Rumblings from a Desert Cave

Do You Know the Impact You Can Have?

2010-12-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Our holy father, the martyr Paramon, was not a Christian; but he was a well-respected man in the region where he lived. He encountered one day a group of 370 Christians whom the governor of the region has arrested, bound, and brought to the temple of Poseidon. There they were threatened with death unless they offered sacrifice to the idol – something that none of them would do. When Paramon learned what was taking place, he denounced the wickedness of the governor and continued on his way. The governor sent his men after Paramon. He was arrested; tortured by being stripped and beaten, by having a thorn jabbed through his tongue, and then by being stabbed all over. Paramon endured it all with prayer, and gave his soul to God, being baptized in his own blood. The 370 Christians were then beheaded, giving their souls to God as martyrs in the year of our Lord 250.

Most of us will never be arrested because of our faith. Most of us will never be tortured in an effort to make us renounce our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Most of us will never become martyrs, as did our holy father Paramon and the 370 faithful we hear of today. But there are some things we should note in the life of these saints, by which we also may be instructed, if we will hear the teaching and follow it each day.

The first thing to note is that Paramon was not a Christian at the time he suffered – at least, not in a way that we would recognize. This should serve as a warning to us not to judge others, nor to condemn others simply because they have not been baptized, and do not openly proclaim the Lord Jesus as their own Savior and Lord. God knows His own; and He will provide for them the necessary faith when time and circumstance require. We should give thanks for those who seek to do good to others, whose lives are Christian, even if their faith is not known to us. Of course, if we have the opportunity to do so, we should tell them of our Lord, and invite them to become Orthodox Christians.

This leads to the second point. What was it that brought about Paramon’s martyrdom? Was it not the example of the 370 who were willing to die rather than turn away from their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and offer a sacrifice to an idol? This tells us that the quality of our lives can be a powerful testimony to others. Does the way in which you live tell others that you are a faithful follower of the Lord, and that you will not turn aside from that path? Or do our lives say that we are indistinguishable from those of the world around us – that we pay tribute to worldly concerns and fleshly desires, just as the nonbelievers do. If you won’t even say a prayer in silence and cross yourself in public, as we do at mealtimes, what message does that send? If we abuse others in word or in deed; if we gossip; if we consider ourselves to be better and more deserving of others, what message do we send? And if we do not live as Christians, where will those who today stand in the role our holy father Paramon once held see the power of faith, and so be inspired to do as he did?

May God grant us grace and strength to walk in His ways without turning aside, so that we may also bear witness to Him. Holy father Paramon, pray to God for us. Amen.

What Are You Afraid Of?

2010-07-26T09:58:00.001-07:00

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What are you afraid of?

In the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, we hear the story of our Lord walking on the water in the midst of a storm, coming to His disciples in a boat being tossed by the wind and the waves. They don’t recognize Him until He speaks to them; and then Peter, still not quite sure, says, “Lord, if it is you, command me to walk on the water.” Then he does something amazing. He gets out of the boat, and walks on the water – as long as his eyes are on the Lord. Once he is distracted by the storm around him, he begins to sink, and must be saved by the Lord.

We know what the disciples were afraid of in that story. They were afraid of the storm; and remember, there were experienced fishermen in the boat, who had been in storms before. They were afraid they had seen a ghost – is that really the Lord? Finally, except for Peter, they were afraid to get out of the boat because they were afraid of dying. So: what are you afraid of?

Most of us are afraid of death. We hear about the martyrs, and wonder if we could do what they did, doubting that we can do so. We hear about those who are given a sentence of death, and who are able to meet it peacefully, and wonder if we could do what they did, doubting that we can do so. Really, we fear death because, like the disciples, our faith is weak and imperfect. We sing, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death”; but like the disciples in the boat, we ask, “Is it really the Lord?” We don’t believe; and so we sink. As long as his eyes remained on the Lord, Peter walked on the water. When we allow ourselves to be distracted by the winds and the waves of the cares of this life, and when we focus on them, and not the Lord, we sink, and are perishing. If we truly believed, we would not fear death. If we truly believed, we would walk confidently by faith. If we truly believed, we could walk on water, if need be.

So: What do we do? We should live in the way we should even if we do not yet have faith sufficient for us to get out of the boat. We may never walk on water; but trust in the love of God, and in His mercy, remembering that with a word He calmed the wind and the waves, and brought His disciples out of the storm. Live as a disciple: praying and fasting, giving, and forgiving; seeking humility, and honoring Christ in everyone you meet – do these things, and we will know that the One walking with us in the midst of the storms of life is truly the Lord; and He will bring us safely to harbor in His kingdom, where death has been conquered, and live does not end.

What are you afraid of? Live as a disciple; trust in God’s love; and there is no reason for us to fear death.

Preparation for Martyrdom

2010-07-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

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The holy martyr Julian of Tarsus was a young man when he suffered and died for the Christian faith. Born into a family of wealth and influence, from his youth, he was taught the Faith; and so, when the time of his suffering came, he was ready, and despite being taken from town to town and being out to torture in each one, he would not deny that Jesus Christ is Lord. After a year of enduring torments, he was sewn into a sack filled with sand, snakes, and scorpions, and thrown into the sea. He was eighteen years old when he departed this life.

Our holy father John of Shanghai and San Francisco, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, was also born into a noble family; and he also, from his youth, learned the Christian faith, embracing the Orthodox way of life, inspired by the asceticism of the monks he saw living near to his village. His family fled from his homeland during the Russian Civil War for Serbia. He left Serbia for Shanghai when he became a Bishop. Forced to flee from Shanghai once again ahead of the Communists, he led his flock to the Philippines, from where they were resettled, some in Australia, some in South America, and some in the United States. He knew of his impending repose some four days before it happened, and foretold as well the place where he would die. He was seventy years old when he departed this life.

Both of the holy fathers whom we celebrate this weekend experienced what our Lord spoke of in the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Both experienced persecution; both knew that a martyr’s death was a very real possibility, and one achieved a martyr’s crown.

What about us? Although none of us has been born to a family of power and influence, we live in a time and place with riches and conveniences that we take for granted, which not even emperors had of old – and they could have almost anything they wanted. In addition to the prosperity we enjoy, we also live in a time of relative peace, and in a place where we are not suffering for our faith – at least, not yet. But the words our Lord spoke to warn and to encourage His disciples remain as true today as when He first uttered them. The apostles saw the armies of Rome arrayed against Jerusalem, and their defeat of that city. The faithful were persecuted again and again across time and space – and there are places around the world today where Christians suffer for the Faith, and martyrs are killed all the time. We don’t see it happening on the evening news; we don’t see it happening in our neighborhoods – but it is taking place all the same, and we are naïve if we think that it will never happen here.

What, then should we do? We must be instructed by what our Lord tells His disciples – and we are His disciples if we follow His teachings, and His example. By enduring, we will win our lives. Not in this world, to be sure – but this world, this age, this life will not endure. Only that which is established in heaven will endure. If we will embrace and live the life of our Lord Jesus Christ given to us in baptism, fed in us by His Body and Blood, taught to us by the holy Fathers and Mothers, shown to us in the lives of the saints, then our lives, too, will be established in heaven. Above all, it is by so pursuing the life of Christ being expressed in our own that we can endure even betrayal by friends or family, to say with our Lord, “Father, forgive them,” even as we are being put to death.

Brothers and sisters, let us ask God for the grace and mercy He gives to us from His love for us, that we may not love our lives in this world, but rather desire the life to come, so that we will not fail in the time of trial, but may also come, with our holy father Julian and our holy father John, to a blessed repose, and a place in His kingdom that shall never end.

No Guarantees

2010-06-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Luke 4:22-30

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Last week, with the account of the healing of the centurion’s servant, we hear how the people of the covenant with Moses, the people whom God had prepared with the revelation of Himself and His promise to send a Redeemer, had not, for the most part, recognized His Son when He came into their midst. Instead, it was someone who was not a member of the community of faith, someone who was not allowed to worship in the temple, who knew that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, with the power to heal even from a distance. That theme is present as well in the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Our Lord is speaking to the people of God in the synagogue when he tells them how the prophet of God Elijah was sent to dwell in the house of a widow and her son during a time of great famine. The woman had just enough flour and oil to bake one last portion of bread for herself and her son, and then they were resigned to starving to death. But while the prophet was there – having asked her to give him their last meal, which she did – the container of flour was never empty, and the pitcher of oil never ran out. So it was that they survived the famine – but the widow and her son were not from among the people of god. Our Lord also tells them of the prophet Elisha, who healed Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy. His statements anger those who heard what He said, so much that they even tried to kill Him by throwing Him from the top of a cliff. The words He said that angered them should be words of warning for all of us – for remember, we are now the people of God; we are the people of the New Covenant; and we are the ones at risk of missing the blessings that God desires to give to all who call upon His name with faith.

Here’s what our Lord was saying in the synagogue that day that made those listening so upset. It wasn’t, He was saying, that there were no widows in Israel who were starving – indeed, there were. Likewise, it wasn’t that there was no one afflicted with a skin disease, called leprosy (although what we call leprosy today is not what was referred to there) in Israel – indeed, there were. In both instances, our Lord was pointing out to those who thought that they were holding on to a “guarantee” of being the favored people of God that God would not hesitate to reach out to those who truly believe, as the widow trusted God in feeding His prophet, and as Naaman trusted by following the prophet’s instructions for his healing. Just because we know how to cross ourselves, this does not make us the people of God. Just because we know how to fast, just because we know how to pray, just because we venerate the holy icons – these things, all good for us to do, these things do not make us the people of God. Do we have the love of God in our hearts; and do we show that love to everyone we meet? Do we have a love that is patient, gentle, humble, generous, forgiving, and kind? Do we trust that God will provide for our needs, and live, not for this world, but for the world to come? It is living in that way – living a life in which Christ can be seen, humble, righteous, patient, and loving so well that He accepted death on the Cross on our behalf – it is living that way which makes us to be the people of God.

Brothers and sisters, may God give us grace and strength, wisdom and patience, and the peace that passes all understanding, that we may show the life and love of Christ to all, to the glory of His name, and the salvation of our souls.

Destroying the Image of God

2010-03-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

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Why does the demon possessing the boy in the account read today from the Gospel according to St. Mark treat the boy as he does, throwing him onto the fire, and into the water? The answer is simple: he is trying to destroy the image of God in that young man.

One of the things that makes us different from the angels is that, unlike them, we are created in the image and after the likeness of God; and while we are created but a little lower than the angels, when the kingdom of God is established, we shall be closer to God than are they. Our Lord Jesus Christ never took on the form of an angel; but He did become incarnate, He did take on our form. As St, Athanasios the Great said, “He became like us in order that we might become like Him.” It is believed that this is why Lucifer, the Light-bearer, the greatest of the angelic order, rebelled against God, and led others to do the same: his pride would not allow him to accept that he one day would be subject to us. This is why the demons hate us; this is why they try to destroy us.

What was true for the boy in the Gospel account is true for every one of us: there are demons who would love to throw us into fire and into water to destroy us. They cannot overthrow God; so they seek to destroy His image in us; and if they cannot destroy us in this world, they seek to make us their victims in the world to come, to cause us to suffer the torments they, too, will suffer when the Kingdom comes in its fullness. If we do not want to share their fate, we need to do something: we need to remove ourselves from being influenced by them. We should take note, then, of what our Lord says when His disciples ask why they were unable to heal the boy. “This kind,” He says, “come out only by prayer and fasting.”

Each one of us has sins that we have learned to love; sins that we repeat, and against which we seem to be powerless. Like the father in the Gospel account, each of us, looking at our lives, can say, Lord, I believe; help me in my unbelief!” What is our help? Prayer and fasting. Every time we find ourselves repeating a sin, we should recognize the need to pray and to fast. Every time we find ourselves tempted to sin, we should pray and fast. Now that we are past the halfway point in Great Lent, with the celebration of Pascha coming ever nearer, we should pray and fast.

Brothers and sisters, let us give thanks to God Who has made us but a little lower than the angels. Let us give thanks to God that He has made us in His image and after His likeness. Let us give thanks to God for the love that led Him to become one with us, and that led Him to the Cross for our salvation, and has given us a way to climb on high with Him. Let us fast and pray and give thanks, to the glory of God and the salvation of our souls.

"I Am the Door"

2010-02-28T14:19:00.001-07:00

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In the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. John the Theologian, our Lord says of Himself that He is “the door.” What does He mean when He says this? One place we can go for insight is the reading from the holy Gospel according to St. Mark: a memorable scene, in which a paralyzed man, carried by four friends to our Lord to be healed, is actually brought into His presence by being lowered through a hole they made in the roof. What does the Lord tell this man to heal him? “Your sins are forgiven.”

Of course, this stirs up the Pharisees, who sought at all times to live according to the 613 laws of Moses, because they thought that this was the pathway to salvation. Having dealt with the man’s problem, our Lord then dispels their objections by healing the man physically as well as spiritually, linking the two. This is important for us to understand; so let’s look at the objections raised by the dissenters.

“Who but God can forgive sins?” they ask. Our Lord thus shows all who would raise this objection that He is, indeed, God, by restoring the paralyzed man to physical health, so that he could stand, pick up his bed, and return without help to his home. So it is that we begin to understand how we should grasp that our Lord says of Himself, “I am the door.”

Remember that when Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise, cut off from dwelling in the immediate and intimate presence of God, the gate – a form of a door – was guarded by cherubim with a flaming sword, to prevent Adam and Eve from seeking to return to the presence of God in that way. Now here is our Lord telling us that He, God, is the way for us to return to Paradise, to return to dwelling with God close by us – indeed, within us, something that Adam and Eve did not possess. He is the door to the abundant life He came to bring.

How do we access that door? We access it by becoming like Him: by drawing near to Him with faith, in love, through prayer and fasting and giving and forgiving; and by living at peace, with the love of God, with all those around us. And, to the extent we fail to do these things in love, we confess our sins, asking forgiveness, and starting again – even if we must break through our own ceiling, our earthly desires and attachments, in order to be lowered into His presence to be healed by the forgiveness of our sins.

Brothers and sisters, let us keep this in our hearts and on our minds as we journey through the forty days of fasting before Holy Week and Pascha. Let us remember that our Lord is the door by which we enter into eternal life; and let us, through the way of life of the Orthodox faith and church, strive to let the light and life of Christ be seen in and through us, so that we may enter through the Door, and bring others with us as well.

The Triumph of Orthodoxy

2010-02-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

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Today is the “Sunday of Orthodoxy”; sometimes known as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.” The celebration of this day, which takes place every year on the first Sunday of Great Lent, celebrates the decision made at the Seventh Ecumenical Council that icons do not violate the provisions of the second of the Ten Commandments, in that, by becoming incarnate, the invisible God Whose form could not be depicted properly in any way could now be seen, and so could be depicted in icons. The same was held to be true for icons depicting the Mother of God, and the saints, for all of them, though imperfect, show us the image of Christ – indeed, every person is made in the image, and after the likeness of God, and so each one of us is an icon of Christ.

We come to church, and we find icons. We cross ourselves and bow, or make prostrations, before them. We offer prayers before them, asking for the prayerful assistance of the saint whose image we see, or of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, being aware of His presence with us in a special way through our seeing Him in the icon. We are not confused. Our Lord is not in the icon – at least, not in some magical way. For we know that our Lord Jesus Christ, being God, is everywhere present and fills all things through God the Holy Spirit. He is present in the icon only in the same way that He is, as we have said, “everywhere present.” But for those who understand – and the Orthodox Church has never required any of her members to revere the icons, only to avoid saying that the use of icons is idolatry – we are connected by faith with the person we see in the icon, and that the love and respect we show to the icon is not offered to wood and paint, but actually passes to the person who is the object of our devotion.

But our bowing and prostrations and prayers are meaningless if we do not realize that these images are less important than the living icons standing here all around us. Our devotion and respect and prayers are meaningless if we forget that every living person is an icon, and do not treat them with the same devotion and respect we offer to the images of pigment on wood. The truth of our Orthodox faith, and the triumph of our faith, celebrated today, is worthless if it does not cause us to understand the connection between the icons in the Church and the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the homeless, the sick, and the imprisoned about whom we heard on the Sunday of the Last Judgment. Remember what our Lord said: for inasmuch as you have done these things unto one of these, you have done it unto Me; and to the extent you have not helped them, you have not helped Me – and each group receiving its reward. We will not be judged on the basis of how much we reverenced the icons we find in the church and in the prayer corners of our homes; we will be judged on the love and respect we have offered to the living icons all around us. That recognition and the action that flows from it, as we reach out in love to help another person – that is the real triumph of Orthodoxy. May God grant us the grace we need to be truly Orthodox, loving God, and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Which Path Will You Choose?

2010-02-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

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In the hymns during the Vigil for this joint celebration of the Casting Out of Adam and the Meeting of the Lord, we are presented with two pictures that give us an interesting contrast. One the one hand, the hymns from the Triodion show us, again and again, Adam outside the gates of Paradise, from which he had been expelled because of his sin, forced to leave his dwelling place in the intimate presence of God because of his unrighteousness. On the other hand, we see the righteous Symeon waiting in the Temple, the place where God promised to meet His people, receiving in his arms the One for whom he had been waiting; the One who would open once more the gates of Paradise for us to enter once more into the intimate presence of God. Adam is lamenting for his loss; Symeon is rejoicing that the promise God made to him has been fulfilled by the coming of the One God had promised to Adam.

The world into which Adam was exiled is the same world in which we live today. It is the same world in which Symeon lived; it is the same world which our Lord Jesus Christ entered upon His incarnation. So we can see from Adam that it is possible to live in this world and feel cut off from God; but we can also see that God has entered into the world into which we were exiled in order to bring us back to where we belong; and we see in Symeon that it is possible for us to rejoice at what God is doing in this world, and to turn away from sin and all unrighteousness and live, as Symeon did, in a way pleasing to God.

We are about to depart on the spiritual journey that takes us through Great Lent, coming to the city of Jerusalem as our Lord makes His entrance on Palm Sunday, watching and waiting with Him as He is arrested and mistreated, led to Golgotha, and His death on the Cross – and to the empty tomb on the morning of Pascha, as He rises from the dead, setting us free. Will we go through this season lamenting, like Adam, the loss of the things that we traditionally deny ourselves during this time? Or will we instead rejoice like Symeon that God has come into the world to save us, and we receive Him in our hearts as the righteous elder received Him in his arms? Brothers and sisters, the choice is ours. Which will you choose: Adam’s way? Or Symeon’s?

The Last Judgment

2010-02-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

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If I could convince you to memorize – or even just remember – only one portion of the Bible, it would have to be the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It tells us, of course, about the Last Judgment. The hymns from the Triodion at the Vigil last night return constantly to the remembrance of death, and the need to prepare ourselves in this life to be ready for the day when our secrets will be revealed, and we will received what we are owed – and to remember that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Today is also the day we commemorate the holy New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian land, who did not surrender themselves to those who wished to erase from the landscape of Russia the churches and monasteries and seminaries that covered the land – and to turn the hearts and minds of the people away from God and the preparation for a life in the kingdom of God, to obeying the secular rulers and building, as if such a thing were possible, the kingdom of heaven on earth. They resisted these efforts to destroy the Church and the Orthodox Faith, and suffered, some being killed and so becoming martyrs, while others endured imprisonment and tortures, becoming confessors. If, as Tertullian said, the blood of the martyrs – and the confessors, who also shed their blood, just not unto death – is the seed of the Church, then the Russian land was renewed by their blood. Just look at Russia today: the Bolsheviks no longer rule; their movement is shattered; and the Church is once more alive and growing.

But even as the cathedrals and churches and monasteries and seminaries in the Russian land are rebuilt and renewed, all of this means nothing if we do not understand and apply what we are told in this parable from St. Matthew today. Beautiful churches are nothing more than gaudy tombs if the people inside them care more about the building than they do for the hungry and the sick and the homeless and the lonely. Reading your morning and evening prayers is a waste of time if you get angry at people in traffic, or judge another, or harbor evil thoughts against another in your heart. Fasting does nothing if we abstain from meat but take advantage of those around us for our own pleasure or our own gain. How terrible will it be for us to have received the Body and Blood of Christ, Who, because of His great love for us when we were unlovely and unlovable, became one with us and died for us, only to have us not love everyone who is made in His image more than we love ourselves?

Brothers and sisters, the fathers tell us that we must be ever mindful that one day we will die, and then it will be too late to achieve the transformation of our souls. The New Martyrs and Confessors tell us that death can come suddenly, and unexpectedly, and so we must not waste a day, an hour, a minute – but must resolve today to live as Christians should, in the hope that, on that great and terrible day of Judgment, we shall be set on the right hand, with those who will enter into the rejoicing of the kingdom of heaven, and not sent to condemnation and torment because we loved ourselves more than we loved others. Let us love one another, as Christ loves us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God. May we put this love in action by reaching to others who are in need in body, mind and spirit, giving of ourselves and from what God has given to us, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, and to love and care for each other as icons of Christ.

The Beginning of the End

2010-01-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

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The most powerful nation on the face of the earth has ordered that a census be taken, so that everyone who a subject of that nation could be taxed. Little did they know that at that very moment in time something was taking place that was going to transform the world; and they were powerless to stop it. Truth was, they never saw it coming; and once it was underway, there was nothing they could do about it, although they certainly tried their best to eliminate it. In the end, they were defeated; their empire crumbled into nothing; but what started then continues today, and the world remains powerless against it.

This is the scene for us in the reading of the birth of our Lord as described in the Gospel according to St. Luke, and today, from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The nation, of course, was Rome; and St. Luke tells us that Augustus had ordered the taking of a census as a prelude to the story of our Lord’s birth. There is that stark contrast between the two stories. On the one hand, the might and power of Rome, symbolized in their Emperor; on the other, a newborn baby, of humble parents, for whom there was no room at the inn, and so he was born in a cave that was being used as a stable. One the one hand, a military power that had conquered much of the world, against whom few other nations dared to stand; on the other, one helpless child who possesses all the power in heaven and on earth.

In one part of that world, a province of that Empire, someone did recognize that something was happening, and he did his best to destroy it. Herod, made king by the Romans, did all he could to destroy this new power coming into the world. But his efforts failed, though the battle was costly: the innocent young boys slain in his attempt to retain his title, the King of the Jews. These were but the first of the hundreds, and then thousands, and then millions who would be killed for their allegiance to this child, rather than to the princes and powers of the world.

Now we live in what is arguably the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, one against whom few dare stand. That nation, in ways far more subtle than those of Herod, does not seek to destroy those who today proclaim their loyalty to the King born in a stable by killing them outright. Rather, it seduces, it teases, it promises, and it misleads – and any of the flowers of this newborn King must battle their own passions, lest these be turned against them and lead them to degradation and destruction. Yet the world remains powerless to those who embrace the life of this King, for He has defeated the last enemy – death – something no power in the world can achieve. He promises the victory to those who will stand with Him in faith, even at the passing away of the world.

Brothers and sisters, with the birth of the Son of God wrapped in our humanity as He was wrapped in his body with swaddling clothes, our victory is assured; but the battle must be fought, and the battleground is within us, in our hearts and minds and souls and bodies. To succeed, we need only follow what the victors who have gone before us have done: pray; fast; give from the wealth God has entrusted to us; love; forgive, being patient and humble, and seeking heavenly things rather than earthly gains. The time of our liberation is at hand; and if we will live as Orthodox Christians, the world is powerless to stop us.

Christ is born!

A Tale of Two Kingdoms

2010-01-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

The Reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew describes how King Herod responded to the news that a King of the Jews had been born. He was, of course, unpleasantly surprised, inasmuch as he had been made king of the Jews by the Romans, on who behalf he ruled Judea. Although not read today, we have the advantage of knowing the next part of the story: how he sends his troops to Bethlehem with orders to kill all the male children in the region aged two years or less, according to the time when the magi told him the star they had followed to find him had appeared.

This is an instance of how the world responded to the news that God was setting in motion the completion of the promise He had made to Adam and Eve even as they were forced to leave Paradise, no longer able to dwell in the intimate presence of God. He said that there would be enmity between the seed of the woman (that is, all her offspring, including us) and the serpent, that is, Satan, the deceiver, who led Eve astray, and through her, Adam. By their action, Adam and Eve delivered the world, which had been given to them, into the hands of Satan, the power of the prince of the air, the ruler of this world. But the prophecy was that one of the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent; and now that child has come into the world.

That power and that promise are still active in the world today. That the world does not understand what is taking place can be seen in the efforts, sometimes laughable, of many scientists who try to find a way to make a celestial object – a star – behave so as to be able to lead people across hundreds or thousands of miles, not only to a specific country, not only to a specific city, but to a specific location in a specific city – to the cave where the newborn child lay in a manger. All they need to do is read the fathers, and find that the wise men were led their by an angel, shining with the light of the glory of God. That angel and that light remain in the world today, through our guardian angels, and the Angel of Great Counsel, who is Christ Himself. When we embrace the life of Christ born within us when we are baptized, the world will try, as Herod tried, as Satan tried, to destroy us; but if we embrace that life and light, the world may come against us, but it cannot overcome us.

Brothers and sisters, let us embrace that light, let us allow the life of Christ to be seen in us, in what we do, in what we say, in who we are, so that others may be drawn to the light, and join chorus with us in praising the God of our salvation.

Our King and Savior is drawing near. Come, let us adore Him!

Preparing for the Coming of Christ

2010-01-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

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Today is the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also the Sunday before the Nativity of our Lord; so this season of preparation for the celebration of His coming in the flesh is drawing to an end. Has everyone finished their shopping?

Unfortunately, that seems to be the highlight of this holiday – actually, we should say, “holy day,” which is the origin of the word, “holiday”: feasting, parties, decorations, presents – and let me say that there is nothing wrong with any of these things. But it is easy for us to lose sight of what we are celebrating, and lose our connection to the holy with our focus on the earthly side of the holiday. We need to remember first that Christmas – again, more properly called, the Nativity of our Lord – is not the culmination of the Christian life, or faith, or message. You wouldn’t know that if you look at how the various holidays are celebrated here in this land, in this culture. But the Nativity, as important as it is, pales in comparison to the celebration of Pascha. Now, it’s true: No Nativity, no Pascha. But Pascha is the pinnacle, the completion; and the Nativity isn’t even really the beginning of what is finished at Pascha. The beginning of the work of bringing about our salvation is the feast of the Theophany, which we’ll celebrate in a few weeks, some twelve days after the Nativity. Until that time, there was no public ministry on our Lord’s part. After that time, He begins to proclaim that the kingdom of God is near, gathering followers and disciples, working miracles, healing the sick, and starting down the road that will lead to Gethsemane, death, and resurrection. If that is the story from beginning to the end, the Nativity is the prologue, the introduction, letting us see how the story itself is set in motion.

The setting in which the Nativity is the highlight, the completion, is the feast celebrated today, the Holy Fathers of the Lord. From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs whose trust in God led them to a new land, the Holy Land, to Moses the Lawgiver, and Joshua and the judges who ruled Israel guided by God, to David the King and the other rulers, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, and the prophets, God is at work fulfilling His promise to Adam and Eve and all their descendents. God made things ready for His people to receive One Who would be prophet, priest, and king: His Son, whose birth in a cave we celebrate this week. We see in the Holy Fathers Faith, the Law, and the Prophets, all needed for us to understand Who Christ is, and to receive Him as Lord and Savior, as we should. We should not lose sight of this, either, even as we make our plans and carry out our celebrations.

Finally, as we celebrate Christ’s coming into the world, for which celebration we have been preparing ourselves in this season, we should always keep in mind that He has promised to return. We should always be preparing at least as much for His second coming as we do to celebrate His first coming – for unlike the time when He was born in that cave, and laid in a manger, He will return in glory, with His angels; and while this time after His birth is a time of mercy, a time for repentance, a time for the transformation of our lives, then, when He comes again, He comes to judge the living and the dead. Does anyone want to come to that great and terrible day of Judgment without making some preparations? I think not; but can we truthfully say that our preparations for that day are even close to being equal to the time and energy and attention we put into the celebration of the Nativity?

Brothers and sisters, it’s later than we think; the time is drawing closer, even if we do not know the day and hour of His return. As we give thanks to God for the gift of love He has given us by giving us His Son, let us also ask for the grace we need to be ready to rejoice in His presence when He comes again to judge the world.

A Dinner Invitation: What's Your Excuse?

2009-12-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrate the holy forefathers of our Lord Jesus Christ, the patriarchs and the prophets and the other holy men and women from Adam and Eve to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to Moses and Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel up to John the Baptizer, the last of the Old Testament prophets. When we read the Old Testament, we should do so to learn not only of the history of God’s involvement with us, but also to learn the many ways in which we were being prepared for the coming of Christ. Yes, we know that the prophets told us of His coming, from the “Suffering Servant” mentioned in the prophecies of Isaiah, and of His miraculous birth, also found in the book of the prophet Isaiah, who foretold that the Virgin would conceive and would bear a child, whose name would be called, “Immanuel” – that is, “God with us.” But if we read and learn, we may also recognize in Abel a prefiguring of Christ the Good Shepherd, who was the first to offer sacrifice pleasing to God, for which he became the first martyr. We might learn of the faith of Abraham that led him to depart from his homeland to the place where God would lead him, to give him a home, even as we are called to leave this world behind to follow where God leads, to our true dwelling-place with Him in His kingdom. We would see the sacrifice of our Lord in the offering of Isaac, we would see the faith of Ruth and Rahab the prostitute, and many, many others, all of whom can teach us about who we are and who we are meant to be as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, Whose coming fulfilled the promise God made to Adam and Eve even as they were being forced to leave Paradise because of their sin, that a Deliverer would come to set us free from sin and death. As we draw near to the celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, we do well to prepare ourselves, to learn, and to live as we should.

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we hear of the man who prepares a great feast, and sends his servants to gather those who had been invited to take part. But they respond by making excuses as to why they cannot attend; and so the host sends his servants out again and again, to gather the uninvited as guests, even using force to compel them to enter, until the hall has been filled; but, in his anger, he declares that those who had been invited would now be refused entrance to the feast.

What shall we make of this? Do you realize that a feast has been prepared for you this very day, and that all who desire to take part and have prepared themselves will be fed with the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ? What excuses have kept you from accepting the invitation today? It is true, no one will compel you to come today – no one will be forced to come to the feast today, nor next Sunday, nor on the Feast of the Nativity itself – but why do you not come? Why do you refuse the hospitality of our God, Who desires that we share in His rejoicing in His Son, our Savior? Brothers and sisters, a day is coming when we will make excuses to not attend His feast, and find that we are no longer welcome. Let us not harden our hearts, and so risk being denied a place at the great banquet of the kingdom. Let us prepare ourselves with fasting, confession, repentance and prayer; and let us come to the Mystical Supper, especially on the day we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into our midst, remembering also that He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Let us strive by the grace of God given to us in our baptism and in the Lord’s Supper to be ready for the day of His return, that we may celebrate and rejoice to behold Him.

Our King and Savior is drawing near! Come, let us adore Him.

"Where are the Other Nine?"

2009-12-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

Our holy father Ambrose of Milan was born to a Christian mother and a pagan father, who was the Roman governor of the province in which Milan was the principal city. When his father died, the emperor appointed Ambrose in his place. It was in his capacity as governor that he went to the church in Milan, where the bishop had died, causing a division in the congregation between the Orthodox Christians and those who were followers of the heresy taught by Arius. Although Ambrose had gone to keep the peace, a child at its mother’s breast cried out, “Ambrose for bishop!” – a cry taken up by others as well, who considered it to be the voice of God. Ambrose was baptized, consecrated reader, and ordained a subdeacon, deacon, and priest all within one week, at the end of which he was consecrated as the Bishop of Milan. He slept very little, worked tirelessly, prayed without ceasing and fasted every day except Saturday and Sunday. Because of this, he was privileged to see many great works of God, and to perform them, as well. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and even raised the dead. Humble before those whose position in society was lower than his, he was fearless with the nobility; he even ordered that the Emperor Theodosius not be permitted to enter any church until the Emperor repented of his sins. He departed this life on the morning of Pascha in the year 397 A.D.

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we hear the account of the healing of the ten lepers, one of whom, a Samaritan, returns to give thanks, prompting our Lord to ask, “Where are the other nine?” Presumably, those who did not return to say, “Thank you,” were from the people of the first Covenant, to whom God had revealed Himself in a special way, setting them apart from everyone else on the earth. It was this group of people who had been given the promise of the Messiah, and the prophecies about Him. Now He had come; but among these ten lepers, the only one to recognize Him was someone from outside the house of God.

We should always pay attention when the circumstances and responses of those who had been given the first Covenant by God are the subject of the story, because now that group is us, the people of the new Covenant. We are partakers of the special revelation of God to us in Jesus Christ; we are the beneficiaries of the promise of God; and now we can enjoy the special relationship that sets us apart from all other forms of belief, worship, and practices. But can we honestly say that we are doing any better than our predecessors? Like them, we are more likely to live according to the ways of the world, rather than the way of life required by God. Like those who are not members of the community of the new Covenant, we are not looking for the second coming of Christ; and, like the nine who were healed but did not return to give thanks, we daily experience the loving mercy of God, but so often fail to give thanks to God, much less give thanks to God when things do not go the way we’d like them to go. God might look at St. Ambrose, and the good example of his life, and, thinking that the saint was not made in any way differently than any of us, ask, “Where are the others?”

Brothers and sisters, let us not be like those who, having been blessed by healing in the Gospel account today, failed to return to give thanks and to bow down at the feet of our Lord. Let us set our hearts and minds to give thanks to God even in the midst of sickness and suffering, and certainly when we have been given good things by God. Let us not follow any longer the ways and practices and beliefs of the culture around us, but rather let us beg God to give us His grace and strength to follow instead the example of life given to us by our holy father Ambrose, of the saint whose name we bear, and of the most holy Lady Theotokos.

Holy hierarch, father Ambrose, pray to God for us!

Saint Nicholas: The Power of Love

2009-12-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

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Our father among the saints, Nicholas, was the only child born to wealthy parents, and was instructed in the Christian faith by his uncle (also named Nicholas), who was the bishop in the town of Patara, where St. Nicholas was born. When his parents reposed, Nicholas gave away his considerable inheritance to help the poor, and entered the monastery his uncle had established. It was his uncle who tonsured Nicholas as a monk, and who ordained Nicholas a priest. Throughout his life, Nicholas was known for his love and mercy, and for miracles worked both before and after his repose. Part of his legacy can be seen in his presence in our midst even today. Many nations, including Russia, look to him as a protector of their land and people, and more than 1,200 churches are named in his honor, including 400 in Great Britain – more than any other saint. It is estimated that western artists have depicted him more frequently than any other saint, apart from the most holy Theotokos. Many people don’t realize that the “right jolly old elf” dressed in red and driving a sleigh with reindeer has his origins in this saint: “Santa Claus” is the anglicized version of “Sinter Klaus” – Dutch for, “St. Nicholas.”

Most of us are familiar with certain aspects of the life of St. Nicholas. Probably the most well-known story is how the saint secretly provided gold coins to a family where poverty threatened to cause the sale of three daughters into prostitution. The gold – in some stories, it is dropped down a chimney to land in the stockings of the daughters, which had been hung by the fire in order to dry – spared the family from such a terrible decision. Many of us also know, and, in a way, sort of enjoy, the story of how St. Nicholas, enraged by the heretical teachings of Arius, struck Arius – according to some accounts, he punched Arius in the nose – at the Council of Nicaea in the year 325. Perhaps you even know how, on two separate occasions, St. Nicholas intervened to spare three men who had been wrongfully sentenced to be executed: once, when he confronted a regional governor who had take a bribe to find three men guilty; and again when he appeared in a dream to the Emperor Constantine to tell him that three officials of the imperial court were innocent of the charges that had been brought against them. IN each case, the condemned men were set free.

While these stories are familiar to us, we seem to be less familiar with the deeper details of the life of the saint, the details that make such actions as are celebrated in these stories possible. What power makes it possible to confront a government official, risking imprisonment or even death – and St. Nicholas certainly suffered for the faith during the persecutions under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian – to save innocent lives? What power makes it possible to stand up against popular false teachings to defend the Christian faith? What power – and this is particularly crucial in our world today – makes it possible to break the grip of wealth and possessions, and to give away a fortune? There is only one power capable of doing these things: the power of the love of God in Jesus Christ, that flows through those who love God above all else, and whose love flows to everyone made in the image of God, making them sources of God’s love for each one of us to everyone around them. If we do not love God, we will not put ourselves at risk to protest injustice and unrighteousness, to spare others from suffering or to save innocent lives. If we do not love God, we will not take a stand against false teachings; and we will even make compromises with teachings and practices that do not agree with those of the Orthodox Church and faith. If we do not love God, then we cannot truly love each other as we should; and the things of this world that attract and hold our attention – wealth, fame, honor, power, pleasure – these will capture us and keep us from rising toward heaven, as St. Nicholas rose, living as an angel on the earth in the midst of others.
St. Nicholas is loved by many because he loved so richly. His love for God caused him to turn his back on the world, giving away his worldly possessions, and not seeking any worldly honors. His love for God led him to be obedient when, in pursuing a solitary life, he was instructed by God to live his life in the midst of the people around him. His love for God led him to love every one of us – and in his love for us, to seek justice and righteousness for us, and to give gifts of love.

Brothers and sisters, let us love one another as Christ loves us – for He went to His passion and death through the power of His love. Let us love one another as St. Nicholas loves us, and ask for the grace to follow the example of his life.

Holy hierarch, father Nicholas, pray to God for us!

Church Growth? "Come and See..."

2009-12-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

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Is there anyone who does not want the church to increase? Think about that…

Today we celebrate the feast of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-called. He is given the title, “the First-called” because it he, with another of the disciples of St. John the Baptizer, were shown the Lord by the Forerunner. We do not know the other disciple’s name; nor would we know Andrew’s, except that he responded not only to the instruction of the Lord to follow Him, but also by going to find his brother, Simon, and telling him to come and see for himself that the man Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed one of God, for Whom they and all the faithful in Israel had been awaiting His coming. When Simon saw the Lord, he was given the name, “Cephas,” which we know as “Peter”; both terms deriving from the words for “rock” in Aramaic and in Greek. Thus, it is also fair to say that St. Andrew was also the first evangelist; although surely St. John the Baptizer might also be given this honor.

When the faithful were forced to flee from Jerusalem because of the persecutions of the Church growing there, the holy apostle Andrew went to the region of Byzantium, and then along the Danube and the Black Sea and even to Kiev before returning to Greece, having established churches, consecrated bishops and ordained priest along the way during his journey. In the Greek city of Patras, he preached the Gospel; among his converts were the wife and brother of the Roman governor, who was furious, and ordered the arrest and torture of the apostle. He was executed by crucifixion; and as he was on the Cross, the faithful came to him, and he taught them, then prayed, was covered with a bright light for some thirty minutes, and then yielded his spirit into the hands of God. He departed this life for the next in the sixty-second year of our Lord.

In the reading from the holy Gospel according to St. John the Theologian, in which we heard about the holy apostle Andrew, we hear as well about the apostles Philip and Nathaniel, and there is a common theme at play. The Lord finds Philip, and say to him, “Follow me.” Philip, in turn, goes to his friend Nathaniel, and says that they have found the One they had been waiting for, of Whom Moses and the prophets had foretold. Nathaniel is skeptical at first; “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” But he responds to Philip’s invitation, “Come and see”; and, when he meets Jesus, he, too, becomes a disciple.

What does any of this have to do with us? I’m sure that most, if not all, of you would answer the question I asked at the beginning in the affirmative: Yes, we want the church to grow. Well, growing the church is a lot like growing a garden. It’s not enough to go to the place where you want the garden, and sprinkling some seeds on the ground, and hoping for the best. If you want your garden to grow, it’s going to take some work: preparing the ground, planting the seeds, watering, pulling the weeds, and so on. The same thing is true for growing the church: it takes work. More than anything else, we need to work at living in the Orthodox way of life, so that what we say agrees with what we do; and we need to be willing to admit our mistakes, when we fail to live as did the fathers and the saints. But there’s a lesson for us in the Gospel about what we need to do, and it’s not terribly complicated. In order to have the church grow, we have to do what the holy apostles Andrew and Philip did: we have to invite people; we have to say, “Come and see.”

In part, this requires us to heed the teaching of the holy apostle Peter, who wrote that we must be prepared at all times and in every season to give an account of the hope that is within us. What hope is that? It is the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, a life on which death has no claim and no hold – the life given to us in our baptism. Our hope is in the love of God in Jesus Christ, by which our sins are forgiven and our souls are saved. If we consider what God has done, and is doing, for us, and if we receive the love God intends for each and every one of us, then we should find ourselves able to say to those we know who are broken and hurting, and to those who are searching, and to those who are in darkness, “Come and see.” Brothers and sisters, if we live with the desire to reveal Christ in us, the hope of glory, if we live loving everyone around us as Christ, and if we will say to them, “Come and see,” the church will grow, God will be glorified, and souls will be saved. May God, through the prayers of the holy apostle Andrew, give us the grace to join in his labors, and to say to as many as we can, “Come and see.”

Riches, Retirement, and the Kingdom of Heaven

2009-12-07T11:00:00.001-07:00

This is the time of year when the accountants and tax preparers are contacting us to help us with the end-of-the-year steps we can take to reduce our tax bills for the year. If you haven’t already heard an appeal from some agency about making an end of the year donation on the television or on the radio or on the internet or in a newspaper, magazine, or email, you probably will in the next few weeks.

In the first reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we hear the parable of a man who is wealthy in worldly terms, whose riches are increasing so much that he needs to build larger barns in which to store his possessions. We also hear him planning his retirement into a life that he expects will be comfortable.

Now, to this point in the story, who among us would not want to be in the same situation: to be rich; to have additional riches at hand; and to have the prospect of a comfortable retirement? Most of us would take a deal like that with barely a moment’s thought.

Of course, being familiar with the rest of the parable, perhaps we wouldn’t be as quick to exchange our situation for his. We hear him called a fool by God; and we learn that his soul will be required of him that very night. What, then, will come of his wealth and his plans? As we all know very well, “You can’t take it with you.”

Truth be told, most of us are, indeed, very much like the rich man in the parable. This is not to say that we are rich – although you must admit that, by the standard of living of most people around the world today, as well as the vast majority of those who have ever lived – the average American lives more comfortably, more abundantly, than almost anyone anywhere at any time. But it is true that there are people who have more material possessions and greater worldly wealth than we have. But it is not on the basis of wealth alone that makes us like the man in the parable. We are like him in that our thoughts and concerns are dominated by the things of this world; we pursue wealth in order to make our own lives more comfortable – and we do this even though we know that we do not know when our own soul will be required to come into the presence of God and to give an accounting of how we used the things that God entrusted to us – time, talents, and treasures – not for ourselves alone, but for the good of all. Like the man in the parable, we are rich in worldly terms, but poor in spiritual things: praying, fasting, giving, loving.

The truth is, we can take it with us. Not in its worldly form; but by using the time and talents and treasures we have been given to lay up wealth for ourselves in the kingdom of heaven. By feeding the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting the sick and those in hospitals and prisons, and, yes, by giving to help support the work of the church, we can employ the things of this world for the benefit of others now, and for our own benefit in the world to come. Then, we will not be like the man in the parable, finding ways to store our wealth here while contemplating a comfortable retirement. Rather, we will have the safest place of all to store our wealth; and the hope of eternity sharing the love of God with Him and each other in His kingdom, because we have already learned how to do so in this world.

Brothers and sisters, let us not be ignorant, and let us not be lazy, but rather let us set our minds to use what God has entrusted to us for the service of His people, to give glory to God, and to bear witness to Him in the world.

Mercy, Not Sacrifice

2009-11-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrate and remember the holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew. He was a tax collector – every bit as unpopular at the time as he would be today – and was at his work when the Lord Jesus called to him, saying, “Follow me.” To his credit, Matthew did so, leaving behind all worldly possessions and possibilities, choosing instead an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. According to tradition (although modern Biblical scholarship may say otherwise), he wrote the first account of the birth, life, and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the account he wrote is first among the four Gospels in the New Testament canon. This is why he is called an Apostle and an Evangelist: for he was one of the Twelve who accompanied our Lord, and one of the four who wrote about Him after His passion, crucifixion, resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven. St. Matthew went to Ethiopia, where he established a church and consecrated a bishop. He also baptized the wife and son of a prince of that land, causing the prince to seek the arrest of the apostle. The first band of soldiers sent to bring him to the prince returned without him, saying they had heard his voice, but could not see him. The second detachment found the saint, but the light that shined from him dazzled them so that they cast down their weapons and ran away. The prince himself went to find the saint, and was blinded by the same light; his sight being restored only by the prayers of St. Matthew. This did not prevent the prince from seizing the apostle; and, after many tortures, in which he was protected and sustained by the Lord, the holy apostle yielded his spirit to his Master. The prince ordered that his body be placed in a casket made of lead and thrown into the sea; but the bishop, following the appearance of the apostle in a dream, found the body. It was this miracle that brought the prince to repent, and to embrace the Christian faith; and he became first a priest, and then later the bishop of that land, serving the Lord as a faithful shepherd of the flock until his own falling asleep in the Lord.

In the reading from the Gospel bearing his name, we hear of the feast that St. Matthew gave after he left behind his earthly life to follow the way of Jesus Christ. It is striking to hear how the Pharisees criticized our Lord for sitting down to eat with tax collectors and sinners. We should recall that the Pharisees sought to fulfill all the commandments of the law of Moses, which included avoiding meals with those who were “unclean” – and certainly Matthew and the others gathered for the feast he gave qualified for that distinction in the eyes of the Pharisees. Our Lord speaks to them; and we would do well to hear and understand what He is saying. First, He says that He did not come for the righteous, but to save sinners. Then, He rebukes them, saying, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Of course, it is the work of an evangelist to bring the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ to those who do not yet know Him, who have not yet come to Him for mercy and forgiveness and new life in Him. We don’t have any real problems with the first part of His reply to the Pharisees. But that second part? For some reason, this can be a very real challenge for some of us as we seek to embrace and practice the Orthodox way of life.

The danger for us is that we can get so caught up in trying to do everything right that we can miss the real center of the Orthodox faith: to love God with the fullness of our being, and to love others as we love ourselves. If we remember to pray, but do not remember the poor, what god does praying do for us? If we remember the fast, but do not feed the hungry, does our fasting really benefit us? If we confess our sins, but judge others in our hearts, have we truly confessed? If we pay more attention to what others are doing while we are in church than we are to the prayers, have we really taken part in the worship of God? “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” says the Lord – and I take that to include the need for us to be blind to the faults of everyone else, except perhaps in order to pray for them, and to not be so focused on outward acts, as valuable as these may be, that we do not remember to forgive, and to love, and to be patient, and to be humble, and not to judge, or tell another person what to do – unless, of course, they come to you and ask.

Brothers and sisters, let us leave behind the ways of the world – including the ways of the Pharisees – and, following the example of the holy apostle and evangelist Matthew, let us be transformed from our lives in this sinful world to shine with the light of the love of God in Jesus Christ, even to the point of praying for those who seek our deaths.

Good Fruit from Dry Sticks

2009-11-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

Among the saints commemorated today is our holy father John Kolobos (little, or dwarf) of Egypt, a friend of St. Paisios the Great, and teacher of St. Arsenius the Great. Among the aspects of his life we learn how, as a novice, he was given an obedience by his spiritual father, St. Pambo, to plant a dry stick in the ground, and to water it every day until it produced leaves. St. John watered that stick every day for three years, until, by the grace of God, the stick produced leaves, and then fruit, which St. Pambo gathered and took to the church, saying, “Come and taste the fruit of obedience!”

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Yesterday, we celebrated the festival of the holy archangel Michael and all the other bodiless powers with the added blessing of the presence of the most holy Theotokos through her Kursk Root Icon, whose visit was a great privilege and blessing. We considered how it is that the nature of angels, who certainly appear far more powerful than we are ourselves, not to have dominion, but rather are called to serve. We remember that it is said of many of the saints that they lived as angels on earth; and how each of us is called to be the servant of everyone around us, honoring and respecting every person because they are made in the image and after the likeness of God, and, being blind to, and quick to forgive, their sins, remembering only our own sins, to consider all others as being more worthy of honor and respect than we may ever be ourselves.

Everyone, I am sure, will agree that actually obtaining this ideal requires a great deal of labor, a great deal of struggle. Yet the life of St. John Kolobos and his watering of the stick should encourage us, as we should also be encouraged by the account of the woman with an issue of blood, of whom we hear in the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke. No doctor was able to cure her, and she suffered daily for twelve years; but drawing near to our Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and touching only the fringe of His garment, she was healed. Both her healing and the restoration of life and the bearing of fruit from what was once a dry stick are beyond our power to achieve, or to comprehend; yet both are possible by the grace of God.

Brothers and sisters, in so many ways we are like the woman with an issue of blood: suffering the loss of our lives both bodily and spiritually because we have cut ourselves off from the root of Life by our sins. We are like the dry stick: lifeless, and with no chance of bearing fruit. But if we will put our trust and hope in the Lord, and draw near to Him by prayer and fasting and all the other practices of our Orthodox way of life, and persevere in doing so, even when all it might seem that we are doing is watering with faith a dry, lifeless stick, by our obedience, by desiring and pursuing the grace of God, not the least of which by drawing near with fear and faith to regularly receive the holy mysteries of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we may have hope that we also, like the woman with an issue of blood, and like the dry stick, may be healed, and so bear the fruits of the Spirit, and so live in such a way that others may taste of that fruit, and draw near to God, and so be saved.

Living as Angels on Earth

2009-11-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

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Have you ever thought about the angels? Most of us, I’d suspect, usually don’t, unless we find ourselves in a difficult situation, and then remember to ask our guardian angel for help. Thinking about the angels isn’t something easily done in the culture of the world in which we live. Many people, when angels are mentioned, get an image of a golden-haired person in a long white robe with white wings. Of course, as the “traditional” beginning of the Christmas shopping season is less than a week away, soon we’re going to be surrounded with this sort of image of the angels.

Our Orthodox fathers teach us something different; an aspect of which can be seen on the deacon’s doors – the side doors into the altar, one on either side of the royal doors. The door to the right quite often is an icon of St. Michael the Archangel, dressed for battle; while the door to the left is quite often the archangel Gabriel, who, while not in armor, is nevertheless a figure of power, much different from the angels on Christmas cards and atop Christmas trees. The fathers teach us that, before God created the heavens and the earth, the nine ranks of angels were created. They are not material beings, as we are; they are spiritual beings, super-intelligences, able to take on the appearance of having being, and so to interact with the material world. The fathers also teach that the foremost of these created beings, Lucifer, the “bringer of light,” led a revolt of some of the angels after having beheld God’s plan for creation, and especially for mankind, to be created in the image and after the likeness of God. These rebellious beings, cast out of the heavenly realm, became the demons, with Lucifer, renamed Satan – the Adversary – as their leader; opposed by the holy archangel Michael, the leader of the bodiless hosts.

Because we are created in the image and after the likeness of God we are, as the Psalmist says, but a little lower than the angels. One thing we can deduce from this is that we are not as intelligent or as powerful as the angelic beings. Why, then, do we not worship them? Why, then, are we not subject to them as part of the dominion of God?

The answer is at once both simple and instructive. It is the nature of the angels to serve. In the case of the angels who did not rebel against God, they remained faithful servants of God. Indeed, the word “angel” derives from “messenger” – the angels are the messengers of God. Among other things, this means they are servants. In the case of the demons, they chose to serve themselves, rather than to serve God. What is striking about this is how much we have in common with the angels. We are also called to be the obedient servants of God; and yet consider how often we choose to serve ourselves, instead of doing the will of God! Every time we go to confession, every sin we admit there is evidence of how we have followed the example of the rebellious angels, rather than keeping faith with God.

It is said of many of the saints that they lived among us as “angels on earth.” This means, in part, that they gave no thought to the things of this world, but lived in a bodiless way, as much as is possible for us to do. They lived only to serve God; and quite often this was expressed by their serving those made in the image and after the likeness of God, giving instruction with love to assist others in the pursuit of the salvation of their souls. In this way, both by teaching and by their deeds they served us as a way of serving God.

Brothers and sisters, it is our calling to follow the example of the holy Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of heaven, and to be the servants of God. Of course, one of the greatest examples of this is found in the holy and blessed Lady Theotokos, who, when told of her part in God’s plan for the salvation of the world by the archangel Gabriel, responded by surrendering herself in the fullness of her being – body, mind, and spirit – in order to give birth to our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As with the angels, and with the Mother of God, so it is meant to be with us. We are given the opportunity to bear Christ, as did the Theotokos; and to present Him to the world, as she does, as she is most often depicted in the icons. Not only should Christ be seen in and through us, in what we say and in what we do; but having followed the example of our blessed Lady who said, “Behold the handmaiden – that is to say, the servant -- of the Lord,” we are to follow the example of the holy angels and archangels; who, despite their power in comparison to our own, are the servants of God – so much so that I am certain that, on this feast day to honor St. Michael and all the Angels, they share with us the delight in having the presence of the most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos in the form of her Kursk Root Icon. They are not jealous because their festival is shared; rather, they rejoice to be with the one who is “more honorable than the cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim.” This is what we should understand, and cultivate in our own hearts – that the joy of the servant is in serving. So let us rejoice in the presence of the angelic hosts, and let us serve each other in humility and love, and so become more and more like angels on earth.

Saved by Grace? Grace and Works in Our Salvation

2009-11-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

“For by grace you have been saved by faith; and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not by works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)

St. Paul writes this in his epistle to the Church in the city of Ephesus. He tells them of God’s plan and purpose, to bring all of creation together under Christ: a plan that begins with His reconciling us to Him through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Being reconciled with God, we are then to be reconciled to each other, with the barriers that separate us having been torn down by the Lord Jesus. Made one, we are able to become the Church, through which and in which the message of salvation is to be proclaimed throughout all the world, so that everybody everywhere has the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Why emphasize the point that we cannot save ourselves? The saint wants us to know that we lack the capability to truly love, or to forgive, or to be merciful, when we are apart from God – and sin, of course, separates us from God. He is telling us that God works first in us; that His work is that of faith, the faith in Jesus Christ that saves sinners. There is nothing, no work that we can do to earn the favor of God. Does this mean, then, that it does not matter what we do? Is there any need for praying, or fasting, or giving? Is there any need to struggle against our passions, against the impulses and appetites that, left uncontrolled, soon control us, and lead us away from the path that leads to heaven? If we are not saved by our works, why bother to forgive, or to discipline our flesh, or to pursue humility or patience or generosity or mercy?

Our salvation is a gift from God. No one “earns” a gift; no one “deserves” a gift. A gift is given, at least, ideally, because the giver loves the person for whom the gift is intended. The act of giving is independent of the recipient. But this is not to say that we need do nothing. Actually, those aspects of the Orthodox way of life that might be called “works” – praying, fasting, giving, forgiving, struggling to be patient, humble, laboring to uproot the passions that betray us – these are things we undertake in response to the gift we have been given. We follow the Orthodox way of life not because it saves us – it does not – but because it is through the development of the qualities that praying and fasting and giving and struggling produce in us that allows us to “get out of the way,” as it were, and allow the life of our Lord Jesus Christ given to us in holy Baptism to come forth, to be seen and heard in what we say and do. The “works” of the Orthodox way of life are a way of giving thanks for the gift of salvation given to us freely, while we were still sinners, while we were still the enemies of God, so that we might know the love of God for us in His Son, and in His death on the Cross on our behalf. As we allow the life of our Lord and Savior to be seen in and through us, we may know that we are becoming His Body, His Church – and that the message of salvation is being proclaimed in this time and this place, as St. Paul wanted the believers in Ephesus to know and to do.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot save ourselves; but the good news is that God has saved us, doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Let us give thanks to God for the love that is the source of His mercy and grace; and let us, with thanksgiving, embrace the way of life of our Orthodox faith, so that we may fulfill His purpose for us, and be His servants, gathering in all His people, to the glory of God.

Does Sin Cause Earthquakes?

2009-11-09T09:00:00.001-07:00

The holy Great-Martyr Demetrius was the only child of faithful and devout parents, who had begged God in prayer to grant them a child. Of a wealthy family, Demetrius was well educated, and his family’s place in society led him to become the military commander of Thessalonica after his father retired from that post. It was in this office that Demetrius was ordered by the Emperor Maximian, who hated the Christian Church and faith, to persecute and exterminate the faithful in the region under his command. Instead, the saint openly and boldly refused to follow the order, declaring his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He was arrested; and, knowing that his life would soon come to an end, gave all is possessions to his servant, so that he in turn could give them all to the poor and needy in the city. His executioners found him in prayer, in which he was strengthened for what would happen by an angel; and they killed Demetrius with their spears. His friends collected his body; and found that myrrh came from his burial site. Many of those who were sick found healing through this myrrh, and a church, small at first, was built at the site of his relics. A rich nobleman who ran to the relics was healed of an incurable disease, and built a larger church in thanksgiving. When the Emperor Justinian tried to move the saint’s relics to Constantinople, a flame of fire arose from the tomb, and a voice was heard, saying, “Leave them here; do not touch them!” The martyr had not, at the time of his death, been removed from his office as the military protector of Thessalonica; and so continued in that office even after his repose, delivering the city many times from barbarian attacks.

In the year 740, a great earthquake struck the city of Constantinople on the feast day of St. Demetrius. It was an earthquake of some duration, and the destruction is caused was significant. The people of the city understood that the earthquake was the result of their sins, and so they were moved to repentance and a changed way of life, even as they gave thanks to the most holy Theotokos and to the Great-Martyr Demetrius for their protection in the time of trial.

This theme is echoed again and again in the hymns during the canon recalling the great earthquake, which is chanted at the service of Matins on the eve of the feast. The hymns call us to flee from sin, which is the cause of great earthquakes, plagues, and death; and to seek to please God by repentance and amendment of life. Of course, this explanation of the cause of the quake that day, as on other days, does not fit well with our understanding of the science of plate tectonics, the cause, as best as we are able to explain it, of earthquakes and volcanic activity. Yet we would do well to remember that the heavens and the earth are created by God; and who can predict when an earthquake might take place, or explain exactly why the earthquake was of any given magnitude or duration? Surely, if God exists – and, of course, we believe He does – it is not beyond the realm of possibility that, indeed, an earthquake may very well be one way in which the love of God, Who desires not the death of a sinner, but that we might instead turn from our death-directed ways, and return to Him, and so find life, shakes us – literally – from the path to destruction, and gives us the opportunity to once more walk with Him, as did Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

Brothers and sisters, let us, with faith, overcome the world – and what it has taught us that intentionally or unintentionally denies the reality of God; for when we deny the existence and activity of God, we also deny the existence of sin. If there is no God, then there is no sin, and so there is no need to repent, or confess, or to change our way of life. May we never deny our faith and trust in God; and may we, by our faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ in word and in deed, through the protection of the most holy Theotokos and the holy Great-Martyr Demetrius, bear witness to Him, and to His love for us.

Called to Bear the Love of God

2009-11-02T21:46:00.002-07:00

In the second reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we hear our Lord giving instructions on how we are to love. Those who were at the Vigil service last night also heard a reading from the first Epistle of St. John the Theologian that teaches us about how we are to love. It’s important enough that I want to read it again for the benefit of those who were unable to attend.

If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We know that it is important for us to pray, for praying is meant to draw us closer to God; but, as St. John the Theologian teaches us, if we do not love our brothers, we cannot say that we love God, no matter how wonderful our time in prayer may be. We know that it is important to fast, for fasting helps us gain the control we need over our flesh, so that the desires we experience for the things that feed our passions rather than our souls, and so lead us into sin and death, are mastered by the discipline of fasting; but keeping the most severe fast does us no good if we do not love each other. We know that it is important for us to give from the wealth that God has entrusted to us, because by giving to help those in need, and for the work of the Church, we set ourselves free from our attachments to worldly goods and pleasures, and so rise more easily to heaven; but even giving away everything gains us nothing if we do not act out of love.

Who are we to love? Our Lord tells us that our love must go beyond loving those who love us. It is easy – or, at least, easier – to love those who love us. We are certainly supposed to love our families: parents, children, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews. We are certainly called to love each other as we gather together to worship the Lord. But we must also love those who might laugh at us as we say a prayer before a meal, and make the sign of the Cross over ourselves in their presence. We must love those who, by word or by deed, offend us – such as the person who cuts us off on the highway, or gets in line ahead of us. We must love those who hate us, even those who would, if they were able, put us to death, so that we might no longer remind them of the reality of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and our hope that our sins will be forgiven, and we may be given eternal life with Him in heaven.

We are called to love, even when it is difficult to do so – if only because God, Who is holy and righteous, and who detests sin, has loved us when we were His enemies, has loved us in the midst of sinning, and has shown His love for us by becoming one with us, joining His divine nature to our fallen nature, restoring us to where we were before the Fall, and opening once more for us the way to dwell unceasingly in His presence, as Adam and Eve lived before they violated God’s commandment. God is merciful, and expresses His love for us in His mercy; and so we are to be merciful – but we cannot do so if we do not love.

Brothers and sisters, called to be the bearers of the love of God: this is a most difficult task. We cannot accomplish it without embracing ever more fully the Orthodox way of life. Let us ask God for the grace we need to become more fervent in prayer, more stringent in fasting, more generous in giving; to be humble and patient and forgiving, so that we may be purified and then filled with His love, so that all the world may know the great love of God by which we are saved, and so join with us in worshipping and glorifying the God of love.

Flaws and Miracles

2009-10-26T11:19:00.003-07:00

Last night, those who were present were blessed by the presence of the most holy Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary through her myrrh-streaming Iveron icon from our parish in Honolulu. Someone said to me after the Vigil had ended, and we had processed with the icon from the church to the car in which it was traveling to say, “goodbye,” that we should announce every week some miraculous event at our church, rejoicing that so many people had come to take part in worship with this most wonderful sign of God’s love and caring for His people through the prayers and protection of His most holy Mother.

Many of you may have read the account written by Reader Nectarios about the myrrh-streaming icons of the Cross of our Lord and of the Iveron Mother of God. One part of the story that I learned from Fr. Anatole, the priest of our parish in Honolulu, which is dedicated to the Holy Theotokos of Iveron, is that the print of the icon was purchased by him while on a visit to Toronto. At the bookstore where he was purchasing icons for his parish church was a table with icons whose selling price was greatly reduced, because there were flaws of one kind or another in each print. He wasn’t sure why, but he was moved to purchase the print of the icon now streaming myrrh from that table. I mention this because it has a message for each one of us who have our own flaws, as made evident in our sins. In the case of this icon, God has taken what was flawed, and through it has worked, and is working, a miracle. This should give each one of us hope, for no matter how great our sins may be, if we repent of our sins, and confess them, and return to our Orthodox way of life, making ourselves offerings to God, who knows what God may accomplish in and through us?

Earlier, I mentioned the comment made by someone last night, about how we should announce a miracle every week. Although I don’t think that person meant that in a serious way, the truth is that we could, indeed, say that a miracle takes place here every week; indeed, every time we gather in worship. For example, today at this celebration of the Divine Liturgy, as at every celebration, we are in the presence of the miraculous blessing that transforms the bread and wine that we offer to God to become His most precious Body and Blood that He offers to us for our salvation. We receive from Him His Body and Blood in the form of the bread and wine of the offering in exactly the same way that His disciples, who were gathered together with Him in the upper room on the night in which He was betrayed, and went to His Passion and to death on the Cross, received His Body and Blood; through the miracle of God’s love for us, by which we are saved. At this, and at every, celebration of the Divine Liturgy, and at every Vigil service, and at every molieben and pannikhida offered, we are gathered together with the saints and angels, who join us in our prayers as we worship God. Whether we can see them or not; whether we are aware of it or not, these miracles are taking place, just as the miracle of myrrh streaming from a flawed picture printed on a piece of paper and mounted on a simple pine board shows us that God can take the ordinary and humble and raise it to miraculous heights.

Brothers and sisters, let us worship and glorify our God, Whose love for us is so great that it is beyond our ability to understand or describe. Let us give Him thanks for the great blessing of being witnesses to the miracle of the myrrh-streaming Iveron icon of the Mother of God; and let us pray that He will make us ever mindful of the miracles that take place every time His people gather for prayer and for worship. Let us, as we consider these miracles, remember the great depths of God’s love for us, and seek to bring this love to everyone around us, so that they may also experience the great miracle of the love of God in Jesus Christ, and join with us to worship and glorify Him, the God of miracles, and the God of love.

You Are the Light of the World

2009-10-26T11:16:00.001-07:00

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, our Lord tells those who are listening to Him, “You are the light of the world.” He then gives some additional details about this light. He says, “A city on a hill cannot be hidden be hidden.” Think about driving around town at night. Every house on a hillside can be seen for miles. Our Lord also says, “No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Rather, the lamp that is lit is put on a stand, so that its light shines for everyone in the house.” Then He tells us what this means for us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify God in heaven.”

With what light are we meant to shine? On one level, it is the light of good works: especially those things that are done to help another person in need. We know what these things are: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, visiting the sick, and those in prison, and welcoming the stranger – all the things spoken of when our Lord describes the time of the Great Judgment, of the sheep and the goats. But it is possible to do these things, and yet fail to shine. If we are to understand this, and to respond in a manner pleasing to the Lord, what else is there?

Another form of “good works” by which we may bring light into a world of darkness is to faithfully live the Orthodox way of life: praying, fasting, and giving; with humility, patience, forgiveness, generosity to others, and love. If we devote our time and energy to developing and refining these behaviors in our daily lives, we will find it a joy to reach out to others, to feed and clothe and visit and so on. Yet even these good things can be done without bringing the light we are meant to shine. What else must we understand and do to be pleasing to the Lord?

St. John Chrysostom tells us that the light within us is not our own. Rather, the light is ignited in us by our Lord Jesus Christ when we are joined to His life in Holy Baptism. He lights the lamp in us. St. John continues, however, to instruct and remind us that, while the light in us was lit by the Lord, it is up to us to keep the lamp burning. That is, we must, from time to time, trim and renew the wick; and we must, from time to time, refill the lamp with oil; and we must, from time to time, clean the lens through which the light must shine.

Image via Wikipedia

Experience with oil lamps, as often found in a church, teaches that the wicks are best served when trimmed twice a day, morning and evening. So it is that the Church advises us to be diligent in prayer at the start, and at the end, of each day. Remember how Moses, when he would return to the people of Israel from being in the presence of God, had to cover his face with a veil, because his face was bright with the light of the presence of God? When we take time to draw near to God in prayer, we come into the light, and so are better prepared to carry that light with us through the course of the day. The lamps must be filled at least daily; and so we should fill ourselves with the words of Holy Scripture, and the teachings of the Fathers, and the lives of the saints, who also brought the light of Christ to us and to the world – that’s why, in the icons, they have haloes. Periodically, the lamps must be cleaned of the dirt and debris they accumulate; and so too must we seek to be made clean in the mystery of confession, through repentance, with the desire not to repeat our sins, but to be transformed. These practices will help us tend to the light given to us, so that, properly cared for, we nay shine with Christ’s light in us, becoming lamps on stands, and even cities on hilltops, to light the way for those in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide those who are seeking God to find and follow the right path.

Brothers and sisters, let us ask God for the grace we need to tend the light given to us, so that the light of our good works of piety and charity may shine before men, so that God may be glorified; and let us never seek praise or commendation from others for the good we may do; but give thanks and glory to God, remembering that if we shine, it is only because He loves us and has given Himself for us, so that we may be saved.

Sowing Abundantly

2009-10-11T18:32:00.001-07:00

Each of us knows – or, at least, should know – the hallmarks of the Orthodox way of life. First of all, there is prayer: which we might say is to be in conversation with God. Conversation, of course, involves both talking and listening; and relationships cannot exist without conversation. Prayer, then, becomes a way for us to grow closer in relationship to God, if we learn to enter His presence on a regular basis, and if we will listen as well as talk. There is nothing wrong with prayer that praises God, and gives Him thanks; there is nothing wrong with sharing with Him our hopes and fears, asking for help for others and for ourselves; but we must also listen, especially with our hearts, to what God may be saying to us, even as we are talking with Him.

Next comes the discipline of fasting. Above all, this is a strength and a skill we exercise and develop beginning with dietary restrictions. We all know there are days and seasons we mark by removing meat, eggs, and dairy products from what we eat; and even abstaining from fish, wine, and oil on the most strict days. By following this teaching and practice of the Church, we learn obedience – from which flows reverence and meekness; and meekness attacks the root of sin, which is pride. Fasting also is a form of training, such as what an athlete does to prepare for competition. Fasting helps us teach our flesh that it cannot always have whatever it wants whenever we want it; and this discipline can grow to help us resist other passions that would lead us into sins if we surrendered ourselves to them.

Prayer and fasting, above all, are the signs of the Orthodox way of life. There is another practice, however, that we do not speak about as frequently, yet is, nevertheless, one that is quite important: giving. This is the subject spoken about in the reading today from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church. St. Paul is writing here to remind the faithful of this important practice of the Orthodox way of life. What, if anything, should we take from this to do in our own lives?

Remember that, in the Old Testament, the people of God were given, as a law, the requirement to give ten percent of what they received – a tithe of their year’s income. This is not what St. Paul is telling the faithful. Rather, he tells them that the act of giving is a voluntary act; and then he addresses how we are to think about giving. What does he say?

St. Paul does not promise that those who give will receive an earthly reward of wealth. He reminds us that God has given us all that we have; and calls upon us to give in the same way that God has given to us – that is, to be generous. He uses a powerful image: “He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; while he who sows abundantly will reap abundantly.” What do we sow when we give? He also talks of sufficiency and abundance. We are promised that we shall be given what is sufficient for our needs, so that we can learn to be free of the things of this world, including food, clothing, and shelter; and by trusting that God will provide what we need, and learning to not live with what goes beyond sufficiency – which is what the world would have us do – we will have enough to give for the benefit of others, while setting aside for ourselves treasures in heaven.

Put another way, St. Paul, and St. John Chrysostom as well, want us to distinguish between what we need – sufficiency – and what we want. St. John Chrysostom uses an example of a person spending very large amounts of money to clothe and entertain someone from the theater, but who, when confronted with a poor man in need of alms, gives little or nothing, perhaps out of the fear that giving will bring poverty on him, the giver, as well. He asks, what will be said to this person, who used the richness given by God for earthly things, but neglected the spiritual aspect of giving without thought of return or reward, which we do when we give to help those in need – and let us remember that part of the reason we give to the Church is to make it possible to meet the spiritual needs of others, both in our midst and in the world.

Brothers and sisters, we are called by the fathers and the saints to share with them in the Orthodox way of life. Let us fast and pray; and let us give, not from necessity, but in thanksgiving for what God has given to us. Let us ask God for the grace and strength to live sufficiently, but no more, so that, by being generous with what God has given us beyond sufficiency, we may use this wisely, giving to the Church and for those in need, so that we may live abundantly in the life of the Spirit, both now, and unto the ages of ages.

Life, Death and the Way of the Cross

2009-10-04T18:16:00.001-07:00

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Mark, we are told that we must deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and follow the example given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us – His disciples – that if we try to save our lives, we will lose them; but if we will lose our lives for His sake, and for the sake of proclaiming the good news of our salvation, our lives will be saved. He is calling to our attention the inherent tendency in our fallen state to seek to live in this earthly life for as long as possible, even at the cost of life without end in His Kingdom. It is ironic that the more we cling to life in this world, the more likely we are to enter into a life of torment in the age to come; while if we pursue heavenly things, dying, in effect, in this world, we have the hope of life without end in the joyous presence of God.

In the reading today from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church in Galatia, we hear as well something about life and death. The Apostle is writing to a community of the faithful that he had established during one of his missionary journeys. Most of the people who had joined this community had previously been pagans, and so did not know of the Law given by God to Moses; and so had been influenced by some Christians who had been Jews before coming to have faith in our Lord, who were teaching that the only way someone could become a Christian was to first become a Jew, and to obey the Law of Moses as well as the Gospel of our Lord. St. Paul is writing to correct the Galatians, urging them to set aside this false teaching. In doing so, he teaches them about the new reality of our existence when we have been baptized into the death of Christ, and raised to new life with Him. He writes, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me.”

So: Here is how things stand. Before our baptism, we are alive in the flesh, but dead in our sins. When we are baptized, we are buried with Him; and when He rises to a life over which death has no power, He raises us to that same life. We have Christ living in us – a most wondrous and amazing gift! Yet if we do not realize this change that has taken place in us, we will continue to live as we did before our baptism; we will continue to follow the ways of this world, and we will not follow the ways of the heavenly life, and so risk losing that life. Among other things, this is why we must understand our Lord’s command to take up our cross, and follow Him.

When our Lord took up His Cross, He did so knowing that He would be put to death on it; that He would have to endure one of the most agonizing ways of death that the mind of fallen humanity has ever devised. The power by which it was possible for Him to willingly accept this death was the power of His love for us. This same power is available to us, so that we may also take up our cross to follow Him. That is, we are given the ability to turn aside from the ways of this world, dying to the world, and living so that the life of Christ in us may be seen and heard and experienced by everyone around us: our families, our friends, our neighbors, the people we work with, even the strangers we encounter during the course of a day. When we fail to live as we should; when we fail to express to those around us the love of God in Jesus Christ, it is because we love what we have in this life more than we love God; and because we love ourselves more than we love the other people in our lives.

What can we do? How can we become dispensers of the love given to us by God? We can do so by embracing the way of life we learn in the Church. That is, we dedicate ourselves to work to see God in every person we meet, and to respect them, even reverence them, as living icons, better, more pleasing to God, than we are ourselves, sinful as we are. We labor to see our own sins, and only our sins, fighting against pride by seeking humility. We learn to ask ourselves, “Do I really need this thing I want to buy?” while asking God to guide us in the use of the time and talents and treasure He has entrusted to us, so that we may do more to support the work of the Church, and to help those in need around us. We must also fast and pray, for without praying, we cannot come closer to God; and without fasting, we will not have the strength to overcome the desires of our flesh, and the comforts and pleasures the flesh seeks in the world.

Brothers and sisters, let us dedicate ourselves to taking up our cross, dying to the world, and seeking above all the kingdom of God. Let us ask God to give us the grace and strength needed to take up the Cross of His love, so that we may love and serve Him by loving and caring for each other.

Racism and Our Mission of Love

2009-09-20T23:30:00.002-07:00

In the readings today from the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John the Theologian, we hear the theme of love. We are told of God’s love for us: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” We are taught that the greatest commandment is to love: “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” We are also commanded to love one another.

From a cultural point of view -- which is to say, from the world’s point of view, as opposed to the heavenly perspective – the word “love” many times means eros; erotic love, associated with sexual desire. Used properly, this is a gift from God, drawing a man and a woman closer to each other, making them one in holy matrimony, and establishing them as a family, as children may become, as it were, the fruit of their love. Less often, “love” might mean philos; brotherly love, which also binds us together for our good as a family – whether as having the same parents, or grandparents; and also in a larger sense, being of “one blood,” the blood of Christ, being children of God, and so brothers and sisters together. But here the evangelists are speaking of agape; the unselfish love that God has for us, and which we are called to serve as fountains on behalf of all the world. It is a love that thinks more of others and less of self; it is the love that sacrifices for the benefit of others, without thought of reward or repayment. It is the love that made it possible for our Lord Jesus Christ to endure suffering and death on the Cross for our salvation.

Perhaps you have heard some of the controversy that has been taking place during the national debate over the proposal to reform health care insurance in our nation. Ordinarily, the sermon doesn’t usually address topics of current events; but the theme of the readings from the Gospel today directly addresses these events, and so it is helpful to speak of them. It has been suggested that some of the opposition to the plan being advanced by President Obama arises as a result of racism. It is, it seems, an aspect of human nature – fallen human nature – to distrust, and even to have an irrational hatred, for those who are different. Racism, of course, is a response to a perceived difference based on the color of your skin. We are all aware of the cultural aspects of racism in American history and society: of those of African origin who were unwillingly brought to this country as slaves – an action that was acceptable in the minds of many because they were considered to be inferior. After slavery ended, the hatred and discrimination continued. You don’t need to go far outside the doors of the church here to see this: At one time, few, if any, “white” people lived south of Indian School Road; while those sometimes called, “persons of color” – blacks and Hispanics – were only permitted to buy property south of there, including this neighborhood, and surrounding ones. By God’s grace, things have been changing; but according to some, this controversy is a reminder that there is still work that needs to be done.

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Brothers and sisters, let us not be mistaken. Those of us who have been joined to Christ by baptism, and who partake of the holy Mysteries of His Body and Blood are one with Him, and are one family in Him. The relative presence or absence of melanin – the pigment that produces the color in our hair, and in our skin – is not of any significance. That is to say, there are not three races, as was once thought and taught: there is one race, the human race. Every person, regardless of the color of their skin, is a human being, made in the image and after the likeness of God, and therefore worthy of respect, dignity, honor, and love – of agape, the sacrificial love of the Cross. It is not always easy to overcome the thoughts and habits of the culture in which we grew up; but we are called to do so as children of God, and as disciples, followers, of our Lord Jesus Christ. We each need to remember that we, those baptized, the Body of Christ, share in the priesthood of all believers: to minister to the world, to show all the world the love of God for us in Jesus Christ, in what we say, in what we do – in how we treat each other.

Let us examine ourselves for any signs that we do not yet love with the love of God, and ask for grace and strength to bring this love to a world which still needs to hear the good news of salvation, so that they also may receive the love God has for each of us, so that He may be glorified, and we may be blessed to fulfill our mission of unselfish love.

Dressing for the Feast

2009-09-14T15:05:00.001-07:00

In a way, it could be said that the “theme” today is about clothing. This is the day on which the Church celebrates the deposition of the cincture of the Theotokos; and in the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, we hear how, as the guests are gathering for the wedding feast, there is one who is found to be improperly dressed for the feast, and so is cast out of the banquet hall into torment.

The canon of the Feast says, in Ode 7 of the first canon, ”The Queen of all, having departed for the mansions of heaven, has left behind her cincture as a treasure for the king of all cities, and by it we are saved from the invasions of enemies, visible and invisible.” It is said that, at the time of the Dormition, the most holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary gave her cincture – a belt, or sash, worn around the waist, helping to keep closed the outer garment being worn – to the Apostle Thomas. Some time later, it was taken to the city of Constantinople, placed in a special casket, and kept in a church dedicated to the Mother of God. So it remained until the ninth century, when Zoe, the wife of Emperor Leo, fell into a sickness in her soul. As the result of a vision, she asked that the cincture be placed upon her; and when this took place, she was healed.

The treatment of the man who lacked the proper garment is given to us as a warning – indeed, one of many in that particular parable. There are several groups of people mentioned: those who were originally invited to share in the celebration; those who were invited to take their place; and those who were compelled to attend, without regard as to whether or not they desired to do so. At the time our Lord is telling the story to His disciples, the first group, who had been invited but were found to be unworthy, and whose city was destroyed, was clearly the Jews, to whom God had given the revelation of Himself and the Law, and the promise of the Messiah – Who had now come, but was not accepted by the people who claimed to be awaiting Him. The group invited to take their place at the feast were the Gentiles, who were not Jews but were truly seeking God in response to His call to them; while the group that had to be forced to attend was made up of those who had little or no desire to find God, or to leave behind the ways of the world.

We need to be aware of this; and to realize that the first group today – the group that is invited to the feast – is the Church. Indeed, the Church is the Bride of Christ, the Son of the King, Who is God the Father, the host of the feast. The treatment of the first group, related in the parable, concludes with the destruction of their city; which took place on August 4th in the year 70 A.D., when the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in response to the revolt by the Jews. We also need to know that the wedding garment, the means by which we are properly admitted to the celebration, is our baptismal robe. You may recall that, in the service of Holy Baptism, we pray several times asking the Lord’s grace and mercy so that the newly baptized person may be blessed and empowered to keep their baptismal robe clean and unstained by sin; and that, when we fail to do so, we are able to have the stains and filth of our sins removed, washing (as it were) our robes through the mystery of repentance and the confession of our sins. If we forget these things; if we neglect the way of life we learn from the Church, we are at risk of finding ourselves to be improperly attired, and, like the man in the parable, at risk of being tied hand and foot, and cast out into the darkness, into an eternal existence outside the light of the love of God – and the knowledge of our loss will certainly cause us to weep and wail and gnash our teeth.

We can draw wisdom as well from considering the cincture of the Theotokos. If we think of it only in worldly terms, it has little or no real value to us. It’s only a length of rope, or of cloth, or of leather. Even if it was made of gold, it still has only a fixed value – it is not unlimited. But if we think of it spiritually, we find it is a gift of incalculable value: a source of healings, and a token of God’s love for us, and of our connection with the Church of the saints who have completed their course, and have entered into their rest, with the Lord today in Paradise.

Brothers and sisters, let us not follow the ways of the world, nor seek its wisdom; but rather let us ask God for the grace and strength we need to turn away from the world, and to pursue the heavenly way of life. Let us confess our sins, and ask that our baptismal robes be made clean once more; and let us not neglect to come to the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, for the holy gifts offered today are a foretaste of that great wedding banquet, to which we are all invited. May God grant that each of us, and all Orthodox Christians, will be welcomed at that feast, coming with rejoicing and properly dressed; and that our preparations for the feast will cause others to desire to attend as well, so that their souls, with ours, will be saved.

Obtaining Eternal Life

2009-08-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

If you wanted an account from the gospels that speaks to our culture today, and if, in order to do so, you could choose only one parable from the four accounts of the life and ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ during the time between His Theophany and His resurrection from the dead, the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew might be the best choice. The parable of the rich young man in the Gospel according to St. Matthew captures who we are in this time and place, shaped as we are by the society in which we live. He has everything that anyone could want: comfort, ease, and the ability to obtain whatever he wants. Yet, having all this, he is still unsatisfied, and he knows he is missing something – he does not have eternal life. It is this that draws him to our Lord, and to ask what he must do to obtain this life that will not end.

Our Lord begins with the basics: He says, “Keep the commandments.” Remember that this dialogue is taking place in a culture that considered itself to be God’s chosen people, to whom God had given the Ten Commandments, and other detailed aspects on what was acceptable to God, and what was not – over six hundred “laws” within the Law. Presumably, this young man, being well off, would also have been well educated, and so would have known this. Now, you would think that this answer would have been enough – keep the commandments – but the young man wants to make the task less difficult, and so he asks, “Which ones?”

Jesus takes him to the next step, listing that portion of the Ten Commandments dealing with our relations with others: do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; and honor your father and your mother. He adds as well the second part of the summary of the Law He taught to His followers: love your neighbor as you love yourself. The young man says, I have lived this way since I was a child. What do I still lack? Putting that another way, he is asking, I have done these things, so why am I still unhappy?

He is then given the final instruction: Go, sell what you have, and give it to the poor, and then come and follow Me. He departs from the scene, deeply troubled because, we are told, he had a great many possessions. We never learn what decision he made as he struggled with his desire to live eternally and with his attachment to his possessions.

The truth is, each one of us is the rich young man. Even though we may think of ourselves as being followers of Christ – and we are, to one degree or another – we live today more comfortably than most other people on the face of the earth, and with more comfort and ease than even emperors and kings of old enjoyed. We look around, see the mansions on the hillsides with their luxury cars and people dressed in the finest clothing with jewelry and rich food and all the amenities that wealth can provide, and we think to ourselves, “Oh, if only I could live like that, I would be happy!” We should already know, based on this Gospel reading, that wealth by itself, nor any of the things that wealth can obtain, can truly make us happy. We should already know that the only true source of happiness is to be developing our relationship with God, and living in that relationship with each other. But we don’t usually think about these things, not nearly as often as we think about what we want to obtain – even as we already have so much! We need to stop focusing on what others have, stop thinking about what we think we lack, and instead give thanks to God for blessing us with so many good things. We need to remember that the greatest gift of all is the gift the young man was seeking: eternal life, which is freely offered to us through our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

Each one of us is the rich young man, asking, “What good thing must I do to have eternal life?” The answer is, nothing. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve eternal life. We do not have the strength or power to do so, apart from the Lord. The good news is that He has already completed the task; He has already obtained eternal life for us. Our part is to believe that this is true; and in this belief, this faith, this trust, to follow Him, which is done best by living the Orthodox way: praying, fasting, struggling against our passions, giving from what God has given to us to support the work of the Church and to help those in need; by loving and forgiving, by being patient and gentle.

What of the command to sell all that we have and give to the poor? Consider this: If you had nothing, no possessions, you have nothing to lose. No thief or robber can disturb you by taking anything away. If you have no possessions, even the government is no threat, apart from your life. And if you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that He died on the Cross and rose to life without end from the grave, then even those who would threaten your life have no power over you, because you know that the life we have here in this world is nothing more than a prelude, the threshold to life without end. To have no possessions – not even considering your life to be a possession, but belonging instead to God alone – you are truly free to follow Christ. So, brothers and sisters, let us ask our Lord for the grace to be set free from the things we acquire in this life, seeking nothing in this world, but working instead to set aside for ourselves treasures in heaven; and for grace to be faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, rather than followers of the world and of wealth.

What Are We Working For?

2009-08-23T19:08:00.003-07:00

At one point in his first letter to the church in Corinth, the holy apostle Paul asks the question, “Does a soldier serve at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of its fruit?” He is asking the people of that congregation to consider the right of one who labors on behalf of the Kingdom of God to receive his or her reward – that is, payment – for the work he or she has performed. In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, we hear, in the parable of the two servants in debt, of another form of payment; of what happens when a servant is unable to repay; and of the necessity to forgive in order to be forgiven.

The holy martyr and archdeacon Laurence of Rome shows us the labors of a martyr, and the reward, both earthly and heavenly, that is paid to one who testifies to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, even at the cost of one’s life. The holy martyr Laurence was an archdeacon and servant of the Pope, St. Sixtus, and the treasurer of the Church. When St. Sixtus was arrested for his faith, Laurence wanted to go with him, but was told by the Pope that he must wait, and that he would suffer greatly and then would follow him in martyrdom. St. Sixtus was beheaded; and Laurence was arrested. As he was tortured, not only was he told that, if he denied Christ, he would be set free, but he was also offered the opportunity to obtain his release by turning over to his captors the treasury of the Church, which he had hidden before his arrest. The holy martyr refused to yield the money and also refused to deny Christ, yielding instead his body to torture. He was placed on a griddle, and roasted alive; calling to his tormentors at one point, “This side is cooked; turn me over, so that the other side may be roasted, as well!” He entered into his reward – the Kingdom of heaven – in the year 258 A.D.

Most of us, God willing, will never be tested in our faithfulness as was the holy martyr Laurence. We would do well, however, to examine ourselves, and consider the reward for which we are laboring, to which we devote the majority of our time and energy and resources. In all probability, we will find that we do very little when it comes to laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven; and that the vast majority of our labors are devoted to acquiring the means to obtain ease and comfort for ourselves and our families. Isn’t it amazing that we will go deeply into debt in order to purchase worldly comforts, but give no thought to the debt that we owe for our offenses against God, against others, and even against ourselves? We often say, as a form of ironic humor, that we are “slaves to our employers”; and yet we do not consider that we were bought at a price: the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died on the Cross to set us free from our captivity to sin and death. It is through this act of giving that the debt we owe because of our sins, a debt we cannot possibly repay, is canceled – forgiven – because of God’s love for us. Think about this: Adam and Eve became the slaves of the enemy of our salvation because of their disobedience in the Garden of Eden; and each of us has done the same by our own actions, choosing to sin rather than to do what is pleasing to God. He might very well have abandoned us for our wickedness; but He did not leave us in such a wretched state. He came to us, and became one with us, joining His divinity to our humanity, so that we could be restored to Him, and delivered from death, which is the wages paid for sin. We cannot do this by ourselves; but the good news is that it has already been done for us. Now, we have a choice to make: to continue to live as slaves to sin, or realize that, having been redeemed by the sacrificial offering of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are now called to be slaves to righteousness. Remembering the love that has saved us, let us show our love for God by drawing near to Him each day in prayer, confessing our sins and asking for grace to overcome them; praying for those in need; and above all, praising and thanking the Lord for all He has done, and is doing, for us. Let us fast, and so teach our flesh to be obedient to our will. Let us give from what God has given to us, for the benefit of others and to set our souls free from attachments to our possessions. Let us be humble, gentle, patient, and forgiving – and in this way allow the life of our Lord Jesus given to us in baptism to be seen in what we say and do, in who we are. No earthly reward can approach the value of this gift we have been given; and any earthly suffering, whether it is as little as keeping the fasts or as great as that endured by the martyr Laurence, is treasure we set aside for ourselves in heaven. May the God Who loves us and Who has saved us grant us the grace to follow Him faithfully, as did the holy martyr Laurence, so that we may show Him to the world while in this life, and join the choir of heaven to sing His praises!

God's Love in Action

2009-08-23T18:58:00.003-07:00

As you know, the life of the liturgical year is one that is rich. The calendar of the Church year is extensive. Each and every day has a saint or saints whose lives are celebrated, and there are feasts and fasts and the celebration of a wide variety of events. Some of the saints, and some of the feasts and fasts and events are well known to us all, and we look forward to that day, and to come to church to come into the presence of the Lord in a special way, to be with Him and to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and the offering of His most precious and holy Body and Blood for us to eat and drink, so that our wounds in body, mind, and spirit may be healed, and that our souls may be saved. The bread and the wine that become, by the grace of God, the Body and Blood of Christ are real food, essential food, with our physical bodies being nourished through the material elements of bread and wine, and our souls refreshed by the grace of God, so that the life of Christ given to us in our baptism may grow strong, and be seen in us, bearing fruit unto salvation.

The saint we celebrate today is not the first choice on the liturgical calendar. This is not to say that our holy father Anthony the Roman is not worthy of our attention – far from it! The story of his life and ministry have much to teach us about who we are, and about what we may do, if we will embrace the life of the Church, as the fathers have taught us. Our holy father Anthony was born in the city of Rome in the year 1086, some 32 years after the Patriarch of Rome excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople, who returned the favor, in this way bringing into its fullness a division of the Church, east and west, that had been developing for over 200 years, and that has persisted to this day. (If you think it was difficult to restore unity to the divided Russian church after 80 years or so of separation – and it wasn’t easy! – imagine what will be needed to restore the unity of all Christians…) As a result of the split, those who remained faithful to the Orthodox Church and faith were persecuted, including our holy father Anthony, whose parents had raised him through their own pious way of life to love the Lord and to serve the Church. He gave away all he possessed – and his family had been wealthy – to help those in need, became a monk, and went to stand on a rock in the sea, to pray to God in an Orthodox manner. As he prayed, the rock was separated from its lower layers, and, by the grace of God, the saint was carried across the sea, and up the river to the city of Novgorod the Great. There our holy father Anthony built a temple in honor of the Mother of God, and established a monastery in which many monks were found. He served as the abbot for many years, and proclaimed the grace and mercy of God through many miracles, before he departed this life in the year 1148.

There’s another reason why he is celebrated today – a personal reason. Our holy father Anthony the Roman is the saint for whom our late archbishop Antoniy was named, the saint Vladika Antoniy revered. Now, I have to be honest and say that the story of the saint sailing across the ocean on a stone as if it were a boat is one that my mind, shaped by the rationalism and skepticism of our culture, must struggle to accept; and there is no explanation apart from the grace of God, the Worker of miracles. But although that aspect of the life of the saint is distant, the same is not true of the faith of the saint who fled from this earthly life and spent 14 months in prayer on a rock, and whose love for God and for those made in the image of God was so great that he found the wealth of this world to be useless unless it served the glory of God and met the needs of God’s people. How do I know this? I know because I saw the same love, the same devotion, the same humility, and the same charity in Vladika Antoniy. He loved the services of the church; he loved to be in the church to pray; he looked after his flock with love and care; and he repented of his sins with humility. He lived a simple life, and kept much of his devotion to God a secret – including the fact that he was a monk of the Great Schema, which made his ministry as a bishop all the more extraordinary, as the task of being a shepherd of the flock entrusted to him by God kept him from retreating into the life of a recluse, which is what monks of the Great Schema typically do. He found a way to fulfill his vows as both a monk and as a bishop; and those of us who had the privilege of knowing him, and of serving with him are rich because of his example in our lives. I believe that the last person he ever ordained was me, when he made me a deacon; and I pray, for his sake, that he did not make a mistake when he did so.

I am telling you these things about Vladika not to praise him, but to remind each of you that we all know of someone like him: someone who lives the Orthodox faith and life in a way that touches us in our hearts, inspiring us to do more – for, among other things, they show us what is possible when we live in and through and for Christ our God, and not for ourselves. We are called to do the same: to accept God’s love for us, taking His love into ourselves as we take the bread and wine of His Body and Blood; and sharing that love in serving others, teaching in words and by example the way of life that we share with the angels, if we are willing. So, let us give thanks to God for the life and ministry of our holy father Anthony the Roman; and let us also give thanks for those who, in our sight and in our hearing show us God’s love in action in our own lives as well.

Why Do You Doubt?

2009-08-23T18:54:00.001-07:00

You’ve probably heard of the “Grand Canyon Skywalk”; a horseshoe-shaped structure that extends out about sixty-six feet over a side canyon in the Grand Canyon.

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It is made of two-inch thick glass walls and floor, so that visitors may look out to see the main gorge in which the Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon; and can also look down to see the side canyon which is 500 to 800 feet below the Skywalk. I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to make the six and a half-hour trip to pay $75 to walk out and look down through the glass floor at the canyon below any time soon! But I think that imagining what the experience might be like might give us a bit of insight into what happens in the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

The disciples of our Lord, some of whom are experienced fishermen, are in a boat during a storm at night while sailing across the lake on their way to Gennesaret. In the midst of the storm, during the fourth watch of the night, they see our Lord walking on the water, and imagine that they have seen a ghost, and are terrified. They hear Him say to them, “Cheer up! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” In an incredible moment of faith, Peter replies, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the waters.” Jesus tells him to do so; and Peter steps out of the boat onto the wind-tossed waves, and begins to walk on the water. He’s doing fine, until he takes his eyes off of the Lord, and he begins to sink. He cries out for help, and the Lord saves him; but also questions him, saying, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Can you imagine yourself leaving the relative safety of the boat – mind you, it is being tossed about by the waves, so it’s not as if it were safely anchored – to walk on the water? Most of us would probably be so uncomfortable with the glass floor of the Skywalk that we wouldn’t even venture out there, much less try to do something as miraculous as what St. Peter attempted. As such, we need to examine our own lives, and our own faith, and ask ourselves, why do we lack even the small amount of faith that St. Peter had? We should ask, because it is clear that, if we had even a fraction of the “little faith” he had, our lives would be remarkably different.

We lack the faith to work miracles. Could it be that the reason we are not successful in the transformation of who we are and how we live is because we lack the faith needed to do so? The evidence of this can clearly be seen in how often we must confess the same behaviors, over and over and over again. Why does victory elude us? Our Lord’s question is also directed to each and every one of us: Why do you doubt?

I wish there was an easy answer to this question. I wish that there was a simple way to change the situation in which we find ourselves. I think the problem is that we are trying to “walk on water,” but find ourselves sinking into the cares and concerns of this world, as St. Peter sank into the stormy waves, because we so seldom have our eyes fixed on the Lord, Who has called us to come to Him as He called to St. Peter. We see instead the problems of this world, with all its suffering and pain, filled with hatred, disease, famine, war… We seek instead to escape from the problems with our jobs, with our families; we seek the pleasures and comforts of this world, and yield ourselves to our passions, rather than looking for the kingdom of God and the righteousness of that kingdom. When we do these things, we cannot walk on the waves of life, as did our Lord, as did St. Peter.

There is no easy answer; but I offer this to you for your consideration. God loves you. Our Lord Jesus Christ came in love to save you. There is nothing you can do to save yourself; but there is nothing that you must do to save yourself, except to do what St. Peter did as he began to sink. All we need to do is to cry out, “Lord, save me!” – and believe that He is able to do what He has promised. Then, we need to live trusting in that promise: that the power of death has been broken by His death and resurrection; that our sins are forgiven when we confess them and ask to be made clean, and whole; and that we have been given His life to live, so that we may honor and glorify Him, and find peace and rest for our souls.

Brothers and sisters, let us trust in the love of God Who saves us; and let us ask Him each day, each hour, each moment for the grace to keep our spiritual eyes upon Him, that we will not sink beneath the waves of the cares of this life, but may walk with Him through this life until we come to dwell in a life without end in the glory of His kingdom.

Who is Worthy of the Kingdom?

2009-08-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

When our Lord Jesus Christ, during the time of His ministry on earth, returned to his home town of Nazareth, word of the miracles and healings He had performed to that time had reached the people who knew His family, and had known Him as a boy growing up in their midst. “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” they asked; suggesting that they wondered how someone who had come from such a humble beginning could do such marvelous things elsewhere. Knowing their hearts, He said to them, “You will undoubtedly say to Me, ‘Do here at home the marvelous things You have done in Capernaum; yet a prophet is not acceptable in his own town.” Because they thought they knew Him, they required Him to give them a sigh; but when He responded by telling them about the holy prophets Elijah and Elisha, they were moved to anger, even hatred, and tried to take him to the cliff at the edge of town, to throw Him to His death.

Today we commemorate the holy prophet of God, Elijah (or Elias, as he is also called). His name means, “The Lord is my God”; and he was sent by God to the northern kingdom of Israel as a sign of God’s presence in a land whose king, Ahab, and important leaders had turned away from God to worship Ba’al, believed to be a god of fertility who lived in the rain clouds.

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Elijah’s zeal for the Lord was great; at one point, he believed that he was the only prophet of God – indeed, the only follower of God – who remained in the land of Israel. Elijah prophesied a drought that would come upon the land and would last for three and a half years; and during this time he challenged 450 priests of Ba’al and 400 priests of Asherah to offer a sacrifice to Ba’al to bring an end to the drought; at which time he would make a sacrifice to the God of the covenants with Adam, Noah, Moses, and David – with the people pledged to worship the one revealed to be truly God. The priests of the idols performed their rites of sacrifice from morning until the time to offer the sacrifice had come. At that time, Elijah prepared the sacrifice he would offer on its altar, giving orders that the sacrifice itself, and the wood that would be set aflame by the action of God alone, be soaked with water; so much water that a trench he had ordered dug around the altar was filled with water. Then Elijah prayed, and the Lord sent fire from heaven that burned not only the wood and the sacrifice, but also the water, as well. In his zeal, Elijah ordered the people to seize the false priests, and had them put to death. This action caused Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, to swear that she would have him put to death. This is but one action that was carried out by the holy prophet of God.

What made the people of Nazareth so angry? When our Lord said that the prophet Elijah, during the time of the famine caused by the drought, did not minister to any of the many widows in Israel, but instead brought God’s help to a widow from a foreign land; and that the prophet Elisha – Elijah’s follower and successor as prophet in the northern kingdom – healed a leper from another land, but not one of the lepers in Israel, though there were many who needed such a healing, He was, in effect, telling them that these foreigners, who were not people of the covenant, as were the Jews, were more deserving than the people who were supposed to be the people of God. By connecting the people of His home town with those who needed God’s blessing but did not seek it, He was saying that the same is true for those who lived where He had grown up. Jesus the Messiah, promised by God to His people from the time that Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, had come – but the people who were supposed to have been watching and waiting for Him did not recognize Him, and thought they knew who He was.

This should make us stop and think. After all, we say of ourselves that we are the people of God, the inheritors of the New Covenant, the covenant of the Cross, of the Blood shed by the offering of the Lamb of God for our sake. We also say that He will come, as the people in our Lord’s home town said that the Messiah would come, establishing His kingdom. But do we live as His people should live? Or do we say one thing, but do another? And if we were to learn that there will be those who, without entering into the Orthodox Church, will be worthy of a place in the kingdom of heaven, while there is the very real possibility that some Orthodox Christians will not receive the same blessing, would that make you angry, as the people of Nazareth were angered?

We say we know the Lord is God, our Savior and Redeemer. But do we live like Him? Are we patient and forgiving, as He is? Are we striving to turn away from our attachments to this world, and to live as citizens of His kingdom? Do we love God more than we love ourselves, and the pleasures of this world, and of our flesh? If you want to know whether or not you love God, consider how you live with the person who cuts in line in front of you on the highway, or at the store. Do you lose your peace? Or do you forgive, and pray for that person? What about the person – maybe even here, in the house of God – who, because of the way they are dressed, or where they stand, may not be following exactly the manners of the Orthodox way of life? What about the person who does thing that irritate you, maybe even someone in your own household? Do you love them? Do you forgive them? Do you pray for them? Do you try to change who you are, what you say, what you do, in order to help them, while forgiving them for their faults and weaknesses? If you love them, as Christ loves us; if you forgive them, as we are forgiven; and if you give of yourself for them, gently, humbly, patiently, expecting no thanks, or anything at all in return – then be encouraged, brothers and sisters: for if we love those around us, even those who hate and scorn us, even those who might kill us – if we love them, we may also say that we love God. Then we will not be like the people of Nazareth who became angry when our Lord came into their midst; rather, we will be like Him Who, for love of us, unlovely sinners, gave Himself for us, that we might live in Him, and He in us.

Holy prophet of God, Elijah, pray to God for us!

Old Heresies Renewed and the Symbol of Faith

2009-08-23T18:42:00.002-07:00

If someone knocked on your door, said they wanted to talk about Jesus, and then said that He wasn’t the Son of God, but was really the Archangel Michael in human form, would you know how to respond? Or if the persons who knocked on your door to talk with you about Jesus told you that He is the Son of God; but that His Father is Adam, who had physical relations with Mary; and that the “spirit brother” of Jesus is Lucifer – would you know what to say?

We sometimes seem to think that all of the heresies are old, going back to the earliest days of the Church – and that is usually correct. However, sometimes we also think that, because the Church identified these are heresies long ago, the problem has been solved. It has – for those who accept the decisions and teachings of the saints we remember and celebrate today: the holy fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils. But I hope it doesn’t surprise you to find that most of these heresies are still being taught today, still being believed today. Our work isn’t finished yet; and we must begin by being certain that we know what we believe, and why we believe it – and then we’d better be sure we know how to explain it.

That may sound like a rather difficult task. In fact, it’s not – at least, not if you’ve been paying attention during the reading of your Morning Prayers, and during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. If you have been paying attention at these times, you’ll find that we, as Orthodox Christians, recite daily something called the “Symbol of Faith.” This creed – “creed” means, “I believe” – was written by the fathers of the first two Ecumenical Councils. It is, in a way, a “summary” of what we believe, talking about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Church, baptism, the resurrection to come, and life in the kingdom Of God. According to the fathers of the first six Councils, those who do not believe what is found in the Symbol of Faith are not members of the Orthodox Church, nor followers of the Orthodox Faith.

There are serious implications that give us good reason to be careful about the teaching of the Church, and to avoid the teachings of the heretics. If Jesus only appeared to be human (the heresy of docetism), then who was saved? If Jesus was a man who found favor with God, but not the Son of God incarnate, but rather was given that title as one “adopted” by God (the heresy of adoptionism) then how could He have saved us? Arius taught that Jesus was not of one essence with the Father, and that the Son of God was created. Nestorius taught that Mary was not the Theotokos – not the Mother of God – but only the “Christotokos” – the Mother of Christ; ultimately denying (by calling into question) the divinity of our Lord.

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Eutyches, in his zeal to show the errors of the teaching of Nestorius, went too far, saying that the divinity of the Son of God “swallowed up” the humanity of Jesus as the ocean consumes a drop of water. Sabellius taught that the three Persons of the holy Trinity are simply different appearances of the one God (the heresy of modalism). By contrast, St. Athanasios – who was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., when the teachings of Arius were condemned, and who had a part in the writing of the Symbol of Faith – teaches us that Christ became one with us so that we might become one with Him. If He is not fully human, this cannot be true. If He is not truly divine, then He has no power to save us. If His human will was completely overwhelmed by His divine will (the heresy of monothelitism), again, He is not like us, and so cannot help us.

Truth be told, apart from the question of whether or not we are prepared to meet the arguments of those who today have revived one or more of the old heresies, or perhaps even a new heresy (if such a thing is possible), most of us are capable of going through life without giving these questions any serious thought. But if we do so, we neglect our study of the Faith we confess, and the way of life that arises from our faith. Brothers and sisters, I would not want any of you to have to come before the Throne of the Lord on the great and terrible Day of Judgment unprepared. Each of us would do well to take some time – such as during one of the seasons of fasting in the Church year – to read the Symbol of Faith, not as an act of worship only, but as a form of study. What does it say? What does it mean? If we will go to the text of the Symbol, and seek to go more deeply into its meaning, we will find great treasures for us from the storehouses of the fathers of the first six Councils – treasures that can take part in the transformation of our being, so that Christ may be seen increasingly in each of us.

Holy Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils, pray to God for us!

Weakness in the Face of Temptations

2009-08-23T18:34:00.001-07:00

Our holy father Sisoës the Great was born in Egypt. As a young man, he left his city and went into the desert, settling finally on the same mountain where St. Anthony the Great had lived and struggled with the ascetic way of life, until he came to victory over the flesh, the passions, and the demons. Sisoës did the same, praying and fasting and in other ways taking no regard for this world or for his body, seeking only communion with God and a desire for the kingdom to come. He also won the victory; and God gave him the ability to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and to raise the dead. Many people came to the saint, and he helped them for some sixty years in this world before departing this life; and has been a healer and a helper after his repose, until today.

He gave many people direction for their own spiritual development. A monk asked the holy father what he needed to do in order to please God, and be saved. He was told to leave the world and everything in it behind, and to draw near to God with prayers and with tears of repentance. Another complained that he was not able to memorize the wisdom given to him by the elder, so that he could repeat it. The holy father told him that he should rather work to obtain purity of mind, and then to speak from this purity, trusting to God in everything. Then it would not be necessary to memorize someone else’s words. He taught that when temptation comes against us, we must acknowledge that this is the result of our sin, and we must then yield ourselves completely to the will of God. Likewise, when something good comes to us, or when we respond to a situation by doing what is good and pleasing to God, we should acknowledge that this, too, is because of God’s mercy, and not anything of which we can claim for ourselves. When asked about acquiring humility, the holy father taught that, when we consider every other person as being better, more worthy, than ourselves, we are on the path to being truly humble.

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, we hear of our Lord healing a man who was paralyzed. What does our Lord say? He says, “Your sins are forgiven.” It is only after the teachers of the law accuse Him of blasphemy that He directly addresses the physical ailment, commanding the man to rise, take up his bed, and walk. St. Sisoës shows us the same connection: When we do not acknowledge that we are weak in the face of temptations, when we do not confess our sins and our weakness, we are overwhelmed, and become paralyzed by our sins: certainly in spirit, and sometimes even physically, for we are beings of body, mind, and spirit, and what harms one part harms us in all our parts. As did the man healed in the Gospel, we need to draw near the Lord with faith, with prayers, and with repentance with tears. It is our Lord’s desire that we be made whole, a gift freely given to us, ours for the asking, because of His love for us – a love so great that He endured His Passion and the Cross and burial to set us free from sin and death.

When we are honest with ourselves, and remember our sins, how can we think that we are better than another person, more worthy, entitled to anything good? This is the entryway into the humility that gives us an indication of how well – or how poorly – we are serving as vessels of the love of God and for our neighbor we are meant to be. This is not easy. Indeed, the most restrictive fast is nothing compared to acquiring humility. Standing in prayer throughout the night is far easier than thinking that we are each first among sinners, and everyone else has not sinned as we have. The person who cuts you off in traffic; the person who ignores your plea for help; the person who rejects your efforts; the person who ridicules your faith, and your effort to show the life of Christ in your own – yes, I am saying that the people who anger and injury and hate and even kill you are meant to be considered more important, more valuable, and more worthy than we think of ourselves. When you find it difficult or impossible to do this, confess this as a fault, asking, begging, God for help – and remembering above all God’s love for you, and all that He has done for you, and has promised that He will do for you. When we allow the truth of the great mercy and love of God for us to fill us and to guide our thoughts and words and deeds, then we, like our holy father Sisoës, have come one step closer to mastering our passions, and to leaving this world and all its snares behind.

Holy father Sisoës the Great, pray to God for us!

Who Do >You< Look Like?

2009-08-23T18:29:00.002-07:00

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

In the reading today from the Gospel According to St. Matthew, our Lord asks His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Their replies make a list of holy men, prophets of God, including Elijah, and Jeremiah, and even John the Baptizer, who had been executed only a short time before. Then our Lord asks them directly, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replies, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Remember that, by the time this conversation between Jesus and His disciples takes place, He has given the Sermon on the Mount; He has healed many who were sick; He has cast out demons; He has worked other miracles – the feeding of the five thousand, for one – and has taught them far more than He has publically proclaimed. Remember also that, by this time, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses have accused Him of breaking the Law of Moses and of casting out demons by the prince of demons, and have already started plotting to kill Him. In the midst of all this, the common people have recognized Him as being holy, but have not perceived Him to be the Messiah, the Anointed One of God whose coming had been promised by God and foretold through the prophets. Remember that Nathanael, at the time of his being called to follow Jesus, had exclaimed, “You are the Son of God!” Remember that those who were in the boat when our Lord calmed the storm and Peter had walked on the water had also declared, “You are truly the Son of God!” What was different about what St. Peter had said, that earned him a blessing?

Have you ever noticed how children look like their parents? In some cases, the resemblance is there, although not always clearly; while in other cases, the resemblance is so strong as to be striking. This is true not only of appearances, but in mannerisms, such as sounding alike, walking alike, and other in other ways as well. So it is with all the previous declarations that had been made, saying that Jesus is the Son of God – for we are all sons of God, in that we are made in His image, and after His likeness. St. Peter’s declaration went beyond that, when he said, not just that Jesus is the Son of God, but that He is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Deliverer promised by God, and proclaimed by St. John the Baptizer as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. Human senses were not sufficient to perceive as deeply as St. Peter did when he made this statement of faith. God the Father revealed this truth to the saint, so that His Son might be made known – and not just then, but, through the testimony of St. Peter, to all who hear the Gospel, at all times, and in all places. The loop of resemblance between the Father and the Son is completed, in a way, when, at the Last Supper, Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father. He replies, “Have you not known that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

What about us? If the question was put to us, what would we say? Of course, because we have heard the Gospel, we know the correct response to give – but does that mean we also are blessed, as St. Peter was blessed? Or is there more to it for us than that?

Everyone has heard this bit of “folk wisdom” – “Talk is cheap.” Everyone knows this one as well: “Actions speak louder than words.” We who have been privileged to live in this time, with the Gospels written and the Church well established and a God-pleasing way of life taught to us; we who have been privileged to have been buried with Christ in our baptism, and empowered with the Holy Spirit as we were chrismated, and have received the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ – how do we truly proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? Do our lives reveal Him through what we say and what we do, and what we do not say and do not do? Can He be seen in us, in who we are, in how we live? Or do we look just like everyone else, indistinguishable from all the rest of those in the world who do not say that Jesus is Lord and Savior? Brothers and sisters, this should not be!

Let us commit ourselves, and one another, and all our life unto Christ our God. We say this again and again in our prayers, both in the worship of the Church, and in the privacy of our prayer corner. Let us also ask God the Father for the grace we need to be transformed more and more into the likeness of His Son, so that what we say and what we do brings the knowledge of Jesus Christ to those trapped in the ways of the world, longing to be set free. May God grant us grace to show the world His Son in us; and may we show the world in word and deed that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, pray to God for us!

"You are the Christ!"

2009-07-12T22:57:00.004-07:00

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, our Lord asks His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Their replies make a list of holy men, prophets of God, including Elijah, and Jeremiah, and even John the Baptizer, who had been executed only a short time before. Then our Lord asks them directly, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replies, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Remember that, by the time this conversation between Jesus and His disciples takes place, He has given the Sermon on the Mount; He has healed many who were sick; He has cast out demons; He has worked other miracles – the feeding of the five thousand, for one – and has taught them far more than He has publically proclaimed. Remember also that, by this time, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses have accused Him of breaking the Law of Moses and of casting out demons by the prince of demons, and have already started plotting to kill Him. In the midst of all this, the common people have recognized Him as being holy, but have not perceived Him to be the Messiah, the Anointed One of God whose coming had been promised by God and foretold through the prophets. Remember that Nathanael, at the time of his being called to follow Jesus, had exclaimed, “You are the Son of God!” Remember that those who were in the boat when our Lord calmed the storm and Peter had walked on the water had also declared, “You are truly the Son of God!” What was different about what St. Peter had said, that earned him a blessing?

Have you ever noticed how children look like their parents? In some cases, the resemblance is there, although not always clearly; while in other cases, the resemblance is so strong as to be striking. This is true not only of appearances, but in mannerisms, such as sounding alike, walking alike, and other in other ways as well. So it is with all the previous declarations that had been made, saying that Jesus is the Son of God – for we are all sons of God, in that we are made in His image, and after His likeness. St. Peter’s declaration went beyond that, when he said, not just that Jesus is the Son of God, but that He is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Deliverer promised by God, and proclaimed by St. John the Baptizer as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. Human senses were not sufficient to perceive as deeply as St. Peter did when he made this statement of faith. God the Father revealed this truth to the saint, so that His Son might be made known – and not just then, but, through the testimony of St. Peter, to all who hear the Gospel, at all times, and in all places. The loop of resemblance between the Father and the Son is completed, in a way, when, at the Last Supper, Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father. He replies, “Have you not known that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

What about us? If the question was put to us, what would we say? Of course, because we have heard the Gospel, we know the correct response to give – but does that mean we also are blessed, as St. Peter was blessed? Or is there more to it for us than that?

Everyone has heard this bit of “folk wisdom” – “Talk is cheap.” Everyone knows this one as well: “Actions speak louder than words.” We who have been privileged to live in this time, with the Gospels written and the Church well established and a God-pleasing way of life taught to us; we who have been privileged to have been buried with Christ in our baptism, and empowered with the Holy Spirit as we were chrismated, and have received the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ – how do we truly proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? Do our lives reveal Him through what we say and what we do, and what we do not say and do not do? Can He be seen in us, in who we are, in how we live? Or do we look just like everyone else, indistinguishable from all the rest of those in the world who do not say that Jesus is Lord and Savior? Brothers and sisters, this should not be!

Let us commit ourselves, and one another, and all our life unto Christ our God. We say this again and again in our prayers, both in the worship of the Church, and in the privacy of our prayer corner. Let us also ask God the Father for the grace we need to be transformed more and more into the likeness of His Son, so that what we say and what we do brings the knowledge of Jesus Christ to those trapped in the ways of the world, longing to be set free. May God grant us grace to show the world His Son in us; and may we show the world in word and deed that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, pray to God for us!

The Good Shepherd: St. John of San Francisco

2009-07-04T14:10:00.000-07:00

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. John the Theologian, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that He is the “Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for His sheep. He tells us as well that He has come so that we might have life, and have it abundantly. This does not mean an abundance of material possessions! Rather, it means a life filled to overflowing with the love of God for us in His Son – Who, indeed, gave His life so that we might inherit everlasting life through His death and Resurrection. He tells us He is going to His death when, speaking to His disciples in the upper room on the night on which He was betrayed, He says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” He adds, “You are my friends if you do what I have commanded.” What is His command? “Love one another, even as I have loved you.”

Today we celebrate the life and ministry of one such good shepherd, whose love for the Lord can be seen in his obedience to the Lord’s command to love everyone. The holy hierarch and wonderworker, St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, loved the Lord, loved worshipping the Lord, loved serving at the altar of the Lord, loved offering the precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ to the faithful, for the forgiveness of their sins and the salvation of their souls. He taught the people whom God had entrusted to his care, and disciplined them when this was necessary. He thought nothing of himself, and would take the gifts that those who loved him would provide for him, and give them to the poor and the needy. He prayed continually for his flock, and visited them. He healed many who were sick in body, mind, and spirit. He inspired many to turn from worldly desires and interests, calling them to come closer to the Lord, even inspiring some to become deacons and priests, readers and members of the choir, and to share in caring for those in need in the community of the faithful, and in the world. He provided a home for orphans, feeding and clothing them and seeing to their education in both secular and spiritual matters. He ate very little; he only slept for a few hours, sitting in a chair, devoting most of the watches of the night to praying for those in need in the household of God, and for those still in darkness, spiritual orphans, that God, in His mercy, would bring them home to His family, His Church. St. John truly understood how love may be seen when one lays down his life for his friends, for this is the way he lived – his life was abundantly full of love.

What of us? How do we live? If St. John were here today, he would tell you about the great love God has for you, that our Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life for you, and took it up again so that you might always be with Him in His kingdom, which has no end. He would encourage each of us to examine our lives, repent of our sins, to receive the holy Mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to ask God to fill our hearts with His love, so that we might carry that love from here into every place we go in the world, sharing that love with those in need, and those who despair, even those who hate us – and when they ask us how we come to love them, we may answer by telling them of God’s love: so that His name is glorified, lives are changed, and souls are saved. Brothers and sisters, let us love one another, obeying the command of our Lord, and following the example of our friend and helper, St. John.

Holy hierarch, father John, pray to God for us!

'The Eye is the Lamp of the Body..."

2009-06-29T08:50:00.001-07:00

The reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount, where our Lord Jesus Christ is teaching those who would follow Him about the life of the Kingdom of Heaven, and what we need to know to live that way of life. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes, which we hear at almost every Divine Liturgy as the third antiphon. The reading today begins with a statement that isn’t immediately as familiar as the Beatitudes – at least, not to me! “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be filled with darkness.”

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Now, we know that almost everyone gets 70% or so of the sensory information we receive by way of our sight. Therefore, it isn’t hard to understand that, if our eyes are healthy, we are going to see clearly; while if our eyes are not healthy, our vision will be obscured, sometimes to the point of blindness itself. It’s hard to imagine the state of darkness, in the sense of not getting any visual information about the world around us from seeing. You can try it yourself. Go home, put on a blindfold, and then make your way across the room, and through the house. Almost all of us will find that task to be quite a challenge! But is that the point our Lord is making? Surely He is not saying that blindness is caused by being evil!

We need to understand that our Lord often teaches us about spiritual matters by beginning from material things, conditions and situations we will recognize from everyday life. The fathers tell us that this is what is behind this statement of our Lord, about the eye being the lamp of the body. It is not so much about the physical organ of sight as it is about what is sometimes called the “mind’s eye.” Have you ever imagined something so vividly that you could “almost see it?” We possess that capability; it is one way of being like God; it comes from the likeness of God in which we were created. Through this capability – our imagination – we are able to “see” what we desire; we are able to “see” what we fear. This is what our Lord is speaking about. Just as our lives are affected by how well or how poorly we see through the eyes of our body, so, too, is our soul affected by the condition of our mind, for what the eye is to the body, the mind is to the soul. When the powers and abilities of our mind are turned toward God, we are filled with light; but when our minds are turned to worldly desires, we are filled with darkness. As you can probably imagine, trying to walk through your house while blindfolded will be difficult. Can you imagine how dangerous it can be to walk through life with a mind that is in darkness?

Among the saints celebrated today is the holy prophet of God, Amos. He was a shepherd, as were Moses the prophet and David the king before him. A citizen of the southern kingdom of Judah, he was sent by God to the northern kingdom of Israel to pronounce God’s judgment upon them. Amos was sent to tell them that, because of their wickedness, they were going to be conquered by the Assyrians, and the kingdom would be forever destroyed. Now, at the time that Amos brought this message, the kingdom of Israel had experienced an expansion in territory, and the people were living in a time of peace and prosperity; so you can imagine that the message Amos brought them from God was not terribly popular! But the truth was that the people of Israel had departed from the covenant God had made with them. In the midst of prosperity, the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, were neglected and oppressed by the rulers and exploited by the rich. Some of them worshipped pagan idols; while those who appeared to have remained faithful to the worship of God were more focused on the ritual aspects of worship, without their hearts being moved by the remembrance of what God had done for them, and their obligations to love and care for each other. Having satisfied the external requirements of worship, they then went about the rest of the lives as if God was not at all involved, as if they would never have to give an account of their lives. What Amos had foretold came true. The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel, executed many in very brutal ways, and led the rest away into captivity. You’ve heard of the ten lost tribes of Israel? This is what caused those tribes to be lost.

What about us? Do we see any parallels, any reasons to be concerned? Or have we made our minds blind, darkened by our sins? Our Orthodox worship is rich in symbols, deep in meaning – we don’t do anything without a reason, and every word, every movement has significance, and we do well to learn and remember and do these things. But, while these are important, it is easy to forget that it is not the correct performance of these parts of the ritual that is important; it is not by crossing ourselves properly, or any other external aspect of worship, that we are saved. It is how we live, how we treat ourselves, and how we treat others, that matters. If we do not see this, we need to examine our lives, search out our sins, and confess them, and repent, and beg God for the grace to overcome our passions. We need to fast, and to pray; we need to give, and forgive; we need to see everyone else as being an icon, and to be humbled by the knowledge of our own failure to be the person God wants us to be. We need to see the needs and hurts and pains of those around us, and, as we are able, reach out to them and give them what we can, giving from our hearts, with thanks to God for all He has done for us. And if you cannot see what you need to do, ask God to give you light in place of the darkness, so that you may not be lost in captivity to your sins, but instead see the way to dwell in the kingdom of God.

Holy prophet Amos, pray to God for us! Amen.

All Saints of Russia

2009-06-21T14:16:00.004-07:00

Last Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrated the Feast of All Saints. We asked the question, “What makes a person a saint?” We talked about how saints are consecrated, set apart for the service of God, and no longer focused on worldly purposes. We looked at the icons, and the saints we see there, in our family picture album, and our church “hall of fame.” The conclusion was that they yielded themselves to the Holy Spirit, and so were set apart, consecrated to God – and that each one of us has received the same Holy Spirit, and that we are meant to be temples of the Holy Spirit, to minister to the needs of others and to proclaim the good news of our deliverance from death by our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all saints; and we are all meant to be "Saints," in the way that we talk about those whom we remember, who we venerate through their icon.

Today we celebrate the Feast of all the saints whose light has shined upon us from the land of Russia, from the time of the baptism of Russia in the year of our Lord 988 through trials and invasions and wars, to those who are among the new martyrs and confessors, some of whom suffered and died during our own lifetimes. It took almost a thousand years for the good news to reach Kievan Rus’; it took another 800 years to make the journey from there across the steppes and the taiga to the western shore of the Pacific Ocean, and then, from the port city of Saints Peter and Paul, to come to Alaska, and down the west coast of the North American continent, in the year 1794. The faith was carried across the Russian land, first by monks, who fled from cities and towns and villages to struggle in the wilderness; and then by others, who formed small sketes, and then monasteries. People began to move nearby, and settlements became villages, and then towns, and then cities; and so monks would again flee further east, into the wilderness, starting the cycle again. Time and again, the Orthodox faith was embraced by the people who heard the Gospel as the roving monks came their way, and so the Church grew, and her influence spread. Many miracles were performed, many people were healed, and many, many more were protected and comforted in troubled times. We could speak for hours on end about the many wondrous saints who lived in Russia, and not discuss them all – to say nothing of those whose names and circumstances are known to God alone, in Whose presence they dwell.

It is good for us to remember and to celebrate this heritage, this great treasure, this inheritance that is ours in the Orthodox Church that is Russian in its background and practice. But, like a buried treasure or an unclaimed fortune, we gain nothing from this inheritance that has been given to us if we do not claim it as our own, and put in on, so to speak, and wear it, and use it, and show it forth in the world as so many of the saints who have gone before us have done. If we do not embrace the faith whole-heartedly, with that spiritual hunger and thirsting, as we hear in the Beatitudes, and live it out in our lives, there is no point in celebrating the feast today. If we do not draw near to the faith, as did those who lived next to the monasteries did, there is no point in celebrating the feast today. If we do not flee from the cities of the world, so that we can put aside the temptations of the world and draw closer to God, as did so many monastic saints in Russia, there is no point to celebrating the feast today. And if we are not willing to undertake the ascetic labors needed to transform us, so that we, also, may draw those living in a world of darkness to the light of the life of Christ in us, there is no point in celebrating the feast today – for if we will not do these things, then we do not value the saints who have arisen in the Russian land.

Brothers and sisters, let us pray that God will bless us with grace and strength to learn and follow the examples of saintly living given to us by all the saints of Russia, that we may join them in glorifying God, and to making known to our land, as they did in theirs, the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.

O all you saints of the Russian land, pray to God for us!

What makes a person a saint?

2009-06-14T19:24:00.001-07:00

What makes a person a saint?

Today, the first Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate the Sunday of All Saints. Those of us who grew up in the western church knew the celebration called by this name in a different way. The western church remembers all the saints on November the first, the day after what is called, “Hallowe’en.” The Druids in Ireland held a festival on October 31st, and among those associated with that day was their god of the dead. When the western church encountered this festival, it made an effort to take it from its pagan roots and make it a Christian celebration to honor the saints who had died. All Saints Day – or “All Hallows Day” (“hallowed” being a word that means, “to make holy”) was the result; and at that time, as we still do, a Vigil service was held before the feast; so All-Hallows Eve (“eve” being short for “even” or “evening”) became Hallowe’en.

Our feast of All Saints is not at all the same, although the name suggests it might be. What was last Sunday? It was the feast of Pentecost, the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit of God, Whom our Lord Jesus Christ had promised to send to His disciples as He was preparing to ascend into heaven. Now, the Holy Spirit has come; the Church has been established, and is strengthened and guided by the Holy Spirit; and each one of us who has been baptized and chrismated in the Orthodox Church has received this same Spirit. So, today we celebrate the means by which we are sanctified, by which we may become saints. This brings us back to the question, what makes a person a saint?

One of the reasons we have icons in our churches and icons in our homes is to remind ourselves that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses: the holy men and women who have shared our faith and way of life, and who, by their struggles and ascetic labors of prayer and fasting and worship and giving and forgiving and humility and service have shown us, in their words and deeds and lives the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, the same life given to each one of us in our baptism, empowered by the same Holy Spirit Who descended upon the disciples in the upper room. The holy men and women were no different than any of us. They are made of the same nature, the same “stuff” as we are; yet they did so well, they grew so close to God, that they left this world behind, and lived the life of the kingdom of heaven instead. We honor them for their example, and we ask them to pray on our behalf, trusting that the greatness of their love for God will be shared with us as well. The icons are a way to honor and remember them, and to be encouraged to follow their example. But what made it possible for those we venerate, whose icons are on our walls, to achieve what they achieved? How did they take hold of holiness?

Sanctity – that is, holiness, or saintliness, or godlikeness – is the work of the Holy Spirit. To be a saint is to be consecrated by the Holy Spirit – set apart for the purposes of God. We consecrate the chalice and diskos and other holy vessels and instruments used for the Mystical Supper. We consecrate vestments for the altar and preparation table, and vestments for the clergy and the altar servers. We even consecrate icons! Once consecrated, we no longer use any such item for routine or everyday use. That which has been consecrated is used only for the service of God. (Pay attention now: here’s where it’s going to get interesting…)

When you were baptized and chrismated, YOU were consecrated. YOU became a bearer, like the Theotokos, of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. YOU became a temple of the Holy Spirit. This means that we are ALL saints; even if we don’t live like saints, even if we have not yet mastered our passions, even though our lives are still stained and fouled by our sins. This is part of the reason why we celebrate the feast of All Saints on the first Sunday following Pentecost: to remind each one of us of our high calling; to remind each one of us that we are saints – that is, we have been consecrated, set apart for the service of God: not the service of the world, or of our flesh, or of our passions. We are meant to serve God; and to the extent that we have failed to do so, we have failed to do what the saints on the icons have done: to show to us and to the world the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, let us celebrate today appropriately, giving thanks to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, giving thanks to God for the gift of the examples of holy living we have in the saints; and giving thanks to God for the gift of His grace, so that we may repent of our sins, and come to our senses, and do our part in being consecrated, serving God, and serving God in each other, so that He will be glorified, and our souls may be saved.

Pentecost and the Work of God

2009-06-08T17:41:00.001-07:00

Today, in the yearly cycle of the life of the Church, we find ourselves at the point at which the work of God is, in a sense, completed. The Church year, as you will recall, begins in September; and the first major feast of the Church year is that of the Nativity of the Theotokos. This feast is the prelude, if you will, of the way in which God fulfills the promise He made to Adam and to Eve, even as they were being cast out of the Garden of Eden. By their disobedience, they could no longer live in the intimate presence of God, and speak with Him, and see Him face-to-face. Now they were sent from Paradise into the world, there to face the challenges and rigors of life, and now subject to death, and the fear of death. But God makes them a promise: A Deliverer will come, who will set them and all their descendants free from death, and make it possible for the human race to once again live in the presence of God.

God never leaves His people. He acts to cleanse the earth when sin had become so pervasive that it threatened the existence of all living things. He chooses a righteous man, Noah, to build an ark, and to preserve a remnant from the great flood He will send to put an end to sin. Later, generations after the family of Noah has spread out and grown in numbers, He chose another righteous man, Abraham, with whom God made a covenant, promising that it would be through the lineage of Abraham that salvation would come to the world. Later, from the lineage of Abraham, God chose Joseph, the son of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, to be the preserver of Egypt from a great famine, by which Joseph was also able to save all his family. Many generations later, God chose Moses to deliver His people from the slavery that had fallen upon them in Egypt, and to bring them to the land He had promised to Abraham and His descendants. As they journeyed, God was with them, and in the desert God gave Moses His commandments, so that His people would know how they were to live a life pleasing to God. Generations later, God chose David to be the King of all the children of Abraham, and, as king, to rule according to His Law, and to enforce the Law among His people. He sent prophets to teach them, and to call them to repentance and the reformation of their way of living. Finally, in the fullness of time, He sent His Son to take on our human nature, so that all the promises God had made would be fulfilled. We celebrate His coming into our midst at the feast of the Nativity. We celebrate the beginning of His ministry among us at the time of His baptism in the Jordan River on the feast of the Theophany. Through the course of the year, we recall many of the miracles He performed, hear Him teaching His disciples, see Him confronting the people who had been told He would come, but did not always recognize Him. Then we celebrate His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and go through the events that lead to His arrest, torture, and death on the Cross. We remember Him buried, and then the glorious celebration of His triumph over death with His resurrection on Pascha. We walk with Him once more through the forty days He is present with His disciples after He has risen from the dead; and then, as we did just ten days ago, we celebrate His Ascension into heaven.

It is important for us to recall that His ministry among us, which began with His taking a human body for Himself – a body in which He lived as we do; a body in which He worked miracles; a body put to death on the Cross and buried in the tomb; a body that He raised from the dead – His ministry continues as He has ascended into heaven, taking us with Him, for He remains joined to us, His divine nature joined to our human nature. As St. Athanasios the Great teaches, He became like us, that we in turn might become like Him. With His Ascension, the promise made to Adam and Eve has been fulfilled; and the path to Paradise, which had been guarded by an angel with a fiery sword so that Adam and Eve could not return the way they had come, has been opened for us by Him. As we once lived in the presence of God, so now does He live, and our human nature is seated at the right hand of God the Father. We have, in Him, been restored to the state we had with God before the fall of Adam and Eve.

Now we have come to the Day of Pentecost, the day our Lord told His disciples to await, the day on which they were anointed with power from on high. As He promised, He sent the Holy Spirit to teach us all things, to strengthen us in our life in Christ, and to lead us into all truth.

We still have work to do. As the disciples were anointed with the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost itself, each one of us, everyone who has been baptized and chrismated has, on that day, had their “day of Pentecost,” for when we were baptized we were raised from the dead, not with the life we had when we were born, but rather with the life of Christ, risen from the dead; and when we were chrismated, we were given power from on high – not in the form of the flames, but through the water of the font, and the oil of chrismation. We are called to bring into the reality of our lives the potential created by God in us – we are called to live, not according to the world, but rather by the way of the kingdom of heaven. We are called to leave behind the life we had before, and to embrace and express in our own thoughts and words and deeds the life of Christ risen from the dead. We are called to a new life, and given power for that life by the Holy Spirit within us. St. Paul tells us that our bodies are meant to be temples of the Holy Spirit; and that we are to have the mind of Christ, so that we can speak and act and show to the world the life of Christ.

When they see us, do they see our Lord? Brothers and sisters, the work of God by God is complete; but we have work – His work – to do in ourselves. Let us trust in the Lord Who has given us His life; let us trust in the Lord Who has given us the Holy Spirit, and so the power to change our lives; and let us dedicate ourselves to being transformed from who we are into the likeness of Christ, so that He may be seen in each of us, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Savage Wolves and Perverse Doctrines

2009-05-31T17:39:00.001-07:00

In the reading today from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul warns us that there will be times of trouble for the Church, with attacks that will come from without and from within. The attackers will be, as he calls them, “savage wolves.” As the Church grew, and people’s lives were transformed, so that they no longer lived according to the ways of the world, but rather according to the way of life in the kingdom, those who ruled on Earth perceived the Christians as a threat to their own power and authority. They tried to suppress the Church, to silence the proclamation of the Gospel of our salvation in Jesus Christ – and when they felt it was necessary to accomplish these things, they did not hesitate to imprison, torture and even kill those who by word and by deed proclaimed their loyalty to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

St. Paul also warns that there is another source of danger, another form of attack from these “wolves in human form.” He says that there will come people from within the Church herself who will proclaim perverse doctrines, and will seek followers for themselves, whom they will lead away from the true Faith in schism and heresy and even paganism.

One such teacher and leader was a priest named Arius. He didn’t necessarily start out with the intention of deceiving the faithful in his care; and it is possible that his start down the road to heresy began with the best of intentions: to glorify God. But the teaching he proclaimed began to make it seem as if the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God Who took on our nature and came to save us, was not quite God. The controversy this stirred up among the faithful led to a decision by his bishop to stop teaching this about the Son of God. Arius responded by fleeing from that bishop, going to another diocese, where he continued teaching as he had before. It wasn’t long before this was causing trouble again; and as others spread his teaching throughout the Church, the turmoil was spreading. The Church was in danger of being torn apart by the struggle between those who sided with Arius and those who opposed him.

At the time this problem was developing, the Emperor Constantine, who, upon becoming the Emperor, ended the persecutions of the Church with the issuance of the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. He was laboring to unify an Empire that had been divided, and he looked to the Church to be the nucleus around which everyone could be brought together. The last thing he wanted was a division in the body to which he looked to bring unity to the realm; and so, in the year 325 A.D. he summoned the bishops of the Church to his vacation city of Nicaea, not far from his new capital in Constantinople. When they opened their deliberations, he charged them, among things, with resolving the controversy that was the result of what Arius had been teaching.

When this meeting – the first Ecumenical Council – completed its work, they had, by a unanimous vote, declared that what Arius had been teaching was a heresy. They also declared what is the true Faith in a summary form. That summary, with a small addition that was added at the Second Ecumenical Council, is used in every Divine Liturgy of the Church, and in our private prayers as well. We call it the Nicene Creed; and it teaches us about God, the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and about the Church. This is why we mark today as the celebration of the holy Fathers of the First Council.

The warning that St. Paul gave to the Church leaders with whom he met in Ephesus is a warning that we should heed today. The attacks upon the Church have been many – there is certainly no need to explain this to those of us in the Russian Church! Other false teachers have come from within the Church; and there are some today, and there will certainly be more in the future. What, then, are we supposed to do? How do we respond to the warning St. Paul has given to us?

What we must do, brothers and sisters, is to become so familiar with the Orthodox faith, and the Orthodox way of life, that we will immediately recognize when we hear something contrary to the faith being taught or discussed. To do this, we must be reading and learning from the holy Bible, the teachings of the Fathers, and the lives of the saints. We must pray and fast; we must give from what God has given to us; we must attend the worship services of the Church as often as possible; and we must live in such a way that the life of Christ will be seen in everything that we say or do. If doing these things, if living the life of our Lord given to us when we were baptized is seen by the world as a threat – and it is being seen as a threat in many ways in this land, in this city, today – so be it. We do not seek power in this world; and we will obey the powers of this world, except when doing so will cause us to depart from being the servants of God and the disciples of Christ. We do not seek power in this world, but we do desire the overthrow of the rule of the prince of this world, the enemy of our salvation.

May God grant us the grace and wisdom and strength to grow knowledgeable in the Orthodox faith and to live the life of His kingdom in this world, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls!

Healing Those Born Blind

2009-05-24T22:59:00.004-07:00

Christ is risen!

If we weren't blind, we'd be able to see signs of the presence of God all around us. If we weren't blind, we would look around in church, and see the saints and the angels gathered to worship with us. The saints have seen wondrous things. Young children, in their innocence, sometimes see angels close at hand. We might see them, too – but we can't, because we're blind.

Part of the problem is that we think we can see. The fact that we can see the material world around us using the eyes of our physical bodies fools us into thinking we are not blind. That's unfortunate: We aren't going to ask to be healed, because we don't know that something is wrong with us.

The man we meet in the reading today from the Gospel according to St. John the Theologian knows that he is blind. He knows he has a problem. His problem is solved when our Lord finds him, and gives the man his sight. The way in which this miracle is performed can teach us in several ways.

Think back to the account of the creation found in the book of Genesis. "In the beginning," it says, "God created the heavens and the earth." How does God create? He said, "Let there be light"; and suddenly there was light. Throughout the entire act of creation, God speaks into being all that exists, with one significant exception. When it comes time for the creation of humanity, God says, "Let us make man in our own image"; and rather than giving a command, as He had given to the water, that it might bring forth fish and all the creatures who live in the sea, and as He had commanded the air, that it be filled with birds and all flying creatures, and as He had commanded the earth to bring forth living creatures, in making mankind God formed Adam from the dust of the earth. In a way, we might even say that God got His hands dirty when He made us; He was actively and deliberately involved in making us who we are; and having formed a body, He breathed into it the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Now we come back to the man born blind, and the miracle of his receiving his sight. How does our Lord Jesus Christ work this miracle? He takes once more the dust of the earth, and moistens it from His own spittle to make it a paste, which He then applies to the man's eyes. He then commands the man to go and wash away the mud in the pool at Siloam. When he obeys the command, his sight is given to him.

Brothers and sisters, those of us who have been baptized were not merely blind. We were dead. Yet, in our baptism, we were buried with Christ in His death; and, raised up out of the water of the font, we were raised with Him Who has arisen from the grave, trampling down death by His death. So, as the blind man washed in the pool of Siloam, we have been washed in the water of baptism. We need to understand this if we are to see truly, if we are to see with new eyes, if we are to see more than just the material world, for we who are made in the image and after the likeness of God do not live only in the material world – we live in the realm of the spirits as well.

There were two parts, two activities in the healing of the man born blind. The first was the act of our Lord, Who made the dust of the earth into a paste with His spittle, and then this being put on the man's eyes. The second part was the action of the man going to the pool, and washing himself there. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the miracle of His Incarnation, has taken for Himself a material body, made of the dust of the earth, just as we have been formed of the dust. It is the same body in which He lived, and worked miracles. It is the same body in which He Who as God cannot die, suffered death on our behalf, to set us free from death. It is the same body with which He rose from the grave to a life that has no end. It is the same body with which He ascended into heaven, and in which He is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. He shares Himself with us, in order that we might become like Him. Having been washed, we must go forth in faith we must do our part, we must live according to the way of life we learn in the Church: praying, as did our Lord Jesus Christ; fasting, as our Lord did; struggling to overcome the passions by which we are tempted to sin, as the Lord did during His forty day fast in the desert, following His baptism. We must give from all that we have, and give of ourselves, as our Lord gave Himself for us all on the Cross.

When we pray; when we fast; when we struggle; when we give; when we love; when we are humble; when we forgive – then we are doing our part, as the man born blind did his part by going to wash in Siloam's pool. By desiring and working to show the life of Christ in our own lives, we are being transformed; and one day, perhaps even in this life, we will see God, and the rich life of the spiritual world of the saints and angels who are all around us. We have already been healed. May God grant us grace, so that we may see!

Finding Our Place in the Story: Samaritans? Or Jews?

2009-05-17T18:28:00.003-07:00

We are all familiar with the encounter our Lord has at the well where He meets the Samaritan woman, as we heard today in the reading from the Gospel according to St. John the Theologian. He asks her for water; she asks Him how it is that a Jew asks for water from a Samaritan; and through the course of the conversation our Lord reveals Himself, first by knowing her sins, and her situation, and then saying explicitly, when she has expressed a true faith in God, and that the Messiah God had promised would come, that He is the One they have been waiting for. In response, she goes into the village and urges the residents there to come and meet someone who knew all that she had ever done. As a result, many more come to believe with her that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.

This is the main part of the story; but the Fathers tell us that there is more to be found, if we will look for it. One aspect – the background, if you will, of this story, or its context – is the relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans, which serves as the springboard to the encounter of our Lord with the Samaritan woman. As always, we need to be alert to our own part in the story, for, when we can discern this, we are much more likely to grasp more of the lesson we are meant to derive from the holy Scriptures.

The Jews disliked, even despised, the Samaritans, and held them in contempt. The Samaritans had fallen into idolatry, but then repented, and returned to the worship of God, while claiming to have preserved the faith while the Jews had changed it while in exile in Babylon. The Jews rejected the claims of the Samaritans that they were also of the house of Israel, and had no dealings with them. Indeed, when our Lord sent His disciples out on their missionary journeys, He told them not to enter the cities of the Samaritans, but to go only to the Jews.

From this, we might think that the hatred and the rejection of the Samaritans was the right thing to do. Yet we find our Lord at a well outside a Samaritan village, and He does not hesitate to speak with a woman of that village, to lead her, and those whom she will bring to Him, to belief in Him and so to their salvation. Consider also, that the man who was on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho and was robbed and beaten and left for dead was not helped by one of his own people, but rather by the Good Samaritan. Remember that, of the ten lepers who were healed, only one returned to give thanks to the Lord, and he was a Samaritan.

St. John Chrysostom points out that whenever our Lord came to the Jews, they rejected Him; while the Gentiles, when they saw Him passing by, were drawn to Him, and asked Him to stay with them. The Jews were envious of Him, and angry; while the Gentiles believed Him, reverenced Him, and obeyed Him. When the Jews questioned our Lord, they did so to try to trick Him or to trap Him; while the Samaritan woman asks Him questions with respect, and with a desire to learn. The Jews did not want to hear Him, and tried to prevent others from coming to Him; while she, having heard, brought others to Him as well.

Do you know our place in the story? The Jews were the "chosen people" and the ones with whom God had made His covenant. The Jews were the ones to whom God had given His law. The Jews were the ones to whom the prophets were sent. The Jews were the ones who had been given the knowledge of the Messiah Who was to come and set free the people of God. Of whom can this be said today? The Church, of course! We are the ones who have been chosen by God to have His law written, not in stone, but on our hearts. We are the ones who know the prophecies, and that these have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord. We are the ones who have been given the knowledge of the way of life that transforms us from creatures on earth to citizens of the heavenly Kingdom. The Church is the new Israel; but we must beware, we must be careful not to be like the Jews, who considered themselves more worthy than others because they were the people God had chosen as His own. We must not consider ourselves better than others, but instead see only our own faults – for in this way we will be humble, rather than proud, arrogant, and prone to hating others. We must fast and pray; we must give of ourselves, and from what God has given to us. We must fight against our passions and seek to put in their place the virtues that are pleasing to God. We must, as St. John Chrysostom tells us, be like the Samaritan woman: drawing near to the Lord while being aware of our sins; we must hear what He is saying, and do what He says; and we should bring others to Him, so that they may also hear Him, and follow Him.

Brothers and sisters, let us hear what the Fathers are teaching us. Let us be like the Samaritan woman, and draw near to God, and help others to do so as well by being transformed in thought, word, and deed. Let us worship God and honor Him, and so become citizens of His Kingdom.

Christ is risen!

Rise, Walk, and Sin No More

2009-05-11T07:55:00.002-07:00

In the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. John the Theologian, we hear of how a man who had sought a miracle of healing for a period of thirty-eight years was met by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who restored the paralytic to physical health and strength. If we listen carefully, we will hear two instructions – commands, really – that our Lord gave to the paralyzed man; and we will also discern the deeper impact of being restored to health.

As we consider these things, we need to recognize our own place in the story. When we recognize that this story is as much about us as it is about the man paralyzed for thirty-eight years, we will find ourselves the beneficiaries of the wondrous power and presence of our Lord; and we will hear His commands as applying to us as well. How are we involved in the story? As the man in the Gospel is physically paralyzed and cannot help himself, we are spiritually paralyzed and cannot help ourselves until we have entered the pool touched, not by an angel, but by the Holy Spirit. What pool is this? Why, the baptismal font. There, having our moral infirmities taken away, we are made whole, made clean, and given new life, just as the man who had been paralyzed received through his encounter with the Lord Jesus.

The first command given is this: "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." Although he did not know who it was that gave him this command, the paralyzed man believed, and acted upon his belief. That is to say, he had faith; and by that faith, he ceased to be weak and unable to move. Rather, he could stand, where he could not do so before; and the restoration of his strength was such that he could pick up the bed on which he had suffered, and carry it away. So, too, is given to us the opportunity to overcome the weakness of our will – the defect introduced into our being by the disobedience of Adam and Eve, our first parents. We are to rise once more to the level of having a will in agreement with, and in obedience to, the will of God; and to walk in that strength as we carry the burdens and cares of this life. But to do so, we must believe that this has, indeed, been done for us; and we must put this belief into action, in what we say, in what we do, in how we live.

The second command given is this: "Go, and sin no more, less something worse should come upon us." The Fathers teach us that there is quite often a connection between bodily suffering and sin. It is rare for someone to suffer from an illness or an injury and not to feel the physical pain arising from that illness or injury. Rarer still is the person who is pained in their spirit because of their sins; yet the damage to our souls from our sins can be so great that it can, as the Fathers say, "spill over" and affect our bodies as well. St. John Chrysostom says of the man in the Gospel today that his ailment was the result of his sins; and that he had suffered for his sins for many years. As a result of meeting our Lord, the man had been made whole; and he is told, "sin no more"; a warning that a return to his sin could well result in his paralysis returning to him, or even something worse. It is important for us to recognize that, because we will go to great lengths to relieve physical suffering, but do next to nothing to relieve the sickness and infirmity of our souls wounded by sin, that God may allow us to become ill, to call attention to our need to repent of our sins and to confess them, and to adopt a new way of living. If we do not, if we continue to live in the ways that had wounded us, we may again suffer in this life; and will most certainly suffer without hope of release in the fires of Hell in the age to come.

Finally, there is the impact of the healing upon the man who had been paralyzed. He told everyone who asked him – even those who rebuked him – what the Lord had done for him. So, too, should we always be prepared to tell anyone who asks what the Lord has done for us. Of course, those who knew the man who had been paralyzed would wonder how it was that he had been restored to strength and health, and so would be moved to ask him how such a thing had happened; while those who did not know him, but saw him carrying his bed on the Sabbath day and so rebuked him heard about the coming of the One Who is the Lord of the Sabbath. This means that we must live in such a way that those who know us, and so are aware of our sinful ways, will see us walking in a new way, and in a new strength, and so be moved to ask us how such a thing is possible. We must live according to the will of God, and the way of the Church, even when this brings us into conflict with the law of the land, or the spirit of the age. We must speak up for what is right and true and pleasing to God, even if our culture says that it is right to live contrary to what God has said – and we must be ready to give them an answer that testifies to our faith that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of our lives.

This is no small task; but if we will ask God for the grace and strength to bear witness to His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to walk in His ways, we will find power from on high to fulfill His commands. We will have the strength and the courage to rise, and to take up our beds, and walk, sinning no more, and telling all of our salvation in the One Who heals us and makes us whole: our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

The Myrrh-bearing Women and Salvation

2009-05-03T15:09:00.002-07:00

How often do you think about your salvation? Most of us probably don't think about it at all, except perhaps when we're doing our morning or evening prayers, or when we realize we've done something terribly wrong. When we do think about our salvation, it's probably in terms of what we have done; and of what we must do to make up for what we have done – that is to say, what we have done that is wrong, harmful, to ourselves, and to others.

Today we celebrate the myrrh-bearing women, who came to the tomb of our Lord on the morning of the third day after His death. Remember how this is counted: the day our Lord died on the Cross, great and holy Friday, is the first day. The second day, great and holy Saturday, is when His body lay in the tomb, while He Himself descended in hades to destroy the power of death and to set free the souls held captive by death, to lead them up on high. Now it is very early in the morning of the third day – Sunday – today. The women could not come on the second day, as it was the Sabbath, and what they had come to do was considered work – and no one was to work, for that day had been given by God to His people as a day of rest. So it was on the third day that they came, bearing sweet spices, with which they would anoint the Lord's dead body before wrapping Him in a winding sheet, as was the custom of the Jews.

As we celebrate the myrrh-bearing women, we honor the love that brought them out on a mission that was absolutely unnecessary. Why was it unnecessary? The first reason is given to us in the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Mark. Joseph of Arimathea had already wrapped the body of the Lord in fine linen. The second reason should be obvious to us today, although Joseph and the myrrh-bearers, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome did not believe what the Lord had told His disciples – that on the third day He would rise. What need is there to anoint a body and prepare it for burial when He is no longer dead?

So it is also for us. It is far too easy to think that the right thing to do – as the myrrh-bearers had sought to do what was right according to the Law – is to go through all the motions of being Orthodox. We think about how to cross ourselves, and when; when we should make a bow, and when we should make a prostration. We read the labels on foods in the store during fasting seasons, just in case the 17^th or 18^th or 23^rd ingredient is sodium caseinate, which comes from cow's milk, or gelatin, which may be from a cow's hoof. We should be careful about all these things, about every practice we learn in the Church about how to live an Orthodox life. But these things, important as they are, do not bring about the salvation of our souls. These things are the myrrh and sweet spices that we bring – but if we do not do everything for the love of God, and for His glory, than our labors are just as useless as was the effort of the myrrh-bearing women to prepare the body of our Lord for burial. We must instead examine our hearts, and bury every impulse and desire for the things of this world, so that we offer our love to God; and that we also take care to love those who are made in His image, and after His likeness – everyone on the face of the earth. When we find our hearts drawn not to power or pleasure or riches or fame, but instead to love for all, hatred for none, to humility, to patience and forgiveness and charity and worship – then have we done our duty to the Lord, then have we honored Him rightly and in truth.

Brothers and sisters, let us pray asking God for the grace to be anointed by Him with His Holy Spirit, so that we who are the Body of Christ may live in the way that honors Him with our love, and show Him living in our midst, so that those who still dwell in darkness and the shadow of death may come to Him and receive the gift of life eternal in the kingdom of heaven.

"Without Proof, I WIll Not Believe!"

2009-04-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the reading from the Gospel according to St. John the Theologian, we hear how the disciples of the Lord were gathered together with the doors locked, for fear of the Jews. Our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, appeared to them in that room, blessing them with the gift of peace. He showed them His hands and His side, where the nails had been driven through Him, and where the spear had pierced His side, with blood and water flowing out. After this we hear that the disciples were glad, when they had seen the Lord.

Remember that we who are called by His name – Christians – are told that we must follow Him. When we do so, we, too, are His disciples; and so here we are, as were they, gathered together on the first day of the week. Our Lord Jesus Christ is also here, even if we do not see Him as they did. Nor are the doors locked out of fear; indeed, the doors are open, and anyone who desires to seek Him is welcome to enter. We are not afraid; but are we truly His followers? Or are we more like Thomas, who was not with the others that day? They told him what they had seen; but he refused to believe until he had proof; until he could see the wounds, put his finger in the hole made by the nail, put his hand into the wound left where the spear had pierced.

Does anyone here today need proof? What will you do when no such proof is given to you? How easy it would be for the Lord to appear in our midst as He did that day; but even if He did, would we then believe? How often would He have to appear in order to convince us? How likely would we be to fall into deception if we required such a vision as Thomas required?

Thomas had to see in order to believe; yet our Lord told him, “Blessed are they who do not see, yet believe.” As St. Paul said, we walk by faith, and not by sight. We do this to be worthy of Him, and to be worthy of a place in His heavenly kingdom. I pray that each one of you knows and has experienced the love of God for you in Jesus Christ. I pray that each one of you is moved by that love to love Him in return, and to love Him more than you love or care for yourself, or for any power or pleasure or profit this world has to offer. I pray that each one of you be transformed by His love, to leave aside your attachments to this world, and to show Him forth in what you say, and what you do. I pray that each one of you may be humble and gentle, forgiving, and loving, so that those who need to see Christ may see Him in each one of us, and so be drawn to Him, and walk with Him in faith, with us. And if you are not yet there; if you have yet to know the love of Christ, and to feel His peace, and desire Him above all else in life, may you be blessed by Him as you do what so many have done before: seek Him in the words of holy Scripture; seek Him in the worship of the Church; seek Him in a life of prayer and fasting and giving; seek Him by laboring to overcome your passions. For He said, “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

Brothers and sisters, we have the testimony of those who saw Him risen from the dead – even that of Thomas, thanks be to God! We have the testimony of those before us who have endured suffering and death seeing with the eyes of faith what eyes of flesh can no longer see. Let us seek Him this day, and each day of our lives, with the sure and certain hope that we who today do not see Him clearly will be blessed to see Him, if nowhere else, in His kingdom. Let us not be faithless, but believing in the One Who has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon us all bestowing eternal life.

"Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God..."

2009-04-22T10:46:00.002-07:00

Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant, for I will not speak of the Mystery to Thine enemies, nor will I give Thee as kiss, as did Judas, but like the thief do I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom.

As our Lord spent forty days in the desert after being baptized in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptizer, fasting and praying in order to prepare Himself to accomplish His mission, so too have we, through the course of Great Lent, been called to fast and to pray, so that we, too, might be strengthened for our mission: to save our souls, and to proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord, risen from the dead, giving life unto all. The period of Great Lent culminated with the Resurrection of Lazarus, called forth from the tomb, alive four days after having died. As a result of this miracle, when Our Lord entered into Jerusalem, He was greeting by adoring crowds who called out to Him, "Hosanna!" But as that week went on, as the feast of the Passover drew near, things changed.

He cleansed the Temple, driving out the moneychangers, overturning their tables. He taught those who came to hear Him in parables in response to the scribes and the Pharisees, who questioned His authority to teach. In these parables, He warned the people of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, foretold the destruction of the Temple, and told His disciples of His coming death and resurrection. Then, as He kept the Passover, He interpreted it anew for His disciples, showing them the deeper meaning, and giving them instruction to continue the feast with this new understanding.

Today, we who are called by His name -- who are His disciples, insofar as we follow Him -- are with Him and them in that upper room; for the Lord is not bound by time and space. The bread and wine presented here today are blessed by Him to be His Body and Blood, as He did that day, so long ago. We eat what they ate; we drink what they drank; and we are blessed as they were blessed.

It is sad to see that only a handful have gathered here today to take part in this Mystical Supper. Yes, the demands of the world can, and do, weigh heavily upon us. But I cannot help but recall the parable of the Wedding Feast, when the Lord of the feast saw the hall only partly filled, and so called His servants to go out into the highways and hedges, and to gather everyone in until the banquet hall was full. We are His servants; and so we must also heed the call, and bring in those who do not yet know the love of God for us in Jesus Christ, of His great mercy, nor of the forgiveness of sins, nor of the new life He desires to give to us all.

Brothers and sisters, let us keep the feast of our Lord, and take to ourselves the spiritual food and drink He gives in His Body and Blood; and let us ask God for the grace and strength we derive from these gifts to be faithful servants, and to so let the life of Christ be seen in and through us, that this "banquet hall" of the church, and every church, may be filled, to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

A Change of Heart; From "Hosanna!" to "Crucify Him!"

2009-04-12T14:10:00.001-07:00

The crowds who has heard of Lazarus being raised from the dead turned out to see the One Who had raised him when He made His entry into Jerusalem. They greeted Him as they would a king, with palm branches, symbols of victory, and cries of, “Hosanna!” which, put another way, would be a cry of, “Save us!” Indeed, it was for this purpose that He had come. Their prayer for deliverance would be answered at the end of that very week; but before He had accomplished His mission on our behalf, many of those who had greeted Him with joy when He entered were in the crowd that shouted out, “Crucify Him!” What brought about this change of heart?

The question is a significant one; something each of us who stands here today holding a palm branch should ask; for we have joined them today in calling out to our Lord Jesus Christ, “Hosanna!” But when we go forth from here, back into the world, back into the demands that all the aspects of life in the world place upon us, do we, because of our sins, in effect cry out, “Crucify Him?”

Many of the people who greeted our Lord this day where hoping that a king from the royal house of King David would come to set them free – and, indeed, such a King had come. But they were looking for Him to establish an earthly kingdom. They were looking for a King who would lead them in battle against those who oppressed them, to cast out the Roman Empire from the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were looking for a kingdom of peace and prosperity – but they could only envision that kingdom on earth. Our Lord Jesus had come to establish His kingdom; but as He will tell Pilate, His kingdom is not of this world. Our Lord Jesus had come to lead us in battle against those who oppress us, but this was not a war against an earthly nation, but rather a battle against the demons. He came, not to cast out an earthly empire, but to lead us, a new Moses, from this world in which we are the slaves of our passions to the land of peace and prosperity God has promised to us – to dwell once more in His intimate presence in His heavenly kingdom.

They were looking for heaven on earth; and when they did not see it, many turned against Him. We, also, live in a time and culture that is seeking heaven on earth: in effect, a heaven without God, in which we are the masters, and answer to no one. This is what Lucifer, the highest of the angelic beings, sought to achieve: to overthrow God, and take His place as Lord of all. So it is, brothers and sisters, that we must examine ourselves, and guard our hearts, and with every part of our being, with every bit of our energy, we must embrace the Orthodox faith and the way of life we learn from the Church, so that we will not be deceived; so that we will not be distracted from the pursuit of heaven; and so that we will not turn our cries of “Hosanna!” into shouts of “Crucify Him!”

May God, in His mercy, give us the strength to endure, that we may remain faithful servants of His, so that He may be glorified, and we may be saved.

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2009-04-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

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St. Mary of Egypt: The Battle Against the Passions

2009-04-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

As you have been making your journey in life to the Orthodox Church and faith, you have probably encountered in the lives of the saints miraculous things taking place: saints who, while praying, have been lifted off the face of the earth, drawn toward the heavens; saints who have walked on water; saints who have healed the sick; even saints who have raised the dead. You have probably wondered, “What has changed? Why don’t these things happen today?”

As you have taken up your cross to follow our Lord Jesus Christ, you have undoubtedly fallen short; and, as you confess your sins, you find that your confession is essentially the same as the one you previously made; and that one was like its predecessor, and so on. You have probably wondered, “Why can’t I change? Why are my sins the same today?”

We have reached the fifth Sunday in Great Lent, a day dedicated to St. Mary of Egypt. You are probably familiar with her life, which we read here in the church last Wednesday evening, with the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. She herself tells of her youth, and how she was given over to satisfying the passions of her flesh. There was no form of sexual indulgence that she would restrain herself from practicing; and she took delight in seducing others to join her in the same. This was her way of life until she was prevented from entering a church on the day of the Elevation of the Cross. Given a gift of insight, she repented of her sins, and having faith in the protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, she went into the desert.

We live in a desert. From what I can tell, the desert in the Holy Land is very similar to what you can see and experience here, once you’ve left the city behind, and gone out into the wilderness. There’s an incredible difference between being alone out there, and our life today. Think of all the distractions available to us: movies; television; books, magazines, newspapers, theaters, to name just a few. We are seldom alone; and even when we are, we usually turn to one of the many forms of entertainment available to us, so that we do not have to confront ourselves and our situation.

This is not how it was for St. Mary. No food, apart from what she could find in the desert; no clothing, as what she had worn when she fled to the desert turned to rags and fell away; no forms of entertainment to ease any boredom or to fill the empty hours; and no one to talk to except God Himself. So it was that she found her desires returning to her again and again, the urge to return to the way of life she had practiced prior to coming to the Cross. She fought these temptations with prayer, unceasing prayer, striking herself on her breast while recalling the vow she had made to the Theotokos; or falling prostrate on the ground with tears and prayer for the temptation to pass away – and not ceasing to weep and pray, even if it meant remaining where she was for a day and a night, until the desire to sin had departed from her, replaced by the peace of God, the calm after a storm.

Who among us has done such battle against the passions? Think of how difficult it is for most of us to keep a simple rule of prayer, taking a few minutes during the day to be with God, to open to Him our hearts and minds. Think of how difficult it is to keep the fast; and how we will indulge ourselves with the glorious Pascha of our Lord. Think of how difficult it is for us to take a portion of what God has entrusted to us in material prosperity and give it away for the work of the church and to help those in need. Rather than confronting ourselves with the asceticism needed for us to become the masters of our passions, rather than the slave of our desires, we do not run to the desert: we run to those things that take our attention away from the kingdom of heaven, and bind ourselves ever more tightly to this world, and to our comfort and ease here.

We are about to start the final week of Great Lent this year. By the grace of God, there is still time for us to take steps toward the transformation of our being, to become a bit more ascetic in our life, to venture just a bit into the desert, leaving the world behind and drawing closer to God. Let us fast; let us pray; and let us ask God to accomplish our transformation from who we are today to being more and more in the likeness of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Holy mother Mary, pray for us!

Deny Yourself, Take Up Your Cross, and Follow Me

2007-03-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

(3rd Sunday of Great Lent) (Mark 8:34b-9:1)

At the end of today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Mark, our Lord says, “There are some who will not taste death until they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power.” The fathers tell us He is speaking of Peter, James, and John, who saw Him shining with the uncreated light of His glory on the mount of Transfiguration. At the time of His incarnation, leading to His Passion, and to Pascha, His victory, where He tramples down death by death on our behalf, He appeared to be nothing more than just a man. When He comes again, He will come in glory – He will not be mistaken for anyone else, He will not appear to be anything more than just a man. At that time, He will come to judge the living and the dead – each one of us will appear before Him to give an account of our lives, of all we have said and done, and of all we have failed to say or do. The righteous will enter into the joy of the reward the Lord has prepared for them; the unrighteous will depart into suffering. No one, the fathers tell us, will be sent to hell. Rather, it is the weight of our own sins, unconfessed and unrepented, that will keep us from rising to be in the presence of God.

There is a way for us to follow that will lead us into the kingdom of heaven, into the paradise of the presence of God. That is the way of the Cross; and we do well to consider it as we come to this, the midpoint in our journey through Great Lent, the Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious Cross. The Cross is where the victory was obtained for us; and the Cross is the way we must go to leave this world behind, and enter into the Kingdom of God. “Whoever would follow Me,” our Lord says, “must deny himself, and take up his Cross.”

What does it mean to deny ourselves? Blessed Theophylact writes that we can learn what it means to deny ourselves by considering what it means to deny another. What do we tend to do when we see the suffering of another person? Do we intervene? Or do we go our way, and say nothing? To deny ourselves is to say nothing when it is us who are suffering – to consider ourselves as to be of no value in this world, and so to endure whatever comes our way in this world without protest, without complaint.

What does it mean to take up our Cross? It means to be willing to suffer, even die, for Christ. At some times, and in some places, this means a martyr’s death. Yet even when it is not a literal death, we are called to be willing to endure the ridicule and rejection of a “social” death – to be cut off from those who live in the world around us because we choose to follow the way of life we have been blessed to receive in the Church, rather than to live according to the ways permitted in the world. We are meant to be witnesses to Christ, to show Him present in the world because He is living in us – and so we live according to holiness, and not the way of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

“Before Thy Cross, we bow down to Thee in worship, O Master; and Thy holy Resurrection, we glorify.” Grant us grace, O Lord, that we may not deny Thee, but may deny ourselves, and take up the Cross of holiness, and make the journey through Great Lent to Thy glorious Pascha, and so be found worthy, in Thy mercy, to enter into Thy kingdom. Let us glorify Thee in word and deed, so that our souls may be saved; and we may bear witness to others, that they also may be saved.

Physical and Spiritual Illness

2007-03-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

(2nd Sunday of Great Lent) (Mark 2:1-12)

In today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Mark, we hear of the healing of a man who is sick with palsy; a condition that may refer to being paralyzed, with weakened muscles and possible tremors. He is all of us: paralyzed by sins, weakened by worldly thoughts and ways of life, and unsteady in all our ways.

When everything is going well, it is easy for us to live the Orthodox way of life. Praying is not a burden. It is easy to fast. We are generous with alms. We are not troubled by our sinful desires. But when the going gets tough, such as when we are sick, things are different. It’s difficult to pray. Fasting becomes a challenge. We don’t think of others, only of ourselves. We often indulge our weaknesses, using our sickness as an excuse.

The fathers teach us that we find out who we truly are in times of temptation and adversity, such as being ill. We are pushed by circumstances, challenged, and so reveal who we are. In the case of the man sick of the palsy, we might suppose that he realized his condition, and asked to be brought to the Lord for His help. If we are wise, we will do the same whenever we find ourselves in difficult circumstances.

Our Lord does not immediately heal the man; but rather, forgives his sins. We don’t usually like to consider this, but there is usually a connection between our physical state and our spiritual condition; and when we are ill spiritually, we may find this causing physical illness as well. Of course, we should always be considering how we live, and confessing and repenting when we find that we have sinned; and we should give thanks to God for the difficult circumstances that show us who we are, and how much work we each still have to do to become the person God wants us to be.

When the man sick of the palsy is healed in his body, our Lord tells him to take up his bed and walk. By doing so, the man shows that he has truly been healed; and, we are meant to know, that his sins were, indeed, forgiven. So it is with us. When we have examined our lives, and repented of, and confessed, our sins, the promise of God is that our sins, also, are forgiven. Trusting in the mercy of God, we, also, should take up our beds and walk – that is to say, we should also show, in deeds as well as in words, that we have been changed, that our souls have been healed. There should be something different in who we are, and in what we say and do, after we have repented and confessed. If there is nothing different, we need to ask ourselves whether we truly have repented, whether we have confessed everything – and again, if we find anything, repent, and confess – and be different.

As we journey through this time of Great Lent, this season of preparation for the celebration of our Lord’s Pascha, His triumph over death on our behalf, let us ask God for His grace to see our illnesses and our weaknesses and our wickedness; let us ask for grace to repent and confess; let us ask Him to forgive and heal us; and let us then take up the labor of living the life of Christ for all to see, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Made in the Image of God

2007-02-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

(The Sunday of Orthodoxy) (John 1:43-51)

Today, the first Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy. If we were at our cathedral in San Francisco, after the Divine Liturgy we could see the “Anathema” service. Here, amid prayers for the protection of the Church, the restoration of those who have departed from the Truth she declares into heresy, and the conversion of the unbelievers, are recalled the many false teachings, and teachers, that the Church has encountered in her existence. After each false belief has been mentioned, the people cry, “Anathema!” as the bishop who is presiding makes a dramatic gesture with the dikhiri and trikhiri – the two- and three-stemmed candles he holds, with which he usually gives a blessing to the faithful. On this day, however, he turns them down and away as the “anathema” is proclaimed – signifying that the Church rejects the false teaching described, and excommunicates those who support that lie in place of the Truth.

The remembrance of this day as the “Sunday of Orthodoxy” began with the end of the 7^th Ecumenical Council. It was at this Council that the Iconoclastic heresy was anathematized. It was the decision of this Council that the veneration of icons was not a violation of the Second Commandment that God had given to us on Mount Sinai through the holy prophet Moses.

In all probability, many (if not all) of us who have come to the Orthodox Church and Faith from a Protestant background had to wrestle with the question of icons. This was certainly true in my own journey to the Faith. God has said, “Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image or likeness.” We hear from the prophets and the apostles and the fathers of those who “worship the created, rather than the Creator.” We know that there have been, and are today, those who ascribe mystical powers to clan totems and animals, such as the Bear, the Lion, and so on. We know that the Egyptians worshipped beings – “gods,” as far as they were concerned – who had human bodies with animal heads: a hawk, a jackal, and so on. Even the Israelites, while Moses was on the mountain of God receiving the Ten Commandments, made for themselves an idol of a golden calf to worship. We live in a material existence; and the temptation is always there for us to confuse the material for the spiritual – and so, ultimately, to worship the creation. Indeed, when we sin – which is to say, when we choose to do our own will, rather than what God has willed for us – we can truly be said to be worshipping ourselves – a form of self-idolatry.

How is it, then, that the Church could say that it is not only possible, but even, in a way, necessary, to venerate the icons? Doesn’t this, in effect, violate the Second Commandment?

In her wisdom – which we trust is guided by the Holy Spirit of God – the Church at the 7^th Ecumenical Council noted that, by becoming incarnate, God had made Himself known to us. No longer was it impossible to truly and faithfully portray an image of God, as envisioned in the Commandment – for now God was with us; and He had been seen by us, had moved about in our midst as one of us, a bearer of human being. The icons bear witness to the reality of the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity in the flesh; the icons tell us that Christ was truly God and truly human – and to believe otherwise is anathema. When we grasp this teaching, we are better equipped to grasp the teaching of St. Athanasios the Great, who said, “He became as we are, in order that we may become as He is.” And there is more.

The simple application of pigment to wood that we call an icon is not the most important part of the gift we have received from the Fathers of the 7^th Council. We need to recall that humanity is created in the image and after the likeness of God. So not only are we meant to venerate the icons we see in the Church, and in our homes – we are meant to venerate the saints who are depicted there, for they, also, by the quality of their lives, bear witness to Christ, Who is God in the flesh, come to us to bring us to Him. Not only are we meant to venerate the saints who are celebrated – we are meant to venerate each other, for we, also, are made in the image of God; and we who have been baptized and chrismated bear the likeness of Christ. We are all icons; we all are able to show Christ to the world, for He dwells in us, and desires that we live in Him.

Would you spit on an icon? How, then, can you have contempt for another human being, who is an icon of Christ? Would you defile an icon? How, then, can you defile yourself by your sins, you who are an icon of Christ? As we bow down before the icons of the saints, out of respect for the testimony of their lives, and out of love for them whose love for our Lord is so great that it took them from earth into the deeper reality of the heavenly life, so, too, we should humble ourselves to all around us, thinking the best of them, and the least of ourselves. We should care for them and for their needs, for when we reach out in love to help another, we have the opportunity to do so for our Lord as well.

Brothers and sisters, let us ask God for His grace, that we may faithfully bear, and show to the world, Christ in us, our hope of glory. Let us humble ourselves in veneration of the image of God in all; and let us love one another, as Christ loved us, and give o ourselves as He gave Himself, an offering and sacrifice to God. If we will do so, we will receive the unending love and blessing of God; not only for ourselves, but for others, as well. If we will do so, Orthodoxy will triumph in our lives; and to the glory of God.

Forgiveness Sunday and Great Lent

2007-02-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

(Sunday of the Casting Out of Adam) (Matthew 6:14-21)

Today is the last Sunday before Great Lent, the period of preparation for the celebration of the Pascha of our Lord, and of our being set free from the death we have earned as a result of our sins. On this Sunday in the church year, we are called to remember that Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise because they chose to follow their own will and so disobeyed God, rather than submitting their will to the will of God in obedience to Him. Every time we choose the way of sin over the way of righteousness, we repeat the sin of our first parents; and so we also are denied a life in the presence of God.

Even so, God does not abandon us. He calls us to return to Him, to confess our sins, and to ask His help to transform our lives, so that we do not continue on the way that our first parents chose, but rather to return to the way of obedience to His will, and to walk in His ways, doing what is good and pleasing to God, loving and caring for all who are made in His image, tending to His world as His stewards, and seeking humility and righteousness on our part. In short, we are called to show forth in our lives the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, given to us in Holy Baptism, empowered by the Holy Spirit in chrismation, fed an nurtured in us by the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of our Lord, and by the words of the Holy Scriptures, and the teachings of the holy Fathers, and the lives of the saints. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who humbled Himself to take on our nature, and Who lived in obedience to the will of God, and was righteous in all things, having been abused in word and deed, as He was dying on the Cross, forgave His tormentors – and all of us who stand with them every time we sin – and so we also mark this day, and the entry into the journey of Great Lent, by forgiving others, and asking forgiveness of each other – making this also “Forgiveness Sunday.”

The “journey” on which we are about to embark takes place in time and space, as we seek to turn aside from worldly pleasures and pursuits, and use our time to pray, and worship, and study the Bible and the teachings of the Church. In doing so, we must keep in mind the truth that the world is not our home. We need to remember that the people of God who had been set free from their slavery in Egypt, and were being led to the Promised Land, looked back with longing on the things they had enjoyed in their life of captivity, and even desired to return to them, rather than completing the journey on which God Himself was leading them. We who have been set free, not merely from slavery, but from death itself, may also be tempted to turn our attention to the desires of our flesh, and the pleasures and comforts of this world. But let us be strong, brothers and sisters, and fix our resolve to make the journey, and, whenever we find ourselves growing weak in that resolve, call upon God for grace and strength, and renew our commitment, and increase our labors to be less ourselves, and more and more the people God desires us to be – bearers of the likeness of His beloved Son, and fellow laborers with Him Who saves us.

This world is not our home; and the emptiness that follows each and every time we obtain what we have desired in this world tells us that we must seek fulfillment not in our passions and in our earthly life, but in the way of life of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us lay aside all earthly cares; let us remember the love of God that saves us; let us seek to deepen that love within ourselves; and in that love, let us seek to keep a holy Lent – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Love and the Last Judgment

2007-02-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

(Sunday of the Last Judgment) (Matthew 25:31-46)

Two weeks ago, on the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, we saw a contrast between pride, the source of all other sins, and humility, by which we struggle against our sins, and find the way to forgive others. Last Sunday, the repentance of the Prodigal Son, with his humility, is contrasted with the righteousness of the elder son, who hardens his heart against his brother who had misused the gifts he had been given, indulging himself in satisfying his passions according to the ways of the world. We also saw the forgiving love of the father, who rejoiced when his son, who had been lost to the world, returned; and that love which led him to go to his other son. He spoke to him to assure him that he, too, was loved, and would also obtain a blessing – and the father pleaded with him to forgive his brother for the sake of the love the father had for him.

Now, we see why it is so important for us to understand these contrasting choices and ways of life, and to make our own choices as to how we will live accordingly. Our Lord tells how it will be on the great and terrible Day of the Lord, when we are all called to account for our choices, and the way we have lived. The way of pride and hardness of heart will lead to being placed among those who are told they are cursed, and will spend eternity in the fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels; the way of humility and forgiveness, the way of love, will lead to an eternity of blessed communion with God and the saints.

Here’s something to think about: Each of us has a ministry to perform. What is that ministry? While each of us has been given different gifts and abilities – as was the prodigal son – we all have something in common. Every Orthodox Christian has been given the life of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. It is not something we deserve, even if we were without sin – and, of course, we are not. It is not something we can earn – it is a free gift given to us by God, Who loves each one of us, has called each one of us into being, and calls each one of us to share our lives in a relationship of love with Him. He also desires that this relationship of love never end; and, I am sure, if it was up to God alone, there would be no one placed on the left hand, to depart into eternal fire and torment – His love for us is that great. No, it is up to us, each one of us, to choose. What must we choose? To fulfill our ministry. What is that ministry? To show forth in our own lives the life of Christ, planted in us by the grace of God in baptism.

Our Lord Jesus Christ lived without sin; so when we seek to do the same, we show Him forth to all the world. We have the life of the Church to strengthen and guide us, to help us to achieve success on this path. Our Lord Jesus Christ was obedient to the will of the Father. He endured the insults and abuse hurled at Him without anger, without hatred, without resentment. His love for us is so great that He suffered all these things, and death on the Cross, and the darkness of the tomb, to save us from death, and make possible life without end in the joy of heaven.

This is the love that makes it possible for us to go beyond ourselves to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and to visit and comfort those who are sick or in prison. This is the love that led the Lord to stretch out His arms on the hard wood of the Cross; and this is the love that our heavenly Father has for us, and from which comes the forgiveness of our sins.

Brothers and sisters, let us give thanks to God each day for the love that saves us; and ask God each day to let that love flow from us, so that we might be like Christ, and enter into His kingdom, and the joy He has prepared for us. Let us turn aside from loving ourselves, and love God, and all who are made in the image of God, that He may be made known, and glorified, and we may have hope that our souls will be saved.

A Tale of Two Brothers: Healing a Divided Church

2007-02-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

(Sunday of the Prodigal Son) (Luke 15:11-32)
(The New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia)

Last Sunday, we were called to consider the contrasts between the Publican and the Pharisee, between pride and humility. Today, the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, we are again presented with two contrasts, between the Prodigal, who took the wealth given to him and squandered it by indulgence in worldly pleasures, and his elder brother, who remained faithful to his father’s ways, but was hard-hearted. The Prodigal Son repented of his sins; but the elder brother was unwilling to accept this repentance, and was clearly disturbed by the reception his brother received upon his return home.

We know the story, and we know the contrasts in it, and we know whom we should emulate. As we know that we should be like the Publican in his humility, and not proud, like the Pharisee, we know that we have sinned, and have departed from our Father’s house. We have wasted the time and resources and abilities He has given us that were supposed to be used for the good of others to satisfy our own sinful, worldly desires. We know that we who have been like the Prodigal Son need to come to our senses, and return to our Father’s house, and repent, and seek no honors, but be willing to take the lowest place. We also know that we should not treat others as the elder brother treats his father, and the brother who was lost and now has returned. All of this, of course, is easer said than done.

Today is also the day we commemorate the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, who suffered and died at the hands of the Bolshevik government that came to power in Russia, and which tried to destroy the Church in the Russian land. Some of you have heard me say before how my own journey to the Orthodox Church and faith and way of life was helped by two understandings: that the Church, the Body of Christ, is One, and that to be apart from the Orthodox Church was therefore to be outside the Body of Christ; and the second was the testimony given to the power of our Lord and His Church by the New martyrs and Confessors of Russia, whose sufferings were not long ago and far away, but close at hand, indeed, occurring even in my own lifetime. The living faith of the ancient Church was found in them, and made their witness possible, even unto death – and I had to be a part of that Church and faith and way of life in order to save my soul, and the souls of may family – and so we became Orthodox.

There is something remarkable about these two events taking place on this day, a connection I cannot help but make while pondering the Prodigal Son and the New Martyrs and Confessors. As you may know, the Russian Church, of which we are a part, was wounded by the Civil War that followed the revolutions of 1917, and the rule of the Bolsheviks thereafter. As a result of grievous circumstances, a division arose in the Church. Now, after many years, and many steps, if things go as presently announced, on May 17, 2007, the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, our Metropolitan and the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia will sign an Act of Communion that is meant to bring to an end the division that arose from revolution and war. I offer this for your consideration.

It would be fair, I think, to say that, if we try to draw parallels between the parts of the Russian Church that have been divided, that our perspective has been that the church in the Russian land parallels the Prodigal Son, departing from the house of faith and dwelling with the pigs, and only later coming to her senses; while the Church Abroad remained faithful to the ways that had been entrusted to us by our fathers in the faith in the Russian homeland. In this, we are more like the elder brother; and therein lies the danger.

Was the Prodigal Son without sin after his return to his father’s house? Certainly, he repented, and was received back home. We don’t hear any more of the story; but if he was like us, we can say with certainty that he sinned again. The key is his act of repentance – and that was good enough for his father, who did not expect a complete transformation, and put no conditions upon his son when he returned, but rejoiced that he had come back. His elder brother also sinned by hardening his heart against his brother, and speaking disrespectfully to his father. Di he also repent? We do not know. Did he reconcile with his brother? We do not know, but can only hope that he did not place so much importance upon his righteousness that he hardened his heart, and so could not share his father’s love, for only that love makes forgiveness possible.

Is the Church in Russia perfect? No; for a church is always made up of sinful people. Are there problems and behaviors that need to be addressed? Of course. But we also need to ask, are we, the Church Abroad, without sin? No, for a church is always made up of sinful people. Do we also have problems and behaviors that need to be addressed? Of course.

The leaders of the Church in Russia have repented, and desire that the wounds between us be healed. Our hierarchs have decided that the time to act to bring about this healing is now. Thus, the question for us is: Will we be like the elder brother, and reject our brothers who were lost, but now have come back home? Or will we be like the father who rejoiced when his wayward son returned, and welcomed him back, welcomed him with love, even though he undoubtedly knew that his son would sin again?

May our Lord, Who blessed and sustained the New Martyrs and Confessors in their sufferings, and Who rejoices to receive us, prodigals, when we repent and return, grant us not to harden our hearts, but to trust in Him, and in His love, and in His Church, which we hope and pray will be healed.

What's Your Excuse?

2007-02-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

(Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee) (Luke 18:10-14)

What’s your excuse?

What excuse do you use to justify the choices you make and actions you take that lead you to sin? If you’re like the rest of us, you excuse boils down into one of two basic responses. Either we think to ourselves – or say to others – “I’m entitled”; or else we claim as our defense, “Everybody else is doing it!”

It’s pride that leads us to think we’re entitled to have or do what we want. It’s pride that leads us to think we are better than others, more deserving, more important. It is pride that leads the Pharisee to consider himself to be a better person, and so more deserving of God’s blessings, than he thinks the Publican should receive. It was pride that led Lucifer, the highest of all the angels, to think himself equal to his Creator, and so to rebel against God; and it was pride that he stirred up in Adam and Eve to lead them into sin and death. Sin and death are the only place to which following pride can lead us.

The virtue that opposes pride is humility. How much different would our relations be with every other person in our lives, known or unknown, casual or deep, if we were humble, instead of proud? Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors – how much different would our world be if we learned only to see and condemn our own sins, and to be blind to the sins of others, so as not to judge them? How much different would our lives, and our world, be if we took responsibility for what we have said and done and thought and felt, and forgave others without waiting to be asked, and considered everyone else to be more worthy, more honorable, more deserving than we are ourselves? The path to this humility begins by our striving to be like the Publican, not drawing near to God as if we were worthy, but bowing down in His presence, and beating our breasts, and saying, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

As for the excuse, “Everyone else is doing it,” we don’t need to turn to the Fathers for instruction here – because I’m sure you’ve already heard from your mother about this one! “What if everybody is jumping off the cliff? Are you going to jump off also?” That’s what my mother always said when I tried to justify doing something I knew was wrong, or to escape the consequences for having done so. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that the excuse that “everyone else is doing it” is, in fact, already an admission of guilt – and we’re trying to spread our part of it out against everyone else – as if doing something wrong could be set aside because enough people did the same thing. Even when it might work out that way in the world, God doesn’t work that way – and we know it.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot prove ourselves worthy in the eyes of God, for there is nothing we can do by ourselves to overcome our passions and our sins. When we live by our own strength and wisdom, when we live by the ways of the world and our flesh, we are living as if we are spiritually dead – and so we are. Having been baptized into Christ, let us put on Christ, and dedicate ourselves to making His life and His ways known in and through our own. He humbled Himself, and so should we. He was obedient to God the Father, and so, too, should we. He loved everyone and brought hurt or harm to no one – and so, too, should we.

In the week to come, we do not fast, so that we cannot stand with the Pharisee and boast of what we have done. Let us strive to be like the Publican; let us strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ: humble, obedient, and loving – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

2007-01-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

(32nd Sunday after Pentecost) (Matthew 4:12-17)

We are creatures of time and space. We live and move and have our being within the regions of length and width and height, and the passage of time. Scientists and philosophers imagine and discuss existence beyond space and time; but for most of us, the reality in which we live is defined and delimited by these dimensions.

God, of course, is beyond space and time. This isn’t hard to grasp, even if we cannot conceive of what such an existence might be like; for space and time have their being in creation, and God, as the Creator, is greater than His creation. Among other things, this gives added significance to events that we have celebrated recently. Two weeks ago, we celebrated our Lord’s entry into space and time, as He took on our human nature, was born as we have been born, and dwelt as one of us. This past Friday, we celebrated His baptism in the Jordan River, and the beginning of His earthly ministry, which will be completed, in one sense, by His death on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead.

Today, we hear of the start of His earthly ministry. Our Lord Jesus Christ, having been baptized so as to fulfill all righteousness on our behalf, came up out of the waters of Jordan and was revealed as the Son of God, as the Father was revealed by His declaring, “This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased”; and as the Holy Spirit was revealed by descending upon our Lord in the form of a dove. He then went into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days; and overcame temptation by the enemy of our salvation. When He returns from the desert to the world of men, He takes up the proclamation of St. John the Baptizer: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

“The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What does this mean? This is a question for us to consider, knowing what we know: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Who died on the Cross, and rose from the dead for our sake, and has ascended into heaven. We know that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Thus, as a King, he dwells in His kingdom; and, because He is God, and so is not limited in time and space, His kingdom is everywhere. Standing here today, in this place as His Body, the Church, we are in His kingdom. So we can immediately come to understand that the Kingdom of heaven is near us; it is, “at hand,” because we are already in it, as He is here with us.

Our Lord tells His disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” We can also grasp this, as all those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. He dwells in our hearts; and so the King is within us, a part of our being, and so His kingdom is there. He is meant to rule over our lives; and His kingship at this time is such that His “rule” is not that of a dictator, issuing commands which we must obey, but rather that of a guide, Who desires nothing more than that we learn to walk in His ways and do His will, in order that we might never be at risk of being exiled from His kingdom. In His love for us, He desires that we allow Him to live in us, that we might forever live in Him, and share in a relationship of love that cannot be broken. But when we live, not according to the ways of the kingdom, but rather according to the ways of the world, and the desires of our flesh – when we give ourselves over to sin, we harden our hearts, and cut ourselves off from Him – and so we do not benefit from being in the kingdom, but live instead as rebels and enemies. Brothers and sisters, this should not be. How tragic it will be, to have the kingdom of heaven so close at hand, and fail to receive the blessings that are ours!

There is another meaning as well to our Lord’s proclamation of the kingdom that we must all realize, for it is meant for our blessing as well. When our Lord declares, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” He refers, the fathers tell us, to the day when He returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. On that day, His victory on the Cross will be completed; and His enemies will be forever cast down. How terrible will that Day of Judgment be for those who are found to be outside His kingdom! Yet there is hope: for if we embrace the life of the kingdom now, before that day; if we love the Lord will all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and put that love into action by seeking holiness, and the overcoming of our passions; if we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and act with patience and mercy and forgiveness and forbearance, as God does in His dealings with us – then we need have no fear of the Judgment Day, for we will find that we have already been living in the Kingdom, and lack only its fullness, which we will enter at that time.

There is one more point we need to know, and it is this: The Lord desires that the proclamation of the kingdom be continued today, and He entrusts this ministry to each of us. What we say, and what we do, how we think, how we live, says to everyone around us how we feel about the kingdom. Do we take it seriously? Or is it of little or no concern to us? Again, if we know of the love of the Lord our God, and desire above all to walk in His ways, we will be messengers of the kingdom, and find our reward, both now and in the age to come. Not only will we find salvation for our souls, but we will help others to be saved, as well.

Brothers and sisters, let us embrace the high calling of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven; and ask God for grace to show this forth to the world, that those who do not know may hear and see, and so find their way to the kingdom as well – to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Partners in the New Covenant

2007-01-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

(31st Sunday after Pentecost) (The Circumcision of our Lord)

When God established His covenant with Abraham, promising that Abraham would be the father of many nations, with more descendants that there were stars in the sky or grains of sand on the beach, He also gave Abraham a command: All of the males who were to participate in this covenant were to be circumcised. The command was repeated to Moses, and then to Joshua. The sign of circumcision was a sign of those who were a part of the covenant; and those who disobeyed the command of God were cut off from the covenant, and to be cast out of the community of the people of God.

When our Lord Jesus Christ was eight days old, his parents, in accordance with the command of God, took the young child to be circumcised. He Who had given the covenant now was obedient to His own command, and was circumcised in the flesh that He had obtained from His mother, the Ever-Virgin Lady Theotokos. Later, when He presents Himself to be baptized – which feast we will celebrate later this week – He gives an explanation that also accounts for His circumcision: that He might fulfill all righteousness.

In the early days of the Church, there was a controversy raised when some were requiring converts to the Faith to be circumcised before they were baptized. The apostles acted to declare otherwise, and the apostle Paul wrote that those who were circumcised should not seek to change their condition; while those who were uncircumcised did not need to be circumcised in order to be baptized. As a result, baptism became the sign of the New Covenant in Christ – and all believers (not just the men) were to participate in this mystery, as a sign of their acceptance of the New Covenant.

So, each of us who has been baptized into Christ has entered into a covenant with God. What is that covenant? It is not the Law – that covenant is the covenant of circumcision. Indeed, St. Paul writes that those who are circumcised to fulfill the Law are responsible for keeping all of the Law. The Law is not bad; but the Law, by itself, is unable to save us. We are called, rather, to love: To love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This is consistent with how the prophets of old understood the act of circumcision. The cutting of the flesh of the body was not only the sign of acceptance of the covenant; it was a direction to a deeper transformation that was required. “Circumcise your hearts,” the people of God were told. They were called to holiness, as an act of love toward God; and to acts of charity to those around them, as a way of loving our neighbors.

Brothers and sisters, our Lord was obedient to the command, and was circumcised in order to fulfill all righteousness. Will we be obedient to the command to love, and live so as to fulfill all righteousness, as Christ loves us, and gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice? Will we give of ourselves, setting aside our pride and our pleasures, so as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and visit the sick and those in prison? Will we set aside our pride and our pleasures to give from what we have for the work of the Church? Will we set ourselves aside so that Christ may be seen in and through us, holy and righteous and without sin? If we will, we honor God, and fulfill the covenant He has made with us to save our souls. If we do not, we are at risk of being cut off from the covenant, and cast out of His community. The choice is ours…

Bearing Christ

2007-01-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

(The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ) (Matthew 2:1-12)

Christ is born!

Of course, today we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Whose birth fulfills prophecy. He is called Jesus, which means, “the salvation of God.” This was the message the angel gave to the shepherds: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, Who is the Lord’s Anointed One.”

We rejoice that God’s love brought Him to save us by taking our humanity upon Himself. We rejoice that God’s love for us is so great that He forgives the repentant sinner, and calls each of us to be joined to Him, as He has joined Himself to us. These are all great reasons to celebrate His birth in the world.

But even as we keep this joyous Feast, too many of us repeat another part of the story of His Nativity. You’ll remember – as we heard in the reading yesterday at Great Vespers – that when Joseph found that his betrothed, the Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary, was with child of the Holy Spirit, he resolved to “put her away” in private. He was a righteous man, and so could not take into his home a child that was not his own; but he was also a merciful man, and so did not seek to have Mary judged according to the law – the penalty for what she had done, conceiving a child by a man other than the one to whom she was betrothed was death by stoning – but sought to end their betrothal quietly. He shows us both the righteousness and the merciful love of God; and he shows us also the way of obedience, in that, when the angel of the Lord instructed him about the child, Joseph followed the command of God, and took Mary, and accepted the child as his own.

Each of us should be ever-mindful of the truth that, by our baptism, Christ has been born in us. We have been given His life – the life He has, risen from the dead. We have been given the power of the Holy Spirit in our chrismation, so that we can accomplish the high calling we have: to show Christ forth in the world, by what we say, by what we do, by the way we live. We have access to the power of God in the holy Mysteries of the Church, and especially in the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. But too often, we turn our back on these truths, as if we were trying to “put them away” privately – as if we bore some illegitimate existence, rather than the life of the Risen Lord.

Brothers and sisters, this should not be! As we rejoice with the feast of our Lord’s Nativity, let us remember and give thanks that He Who was born into the world to save our souls has also been born in us – that we have been born again in Him. Let us rejoice that we have life, and the Lord of life dwelling within us – and let us, by the prayers of the Theotokos, bear Him and show Him forth in the world, even as she has done – to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Christ is born!

Our King and Savior Draweth Nigh

2007-01-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

(29th Sunday after Pentecost) (Sunday of the Holy Fathers of our Lord)

Today we celebrate the Sunday of the holy Fathers of our Lord, Jesus Christ. On this day, we hear the genealogy of our Lord from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which details His lineage from Abraham, the father of the Jewish race, through Joseph, His earthly protector, called His father as he was the betrothed of the Theotokos, and of the lineage of David. There is a great deal of wonderful information to be learned from this passage, and not nearly enough time to explore more than a thought or two today.

We learn from the genealogy that the history of our Lord’s advent can be divided into three periods, which the Evangelist calls, “generations”: The period when the Jews were ruled by judges, before the anointing of Saul and David as the first two kings; the period when the people were ruled by kings, from the time of Saul and then David until being taken away into captivity in Babylon, as the line of kings came to an end; and the period when the people were ruled by priests, which began with the exile, and continued to the time of the coming of our Lord.

Our Lord’s coming was the fulfilling of a number of promises that had been made to God’s people during these times. The first promise, given to Adam and Eve at the time they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, was that God would send a deliverer who would crush the head of Satan. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, foretold that there would always be a ruler of the people from the line of Judah; and that the line would not fail until Christ came. When Herod the Great, who was not a Jew, became the “king of the Jews” under Roman rule, the line of Judah failed – and Christ came. When the people clamored for a king to rule over them, instead of the judges, the prophet Samuel condemned them for failing to recognize that God is their king; but anointed Saul, and then David, because the people would not repent. Yet it was also foretold of the One who would come of the line of David to rule over the people in God’s name. Likewise, Isaiah, in the time of the exile, was one of the prophets who told the people that there would come to them Emmanuel, God with us, and of the Suffering Servant.

The judges were not enough to bring righteousness to the people of God. Neither could the kings do this, nor could the priests. Each had their part to play in preparing the people for the Messiah Who was to come – and He is the true Judge, for He will judge the world. He is the true King, for all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He is the true Priest, for He offers Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.

Now we live in the age after our Lord’s birth, ministry, passion, death, and resurrection. He is our Prophet; He is our Priest; He is our King. As such, surely we should live differently than did the people of God before His coming; but we, just as they, are too connected to pursuing our lives in this world, too busy obtaining the things of this world, to lift our eyes to the heavens, and call upon His name, and seek to show forth His life in us, even though He has given us every good thing. Brothers and sisters, this should not be.

Our King and Savior draweth nigh; and soon, we will celebrate the feast of His coming to us. Let us come to adore Him, as the shepherds did, as the wise men did. Let us also be wise, and repent of our sins, and seek God’s grace to transform our lives. Let us also be believing, as the shepherds were, and come in faith and awe and wonder; and find Him, not only in the manger long ago, but living as well in the manger of our hearts; and let us also make Him known throughout the world, by letting others see Him in us.

Our Connection to St. Herman of Alaska

2007-01-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

(28th Sunday after Pentecost) (St. Herman of Alaska)

Everyone who studied history in the education system in this country knows that the United States was first settled by people fleeing religious persecution in England. From the Pilgrims, who came to Massachusetts in 1621, to the establishment of the colony of Pennsylvania for the Quakers, Maryland for the Catholics, and the New England colonies for various protestant groups, arose the states that would become the United States of America. But almost no one knows that the Russians were exploring the west coast of North America at roughly the same time; and that settlements of trappers and farmers were established from Alaska down to Fort Ross in California, not far from what is now the city of San Francisco. The presence of permanent Russian settlements, together with the people native to the areas of these settlements, caused the Russian Orthodox Church to send clergy to the New World to tend to the spiritual needs of the Russians, and to bring the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ to the people who had not yet heard of His life, and death, and resurrection from the dead. Among the missionaries sent from the monastery of Valaam was our venerable father Herman of Alaska.

Every one of us would benefit from studying – and emulating – the life of our holy father Herman of Alaska. His love for the Lord led him to embrace the monastic life of prayer and fasting, of purity and voluntary poverty of the things of this world. His love for the people of God, and his obedience to his spiritual father led him to leave the life of Valaam for a new world, filled with challenges and dangers. Indeed, one of his companions, St. Juvenaliy, was martyred for the faith, as was one of the converts who came from the labors of the Russian missionaries, St. Peter the Aleut, who was tortured and killed by the Spanish in San Francisco because he would not renounce the Orthodox Church and become a Roman Catholic. St. Herman continued to live the monastic life, working miracles while also teaching all who came to him about the Orthodox faith and way of life, until he departed this life in 1837.

Do you know of the connection you have with St. Herman?

You are called, as was St. Herman, to live as an Orthodox Christian in the midst of a people who are not Orthodox. Each one of us is called to be an example of the faith to which we joined ourselves; to be examples of the Lord Who has come to us to save us, and all who are made in the image of God. Did you know that you are called to be a missionary? It’s true. You may not have to leave everything behind and go to a foreign land, as St. Herman did; but you can certainly pray, and fast, and give, and struggle to overcome your passions and pursue purity. You can certainly live in such a way that people receive the merciful, patient, forgiving love of God from your presence. If we will do these things, people will come to see a different way of life is possible for us; and some will want to pursue it; and you can tell them about our Lord Jesus Christ, and the way of life that draws us closer to Him that we have been blessed to receive in the Orthodox Church. In this way, we will bring others, as well as ourselves, closer to achieving the salvation of our souls.

Brothers and sisters, as St. Herman taught, let us at least “make a vow to ourselves, that from this day, from this hour, from this very moment, we shall strive above all else to love God and to fulfill His Holy Will!” Through the prayers of our venerable father Herman of Alaska, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Martyrdom and the Love of God

2007-01-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

(27th Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 13:10-17)

Last Sunday, you will recall, we celebrated the memory of St. James the Persian, who was literally cut into pieces by his torturers in an effort to cause him to renounce his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we celebrate the life and witness of St. John of Damascus, who suffered for the faith as his right hand was cut off because of his testimony about icons; and the Great-martyr Barbara, who also suffered for the Faith, and would not deny Christ. Barbara endured many torments, which inspired another woman, Juliana, to seek martyrdom; and the two, as St. James the Persian, were also mutilated before being killed – Barbara being killed by her own father, a pagan, who had betrayed her to torture and death.

As we have noted, it is unlikely that any of us here will be called upon to witness to Christ with our lives. But have we even bothered to consider what might make it possible for the martyrs we’ve been hearing about to endure the incredible torments they suffered? Somehow, if we knew what made it possible for them to endure without renouncing their faith, we might be a little bit better equipped to live our own lives according to the same faith – right?

It seems to me that the only possible explanation is that the martyrs loved our Lord more than anything this world has to offer, even more than life itself. They loved God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength; more than any love for food, or drink, or pleasure, or comfort, or power, or money. They loved God so much that they brought the life of Christ they had received in holy Baptism into reality in and through their own lives: and, just as our Lord endured torments and tortures and taunting without condemning those who caused His suffering, even praying that they might be forgiven, so, too, did the martyrs not condemn their tormenters. In this way, they brought their love for God into action as love for their neighbors, as well.

Can we say that we do the same? Do you love the person who cut you off in traffic, and pray for God to bless and forgive them? Do you love the homeless person, the hungry person with the cardboard sign on the corner, the widowed, the orphan, those who are sick, or in prison, and take the time and effort necessary to reach out to them in some way? Do you take a portion of what God has entrusted to you and make it an offering for the work of the Church, and for those who minister to those in need in body, mind, and spirit? Most of us aren’t willing to suffer even a small loss in our income to help those in need, and the work of the Church – so how might we possibly hope to think we could endure what the martyrs and passion-bearers endured?

Brothers and sisters: Let us redeem the time; let us examine ourselves; let us change our lives. Let us pray, asking God for the grace to love Him more than we love this world, and all it has to offer. Let us ask God for grace to love Him more than the fleeting pleasures we derive from our sins. Let us ask God to fill us with His love, so that we might see His face in every person we meet, and minister to them from this love; and for grace to use with love the time and abilities and riches God has bestowed upon us – to the glory of His name, and the salvation of souls.

Death and Life

2007-01-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

(26th Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 12:16-21; John 15:1-7)

In the two Gospel readings for today, we have an interesting contrast about death and life. In the first, from the Gospel according to St. Luke, the Lord tells a parable about a rich man who is contemplating how he will use and enjoy the wealth that has been entrusted to him. The man is not aware that his life – and an accounting of all he has done – will be required of him that very night; and what good then will his earthly treasure be to him? In the second reading, from the Gospel according to St. John the Theologian, the Lord speaks to His disciples about life. He uses the imagery of a grapevine, and the branches that grow from the vine, and bear fruit. The branches that do not remain connected to the vine wither and die; while those that are connected to the grapevine are vital and alive. This reading is for the Great-martyr James the Persian, who was, himself, pruned as a vine is pruned. Because he proclaimed his faith in Christ to the pagan king who had befriended him, he was put to death by being dismembered: losing first his fingers, one by one, and then his toes, cut off one by one, and then his arms, and then his legs, and finally, his head. His death in this world led him to an eternal crown of glory in the kingdom of God.

Again, we have the opportunity to examine ourselves in comparison with the rich man who was ignorant of his condition, and the martyr, who suffered for the faith. If we are honest with ourselves, we cannot help but conclude that we are more like the man whose thought and concern was for his comfort, and not about the coming judgment. If we are honest with ourselves, we cannot help but conclude that we would do anything to avoid an uncomfortable situation, much less face torture – and so we are not at all like the Great-martyr James the Persian. Brothers and sisters, this should not be.

We may never be called upon to endure torture for our faith; but we should always be mindful that our life in this world will one day come to an end: if not by torture at the hands of the pagans, then perhaps by the torment of disease, or accident, or simply from old age. Lacking a martyr’s crown, how shall we explain ourselves before the Lord? How shall we account for our hardness of heart when we failed to use the gifts God has given to us for the blessing or benefit of another; when we used the riches God entrusted to us for our own ease and comfort, and did not feed the hungry, or house the homeless, or build up His Church? Why is it true that so many of us would rather be dismembered than to give richly to maintain the temple of the Lord, to enable its work, and to reach out to those in need in body, mind, and spirit?

As we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us remember that the very life we have is a gift from God; and, in Jesus Christ, we have been given the gift of life that will not end. True preparation for the feast should not revolve around the gifts we will give, nor the gifts we might receive, but the love in which the gifts are given; and to remember to give to those who cannot give in return; and to prepare ourselves for departing from this world. Let us give of our time, of our talent, and our treasure; above all, let us reach out in love to care for one another, and those around us, so they also may know of the love of God, and glorify His name, and find salvation for our souls.

The Dwelling Place of God

2006-12-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

(The Entry of the Theotokos)

Today, we celebrate the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple. There are two remarkable aspects to this feast. The first is that she was taken by Zacharias, the high priest, into the holy of holies, which the high priest alone entered, and that only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The second is that she then dwelt in the temple for the next nine years, taking part in all the services conducted there. The hymns of the Vigil service tell us much about these events: among other things, they tell us that, although she was but three years old when these things took place, she was well advanced in her spirit. By God’s grace, she was ready to enter into the life that would prepare her to be the dwelling place of God Incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know that God is everywhere. Yet He commanded that a “dwelling place” be built for Him, and gave Moses explicit instructions on the tabernacle that was to be built for the people He had delivered from slavery in Egypt as they made their way across the desert to the land He had promised them. This tabernacle, a series of tents, with the Holy of holies in the center, was taken down each time the people moved; and rebuilt when they stopped – rebuilt in the center of the encampment. In this way, the people of God would know that He was in their midst, dwelling with them. Later, this tabernacle would be replaced with a temple in the city of Jerusalem, built by King Solomon; and later rebuilt – which was the temple into which the most holy Theotokos entered. The establishment of a “house of God” as a place of prayer, and a place for us to gather to worship God, continues among His people to this day. Indeed, we are gathered in such a place right now.

Yet, while this temple, and all such temples, are the dwelling-place of God, which we are privileged to enter, the place where God truly desires to dwell is within each of us, at the center of our being, in our heart of hearts. Have we built that temple for Him? Have we made it a place to which we go to meet with Him? Have we established a house of prayer for Him in the depths of our being? Our bodies, St. Paul tells us, are temples of the Holy Spirit – but whose face do we show in our daily lives? The face of God? Or that of His adversary?

Brothers and sisters, as we rejoice that she whose womb became the dwelling-place of God, bringing Him into our midst, let us also seek to enter into the temple of our hearts as she entered into the temple in Jerusalem; that we also might be transformed, and bear Christ in our lives, that He may be in our midst, and be present through us to all in the world, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us!

"Who is My Neighbor?"

2006-12-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

(25th Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 10:25-37)

We’re all familiar with the Parable of the Good Samaritan, read today from the Gospel according to St. Luke. A “certain lawyer,” we are told, approached the Lord Jesus, and asks Him how he may inherit eternal life. Our Lord replies by asking the lawyer to interpret the Law of Moses. The answer to the question is the Summary of the Law: Each of us is to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength; and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” the Lord replies with the parable.

We hear about a traveler who is attacked by thieves, beaten, and left for dead by the roadside. We hear of how a priest and a Levite both pass by without offering assistance. We hear about a Samaritan who sets aside the differences that separate him and his people from the Jews to reach out to help another person in need. He shows compassion, takes the time, spends the money needed to help the traveler recover. As such, when the parable is done, and our Lord asks the lawyer who is the traveler’s neighbor, he gives the answer we are all meant to know: Every person is our neighbor; and we are meant to be merciful to everyone.

Everyone? Everyone. The person set upon by thieves, even today. We should understand that, in addition to those who steal money and valuables today, there are persons and circumstances that deprive people of time and abilities: those who suffer from drug use and alcohol; those who suffer from other forms of addiction – and computers and the internet can, indeed, be addictive. We should also understand that “thieves” is also a reference to the demons, who steal from us our virtue by leading us into temptation, and wound us unto death by leading us down into sin. Having lured us from the protecting presence of God, the demons strip us naked and cause us to suffer in body, mind, and spirit. No one is immune; nor is anyone strong enough on his own to resist.

The ways in which we can show mercy are infinite, but all derive from what we see the Good Samaritan do when he encounters the suffering traveler. Those people you see with the cardboard signs at street corners and freeway interchanges? You can give them some spare change, or a dollar; as the Samaritan paid for the traveler’s lodging. There are soup kitchens and food banks that help to feed the hungry. There are opportunities to help the needy with their electric bills, and other organizations that operate emergency shelters, and help provide housing. In these ways, we help pour wine, and soothing oil, on the wounds that others in our midst are suffering.

More than that, we can take time: time to be with people who suffer. Look around you now. Do you think that everyone here is safe from suffering? How about your families? Are any suffering there? The people you work with; the people who live next door – your neighbors – are any lonely? Anyone afraid? If you don’t know, how can you help? You don’t have to be nosy; but we must begin by asking if we even care.

The Nativity Fast is underway. We are preparing to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Who came to us to save us, and lived in our midst as we also live. He is coming again, to judge the world – and how we live will determine how we live in eternity. Brothers and sisters, let us remember the love that brought Him to us at Nativity; and let us show forth that love, so that many more will know Him when He comes again; to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

"Who has Touched Me with Faith?"

2006-12-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

(24th Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 8:41-56)

“Who has touched me with faith? For I perceive that power has gone out from me.”

Our Lord asks this question of His disciples as he is going to the house of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, whose daughter, twelve years old is dying. Jairus has not touched Him with faith, although he did come and kneel before the Lord to beseech His help. Jairus could easily say, as we hear elsewhere in the Gospels, “Lord I believe – help Thou my unbelief.” He has hope, born of a desperate love for his daughter’s life – but he does not believe; not yet.

Rather, it is a woman who has touched the Lord, causing power to go out from Him. She had suffered for twelve years, and the doctors who attended her had been unable to bring her relief, or to end the bleeding that plagued her. She drew near with faith, thinking, “If I can but simply touch the hem of His garment, I shall be made whole.” She did; and she was. Her faith, as our Lord tells her, made her whole.

“Who has touched me with faith? For I perceive that power has gone out from me.”

Our Lord asks this question of us, who are His disciples, as He is going on His way to the “house” that is the center of our being. We are dying: for we all sin, and our sins are a confirmation of the reality of our death – unless we are found to be living in Christ Jesus our Lord. If we drew near to Him with faith, and met Him in our hearts, and showed Him in our lives, we would be like the woman with an issue of blood. We would be set free from our suffering; we would be made whole. But rather, we are like Jairus: we have hope, but we do not yet believe.

Why is it that we do not believe? Maybe it’s because we haven’t suffered. Our material lives are far more plentiful, much more blessed, than almost anyone who has ever lived at any previous time. Maybe it’s because we don’t recognize our suffering, being able to be comforted and eased by the many distractions and entertainments of everyday life. Maybe it’s because we deny that we are suffering; or maybe we have become blind to the reality that suffering is meant to draw us near to God in faith. But instead of doing so, we seek medical treatment, and therapy, and vitamins; and drugs, and alcohol, and other things that deaden our minds and so, for a moment, reduce our pain. It’s not that medicine and therapy and treatment are bad – they’re not. These are actually gifts from a loving God. But we must not allow ourselves to be distracted from the direction of our lives, either by the pleasures of this world, or the desires of our flesh. If we are not trying to draw near to the Lord, we are headed for death – and even our hope may be in vain.

Brothers and sisters: Let us not be faithless, but believing. Let us not deny the reality of our sins; and let us not be distracted by the pleasures of this world. Let us, by prayer and fasting, by giving, by struggle; by loving and forgiving, by patience and virtue, seek to draw near to our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us beseech Him to save us, and draw near with faith; that His power may come out from Him to us, to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

“Who has touched me with faith?” Please, Lord, in Thy mercy, may we touch Thee with faith.

Living as Angels on the Earth

2006-12-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

(23rd Sunday after Pentecost)(Luke 8:26-39; Luke 10:16-21)

In the first reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, our Lord casts a legion of demons from a man. We should note that, in the Roman army, there were from 3000 to 6000 soldiers in a “legion.” Perhaps there were that many demons possessing the man our Lord encountered; but even if there were fewer, there were still very many present, causing the man great suffering and affliction.

In the second reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke, the seventy disciples returned, rejoicing. They had been sent by the Lord to preach the Gospel, and He had given them power also to heal the sick as a sign that His kingdom was truly at hand. They rejoiced that even the devils had to obey them when they gave commands in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord confirmed their power over the enemy of our salvation; but He admonished them not to rejoice in the authority they had, but rather that their names were written in the book of Heaven. Even so, the power and authority He granted remain for His disciples; and we are His disciples if we also walk in His ways, and call upon His name.

Today we are celebrating our parish feast day, for the Holy Archangels. Angels are the messengers and servants of God, and they are also our guardians. We should remember that the demons are nothing more – and nothing less – than fallen angels, who defy God, rather than serving Him; and who seek to degrade and destroy all God loves, all that is precious to Him.

We also need to remember that we are called to live as angels on the earth. However, all too often, we live as animals, instead of fulfilling the high calling we have as beings made in the image, and after the likeness, of God. All too often, we devote ourselves to satisfying the desires of the flesh, living according to the ways of the world, turning our backs on the ways of God and the ways of His kingdom. At such times, it is entirely likely that we are following the influence, not of our angel guardian, but rather of a demon, or demons, who seek to obtain our destruction by leading us away from God.

Do we really want to join the demons in their rebellion against God? Do we really want to emulate them in their rejection of God, and all His ways? We who have been baptized and chrismated have been given the wondrous gift of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. We have the opportunity to commune with God, as did Adam and Eve before their act of disobedience caused them to be cast out of the Garden, sent from the intimate presence of God. We have the opportunity to fulfill our destiny and emulate God – and we choose to cast this aside, and instead cover ourselves with the filth of our sins, and to be like the demons?

Brothers and sisters, called to live as angels on the earth: Let us repent of our sins, and confess them to God, asking for His mercy and forgiveness. Let us call upon God to strengthen and guide us, that we may no longer give ourselves over to satisfying our sins, but rather to live a holy life, showing forth the life of Christ in us. Let us remember that, in Christ, we have power over the demons; and let us use that power, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Holy Archangels, pray to God for us!

The Reality of Death and the Judgment to Come

2006-12-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

(22nd Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 16:19-31)

Yesterday, Fr. George and I spent some time with a family at a local hospice. We went to minister to the family of a woman, 38 years old, who will die in a few days, maybe even in a few hours. A wife, mother of two children, she was attended by her brother and her mother during the time we were there. There is no doubt that she is greatly loved; and no doubt but that she will be greatly missed.

We don’t like to experience such things; we don’t like to hear about them, or to think about them. We fear death; and all the more so because we usually don’t know the day and hour that has been appointed for our departing from this life. As a result, we tend to delude ourselves, acting as if we will live forever. We will – but not in the way we usually conceive. But our denial of the reality of death means that we do not prepare ourselves as we should for what comes after we depart this life.

The reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke gives us a great deal of information; and it should spur us on to correct this error on our part. We see that there are two possible destinations for us after we leave this existence. Some will go to a place of blessedness; while others will go to a place of torment. The destination is based on the choices we make in this life, and the way we live. Live rightly, and we have the hope of entering a blessed repose. Fail to live as we should, and the chance of torment in the world to come is very, very real.

Today we remember the martyrs Zenobius and Zenobia, brother and sister, who departed into glory toward the end of the third century – really, 15 years or so before the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which ended the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. But these holy martyrs, faithful Christians, who used the wealth they inherited to help those in need around them, were not afraid of death – they remembered well the victory song of Pascha: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb, bestowing life. When arrested and threatened with torture and death, and urged to deny Christ, so that he could preserve his life, Zenobius said, “To live without Christ is death; and to die for Christ is to enter life without end.” His sister Zenobia shared his commitment, and so shared his fate.

We sin because we fear death. Because we fear death, we cling to this world, and its pleasures. Because we fear death, we cling to this life, because we think this is all we will have to enjoy. We need to learn to let go of this life; we need to learn to prepare ourselves for the time when we will leave this world to come more fully into the presence of God. We need to make Christ our greatest desire, and to let go of everything that keeps us from a life with Him.
How do we do this? How do we let go of this world? How do we prepare for death?

We do so by living the life of the Church. In prayer, we draw closer to God, and His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. When we draw closer to God, we experience the richness of His love more fully – and so allow Him to become more to us, while the world fades away. Then we add fasting, which teaches us to turn away from worldly pleasures, and to subdue the habits we have developed for pleasing our flesh, by which we are bound to this world. In giving alms and making offerings, and by tithing, we set ourselves free from our possessions, and allow the love of God to flow to and through us to those in need in the world with us. We struggle against our sins and passions; and we labor to see God’s image in everyone, and respond to them as God responds to us: with patience, and forgiveness, with mercy, and love. Charity can only arise from love; and charity is key to preparing for death.

What would it have been to the rich man if, at just one of the parties he hosted for his friends, he had taken a portion of what was being served, and instructed his servant to take that portion to Lazarus at his front gate? He would never have missed what was sent away; but how much it would have meant to Lazarus!

We may not have a beggar at our front door, or at the end of our street, but we all have seen them on street corners and freeway on-ramps. Even if you’ve never seen one of these, you know they are out there, at the food banks, at the soup kitchens, at the shelters. The sick and the suffering and the dying are all around us; we need but lift up our attention away from ourselves, and we will see the many opportunities we have to show charity to others.

If you knew you were going to die tonight, would you live differently? If you knew you would be taken out tomorrow at noon, and be put to death, or were going to receive a lethal injection at sunset next Sunday, wouldn’t you act to prepare yourself for death? We will all die; and we will all have to give an account for ourselves. Brothers and sisters, let us embrace the grace-filled life of the Church, so that we may set ourselves free from this world; and let us love and care for one another, and those in need, so that the love of Jesus Christ might embrace us all, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Sowing the Seed of Faith

2006-11-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

(21st Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 8:5-15)

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we hear the Parable of the Sower, who went out into the field to sow his seed. From our Lord’s explanation, we know that the seed is the word of God, and that the field is the world. But who is the one sowing the seed?

Today is the feast of the Apostle James, the brother of the Lord. Technically, of course, because he is the son of Joseph, the betrothed of the Theotokos, he is the “stepbrother” of the Lord; but the language and culture of that time did not make such distinctions. They lived in the same household, and called the same man, “Father”; and when Joseph took Mary and the infant Jesus into Egypt to escape from Herod the Great, James went with them. He was attentive to the teachings and practices of our Lord, and was counted as one of the seventy apostles. James became the bishop of Jerusalem, a ministry he carried for thirty years. He was an effective preacher and leader, and an ascetic, living on bread and water, and frequently keeping all-night vigils in prayer on his knees – so much so that it is said that the skin on his knees was as tough as that on the knees of a camel. Even the Jews had respect for his sense of justice, calling him, “James the Just.”

It was at the time of Pascha that James was taken by the Jews to the roof of the Temple in Jerusalem. There he was ordered to proclaim to those who had come to celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead a denial of all that the Church holds true. Instead, he spoke with boldness to proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the promised Messiah. He declared the truth of our Lord’s Resurrection, and His Ascension into glory in heaven. For this, he was thrown from the roof of the Temple; but, although he was badly injured, this did not kill him. As he prayed that his tormentors might be forgiven, he was stoned, meeting his death when a vicious blow to the head fractured his skull. Thus, he died a martyr’s death.

It is fair to say that the holy Apostle James died as he lived: sowing the seed of faith. That is, in a way, what an apostle does. Apostles bring the proclamation of the Christian faith to peoples who had not yet heard the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ. To be an apostle, then, is to be a “missionary” – bringing knowledge of the faith, and the Orthodox way of life, to those who do not know about our Lord Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us, and how to participate in the blessing He desires to give to all mankind.

Most of us are never going to be an apostle. We will never, in all probability, be traveling to distant lands to preach the Gospel. But, on the other hand, it isn’t necessary to go far away to be a missionary – because right outside the door to the Church is a city, and a nation, full of people who do not know about Jesus Christ, and Pascha, and the ascetic way of life by which each of us can be transformed from who we are into more fully showing forth the life of Christ in us. Many of them will think they know Who Jesus is, and about prayer, and fasting, and giving – and maybe even about struggling to live a holy life. This makes the task a bit more difficult; but even so, we have a job to do; we have a message to proclaim. We have seeds to plant.

Does your life say to others that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? Does what you say, and what you do, show the righteousness and holiness of Christ living in you? Do others know of the mercy and patience and love of God through you? If not, why not?

There is no shortage of those who hate our Lord Jesus Christ in the world today; nor is there any shortage of those who need to know of God’s love for mankind, manifested to us in Jesus Christ. May God grant to each of us the grace and strength we need to allow His Son our Lord to be made known to all the world through us; to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Holy Apostle of Christ, James, pray to God for us!