Thursday, February 27, 2025: St. Raphael of Brooklyn
JUDE 1:11-25
LUKE 23:1-34, 44-56
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
Today we are commemorating our Father in faith, the great light of North America, St. Raphael of Brooklyn. And, as it says in his troparion when it speaks about him, guiding the flock, preserving them from false doctrine. It’s very important for us to keep in mind the pioneering work of bringing forth true doctrine to a nation, to a people who have not known it.
This is truly the work of a good shepherd, and it’s truly the work of Christ. Our very Lord Himself, Who is the true doctrine, Who is the purest of dogma. He not even being received by his own people, the ones who were to be in expectation of the true doctrine.
Christ being rejected by his people, and as we heard in the Gospel today, being tossed back and forth between Pilate and Herod. Almost like a toy, a ball of yarn, a stuffed mouse between the paws of a cat being played with. It’s fascinating because the Lord allows Himself to be subjugated to such things.
We could ask ourselves, and in fact, we could meditate, how is it that the Lord of Glory, the King of the Universe, is allowing Himself to be put back and forth in such a way? How is it that the Lord Himself, Who could command legions of angels, would allow Himself to be put up with such disgrace, such mockery?
In the Epistle of Jude, one of the very interesting characteristics of these false teachers that Jude warns us about is flattery. Those who flatter, and therefore we can say those who also love to be flattered. This is something that is characteristic of those who seek high places, they seek the adoration of people, but they do it for nefarious means. And so when we see the Lord willing to endure shame and mockery, He gives us a key. He gives us a key for us to see who the true shepherds are. He gives us a key how that we can be like Him.
Do we endure shame? Do we endure mockery for the sake of truth, for the sake of true doctrine? Because true doctrine and true dogma has everything to do and always has something to do with the person of Christ. True doctrine and true dogma is never something to be wielded apart from the person of Christ. And so this willingness and this ability to suffer for the sake of true doctrine, to avoid this pitfall of flattery, all these things are characteristic of Saint Raphael.
Because Saint Raphael was living in a time, as I said last night, of a pure time for America. Serbs and Russians and Greeks, they worked together as a Church, but that time quickly came to an end. Because unfortunately, even within the years of Saint Raphael and other great lights like Saint Sebastian, flattery, division, rivalry, those things, those weeds quickly sprouted up within the life of the church in America as it has sprung up everywhere where the Church is.
Everywhere where the Lord has planted the good seed of the Church, the enemy has planted his tares. And so God has provided shepherds like Saint Raphael who are immune and in fact disdain flattery. They disdain being flattered and they refuse to flatter. Because they remember the One Who was offered to Pilate. They remember the One Who was offered to Herod. And they remember that this is the inoculation that their own Master gave them against the bitter disease, the contagion of vanity, of vainglory, of seeking something beyond the heavenly kingdom.
This is not so much a homily but a prayer. I pray that God would send more good shepherds that not only disdain flattery, but they refuse to flatter. May God grant us lights like Saint Raphael.
And may the Church and her doctrines and her pure dogma, which are of the very Word, may they always be preserved so that we could enter into the holy habitation and be with the One Who was mocked and derided for the sake of glory. Through the prayers of Saint Raphael, Lord Jesus Christ our God, deliver us from flattery and mockery and help us to be people who endure light, who endure truth, for the sake of love.
Sunday, February 23, 2025: The Last Judgment (Baptismal Liturgy)
1 CORINTHIANS 8:8-9:2
MATTHEW 25:31-46
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ!
There’s something particularly wonderful today. There’s something, well, to be frank, not planned, but in the providence of God: just churching this child right before the homily, because today is the day of Judgment. Today is the day in which we remember the Last Judgment, we meditate upon the Last Judgment, the Great Judgment, and the Great Judgment prepares us to enter into Lent. We just churched this young new soul before us.
And this is what’s most important for us to remember as we enter into Great Lent, and I dare say even more importantly as we meditate on the Judgment, is that we have received the seal of the Holy Spirit, we’ve been given a new life of baptism, and we are to be the people of God, the servants of God. And this is what’s most paramount in remembering the Judgment, is that you will go before the Judgment of God as His servant. The question is, will you enter in as a servant that was faithful, or will you enter into that Judgment as an unfaithful servant? Will you enter into that Judgment as one who was about their master’s work, being diligent to fulfill what was given to them faithfully?
Or will you enter into that Judgment negligent, a wicked servant, one who cared only for your desires, cared only for your interests? And those desires, those interests – what terror as they crumble before your very eyes, the thing that you spent your whole life toiling after, and as you face the creator of all things, and you recognize all those years wasted.
As we enter into Lent, and Lent is a time in which we are to offer a tithe of our life to God. This time, and like all things that God gives us, we are to offer back to Him. So this time is a time in which we should really, we should give ourselves over to this 365 days a year, but God knows our weakness. And so this time is set aside, because this is what we need. We need to remember, “Oh yes, oh yes, I need to put myself to work. I need to remember the Resurrection.” Because remember, the Judgment, the Resurrection. You see, because this is what we’re all heading towards, not just the Judgment, but we’re heading towards a Resurrection. We’re heading towards a bodily Resurrection.
And so the Lent, the Lenten struggle that’s given to us each year is given to us to remind us, to encourage us, to put money in the bank towards that Resurrection. Many of you, many of you, the last two weeks, I’ve been hearing similar things in confession. So when I say this, if you think it’s just you, it’s not.
Many of you have been saying this. Many of you have been saying to me, “I’m at the end of my rope. I’m tired of confessing the same sin over and over again.” I’ve been hearing this from many of you in confession, and I rejoice. As your spiritual father and your priest, I rejoice to hear so many of you getting to the end of your rope, so many of you tired of doing the same thing over and over and over again. To me, I’m glad to hear it, because what it means is the thing that’s been missing in your life for the last six months, the last year, the last three years, the thing that’s been missing is for you to hate your sin.
And now it’s beginning to happen. Now you’re beginning to actually hate your sin. And this is what’s necessary, because when you come to the Judgment, if you do not have a hatred of your sin, then that love of sin is what’s going to undo you.
There is no lie that will convince the court. You can try to put forward to God all the things that you did in His name, all the things that you wanted in His name, but what’s going to be very evident is that you did not hate your sin. Pay attention to what I’m saying here.
As Orthodox Christians, struggle is good. Notice I did not say that you did not struggle against your sin, but that you did not hate it. The problem isn’t you struggling against your sin. In fact, that’s what you want. You want to be in this battle with your sin. You want to be wrestling against it, fighting against it. You want to learn to hate it. And it’s in that hatred of that sin that you begin to learn to let it go. It’s in the hatred of that sin that you begin to say, “I no longer want you in me. I no longer want you to be a part of me. I no longer want you to keep me enslaved.” This is what’s necessary.
Because without that hatred of sin, your heart is filled with nothing but idols. Because that food, that embrace, that image, whatever that thing you’re turning to, you’ve been turning to that instead of God, time after time after time after time. And now, you can’t say no to it. It is your master. It is the thing that you obey more quickly and with greater vehemence than God himself. And so when you’re at the Final Judgment and you face the Creator of all things, and there’s nothing to hide, there’s no parents to hide behind, there’s nothing to hide behind.
What will you say? My hope is that you’ll say, “Lord, have mercy on me.” And, “Although I failed, I fought. And although I often fell into sin, I struggled against it and I hated it every moment.”
Because it’s in that valiant struggle that the Final Judgment becomes something beautiful. It becomes a moment where God’s mercy, all those “Lord have mercies”, all those prayers prayed, all those alms given, they become the collateral by which God looks upon you and says, “Yea, you’re a sheep. Yea, you’re one of My people. Yea, you hear My voice.”
This may be our last Lent. We don’t know. But what we do know, what I can tell you is, take heart. Take heart and struggle. Fight. Be valiant. Find that sin, and all of you know exactly what I’m talking about. You don’t have to sit and think, well, what sin do I have? You know that sin that you’ve been struggling with.
Take a hold of it and make a commitment to fight it tooth and nail this Lent. Make a commitment to say, this is the work that’s in front of me. This is all I have to be concerned about.
This is where I’m putting my energy towards. I’m going to hate this sin. With the grace of God, instead of me being expelled from paradise, I’m going to expel this sin with God’s help.
I’m going to learn to hate this sin. In doing that, your path towards the Judgment is going to be one of warmth and light, and not terror and hell. God loves us. God has given us the Church and given us Lent to struggle against sin. So we can look towards a glorious Resurrection unto life, and not into torment. Through the prayers of St. Mary of Egypt, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us.
Amen.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025: Mother of God, Seeker of the Lost
1 JOHN 3:10-20
MARK 14:10-42
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Before I move into the pedagogical aspect of the homily, before I give you the noetic teaching, I would like for us to stop and to reflect. And it is not often that this happens. So often, especially with this particular moment in our Lord’s life, it’s too painful for us. We can’t imagine what’s happening.
And most people have never had this kind of experience as the Lord, this type of deep betrayal. So it’s very difficult to speak about it. Something very deep within us coils. But I think it’s important to look at the reality, painful reality, that the Lord became man.
And everyone here, we can all understand what it means to have love. We can all understand what it means to live life. And our Lord, fully God, but yes and this is the thing I want us to really take a moment to really try, if it’s possible to drink this in: fully man. Fully man. And to sit with your betrayer. To dine, to sup with your betrayer. To love, truly to love your betrayer. To love one who is to do to you the unspeakable.
The Lord, who is the Passover lamb, He has his disciples make ready. And in making ready, it isn’t just about the preparation of food to eat. Taking in roasted lamb. No, it’s more than that. He is the lamb.
He is the same one who told His people previous centuries earlier to take the blood and to mark the lentils, to mark the doorways with that blood. He’s the same one who sent the plagues upon Egypt. He’s the same one who said, if anyone eats of this Passover, they’ll be saved.
If we recall the Scripture, it was a mixed multitude that went out of Egypt that night. It wasn’t just Hebrews. There were Egyptians as well. Any who desired to eat of that Passover, they were saved. This is the same one.
And in that Passover, there was bitter herbs. They were to eat bitter herbs with this roasted lamb. And now the fulfillment had come. Soon, we will take part of that fulfillment in the Holy Eucharist. But the Holy Eucharist now, just as then, must be taken with a measure of bitter herbs.
St. Sophrony, he speaks of how the agony in the garden, that this is in many ways the culmination, the heart of the Liturgy. And the agony of the garden, it’s resolved and it’s made powerful in this utterance: Not My will, but Thy will be done.
Full acknowledgment of the cup. Full acknowledgment that the cup could pass. And nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Yea, Father, I will eat of these bitter herbs with the Passover. Yea, Father, you know best.
So many times a young child eats food, and they eat food only fit for their unrefined, small and weak palate. But who here, which one of you, quote unquote, adults, would prefer a hot dog and ketchup over the finest of steaks? Your palate isn’t refined.
We have not learned to see the bitter herbs that come with the Passover for the thing that they are. The bitter herbs bring out the savory. The bitter herbs, they bring out the very essence of that meal. Could you eat with your betrayer? Could you sit with one who would hand you over to sinners? Our Lord can and does. Each time we partake of the cup.
May we all be like Peter, and not like Judas. Because they both betrayed him. But one found repentance, and they granted him life. We are all betrayers of Christ. But let us be like Peter, and not like Judas. Let us not disdain the bitter herbs that God has given us.
This is the meaning of Peter’s bitter weeping. This is the meaning. Lord, help us to be faithful, and to partake of your Passover. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sunday, February 16, 2025: Sunday of the Prodigal Son
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
LUKE 15:11-32
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
Icons are a gift. Icons and iconography are a gift from God to encourage us to, inspire us to, help us find our way back home. Our minds and our hearts, we are so prodigal. We are so easily distracted and seduced by the world, and we are quick to leave the love of our Father’s house. The temptations are many, and the truth of the matter is that we all can succumb to them at one point in our time in our life. But I would ask you, when you look at that icon of the Prodigal Son, the father embracing the son, what do you see? What does your heart long for?
In the Epistle today, St. Paul gives the clear teaching of the Church. He gives the clear teaching, the desire of our Heavenly Father. That we would know, that we would recognize, that we would remember that our bodies are not created to be given over to fornication, but that our bodies are created to be temples of the Holy Spirit. And it is in this place where our temple becomes defiled that we first experience this terrible pain of being a prodigal.
It’s in the wrong use of our bodies that we begin to understand how far we’ve fallen from the ways and the purpose in which we were created. And I don’t want to linger here too long, because the temptation is for despair. Because the prodigal began to despair. He began to realize what he’d been feeding on. He began to realize, more importantly, what he was missing. He began to realize all that he had, but he had left. He began to despair.
And then he remembered. He had an icon in his mind and his heart of his father. That icon beckoned him to repent, to go a different way, to say, yes, with my father, all things are possible. And so he returned home, not in a spirit of entitlement, but in a spirit of repentance, humbly asking for mercy. Now, we’re all familiar with this story.
Not as familiar as we are with fornication, unfortunately, but we’re familiar. I would invite all of you to consider something. For some of you, this would have never crossed your mind just by the reality of biology, women, but when you look at that icon, has it ever dawned on you? What would it be like to be the father? What would it be like to be like the father?
Our Lord, our Master, our Teacher, our Savior, our God, Jesus, he says, be ye holy, be ye perfect, as my Father in heaven is perfect. He did not say men, be ye holy and perfect, as my father in heaven is perfect. He said, be ye. That means you too, my daughters.
Our holy, heavenly, merciful, loving, generous, and all-wise Father. There is enough love, there is enough wisdom, there is enough provision in Him to make everything right. In Him and in Him alone, this prodigal nature that we have to turn, to run, to misuse things, in Him we can find correction.
Now, the problem is, is we don’t have a vision. We’re not inspired. So we get stuck and we think, all I can do is just try to get an even game, maybe break even. It’s not the kingdom. Be ye perfect, as my Heavenly Father is perfect. Be ye holy, as your Father is holy.
Every one of us has a situation. And I would invite you to consider this. Aim for the top. Is your mind running away? Can you not focus? Do you not have attention? Is your heart running away? Is it filled with bitterness and envy and wickedness and lust? Do you have a loved one, a sister, a brother, a friend, who has parted ways? Pull the icon of the father into your mind and seek to be holy.
Use your intellect, use your mind, your nous, to remember the commandments of the Lord. And use that knowledge to call back your wicked heart: “What are you doing? Don’t you know that if you do this, if you want that, it’s going to ruin you? This isn’t what God wants for you.” Use your intellect to call back your wicked heart.
“My dear brother, why are you doing this? Why are you destroying yourself with this or with that or whatever the thing is? Why have you parted ways?” Call your friend back. Be the father to him. Let that prodigal brother know that he is always welcomed, that you don’t judge him, that you love him.
And that in the fellowship of the father’s house, which is love, because God is love. If you have love, if you truly experience love – not emotion, not sentimentality, love, which is sacrificial – if you’ve experienced love, you’ve experienced God.
Literally. Call your friend, call your lost sister to the father’s house. Be the father. Have welcoming arms, because if you don’t forgive those who have sinned against you, you will not be forgiven. So when you learn to be the father and to welcome those who have gone astray, whether it’s your mind, your heart, or literally your brother, literally your sister, you’re now welcoming yourself into the grace of the father.
You’re now entering into the father’s house. And then you begin to experience what it means to be like the father. And this is the vision. This is how you get out of that trap of that rat wheel you’re running on. Barely escaping, barely outpacing your sins, barely outpacing your selfishness, barely outpacing your despair. That gets you off the wheel.
Don’t just focus on how you’re lost. We’re all lost. But at the same time, haven’t we been found? Some of you don’t understand what I’m saying. That’s okay. But if you want to understand, then you must understand this thing: if you don’t forgive others, you will not be forgiven.
Because there’s one more player that’s not in that icon. Do you know who it is? It’s that older brother, isn’t it? The one who wouldn’t forgive. The one who is so bitter, so resentful. Your ego. Your pride. This is oftentimes the older brother, you see.
“How could I have thought this? How could I have done this? Woe! How could I have been so wicked? I’m perfect!” No, you’re not. None of us are. And so, that inner critic, that ego, wants to judge, wants to point fingers – and that’s the devil, by the way.
So, it brings you right back to this thing. Have a vision of the Father. Have a vision of mercy, of forgiveness, of generosity, of provision. Have a vision of holiness. Strive for that. Express that to others, and it will be expressed to you. Let’s not worry about the fact that we’re lost. Let’s rejoice in that we’ve been found.
Through the prayers of St. Mary of Egypt, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Friday, February 14, 2025: Sts. Brigid, Perpetua, and Felicity
1 JOHN 2:7-17
MARK 14:3-9
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
In the Gospel today we hear of the woman of Bethany, who has anointed the Lord with costly ointment. We can only speculate what measure of sacrifice it truly meant, for her to give of her life’s work, her means, to provide for the Lord.
This is a very powerful statement that our Lord makes. Every word that is uttered from His mouth, of course, is powerful. Every word that is uttered from His mouth is, of course, of the greatest importance to us. But I would highlight this one word, this phrase He says. It’s powerful, and it’s helpful, and it’s meaningful for us.
It says, “She did what she could.” She did what she could. And so often in our life, we, like those who are indignant, we have high thoughts about what we think we can do and should do. We have the greatest aspirations for what we think we are to offer to God and to do.
But the reality is, is that so oftentimes these aspirations are misplaced. So oftentimes, these aspirations are more of a fuel for ourselves than for the actual work of God.
Those who are indignant, the Lord rebukes them, essentially. He says, you will always have the poor, and you can always take care of them; but this, this moment of being with Me, this you won’t always have.
And so, this brave woman in Bethany, like the brave women who went to the tomb that day, and they did what they could. Those women, in utter defeat, their Master, dead, humiliated. They did what they could.
They still honored Him. They still loved Him. And for that, they were vouchsafed the first awareness. They’re the first ones to know of the Resurrection. God rewarded them. And God rewarded the woman in Bethany because she did what she could.
She gave of what she had. And this is so powerful because it recognizes this one thing: that God is merciful. And that God is merciful more to us than we are to even ourselves.
God knows what we’re made of, dust. And so, when we do what we can, we give what we can, God recognizes it as the miracle it is, knowing and remembering how broken and how humble we are in our essence.
May we continue with the help of God to do what we can. May we remember that God remembers those who do what they can. Not those who are successful, not those who win, but those who give of what they can.
With the prayers of St. Brigid, Perpetua, and Felicity, Lord Jesus Christ our God, help us to offer what we have. And may it be unto us an eternal memory in Your mind. Amen.
Thursday, February 13, 2025: St. Nicetas of Novgorod
1 JOHN 1:8-2:6
MARK 13:31-14:2
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
Today we are commemorating the holy hierarch, our father among the saints, St. Nicetas of Novgorod. St. Nicetas understood something very clearly. As a hierarch, and as a conduit of the grace of God, able to work miracles, to shepherd his people by divine grace, he understood very clearly that it was through his chastisement, and through his wounding, and it was through this mistake that he made, this mistake of thinking that he was without sin.
In the Epistle of 1 John, the Epistle today, John the Beloved, he says how we are calling God a liar essentially if we think that we are without sin. And at the beginning of St. Nicetas’ life, he had forgotten the elements, the base things that constituted his vocation. He had forgotten obedience, he had forgotten humility.
So Nicetas, without humility, goes and he seeks to be a hermit. He goes to find himself in a more exalted state, one that was above his strength and his powers. And that lack of humility led him to disobedience. And he goes, in spite of sound warning, he goes and he goes to asceticize, to be a hermit on his own strength.
And so Nicetas, as we all know, well, his story, he goes, and he is taken in by his delusion, by his lack of humility, and his disobedience, and he is beguiled by the enemy.
Now, St. Nicetas, taken in, exorcised, healed, delivered of the filth that had contaminated his mind. This is what exorcism means. It means to be delivered of the filth that comes from the enemy that pollutes the mind. He awakens from that long slumber, and as St. John Climacus says, the way the wound goes in is the way the wound comes out. And so he became deluded by lack of humility and disobedience, but he became healed by obedience, and that obedience led him to humility.
And it was in this state that he began to now experience the love of God in a way far greater that exceeded his initial desire. You see, God proved himself faithful to St. Nicetas, and in turn, He proves himself faithful to all of us.
Nicetas found himself in a dark and treacherous place because of his ambition. Because his ambition led him to this terrible pit of a lack of humility and disobedience, but God proved Himself faithful, and He wounded Nicetas. And in that wounding, and that allowing him to be given over to the enemy for a period of time, it was in that space that Nicetas was able to look up and realize, “Yea, I have sinned. I have sinned.”
And in that, he entered into the joy of obedience. And in that, he entered into the joy of humility. And it is in that humility, and it is in that joy that he found himself able to work miracles.
But I guarantee you, the working of miracles to St. Nicetas was nothing. I guarantee you, to St. Nicetas, the great thing was that he was with God and God was with him. That was the key thing.
But above all things, Nicetas would give thanks for his correction. But above all things, Nicetas would give thanks for his trial. Because it was in that correction and in that trial, he entered into the thing that he was always looking for, which was the grace of God.
Nicetas, St. Nicetas, is a great life for us. We, in this modern time, we who have been given so much, we who are so apt to delusion, we who are so primed and ready for prelest, we who think we are without sin, we need the prayers and the example of the holy hierarch St. Nicetas now more than any other time in history. Thanks be to God that He has given us great lights like this saint to correct us, to gently chastise us when we have gone astray, and to remind us that the chastening of the Lord is for sons and daughters and not those who are orphans.
Through the prayers of St. Nicetas, Lord Jesus Christ, help us to welcome Your chastening and keep us in holy obedience and humility. Amen.
Sunday, February 9, 2025: Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee; Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia; St. John Chrysostom
2 TIMOTHY 3:10-15
LUKE 18:10-14
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ!
Well, here we are making our descent into Great Lent. The Publican and the Pharisee, this great parable, given to us by the Church to help us begin the orientation of our hearts and our minds that we may enter into the Great Fast and to make contest well.
I’m going to submit something for everyone to consider. It might sound a bit odd at first, but sit with it a little bit. Although this is a parable, consider the One who gave the parable, and consider where it comes from. The One Who it comes from is the One Who fashions and knows the hearts of men. The One in which this parable comes from, He is the One who saw Satan fall like lightning. The One in which this parable comes from, He is also the One that knows all things, and He knew the names, the faces, the lineage, the hearts of the ones who would eventually crucify Him. This is the One who gives the parable.
So with this in mind, let me submit something for you all to consider: Envy. Envy. It says in the Gospel of Mark that it was because of envy that the Pharisees crucified the Lord. The Fathers teach us that it was envy that caused Satan to fall.
Yes, it’s a parable, but imagine: what makes a Jewish man become a traitor to his people? What makes a man betray everything that he’s known, everything that his fathers have known, for filthy lucre? Did he not look around and see the Romans doing better? Perhaps he came from a poor family, perhaps because his family were not of the religious class, he didn’t do as well. Perhaps envy is the very thing that stoked him to betray his people.
The Pharisee. Standing self-righteous, standing haughty. What made him get to that place? What made him apply himself to such a degree to desire to look down on others? Envy. The Pharisees were the ones who crucified Christ for envy.
Envy is the very thing that if you look around the neighborhoods here, the blight, where do you think the blight comes from? You can’t blame the blight on some lack of socioeconomic opportunity. It comes from envy. Envy engenders bitterness.
And envy, like the scripture says, is like rottenness in the bones, like cancer. There’s no value to envy. And when someone has envy, they internalize it and they hide it, they can mask it. You see, the Pharisees, they hid their envy well, because they were religious.
But they envied Christ. And they envied those who had freedom in God. They envied those who truly understood the law. Envy. The demons envy that we’ve been given God’s image, although we do not deserve God’s image.
God, in His generosity and His benevolence, still has given us His image. Envy. Satan envied us so much that he rejected the glory that God had given him. This is the tragedy of envy. Envy will cause you to hate the very thing that you’ve been given. Envy will cause you to hate the very person that you are. Envy will cause you to hate even God himself. Envy.
Envy is the thing that is generating all of our capital, all of our luxury. Envy is the thing that is swallowing us whole, making us more like demons than men. Envy. Envy is the thing that pushes us into despondency, into depression. Envy is the thing that causes us to give up and to say that there’s no hope. “Why bother? God likes him more. God does this for her more. I didn’t get this. I hate the fact that they got that.” Envy.
As we enter into Lent, as most of us know, and those of you who are new, I will tell you, you’re a failure and you will fail. You will fail at your attempts at fasting. You will fail at your attempts to pray. Then you’re beginning Lent. Now you’re entering into Lent. Once you miss your mark, you can maybe hopefully find the mark that God has set for you.
And that mark is to fast from your passions. And I would submit to all of you, the passion I would like, as your priest and as your pastor, for everyone to keep their eye on is this one passion. Envy.
The best thing to do against envy is to love your neighbor. To celebrate the advantages, the victories, the blessings of your brothers and your sisters. Nobility. More than striving to eat less. More than striving to do other things less. Perhaps this Lent, we could strive to lift others up. Let us give alms. Not just in money, but in prayers. Do you find yourself being envious?
It’s funny because if you feel a little tinge, if you feel resistance to what I’m saying to you, you have envy. And you just don’t want to admit it.
Find the person that stokes this in you. Pray for them. Do good for them. Bless them. If we can bless others, if we can be noble, meaning giving of ourselves for our family, for our brothers and sisters, if we can do this, then it will be a glorious Lent.
It’s better for you to eat sausages this Lent, but lift up your brothers and sisters and cut out the resentment, cut out the bitterness, cut out the comparisons, cut out the envy. I’d rather smell steak on your breath than the reek of envy in the confessional.
Consider it. Remember, the One who gave this parable is the One who knew the envy of the devil and the envy of the Pharisees. What I submit to you, I would say, is not that far off.
Let us be in the temple this Lent with hearts that are willing to give alms and prayer. More importantly, hearts that are willing to let go of envy. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Thursday, February 6, 2025: St. Xenia
1 PETER 4:12-5:5, GALATIANS 5:22-6:2
MARK 12:38-44, LUKE 6:17-23
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
In the Old Testament, quote-unquote, the Old Testament meaning, in those days, in that period of time, the way in which God spoke through the prophets, God would oftentimes have the prophets have acts of foolishness: Isaiah walked the streets naked; Ezekiel cooked food with dung. And God would have the prophets go through these strange and oftentimes foolish acts for a purpose, for a specific purpose, to speak unto the people to reveal to them their sins. The nation of Israel.
But in our times, in these latter times, in these modern times, there’s a different kind of charisma that’s been released, a different way of being. It’s prophetic, but they are not necessarily prophets in the sense that we would understand the Old Testament prophets: the Yurodivy, the holy fools. They take on something particular. The holy fools will take on the type of scorn and the disdain that is a particular medicine for modern man. You see, modern man is incredibly vainglorious, incredibly proud in a way that is unique.
As society has been on a trajectory of quote-unquote improving – luxury, more humane laws – man has become seemingly less human. The burden of life that characterized the ancient times, it made man in many ways more humane and humbled him. As man has sought to get out from under that, man has become proud.
So the Yurodivy, the holy fools, it’s not that they necessarily have one specific prophetic act of foolishness, but that foolishness is the act, is the prophetic movement. And they reveal to us an incarnation of the Beatitudes. They incarnate for us this understanding of what it means to be reviled. A particular devotion, if you will, a particular way of taking on Christ, to be reviled by men. Today we’re commemorating Saint Xenia of St. Petersburg, one of the best known and most beloved, if not the, at least in modern times, beloved of holy fools. And in the Gospel today, we are reminded of the pretense, the vanity, the vainglory, if you will, of the Pharisees.
We’re reminded of how painful and particular this disease of hypocrisy and of vanity strikes the religious. And it’s important to understand that the Yurodivy, the holy fools, they are sent particularly to the religious. The holy fools aren’t necessarily sent to those who don’t have, well, they don’t have faith. But the religious, you see, the holy fools are sent to them to awaken them out of their Pharisaic, hypocritical slumber.
The holy fool functions in such a way that they will irritate. And that irritation reveals the lack of grace and mercy and love and peace and all the things that, quote unquote, religious persons should have, the holy fool reveals this. Confounding men by defying religious laws, eating sausages in front of church during Lent, revealing to people how far they are from the inside of the cup being clean.
But lest we get it twisted, as they say, let us not think that the whole purpose and the whole existence of the holy fool is just to be a pain in the neck. Because they’re a pain in the neck to those who need the pain in the neck. They’re a pain in the neck to the, as I said, the hypocrites and the Pharisees. But to those who are struggling, you see, this is the balance, this is the tension that the holy fool carries. To those who are struggling, to those who actually are in need of God’s mercy, the holy fool is a balm. Generous to those who are without. Merciful to those who are in need of mercy, those who are brokenhearted. The holy fool having nothing, like the widow, but giving all that they have.
We must thank God. I imagine every community has their holy fool. I imagine every community has that one person that drives everyone else mad, but they’re driving them mad in the sense of driving that kind of inner Pharisee mad. May God help all of us to have our eyes opened to see the holy fool amongst us. To see the one that out of love of God and love for neighbor is willing to take the brunt of everyone’s scorn, but never heaps the scorn on everyone.
Through the prayers of St. Xenia, Lord Jesus Christ our God, help us to have humble hearts and minds.
Monday, February 3, 2025: St. Maximus the Confessor
1 PETER 2:21-3:9
MARK 12:13-17
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
One of the things that is so desperately longed for among the people of God is to understand and to know the will of God, to discern what God’s purpose and design for their life is.
This is not something that is necessarily given to all human beings. There are many people who are not really concerned with the larger framework of life, if you will. They spend their lives like animals, seeking where they can find food, some way to pass the time, some sort of pleasure.
But the people of God, to the various degrees in which they have illumination, are always seeking a deeper understanding, to discern the events of their life and to discern the long arc of their life, to know what the will of God is. It is a difficult thing because so much of what consists of our life, quote-unquote, is these fragmented pieces of things. If you will, our life is like, at least from our perspective, a mosaic that has not yet been put together.
And so it’s very easy for us to become distracted with the various colors, the various ways that line and shape and form is peeking through but not quite there yet. And so we become confused. We don’t understand why circumstances are, why events are. We don’t understand what things are and what they mean in our life.
In the Gospel today, the enemies of the Lord, they come and they seek to entrap Him. And they ask Him this question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” And the Lord demonstrates for us very clearly the source of wisdom, the source of discernment, the source of illumination.
He is the source. He is the one alone who understands how to put the pieces of the mosaic together. And He says profoundly, keenly, I dare even say mischievously, Well, this picture is on the coin. What do you discern? Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. And they were amazed. And for generations to come, they will still be amazed.
Today we’re commemorating St. Maximus the Confessor. St. Maximus, as I often joke, is, you know, the kind of patron of the theological nerd, if you will. People are astounded by the complexities, the seeming difficulties in navigating Maximus.
But the reality is, is that beyond the fact that Maximus was a keen mind, Maximus had discernment. He had the insight, if you will. You see, Maximus, more than being a mind, more than, you know, a grand quote-unquote philosophizer, which he was not, he was not a philosophizer, he was an ascetic.
And he knew the source. He communed with the source. His life was given over to the source, meaning Christ. And Christ is the One who taught him about logoi, about the inner essence and meanings of things. Christ is the One who showed him what it means to see life in all its disparate pieces and how they fit in together. Christ is the One who showed him the essence of things is to be only understood in the light of the One Who is true and pure essence.
Christ is the One who showed him life. Tragically, ironically, the one who spoke with such clarity had his tongue cut out. Such is always the case. I imagine, this is my own speculation, that there was a part of Maximus’ deep soul that had to chuckle a little bit at the fact that they cut out his tongue.
If we were to understand life, if we were to understand how to put all the pieces together, we have to understand that there is a reason and that there is a hidden meaning that we must be careful to not see the thing for its outward trappings. This is where the passions come from, as Maximus famously teaches.
And what an amazing thing, because we can gain discernment just from looking at the things in our life. As St. Maximus taught, do you look at gold and do you see the glory of heaven? Do you see the rarity of God’s goodness or do you see wealth and privilege? Do you see the ability to influence others? When you look at the form of another human being, do you see the wisdom, the beauty, the magnificence of God or do you see seduction and lust? What do you see? When the Pharisees had the coin up, all they could see was treachery, the loss of power, the gain of power. But Christ saw clearly, truly the essence of what that coin meant.
May we continue to seek the will of God, but may we do so with help. May we pray to St. Maximus, not to become erudite in our conversations. Not to have “gotcha” moments in online discussions, but rather may we look to St. Maximus and ask him to help us to discern the things of our life.
Help us to see the material reality as we should see it. So that as fathers, we are no longer confused or beguiled, chasing after items and money to the detriment of our families. The purpose of the money is to feed our families, to care for them.
As spiritual people, we wouldn’t look at things as a distraction, as a temptation, but rather an opportunity to give glory to God. And to see that all things are given to us for our purification, our illumination, and by God’s good mercy, our deification.
Through the prayers of St. Maximus the Confessor, Lord Jesus Christ, grant us Your holy illumination, Your discernment, and above all these things, You Lord, Who is Holy Wisdom.
Amen.
Sunday, February 2, 2025: Zacchaeus Sunday
1 TIMOTHY 4:9-15
LUKE 19:1-10
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
I was remarking the other day to someone, I can’t really remember who, it might have been to the nuns, but the Gospel, the Good News, can be, and I would submit to you, should be understood, it should be preached, it should be experienced with one word.
All you need is one word to preach the Gospel. All you need is one word to experience the Gospel. And that word is: repent.
That is the beginning, that is the middle, and that is the end of the Gospel. The Gospel, the Good News, is that you can repent. And that repentance is the way to the Kingdom. That repentance is the Kingdom. That repentance is the way to Christ, Who the Kingdom belongs to. Repentance.
What is repentance? Very simple. In the Gospel today, we have Zacchaeus. A man of great wealth. A man of obvious ingenuity. A man who obviously knows how to get what he wants. Zacchaeus not bothered by what people were going to think about him, because if Zacchaeus cared about what people thought about him, as a Jew, he would not have been a tax collector. Because tax collectors, to Jews, were traitors of the worst kind. Betrayers of their own race, of their own people.
So clearly, Zacchaeus did not care about what others thought about him. Moreover, we know that Zacchaeus didn’t care because Zacchaeus, a man of wealth, climbed a tree. You know who climbs trees? Little boys. Boys climb. And laborers, those who have to climb trees to do some sort of work. A man of his wealth, a man of his stature, is not going to climb a tree.
But Zacchaeus didn’t care. And so it’s interesting because, although Zacchaeus is a great sinner, there’s still these virtues that God sees. And it’s the same thing with us.
We are all deeply mired in our sins, in our passions, in our habits. But God still sees those virtues in us. And he’s looking to draw those virtues out of us, if you will, to take the pearl out of the poop. To find that precious thing.
And so Zacchaeus, and this is where repentance begins. This is where we start to see what repentance looked like. Jesus says to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste, come down out of the tree.” And the Gospel says that Zacchaeus made haste and joyfully met Him.
So the first lesson in experiencing repentance is you have to make haste. If you drag your feet at the beckoning of the Lord, you’re not repenting. I’ll say this again: If you’re dragging your feet at the beckoning of the Lord, you are not repenting.
Because that hastening was motivated, was fueled by what? His joy, you see. He sensed the change had come. He sensed the authority, the purity, the potential in Christ. And so he responded appropriately. When a human soul encounters the living God, this is what it looks like. That soul should respond hastily to their Creator, the One who formed you.
So then Zacchaeus, he says, “Come. Let me offer to you now, Lord. Come, sit, dine. Let me make a sumptuous feast for you.” This is the second thing. The soul who is in repentance honors quickly with joyfully, joyfully, the Master, the One who’s calling him and begins to offer, not take.
You see, when a soul is beckoned into communion with God in repentance, the soul doesn’t start saying, well, what can I get? Gimme, gimme, gimme. The soul begins, “What can I do, Lord? What can I do?” See, this is love. “Just Your very presence will heal me. Just Your very presence will bring purity. Just Your very presence will correct me. What can I give You?” Not, “Take, take, take.”
Not, “Well, why didn’t you do this? And why didn’t you do that? And this should be this way, and this should be that way.” That’s not repentance. So now the Lord is sitting, and Zacchaeus still doesn’t care.
He doesn’t care what the Pharisees are saying. He doesn’t care about the people who are grumbling. And he says, whatever I have defrauded someone. See, he recognizes his sin. He sees it so clearly, and he wants nothing to do with it. He doesn’t want to justify it.
He doesn’t want to make excuses for it. He doesn’t want to massage it so it can be a little bit easier on him. And then he says, “Whatever I have defrauded, I will give it back.”
And here is repentance: “I will pay it fourfold.” Fourfold.
Catechumens and newcomers, you’ll hear us old-timers sigh a little bit on this day. We all say, either, “Ugh, Zacchaeus Sunday…” Sometimes we’ll be like, “I was – you lose your mind, I can’t believe it’s Zacchaeus Sunday already.”
And the reason for that is, because Zacchaeus Sunday is this hallmark. It’s this point by which we all know what is coming. And what is coming is Great Lent.
And Great Lent is the most glorious, most joyful, and most difficult and hardest time of the year. All at once. Zacchaeus Sunday is a sign to us of what is to come.
And so we begin to prepare ourselves. We begin to get ready for the great contest that will be upon us. The great arena that we will find ourselves in, battling with our passions, and yes, the demons.
But more than all that, Zacchaeus Sunday needs to be, and should be, a reminder to us of this one thing, the Gospel. Which is in one word, repent. Because Great Lent is about repentance.
Our life in the church is about repentance. Why? Because the only One who is pure, the only One who is innocent, the only One who is holy, the only One who has true love, He beckons us to come and to sit with Him. And the only way that we can properly sit with Him is in repentance.
And all those little points that I mentioned. So everyone examine yourselves. Are you dragging your feet? You’re not in repentance. If you’re begrudgingly giving God what’s His, first of all, obviously you’re not in repentance, and second of all, He doesn’t want it. He doesn’t want it. God loves a joyful giver, a cheerful giver.
God doesn’t love a grumbler, God doesn’t want it. Give joyfully your repentance. That spirit of “Take, take, take, give me, give me, give me” – cut it out. I don’t mean cut it out like a bad habit, I mean cut it out like a cancer that’s killing you. If you’re in repentance, you will feel the joy and the desire to give to the Lord. Yea, even fourfold.
Through the prayers of St. Mary of Egypt, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us.
Saturday, February 1, 2025: St. Mark of Ephesus
1 THESSALONIANS 5:14-23
LUKE 17:3-10
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our midst.
How is it that the righteous are to suffer many tribulations? But the Lord delivers them out of them all. How is it that those who are righteous shall thirst for it, but they shall be satisfied? How is that?
In the Gospel today, the Lord speaks of this owner, this master, as a servant. And He’s saying, how is it that you would even think that if a man has a servant, that servant is out in the field plowing and doing his work, that he would come in and go about his business, and that the master would thank him for that. He says, I think not. He says this because a servant would only understand one simple thing: “I’m simply doing my duty.”
Today we are commemorating St. Mark of Ephesus. St. Mark of Ephesus is following St. Athanasius the Great. And both these great leaders, these lights of the church, these righteous men, these servants, reveal to us this mystery.
Because both St. Mark and St. Athanasius, they did what they did, they struggled mightily against heresy, against mighty odds, for the sake of righteousness. They didn’t do what they did so that someone could pat them on the back. They didn’t do what they did because it was comfortable and convenient for them.
Clearly, St. Mark was a man of deep prayer. Not the kind of prayer that came and go as he wanted – the kind of prayer that formed and shaped his life, that allowed his mind, his nous, to perceive truth, to cut through any machinations politically, philosophically, quote-unquote theologically.
He was only able to do that because of his righteousness. Not because of his brain. Not because of that however many ounces of meat swirling around in between his cranium. That’s not why he was able to cut through the deception of Uniatism. It’s not why St. Athanasius was able to cut through the deception, the foolishness of Arianism. It wasn’t his brain. It was a righteous soul that thirsted for righteousness. It was the honor. It was the duty. It was the dignity of a servant that did what they were supposed to do for the sake of righteousness, for the sake of the one whom they were serving. This is the source of their clarity. This is the source of their courage.
This is the source of their righteousness. They were not self-righteous. They were righteous for the sake of Christ.
Christ is the one who motivated them to pray, day in and day out. And that’s what they did. Christ is the one who motivated them to speak the truth when no one else would speak the truth.
Christ is the one who motivated them to face incredible odds, even unto death, potentially. Christ is the one who gave them courage. Christ is the one who made them righteous.
Note, we don’t talk about the self-righteous, but those who are thirsting and hungering for righteousness’ sake. They’re the ones who’d be satisfied. How can you be satisfied if you are the source of that righteousness? The self-righteous are already filled. They’re filled with something that will never satisfy themselves.
No. The righteous hunger, and they thirst. Because the One who they are hungering and thirsting after, you can’t exhaust Him. We’ll spend eternity drinking and eating from Him. What a mystery.
And what a mystery lies within us, my sons and my daughters, my brothers and my sisters. May we all seek to be righteous. May we all recognize that righteousness in us is going to be a hallmark of true thirst and true hunger.
May we beware of self-righteousness. The very thing that would keep us from the life of our righteous King, the Christ. Through the prayers of St. Mark of Ephesus, Lord Jesus Christ, help us to hunger and thirst for righteousness.