Sunday, June 1, 2025: Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council
ACTS 20:16-18, 28-36
JOHN 17:1-13
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is ascended!
Today in the Gospel of John, we see why John is known as the Eagle. The eagle being the symbol of John, because John’s Gospel soars so high. The theology in John is otherworldly.
We see this profound conversation between our Lord Christ, our Lord Jesus, and the Father. We learn something profound, something is affirmed for us, and that is the Lord speaks to us about the glory that He had before the world was. And this glory is something that is ineffable. We can’t even really speak of it. We have words like glory, worship, and we try to approximate, we try to understand what this is, but it’s beyond us.
And your mind can break, and your soul can begin to shudder, trying to peek into what this means, the glory that the Lord Christ had before the world was. But we see that this glory is something holy. And we also see that this glory, and that the existence of God, the Trinity, truly is something other than the created world. It’s separate, it’s different, it’s other. The world in which the Lord says that He’s not praying for, He says, I’m not praying for the world. I’m praying for those who You’ve given Me, and they’re in the world.
This world that is separate from the glory of the Trinity, this world that is separate that the Lord Himself says, I’m no longer caring for this world. I’m caring for the ones that you have given me that are in this world. This separate world is a world where freedom, the freedom of the will reigns.
And that freedom of the will, that freedom to choose to either love God, to know God, to seek God, or to reject God, and to exalt oneself, this is the world. This is the world. This is what Christ is not praying for. This is what Christ is rejecting. This is what Christ is saying, the world has nothing in Me. And that world is a world of freedom. Freedom misused, freedom abused, but nevertheless, freedom.
Today we are commemorating the First Ecumenical Council, and really the fathers of the ecumenical council, in which the Council of Nicaea was convened because there was a great problem. This error, this heresy of Arianism was spreading like wildfire in the realm.
And now God says enough. And so he empowers and inspires, he raises up Constantine, he empowers and inspires, he raises up Holy Fathers like Spyridon, and like St. Nicholas, and he calls them to come together to fight against error, to fight against falsehood, because Christ existed with the Father from the beginning.
Christ is not created. Christ is not a creation. Christ is God. And because of this world, the freedom, you have people like Arius, like Satan, who were given gifts. You see, Arius, the one who promoted this heresy, Arius was a gifted orator. Arius was a gifted hymnographer. History tells us that the troparions and the hymns that Arius wrote were like today’s pop jingles. They were so catchy. People were singing them. God gave him a gift. And Arius used this gift to spread his heresy all throughout the empire.
Did not Lucifer, the Light Bringer, use his light to spread error throughout the whole universe? Did not Lucifer use the glory that God gave him to cause the other angels to stumble? Did not Lucifer use his light to cause us to stumble? To cause us to take our free will and to use it to exalt ourselves against God? Yes, Lucifer did. And yes, Arius did.
And all the heretics, and heretics are not those outside the church. Heretics are those inside the church. Remember, a heretic is someone who is within the church that has rejected the discipline, has rejected the correction, and says, “No, what’s more important is what I think, what I believe, and ultimately myself.”
The great heretics were always the great egomaniacs. Always. And so they exalt their opinions and their talents and their gifts above God, just like Lucifer.
And we say to ourselves, “Well how? Why does God allow this in the church? Why does God allow this?” Because of this profound mystery of freedom. Why did God give us freedom? So many of us lament that we have freedom. Wish that God would make us puppets. But that’s not love. That’s not love.
And so God shows His love, and he raises up truth. He raises up Constantine. He raises up the fathers. And truth is established. And even in our own selves, our own beings, this is the case. We will oftentimes be overrun with thoughts, overrun with habits, overrun with the freedom, with the fruit, excuse me, of our freedom. Because yes, your passions, yes my passions, your thoughts, yes my thoughts, they are there because of freedom.
God did not implant those things. We brought those things in. We allowed those things to come inside of us. We allowed the flames of hell to trickle up.
But God has not abandoned us. And God raises up Holy Fathers. And God sends authority into our life. And God will send us a true word. Maybe from our spouse. Maybe from our godparent. Maybe from our spiritual father. Maybe from the Scriptures. But that is a manifestation of the love of the Father through Christ by the Holy Spirit. And it raises up authority. And a council is now held.
And now the question will be, will we persist in the error? Or will we seek and defend the truth? Will we persist like Arius and be dazzled by our gifts? Or will we raise up and sacrifice all like St. Nicholas? Will we strike the offender? Will we strike the error? Will we strike the way in which our ego, our pride, and our gifts have raised themselves up against God? The fathers of the Ecumenical Council, they were inspired by God. The councils are inspired by God.
And the councils are necessary because back then and even now, there are wolves. And the wolves are there not because of a lack of love of God. The wolves are there because of the lack of love and the irresponsibility of human beings with the freedom that they’ve been given.
The church are the people of God who have submitted their will in love. And a will submitted in love is the doorway to a heart and a mind that is filled with light. And that being filled with light, this is what it means to begin to understand a small bit of that fellowship between Christ and the Father and the Spirit.
The fathers used philosophy not to understand but to articulate truth. The truth they received through communion. The truth they received in their hearts. The truth they received in their devotion to God. They used philosophy, yes. But the truth was evident. Why? Because they had Christ.
And when you have Christ, there is no error. The error only comes when you sacrifice your freedom of your will for some sort of delusion, some sort of temptation that the devil and that the world gives you.
Look for the ways in which God has raised up authority in your life. Those are the ways in which you will never run astray. Because God will send you a Constantine. God will send you a Nicholas. God will send you a Spyridon. And God will also give you the chance to stand for the truth.
Let us give thanks to God. The fathers of the Ecumenical Council – all the Holy Fathers – they are the manifestation of the love of the Father who has not left us amongst wolves. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.