The Feast of the elevation (exaltation) of the Cross

Today we celebrate one of the twelve great feasts of the Church calendar, the feast of the elevation of the Cross. One of the readings for this feast tells us the following:

“The pagan Roman Emperors tried to obliterate the holy places where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and rose from the dead, so that they would be forgotten. Emperor Hadrian (117-138) ordered that Golgotha and the Lord’s Sepulchre be buried, and that a temple in honor of the pagan “goddess” Venus and a statue of Jupiter be placed there.”

“In 313 Saint Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, by which Christianity was legalized and persecutions against Christians in the Western half of the Empire were stopped. Although Licinius had signed the Edict of Milan in order to oblige Constantine, he continued his cruel persecutions against Christians. Only after his conclusive defeat did the Edict of Milan extend also to the Eastern part of the Empire.”

“Ardently desiring to find the Cross upon which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Saint Constantine sent his mother, the pious Empress Helen (May 21), to Jerusalem, providing her with a letter to Saint Makarios, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Saint Helen journeyed to the holy places connected with the earthly life of the Savior, building more than 80 churches, at Bethlehem the birthplace of Christ, and on the Mount of Olives where the Lord ascended to Heaven, and at Gethsemane where the Savior prayed before His sufferings, and where the Mother of God was buried after her Dormition.

Although the holy Empress Helen was no longer young, she set about completing the task with enthusiasm. In her search for the Life-giving Cross, she questioned both Christians and Jews, but for a long time her search remained unsuccessful. Finally, she was directed to a certain elderly Jew named Jude who stated that the Cross was buried beneath the temple of Venus. They demolished the pagan temple and, after praying, they began to excavate the ground. Soon the Lord’s Tomb was uncovered. Not far from it were three crosses, and a board with the inscription ordered by Pilate, and four nails which had pierced the Lord’s Body (March 6).

In order to discover on which of the three crosses the Savior had been crucified, Patriarch Makarios alternately touched the crosses to a corpse. When the Cross of the Lord touched the dead man, he was restored to life. After witnessing the raising of the dead man, everyone was convinced that the Life-giving Cross had been found. Christians came in a huge crowds to venerate the Holy Cross, beseeching Saint Makarios to lift the Cross, so that those far off could see it. Then the Patriarch and other spiritual leaders lifted the Holy Cross, and the people prostrated themselves before the Honorable Wood, saying “Lord have mercy.” This solemn event occurred in the year 326.

During the discovery of the Life-giving Cross another miracle took place: a woman who was close to death was healed by the shadow of the Holy Cross.”

“Saint Helen took part of the Life-giving Wood and nails with her to Constantinople. Saint Constantine ordered a majestic and spacious church to built at Jerusalem in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, also including under its roof the Life-giving Tomb of the Lord and Golgotha. The church was built in ten years. Saint Helen did not survive until the dedication of the church, she reposed in the year 327. The church was consecrated on September 13, 335. On the following day, September 14, the festal celebration of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-giving Cross was established.” -Oca.org

Our Christian faith is centered and focused on the cross as the weapon and the vehicle of our salvation. It is no wonder then that the wood of the cross should be honored by the universal Church for it is worthy of honor because of what Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished through the suffering and pains of the cross. And by looking to the cross we as Christians can receive strength and courage to bear the many crosses and the trials that we’ve been given in our lives. In fact a life without suffering and without crosses, for a Christian, is no life at all. It is rather, a slow death.

St. John Chrysostom preaching about the cross said, “For the Cross is the salvation of the Church, the Cross is the praise of those who hope on it. The Cross has released us from the evil that possessed us and is the beginning of the blessings received by us. The Cross is the reconcilement of His enemies with God, the promise of sinners to Christ. For by the Cross we were freed from enmity and through the Cross we have become amiable to God. The Cross delivered us from the authority of the devil, the Cross saved us from death and destruction. The Cross changed human nature to the angelic, having released it from all that is corruptible, and have found lives worthy of immortality.”

He continues saying, “How great is the power of the Cross! How great is the change made by it in the human race! How from the deep darkness it has led us to the boundless light, from death it has restored us to eternal life, from corruption it has transferred us to incorruption. What good is not accomplished for us by means of the Cross? Through the Cross we learned piety and learned the properties of the Divine essence. Through the Cross we learn the truth about God, through the Cross we who were far from Him are united to Christ, and we become worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Through the Cross we learn the power of love and we are taught to die for others.”

Finally he tells us, “What is more precious than the Cross and what is more saving for the soul? The Cross is the triumph over demons, the armor against sin and the sword with which the Lord has struck the snake. The Cross is the will of the Father, the glory of the Only-begotten, the joy of the Holy Spirit, the ornament of angels, the protection of the Church, the praise of St. Paul, the protection of the Saints, the lamp of all the world.”

May your life be marked constantly by the sign of the cross and may all the darkness of the world and in your life be blinded by the light of it’s power. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (4:16-22)

Today’s reading is given to us for the Feast of Indiction, the church new year. “The term Indiction comes from a Latin word meaning, “to impose.” It was originally applied to the imposition of taxes in Egypt. The first worldwide Indiction was in 312 when the Emperor Constantine (May 21) saw a miraculous vision of the Cross in the sky.”-oca.org

The Church tradition tells us that Jesus entered into the synagogue and read the text from the Prophet Isaiah on this day. On that day Our Lord read these words in the midst of the people in the synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor and to heal the broken hearted. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

As our Lord finishes reading and moves back to His seat among the congregation, He then says to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Wow. It is hard to imagine how one might have felt if they were there that day and happened to see these events unfolding before their very eyes. These events also coincided with the very beginning of the Lord’s earthly ministry according to St. Luke. It is as if Our Lord was giving us a primer, preparing us for what He was about to do, preparing us for His ministry. Narrating the coming years.

What is our Lord’s life all about, what is the point of it? This: “to preach good news to the poor and to heal the broken hearted. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

He speaks of healing the broken hearted and releasing the captives and giving sight to the blind and granting liberty to the oppressed and when we read these things we might be tempted to read them superficially, a surface level reading. But in fact, it goes so much deeper than that. Our Lord is speaking of spiritual realities that dictate and steer the whole of creation and mankind, the pinnacle of God’s creation. He is speaking of healing all of humanity and it’s brokenness. He is speaking of freeing humanity from enslavement. He is speaking of releasing us from oppression. He is speaking of granting us sight, and relief from our blindness. He is giving good news to those who are poor in spirit.

We became poor in spirit because of sin. We became broken hearted due to our failings and the failings of Adam and Eve because we along with them, have been exiled from paradise, from life in the presence of God. We became prisoners, due to our life of rebellion, choosing sin instead of righteousness. We became blind when we turned our eyes away from the Creator and turned instead to the multitude of idols we had allowed to take our focus. We saw and we worshipped the creation and not the Creator. We became oppressed when we fell into the same habitual sins over and over in a vicious cycle. When we wanted to do good, but instead did evil. St. Paul speaks about this in the letter to the Romans when he writes in chapter 7,

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

That is the conundrum that humanity has dealt with. It is our imprisonment and oppression. It is the enemy that leads to our spiritual death. These are the inclinations of the heart, our passions, as they are called by the holy fathers. Through these passions we became like dead people.

Yet the Lord gives each of us this good news. He has come to redeem your life. He has come that you might know Him intimately and truly. He has come that you might not wallow in the mud of sins but bask in the light of His glory. He has come to breathe new life into each of us through baptism, Chrismation, Eucharist and all of the rest of the Church’s mysteries. In short, He has come to allow us to participate in the Holy Spirit.

And St. Paul continues on this line of thinking in chapter 8 of Romans as he writes,

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

So in addition to understanding the words of our Lord in a very straightforward and direct way, we see this deeper and much more profound meaning at work. The Lord has healed us, freed us and empowered us to really become His children, to live in His presence, to dwell in the light, to know the truth. More than this, He has give us the ability to become partakers of the divine nature. The opportunity to take hold of our potential, to become like Him. The obstacles are removed if only we will turn our eyes and our heart back to Christ. Nothing will stop you from becoming holy. Nothing will stop you from becoming a saint. Nothing will stop you if this is truly your hearts desire because it is also His desire for each of you. As we now celebrate the beginning of the Church new year, to proclaim the year of the Lord, let us pursue Him with all our minds, souls, hearts and strength that Christ alone would become our hearts only desire.

I want to leave you with these lovely words that we heard during Matins this morning,

“O Word of the Father from before the ages, Who, being in the form of God, broughtest creation into being out of nothing; Thou Who hast put the times and seasons in Thine own power: Bless the crown of the year with Thy goodness; give peace unto Thy churches, victory unto Thy faithful hierarchs, fruitfulness unto the earth, and Great Mercy unto us.” + Matins of the Ecclesiastical New Year, Tone 3 AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (18:23-35)

It is a wondrous and simultaneously a dreadful thing to hear the word of God. It cuts like a two-edged sword. It opens up new realities to us and convicts us at the same time. It is wondrous to us that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the incarnate Son of the living God comes to us and teaches us the secrets of the kingdom of God. Step back and contemplate this for a moment. Nothing essential is hidden from us! Nothing that is necessary for this life or the next has been held back. Out of Christ’s extreme love for us, He has shared it with us and invites us to enter into this kingdom and to even taste of this kingdom here and now.

In today’s reading the Lord gives a parable and says “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with His servants.” We often gloss over this but it is truly a special thing that God teaches us about the kingdom of heaven. He teaches us what the kingdom is like. He prepares us for the kingdom, to dwell in the house of His Father. But my brothers and sisters this isn’t simply a wondrous thing. It is also a dreadful matter! “How so?” you might ask. Because to whom much is given, much is required. The Lord gives us and woe to us if we don’t take what He has given to us seriously.

In this particular case, Our Lord Jesus gives us the teaching regarding forgiveness. He tells us that forgiveness is an integral part of the kingdom of heaven, and therefore an integral part of the life of a Christian. Forgiveness is everything for a Christian because our whole life in Christ depends on God’s forgiveness of our many sins and failings.

In today’s parable sin is compared with debts that cannot be repaid. This is in fact true since there is no way to repay God or undo our sins. The sins can only be wiped out through complete forgiveness by the Lord. He makes it as if the sins, and the estrangement from God are gone completely. Like a man who couldn’t pay his debts and yet his master was merciful and forgave the debts that the man owed. This is the way that God deal with each of you. He doesn’t hold the sins that you repent of and confess, against you. He wipes them away. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Now the problem in the parable is that the servant who was forgiven a large amount of debt by the King, goes out and finds one of his own servants. This servant happens to owe him a small amount of money and this same servant who was just forgiven a great deal of debt by the King, decides to be harsh, brutal and unmerciful with his own servant who owed him far, far less. When word of this comes to the King, he is indignant, He is angry. His once kind and merciful countenance had turned against his servant because his servant showed himself to be unmerciful in the depths of his heart.

My friends, this is a story about us. It is a story about how much each of us has been forgiven by God. The answer is VERY MUCH. God has been far more merciful to us than we deserve or can ever imagine. In light of this mercy and forgiveness, how do we treat others who may have wronged us? How do we think about them? Do we love them? Are we merciful to them? Have we really, truly forgiven them or deep in our hearts do we still harbor bad feelings towards them? Do we hold resentment towards them? Do we hate them?

St. Silouan of Mt. Athos writes, “We have such a law: If you forgive, it means that God has forgiven you; but if you do not forgive your brother, it means that your sin remains with you.” -Writings, VII.9

Or perhaps they haven’t wronged us at all but they have done some wrong in their lives, or perhaps they are living wrongly. Perhaps they have had lapses in their judgment or succumbed to temptations. But how do we see them? Do we condemn them? Do we judge them as being unworthy of love?

This is what the parable of Christ seeks to examine within the heart of each believer. Have we embraced forgiveness of others truly? Have we embraced it in the same way that Christ has embraced each of us? Have we even started to reflect on just how much God has forgiven each of us? Have we reflected on how far away we once were and how far down God has descended to lift us out of the hell that we had created for ourselves?

Someone once said that the keys to hell are locked from the inside. It is the one who is in hell who alone can turn the key and open the doorway to the kingdom. God doesn’t have the power to unlock that door. He has already opened wide the door to the kingdom! The other door is kept shut by us. It can only be opened through genuine, radical, complete forgiveness, from the depths of our hearts because it is the door of the heart that needs to be opened. This is the passport that will grant us safe passage to the gates of heaven. It is the passport of unconditional love.

Give up these resentments and these hurts, if not for others, then for yourselves. Give them up because they are like fools gold. They are worthless. Even worse than worthless, they once again bring us back into slavery and debt, after we had already been freed.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk writes,“Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbours, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness or unforgiveness of your sins, then, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself. For without forgiveness of sins there is no salvation. You can see for yourself how serious it is.”  –Journey to Heaven: Counsels on the Particular Duties of Every Christian

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (17:14-23)

In today’s gospel our Lord Jesus Christ encounters a boy with a terrible form of epilepsy. This disease causes seizures, which are sometimes violent and can occur at any time, unexpectedly. Now in the case of this particular form of epilepsy, there cause of the illness was not simply physical. The issue was deeper. We are told that it was demonic. Modern writers will try to understand these passages through a secular or material worldview that is dictated above all by the rational mind and “scientific” reasoning. So they will dismiss the idea of demonic possession by saying that the gospel writers were unsophisticated men who did not have a proper understanding of medicine and the human body et cetera. But my brothers and sisters this is false. The Lord Jesus Christ had a better understanding of reality than ours. He sees beyond the physical into the spiritual depths. His understanding and comprehension of “what is really going on” is far above anyone else’s either ancient or modern.

The evangelist St. Matthew tells us that Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him. This led to a brief exchange with the disciples. The disciples came in private and asked “Why could we not cast it out?” Jesus said to them, “Because you have no faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” The Lord gave a very matter of fact assessment of the situation. The reason why they could not heal the boy was because they lacked the faith necessary to make it a reality. But then the Lord goes on to say something rather curious. He tells the disciples that “ This kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” It is a statement that gives us pause, it makes us curious. These two statements are connected, the statement about their lack of faith and the statement about prayer and fasting. They are connected because according to the Lord when we pray and fast our faith increases, or this allows our faith the ability to increase. Is it any wonder then that in the life of the Orthodox Church we fast more than 200 days of the year? The Church is faithful to her Lord and she desires her children to grow in faith through such tools. Many of you have heard me speak about fasting but I thought it might be nice to share some words about the practice of fasting from our rich and holy Orthodox Christian tradition.

St. Theophan the recluse writes, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” [Matthew 17:14-23] If this kind goes out by the prayer and fasting of another person, then it is even less able to enter one who fasts and prays. What protection! Although there are a slew of demons and all the air is packed with them, they cannot do anything to one who is protected by prayer and fasting. Fasting is universal temperance, prayer is universal communication with God; the former defends from the outside, whereas the latter from within directs a fiery weapon against the enemies. The demons can sense a faster and man of prayer from a distance, and they run far away from him so as avoid a painful blow.”

+ St. Theophan the Recluse

And St. Gregory Palamas who was bishop in the 14th century taught about fasting in relation to Adam as well as to the new adam, who is Jesus Christ when he wrote,

“… Adam chose the treason of the serpent, the originator of evil, in preference to God’s commandment and counsel, and broke the decreed fast. Instead of eternal life he received death and instead of the place of unsullied joy he received this sinful place full of passions and misfortunes, or rather, he was sentenced to Hades and nether darkness. Our nature would have stayed in the infernal regions below the lurking places of the serpent who initially beguiled it, had not Christ come. He started off by fasting (cf. Mk. 1:13) and in the end abolished the serpent’s tyranny, set us free and brought us back to life.” — St. Gregory Palamas, The Homilies Vol. II

St. Gregory goes so far as to say that the salvation of the human race was linked with Our Lord Jesus Christ’s fasting in the wilderness before His earthly ministry. We get the sense from this that fasting was considered a very serious aspect of spiritual life and not something to be discarded or cast aside lightly.

One of the great defenders of the faith, St. Athanasius of Alexandria writing in the 4th century said, “Devils take great delight in fullness, and drunkenness and bodily comfort. Fasting possesses great power and it works glorious things. To fast is to banquet with angels.”+ St. Athanasius the Great

But in all of this we are also frequently given reminders from the Fathers that fasting alone, is not enough. It is a tool to be wielded with a humble and good heart. St. Maximos the confessor writes,

“Many human activities, good in themselves, are not good because of the motive for which they are done. For example, fasting and vigils, prayer and psalmody, acts of charity and hospitality are by nature good, but when performed for the sake of self-esteem they are not good.” -Four Hundred Texts on Love 2.35, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 2)

I share these words with you as an encouragement for those of you who wonder why we undertake such practices in Holy Orthodoxy. Prayerful fasting is one aspect of the grace filled and life giving practices or we might say, therapies of the Church. These all work together by the grace of God to offer us healing and renewal in Christ. May the Lord heal and renew each of us as the lover of mankind. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (14:22-34)
Our Lord Jesus Christ was praying late one night while up on a mountain. He had just finished with the overwhelming crowds. He was with them all day, teaching, preaching, healing, feeding. He was definitely exhausted since we know that He shares in our human nature, and yet our Lord tells us something about Himself and about prayer through this passage. He did not run to find a place to sleep and rest. Our Lord Jesus took His rest with God His Father. It required Him to climb the mountain of prayer, to make an effort. To choose between extra sleep and extra time with the Father. To speak to God His Father was worth the effort, worth the sacrifices, and worth the climb up the mountain.

When we see this image of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are reminded that in order to pray one has to go with some effort towards God. It will often feel like an uphill battle, like a climb. Prayer is not just words into the air, but real communication with the living God. One goes uphill not only in their efforts but spiritually. Prayer is an ascent towards the heavenly. When we are in prayer, really in prayer, we are high above the rest of the world. We have laid aside all earthly cares in order to focus out hearts and minds on God. This is so precious and special that real work is required of us. Sometimes prayer comes very easily and other times, most times, it takes a real effort. St. Barsanuphius of Optina said “In the struggle of prayer, it is absolutely necessary to force oneself and compel oneself to pray.” It is difficult, but it is worth the effort and it is very much the goal of a Christian to learn to climb towards Christ in our prayers and in our lives.

In the midst of the Lord’s prayers on the mountain, we are told that the disciples traveled by boat and where caught in rough waves and strong winds. The Lord waited for this moment and came to the disciples, in the middle of the night, walking upon the surface of the sea. This sight terrified the disciples. No one could imagine such an event. Even though the disciples had seen many miracles, still they did not comprehend what their eyes were seeing in that very moment. The Lord cried out to them, “take heart, it is I, have no fear.” I find this to be a beautiful and comforting image. How often we have storms in our life and we feel the waters of life surging and the winds swirling around us? Yet the Lord is with us just as the Lord was with them. He cries out to us also, “Take heart, it is I, have no fear.”

It turns out that one of the disciples, who was known in the gospels to be rather impulsive in some of his actions, responds impulsively but with great faith in the Lord. “Lord if it is you, bid me to come to you on the water?” The Lord did not even hesitate for a moment. He replied “Come.” Peter responded to this right away and he climbed out of the boat and walked upon the sea. He walked to the Lord on the water! As long as his eyes were fixed on the Lord, he was able to do a great things. He was doing what the Lord Himself did, with His help. But like all of us mere humans, he allowed his eyes to drift away from the Lord. He began to think rationally once more. He heard the swirling winds and remembered that he was walking on the water, which defies all understanding. Immediately, the one called “the rock”, began to sink like a stone.

In this moment he did what any of us would have done. He cried out with his whole heart “Lord save me!” This is one of our common phrases in Orthodox prayer life. “Lord help me! Lord save me!” In that very moment Peter was calling upon the name of the Lord with a singular focus, like his very life depended on it (and it did). My brothers and sisters, this is the type of focus and energy we should bring to our prayers. One of our people sent me a wonderful quote by St. Joseph the Hesychast this week. In it he says “You must keep crying out like a lunatic, “Save me, my dear Jesus!” These are the words of a man who lived and breathed the struggle for prayer for much of his life. As our Lord quickly reached out His hand to save Peter, we are assured that the Lord will also reach out to us to help us. Of course we should also do our part not to fall into sins carelessly or willingly. It is counterproductive to both fly towards the net of sin and then cry out to be freed from the net. We are required to make an effort with our whole being, rather than to be “lukewarm” as our Lord has said. Perhaps it will not be a perfect effort and yet the Lord can and will bless our imperfect efforts and He will, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, magnify the work we have undertaken. He wants this work to be successful in Him. He wants us to really grow to know Him intimately.

Sometimes in our life we feel like we are drowning. Drowning in trials, drowning in sins, drowning in temptations, drowning in negative emotions, drowning in our perceived failures. When in our life we feel that we are drowning like Peter and the waters have risen all around us and begun to overtake us and to cover us completely, why do we become overwhelmed by fear? Do we not call God “our Father”? We are assured that God is there with us, in the very midst of our storms. In the worst possible place and situation that we can think of, God has not left us. He is the Lord over all of creation. He is the lover of mankind. He is indeed the One who saves and that there is no other. We often feel like God is absent and that is also a sign that we have been negligent in our prayers. Negligent to grow in faith. We aren’t going to God daily or diligently or with heartfelt prayers, but perhaps we are approaching God ritualistically and with coldness. So as we begin to pray in a more concerted and heartfelt way, we also feel God’s presence in a different way.

St. Theophan the recluse writes that we should bring God into our mind often during the day. He says “Why is it, you ask, that one can pray for so many years with a prayer book, and still not have prayer in his heart? I think the reason is that people only spend a little time lifting themselves up to God when they complete their prayer rule, and in other times, they do not remember God.” “…during the course of the day, cry out to God more often, even if only with a few words, according to need and the work of the day. Beginning anything, for example, say ‘Bless, O Lord!’ When you finish something, say, ‘Glory to Thee, O Lord’ … If passions arise, say, ‘Save me, O Lord, I am perishing.’ If the darkness of disturbing thoughts comes up, cry out: ‘Lead my soul out of prison.’… Do this in every circumstance, or simply say often, ‘Lord, have mercy’, ‘Most Holy Theotokos save us”…. Say such prayers as often as possible, always making the effort for them come from your heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will frequently ascend to God in our hearts, making frequent petitions and prayers. Such increased frequency will bring about the habit of mental conversation with God.” — St. Theophan the Recluse, On prayer, Homily 2

The Lord does not desire that we drown in the trials of this world or of ourselves. May we climb this mountain of prayer together with the help of God. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (14:14-22)

In today’s reading we hear that a great crowd of people was waiting for Jesus as He came ashore from the boat in which He had been traveling. It can be hard for us to imagine the life of Our Lord and the many ways in which He was stretched thin and suffered during His earthly ministry. He rarely knew a moments rest. Someone was always following Him, questioning Him, wanting something from Him. He rarely turned people away, instead we are told that “He had compassion on them..”

In this passage we are told that due to the Lord’s overwhelming compassion, He spent the whole day healing their sick, until it was evening. As the sun was setting the disciples came to Jesus with a reasonable idea. They said “This is a lonely (desolate) place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” It’s a reasonable request, right? Perhaps not as reasonable as it might seem at first glance. It was reasonable or rational from our earthly, and human perspective. But this request did not account for all of the data properly. Within this request is an underlying lack of faith and understanding into the true nature of Jesus Christ, the man whom they had been following all over. They knew Him to be a great teacher and a great wonder worker and a great man. They might have seen him as a great prophet or even as the Messiah, the Christ. But they had not fully understood the situation even at this point.

What they had failed to see and to understand was the most important aspect of all. They failed to see that Jesus Christ was more than prophet and more than just the awaited Messiah and anointed one. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Son of God. One of the attributes of God is the ability to create from nothing. Our Lord could have fed the multitudes from nothing. It is nothing for God to do that. It is so very simple. Yet He chooses not to go that route. He chooses something better. He chooses to involve us in the process. He wants us to be coworkers with Him in the ministry. He also desires to see our faith. He desires to work in synergy with His people and in doing so, He prepares them to become the foundation of His Church. This theme is seen clearly as the Lord has the disciples break and organize the large group of people into more manageable groups so that they can properly receive ministry from the disciples who in turn receive blessings from the Lord.

When the disciples ask to send the crowds away the Lord replies “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” This is more than a statement regarding this particular situation on this particular day. It is a statement about the role of the Church in the lives of it’s people. The Lord is preparing His disciples hearts and minds for the role He has planned for them since before they were born. This is the deeper meaning: He wants His disciples, the pillars of His Church, to serve and feed and provide for His people. He wants them to know that there is no where for His people to go, to be fed and to be satisfied apart from the Church, apart from His presence. But they don’t yet understand. They call the place where the Son of God is present and in their midst, a desolate or lonely place! Imagine!

Some of us aren’t too different from the disciples in this passage. We come to the house of God, to the place where God Himself if present yet we still complain. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk writes, “In going to church, think that thou art going to the house of the King of Heaven, where with fear and joy one ought to stand as in heaven before the King of Heaven.”

The problem wasn’t that the place where the disciples had been was desolate. The problem was that they did not have a proper understanding and faith in Christ who stood before them. They were present physically but the eyes of their hearts were still not purified, not open to fully see and understand reality in light of their Master Jesus Christ.

My friends, if God is with us, why are we worried about hunger and thirst and loneliness? Does God not provide for all of our needs? Does God not desire to feed and to clothe us? Does God not love us? In fact, when we step back we see God’s hand and His presence in everything in our lives. He is constantly our provider and the giver of good things.

We see that God uses His Church to provide for our most important needs. The Church which was founded by Our Lord and established by the Apostles gives us spiritual nourishment. The Church gives us spiritual fellowship with one another, and with God and His saints. We gain a new identity and sense of belonging as part of the family and household of God. We receive great grace and yes, we also receive love and mercy and forgiveness in abundance.

The way that God works in this passage is the way that we see God work through the Church and in our own lives as well. Our Lord asks the disciples to bring whatever they have, their small sacrifices to Him and He takes these small offerings and makes them truly special. He multiplies them and sanctifies them and they become infinitely more precious and life-giving. Let’s not forget that the disciples took up 12 baskets full of the leftovers! They ended up with more than they had when they began the distribution of food. Everyone who was present was fed and filled to the brim. In the Church we each bring our small offerings and God blesses them and multiplies them to be a great blessing to all of us and to many others who have not even stepped foot in this church yet.

Our Lord Jesus Christ will do the same in each of our lives if only we will bring our little offerings and leave them at His feet. But are we willing to do this? It requires a certain amount of trust and faith in God. It requires that we give up our desire for complete control of our situations and our lives. As the saying goes, it requires “letting go and letting God.” First and foremost we are asked to sacrifice our own wills in order to live according to the will of God for our lives. I think that if we are honest, many of us are failing to live with that as our goal and ultimate consideration.

We often start our conversations with “I think” or “I believe” or “I feel” or “I want”. It is not to say that you are not important. You are very important. What you desire and want and feel and believe are important. But is God’s desire for your life not infinitely more important? You might desire things that are destructive or sinful, yet God loves you so much that He desires only good things for you. Brothers and sisters, this is God’s desire. To provide for us, to nurture us, to feed us, to grant us true fulfillment. He is able, if we are willing. He wants to give us life. He wants to redeem our lives from corruption and falsehood. He wants us to know and live within the truth of His teaching. He wants us to inherit His life, to be where He is and where the saints are. So let us be with Christ, in the Church, in our prayers, in love for our neighbors. This is our small offering, may God receive it and multiply it!

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Epistle of St. James. (5:10-20)

Today’s epistle was written by St. James the brother of the Lord and the first bishop of Jerusalem. As with all of the daily readings, it is given to us today by the Church with the purpose of bringing something to light. In this case it is to focus on the prophet Elijah (who is known in Greek and Arabic as Elias) since today is the day when he is commemorated on the Church calendar.

St. James writes, “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elias was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.” He tells us that Elias was like us. A mere man. Yet his great faith made him extraordinary, rather it made his prayers extraordinary. His deep faith opened up a powerful line of communication between himself and the Lord. This faith is possible for any one of us sitting here together. In fact, God desires this for us. To know us, to speak with us, to commune with us. But our lack of faith and purity of heart and our love of the world and for sin, all stand as obstacles to this deep and true relationship. The life in Christ, the life of the Church is an antidote, a remedy and a therapeutic path towards healing and towards a right relationship with God. Some of these aspects of healing are the focus of this same epistle passage we heard today. Namely the sacraments of anointing of the sick as well as confession. In fact these two have a close connection to one another.

St. James writes, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

Some of you know that we pray the service of anointing or Holy Unction on Great and Holy Wednesday evening. We also pray this service and anoint those who are really sick whenever it is necessary. As you hear in the words of St. James, the elders of the church come and pray over the one who is sick and anoint him with the oil in the name of the Lord. In Greek the word elder that is mentioned here is “presbyteros” or presbyter, which is another term for the english word priest. So it was definitely not the case that St. James is referring to elders as merely old members of the church but rather the priests who are the “stewards of the mysteries of God.”

This rite as it is in the service books calls for 7 priests to come together to read 7 prayers with 7 epistle and 7 gospel readings. Red wine is mixed with olive oil and we pray over this oil asking the Lord the Holy Spirit to bless it for healing. This mixture of oil and wine brings our minds to the story of the good samaritan who put wine and oil on the wounds of the man who was injured. In the context of these prayers is the request that God would heal not only our bodies but heal our souls. There is a close connection between the forgiveness of sins and the physical healing for which we pray. We remember that Our Lord Jesus in the gospels would heal someone and might say “Go your way, your sins are forgiven you.”

This healing connected to the forgiveness of sins is also reflected here in the passage when St. James writes, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” Interestingly this was exactly the early practice in the life of the Church according to our best sources. The sacrament of confession was not used so much for minor sins but was typically used in the case of serious sins, what some would call “mortal sins” although that is not really the language that is used in the Orthodox Church. These are sins that would immediately cut you off from the life of Christ and His Church. Those sins would include murder, adultery, fornication including homosexual activity, idol worship, and denial of Christ among others. When someone had fallen into such a way of life it was prescribed that they come to the church assembly and make a public confession of their sins before they would receive absolution from the Lord through the prayers of His priests. In this way they showed their true humility and repentance of heart and they acknowledged that their sins, although done in private, have an effect on the whole Christian community as this is the true nature of sin.

But something changed around the 4^th century regarding this practice of public confession. As you know Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the apostles the keys to the Church and He told them that whatever they bound and loosed on earth would be bound in heaven. Meaning that they and those who followed them, were given the authority to order and structure the life of the Church. So it should not disturb us that we see some minor developments in the practical or liturgical life of the Church because the Church is not static but dynamic, filled with the Holy Spirit.

By the time of St. John Chrysostom, who was patriarch of Constantinople, it seems that public confession was a cause of scandals and other practical difficulties that made it preferable for the confession to become private, one on one, with the priest standing as both the representative of the whole community and the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to hear the confession. Confession also became more regular in practice. Our archbishop, His Eminence Metropolitan SABA has mentioned that we should confess and receive absolution 2-4 times a year at a minimum. This is not a rule but a point of guidance for our benefit.

The benefits of confession are many. St. Isaac the Syrian writes, “The sick one who is acquainted with his sickness is easily to be cured; and he who confesses his pain is near to health.” but he adds, “Many are the pains of the hard heart; and when the sick one resists the physician, his torments will be augmented.” And St. Isaac continues saying, “There is no sin which cannot be pardoned except that one which lacks repentance…” + St. Isaac the Syrian, “Six Treatises on the Behaviour of Excellence”

The gift that we receive from confession is the absolution, the wiping away of the sins that we confess. We receive cleansing and healing of soul and body. We receive an injection of the grace of the Holy Spirit and we are given power to once again struggle to live good and holy lives in purity, to be full of God’s grace, just like the prophet Elijah whom we celebrate today. He had a nature like ours. May we, through faith, be like him and like all of the saints. AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (5:14-19)

In today’s gospel reading our Lord Jesus Christ sits as the new Moses giving the new law to His people in the context of the famous “sermon on the mount”. These are the words He gives to them:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven. Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

He says to all of those who were following him, “you are the light of the world”! If we are men and women who follow the teachings and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ then these words apply to us, my brothers and sisters. You are the light of the world. I am also called to be the light of the world. That is our mutual calling. This calling makes sense because Christ says that He is the light of the world and St. Paul tells us that when we were baptized we put on Christ! The hymn that is sung immediately after baptism is “bestow on me a robe of light, O Thou who was clothed in light as with a garment.” Christ is the light of the world and He grants us to also be light. He is like the Sun and we are like the stars.

Our Lord tells us what we have to do in order to shine our light, in order that our light might burn brightly and be seen by others. He says “that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” You may not realize this but your whole life is a demonstration of who you are. After all, Our Lord says that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and likewise a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Our life, is like the sum total of our works and our choices and our habits and our fixations. This life shows whether we really love and serve God or whether we love and serve something or someone else, maybe even ourselves. If someone looks at our life, what will they see? What message does our life send to our family members, our children, our siblings, our neighbors, our coworkers and our classmates?

In the book of Genesis, God said let their be light. Light came forth out of nothingness, out of darkness. Likewise, when each of was called to enter into Christian life through baptism, we were called out of nothingness, out of spiritual darkness. But what does our life say about us? Does it demonstrate that we are living in the light of Christ, that we are reflecting Christ’s light, that we are becoming His light on earth? Or does our life reflect something else? If our life doesn’t reflect the teachings and the works of godliness, then we can say that perhaps we are not the light of the world but the darkness. What we offer the world, if it is not rooted in Christian life and the teaching of the Church, might be nothingness. You have been granted the great grace of adoption as children of God and bearers of light, but my dear friends, if we squander that grace, woe to us. If we lead people to darkness instead of to Christ, we should tremble.

How will you know? St. John Chrysostom says,

“The person characterized by humility, gentleness, mercy and righteousness does not build a fence around good deeds. Rather, that one ensures that these good fountains overflow for the benefit of others. One who is pure in heart and a peacemaker, even when persecuted for the sake of truth, orders his way of life for the common good.” The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 15.7. [PG 57:231; NPNF 1 10:97**.]

St. John tells us that the person who is full of light will be overflowing in characteristics such as humility, gentleness, mercy and righteousness.” These remind us of the fruits of the spirit found in St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians when he writes first about the works of the flesh, the way of darkness and then juxtaposes it with the way of light and life. He says,

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do^e such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Gal 5:19-24

These are these two paths. One that is full of light and one that is full of darkness. One that brings us to Christ and one that obscures the image of Christ within us and hides Christ from those around us. This path ends in complete darkness. And my friends, there is a great distance and gulf between those two ways of life.

The ways of the Church and her disciplines, following the example of her Lord Jesus, are given to us as a guard rail and a way to stay on the path of light. The Church heals us through her life of devotion to Christ in asceticism, fasting, vigils, and prayers. Through her sacraments, and sacred worship. Through her sacred art and music. All of these work together for our benefit and for our healing. All of these allow us to be purified in mind and soul and to radiate the Lord’s light as we embrace Christ’s teaching and we strive to do His will daily. This is how saints are made. This is your purpose in life, to become one of the saints! This our path as the people of God, called to become the light of the world.

I leave you with this well known story from the desert fathers,

“Abba Lot went to Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.” — “The Sayings of the Desert Fathers”

May we likewise become flame and light to the glory of God AMEN!

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (8:5-13)

Our Lord Jesus Christ encounters a gentile man in today’s gospel. Gentiles are those who are not Jews. This particular gentile was a Roman centurion, a high ranking soldier. He comes to the Lord and in a sign of extraordinary faith, he starts to make a request saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” This should make us pause because this man is not a Jew. He doesn’t believe in the Jewish prophets. He doesn’t obey the law of God. He doesn’t adhere to the Mosaic law. Yet here he is demonstrating a measure of faith that Our Lord rarely saw from His own people.

When I hear this story, I am stunned by the Lord’s willingness to drop everything to accept the request of this unbeliever and come to his house to heal his paralyzed servant. It is a window into the heart of Christ. He didn’t see a Roman standing before Him. He didn’t see someone who was other. He saw in this man, the image of God. He likewise saw in his servant, this image of God. And rather than make His love conditional, He is willing to pour out His love in the form of healing prayers. If Our Lord Jesus loved these strangers so much, then how much more must the Lord love His people, His children? We should meditate upon this whenever we are struggling or doubting that the Lord loves us. We will be blown away by His great love.

And we find that Our Lord Himself was blown away by the faith of this man and it stands as a sharp contrast to the lack of faith of the Jews, especially the scribes and Pharisees that typically heard and ignored the Lord although they should have understood and followed Him faithfully. The centurion had demonstrated his faith by asking Jesus to help his servant, but what he said next really showed his faith to be great. The Lord offers to come and heal the man who is sick and the centurion says something that shows us a window into his heart. “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof…” He speaks from a place of great humility. What is humility? It is the recognition of who we really are. He doesn’t feel that he is owed anything. He doesn’t feel that he should receive special privileges even though he is a high ranking soldier and many people follow his orders. He says, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof.” I want to note that this is similar language to one of the pre-communion prayers of St. John Chrysostom who wrote, “O Lord my God, I know that I am not worthy nor sufficiently pleasing that Thou should come under the roof of the house of my soul for it is entirely desolate and fallen in ruin…”

This shows us that St. John understood that each time we come to receive the holy body and the precious blood of Jesus Christ at the eucharist, then we are in fact receiving Christ Himself to dwell in our souls and bodies. This is not to be taken casually. We do this with a certain amount of fear and trembling and with a generous amount of humility. Who is worthy to receive the body and blood of Christ? No one who has ever lived. Yet, He accepts us when we are struggling to live in communion with Him through daily repentance and faith. Such a life will be marked by obedience to Christ through His teachings and those of the Church, since it is His body on earth.

Yet the centurion goes even further in astounding the Lord Jesus. He says that he is not worthy to receive Christ into His home and then he says “But only say a word and my servant will be healed.” In the course of just a few words, he has shown himself to understand more about the life of faith and about the Lord then most of the so-called experts and religious people around Christ. He nearly left everyone speechless. Listen to the response of Our Lord: “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer

darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”

As Christians, the people of God, we rejoice that the Lord accepted the outsider’s faith with openness and enthusiasm, after all, we were those outsiders once upon a time. We were adopted through our baptism into Christ. We were made members of the household of God. But as the people of God, with all of the benefits and rights of the children of God, we should also tremble. We have been given much and Our Lord tells us that to those who are given much, much will be required. On this point St. John of Kronstadt writes,

“What answer shall we give to our immortal King, Christ our God, Who shall come again in the glory of His Father to judge both the quick and the dead, to declare the secret thoughts of all hearts, and receive from us our answer for every word and deed. O, woe, woe, woe to us who bear the name of Christ, but have none of the spirit of Christ in us; who bear the name of Christ, but do not follow the teaching of the Gospel! Woe to us who ‘neglect so great salvation’! Woe to us who love the present fleeting, deceptive life, and neglect the inheritance of the life that follows after the death of our corruptible body beyond this carnal veil!” + St. John of Kronstadt

So what does God require? He requires that we love. That we first love Him. And as we often remind one another, this love is demonstrated through our obedience to Christ, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” This is a prerequisite to having a relationship with God!

Next, we are required to love others. So we love God and we love our neighbors. This love for our neighbors is one of the proofs that the love of God has transformed us and filled us with love. That we are related to Christ not only in name, but in reality, to the very depths of our being. In short, what is required of us is to have faith that exceeds the faith of the centurion. It is truly a tall order for us, but all things are possible with the help of God…The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN.

Source: Sermons

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (16:13-19)

Today’s epistle and gospel readings are given to us specifically for the wonderful feast we are celebrating, that is the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the foremost chiefs of the apostles. These men loved Our Lord Jesus Christ to the very depths of their hearts and souls. They loved Our Lord so much that they willingly died, they gave up their lives as martyrs for the sake of their Lord and Master.

Last Sunday as soon as I arrived at Camp St. Thekla I received news of a terrible incident that took place in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria when a follower of Islam, entered the church of St. Elias during the divine Liturgy while the people were praying and detonated a bomb in their midst. In that most terrible of moments, in this grave tragedy, new martyrs, new saints were created. You might be surprised that I mentioned this today with young and old present among us. But my brothers and sisters, let us not hide from the realities of the life of a Christian. After all, we worship a crucified Lord. We don’t hide the fact of the cross, we embrace it. We are a Church full of martyrs and these martyrs will be among the saints who will adorn the walls of this church if the Lord wills.

The ancient church writer Tertullian once said “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” What did he mean by that saying? He meant that every time someone was martyred for the sake of Christ, their sacrifice, their shed blood, would become new potential for life in the Church. Sometimes we hear stories of the martyrs and we learn that the way they composed themselves, the way they showed courage and stood up to their torturers would amaze many of the onlookers and even many of the soldiers who watched over them. Sometimes their holy presence, their righteousness and bravery would bring people, sometimes thousands of people at once, to Christ, at the moments leading up to their deaths and many many more as their stories were spread over time.

Now we might think to ourselves, “that could happen to us.” And there is some truth to that thought. In fact we are always vulnerable in life and we are very vulnerable as Christians who try to come together as a community to love our Lord and love one another. But there is nothing to fear because God is present in this place and wherever God is present, life reigns. Because Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He turned the worldly understanding of suffering and death upside down. The world understood death as only a tragedy and an end. The Christians understood death as a doorway to the kingdom and life, because Our Lord trampled down death by death! And this is why in the early Church those who gave their lives due to persecution and violence for the sake of Christ were called martyrs. The word means witness.

Some of the earliest martyrs were those who had witnessed the event of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that included these two pillars of the Holy Church, Sts. Peter and Paul. So this became their living witness and they carried their witness all the way to their deaths. No matter what you throw at them. No matter how much you torture them. No matter how much pain you inflict on them. No matter how you threaten them. They will still boldly proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who rose from the dead. I need each of you to understand what I am saying. This life that we share together is life in Christ. Everything else in our lives will fade away. This life, in Christ, is all that we really have. Everything else is like a vapor that will slip through our grasp no matter how much we desire to keep it.

So love of the truth compels us to teach that only those who love God and are obedient to His teachings will obtain the virtues and the fruits of the Spirit and only those who have gained these possessions will have something that remains with them after their departure from this life. In fact St. Maximos the confessor teaches something very beautiful when he writes,

“Let yourself die while striving, rather than living in laziness. For those who die while trying to keep the commandments are just as much martyrs as those who died for Christ’s sake.”

— St. Maximos the Confessor

These men and women who died while they were praising, blessing and glorifying God gave their lives and in return they will receive their lives back more fully, more radiant, because they suffered and were persecuted in their innocence. They took on the likeness of Our Lord Jesus Christ by their own sacrifices. And as the Lord’s sacrifice redeemed the whole universe, the sacrifices of their lives, this thing that we in the world call a tragedy, this event didn’t kill them, not in the sense that the world understands death. It brought them into the arms of the One who is life. It made their prayers more powerful than they had ever been before. Through their martyrdoms they have sanctified their corner of the world and claimed it for Our Lord Jesus Christ.

My brothers and sisters, may we look to their courage and have the courage to live like martyrs in the world. Witnessing to a life of obedience to the Lord and love for the Church which He founded and which was established by the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and which was watered and continues to be watered with the lives of countless faithful lovers of Christ our true God. And Glory be to God, Forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons