Saturday, February 3, 2018

By the Waters of Babylon

Humanly smoothed-out, machine translation: "By the Waters of Babylon" by Saint Metropolitan Filaret of New York: "Uproot sin, when it is yet only a young sapling!"

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Dan Everiss

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Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 4:21 PM

Category: Our spiritual warfare, reminding us of a major tool for our victory over sin:-UPROOT IT WHEN IT FIRST APPEARS!


"Let us be exiles from this world, and transport our minds to Heaven!"
By the Waters of Babylon
from Internet Sobor February 15, 2015 archives

Metropolitan Filaret: "By the Waters of Babylon"

Author: m.Rafaila incl. February 16, 2015 . Posted in Archive ROCA (Views: 19)
Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) .jpgAs soon as Great Lent approaches, more and more there appears in the liturgy special prayers, by which the Church is bringing us,  preparing us, for the lean Great Lenten times of prayer, fasting and repentance.
When there was the past week of the Publican and Pharisee, on the eve of it, the Church sang the song of repentance - "Open to me the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life", and the next - last - Saturday, then added another Hymn-Prayer, which was sung today. This is - one of the psalms of the Psalms of King David, which begins with the words: "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and we wept, when we remembered Zion".
Even before the last year, I was  then also talking about the importance of the hymns in our Orthodox worship from Old Testament biblical sources, but not all are likely to remember it, and  not all have heard it, so I remind you of it once again.
First of all, in this psalm there is commemorated a certain moment  of the sacred history, which is indicated in the words taken from it: "Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem saying: it is depleted and exhausted, raze it, raze it  to the very ground!"  These words point to the tragedy that the people of Israel survived when the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the invader - the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, and then when the people of Israel were carried away captive to the distant rivers of Babylon.
Making ready to meet and repulse the expected conqueror, Israel had enlisted the help of a kindred tribe, the  Edomites, the descendants of Esau, "the sons of Edom." They promised the Jewish nation their alliance, help and support. And here, in this psalm, is  specified how treacherously they changed,  how  these Edomite traitors,  were these, "sons of Edom in the day of Jerusalem" - that terrible day that was so memorable for Jerusalem , when - its enemies, cruel and merciless, were destroying the holy city, and  "the sons of Edom", instead of the promised aid, shouted: "deplete it, , level it to  the ground!", i.e. destroy it to its foundations ...
To whom then, were  the defeated  Israelites to complain? To whom  could they tell of their sorrow and suffering? From antiquity comes to us the old expression "Woe to the vanquished." There was no one  to seek protection and assistance from, for the defeated  Israelites. And now, to the Lord they turned, saying: "Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem!" - do not forget, O Lord, in thy justice that terrible day in Jerusalem, when such a terrible betrayal was carried out by those who promised to be our allies ...
"Woe to the vanquished." So it was then, and too this is what also happens now.
When there was the last terrible war, and some were victorious, while others were losers, the winners declared the  losers: "war criminals", although those on the opposing side, vigorously and courageously fought for their country, as the winners for theirs. It was not until our modern so-called, "world wars" when the conquerors [some of them]  were able to respect the courage and bravery of the vanquished, that they did not label  them as criminals, and prosecute the survivors.
This is similar to the fact, in some countries there exits: a "revolutionary mess": one  system is replaced by another, and one party overcomes another. When two parties have fought each other and one of them has won, the winner declares themselves 'patriots' and their opponents - 'bandits'. It takes  only a short time; before the situations have changed; then- the  'bandits' become  'patriots', and 'patriots' -become  'bandits'. For - "Woe to the vanquished."
But of course, the basic meaning of the church hymn, "By the rivers of Babylon," as applied to us Orthodox Christians, is  not only regarding  this Old Testament biblical historic moment. This psalm reminds us of how the Jews in their Babylonian captivity, learned to love their holy places, treasure them and to cherish them. Their cruel conquerors ordered them to: "Sing for us, one of  the songs of Zion!," and they answered them:  "How can we  sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?"
So, that's us also, [i.e. we Orthodox people living in our world-wide diasporas]  who have been living on many foreign  rivers, far  away from our native earthly homelands, and so we must take to our hearts, the example of the Old Testament Jewish people, as they learned from their  Babylonian captivity, to protect their sacred holy places, Our Holy Orthodox Faith, and our immortal souls, and to honor them and to cherish them.
But the main, spiritual meaning of this psalm, has been  explained, in agreement with other sacred writings, and in agreement among  the Holy Fathers:
Once the great Elder Ambrose wrote,  In one of his letters of dialectics; this Holy Elder  Ambrose, referring to himself, said: "Cursed be Babylon!, cursed be my flesh!, when will I learn to dash my sinful babies on a rock of faith?" When sin is only first indicated in the soul of man, but has not yet mastered it, the Holy Fathers call it a "sinful baby." This means that the temptation to sin is first perceived/revealed  upon self inspection,  but the man can conquer that temptation, which for him to accomplish, it is then necessary for him to reflect when it  first appears. So, if a person holds/entertains  this seduction in his heart and thoughts, but then stops his attention to it [to root it out],  then that seduction, will with every moment, become sharper and more attractive, and thus the longer this temptation  remains in his soul, the harder it is to overcome. That is why the great elder  says that it is necessary: for us to 'break sinful babies upon a rock of faith', and to fight against sin, throwing it out - when it first  appears to our attention, when it is  still weak as a baby, and when it has not yet mastered but another captive soul (ours). And this spiritual reality should be remembered by each of us.
Probably many of you have read, as one wise old man taught his pupil, the young novice: to struggle with sin,  and he told him: "My son, uproot it, when it is yet a young  sapling." When the sin was very young, and it was just beginning to grow, and he could pull it out/uproot it,  without difficulty. "Now that's plucking it out," said the old man. Another tree [sin] was much thicker and stronger, because it was allowed to grow longer, and to tear it from  his monastic novitiate, it could only be done with great difficulty. "Now that's hard to pluck up!"- said  the old man, as he  pointed to a thick old tree. Of course, the novice, by his own wisdom,  did not know what to do, as he thought that there  was nothing he could do. But the old man said: "Remember, sin must be fought at the beginning of its discovery, otherwise it will grow into a habit, and then it will be difficult to beat and overcome, and then it will master the soul, so that the soul will be  completely unable to tear itself away from it."
And this necessary feat/podvig  struggle against sin, is related to us, in this hymn: "By the waters of Babylon,"   which  teaches us that it is necessary for every sinful temptation that comes close to us, for us to  immediately-as soon as it appears, to break it upon the  rock of faith, not allowing it to master our souls. .Amen.
Metropolitan Filaret. Preaching and teaching. t. I. Issued by the Russian Orthodox Youth Committee at the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. On the 50th anniversary of the priesthood in 1931 - 1981 s.s.84-87.
Checked against the original
...
related post with link to you tube choir:
http://remnantrocor.blogspot.com/2015/02/by-waters-of-babylon-youtube.html



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