"You are the Christ!"

“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

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..."

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.”

Image via Wikipedia

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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!"

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..."

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!"

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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St. Mary of Egypt: The Battle Against the Passions

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

(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

(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

(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

(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.