Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of Seventh Ecumenical Council & Fourth Sunday of Luke with Commemoration of the Hieromartyr Jacob of Hamatoura in the Orthodox Church

 

Titus 3:8-15; Luke 8:5-15

     Many are strongly tempted today to allow the problems facing our culture and world to distract us from growing to maturity in the Christian life and bearing good fruit for the Kingdom of God.  That is perfectly understandable in light of our constant access to global media and the gravity of current events.  All Christians should mourn the ongoing slaughter in the Holy Land, which has now engulfed Lebanon, a traditional heartland of our Antiochian Orthodox Church.  Our father in Christ, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch, has joined with other Orthodox leaders there to call for an end to “the on-going killing that has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians” and displaced over a million people.”[1]  We are all aware of the invasion by Russia of Ukraine, where bloodshed continues between historically Orthodox nations and some have threatened even to use nuclear weapons.  There is no telling how much further these conflicts will spread.  Regardless of our particular political opinions, many Americans today are deeply worried about the future of our nation.  In ways that transcend conventional politics, so much of what we had taken for granted about our culture is being called into question.  And on matters including our health, our finances, and our families, most of us know the temptations of worry and fear all too well.  It can be very difficult, then, to “lay aside all earthly cares” in order to focus on “the one thing needful” of hearing and obeying the Word of God. 

 

That is why we all need to concentrate our attention today on commemorating the 367 Holy Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council, which met in Nicaea in 787.  The council rejected the false teaching that to honor icons is to commit idolatry, for it distinguished between the worship that is due to God alone and the veneration that is appropriate for images of Christ, the Theotokos, and the Saints.  The council’s teaching highlighted the importance of the Savior’s incarnation, for only a truly human Savior with a physical body could restore us to the dignity and beauty of the living icons of God in every dimension of our existence.

 

The 7th Ecumenical Council addressed matters that strike at the very heart of how we embrace our fundamental vocation to become like God in holiness in a world that so desperately needs the peace of Christ.  Too often, however, we think that iconography simply has to do with wood and paint, and is unrelated to the question of whether we are becoming more like Christ and gaining the strength to seek first His Kingdom.  The icons are not merely religious art, but reminders that to become a truly human person is to become like Jesus Christ, who, according to St. Paul, “is our peace… and has broken down the middle wall of separation” so that “He might reconcile…both [Jew and Gentile] to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” (Eph. 2:14-16) The more that we become like our Lord, Who worked this reconciliation, the less we will see anyone through the darkened lenses of those who place their hopes in earthly kingdoms of whatever kind.   

 

Today’s gospel reading addresses these same questions with different imagery.  Christ used the parable of the sower to call His disciples to become like plants that grew from the seed that “fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold.”  He wanted them to become “those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.”  Not all who hear the Word of God will do so, even as not all seeds will grow to fruition.   Some never even believe, while others make a good start and then fall away due to temptation or “are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” 

 

This parable warns us about what happens when we fail to fulfill our potential as those who bear the image of God.  Our vocation is to become more beautiful living icons of the Savior, but we diminish and distort ourselves when we refuse to become who God created us to be.  Plants must grow and flourish as the kinds of plants that they are in order to become healthy and bear fruit.  Farmers must care for them accordingly.  The sun, soil, moisture, and nutrients must be appropriate for that particular type of plant in order for them to flourish.  In order for us to bear good fruit for the Kingdom, we must attend to the health of our souls with the conscientiousness of a careful farmer or gardener.  We must do so in order to become more fully who we are as living icons of Christ.  If, to the contrary, we become obsessed with worry and fear about earthly cares of whatever kind, we will never gain the strength to bear good fruit for the Kingdom.   

 

In today’s epistle lesson, St. Paul urged St. Titus to tell the people to focus on doing good deeds and helping others in great need.  He wanted them to avoid foolish arguments and divisions, “for they are unprofitable and vain.”  St. Paul did not want the people to waste their time and energy on matters that would simply inflame their passions and hinder them from attaining spiritual health and maturity.  He called them to care for their spiritual wellbeing with the conscientiousness of farmers who are single-mindedly dedicated to bringing in a bumper crop.  If they let down their guard to the point of being so consumed by pointless controversies that they ignored basic disciplines like loving and serving their neighbors, they would risk dying spiritually like a neglected plant overtaken by weeds. 

 

If we are to become “those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience,” we must refuse to allow the passions of worry and fear to take root in our hearts and minds, regardless of what is happening in our world, our nation, or our families.  We must do the hard, daily work of learning to trust and hope in the Lord as we mindfully turn away from fueling our passions and instead invest ourselves in serving the living icons of Christ who are our neighbors. In order to bear good fruit for the Kingdom, we must refuse to focus on anything that will distract us from sharing more fully in His blessed, eternal life.  Unless we struggle mindfully against this temptation, it can easily choke the life out of our souls. Because our risen Lord has conquered even the grave through His glorious resurrection on the third day, we must refuse to become enslaved to the fear of death and instead focus on becoming more beautiful icons of Christ.  That is the only way to know true peace in this world.

 

The example of St. Jacob of Hamatoura should inspire us in this regard.  After a year of torture, he was beheaded for Christ in the fifteenth century in Lebanon. Centuries later, monks returned to restore the ancient monastery on the mountain of Hamatoura. The monastics and pilgrims then began to encounter the saint through visions and miracles, but his name was not known until the discovery of a manuscript in 2002, after which his relics were discovered also.  St. Jacob is a shining example of how even the very worst that the corrupt powers of this world can do can never separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:39) Our Risen Lord has liberated us from slavery to the fear of death, which is at the root of all our  anxiety and despair.  So the next time that you find yourself worried and afraid about anything, mindfully commend that concern to Christ and invest yourself in prayer, fasting, and generosity with your time and resources to help the neighbor right next to you.  That is how we may become “those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.”   There is no other path for entering into the joy of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2205

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost & Third Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church

 

2 Corinthians 4:6-15: Luke 7:11-16

            Across the centuries, there has been a persistent temptation for many Christians to view salvation as an easy spiritual escape from life in the world rather than as the demanding journey of pursuing its fulfillment and healing in God.  It is possible to abuse the hope of heaven as an excuse for not responding faithfully to the many challenges that stare us in the face in the world as we know it.   I am sure that many people have rejected the Christian faith because they believe it is otherworldly to the point of irrelevance before their very real suffering and pain, as well as that of their neighbors and loved ones.   A key problem with such escapist forms of Christianity is that the Lord brought salvation to the world by entering fully into its brokenness as the God-Man, even to the point of death, in order to bring us into the joy of a new heaven and a new earth through His glorious resurrection.  His Kingdom is not only a future hope, but also a present reality, for as Christ said, “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Lk 17:21)   Remember how He responded to the question of whether He was the Messiah: “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the   lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Lk. 7:22) Those are the words of the New Adam who came to heal all the infirmities of His suffering sons and daughters.    

            Today’s reading from the gospel according to St. Luke comes right before that passage.  The widow of Nain was having the worst day of her life and had no reason to hope for a blessed or even tolerable future, for in that time and place a widow who had lost her only son was in a very precarious state.  Poverty, neglect, and abuse would threaten her daily; she would have been vulnerable and alone.  When contrary to all expectations the Lord raised her son, He transformed her deep mourning into great joy. He restored life itself both to the young man and to his mother.

The Lord’s great act of compassion for this woman manifests our salvation and provides a sign of hope in even the darkest moments of our lives in our fallen world.  We weep and mourn not only for loved ones whom we see no more, but also for the brokenness and disintegration that we know all too well in our own souls, the lives of our loved ones, and the world around us.   Death, destruction, and decay in all their forms are the consequences of our personal and collective refusal to fulfill our vocation to live as those created in the image of God by becoming like Him in holiness.  We weep with the widow of Nain not only for losing loved ones, but also for losing what it means to be a human person as a living icon of God in a world that seems so far from manifesting the fullness of the heavenly reign.

           The good news of the Gospel is that the compassion of the Lord extends even to those who endure the most tragic and miserable circumstances and the most profound sorrows.  Purely out of love for His suffering children, the Father sent the Son to heal and liberate us from slavery to the fear of death through His Cross and glorious resurrection. The Savior touched the funeral bier and the dead man arose.  Christ’s compassion for us is so profound that He not only touched death, but entered fully into it, into a tomb, and into Hades, because He refused to leave us to self-destruction.   He went into the abyss and experienced the terror of the black night of the pit.  The Theotokos wept bitterly at His public torture and execution, not unlike mothers today who weep at the loss of their children.  When He rose victorious over death in all its forms, He provided the only true basis of hope that the despair of the grave will not have the last word on the living icons of God.  His Mother and the other Myrrh-Bearing Women were the very first to receive this unbelievably good news.    

            The widow of Nain wept bitterly out of grief for the loss of her son.  Christ wept at the tomb of his friend St. Lazarus, not only for him, but for us all who are wedded to death as the children of Adam and Eve, who were cast out of Paradise into this world of corruption.  We weep with broken hearts out of love for those whose suffering is beyond our ability to ease, those who are no longer with us in this life, and those from whom we have become otherwise estranged due to their and our sins.  We must learn to weep for ourselves as those who have caught a glimpse of the eternal blessedness for which we came into being and who know how far we are from entering fully into the joy of the Lord.  The corruption that separates us from God and from one another takes many forms and the same is true of our healing and restoration.  The particular paths that we must follow in order to embrace Christ’s victory over death as distinctive persons will certainly vary.  But they must all be routes for gaining the spiritual clarity to learn to mourn our sins and take the steps that are best for our healing and restoration as whole persons in the world as we know it.  If we refuse to take those steps and simply wait passively to ascend someday into heavenly peace, we will only weaken ourselves even further as we refuse to do what is necessary to lift up our hearts to receive the Lord’s healing.  There is no way around the truth that we must do the hard work of taking up our crosses and following Him, if we want to share in His blessed life.  

            In today’s epistle reading, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” shining in our hearts through Christ does not guarantee a life of ease and comfort, for “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of power is from God, and not from us.”  God created us from the dust of the earth, to which we will all return.  We are not only mortal, but also subject to all kinds of weaknesses, maladies, and imperfections in every dimension of our existence as embodied persons.   As the Apostle describes his ministry, “We are pressed on every way, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; smitten down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.”

            Those tempted to spiritual escapism forget that Jesus Christ came in the flesh with a body just like ours.  His humanity is whole and complete while being united with His true divinity:  He is one Person with two natures.  We unite ourselves to His great Self-Offering on the Cross when we take up our cross of struggling to be faithful in the midst of our weaknesses, infirmities, and corruptions, those of everyone we encounter, and those of our culture and world.  Christ does not call us somehow to escape from this difficult path, but to pursue it as He did.  As St. Paul stated, “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh.”  We must die to the ongoing power of sin in our lives so that we may rise up with Christ in holiness, gaining the spiritual strength to manifest His loving kindness and merciful blessing to those as miserable as the widow of Nain.  In order for our lives to become signs of the presence of His Kingdom in our world of corruption, we must take up our crosses to the point that we may say with integrity: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)  

              The Lord said, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  (Matt. 5:4) His mercy on the widow of Nain provides us all a sign of the hope for eternal life that is ours in Him.  In order to enter into the blessedness for which we hope, we must mourn our sins by embracing the difficult struggle to repent of them.  That is the only way that we may gain the spiritual strength to play our unique roles in conveying His comfort and blessing to those who suffer to the point of despair in our world of corruption.  The more that we unite ourselves to Christ in faith and faithfulness as we take up our crosses, the more that we will know the joy of His Kingdom even now and become instruments for bearing witness to His salvation, which is already breaking into the world as a “treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of power is from God, and not from us.”