Timothy 2:5).

Enduring the temptations and overcoming the various obstacles that the secular world lays upon the Orthodox Christian will bestow upon him/her the stephanon tis zoes (“crown of life”). We, as Orthodox Christians, are athletes and participate, as ancient Olympians, in a spiritual contest. We are competing with the evil one to win by overcoming his evil snares and temptations. The reward is the crown “of honor and glory” bestowed by the Lord our God.…

When “the Chief Shepherd” bestows on the believer “the crown of glory”, the crown is eternal and “does not fade away” (1 Peter 5:4), unlike the earthly crown. The Orthodox Christian understands that he or she is never worthy of God’s grace or gift. If anything is accomplished by us here on earth is only because of the Lord’s unconditional love and mercy….

Excerpted from  THE SPIRITUAL CROWN OF LIFE

Preschool/Elementary:

Quotation graphics (orthodoxwitness.org)

“Blessed little Arsenios [Saint Paisios]… received from his parents an attitude of sincere reverence toward God. Instead of telling stories, fables, and fairy-tales, they spoke to him of the life and miracles of Saint Arsenios [of Cappadocia]. And so he was nurtured with love and admiration for Hadji-efendis, as they called the Saint. From childhood, he wanted to become a monk, so he could be like his Saint.

After Saint Arsenios, the person who most beneficially influenced his life was his mother, toward whom he felt a special love and to whom he offered a great deal of help. It was from her that he learned humility: she counseled him not to want to beat the other children at their games and brag about it, and not to try to be the first in line, since being first or last was the same thing….” Saint Paisios of Mount Athos: by Hieromonk Isaac, pp15-16

Why was Saint Paisios’ mother more concerned about teaching him about the miracles of the saints and not about him winning games or trying to be first in line? Instead of having an attitude that was about being better than others, what attitude was she trying to teach him about? What is the attitude that we have in our life? In your home do you read more about fables and fairy tales or about the lives of saints? [Purchase some excellent children’s books about the lives of saints here: Potamitis Publishing – Orthodox Children’s Books]

Middle School:

“From an early age, Saint Barsanuphius desired a life of spiritual pursuit. Once, he entered the hippodrome [stadium] and, seeing them all competing among themselves, said to himself: “Behold how hard they compete for crowns that perish. Should not we, the heirs to the kingdom of the heavens, try harder?” Therefore, he left that place burning with still greater zeal.” (The Lives of the Saints of the Holy Land and the Sinai Desert, p94)

 

 

Two elderly parents died. The couple had many trophies they had won in their youth which were displayed on a special shelf in their house to honor their achievements. After their funeral when their children went into their house, the trophies were still sitting on the shelf. They were not something necessary to their deceased bodies, nor did their souls take them.

What are the things in your life that you are spending a lot of time competing for/concentrating on? What will happen to them after you die?

Saint Barsunuphius said we as Christians should try harder than these athletes. In what are we supposed to try harder for? Will you consciously use the time in your life more for earthly crowns that decay, or for these eternal crowns in the spiritual life?

High School:

Our love for God or for our neighbor will especially show itself, and its purity, strength, and constancy will be revealed when there is a contrary power (of the Devil) struggling and acting like fire in our hearts, and endeavoring to implant aversion, antagonism, contempt, hatred, and enmity in our hearts. Love is strengthened within us when the opposing forces endeavor, so to say, to uproot it, whilst we struggle in every way against these opposing forces, and by our struggle with the enemy purify, raise, and strengthen our love. It is in reward for this constant battle out of love for God and our neighbor, for this firmness, for this fiery, stubborn, constant, invisible war against the sub-celestial spirits of evil, that God weaves the shining heavenly crowns for the wrestlers of love for God and their neighbor…. 

In this respect holy ascetics, known as the Holy Fathers, are worthy of thousands of crowns. They, out of love for God, forsook the world and all that is in the world; they went away into desert, uninhabited places, and there, shut up in their cells, they spent all their life in thinking of God, in prayer, in renouncing their own will, in fasting, watching, laboring, and in doing great deeds for the love of God, enduring during their whole life the assaults of the opposing forces, endeavoring by every means to shake their faith and trust in God, and especially their love for Him. 

 

To fight, for the love of God, against our own flesh and the Devil–that crafty, mighty, and evil enemy–not for some hours, days, and months, but for many years, sometimes sixty or seventy–is not this worthy of crowns? And what, in comparison with these ascetics, or Holy Fathers, are men living in the world, falling so often into sin even without being assaulted, and defeated by their own flesh without even being attacked? What in comparison to holy ascetics are worldly men, living in accordance with their own will, in luxury, in the pleasures of every kind, gorgeously apparelled and living delicately, given over to pride, ambition, envy, hatred, avarice, irritability, wrath, revenge, amusements, fornication, drunkenness–to all possible vices, although not all in the same person? They are caught alive, without any resistance, in the power of the Devil, and therefore he does not attack them, but leaves them long entangled in his nets in the peace and self-forgetfulness that precede death.

 

St John of Kronstadt: My Life in Christ,  p111-112

 

 

Where would there be opportunities for struggling for great deeds if we were not occasioned injury by our neighbors, if they did not offend us? Where would there be opportunities for patiently bearing offences, for meekness and humility? You see, then, that we must be tried by many and various evils in order to prove our virtue and be eventually crowned.

St John of Kronstadt: My Life in Christ, p151