Faithful 4 ever - Festival 2010

Faithful Forever
“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10)
Be Faithful in:
Your spiritualities, your Church life, your gifts, your family and your relationships.

Faithfulness is the Secret for Success
Some people may cheat for a quick and dirty success in an examination, or in manufacturing a product, but the benefits never last for long. For, as soon as others discover that someone cheats or is unfaithful, they will simply stay away from him/her for ever!
A faithful physician is loved by the patients.
A faithful artisan is sought by all.
A faithful teacher is respected by everybody.
And the faithful servant is the image of Christ our Lord.

God is Faithful
Even God Himself was said to be “faithful” or “true”:
• “But as God is true, ...” (2Cor 1:18)
• “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1Cor 10:13)
• “If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” (2Tim 2:13)
So, we march after God, trusting in Him and in His promises, exactly like Abraham walked with God and was blessed by Him, and Christ came out of his seed, thus becoming father of all believers.

In fact, the word “faithful” = “faith”, and the Credo is sometimes called the Christian “Faithfulness”. Because having faith in God simply means believing in His words and in His promises. This is why John the Baptist said of the Lord Jesus “He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.” (John 3:33)
God's Children are Faithful, too
• Moses: “My servant Moses ... is faithful in all mine house.” (Num 12:7)
• David: “And who is so faithful ... as David?” (1Sam 22:14)
• Daniel: “...; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.” (Dan 6:4)
• Paul the Apostle: “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” (1Tim 1:12)
• Joshua advised his people: “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth.” (Josh 24:14)
• About those who are faithful He said: “Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me.” (Psalms 101:6)
• “Who then is a faithful and wise servant ...? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh ... he shall make him ruler over all his goods.” (Mat 24:45-47)
• “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Rev 2:10)

Ways of Being Faithful
1) Be Faithful in Your Spiritualities
• Being faithfully concerned with the salvation of the spirit: and practising true repentance which is: swift, decisive, exhaustive and fruitful.
• Being faithful in Confessions: so that our sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19), and we can get the right guidance, as well as mercy from the Lord: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” (Prov 28:13)
• Being faithful in spiritual struggle: we need to control our senses, and select friends who would help us along our spiritual path, and practice constructive activities, staying away from all temptations.
• Being faithful in prayers: so we can communicate with God, and so His divine Life would pour into us, and His Spirit work inside of us:
• So, let's regularly use the Agpia prayers: to enjoy the fullness of the Psalms, and all the things that we celebrate on each hour.
• Let's also raise our hearts in fruitful, arrow-like prayers saying, as we were taught by Saint Anthony: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me! Lord Jesus Christ help me! I praise you my Lord Jesus Christ.”
• And let's implore the Lord in all our conditions: in thanksgiving, in regret, in joy, in falling, in triumph, in need, in times of examinations and in hard times as did Daniel, and as lived Nehemiah, or as behaved David
• Being faithful in the Liturgy: that is the Holy Mass, where we get to be one with Christ, with the saints, and with one another. As well as in church praises, and the various circumstances: joy, sorrow and sickness. And in holy church seasons, e.g. Paschal Time, and Kiahk, etc.
• Being faithful in getting our full measure of the Holy Bible: where we can find the experiences that God's men, in both testaments, went through and what they learned; where the true promises of God are found, as well as His constructive teachings, saying within ourselves: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalms 119:105)
• We could read a simple reading, and extract one or two nice verses;
• Or we could study in detail, with the help of ecclesiastical commentaries;
• Or we could turn the biblical text into personal prayers.
• Being faithful in attending spiritual gatherings: in accordance with the biblical verse: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” (Heb 10:25) As in such spiritual gatherings we can find satisfaction that is intellectual and educational, spiritual, psychological and affective, as well as social in a sacred way. It can be an opportunity for a constructive, collective work, and mutual service.
• Being faithful in Reading:
• Biblical Culture: in the Word of God;
• Ecclesiastical Culture: in the various fields of knowledge in the Church: the Dogma, theology, rituals, biographies of the saints, Church history, patrology (sayings of the Fathers), youth-centric skills and society-centric ones, … etc.
• General Culture: in sciences, arts, sociology, philosophy, literature, contemporary thinking, politics, economy, … etc. Let our motto be: We have only one soul to save; if we should win its salvation we would have won everything, but if that is lost to us we then have lost everything. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mat 16:26) (Mark 8:36)

2) Be Faithful in your Church Life
A youthful orthodox in fact has: an ecclesiastical day, an ecclesiastical week, an ecclesiastical month and an ecclesiastical year.
• The Ecclesiastical Day: The Agpia, the katemeros and the synxarion.
• The Ecclesiastical Week: Fasting Wednesdays and Fridays, and celebrating Sundays.
• The Ecclesiastical Month: Every 12th day of the Coptic month we celebrate for Archangel Michael, every 21st we celebrate for the Virgin Mary, and every 29th we celebrate for our Lord Jesus' inception, birth and resurrection.
• The Ecclesiastical Year:
• Starts with the Coptic New Year (Nairoz): an invitation to give a faithful testimony.
• Then the Fasting before Christmas: to prepare our hearts to receive the Lord.
• Then Christmas: when our hearts are turned into mangers for the Lord.
• Then the Fasting of Jonas: to renew our repentance to God.
• Then the Lent Fasting: so that repentance would continue until it becomes the bone marrow of our lives. So, however our sins might be:
• horrible: like the Prodigal Son;
• repetitive: like the Samaritan Woman;
• long lasting: like the Paralysed;
• born with us: like the Born Blind;
the Lord is willing to save us in baptism and repentance. Only then we get:
• Triumph in Palm Sunday;
• And take part in the pains of our Lord during the Pascal Time;
• And die with Him on ourselves, our bodies and the whole world on Good Friday;
• And celebrate His salvation on the night of Apocalypses;
• And rise with Him on Easter Sunday;
• And experience joy with the Disciples for Forty Days;
• And then turn our hearts towards heaven on Ascension Day;
• And keep some distance with the Disciples, in the attic, to get the Spirit of God on the Day of the Pentecost;
• And thus we can actively go out with the Disciples to serve during the Disciples' Fasting, and then together again during the Virgin Fasting so we might learn a few things about her chastity.
• And this so we can give testimony to the Lord, with the martyrs, on the Nairoz Day.
It's a beautiful symphony that we get to live with the Church along each year. We need to go through it with deep, loving feelings, to get all those church hidden treasures, with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the action of His Holy Spirit.
3) Be Faithful in Your Gifts
God granted us many, many gifts to trade in and win His kingdom:
• The gift of Time;
• The gift of Age;
• The gift of Intelligence;
• The gift of Serving the Word;
• The gift of Serving the Poor and the Needy;
• The gift of Talents: acting, music, painting, writing, poetry, art and the various literary genres.
• The Gifts of Service of various natures, mentioned in Rom 12:
1. Prophecy (preaching anointed with the Holy Spirit);
2. Ministry (all fields of Deaconship: serving patients, prisoners, the aged, remote villages, people with special needs, … etc.);
3. Teaching;
4. Exhortation (Preaching);
5. Giving;
6. Ruling (i.e., administrative services);
7. Showing mercy;
8. Worship and giving praise to God;
9. Brethren of the Lord;
10. Hospitality to strangers;
11. Sharing others' joys and sorrows;
12. The quiet Bible.
So, discuss your gifts with your godfather, and your servant, in order to know exactly you've been given by God to trade in and win, for the Glory of His Name alone, and for the expansion of His kingdom in our own hearts, as well as those of the others.

Let's recall the Parable of the Talents, found in more than one place through the Bible (Mat 25: 14-30) and learn a lesson from those who traded and won; one took five talents and won five more, and another took two and won two more. But the one who hid his talent in the ground, and returned it back as it was, got a just punishment.

An Important Notice:
Invest in your gifts of intelligence, money or talent for the glory of Christ, in His grace, and do not run after your own ambitions; that is, do not breed the idea of trading with your gifts with your own powers, and your human intelligence, for your own glory! This would make one fall in vain pride should he/she succeed, or in desperation should he/she fail. On the other hand, when one invests in his/her talents with God's power, for God's glory, when the outcome is success he/she would attribute it to the grace of God and His helping hands, and when it is failure, he/she would attribute it to his/her own human weakness (negligence, over-dependence on oneself, … etc.)
• “Without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
• “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philip. 4:13)

4) Be Faithful with Your Family
• With your parents: “Honour thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise).” (Ephes. 6:2)
• With your grandparents: “ … , and honour the face of the old man, … ” (Lev. 19:32) And remember that, one day, you will get old yourself, and will thus need the help of those younger than you.
• With your elder brothers/sisters: show respect and seek advice.
• With your younger bothers/sisters: show tenderness and support.
• With your relatives: show Christian Charity/Love.
Remember last year's slogan: “ … but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Josh. 24:15)

If you are still a youth you will have to define your path, with the guidance of your godfather, and more often than not this will be holy matrimony.
So, you need to be well prepared:
• With spiritual maturity: so as to be guided by the Spirit of God;
• And psychological maturity: so as to avoid getting carried away with passion;
• And intellectual maturity: so as to form a good understanding of the whole process;
• And physical maturity: so as to safely go through the “pan-sexuality” phase (towards the other gender) and reach to the “mono-sexuality” phase (where you choose your life partner), which comes in your twenties;
• And social maturity: where the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be enjoy both social and educational compatibility;
• And during engagement: remember it serves a finite set of purposes:
• A deeper love relationship between the engaged couple;
• An opportunity for the two families to get to know each other;
• A relationship marked by common spiritual growth;
• Getting the furniture for the sacred matrimonial household;
• And when you do get married: remember you are in fact establishing a holy church in its own right, where Christ will dwell, under the wings of the Holy Spirit, where the bonds of mutual love prevail between the married couple as well as between their respective families, and which applies proper controls, for this marriage to remain firmly established, and the family holding together.
• And when God grants you offspring: you will raise them in the fear of God, in a holy relationship with Christ, closely linked to the Church, and in earnest love towards all.

You might need some specialised courses, as well as spiritual and familial guidance, in order to be able to smoothly steer your household like a ship in the sea of Life, aided by the grace of Christ, and the action of the Spirit of God within you and your children.

Well, but … What if you are getting old for marriage, or it is too late? How does the Church help her children through this kind of holy life? How can they be helped if marriage does not happen? How to turn that into an opportunity of satisfaction and of service instead of regret and frustration? What if a member of my family needs special care (has special needs)? Would not this be an opportunity for service and giving support?

5) Be Faithful in Your Relationships
Our Lord Jesus never meant to isolate us from the society; in the contrary, the Bible gave us five qualifications for the believer:
• Light: “Ye are the light of the world.” (Mat. 5:14) When Light spreads it defeats darkness.
• Salt: “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Mat. 5:13) To remedy the corruption of the world, and mix with the society but do not get lost in it!
• Ambassador: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us” (2Cor. 5:20) The world is foreign to us; we represent the kingdom to come.
• Sweet Fragrance: “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ.” (2Cor. 2:15) which spontaneously spreads amongst all.
• Legible Letter: “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.” (2Cor. 3:2) So, people would have read some of the Bible every time they deal with us.

In fact, our Lord commanded us, through His great disciple Paul:
• “Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” (Rom. 12:17)
• “Recompense to no man evil for evil.” (Rom. 12:17)
• “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom. 12: 21)
The Mahatma Gandhi had long said:
• “If the Bible were a Crown, the Sermon on the Mount would be its Jewel.”
• “If we should apply the principle of 'An Eye for An Eye', the whole world would have turned blind.”
Blessed be the words of our Lord Jesus: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Mat. 5:44-45)

It is the “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12: 21) philosophy.

If you think you cannot do this, let me tell you: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philip. 4:13)

Dealing with colleagues, friends and compatriots should follow a certain set of rules that enable us to treat each one with love, but with resilient dedication to the constants of faith, doctrine and morals, backed by choosing well ones friends who should help achieve ones salvation, and success overall.

In dealing with the Media:
We need to hold fast to Christian principles in dealing with the Media, especially with the Internet. Saint Paul establishes three rules:
1. “All things edify not.”
2. “All things are not expedient.”
3. “I will not be brought under the power of any.”
Hence, a good Christian has an obligation to choose or reject, according to the foregoing principles, whether it be a TV show, a book, a film, a scene, a Web site, the Facebook, or a friend on a chatting list in such a way as to edify his/her own life, without becoming becoming an addict, or letting anything lead him/her astray off the path of righteousness/sanctity and growth. And so, he/she should integrate him/herself in church life, and constructive activities, so as to get busy with those things that would edify him/her, and drive away those other things that could lead to destruction, in accordance with the biblical words: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1Thes. 5:21)

God bless you!