August 7, 2014

Psalm 130

1 Out of the depths I cry to Thee, O Lord!
2 Lord, hear my voice!
  Let Thy ears be attentive
  to the voice of my supplications!
3 If Thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities,
  Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with Thee,
  that Thou mayest be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
  and in His word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
  more than watchmen for the morning,
  more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
  For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
  and with Him is plenteous redemption.
8 And He will redeem Israel
  from all his iniquities.

Fr Schmemann
Fr Alexander Schmemann, Paris, 1946
Blessing Fruit
Feast of Transfiguration, with blessing of fruit

Maybe it’s apocryphal, but I remember reading or hearing that August 6, 1945 was the pivotal day that impelled Alexander Schmemann, then a 23-year-old student at Saint Sergius Institute in Paris, to pursue the priesthood rather than a strictly academic career. August 6, the feast of Transfiguration, of light, of Creation’s divine goodness and blessing. And August 6, 1945, the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima: darkness, violence, destruction, the world as fallen. Could there be a starker contrast?

HIroshima
Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Aug 6, 2014, 69th anniversary of the first atomic bomb (BBC)

About 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 were injured. By the end of 1945, 60,000 more died from the effects of the radioactive fallout. 62,000 buildings were destroyed. Over 90% of Hiroshima’s doctors and 93% of its nurses were killed. Scholars and historians are divided on whether or not the first bomb was necessary to win the war and prevent worse catastrophes (there is even more debate about the second bomb on Nagasaki). But whatever the debates, for Christians can there be any doubt that such violence—and the violence we continue to see daily worldwide—has nothing to do with God’s original purpose for creation? So many people suffering everywhere, “Out of the depths I cry to Thee, O Lord! Lord, hear my voice!” 

Blessed is everyone who in this world works to relieve suffering and bring peace. But is there any other ultimate hope than the Lord’s redemption, brought through His own suffering and death on the Cross? We serve here, but keep our spiritual eyes fixed on waiting for and longing for His kingdom where there is no sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing but only life everlasting. 

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

Archives

Yesterday, Matushka Tamara Skvir—granddaughter of Metropolitan Leonty—came to the Chancery with her husband Father Daniel Skvir (Holy Transfiguration Chapel, Princeton University) to continue working with Alexis Liberovsky on an inventory of the OCA’s Archives. This is part of a much larger project being undertaken for preserving, housing and developing the archives. The Archives Advisory Committee, under the chairmanship of Alexis Troubetzkoy, has been active since last December.

Skvirs
Fr Daniel and Matushka Tamara Skvir

I visited the Skvirs a few weeks ago with my wife and brother-in-law at their family’s summer home on the north shore of Long Island. It has been in the family since 1941 (the papers were signed on December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed). Metropolitan Leonty often spent time there, and Matushka Tamara remembers him climbing the trees overlooking the ocean.