Monday, December 30, 2024: St. Dionysios of Zakynthos and Prophet Daniel
2 TIMOTHY 2:20-26
MARK 9:42-10:1
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
What an incredible litany the Lord delivers, telling us this radical way of being. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your feet rush you to sin, better that you enter into heaven lame, than walking stridently into hell. The fire is not quenched, and the worm dieth not.
The fire is not quenched, He says, over and over again in this Gospel. He comes to this place where He says, “For every sacrifice will be seasoned with fire.” What does He mean? He goes on to say, salt. “Everything must be seasoned with salt.”
What does He mean? How is it that we are to have salt in ourselves, peace with others? What is this fire? Well, there are many things that we can see. For in the Spirit, there isn’t simply one understanding.
A multitude of things come to a single understanding, like the facet of a brilliant diamond. There’s many facets that make up the whole diamond. But in this case, we can see that the living hell that someone endures in this world, the living hell that comes from seeing the light of God and recognizing that even within yourself, the passions are roaring and raging like a fire.
What are we to do? How are we to understand this? Today, we are commemorating St. Dionysios, this great light. And this great light, if you know his story, you begin to understand this riddle. It begins to become unraveled.
Because St. Dionysios wanted simplicity. He wanted a simple, quiet life. He didn’t want the episcopacy. He didn’t want to be a bishop. He didn’t want to do anything. He just wanted to be with God, simply.
Because those who want to be with God, they understand that they must live simply to whatever degree that is in their life. And so, St. Dionysios, like all those who love God, desired a greater measure of simplicity. And so, he ran from all the accolades of service to the Church, all these things.
And yet, he finds himself in the mountains, living quietly. And what happens? A man runs in one night, begging for refuge. Because this man had just murdered someone. St. Dionysios, being a good Christian, a good hierarch, a good clergyman, he offers him refuge. But the thing is, in confessing the man and tending to the man, he realizes, oh, this man has murdered my very own brother. His very own flesh and blood.
So, St. Dionysios immediately begins to feel the fire of hell within him. Can you imagine? The temptation. The temptation to think, look at God’s providence. He’s brought this murderer of my brother to my very doorstep, that I may exact vengeance. Look how good God is. He’s brought this man here so that I can bring him to justice.
You see, St. Dionysios, I’m sure, understood. He didn’t need to think of various ways of torturing and inflicting violence on the man. All he had to think of, look, I can be the hero now. I can avenge my brother and bring him to justice. No. He quenched that fire.
Whatever grace was in him, he held to it and allowed that darkness to quickly be snuffed out. And instead of trying to be the hero, he says, here, let me comfort you, you murderer. Let me soothe you, let me put oil and wine on your wounds.
He confesses the man, he gives him shelter, gives him rest. And then his family comes looking for the very man who killed his brother. And what does St. Dionysios do? He hides him. He covers him. St. Dionysios didn’t simply cover the man, but he smothered the fire within him. And the same way you put out the fire with a blanket, he smothered that fire of hell within him.
By covering that very man, that fire went out. We’re brought to another section of the Gospel. Can you imagine? What would have happened? What kind of barbarous, murderous feast would have been in that monastery? If he had let go of that tension for just one second.
You see, this is the thing that people never understand about holy people. They think that they’re just served their holiness on a platter and eating it like candy, like fast food. St. Dionysios, he had to hold to that tension every millisecond.
Because if he didn’t watch it, that raging fire would have came up just like that. And like a wildfire in California, it can move faster than you realize. So many times people from California, so many times the reason why people die of forest fires and these wildfires is because they think, “Oh, it’s way over there, no problem.”
It happens in an instant and that fire overtakes you. And so St. Dionysios, his intensity to hold to the light within him, to not let that fire rage, to not let hell consume him, but it did season him. There was enough of that hellfire there for him to keep attention, to say, “I must keep focused. I must keep my eyes on Christ. I must hold to this commandment. I must hold to this inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
And he did. And in doing so, consider this. He kept that fire from igniting in the rest of his brother and his family.
Can you imagine what would have happened if he said, the man is here? Do you think that they would have brought the man to the magistrate? Do you think they would have brought him to justice? No, they would have torn him limb from limb, literally in that monastery and just completely desanctified that place with their murder. So much more than just a simple moral act, he kept hell from manifesting itself then and there.
The salt of the Holy Spirit, the sting of sanctity, the very thing that preserves us. This is what was abounding in that man. In doing so, he kept peace with his brethren.
He allowed them to maintain a measure of peace. And he plucked one soul from hell. Hell is filled with countless numbers of souls, and every single one of them infinitely precious.
St. Daniel, the great prophet, no different. When we think of the Babylonian exile, do you think that the Babylonians came with soft furs and gilded carts and movers to help the Jews pack up their belongings and make their way to Babylon? Can you imagine being a refugee in that time? Can you imagine the atrocities that Daniel saw, being perpetrated upon his brothers and his sisters in the flesh, being carried off in chains to a foreign land? Can you imagine? Can you imagine the embarrassment, the humiliation of being in the palace of the very people, the very man that conquered your people and brought such shame? Can you imagine being pulled from your people, no longer being able to share in the dignity of their shame, and now you are robed in fine clothes and you’re given dainties while your brethren are starving and slaving? Can you imagine the shame? And yet the Prophet Daniel, he maintained that light. He refused to eat the dainties of the king.
Yes, every sacrifice will be seasoned with fire. God has no need of what we think the sacrifice is. It doesn’t matter how talented you think you are. It doesn’t matter how holy, how smart, how gifted you think you are. The real gift, the real sacrifice is the sting, the offering of yourself in the likeness of Him.
That sacrifice, you, I, we must be seasoned with this fire. But that fire is the very light of God. Because in that fire, like the prophet Daniel, like St. Dionysios, not only are we saved, not only are we preserved, but those around us, they will be too.
Through the prayers of the prophet Daniel and the holy hierarch St. Dionysios, Lord Jesus Christ, help us to stay salty. Amen.
Sunday, December 29, 2024: Sunday of the Holy Forefathers
COLOSSIANS 3:4-11
LUKE 14:16-24
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Christ is in our midst.
Today we begin the week where we commemorate the holy forefathers and righteous forefathers of faith, ancestors of God, in preparation for the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And on this day especially I want to point to our Father in the faith, Abraham, the great patriarch of faith. I want to point to him because there’s so much in him that manifests this thing that I’ve been speaking to all of you about in regards to culture. The highest culture, the metaculture of the Church.
This culture of the Church which transcends nationality, generation, and time. This is established actually in our Father, Abraham. Abraham encompasses and embodies everything that it means to be a Christian.
Abraham has this unique title of being called a friend of God. Abraham walked with God, and God walked with Abraham, and Abraham was a friend to God. And being a friend to God is not something that many of us think about.
Many of us think about how we want God to do something for us, or how maybe we want to do something in the name of God to get a good name. But very few of us think about what it means to be a friend of God. Abraham demonstrates to us the things that make a friend to God, the things that make someone attractive to God.
What are these things? Well, the first thing is Abraham offered intercession. Abraham interceded on behalf of Lot and his family. If you recall that God was tired of the stench rising up in Sodom, and so He had plans to destroy Sodom.
And so He visited Abraham, and He made clear his plans. And so, He says, I will destroy Sodom. Now, it’s important for us to remember that Lot lived in Sodom, and Lot was the nephew of Abraham. And Lot actually did not treat his uncle well. Lot preferred himself over his own older uncle, whom he should have respected, not only just as a brother, but as a father. But nevertheless, in spite of the fact of the way that Lot treated Abraham, Lot was still preserved because of Abraham’s intercession.
Abraham begged God to spare Sodom for the sake of the righteous. And the only righteous to be found in Sodom was his own nephew. And so, if you remember in Genesis, how Abraham and the Lord went back and forth, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, all the way down. “Yeah, if I can find five righteous men, I’ll spare Sodom.” But God couldn’t even find five. There was only the one, and that was Lot.
But Lot was still preserved and saved. Why? Because of the intercession of Abraham. And so this is the first thing we see. We see that those who intercede on the behalf of others, they are precious to God. Interceding for others, standing in the gap for others, standing up for others, going to God for the sake of others. This is what makes God’s heart leap.
This is what allows someone to become near and dear to God. This is the first step in becoming a friend to God. It was also in this moment of seeking intercession that we see something second and just as valuable, and that’s hospitality.
Hospitality is what Abraham offered God, the Holy Trinity, when there’s this visitation. Abraham, who was a nomad, living as a shepherd with his flock and his servants, his wife, his children. He says to his wife, Sarai, quickly, go prepare a meal.
So we should understand something, there’s no McDonald’s, there’s no Chick-fil-A, there’s no fast food. So to go prepare a meal was in itself a heavy task. One of the things about hospitality that we don’t understand now is that the effort, the sacrifice that’s put in is why the hospitality is so important.
For Sarai to go and to round up the servants and to slaughter or to gather whatever meat was salted, there was a whole process for her to lay out hospitality for their visitor. And in that sacrifice, we see something very important. We see this thing of honor, this thing of love.
This is something that also made Abraham dear to God. In Abraham, we see the friend of God, and also in Abraham we see what it means to be a Christian. Christians intercede for others and they offer hospitality.
True hospitality has to be given sacrifice. My sons and my daughters, my brothers and my sisters. But that sacrifice, this is what manifests love. Hospitality isn’t something that we just offer to our friends, to our loved ones during holidays. Hospitality should be something that we offer to those who are in need. This is why we’re to be the body of Christ.
We’re to do the work of God in the world that He would be doing. We are to be His hands and his feet, helping and going where no one else helps and goes. We’re to be His eyes, to see where those who are not being helped, to bear witness to their pain, to be with them.
When we do these things, we are the salt of the earth. When we do these things, others will know that God is real and that He’s with us. And when we do these things, we can become friends of God.
On this day, we commemorate the Holy Forefathers, especially Father Abraham. I encourage all of you to consider these words. Consider these words of intercession and hospitality.
Let us be Christians, not simply by title and name. Let’s be Christians by actually how we live. How we season our lives. How we sacrifice. How we let everything go to the side for the sake of love.
Through the prayers of our Father Abraham, may the Lord grant us these gifts of intercession and hospitality.
Sunday, December 22, 2024: Conception of the Theotokos
GALATIANS 4:22-31
LUKE 8:16-21
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
Today, in the Church, we are recognizing and commemorating the conception of St. Anna and Joachim, Anna and Joachim, Joachim and Anna, this holy righteous couple, these faithful people who were spiritual, who loved God, who kept the commandments of God. And their keeping of the commandments was revealed, the depth of their hearts keeping the commandments were revealed precisely in the wound of them being barren for many years.
By them not having children, by them not being able to have the joy, by bearing this weight, they revealed the true depth of their obedience to God. It’s very easy to obey God when everything is as it should be. It’s very difficult to obey God, to love God when you’re facing something as difficult as the inability of having a child.
Interestingly enough, we’re also commemorating St. Hannah, the prophetess Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel. And Hannah, like Anna, was also afflicted with barrenness, an inability to bear a child. And Hannah, like Anna, her deep love for God is revealed by the fact that instead of taking out on those around her, instead of turning to despair and self-destruction, Hannah found herself at the temple giving offering, not just of what was required of her by the law, but giving an offering of her heart, crying out to God, so much so that the priest Eli, he thinks that she’s drunk.
She’s so stricken with grief. And this grief is the offering that God accepted, far and above whatever grain, whatever oil she brought to the temple. This was the offering that God desired, was her broken heart.
It’s very difficult for us to imagine, until it happens to us, this strength that comes to you when you make the choice to turn to God in your desperate hour instead of turning away from Him. And many of us here could even say, well, thank God. Thank God He spared me such tragedy.
In the Gospel today, the Lord is preaching in the synagogue. And his stepbrothers and his Holy Mother have come. The people have made this aware to Jesus. What does He say? He says, those who are my mothers and brothers, they’re the ones who hear the word of God and do it.
Why do we love children? Well, we look at children and we see hope. We see the things of our life being carried on. We perhaps see the things that we loved about our father and our mother who passed on. Perhaps we see the thing we loved about our grandparents, our great-grandparents. The things we see about our siblings.
We see life being carried on and it gives us hope. This is why we love children. And so the thing that is even more shocking than the fact that Anna and Hannah could come to God, not with bitterness, but with hope and faith.
That in fact, when their prayers were answered and they were given children, what was the very thing that they did? They turned right around and gave the children back to God. For many of you, this will be hard to understand because you’re too young or your children are too young perhaps, or you’re maybe even past that age. But I will tell you, this is one of the most painful things about someone who’s going to lose a child.
It’s the thought of so many memories, so much potential. Hannaa and Anna had those same feelings. Joachim and Anna, they would not see the Theotokos. They would not see Holy Mary take her, you know, her first walk to the well with the other women in the village. They would not see her betrothed. They would not see these things.
Hannah, she would not see her son Samuel grow into the man, strong, fit. Maybe he’d be a blacksmith. Maybe he would be a cobbler. Who knows? She wouldn’t know because she gave him back to God, bringing him to a tender young age to the temple for the service of God. And the same with the Holy Virgin Mary being brought to a young age. What faith Hannah and Anna had.
It’s important that we remember that this theme of giving up one’s children, it starts all the way from the beginning. Think about Abraham. Think about the call for him to give up his only son.
And of course, I’m sure we’re all making the connection now. The connection being that this is how God feels. That this is the experience of God and God is offering us to have fellowship with him.
That in that fellowship of giving up the most precious thing, not only will we find life, but we’ll know life on the deepest level. This is salvation. Joachim and Anna, Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel, they were able to find this faith.
Here’s the secret; here’s your little talking point to take away from the homily: it was in their grief. Something happened that’s not written in the book. In that grief, by not turning to self-destruction, by not turning to despair, by not giving to self-pity, but turning in faith to God, they were given a powerful faith, a faith that’s eternal, a faith that all of your belief, all of your faith is built upon. Every single one of you sitting here, your faith is built upon that very faith that they found in those dark moments.
Because if Joachim and Anna did not have the faith to give the Mother of God over, where would we be? Moreover, if Hannah did not have the faith to give over the prophet Samuel to be the judge, what would have happened to the children of Israel? If Abraham hadn’t given over Isaac, what would have happened? Where would we be? So now I encourage all of you, think beyond yourself when you’re hurting. Think beyond yourself, because what will God do with your grief? How will God not only strengthen you and your spouse, how will God strengthen the community? How will God strengthen others?
Who is My mother? Who are My brothers? Those who hear the word of God and do it. You can’t out-give God. He alone holds the keys to life and death. You can only find life in His hand. And so when we go looking for life in any other place, you are giving away the very thing. You’re robbing yourself and you’re robbing others from having the great gift of your faith. The great gift of your grief, purified through faith. Through the prayers of Saints Joachim and Anna and the Prophetess Hannah, Lord Jesus Christ, help us to have purified faith.
Friday, December 20, 2024: St. Ambrose of Milan
1 TIMOTHY 3:1-13
LUKE 21:28-33
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
Today we are commemorating a great light in the church, the great bishop, St. Ambrose of Milan. St. Ambrose, who from his early youth, from his being a child, the portents of God rested upon him. A swarm of bees coming to his very lips, producing honey, foretelling that the words of Ambrose would be sweet. And yet there would be a sting, also, to his words.
St. Ambrose, as a bishop, reveals to us this incredible need to have the understanding of the use of power, of authority, to be in its proper place. That the only way for this to be is for the bishop himself, the man of God, to be completely devoid of any man-pleasing; to be completely fearless in the face of all odds.
In the Gospel today, we see how the Pharisees, they feared the people. And this fear of the people, this vanity, this vainglory, it was the thing that strove deep within the hearts of the Pharisees to become the main thing. This fear of man, this vanity, this man-pleasing, it was the driving impulse that pushed them.
In the Gospel of St. Mark, actually, it says very clearly that they gave Jesus over – Pilate knew this – that the Pharisees gave Jesus over because of envy. And their envy was stoked, and it was fueled by this fear of man.
So in our Gospel today, in Luke, we see that their fear of men, their fear of what the people would think, their fear of actually the people giving themselves over to the teachings of Jesus, this fear of losing the favor, the authority, the power that they had over the people, this is what caused them to envy Jesus, this is what caused them to want to murder Jesus.
Now, St. Ambrose is the complete opposite of that. St. Ambrose, who although, by all rights, a brilliant orator, given the greatest of education; St. Ambrose, I don’t really know, there could be someone else, I don’t really, I personally do not know anyone in the history of the church who went from a catechumen to a bishop in seven days. So unless there’s someone else, St. Ambrose holds this record in all of the history of the church, to go from catechumen to a bishop in seven days.
So St. Ambrose has this incredible, if you will, pedigree by all worldly standards, and yet St. Ambrose did not allow that to cause him to rest on his laurels, as they say. St. Ambrose didn’t just rest on the fact that he was smart and that he had authority and had power – St. Ambrose feared God above all things.
When Emperor Theodosius, when he had this quote-unquote riot put down, there was a charioteer, a real famous charioteer that had won a, that had lost a race, and, you know, it’s no different than today with people rioting after football games, there was a huge riot after this chariot race. And Theodosius, wanting to show his power, had several thousand people slaughtered. St. Ambrose caught word of this, and St. Ambrose, not fearing men, not fearing the power of the emperor, forbade the emperor to enter into the church.
And on top of that, not only did he forbid the emperor to enter the church, he also penanced him that he would no longer be able to receive Communion at the altar as the emperors at the time were allowed. That was not the only emperor and prefect that St. Ambrose stood against. St. Ambrose is known for standing against many a ruler, actually.
Why? Because he did not fear men. He only feared God, and his calling as a bishop, his calling as a man of God was sure because of this. He did not fear the loss of worldly authority. He did not fear the loss of power and authority, and he did not fear what authority and worldly power could do to him. And so because of this, he is found faithful. He is found committed to Christ.
My sons and my daughters, do not think that this could not touch you in your life situation. Whether you’re a nun, whether you’re a mother, whether you’re a mechanic, whether you’re an administrator, this fear of pleasing someone else beside God, it can come to all of us. So because it can come to all of us, we need the prayers of great lights like St. Ambrose to give us the strength that when those temptations come, and they will come, the devil is always looking to upseat us from our seat next to Christ.
And he doesn’t do it through pain. He doesn’t do it through disgrace. The devil seeks to upseat us through fear, through the loss of recognition, through the loss of pleasure.
When that time comes, we must remember the words of St. Paul in the Epistle. We must remember the works of great men like St. Ambrose. We must remember that the Pharisees, they seduced Judas and tempted him to betray Jesus by this very thing. God forbid we would ever fall for that seduction. May we always have a resolve to never fall into the fear of men and the love of the world, rather to be steadfast in the calling of Christ.
Through the prayers of St. Ambrose, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Tuesday, December 17, 2024: St. Barbara and St. John Damascene
GALATIANS 3:23-29
MARK 5:24-34
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Today we are commemorating two great saints: St. Barbara the Great Martyr and St. John of Damascus. Two great saints; great lights.
St. Barbara and St. John. They show us something incredible. Something incredible.
In the life of St. Barbara, this phenomenon, this truth of understanding one’s essence, what it means to be you. St. John of Damascus, the same thing. Understanding clearly one’s purpose, one’s giftings, one’s place in the world.
Both St. Barbara and St. John, and really this is a hallmark of all the saints. They understand who they are in the context of the world that God has created. They understand who they are in light of Christ, in the providence of the Father.
They see these things clearly. The saints, they don’t suffer from the egoism that we all suffer from. They’re free from envy, vanity. They’re free from the kind of competition and fear that motivates us in this world, us who are not holy. They understand very clearly that for them to embrace the thing that makes them what they are, they must lose it.
In the life of St. Barbara, the essence of who she was, a woman, a daughter, a daughter of the king. Yes, her father was a man of earthly rank, but she was a daughter of the true king. So she understood this. And this was challenged.
This was challenged. St. Barbara, her virginity was not some sort of moral plaque that was placed on a wall. Her virginity was not something that she just looked upon like a robe. But rather she understood that it was the very essence of her being.
And so when she was to be humiliated, to be made naked, to be shown to the world, to have her virginity taken from her, defiled, she reached out and she asked God to have mercy on her. And God had mercy on her. God sent a mist, a cloud to cover her, to spare her, to restore her, to preserve her essence.
St. John of Damascus, brilliant writer, a brilliant mind, St. John who endured much, not just at the hands of his elder when he was in the monastery, his elder forbidding him to write for many years, his elder forcing him even to clean toilets, and St. John embracing this with true humility, not begrudging, not complaining, but truly embracing it.
But yet his essence was truly tested, not in his giving of obedience, but rather when his hand was severed from him, when the Caliphate had his hand severed for his writing of holy dogmas and doctrines. And so his very hand being severed, him understanding more than the physical pain, more than the inconvenience of being crippled, St. John understood that his purpose was to pen the dogmas and the doctrines of the Holy Church. And so he reached out to God through His Holy Mother, and all night he begged her to restore his hand, not because of shame, not because of inconvenience, not because of pain, but because his essence was to serve God. And in this his prayer was answered, and his hand was restored.
The woman with the issue of blood in the Gospel today, struggling with the very essence, the very penance, the very thing that in many ways defines a woman, bleeding, unable to participate in society, unclean. And yet in this very wounding of what it means to be a woman, in this very wounding of the essence of who she is in her womb, she reaches out to God, and God heals her. St. John Climacus, he says, the way the wound goes in is the way it must come out.
If you wish to spare yourself many moments, if not years, of treading water and seemingly swimming upstream, my sons and my daughters, find that thing. Because very oftentimes the thing that you’re struggling against, it is actually the very thing, you see. Your passions are the inverse, the distortion of your true virtues, you see.
And so the more you try to preserve these things in a worldly sense, the more frustrated you will become. It’s only until you’ve been wounded that you’re able to actually learn to call out to God and have God actually answer you. Because once you’re aware of your essence – and here’s a little secret for you, your essence will always be tied to the service of God.
This is your problem. You wish to have your essence separate from God. You wish to have your feminine beauty. You wish to have your masculinity. You wish to have your intelligence. You wish to have your cleverness. You wish to have your wealth. You wish to have whatever you think you have apart from God. And this is your problem.
It’s only until you realize, “Where am I in Christ? What is the context? Who am I in God?” Then and only then will you be wounded in the proper way. And then and only then, once you’ve been wounded, once you’ve been approached in that sense, will you call out to God and He will hear you in that day. And He will make you whole.
Just like He made St. John Damascus. And He will cover you just like He covered St. Barbara. But you will not find it without wounding.
Through the prayers of St. Barbara and St. John, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Sunday, December 15, 2024: Prophet Habakkuk
EPHESIANS 4:1-6
LUKE 18:18-27
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Who can be saved? O Lord, who can be saved? With men these things are impossible, but with God all things are possible.
In the Gospel, we have the familiar account of the rich young ruler, a man who had many things. And all of the accoutrement that comes with wealth, status, education. He had many things. So, when he comes to the Lord and he questions the Lord on how to inherit eternal life, the Lord is actually very clear with him. But, this man, like so many of us, we confuse religious life, civic life, with eternal life.
Because religious life has to do with the temporal things. St. James says in his Epistle, true religion is this: to care for the poor and the widow. This is true religion. And the poor and the widow, these are still temporal realities. Jesus says, the poor you will have with you always. So then how do we make this reality, this seemingly frustrating and impossible situation of dealing with temporal things, how do we turn them, how do we transfigure them into eternal things? How do we gain eternal life?
In the Epistle today, St. Paul says that there is one baptism, one spirit. And for those of us who have, especially those of us who have converted, we’ve come from various heterodox confessions, and we’ve spent some time in the halls of the church, we understand this to be very true.
Why? Because when we begin to read the lives of the saints, we recognize that there’s a certain quality to the saints that transcends the kind of external things. They have this thread running through them that until you get the sight, until you get the taste for it, until you have the ears to hear, it’s very difficult to see.
But you can understand that there’s so many different saints because there’s so many different ways to become a child of God. There’s so many different ways to be united to God. But the one thing that must stay true is this vision, this clarity of what it means to have eternal life.
Yesterday, we commemorated St. Philaret the Merciful. His icon is over there on the wall; I just finished it last night. And St. Philaret is a perfect example of what we’re talking about. St. Philaret was a man who had wealth twice over. And twice over, he gave that wealth away.
St. Philaret is not some sort of superhero that we look at. And yet, none of the saints are. And this is a trap. Many of us look at the saints, and we go, like, well, that’s Saint so-and-so. That’s not me. I’m just average Joe Plummer guy.
Well, St. Philaret, like many of you, my brothers, had a wife that nagged him to death. St. Philaret’s wife was constantly upset with him for giving away his goods. “What are you doing? There won’t be any meat for us. We won’t have anything left. What will we do?”
But St. Philaret endeavored because he caught the thing. He heard the sound. He had the taste for eternal life. And so St. Philaret kept giving away all the things, even to the point of having nothing. And every time he did, what happened? God provided for him and his family.
A little side note, St. Philaret, he was so merciful to his wife. Yes, she nagged. Yes, she complained. Yes, she was kind of a drag on him, but he still loved her. He still strove with her in faith.
Back to the homily. So, this taste for eternal life. See, the rich young ruler, if he had had that true taste – he knew the law, he knew what was expected of him as a good Jew, he knew what was expected of him as a noble man. But he didn’t have a taste for eternal life because when Jesus says to him, “Well, you lack one thing. Sell all that you have and come follow me,” he could not do it. He was sad because he didn’t understand what eternal life truly is.
You can know the law and you can have moral understanding of the law, but that does not guarantee you eternal life. Actually, quite the opposite. Because there’s many people who have moral teachings and moral law, but they do not know God. Because those moral teachings and those moral laws, they only go so far as, well, they only go as far as the grave.
And so when St. James, when he says true religion is this, the care for the widow, the care for the orphans, the care, the material care for the widows and the orphans, this is not where the eternal life is found. The entrusting to God is where the eternal life is found. Because the one who cares for the widows and the orphans, long before he does that, he’s already entrusted himself to God, just like St. Philaret.
You can’t give to widows and orphans truly if you haven’t entrusted yourself to God first. What do I mean? So many people give out of their abundance, not their lack. I’ll say it again. So many people give out of their abundance and not their lack. What are you talking about, Father? Well, remember the widow and the two mites and how everyone, all the Pharisees, all the rich people, they gave out of their abundance, no problem. But the one who had nothing and gave out of that lack, she was the one that Christ said, this is an alms.
If we give out of our abundance, we’re giving for ourselves. We haven’t entrusted ourselves to God. We’re just trying to do the moral thing, do the religious thing, check the box and be good and gone. Assuage our guilt. And this is why, you know, people, I’m sure all of you have heard those very creative homilies, teachings especially for your pastors and your Protestants about, well, the eye of a needle really means this. “There’s a special place hidden in Jerusalem where you can only crawl in this way. That’s what it really means.” It’s poppycock. The Lord means what he says.
Why? Because someone who hasn’t entrusted themselves to God and they give out of their abundance and they know the law and they do all those things, they don’t have a sense of eternal life. And these are the people who, when they face God, they’d be like, I don’t understand. I prophesied in Your name.
I cast out demons in Your name. I did this and that in Your name. And He says, I never knew you.
Eternal life is found in knowing the true Christ, not the Christ that’s going to make your life comfortable here. That’s an antichrist. The true Christ is the one who bids you into fellowship with Him.
He says, “Here is the cross. Come join Me.” Because that’s what he said to the rich young ruler. “Here is the cross. Come join Me.”
Read the lives of the saints, my sons and my daughters. I know it’s tough. You may think these are fairy tales. You may think I don’t understand. You may think I’m not getting anything out of it. That’s okay. Keep going. It’s like we have a child who’s learning the alphabet and are frustrated. You know, when you’re reading Dr. Seuss, Curious George, and the child is getting frustrated. It’s like, you just need to be patient with them.
But let’s just be clear. They’re still reading Dr. Seuss and Curious George. So start with good milk. Read the lives of the saints. Get to see how the Gospel is actually played out. Because that’s the point in the lives of the saints. You get to know the saints. You get to see what’s possible. Because it is impossible without God to be saved.
If you keep just trying to do it, checking the boxes, And doing all the normal things, you won’t be saved. You won’t come to eternal life. You won’t be on the cross with Christ. If you’re not on the cross with Christ, you have no resurrection.
The lives of the saints show us how to actually live out the Gospel. In every situation and station of life. That’s their purpose. So put down the blog. Put down the theology. Read some lives of the saints. Get to know them. And get to actually ask their help. Because, see, that’s the secret. When you ask help of the saints, they’re actually there to help you. But if you try to do it on your own, well, it’s going to be impossible.
Through the prayers of Saints Philaret and all the merciful ones, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Amen.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024: Mount Tabor School
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12
LUKE 20:1-8
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Oh, little children. Stay, little children. It’s very good.
You know, today, guys, in the Gospel, we see Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, yeah? And remember, the Pharisees are, like, priests, and the teachers, and the leaders of the Jewish people, and their job was to lead them, to teach them about who God was, and how to please God, right? So we remember who the Pharisees are.
And the Pharisees were supposed to be, you know, like the big brothers of everybody, you know? Like, if you think about a good big brother, a good big brother listens to mom and dad, right? A big brother looks out for his little brothers and sisters, right? But a good big brother never forgets that he’s a brother, too. Does that make sense, what I’m saying? He never forgets he’s a brother.
You know, a good big brother, when he starts acting like he’s the dad when he’s actually a brother, it’s not so good anymore, is it? He becomes kind of bossy, right? Kind of mean, you know? That’s what happened to the Pharisees. They forgot that they were supposed to stay children. And so they had an adult problem. They had an adult problem; they wanted to be adults. They wanted to be big boys.
And so they were not being honest with Jesus, were they? Do you notice how they said, “Well, if we say this, then he’s going to say this, but then if we say this, then the people will say this.” And they were getting themselves all tied up.
They weren’t being big brothers. They weren’t just saying, “Okay, what does God want? What’s the best thing for people? But most importantly, what is God saying? What does God want?” They weren’t asking that. They were trying to understand it in their own way because they wanted to, you know, be in control. Now, Jesus, in His loving way, He corrects them in such a way to help them to understand, you have a choice. You can be like little children and you can be honest with yourselves, honest with God. Or you can keep doing this because if you keep doing this, I’m not going to tell you what you’re wanting to know.
Meaning God isn’t going to speak to you what you think you want to understand, right? Because Jesus says, well, if you can’t answer this question honestly, then whatever you’re asking of Me, I can’t tell you. One of the things about being children, children: is that when you just honestly obey and love your parents and others around you, when you’re just honest, that is what makes God so happy.
Let me give you an example. Have you ever seen, maybe you guys have done this, probably not because you’re all such good kids. But sometimes kids will do this thing where they’re like, “Oh, Mommy, can I get you your favorite robe? Oh, Daddy, here’s this or that.” And they’re all of a sudden extra nice, but they’re really extra nice because they want something.
Do you know what I’m talking about? That’s not being honest, is it? What God wants is if you want to do something nice, then you just do it, right? See, that’s the thing with the Pharisees. They didn’t really want to know about John the Baptist. They didn’t really want to know what God thought. What they wanted to was to be in control. And the Heavenly Father sent Jesus to remind them and all of us that the Heavenly Father is not only the only one in control, but He’s the One Who we want to be in control because He alone is good. And whenever the Heavenly Father isn’t in control, we have problems.
And that’s why we pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” Whose kingdom are we asking to come? God’s, the Heavenly Father. And God is a good Father who gives His children the things that they ask for when they ask rightly.
So, let’s not play games, okay? And when we speak to God, we speak to others, we speak to our parents, let’s just be honest, okay? And let’s always stay children, right? Let’s stay children, innocent in our hearts, okay? In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Monday, December 9, 2024: Day of the Angels
2 THESSALONIANS 1:1-10
LUKE 19:37-44
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
You do not know the time of your visitation.
In the Epistle today, the Epistle to the Thessalonians, the Holy Apostle Paul, he speaks about the vengeance of God coming upon those who did not receive and did not believe that Christ has come, God in the flesh, to redeem mankind. He speaks of how the destruction comes to those, destruction by the very glory of God itself, fire.
If you pay close attention to what St. Paul says, he says it’s the glory of God, the very nature of God Himself. This is what brings the destruction. The inability of the enemies of God to receive His goodness, this is what destroys them.
And so we see this so clearly laid out in the Gospel today. The Pharisees, this nature, fallen nature of man, imbued with demonic stubbornness, to be in the very presence of God and yet resist Him, to hear his words and yet resist Him. To see disciples, men like themselves, praising God, allowing their nature to be transformed by the presence of God.
And yet this other side of humanity, this fallen side is represented by the Pharisees, stubborn, obstinate, defiant, unwilling to receive the glory of God, unwilling to change. And so, Christ, He says, even the very stones will cry out, because all of nature, all of creation, its nature, can’t help but to praise God. The rocks, the trees, the animals, the air, the wind, the sea, the water, all of this cries out, its very nature is to worship God.
But man alone was imbued with this free will, and so man alone, his nature is fallen, and man alone is now stubborn. Because the demons, their nature is such that it is fixed now for eternity. They are forever stuck in this disobedience, and so now we are in this place.
What will we become? Will we follow the rest of creation, which groans in expectation for His revelation? It groans in expectation for His coming, and it groans because it’s suffering the fall because of us. There is decay in the nature of this world because of us. Children suffer because of the disobedience of their parents.
Animals suffer because of the disobedience of man. All of nature suffers because of the disobedience and the fallen nature of man. What will we do? What will we choose? How are we to choose? It’s a frightful thing, because He says, oh, he’s weeping, speaking of this city.
What is the city? This is your city. Your very being, your heart, your mind, your soul. This is the city that is surrounded by enemies. If you understand what He’s saying in this Gospel, this city that’s to fall. Yes, yes, of course, there is this historical reality of AD 70 in the fall of Jerusalem, but understand the eternal reality is this: you are surrounded by enemies, and if you do not recognize the day of your visitation, they will trample you and they will encircle you forever.
Why? Because you chose to be with them. They encircle you and they mock you and they deride you and they trample you and they abuse you forever because you chose to be with them. You did not recognize the day of your visitation.
When the Master came to you, you did not bow. When the Master came to you, you did not open your heart. When the Master came to you, you were not obedient, and so you made your path, and now they circle you, and now you hear the deriding and the mocking.
You must recognize the day of your visitation. I bear the Tradition of the Holy Church, and the Tradition of the Holy Church is given for this sole purpose, to save souls. So the Tradition speaks clearly, do not follow the way of pleasure, because this is why you do not recognize your visitation.
Pain, here and now. The pain of having your very nature changed by Holy Fire. The pain here and now brings you light and glory and joy then.
The pain you suffer now is not the pain of a cruel God, it’s not the tyrant, it’s not the mean daddy. The pain you feel now is your very sin, your very disobedience, and your allegiance to the demons being burned away. Simple, full stop, period.
That is why you suffer pain. Because the Holy Ones, when they suffer pain in this world, they rejoice, because they know it’s visitation and liberation. Recognize the time of your visitation.
Endure. For those who endure, they shall be saved.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sunday, December 8, 2024: Apodosis of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos
EPHESIANS 2:14-22
LUKE 13:10-17
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
The Lord will strengthen His people. The Lord will strengthen His people.
I want to re-read a portion of the Epistle by St. Paul today. To lay on the foundation of what I want to share with you. St. Paul, he says, for through Him, we both have access by one Spirit to the Father now. Therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners. No longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God.
There is a culture, a metaculture, a culture that’s higher above every nation, above every flag, above every time period. This culture is the culture of heaven. This culture, what is culture? Culture is the values and the processes of a people. That’s what a culture is. A culture is the value and the processes of a people. That culture of heaven is higher than anything. It’s above nation, above building, above wealth, above ideology.
When you are brought into the Holy Orthodox Church, you are being initiated, you’re being made a citizen of this higher culture. The things that you value now, the things that the old man values, they, at the very least, must go underneath it, if not are completely abolished. Everything in this world in which we are orientated to, before we are baptized and before we are chrismated, has to be put beneath your citizenship in heaven.
It has to be. Your baptism and your chrismation give you eyes. When you’re baptized and chrismated, you’re given two eyes to see now, spiritually, reality. The true meaning of money. The true meaning of wealth. The true meaning of status. The true meaning of what it means to be a man, a woman, a father, a husband, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister. You have the whole of reality reorientated and, after it’s reorientated, reintegrated into your being. And what that means is, your values, your system of values is put in proper priority and then you follow that pattern. That’s the Tradition of the Church. That’s holy obedience. That’s how you become the people of God.
It says in the last times, because of lawlessness, the love of many grows cold. There are many in our country now who wrongly assume that the lack of patriotism and the lack of civic involvement is just simply because of the insolence, the spoiled nature, just that everyone now is bad. They’re not like they were in the good old days.
There may be a speck of truth to that, but it’s largely a false understanding. Because the reason why people are not as involved as they used to be is because of lawlessness. And lawlessness is not just the guy on the street. It’s not just the thug on the street. It’s the thug at the toppest level.
Lawlessness all the way through. Top to bottom corruption. When people see that there’s no respect for the law given, top to bottom, there is no love. It grows cold. They become indifferent. Because they see, well, why should I bother? Why should I do the right thing if no one else does, you see? But for the people of God, this should not affect us. For the people of God, we don’t bring that attitude into the kingdom of God.
Why? Because there is no corruption at the highest level. One of the reasons why Orthodoxy has survived, and I’m going to put it to you this way: there are many enemies of the Holy Church. Always has been. And one of the reasons why She survived, the only reason why She survived, because, again, people have been trying: principalities and powers have been trying to stamp out the church. From the time of Herod and the Innocents, all the way even to now.
Because Christ is the Head of the Church. And in Orthodoxy, we don’t just think of that metaphorically. We don’t just say, oh, Christ is the Head of the Church because we’re supposed to say that. But de facto, in reality, we’re going to operate a different way as other traditions and confessions do. We actually believe and know and experience that Christ is the Head of the Church. So what that means is, we know our King is watching.
And we know that His servants are watching. And that’s why, for instance, saints are made in the Holy Church from the ground up, not the top down. Meaning, there isn’t these long formal cords in which the kind of like beatification of a saint has to happen.
It’s very simple. The people of God, the citizens of this higher culture, they recognize the sanctity, the holiness, the connection of a certain saint. And they begin to honor that saint and ask his prayers. And then as that grows and they see that these prayers are being answered, voila. We have a saint. Bottom up.
These processes are the very things that, for those who have the eyes to see, we recognize that the lawlessness that abounds doesn’t apply to the Church. Because the Holy Spirit is with us, Christ is guiding us, and leading us to the Father. That’s why it’s not built upon Father Turbo or Father Jimmy. It’s built upon Christ. And when we participate in that culture, we are given confidence.
In the Gospel today, when everyone looked at that woman who had been bowed over for 18 years, everyone had their assumptions. She had a slipped disc, maybe she did some work, maybe she fell off the cliff, blah, blah, blah. But the King comes and he says, no, actually Satan bound her for 18 years. Who would have known that? And even now, there are those who are not quite citizens who question that.
Can the devil really make someone physically ill, really? Is there even a devil? But the citizens of the kingdom of heaven know that there is a devil, and more importantly, they know that the King, His decrees are true. Because they participate in the culture in such a way that their understanding, their values are reorientated and then integrated. It’s tacit.
They don’t have to think about, well, how do I do this and how do I do that? As a citizen, it’s in their lifeblood. They know how to hear from God. They know how to obey God.
Those who feel God isn’t with them are those who do not listen and do not obey. Full stop, period. If you feel God’s not with you, it’s because you’re not listening and you’re not obeying.
Notice, I didn’t say those who don’t listen and don’t obey God. It’s not about your happiness of your life, how much money you have or don’t have, how you’re feeling. Because how you feel, the money you have or don’t have, whether people celebrate you and pat you on the back, all those things, those are not the values of the metaculture.
Those are not the values of a citizen of heaven. They’re not. And in fact, a citizen of heaven knows that those things will actually keep you from entering into the kingdom. And so the darkness that overcomes us is a darkness of ignorance. An ignorance of our citizenship. Of Who we truly belong to and where we belong.
My sons and my daughters, open your eyes. A value of the kingdom is also this, you only have so much time. Because the kingdom that’s coming will have no end. No end. And how you participate in that never-ending kingdom is determined here and now. It’s not determined by your wealth. It’s not determined by your health. It’s determined how much of a citizen are you.
Lord Jesus, help us to be faithful citizens and righteous children.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024: The Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos
HEBREWS 9:1-7
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.
Today is such a wonderful and glorious day, a wonderful feast day, commemoration of the Mother of God being brought to the temple. Today is especially a feast for all of you, my daughters, because today the plan for Eve is brought forward one more step.
A woman has been made, has been revealed, to be the tabernacle of God. God has chosen a woman by which He would come forth into the world. And so every woman now has been given a map, a pattern, a vision, an idea of what is possible.
Every woman who has suffered with barrenness is now redeemed because the Mother of God being brought forth answers the broken heart of Anna and her husband Joachim.
Today – monasticism, the Mother of God being the mother of monasticism, she’s brought into the temple. And there she sees other virgins and here she learns to pray, she learns to grow in her love of God. She spends her time in the study of Scripture, in handicrafts, in silence.
Today, every daughter is redeemed, the holy Mother of God, honoring Anna, honoring Joachim by being obedient, by receiving the blessing that comes only through obedience to one’s parents.
Every wife is redeemed today. Anna being faithful, and the shame and the embarrassment, the pain that she bore watching her husband Joachim be ridiculed. Her silence, her faithfulness, her perseverance is redeemed today because the Mother of God is obedient and because she sees that God truly has answered her prayer.
And every single one of us, all of us sons of Adam, we rejoice because now we see that Christ has chosen a pure and holy vessel. And in doing so, He brings forth for us salvation, redeems our disobedience, redeems our weakness, he redeems our indolence. The abdicating of the throne of Adam is redeemed because now God claims the true throne, the Holy Mother.
So today we rejoice. Today, every hope of every Christian is fulfilled. It’s a glorious thing that the Mother of God would be allowed to come into the Holy of Holies because she is the Holy of Holies. What a wondrous thing our faith is, what a wondrous thing that God reveals mystery upon mystery upon mystery.
So today we rejoice. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sunday, December 1, 2024: St. Plato
EPHESIANS 2:4-10
LUKE 12:16-21
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Have you ever noticed this sometimes unfortunate reality that something goes wrong – something goes wrong with your car, your house, with your relationship, with your job, maybe something goes wrong with your body, maybe you have an accident. Have you noticed how quickly something pops up and you blame God, have you noticed this? “Why are you doing this, God? Why have you allowed this to happen to me, God? Where were you, God? Why is this going this way, God? Why is she being this way, God?”
We’re very quick to lay the blame on God for things that we don’t like and yet the second that something goes well, we tend to forget God. We begin to see how great our voice is, how strong our body is, how smart we are, how wise we are with money, how everyone rightly praises us and makes sure that we’re the boss, all these things make sense because we’re so great, but then the second something negative happens again, “Oh God, why did You do this?”
In the Gospel today, we see a man who exemplifies this very unfortunate reality for us as human beings: we are so quick to forget God. Did that man, did he make the crops grow? Did he really have the power to make the crops so bountiful? I’m sure he chose the choicest manure, but does that really guarantee that he’s going to have a bountiful harvest? So oftentimes we forget who is the one that makes things happen.
This is where we can often find ourselves falling into things like magical thinking, even as religious people. “Well, if I say my prayers correctly and rightly, and if I do X, Y, and Z, everything should align just right,” and sometimes this is the root of our disappointment with God… “But God, I said my prayers, but God, I went to confession, but God, I did this and that, why are you doing this to me, God?”
And this happens because we don’t know what grace is, we don’t know what grace is. Grace is not God’s unmerited favor. Grace is God’s energy, His ability to work and to change you, and St. Paul in the Epistle today talks that we are not saved by our works, but rather by grace through faith, what does he mean? Well, faith is trust, you should not understand faith as in “I understand all these doctrines, I have enumerated all the correct ways in which I can manipulate God and therefore I will be saved.” Faith is trust in God, and you can only have that faith through experience, and what kind of experience? The experience of recognizing that those difficult things are precisely God’s grace.
Because God’s grace, His energy, His ability to work in your life, whether financially, physically, emotionally, all those things, the work of salvation is to bring us to a place where we are like God, so that we can be with God and be with the Holy Ones.
How can God save you, David, if you think you’re always right? How can God save you, Ben, if you think you don’t need to change? Mary, what will God ever do with you if you don’t learn that you are not the center of the world?
You see, grace is not the warm feelings when you have a good prayer rule. It’s a little aspect, it’s a little whisper of grace, but the real grace comes when you have an inkling that something is about to happen, and then it happens, and then you have peace, and then right then and there you have a choice, and you see that choice. “Will I choose to trust you, God, or am I going to choose to fall apart and go into my flesh?” Right then and there, if you choose to trust God through that difficult trial, then you will experience grace.
If you have not done this yet, you don’t know what grace is. It is only until you come to this place where you are going to be undone and you choose to trust God, that’s faith, that’s how you get grace. So don’t read anything in the Fathers, don’t read anything online, don’t listen to anything if you’re not willing to really understand grace, because grace will burn you. We had Thanksgiving, I just wanted to give you guys some meat, real meat.
We fail to see how good God is, because this thing over here, whatever the thing is, my good… whatever this is, this is keeping you from seeing the greater good of God. And so we say, “Well look how good it is, stack my retirement, stack my chips,” whatever the thing is. But who gave that to you in the first place? He did. Why are we so quick to forget Him?
If that man had said to himself, “Wow, God has been so good to me.” We would have a completely different story. We are weak, my brothers and my sisters, my sons and my daughters, we are the weakest generation ever.
Amen.
Amen, Dave. We are the weakest generation ever. So the cross, it may seem too much, and it very well might be. So let me give you this little cheat, let me give you this little hack.
Just try being thankful. Just catch yourself the second that you’re like, “Well of course they’re going to give me the promotion. Of course so and so came to me. Of course, blah, blah, blah.” Just stop yourself and go, “Oh my gosh, Lord, I don’t deserve this. Thank You.”
See, gratefulness will save you so much unnecessary pain. The key thing is unnecessary. You must have pain. It’s going to come. But if you can practice thankfulness, then when the pain does come, you’ll know it’s not unnecessary. And when the pain comes, you’ll have the eyes to recognize and the ears to hear the word of the Lord. You’ll be able to know that, oh, this is the opportunity for grace.
But unless you’re practicing gratefulness and thanksgiving, you’ll never know grace. Because everything is you, you’ve done it all. Gratefulness, right? If we are so weak we can’t bear the cross, at least let us be good kids and be grateful for the things that God’s given us.
God is so generous. Let us remember that. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.