Jesus said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.” (Mark 7:20-23)
One of the therapeutic goals of the incarnation is the healing of the human heart. As Christ noted the heart is where all evil comes from. Christ came to heal the heart and restore it to God – to give peace to all humans on earth.
The peace which Christ brings to us is reconciliation with God, but it is not withdrawal into oneself. We are to share God’s peace with our fellow humans. Olivier Clement writes:
“Nevertheless, this peace is not a withdrawal into oneself. Man is called to share in the very life of the Trinity.” (quoted in FOR THE PEACE FROM ABOVE, p 348)
The Gospel lesson of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) is a lesson about repentance that brings about reconciliation with God. Thus Zacchaeus’ repentance brings him peace with God, but also reconciliation with his fellow humans/believers – he promises to restore fourfold what he has falsely taken from others and to give half his wealth to the poor. (But note the reaction of the crowd to Zacchaeus, they show no signs of willingness to be reconciled to him, even though Christ has declared that salvation came to Zacchaeus). Zacchaeus has found peace with God through Christ. As a result Zacchaeus also desires peace with his neighbors and fellow believers in God – he desires to be reconciled t them whereas before he was not concerned about his relationship to them or of them to him. Again Clement says:
“The key text here is the Beatitude about the peacemakers, those who work to make peace – who ‘shall be called sons of God,’ adopted in the Son, therefore literally ‘deified.’ Thus, the disciples of Jesus are ‘to be at peace with one another’ and with all men.” (FOR THE PEACE FROM ABOVE, p 348)
Jesus says to all: Today salvation has come to his house. Zacchaeus is no longer at enmity with God, but has come to be at peace with God accepting God’s lordship and rule.
“The peace of Christ comes to birth in man’s heart, it flows forth, becomes responsible and creative love, acquires a social dimension.” (FOR THE PEACE FROM ABOVE, p 350)
The Gospel lesson of the repentant Zacchaeus tells us that the time of Great Lent, our time of repentance, is but a few weeks away. Great Lent is a time for us to imitate Zacchaeus, to bring about this change of heart, to come to peace with God, and to bring the peace of God to our hearts so that we become peacemakers with others. Salvation – peace with God – is given to us so that we might learn how to live with all people.
Jesus said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.” (Mark 7:20-23)
“The peace of Christ comes to birth in man’s heart, it flows forth, becomes responsible and creative love, acquires a social dimension.” (FOR THE PEACE FROM ABOVE, p 350)


















“And afterward Joshua read all the words of the law, blessings and curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.” (Joshua 8:34-35)
“Joshua reading the law is the type of Jesus explaining the Law and the Prophets to his disciples at Emmaus, and it brings home to us that we understand the Law only when Jesus himself explains it and we find him in it: ‘I think that when Moses is read to us, the veil of the letter is lifted by the grace of the Lord and we begin to understand that the Law is spiritual…’” (p 282).

During any
“For indeed the river of grace flows everywhere. It does not rise in Palestine to disappear in some nearby sea: it spreads over the whole earth and flows into Paradise, flowing in the opposite direction to those four rivers which come from Paradise, and bringing in things far more precious than those which come forth. … Imitate Jesus, the son of Nave. Bear the Gospel, as he bore the ark. Leave behind the desert, that is, sin: cross the Jordan, and hasten to the life according to the commands of Christ; hasten to that land which brings forth fruits of joy, where flow, as was promised, milk and honey. Overturn Jericho, your former way of life, and do not let it be built up again. All these things are types for us, all prefigure truths which are now revealed…”
But there is another interesting point in St. Gregory of Nyssa. The Jordan is shown in a new light. It is no longer through as the river which flows into the Dead Sea, but as a mythical river, which encircles the whole world and is contrasted with the mythical rivers of Paradise. We are brought up against the junction of the idea of the Jordan as the source of Baptism . . . the idea found in all Christian ligurgies that all baptismal water is the Jordan … Jordan, as the frontier between the world of the sense and the spiritual world…” (Jean Danielou,
“Commit no murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, or theft. Practise no magic, sorcery, abortion, or infanticide. See that you do no covet anything your neighbor possesses, and never be guilty or perjury, false witness, slander or malice. Do not equivocate in thought or speech, for a double tongue is a deadly snare…you must resist any temptation to hypocrisy, spitefulness, or superiority. You are to have no malicious designs on a neighbor.”

“Bulgakov chose to follow the formulation, ‘the humanity of God’ (Bogochelovechestvo), a theological perception dear to the Russian tradition. First expressed by Soloviev, it insists on the material, historical, in short the human qualities of God’s work. God’s humanization in the Incarnation has as its goal the corresponding divinization of humanity, our becoming ‘very similar,’ our becoming like God. The saying attributed to Athanasius the Great is: ‘God became human so that humans could become God-like.’ Turn it around, Bulgakov in effect said, and wonder what it might mean for God to become human. What would this mean to God? What would it mean for us human beings? This bold claim is the theological foundation for any understanding of holiness.” (Michael Plekon, 






