تجديد العقل …عظة اجتماع الأربعاء من دير الانبا بيشوي
عقد قداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني اجتماع الأربعاء الأسبوعي لقداسته مساء اليوم بكنيسة التجلي بدير القديس الأنبا بيشوي بوادي النطرون.
تامل قداسة البابا في أنواع من العقول
تجديد العقل …..عظة قداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني الأسبوعية
بسم الآب و الابن و الروح القدس الإله الواحد آمين تحل علينا نعمته وبركته من الأن وإلى الأبد آمين .نقرأ جزء من مزمور التوبة الجزء الثاني
١٠قَلْبًا نَقِيًّا اخْلُقْ فِيَّ يَا اَللهُ، وَرُوحًا مُسْتَقِيمًا جَدِّدْ فِي دَاخِلِي.
١١ لاَ تَطْرَحْنِي مِنْ قُدَّامِ وَجْهِكَ، وَرُوحَكَ الْقُدُّوسَ لاَ تَنْزِعْهُ مِنِّي.
١٢ رُدَّ لِي بَهْجَةَ خَلاَصِكَ، وَبِرُوحٍ مُنْتَدِبَةٍ اعْضُدْنِي.
١٣ فَأُعَلِّمَ الأَثَمَةَ طُرُقَكَ، وَالْخُطَاةُ إِلَيْكَ يَرْجِعُونَ.
١٤ نَجِّنِي مِنَ الدِّمَاءِ يَا اَللهُ، إِلهَ خَلاَصِي، فَيُسَبِّحَ لِسَانِي بِرَّكَ.
١٥ يَا رَبُّ افْتَحْ شَفَتَيَّ، فَيُخْبِرَ فَمِي بِتَسْبِيحِكَ.
١٦ لأَنَّكَ لاَ تُسَرُّ بِذَبِيحَةٍ وَإِلاَّ فَكُنْتُ أُقَدِّمُهَا. بِمُحْرَقَةٍ لاَ تَرْضَى.
١٧ ذَبَائِحُ اللهِ هِيَ رُوحٌ مُنْكَسِرَةٌ. الْقَلْبُ الْمُنْكَسِرُ وَالْمُنْسَحِقُ يَا اَللهُ لاَ تَحْتَقِرُهُ.
١٨ أَحْسِنْ بِرِضَاكَ إِلَى صِهْيَوْنَ. ابْنِ أَسْوَارَ أُورُشَلِيمَ.
١٩ حِينَئِذٍ تُسَرُّ بِذَبَائِحِ الْبِرِّ، مُحْرَقَةٍ وَتَقْدِمَةٍ تَامَّةٍ. حِينَئِذٍ يُصْعِدُونَ عَلَى مَذْبَحِكَ عُجُولًا.
كل سنة وأنتم طيبين. يوم الأحد القادم نحتفل بعيد العنصرة نهاية الخماسين ونبدأ من يوم الأثنين صوم الرسل “صوم الخدمة ” وفي الأحد الماضي قمنا بسيامة وترقية أباء أساقفة فقمنا بترقية الأنبا أنطونيوس مرقس مطران لجنوب أفريقيا وهو يخدم هناك من سنين طويلة ربنا يعطيه الصحة وبنعمة ربنا يسافر للتجليس خلال هذا الشهر
ورسمنا أنبا ثاؤفيلس أسقف لمنفلوط وهي في أسيوط وكان اختيار مبارك تم بسلام وأيضا رسامة أنبا إيلاريون لإيبارشية البحر الأحمر بعد نياحة اسقفها من شهور قليلة وهي ايبارشية لها طابع خاص ايبارشية بها سياحة وطويلة تحتاج لخدمة ورعاية
ورسامة الأنبا بولس لأوتوا ومونتريال وشرق كندا وهي إيبارشية جديدة و الخدمة في كندا بدأت عام ١٩٦٥ وأول كاهن كان أبونا بطرس مرقس وكندا بها نيافة أنبا مينا و الثاني أنبا بولس
وأيضاً قمنا بسيامة انبا متاؤس أسقف لدير السيدة العذراء مريم بجبل أخميم
نشكر الله نعمه كثيرة وعطاياه كثيرة فالحصاد كثير والفعلة قليلون وحقل الخدمة واسع يحتاج لصلوات.
اليوم نتحدث في موضوع “قلباً نقياً أخلق فيا ياالله وروح مستقيم جدده في احشائي ” أحد مفاعيل الروح القدس التجديد وهو تجديد العقل فالله خلق الإنسان عاقلاً لديه عقل يفكر ويبدع ويتجول في الزمن ويواجه المشكلات ويحلها وخلق الإنسان أيضاً عاملاً ويده صانعه الحضارة وأيضاً خلقه عابداً به روح العبادة وجعل القلب مكان العبادة ومسكن الله و المخدع الخاص هو القلب وجعل تكوين القلب داخلي فصار لديه عقل يفكر ،ويد تعمل، وقلب يتأمل في الله بأستمرار
1- العقل:
العقل علي سبيل المثال دانيال و الفتية الثلاثة يقول عنهم الكتاب أعطاهم الله معرفة و عقلاً في كل كتابة وكان دانيال فهيماً “توجد شخصيات ظهرت رجاحة عقلها مثل ابيجايل و المرأة الكنعانية وزكا العشار الذي عندما تواجه مع المسيح غير حاله وبولس الرسول الذي يقول عن نفسه “أنا الذي كنت قبلاً مجدفاً ومفترياً “ماحدث له أنه عندما استنار عقله أصبح كارزا.
لماذا الله خلق للإنسان عقل ؟
١- العقل وظيفته هي التعرف على الله و الخليقة كلها
٢- ثاني وظيفة للعقل أنه وعاء للمعرفة والإنسان صنع الحضارة و العلوم
٣- يساعد الإنسان في اتخاذ قراراته و الإنسان مخير وهو صاحب الاختيار إذا كان عقله على مستوى الإستنارة فقراراته جيده
-كيف نحكم أن العقل سليم؟
١- اذا كان يقوده الله وليس الهوى الشخصي فهو سليم وأول رشمه في الميرون تكون على العقل لتقديسه وقيادة العقل من خلال الكتاب المقدس عندما يسمع لكلامه ينير ذهنه وعقله .
٢- العقل الصحيح دائماً متوازن
نحن في زمن فيض المعلومات لكن العقل المتزن علامة من علامات صحة العقل ومن هنا تأتي خطورة يوم الدينونة “فبكلامك تتبرر وبكلامك تدان” وقراءاتك دائماً يجب أن تكون متوازنة لا نقرأ لكاتب واحد أو في مجال واحد
٣- أن يكون للعقل مرجعية
فالذين بلا مرشد كأوراق الخريف يسقطون سريعاً. مهما كبر الإنسان في المعرفة إلا أنه يعود لمرجع وكثيراً نواجه موقف لا نعرف كيف نتصرف فيه لكن المرجعية لها دور فإذا رأيت إنسان يسقط دائماً أعلم أنه يقود نفسه بنفسه لابد من وجود مرجعية روحية
٤- أن يكون العقل دائما متجدد
عندما ينحرف العقل لابد أن يرجع لإستقامته حالة التجديد الروحي للإنسان في عقله وفكره و الكنيسة من حلاوة طقسها تنوع الطقس وهذا التنوع هو التجديد و التجديد شكل من أشكال التوبة وهو قضية كبيرة في حياتنا المسيحية “تغيروا عن شكلكم بتجديد أذهانكم” هذه هي علامات العقل السليم .
-أما عن السمات العقل الخطأ:
١- العقل الذي يهول أي يكبر ما هو صغير ويجعله كبيراً
٢- العقل المنحرف الذي يفكر شمال
٣- عقل اليأس وهو أخطر أنواع العقل
٤- العقل المتجمد الذي لا يتطور ولا ينظر لأي شئ حوله ويرفض كل جديد
٥- العقل الروتيني الذي لا يتجدد ولايصلح في الخدمة أو العمل وإذا كنت تريد روح الله يعمل يجب أن يكون في تجديد في عقل الإنسان
٦- العقل الفضولي الذي يبحث عن الأخبار وهو عقل مريض
٧- العقل المنقاد وراء أي شخص يكون بالنسبة له بطل أو قدوة وكأن عقله مسبي وهذه هي خطورة من يقرأ لكاتب واحد
٨- العقل المشوش التائه
٩- العقل المنفعل المتوتر ودائماً قلق
١٠- العقل الشهواني الذي تتحكم فيه الخطية
الإنسان إذا أراد النعمة من فوق تساعد في تجديد ذهني وعقلي ولكن أين دوري في الإرادة ممكن العقل يتجدد من خلال :
١- القراءة المستمرة على رأسها قراءة الإنجيل ..جدد عقلك بقراءات متنوعة
٢- جدد عقلك بالجلوس إلى الكبار فخبرات الماضي تستطيع أن تساعد الإنسان في الحاضر ونحن كأساقفة يجب أن نساعد على تجديد العقل
٣- معرفة التاريخ و لحكمة بالغة كنيستنا بها السنكسار و الدفنار لتجديد الرؤية و الذهن
الخلاصة:
مع حلول الرو ح القدس نرفع قلبنا ونقول “قلباً نقياً أخلق فيا يالله وروح مستقيم جدد في داخلي” نصلي أن يعطينا الله روح التجديد و التوبة في حياتنا وحياة كل أسرة وفي الخدمة و المجتمع. لإلهنا كل مجد وكرامة من الأبد آمين.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. May His grace and mercy rest upon us, from now and to eternity. Amen.
By the grace of Christ I will read a portion of Scripture from the second part of Psalm 51, the Psalm of repentance.
Psalm 51:10-17
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
The grace of God the Father be with us all. Amen.
I congratulate you all. On Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Feast of Pentecost, with which we conclude the period of the Holy Fifty Days and we begin on Monday, if the Lord wills and we live, we begin the Fast of the Apostles, which is also known as the “Fast for servanthood/service.”
Today I wanted to talk about a topic that is very important and that we often pray about: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” – renew, renewal. And one of the works of the Holy Spirit is the work of renewal; He renews a person’s thinking and enlightens a person’s life, and that is why on the occasion of the descent of the Holy Spirit I would like to talk to you about the renewal of the mind.
As we all know, when God created the human He created him to have three characteristics: to think, to work, and to worship.
The intellect is a beautiful thing, and it is able to think, to produce, to move to and fro in time (it has a past, a present, and a future), and when a person faces many problems throughout life, it is through the intellect that he is able to resolve them.
God also created the human to be active, working; a human’s hands are the builders of civilizations. Human hands are what have built civilizations throughout the world and throughout history, and if you were to look closely at anything humans do, you would find that they are all accomplished by the fingers of the hand.
The fingers of human hands are the builders of history and civilizations and this applies to everything, for example, the chairs we are sitting on were made by human fingers, and so on. From the most intricate handicrafts to the largest of them, like the Pyramids for example, the fingers of the hands are what built them, and so God created man to work, to be productive.
God also created man to worship, meaning that He gave humans the Spirit of worship. And God told the human, “I will make your heart the place of worship,” and so it was that the human heart was the first dwelling place for the worship of God, and a person’s personal place of prayer became not a room in a house nor a monastic cell, but a person’s personal room to meet with God was the heart.
And God created the heart to be something interior to a human; it is inside us and nobody knows what is in it. Of course from a muscular or a physiological perspective yes, it is a muscular organ in a person’s body, but from a spiritual perspective the heart represents the entirety of a person’s being, and there are many writings by the Church Fathers on the topic of the heart and on its role in a person’s life.
And so the human came to have a thinking mind, a working hand, and a heart within him that can communicate with God continually, but I would like to pause and speak with you today on the point of the mind, the mind of a human.
When it comes to the intellect, let’s take for example Daniel and the three young men, the Bible says something very nice about them in Daniel 1:17, it says, “As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.” And please notice the accuracy of the words used in this description, that God gave these four young men knowledge and wisdom in every literature.
And we have other examples before us in the Holy Bible whose wisdom was made very apparent, for example Abigail from the Old Testament. When Abigail’s husband Nabal acted unwisely and she acted wisely, as the story tells us, the Prophet David said to her, “Blessed is your advice” (1 Sam 25:33).
Or the Canaanite woman whose daughter was gravely ill and of course medicine back then was very limited, and she came crying out before God, lifting up her heart and lifting up her voice. And when Christ gave her a test of faith by saying to her, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs,” she replied to Him with a response we would have never expected, she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (Mt 15:26-27). This is wisdom, the wisdom of the mind, and of course Christ praised her faith.
Another example is Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was an accountant or a tax-collector and he must have met many people and learned many things from them, but when he met with Christ he was completely changed, he said, “I give half of my goods to the poor” (Lk 19:8). Christ gave him wisdom, the wisdom of the mind.
St. Paul the apostle – and of course we all know his background story – said, “Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” (1 Tim 1:13). Well then, what happened to you Paul? And he would probably say, “When my mind was enlightened…” – then he was able to become an evangelist and an evangelical giant.
When we pray this Scripture verse we ought to enter into the depths of it, to feel it: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” A person may continue to grow in his life and in age, celebrating one birthday after another, but his mind may be old or darkened, and I will give a few examples of this here.
But why did God even create an intellect in the human? And you may say that by definition, for a human to be a human he needs to have an intellect, but what is the role of the intellect? Very simply, of course the first role of the intellect is to know God and to know all the creatures and created things of creation.
3 roles of the mind:
To help us to know God and to know all His creatures and created things in creation.
It is an organ of knowledge, enabling us to discover, study, learn, build, produce, etc.
It helps a person make decisions
In the Psalm we say, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork” (Ps 19:1). The heavens speak, the firmament and the planets and the galaxy we are in speak, and creation in general, they all speak. The vegetable kingdom speaks – from the most gigantic of trees to the tiniest of grasses, the animal kingdom speaks – from the largest of animals to the smallest of them, from the birds of the air to the butterflies, from the fish in the sea to the whales, and all this helps a person to practice and live in the spirit of contemplation upon all that God has created. And so the first role of the intellect is to help us know God and His creation.
The second role of the intellect is that it is the organ of knowledge and as I just said, it is the human who builds civilizations and discovers the sciences; all the sciences of the world and the breadth of knowledge of every field of study. Take for example how a person will take a single cell and sit there and study it with all its details, and then go deeper into the cell and its components, and then begin to search for the compounds present in every cell. Through the intellect, the human is able to attain broad knowledge of the world and to then transform this knowledge into a variety of fields of study and colleges and sciences and schools and specializations, and so on.
Another third important role of the intellect is that it helps a person make decisions. It is true that the beginning and the end of a person’s life (his birth and his death) are not his own decisions, he does not know when either of these will happen, but along the line connecting those two events a person is able to choose and to make decisions, and it is the intellect that helps with this.
And if a person’s intellect is on the level of enlightenment, his words will be good, his decisions will be right, and his life will proceed correctly, but if the repentance, enlightenment, or renewal talked about in the verse are not present in a person’s life – “Create in me a clean heart (that is the repentance), O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me (that is the renewal and enlightenment),” this will not be the right level. Also, renewal and enlightenment are meant to be continuous processes in a person’s life.
4 markers/characteristics of a sound mind:
The mind/person is led and directed by God and not by his own desires (God is before him/her at all times)
It is always well-balanced
It always has a source of reference, for guidance
a sound mind is that it is constantly being renewed
What about a sound mind? How can a person know that he has a sound mind? One of the first signs of a sound mind is that the person is led by God and not by his/her personal desires, this means that God is before him at all times. And as we learn in our Church, the first sign of the cross with the oil of Holy Myron is made on the forehead, which is the head, the place of the intellect, and this cross is made for the sanctification of the intellect, to make it holy and to consecrate it for God to work in it.
And in Psalm 19:8 we say, “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” – enlightening the eyes from afar. And you know how modern equipment can be operated by remote control, from a distance? Well it is exactly the same with the commandment of the Lord, it enlightens the eyes from afar when the intellect is led by God.
Psalm 19 also says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Ps 19:7), and “The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” (Ps 19:9). Another verse we memorize when we are very young is, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105) – a mind that is led by God, directed by the commandment, led by the way of the Bible, but there is another person who likes to follow his own mind and does whatever he likes, and God has no presence in that mind.
And so the first characteristic of a sound mind is that it is directed and led by God. And of course it is possible that someone be reading the Bible but reading it with a closed mind, not allowing the Word of the Bible to renew his life, which is why the Church teaches us that before we read the Bible there should always be a period of prayer, that we may ask, “Lord, open my eyes and open my mind that I may understand these words that are before me.”
And a very common experience is when you have read a verse of Scripture many, many, many times before, but you read it again and say, “This is the first time I understand this verse … this is the first time I am really experiencing this verse … this is the first time I see what it is talking about, or that there is this other dimension to it” – this is an experience of enlightenment. And so again, the first characteristic of a sound mind is that it is directed and led by God.
Another characteristic of a sound mind is that it is always well-balanced, it is always well-balanced, it does not lean to the right nor to the left. We live in the age of information and they even call it the age of an abundance/excess of information, and we live in an age of communication and communicating and so on, but a mind that is well-balanced, [even when it comes to information and communication,] is one of the signs of a healthy mind. People will often say about such a person, “He is well-balanced … his words are worth their weight in gold … every word he speaks is well-thought out before he speaks it.”
And from here we see the danger given in the warning about the Day of Judgement, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt 12:37). A person may often fall into a way of thinking that says, “Oh well, any words I speak are just words, they are not that important,” but he does not comprehend that every word that comes out of him is recorded by God, every word is preserved, every word. “And whoever says to his brother, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire” (Mt 5:22), so although the word ‘fool’ is only four letters, but can you imagine that just four letters could be the thing that leads a person to the path of perishing? And so this is an extremely dangerous issue.
And this may be why in our lives or in the lives of those who lived in the wilderness they greatly preferred silence over speaking, because “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking” (Prov 10:19). And so the second sign of a sound mind is well-thought out words spoken by a person, whether the words that come out of him during his private times, during his public times, within the privacy of his own thoughts, with his family, or during his church service activities, because a single word can provoke an entire nation! A single word can aggravate a church, can aggravate a group of servants, can cause a family a lot of pain – a single word.
And a mind must be well-balanced in the knowledge it is filled with, which is why I would also say that our readings must be well-balanced, that we not read the writings of a single author nor limit ourselves to reading about a single subject. The Holy Bible comes first but all knowledge is available to us, and especially if we are church servants, each one may need knowledge pertaining their particular are of service [in order that they may serve better.]
The third characteristic that helps a mind to be sound is for this mind to always have a source of reference, for guidance. There is an Egyptian proverb that says, “He who does not have a teacher, let him buy one.” Of course I don’t know where he would buy one from, but the point is that he needs to find one! Another saying is, “Those who are without a guide are like the autumn leaves, they fall fast,” and so there is a need for a source of reference, for guidance.
No matter how much a person may grow in knowledge or in age, and no matter how much may increase in the experiences of life, a person will always need to return to a source of reference for guidance. Our Church teaches us to have fathers of confession and fathers of guidance throughout our entire lives, no matter where we are along the path of service. And many times a person may face situations and not know what to do, and so having [an external] source of reference gives a sense of assurance in a person’s work and in his life.
If you meet a person who is always falling, know that this person is leading himself by his own guidance, he is living according to his own brain and in this way he begins to destroy himself.
We hear of the very great Pope Athanasius and how his guide was St. Alexander, the 19th Patriarch, and of St. Augustine (whom we call “the intercessor of the repentant and the son of tears”) whose guide was St. Ambrosius, the Bishop of Milan; sources of reference.
And it is best that these sources of reference or guides be people of wisdom, but books can also serve as sources of reference and guides – the precious books, or a source of reference may be a person who has had vast life experience in general or in a certain area of life, but in any case, it is essential that a person have a source of reference.
The fourth characteristic of a sound mind is that it is constantly being renewed. Stagnant waters are always still, and water that is still begins to decrease in its oxygen level and it begins to become filled with certain algae and bacteria and other such things, and it starts to smell bad, and it ultimately becomes good for nothing – not useful for planting, nor for drinking, nor for manufacturing. And so it is with thinking and why the mind must be constantly renewed – which is why we are always praying this verse, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” As soon as a person’s thinking is about to go off track or deviate off of the straight path, we are to say, “renew a steadfast spirit within me,” and in this way the person is always returning to his steadfastness, to the straight path.
I like the verse from Psalm 1 that speaks about the blessed man and says, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,” and let’s pause at the word “rivers” here. Rivers are running water, water that is always being renewed, water that is full of oxygen, water that just by the sight of it passing before us satisfies our souls, water that when used to irrigate gives good results, water that quenches you when you drink it.
“He is like a tree planted by the rivers of water.” Such should be the state of spiritual renewal in a person, in his intellect, in his mind, in his thinking. There is a person who is still, stagnant, and we have Egyptian proverbs that [unfortunately] amplify this point, for example there is a proverb that says, “Better the one we know than the stranger.” This would be a catastrophe. Or, “The conditions we go to sleep in will be the same conditions we will awaken to in the morning” this means there is no change at all, no renewal at all.
The process of renewing the mind is a spiritual process, an internal process that involves both the work of grace and the work of a persons’ will – the two work together. The process of renewal involves the work of the grace of the Holy Spirit that aids in the renewal of a person’s thinking and life, and at the same time it involves a person’s will because it is the will that receives, accepts, and performs.
And even in the Church we have a very nice thing we call “revival,” is it not so? We all hold revivals during feasts and special occasions and when commemorating the lives of the saints – revivals. And the word ‘revival’ is a magnificent word, but may we truly be applying it according to its meaning. What is important is that the word ‘revival’ be a revival; the revival of a person’s thinking, the revival of a spirit of repentance within him, the revival of enlightenment, the revival of a new vision in his life.
And this is one of the nice things about the rituals of the Church, is that she gives us different themes for the rituals – a Sha’a-nee-nee ritual, a fasting ritual, a joyous ritual, a Kiahk ritual, an annual ritual, and this variety is the “by rivers of water.” This constant [variety and] renewal is the stream, and in this way we never get to a fast and say, “Oh no, we’ve been here before, we’ve been doing this fast our whole lives. We are fed up!” – no, but rather, this variety and renewal, even in the melodies the Church uses and the tunes of the hymns, adds gladness and gives enlightenment in a person’s life, and it also adds a sense of anticipation, for example when we say, “We are now getting ready to enter into the such and such fast or this or that occasion,” there is a sense of anticipation.
In the Book of Lamentations, which is a short book and a follow-up to the Book of Jeremiah the Prophet, there is a verse of five words at the end of it that says, “Renew our days as of old” (Lam 5:21), and this verse is very appropriate for our contemplation on renewal. “Renew our days as of old” meaning, let our days today have the spirit of renewal as they had in the days of old.
[Two examples of ways of thinking that need to be renewed are, for example, some] people often speak of Christ as history, as “the Christ of long ago” and not as a Presence that is continually accompanying a person in their daily life, and some church servants sometimes make the mistake of speaking about Christ as if He were some kind of superman, but that is not Christ. Christ is the Savior, the Redeemer, the One who provided salvation. And so these are two examples where it would be appropriate to say that such minds must be renewed in their thinking.
And the verse is very clear in the Epistle to the Romans when St. Paul the apostle told us, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). This is a commandment, and a mandatory commandment, a mandatory commandment: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The renewal of the mind, and it is a commandment that requires one to stand before the Lord and say, “Lord, help me.” And I actually consider the renewal of the mind to be a form of repentance, because we speak a lot about repentance but true and effective repentance is very rare among people, and repentance requires the renewal of a person’s mind.
And this matter of renewal is a very significant one in our lives as Christians, but its Biblical origins and roots are also very clear before us:
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” and
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
And so once again, these are the markers of a sound mind, of a balanced mind, of a right mind:
It is led and directed by God and not by its own desires (God is before him/her at all times)
It is always well-balanced
It always has a source of reference, for guidance
It is constantly being renewed
10 types of wrong minds/mindsets
And now I would like to place before you a few traits of a wrong mind [or wrong mindsets].
A mind that creates alarm/fear – makes things seem bigger than they really are
A mind that deviates – tends to the left or to the right
A mind that is full of despair – negative outlook and has no hope
A mind that is hard/hardened – does not improve nor change
A mind that is routine-oriented – unwilling to see/do things differently
A mind that is curious – always on the lookout for news, gossip, etc.
A mind that is restricted – restricted to a single “hero” or ideology
A mind that is distracted – goes back and forth, does not stay focused
A mind that is reactive – easily triggered, always anxious
A mind that is lustful – led by desires, controlled by sin and lusts
The first type of wrong mind is a mind of alarm/fear/intimidation. This type of mind likes to create fear or alarm by taking a small matter you may be facing and enlarges it for you, or even enlarging any piece of news or story you may hear. And of course in order to create alarm and fear, this mind must add details to a story, for example, it will take a small, simple, or limited matter and will begin to weave stories around it so that it can create a problem and even make that problem grow bigger!
Another type of wrong mind is a mind that deviates (a devious mind); it always thinks in an oppositional way. You know how when a car is not balanced people will say that it veers left or veers right, and so this poses risk to the person driving this car. And this mind always lives in fantasies, it is always picturing and imagining things.
The third type of mind is the mind of despair, it is a mind that is full of despair and it is one of the most dangerous minds/mindsets there is. If you suggest something to him he will say, “That won’t work,” or, “We tried it before and it didn’t work,” or if you talk to him about something for the future he will say, “No, it’s not going to succeed.” This type of mind discourages, its outlook is negative and he has no hope at all, in anything, and he will use many examples to validate and support his outlook and his opinion.
And of course a good example of this subject of despair and overcoming it is the story of Edison, the inventor of the light bulb. When the school principle called in his mother to expel him from school, the principle said to his mother, “This son of yours is hopeless,” his mother cried but there was no use. The principle said, “I have decided to expel him!”
The principle’s mind was a mind of despair, it was full of despair, but the mother’s mind was full of hope and she kept pushing her son and encouraging him. And so the boy began selling newspapers and magazines on the railroad system until he saved enough money to pay for his education, and he eventually became an inventor with numerous inventions. The mind of hope.
The fourth type of wrong mind is a mind that is hard or hardened. This hard mind is a mind that does not improve; it does not improve nor advance over time but it stays the same, as it is. This mind lives off of what it learned as a child or off of its old experiences, and this person’s mind does not look to see what is happening around it or how times have changed, or what advancements or improvements have taken place, and at the same time, it refuses all that is new or different. It refuses, end of story. May the Lord protect us from these types of types of minds.
The fifth type of wrong mind/mindset is the “routine mind.” This mind says, “This is how this is done, there is no other way,” and that is all he knows. All he knows is that he goes out at this time every morning, he returns back at this time every evening, he holds a piece of paper, he writes with this pen, and nothing ever changes in his life. And he will say to you, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and are you now going to try and change me?”
This is a routine-oriented mind and it is not useful for participating in Church service work nor even in general work or social matters. This type of mind does not know renewal nor creativity, but we must also know [and keep in mind that] there are two ends here that require balance: the roots and the fruits, and bringing these two together requires a mind that is renewed by the Holy Spirit because it by the work of the Spirit of God that a person’s mind is renewed and thus able to bring these two matters together – the roots that are below the ground, and the tree and the fruits which are above the ground.
The sixth type of wrong mind is a mind that is curious, it is always on the lookout for news, gossiping about peoples’ lives, and retelling stories. This mind is curious and this curiosity satisfies him, I mean really satisfies him, on his soul-level, that when he knows peoples’ news he becomes satisfied, and of course this is a sick mind.
A seventh type of wrong mind is the restricted mind, all he knows is that this or that person is his hero, no matter who that hero may be. It may be a hero from the history of the Church, from general social history, from national history, from political history, it doesn’t matter, all he knows and cares about is just this one person and so he is restricted to this one person and to their ideology. A restricted mind is incapable of thinking on its own and so it is as if his mind is exiled into the mind of the one he has placed before him as his hero.
And this is the danger a person who reads the work of only one author will face, no matter who that author is and no matter what subject we are talking about. No matter how excellent a person may be he is still just a single mind, and it is not right for a person to become a slave of the mind of another person because every person has and should maintain their own individuality.
An eighth wrong type of mind is the distracted mind, and this is the person who begins talking about a certain subject and then moves onto another subject and a third one and a fourth one, and you will try to search for the point or the origin of what he is talking about but you can’t find it. This person is like a lost person, like a person who says, “Let me try taking this road. No, no, let me try that road. No, no, let me go back to that road,” and so he goes around like a lost person in his thinking.
A ninth type of wrong mind is called “the reactive mind.” This person is always reactive, always anxious, always worried, and the tiniest little word will cause him to react, and this will of course reflect in his life in the form of many troubles and diseases.
A tenth type of wrong mind that we can add to this list is the lustful mind, which is a mind that has become controlled by sin or lusts. And those who read much literature are able to discern which word is the key factor in any particular author’s life, for example, one author’s main subject is money, another’s is power, another’s is the ego, because that appears to be the theme of all their writings, and so on.
What role does your will play in the process of the renewal of your mind?
The final thing I would like to say is that if a person so desires, the grace from above can help you renew your mind – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” But then what is my role? What role does my will play in the renewal of my mind? Regarding this, I will suggest one or two or three things to place before us.
4 things you can do to help renew your mind:
Read continuously – the Bible number one, but other books too
Read a variety – of authors and subject matters
Sit in the presence of elders
Study history
A mind may be renewed by means of continuous reading, and at the top of that list is the Bible. And that is why a daily practice of reading the Bible is one of the ways of renewing the mind.
Renew your mind by continually reading and with a variety of readings, do not limit yourself to just one thing.
Another wonderful way to renew your mind is to sit in the presence of elders, whether to get their guidance or just in general and simple dialoguing with them. The experiences of the past are able to benefit a person in the present, especially if these elders we spend time with have and share experiences from history, from life, from their experiences with others, and from their experiences with life situations.
And when a person receives guidance from what they read or from being with other people personally, this can be very effective to impress upon and renew a person’s mind. For example a person will say, “Abouna told me,” or “Sayedna told me this thing.” and although the entire experience may have been communicated in just two words, but those two words will have a significant meaning in that person’s life and upon the renewal of his mind.
And so this is a responsibility upon us as fathers and bishops with our priestly councils, and a responsibility upon the priest councils with their Church servants and deacons, as to how we may help those in our care to renew their minds and to “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” – that we may help them and guide them to attain this renewal through the many different means available.
Another thing that can help a person renew their mind is to know history, and this is why I think there is great wisdom in how our Church has the Synexarium and the Defnar, because they are historical books and provide history over the many stages of decades and centuries. And so studying and knowing history is one of the tools that can help a person to renew their perspective and to renew their mind.
In conclusion beloved ones, as we celebrate the Feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit we lift up our hearts and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” We pray and ask that God, by means of the work of the Holy Spirit, would grant us the spirit of renewal, the spirit of repentance, and the spirit of enlightenment in our personal lives, in the lives of every family (so that a family would never experience boredom), in every area of church service and in every church, and even in society in general, because that too needs a continual spirit of renewal.
To our God be all the glory and honor, from now and to eternity. Amen.