Episode 90: Father Genard interviews newly ordained Deacon Colin Bethishou

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us. O Christ, the light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by Your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfill Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rationale with the knowledge of Your greatness, do enlight, O my

Lord, our thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and

divine Scriptures at all times. O Lord of all, Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, forever. Amen.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.

Wherever you are listening at any time that you're listening.

Welcome to the double edged sword Assyrian Church of the

East Mara Day parish podcast episode.

Yes, I know the introduction was or the beginning was different.

The Commandments commencement was different simply because

this episode is going to be a a special episode.

And I am greatly joy to welcome a brother and a friend who

yesterday, Sunday, June 9th was graciously bestowed upon the

holy ranks of the Church from the right hand of His Holiness

the Patriarch Mar Our Royal. And that friend, that acolyte is

my brother. Prior to ordination, Sub Deacon

Colin bit Ishu, but now Deacon Colin bit Ishu and it's my

pleasure to introduce him. Shamasha, Deacon welcome.

Thank you, Rabbi Kasha, thank you for having me.

Great to have you on the episode.

Great. Pleasure and a great honor.

OK, take a deep breath. Relax.

There you go. It's simple, once you get warmed

up I won't be able to stop you from talking right?

Tell us a little bit about Deacon Colin bit issue.

I I don't want the the listeners to be introduced and well known

of you. Well, I'd like to start with

again. Thank you for having me on,

Deacon Colin. Betty Shu would like to be known

as a humble, unworthy servant of Christ first and foremost, and

then everything else and all the hoopla after that.

But I'm a student still at Stanislaw State University and

just trying my best to juggle work, school, and my holy

service, which I'm not worthy for, but that I love to carry

out here in the church. How old are you, Deacon?

20. And you were born.

December of 2003 in Turlock, CA. You're Turlockian.

Homegrown. Yes.

And your parents, Asher and. Linda.

Petesia, let's give Asher a plug.

How's that? Go ahead.

Petesia and company CPA. If you need tax work done, you

know he's the guy to go to. Excellent and siblings.

I've got two older siblings that are a little bit older than me.

My older brother, Mara O'Neill, he's 28.

And my older sister, Brad Teal, who just graduated from medical

school. Congratulations, Brad Teal are

proud of you. Thank you.

She's 26. And then I'm Colin with the

American name. Shamasha, Colin.

Shamasha, Colin, thank you. The run of the group at 20.

I was introduced to you by my sister Edna Bethelia, the Marta

Day parish youth president. I remember she specifically

remember she approached me and said I'll be, there's this guy

that comes to church every Sunday and I'd, I'd see you come

and, you know, partake in the Holy Communion.

He's a tall guy. And I said, yeah, he's always a

church. Very.

Seems humble. Seemed humble, yeah.

Before he got to new me. Seemed humble and and he said,

oh, he, you know, he's great and you know, he, he comes to youth

and maybe we should ask him to join the youth committee.

And it all began from that point.

But prior to you and I meeting or prior to me meeting you, what

was Shalasha Colin doing prior to that?

Well, truth be told, our family, I was not born into the church,

you know, Protestant background in and out of church.

Quite honestly, before I started coming to church here, I wasn't

even really a regular churchgoer.

And then thank God around, you know, 18 years old, 17 years

old, COVID hit. And by the grace of God, I kind

of had a 180 turn around in my life, started reading my

scriptures, praying daily, and I said I wanted to attend church.

And at the time my father Asher was going to Margie Ergas

parish. In.

Series, right? I started attending with him and

then once I saw that he wasn't going every Sunday, you know, I

said, well, I've got to go somewhere and I didn't want to

take the drive to series from Turlock.

So thanks in part to laziness, I ended up at what a day?

And the rest is history. God who can give you

immeasurably things that you did not even think of.

Saint Paul writes in the book to Galatians in his Epistle to

Galatians. Back then, it was just, I just,

I'm just going to go attend church.

Little did you know that one day you're going to be interviewed

by Masha Janard on podcast episode.

And it'd be the peak of my life. So you came to church and

obviously, how learn it? Were you of the language and the

service itself? If there was a number less than

0 I could put, I'd give, you know, absolutely zero.

And I remember when I was a kid, you know, my father started

attending the Assyrian Church of the East about 10 years ago,

20/14/2015. I remember he took us to, it was

the services at Larsa Hall for Christmas or Easter, I don't

remember. But you know, I'm sitting there

and I don't understand anything, not even much of the Assyrian.

And I just prayed to God and I said, you know, one day, open my

understanding, you know, teach me, open my eyes so I can

understand what's going on. And then?

But you still attend the church. You still would attend church on

a Sunday. No, no.

Oh. OK.

I'd say that started about two years ago.

All right. Did you understand then when you

attend the church? I'd say about that Mark two

years ago was about 0%, OK. So, so just this just refutes

that argument that we don't understand what's happening in

the church. You don't have to understand

what's happening in the church, just partaking in the public

worship of the church. God can call you.

Absolutely. So to understand somewhat

something and then to receive from God that's just refuted

through what you experience. You don't need to understand the

provisions of God. You just need to believe and

draw near, and then God can then give them to you in His

miraculous and gracious ways. Absolutely.

Amen. Great.

And when you're attending, I mean, even if you don't

understand anything, I think one thing is the how the faithful

who are regular attendees, you see them and how they are bowed

out and prey or beating on their chests asking for forgiveness.

You can understand what's going on.

And just that tiny bit of understanding, it might even be

sweeter than because you don't understand what you're relying

fully on your faith to say. Wow, what glorious presence I'm

in. And the songs and like Adisha,

Allah Allah, Kumara and just the tunes are enough to get you to

feel like you're really strengthening your relationship

with God. Picture or a scene says 1000

words. Absolutely.

Yeah. So then we begin with your

education. And I know our beloved Ravi

Harsha, Archdeacon Oceana Cannon who is the the Vicar of the

Patriarch in the Diocese of California and the Parish Preset

Margaret Gesture series has a big role to play in your

education in the language and the services itself.

Yeah, I had started with, and I'm going to give another plug

here to Robbie Hubert Baharam in Chicago.

He taught the Assyrian language, the vernacular on Zoom.

And then as I was in church one of those days before I started

coming every Sunday, I heard Kasha Ocean announce that

they're going to have classes. And I went in one Monday.

And I didn't know then that the Monday classes were actually for

acolytes. And I went in there and there I

saw Akasha and I said, hey, you know, I'm here to learn a

language and credit Akasha. He he leaped up, you know, with

a big smile, and he got right to me.

And I think Alan as well, Alan Aldawood had a role to play in

that as well. Absolutely.

Absolutely, and I believe Arabi, Soro or or sura.

Sura. Yeah.

So the vernacular was from our brother Hubert, who has done a

tremendous job via Zoom. Many people who didn't read and

write, couldn't read and write, are now reading and writing.

That's right. And then the the Aramaic, the

ancient Assyrian I refer to the liturgical language was then

taught by Kasha Oceana and Alan and Rabi Suru.

Yeah, credit to you as well. Shamasha, Wilson, Shamash,

Robert, really all the deacons at our church.

Shamasha Puli, Shamasha Edison, everyone really just kind of

here and there teaching me and then particularly Shamasha

Wilson as we have our class now every every Thursday really not

only just reading, but also understanding and rules of

grammar to really help me understand better as well.

Well, it's the different members of the body of Christ working

together for the edification of the body and the glorification

of the head, which is Jesus Christ.

Praise me to his name. So then you've been spotted in

the church and I remember, please refresh my memories.

I'm getting old. I think we spoke about and I

thought and we spoke about taking on the ranking of the sub

Deacon and yourself and another some there were other candidates

as well. What you know, drawing to God,

drawing to the church, learning the language.

What was the the main drive or the catalyst of you being

interested and contemplating taking receiving rankings in the

church? Well, I think the one of the

main drivers in accepting the rank initially because it was

not something I planned to do at all.

I was there to learn the language was, you know, I was

taught well correct to my parents to respect authority.

And when you and Akasha Vishana wanted to give this to me, I saw

it as a blessing to be someone who a few years ago couldn't

tell you anything from the liturgy of the Eastern Church of

the East to not being offered a holy order.

I also think that I wanted to at the time, I was very on fire in

my relationship with Christ. And I saw this with prayer and

fasting as something that Christ was giving to me to draw me

closer to him. So I said, well, it's a no

brainer. And as I accepted the the

ranking and I, I saw what can be good in the church and quite

honestly, the faithfulness of not only the deacons and the

priests, but also just a regular layman, that also drew me closer

because I said, here is this faith that I've been reading

about at home, I've read about online, and I've heard my entire

life about Christ. Here it is in practice.

You are a regular attendee of the Vespers of the the Matins

slot Lilia, the morning prayers and obviously the service did.

Was that a a a tool or was that the way that helped you to

increase in knowledge and understanding of the services?

I'd say the mountains are invaluable for learning just

about everything you need to know about the Eastern Church of

the East, and especially the language.

You learn so much there, and you're around your brother

deacons and the priests, and you pick up just so much from those.

And you know, the evening prayers help as well, but the

mountains in the morning are incredibly valuable.

From the chance, from the language itself and, and also

the order of the prayers itself, you know, but there's one thing

that you really need to as your parish priest and I want to tell

everyone that you need, really need to work on his vacuuming.

Oh definitely, I've got to be the least valuable sub Deacon of

all time now that it's all said and done when it comes to

vacuuming. Because you know, as sub Deacon,

Christ fulfilled this order as well is when he made the whip

and drove out all those who were selling and purchasing and

auctioning in the temple, cleansing the temple.

So one of the responsibilities and one of the duties of a sub

Deacon is to make sure that the church, the the holy altar, the

sanctuaries is clean. The books are all ready to go

and that's why every time at 7:00 sub Deacon Colin would go

and do some vacuuming and I'd see him struggle with the

cordon. But that's OK, that's secondary,

right? Let me, let me bring you to to

yesterday, Sunday at 9:45 AM when the the actual ordination

service commenced. And as you were reading your

oath of office and we say the Modi Anuta, your confession of

faith, your oath of office or prior to that or the night

before that, what was going through your mind?

You can also refer back to when it was when you were first being

ordained the 1st order, which was Sub Deccan as well.

Well the 1st order was I have no idea what's going to happen

tomorrow. God help me and I couldn't worry

too much 'cause there was no worrying would help me.

I think yesterday, I think my main concern was when I was

giving the the blood of Christ to His Holiness.

Just God help me not to spill or mess anything up.

But you know, you're nervous not only because you're going to be

giving that oath, not only because you're going to be

saying the diagonal litany, you're going to be speaking in

front of people. Everyone's going to have their

eyes on you. You're nervous because you're

taking on a role that you know you're not worthy for and that

you know that you can never fulfill fully, but that the

closer you are are to Christ and prayer and fasting and

almsgiving and then following His commandments, His teachings,

the better you're going to carry it out.

So you're just nervous because you're embarking on a journey

that you know you can't necessarily reach the end, that

you can try your best, and that it really is up to you a lot of

the times to try your best. Philippians 413 I'm empowered to

do it all by him who empowers me.

And as you were reading your oath of office or your

confession, what came to my mind, the vision I I could see

was when the Lord tells Moses to take Joshua.

This is Numbers chapter 15. Take Joshua, the son of nine nun

Numbers 15 · chapter mention

in whom is the something that blows my mind.

Shamash is this God tells Moses, take Joshua the son of Nun, who

has the Spirit on him, yet you lay his hand on the.

Spirit of God. I mean, I mean to that, but yet

God says to Moses, you lay your hand and give him your

authority, which was got from God.

So there's the authority was laying on of the But the other

thing was that God commands him to bring him before the people

so the people could see that this is the man that's going to

serve you so that people will respect and people will accept

the service of this man of Joshua.

And yesterday as you were reading your confession and your

earth of office, it was the church presenting you to the

congregation that this young man, this servant, unworthy

servant will be serving you. So it's a, it's all about

serving. And I think you have grasped

that. What would be your your advice,

suggestion, recommendation for those who also like you, are

contemplating and anticipating and maybe even desiring to

approach the Holy Orders of the Church?

First of all, I'd say you have to pray about it.

You have to pray about it when you're in fasts, that's probably

the best time because you're weakening the body,

strengthening the soul, and you get to know more of what your

soul truly desires and that's guided by God.

But you have to pray about it. You, you have to attend church

on Sundays, every Sunday, if you can, just to get familiar with

the atmosphere, familiar with the chance, see how it is

carried out, get to know the the clergy, get to know the regular

laypeople. And also you have to be in your

scriptures because we can come to church every Sunday.

We can go to all the prayers, we can fast, we can give alms, we

can do alms giving. But you need to be reading your

scriptures because that's your guidebook on how you should

live, not only as a Christian, but if you're going to accept

the Holy Order, you have more responsibility and you need to

be adept with scriptures. The scriptures being Jesus

Christ himself, you know we read in Acts Chapter 11 where Antioch

Acts 11 · chapter mention

who had heard the message from from Saint Paul for such a long

time were the first city to be worthy of called being called

Christians, meaning Christ like small small Christ.

So the gospel that was preached them is Jesus Christ.

So when you and rightly so and so beautifully that you say when

you you need to be intact with your scriptures.

You need you need to have a relationship with the scriptures

is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Be honest with me. If you weren't until to date

Asha Masha, would you still be attending church, do you think?

I mean, I'd hope and pray to God I would.

I was attending pretty consistently about half a year

before my first ordination and I think that was one of the

biggest stepping stones in accepting the rank as well.

I hope I would be. At the time I was on fire of my

relationship with Christ and I I was reading every day and my my

fasts were amazing and I was. Has there been ups and downs?

I'm. Sorry.

And that's what I was going to come to.

There absolutely have been major ups and downs, and a big part of

that has been during my duration as a subdeacon.

And I don't know, I'd hoped to God that during those downs I

wouldn't have lost my faith. How did you overcome?

One thing I think that's a blessing of a rank is you feel

the responsibility of just being there.

And when you show up consistently and you have that

consistency, even if you're in those, you know, plateaus or

you're falling down into a bad hole, you're still around

Christ's church. And that at the very least holds

you. It holds you up.

And I and I would say if you're attending the liturgy, if you're

attending prayers, you can't be spiritually dead.

And as long as you have that. Ember, that flickering ember

that won't be put out. And I think that's mentioned in

Isaiah prophecy about Christ that ember will not be put out.

I mean, Christ himself quotes that, that a broken Reed he will

not break in a flickering light He will not put out.

Let me go through the oath just to remind, in case in case

you've forgotten, it's been a day.

That first sentence is the most viable.

Anna Mchilla, me wretched. Oh yeah, I wretched obviously

then sub Deacon Colin, you confessed your faith in the one

God in the Holy Trinity, in the person, one person of Jesus

Christ. 2 natures 2 hypotheses. Can you make characteristics in

one person of Jesus Christ? Yes, we believe Jesus is God,

praise and glory be to his name. Jesus is God.

You confessed that you believe and accept and the seven

sacraments of the Church and you also confess that you believe in

the the first council, the the the International Council

Council of Nicaea in 325. And then you promised first the

the first part is you confessing your faith in all of what I just

very briefly touched upon. But this is I think for me is

this is the pinnacle is where you Kahul 11 you can you promise

When I talk to couples who are embarking on on holy matrimony

and and I always refer to my say when we have asked you, when the

priest read you your vows, you know, in the Church of the East,

the priest is the efficient, you know, back at home, you know, to

the truition tradition was that the priest would also place the

rings on the finger of the bride and the bridegroom.

And some couples to date are bringing back that tradition.

They actually ask the priest or the the officiant if it whether

it's a Bishop that they would like the priest to.

So the priest reads out the the the vows and during that, once

they've accepted, they both say, yes, the first person we call as

witness is God. We say May God he's only angels,

prophets, apostles, priest, Deacon and the faithful bear

witness that they have now promised.

So you standing at the altar of the church, God being your

witness, patriarch, the priest, the deacons, the angels, the

prophets, the apostles, the community, the congregation, you

said I promised before the living God and I just said

everything. You know, I always jumped the

gun. So the the the clergy and what

have you that you will conduct yourself in faith and in

obedience, in humility. Now this goes out to all the

acolytes that are hearing this. It's good to bring out this

every night. This will be given.

This was given to you. It's good to sometimes go back

and revisit, you know, as I tell married couples, every six

months, go back and Fast forward to dancing and what have you and

the Zorno Daula and just come to the church part.

And just so you can recap what you've been, what you promised.

It's good to read this every six months that you promise that you

will be obedient, you will be humble, you will be obedient and

a a preserver and to the instructions of the hierarchies

that you've received that ordination from, that you will

conduct yourself at all times in prayer, in fasting, and in the

Holy Scriptures and the services of the church.

And my dear Shamasha, this was given before God.

It's as though you stood before God who had chosen you were all

called, but if you are elected, has elected you, and you stood

and said, God, your Holiness Rabi Shamasha, the prophets, the

apostles, everyone, I promise that I will conduct myself in

this manner. What does that mean to you?

It means that I'm undertaking something that I have to call on

God to help me do. I've promised to God, but at the

same time I'm kind of whispering to him aside and saying can you

help me with this? I promise I'll do it if you help

me. I promise to do this with your

help, right? And it's not something that even

if you're in the best condition of your life, you cannot rely on

yourself. And I believe you mentioned it.

I'm I was standing on the altar confessing not only to God and

to the patriarch and to all the clergy, but also to the people,

and that I'm serving Christ through serving other servants

of Christ. I.

Mean and you and you ended your your promise by saying pray for

me and everyone said Amen. So it is a a great undertaking

yes and and as difficult that is as it seems, excuse me as

challenging sometimes as it seems, but I always remember

when Christ said to his apostles, you have to abide in

me because you cannot do anything without me and my dear

Deacon, you've already witnessed this, but you're going to be a

greater part in these ministries now or the myth, the mysteries

of themselves, the sacraments is that I always say to the brother

deacons, and you've been present after a baptism.

For example, I say, look at the the rank that God has lifted up

us to where that child through our frail hands, through the

Amen of the deacons has been put to death with Christ and has

been brought to life and has been born in you and has been

given you life. And you're going to be a part of

that. You know, when we enter the

altar and we open our arms and we say, and may there come, O my

Lord, you're going to be a part of that command, that service

where the bread and the wine will be mysteriously spiritually

changed into the real presence of Jesus Christ for the

salvation of souls. I think when every now and then

we contemplate on this, we we ponder on it, that makes it

easier for us to get up on that Sunday and come to the service

and fulfill our command, our obligation according to Christ's

commandments. I mean, I was about to say when

you during Raza after Raza, before Raza Sunday was it hit

me, I said, I'm administering the blood of our Savior Jesus

Christ to the patriarch of an Apostolic Church, to priests of

an Apostolic Church, to deacons, to hundreds of peoples who

believe in Jesus Christ. For the cleansing of sins.

Sins, yes. And I think, who am I?

I'm 20 years old. I, I'm still in school.

I don't know, you know, I'm not a theologian.

And I'm administering this, this part of the holy sacrament of

the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And it helps you to remain humble because then you sit and

you think, what am I doing here? I should not be here.

I do not deserve this. I am not worthy and I will never

understand it. I mean.

I mean, and God uses the fools and the weak of the world to put

to shame those who are smart and strong in their own

understanding. And I'm paraphrasing, obviously.

Last question, and I have to throw this in.

Any hint or desire or you know, what's the word?

Yeah. Any hint or desire?

Priesthood, God willing, if. It's God's will and that's all

I'll leave it at. I'll continue to pray about it

because when I consider it, I know that it's not easy.

I know that it's a burden, not a bad burden, but it's it's a

burden. Telling me, yeah.

I'm preaching to the choir, but if God wills it, I have, I have

immense faith that if He decides to choose me, that I will come

and say as your as your will, my Lord.

Just as our Blessed Virgin Mother Mary said to the Angel,

let it be as you have told me here I am.

I am the servant made maiden of the Lord.

And and that's that's the mindset that we should have.

Not that I want to be only because I want to.

It should and not that. Oh no, no, I can't.

I can't and I'm not worthy. It's when God calls, you know,

Saint Paul says, how can I clay or is it a pot or how can the

clay tell the Potter, why have you made me like this?

Who am I to say why me? Lord, you know I always say when

God says jump, you say I'm up, take me.

God bless you. Do you want to add anything

else? You want to give your

suggestions and your and your advice to those again that want

to do something in the church and become a one of the

acolytes. I do.

I want to speak to my brothers my age, young men who are

thinking about the church and if they're Syrian, should be

Christian because that's part of our identity.

And I thought about this the other day and I thought I'm a

genius. No, what I thought it's always

said as Assyrians, you know, we don't have a country and it's

used against us and it's used to belittle us.

If you if if you hear and, or if you read in the Old Testament,

when God speaking to the Israelites, he mentions them

going into the land of Israel and the Assyrian language

Yortuta, which is roughly inheritance of English.

And I think that we may not have a nation with land, but we have

an entire church as an inheritance.

I mean, it's got a Syrian in the name.

And so that is my nation. And I believe a lot of men my

age, Assyrian men young, want to be nationalistic.

They want to help out their their nation.

And I think for many of them, if you're in Turlock, San Jose,

Chicago, where most of us are, you can.

And it's through the Assyrian Church of the East serving Jesus

Christ and serving his flock. I mean to that and and we know

what this Assyrian nation has done for Christendom.

All glory to God, we say la matermentalaha, God doesn't own

us for this own doesn't owe us for this, but they went and the

missionaries of the Assyrian Church of these yes, the

Assyrian Church of this. You know, some people ask me why

do you say it's Assyrian Because it's it's founded by Assyria,

just like the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox

Church. We are the Assyrian Church of

the East, not the Syrian. We should emphasize the Assyrian

Church of the East and history archaeology is echoing the

missionary work of the Assyrian Church of these and their

missions. And we are proud to be in the

church just like every other church and all the other

brothers and sisters in different churches.

And you're absolutely right. And I believe that Nineveh is

the church and it's a spiritual Nineveh we have.

And one day, if God wants to grant us the physical earthly

ninva, let it be His will. If not, I'm content with the

physical or the spiritual ninva that we have.

Did the four return or not? No, they're gone.

They're gone. That's a that's it's a private.

That you understand. Understand.

Yeah, let him who understands, understands.

OK, Well, thank you so much, Shamasha.

Deacon, lovely to have you on your program.

And, and actually, this will not be the last.

It may be the first. It will not be the last.

Let him, will, will, will allow him to put his money where his

mouth is. Is that what they say?

Yeah. Money where your mouth is.

We'd love to have you on the program on the episode.

We can present together or we can present programs if you

like, and and be a part of this program because that is one of

your vocations as well. Thank you, Robbie again, it was

a pleasure to be on and I will send out a petition to every

every viewer or listener rather to pray for me as I embark on

this holy order just as I pray for you.

I believe one thing our church needs and all Christianity is

more prayer. And not just empty prayer, but

truly prayer on the behalf of others.

I mean. Petition and supplication, yes,

God bless you. May your we say, that will have

a break. May your new order be blessed

upon you, and may the Lord strengthen you with wisdom,

knowledge, and understanding to serve him for His glory and for

the salvation of souls. And may the grace of our Lord

Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of

the Holy Spirit be with us all now and at all times, Father and

Son and Holy Spirit forever. Amen.

Amen. The We hope you enjoyed this

week's message. Please don't forget to rate and

review this podcast and share with your friends and family.

For any future topics, suggestions, or to give us

detailed feedback, please visit our link in the show notes

linktr dot EE forward slash double edged sword.

Until next time, God bless you all.