A New Ear Resolution

In some languages there is no exact “y” sound as we have in English. So when the speakers of these languages say “Happy New Year,” it comes out as “new ear.” This is a happy and provident accident. It works particularly well with the feasts which we begin January with; in particular, the feast of the ”Theophany,” the initiation of Christ’s appearance to begin his ministry of showing the Good News to the world in himself and the unveiling of the Trinity at the beginning of that work. Christ is baptized, putting off the old Adam, and whole fleshly life of human mortality. All the senses focused toward consumption (eating, drinking, clothing, dwelling, pleasures and avoidance of pain) and the service of the body’s decaying life are replaced. The eyes are replaced by transfigured and spiritual sight, the ears by hearing heavenly things, the taste by receiving the cup of immortality, the smell by the fragrance of unending life, the touch by the fiery coal of divinity. So we have a “new ear,” and a “new eye,” and a “new hand,” and a “new tongue,” even a “new nose.” No plastic surgery required… St. John the Forerunner demands our “new ear:” he is “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord.” The Father rips the veil of the heavens to call out : “You are my beloved Son…” We also need new eyes to see this tear in the fabric of the highest realities of the creation. We need to see into the heavens and receive the Spirit. It is not that Christ himself needs this baptism to remove Adam’s choice of death from his own flesh, but that we need it.  We need new eyes to see the most desirable beauty of God’s love for humanity in Christ. It is more pleasurable than all earthly things. It strips away the unsatisfying emptiness of all our consuming of things with our senses. Christ makes our senses anew as “stronger than death” when they are focused on and firmly sealed on him. 

Fr. Elijah