Deacon Stefanos

Imagine a small ant walking on the ground, moving among grains of dust and crumbs of food.

One day, a great shadow covers its sky. The ground trembles. Something enormous beyond imagination appears near it: a human.

How the ant sees a human
To an ant, a human is:
Unreachable far too great to comprehend
Unreadable its movements are mysterious
A source of life or death one step can destroy, one crumb can sustain

The ant cannot understand:
Human thoughts
Human emotions
Human intentions

If a human places sugar, the ant only knows: “this is food,”
not: “this is a gift of love.”

If a human avoids stepping on it, the ant does not think: “I am loved,”
only: “I survived.”

What a human would desire from the ant
Now imagine impossible, but for the sake of analogy that a human wants to be known by the ant.

Not merely that:
the ant receives food
the ant lives nearby

But something deeper:
“Know me”
“Do not just take what I give understand my intention”

“Trust that I do not always wish to harm you”

The problem is:
The ant does not have the natural capacity to understand a human.

So if a human truly wants to be known, he must:
“descend” into the ant’s world
communicate in the way ants understand
even, in a sense, “become like an ant”

Where the analogy meets the relationship between humans and God

Like the ant to the human, so are humans before God:
We see His traces (creation, history, miracles)
We receive His gifts (life, breath, blessings)

Human is very special in the eye of God, many writing about God waiting our hearts to Him also knowing His heart like written in book of Song of Songs.

Yet we often do not know His heart

When The Jehovah's revealed Himself in the Old Testament:
> “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14)

This is not merely a name.
It is a personal invitation:
“I am not just a force”
“I am not merely a concept”
“I am a Person”
“Know Me as I know you”

🔹 Athanasius of Alexandria said:
> “God became man so that man might become god (by grace).”

It means: God humbled (emptied) Himself so that humanity might be lifted up into communion with Him, not merely to receive His blessings.

Fulfillment in Christ
What is impossible in the ant analogy
that is what truly happens in the Christian faith:
God did not only “drop crumbs” from heaven,
but came Himself.

In Jesus Christ:
God “descended” into the human world
Spoke in human language
Revealed the heart of God visibly

🔹 Gregory the Theologian (St. Gregory Nazianzen) said:
> “What is not assumed is not healed.”
It means: God fully assumed human nature so that humanity might be truly restored.

🔹 John Chrysostom taught:
> “God does not force, but draws by love.”
Just as a human (in the analogy) does not force the ant, so God invites humanity with love, not compulsion. God open a way for man can reconcile with his creator.

What God desires from humanity
As the human (in the analogy) desires to be known by the ant,
so God desires from us:
Not merely outward obedience
Not merely receiving blessings
But: relationship

🔹 Maximus the Confessor said:
> “The one who loves God cannot help but love every human being.”

Because to know God means to enter into His heart, and His heart is love.

To know Him need Holy Spirit (Life from the Father)
Even if the human comes close to the ant, the ant still cannot fully understand the human mind.
So imagine this:
The human not only comes down to the ant…
but also places something of his own life within the ant, enabling it to perceive, respond, and trust.

This is the role of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not external like a crumb,
but internal working within.
He opens what is closed
He enlightens what is dark
He makes possible what is impossible

🔹 Basil the Great teaches:
“Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to Paradise, ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven, and return to adoption as sons.”

Without the Holy Spirit:
humans may see God’s works even hear Christ’s words
But they cannot truly say: “I know Him.”

God longs for humanity to say:
“I know You”
“I trust Your heart”
“I love You, not just Your gifts”

The greatest problem is not that God is far,
but that humans often:
live like “spiritual ants”
are busy only with the “crumbs” of this world
without ever lifting their gaze to His Person

🔹 Isaac the Syrian said:
> “Paradise is the love of God.”

It means: the ultimate goal is not merely to be saved from punishment, but to enter into the very love of God Himself.

As we knew in OT:

“I AM WHO I AM”

He The Jehovah's incarnated in Jesus Christ, our Lord and He, the Lord said:
> “I want you to know My heart,
not just receive from My hand.”

Now the analogy reaches its fullness:
The Father the One beyond all, whom the ant cannot comprehend
The Son the One who “descends” and becomes visible
The Holy Spirit the One who dwells within, making true knowledge possible.

We cannot reduce God to fit within our own thinking moreover added in knowledge, but we receive Him as He is this is primary believing and living in communion with Him through the Church.

We are limited god, God said it in Psalms. Additionally, we recognize Him as our Creator and the Creation.

How do the Holy Trinity work in creation?
God the Father is the Planner.
The Son is the Maker.
The Holy Spirit is the One who sanctifies.
Not three but in one essence.

Now the important question, Why do we live our lives without ever asking: “What is in God’s heart for me?” Why do we try to understand everything, yet never try to know God personally? Who is He for you?

Holy Liturgy in Our Parish End of Month of February
New Baptism for our brother Kyrilos

We live in a time that feels like a market that never closes.
Everything makes noise. Everything moves. Everything asks for attention.

Phones vibrate.
Messages come in.
Videos play without stopping.
Voices pile up inside our heads.

And when everything suddenly becomes quiet, we feel uneasy.

Why?

Because silence is like a mirror.
And not everyone is brave enough to look into a mirror.

But in the light of Christian faith, we should learn something very deep:
Silence is not empty space.
Silence is a place of meeting.

🌿 God Whispers, He Does Not Shout

The prophet Elijah waited for God in a strong wind, an earthquake, and fire.
But God was not in the noise.

God came in a “gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12).

Like dew that falls without sound.
Like the morning light that never makes noise, yet pushes away the darkness.

The devil loves noise, because noise divides the soul.
God speaks in depth, not in chaos.

If our lives are always noisy,
we may be busy about God,
but not truly with God.

🌿 The Lord Jesus Christ and the Mountain of Silence

Before choosing the Twelve, the Lord Jesus Christ went up a mountain and prayed all night.
Before the Cross, He prayed in Gethsemane.
Before Pilate, He was silent.

His silence was not weakness.
It was ordered power.

Like a calm sea that is very deep.
Like tree roots that cannot be seen, but hold up the whole tree.

If the Son of God sought silence,
how can we think we do not need it?

The Desert Fathers left the cities not because they hated the world,
but because they wanted to hear God’s voice without distraction.
They knew: a quiet heart becomes a throne for God.

🌿 Noise Covers Wounds, Silence Opens Them

Noise can comfort us.
It can help us forget.
It can make us feel less alone.

But silence opens the heart.

When quiet comes,
thoughts appear.
Fears rise to the surface.
Hidden sins ask to be confessed.

Many people run from silence not because it is empty,
but because it is honest.

Yet this is where healing begins.

Like a wound that must be cleaned before it heals,
the soul must dare to be still before it is restored.

🌿 The Devil and Chaos

From the beginning, the enemy works through disturbance.

In Eden, he planted doubt.
In the story of Job, he caused chaos.
In the Lord’s Passion, he moved the crowd to shout.

Noise creates confusion.
Confusion clouds judgment.
Clouded judgment leads to sin.

But silence brings order.

In silence, we hear truth without distortion.
In silence, temptation loses its drama.
In silence, God becomes greater than fear.

🌿 The Eucharist and the Holy Silent

In the Divine Liturgy, the highest moment is not only the singing or the sermon.
There is a very holy moment:
the silence after Communion.

Christ is in us.
Heaven touches earth.

And the Church invites us: be still.

Because love does not always speak.
Love often simply remains.

The devil cannot stand a soul that rests in God.
He can disturb a restless mind,
but it is not easy to shake a heart that is calm in prayer.

🌿 Prayer Is Not Only Words

Many of us pray with many words.
But prayer is also listening.

If we keep talking,
when do we give the Spirit space to whisper?

The Book of Revelation says:
“There was silence in heaven…” (Revelation 8:1)

Even heaven knows silence.

Silence is not emptiness.
It is waiting.
It is reverence.
It is quiet power.

🌿 The Real Battle

The spiritual battle today is not only about right and wrong.
It is about attention.

If the enemy keeps us constantly stimulated,
we become shallow.

But if we learn true silence,
our roots will grow deeper into Christ.

And a tree with deep roots does not fall easily in a storm.

🌿 Try It

Turn off the music.
Put down your phone.
Sit in your room or in a church.

Do not rush to say anything.

Let the noisy thoughts slowly calm down.
You may feel restless. That is normal.
It is like a detox for the soul.

Stay there.

Because in that silence,
you will find something simple but powerful:

God was never far away.
We were just too noisy to notice Him.

☦️
In Christian spirituality, silence is not running away from the world.
Silence is the path to pure worship.
It is the fertile soil where the Word of God takes root,
grows,
and bears fruit.

And there, the enemy loses his power.

Christ Is Enough

Many people live with a constant sense of lack. Not enough money, not appreciated enough, not successful enough, not happy enough.
We keep chasing many things, hoping our lives will finally feel complete. Yet the more we pursue, the more tired our hearts become. It is as if there is an empty space within the human soul that nothing can truly fill.

In truth, the human heart was not created to be satisfied by many things, but by one Person—Christ. That is why, when Christ is not the center of life, whatever we possess never truly feels enough.

Christ is not an addition to the believer’s life. He is not merely a helper in times of trouble, only to be forgotten when life feels comfortable. Christ is the foundation of life. Without Him, life loses its direction. With Him, even lack can be lived through with peace.

Often we say that we believe in Christ, yet in daily life our focus still rests more on money, work, or people. We pray, but our hearts fear losing worldly things more than losing God. We speak the name of Christ, yet many of our life decisions are made without involving Him.

Christ calls us to believe fully, not halfway. He invites us to come to Him with open and honest hearts, not with a sense of self-sufficiency.

To understand this more deeply, let us look at the story of a blind man.

📖👼 The Story of the Blind Man (Matthew 20:29–34)

There was a blind man who sat by the roadside every day. He could not see anything. His world consisted only of footsteps and the voices of people passing by. His life depended entirely on the mercy of others.

Many people passed him every day, but none of them changed his life. Until one day, he heard a different kind of commotion. People were saying that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.

The blind man had heard about Jesus. He knew that Jesus healed the sick and helped the helpless. Hope that had long been dead suddenly came alive in his heart.

With a loud voice he cried out,
“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The people around him told him to be quiet. They felt disturbed. They considered him unimportant. But he kept crying out. He knew that Jesus was his only hope.

Jesus stopped and called him. Then Jesus asked,
“What do you want Me to do for you?”

His answer was very simple,
“Lord, I want to see.”

Jesus healed him and said that his faith had saved him. Immediately, the blind man received his sight.

Yet the most important thing was not only that his eyes were opened, but that his heart was opened as well. After being healed, he did not return to his old life. He followed Jesus. He knew that seeing the world without Christ was meaningless.

🖤 A More Dangerous Blindness

Many people today can see with their eyes, yet their hearts are blind. They do not realize that they are far from God. They feel their lives are good enough without Christ.

But the most dangerous blindness is not the inability to see with the eyes—it is the inability to see the truth. Not being aware of sin. Not feeling the need for God.

The blind man in the story knew that he was blind. And it was precisely that awareness that led him to Christ. God more readily touches the humble than those who think they are already right.

☦️ Why Is Christ Enough?

When we say, “Christ is enough,” we are declaring that Christ is more important than anything else, more important than money, position, praise, or worldly security.

This does not mean we stop working or making effort. But our hearts no longer depend on those things. Christ becomes the source of our strength, our hope, and the direction of our lives.

The blind man did not ask for many things. He simply asked Christ to help him. And when he encountered Christ, his life was completely transformed.

Christ alone is enough. Not because life is always easy, but because God is faithful. Not because we are always strong, but because God never abandons us.

Like the blind man, let us come to Christ with honest and simple hearts, acknowledging that without Him, we cannot see the direction of our lives.

And when we dare to say,
“Lord, I have nothing except You,”
we will realize that You truly are enough.

"The devil does not fear the Bible you read; he only fears the Bible you live with humility."

Many Christians assume that the devil tries to keep humanity away from the Holy Scriptures. In reality, what he fears is not the Bible itself, but the Bible understood correctly and lived out with humility. Since the beginning of salvation history, the devil has not attacked faith through ignorance, but through false interpretation, half-truths, and knowledge that bears no fruit of repentance.

This is evident in the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness. The devil dared to quote Scripture to tempt the Word-made-flesh. He used sacred verses not to lead man to obedience, but to foster spiritual pride. From the Garden of Eden until today, his most dangerous weapon is not an outright lie, but a twisted truth and knowledge that makes people feel righteous without ever having to change.

The Holy Scriptures indeed promise God's protection, but that promise only lives within the context of faith, obedience, and humility. When verses are detached from the whole of revelation and the life of the Church, the Word that should heal instead turns into a tool for self-justification. The devil does not need to take the Bible out of human hands; it is enough for him to turn the Word into a subject of debate and make spiritual knowledge the sole measure of piety.

This is where a great danger arises. Knowledge without repentance gives birth to pride, and pride gives birth to endless debate. Many people know the Scriptures well, but not to change their lives—rather to win arguments. The Word of God is used as a weapon to attack others, not as a mirror to correct oneself. Theological debates detached from love and obedience ultimately do not build faith; they harden the heart.

The difference between a saint and a demon does not lie in the breadth of their knowledge, but in their obedience. The devil knows the Scriptures yet rejects them; the saint obeys the Word even when it demands self-denial. Yet many believers fall into the old trap: quoting verses they do not live, defending sin with fragments of the Word, and hiding disobedience behind pious-sounding theological terms.

When Scripture is used to silence correction, reject the guidance of the Church, or justify stubbornness under the guise of "truth," that is when man mimics the devil's methods. The devil's goal is not necessarily to make man lose his faith, but to make that faith cold, dry, and full of lifeless debate. A living faith always produces repentance; a dead faith is busy defending arguments.

The danger increases when someone claims that they and their Bible are enough, independent of Apostolic Tradition, the Church Fathers, the liturgy, the sacraments, and the teaching authority of the Church. In such a state, Scripture easily becomes a tool for self-justification and a source of division. Debates flourish, but humility vanishes; knowledge increases, but love shrinks.

The Lord Jesus Christ showed a different way. He answered temptation with Scripture interpreted correctly—not to debate, but to obey. He did not use the Word to prove His superiority, but to surrender Himself entirely to the will of God. From Him, we learn that the Scriptures were not given to win discussions, but to save souls.

Many believers today perish not because they do not know the Bible, but because they are satisfied with half-baked knowledge and empty arguments. They love spiritual intellect more than spiritual discipline, feeling content with understanding the Word without being transformed by it. The devil continues to work quietly in the midst of a Christianity that talks loudly about the Word but is reluctant to live within it.

If the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was tempted with Scripture, then no one is safe through knowledge and debating skills alone. The same serpent still whispers, the same temptation still works, and God still asks the heart of every believer: Has the Word you know changed your life, or merely strengthened your ego? The answer to this question determines the direction of our faith, our life, and our salvation.

In the end, after all the verses we have memorized and every theological discussion we have won, one crucial question remains for our souls: Is the Scripture we read tearing down our pride, or is it building a fortress of justification for our ego? Which do we do more often when we open the Bible: look for ammunition to silence the arguments of others, or look for a mirror to see the flaws within our own hearts? If God were to ask us today, would we proudly show how much intellectual knowledge we possess, or would we bow our heads in shame, realizing how little of that Word we have actually lived with humility?

The feast of Theophany
At St John The Forerunner Parish
Tangerang

Selamat Natal