Category: Homily

HOMILY: Love endures.

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HOMILY: Love endures – February 9th, 2020.

Readings: Romans 13:8-10, Matthew 8:23-34

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

There was much to choose from today in topics to talk about.  There is much the Church remembers on this day: The translation of the relics of Saint John Chrysostom; the venerable Peter of Egypt; new Martyr Demetrius of Constantinople; and, this is the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.  For, we are the Church of remembering; remembering those who have gone before us; remembering those who walk beside us; and remembering the promises of the world to come. All of us, the Church united, bound by faith, and sealed in the bonds of love.

We have heard in our readings for today both of love, and of faith.  Love is the very essence of our Orthodox faith; this you already know.  For, God is Love; the source of all love; the fire of love that burns in each of us; and, the incarnation of Love through Jesus Christ our Lord.  As Christ is, so should we seek to be. Love is not a feeling, or an emotion, but exists and is expressed by what we do. Though, this is a point I have iterated numerous times before, so I will not repeat it here.  Even God’s act of creation was an act of love, for he needed nothing outside of himself. The created order was made by, and exists because of, the love of God. The intended order of all things is founded on love. This is why, as Paul exhorts to us in our Epistle reading for today, that love is the fulfillment of the whole law, for it is only in love that the proper order of creation exists.  Without love, we have nothing; without love, we have gained nothing; without love, we are nothing. Our faith, which we must all have and hold, in word and in deed, orients us towards Christ; but, it is in love, by love, and through love that we will reach Him. It is by faith, bound with the bonds of love to our Lord Jesus Christ, motivated by love towards our fellow man, that we each strive towards salvation. We each fight for the endurance of Truth, and that by love we change the world around us.

So what does this love look like?  I believe Saint Paul details love eloquently enough in his first letter to the Corinthians:

“ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Love is an action.  Love is something we manifest into the world.  Love is what will change the world. Love lives within the peace of God which the world cannot give. The world knows no love, for there is no love found in it.  Yet, what the world calls love is nothing more than sin polished to look alike, but crumbles the moment it is tested. Love, the Love of God, the Love that binds our faith together, this love perseveres.  This love changes the world.

This, that is love, I believe has been the mission of the Orthodox Church – the pillar and foundation of truth, and the abode of the Holy Spirit – since its foundations were laid by the prophets and the Apostles, and established by the honorable blood of Christ.  The first ten centuries the Church withstood heresies and persecutions of every kind, but the Church prevailed. The Mongols conquered Kievan Rus’ in the 13th century, but the Church prevailed. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered the great pearl of the Byzantin empire, Constantinople; but, the Church prevailed.  As the world became “enlightened” and “reason” abounded, the theology of our Fathers remade into Cataphatic visions of what once was, the Church prevailed. The Great saints and Fathers of the Russian Church set out into the world: Saint Nicholas established the Church in Japan, Father Maxim Leontiev led the first Orthodox Church in Beijing, and Saints Innocent and Herman evangelized the Alaskan territory.  Saint Tikhon, the Patriarch of Moscow, Saint John Maximovith of Shanghai and San Francisco, Saint Sebastian of San Francisco and Jackson, all evangelized America under the direction of the Russian Orthodox Church. The faithful carried the light of life into the world, and the Church prevailed.

That light is love.

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 warmth of love that the faithful persevere in the cold, and the darkness 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 tempest, against which we are all tested. It is only by the fire of God’s love that we can survive and prevail.

Indeed, the Church is the boat by which we endure the tempest of this world.  Though, Christ is not sleeping, for He is with us; He is the Church, and the Church is He; and, He is present by His body and blood within the Holy Mysteries we will soon receive.  The tempest becomes the myriad trials and temptations of the world by which we are tested, the persecutions we must survive, the winds of change we must endure, and the cold Godless life we are called to live by the world in which we live.  But, despite all of these, we also learn that no storm lasts forever; we learn that no matter how far the darkness reaches, the sun will always rise. That is why we must keep love alive, for it is the fervor of our faith. “If the Fervor of Faith in our heart is not kept alight, then our apathy may entirely extinguish our faith.”

This is a lesson imbued within the Russian Orthodox Church, and embedded within her very bones.  For, today is the day we also remember the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church.  Today is the day we commemorate the untold millions of Orthodox faithful who were killed by the Godless Soviet atheists in the wake of Bolshevik revolution.  Though no hard numbers can be provided, estimates state that up to twenty million Orthodox Christians were killed. In the first years of Soviet power, over twelve hundred Orthodox Priests were executed, including 28 Bishops.  Orthodox clergy and Orthodox faithful alike were tortured, executed, and sent to prison camps, labor camps, and even mental institutions. Churches were destroyed, sometimes with the faithful within them. Priests were crucified to the doors of their churches, or dragged into the street and shot.  Millions of Orthodox faithful were exiled, many coming to America, where the work of Saints John, Tikhon, Sebastian and others were instrumental in their care. The great missionary work that had been started by Moscow in America had been interrupted. Though, In time, the sun rose, the Soviet era ended, and the Church prevailed.  By the blood of her martyrs, the confession of the faith, and the fervor of the faith kept alive in love within the hearts of millions, the Church prevailed. Untold staretz and saints, known and unknown, rose to pierce the darkness of the storm with the uncreated light of their enduring love, and with the aid of their guiding light the Church prevailed.  It is that light we should all strive to carry. It is that light we have all received. It is that light that we are all exhorted to uphold within the darkness of this world.  

We stand upon a foundation of prophets and apostles, strengthened by the blood of uncountable martyrs, and joining the voices of confessors who never stopped speaking truth in the face of oppression and persecutions, torture, and even death.  Be courageous in speaking truth to power, be unfailing in your dedication to Christ, but most of all, become love and incarnate Christ unto the world. It is by love alone, that the Church will prevail.

Amen.

Eternal Russia

HOMILY: Theophany – A day of illumination.

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HOMILY: Theophany – A day of illumination – January 19, 2020

Readings: Matthew 2:1-12, Isaiah 60:1-6

Thus ends the twelve days of Christmas!  Having just celebrated the birth of Christ our Savior, our God and our King, here marks the beginning of Christ’s ministry on earth.  Today is a day of illumination, the revealing of God the Son incarnate in the flesh, and the revealing of the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a day that predates our celebrations of Christmas, preserved from the second century.  It is also a public holiday in a number of European nations. If only we could be so lucky.

This is a feast which I find to be somewhat unique in the life of those Orthodox Churches who celebrate the western rite.  It is a multi faceted feast day, whose focus of celebration and remembrance differs depending on the direction you are facing.  In the western traditions, this particular feast day is referred to as the day of epiphany, where the day is identified with the visit of the Magi in Bethlehem to behold the Christ child, to which the star in the east had led them.  This is the event foretold in our lesson from Isaiah:

“A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah;  all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.”

 Isaiah 60:6

On this day, through the visitation of the Magi, is celebrated the physical manifestation of God incarnate in the flesh, and His revelation to the Gentiles.  The Magi were the first Gentiles to whom He was revealed, but this is not a revelation they could have come to on their own, for they were teachers of a false faith.  They had been illumined by the grace of God overflowing from the birth of Christ. As Saint John Chrysostom has said, “The Magi are enlightened so that the goodness of God may be made manifest: so that no one need despair, doubting that salvation through faith will be given to him, seeing He bestowed it on the Magi. The Magi therefore were the first from the Gentiles chosen for salvation, so that through them a door might be opened to all the Gentiles.”


Today is a day of illumination, or more appropriately a celebration of illumination.  We remember the illumination of the Magi in the west, but we also remember our own illumination in the east, wherein the focus of this day – the Feast of Theophany – is centered on the Baptism of our Lord and God and savior Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan river.  This is the day that Christ made himself known to all mankind, for the people had not yet known him. It is also upon this day that  the Holy Church asserts its faith in the mystery – most noble and incomprehensible to the rational mind – of the Three Persons of the triune God. Jesus Christ ascended out of the waters of Baptism, the Holy Spirit descending upon him in the form of a dove, with the voice of the Father echoing from above, unseen, “this is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”  Jesus Christ, having no need of cleansing, having no sin to be cleansed of, and being born of a Virgin and without the corruption of Adam’s sin, was baptized in the waters of the Jordan not for His sake, but for our own.  Christ descended into the waters of the Jordan that all the waters of creation may be sanctified for our sake, for our own purification and cleansing of sin through our own baptism. His baptism is our baptism. His life is our life. His death is our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection.

By our baptism, cleansed of our sin and joined to Jesus Christ, we renounce the world and live a new man.  So, it is not unreasonable for us to remember our own baptism on this day, remembering the vows we took, or were given on our behalf if one was blessed enough to be born into the Church.  It is within these vows, as Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) has said:

 “…in which a Christian has promised God to renounce Satan and all his works and to join himself, to unite himself with Christ, these vows are not only forgotten by people, but many in general know nothing about them or about the fact that these vows were pronounced for them and that they ought to think a little about how they must fulfill [them]… One thing is needful – only one thing is necessary – and to remember that we must join ourselves with Christ, that is, not only fulfill His commandments, but also endeavor to unite ourselves with Him.”

 Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesenksy) – Holy on Theophany.

He further exhorts us later in his Homily to think and remember what it means to each of us to renounce Satan and all his works; that we may join ourselves to Christ.  We do this through the process of theosis, which we began through our own baptisms, when we were purified of our sins, and purified of all the defilements of this world.  Having been cleansed, we began “the perfecting of Holiness in the fear of God,” just as Saint Paul exhorts in his second letter to the Corinthians.  Holiness is achieved through the path and process of Theosis, a path which begins in the Church, for the Church is Christ, and He is “the way and the Truth and the life.”

The Church is humanity illumined; a humanity baptized in the grace of God; a humanity illumined by the beauty of its creator; a humanity illumined and healed by His dignity – our own dignity restored – God becoming man that we may become more like Him; a humanity illumined in His beauty, that we may incarnate His beauty into the world, becoming living icons of truth; and a humanity illumined by the Light of Life, that we may shine like morning stars, and lead others to the truth just as the Magi were led to Christ.

Theosis presupposes life within the Church, the body of Christ; the body of illumined humanity.  We enter it by following Christ through the waters of baptism, and together are illumined by the same Spirit that sanctified them.  It is within the Church that we become a part of, and partake of, the body of Christ. It is within the Church in which we partake of the sacraments, that which is necessary to acquire the sanctifying spirit and be transformed into the divine likeness of God.  It is within the Church that we come into communion with Christ, and so participate in the divine worship of the Church triumphant, the Church militant being the living icon of that Church in heaven, the living icon of Christ. It is within the Church that the meaning of the scriptures are revealed to us.  It is in the Church alone that the truth is revealed to us, and the means necessary to our salvation are provided to us. The Church is taught by the Holy Spirit, and there exists an indissoluble unity between God and His Church, for “The Church is the earthly heaven in which the heavenly God moves and dwells.”  We must choose to be where God is, in striving towards a unity of spirit.

Christ’s baptism on the Jordan River revealed this unity of spirit, the unity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  The Theophany illumined all of creation with the revelation of the Triune God: God in three persons, yet one essence; three wills, and two natures; infinite and present in all things, yet udivided; ineffable, yet knowable through Jesus Christ, our King and our God.  Christ’s baptism opened the door to follow him into unity with Him as living stones within the Church provided by his honorable blood. This Church confesses and asserts our faith in the mystery of the Trinity. It teaches to confess and glorify with equal honor and divinity each person of the Godhead.  It reveals and renders impotent the teachings of those wherein finite and human terms attempted to describe the Creator of all things. It establishes for us the place, importance, and necessity for our own baptism, a gift and grace of God granted unto us by the Holy Spirit, for “as many as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ.” 

The world changed when Christ rose from the waters of the Jordan: the waters of creation were sanctified, the divinity of Christ was revealed, the triunity of God was made manifest unto men, and Christ went forth to begin his ministry.  Christ left the waters the same as He entered into them: God the Son incarnate in the flesh; yet, everywhere he went, the fire of God’s love molded the very hearts of men. So, go and do likewise.

By the prayers of our holy fathers and mothers, and Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

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Icon of the Theophany


HOMILY: Rejoice in the Lord!

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HOMILY: Rejoice in the Lord! – December 29th, 2019

Readings: Philippians 4:4-7, John 1:19-28

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

As we come to the end of another calendar year, we approach this time with words of thanksgiving for all that we have and have endured, and also of expectation as we rejoice for what is yet to come.  We look at the past twelve months and we realize that most of us have much to be thankful for: we rejoice for our successes and triumphs; we rejoice for our health and wellbeing; we rejoice for our family and friends; and we rejoice that Christ is in our midst, where He is and ever shall be.  For all these things we give thanksgiving and praise, prayer and supplication always, for we remember that all things come from the Father.

 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

These are the words of Saint Paul in our Epistle reading this morning, and regrettably we recognize that it is not always easy to rejoice, for not all moments seem pleasant to those that endure them; to those that endure loss; to those that endure suffering; to those that endure heartache and hardship; to those that endure the darkness because it seems as though the light has left them.  Yet, even in times such as these we can find reasons to rejoice; for, in our sufferings we find strength; in our pain we find the power to endure; in the loss of all things we are freed from the world; in the loss of life we rejoice in hope, and look for an age yet to come. No matter the darkness and how cold it may seem, we hold onto the light of Christ, for the Light will dispel the darkness, or make longer the shadows and reveal the objects within our lives causing them.

Saint John Chrysostom also says similarly in his own Homily on the letter to the Philippians:

“It is comforting to know that the Lord is at hand…Here is a medicine to relieve grief and every bad circumstance and every pain. What is it? To pray and to give thanks in everything. He does not wish that a prayer be merely a petition but a thanksgiving for what we have received…How can one make petitions for the future without a thankful acknowledgment of past things?…So one ought to give thanks for everything, even what seems grievous. That is the mark of one who is truly thankful. Grief comes out of the circumstances with their demands. Thanksgiving comes from a soul that has true insight and a strong affection for God.”

We rejoice because He is with us, and we have much to be thankful for.  We look forward to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we rejoice, because he is our Lord God, and King.  Then, we look forward to and celebrate theophany, the revelation of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – on the waters of the Jordan, and rejoice because He is all merciful and compassionate toward His Children.  We endure the somber period of the Lenten season, and we rejoice because He is Risen, having endured His crucifixion upon a cross, dying that we may live. He ascended that the Holy Spirit might descend, and we rejoice that we were worthy to be recipients of God’s grace.  We endure the darkness of this world, just as the many saints who have gone before us, but we rejoice in the resurrection yet to come; we rejoice in God’s love and our healing of soul and body, the salvation of many, and the forgiveness of all.

We give praise and thanksgiving for the days that have come to pass, and look forward with joyful expectation at what is yet to come. Paul tells us not to be anxious about anything,“but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  We pray with thanksgiving, and we give voice to our thoughts, making them a tangible thing, making them real; for, even all of creation was spoken into existence.   So, we say our prayers, say our confessions, say our creeds, that all these things may become real within us; that they may manifest themselves in our lives.  Yet, this is only but a single reason why our prayers matter, not only to ourselves, but to the very world in which we live.  

Our prayer is an encounter and relationship with God.  It is through prayer that we anchor ourselves to the present moment, for indeed it is the only moment in which we can encounter God.  Yes, we look back with thanksgiving on the past, and we look forward to the future with hopeful and joyful expectation, but it is only the present moment that matters to us.  God is present to us at all times and in all places. He is present simultaneously in the past, present, and future, but it is only in the present moment in which we live, exist, and experience this life.  Christ himself exhorts us in the Gospel of Matthew to “not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own,” and there is little we can do about the past, so we pray always, offering up the present moment to God, so that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Tomorrow may remain a mystery, but today is a gift from God, and I jokingly say that this is why it is called the present.

It is only in the present moment that we can be still and know that He is God; but, the world provides no such peace. Far too often the world lives in a distracted state of mind, and with many, their focus of attention is divided between their mobile devices, tablets, and cell phones instead of the people and places around them in the present moment.  People would rather interact through an artificial glass wall, numbing any sense of true relationship and warmth we would experience with others.  We are often distracted by the advertisements and sales pitches of the world around us, telling us how the world should look – billboards, magazine racks, television commercials, radio commercials, gossip and opinion, and so forth – driving us to focus on that which we should have, instead of what we have right now.  Our attention is scattered on a vision of how the world tells us things should be, instead of how the world really is.  Our mind is often divided between our past and future concerns, but rarely on the importance of the present moment. Because of this, many people have no joy, cannot rejoice or be joyful, because this can only happen within our present moment. Prayer and thanksgiving can only happen where we are.

We are often so focused on doing, that we leave little time for the act of being, being Children of God, being Saints, being perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. Though, one should not consider the act of doing, and the act of being, to be two separate things.  For, we have been exhorted to pray without ceasing, but this is not always an act of words. We become our prayer within our day to day lives; we incarnate Christ into the world; and we become that which we pray for, that for others and ourselves.  

Prayer is the beginning of all theology, as Vladimir Lossky says.  Prayer alone will give our soul the spiritual strength to endure all things.  So, without prayer, there is no spiritual life alive within us. Our faith, our prayer, should become a state of being – it is not enough to say prayers, but we must become our prayer, become a Christian, and incarnate our faith by word AND deed.  Our prayer life should be lived, and our prayers should be interwoven with our life, otherwise they become vestigial words and phrases that we simply offer in our short periods we turn towards God.  Our prayers and our actions should become two expressions of the same situation. Also, we must approach our prayer life as a mutual relationship of friendship. God must be the object of our prayer, our wanting, for the intensity and elation of our prayer is often about the object of our prayer rather than the one to whom our prayer is addressed.

“All of life, each and every act, every gesture, even the smile of the human face, must become a hymn of adoration, an offering, a prayer.  One should offer not what one has, but what one is.”  (Bishop Kallistos Ware)

This is the gift we give: our lives.  We do this because it is the only gift we can give which is reciprocal of itself, given in response to the gift which we have received ourselves:  eternal life. It is for this gift, and many other reasons we are exhorted not once, but twice by the Apostle Paul in the same passage to rejoice; to be thankful for everything in prayer and thanksgiving. So let us become joy; let us all become Joy to the world because Christ our King has come, and is coming.  It is a beautiful day our Lord God has made, so let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers and mothers, and Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen

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Virgin Mary “Rejoices in Thee” (All Creation Rejoice), Orthodox Icon


HOMILY: Christ the King

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HOMILY: Christ the King – December 8, 2019

Readings: Daniel: 7:13-14, Colassians 1:12-20, John 18:33-37

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

We have come to the end of our liturgical year, through the course of which we have celebrated the birth of Christ, and the joy and salvation that his coming promises to bring.  We have celebrated the theophanies of Christ our God, wherein the truth of God has been revealed to us. We have remembered the passion of Christ and repented of our own iniquities through the penitential season of Lent. We have celebrated Christ and the lives of the saints surrounding Him and following Him, that we may remember their lives and examples for each of us to follow.  We once and always look forward with expectation from the moment of Christ’s birth, from the moment of our present lives lived in Christ, to the coming of Christ our King and our God. He entered the world as a suckling child, from the womb into the care of the Theotokos; became the sacrifice for all men that the whole world might be redeemed; and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father.  He shall come again as a conquering king, who conquered death by death; who is the King of Kings; who is the Lord of all creation; He who is the head of the body, the Church, which is His Kingdom on earth. Within the Church, which Christ created with his own precious blood, we find the Truth, the Way, and the life. This is the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is life within him, and it is this Kingdom to which we all belong as citizens of heaven, for as Saint Paul says, “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” our King and our God.  He also elucidates the kingdom of God as life in the Holy Spirit, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So, we recognize the Kingdom as that which is already given to those of us who believe; to those of us who live and lead righteous lives under God our King; to those of us who incarnate the Kingdom of God into this world, and by whom this kingdom is created by the grace of God. We are Christ’s first and foremost, and if the first “flag” we fly is not Christ’s, then one must ask if He is truly our King and our God? The flag of nations should never precede the flag of faith.  The flag of this world is not our own, for we are citizens of heaven first and only; for, we are but “sojourners and exiles in this world,” and should live as though we have no permanent part in it.  For there is nothing in this world that is worth our lives in Christ; nothing in this world that can give us true joy; and nothing in this world that will endure in this life or the next.  

Christ is our King, and the Kingdom over which he reigns has no place, it has no borders and holds no land; it has no end and begins in all places; it excludes no one, but includes only the faithful.  We know where the kingdom rests by the fruits of its people, for Christ himself has said the people “will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  This is also the same quality by which we know Christ loved us, for he sacrificed himself that we may live life eternally.  So then, what is a Christian life without sacrifice, but an empty and vestigial expression of a divine truth. True love engenders sacrifice, a sacrifice of self; of free will. It is through the sacrificial quality of love by which it is recognized.  It is within the sacrificial quality of love that the Kingdom of God is found, for God is Love. It is with Love that Christ reigns as King over all creation.

Christ as King permeates our prayers; is echoed throughout our scriptures; is made manifest within the liturgy and sacramental life of the Church; so, likewise it should be made apparent that Christ is our King in our day to day lives.  The culture in which we live reflects the contents of our inner being. If our culture is not changed, it is because we ourselves are not changed. This is why Saint Seraphim of Sarov exhorted that if we “acquire the Spirit of Peace, a thousand souls around you will be saved.” So, it is within society that we will express the contents of our heart in word and in deed, wherein society becomes a mirror of what lies within.  It is where the Kingdom of God collides with the kingdom of this world that Christ’s love should manifest itself. How do we treat the homeless man or the mother in need?  How do we react to the myriad inconveniences throughout the day? How do we respond to those who are less than pleasant towards us or others? How do we speak to those who are seen as social outcasts: addicts, criminals, prostitutes, the poor and needy, the disabled, and all of the others who do not align with the image of worldly success?  We have already been given the answers to these questions by Christ our King, and he pulls us inexorably towards love.

Christ as King reigns over our very souls. It is by his grace alone that we are pulled godward; that every word we speak is one of praise or kindness; that every beat of our heart and every breath we take is done with thanksgiving; that our everyday and ordinary deeds are made extraordinary by their love and compassion for one another; that our own feelings and desires should be an echo of Christ the King, and that which His love desires.  Our will is not our own, but that of the King who reigns over all: Jesus Christ our Lord. We can be slaves to the sins of this world, or freedman following their King and their God.

Christ our King has freed us from the bondage and slavery of sin, the passions that compel us to do that which we ought not to do.  He commanded us to repent, and so we turn ourselves away from this world. He commanded us to baptize and be baptized, and so the faithful are made clean, “made whiter than snow.”   He commanded us to “do this in remembrance of me;” so, we celebrate and partake of his body and blood as often as we can through the Eucharist.  We are commanded to “be perfect,” just as the Father is perfect; a feat that can only be accomplished through theosis: our growth and exercise of virtue, and our cooperation with the graces of God.  Among these commands, and others like it, Christ tells us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Our Love for Him is known and is proven by what we do. Our love of God is made manifest by our willingness to obey him, and to serve him, and also those in his kingdom.  Christ came to serve, so we also serve. Christ came to heal, so let us be a healing presence to all. Christ came to forgive, so let us forgive one another. Christ came to reign over us, so let us always allow Him to reign in us.

Christ is King, and He is a just king, for the Justice of God is the restoration of all creation as God intended it from the beginning of time.  Christ is a righteous king for He is righteousness. Christ is a conquering king, for he has conquered and defeated death by death, and in doing so “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” just as Saint Paul exhorted in our epistle reading for today. Christ is our King, and in Him we have faith and find hope, for “to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,  which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed,” just as Daniel prophesied.  Christ is our King, and Christ is our God, for in Christ alone was the fullness of God pleased to dwell among us. So, We look forward to the completion and perfection of all things in and through Christ the King, the ruler and redeemer of all things.  We adore the King of Kings as we bask in the countenance of his holiness and eternal glory, and pray always that we ourselves would be found worthy of the promises of Christ. Christ is the King of mercy, and may he have mercy on us all, and save us.

“Oh come let us worship and fall down before our God and our King.

Oh, come let us fall down before Christ our King and our God.

Oh, come let us worship and fall down before Christ himself, our King and our God.”

Amen.

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Homily: Of Truth and gifts.

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Homily: Of Truth and gifts – November 9th, 2019

Readings: Epistle – Ephesians 4:7-13, Gospel – John 15:17-25

Today we remember and celebrate the Greater feast of Saints Simon and Jude.  Two of the twelve apostles, their names mentioned in the synoptic gospels, and Saint Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.  Yet, outside of these mentions in scripture, we know very little about them or their works following Pentecost. Even those extra biblical sources we have seem to disagree somewhat on their lives, and how they ended.  Western tradition and martyrology dating from the sixth century holds that Saint Simon first preached in Egypt, and later joined Saint Jude to preach the gospel in Persia, where they both suffered martyrdom. On the other hand, The Monology of Saint Basil the Great tells us that Simon died a peaceful death at Edessa.  Yet, no matter where they went, no matter the means by which they went to the Lord, we remember them nonetheless, because we are the Church. Disregarding all else about them, we know with certainty that they are counted among those – the Apostles of Christ – who constitutes the foundation of our Church, for indeed the Church was built upon the foundation of her prophets and Apostles.  They hold up the Church, which itself exists as the pillar and foundation of truth, as well as being the body of Christ, who is Truth. It is only within this body, the Church, that the Truth is received, and so given to others “ to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,” just as Saint Paul exhorts us in our Epistle reading for today.

It is to this body that is given the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  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 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 why Saint Paul did not say “to each one of us according to the measure of their faith,” lest one should fall into arrogance or pride.  But 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.

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; equality does not mean sameness.  The Church is 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 grain of the wood, the variations in stone, 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 Christ that we are “guided by gifted people for the sake of maturity and stability of the body.”  We are all living stones, and Christ is the cornerstone of the foundation upon which we stand, and the living mortar that binds us all together.

What Christ has given is a gift of immense price.  This is why, Christ being both the Gift and the price paid for it, that our own lives are the only gift that is reciprocal of itself.  I say of itself, for our very lives are a gift bestowed to us, saved from eternal death, healed from the wounds of sin that we might live fully. Every aspect of our Christian faith, every detail of our Christian life, is intertwined with that great gift to which we have been given. Christ is the great physician, the healer of our souls, and we follow those prescriptions He has given us through the Church: Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  Christ is the great medicine and food for our souls, that which we receive by the cup of salvation at the Holy Mysteries of our faith. Christ is the way, the Truth, and the life by which we find our way through the darkness of this world.  

What Christ has given us is without distinction from Christ himself, and such are the gifts of the spirit we have received. Those gifts are given to each of us according to that which we need; it is given according to that which we desire; it is given according to that which we are capable of possessing by a measure distinctive to our love and character.  We each possess a distinctiveness of spirit, a distinctiveness of person or character, a distinctiveness of individuality, but a unity of persons in one faith. This distinctiveness, the difference of persons does not place anyone above or below another, for we are all necessary. Just as the wall is weaker with stones removed, and a chain cannot hold with missing link, so is the Church when lacking unity, or missing those who belong. The Church grows stronger as each is added to it, according to their own faith, according to their own gifts, and the building up of one another.  

There is a saying within the Orthodox Church that we grow and we  rise together, but we fall alone. As such, no Christian should ever regard themselves as an isolated individual, for we are all part of the body of Christ.  It is not only by our gifts that we labor to build and encourage the Church towards the fullness of Christ, but also our participation in the sacraments, and the sacramental rhythm of the Church. When we sin, we sin not against ourselves only, but against all those who stand with us.  We go to confession that we may be absolved, that our sin does not erode the unity and stability of that body. We participate in the same cup, that we all may receive the eternal remedy; so that no one withers in spirit. We all practice those spiritual exercises – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving –  that each of us may grow strong in our own faith, supporting one another as we march together towards the eschaton. We remember our dead, as we remember Saints Simon and Jude. Their souls are separated from their bodies, but we remain in communion with them and all others, for even in death the body of Christ is not divided.  We remember one another, praying for one another always and in all things. We all study the same scriptures, adhering to the same teachings of the faith; for the unity of the faith cannot be separated from the knowledge of the Son of God.

The Truth, the knowledge of the Son of God, is the seed planted in each of us, and simultaneously the seed we have been given to plant in others.  Those gifts of the spirit are the tools we have been given to work those fields once planted. We must not neglect the tools we have been given, for while iron may sharpen iron, it rusts when left in disuse.  We must not neglect the labor at hand, for as Christ himself has said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  The gift of Christ was purchased for us at an immeasurable price. So, let us live worthily of such a sacrifice, that it be not in vain, and we be considered sons and daughters of the living God.  May all truth abide in us and save us.

By the prayers of our holy Fathers and Mothers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.

Amen.

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HOMILY: Becoming Truth.

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HOMILY: Becoming Truth – October 20th, 2019.

Readings: Matthew 9:1-9

I would like to begin with the story of Sergios and Bakkhos, two martyrs of the Church whom we remember today.

The Holy Martyrs Sergios and Bakkhos were appointed to high positions in the army by the emperor Maximian (who ruled from the years 284-305), who did not know that they were Christians. Malevolent persons denounced them both to Maximian, that his two military-commanders did not honour the pagan gods, and this was considered a crime against the state.

The emperor, wanting to convince himself of the veracity of the denunciation, ordered Sergios and Bakkhos to offer sacrifice to the idols, but they answered, that they honored but the One God and Him only did they worship.

Maximian commanded that the martyrs be stripped of the insignia of military rank, and then having dressed them in feminine clothing to lead them through the city with an iron chain on the neck, for the mockery by the people. Then he again summoned Sergios and Bakkhos to him and in a friendly approach advised them not to be swayed by Christian fables and instead return to the Roman gods. But the saints remained steadfast. Then the emperor commanded that they be dispatched to the governor of the eastern part of Syria, Antiochus, a fierce hater of Christians. Antiochus had received his position with the help of Sergios and Bakkhos. “My fathers and benefactors! – he addressed the saints, – have pity not only upon yourself, but also on me: I do not want to condemn you to martyrdom”. The holy martyrs replied, that for them life – is Christ, and death for Him – its acquisition. In a rage Antiochus ordered Bakkhos to be mercilessly beaten, and the holy martyr expired to the Lord. They put iron shoes on Sergios feet inset with nails and sent him off to another city, where he was beheaded with the sword.  All this transpired in the year 300 A.D.

So, why do we remember such as these in the life of the Church? 

We are the Church of remembering.  We remember those who have gone before us, for they point us towards Christ; they show us what it means to be our faith; they show us how we should respond to the world around us.  We remember those who walk beside us. We remember what lies ahead of us as we walk together in Christ towards the eschaton. The Church takes great care to maintain the hagiography of our saints, the stories of those who have passed into memory, for they represent the living witness of our faith. They represent the very essence in both word and in deed in what it means to be Christian.  They have gone before us, but they march ever ahead of us, for they have paved the road we now walk on. It is yet another paradox of the Christian faith, like the first shall be last and the last shall be first, when I am weak, I am strong; or the meek shall inherit the earth. Those who have come before us, walk ahead of us, living icons of Christ, lamps unto our feet.

So what is the lesson we can learn from the story of  Sergios and Bakkhos, those knights and martyrs of the Orthodox faith?   Always speak truth to power. We must not be like the world who seeks to change the very definitions of truth within the world around us.  Who changes truth simply to be acceptable to others. We must not be like the world who seeks to confuse and disorient, shifting like sand so no foundation can be laid for one to stand on, till one is left standing like Pilate before Christ and muttering those words of searching: what is truth?  We know what truth is. Truth is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. Truth is found in the Church, for the Church is the Body of Christ, who IS Truth. The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim 3:15), which was established upon the apostles and prophets as her foundation (Eph 2:20).  We must never be afraid to speak Christ into the world, into the face of opposition, nor persecution. We must always stand to speak Truth in the face of lies, Truth against heresies, or Truth to those in power. Truth is the last great rebellion in a world imbued with falsity and fantasy. The world may threaten our lives, but we have life eternal.  The world may take away our wealth, but it was never ours to begin with, and we have even greater treasures in the kingdom of God. The world might not kill us, but it will wound us. We will be wounded time and time again in both heart, mind, soul, and God forbid in body.

Lucky for us Christ is the Great Physician.  The Church, as the body of Christ, who is the great physician, is the great hospital for our very souls. To the world we may seem like an asylum of sorts, and some very well may treat us as such.  Remember the words of Saint Anthony the Great when he said “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, “You are mad; you are not like us.” One could reasonably say such a time is upon us.  Yet, also remember the words of scripture that tells us that truth, Christ, and the message of the Cross seems like insanity to the world, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. To those of us who are being saved, it is the word of life.  To those of use who are being saved, no other word matters.

Can we expect a blind man to know the sky is blue?  Can we expect the deaf man to hear the words of truth?  Can we expect one dying of cancer to know that he is dying, or what it is that afflicts him, unless a doctor tells him?  We must be the truth to those who need it, in our words and in our lives. We become truth and take Christ into the world. We reveal their illness, talk about their wounds, and reveal the scars of our own wounds to give them hope. We seek out those in need of healing, and bring them to the great physician to be healed.  The Church is the great hospital for our souls, and all are bidden. Yet, not all may come. Some cannot come on their own. Some may need the helping hands of another.

In our Gospel reading today we heard the tale of Jesus healing the paralytic. As soon as he had left his boat, and arrived into his own town, two men carried a parlyzed man to him, lying on a mat.  This was a man that depended on others to be brought before Christ. When Christ set his eyes upon them, he saw not the faith of the paralyzed man, but the faith of those who brought him. It was by their faith that Jesus Christ healed the paralytic.  And so he arose, healed of his infirmities of both body and soul, and carried himself back to his home.

The Church is our home.  We who have been healed are the two men carrying the paralytic.  Some of us, at one time, used to be the paralytic. Maybe some of us still are.  Yet, we should be carrying others back to the Church in the fullness of our own faith, so that the other may be healed; that the other may find their own faith, and walk home to the Church on their own.  One day, they too shall carry another back to the great Physician, for the healing of soul and body. For we are the Church, and we stand together. We are one body, brought together in one cup, one loaf, and one and the same belief and teaching.  We fall alone.

Christ tells us that where two or three  are gathered together in my name, I am with them.  Sergios and Bakkhos stood together against the world, and Christ was with them both.  Those two men stood with the paralytic, for the paralytic, and Christ was with them also.  May we stand with one another always, to face the world in all that it shall bring. So, may we now stand together in one faith and one accord, for Christ is in our midst; he is and ever shall be.

Amen

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Saints Sergios and Bakkhos.


HOMILY: Walking in mindfulness

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HOMILY: Walking in mindfulness – September 22, 2019

Readings: Galatians 5:16-24, Matthew 6:24-33

If one studies the choice of language in the scriptures enough, preferably in the Greek, one begins to see a language of journey and transformation. It is a way of life that takes us from where we were, leading us in Christ likeness in this life, towards the completion of all things in the world to come.  The Christian faith is a journey in which Christ is the path, Christ is the door, and simultaneously the prize and completion of the redemptive work of the cross. Ours is a journey of restoration and healing, to restore the dignity of our humanity to its Edenic and former glory.

We undertake this journey not as one alone, but we walk together as the body of Christ, being lead by Christ towards the end of all things: the eschaton.  In this journey we must always ask ourselves if we are indeed following Christ, or if we are following something else as unfortunate yet willing slaves to sin. Do we follow the Holy Spirit of God, or are we enticed instead by the spirit of this age.  It is a constant struggle being waged within us; though, no one can serve two masters, as Christ tells us in the Gospel of Saint Matthew. The word translated here as master is the word κύριος, or Lord.  So, do we follow Jesus Christ  as our Lord and God, becoming slaves to righteousness?  Or, do we succumb to the temptations of the Evil One, seeking the passions and pleasures of this life over the rewards of the next? It is an ever present tension in which we live, choosing between the immediate gratifications of this world, or the delayed promises of the next.  We should prefer to live our lives in constant expectation of the world to come, where those likewise who have gone before us look forward with equal expectation towards the resurrection. What expectations can be found in the things of this world but loss, suffering, and anguish born from our attachment to them, and our eventual loss of them;  for, they are fleeting and all is vanity. 

In this journey, Saint Paul tells us to “walk by the Spirit” so that we “will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”  Elsewhere in the scriptures we are told likewise to live in the world, but not of it. We are instructed to live in the world as citizens of the Kingdom of God, adopted as sons and daughters of God the Father almighty. We are exhorted to live as aliens and sojourners in this world.  We walk by the spirit, passing through this world without any attachment to the things of this world. We live in the world, but do not follow nor participate in the spirit of the age in which we live. We live in the world, but we do not acquiesce to the vagaries of this age, for the spirit of any age will always and invariably lead to death.  The spirit of an age is impermanent and changes from generation to generation; but, the Spirit of God is eternal. The spirit of God is everlasting. The spirit of God is Truth, and life.

So, what does it mean by use of the word “spirit?” The word translated here is πνεῦμα, which by extension and context connotes the heart and mind of God.  So, the spirit is in essence the mindset that has come down to us from God, through Jesus Christ our Lord; however, there is also another word with a similar meaning, and that is φρόνημα.  This is the Orthodox mindset in which we live and understand our day to day lives, a mindset rooted in Christ and the sacramental life and rhythm of the Church. So, we follow the heart and mind of God, exhibiting the heart and mind of God in this world and in our day to day lives.  We know that we are doing this by those fruits which Saint Paul has listed for us in his letter to the Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It is by these that we may know that we are following a right spirit within us.

The spirit of this age is known by the other list of bitter fruits also given in the same letter to the Galatians: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, and all things such as these.  Many of these are easily made manifest in the world around us, for indeed we live in a fallen world, and we should have no participation with it. It would be better for the world to consume us, than to give in to such as these. Such is the life of a martyr.

There are many spirits for us to follow, but we can only be mindful of one.  We cannot be of two minds. We cannot possess two hearts. We cannot take two paths, nor can we follow two masters leading us in opposite directions.  We must be of one mind and one accord, both within ourselves and with all who surround us. For we rise together, but we fall alone. We must decide whether to be hot or cold, for a life of indecisive faith is lukewarm, and will lead to us being spit out of the mouth of the Holy One who spoke all things into existence.

We cannot hover indefinitely between the convictions of this world or those of  the next. We cannot sit on the fence for the rest of our days. We cannot hold on to both lives, for we can only live one of them. We can only conform to one way or the other. We cannot – at the risk of sounding flippant – have our cake and eat it too.  There is one Truth, one path, one way, and one spirit. God is not a God of many minds, so neither should we be likewise.

We are mindful of God and follow Him not for a reward of earthly things, but we follow Him for a reward of promise.  For, we are promised no luxuries or comforts in this life, for indeed Christ had none. We are to pass through this world without any attachment to it.  We are to have faith and trust in He who gave us life that all things – that which we receive, or those things which we lack – will be necessary to the salvation of ourselves and others. As our Gospel reading has exhorted to us today, we are not to be anxious about the things of this world,” for indeed the world has enough anxieties of its own.  We are not to possess the world, nor are we to be possessed of the world. We are to be concerned with the things of God; for those things that are holy; for those things that are just; and for those things that are rooted in righteousness. Anything outside of this is superfluous vanity.

We must be mindful, developing an appropriate φρόνημα about our Orthodox faith.  We must be mindful of our words; mindful of our actions; and mindful of that which we do before the watchful eyes of the world.  We must be mindful of our thoughts, for as Elder Thaddeus has said, our thoughts determine our lives. Not least of these, we should be mindful of what spirit we follow, for there is only one Truth, but there are many spirits.  There is only One way, but there are many roads that lead away from the present moment. There are many mindsets, but there is only one mind of God. We shall be known by the fruits that we bear, for we walk in the spirit, that we may have the spirit of God within us.

I close from an excerpt taken from Edler Thaddeus’ own writings, from a chapter titled “Repentance is a Change of Life:’

“Life on earth is manifested in our thoughts.  Whatever our thoughts are occupied with , that reflects the kind of life we lead.  If our thoughts are quiet and peaceful, kind and loving, there’s peace for us; and if they are negative, there’s disquiet and restlessness.  We are small and helpless beings, and we must unceasingly ask our Heavenly Father for help in all things; we must pray to Him to give us strength and to give us of His Grace, the Divine energy that is present and works everywhere, most especially in those souls that have chosen to serve the Lord with their whole life, both in this world and in eternity.  For God is peace; God is comfort and joy to all people, I therefore wish you peace and joy in the Lord.”

By the prayers of our holy fathers and mothers, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy upon us and save us

Amen

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Homily: Be opened.

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Homily: Be opened. – September 1, 2019

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

I would like to open with a reading from the Old Testament today. It is not one we have heard read today, but it is wholly relevant to what we have heard so far, and what I have to say.

From Isaiah chapter 35, beginning at verse 3:
3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

The whole of the Old Testament points towards forwards towards the messianic promise, points forwards towards Christ, but this particular verse is a direct prophecy of Christ which we hear partially fulfilled in our Gospel reading for today (Mark 7:31-37). In this reading we hear of the man who was deaf and dumb, as they say, who was brought to Christ by others to be healed. Christ pulled him to the side, stuck his fingers in his ears, spitting on his finger and touching the man’s tongue, he looked to the heavens and said one of the few obscure Aramaic words we hear in the Gospels: Ephphatha.

This word means to be opened. In the Greek, which is given along side the Aramaic, the word is dianoigō (διανοίγω), which specifically in this case means to be opened, but more generally used it refers to an opening of the heart; an opening of the mind and the understanding; to open one’s self to the sense of a thing. Yet, why did Christ find it necessary to speak this word as part of this act of healing? Could He not have just healed the man through the spirit? Could He not have just willed his healing into existence? Of course the answer is yes, but he does this because words have power. Words have the power to heal, and the power to destroy. Words have the power to build up and encourage, as well as tear down. Words are important. In fact, in the chapter preceding our Epistle reading for today, Saint Paul speaks at length about the gift of speaking in tongues and prophesying. What we say matters.

The Son of God spoke all of creation into existence, for indeed He is the Word of God. Christ drove out evil spirits with but a word. Saint James warns us of the dangers of the tongue and the words we speak, with Christ corroborating this in the Gospel of Matthew by warning us that “those things which proceed out of the mouth comes from the heart,” and these are what defile a man. Those that came to Christ in His ministry – the man with leprosy, the Centurion, the paralytic, and others – when asked what they needed, though God knew regardless of the request, they spoke their needs to Christ that they may be heard and met likewise. We pray so that our needs might be heard, rising before the saints and the throne of God like incense that they might be heard (Psalm 141:2, Revelations 8:4) Even Saint John of Kronstadt places an importance upon the words we speak into this world, exhorting that “man, in all his words, does not die. He is immortal in them, and they speak after his death.” So, if we should be judged by that which we say, then surely we should be mindful of that which we say, and what manner of words we bring into the world. Do we speak slander, or do we speak praise? Do we speak Truth, or babble on endlessly about the things of this world. Be mindful.

Christ spoke words of healing, because He is the Great Physician. Christ spoke words of Truth, because he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Christ calls each of us to be opened, so that we can be healed of our spiritual deafness, so that we may receive the Truth. The healing of the deaf man is a metaphor for all men. It can be taken as an analogy of the Christian life, speaking of those outside the Church in the wilderness (of the world) alluded to in Isaiah chapter 35.

As those few of you who have attended my classes may have learned by now, I filter my theological viewpoint and my entire basis of understanding the Truth through the understanding of the Church, for the Church is the pillar and foundation of Truth (1 Tim 3:15). So, with that being said, the deaf man is every man standing outside the Church. He cannot receive the Truth. He cannot speak the truth because he does not know it. But, Christ calls each of us to be opened, but it is not an opening that can be forced. He wills each of us to be opened to the Truth, but we must first turn towards Christ, and do so by our own volition. All are called, but not all respond. Christ came for all mankind, but not all will receive Him. Christ speaks, but not all hear his words. He meets everyone where they are in life, but not all will experience Him. So, how can a blind man see the sun? He cannot see it, but he can feel it. How can a deaf man hear the words of truth? He cannot hear it, but he can see it, or experience it. The Truth must be incarnated into the world, becoming all things to all people, so that all spiritual infirmities may be overcome for the receiving of the Truth. We must bring the Truth to all men, so that man may know and accept it; turning towards Christ; turning towards the Church; turning towards the Great Physician and the Hospital for our souls, so that we may be healed of our spiritual infirmities..

Most of us started in the world, living for the world. We encountered the Truth and accepted it, turning towards Christ, and subsequently the Church. We repented of our sins. We knocked on the door of the Church by our act of confession, where the wounds of our souls were healed with the absolution of forgiveness. We put on the garment of baptism, sealed with the oil of Chrismation, and were allowed into the Church, the body of Christ. We approached the Lord’s table to partake of the Holy Mysteries, becoming one with the Truth. We are now a living stone of the Church, the body of Christ. Our eyes are opened. Our ears are unstopped. Our tongues are loosed. It is now our responsibility to share this Truth we have received to those who would receive it. In word and in deed we must incarnate Christ in the world, for this is the way of Holiness mentioned in Isaiah chapter 35, and this is what we are called to be. We must preach the Gospel message to all mankind in both word and in deed; to all the spiritually deaf and blind who have yet to turn towards Christ amidst their clinging to the things of this world

Yet, what is the Truth? What is this Gospel message that we are so inclined to declare unto the world? We find the answer to this in our Epistle reading for today (1 Cor. 15:1-10). We hear Saint Paul making dogmatic statements which we are so familiar with, and hear every Sunday in the words of the Nicene Creed:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

We preach the resurrected Christ, for He is Risen! This is the pivotal and most important act of Christ’s ministry on earth. Even though Pascha is behind us, it is also simultaneously ever before us in the sacramental rhythm of the Church, and we must always remember the Risen Christ. We must always be willing to proclaim that He is risen, and do so with every fiber of our being, every moment of our daily lives in all that we say and do. He is risen, he who endured the death of the cross for all men, to open the gates of paradise. He is life because He is risen, trampling down death by death! He is Risen because He is God incarnate in the flesh, he who condescended to become one of us, that we may be able to become like him. If Christ had never risen from the grave, then we should never leave it. If Christ had never risen, then death would never have been defeated. If Christ had never risen, then his death upon the cross would have been in vain, and our entire Christian life an empty promise.

He died so that we may live in the presence of God. We live, so that others may die to this world and all that it may bring. We all die to the world so that we may all live in Christ. So let us speak the truth so that it may be heard. Let us incarnate the Truth, so that the Truth may be experienced; the truth may be seen; the truth may be felt; and the truth may be known. By the truth may all ears be opened, that all men may hear and know the Truth of the risen Christ, and turn towards Him to be healed of their infirmities of spirit, and to be healed of infirmities of mind, body, and soul. You were once deaf, but now you can hear. You were once mute, but now your mouth is opened to proclaim the truth. So then, we must ask ourselves, why aren’t we?

By the prayers of our holy Fathers and Mothers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us and save us. Amen.

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She was faithful: Mary Magdalene

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Homily – She was faithful: Mary Magdalene

“Those who are forgiven much, loves much.”  This is a lesson heard in the latter part of our Gospel reading for today (Luke 7:36-50), and it is fitting that we should receive them on this day.  In my humble opinion, few in the scriptures exemplifies these words, than that of Mary Magdalene, whose feast day we celebrate today. She is a woman who bears many titles or cognomens within the Church.  She is one of the eight Myrrh Bearing Women whom the Church also celebrates. She is the first to see the risen Christ, going to the tomb to anoint His body in a final act of love and devotion, only to find that He was not there. She is the first to preach the risen Christ, preached first to the Apostles, and is likely the first person ever to utter those glorious words we say so joyously each year: He is risen!  She proclaimed to the Apostles, “I have seen the Lord,” and so she is the Apostle to the Apostles because she preached to them the risen Christ. She is equal to the Apostles for her ministry and aid to not only to the apostles, but to the other women in the temple, the women in a society where women are often overlooked.

Who is this woman?  Who is Mary Magdalene? She was born of the town Magdala, along the shore of Lake Gennesaret, of the tribe of Issachar.  Tradition informs us that she was young and pretty, but led a sinful life wherein she was tormented by seven evil spirits – from which she was healed and released from their torment, and made whole by our Lord Jesus Christ.  From this point forward she followed Christ in His ministry, and as the following chapter attests, she ministers to Christ (and the apostles) out of her own resources, leading us to believe that Mary was a woman of wealth.  We know little else about her, yet she is mentioned twelve times in the Gospels, which turns out to be more occasions than most of the apostles are mentioned. It also tells us that she was likely vital to the ministry of Christ, and that she was important in the eyes of the evangelists.

She performed no great works.  No miracles are attributed to her in the Gospels.  She was a woman of seemingly low stature in the bigger picture of the ministry of Christ. Even at the foot of the cross, when the Evangelists detail those that were standing there, listing the myriad women followers of Christ, all of them mention her first.  This indicates that she stood out from the other women who followed Christ. Some would attest she stood out because of her beauty. I agree with this in part, but not because of any worldly beauty, for indeed she carried a true beauty, a beauty which is only found in holiness. She stood out from the rest because of her great faith in Christ our God.

Faith.  Hebrews Chapter 11 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Put in another way, our faith is the underlying reality of our lives, those things we do serving to prove that which we believe by incarnating Christ into the world.  The two words commonly translated as faith in the scriptures are Πίστις and πιστεύω.  One is a noun, and the other is a verb.  One lends the idea that one becomes their faith, they become the living embodiment of that which they believe.  The other presents faith as that which we do, that our faith is made evident by word and deed in our day to day lives. Perhaps a “better” translation would be “faithing.”  For ours is not a faith of mind or mental ascent alone, but ours is a faith of action. We are to incarnate Christ into this world. The Church is to incarnate Christ into this world.

So, Mary Magdalene had faith not because she believed in her mind, or believed because she saw Christ in his ministry, but it is said she had faith because she became what she believed.  She had faith, for when the lord was praised, lauded, and celebrated by the people, she was with him.  It is easy to have faith in such times. She had faith, for when the teachings became difficult, or the way became too hard, she stayed by His side when others left him. She had faith, for when Christ was accused and the Apostles scattered, she stayed near him, she did not abandon Him.  She had faith when Christ was accused to die, and marched with Him among the weeping women on the way to his crucifixion.   She had faith, and she was there when Christ died, standing with His All-Pure and most holy mother.  She had faith, and she was still there when Christ was laid in the tomb. She had faith, that even in His death, she went to attend to Him one last time, even though by doing so she would gain nothing in this world, but in doing so she gained Christ. In gaining Christ, she gained the whole world.

Her faith is a shining example for us all.  She was not called to magnificent works, but simply to be faithful to him in in our day to day lives whatever circumstances she faced.  We all have reason to love Christ, for we have all been healed of infirmities we ourselves have inflicted upon our very Souls. Mary knew that her life was not her own, owing her entire life to the One who healed her, and supporting Christ and the apostles in their ministry.  It was her day to day devotion and her seemingly small acts of faith and love – staying with Christ regardless of the temperament of the times – that made her worthy to be the first to proclaim the resurrected Christ. She was faithful in even the smallest things, and for her faith she was given all things.  It is by her example of humility that we should not set aside or dismiss the great importance of even those small opportunities in our own lives for serving Christ, making manifest His love into the world. For, our lives are not a series of grand moments and encounters, or great adventures and fairy tale endings, but more often than not our lives are a pattern of laborious responsibilities and repititious routines we carry out from day to day.  So, while grand gestures and opportunities of faith are of benefit in the right context, if we are not faithful to Christ with even the smallest occasions in our lives to do so, if we are not willing to be faithful to him in even the most unremarkable of ways, then we cannot say that we truly offer up our lives to Christ. For, let us not forget the words of Christ in Luke chapter 16: “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a little thing is unrighteous also in much.”

Mary Magdalene was faithful in all things, she was faithful in the smallest things, and she was faithful in the most unremarkable things.  While she accomplished no remarkable deeds in scripture, she is remarkable and great because of the faith she had in Christ our God. When Christ ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father, she continued in that faith.

Holy Tradition testifies that Mary departed from Jerusalem with the Apostles to preach to the ends of the earth.  Mary went to preach in Rome. She proclaimed the Christ and uplifted and exhorted the people with the teachings of Christ.  There were of course many who did not accept her words about the risen Christ, but she repeated those words she preached to the Apostles: “I have seen the Lord!”  This is the message she carried across the land of Italy.

Tradition also reveals to us that Mary Magdalene visited the Roman Emperor Tiberius, proclaiming to him the resurrection of Christ.  With this she brought a red egg as a symbol of the resurrection, giving it to him with these words: “Christ is Risen!” She then told the Emperor of the man unjustly condemned in his province of Judea, the Galilean named Jesus; who was a holy man and a miracle worker; who was powerful before God and all mankind; who was executed at the instigation of the Jewish authorities, and confirmed by his appointed procurator Pontius Pilate.  She repeated to him the words of the Apostles, stating how our life is not found in the things of this world, but in the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. She audaciously spoke truth to power, and so should we do likewise.

It is from this encounter that we receive our tradition of giving one another those red paschal eggs on the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, it is of interest to note, that in a particular ancient Greek manuscript, written on parchment, kept in the monastery library of Saint Athanasius near Thessalonica, is a prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha for the blessing of eggs and cheese. In it is indicated that the igumen (ἡγούμενος, head of the monastery) in passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: “Thus have we received from the holy Fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy Apostles, therefore the holy Equal of the Apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering.”  It is a practice we still honor and maintain in the Church today.

After her laboring in Rome had been completed, and already bent with old age, she moved to Ephesus where Saint John the Theologian was continuing his work, and she joined him in the preaching of the Holy Gospel to the world. It is here that she reposed in her earthly life and was buried.

Saint Mary Magdalene is a precious example of faith in action; a compelling example of faith in life in all things both big and small.  She shows us that we do not have to be miracle workers; we not have to be great theologians; we do not have to be great intellectuals; and we do not have to be bishops, priests and deacons to make a tremendous impact in the life of the Church, or in the world in which she lives.  We must only be faithful with what we have been given. We must be faithful with our whole being and in all things remarkable and unremarkable, and in so doing we will be the brightest of lights shining into the darkness of this world.  We make known our faith by what we do in all things, and we show our love of Christ in our obedience to his word and will, doing so when the times are good, or in the face of death. Truth is unchanging. Truth is unwavering. Truth is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.  May we never waver and turn away from the Truth, and remain by his side just as Mary the Magdalene did, and still is.

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Homily: Nativity of John the Baptist.

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Homily: Nativity of John the Baptist – July 7th, 2019

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”

We hear these words, a few among many read to us every Sunday, found in the final Gospel reading of the Divine Liturgy, taken from John chapter 1.  Indeed he was sent from God and today we celebrate his being sent. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Holy, Glorious, Forerunner and Baptist John.  He is the first joy sent to the human race by God. He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, just as the prophet Isaiah foretold, a voice crying “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God …And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  

Regarding the Nativity of Saint John, Saint Ephraim the Syrian had this to say:

“He who was to baptize with water would proclaim him who would baptize with fire and with the Holy Spirit. The light, which was not obscure, would proclaim the Sun of Justice. The one filled with the Spirit would proclaim concerning him who gives the Spirit. The priest calling with the trumpet would proclaim concerning the one who is to come at the sound of the trumpet at the end. The voice would proclaim concerning the Word, and the one who saw the dove would proclaim concerning him upon whom the dove rested, like the lightning before the thunder.”

Saint John was the first prophet since the time of Malachi, with no prophetic word of God having been uttered for hundreds of years since then.  God was silent. Now, the priest of the temple was also silent, having no voice to speak with, silenced by an Angel of the Lord.. Also, the King who ruled all of Judea was not even Jewish, and sat as a false and illegitimate  king. These three offices, later fulfilled in Christ, were currently vacant (the prophets), silent (the priest), or without validity (the king). So, it was time to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, and so he sent his prophet John, uttering those words we hear throughout the whole of the Old Testament:  Repent!

The entirety of the Old Testament points forward to the coming of Christ.  Saint John is the final voice of proclamation before His coming. John would baptize for the remission of sins, but Christ would come to remove them.  Saint John would point to the Law, he was a finger pointing at God who exhorted all who would hear him to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Then, the Kingdom of Heaven would arrive, and Christ would come to assume the mantle of the Law, becoming the Law of the Spirit of Life.  John would orient us towards God, who would then come as the Son of God incarnate in the flesh, and we would be expected to follow. We would follow Christ because He is the Son of the living God, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The timing of the Forerunner’s birth, exactly half a year before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, depicts his mission and ministry of preparation, to prepare the way for the Lord.  During this time of year, our days grow shorter after the Solstice of the summer Season. Looking forward to the birth of Christ, the days then begin to grow longer. We see embodied the living psalter of God, written across the colors and creatures of all creation, those words later spoken by John at the inception of Christ’s ministry: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The birth of Saint John is closely intertwined with the birth of our Lord.   The aged Elizabeth gave birth to John, who would live to become the last of the prophets.  The Virgin Mary was a young girl, who would give birth to He who is the word of God, the author of Creation, the breather of stars.  Elizabeth, the daughter of Aaron, would give birth to the voice crying in the wilderness. Mary, the daughter of David, would give birth to the very voice and word of God.  Elizabeth gave birth to he who would strive to reconcile men through repentance, but the Mother of God bore He who purify all of creation, an act completed by both John and Jesus through baptism – John through the baptism of Men, and Christ through His own baptism, sanctifying all the waters of creation.  One would baptize with the waters of creation, and the other would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit through which creation would be perfected and cleansed.

“Today the formerly barren woman gives birth to Christ¹s Forerunner, who is the fulfillment of every prophecy; for in the Jordan, when he laid his hand on the One foretold by the prophets, he was revealed as Prophet, Herald, and Forerunner of God the Word.”

~ Kontakion of the feast

Saint John is a prophet, but Christ has said that he is greater than a prophet.  Saint John is but a man, but Christ has said “among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.” For, as Saint John Chrysostom has said , indeed “he lived as though he were already in heaven, and having got above the necessities of nature, he travelled as it were a new way, spending all his time in hymns and prayers, and holding intercourse with none among men, but with God alone continually.” Saint John was the Forerunner of God both in life, and in death.  He preceded the Son of God in life in this world, so would he also precede the Song of God in death at his beheading by Herod, another day the Church will remember later this year.  Though I could find no writings saying as much, I believe that Saint John continued even in death his proclamation of repentance even in Hades. I envision him making straight the way of the Lord from this life into the next, preaching Christ to those who had not yet heard the good news, so that when the good news finally arrived, they were ready to accept it.

We who are the body of Christ are called like the forerunner to proclaim the miraculous and wonderful works of God, the good news of salvation, the healing of soul and body, and life eternal in Jesus Christ our Lord.  We are called to follow Christ and incarnate the Love of God into the world created by Him, because the world knows Him not. We heed the words of the Forerunner, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” for repentance begins our walk of faith as we turn Godward away from the things of this world.  Our walk of faith brings forth the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as the Church serves to incarnate Christ into the world. 

“O Prophet and Forerunner of the coming of Christ, we who venerate thee with love, are in perplexity how worthily to praise thee; for the barrenness of her who bore thee and the dumbness of thy father are loosed by thy glorious and precious nativity, and the incarnation of the Son of God is preached to the world.”

~Troparion of the feast

Oh glorious John the Baptist and Forerunner, may we deem to follow you on those paths you have lain straight in preparation for our Lord Jesus Christ, that we too should follow you into death, and unto life eternal.

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