The Christian, as the anointed of God, possesses a unique character. One of the defining traits of this character is the proclamation of the new life of the Heavenly Father’s kingdom, rather than glorifying the fleeting and mortal dominions of this earthly world. Days of glory, which unfortunately pass in mere seconds, leave us yearning for the celebration of the New Year feast days, as immortalized in the song of Artashes the Valiant on his deathbed.
Our yearning must be rooted in the heavenly, not the earthly. We must proclaim the good news of eternal life. Our character is shaped by spreading the seeds of this eternal life—a life filled with faith, overflowing with hope, and engaged in love.
Our character is that soil, where the Word of God falls and bears abundant fruit. It is a soil free from brambles and thorns, a soil cleared of stones. We must be the soil to which we were returned through the refining discipline that returned us to the soil because of our fellowship with evil. This is the soil in which the Only Begotten Son of the Heavenly Father took flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This soil, in cooperation with God, is called to give life. Through the mystery of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, death has lost its dominion over us. We are stewards of this true, eternal, and heavenly life, of which our earthly life should be a reflection.
The Christian’s life-giving character derives its power from the Holy Spirit, who brings forth the Word of God in us. Of its own accord, this seed sprouts and grows night and day. The new land of our heavenly kingdom naturally produces first the shoot, then the ear, and finally the full grain in the ear. (Mark 4.26–28)
Our character is to faithfully tend to the new garden, so that when our neighbors come seeking the risen Lord, we can call them by their name, and their eyes will be opened to find the transfigured Lord within us.
By virtue of this divine life, every greeting we share with our neighbors will infuse them with joy, just as the Blessed Virgin’s greeting to Elizabeth did. We carry the saving Word-seed within us, incarnated into our soil. The very same Word whom our Father uttered, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and there was heavens and earth, everything visible and invisible.
Through the power of the divine Wheat, Christ Himself, growing in us, anyone who touches the fringe of our being will harvest the good forgiveness of sins, not the retaining power given to bind evil.
To be proclaimers of God’s Kingdom–that is our character: to praise His glory in heaven and share His peace on earth. We are those who bring the love of the Father and cause his sun to shine on everyone, on the upright and the wicked alike. (Matthew 5.45).
