Thursday, August 29, 2024: Midnight Liturgy for St. Joseph the Hesychast and St. Gerasimos
GALATIANS 5:22-6:2
MATTHEW 11:27-30
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Today, on this night of grace, we, in the wake of the Dormition of Our Holy Lady, the Mother of God, we commemorate, we celebrate, we honor Saint Joseph the Hesychast, the great luminary and light of the world. We also honor the great Gerasimos – two great ascetics, two great men, two great lights of heaven.
Saint Joseph the Hesychast, laboring for over 40 years in the desert, learning, taking upon him the yoke of Christ. Saint Gerasimos, fasting for 40 days, imitating Christ. Saint Joseph, in his 40 years plus on the island of Mount Athos, he learned, through a meek and lowly heart, to hear the voice of God.
He subjugated his flesh, not in the pursuit of power, not in the pursuit of vain feats of asceticism, but rather asceticism to peel away the callousness of the heart, the callousness of vanity. This is experience, and it’s shown in a great moment in which he is an elder, and he is suffering from a very human experience, being frustrated with his disciples. Frustrated because his disciples are not hearing his word. Frustrated because his disciples are not obeying the experience that God had given him. And bearing the weight of that frustration, he recognizes his weakness. And yet, as a man, he’s ready to give up.
But those years of asceticism, those years of denying himself, precisely what allowed his ears to hear the sweet words, “Will you not endure all things for my love?” And in hearing that, Saint Joseph is cut to the quick, and he’s able, once again, to gather his strength and the love for his brethren, the love for his synodia, the love for his disciples, and more importantly, the love for Christ. And he’s able to endure, to find patience. And in doing so, he lived, and lived with men who became angels.
Saint Gerasimos, known for being a mighty exorcist, whose body, even now this day, his whole relic, his whole intact body, being oftentimes brought out once a year from his monastery, and people by the hundreds who are afflicted with mental illness and demonic possession line up, and just the very carrying over of his body causes demons to be exorcised from these people who are afflicted. This power over the demons was given to Saint Gerasimos after he fasted for 40 days straight. And like Saint Joseph, he fasted for 40 days, not out of a vanity, not out of seeking some sort of ascetic feat for people to praise him, but out of the very Gospel word that you heard today: “Learn of me.”
And so Saint Gerasimos learned of the Lord and he imitated Him, and subjugating himself, fasting for 40 days just like our Lord did, the Lord granted him power over the demons. Saint Gerasimos didn’t, like the Gospel says – another Gospel – he didn’t find the satisfaction in that demons were subject to him, rather he found satisfaction that his name was written in the Book of Life. That rather he was able to hear Christ, that he was able to commune with Christ.
And so we spend these next 40 minutes, whatever we have left of the Liturgy, in the grace of the early morning. We are in the city, we are weighed down with the cares of our life, but here you are. You’re taking the time out to seek the Lord while He may be found.
And in honoring that movement of the prayer of the night, the fourth watch in which the Lord comes, reveals himself to the disciples, with the prayers of Saint Gerasimos and Saint Joseph, may the Lord appear to us tonight, and soon He will in the chalice. And may we take upon ourselves His light yoke, may we learn from Him. The same way He came to Peter walking on the waters, may He come to each one of you tonight, walking on the waters of your mind and your concerns and your thoughts and your efforts. May you recognize Him, for He’s here in our midst.
Through the prayers of Saint Gerasimos and Saint Joseph, Lord Jesus Christ, bless us and have mercy on us. Amen.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024: Dormition
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
LUKE 10:38-42, 11:27-28
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Old Testament, we see the Lord arranging events and situations in such a way that the people of God, the children of Israel, would have various means of encouragement, various means of fortification. They would be given moments and events, and they would be given things to help them to do their work, to accomplish the purpose in which God created that nation, that nation which survives and exists and thrives today within the Orthodox Church, the nation of Israel. So one of the things and one of the moments that the Lord gave his people was the Holy Ark.
The Holy Ark was the place in which not only did the glory of God rest upon, but the Holy Ark also contained in it certain moments and things to remind us, to remind them of the history of salvation, of God’s faithfulness – things such as the budding rod of Aaron, the Commandments. These were things that were laid within the Ark so that the Ark would be not only a symbol of God’s rest, His authority over His people in this world, but also of His call to His people to participate and to do shared work with Him.
It has always been such a thing. God had always desired that we would understand that the work that we are to do is not one of our own salvation, but one of our transformation, and there is a difference. God alone saves us, but the work of transfiguring ourselves into His image, the work of becoming like Him, like the hosts of heaven, this is something that we must participate in. We have to do our part.
Today we are commemorating Our Holy Lady, the falling asleep of Our Holy Lady, the Mother of God, her Dormition, and I offer to you this new Ark, the Mother of God and her falling asleep. She is the culmination of the work of God. She is the culmination of what it looks like to cooperate with God. She is the culmination and she is the battle cry of the people of God.
In the Mother of God we see all the moments of the history of Israel wrapped into one. We see in fact in her the whole reason why a historical nation of Israel even existed: Israel existed solely for the Mother of God to be brought forth, that a holy and pure vessel could be made in which God could rest. And so God no longer deigned to rest upon the carved chest of acacia wood and gold, but rather something so much more precious and pure. He deigned to rest inside the womb of the Holy Virgin Lady.
We see that the moments of history beyond just the commandments and beyond just the budding of the rod of Aaron, but we see in fact the whole of humanity and especially the fallen and broken nature of woman redeemed: Mary being the new Eve, Mary turning disobedience into obedience, Mary turning waywardness, the following of the lust of the flesh, to purity, to holiness, to chastity.
This is why she is the Ark and this is why she also, like the old Ark, is where we lead into battle. The Israelites would take the Ark and the Ark would lead them and they would fight against the various nations, against the sin of the nations, against the debauchery of the nations, against the impurity of the nations.
And so we too have the Mother of God as an Ark. She fights against the debauchery, the sin, the iniquity of the nations, the debauchery of the sin, the iniquity in us. She is the one who leads the way. We look to her and we see what it means for us to not only be transfigured, but to be victorious.
On this day of her falling asleep, we have the victory over death. She, being just like us, human, raised to a place in the heavens, more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim.
We don’t know what kind of end we will meet. We don’t know what kind of tragedy our loved ones or ourselves might face, but those who hold to the Mother of God and call on her will never be put to shame. And even in the most tragic events, those who look to her will find in their death, victory.
May we continue to honor her. May we continue to give thanks to God for giving us a living Ark. And in that Ark, may we place all of the moments of our histories, all the moments of our times of salvation and struggle.
May we place those moments like the tablets and like the budded rod in her. May we continue to place these things in the hands of our mother who loves us, cares for us, and has made a way for us. Through the prayers of our Holy Lady, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.
Monday, August 26, 2024: Apodosis of Transfiguration
1 CORINTHIANS 15:12-19
MATTHEW 21:18-22
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Glory to Jesus Christ.
Without the resurrection, the Apostle Paul tells us, we are the most pitiable of men. Because the life that we are called to live, not necessarily that we do live, but the life that we are called to live, is such that unless this promise is true, the life that we live in this life, in this world, in this time is in vain.
With all our struggles, with all our denials of vain pleasures, it seems pointless. And so, this need to have this guarantee planted firmly in our hearts, and to know and to rest in that there will be a resurrection, but is this possible? How are we truly to know?
Yes, we believe, and hopefully you do believe, that not only did Christ rise Lazarus from the dead, but Christ himself was risen from the dead by the Father. But even so, you can understand this intellectually, you can understand this if you wish, almost mystically. It still doesn’t give you that stamp of guarantee. What is it? How are you to know it?
In the Gospel today, the Lord speaks of the fig tree, and it says how He was hungry, He hungered. He went to the fig tree, went to take the fruit, and behold, there was only leaves. So, to understand this, you have to understand that when a fig tree bears leaves, it’s supposed to be in season. So to have leaves and no fruit is odd. It’s odd.
And so, he saw the leaves, and thus he expected the fruit and found no fruit. My sons and my daughters, the guarantee of the resurrection – it’s the tasting of that sweet fruit of repentance. You see, the repentance, if you’ve truly experienced it, you know that it’s like a mini resurrection. It’s a little taste of the resurrection. Because once someone has tasted repentance, true repentance, this is the key. Because many people, they think they repent. They think they know what repentance is. But they confuse repentance with just a moral, religious life. And so, like the fig tree, they have leaves but no fruit.
Like the fig tree, they have leaves but no fruit. So when the Master comes and he visits, there’s nothing for him to eat. You see, when you have true repentance, it doesn’t matter whether you are a prostitute or whether you are a virgin from birth.
True repentance is something that can even begin to transcend your own limitations. Something beyond just what you’ve done. Repentance brings you to this place where you begin to understand not just what you’ve done but who you are.
As a human being, as a daughter of Eve, as a son of Adam. Repentance brings you to a place where you begin to taste what God had always intended for us. And so in that tasting of the fruit of repentance, you know. You don’t just believe, quote unquote, like St. Nikolai would say. You know that the resurrection is true. Because you’ve experienced it.
And once you’ve experienced it, then you also know the satisfaction that the Master has with you. Because he’s come and he’s seen not just leaves, but he’s tasted of the fruit. And that fruit of repentance is sweet.
That fruit of repentance is something that without doubt, not only does it change you, not only does it satisfy you, but it can begin to change and satisfy others around you. We need this guarantee. It’s not something that you’re going to acquire through the reading of books. It’s not something that you’re going to acquire through, again, externals. It has to be something transformative. It has to be something that the Master can sink His teeth into.
That bite, that crush of Him getting the fruit that He desires. This is the one way for you to know if you have repentance.
And as I was saying yesterday, you must be tested. If you are to have that sweet fruit drawn from you, if you are to become that sweet fruit, you must be tested. So through the prayers of St. Maximus and St. Tikhon, may God help us to bear fruit. May God help us to bring that sweet fruit of repentance to our Master and to our Lord. May we be satisfied. And on that day, we would have the fullness and the full taste of the resurrection.
Sunday, August 25, 2024: St. Maximus the Confessor
1 CORINTHIANS 3:9-17
MATTHEW 14:22-34
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Gospel today, we see the Lord preparing his apostles for a great test. We see the Lord preparing the apostles for a great test, preparing them for this greater work: a greater work to go and to preach the Gospel to all the nations, this work to be the means by which the Heavenly Father would send his Son, and eventually the Son would bring forth the Spirit, and the Spirit empowering the apostles, the disciples, and the subsequent church to dismantle the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of the devil.
And we see in that dismantling of the kingdom of the devil and the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world, the fruit of that is that we are now ushered into the same type of life and experience, similar in spirit to that of the apostles, which is to be in communion, to be in right relationship with God, and to be aware of what our life is for; that our life is for this deep communion, this deep preparation. And so if this is the case, then we must be tested.
We must be tested. In the Gospel, we hear how the Lord sends his apostles forward, and he says to them to get into a boat. He stays behind and he dismisses the crowds, which was a difficult work, Jesus feeding at least 10,000 people – 5,000 the Gospel gives us, that’s just counting the men, that’s not counting the women and the children, so we knew it had to have been at least 10,000 people that Jesus fed. And so he tells the apostles to go on, he dismisses them, and he says, dismisses the people, he says to the disciples to go and to get into a boat, and he’ll meet them.
Now, it’s important to understand this one aspect, because Gennesaret, where they were headed, is also translated as the Gadarenes, and this is where the demoniac will be encountered, so although you may not realize it, but it’s implied in the Gospel, so they are getting into the boat, and they are going to do a very significant work: they’re going to see the Lord come against Satan directly, openly, explicitly, to cast out the demon from the demoniac.
Now, the Lord tells them to get into the boat, and it is in the boat that of course they encounter, as the Gospel says, great winds and the waves tossing them, they feared for their lives, and interestingly enough, they feared when they first see Christ, not knowing if He is a ghost or what He is. And I’m going to put the emphasis on this one aspect: that the Lord put them in the boat knowing what they were going to encounter. The Lord was bringing them to a great test, because in that testing, Peter had his faith revealed; he also had his lack of faith revealed.
In that testing, they knew that Christ, that Jesus was the Messiah, but they did not yet quite understand that the Messiah also meant that he would be God. In that testing, everything that they had been waiting for, not just as individual men, but as a nation, as a people, as Israelites, it was revealed to them in that testing, and this is what our life is, our life is a testing. And the Lord will bring you to a place of being tested, and this is important because for so many of us – it’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility – you’ve been raised, we have been raised in a culture, we have been raised even with a mindset, being Christian or not, that your life is meant to be convenient, to find the easiest way to something.
But this is not what our life is for, and in fact the problem with that is that we don’t realize that the trials and the temptations that come to us, they have to come to us, and so many times, we are failing these tests because they can come in the most odd ways and odd times, even in the temple of God, because remember, Christ is the one who sent them, Christ is the one who said, you go get in the boat, he didn’t tell them what they were going to encounter, he didn’t tell them about the waves and the storms, and he did not tell them about the demoniac, but he knew about all of it, because they need to be tested.
Our life, in the whole of our life, and when you are a Christian, you should understand this: the whole of your life is a testing. We fail our tests because we want rest unduly, we want comfort unduly, we want convenience unduly. “Unduly” meaning we haven’t earned it, we haven’t earned that rest, and you don’t realize that that rest is actually weakening you.
In the Epistle today, the Apostle Paul, he speaks about that foundation that’s laid, and that no other foundation can be laid upon it, if it’s laid in Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus being that foundation. And if a man does work, what will his work be, it will be tested. What did you build your house out of: wood, straw, precious stones, silver, gold? What is the work that’s happening, what is the temple?
This is your temple. I don’t just mean your body, I mean your whole being. We’re building a temple. This is a place in which God will be worshiped, and as Saint Paul says, if one defiles this temple, does he not know that he sins against God? This temple that you’re building, how are you building it? What are the stones, what are the materials that you’re using? Every day, every morning, every Liturgy, you should be asking yourself, not only how am I building, but what am I building with? Because it will be tested. It will be tested as if, and by fire.
Why fire? Because my sons and my daughters, you should understand this very clearly. When you look at fire, when you encounter fire, you engage fire, fire is a symbol, fire reveals to you the nature of God, the very nature of God is fire. Lo, our God is a consuming fire. When you look in the altar, and the icon there of the Mother of God, the unburnt bush – Moses was brought to the wilderness, God drove Moses out into the wilderness, and he was tested. And in that testing, he saw a bush, all aflame, but not consumed.
The fathers teach us that that bush, that unconsumed bush is a prefiguring of the Mother of God. Why is this important to testing? I’ll tell you why. Because the materials that aren’t consumed by that fire are materials of purity, preciousness. Why is gold important? Gold is important, and gold reveals to you the nature of the things of heaven: it’s precious, it’s hard to find, it’s noble, it conducts energy. What does a diamond speak to you of? A diamond is something first and foremost of coal, and then under immense pressure, it’s transfigured, and then that diamond becomes clear as glass, and it can cut glass, this is to be how you’re supposed to understand your spiritual life, this is what happens to you when you go through this testing, but if you don’t want to be crushed, and if you don’t want to be put through the fire and find, you will suffer loss.
The Mother of God, she is female nature, human nature, purified. Pure. Therefore, the fire does not consume her; therefore, the testing reveals to her, and to all of us, the dignity, the power, the beauty of what it means to be human. She is that second part of ultimate potentiality, Christ being the first part, being the new Adam, her being the new Eve.
But none of it you can understand, none of it you can experience, and none of it you can see without being tested. You must be tested, because the everyday testing of this life – someone told you something you don’t like, and in your pride, you get upset, you failed your test. You had a difficult time, you’re going through some sadness – instead of turning to God, instead of turning inward in the right way, you become depressed, you become obsessed with how much you’re losing, you become obsessed with yourself, you have failed that test. You’re not pure yet.
Someone tells you something you don’t like, and you obey, you’ve passed that test. If you’ve suffered, and instead of turning to something illicit, or something that is going to add more weight to you, you have passed the test. And repeat, repeat, repeat, until that final testing, when you face God, and you face Him without veil, there’s nothing hiding anymore. Pure fire, pure light.
Unless you have built this temple, not just with the right materials, but in the right way, you will suffer loss. But if you look to the Mother of God, and we see that her nature – we can participate in that. Through her prayers, through honoring her, we can begin to understand what it means to be a human, transfigured, or not.
Don’t run from your testing, it’s part of the problem, embrace it, face it, this is the cross. Our Lord was obedient even unto death, and He shows us, right, remember, Christ doesn’t die so you don’t have to, Christ didn’t die to take your place. Christ died to show you the way. You too must die, you too must bear this, you too must be tested.
O Most Holy Lady Theotokos, Virgin Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou gavest birth to the Savior of our souls. Help us to bear our testing.
Monday, August 19, 2024: Transfiguration
2 PETER 1:10-19
MATTHEW 17:1-9
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Christ reveals himself as God to the three disciples. And the three disciples believed that He was the Messiah. The three disciples had enough evidence and they had enough, you could say, time with Christ to understand that He was the Messiah. But they came to this realization at the Transfiguration which was very different. Because there’s believing in God and there’s knowing God – they’re not the same thing.
And the belief of God will lead one to great places. The belief in God can have a young child be inspired to do great things. The belief in God can have a young man or woman turn from their wayward ways and seek a life of goodness. The belief in God can bring convictions that can turn a person’s life around.
But knowing God is something different. Because with knowing God, there is a certain devastation that happens. Because the revelation of Christ on Mount Tabor… as the troparion says, it was revealed to the disciples as far as they could bear it. The glory of the Lord was something beyond their comprehending. And it made them feel small. It made them feel small.
There’s a reason why Peter, James, and John were taken. Peter, James, and John being the closest of the apostles to Christ, them being the closest, we can see throughout the Gospels that there is a certain assurance they have in His closeness: “We’ve been the Lord’s right hand. We’ve been the ones doing all the ministry with the Lord.” And they thought because they were doing the work, they thought because of their belief that they knew God. But it wasn’t really until the veil was lifted for them that they were undone.
Christ invited them to know Him. And in that space, the revelation of His crucifixion was made clear to them again. Again. And that light brought them to a place of smallness because they realized, “I’m the rock,” “We’re the sons of thunder,” all these things – and they were embarrassed. They were embarrassed.
And when you’ve had these experiences of grace with God, this is one of those painful feelings you have. There’s a sense of embarrassment. Because you spend so much time praying. You spend so much time reading, you spend so much time at services, and you say, “Yeah, I love you, God; I know you, God.” And then one of those days, not when you expected it, not when you’re having a nice Bible study with your coffee, not when you are preparing yourself for a long vigil, but rather in an unexpected time, Christ reveals himself to you.
And in that grace, in that ecstasy, you are undone, you are embarrassed, and you are small. Because you realize all these things that you offer to God, all these things that show Him, “I’m with you, God.” And in fact, really, it’s He’s the one who’s with you. He’s the one that’s drawn you. He’s the one that’s given you the blessing and the grace to see Him, to be with Him, to know Him.
And you’re tested. You’re tested in that moment because in that difficulty, the question is asked: Do you wish to know me further? And this is a great mystery, because again, as the troparion says, insofar as they could bear it. And what you will soon find is, there is a limit to your ability to experience God.
And this is a humbling and terrifying thing, but it’s wondrous and it’s beautiful, because from there, now you see a pathway that you can become like God. And this is what it means to know God, is to be like Him. And if you want to be like God, and if you want to know God, then you have to willingly give yourself over, just like God did.
The feast of the Transfiguration, we bring grapes to be blessed, we bring the fruit of the vine, and what else is the fruit of the vine but the thing that brings the blood of the Savior? This is why it’s blessed, and everything points back to His willing sacrifice. And so, in that light that makes us feel so small, we then begin to see what we really are, which we are grapes that are ready to be crushed, be made into the sweetest of wine, to be mingled with the blood of God, to willingly give ourselves in love.
Who is the greatest husband? It’s not the one who buys his wife a house and a ring. The greatest husband is the one who stands by his wife when she’s sick and dying. Who is the greatest wife? Not the one who dresses the best, has the best hair, but the one who gives of herself daily, sacrificing for her husband even though she’s in pain. Who is the greatest mother? The one who gives her very body and lifeblood for the joy of her children.
This is how we recognize love, and this is how we recognize Who God is. Through the crushing, through the sacrificing. And you will never know peace, and you will never know God, until you not only accept it, but you embrace it. This is what it means to know God. This is what it means to be like God. May God have mercy on us and may he continue to shine the light of Tabor on us. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Sunday, August 18, 2024: Forefeast of Transfiguration
1 CORINTHIANS 1:10-18
MATTHEW 14:14-22
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
I personally can appreciate Dave Ramsey. I can appreciate some sound theories around economics. I can appreciate some practical approaches to saving money and finding ways to have a good retirement plan. But the quote unquote economics of the kingdom doesn’t work like that. It works very differently. And when you’re a citizen of the kingdom, your currency and the way that you use your currency, they’re one and the same thing. You have to be aware of what the currency is and how to use it.
And so we, too often, and this is one of the problems – our tradition in America, even as Orthodox Christians, you know, I think one of the things is learning how to spit out the bones. There’s lots of good things about us being Americans, and there’s lots of things that we are seeing Christ baptize about our culture. But one of the things that I think is not baptizable, one of the things that I think are the bones that need to be spit out is: Churches are not businesses. And the spiritual life is not an investment plan. And when people approach churches like businesses and the spiritual life like investment plans, well, I’ll put it this way: I can tell. And if you invest yourself in the kingdom and you know the currency and how to use the currency, you too will be able to tell the difference when someone is appropriating the church as if it is a business.
And it may seem like it works, there could be a building filled with people, and the person who’s approaching spiritual life, like it’s an investment plan, they may have all the things that look good in the world, but they lack the real currency of the Kingdom. So, we have to understand that the currency of the Kingdom, and the way that you use that currency, it’s all based upon one simple thing. It’s a paradox: If you want richness in the kingdom, you have to give away what you have.
The apostles were faced with this dilemma, a practical dilemma, an economic dilemma. They had thousands of people there with them, thousands, not just five, that’s just the men. So you could say there might have been at least 10,000 there. So at least 10,000 people are faced with no food and they’re in a place where there isn’t any restaurants, there’s no town, it’s a lonely place. And so they’re faced with a very practical and economic problem. And what are they to do?
Well the Lord says to them, You feed them. You give them something to eat. So the disciples are looking to the Lord and saying, “Okay Lord, what are you going to do?” But again, I reiterate to you, because this is the point today, this is the Gospel today, and this is what you’re partaking of today when you take Holy Communion, is the word the Lord is saying to you: That you need to give the masses something to eat. We too oftentimes are thinking that we invest certain things and invest in a certain way and God’s gonna work it out. But the reality is that God has invested in you for you to work things out for others. That’s one of the economic ways of the kingdom.
If you don’t learn to give, you’re never really gonna get. If you don’t learn to give mercy, you’re not gonna get mercy. If you don’t learn to be generous with others, don’t expect generosity from God. And that principle applies to whatever you’re dealing with. Because we’re the body of Christ. I don’t remember when it was, maybe it was last week, I can’t remember, but I was speaking to you guys about being immortals. What that means. Well, this is a big part of that.
See, our problem is we think that the church is kind of like a business. It’s our own little niche, kind of come in and get what we want, do our thing, and then kind of go out and go scattered abroad again. But the problem with that is, that’s not how it works. We’re the body of Christ, literally. So the body of Christ is supposed to carry out the work of the Christ in the world. In the Gospel it says that the Lord gave it to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people, and they were all satisfied.
The world lacks satisfaction not because God is hiding, not because Christ is numb, not because the powers that be are so strong. The world is not satisfied because His body, his disciples, they don’t know how the kingdom works. We wanna give, excuse me, we wanna take but we don’t wanna give.
Safety is not the 11th Commandment. If safety and security was a virtue, then wouldn’t that have been the 11th Commandment? Wouldn’t that have been one of the great Beatitudes? The Lord said, “Verily I tell you, make sure that you’ve got all your ducks in a row and that everything is perfect and fine, and I’ll be very pleased with you, you’ll have no problems and you’ll go to heaven. The end.” No.
We are supposed to be more than conquerors, as Saint Paul says. And so, where is our courage? Where is our generosity? Where is our vision? Where is the reality of who we are supposed to be? Well, this is why we partake of the sacraments. This is why we partake and receive the energies of God, even now in the temple. Even now in the temple, the energies of God are penetrating and permeating your very being. And if you participate with those energies, if you say, “I don’t want to think about what’s for lunch. I don’t want to think about, I got to mow the lawn today.” But you actually bring your mind to focus here, now, then you’ll participate in those very energies. Even if you’re not baptized, you can participate on that level.
We have good meat and we have good drink, my brothers and my sisters, my sons and my daughters, but it rots and it spoils because we’re not giving it out. Yes, we preserve the tradition, but we don’t conserve. We’re not conservatives, we’re preservatives. Right? We don’t have a fear of what we’ve been given is gonna go away. When we entertain that idea, then it does go away.
It’s like manna. What is it? You know, manna? Do you remember when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, the Hebrews? They were complaining that God wasn’t providing for them and he sent them manna. Which means “What is it?” And the Lord said, “If you store up that manna more than the day needed, it will spoil, it will rot.” And there’s people who did. They said, “Well, I know God said this, but I’m gonna hedge my bets. I’m gonna make sure I got some for next week.” And it went bad. And that is why for so many of us, we find these seasons in which our faith fails us, because we’ve just kind of put it in the jar, put it on the shelf, and I’ll come back to you when I need you.
But if you want that faith to be fresh, if you wanna have some progress, quote unquote, in your life, you’ve gotta move out a little bit. And you gotta move out by giving, by generosity. And I’m not just talking about alms to the guy on the side of the road, because that’s all good and dandy, but I’m talking about, look at the nature of your conversations. Look at the nature of your interactions.
Every single one of us here have a plethora of loved ones, family members, co-workers, not even that they’re not Orthodox, but they don’t know God. They have no hope in their life. They have no wisdom. They have no light. They have no joy. They may be entertained. They may be, quote unquote, happy. They may have a lot of money, but they don’t have wisdom. They don’t have joy. They don’t have light. And all the while, a member, an actual member of the body of Christ is sitting next to them, talking to them on the phone, visiting with them. But that member isn’t communicating what they’ve been given.
Meditate on what I say and the Holy Spirit will show you, because I cannot give you some instruction manual. The only thing I can tell you is what the Lord says: That you give them something to eat.
Through the prayers of Saint Mary of Egypt, Lord Jesus Christ our God, help us to feed the masses. Amen.
Saturday, August 17, 2024: Seven Holy Sleepers, St. George the Pilgrim
ROMANS 13:1-10
MATTHEW 12:30-37
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Man is in the image of God made, excuse me, made and formed in the image of God. Not because God has two hands and two feet and two eyes and a nose and a beard, but because God is Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And man is made in the image of God because of the tripartite nature of his soul. The soul having these three parts or aspects to it. And the soul is informed and guided ultimately by the spirit, that inner part of man that goes beyond the kind of emotions and discursive faculty – it goes beyond our thinking. This thing that comes, you know, what we say from the nous, the core of man.
This is important because this precious essence, the core of man, that spirit, and the spirit that’s been given to a man has tended well when it’s ushered and guided into the commandments of God and it’s been given the nourishment that it needs to be made into that likeness of God. Then what you have is a small god, lowercase G. God, the Holy Trinity, is Uncreated. There is nothing and no one who can compare it to the living God, the Holy Trinity. But man is made in the image of God. Every man is given this aspect, this tripartite soul. Now, all men are given to be made into the image of God, but not all men will attain the likeness of God. The likeness of God.
And so it is in attaining the likeness of God that we are judged whether we are sons and daughters of the Most High or not. And so the condemnation that comes to us is primarily one of: Are we like God? Do we reflect the wisdom, the benevolence of the Father? Do we reflect the wisdom, the benevolence of the Son? Do we reflect the wisdom, the benevolence of the Spirit?
And the Spirit in particular is important because the Spirit is given to man for the very purpose of him attaining likeness. Before Pentecost, every man bears the image of the Spirit. But truly only those who were of the nation of Israel and those who were kind of orbiting the nation were able to attain a certain greater degree of likeness. But once the Holy Spirit came and was poured out on all flesh, fulfilling the prophecy of Joel, man began to become able to attain the likeness in a whole new way. And that likeness primarily is in the ability to accept the Gospel: that God came into the flesh, the second person of the Holy Trinity came into the flesh, incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, as a baby in a manger, born of a virgin, raised and grew in wisdom and stature, preached the wisdom and the good news of the kingdom of heaven, was crucified and died and rose again.
That message is really only received and able to be received by someone who’s been informed by the Spirit. And so if someone hears this word but rejects it, if they hear the word from the Spirit, the Spirit being the one that informs and allows us to accept such an incredible word, such an incredible… I even dare say this is the problem. Because without the Spirit it can just seem like a myth. But when the Spirit comes, your eyes are open and you know it’s the truest thing ever.
And when the Spirit enlightens a man and leads him to this place of being able to accept the Gospel, that God has come to make us little gods, to make us like Him, to make us and allow us to be able to be in that likeness of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, then if a man rejects that, woe unto them. Because there is no escape. There is no excuse. There is no pleading of ignorance. Why? Because the very thing at the core of you testifies to the truth. It testifies that it’s heard this word and it was able to receive it, but for whatever purpose it rejected it.
This is why when the Lord says to us, “Anything spoken of the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anything, any blasphemy, any word against the Spirit, that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be, cannot be forgiven.” Because the Spirit is expressly given for the purpose of us being able to accept the word of the Son of Man coming. Many people without the Spirit, many people prior to Pentecost, in ignorance, how could they understand, how could they receive? Not so unlike the Ethiopian eunuch, who, although reading the Scriptures, was unable to understand what was given to him, and then Philip comes to him and instructs him. In the same way, the Holy Spirit comes and instructs every man who is seeking.
But if that man is seeking with wrong motivations, if that man is seeking in a spirit of arrogance, if a man is seeking in a sense of resistance, this is this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. So let us understand this because our own conscience ultimately will judge us. And I encourage all of you with this: not only is the Gospel continually being preached to us, every Liturgy, every time you read the Gospel, every time you read the lives of the saints, every time you look upon an icon, every time you say your prayers, the Gospel’s being preached to you and hopefully you’re receiving that Gospel. But we should pay close attention because the question is, in our hearts, are we bearing that fruit? Do we show evidence that we have received that Gospel and that the likeness of God is within us?
And this is why our words are so important. God knows that we are sinners. God knows that we are often short-minded, but God also knows the great grace and gift he’s given us of the Spirit, so that we can be expressly made in his likeness, not just His image. And so how are we to gauge these things? How are we to know if we are honoring the Spirit? Because we watch our words. Because it is out of the mouth that the abundance of the heart speaks. We watch: what does come out of me? Is what comes out of me honoring God? When I speak, am I expressing the benevolence and the wisdom of the Father? Am I expressing the benevolence and the wisdom of the Son? Am I expressing the benevolence and the wisdom of the Spirit? Or am I speaking from my own source, my own wisdom, my own folly? For the children of God, this should never be said.
So I encourage all of you, and I encourage myself, may we be aware of the great gift that God’s given us. May we never sleep unto that gift. May we always be alive and awakened because God’s called us to be made, not simply in His image, but in His likeness. And as St. Athanasius said, God became man so that man can become god. Let us with fear and trembling never grieve the Spirit and may every word of our mouth, the meditations of our heart be well pleasing unto this great Spirit that’s come to bring us comfort. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024: Procession of the Cross; Lesser Blessing of the Water
1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-24
JOHN 19:6-11; 13-20; 25-28; 30-35
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Today, on this day of the Procession of the Cross, historically this feast is given at a time in which the empire would experience outbreaks of certain diseases and sickness. And so the Church in her wisdom, being guided by the Holy Spirit, inaugurated this, the Procession of the Cross: this feast, that the cross would go out, it would be brought throughout the whole empire. In that procession, prayers would be offered, and then followed the blessing of the water to offer the healing, sanctification of the people against diseases and ultimately against sin.
And this feast is an important feast even still for us because it reminds us of this connection between sins and the disease of the body. Sins of the tongue, sins of the eyes, sins of the mind, and the way that those sins begin to cause disease in the body. And this connection is really important for us because the reality is that in the times that we live, generation, we’ve all been raised with this idea, this thought that sin is something just of, you know, an exclusively kind of moral character. But the reality is that sin affects even our bodies and in fact oftentimes, if you begin to pay attention sin will affect your body first and foremost.
So what are we to do? How do we deal with sin? Sin isn’t just simply “I did a bad thing” but the brokenness and the disease in my body, yes, caused by moral problems, but nevertheless, where are we to find healing? We find healing in the cross. We find healing in the cross because we will often see that so many of the diseases that ail our body, our diseases, actually have sinned.
If we were to look at the various gastronomical diseases, right? Where are they acute? Where are they finding their source of the pain? Through gluttony. If we think about various heart diseases and various diseases of the nervous system, where do these come from? Stress. Where does the stress come from? It comes from putting an emphasis on worldly things and not having an emphasis on the things of God. Yes, monastics and elders do find themselves getting sick, but it’s a rare thing actually. It’s a rare thing that they’re sick with the same types of sicknesses that we are often afflicted with in the world. Different types of sicknesses afflict them. And interestingly enough, when a sickness afflicts an elder, think of St. Paisios with his cancer, think of St. Porphyrios with his blindness and his many illnesses that he endured, their illnesses actually become a means of their deepening of prayer.
And this is the power and the mystery of the cross. And that when we begin to embrace the cross, we begin to say no to ourselves in our food. We begin to say no to ourselves in our vainglory, in our vanity, and feeling that we need to have everything secure and perfect and thereby letting that go, we begin to lose the stress that so quickly weighs down our hearts, our nervous systems.
We’re living in the measure of peace and that peace is the presence of God, and that presence of God then doesn’t make our problems go away, but instead of turning to food or to stress or to anger or to judgment or to avarice, to all the various ways that we try to offload the stress, we begin to give those things to God, and then lo and behold, not only do we have peace in our hearts, but our organs, our blood, all these things begin to take on a different character. And so when we do experience discomfort, that discomfort then becomes a cross which we bear and in which we begin to receive grace versus something that we lament, something we complain about, and therefore adding even more problems to the system.
When we bear the cross, when we pick up our cross and put that forward, when we lead with the cross, when we lead with forgiveness, when we lead with patience, when we lead with discipline, saying no to ourselves, when we lead with humility, not only our minds, but our bodies become healed. Healing, my brothers, my sisters, to be clear, is not in the avoidance of pain, because you will have pain, and you will have sickness in your body to the grave.
What I’m talking about is you begin to feel grace. Grace no longer just becomes an idea or a moment in which God got you off the hook. That’s actually not grace, not quite yet. You begin to actually feel it in your body. You begin to do things that you could not do before. You begin to serve, you begin to love, you begin to experience the things of God without complaint and without obligation and guilt but with joy. That is a sure sign and evidence of grace in your life. And only it comes when you put the cross forward in your life. So through the prayers of Saint Porphyrios, Paisios, and other great ascetics, may we learn to bear these crosses and in doing so receive the grace of God not just in our hearts but in our very bodies.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024: St. Joseph of Arimathea
1 CORINTHIANS 10:12-22
MATTHEW 16:20-24
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Beware, lest thinking you stand, you fall.
In the Gospel today, we see the Lord charging his disciples strictly, telling them to make no mention of what is to come. Because in due time, all that needs to be will happen, and the needful thing is upon them. And so next we see… the Apostle Peter taking the Lord, it says, taking him – taking him aside and saying, “God forbid, this will never be.” The Lord sternly rebukes him.
How should we understand this? It’s very important because if you wish to discern and truly understand what happens and what happened there, and to do so in such a way that you may hear the words of the Apostle Paul in the Epistle today, about taking care lest thinking you stand, you fall.
Understand “satan” not as a – simply, some horned being running around mischievously, but this spirit in which the idol of self becomes the ultimate good. Because when the Lord rebukes Peter and says, “Satan get behind me. You care not for the things of God but for the things of men,” He’s rebuking Peter, yes, He is rebuking that spirit which is influencing him and that spirit that would say, “No, no, no, Lord, you’ll never do that because you’re my Messiah. You’re here to fulfill the needs and the desires and wishes of my people, which is really an extension of me.”
See, everything at that time was about the self, me. This is what Peter’s motivation was. Peter’s motivation, veiled in love for the Lord. The Lord discerns truly, it wasn’t about the things of God, but rather Peter’s own fear of losing his teacher, Peter’s own fear of the Messiah not being truly what he thought it was, Peter’s own fear of his whole world being lost.
So He says, get behind me, Satan. Because Satan rebels, why? Because Satan believes his kingdom is better than God’s. Satan believes that his understanding and his insight is better than God’s. Satan believes ultimately that the fullness of self is found in him, self apart from God. And so Peter is now influenced by that same spirit, that very same spirit which is idolatry.
When we take the self, when we take our desires, when we take the things that even seemingly seem good and we say, “No this is actually the way things need to be, Lord,” we are in fact being motivated, we are in fact operating in a satanic spirit, a spirit which fundamentally takes the good, separates it from God and now you have an idol.
Because that satanic spirit will take religion and separate it from the One Who is to be worshiped, and now you have an idol. That satanic spirit will take morality, separate it from the One Who makes us moral, and now you have an idol. That satanic spirit will take even what you perceive to be your devotion, separate it from the One you’re to be devoted to, and now it becomes about however you wanna fashion yourself. Good, moral, wise, whatever you think you want to be when it is apart from God – and here’s the thing – God’s desires, God’s plan, God’s kingdom, it is satanic and it always leads to idolatry, and this is what the Lord is rebuking Peter about.
Because God’s kingdom is sacrifice. God’s kingdom is love. And the love of God that is found in His kingdom is always higher and above the understanding in which we, and ultimately obviously Satan, has. Because God’s love is revealed precisely in the foolishness of the cross. And the willingness to be poured out for the sake of others, purely for the sake of love. No ulterior motive.
The Holy Trinity is complete within Themselves. They have no need. They have absolutely no need. Every other creature is dependent. Every other creature has a need. The Holy Trinity alone is uncreated.
And this is again going back to the Epistle: Beware, thinking you stand, lest you fall. When we lose sight of our need, that’s where the ego begins to claw and to scratch and to find all kinds of ways to survive. And that survival is always satanic. It’s only in the death of self, truly, that you can become connected with God. Why? Because God is love. And the only way to truly experience and understand love is to see the other.
And this is the beginning of being in the light of the Trinity. To truly love for the sake of the other, not because they are connected to or representing you. Hence what happened to Peter, and hence the Lord’s strong rebuke for his temptation of turning his relationship to the Lord into an idol.
We should always be prepared to sacrifice. So today we are commemorating St. Joseph of Arimathea who took his riches, his wealth, his means and his resources. And for no other reason than devotion and love offered them to the Lord unseen by men. This is an example for us. This is how we’re to avoid this satanic influence. To find those places where we can offer for God, for the other, unseen. For God, for the other, if it was possible, unrelated to our own desires and our own apprehension of self. Find the place in which you may offer your resources. Find the place in which you can offer a tomb for the body of the Lord to be laid.
Through the prayers of Saint Joseph of Arimathea, Lord Jesus Christ, keep us from the idol of self and satanic pride.