How Not to Sink Like a Stone in the Raging Seas of our Passions: Homily for the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost & Ninth Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church

 

1 Corinthians 3:9-17: Matthew 14:22-34

 

It is easy for us today to become so focused on our worries, fears, and problems that we start to sink into a deep sea of despair.  We endure almost constant bombardment with images and messages that call us to judge ourselves and others according to cultural standards of success, such as wealth, beauty, and popularity.  No matter how successful we may be in pursuing such goals, those who bear the image and likeness of God will never find true satisfaction in them.   To make them the foundation of our wellbeing is a recipe for disaster, for they cannot heal the soul and can all disappear in an instant.  If our horizons extend no further than that, we will never become transfigured in holiness by the gracious energies of the New Adam.  Instead, we will sink like stones in a sea of despair.

 

 St. Peter began to do precisely that when he turned his focus away from the Lord to fixate on the wind and the waves.  By his own nature, there was simply no way that Peter could have avoided drowning, but he called out “Lord, save me!”  That is precisely what the Savior did by reaching out to Peter and rescuing him as He said, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”  The stress of the storm revealed the weakness of Peter’s faith, which is not surprising because he had gotten himself into this situation by foolishly putting Christ to the test, saying “Lord, if it is You, bid me come to You on the water.”   By his impulsiveness and lack of humble trust, Peter literally got himself in well over his head. He had to learn the hard way that he had no foundation, no basis for life itself, other than Jesus Christ.  If left to his own devices, he would have sunk like a stone into a watery grave.   

 

That is a destination completely different from the one to which our Lord calls us. The God-Man came to do nothing less than to transfigure us in holiness with His gracious divine energies as the uniquely blessed persons He created us to become.  The Savior called His disciples to “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”  (Matt. 5:48) He cited the Psalms: “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.” (Psalm 82:6; Jn. 10:34) While we remain human beings by nature, Christ enables us to become like Him by our personal participation in His grace. That is why theosis is an eternal process, for God’s holiness is truly infinite.  Contrary to the self-centered individualism celebrated by our culture, Christ calls us to become persons united in humble love with Him, our fellow members of His Body, the Church, and our neighbors.   We become more beautiful living icons of God not in self-centered isolation or by defining ourselves as enemies over against anyone else but by growing in communion with Him and all who bear His image and likeness. 

 

The contrast between seeking fulfillment according to our passions and our Lord’s salvation is starker than the difference between night and day.  It is truly the difference been death and life, between sinking to the bottom of a dark sea and becoming resplendent with the radiant glory of God. Our Lord has conquered death, Hades, and the tomb in His glorious resurrection on the third day.  His divine glory has flooded even the darkest abyss, even the most tragic and painful pits of despair into which we can fall.  He has liberated us from slavery to the fear of death as the God-Man Who shares His eternal life with weak, fearful, anxious, and confused people like us.  When we call out to Him with faith from the depths of our hearts, as Peter did when he began to sink, His healing light will illumine our darkened souls.   

 

As St. Paul taught, “no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  No one and nothing else can have that place in our lives, for to ground our existence elsewhere is to commit idolatry.  No matter how virtuous or appealing any project or ideal of this world may appear, it cannot keep us from sinking under the weight of our own sins.  The darkness roots so deeply within us all, both personally and collectively, and nothing but the brilliant glory of the Lord can overcome it.  Whether we know it or not, we inevitably sink like stones into the abyss whenever we make the foundation of our lives anything or anyone else than the One Who has conquered death itself.  All good things have their place in God’s creation and we should despise none of them, but they lack the ability to transfigure us in the holiness of the New Adam.     

 

As St. Paul teaches, we are by no means self-made, self-sustaining, or self-defining.   Instead, “we are God’s fellow workers…God’s field, God’s building…God’s temple… God’s Spirit dwells in you.”  As members of His own Body, the Church, we are His living temple by the power of the Holy Spirit.  A temple is a place of sacrifice, and we must offer ourselves to Him, not to our vain imaginings about what can achieve, possess, or become by our willpower, intelligence, or other personal characteristics.   To avoid sinking like stones amidst the raging seas of our passions, we must mindfully ground ourselves on the God-Man.   If instead we surrender to our self-centered temptations, we will become just like Peter in being so focused on the wind and waves of worry and fear that we will turn our focus away from Christ.

 

Let us, then, refuse to entrust the meaning and purpose of our lives to anything or anyone other than the Lord.  There is no way to do that without cultivating the habits of daily prayer and mindful protection of our hearts from embracing thoughts that fuel our passions.  It is not a sin for any thought to pop into our minds, but we must not welcome tempting thoughts into our hearts. We must be spiritually alert to discern which thoughts have no place in God’s temple and will only lead us away from grounding ourselves on our one true foundation.  The next time that we become distracted from doing so and start sinking in the winds and waves of our passions, we must refocus our attention on Him, as Peter did when he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  He alone can raise up. We must never pretend that we are so strong spiritually that we can put off being mindful until we face a great crisis.  None of us is strong enough for that, and it is usually the case that subtle temptations are the most dangerous because we often do not recognize them.    We must attend to the health of our souls every day of our lives as we persist in the struggle to focus on “the one thing needful” of hearing and obeying the Word of God.

 

That is why we should all take a close look at ourselves this Dormition Fast and identify the habits of thought, word, and deed that keep us so distracted, confused, and weak that we easily sink under their weight. We need to build new habits to replace them, such as limiting our exposure to images, messages, and media that lead us to define ourselves, our hopes, and our fears in light of the passing things of this world.  We should begin and end each day firmly grounded in prayer and make frequent use of the Jesus Prayer when tempting thoughts, desires, and circumstances arise. We should take Confession on a regular basis so that we are delivered from bearing the weight of our sins. Instead of obsessing about matters beyond our control and what might happen in the future, we should devote ourselves to Christ in the present, both in our prayers and in serving our neighbors. 

 

            The path to transfiguration in holiness is open to us all and exemplified most fully by the Theotokos, the woman who was the first receive Christ as His virgin mother and then to follow Him as a whole, embodied person into the heavenly kingdom upon her death.  As we fast and ask for her prayers in this season, let us entrust ourselves so fully to her Son that we may join her in saying with every ounce of our being, “Behold the servant of the Lord.  Let it be to me according to your word.”  If we remain so grounded on our one true foundation, we will never drown in the sea of despair.