Shaped by the Life of the Church

(Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia)

We remember today the execution of the Tsar-Martyr Nikolai and his family and attendants, murdered at the hands of the God-fighting Bolsheviks, who would lead Russia into a period of the most intense persecution that the Church, so far, has had to endure in all her history.

It is worth our taking a few minutes to consider the lives, and deaths, of the Tsar-Martyr and those martyred with him, including his immediate family, those who remained with him out of loyalty, and other members of the royal family. Tsar Nikolai II was the absolute monarch of one-sixth of the world, with great power and incredible wealth at his disposal. Considered in one way, of course, he and his family had access to comfort and luxury beyond what almost anyone has ever experienced – and yet, they did not give themselves over to a materialistic way of life. Instead, they allowed themselves to be shaped by the life of the Church. They were faithful in prayers, both by attending the worship services of the Church, and in their own private devotions. They kept the fasts. They gave alms for those in need, and made offerings for the work of the Church. They were not perfect; but they were striving for perfection by living an Orthodox life; and, when the Tsar was forced to abdicate his throne, and he and all his family were forced to endure arrest, and deprivations, and insults, they did not lose themselves in hatred or fighting, but endured their sufferings with humility, patience, and meekness, trusting, as they had always done, that, even as the sovereign of Russia, their lives were subject to the Lord, and they were called to do His will. This humility influenced many of those who were their captors; and even in death, they did not cease to show forth the suffering of Christ.

Apart from the positions they occupied in life and those in which we find ourselves, were the Royal Martyrs of Russia any different from us? The answer, of course, is, “No.” They, like us, were subject to many temptations. They, like us, had hopes and dreams and fears. They, like us, were subject to illness, and the acts of others had consequences for them, as also for us.

So, brothers and sisters, as we keep this day, let us consider whether we, in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, are serving God as did the Royal Martyrs of Russia. How do we endure suffering? How do we respond to those who hate us, or wrong us, knowingly or unknowingly? Would anyone say of our lives that we meet adversities and insults with patience, humility, and meekness? Would anyone say of us that, by our labors to live an Orthodox life, we caused them to see Christ in our midst, and so helped transform their life as well as ours? If no one would say these things about us, why is this so? And what must we do to change, so that Christ can be seen in and through us, as He can be seen in the lives and deaths of the Royal Martyrs of Russia?

Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia, pray to God for us!

Fasting, Feasting and the Gadarene Swine

(5th Sunday after Pentecost) (Matthew 8:28-9:1)
Today the Church remembers the life and martyrdom of St. Hyacinthus of Caesarea. He was an attendant in the court of the Emperor Trajan; and his faith, which he had kept secret, became known when the Emperor and his court went to offer sacrifices to the gods of Rome. St. Hyacinthus stood apart from making this offering to idols; and so was accused and brought to trial before the Emperor. Trajan urged him to deny Christ and sacrifice to the gods of Rome, but the saint refused to do so, declaring his love and reverence for our Lord, adding that he brought himself to Christ as a living sacrifice. After he had been whipped, spat upon, and flayed, he was thrown into prison. The only food they brought him was food that had been offered to the idols, which St. Hyacinthus refused to eat. He starved to death over a period of eight days; and when they came to take away his body, two shining angels were seen with him, one covering his body in a glorious set of clothing, and the other placing a wreath of glory on his head. The whole prison was filled with a radiant light.

In the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, we hear of the people of the region of the Gadarenes, and of a herd of swine being kept there. Of course, the Jews were forbidden to eat meat from swine – but apparently this did not keep them from doing so. This is in stark contrast to the decision made by the holy martyr Hyacinthus, who would not eat food that had been offered to idols.

When we fast, we do not abstain from foods because the foods are poisonous, or dangerous. Fasting has two main components. First, fasting teaches our flesh that it cannot always have what it wants whenever it wants it. In this, fasting is similar to training for participating in an athletic event. We fast in order to bring our flesh – that part of us that is living according to the ways of the world, in opposition to the way of the Holy Spirit – into subjection to our will, which we hope, by God’s grace, is in alignment with the will of God. Thus, fasting is a way to discipline our flesh; to make our flesh obedient to our will, so that, in the fullness of our being, we can be doing what is pleasing to God, and beneficial to the salvation of our souls.

This aspect of obedience exhibited through fasting leads to the second main component: namely, obedience. Even before we grasp the training aspect of fasting, we do well to fast because the Church has told us that this is a practice we need to follow in order to work out our salvation. We do not have to understand every reason why fasting is good in order to be obedient to the instruction of the Church – we just need to obey. This is not a mindless obedience; we should always be studying our faith, and the teachings of the fathers, and the lives of the saints. If we do, we will see they also fasted, in obedience to the Church; and they profited thereby, saving their souls, and being examples of how to do so to others – including us, if we will learn from them. The practice of obedience is an essential step for us to bring our will into conformity to the will of God; so that we may keep His commandments, and so save our souls.

These two components – subjecting the flesh to the will, and learning obedience – are a form of “basic training,” by which we can go from a foundation skill to advancing in spiritual warfare. If we can teach ourselves to abstain from meat, and dairy products, and eggs and even fish during fasting days and seasons, we can also teach ourselves to abstain from the passions that lead us into sins. When we strengthen ourselves by obedience in fasting, we strengthen ourselves to restrain our other appetites – the sources of anger, and hatred, and lust, and envy, and greed, and laziness. And when we make our obedience to the will of God an offering of our love to Him, we enter into the ability to love God with the fullness of our being, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves – and so we gain the ability to keep the Great Commandment which our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us for our salvation.

Brothers and sisters, called to be saints: Let us not be like those who, given the command of God to abstain from eating the flesh of swine, chose instead to satisfy the cravings of their flesh, only to lose what they prized because of the demons. Let us instead preserve our holiness through our commitment to Christ, as did the holy martyr Hyacinthus. Let us pray, and give, and struggle against our passions to live a holy life; and let us fast to increase our ability to overcome the passions – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Holy martyr Hyacinthus, pray to God for us!

Living as Apostles

(Holy Apostles Peter and Paul) (Matthew 16:13-19)

Today we celebrate the Feast of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. In many ways, these two servants of God are preeminent in the life of the Church and faith. St. Peter preached the first sermon of the Church, on the day of Pentecost, and about 3,000 people came to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The holy Apostle Peter preached the Gospel of our salvation throughout Palestine, and in Asia Minor, and in Rome, where he was crucified upside down (at his own request) at the order of the Emperor Nero. St. Paul is noteworthy for both the many missionary journeys he made in order to bring the good news of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to as many people as possible; and for the letters he wrote, which make up a good portion of the books of the New Testament. Through his writings, he continues to teach the faithful and the seekers, even to this day.

It is good for us to remember and to celebrate the lives and ministries of St. Peter and St. Paul. But I have no doubt that, if we were able to ask them how best we might honor and celebrate them, they would say, “Embrace the life and teachings of the Orthodox Church, and live as witnesses to the love of God in Jesus Christ. Seek the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and love one another, as Christ loves us, and gives Himself for us.”

We may never preach a sermon to 3,000 people. We may never make journeys as missionaries to foreign lands, putting our lives at risk for the sake of bringing light to those in darkness. But we can make a statement with our lives wherever we happen to find ourselves, by living a life that is holy and pure, loving God, and loving and caring for each other in the love of God. We can preach without words to our families, and our friends, to our neighbors, our coworkers, and even to strangers, by not living according to the wisdom of this world, but instead by living according to the way of life set forth for us by the Church. We can meet adversities and need with long-suffering patience, and with prayer – and people will take notice. We can fast, even when the world is not – and people will take notice. We can give from what God has given to us, for the work of the Church, and for those in need – and people will take notice. We can do all in our power to refrain from sin, and from indulging our weaknesses, putting aside anger and hatred, greed, lust – and people will take notice. Some of those who notice will mock us, even hate us – but some will be drawn to find out why we do what we do; and if we are prepared to give them an answer, we will have become like the apostles to them in their need.

Brothers and sisters, called to be saints: Let us honor the holy memory of the glorious and all-praised Apostles Peter and Paul by joining them in the awesome task of making Christ known in our words and in our lives, to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Healing: Physical and Spiritual

(4th Sunday after Pentecost) (Matthew 8:5-13)

Today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew tells us of the Centurion who came to our Lord Jesus Christ to seek from Him the healing of his servant, who was paralyzed. We know that the servant is healed, because our Lord promises that it will be so; and St. Matthew reports that the servant was healed in the same hour – which is to say, at the same time – that our Lord made this promise to the Centurion. If we look more closely, we see that we do not know the faith of the servant; we do not know if he had any idea that Jesus was the Messiah. We should also see that the Centurion was not a member of the household of God, as this was understood at the time. That is to say, he was not a Jew. But he acted on faith; and so obtained what he desired.

On its surface, this is a story about healing – that is to say, the healing (or curing, if you will) – of a physical ailment, and the connection faith has to our physical well-being. Undoubtedly, when we are sick, or feel ourselves getting sick, we pray and ask God to restore us to health. Likewise, when a member of our family, or a friend, or maybe a person prominent in our lives falls ill, we pray for them to be healed. All of these things are good, and proper. We should, indeed, ask these things in prayer, for ourselves, and for others. You’ll note that we pray for those who are ill at each Divine Liturgy. Not only that: we should ask these things with the trust, the faith, that, as our Lord heard the Centurion’s request for the healing of his servant, so, too, will He hear our prayers for healing; and, as He offered to go to the servant with the Centurion, so, too, will He come to us. We may not always obtain what is needed for a return to health as we understand it; but we will always receive what is needed for the salvation of our souls, for this, above all, is what God desires: that we repent of our sins, and turn from the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and walk with Him, in the way He has prepared for us, so that we may enter into life without end in the joy and glory of His presence.

We must also be aware that this Gospel involves more than just physical healing. Our Lord Jesus became incarnate, in part to fix what had become broken and flawed in us as a result of sin, beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve. Each one of us is, in effect, the servant in need of healing, for we are paralyzed by our sins. This is to say that we cannot travel the way God has provided for us because of our sins. As such, in order to make the journey, we must call out to the merciful Lord in repentance, asking the forgiveness of our sins, and for the healing of that which we have weakened, even unto death, by clinging to our passions, rather than embracing the way of life given to us by God through the Church. Of course, we should ask this for ourselves; but we should ask it as well for every other person in our lives: those whom we love, and who love us; and also for those who hate us, or who have offended us. When someone cuts us off in traffic, we should not be provoked to harden our hearts, to anger, or to condemnation of that person. How much better off would we be if we, instead, asked God to forgive and heal and protect that person? And how much better off would we be if those we have hurt or offended, either knowingly or unknowingly, prayed for us to be healed, rather than becoming angry, rather than cursing, rather than condemning?

Brothers and sisters, called to be saints: our Lord Jesus Christ is among us today, to heal our wounds, to heal our sicknesses, in body, mind, and spirit. Let us, with faith, draw near to Him in prayer, for our needs, and for the needs of others – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Being the Family of God

( 3rd Sunday after Pentecost) (Holy Apostle Jude)

Today is the day the Church remembers the holy Apostle Jude, the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to the teaching of the Church. Jude was the youngest of the four sons born to St. Joseph, before the death of his first wife, and his betrothal to the Lady Theotokos and Virgin Mary. It is said that, at the time when St. Joseph was preparing for his death, and he sought to divide his estate among his sons, he desired to give the son of Mary, our Lord Jesus, an equal portion; but the other sons, except for James, objected, and so no portion was given for our Lord. Only James took a portion of his inheritance and gave it to his brother, Jesus. The holy Apostle Jude does not refer to himself as being the brother of the Lord, as does James. He only calls himself the brother of James; undoubtedly ashamed of both his behavior regarding the inheritance; and also his initial lack of faith in the Lord Jesus as Son of God and Savior.

But the good news is that, while the holy Apostle Jude did not believe prior to the Passion and Crucifixion of our Lord, he did become a believer after the Resurrection of his brother from the dead. He proclaimed the good news of our salvation in Christ, and taught the Orthodox faith throughout the Holy Land, and then into Mesopotamia and Armenia. He met his death, crucified, with arrows shot into his body, at the hands of pagans.

What must it have been like, do you think, to have been the brother or sister of our Lord Jesus Christ, as was the holy Apostle Jude? The question isn’t an idle one. After all, while we did not enter this life as members of the household of God, we have become so through being born again of water and the Spirit in being baptized and chrismated. We entered the household, the family, of God. We have a birthright, an inheritance – the kingdom of heaven. Of course, we can renounce this birthright; we do not have to claim it as our own. But if we desire to be the brothers and sisters of the Lord, we must remember that he said that all those who do the will of the Father Who sent Him are his mother and brothers and sisters. This instruction is joined by the direction given to us at the end of the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew: to seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. If we do so, the promise is that everything else we need will be given to us.

What is the will of God that we must do in order to be considered the family of Christ? How do we seek first the kingdom of God?

It is God’s will that we love Him with the fullness of our being; and that we love each other. Love is patient; love is kind; love does not envy; love is not proud. Love does not serve itself, but rather serves others. Those who love endure much, without thinking evil of those who do wrong, and without being provoked to take any form of revenge. Those who love delight in the truth, and do not live in sins, but struggle against them. In all these things, we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme example; and we see these qualities as well in the lives of the saints, as in the life of the holy Apostle Jude. To the extent that we do not see these qualities in ourselves – well, each of us has more work to do!

This work begins by embracing the Orthodox way of life. We must pray, so that we may draw closer to God, and spend time with Him, so that we can learn to be more and more like Him, in Whose image we are made, and Whose life we have received. We must fast, so that our flesh, the avenue for so many of our passions, is disciplined and strengthened for the fight against our sins. We must give from the time and talent and treasures entrusted to us by God, so that we may be set free from being attached to this world, and its pleasures and possessions; and we must struggle to overcome our passions and ride, and be more and more like our Lord Jesus, the lover of mankind.

Brothers and sisters, the way to the kingdom, to the household, to the family of God is available to us. Having sinned, let us repent; having sought to take our inheritance from heaven and waste it instead on earthly things, let us choose now to give a portion of what has been given to us for the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us love one another, as Christ loves us, and gave Himself for us – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Let Us Honor His Holy Memory in Our Lives

(St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco) (Luke 6:17-23a)

Today we celebrate the holy hierarch and wonderworker, St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. We remember this saint of God, as we do for all the saints commemorated in the church calendar, to give thanks to God for their life and ministry and example; and we should also be reminding ourselves of what is possible in our own lives – that is, we need to remember that we are not different in our being from the saints, except for the ways in which we choose to live.

The time of the saints is not “long ago and far away.” There are saints of all kinds in every age, in all places. We need look no farther than St. John to realize this is true. He reposed in the lord on July 2, 1966 – and many of us were already born at that time; while others who were not are still only a few years removed from the life of this holy man. The Holy Spirit of God is present and active today, as He has been since the day of Pentecost, to enlighten the faithful and lead us into all truth, and closer to God. St. John proves this, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

St. John lived a deeply ascetic life. He did not permit himself to sleep in a bed. Instead, he rested for a few hours while sitting; or fell asleep while prostrate in prayer. He ate only once a day; and during Great Lent, he did not eat at all during the first and last weeks. When he did eat during Great Lent, he ate only the bread that had been blessed in the altar, and some water. He spent hours in prayer. He gave away the money and possessions that had been given to him. He visited the sick. He cared for the widows and the orphans. He went to the Divine Liturgy every day, and received the holy Mysteries of our Lord’s Body and Blood every day. Is it any wonder, then, that he was able to serve God, and to care for the people God entrusted to him, with healings and other miraculous powers?

Not all of us are able to achieve the ascetic life of St. John, for not all of us are called to do so. But we are called to do all we have been given strength to do in our own ascetic struggles. We should be careful about the comforts we desire, for we pursue what we desire – and our flesh wants to be fed and comforted and pampered. We all can do more in prayer than most of us manage to achieve. We can all do more in charitable works, and in charitable giving. We can all do more to worship God, and to love and care for His people, and to make His presence known to those who still dwell in darkness, and in the shadow of death. None of us may ever reach the ascetic heights that St. John attained; but if we will follow his example, and require more of ourselves, we will honor his holy memory; and we also will become better servants of God.

Brothers and sisters, called to be saints: Let us magnify our holy father, the hierarch and wonderworker, John of Shanghai and San Francisco. Let us live according to his example; to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

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

Being "Orthodox" Does Not Mean Being "Correct"

(Second Sunday after Pentecost) (All Saints of Russia)

Today we celebrate all the saints of the Russian land. Under normal circumstances, during the sermon there would be some mention of particular saints who have lived in Russia, and consideration given to how their life and teachings are essential for us today, far away from Russia by geography and culture, but still very close by virtue of the Orthodox Church and faith and way of life that we have in common with these saints.

But, brothers and sisters, today in our parish, circumstances are far from normal, far from ordinary. I have to tell you that our choir director is not coming back – and, this week, I have learned more about the reasons why this departure has occurred.

We know that words have power. After all, when God created the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, He did so by the power of His word. When God said, “Let there be light,” there was light. Whatever God spoke came into existence. Similarly, we know that our Lord Jesus Christ healed by the power of His word; He knocked over the soldiers who had come to arrest Him by the power of His word; He raised the dead by the power of His word. But sometimes we forget that our words also have power: the power to help; and the power to hurt.

On the Sunday after the feast of the Ascension of our Lord, our choir director made a mistake. Things were said to her, and things were said about her – and, as a result, she was wounded in her mind, and wounded in her spirit. These words – not the first ones that were critically spoken to her – proved to be too much for her to bear. There are other reasons for her leaving, reasons that are beyond our power to affect – but what was said that day was the final push that drove her out the door, and out of our parish, and, in all probability, out of our lives. Now, in a way, we are suffering as well – and we must accept our responsibility for what has happened.

But it’s more than just the words. Some of us were born and raised in the Orthodox Church; while others of us came from backgrounds and beliefs outside the Church. Each group – cradle and convert – has strengths and weaknesses they bring with them to Church, and to life. But all, if we are serious about the task of saving our souls, appreciate and embrace the Orthodox way of life: of prayer, and fasting; of giving alms and offerings and tithes and sacrifices; and of struggling to overcome our passions, and replace them with the God-pleasing virtues that are their opposites. But none of this matters if we do not love. If we pray without love, our words are empty. If we fast without love, it is nothing more than a diet. If we give all that we have, and it is not done for love, we have gained nothing. If we live perfect lives, lives without sin, making every prostration, keeping every rule – if we do this without love, we are not Orthodox, no matter how correct we may appear to be, no matter how correctly we speak and act. The Orthodox life above all is a life of love: love for God that causes us to cast away every habit, every behavior, every thought and desire, that we know will displease and separate us from the God Who loves us; and a love for each other, for each person who bears the image of God, that sees no wrongs, hears no insults, accepts all blows, without wavering in love. When our sister made her mistake, and we criticized her, we did not love her – and this happens to us all the time. We all do it; we all are guilty; and all of us need to examine ourselves, and repent of our self-love and hardness of heart.

Brothers and sisters, being Orthodox does not consist of being “correct.” To be Orthodox, we must love God, and love each other. Everything we do must be done for love, done to be living in the service of love, and of the God Who is revealed as Love. If we will repent, if we will confess, and if we will strive to live in love, then, and only then will we be one with the saints who dwelt in the Russian land, who are saints because of their love for God – then, and only then, will we be worthy of being called Orthodox Christians.

Called to be Saints

(1st Sunday after Pentecost) (Sunday of All Saints)

Today, the Church celebrates a Feast in which all of the saints are commemorated. In the reading from the epistle to the Hebrews, we hear about some of them. Some were martyrs, who loved our Lord and His Church more than life itself, and so died rather than turn their backs on Him. Others, confessors, suffered tortures of all kinds while remaining faithful to our Lord, proclaiming Him as Savior and Lord despite horrible cruelties inflicted upon them. Others withdrew from contact with the world, living in caves and deserts and other solitary places, in order to pursue a life in God, and to be free from the temptations that surround the faithful in the world – which is to say, in the culture and society in which they live. There are many, many others, of course. Some, we know – and some who are known by God alone.

The Church, in her wisdom, has given us this day to remember the saints, who in word and deed have made known the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ through the quality of their lives. But we must do more than merely remember them, for we are called to be like them. Each and every one of us here is called to be a saint of God. Some may even be called to be martyrs, for it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how our culture is growing in its contempt for Christ, and its rejection of His life and teachings. Others may be called to be confessors – and all of us, if we live our faith, if we live the life we are meant to learn from and in the Church, will have people mock us, laugh at us, and reject us for the foolishness of our faith in Christ. The Apostle’s Fast, for example, begins tomorrow. What will the people you work with, or go to school with, think of you when you do not eat or drink what others are consuming, so that you can be faithful in keeping the fast? Are you prepared to answer their questions as to why you do the things you do, and why you have turned away from other things that our culture and society accept as normal, even healthy? And, if you answer, what will you do when they laugh at you, or turn their backs on you? Are you willing to suffer rejection for the faith?

Yes, brothers and sisters, we are called to be saints – to live a holy life in which Christ is revealed by what we say, and by what we do. We may not ever be called to be martyred, or to be tortured because of our faith. But we are all called to put on the life we have been given in our baptism; and our Lord Jesus Christ has told us the way we must go: we must take up our Cross, and follow Him. And so we pray, in order to draw closer to Him. We fast, so that we can withdraw from the world. We give alms and offerings, to set ourselves free from the things of this world that will possess us if we do not understand that all we have is entrusted to us as stewards of the blessings of God, to be used for His glory, and for the salvation of souls. We struggle against the passions that attack us, and fight against the sins to which they lead us; and we labor to love God with all of our being, and to love each other, and all the world, with the love of God in Jesus Christ. When we do these things, we take up the Cross appointed for us, and we carry it, as we follow our Lord Jesus Christ, as He leads us from this world to His heavenly kingdom.

Of course, we cannot do this by our strength alone. It is not possible to be a saint without the power of the Holy Spirit being present in us. But we know the Holy Spirit has come, for we have just celebrated the Feast of His coming, the feast of Pentecost. Now, just as the calendar of the Church makes clear, we a re living in the season after Pentecost – and so it is in time and space as well, for the Holy Spirit has come, and all who ask for His help and presence shall receive what they need to live a holy life.

Brothers and sister, called to be saints: Let us not neglect this opportunity to repent of our sins, to turn to God, to ask His help, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us devote ourselves to the Orthodox faith, and the way of life we learn in the Church, so that we may fulfill the high calling to be saints – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Laboring to Be Like Christ

(7th Sunday after Pentecost) (Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council)

Our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, has ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He, possessing the Divine nature as the Son of God, has ascended with His human nature as well – and so, as Adam once lived in the intimate presence of God, so now does our human nature once more draw near to God, in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. A great part of our hope as Christians is that we, too, can approach God, Who has drawn near to us, as did Adam before the Fall. But in order to do so, we must be “in Christ” – that is, we must make real in our own lives the nature that Christ has healed and raised, and with which has ascended into heaven. We must take the life of Christ given to us in our baptism, and bring it into being in and through our own lives.

Brothers and sisters, we are meant to ascend into heaven – that is, we are meant to enter the intimate presence of God. This world is not our home. This material existence that we know is only part of the reality in which we are meant to live. But as long as we cling to the things of this world, as long as we are tied to the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil, as long as we are weighed down by the cares and concerns of this material, earthly, fleshly life, we cannot rise; we cannot ascend the heights; we cannot enter the presence of God.

How do we set ourselves free from all that weighs us down, and keeps us from ascending? We must believe what we are taught by the Church; and we must put what we believe into action. We must believe that God is our Creator and Lord. We must believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come and joined His divinity to our humanity, and that He died to save us, putting death to death, so that we might have life that does not end. We must believe that the Holy Spirit has come to make known to us the truths that save, and to empower us in our life of faith.

And we must put what we believe into action. We must labor to be more and more like Christ: showing forth His obedience – for He said He did not come to do His own will, but the will of God the Father, Who sent Him. As well, we must show forth His holiness, for He did not sin; and His patience and His love. We make a start in all these things by obedience to the way of life we are taught by the Church: a life of prayer and fasting, of giving and struggle, of loving each other, and God above all. By praying, we grow closer to God. Remember, when you spend time with a person, you tend to take on the qualities of that person – and so by spending time with God in prayer, we become more like Him, in Whose image we are made. By fasting and self-denial, we set ourselves free from the passions of our flesh, and so strengthen ourselves against the sins these passions will otherwise lead us to commit. By giving, we set ourselves free from the material possessions of this world, and from greed, and envy, among other things. By humility, we set ourselves free from pride. By loving and caring for all who are made in the image of God, we show not only our love for God, but the love of God for us; we make known the reality of God’s love among those who do not yet know this truth. By doing so, we make it possible for them to come to believe what we believe, and to adopt the way of life that we have chosen; and so bring them to share with us the way by which our souls are saved.

Brothers and sisters, Christ has gone up into heaven; and He has shown us the way we are to follow. Let us do so with faith and love; to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Called to Follow our Ascended Lord

(The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ)

Perhaps you’ve heard the reports that came out as the first cosmonauts went into outer space in the early 1960’s – how they had looked, but had seen no sign of God there in space. As ridiculous as this sounds, it shows the great lengths to which people are willing to go in their efforts to deny the reality of the existence of God; for, if there is no God, then who is there to tell us what we can, and cannot, do, apart from ourselves?

Although the example is a crude one, it is possible to see how the words of the scriptures can be used by those who wish to deny and deceive. In the epistle reading for today’s feast, we hear that our Lord was “taken up” from the midst of His disciples, and was received into a cloud. If we try to picture this in our minds, I suppose we would see the Lord “lifting off,” as if He was some sort of missile – and this is undoubtedly the image that the cosmonauts were invoking – as if our Lord had somehow become a satellite in orbit above the earth, or elsewhere in the cosmos.

When our Lord departed from His disciples, forty days after His resurrection from the dead, He “ascended” into heaven, to be seated at the right hand of the Father, as we affirm in the Symbol of Faith at each Divine Liturgy. We say He ascended, that is, went up, into heaven, not because “heaven” is some place over our heads in space, but because we recognize it is a higher form of existence than what we experience here and now – unless we have also made the journey, by climbing the Ladder of Divine Ascent.

This journey is not a simple one; we are not received into a cloud. We make the ascent by the way of asceticism: prayer, and fasting, giving, and self-denial; by loving God and all those made in the image of God, and not loving ourselves more than these. These ascetic labors take time, and effort – and even then, if we try to make the ascent in our own strength alone, we shall fail, ofr the task is one beyond our means, beyond our strength. But Christ, having risen from the dead, having ascended into the intimate presence of God, has done so with His human nature, which is ineffably joined to the Divine; and if we dwell in Christ, He makes possible in and through us what we cannot do ourselves.

Where, then, do we look for our Lord? We must first look within ourselves, for the kingdom of heaven, He tells us, is within us. We must journey to that place at the depth of our being, where God waits to share Himself with us in a mystic communion. Here again, we can go only by the ascetic way of life; for, otherwise, we will be distracted and diverted by the ways of this world, and the longings of our flesh. We must also look outwardly, and learn to see Christ in each person we meet. When we teach ourselves to see each other as what we are – icons of Christ, and more than icons, because we who have been baptized bear His life itself within us – we will be transformed by being vessels and servants of the love of God.

Brothers and sisters, let us celebrate this glorious feast of the Ascension of our Lord by resolving to follow where He has gone: to make our own ascent, leaving behind the life in the world, and living according to the way of heaven – loving God, and loving each other, bearing Christ and His love for all in ourselves, putting this love into practice in our lives, together with the ascetic way of life: to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Eyes that See But Do Not See

(6th Sunday of Pascha) (The Healing of the Man Born Blind)

Christ is risen!

You know, it’s a funny thing: the man born blind knew he was blind. Now, because he had not seen, and then lost the ability to see, I suppose if no one had told him he was blind, he wouldn’t have known; he would have accepted the world in which he lived as one without sight. He was in darkness; but if he had not known that he was blind, he would have accepted darkness as a natural condition; and probably would have assumed that everyone else lived in the same way. His blindness did not keep him from learning; and among the things he learned was that the Messiah would come. He went to the pool of Siloam to wash with two things that each of us would do well to develop and practice on our own lives: obedience; and faith.

Here’s a tragic thing: Because we have eyes to see the world around us, we don’t know that we are blind. What, you don’t think this is true? Tell me, have you seen God? (I know I haven’t.) Yet we live in the world God created; and we are gathered here in His presence – so we should be able to see Him, right? But we don’t. We are in darkness; and because we don’t know we are blind, we accept our spiritual darkness as a natural condition, and we live our lives accordingly, and assume that everyone else lives in the same way. But because we see in the physical sense, we do not think we are spiritually blind; and so, unlike the blind man, we do not learn. We are not obedient to the teachings of the Church; and we do not have the fullness of faith.

After all, if we truly believed that the Messiah has come, we would not live according to the ways of the world; we would not live according to the desires of our flesh. If we truly believe what we say we believe in the Symbol of faith, we would begin to see the things of the spiritual realm, and come to desire these more than any earthly powers or pleasures. We would pray and fast, in order to be closer to God; we would give, and struggle against our sins, in order to be set free from this world. We would love one another, even those who hate and wrong us, in order to more closely resemble the God Who loves us, and Whom we should love with the fullness of our being. But we are blind to these truths; for, if we were not blind, we would not sin. The evidence of our blindness is our persistence in our sins.

Brothers and sisters, we do not need to wait for the Messiah to come. He has already come, and is risen from the dead, raising us to new life in Him as well. We have already been to Siloam; we were washed in the water of our baptism, empowered in our chrismation. We should see, where we were blind; but we choose instead to close our eyes, and blind our souls, thinking that we see. But now I have told you (and told myself): we are living blindly, although we should be able to see the glory of God, and the image of His beloved Son in each and every person we meet. Let us be disobedient no longer; let us confess our sins, and be washed clean once more. Let us go forth in love, caring for each other and all who bear the image of Christ; for then do we truly worship Him. In loving do we truly serve Him; and in serving Him, we will come to see Him; to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Christ is risen!

Springs of Living Water

(5th Sunday of Pascha) (The Samaritan Woman; Ap. John the Theologian)

Living in the desert, we are all aware (or should be aware) of the importance of having enough water to drink. Not only is water scarce – that’s what makes it a desert! – but the heat of the desert also increases the need for drinking plenty of water. If you are outside for any reason during the summer, and especially if you’re doing some type of work, you will get thirsty! When that happens, there’s nothing to compare with a drink of cool water.

The woman who meets our Lord Jesus at the well has come there during the heat of the day to obtain water. Our Lord asks her to draw water from the well for Him to drink; and uses this as a way to gently instruct her to her spiritual needs. He begins with her bodily thirst, to show her, from what she knows, a deeper truth she needs to know. He says of the well, “Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst.”

“Water” here refers to the Holy Spirit, and especially to the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse, as in washing with water; and to refresh, as in the drink of cool water when we are hot and thirsty. As water makes a garden or an orchard more lush and productive, so, too, does the Holy Spirit to the soul that is willing to be “watered.” As someone with a well that is deep never lacks water, and so is never thirsty, the soul that is watered by the Holy Spirit does not thirst: that is, such a soul is not touched by despondency, and is not touched by the plots and plans of the evil one, for the water quenches the fiery darts of the evil one.

Material thirst is quenched by material water; spiritual thirst, by spiritual water, the water of the Holy Spirit. We need both forms of water to stay alive. Material water must be replenished; we drink water every day (unless prevented). If we don’t, we will weaken, and then die. Spiritual water must also be replenished, and we need to drink of it every day. If we don’t, we will weaken, and we will die.

But wait: Doesn’t our Lord say that the water He shall give shall be a well springing up to everlasting life? Doesn’t this refer to something that is permanent?

Yes: but just as a spring of material water, which flows without ceasing, can become polluted, or even be stopped up by our actions, such as filling the spring with stones, so, too, is it possible for us to receive this life-giving spring in ourselves, only to pollute its waters with our sins, and to stop it up by the hardening of our hearts. To have this water remain in us, flowing pure and sweet, we must turn from the earthly life and be transformed by the life we learn in the Church: the life of prayer, and fasting, and alms-giving, and struggle; the life of repentance and confession; a life of loving and caring for others with the patience and love and mercy of God. When we pray and fast and repent and confess, we keep the water pure and unpolluted; and by loving and caring for others, we keep the water flowing. This is because, when all is said and done, the water of this life-giving spring in our soul is the love of God; and that water is not meant for ourselves alone, but that we might learn to increase the flow of this water, and so become a source of blessing and refreshment to everyone around us.

Brothers and sisters! God’s love for us is a ever-flowing river, great and mighty. Let us repent and confess, and fast and pray, that we might be faithful servants of God, and receive within ourselves this water of everlasting life. Let us also love and care for each other, and so be sources of comfort and refreshment to all who are made in the image of God, to the glory of His name, and the salvation of our souls.

Christ is risen!

Paralyzed By SIns

(4th Sunday of Pascha) (The Healing of the Paralytic)

Christ is risen!

If you think about it, we have the same problem as the paralytic. He wanted to be healed; but, when the time came, and the angel had troubled the waters of the pool at Bethesda, he could not get into the water by himself; he needed help, and he had no one to help him. We are paralyzed by our sins – especially by the ones that we have to repeat each and every time we go to confession, because we continue to repeat the sins through the course of our lives. Oh, sometimes we do resist the temptations that beset us; but even when we’ve had a victorious day, we know that, sooner or later, we’re going to fall again, and sin again.

We have to recognize that we are trying to overcome these sins by our own efforts alone, with only our own strength – and that we cannot, and will not, succeed by this approach. We have to recognize our inability to be holy and pure on our own; and that we have to ask for help.

So: how do we not try to do this by our own strength? I don’t know; I’m struggling with that myself. But there are hints from the fathers for us to take into consideration.

The first is that we must pray, asking for God’s help. OK, so this is obvious. It is the foundation for our having a rule of prayer, which begins with attending as many of the services of the Church that we can fit into our schedule – and giving these services the highest priority, rather than just “making do” with the ones that are convenient. The rule of prayer continues with developing the habit of daily morning and evening prayers. We start with the ones found in the prayer book; and add our own hopes and needs and intercessions for others as well. We make a part of this rule the blessing of food before we eat; and giving thanks when we have finished; and we also ask for God’s guidance before we start an activity, and give thanks when the task is completed. Bless yourself and the vehicle you’re driving when you’re about to depart. Parents, bless your children when they go to school, or are going out with friends; and children, pray for your parents. When you learn of someone in need, stop and pray for God to bless and help them. When you hear that someone has died, stop and ask God to be merciful to them, and to grant that person a blessed repose; and do the same when you pass by a cemetery. When you hear a siren, or see a police car, fire truck, or ambulance go by, ask God to protect and deliver those in need, and to keep safe those who go to render them aid.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Wow, father, that’s a lot of time in prayer!” Well, keep in mind that St. Paul instructs us to pray continually. These are steps we can take in that direction; and when our minds are fixed in prayer, and we remember that prayer brings us into the intimate presence of God, it is easier to resist the temptations to sin! More prayer is good, and most all of us would benefit by it.

The next thing we need to do is to fast. Prayer and fasting are the sword and shield of our spiritual warfare. Fasting teaches our flesh that it cannot have what it wants simply because it wants it. Fasting weakens the flesh and its desires, and purifies us in body, mind and spirit. Fasting shows us that we can deny ourselves; and so we can learn to fast from our sins, as well as from food; and so gain an advantage against our sinful desires and habits. If you deny a weed the food or water it needs, it weakens, and can be uprooted and removed far more easily than when it is at full strength. So, too, it is with our sins.

It won’t surprise you, I’m sure, to hear that we must also give alms, and struggle against our passions. In fact, this is one of the points the fathers make about how we can achieve the victory over sins, the healing of our beings that we desire, but cannot achieve in our own strength. We see two mechanisms at work in the Gospel account today. The first, when the angel comes and troubles the waters, is akin to the Church, and the way of life we are taught to follow. If we will do these things, we will be healed; and it isn’t just the first person in who is helped. Each one of us can and will be transformed to the extent that we embrace the way of life that has been the way of the saints.

Of course, the paralytic was not healed in that way: he was healed by our Lord Jesus Christ. But note that he was present at the pool at Bethesda; it is there that the Lord found him, and delivered him; and afterward, he was found in the Temple, giving thanks to God. It was there, by the way, that he was also warned not to return to his sinful ways, lest something worse should come upon him than the paralysis from which he had been delivered. He did not come seeking out our Lord; he was following the way that had been given, and was found there and helped by the Lord. In the same way, we may also be found and delivered by the Lord; and we make ourselves available to Him by following the Orthodox way of life.

Finally, we must not be discouraged, we must not give up, just because we don’t see anything changing. Remember that the paralytic had waited, without becoming bitter, and without losing hope, for thirty-eight years! St. John Chrysostom notes that we, having persisted in prayer for all of ten days, and not having received what we had asked for, are too slothful afterwards to have enough zeal to continue in prayer. So, even as we continue to struggle to do all that we can with the strength that we have, we should also pray without ceasing for the strength and help we cannot do by ourselves; that our Lord Jesus Christ will strengthen us with His strength, and win in and through us the victory that we cannot attain by ourselves. Let us offer this prayer as we offer ourselves, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Christ is risen!

Are You Seeking the Body of Christ?

(Third Sunday of Pascha: The Myrrh-Bearing Women) (Mark 15:43-16:8)

Christ is risen!

In the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. Mark, we find two different times when the faithful came seeking the Body of Christ. Nicodemus came seeking the Body of Christ, that he might give the body an honorable burial. The myrrh-bearing women came to the tomb, seeking the Body of Christ, so that they could anoint it according to the burial customs. Nicodemus obtained what he sought; the myrrh-bearing women did not. Instead, they were asked by the angel, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen, as He foretold. Go and tell of His Resurrection to the disciples.”

Why have you come today? Have you come seeking the Body of Christ? If you have come to honor in worship the risen Lord, that is good. If you have come to be transformed, so that His image can be seen more clearly in you, that is good. If you have come so that you can bear His image into the world for others to see, and so know where they can find the Body of Christ, which is His Church, that is good. If you have come for these reasons, you will find, as did Nicodemus, the One you seek.

Have you come seeking the Body of Christ? There is another way we can understand this. Christ is present in our midst; and we have, through the Mystery of Holy Communion, His Body and His Blood here for our benefit. Yet how may will come today and partake of the mystical Supper which He has prepared for His people? How many of the faithful, who have been baptized into Christ’s death and raised to new life in Him Who has trampled down death by death – how many of the faithful will come to Him to be fed and nourished in that new life He has given?

And how much we resemble the myrrh-bearing women! Given the good news of His resurrection, charged by the angel to go and tell of the empty tomb, we find instead that they said nothing to anyone, out of fear. How like them we are! Have you greeted anyone – apart from at church – with the proclamation, “Christ is risen?” It’s easy to say; and who knows? Maybe the person to whom you say this, at work, or at school, or while shopping, will be curious about what you mean, and ask you to say more. But we don’t do it. Like the myrrh-bearing women, we are afraid. We fear what others may think of us; we fear that others may laugh at us, or ridicule us, or reject us, or persecute us.

How amazing! We fear others, but we do not fear God. If we truly feared God, we would do everything in our power to depart from our sins. If we truly believed that Christ is risen from the dead, and has granted us eternal life, we would turn our backs on this world, and all it values, and all the ways of satisfying ourselves with worldly praises and pleasures, and live for God, and God alone. If we took even a few steps in that direction, our lives would be so transformed that we wouldn’t need to say anything at all like, “Christ is risen” to family and friends and neighbors and colleagues. Our lives would speak for themselves; the light of the glory of God would shine from us to those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, drawing them to seek Him; and we could help them find Him.

Brothers and sisters: Christ is risen! Let us therefore keep the feast. Let us prepare ourselves by confession and prayer to receive His precious and holy Body and Blood, that He may evermore dwell in us, and we in Him. Let us seek Him, and make Him the Lord of our lives, and seek to dwell in His presence, rather than in this world. Let us not fear those who may ridicule or reject or even kill us, whether literally or metaphorically; but let us seek Him, and seek to bear Him into the world, so that the world will learn from us the good news: that Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and bestowing upon us all eternal life; to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

Christ is risen!

"Peace Be Unto You"

(2nd Sunday of Pascha: Thomas Sunday) (John 20:19-31)

“Peace be unto you.”

Our Lord, risen from the dead, enters the locked room where His disciples are in hiding, and greets them with these words. We need to consider what these words mean, for He also greets us, as we gather here to remember and celebrate His resurrection. He is in our midst, as He entered into the midst of them on that day; and we are meant to receive His peace, and bear it to each other, and to the world.

What is “peace?” It has a number of meanings. Probably the one we think of first is the absence of war, or an end to fighting. Nations that have been at war make peace, and put an end to the war; persons who have been fighting with each other settle their differences, and make peace between them. “Peace” can also describe a state of public order and well-being; persons can be arrested for “disturbing the peace.” “Peace” is also a synonym for serenity; we sometimes speak of being at peace within ourselves, and we sometimes notice when, in the midst of turmoil and trouble, there are those who seem undisturbed by what is going on around us, and we may envy the state of peace in which they seem to dwell. But what is our Lord speaking of when He greets His disciples, saying, “Peace be unto you?”

First of all, He is saying to them, “Do not be troubled.” Consider the circumstances: His disciples are in hiding for fear of the Jews; and the One Whom they had followed had been put to death on the Cross – and now, suddenly, He has entered into a locked room into their midst! Were they seeing a ghost? And so He tells them to be at peace, and not to be disturbed in body, mind, or spirit, by what has happened, or by what is happening.

Once the shock of His appearance (and the manner by which He accomplished it) had passed, His words would also, undoubtedly, have reminded them of His conversation with them on the night He was betrayed, when He said, “Peace I leave with you; My own peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Later, in that same evening, He also said to them, “These things I have said to you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world, you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer – I have overcome the world.”

And now, His work is completed. Risen from the dead, He has trampled down death by death. Death no longer has a claim on Him – or on those who dwell in Him by faith. Death has no power over Him; nor does death have any power over us, if we live in Him, and He in us. The world lives in fear of death, and death is in the world. But in the Kingdom of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, there is no death. He has brought peace to those who struggle with the fear of death.

Of course, the wages of sin is death, as St. Paul teaches us. Each of us who has sinned deserves death as our “reward” – and we are all sinners. On one level, when we sin, we rebel against God; and so are at war with God, as we seek to establish the ability to rule ourselves, rather than being ruled by God. It is a war we cannot win; but we fight desperately, all the same. But Christ has come, and offers to us a way of peace, a way to cease fighting against God. Though we have been, or still are, enemies of God, He has come to make peace – and all we need to do is accept His terms: to accept His love for us, and His death on our behalf, and to allow Him to guide us in our lives, so that we may enter into the joy of His kingdom.

Brothers and sisters, our Lord is here in our midst, and He greets us with peace, in peace. If we will hear Him, and follow where He leads, we will find that He has made peace for us with God; and set us free from the power of death, so that we can be at peace within ourselves, and live in peace with each other as well. Let us receive this great gift of love from our Lord and God; and let us share it with each other, and with all those with whom our lives interact. Let us be vessels of His peace, and bear it unto all; let us go in peace, to love an serve the Lord; to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

Now He is Resting in the Tomb

(Great and Holy Saturday) (Matthew 28:1-10)

The Author of all Creation is now held within His creation. The Giver of Life has now given His life in behalf of us all. He Who made the heavens and the earth in six days and then rested on the seventh day now rests in the tomb.

Usually, when a battle is fought, the winner is still alive; it is the one who is defeated who has lost his life. But this is not an ordinary battle; this is no ordinary victory. The One the world thinks it has destroyed by death is destroying Death itself by His death. The Creator Who is resting in the tomb is accomplishing for us a new Creation. The Giver of Life Who is resting in the tomb is giving life to those held captive by Death, and will lead them up on high with Himself. Death has been conquered; Hell is ravaged, and all those who had suffered in a place of darkness behold the uncreated light of the glory of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has entered in their midst to set them free and lead them out of captivity into the glorious freedom of His kingdom.

So it is that St. Paul writes, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the feast.” As Israel of old was led out of captivity by the power of God, so too are we, the new Israel, the people of God, led out of captivity to death, and to sin, by our Lord Jesus Christ. We who are baptized into His death are also partakers of His life; by the waters of baptism, we have “passed over” from death to life.

The people of Israel, having beheld the power of God at the time they crossed the Red Sea, which God had parted for them to cross as on dry land, quickly forgot the mercy of God, and longed to return to the fleshpots of Egypt. It took a sojourn of forty years in the desert before they were permitted by God to enter the land He had promised to Abraham; the land of which they were the heirs.

We who have journeyed through the Fast of forty days in Great Lent also stand at the threshold of the promised land. Yet every time we return to the ways of sin, we repeat this failing of the people of Israel, who, for the sake of tasty food (in place of the manna, the bread of heaven, provided by God), were willing to become slaves in Egypt once more. Do we love the “taste” of our own sins so much that we will continue to turn our backs to Him Who has died to set us free?

The women come bearing myrrh to anoint His body. It is an act of love and devotion for Him Who had taught them so much, had shown them a glimpse of the heavenly realm, Who had inspired love in them with His love for them, and for all mankind. There were many obstacles in the way of their act of devotion; the possibility of being arrested themselves, of dealing with the soldiers guarding the tomb – and who would roll away the stone for them? But they were not deterred; instead, they set forth to perform this act of love – and found instead an empty tomb.

Now He is resting in the tomb. Are we preparing the myrrh, the sweet fragrance of a life and love devoted to God? Are we making ready the spices of a life dedicated to the ways of God, and not of the world? Will we also resolve to brave the obstacles that would keep us from fulfilling our duty to God? Will we, for this brief time, lay aside all earthly cares, all thoughts of the belly, all the worries of Martha, preparing for the feast, and watch and wait and mourn His death; so that we, too, may be filled with wonder and joy when we behold His empty tomb?

A King to Rule Over Us

(The Entry of our Lord into Jerusalem) (John 12:1-18)

When the people of God, the children of Israel, first asked the prophet Samuel to give them a king, so that they might be like all the other nations, he rebuked them for their lack of faithfulness to God, Who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt, provided for them miraculously in the desert, made a covenant with them, and brought them to a land that was not theirs and established them in it. What need did they have for a king, when God was in their midst? Yet, because of the hardness of their hearts, after warning them about what a king would require of them – including taxes, and the service of their sons and daughters – Samuel eventually anointed and crowned the man Saul to be the king of Israel.

Saul, unfortunately, proved to be all too human, and did exactly what Samuel had warned that kings do. As long as Saul listened to the commands of God, he ruled wisely, and the people of Israel flourished; but when he departed from the ways of God, the blessing of God was taken from him and given to another: to David, the son of Jesse, who would be king after Saul.

David, the shepherd who became the king, united the people of God, and made Israel a great nation. His son Solomon ruled after him; but Solomon also departed from the ways of God, and when his son became king, many rebelled against him, and the land was divided into two kingdoms, and Israel declined as a nation among the others in the region. They were conquered by invader after invader; and, by the time that God fulfilled His promise to send a Deliverer, our Lord Jesus Christ, the nation of Israel was a captive people, ruled by the Roman Empire. As such, the people awaited the coming of the Messiah, and looked to Him to establish the kingdom, restoring them to the prominence they had held when David was king.

We can certainly understand, then, the people who praised our Lord Jesus Christ as their king as He entered into Jerusalem. After all, He had just raised Lazarus from the dead after four days in the tomb! No mortal man has the power to do such a thing; surely God meant to establish His kingdom! But they were thinking in earthly terms only; and so did not comprehend what was taking place. By week’s end, most of those who had celebrated Hus arrival were crying out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” as the high priests were declaring, “We have no king but Caesar.”

In this land, we do not have a king today. We have not acknowledged any man as king for some 230 years now. As such, even when we use phrases such as, “our Lord Jesus Christ,” we don’t usually associate the term “lord” with that of “king.” If we think about why our Lord Jesus came to us, we usually say that He came to save our souls, to set us free from sin by trampling down death by death. All of this is true, of course – but it does not give us the whole picture.

The whole problem began in the Garden, when Adam and Eve followed their own desires, rather than obeying the will of God. In doing so, they separated themselves from God, the Giver of Life. When you are not connected to life, of course, you are dead. By His grace and mercy, Adam and Eve did not lose their existence; but something crucial in them died; and, as well, they became subject to physical death – a new, and unpleasant, condition for them. Our Lord Jesus says of Himself and His mission, “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”

When we come to Him in faith, asking forgiveness, He forgives our sins. When we come to Him in prayer, asking for help in our weakness, or sickness, or our struggle with our passions, He gives strengthening, and healing, and victory.

But we must also ask ourselves, how does He come to us? The answer is that He comes to us to be our King. Not a king in the sense of a tyrant, or an oppressor – but a king nevertheless, Who is meant to rule over us, to govern us, and Whom we are meant to obey. Think about it: why should we not do as He asks? After all, every direction, every instruction – every command – is not to exalt His position, or to gain riches or fame or any other earthly benefit for Himself. Everything we are told to do by Him is meant for our transformation, and so for our salvation – meant to make us citizens in good standing, entitled to dwell in and partake of the benefits of His kingdom. He comes in peace, to make peace, and allow us to dwell with Him in peace. He comes with love for each and every one of us, that we might love Him, and love and care for each other, and to show His love to all the world – and who among us, what person is there, who does not need and desire to be loved?

Brothers and sisters, today the Church places before us the remembrance of our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, and His proclamation by the people to be their King. Let us also welcome Him into our hearts, and let us live in obedience to His commands. Let us surrender ourselves to Him by embracing the way of life of the Church – prayer, and fasting, giving, and struggling against our passions; loving and worshipping God, and loving God in each other, and in all who are made in His image. O Lord Jesus Christ, we pray Thee: Be the Lord of our hearts and the King and Master of our lives; to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.

The Ascetic Life: Flee to the Desert!

(Fifth Sunday of Great Lent: St. Mary of Egypt)

Over the past several weeks, we have seen how the ascetic life – the life of the Orthodox Church and faith; the life of prayer, and fasting, of giving, and struggling against our passions; the life of loving and serving God, and of loving and serving God in each other – this ascetic life is essential for us to see God, and to draw near to God. The ascetic life is essential for us to accomplish our own transformation, so that the life of Christ we have received in our baptism can be seen in us, in what we say and do and think and feel. We cannot fulfill our Lord’s command to take up our Cross and follow Him if we do not follow the ascetic way of life.

The ascetic way of life is of great importance to us. But we must not forget that it is only a tool for our transformation, and not the “ultimate” goal for which we strive. It’s easy to get so caught up in the rules and practices of the ascetic life that we forget that, above all, we are called to a life that is hallmarked by love.

Today, we remember and celebrate St. Mary of Egypt. Those who are familiar with her life – such as those who were here last Wednesday evening for the reading of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, in which the life of St. Mary of Egypt is read – will know that hers was, indeed, a life of love, in every sense. Certainly, there would be a place in today’s world, in our culture, for the St. Mary we meet at the beginning of her life, for she was totally given to love – at least, as the world often uses that term. She did not restrain herself from “making love”; she indulged every sexual desire that came to her mind. Of course, that isn’t really “love” – but we need to be able to see beyond the world’s perspective to realize that all she was doing was allowing her passions to reduce her from bearing the image of God to living as an animal.

But the love story takes an interesting turn when St. Mary takes ship from Egypt to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Holy Cross, which we mark in September each year. She wasn’t going for reasons of faith; she wanted to enjoy corrupting the pilgrims on the journey. But it was God’s love drawing her nearer, even though she didn’t recognize this; and it was God’s love that prevented her from entering the temple until she repented, and asked the help of the most holy Theotokos. When her prayers were answered, and she could enter the church, she experienced an understanding of the mercy and love of God, and left there to keep the promise she had made to do her part in the transformation of her life.

Her fleeing to the desert was her response of love to the love of God that had drawn her to Him. She went to be apart from the temptations that would distract her and defile her in the world she knew and in which she lived. There she did battle against her flesh, and its desires, and the habits of sin she had so easily acquired, but which, she found, were not so easy to put off. She suffered from hunger and thirst; from the heat and the cold; and from the torments of the demons, who sought to reignite in her flesh the desires for pleasures she had previously indulged; even the singing of songs that were related to her sexual passions. (Of course, there’s nothing similar to this in today’s popular music, right?) It was only by years of these ascetic labors that she was able to gain victory, to reach a state of being where she was not afflicted by the desires that had earlier governed her life, and her actions. Even so, she never forgot that she had been a sinner, and never thought herself worthy of the respect of another – even though she knew St. Zosimas by name, and that he was a hieromonk – knowledge given to her by God.

Who among us has fled to the desert? (I mean, that should be easy enough – it’s right outside the door!) Who among us has prayed and fasted, as did St. Mary of Egypt, that we might be freed of our sinful passions? We all could certainly follow her ascetic way of life; but we do not, because we have not yet come to a place where we are so filled with the love for God that we lose our love for the comforts and pleasures of this world. Even so, God loves each one of us with the same intense love He has for His saints – and patiently awaits our response to His love.

Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant, and so I remind you of what you should already know: God loves you, and desires a relationship of love with you, in a life that will never come to an end. I pray that you will be filled with this love, and so each of us will respond with love to God, and to all who are made in His image, and leave behind all the things of this world to pursue the life that draws us closer to God, and to each other. Let this be our goal as we draw to the end of this Great Lent, that we may be filled with the knowledge of the love of God for us in Jesus Christ; and let us love God, and God in each other, to the glory of His name, and the salvation of our souls.

The Ascetic Life: Pathway to Victory

(4th Sunday of Great Lent) (Mark 9:17-31))

Two weeks ago, on the Sunday in Great Lent when the Church reminds us of the life and teachings of St. Gregory Palamas, we recalled the practice of hesychia, or “stillness” – the quieting of our souls, in order to hear God speaking to us. The person seeking this stillness, and the purity of heart needed to hear God, must live the ascetic life of the Orthodox Church in order to be free from all worldly influences. This concept isn’t foreign to us – at least, it shouldn’t be, given that we hear it at every Divine Liturgy, in the words of the Cherubic Hymn: “Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, and chant the thrice-holy hymn unto the life-creating Trinity, now lay aside all earthly care; that we may receive the King of all Who cometh invisibly upborne in triumph by the ranks of angels.”

Last week, on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross, we were reminded that, to be followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must take up our Cross, and follow Him. The Cross is carried by us through the Orthodox way of life: a life of prayer, and fasting, of giving, and of struggling to overcome our passions with the virtues that oppose them; a life of loving God, and loving God in each other, and so forgiving, and seeking to be humble, seeing only our own sins, and not the sins of others. Once again, we see that the Orthodox way of life, by which we take up our Cross and follow our Lord, is the way of the ascetic life.

Today, the fourth Sunday of Great Lent, we are given the example of the life and teachings of St. John of the Ladder. He went to Mount Sinai, where the holy prophet Moses had brought the people of Israel after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, and received from God the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on tablets of stone. There, as a young man of sixteen years, St. John became a monk, and served his spiritual father for nineteen years. When his spiritual father reposed in the Lord, St. John then lived as a hermit in a small cave, practicing a very strict form of the ascetic life. He became the abbot of the monastery there on Mount Sinai, and worked many miracles. He died at the age of eighty, in or around the year 649.

It was while he was living the ascetic life alone in his cave that he wrote the book that has given him the name by which we know him today: “The Ladder of Divine Ascent.” In his book, St. John describes the way that a monk – that is to say, in the Orthodox point of view, anyone who pursues an ascetic way of life (which is not the exclusive practice only of monastics) – can raise his soul from earth to heaven, as though one was climbing a ladder. It is not so much a book of spiritual practices or exercises or techniques; rather, it instructs and directs those who desire to draw closer to God by revealing the realities of life in this world and in the heavenly realm, so as to encourage and inspire us by a glimpse of the divine vision.

Through these great teachers, such as St. John of the Ladder, we gain insight as well into the first Gospel reading today. The disciples of our Lord, St. Mark tells us, were unable to heal a demon-possessed boy; and, when they ask our Lord about this, He tells them that “this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting.” We see, over and over again in the lives of the saints, how they gain power over the demons because they lived an ascetic life. We are warned, however, that it is not “merely” prayer and fasting that has accomplished this. In the deepest sense, prayer and fasting are effective against the attacks of the demons only when we have, through the ascetic disciplines, achieved a state of true humility – thinking nothing of ourselves, whether praised, insulted, or ignored; and a state of total obedience to the will of God, having surrendered our own will freely to God, trusting ourselves entirely to His great mercy. We cannot overcome the demons without overcoming our passions – the avenues by which the demons attack us, to draw us away from God, and claim us as their own.

Brothers and sisters, in the time that remains to us in this season of Great Lent, let us give thanks to God for the wise teachers He has given to us; and let us also pay heed to their example and instructions. Let us dedicate ourselves to drawing nearer to God, to ascending the ladder by which we leave this earthly life behind, so that we might grow in the life of the world to come – to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

"Before Thy Cross..."

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

We have reached the half-way point in our journey through Great Lent. Most of us are already tired. We’re tired of praying, and of prostrations. The service schedule is more demanding. We’re certainly tired of fasting. It seems as if Lent will never end. And, for many people (if not all of us), the enthusiasm that carried us through the first week of Great Lent, and the strength of that enthusiasm, which helped us to resist the temptations that beset us – the enthusiasm has worn off, and everything seems to be going wrong. We get sick, we get tired – and our sins come crashing back on us, and we yield to temptations that we did so well to resist only a few weeks ago.

That’s why the Church remembers and venerates the holy Cross on this day. We are to be encouraged by the visible display of the sign of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over death. We are also called to remember that He Who is without sin bore our sins to the Cross for us. Our failures show us that we cannot, by ourselves, in our own strength, overcome our habits of sin. It is by the Cross of Christ that we conquer the enemies of sin and death; and we need to redouble our efforts, beginning with calling on God in prayer, asking for the strength we lack in ourselves to live a life that is pleasing to God, and beneficial to the salvation of our souls.

Our Lord calls us to take up our Cross, and to follow Him. This works itself out in a number of ways. One is by returning to the disciplines of Great Lent, whether we feel like doing so, or not. Another is by facing the problems and cares and concerns of each day without fear, and without complaining, but rather with prayer, and with patience, and with humility. We take up our Cross by embracing and pursuing the Orthodox way of life – of prayer, and fasting, and giving, and struggle; of loving and caring for each other, and for all who are made in the image of God – knowing that the way of the Cross leads to death, in order to obtain life without end. What is this death? It is death to the world: to the pleasures that tempt us, and the problems that beset us. By the asceticism of the Orthodox way of life, we rise above these things, and so become dead to the world – by pursuing and living the life of the world to come, the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, the life we were give in our baptism, the life without end that is the fruit of the victory of our Lord.

We sing, “Before Thy Cross, we bow down to Thee in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection, we glorify.” We come forward to kiss the Cross. When we do so, we are, the fathers tell us, confessing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Master, and our Savior. But these are empty words, and our bowing and kissing are empty actions, if our lives are not transformed by the knowledge that the way of salvation has been opened unto us by the way of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we say that Jesus Christ is our Lord, but live instead in the ways of the world, with a worldly mind, pursuing worldly things, and living for ourselves, rather than for Christ in us, we are false witnesses. But if we live the Orthodox way of live, we will lose our life – perhaps literally, but certainly, lose our life in the world; that is, lose life as the world sees it – and gain life without end in the kingdom of God.

Brothers and sisters, the way of the Cross is before us. As we sing with our mouths, as we bow down and kiss the holy Cross, let us resolve to show Christ forth in our lives; and let us continue our journey through Lent, to the foot of the Cross at Golgotha – and to the empty tomb of Pascha.