Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Matthew with Commemoration of the Glorious Prophet Elijah in the Orthodox Church

James 5:10-20: Matthew 9: 1-8

Many people think of Christianity as a collection of religious rules that tell us what to do and what not to do.  The problem with a religion of law is that, while it points us in the direction of how we should behave, it does not give us the spiritual strength necessary to follow the rules. A faith that is simply a form of legalism leads inevitably to the frustration of never being able to fulfill its commandments.  A common way of coping with that frustration is to turn the focus away from our own failings by hypocritically condemning others for theirs.  It is no wonder that those who encounter such distorted forms of the faith typically have little interest in it.  It is not surprising that those who distort the faith in this way do not find healing for their spiritual infirmities.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus Christ demonstrated that He did not come simply to give us a new set of laws to obey according to our own moral strength.  He showed that He did not come merely to deliver us from the guilt of falling short of obeying divine commandments.  He forgave the sins of the paralyzed man, thus manifesting His divinity in a way that scandalized religious leaders.   But He also revealed that His salvation is not defined in legalistic terms, as though the whole point of the Christian life were to be declared innocent in a court of law for certain offenses.  If that were the case, there would have been no point in healing the paralyzed man, for he could have been acquitted of his sins while remaining unable to move. 

The man’s paralysis is a vivid icon of the state of humanity cast out of Paradise, corrupted by our refusal to pursue the fulfillment of our calling to become like God in holiness.  By disorienting ourselves from our true vocation and looking for fulfillment through gratifying our self-centered desires, we have diminished ourselves to the point of becoming as weak as the man unable to get up off the ground.  Christ responded to him with healing mercy, granting the poor man strength and restoration beyond what he could ever have given himself, no matter how hard he tried.  In response to the Savior’s gracious therapy, the man obeyed the command to stand up, pick up his bed, and walk home.  Apart from this personal encounter with the Lord, the man would have remained enslaved to debilitating weakness, but the Savior’s healing restored his ability to move forward in a life suitable for a person who bears the image and likeness of God.

Whenever we ask for the Lord’s mercy, we are asking for the same therapy that He extended to the paralyzed man.  We ask Him to heal our wounds, restore our strength, and help us become participants in the eternal joy for which He created us.  We ask Him to deliver us from the wretched, corrupt state of being so weak before our passions that we feel helpless before our familiar temptations, no matter how much we despise them. We ask Him to help us find healing from the ingrained habits of thought, word, and deed that serve only to make us and our neighbors miserable.  We even dare to ask Him to make us “partakers of the divine nature” who share by grace in His victory over death, which is the wages of sin.  

To rise up, take up our beds, and walk home requires obedience to Christ’s commands, but not a legalistic obedience in the sense of following a code for its own sake.  Instead, this obedience is like following the guidance of a physician or therapist who makes clear to us what we must do in order to regain health and function for our bodies.  Christ embodies true humanity and has made us participants in His restoration and fulfillment of our vocation to become like God in holiness.  His commandments are not arbitrary or superficial but go to the heart and require our healing as whole persons in communion with God.

The Saints are inspirational examples of what it looks like for people to become healed of the paralysis of sin amidst all the temptations and problems presented by this world of corruption.  Today we commemorate the glorious Prophet Elijah who gained the strength to speak so boldly in opposition to the idolatry of Ahab and Jezebel, to cause a drought for three years and six months by his prayers, and to call down fire from heaven in a confrontation with the pagan priests of Baal. Elijah miraculously multiplied the flour and oil of the widow of Zarephath and raised her son from the dead.  When he passed his mantle of prophecy to Elisha, he divided the Jordan river and then was taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot.  He appeared with Moses at the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. 

The Archangel Gabriel said to Zechariah that John the Baptist “will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Lk. 1:17) Christ affirmed the close association of Elijah and John the Forerunner, saying “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” (Matt. 17: 11-12)

It may be tempting to think that a great saint like Elijah was a spiritual superhero who never struggled with fear, doubt, or any kind of weakness.  The truth is very different.  He literally ran for his life when told that Jezebel was out to kill him and then prayed that the Lord would take his life, despairing that “I am no better than my fathers!” (3 Kingdoms 19:4) In response to God’s question as to what he was doing hiding in a cave at Mount Horeb, Elijah complained that “I alone am left” as one faithful in Israel and that “they seek to take my life.”  Then there was a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but the Lord was not in any of them.  He spoke to Elijah, however, in a “gentle breeze” or a “still small voice,” asking again why he was there.  The Lord responded again to Elijah’s complaint that he was alone, saying “I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal…” (3 Kingdoms 19: 10-18) Even the great prophet Elijah had to be reminded not to fall into despair and self-pity and to keep his spiritual perception finely tuned to hear the Word of the Lord.

As St. James wrote, “Elijah 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.”  That is precisely why he and all the Saints are such great examples for us of what it means to gain the spiritual strength to rise, take up our beds, and walk.  They experienced the weaknesses, challenges, and temptations that are our common lot in this world of corruption.  Nonetheless, the Old Testament saints took up the struggle to live in faith and hope for the fulfillment of God’s gracious promises that is ours in Jesus Christ.  As we read in Hebrews 11:39-40, “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”

As those who have become heirs to the fullness of the promise to Abraham by faith in Christ, we have no more business lying flat on our backs in spiritual paralysis than did Elijah hiding out in a cave and bemoaning how he alone had been faithful.  Like Elijah, we must cultivate the spiritual sensitivity to hear the “gentle breeze” or “still small voice” of the Lord and not to be distracted by the winds, the earthquakes, and the fires of our life and world.  We do not worship pagan deities like Baal, but it is so easy to corrupt our pursuit of the Christian life in ways that simply serve our passions and keep us paralyzed before them.  Our true calling is very different and requires the spiritual clarity gained by mindful prayer, fasting, and generosity to our neighbors.  As St. James wrote, we must confess our sins and “pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.”  He also taught that “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (Jas. 1:27) None of this is new, trendy, or easy, but it is how we must persistently struggle to live if we are to gain the spiritual strength to obey the command of the Lord to each and every one of us:  Rise, take up your bed, and go home. That is what Elijah the Prophet did and it is what we must all do for the salvation of our souls.

 

Homily for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost & Fourth Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church

 

Romans 6:18-23; Matthew 8: 5-13

Too many Christians are apparently blind to how radically Christ challenged the conventional social assumptions of first-century Palestine and of life as we know it today.   Contrary to all expectations for the Jewish Messiah, He asked for a drink of water from a Samaritan woman with a scandalous personal history, engaged in His longest recorded conversation with her, and then spent two days in a Samaritan village.  In doing so, He identified Himself with people viewed as heretical enemies and treated a woman who was a complete outcast as a beloved child of God.  He invited Himself to the home of Zacchaeus, a corrupt tax-collector for the Roman army of occupation.  And as we read today, He not only healed the servant of a Roman centurion, but said of this man, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”  The centurion was an officer of the pagan Roman Empire that controlled the Holy Land. The Jews expected the Messiah to destroy people like him, not to praise their faith.   

The Lord’s statement that the faith of this Roman soldier was superior to that of any of the Jews surely seemed foolish, treasonous, and blasphemous according to conventional standards.  With those words, He made clear that nationality and ethnicity are not spiritually determining factors, for “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…”  Though it was commonly overlooked at the time, God’s promises to Abraham were for the blessing of “all the nations,” not merely one group of people.  These promises have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ such that all with faith in Him are now heirs to their fulfillment as His beloved sons and daughters.  (Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:8-9) 

Our Lord’s ministry had nothing at all to do with setting up an earthly kingdom in Palestine or anywhere else for any group of people.  Pursuing such worldly power was a temptation that He rejected.  Before the Savior began His public ministry, “the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” (Matt. 4:8-10) The crowds welcomed Christ to Jerusalem as a conquering hero on Palm Sunday because they thought He was their military liberator from Roman rule.  When it became clear that He was an entirely different kind of Messiah with no interest in launching an armed rebellion, they yelled, “Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!” a few days later (Lk 23:21).   The Savior then told Pontius Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world, which is why His followers would not take up arms to defend Him. (Jn. 18:36)

The kingdom which Christ proclaimed may well appear just as foolish today according to conventional standards, for it has no geographical boundaries and is not a nation-state; it does not require any particular ethnicity, culture, or language for its citizens.  It is not focused on the interests of any faction or group.  Even as the promises to the descendants of Abraham have been extended to all with faith in Christ, the ancient hope for an earthly realm in a particular part of the world has been fulfilled in the Body of Christ in which all may participate even now as a foretaste of the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven, regardless of where they live or their cultural or ethnic heritage.  As St. Peter wrote to the early Christians, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Pet. 2: 9-10) As Orthodox Christians, we know that we share in the life of our Lord by His grace, not by the power of any earthly realm or leader in any part of the world, including our own.

We pray for God’s blessings upon our nation and all the nations and peoples of the world.  We give thanks for all the blessings that are ours, especially our rights and freedoms, and we must be good stewards of them, not as ends in themselves, but as opportunities to offer all the good things of this life for purification and fulfillment in Christ.  Remember that the chief priests told Pilate “We have no king but Caesar!” as they called for the Messiah’s crucifixion (Jn. 19:15).  The pagan Romans later killed Christians because they would not worship the gods believed to preserve their empire, including Caesar.   Our Lord and His martyrs looked like fools, or worse, to those obsessed with serving the rulers of this world. We are certainly not immune today from the temptation to reject our Lord and His Cross by giving our primary allegiance to those who seem to serve our desires for power, domination, and vengeance.  This temptation, which is rooted in the fear of death, is all the more dangerous when we convince ourselves that we are actually serving Christ as we pursue the nationalistic and political paths that He so clearly rejected.       

Obviously, our Lord did not view the Roman centurion according to conventional earthly terms, even though He was well aware of the man’s role in serving the empire under the authority of which He would be crucified.  By all outward appearances, they would have been sworn enemies, but Christ did not see him that way or require him to quit the Roman army or become a Jew.  He simply marveled at the centurion’s faith, granted his request, and noted that “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.”  

Our hope is to be among those “from east and west” who are gathered into the kingdom of heaven by our Lord’s gracious mercy, which we receive through faith in Him, regardless of our national, ethnic, or political identity.   Even as not all the descendants of Abraham fulfilled their calling to receive the Messiah in faith, we cannot blithely assume that being Orthodox Christians somehow guarantees us the blessedness of the kingdom or makes us justified in condemning anyone.  The greatest obstacle to the healing of our souls is pride, which often manifests itself in the belief that we are somehow better and more deserving of God’s favor than others.  Such pride is the deadly enemy of true faith, but the centurion somehow managed to avoid that trap, despite the high standing given to him by his rank in the armed forces of the mighty Roman Empire.  He humbled himself, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  Even as Christ did not see him as an enemy, he did not see Christ as either a threat to the empire or someone inferior by worldly standards.  Quite the contrary, the centurion had somehow acquired the spiritual clarity to know where he stood before the Lord Who would heal his servant in such a miraculous fashion. Even as the centurion, tax-collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, demon-possessed Gentiles, and other outcasts received Christ in humble faith, we must never presume to declare that anyone is beyond His love or cannot find healing in Him.   We must gain the spiritual health necessary to treat every person we encounter as a living icon of Christ, regardless of national identity, political affiliation, or any other human characteristic.  Any Christianity that does not call people to do so is unworthy of its name.

Like the Roman centurion, let us entrust ourselves to Christ with such humility that our passions do not keep us from knowing that we stand before Him in need of constant mercy, no less than everyone else.  Instead of fueling the pride that so easily blinds us spiritually and leads us to idolatry, let us unite ourselves so fully to Christ that His character becomes evident in us.  Then we will manifest His mercy and compassion in ways unconstrained by devotion to any of the false gods of this world as we learn to love even strangers and enemies as God loves us.  That is not and never has been the easy, popular, and conventional way of living, but it is clearly the way of the Savior Who conquered death itself through His Cross and glorious resurrection on the third day.  It is only by uniting ourselves to Him in faith and faithfulness that we may hope, along with that blessed centurion, to be among those who “come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.”  

 

Sunday of All Saints of Antioch & Second Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church

 

 Acts 11:19-30; Matthew 4:18-23

           We celebrate today for the first time in our Archdiocese the Sunday of All Saints of Antioch together with our Patriarchate. It is through their faithful witness that we have been welcomed into the fullness of the Body of Christ in which divisions according to nationality, ethnicity, and culture have no legitimate place or spiritual significance.  The miracle of speaking in diverse languages at Pentecost shows that the transforming power of the Holy Spirit enables all people to fulfill their basic human vocation to become like God in holiness.  The first Gentile church was in Antioch, where “the disciples were first called Christians.”   As His Eminence, Metropolitan SABA recently wrote, the Antiochian Church has always been a multicultural and multilingual church.  Its “freedom from ethnocentrism made it the first Orthodox church in North America to open its doors…to converts to Orthodoxy.”[1]  We are obviously deeply indebted to those through whom we have heard the Lord’s call, “Follow Me.” The ministry of Antioch proclaims this calling not to a select few but as the vocation of all who bear the divine image as unique, irreplaceable icons of God.

 

To gain the spiritual strength to respond to this calling, we must grow in humility and find healing for our souls.  From ancient times, Christians have observed a fast after celebrating the great feast of Pentecost.  After the festive seasons of Pascha, Ascension, and Pentecost, we now focus on the struggle to become fully receptive to the healing power of the Holy Spirit.   The Apostles Fast concludes with the celebration of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, who are shining examples of what it means to become radiant with the divine glory.  The stories of their personal transformations should inspire us, for both had sinned greatly, with Peter denying the Lord three times and Paul having fiercely persecuted Christians.  Nonetheless, they became foundational pillars of the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit.  They truly were healed.

 

            We might refuse to see how they are examples for us due to a misplaced sense of humility.  It may seem presumptuous to put ourselves anywhere near the place of those who first heard the Savior’s call: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”   The point is not that we are somehow to repeat the unique roles of any of the apostles, but that we must learn from their examples how to become fully receptive to the healing mercy of the Lord.  The difficult journeys of all the apostles had nothing to do with glorifying themselves.   Instead, they became living icons of Christ by their humility, for their sins were made clear for all to see.  Sts. Peter and Paul both made the ultimate witness as martyrs, becoming last in this world to the point of shedding their blood for Christ. Contrary to the temptations common to religious people and leaders to this very day, the apostles pursued paths that had nothing to do with exalting themselves above others. As St. Paul wrote, “God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men… To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.” (1 Cor: 4: 9-13)

 

As living members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we have received the fullness of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit, poured out richly at Pentecost.  We are filled with the same Spirit personally in Chrismation and nourished by the Savior’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He has called and empowered us to live each day of our lives as those who participate by grace in the life of the Holy Trinity.  To confess these truths is to know immediately how unworthy we are of such blessings and how far short we fall of living accordingly.  When we recall the Lord’s teaching that “to whom much is given, much will be required,” we should fall on our faces in repentance because of the great responsibility that is ours. (Lk 12:48) The Savior said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) He also said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn. 14:15) As the Lord told His disciples, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5: 20) Struggling to obey the Lord each day in humility is the only way to grow in holiness and follow the apostles to the heavenly kingdom.  To identify ourselves as Orthodox Christians without pursuing this demanding path is sheer hypocrisy by which we condemn ourselves.  We will become the opposite of “fishers of men” if we entangle ourselves in the nets of our passions, such as spiritual pride and the false gods of worldly political and ethnic divisions. Instead of attracting others to Christ like a beacon in the darkness, we will repel them by our refusal to follow in the way of the apostles and saints. 

 

The world so obviously lacks peace today, especially in situations where earthly powers blasphemously view themselves as the highest good and become blind to the humanity of those who threaten their desires and illusions.  As His Eminence has written, the refusal of the Antiochian Church to identify itself with a nation arises from the experience of “living under non-Christian rule since the seventh century [which] exposed the Church to various persecutions. Yet, wherever possible, it engaged with its surroundings, rulers, and citizens of different sects, remaining a witness to its faith and spirituality...” To be faithful stewards of the spiritual inheritance that we have received from our Antiochian forebears, we must follow in their way of freedom “from ethnic and nationalistic entanglements” and maintain “a theology untainted by a fusion of religion and nationalism.”[2]  

 

St. Seraphim of Sarov taught, “Acquire the Spirit of peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.”  The Spirit of peace is, of course, the Holy Spirit, through whom we have become children and heirs of God through Christ, regardless of our ethnic, cultural, or national identity. (Gal. 4:6-7) St. Seraphim also taught that “the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.”  Our vocation is not to serve the false gods of our passions or of the divisions of the world. It is, instead, to become like God in holiness through the healing, transformative presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

The light yoke of the Apostles Fast gives us an opportunity to do precisely that, as we humble ourselves before the Savior in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  That is how we acquire the spiritual strength necessary to overcome the weakness of slavery to our self-centered desires as we answer the calling to become the uniquely beautiful living icons that our Lord created us to be.  Remember that when the disciples first heard Christ say, “Follow Me,” they were doing their daily work as fishermen.  His calling is not esoteric or removed from the mundane realities of life.  We have no lack of opportunities to answer His call today in our families, workplaces, friendships, and neighborhoods, as well as in our parish.  No one else is married to your spouse, is the father or mother of your children, or is the particular friend, worker, or parishioner that you are.  No one else has the vocation to serve Christ in those around you in the unique way that you do. The present circumstances of our lives present limitless opportunities to become fully receptive to the healing presence and peace of Holy Spirit.  None of us lacks anything at all that is necessary to grow in holiness, obey Christ’s calling, and draw others into the life of the Kingdom.  The disciplines of the Apostles Fast will help us gain the spiritual clarity to hear and respond faithfully to that calling, as have all the saints across the centuries.  Let us use these weeks to abandon the nets that would hold us back from doing so.

 

 

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[1] “Antiochian Distinctions,” https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2465.

[2] https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2465

Homily for the Sunday of All Saints in the Orthodox Church

 

Hebrews 11:33-12:2; Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30

           The word “saint” simply means “holy.”  On this first Sunday after Pentecost, we commemorate all those who are so filled with the Holy Spirit that they shine brightly with holiness.  They bear witness to the meaning of Pentecost, for it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that people fulfill their calling to become like God in holiness as they enter into the eternal communion of love shared by the Persons of the Holy Trinity. When our risen and ascended Lord sent the Holy Spirit upon His followers, He fulfilled the prophecy spoken by Jeremiah: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Jer. 31:33-34) The saints show us that everyone may embrace personally the transformation and healing of the Holy Spirit, for the “living water” of the Spirit flows in and through them as a sign of the salvation of the world. (Jn. 7:38) That is how they have become, as St. Paul wrote, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (Rom. 8:16)

We do not know the names of all the saints, but God certainly knows all who have entered into the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom.  As members together with them of the same Body of Christ, we ask for their prayers as we strive to follow their example of faithful witness to the Lord.  The root meaning of the word “martyr” is “witness,” and from the stoning of St. Stephen the Protomartyr to the present day those who have refused to deny Christ even to the point of death have provided powerful testimony to the Savior Who has liberated them from the fear of the grave.  Their shining example inspires us to take up our crosses in following our Lord as we seek first the Kingdom of God in the particular circumstances of our lives.  Christ said, “Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father Who is in heaven; but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father Who is in heaven.”  As the varied lives of the saints across the ages demonstrate, there are many ways of showing our faithfulness to Him, even as there are many ways of denying Him. 

 Sainthood and martyrdom are not reserved only for those who refuse to renounce Christ under threat of physical death.  They are the common calling of us all to die to our passions as we became “partakers of the divine nature” by our personal receptivity to the healing divine energies of our Lord.  Like all the saints, we must acquire the strength to say truthfully with Saint Paul, “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) Regardless of whether we are called literally to shed our blood for Christ, we must all pursue the living martyrdom of refusing to allow love for anything or anyone to become a false god that we place before loyalty to our Lord.  When we endure the inevitable tension associated with purifying the desires of our hearts for their true fulfillment in God, we will know what it means to take up our crosses.  We will suffer, not because pain has any intrinsic significance, but because of the struggle required to turn away from deeply ingrained habits of self-indulgence that have marred the beauty of our souls.  Instead of romanticizing about some ideal spiritual path that we imagine would be either easier or more exalted, we should simply accept in humility that we must face the challenges that are before us today for our salvation.  Fantasizing about anything else is simply a distraction from making the particular offering of our lives that is necessary for our healing.  The path to salvation is never an escape from reality, for it requires us to do the hard work of learning to see ourselves more truthfully so that we may find healing for the given diseases of soul that we would prefer to ignore. We must refuse to be distracted by anything from pursuing healing for the spiritual maladies that we actually have.

 Holiness is not a reward for people who have never sinned, even as health is not a reward for people who have never been sick.  The common image of the ideal religious person as a self-righteous legalist who condemns others has nothing at all to do with a spiritually healthy understanding of sainthood.  As St. John wrote in his epistle, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn. 1:8-9) True saints are people like King David (who had committed murder and adultery), Peter (the head disciple who had denied His Lord three times), and Mary of Egypt (who had lived a horribly depraved life as a sex addict).  They all found healing through repentance as they pursued the difficult struggle to reorient the desires of their hearts toward God and to live accordingly.  Likewise, Paul, formerly a harsh persecutor of Christians who referred to himself as the chief of sinners, wrote that the Lord showed him mercy “as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.”  (1 Tim. 1:16)  

That such broken people became glorious saints is not an exception to the rule, but the norm.  If we want to find healing for our souls, we will not do so by convincing ourselves that we have somehow already fulfilled the Lord’s command to “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48) Neither, however, we will we share in the holiness of God by accepting the lie that anything we have said, thought, or done makes it impossible for us to be transformed by the Lord’s healing mercy.  Photini, the Samaritan woman at the well, and Zacchaeus, the corrupt tax-collector, were lost causes according to the conventional religious and moral standards of first-century Palestine, but they received Christ in ways that transformed them into glorious saints.   

 They remind us that everyone who shares in the blessed life of the Savior does so through their participation in His grace, not as a reward for good behavior.  Our reading from Hebrews teaches that the righteous of the Old Testament, “though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”  It is impossible to become like God in holiness apart from sharing in Jesus Christ’s healing and fulfillment of the human person.  He enables both those who may appear to have never done anything wrong and those who may appear never to have done anything right to become His saints, if they will embrace the struggle to entrust themselves so fully to Him that they become living icons of His salvation.   That is the only way that anyone becomes a “partaker of the divine nature” by grace.

 Looking to the example of all those who have entered into the holiness of God, “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfection of our faith.”  Let us take up the crosses that are obviously before us and acknowledge Him each day of our lives as we bear the inevitable tension of seeking first His Kingdom and loving Him with every ounce of our being and our neighbors as ourselves.  If we do so, we will become living martyrs who bear witness to the active presence of the Holy Spirit, sent by the risen and ascended Lord, for the salvation of the world, as do all the saints. Our calling is not to religious legalism in any form, but to receive the healing of our souls so that we may bear witness to the Lord’s healing and fulfillment of the human person in the divine image and likeness.

 

Homily for the Great Feast of Pentecost in the Orthodox Church

 

Acts 2:1-11; John 7:37-52; 8:12 

Today we celebrate the Great Feast of Pentecost at which the Holy Spirit comes upon on the Apostles as they are gathered together in obedience to the command of the risen Lord.  The same divine breath which first gave us life from the dust of the earth now comes as a mighty, rushing wind.  The divine glory beheld by Moses in the burning bush now rests upon each one personally as flames of fire.   The divided speech of the tower of Babel is now overcome by the miracle of speaking in different languages as a sign that all peoples are invited to share in the life of the Lord.  This great feast manifests the fulfillment of God’s gracious promises for the entire world and every human person in the Body of Christ, the Church born at Pentecost.  Today we celebrate the restoration of our true unity in God through the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter sent by the risen and ascended Savior Who is seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly glory. 

The sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit empowers the Church as a living icon of the common life of humanity in which our divisions and resentments are healed.  He enables us to become persons in communion united organically as members of the one Body of Christ instead of isolated individuals obsessively choosing sides over against one another due to the fear of death.  The Persons of the Holy Trinity share a common life of love, unity, and holiness; by the power of the Holy Spirit manifested at Pentecost, we participate by grace in Their eternal communion.  Our journey to theosis calls us to nothing less than being united in and with God such that we become radiant with the divine energies in every dimension of our being, like an iron left in the fire of holy glory.

As those who bear the divine image and likeness, we become both more truly human and more like God as we find healing from the passions that divide and separate us, and instead embrace our life together. That is why St. Paul wrote, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23) That is why St. Silouan the Athonite taught, “One can only love one’s enemies through the grace of the Holy Spirit.” And “He who does not love his enemies, does not have God’s grace.”[1]

The Lord said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’”  He uses the image of living water to describe what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even as He did with St. Photini, the Samaritan woman at the well.  Our risen and ascended Lord did not send mere theological ideas, moral instructions, or spiritual practices to His followers.  After His Ascension, the Savior sent the Holy Spirit to quench the deep thirst, the primal longing, of all the broken, confused, and alienated people of the world for sharing personally in the eternal life of God, for nothing else can truly satisfy us as those who bear the divine image and likeness.  So much of our pain and misery stems from obsessively seeking fulfillment in created things that can never provide it.  Doing so only enslaves us further to our passions and separates us from one another.

Wind, fire, and water are powerful realities that escape our control. At Pentecost they convey the profound mystery of what it means to be drawn into the divine life in ways that transcend even the best rational definitions:  As living members of the Body of Christ, we may truly know and experience God from the depths of our hearts and in our common life as did the Apostles.

 In order to celebrate this great feast with integrity, we must mindfully open ourselves as fully as possible to the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit.   In order to do that, we must live faithfully each day through the spiritual strength that we gain from participating in the sacramental and ascetical life of the Church.  The Holy Spirit came upon Christ’s followers as they were gathered together in obedience to the Lord’s command, and we must never fool ourselves into thinking that the spiritual life is an individualistic endeavor that caters to our preferences, prejudices, or feelings.  Pentecost calls us to get over the pride that divided the tongues of humanity in the first place and to gain the humility to find our true personhood as members together of the Body of Christ, where the distinctive beauty of our souls will shine evermore brightly as we partake of the same living water as did the Apostles.  

Indeed, Pentecost calls us to become so receptive to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that we overflow with His living water, becoming channels of blessing that enable our neighbors and world to flourish with the peace, joy, and holiness of God’s Kingdom.  As the Savior said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’” We must turn away from all that separates us from being filled to overflowing with the life of our Lord in His Body, the Church, if we are to know such blessedness.   We must kneel in prayer and live in humility as we forgive our enemies, share our resources with the poor, and take up the daily struggle to purify our hearts of all that would keep us enslaved to self-centered desire.  We must refuse to define ourselves or our neighbors according to the categories of the fallen world (such as nationality, race, or social standing), for the Holy Spirit has healed such divisions.  To do so is to miss the point of this great feast, for Pentecost is the reverse of the divisions of the Tower of Babel in which language and culture become spiritually irrelevant as we share by grace in the life of God.

At Pentecost, let us turn aside from all that would keep us from true unity in Christ as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…” (1 Pet. 2:9) That is the only way to be illumined by the One Who said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Our calling is nothing less than to overflow with the gracious divine energies poured out abundantly for the salvation of the world on this great Feast of Pentecost and to live accordingly each day of our lives.

  

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[1] See Jean-Claude Larchet, “On the Love of Enemies According to Saint Silouan,” https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2020/10/on-love-of-enemies-according-to-saint.html

 

Homily for the Sunday of the After-feast of the Ascension with Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

 

Acts 20:16-18, 28-36; John 17:1-13

 

            Forty days after His resurrection, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ ascended in glory into heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father.  He did so as One Who is fully divine and fully human, One Person with two natures. He ascended with His glorified, resurrected body, which still bore the wounds of His crucifixion.  Our Lord’s Ascension displays our calling to participate by grace in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity and share in His fulfillment of the human person in God’s image and likeness.   We may experience such blessedness even now by uniting ourselves to Christ even as we live and breathe in the world as we know it.

We also commemorate today the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, which met 1,700 years ago in AD 325.  They rejected the teaching of Arius that Jesus Christ was not truly divine, but a kind of lesser god created by the Father.  The Council declared, as we confess to this day in the Nicene Creed, that our Savior is “the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all worlds. Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made.”  The Fathers of Nicaea saw clearly that the One Who brings us into the eternal life of God must Himself be eternal and divine.  No mere creature could ever enable us to become radiant with the gracious divine energies as participants in heavenly glory.    

Had Christ been simply a great religious teacher, He could not have conquered death or brought us up to heaven through His Ascension. Those who claim to admire the Savior as merely an excellent human being actually reject Him, for they deny the true identity of the God-Man Who unites humanity and divinity in Himself.  Only He could say to the Father, “Glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory which I had with You before the world was made.”  Only He can bring those made of the dust of the Earth into the eternal life of the Holy Trinity.   

            The divine brilliance of Christ’s Ascension is entirely different from the illusion of trying to raise ourselves up according to the standards of a world that remains estranged from the joy of the heavenly Kingdom.  We so easily give in to the temptation to hope in the passing things of this world that can never truly satisfy those called to become like God in holiness.  God created all things good, but no mere creature has the power to heal our souls.  The more that we give our hearts to even the noblest human endeavors as ends in themselves, the more enslaved we become to false hopes that distract us from embracing our true fulfillment in God.   Since we bear God’s image and likeness, to ground our lives in anything other than Him will lead ultimately only to sorrow and bitter disappointment.

            Doing so will make us blind to the glory of our ascended Lord, Who went up to heaven only after dying on the Cross, being buried in a tomb, and enduring the ultimate descent to Hades.  He rose from the dead because He had humbled Himself to the point of accepting rejection, torture, and crucifixion as a blasphemer and a traitor purely out of selfless love and compassion for His broken and suffering children, who had enslaved themselves to the fear of death through sin. 

Christ endured all this as the eternal Son of God Who spoke the universe into existence. The unfathomable humility of the Savior destroys popular assumptions about God and about what it means to find fulfillment as a human person.  He does not ascend by taking vengeance upon His enemies, causing those who opposed Him to suffer, or serving Himself, but by suffering the consequences of their sins, of which He was in no way guilty.  The divine glory of His Ascension shines brilliantly in contrast to the illusions of those who assume God must be just like them in their pride, self-centeredness, and cruelty.   If we dare to identify ourselves with Christ, we must open the eyes of our souls to the light of His heavenly glory and refuse to live as those who keep wandering further into the darkness.  In order to celebrate the Ascension with integrity, we must rise up with Him into the eternal life of the Holy Trinity even as we remain in a world marred by the sorrowful brokenness of the children of Adam and Eve.

By rising into heavenly glory as the God-Man, Christ has shown us what it means to become truly human in the divine image and likeness.   In order to unite ourselves to Him, we must reorient our desires away from the false gods we have welcomed into our hearts and toward the One Who overcame the very worst the corrupt world could do in order make us participants in the eternal day of His heavenly reign.  The contrast between the heights of heaven and the mundane realities of our lives is obviously very great. That is not because we are ordinary people with ordinary problems and temptations.   It is because we have not united ourselves to Christ to the point that every aspect of our life in this world has become a brilliant icon of His salvation.  There is so much in each of us that has refused to ascend in holiness with our Lord.          

Our calling to rise with Christ into heavenly glory is obviously high and we may never claim to have fulfilled it.  God is infinitely holy and the journey to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect is truly eternal.  No matter where we are on that path, we must all grapple seriously with what holds us back from embracing the fulfillment of the human person made possible by our Lord’s Ascension.   We must conform our character to Christ’s such that His radiant glory shines through us as we embrace the challenges of finding healing for our souls from the disordered desires that can so easily become the driving forces of our lives.     

In order to ascend with Him in holiness, we must abandon the hypocritical spirituality of those who corrupt Christianity into a way of raising ourselves up in this world over our neighbors.  Nothing will keep us wedded to the spiritual decay of the fallen world more than perverting the way of our ascended Lord into a justification for crucifying our brothers and sisters in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Our Savior calls us to rise up from the corruption of the world, not to fall even deeper into it through delusions of spiritual pride and hypocrisy.    

In order to ascend in holiness with Him, we must reject all the fantasies and obsessions that distract us from true faithfulness in the present circumstances of our lives as we take the small steps toward the Kingdom that we presently have the strength to take. In our families, friendships, and workplaces, and also in our parish, we must humble ourselves by putting the needs of others before our own desires.  We must refuse to allow thoughts that tempt us to self-centeredness or resentment to take root in our hearts, for they will make it impossible to become like Christ in self-emptying love for our neighbors.  The only way to ascend with Christ is to unite ourselves to Him in humility from the depths of our hearts.    

Christ prayed to the Father that His followers “may be one, even as We are one.”  Contrary to popular opinion, it is not possible to pursue the Christian life as an isolated individual on the basis of emotion, beliefs, ideas, morality, politics, or anything else.  The Church is Christ’s Body and we are members of Him together.  He is the Vine and we are the branches.  The Lord ascended with His Body and, by His grace, we will too as we serve Him together in His Body, the Church, by doing what needs to be done for the healing of our souls, the flourishing of our small parish, and the good of our neighbors.  Our unity is not in our opinions or affiliations concerning the projects and agendas of this world.  We must “lay aside all earthly cares” as we lift up our hearts to become “one flesh” with our Savior in the Eucharist.  He has already ascended and brought our humanity into heavenly glory.   Now we must go up together with Him each day of our lives as we come to share more fully in the salvation that only the God-Man could bring.  Even as we live and breathe in this world, let us rise up with Christ in holiness, for that is what it means to become truly human in the image and likeness of God.   

Homily for the Sunday of the Blind Man in the Orthodox Church

 2 Cor. 4:6-15; John 9:1-38

  Christ is Risen!

            On this last Sunday of Pascha, we celebrate that the Risen Lord has brought us from the spiritual darkness of sin and death into the brilliant light of His heavenly Kingdom.  Even as Christ restored sight to the man born blind in today’s gospel reading, He illumines our darkened souls.  That is how the Lord enables us to know and experience Him as “partakers of the divine nature” by grace. 

Before the God-Man’s healing of our corrupt humanity, grave spiritual blindness was the common lot of the children of the first Adam, who were enslaved to the fear of death as the wages of sin. When the Lord spat on the ground to make clay for the man’s eyes in today’s gospel reading, He showed that His healing is an extension of His incarnation in which He has entered fully into our humanity as those made from the dust of the earth.  The blind man regained his sight after washing in the pool of Siloam, which is an image of baptism, which illumines us and restores our spiritual sight.  The man did not really know Who the Lord was when he first encountered Him, thinking that He was merely a prophet.  After the restoration of his sight, the Savior revealed Himself as the Son of God; then the eyes of the man’s soul were illumined to know Christ in His divine glory. “He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped Him.”

The good news of Christ’s resurrection is even more extraordinary than the unprecedented restoration of sight to the man blind from birth, and it is not simply a religious teaching or a point of history.  Through His victory over the corrupting powers of sin and death, He opens the eyes of our souls, enabling us to know, experience, and be united with Him from the depths of our hearts by grace.   In order truly to confess His resurrection, we must become participants in the eternal life that He has brought to the world. We must become radiant with the light that shines from the empty tomb and illumines even the darkest corners of our lives.   

When Christ was asked whose sin was responsible for the man being born blind, He answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.”  The Savior rejected the common assumption that such a terrible malady must be a punishment for a particular sin.  We simply do not know why many things happen in this life, but we may always respond to even the worst circumstances in ways that open our hearts more fully to the light of Christ. The Risen Lord has illumined even the tomb itself, making it an entrance into eternal life.  Our participation by grace in the joy of His resurrection is not a reward for morality, legality, or religiosity; it is no more a matter of getting what we, as opposed to others, deserve than was the healing of the blind man.  We stand in need not of justice, but of the infinite healing mercy that enables us to behold the glory of God.  If our spiritual blindness is being healed, then we will become radiant with the light of His mercy, providing a sign of hope to our neighbors in our darkened world.        

  In order to gain the spiritual clarity to do that, we must shut our eyes to all that would keep us stumbling in the darkness of sin and enslaved to the fear of death.  Because the eyes of our souls are not yet fully transparent to the light of the Lord, none of us has perfect spiritual vision.  We do not yet see or know God, our neighbors, or ourselves clearly, but in ways that are deeply distorted by our passions.  That is why we must struggle to become fully receptive to the brilliant divine energies of our Lord through the healing found in the sacramental and ascetical life of the Church.   As those who were born spiritually blind and have been illumined through the washing of baptism and the anointing of chrismation, we must remain vigilant against the persistent temptation to fall back into the comfortable ways of corruption.  There is so much within us that would prefer to hide in the darkness rather than to be illumined in God. The more that we are fully present to the Lord from the depths of our hearts, the more clearly we will know Him and ourselves. That is why we must pray daily, fast and confess regularly, serve our neighbors (especially those we find it hard to love) at every opportunity, and refuse to worship any of the false gods of this world (especially those we find most appealing). 

The blind man did not respond to Christ’s instructions with questions and reservations driven by fear or anxiety about the future course of his life.  He simply obeyed, washed, saw, and then moved forward to encounter challenges he could never have anticipated.  His example reminds us to cultivate the spiritual simplicity of obedience.  If we want healing, we must not allow anything to distract us from attending to our one essential calling of doing what it takes to open the eyes of our souls to the brilliant light of Christ.  Doing so is not simply a one-time experience but requires persisting in the eternal journey of becoming radiant with the divine energies of our Lord as we become more like Him in holiness. None of us can ever say that we have completed this infinite calling.  The Savior has conquered even death itself in order to illumine every dimension of our darkened souls with the light of heavenly glory.  The more receptive we are to His light, the more we will be aware of the darkness that remains with us.  That is not a moment to be discouraged or paralyzed by fear but instead simply to obey Christ in humility as did the man born blind.

As we conclude this season of Pascha, we must mindfully resist the temptation to allow the blindness of a world still enslaved to the fear of death to obscure our spiritual vision.  Those who criticized Christ for daring to heal on the Sabbath were so concerned with trying to use religion to serve their proud desires for position and power that they refused to open their eyes to the Light of the world. We must be on guard against the subtle temptation to identify ourselves with the Savior while welcoming darkness into our souls every bit as much as they did.  We may still mouth words about His resurrection and call ourselves Christians as we wander further into the dark night of entrusting ourselves to the false gods of this world.  If we are making money, possessions, physical appearance, food, drink, sex, the approval of others, or anything else to which we have a passionate attachment the driving purpose of our lives, then we are living as though Christ were still in the grave.  If we condemn any set of our neighbors and hope fundamentally in some arrangement of earthly success that promises to raise us up above the people we love to hate, then we are shutting the eyes of our souls to the brilliant light of the Lord, regardless of how religious or moral we may claim to be.

Our Lord, Who died as the innocent victim of violence at the hands of corrupt religious and political leaders, calls us to become living witnesses of His victory over even Hades and the tomb in the world as we know it today with all its appalling tragedies and bitter disappointments.   Nothing can keep us from doing so other than our own stubborn choice to persist in spiritual blindness.  As we prepare to bid farewell to the season of Pascha this year, let us persist steadfastly in the struggle to enter as fully as possible into the new day of the Savior’s resurrection as we turn away from darkness in all its forms and embrace the Light of the world from the depths of our hearts. Let us redirect the energy that we so commonly invest in gratifying our passions to repudiating the darkness as we open the eyes of our souls as fully as possible to the brilliant light of the Lord.  Let us become radiant with the divine light that shines brightly from the empty tomb, always keeping the joy of Pascha in our hearts. For that is truly the only way to live each day as those who know that their only hope, and the only hope of the world, is in the resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior, for Christ is Risen!