HOMILY: All Saints of Russia

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The gift of holiness, the gift of the Holy Spirit, is open to all of us to receive.  Yet, if Christ is the great physician, and the Church is the hospital for our souls, it is up to us to follow  those prescriptions – by Christ and the Church – to take the gifts of healing freely given to us for the benefit of both soul and body.  Faith and holiness is a choice.

Holiness is a Choice

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; God is One!  Amen

Wherever the Church is, there dwells also the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit, there is no Church, no hospital for our souls nor a pillar and foundation of Truth.  Without the Holy Spirit there are no sacraments, there are no Holy Mysteries,and there is no salvation.  All the sacrificial acts of Jesus Christ – the incarnation, his death on the cross, both his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven – were all accomplished to prepare the way for us all to receive the Holy Spirit.

All of His salvific acts were done to prepare the path for our own struggle. He fulfilled the law and all righteousness that we may follow Him on our own journey through this life so that we may become like Him, imitate Him, and follow Him and His commandments that we may one day be deemed worthy to receive the promises of Christ and be received into his Kingdom.

The Orthodox Christian faith is one of struggle.  In Russian it is often called Podvig, a word largely untranslatable into English, but understood as an achievement through selfless action, or a result achieved through difficult circumstances. In the case of our Christian context, to become more Christ-like. It is in that self same struggle that we acquire the Holy Spirit.  We must struggle within ourselves, against ourselves and against the world to fan the spark of the Holy Spirit within us into a great conflagration of God’s love.  It takes great effort and struggle to pray, fast, give alms, repent, love one another, to forgive those who offend us, to maintain purity in our hearts, and to make our lives and our bodies worthy dwelling places for the Holy Spirit.

The more the Holy Spirit grows within us the more sanctified we become.  In this we become little Christs. We become true Saints. We become holy.  Recently we celebrated the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, wherein the Church was established upon Christ’s honorable blood, so today it is only fitting that we celebrate the natural and logical outcome of that event, which is that through struggle, with God’s help, Christians become sanctified and become holy, or Saints. 

Today we remember All the Russian Saints of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  Today is in essence the name day of all Russia, where we remember the Saints who through both sorrows and great love, labored to build the Church of Russia we hold fast to this day.  Kievan Rus was baptized in 988 after Prince Vladimir sent ambassadors from Kiev in search of true faith, recognizing the failings of their pagan gods.  They found the Muslims of the Bulgarian lands to be without joy, and rejected the abolition of alcohol and pork, for what joy can be found in a life without Vodka and bacon?  Also, Vladimir found the Jewish faith to be weak, for they had lost Jerusalem, and as a result saw them as having been abandoned by God.  They found the services of the Romans to be relentlessly bleak and without beauty.  Yet, when the ambassadors came to the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, they indeed found what they had been searching for, and reported back to their lord:

“And we went into the Greek lands, and we were led into a place where they serve their God, and we did not know where we were, on heaven or on earth; and do not know how to tell about this. All we know is that God lives there with people and their service is better than in any other country. We cannot forget that beauty since each person, if he eats something sweet, will not take something bitter afterwards; so we cannot remain any more in paganism.”

So, the Russian people joined Prince Vladimir through baptism into the Orthodox faith. The old pagan gods were rejected, and many churches were built in those places they once held.  The Orthodox faith united disparate tribes across the land, giving them new meaning and new life.  The Orthodox faith regenerated Russian princes and rulers, so  that in time Russia would rise from the shadows of this world to become a beacon of Orthodoxy to all men. From the Russian Church, many luminaries of Truth and virtue arose to lead her into the ages to come. From the Russian Church many Saints, endowed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, shine brightly into the world wherein their memories echo amongst us.

We remember the likes of Saint Sergius, who founded the largest Orthodox Monastery in all of Russia, today known as the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius. It is from him that the cultural ideals of Holy Rus emerged.  We remember Vasily the blessed, a fool for Christ who was known all across Moscow in the 15th century, now buried in the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Red Square.  We remember the holy hierarch Saint Germogen, who gave strength to the Russian peoples amidst the time of troubles; who in both faith and confession, “spiritually and morally regenerated the Russian nation, [wherein] it again started on the path of seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, the righteousness of subordinating the earthly life of the state to spiritual principles.” We remember Saint Seraphim of Sarov, that great light of Orthodox Spirituality, who exhorts us to acquire a spirit of peace, that thousands around us might be saved. We remember the likes of Saint John of Kronstadt; a model for all Orthodox priests; the great pastor of Russia who breathed into the Russian people on the eve of its great peril a lasting reserve of spirituality, a reserve that would allow it to survive and endure the coming years of atheist Soviet Russia.  We remember great Saints such as these, and many more like them, who struggled against themselves, against the world and acquired the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by the lasting memory of holiness they left behind.

We stand with saints like these, each of us together, united in one Orthodox faith, one teaching, one mind, and one Love for both God and one another.  Love is the common denominator.  Love is the unending and enduring fire of God’s grace on earth, burning through the hearts of men, and bringing light to where there is none.  It is within the light and light of God’s love that the faithful persevere against the evils of this world. It is this love the Church carries into the world, and it is by this love that the Church has prevailed, prevails today, and will continue to prevail in the ages to come.  For, the world is a cold and dark spiritual desert within which we are all tested. It is only by the unquenchable fire of God’s love aflame within us that we can survive and prevail, that we are guided and find our way, and are given the light life when all the world has to offer is the shadow of death. The Saints have shown this to be True.  The Russian Orthodox Church has shown this to be true, having endured perhaps the greatest darkness the Church has ever known, and one of the greatest evils the world has ever known.  So, as we look forward toward the days to come, let us not be disturbed by tumults and turmoil; let us not be troubled by social unrest, revolts, and upheavals; let us not be perplexed by political unrest and rhetoric; let us not stumble by the fraying of the moral fabric of the very Republic in which we live.  Instead, as Father Seraphim Rose exhorts us to do, “let all true Orthodox Christians strengthen themselves for the battle ahead, never forgetting that in Christ the victory is already ours.”

The gift of holiness, the gift of the Holy Spirit, is open to all of us to receive.  Yet, if Christ is the great physician, and the Church is the hospital for our souls, it is up to us to follow  those prescriptions – by Christ and the Church – to take the gifts of healing freely given to us for the benefit of both soul and body.  Faith and holiness is a choice. Let us heed the words of Saint Herman of Alaska: “For our good, for our happiness, at least let us give a vow to ourselves, that from this day, from this hour, from this minute, we shall strive above all else to love God and to do His Holy Will!”

Oh Lord Jesus Christ our God, by the prayers of thy most pure mother, the holy and God bearing fathers, all the saints and the martyrs and the angels have mercy on us and save us.  Amen!

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

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?From physical hunger to destitution, and in our case, from a departure of virtue into depravity.  At first the Prodigal Son was not aware of the depths of despair into which he had fallen, and neither are we aware of how depraved we have allowed ourselves to become in our fallen sinfulness.  Yet, eventually the Prodigal Son finally came to himself, as we ourselves often do.  He remembered whose son he was, and despite all his failings never ceased being the son of his father.?

HOMILY: Sunday of the Prodigal Son

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  God is One! Amen

So we enter into the second Sunday of the triodion, the second week in our period of preparation for the Lenten fast soon upon us.  Last week we heard the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, laying down the cornerstone of our Lenten journey: Humility and Repentance. Then we have today, the Sunday of The Prodigal Son, perhaps the most well known of parables, the image and trope of the prodigal being used widely across literature, movies, novels, and even video games. In this parable we see the image and archetype of God’s forgiveness in the prodigal son, who had abandoned his father for the world and its pleasures, and returned home to his father’s house where he was received with open arms as a son, and not as a servant as the prodigal son had intended.

The Gospel reading for today embodies the entirety of God’s message to the world. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son we are shown the longing of God for the repentance of his children.  It is said by the Fathers of the Church that the entirety of the Gospel can be found in The Parable of the Prodigal Son, and if for some reason the scriptures were lost to us, keeping this parable, it would be possible to for us to recreate a concise summation of Christian teachings, and also to emphasize the love of God for all mankind.

Reading through fathers, past and present, there are many themes that can be extracted from this single, simple parable.  Today we are going to focus on one of them, that which is most relevant to us in preparing for this Lenten season as we move Godward in the course of our Orthodox Christian lives.

When reading Holy Scriptures, we must always learn to see ourselves in the least of these characters, the lowliest of people, and in this case we see ourselves in the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son is a symbol of all of us, the entirety of fallen man, of every individual sinner.  Saint John of Kronstadt shares this notion as regards the Prodigal Son, saying: “We all see ourselves in it as in a mirror. In a few words the Lord, the knower of hearts, has shown in the person of one man how the deceptive sweetness of sin separates us from the truly sweet life according to God.”

The Prodigal son asks his father for his portion of goods that falls to him.  Perhaps he did not understand the gravity of the request, and the weight of the insult that unwittingly fell behind it, essentially telling his father in not so many words: I do not want to wait for you to die, so please give me my inheritance now.  Now, the father had every right to refuse him, and even correct him amidst his request, but rather he allowed his silence and subsequent actions to express his love for his son, leaving him free to do as he wished.  He understood the mystery of fatherhood and of sonship, which is to give to the other the possibility of returning home freely. And so the Father lets his son go.

The portion we receive from our Father in heaven is our gifts, our talents with which we must work and multiply.  Also, according to Bishop Ignatius Branchininov, our gifts consist of “…the mind and heart, and especially the grace of the Holy Spirit, given to each Christian. The demand made of the father for the portion of goods falling to the son in order to use it arbitrarily is the striving of man to throw off from himself submissiveness to God and to follow his own thoughts and desires. In the father’s consent to hand over the property there is depicted the absolute authority with which God has honored man in the use of God’s gifts.” So, we spit in the face of God, turning away from Him in choosing the pleasures of this world.  Like the Prodigal Son we are impatient, telling God by our actions that we choose earthly riches and goods over those treasures in heaven to which we have been promised.  We choose earthly pleasures over that of eternal peace. We choose this world over the kingdom to which we have been made heirs as sons and daughters of the living God.

So the Prodigal Son departs from his father and goes to a far away land, much as we do in the pursuit of worldly living, to borrow the words from the Prophet Isaiah, “dwelling in a region of the shadow of death.” But the world cannot sustain us.  The world is fickle and shifts with time like the vagaries of the sand.  The Prodigal Son was in want of food, a famine of the body, but ours is a famine of the soul. As Saint Ambrose explains: “It was not a famine of fasts but of good works and virtues. What hunger is more wretched? Certainly whoever departs from the Word of God hungers, because “man lives not by bread alone but by every word of God.” Whoever leaves treasure lacks. Whoever departs from wisdom is stupefied. Whoever departs from virtue is destroyed.” 

From physical hunger to destitution, and in our case, from a departure of virtue into depravity.  At first the Prodigal Son was not aware of the depths of despair into which he had fallen, and neither are we aware of how depraved we have allowed ourselves to become in our fallen sinfulness.  Yet, eventually the Prodigal Son finally came to himself, as we ourselves often do.  He remembered whose son he was, and despite all his failings never ceased being the son of his father. Yes, he was still a sinner. Yes, he had sinned to such an extent that he had squandered the entire inheritance he had been given. He knew who his Father was, and by our same calling we know we have not lost our sonship, nor the grace of the Holy Spirit, for it is by the authority of the Holy Spirit alone that we are permitted to call God our Father.

Remembering his father, he arose and turned away from the world he once embraced with his riotous living.  The beginning of his repentance, metanoia (μετάνοια) in Greek, meaning to change one’s mind, or in another sense understood as “a turning away from the world.”  What courage it took for the prodigal son to set aside his shame in the knowledge of his familial disgrace, understanding the gravity of his offense against his father, and the weight of his transgressions and misdeeds in the face of a loving father.  

Oh, what spiritual calamity it is for us to not see ourselves as we really are, blinded by the veil of pride much like the Pharisee was in the Parable Of the Publican and the Pharisee that we heard last week; to not see ourselves as the sinners we really are.  Yet, as John Climacus exhorts us in the 28th step of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, “Let your prayer be completely simple. For both the publican and the prodigal son were reconciled to God by a single phrase.”  Likewise, we begin to come to the knowledge of  ourselves in the utterance of this simplest of prayers: “My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!”  In this knowledge, we can find the strength, much like the prodigal son did, to turn away from the world and begin our repentance as we return to the father seeking his forgiveness and our reconciliation with God.

The Father never ceases looking for his son, and neither does God cease seeking his lost sheep, but it must be our choice that we return to Him.  It must be by that same free will we chose to abandon our father, that we must choose to be reconciled with him.  Seeing his son from afar off the Father “had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”   The son, seeking reconciliation with his father, confesses before him: “I have sinned against heaven, and before you, and I am no more worthy to be called your son.” His father did not reproach him.  He did not demand repayment for what was lost.  He did not scold him, but with the same silence that he watched him leave, he received him once again with love.  As Saint Ambrose tells us, “The power of love overlooked the transgressions. The father redeemed the sins of his son by his kiss, and covered them by his embrace.”

The Prodigal Son returned to his father in great humility, that he might only be allowed back into his father’s household once more, if only as a servant.  But the father gave him a robe, just as our heavenly father restores our baptismal garment unto us by confession; a ring is placed upon his finger, just as our father in heaven does as much to as by the restoration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that particular seal of sonship; and the Prodigal Son’s feet are girded with sandals, as much as our Father has given us sure footing upon the foundation of Truth, the Church to which we have been restored, and no longer slaves to sin.  The Father of the Prodigal Son slaughtered the fatted calf, of which nearly all the fathers have agreed is a symbol of the Eucharist, in which we receive the body and blood of Christ, the spotless lamb sacrificed for the sake of the whole world. The music and dancing is the joyous celebration of the saints, martyrs, and the angels in heaven over the one that repented.

We as sinners, endure and repeat this cycle of falling into the depths of sin, the rise of shame from self knowledge of our sin, humility born in our recognition of our unworthiness before God, confession and reconciliation with our Father in heaven, and the restoration of our sonship and status as a part of the body of Christ.  As the Monks on Athos have confessed about their daily lives, we all fall, and we rise.  We fall, and we rise. So it is likewise with all of us in the Church. The Gospel reading for today teaches us of one who has returned from the greatest depths of sin and depravity, which should give us all great hope, that no matter the weight of our failures, the grace of God is greater, the love of God is brighter, and the forgiveness of God runs deeper the greatest depths of sin to which we could ever fall.  Let us always remember that we have a loving father waiting for us to return to him into his open arms.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ our God, by the prayers of thy most Pure Mother, the holy and God bearing fathers, all the Saints and the Martyrs and the Angels, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Holy Participation

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Our participation begins with our personal responsibilities to the Church, to our families, our jobs that support them both.  Also, as we are able, we extend our participation beyond our personal boundaries and into the public realm for the good of others.  As a result, those in need, those who struggle, those who are in want, and society in general grows from the light of hope emanating from a citizenry engaged with itself.  Yet, we never forget the personal struggle against the passions, and in so doing, through our participation in society we become living examples of Truth that others can hopefully see and follow into the Church, the fullness of Truth.

The 22nd Sunday After Penecost

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, God is one.  Amen

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus is confronted by two groups of Jews; two groups that were ideologically opposed to one another; two groups that for all intents and purposes were enemies, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and that is the logic under which  they aligned themselves with one another to confront Jesus in the temple. For Jesus has been teaching in the temple, and  through his teaching, challenged the religious establishment therein, undermining the authority and credibility of the religious leaders there. Now, the religious leaders would try to find a way to discredit Jesus, and ultimately remove him, or at least they would try. But who were the Herodians, and what did they have to do with the Pharisees?

So you have two sides of the same coin, in a sense, working hand in hand to try and usurp the authority of Jesus in the temple. Secular Jewish leaders working with religious Jewish leaders towards a common goal, a common enemy

The Herodians could also be referred to as hellenic Jews, for they saw the very future of Judaism and the Jewish people within the Greek cultural hegemony of the Roman empire.  They were named after the ruler placed over them by the Romans, Herod the Great.  Hence, the name, Herodians. These Jews simply put on a facade of religious practice in order to publicly justify their life in private living as wannabe Romans.  The Pharisees on the other hand worked with the Romans, but only because they had to, and in their eyes for the good of the Jewish people.

The Pharisees worked with the Romans out of absolute necessity.  They were believers in religious purity and adherence to the Law, so much so that they created an entire code of Jewish life in order to protect the faithful Jew from ever falling into error of the Laws.  Those rabbis who followed them often ran the various ghettos found across many Roman cities.  In short, the Pharisees had little love for the Romans, for they saw contact with the Romans, and the overall increase of cultural contact with the Romans as polluting the purity of the Jewish people.

So, here we are with these two groups working with one another, intending to trap Jesus with the deception of the question that would follow.  After an opening salvo of some cynical flattery, they ask him this question: ““Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Jesus then asks them for a denarius, for you see, to all parties involved the whole crux of the matter came down to that small coil.

The Denarius was typically what one received for a day’s wages.  In that time the denarius bore the image of the emperor, and the following phrase was inscribed upon it: “Tiberius Caesar, Augustus, son of the divine Augustus, high priest.” So, the coin contained the engraved image of a man that was not only regarded as a deity by the Roman people, but was also considered the high priest of the entire Pantheon of Roman deities.  So, obviously the Pharisees objected to the use of this coin for currency as they saw it not only as a borderline violation of the first commandment: “I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me,” they also saw payment with this coin as tribute to the emperor and his gods. So to preserve the purity of the Jewish people, money changers were established to exchange this “dirty” money for a local currency minted in Hebrew.  The Herodians, on the other hand, saw no reservations about the use of Roman currency.

So, Jesus had a choice. If he agreed with the Pharisees, the Herodians could charge him with revolution against the Romans. If he agreed with the Herodians, the Pharisees could charge him with idolatry. It was a question asked within the framework of conflicting priorities, and when the world is pitted against itself, no answer is the right answer.  So, Christ being King of Kings and Lord of Lords reframes their question upon that very coin by asking who’s image it bears.  Upon the  answering of His question, Jesus then answers theirs by saying “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  The false dichotomy of Herodian realpolitik and Pharisaical idealism was dissolved and replaced with choosing between God, and the world.

We live in the world, but not of it.  Let us recall the words of Paul in his letter to the Romans: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”  And Christ himself told Pilate: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”  

Certainly we can live fully for God with no participation in the world, and those are called monastics.  Then, the other end of the spectrum are the hedonists and nihilists who live only for themselves.  We are neither of these, but we walk the middle path. We give ourselves fully to God while actively participating in the dominant culture for the common good.  In a way, and to some, this participation becomes an act of Christian charity and evangelization.  But, that participation can only take place as long as the laws of man do not overrule or supersede the laws of God.  In such cases as these, Holy disobedience is in order.  In the time of the Romans?  It became necessary.  In Atheist communist Russia?  It became necessary.  In some countries such as North Korea or China?  It does become necessary. Though, lucky for us, we do not live in such a place or time that requires us to resort to Holy disobedience.  Yet, oftentimes the American obsession with personal freedom can often preclude any struggle for the common good.

Our participation begins with our personal responsibilities to the Church, to our families, our jobs that support them both.  Also, as we are able, we extend our participation beyond our personal boundaries and into the public realm for the good of others.  As a result, those in need, those who struggle, those who are in want, and society in general grows from the light of hope emanating from a citizenry engaged with itself.  Yet, we never forget the personal struggle against the passions, and in so doing, through our participation in society we become living examples of Truth that others can hopefully see and follow into the Church, the fullness of Truth.

I think sometimes some people forget that our struggle is first and primarily a spiritual struggle, and the outer struggles of which we see and hear are nothing more than the loudest visible signs of an invisible conflict waging around us.  But we, as Orthodox Christians, are on the front lines of that spiritual conflict.  Whenever we do see wars fought abroad, and the struggles here at home, our first choice should always be God.  This is one reason why the Church beseeches us to pray for peace in the face of all conflict, for war is sin. Rarely is either side innocent. When we are left to choose within a false dichotomy that the world has given us, our first choice should always be God.  For in choosing the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil. In those cases we must trust God to give victory to whom he chooses.

We must  remember that God desires our salvation, and we must believe that he has placed each of us in our situations precisely for our own salvation.  He will use even the evil deeds of men to save all of those who love him.  The problem is when we are in pain we can never see the present moment for what it is.  But when we are not in pain, we often never stay in the present moment, the only moment in our lives in which we can encounter God.  We spend our days dreaming of a future that may or may not ever come, or looking back in regret at our decisions and mistakes, dwelling on what if, sometimes forgetting that Christ has forgiven the repentant sinner, and that includes ourselves.

We cannot escape the present moment. When God said the work is finished, he is already standing at the finish line looking back at us, seeing all the work that has been done and will be done.  We can only see this moment, and as long as we do not forget God in that moment, and all the moments to come, we will one day hear those words “well done, my good and faithful servant.” For, as Christ has said: “In your patience possess ye your souls” and “He that endures to the end shall be saved.” 

Our faith is our first priority, but it is often a conflicting priority with the other things of this world.  It’s not that we choose or should choose the world at any point over God, but that we often pit our worldly choices against other worldly choices, and this ultimately turns us away from Him.  We then are no longer walking the middle path between God and this world, living in this world as citizens of the Kingdom of God, but are slowly walking astray between two paths of conflict framed around things of this world that have nothing to do with God or our salvation. Choose God first, and the rest will sort itself out later.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ our God, by the prayers of thy most pure Mother, the Holy and God bearing fathers; all the saints, and the martyrs, and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Homily: 17th Sunday After Pentecost

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We are one.  We find our unity in our love; not the pseudo facsimile of love that the world can only offer, but the love of God, the love of one another, and a peace which the world cannot give. We are one in Christ: One God, One Truth, one cup, one loaf, one teaching, one faith, and one Church.  With the Love of which the Gospel speaks, and which Paul demands of us, there is nothing that can divide us, and nothing that can move us. The Church is still here. We are still here. 

United in Love

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God!  Amen.

The world would have you believe that truth is relative. That there is no absolute truth. The world would have you believe that truth is an individual thing: his truth, her truth, their truth.  Lacking absolute truth they seek for those things outside themselves with which they mostly identify, things outside themselves which have little to do with their personhood as found in their humanity created in the image and likeness of their creator: their gender identity, their sexual identity, their social status, their wealth, and everything that lies between.  Each broken person is a patchwork quilt of disparate and unrelated ideologies under which they try to find comfort. It is in this individuality with which they have fashioned for themselves their own image away from the image and likeness of their Creator, and it is in this false image of humanity with which they try to find or create community.  They are all individual pieces of an unknown puzzle.  The picture is a stranger to everyone, even those holding the pieces. They throw themselves together within the same puzzle box, thinking that coexistence somehow replaces that of communion and community. They somehow believe that proximity results in relationships and yet they have nothing of themselves to share with one another other than those things external to themselves instead of anything that’s actually of themselves or even  theirs to give. They are “bonded” by the shifting vagaries of the world which will change at the next oncoming social tide. This is a sad and broken existence. The world is insane; for, they continue to do the same things over and over again while expecting a different result; yet, they continue to be broken, continue to be lost, continue in a hopeless misery of life because they lack the absolute truth revealed in the fullness of God. They keep seeking for more because the world has nothing more to give.  Their houses are built on foundations of sand, and this is why with time, they nearly always collapse.  However, Truth is eternal.  Truth is unchanging.  Truth is the firm foundation on which we all stand.

We are unconfused about our humanity and who we are.  We are certain of ourselves because we are certain of God.  We know ourselves because we know Christ. Our purpose is absolute because Truth is absolute.  While we recognize the brokenness of man, we understand the frailty and futility of our human condition amidst the vagaries of an often harsh and unforgiving world. We may be broken, but our Hospital, the Church, is here to heal us.  We may be bruised, shaken down and trampled underfoot, but we are certainly not divided, and will never be destroyed.  We are one just as God is one, and we are united in the love of God.  If we are each living stones of the body of Christ, then we are bound together by God’s love as a spiritual mortar, for this love is no common love, as Saint John Chrysostom says, but that which cements us together, and makes us cleave inseparably to one another, and effects as great and as perfect a union as though it were between limb and limb. For this is that love which produces great and glorious fruits.

This is the kind of love we hear about in our Gospel reading for today: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  We give ourselves to God, but we also give ourselves to one another.  We give to God ourselves, our whole thoughts, our whole understanding, and our whole life, leaving no part of ourselves no part of our lives that may be justly unfilled by Him. This type of love is absent of self and pride, for we love God first, and then all others, before we even come into our own picture.  What’s more, Christ himself has said that “those who love me will keep and obey my commandments.”  So, you see, love is not about how we feel, love is not about our emotions, love is not a statement, but it is an action.  We love God, we love others, and manifest that love by that which we do in obedience to Him who gave us all things.  That being said, what do we do that requires the most time and attention?  Is it God?  Is it our neighbor?  Or is it some paltry thing, or something external to us?  Keep this in mind: We become what we love, and who or what we love shapes what we become. If we love God, we become more like God. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, then we become nothing. 

Look at those sitting next to you.  Look at those around you. You are bound together in an eternal felicity found only in the knowledge and love of Christ. You are each bonded together by the blood of Christ.  You share in your lives and salvation by the body and blood of Christ as an eternal food and remedy.  We love each other because we love Christ, and it is in Christ by which we are all united.  So we must think of this when we fail, not only Christ, not only ourselves, but all those to whom we share this eternal bond.  Love is a choice, but Sin is also a choice, and it only seeks to rend that which God has brought together.  

Sin is the antithesis to unity, and we see the results of this within the world around us. So when we face down our passions and the temptations of the flesh, when we get angry or choose to do something that would harm ourselves or another, would we do this to them, to any of these sitting around us?  Remember this, because we are so united by the Love of God, anything we do apart from that affects not only us but the Church, and all those to whom we are bound by love.  This is why confession is so important, because it not only heals our own wounds, but brings us back together with those we have willfully separated ourselves away from, even if we do not yet know it.  Confession heals not only our own wounds, but those wounds we have inflicted upon the Church, those wounds we have inflicted upon one another, to those sitting around us, by way of our own negligence

We are one.  We find our unity in our love; not the pseudo facsimile of love that the world can only offer, but the love of God, the love of one another, and a peace which the world cannot give. We are one in Christ: One God, One Truth, one cup, one loaf, one teaching, one faith, and one Church.  With the Love of which the Gospel speaks, and which Paul demands of us, there is nothing that can divide us, and nothing that can move us. The Church is still here. We are still here. 

Closing with the words of our blessed Father among the saints, Saint John Chrysostom, I leave you with this: “ Indeed, love is a strong wall, impregnable not only to men, but also to the devil. He who is surrounded by a multitude of those who love him cannot fall into danger; he has no reason to be angry, but always feels peace of heart, joy and gladness; there is no reason to be jealous; there are no occasions for vindictiveness. Look how easily he carries out both his spiritual and worldly affairs. Who can compare to him? He is like a city completely shielded by walls; and he [who has no love] is like a city without any protection.”

By the prayers of thy most pure mother, the holy and God bearing fathers, all the saints and the martyrs and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

HOMILY: 13th Sunday After Pentecost

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Do any of us really have an entitlement to the life we live, the air we breath, and the relationships we uphold through either love or selfishness?  Humanity itself exists as an act of love, created out of nothing and brought into being by the hands of a loving God.  Many of us, though not all of us, came into this world through an act of love, when two bodies became one flesh, and out of that union a new life was born.  We live because someone loved us enough to ensure our survival through a world intent on killing us in body, mind, or spirit.  We deserve nothing, yet it is through love and love alone that we have received everything.

We Grateful Lepers

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; God is One! Amen.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear the story of ten lepers, ten men who were ritually unclean,  rejected, and excluded from the community and common worship of the Temple.  They were not even allowed to come near the habitations of men, for fear that their illness would be spread, and others would come into illness, even unto death. So, who are these lepers to us?  If the Church fathers have taught us anything about the reading of scripture, it is to consider the least of these within the corpus of holy writ, and see ourselves within them.

Were we not once spiritual lepers of the faith, standing on the outside of the Church and looking in; standing apart and removed from the Holy mysteries within?  Were we not cast down, and therefore cast out, by the magnitude of our own sin?  So, like the Lepers, we stood outside, and afar off from Christ, crying for mercy: My Lord, Jesus Christ the Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.  It is a prayer that is constant on the lips of Orthodox faithful around the world; on the lips of those seeking Christ; on the lips of those seeking their salvation within the boundaries of Holy Tradition, and all of those participating in their salvation through the sacramental life and rhythm of the Church..

Christ heard the cries of the Lepers, and sent them away to the priests, that they may fulfill the Law to be ritually cleansed, so that they may be brought back into the fellowship of their community once again. Christ heard our calls and brought us into the Church, to His priests that we may be ritually cleansed and healed of our infirmities, received by Him who has already fulfilled the law.  Out there, outside the Church is the Law which brings death, but here within the Church resides the Law of the Spirit of Life, the Law that brings Life, and that law is Christ.

Christ heard our calls, yet did we hear His call when he beseeched us to go and do likewise; when he exhorted us to go and sin no more; when he beseeched us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect; or when he commanded us to Do this in remembrance of Him?  Do we recognize, and are we grateful, thankful, of the many wounds of which we have been healed, some of us of illnesses from which we have been saved or assuaged, many of us rescued from the only life of death this world could offer; and all of us saved from the wages of sin, which is death? Are we grateful that we have received this gift of healing?  Are we thankful that we had the spiritual faculties through which to perceive and receive it?

All the lepers were healed, but only one of them returned to give thanks.  The Gospel tells us that this man was a Samaritan, one who existed outside of the Hebrew community, and had no rights within the people of Israel.  He was not just a stranger, but a reject of the Hebrew people.  The Samaritan knew this; knew that he had no right to the love which he received from God, this act of Christ, and yet he knew that he had been healed, cleansed of his consuming illness.  He was made whole once again, and knowing the undeservedness of the gift he had just received, he returned and gave thanks to Christ who told him:”Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.” Yet, knowing this about himself, why did he return to Christ?  Gratitude is a powerful thing and springs up in each of us more powerfully when what we have received is undeserved of us to be received, but how much more so when that which is received is a miracle of divine and human love?

What of the other nine lepers?  Perhaps they felt as though they deserved that which they received, and in their unspoken pride felt as though they had no reason to be grateful.  For, when we think we deserve something and receive it, we feel we have received that as our due.  This is a problem, not only within the world, but within the walls of the Church as well.  So many feel entitled, feel they have the right: a right to human concern, to human love, to everything within which the human condition can give us, to our relationships, to our property, and ultimately, to even God’s love for us all.   So when many receive that gift of grace there is a superficial gratefulness, a vestigial thank you, but none of it transforms our relationships to either God or to one another by returning that same mercy others have shown unto us.  It is instead received as their due, and we are grateful to those who delivered to us that which we already had the right to receive.

Do any of us really have an entitlement to the life we live, the air we breath, and the relationships we uphold through either love or selfishness?  Humanity itself exists as an act of love, created out of nothing and brought into being by the hands of a loving God.  Many of us, though not all of us, came into this world through an act of love, when two bodies became one flesh, and out of that union a new life was born.  We live because someone loved us enough to ensure our survival through a world intent on killing us in body, mind, or spirit.  We deserve nothing, yet it is through love and love alone that we have received everything.

He gave us his life, his teaching, his death, and his forgiveness, but what have we given him in return: a passive acknowledgement of his love and presence within our own lives; a sometimes cursory understanding of his teaching, or even a downright rejection if it disagrees with our own personal agendas, opinions, and personal sensibilities; our continual submission to sin and the passions of the flesh; or our lack of mercy given to our fellow man as both patience and forgiveness fails us time and time again?  He gave us our lives, so it is the least we can do but to give our lives back to him, consecrated within the sacramental life and rhythm of the Church, ever grateful for the mercy of God and those gifts which we have received, and continue to receive. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God…”  These are the words of Christ in His first beatitude. We must acknowledge that we are poor in spirit, for this is the fundamental condition for the spiritual growth and progress of all men.  The poor in spirit are those who know that they possess nothing which is not a gift, and are deserving of nothing which they have received.  To be poor in spirit is to be empty of all pride and the surrender of one’s self to the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. It is to find freedom from ones own ideas, opinions and desires that would lead one away from God.  To be poor in spirit is to be liberated from the vain imaginations of one’s own heart. Ultimately, spiritual poverty is the condition of total emptiness, openness and honesty before God.  Once we have peeled away all that we have, and all that we are in the eyes of this world, standing spiritually naked before the eyes of a triune God, then we can truly be grateful, returning to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to fall upon our collective faces and giving thanks unto Him for all things.

Closing with the words of Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of blessed memory:

“Let us reflect on this; let us learn to live out of gratitude, out of the joy of being loved, out of our communion with God, but knowing that it is an act of gratuitous generosity, that we have no rights – and yet we possess all things.  Saint Paul said that: I have nothing, and I possess all things.  Each of us could be such a rich person in our utter poverty, rich with all the love and power and richness of God.

Let us reflect, and let us give God, in an act of gratitude not only spoken, not only dimly felt, but lived in every action of our life: let us give Him joy, and the certainty that He has not created us in vain, not lived and died for us in vain, that we are truly disciples who have understood and who want to live His Gospel.”

By the prayer of thy most pure Mother, the holy and God bearing fathers, all the saints, the martyrs and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Homily: Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

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“A faith without fruit, and fruits without faith are collectively bitter things that are of no spiritual or genuine benefit to anyone baring them.  But a faith bearing fruit and those fruits born in faith are precious gems of our good stewardship and God’s love unto the world. May we all be good stewards of our faith, bearing good fruits into the world, that by them, the whole world may know Christ.”

We Must be Fruitful

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; One God!  Amen.

In today’s Gospel and Epistle readings we hear much about fruit.  We hear much about good fruit and bad fruit; of false prophets and slaves to holiness; of good trees and bad.  Yet, what does it all mean? Throughout the totality of scripture we read, see and hear various parables and metaphors about fruit-bearing, and it seems to present an idea for us of what it means to be a part of Him, a part of the vine to which we have all been grafted.  Let us recall the words of Christ in the Gospel of John:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He [a]takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. “

As the vinedresser, God is a patient and purposeful farmer who seeks a spiritual harvest from each of us, His branches, grafted to His Son.  As such he expects us to be more than just branches, but fruit bearing branches; to do more than just hold an ethical and religious identity, but to become living icons of that identity; to do more than just consider ourselves Christians, but to actually be and become Christian, living out our faith in such a way that we not only become good fruit of the vine, but bear the good fruit of faith in our lives, bringing forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that our whole lives may become a harvest of holiness for our King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

We are grafted to the vine through holy baptism and chrismation.  We are watered by a persistence of prayer, both in our own lives and corporately within the body of Christ, the Church.  We are thus fertilized by the teachings of both the Scriptures and the Fathers, the fullness of Truth found wholly within Holy Tradition.  And we are pruned and preserved through our Orthodox praxis of faith and ascesis, those spiritual exercises so important to us all- prayer, fasting, and alms giving, but also a simplicity of life, unfettered and unburdened by the superfluity of this world. It is only here, and only in this manner, that we may become fruits of the vine.

But what does Fruit mean in this context?  The underlying Greek work translated as “fruit” is Karpos (καρπός), a word used 66 times throughout the canon of the New Testament. Anyone who has studied koine Greek in at least a cursory fashion will know that context is important in the proper understanding of what is being said in all things.  In one sense the word quite literally means fruit, or harvest.  Towards that end we are all living fruits of the vine, that is Christ.  We embody truth and embolden others to partake of it, becoming that which is pleasing to the hearts and minds of all men, that they may see Christ in us and through us.  We do this in faith, but we also do this in fearful remembrance of the fig tree for which Christ cursed and condemned for bearing no fruit.  Love has no season, and Truth has no end.  Christ is unceasing, and so should we be also.

Another meaning of the word karpos is deed, activity, or “produce of a person.”  In this we are understood to be bearers of good fruit.  Just as we need the vine for life, for there is no life apart from it, the vine needs its branches so that good fruit may be born into the world.  If Christ is the head of His Church, and we are living stones a part of that body, then we are His hands and feet within the world.  The Orthodox Church wholly rejects any theology that violates the free will of men, but Christ calls each of us to Him, and it is our choice but also our duty to lead others to him by our own examples of faith, by our good fruits given to and done unto others, by the Grace of God and the Holy Spirit.  Christ calls all men, that we may be brought into the fullness of Truth, grafted to the vine, and spiritually nourished by the sacramental life therein. 

What does good fruit look like? Saint Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Galatians “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  Notice here that fruit is singular.  These are all attributes of a single fruit. Love is first and foremost.  If we possess a Godly love, and truly love God as we should, then we will possess all the other attributes listed here.  Yet, if we have love, or simply say we have love, and lack any of these, then the love we possess is neither Godly nor the love of God.  Yet, such love can only be achieved through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit

How does one acquire the Holy Spirit?  We turn to the words of Saint Seraphim of Sarov regarding the acquisition of the Holy Spirit:

“Prayer, fasting, vigils and all the other Christian practices may be, they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life.  Although it is true that they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.  As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, are the only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God.”

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three great ascetic practices of our faith,  the exercise and growth of our spiritual lives. Yet, our spiritual life is far more than just our thoughts and feelings, and inward spiritual practices of our faith, but in fact it comprises the whole human experience, the full depth  of our humanity: thought, feeling, heart,  soul, vision, mind, and body.  Not only this, but our spiritual lives should consist of our everyday experiences – work, school, our social life, family life, home life – and not just be compartmentalized to Church on Sunday mornings.  This is what it mens to become good fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that peculiar fruit we are to bear unto the world, that by it and through it we may lead others into the fullness of Truth, the Life of Christ and life eternal.  It stands as a perfect counter image to that of Eve enticing and leading Adam into sin through her half truth, or heresy, bringing death unto the world.

Who, by your example of faith, have you brought into faith, and the fullness of Truth? Whose life have you enriched, enlivened, and elevated by being the light of Christ in their life?  Who have you helped and uplifted by meeting the other wherever they had need?  What joy have you brought into the life of another? What kind words have you spoken today? What prayers have you said for those who hate you, and for those that others would deem worthy recipients of such enmity?  Where have we sown peace, and have we been a cause for any enmity or discord anywhere within the lives of others?  Are we honest with ourselves when we look upon the contents of our own hearts?

A faith without fruit, and fruits without faith are collectively bitter things that are of no spiritual or genuine benefit to anyone baring them.  But a faith bearing fruit and those fruits born in faith are precious gems of our good stewardship and God’s love unto the world. May we all be good stewards of our faith, bearing good fruits into the world, that by them, the whole world may know Christ.

Oh Lord, Jesus Christ our God, by the prayers of thy most pure mother, the holy and God bearing fathers, and the saints, and the martyrs and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

Homily for Pentecost (Trinity Sunday)

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Christ ascended that the Holy Spirit might descend and endow us with those gifts necessary to the building up of the Church in the fullness of Christ.  We all possess those gifts of God’s grace common to all, as Saint John Chrysostom highlights in his own homilies on the letter to the Ephesians: “baptism, salvation by faith, having God as Father and partaking of the same Spirit.”  We also possess diverse spiritual gifts in varying degrees; though, one must not allow one’s self to descend into arrogance at what they themselves possess, nor must one look at another’s gifts and fall into despondency that they have not been so gifted.

In the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God!  Amen.

Today is an important day in the life of the Church, and it is a joyous day, for it is the day that the Pillar and foundation of Truth was erected upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, with Christ as the cornerstone; it is  the day that the faithful were found and formed into living stones of this divine-human institution of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  Today is the day the Holy Orthodox Church was founded and formed.  It is Trinity Sunday, the day of Pentecost.  The Church, for her birthday, received from on high the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which she (the Church) was illumined; by which the Church became the abode of the Holy Spirit, and the vehicle of Holy Revelation.  It is in the Church that we are illumined and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit; it is in the Church that Christ is revealed to us, where we encounter Him in body and Spirit; and it is through Christ that the Father is revealed to us also.  The Church is the body of Christ, and it is within and a part of that body that we worship the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

We recently celebrated the Holy feast day of Christ’s Ascension, whereupon today we remember his words promising us that he “will ask the Father, and he will give [us] another Helper, to be with [us] forever.”  This is, of course, the Holy Spirit of whom he speaks.  Christ ascended that the Holy Spirit might descend and endow us with those gifts necessary to the building up of the Church in the fullness of Christ.  We all possess those gifts of God’s grace common to all, as Saint John Chrysostom highlights in his own homilies on the letter to the Ephesians: “baptism, salvation by faith, having God as Father and partaking of the same Spirit.”  We also possess diverse spiritual gifts in varying degrees; though, one must not allow one’s self to descend into arrogance at what they themselves possess, nor must one look at another’s gifts and fall into despondency that they have not been so gifted.  It is against this which Saint Paul fought in his letters written to both the Ephesians and the Corinthians, and why he used the analogy of the Church as one body consisting of many members elsewhere in scripture. This is also why Saint John Chrysostom also says “If someone has more in grace, feel no resentment, for his task is greater too.” For, if those who have been given do nothing with what they have received, they are just like the man who received the one talent, and buried it in the earth.  No, we must use the gifts we have received as tools for the building of the Church; for a gift unused is one taken for granted, and has no value to us, to the Church, and the world in which we live.  So, what can be said about these gifts?  Saint Paul tells us that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;  and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;  and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” It is within this common good that we incarnate Truth to the world; bring light into the darkness; bring faith to the faithless; bring hope to the lost; bring medicine to the sick; and bring peace amidst the chaos of this world.

The Church is one in her essence; her essence of faith; her essence of spirit and the teaching received therein; but, she is diverse in both gifts and function.  Despite what the world may try to force us to believe, unity does not mean uniformity; and, equality does not mean sameness.  The Church is a diversity in operation; not a diversity of faith nor truth, but of people. We are all living stones, just as Saint Peter exhorts, altogether comprising the Church.  Look at the walls of any Church, the grains of the wood, the variations in the stone, the adornments they bear, the scars they hold, and no two are alike. Likewise, we are each unique in person, yet we all strive towards the same fullness of our humanity.  It is towards this fullness of our humanity in Christ that we are “guided by gifted people for the sake of maturity and stability of the body,” those Bishops in whom the unity and continuity of the Church is ensured; for, as Saint Ignatius has said, where the Bishop is, there also is the Church.  It is the fullness of Christ towards which we all strive together, as a flock guided by her shephard, through our cooperation with the Holy Spirit of which the Church has received, and our humility through obedience to the commands of Christ; for, as Christ himself exhorted in our Gospel reading for today, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” 

To Saint Paul, it is the Holy Spirit which both unites and strengthens the Church. The goal of our salvation is that of theosis, or deification, our continual striving towards the likeness of God where the image of God will be perfected in all mankind.   So, it is by the Holy Spirit in which we are granted the myriad gifts of the Spirit, working towards that end.  These gifts are given to the benefit of the Church, the Body of Christ.  In addition to this, it is within the Church that we come into communion with Christ, cultivating the gifts thus given to us, elevating us even further on our journey into holiness.  

 Paul saw the actions and activities of the Holy Spirit as different from both the Father and the Son, but were complementary to the Love of the Father, and the Grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Saint Paul affirmed that it was by Christ all things were made: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him;” and it is thus by the Holy Spirit all things are perfected.  It is by the Holy Spirit that Christ is revealed to us and to all men, and it is through Christ that the Father is revealed, for “He is the image of the invisible God.”

Both Saint Paul and  Saint John the Evangelist well establish the divinity of the Father and the Son, and tie the two of them together with the work of the Holy Spirit.  While the Father is the source of all things, and it is by the Son through which all things are created, the Holy Spirit  “is the very Content of the Kingdom of God”  While the Spirit functions as a luminary of Holy mysteries, the Spirit remains mysteriously hidden from all things, functioning in us to reveal the Son to us.  It is by Love that the three persons of the Trinity are connected and commune with one another, and it is within this Love that is found the salvation for all mankind; for, God is Love.  As the Trinity exists as  persons in Communion, so then must we, the Body of Christ, exist as persons in communion, thus bringing us closer to the uniting and enduring love of the Father.

We have been given these gifts by the Holy Spirit, given the Holy Spirit Himself, that the Church may be duly armed with the proper tools for the struggles ahead.  We have been given the tools necessary for the labors of the fields from which God’s harvest will come.  We must not and cannot neglect these tools for while iron may sharpen iron, tools soon rust when left in disuse.  For, we cannot neglect or ignore the labors at hand, because as Christ himself has said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Though these gifts were received by us freely, at no cost to us, they were bought with an immeasurable price: Christ on the cross. So, let us live our lives worthily of such a sacrifice, that we be counted as sons and daughters of the Living God.  Let us work together with faith, and in the fullness of Truth, that all truth may abide in us and save us. 

By the prayers of our most pure mother, the holy and god bearing fathers, all the saints, and the martyrs, and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

Sunday of the Paralytic

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“Like the paralytic, we are also expected to go into the world, and sin no more.  We have been given a far greater deposit of faith, of Tradition, found in the Church; of Love, found in obedience to the commandments of Christ, once given, and always echoing in our ears, in the scriptures, in our liturgies and services: Go, and sin no more, for anyone who loves Christ will keep his commandments, in faith, and in simple obedience to His word.  For, obedience is the natural fruit of faith, and is born of humility, the mother of all virtue.”

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  One God!  Amen.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear the story of The Paralytic, a man who had been afflicted for thirty eight years with paralysis, waiting by the sheep’s gate of the pool called Bethesda for the stirring of the waters by the Angel of the Lord.  We do not know how old this man was, nor do we know the cause of his affliction, but whatever the cause of his condition, some fathers have considered it to be the result of some sin he had committed in his life.  This is further affirmed by the command that Christ had given him when he later found him in the temple after he healed him of his infirmity.:

“See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

Christ gave one other person a similar command, the women taken in adultery and condemned to stoning, wherein he told her likewise, after no one was left to condemn her, “go, and sin no more.”

It is a simple command that should be heeded by all of us, but not so simple to carry out, as I am sure many of us have learned with great difficulty, and an often unexpected humility,  during the Lenten season that is now behind us. Yet, sin is an illness, a spiritual illness, afflicting us all till the end of life, and we can no more fault one another for our own affliction than we could a cancer patient dying of their disease.  The difference comes in how we respond to it.  What manner of life do we choose to live? How do we present ourselves to the world and before God?  For the command has been given, and it only requires a simple obedience.  Consider that the paralytic man likely did not know who Christ was, did not know that He was the son of God, or even able to perform such a miracle; but, by his obedience to the simple command of Christ, quickly found that he could walk once again.  By his faith in what he was told to be true, he found he was healed of his infirmity and made whole once again. 

Like the paralytic, we are also expected to go into the world, and sin no more.  We have been given a far greater deposit of faith, of Tradition, found in the Church; of Love, found in obedience to the commandments of Christ, once given, and always echoing in our ears, in the scriptures, in our liturgies and services: Go, and sin no more, for anyone who loves Christ will keep his commandments, in faith, and in simple obedience to His word.  For, obedience is the natural fruit of faith, and is born of humility, the mother of all virtue.

In the words of Thomas Hopko of blessed memory:

In the Orthodox spiritual tradition, obedience is a basic virtue: obedience to the Lord, to the Gospel, to the Church, to the leaders of the Church to one’s parents and elders, to “every ordinance of man”, “to one another out of reverence for Christ.” There is no spiritual life without obedience, no freedom or liberation from sinful passions and lusts. To submit to God’s discipline in all of its human forms, is the only way to obtain “the glorious liberty of the children of God,” disciplines us as His children out of His great love for us. “He disciplines us for our good, that we might share His holiness.”. Our obedience to God’s commandments and discipline is the exclusive sign of our love for Him and His Son.

It is within the Church that is found the fullness of this deposit of faith: The Gospels; her liturgies and prayers; her praxis of faith and liturgical rhythm of life; an Orthodox prescription of life found in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; and the Holy Sacraments from which we are given and provided the means or our healing from the clutches of this illness, of which the symptom is sin. For, the Church is after all a hospital for our souls, but more than that, it is the pillar and foundation of Truth, established upon the foundation of the teachings of the Prophets and the apostles, with Christ as the cornerstone, of which we are all living stones. It is within the Church that we find our eternal remedy and food in the body of blood of Christ, the prescriptions of life for our own eternal life and edification, but so many of us find ourselves in the same condition as the paralytic, unable to move because of our own spiritual infirmity; unable to act upon what we know is right because of the weight of our own sin. Yet, Christ bids us all, get up and sin no more.

Life is a choice.  Death is a choice. We are not punished so much as we are recipients of the fruits of our decisions.  Whoever sincerely desires their own salvation does everything for the sake of their salvation. Whoever truly desires their salvation will distance themselves from everything that hinders them in the work of their salvation.  For while our salvation is a gift freely given to us, a clenched fist, or a hand grasping something else receives nothing. For if we are not obedient in all things to the best of our ability, then we are at risk of receiving nothing, and losing all things.

In the words of Saint Anthony the Great:

The truly intelligent man pursues one sole objective: to obey and conform to the God of all. With this single aim in view, he disciplines his soul, and whatever he may encounter in the course of his life, he gives thanks to God for the compass and depth of His providential ordering of all things.

For it is absurd to be grateful to doctors who give us bitter and unpleasant medicines to cure our bodies, and yet to be ungrateful to God for what appears to us to be harsh, not grasping that all we encounter is for our benefit and in accordance with His providence. For knowledge of God and faith in Him is the salvation and perfection of the soul.” 

Do you want to be healed?  It is the question Christ asked of the paralytic.  But, it is a question that should be asked of all of us. Do we really want to be healed?  Through the Church we have been given the tools, the means, and the prescriptions of an authentic spiritual practice to find such a thing.  The Church awakens in us those spiritual gifts God has given to all of us through its sacraments, prayers, liturgies, and Tradition.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, has come to set us free from the illness of sin, but it is our choice alone to follow the prescriptions we have been given.  It is of our own free will that we receive that gift we have been given.

Do we partake of all that has been given us? Do we foster within us a genuine desire to become better men and women then what we are by nature? Do we try to observe and maintain our purity of life not only in our own conscience, but in the eyes of God?  Do we live vigorously to fight against the passions of the flesh, but also against the vices of this world without concessions to the vagaries of this world? Do we turn to God for help and assistance when trouble finds us, and do we use those means we have been given for our own salvation rightly and as prescribed?  Are we zealous about reading the word of God with introspection, to see and identify those things we need to correct when we examine ourselves in the mirror of Truth? Do we confess ourselves before God that we might be absolved of our many transgressions? Do we imitate those Saints that have gone before us, and have we developed a relationship with the one who’s name we bear? Do we help our fellow men, and rejoice when we find the opportunity to do s

We must strive so that our earthly life resembles that heavenly life we all strive towards.  We must compare all things earthly to those things heavenly, and not the other way around as so many are wont to do.  We must see that which is invisible and eternal in favor over that which is visible and temporal. Be ready to give up anything and consider everything as dung so that no earthly thing may stand between us and Christ.  Our thoughts should be given to eternity.  Our desires should be the perfection of virtue.  Our greatest pleasures should be our reflection, consideration and conversations about the blessedness of those who have gone before us, and our greatest sorrow should be when we feel no spiritual draw nor attraction to heavenly things.  We are not troubled by this life, but only the next, and the concerns of not only our own salvation, but those of our brothers and sisters around us. Our life should be a visible expression, image, and preparation for that better life in the age to come. Our prayer life, and our life within this world, should be equal and parallel expressions of the same faith we seek to live day by day.

So, as we move forward in this Paschal season with the joyous exclamation, Christ is Risen! Let us also rise with Him.  Let us rise from our sins.  Let us rise with the strength He has given us to overcome them.  Let us rise, no more shackled by fear of this world, or fear for the sake of our failures, but move forward, day by day, into the eternal Joy of the Kingdom of God.  So let us all take up our own beds, and sin no more, that me we might walk together in the joy of eternal life.

He is Risen!  He is Risen!  He is Risen!

By the prayers of thy most pure mother, the Holy and God bearing Fathers, all the saints, the martyrs and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

Sunday of Orthodoxy

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In the life of the Church, icons are not mere decorations, but they are a part of the spiritual realm, allowing us to experience the glory of God and His saints. They are not objects of worship, but they are venerated as a means of encountering the divine. For as scriptures are written expressions of that Truth the Church upholds, likewise are the icons that adorn her walls like living stones depicting the same.  For these Saints are not dead, but alive in Christ, and their lives which we remember, serve as shining examples for us to follow as living images of Christ.

The Triumph of Orthodoxy

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Amen.

The Church, while being the Pillar and Foundation of Truth, has struggled and defended against controversies, heresies, and all manner of difficulties throughout her storied life across the span of two millennia.  The Apostles first defended against the heresy of Judaizing, a belief that one first had to be or become  a Jew before becoming Christian, of which Paul vehemently defended against throughout his many epistles. The Church endured many years of persecution from outside her walls by the Romans, trying dutifully to destroy that which lay within.  The Church defended against the Arian heresy – a heresy that nearly tore the Church apart from within – first at the council of Nicea, and again later at the Council of Constantinople.  This heresy taught that God the Son was a creature, a creation of God the Father, and likewise not co-eternal with the Father. Chalcedonian Christianity was established at the council of Chalcedon, defending against those who would argue God has but a single nature, diminishing the Human nature assumed by God the Son, that is, Jesus Christ.  This heresy was resolved at the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, creating the schism that exists to this day between the Orthodox Church, and the Oriental Orthodox Church.  Many more heresies have littered her hallowed halls throughout the ages, each resolved by subsequent ecumenical councils. The final ecumenical council, the second council of Nicea, settled the heresy of iconoclasm in October of 787, finally defeating those who would seek to destroy the faces of Truth as found within her iconography.

There has always been a struggle between the Church and her occasionally heretical and apostate emperors.  Emperor Leo III banned the use of icons of  Christ, the Theotokos and the Saints and commanded the destruction of these images in 730. This began the Iconoclasm Controversy and was fueled by the refusal of many Christian residents outside the Byzantine Empire to accept the emperor’s theological arguments.  Iconoclastic Christians were spurred along by external influences to accept the emperor’s arguments, especially those living under the umbrella and Gnostic influences of the Islamic Caliphate, and others swayed by Jewish affluence and opinion against the Church and her practices. 

There were two iconoclastic periods of note.  The first one between 730 and 787, was ended by Empress Irene when she initiated the Second Council of Nicea, at which the veneration of icons was affirmed. While the worship of icons was expressly forbidden, the acceptance and veneration of icons was rooted in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God the Son. Because He took on flesh, having a physical appearance, it is now possible to use physical matter to depict God the Son and to depict the saints.  

The second period of Iconoclasm occurred between 813 and 843 and was ended by empress Theodora, who after her ascension to the throne, soon mobilized the iconodules and proclaimed the restoration of icons in 843. Since that time the first Sunday of Lent is celebrated as the feast of the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.”

That is the Sunday we celebrate today.

In the life of the Church, icons are not mere decorations, but they are a part of the spiritual realm, allowing us to experience the glory of God and His saints. They are not objects of worship, but they are venerated as a means of encountering the divine. For as scriptures are written expressions of that Truth the Church upholds, likewise are the icons that adorn her walls like living stones depicting the same.  For these Saints are not dead, but alive in Christ, and their lives which we remember, serve as shining examples for us to follow as living images of Christ.

As Saint John of Damascus, one of the most prominent defenders of icons,  has rightly stated, “I do not venerate matter, but I venerate the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, and deigned to live in matter and bring about my salvation through matter. I will not cease from venerating the matter through which my salvation was achieved.” So, because God the Son was incarnated in human flesh, we hope to incarnate Christ within our own flesh, the faith of which is depicted on these walls around us.

The use of holy icons in our worship is an important aspect of our Orthodox faith. The icons offer us a glimpse into the mysteries of salvation, the life and passion of Christ, theological Truths,  and help us connect with the saints who have gone before us. They remind us that the Incarnation is not just a theological concept, but a reality that occurred in history, through the incarnation of the Truth found only in Christ as the Law of the Spirit of life, a law meant to be lived, manifested, and incarnated into the world.

Saint John Chrysostom, one of the most revered fathers of our Church, often spoke about the importance of icons in the life of the faithful. He recognized the value of the visual representation of the divine, stating that “we see the invisible through the visible.” He also emphasized the role of icons in our spiritual development, encouraging us to contemplate on them and let them lead us to a deeper understanding of our faith. 

Saint Theodore the Studite, another defender of holy images, was a monk who lived during the height of the iconoclastic controversy. He was a prolific writer who composed many hymns and prayers in defense of the use of holy icons.  Saint Theodore argued that the use of holy icons was necessary for the Church’s spiritual well-being. He believed that the images of Christ and the saints served as tangible reminders of the spiritual reality that we cannot see with our physical eyes. The images help us to focus our minds on God and to connect with the spiritual realm.

On this day of Orthodoxy, we reaffirm our commitment to the use of holy icons in our worship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We honor the memory of those who fought to preserve this sacred tradition and we renew our dedication to the Truth, of which our Orthodox Faith expresses, of which the Church embodies, and of which the faithful within uphold. We are to become living icons of Truth, living icons of Christ, as living stones of the body of Christ.

May the use of holy icons continue to be a source of strength and inspiration for us as we journey through this life, and may the light of Christ shine through them to guide us on our way. Let us follow the example of Saint John Chrysostom, who encouraged us to contemplate on the holy icons and let them lead us to a deeper understanding of our faith.

Also, let us remember the saints who steadfastly defended the use of holy icons against the heresy of iconoclasm with their powerful prose and passionate preaching. Let us honor their memory and follow in their footsteps, boldly proclaiming the truth of the Orthodox faith and upholding the use of holy icons as an integral part of our worship. May their intercessions before the throne of God guide us in our own journey of faith and inspire us to remain faithful to Truth, and constant in the safeguarding of her Holy Mysteries through a genuine life of faith.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ our God, by the prayers of thy most pure mother, the holy and God bearing angels, all the saints, and the martyrs, and the angels have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

Homily: The Publican and the Pharisee

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Today we take the first step in preparation for the great fast of the approaching Lenten season. We enter the weeks of preparation in the Triodion period of the Church.

The Publican and the Pharisee

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  One God.  Amen.

Today we take the first step in preparation for the great fast of the approaching Lenten season. We enter the weeks of preparation in the Triodion period of the Church.  Over the course of the next three weeks, starting with today, we begin to prepare ourselves for renewal and repentance as we return ourselves to God, so that when we celebrate that Christ has risen from the dead, we may rise with him a new creation.  It is a time where we turn ourselves to God with a renewed and particular compunction of heart with that special prayer upon our lips: “My Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We give to God what God has given us: our lives.  We return to Christ that which is broken and contrite: our hearts.  We take back from the world that which it has taken and in turn return it to our King of Kings and Lord of Lords: our time, attention, and our veneration. “O Creator of all, above and below, as Thou receivest the thrice-holy hymn from the angels, so also from mankind receive the Triodion .”

This first Sunday establishes for us not only the cornerstone of our Lenten journey, but that as well of our Orthodox faith: Humility and repentance. I have said before, just as the desert Fathers before us have said, and the voices of the Fathers throughout the ages have exhorted us, humility is the root of all virtue, and as such is the mother of all virtue.  Humility precedes love, without which there can be no salvation, for genuine love places the other before itself.  Humility allows us to repent, for the prideful cannot admit they are wrong.  Humility allows us to forgive others, for without which there is no forgiveness for us, for the prideful cannot release the least offense committed against them.  Humility allows us to accept any poverty or lowliness of life, for pride assumes we deserve all things and holds on to all things for itself.  There lies the crux of pride, an assumption of greater self worth than we actually hold; an assumption of greater importance to others and over others; and a belief of greater worth and value than the other.  This is, in part, what the Gospel lesson is showing us for today embodied within the Pharisee.

Humility is a most pragmatic vision of self, and others.  We truly know ourselves, and see ourselves as we really are.  This is one of many reasons we commonly pray the Jesus prayer. We recognize what we are, and never assume to be of greater importance than this.  Nor do we see the other in this same light and see them for their sins.  No, humility is introspective, to know what one’s self is, and what we would be without the grace of God: nothing but dust, and dead. Yet, it is also the compass by which all virtue finds its way. But this is not to say that humility is a state of self degradation, self deprecation, and a demeaning of one’s self.  Christ had perfect humility, and even He did not do these things.  God is humble, for though he created all things, contains all things, and is the breather of stars, He cares about the least of all things: the mustard seed, the dandelions, the fig trees, the faithful, and most of all the worst of sinners, even a publican.

Humility and Pride.  The Publican and the Pharisee.  One stands as a trait of the faithful, for without humility there can be no faith, for as the blessed Augustine says, “faith is not a gift of the proud, but of the humble.”  The other stands as a trait of the world, where pride, as the great commentator of scriptures Theopholact has said, “beyond all other passions disturbs the mind of man.”  Pride distorts our view of self and of the world, whereas humility helps remove the detritus of this world that clouds our vision.  We see ourselves clearly.  We see the other clearly. We can then see God clearly, and in all things.

First we look at the Pharisee, the living image of pride.  The Pharisees as a whole were one of the several religious sects of Jews in the days of Christ.  They became the religious teachers of the people. They became the teachers of the law in the synagogues.  To borrow the words of Paul, who himself was a Pharisee, they were the Jews of Jews.  They were strict adherents to the law, so much so that they generally developed an outlook of life and others that was very rigid, and often unforgiving.  If the law brings death, as the Apostle Paul  has said, then the hearts of many Pharisees died with it.  This is certainly true of the Pharisee in our parable today

He prays with himself, that is, not with God, as Saint Basil has observed. He places himself apart and above all others at the condemnation of those he sees beneath them.  He extols his own righteousness before God and over other men.  Yet, he may see and read the law correctly; he may do all the right things prescribed of him; he may speak the right words and say all the prayers that he should; but while his righteousness may bring him to God, if he shall be clothed with pride, he shall be cast into hell.

The Publicans were not righteous men like the Pharisees, and were often seen as traitors by their fellow Jews.  They were contracted servants to the Roman empire, who were commonly and collectively seen as oppressors, and those Jews who worked for them were seen as traitors to their people.  Even more, many Publicans lived lavish lifestyles acquired from their dishonest collection of money, taking more than what was owed to Caesar, stuffing their own pockets. So, the Publican in our parable had nothing of himself to extol or uplift before God, but he offered himself in humility, which is more than the Pharisee gave through all his righteous acts, prayers, and almsgiving. We are reminded of the words of psalm 50: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart, God will not despise.”

The Publican and the Pharisee.  Humility and Pride.  Two paths, one of faith, and the other of the world.  The story provides for us cautions in the manner in which we pray and live our lives, but also gives us a glimpse of God’s grace and mercy, that even the worst of us can be redeemed before God in nothing more than our humility.  Humility, over time, can often soften the hardest of hearts, like water over stone.

Humility is the living stream that will change the face of the world, and the hearts of men, and Christ is the font of living water from which we must all flow.  If all creation is a living psalter of God, then what lessons of humility can one find in water?  Water rests in the lowliest of places, and so we should accept the lowliness of our estate, whatever it may be. Water is unassuming and takes the shape of the vessel in which it rests, in our case we conform ourselves to the Church.  Water provides life and refreshment to everyone around it, so should we also amidst the spiritual deserts of this world.  Water in its stillness reflects a perfect image, in our case the image of God, for when we are still, we shall know that He is God.  In its purity, one can see through to the deepest parts of its being, and therefore the truth therein. Water is patient.  It does not fight, but takes the path of least resistance.  Yet, it is persistent, and in time can change the face of the world. 

So, be like Christ, a living water unto the world, and by our humble persistence, patience, and peace of heart, may all those around us be saved.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, for the sake of the prayers of Thy most pure Mother, our holy and God-fathers and all the saints, the martyrs, and the angels, have mercy on us and save us.