Reflection for today: “Qeryana” (Syriac: prayerful Scriptural reading) In the third Sunday of the Great Salvific Lent we remembered (during the Holy Gospel reading), the healing of the paralysed man. The four people who brought the paralytic to Jesus Christ- perhaps these four were the friends of the paralytic. What wonderful friendship we see over here. It is indeed a blessing to have a spiritual friend who will make sure that we are always brought before our Lord and Saviour- Jesus Christ. In a personal opinion, today was actually a commemoration of liturgical friendship day! The Church history fondly remembers the friendship of St Basil of Caesarea and St Gregory of Nazianzen. Their friendship helped them not only to grow in their spiritual life but also not to be deviated from the True Faith. St Gregory of Nazianzen says of his and his dear friend St Basil’s life while they were studying in Athens: “We knew only two streets of the city, the first and the more excellent one to the churches,….; the other,…..to the public schools and to the teachers of the sciences. The streets to the theatres, games, and places of unholy amusements, we left to others. Our holiness was our great concern; our sole aim was to be called and to be Christians. In this we placed our whole glory”. But, in the talks of faith and friendship where does ‘Qeryana’ fit in? If you would have listened to reading portion for today for the Acts of Apostles (i.e in simple terms, the reading that takes place just after you sing the hymn “Bhoovila se-sham” in the Divine Liturgy), it was from Acts of the Apostles 5:12-16; 19:8-12. I would want to draw your attention to the following verse: “But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks”(Acts of the Apostles 19:9,10). In a nutshell when St Paul faced stiff opposition while he was teaching in synagogues, he departed and started teaching in the school of Tyrannus. Some believe that the school of Tyrannus was a Jewish theological institute, which they had beside the synagogues, especially in major cities, and they used to call ‘Beth Marash’. An interesting fact (mentioned by William Barclay in his commentary on the Acts of Apostles) is that St Paul used to preach in this school from 11 A.M to 4 P.M. Until 11 A.M and after 4 P.M, Tyrannus would need the school himself to teach to his followers/disciples. It is so, that all work in the Ionian cities would stop at 11 A.M and wouldn’t start until late afternoon because of heat! So the only way left for St Paul was to work all morning and utilize the time from 11 AM till 4 PM for preaching, and start his work again from 4 PM in the evening! And even more importantly, see the eagerness of the early Christians to learn. When others rested and slept, they seized the moment to learn!! And just compare our behavior with them? In today’s scenario, we would start grumbling if the Divine Liturgy exceeded by 5 minutes. We may have forged a lot ahead through secular reading, let us during this blessed season of the Great Salvific Lent, spare some moments for “Qeryana” or prayerful Scriptural Reading- reading both the Holy Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers. And if you complain that you don’t have time in your busy schedule, think about the first century Christians. Inspite of their physical labor, they would utilize the time to do “Qeryana” when the world was sleeping. “Read often and insatiably the books of the teachers of the Church on divine providence. Read also the two Testaments, which God ordained for knowledge of the whole world. By reading the soul is enlightened anew and helps always to pray tirelessly and without confusion”. - St Isaac the Syrian Icon taken from : stbasilmiami.org
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 14:19:04 +0000
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