Aaron, I read your first post of Nov. 26 and took it to heart and began praying in the hope it would help with some of my own issues. Little did I imagine how I would be taught of suffering.
Over the past month my beautiful grandson, born on Christmas Eve four years ago has progressively become more ill and painful and is currently being worked up for malignancy vs ??. I have never known a love like the love that he and his little sister have brought into my life. I am devastated and so afraid for him, his Mom and Dad and little sister. I'm struggling to write through the tears and all my waking hours are spent in prayer for him. Love your children everyone and make sure they know it! Please say a prayer for mine. TY
Thank you, Dr. Kheriaty, for bringing to life Jesus’ life before he became the teacher. An ordinary life that I could visualize through your words. Merry Christmas.
When you write, I can actually picture all that is happening. You have a gift! Actually, you have many gifts and I appreciate all of your work to save free speech and as a fellow Catholic, creating these images of Our Lord as he lived his simple life in Nazareth. As you say, St. Joseph truly was the first martyr. Merry Christmas!
Do you think it is possible that through the Cross we may learn Holy Joy and come, at last, to His Peace? Ah, the gift of the Cross, so hard to fathom, the gift of Holy Joy, in our hands so elusive, and our hunger for His Peace, so deep. May the Peace and Joy of the Baby Jesus in His Mother’s arms fill your hearts this Christmas and all your days.
These days so many social media posts catalyze anger, indignation, fear or other emotions that close down the heart. It is rare for a Substack post to bring me to a place of humility, compassion and reflection. Your writing today did that. Thank you. And Merry Christmas to you and your family.💕
Another beautifully written piece with words as pictures to fill my imagination while my soul is comforted. Thank you for this lovely Advent blessing! Looking forward to the next heartfelt post.
Dr. Kheriaty, Thank you for this beautiful summary of the LORD’s humble beginnings. God became flesh and dwelt among us. That is beautiful. He understands our humanity because he lived it. Praise the LORD.
Hebrews 4:15-16 also reminds us our path through suffering: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
He truly is “our comfort and joy.” Our Suffering Servant is Savior of the world. Merry Christmas!
Dr. Kheriaty, I have read this beautiful reflection as well as your previous reflection on the passion; all adding to a 2000 year dialogue on the deeper meaning of the Cross. I am also aware of your struggles as you have been professionally crucified by the current medical establishment. You state “The Cross shaped the entire life of Christ from beginning to end.” Your reflections immediately bring to mind many other profound reflections too many to mention: MLK’s Bearing the Cross (and the voice from the silence which inspired MLK to descend into hell and confront the institutionalized evil in America), Dr. Cone’s “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”, etc.
Based on my own studies epiphanies, and direct experience, I have concluded that the life of Christ was an elaborate psychodrama demonstrating that violence is not a Divine Attribute of the Most High God. We are encouraged to resist not evil, to love our enemies (I do this with a detailed prayer to the Most High God focussing on the many enemies of mankind - the oppressors), render onto Caesar, and engage in non-violent solutions within the human experience.
I believe we are all on the cross of space and time, living inauthentic existences not evenly remotely close to the original image and similitude of what it means to exist in the Infinite Fields of the Mind of our LORD. This concept of existence is an outlier (6 STD) among infinite concepts of existence. You might say we are conscious within a socially shared hallucination embedded in 50 feet of concrete (RD Laing - The Politics of Experience).
But I am irrationally optimistic. I see there is a spiritual fellowship present here now. We will co-participate in the removal of all souls from this Cross of space and time, and the removal of all souls from this dysfunctional wheel of life, thereby dissolving the dysfunctional thought-forms that define the nature of this reality.
There is only ONE possible dream, and I dare to dream it every moment of each day.
I’ve never understood the exposition of the meager existence of the family. The “three kings of orient are” set them up. They travelled a long distance for that very purpose. Tremendous wealth was graciously received.
I'm sure there was no midwife. Our Lord didn't open the womb of His Mother. I forget which saint said it, but Our Lord passed from the womb like light passing through glass.
Our Lord was subject to His Mother, and we must follow His example. We creatures can be saved only if we are subject to those who Christ placed over us, the Popes. And we must be subject to His Mother, "Behold thy Mother."
The existence of suffering and those times in scripture (OT) when God allows suffering to befall his people (like Job), are not easy to reconcile with a loving God. These are truly paradoxes or straight out clues to the existence of shortcomings in our theology. We too often extrapolate our mundane level of understanding for true knowledge. We write stories that comport with our wishes or confusion, not with a deeper grasp of the nature of this universe, this Creation. The existence of evil and suffering in our world today, on such a grand scale, is a signal that we don't truly know the Truth. Rather, we indulge in happy clappy fictions. The best theologian of out time, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), helps us see how far we have fallen from early applied theology (Patristic tradition) but he offers us but a trail head we must take...
Aaron, I read your first post of Nov. 26 and took it to heart and began praying in the hope it would help with some of my own issues. Little did I imagine how I would be taught of suffering.
Over the past month my beautiful grandson, born on Christmas Eve four years ago has progressively become more ill and painful and is currently being worked up for malignancy vs ??. I have never known a love like the love that he and his little sister have brought into my life. I am devastated and so afraid for him, his Mom and Dad and little sister. I'm struggling to write through the tears and all my waking hours are spent in prayer for him. Love your children everyone and make sure they know it! Please say a prayer for mine. TY
I will pray for your grandson. Doce me passionem Tuam.
Thank you, Dr. Kheriaty, for bringing to life Jesus’ life before he became the teacher. An ordinary life that I could visualize through your words. Merry Christmas.
Beautiful. Thank you.
When you write, I can actually picture all that is happening. You have a gift! Actually, you have many gifts and I appreciate all of your work to save free speech and as a fellow Catholic, creating these images of Our Lord as he lived his simple life in Nazareth. As you say, St. Joseph truly was the first martyr. Merry Christmas!
Agree! Thanks for the beautiful Advent gift.
Do you think it is possible that through the Cross we may learn Holy Joy and come, at last, to His Peace? Ah, the gift of the Cross, so hard to fathom, the gift of Holy Joy, in our hands so elusive, and our hunger for His Peace, so deep. May the Peace and Joy of the Baby Jesus in His Mother’s arms fill your hearts this Christmas and all your days.
Yes, that is exactly what I think. Our joy must be rooted in the shape of the Cross.
These days so many social media posts catalyze anger, indignation, fear or other emotions that close down the heart. It is rare for a Substack post to bring me to a place of humility, compassion and reflection. Your writing today did that. Thank you. And Merry Christmas to you and your family.💕
Another beautifully written piece with words as pictures to fill my imagination while my soul is comforted. Thank you for this lovely Advent blessing! Looking forward to the next heartfelt post.
Dr. Kheriaty, Thank you for this beautiful summary of the LORD’s humble beginnings. God became flesh and dwelt among us. That is beautiful. He understands our humanity because he lived it. Praise the LORD.
Hebrews 4:15-16 also reminds us our path through suffering: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
He truly is “our comfort and joy.” Our Suffering Servant is Savior of the world. Merry Christmas!
Dr. Kheriaty, I have read this beautiful reflection as well as your previous reflection on the passion; all adding to a 2000 year dialogue on the deeper meaning of the Cross. I am also aware of your struggles as you have been professionally crucified by the current medical establishment. You state “The Cross shaped the entire life of Christ from beginning to end.” Your reflections immediately bring to mind many other profound reflections too many to mention: MLK’s Bearing the Cross (and the voice from the silence which inspired MLK to descend into hell and confront the institutionalized evil in America), Dr. Cone’s “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”, etc.
Based on my own studies epiphanies, and direct experience, I have concluded that the life of Christ was an elaborate psychodrama demonstrating that violence is not a Divine Attribute of the Most High God. We are encouraged to resist not evil, to love our enemies (I do this with a detailed prayer to the Most High God focussing on the many enemies of mankind - the oppressors), render onto Caesar, and engage in non-violent solutions within the human experience.
I believe we are all on the cross of space and time, living inauthentic existences not evenly remotely close to the original image and similitude of what it means to exist in the Infinite Fields of the Mind of our LORD. This concept of existence is an outlier (6 STD) among infinite concepts of existence. You might say we are conscious within a socially shared hallucination embedded in 50 feet of concrete (RD Laing - The Politics of Experience).
But I am irrationally optimistic. I see there is a spiritual fellowship present here now. We will co-participate in the removal of all souls from this Cross of space and time, and the removal of all souls from this dysfunctional wheel of life, thereby dissolving the dysfunctional thought-forms that define the nature of this reality.
There is only ONE possible dream, and I dare to dream it every moment of each day.
Regards
Dr. Sergei Kochkin
Thank you
I’ve never understood the exposition of the meager existence of the family. The “three kings of orient are” set them up. They travelled a long distance for that very purpose. Tremendous wealth was graciously received.
I'm sure there was no midwife. Our Lord didn't open the womb of His Mother. I forget which saint said it, but Our Lord passed from the womb like light passing through glass.
Our Lord was subject to His Mother, and we must follow His example. We creatures can be saved only if we are subject to those who Christ placed over us, the Popes. And we must be subject to His Mother, "Behold thy Mother."
The existence of suffering and those times in scripture (OT) when God allows suffering to befall his people (like Job), are not easy to reconcile with a loving God. These are truly paradoxes or straight out clues to the existence of shortcomings in our theology. We too often extrapolate our mundane level of understanding for true knowledge. We write stories that comport with our wishes or confusion, not with a deeper grasp of the nature of this universe, this Creation. The existence of evil and suffering in our world today, on such a grand scale, is a signal that we don't truly know the Truth. Rather, we indulge in happy clappy fictions. The best theologian of out time, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), helps us see how far we have fallen from early applied theology (Patristic tradition) but he offers us but a trail head we must take...