Sunday, March 23, 2025: Adoration of the Cross
HEBREWS 4:14-5:6
MARK 8:34-9:1
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ!
We have come to the middle point of our contest. We have come to the very center of the arena in which the gladiators do battle. We have come to the place in which the martyrs are offered up. We have come to the place where the victory is won: the Holy Cross.
The Cross is the very place in which life is brought forth. The very place where the wisdom of the world is shown as foolishness, and the foolishness of Christ is shown as the ultimate wisdom. Through His death, he brings life.
Through His death, we find the path to life. The Cross is called the weapon of peace, and the weapon of peace is such that it disarms all enemies. If any man desires to follow after Christ, to follow after the Chosen One, he must take up his Cross. He must know what his cross is. He must embrace that cross. He must bear it in such a way that his enemies are undone.
And the way that you know that your enemies are undone is by knowing what the fruit of the Cross is. And the fruit of the Cross is always love. Love is the one thing that undoes every temptation. Love is the one thing that undoes every trap. Love is the one thing that frees every single captive. Love is the one thing that confounds the devil, the works, the ego.
It is in love that those who are on the verge of divorce find reconciliation. It is in love that those who were once friends and have become bitter enemies now become more than friends, but rather the deepest of brothers. It is in love that those who would seemingly be forever at odds now long to be together.
How is this possible? Because the Cross is the weapon of peace. It is in fallen nature to be on top. It is in fallen nature to strive in ambition, enmity, and envy.
This is in the fallen nature of man because the fallen nature of man has been infected by the fallen one. And so being made in the image of God, we were created to bring about love and harmony, wisdom. We were given all of creation to usher in the animals, the sea, the whole world into this place of greater beauty.
It was a garden. Gardens are cultivated. Gardens are tended. The whole world was to be tended by us. The beauty of the world, the splendor of the world that you see now was to be so much greater. But the enemy sowed his envy and his enmity into us.
And so the world became a shadow, a sick inversion of what God had intended; we became a shadow and a sick inversion of what God intended. But here is the great mystery. Although we ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil prematurely, we still would have found at the Tree of Life, the Cross.
If Adam and Eve, our forefather and mother, had never sinned, if they had been patient and received the fruit of knowledge of good and evil at God’s good timing, they still would have found the Crucified One at the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is the Cross from all eternity, before the foundations of the world.
Why? Because the only way to have holy freedom, the only way to redeem freedom into holiness is through sacrifice. Why did Lucifer fall? Did God create him as such? No. It was the misuse, the perversion of his free will.
And God allowed him that choice. God allows all sentient beings that choice. And the only way to undo the seemingly natural effect of free will causing us to be driven by ego and ambition and conquering the other, the only thing that undoes it is the Cross.
Because what is the Cross? The Cross is self-sacrificial love. The Cross is done for the sake of the other. Period. Christ did not have to be crucified. “No one takes My life from Me. I give it freely.” It is in those words that the power of the Cross is revealed. Christ gave Himself up willingly to show us the way.
Not that you wouldn’t have to. Jesus did not die on the cross that you don’t have to. Jesus died on the cross to show you the way to eternal life, to freedom, to be freed from your tyrannical desires, to be freed from your ego, to be freed from your ambition, to be freed from your vanity.
Because the person who is immersed in love for the sake of others forgives. The person who has tasted forgiveness and knows how sweet it is and remembers how terrible the bondage of bitterness and resentment and vengeance and ambition and envy, that person who remembers how bitter that slavery is, wants everyone that they come in contact with to enjoy their freedom that they have found through the Cross.
There is no argument that’s worth it. There is nothing that you’re going to attain that is worth it. The peace that comes from the weapon of peace, the Cross, the peace that comes from the Cross, there is nothing greater. Once you have that peace, you’ll fight tooth and nail to not lose it. And how do you fight tooth and nail to not lose peace? How do you solve that seeming contradiction? How do you solve this paradox?
You fight tooth and nail with love. You fight tooth and nail by allowing love, which is true sacrifice, the emptying of yourself. You learn to fight with that. And when you do that, nothing can harm you. Nothing can take you away from that. No demon, no passion.
But it does come at a cost. None of you here should be scratching your heads. None of you here should be wondering what I’m talking about. What I’m speaking of is foolishness to the world. But to all of you here in this holy temple, in your hearts, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s not abstract. You faced the Cross last night, and you will face it again today. And we face that Cross every day, every moment, until we step foot into the final kingdom. The weapon of peace, my sons and my daughters. We’re all to be soldiers.
But know what your weapon is: holy, radical, sacrificial love. Lord Jesus Christ, help us to carry Your weapon of peace. And through that, granting us salvation.
Sunday, March 16, 2025: St. Gregory Palamas
HEBREWS 1:10-2:3; HEBREWS 7:26-8:2
MARK 2:1-12; JOHN 10:9-16
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ!
Today, the second Sunday of Lent, we’re commemorating St. Gregory of Palamas, defender of Orthodoxy, defender of hesychasm, teacher of grace. St. Gregory, who was a bishop, but more than being a bishop, he was a true monastic, he was a true lover of God. Spending many years in toil and struggle, seeking God, praying continuously, “Lord, enlighten my darkness.”
St. Gregory, as a hesychast, as one who sought God in stillness, he found himself in a contest, he found himself in a struggle with a certain Barlam. And Barlam represented the Western mind. Barlam represented this rationalistic and, yea, maybe even a materialist mindset. The hesychasts hold the tradition, the deep secret of the Orthodox tradition, that we can and, in fact, do encounter God through His energies.
That, in fact, when we encounter the works of God, the things that God gives us, that, in fact, it is God Himself that we’re encountering. And the Western mind still does not understand this, still does not believe it. And instead, the Western mind seeks to find God through its own logic, its own philosophy, its own rationalizations.
And this is essentially to understand the difference between what St. Gregory of Palamas and Barlam were teaching, if you’re so interested in looking into it. But I bring it up for this reason, because as we’re celebrating him, as the church has designated the second Sunday of Lent to him, we ask the question, why? Well, there’s many reasons why. But today I would put forward this one thing, that we can and do encounter God. But we can only encounter God in His fullness if we crucify this rationalist mind.
In the Gospel today, we have these four men, who they are faced with a true dilemma. A brother who they love very dearly, who has been paralyzed for who knows how long, is unable to move, is unable to care for himself.
They bring him to Jesus. Now, as the Gospel said, the house is surrounded, you couldn’t even get in through the doorway. And so this is where we begin to uncover this proper mindset.
Because if they stuck to their rationalist mind, to their philosophical mind, they would say, well, it’s pretty busy in there, we’re not going to get him to Christ. We’ve been carrying him around 30 years, what’s another 20? Or maybe they would say, well, I’m sure, Jesus being very popular, I’m sure there’s going to be another place on his tour, we’ll find him there. They could have kicked the can down the road, they could have done all kinds of things.
But ultimately, their love and their faith in God brought them to think outside of the box. And going outside of the box, they did the thing that no one would have thought of. In fact, they did the thing that everyone probably was offended at. They tore the man’s house apart. And then lowered Christ down to him. Now that’s faith. That’s faith. And that faith can only happen when one is actually seeking God.
Now, St. Gregory being a hesychast, what is hesychasm? Hesychasm is finding God in stillness. And one of the main ways of finding God in stillness is by saying the Jesus prayer. But we should understand something about the Jesus prayer. The Jesus prayer isn’t a mantra, it isn’t a magic spell.
The Jesus prayer is putting oneself in front of God continuously. The Jesus prayer is forcing one’s eyes open to stare into the light. You see, when Christ appears, there’s no doubt. There’s no questioning. There’s no speculation. There’s no, “Well, maybe it’s this, and maybe it’s that.”
When Christ shows up, there’s nothing but pure clarity. You see things as they are. And this is the strength of the hesychast.
When the hesychasts speak about encountering the Uncreated Light, they’re not speaking about some strange phenomenon per se. They’re speaking about encountering Christ in His fullness. And encountering Christ in His fullness allows them to see very clearly through certain things, like the teachings of Barlam, which said that we find Christ, we find God, through logic, philosophy, you know, kind of playing around with things. And the playing around with things, this is where we begin to discover God. And St. Gregory says no. In fact, we find God in light because He is light.
And that light brings us to a purity of mind. See, this purity of mind is what allows us to do whatever we need to do to find God. Many times in our lives we will encounter difficult situations.
In the Gospel, the second Gospel, Jesus says, I am the door. If anyone seems to come, seeks to come to the Father, he must come through Me. And He goes on to say, I’m the good shepherd. I’m not a hireling.
For many people, they are distracted by the hireling. They are distracted by the institution of the church. They are distracted by the speculations and the philosophies that people put forward, the moral teachings that people put forward. But these things are not necessarily the truth of Christ. And so what happens is, we can begin to build our house on sand and not rock.
And this is very important. Because St. Gregory Palamas, a little side note, St. Gregory Palamas spent some time in captivity to Muslims. And the reason why I bring this up is because St. Gregory’s time in captivity did not break him.
He did not say, “Oh, God has abandoned me. Where are you God?” In fact, it deepened his faith. Those who encounter Christ in truth and in spirit, those who encounter Christ in light, that light is never taken from them.
Because they’re not following a hireling. They’re following the True Shepherd. And that Shepherd, His voice leads them to green pastures. And the path to those green pastures are not always smooth. They’re at times rocky. They’re at times perilous. But it’s His true voice that allows us to find the green pasture. It’s the true voice that seeks us to go outside the pocket. To tear the roof open.
It’s that true voice that makes us crazy and fools to the world. And this is the thing. The true follower of Christ will always look foolish to the world. The one who’s encountered Christ, the one who’s seeking Christ, the one who desires Christ, he’s not concerned with how the world sees things, how the world does things. He’s concerned with how Christ sees things and how Christ does things. And as his disciples, we follow Him.
As His sheep, we hear His voice. And as His children, we accept the good gifts that He gives us, including the difficult path, including the rocky path. Why? Because He is the light that illumines our path.
And this is the whole point of the Jesus prayer. This is the whole point of the light, is that we would find our way home. That we would be close to our Shepherd. That we would enter through the door, the straight way.
So, on this day of St. Gregory Palamas, and all those of us who are endeavoring to find Christ in the Jesus prayer, let us never forget the true meaning of what it means to pray unto Christ. It means to have His light. And in His light, we see clearly.
Through the prayers of St. Gregory Palamas, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Sunday, March 9, 2025: Sunday of Orthodoxy, 1st & 2nd Findings of the Head of St. John the Baptist
HEBREWS 11:24-26, 11:32-12:2
JOHN 1:43-51
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Today is the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, in which we commemorate the victory over the heresy of iconoclasm, iconoclasm being a heresy which taught that the holy icons were not windows to heaven, that the holy icons were not blessed, but in fact were forms of error, idols. And this heresy, as we all know, is still with us today, unfortunately.
And so we see that the Triumph of Orthodoxy is really a triumph of the people of God, because the people of God, we know the truth: that Christ has come into the flesh, that Christ has given His glory and his blessing upon all His people. When you look at an icon, this is what you’re seeing, you’re seeing heaven. When you look and you see a human being with a halo around their head, what you’re seeing is heaven.
Heaven is God and people together in unity, theosis. And so, more than just the incarnation, more than just the reality that God came to earth, became man and dwelt among us, we recognize that the icon reveals profound truth, that God desires to indwell within man. Not just simply that Jesus is God and man, yes, but the icon is a proclamation of theosis, that God desires to not simply take us to a place.
Heaven isn’t about God taking us to a place where there’s harps and babies and clouds and streets of gold, but heaven is that God is seeking to actually dwell in us, become united with us, even more intimately than a husband and a wife. God seeks to be closer than our very own breath, and this truth is really what the world and the demons have always fought against. The iconoclasts thought that they were trying to come against superstition, but in reality, the iconoclasts were motivated by the demons to come against the love of God for man.
And this is the rage that the demons always have expressed, and even to this day, they express this rage, this unbelievable envy and resentment that God chose mankind above all his creation, and even yes, above the angels, to indwell within us in a way that is so profound and so intimate. This indwelling of God within us also means that we’ve been given a terrible responsibility.
In the Gospels, the Lord tells his disciples that whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever is loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And so if God is dwelling within us in such a way that miracles are worked in His very hands, if God is indwelling us in such a way that the laws of nature are transcended, then how much more the authority of the Church to proclaim anathema. You see, the icon presents this truth that God indwells man, but that also God has given man, His Church, a certain authority. This is important.
If you remember in the Gospel, the Lord gives the parable of the vineyard, remember this, and there’s a vineyard that’s leased out to these workers, and these workers who are to be taking care of the vineyard, right, they become lax in what they’re supposed to be doing, and so the Lord sends who? Workers. And what do they do? They kill these workers, and they eventually get to this point where they kill the son himself.
Now, the authority that the Lord has given the Church is such that when the Lord proclaims something through His Church, it goes throughout the world. And the Church has proclaimed that there is a boundary in which tradition establishes who the people of God are. The icons are that boundary. They show us who the saints are, and they show us how to become a saint.
Martyrdom, bearing witness, asceticism, these are all things that the Lord has given us as a marker to see who is it that is the holy ones, who is it are the ones who have received theosis. But on the other end, we see those who have rejected this truth, and to reject the truth of theosis, to reject the truth that God has vested His church with this power to both cut and to bind. This is important for us to remember, because we live in a time where there’s so many sects, there’s so many various teachings and heresies that would seek to say not only that the icons are not holy, but that the church herself is not holy, and that the Church herself has no authority.
And we must be very careful to guard this, because when we proclaim the Triumph of Orthodoxy, we’re not just proclaiming that God can use beautiful icons to proclaim His incarnation. We’re not just saying that God is proclaiming icons as a means of theosis. We’re also saying that if we don’t heed the word of God through His Church, then we are in essence denying His authority, because the authority vested to the Church is vested by Who? God.
God. When those men came to kill, when those house, when those servants of the owner of the vineyard came, who did they come? Whose authority did they come under? The owner of the vineyard. It was his authority that they were wielding.
And so when the Church says to us, there is this boundary. Many of us came to this, came to Orthodoxy with this idea of this invisible church. This invisible church.
As Protestants, we’re taught, “Well, if I just believe something, if I think something, I’m in Christ.” And the Church says no. The Church says the body of Christ is a visible body. The body of Christ is a culture. The body of Christ is a people. And that people in that culture have invested with authority to say what is of God and what isn’t of God.
And so on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, it isn’t just the triumph of icons that we’re proclaiming. We’re proclaiming the authority of the Church. And that authority of the Church is the one that keeps those who are within the walls safe and those who reject the authority of God outside of those very same walls.
My brothers and my sisters, I wish to say this to you: our fidelity, our faithfulness to Orthodoxy, it isn’t just about the externals; it’s about this obedience to Christ. When we become catechumens and we get baptized, we are in essence saying we’re bowing our knee to the authority of the Church.
And this is very important because every single one of us came to this understanding. You may have had icons in your house for years. You may have liked to have said the Jesus prayer. You may have had to like all the trappings of Orthodoxy. But something inside you said, “I can’t just have the trappings of Orthodoxy. I have to become Orthodox.”
And what does that mean? It means that you submitted yourself to the authority of Christ and His Church. And that authority that you come to find saves you. It heals you. It delivers you from your passions. And being delivered from your passions, that is the pathway to theosis.
There’s a lot at stake on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. It isn’t just the beauty of the icons, but it’s the power and the beauty and the glory of God’s authority. The authority of a Father to preserve His people, to preserve his body.
This is the triumph. That God has dwelt among men and Christ knows how to preserve His Church even against the gates of hell. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.