Wednesday, March 02, 2005

The ministry of pain

"Sending out a message of dignity, courage and acceptance of the trials of life. “ This is the message that the ailing 84-year-old Bishop of Rome is sending out to the world as he suffers through his agony for all the world to see.

On January 16, my wife gave me a print out of the icon “Veneration of the Precious Chains of the Holy and All-Glorious Apostle Peter” I taped to to the left side of my monitor in my home office.

I have learned a little about this icon, and I’ll share…

Event occurred around 42. 
Event ordered by Harod Agrippa

Event was:
Peter was thrown into prison for preaching about Christ the Savior.  In prision he was held by two chains made of iron.  During the night before the trial, an angel of the Lord removed these chains and led him out of the prison.

Event recorded:  Acts 12:1-11

Additional Information:  Christians who learned of the miracle took the chains and kept them as precious keepsakes. For three centuries the chains were kept in Jerusalem, and those afflicted with illness and approached them with faith received healing. Patriarch Juvenal (July 2) presented the chains to Eudokia, wife of the emperor Theodosius the Younger, and she in turn transferred them from Jerusalem to Constantinople in either the year 437 or 439.

Eudokia sent one chain to Rome to her daughter Eudoxia (the wife of Valentinian), who built a church on the Esquiline hill dedicated to the Apostle Peter and placed the chain in it. There were other chains in Rome, with which the Apostle Peter was shackled before his martyrdom under the emperor Nero. These were also placed in the church.

On January 16, the chains of St. Peter are brought out for public veneration.

Troparian - Tone 4

You came to us without leaving Rome
through the precious chains that you wore.
First-enthroned of the apostles,
we bow down to them in faith and pray:
“Through your prayers to God grant us great mercy.”

Kontakion - Tone 2

Christ the Rock radiantly glorifies the Rock of Faith,
the first-enthroned of the disciples;
He calls us to honor the miracles wrought through Peter’s chains,
so that He may grant us forgiveness of our sins.

I’m new to Orthodoxy.  I am new to “Classical Christianity”.  I’ve had trouble with these chains and with this idea of suffering. 

I look at the Pope in Rome and see his suffering and the “Ministry of Suffering” that he bears.  I look at the wonderful Alana Sheldahl, and I see the suffering that she bears.  I look at my lovely wife with her Muscular Dystrophy (Dermatomyositis), I look at me with my constant pains.  I look at the deaths and humiliation that surrounded the dying process with my Mother and Grandmother.  I look at the pain of the deaths of my Uncle and Grandfather.

I hate sin, death, and the devil!

I used to not care about any of the three.  I think this is where the devil would have us.  But, with life comes suffering.  With life comes death, and with life comes sin. 

Ours is a Ministry of Suffering. 

It is hard to ask a sufferer how they are doing.  What are they going to say?  As Alana put it on her blog:

So what do I say when people ask me: “How are you doing?” Do I say, well, my hips, and a spot on the back of my head, and my forearms are hurting right now, and my left bicep is burning unnaturally as if I were lifting weights, and my tongue and lips are slightly numb this morning, not to mention the ache in my left quad and my UTTER lack of energy?

Do I say all that? Or do I just smile and say: “Fine, thanks”? Or should I shrug my shoulders and give a rueful glance and not say anything?

The other day I asked Dana, “How are you doing today compared to yesterday?” I think I like this question better, as I know how she was yesterday.  But I have intimate knowledge of how she was yesterday.  Most people cannot ask it that way.