Friday, May 30, 2025: St. Jonah of Odessa
ACTS 19:1-8
JOHN 14:1-11
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is ascended!
Today we are commemorating St. Jonah of Odessa. St. Jonah of Odessa, a wonderworker. St. Jonah of Odessa is a priest, a married priest, a spiritual father, who has incredible and countless accounts of the power of Christ working through him. St. Jonah of Odessa being a priest, being an exorcist, being a conduit of the power of God.
And in examining the life of St. Jonah, it’s a very strong temptation to look at the spectacular demonstrations of God’s power in his life. It’s a strong temptation to see his mastery over the fallen ones. It’s a temptation to look at his ability to be a vessel of God’s healing power in the lives of those who are broken and destitute, those in need of repentance and salvation. It’s a temptation to see how the angels themselves were the chariots for St. Jonah. Through their very presence, he’s able to be in one place and another the next.
But in examining his life, there’s something I believe to be even more profound. St. Jonah was an orphan. His parents having died and him being orphaned at a young age, St. Jonah went through something that very few would wish to go through. And St. Jonah went through that and came out the better. You see, St. Jonah, the source of his mastery over the demons, St. Jonah, the source of his availability to the people, St. Jonah, the source of his connection to the angels, is found in the fact that the man who had no father learned to become a father.
In the Gospel today, the Lord Jesus says essentially to us, “Do you not know that in My Father’s house are many mansions? If it was not so, I would have told you.” And what this means is you are accepted. What this means is there is a place for you.
What this means is that when the Lord says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me,” we should understand that this profound mystery of fatherhood is revealed fully in Christ. But in the life of St. Jonah, we see it in a whole other way because St. Jonah was an orphan. And in the loss of an earthly father, he had to learn to open his heart up to receive the Heavenly Father.
And this is difficult because so often the events of our life become the means by which we find the justification to allow the wounds to take us down a different path. St. Jonah could have become a bitter man like so many people do. The sense of rejection of not having parents, the sense of rejection of being an orphan and essentially being a bastard in society. St. Jonah did not allow this to embitter him. Rather, it opened him up.
And so the one who had no father learned what it meant to be a father. And so he became one. And this is the source of his power, being connected to Christ, being connected to the Father through Christ. And in doing so, being a father to those who need a father.
And this is what the demons hated the most about him. His willingness to be a conduit for the love of God, the love of the Father. The love of a father is like no other.
The love of a father is like no other. The love of a mother is tender. It’s sweet. It is without condition. The love of a father is also tender. It is also sweet. It is also without condition. But there’s one distinct difference between the love of a father and the love of a mother. The love of a father has in its own unique way a sacrifice that’s different than the love of a mother.
A mother is the ultimate icon of sacrifice. She gives her very body for the nourishment of her children. But a father, a father gives his children freedom. And in that freedom, the father recognizes that that child has a choice. And so oftentimes, us earthly fathers, we understand a painful but profound truth that is in giving love to our child that we must give them their freedom. And in giving them their freedom, it’s only in that space and it is only in that time that they can truly understand their relation to us.
And there’s no greater joy than when a father looks upon their child and they know that they have chosen freely to love. This is the love of a father, that freedom to love. And this is the thing that the demons loathed and hated. And this is the reason why St. John was able to have power over them. Because the demons work by constraining and forcing, pushing people into bitterness, pushing people into isolation, pushing people into resentment and regret. This is the source of the power behind all the wounds that strike mankind. And this is how demons get influence over others.
But the love of the father that says, you are free, not only are you free, but there is always a place here for you. That level of unconditional love, that is something that will humble even the hardest of souls if they’re willing to see the truth of the love of the father.
So, today, this great wonderworker in all his mighty deeds, let us not forget the greatest of them is that the one who was an orphan is the one who became a great father. Through the prayers of St. Jonah, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Thursday, May 29, 2025: The Ascension of Our Lord
ACTS 1:1-12
LUKE 24:36-53
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is ascended!
This is a wonderful day of rejoicing. This is a wonderful day of rejoicing. Our Lord has made way for all our fears to be dissipated, all our fears to melt away like wax. The Lord has made a way for all our hopes to come to fruition.
When we look upon our lives, we look upon our children, we look upon our sisters, our brothers, we look upon the works of our hands, we look upon our bodies. And we know that death should not be.
We give thanks. We’ve had 40 days of saying “Christ is risen.” And so, we know that Christ is risen. We trust in the resurrection. But today, we know that God does more than just resurrect us bodily. He brings our very lives up into heaven. Not only does He restore life to us, but He grants unto us the glorified life. He brings to us the glory of the Father. And so, the works of our hands, and more than the works of our hands, our very hands themselves become deified.
Now, I mentioned last night that we live in this tension. This tension is such that we understand, we know that this deification, theosis, is true. We have saints, not ancient ones, but even contemporary ones, who bring the evidence to us that God indeed has deified man. And yet, we still live in times of tribulation. And so, what are we to do?
In the Gospel, the Lord says to the apostles, Stay in Jerusalem. Wait there. Wait until power from on high is sent to you. Jerusalem is the city of peace. Stay in a place of peace. Stay in a place in which you can rest. Stay in a place in which you can hold on in faith to My promises. And then, when you are strong enough, once you have been given the grace to follow Me even further, then move out in power.
The Ascension for us is a time in which we should give thanks. We recognize and we taste a small bit of the fulfillment of what God has for us. But more importantly, we are being prepared. We are being prepared for Pentecost. We are being prepared to move out in power. We are being prepared to move out in fullness of mission. We are being prepared to move out in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And in that, we take on fully what God has intended. Because God intended and does wish to deify the whole world. But it is us who must bring that grace to the world. It is us who must bear witness. It is us who must be the bridges from heaven to earth. Not intellectually. Bodily. God wants to deify the whole world.
We are not Gnostics. We are Christians. And so we know. We have St. John of Shanghai. We have St. Paisios the Athonite. We have St. Sophrony. We have so many saints who have given us the pledge. And they said, “Look at us. Are we not the bearers of the Holy Spirit? Are we not even now walking in theosis?” Yes, they are. And so as they are, so we should be.
But until that time in which we can find perfect rest in our hearts and our minds through faith, we must wait. But when, and here’s the trick, when that time of expectation has come, we must be ready. Yes, we rest. But we rest for work. Life is work and work is good. Eternal life is work for the kingdom. Eternal life is joy. Eternal life is creation. Eternal life is life lived.
Today we rejoice. Today, take Holy Communion with a renewed sense of vigor, a renewed sense of hope. Let it go through all the sinews of your body. Let it fill your innards.
Feel the life of Christ within you and find that place of peace. And then we wait. We wait for the Holy Spirit to descend upon us.
Christ has ascended! Amen.
Monday, May 26, 2025: St. Glykeria
ACTS 17:1-15
JOHN 11:47-57
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
In the Gospel today, we have a high priest, Caiaphas, of the Most High God, the Living God, the True God.
And Caiaphas is a man who fears as men do. Caiaphas hears the word of the people, the Pharisees. And Caiaphas as a man, like the rest of the Pharisees, are afraid. They fear that the Romans will come, destroy their holy temple, destroy their nation, destroy their people. They fear that the Romans will come. And in truth, the reality is that they feared the god of the Romans. They feared the god of the Romans. They feared the power behind the Romans. And this is wrong.
And so the Lord will not be mocked. And so, as the Lord is oft to do, often speaking through donkeys, riding on donkeys, He chose to speak through the donkey of the high priest that year, Caiaphas. He says, “It’s expedient that one man should die for the nation.”
He prophesies the power of the Christ to lay down His life and to take it back up. That this power, this power would be shown forth, not just for the Jews, but for all the nations. And in His death, Christ would do the thing the Jews were always to do. He would shoot forth like lightning and awaken the nations to the power, to the majesty, to the light of the Most High God.
Today we’re commemorating the martyr Glykeria. Glykeria who found herself emboldened by God, making the sign of the cross upon her head, covering her head with her veil, going into the temple of Zeus, and like a perfect inversion of Caiaphas, prophesies and topples the statue of Zeus.
Now Zeus, the god, Zeus, the god behind the Romans, one of the many gods behind the Romans, but Zeus, the head of that pantheon, the lord over all gods, the god of the sky and thunder – Satan. His kingdom being toppled by a girl, a young girl. Such poetic justice the Lord has always.
The lightning of Zeus, the thunder of Zeus. This is the fear that was instilled in the hearts of the Pharisees, the power of the Romans, the mighty legion able to come in swift and strike and tear down a whole nation in a matter of days. This was the power of the Romans, but the power of God is humility.
And in the same way, Glykeria emulates her Lord, one taking down many. Does not Zeus still represent, and does not the temple of Zeus still represent our feeble attempts at power, of lust of power, emboldened by the devil? And will not God still use one maiden to topple those temples? Do we not see, not just in Glykeria, but ultimately in our own Holy Mother, the Theotokos, is she not the one single maiden, the one young girl that comes in humility and topples down the devil that sits at the very height of the temples of our hearts?
God is not mocked. God will take the weak to humble the strong, and He will always do that. This is his way. Through the prayers of St. Glykeria, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, help us to stay humble, and to receive the glory that comes from the Lord, who rides on a donkey, on the foal of an ass. Amen.
Sunday, May 25, 2025: Sunday of the Blind Man
ACTS 16:16-34
JOHN 9:1-38
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
The Lord said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. In the Gospel today, in the Epistle today, there’s truth. Truth is everywhere to be found, and seemingly not being found at the same time. Truth is evident. It is what it is. The man was blind. Christ healed him.
Now, from the very beginning, we see that the apostles, they themselves, are unable to grasp upon the truth. Why is this? They say, Lord, is this man blind because of sin? And the apostles were not in error for this speculation. Well, there have been other times when the Lord had healed and said, “This is because of your sin.”
And so, oftentimes, the truth is, illness is because of sin. There were times when there was illness, and the Lord healed and delivered because of the works of the devil. And the Lord healed and delivered them, and said, “This is the work of the devil.” The devil has done this. The devil has caused this woman to have this affliction for 18 years.
But in this situation, that was not the case. The parents of the blind man, they knew that it was their son. They understood the truth of that. They also understood the truth of the religious system that they were in. They knew that the Pharisees were unhappy. And so, if they could have, they would have lied. But instead, out of fear, they still saw the truth, they held to the truth, but they didn’t love the truth. And so, they said, “Yes, yes, he’s our son, but we don’t know anything else. You ask him.” Because they were afraid, they didn’t want to be ostracized.
The Pharisees, they see the truth again, that Jesus is not who they think he is. But they can’t reconcile that truth with the truth that they were the disciples of Moses. It’s true. The Pharisees, especially over and against the Sadducees, they were the disciples of Moses. That is true. The Pharisees, they did keep the law, as they should, that is true. But there was a truth that they were missing. They worshipped the true God, but not in a true way.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. As Christians, meaning little Christs, meaning disciples of Christ, meaning the children of God, we are to not simply know truth, but we’re to know truth in the biblical sense of loving truth.
Do you remember all the way back in Genesis, when it says that Adam knew his wife? That’s the way we’re supposed to see truth. Not just see it for what it is. Because when you just see truth for what it is, you can manipulate it. I’ll tell you a secret, the devil loves truth. In fact, the devil wants to make sure that you have enough truth to be armed.
In the Epistle of Acts today, here is this demon-possessed girl. And she’s saying, “Look, it’s the apostles of the Most High.” Was she not speaking, excuse me, was the devil, was the demon not speaking truth? The demon was speaking truth. Boldly proclaiming truth. Governments do it all the time. They give you just enough truth. The demons do it all the time. They give you just enough truth.
Seeing the truth and recognizing the truth is one thing. The Pharisees saw truth, the apostles saw truth, but no one saw what was actually true. This is why we persist in our sins. Because the act of justification.
St. Paisios the Athonite, he says, “Justification is satanic.” Justification is satanic. Justification is satanic. What does “satan” mean? Satan means accuser, the accuser. Justification is satanic. How does justification become satanic? Because you have a grain of truth which validates your feelings and your opinions just enough. And then you’re weaponized and you’re ready to go. You are ready to go. Justification is satanic.
The Pharisees were justified. They knew the law. They were the rightful wielders of the law. But they did not love truth. Because for the Pharisees and for our egos and for the demons, the truth is an abstract concept. The truth is an idea. Or the truth is the God which we do not want to bow our knee to.
Because remember, for us, Truth isn’t an idea. It’s a Person. Truth is a Person. Truth is not the force. Truth is not some impersonal thing that you can play around with or interpret as you like and weaponize. Truth is a person. When you abuse Truth, you abuse Christ. When you misuse Truth, you misuse Christ. When you use Truth to justify yourself, you are in league with Satan himself. Period. Full stop. No exceptions.
I’m not an exception. The bishop is not an exception. Neither one of you here are exceptions. Whenever we misuse Truth, we are in league with Satan. Period. Period. And your love of justification, listen to me closely, will send you to hell. What is hell? Hell is the refusal of the love of God.
Because the Lord Jesus himself said, “This man is blind so that the works of God can be made manifest.” Are God’s works ever evil? Never. God’s work is never evil. And yet we justify ourselves against God’s work. You’re not justifying yourself against your wife. You’re not justifying yourself against your husband. You’re not justifying yourself against your parents. You’re not justifying yourself against your spiritual father. You’re justifying yourself against God.
God is the One who loves you and is trying to get you to be in heaven, to be in paradise, to be freed from your vanity and from your lust and from your anger and from your destruction. He’s not going to free you from patting you on the bum and telling you that you’re the best thing, that you are the gift to everyone else. That’s vanity, that’s justification, and it’s not the Truth.
You think you are God’s gift to everything because you are deluded and you don’t love Truth. You love a lie. You love the father of lies. Who is the father of lies?
Calm down, Father. Calm down. I’ll see you in Armageddon. I’ll see you at that place of battle. And just remember, the one who’s fighting for you, the one who’s on your side, is not the one justifying you. It’s the one who’s trying to show you Who the Truth is.
Christ is risen!
Wednesday, May 21, 2025: St. John the Theologian
Homily given for the students of Mount Tabor School.
1 JOHN 1:1-7
JOHN 19:25-27; 21:24-25
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
So today is the day, the feast day of St. John the Theologian. And St. John the Theologian is the beloved of the Lord. Now, he has this title, Theologian.
Do you guys know what that means? What is a theologian? Not sure what it means, huh? Well, a theologian, some people will tell you, is someone who knows a lot about God. Knows a lot of things about God. A theologian is someone who can speak about God, who can teach about things about God.
But really, a theologian isn’t necessarily someone who knows things about God. A theologian is someone who actually knows God. Because you can know a lot of things about someone and not know them, isn’t that right? You can read a book about somebody. You can look at a picture of somebody. You can learn a lot about them. But reading a book about someone and looking at a picture of someone isn’t the same thing as knowing them. You can teach about somebody. We can get a book about Sophia. And we can read about Sophia and talk about Sophia. And write long stories about Sophia. But does that mean that we know who Sophia is? No.
And so a theologian is someone who actually knows God – doesn’t just talk about God, doesn’t just write long books about God, but knows God. And this is really important because when we look at St. John the Theologian, and we know that he loved God, he was the one that at the Last Supper he laid his head on the chest of Jesus.
But even more than that, in the Gospel today we hear something very powerful. Jesus is on the cross and he’s about to give his spirit to the Father. And he says, “Woman, behold your son,” speaking to the Theotokos. And pointing to St. John and saying, This is now your son. I am leaving. And I can’t take care of you the way that a son would take care of you. So now I’m giving you to my disciple John.
And He says, “John, behold your mother.” And so we see a little secret, don’t we? Jesus is God, isn’t he? Right? Jesus is God. And so if we want to know God, not just talk about God, not just read books about God, but know God, perhaps maybe we need to take care of his mother.
See, St. John took care of the Theotokos. He took her and they lived in a place called Ephesus for a long time. And he watched over her. But more importantly than just watching over her, he listened to her. The Theotokos taught him things. She shared with him things. And those things made sense to him. And those things went deep into his heart. And this is how St. John became a theologian. Because he knew God, he knew Jesus, and he took care of His mother. And those two things together is what allowed his heart to become so filled with understanding about Who God is.
And so the church has given us a great gift. Because when we get to know the Theotokos, each and every one of you, pay attention. Each and every one of you, when you take care of the Theotokos, it’s like becoming a sister or a brother to Christ. Because you then have her as your mother. And when you have her as your mother, then you have Christ as your Brother. Not just your God. Not just your King. Not just your Lord, but as your Brother. And you begin to experience the love of God the Father. You begin to experience the love of the Holy Spirit.
You begin to experience the love of Christ in a whole new way. Why? Because you’re taking care of Christ’s mother. The Theotokos, she is the one who is like the church. She is the one who held Christ inside of her. She is the one who first loved Christ.
So, if you feel like your heart is cold, if you feel like you don’t really have the love, if you feel like your prayers aren’t really doing what you want them to do, turn to the Theotokos. Ask her to help you to love her Son. And she will. Because that’s her greatest joy. Her greatest joy is to always point others to her son. And when that happens, then you become a theologian. Because in our church, a theologian isn’t someone who studies and reads books. A theologian is someone who prays. And what is prayer? Prayer is attention. Prayer is communion with God.
Christ is risen!
Wednesday, May 14, 2025: Mid-Pentecost
Homily given for the students of Mount Tabor School.
ACTS 14:6-18
JOHN 7:14-30
In the Gospel today, Jesus is in the temple and He’s teaching, and He’s teaching so well, the things that He’s saying are so amazing that the Pharisees, the other teachers, were very jealous. And they didn’t understand how Jesus, Who did not go to school like they did, did not go to the schools that they went to, Jesus Who didn’t have some of the opportunities that they had, He didn’t have them, how is it that He was able to teach so well, that the things that He said were blowing their minds, how is that? And Jesus says, essentially, because of the One who sent me, My Heavenly Father sent me, because He sent me, what I speak is true.
Now, in your own lives, and in all of our lives, we can make a mistake. And we can think that the information that we have, right, that we know things, that we’ve heard things, but that necessarily means that the things that we’ve heard, and the things that are going to come out of us because we’ve heard them, are good. It’s not so true, because you see, it’s a matter of your heart, it’s a matter of your heart.
See, information is this, is what we call neutral. You guys know what this word “neutral” means? Neutral? It means it doesn’t really matter, it’s not good or bad, it just is. One plus one, is that, what is that? What’s one plus one?
Two.
Two. Is that good, or is that evil? It’s neither, right? It just is. What color is Isidora’s sweater?
Black.
Well, it’s kind of blue to me, but whether it’s black or blue doesn’t matter. Is black equal and blue good? It’s just a color, right? It’s just information. It’s just information, right? Something’s five feet tall, something’s nine feet tall, something weighs a hundred pounds, something weighs a thousand pounds, something is 500 miles away, something is 5,000 miles away.
It’s all just information, but the way that you use the information, that’s what matters. Because you can take information and can use it to speak the truth, or you can take the same information and maybe because you’re jealous, maybe because you’re a bit ambitious, maybe because you’re mad at somebody, you can use that information in the wrong way, and you can use it to hurt someone. Does that make sense? And so, this is why it’s so important to remember that whether it’s with school, whether it’s– because life is school, right? All of life is about learning something.
It’s one thing to learn something, it’s another thing to have a good mind and a good heart that can use that information for good. So the question is, is how do we make sure that our hearts and our minds are good? Because you’re going to learn something. The question is, is what are you going to do with your knowledge? Are you going to use that knowledge to help others and to bless others and to the glory of God? Or are you going to use that knowledge to make yourself richer or stronger or better than other people? Are you going to use that knowledge to hurt other people?
Because the things that Jesus was teaching in the temple, it wasn’t that different than what the Pharisees taught, but the difference was very, very different, wasn’t it? The Pharisees taught things to make themselves feel better, to be better about the people, and when the Pharisees taught about God, it distanced the people from God.
But when Jesus taught about the same thing, when Jesus taught about the law, the Pharisees taught about the law, when He taught about the law, people understood God, and people drew closer to God, and people wanted to be with God, you see? Same information, but the intention was very different. When Jesus teaches, there’s love. When the Pharisees taught, there’s jealousy.
So when you now have information, what will you do? Will you take the knowledge that you have, and will you be like Christ? Will you lift people up? Will you lift up the glory of God? Or will you seek to lift yourself up?
This is a big question, guys. One that you need to start asking yourself now, because when you go out to play today, when you go out to do whatever you’re going to do, and then the weekend and during the summertime, the question will always be, what is coming out of your mouth? What are you doing with the thoughts that are given to you? What are you doing with the things in your heart? What do you think? What are you doing with the things that you learned in school?
When we keep our eye on Christ, Christ will then come inside our temple, and He’ll teach us, and He’ll help us to understand. And when He helps us to understand, then the things that come out of our mouth, it’s like they come from Him.
And instead of our words being words of jealousy, or words of meanness, our words will be light and love, and people will feel closer to God, and when people feel closer to God, they’ll feel closer to you. Okay? So let Jesus teach from the temple of your heart. Let Jesus teach from the temple of your heart. Let Him use the information that you’ve been given for the good and not for evil.
Christ is risen!
Monday, May 12, 2025: St. Basil of Ostrog, St. Nektary of Optina, St. Amphilochius of Pochaev
Acts 10:1-16
John 6:56-69
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
In the Epistle today, we hear about the alms, the offerings, the prayers of the righteous pagan Cornelius were heard by God, and God honored his alms. And this work brought him to a place in which God honored him, meaning not only did God remember him, but God brought him unto Himself. God called and beckoned Cornelius to come. And so, in order for Cornelius to be received, the ones who were to do the receiving had to be prepared.
And so Peter – the Rock – Peter is given a vision, and Peter is needing this vision because Peter was still unaware of the great work that the Lord had. Remember that Peter, like we can assume many of the disciples, some of the Apostles, did not quite understand what the work of the Lord was. And so Peter did not still understand yet that the work of the Lord was beyond simply coming and liberating Israel from their oppressors of Rome.
Beyond that, Peter witnessed the resurrection of the dead. Peter witnessed the Father raising Christ, and yet Peter still is not understanding that salvation was to be brought for all of mankind. And we know this because Peter struggled with this idea, because Peter kept the law.
Peter was a good Jew. And so this vision was necessary of all these unclean animals, food that no good Jew would have ever eaten. This is brought to Peter. Now, what’s interesting here is that this vision happens, and Peter displays a good Orthodox sense of sobriety because Peter, in one hand and in one sense, he says, No, I’ve never done this before. I’ve never eaten anything unclean. It’s fascinating because do you notice? Peter says, Lord.
Peter says, Lord, I’ve never eaten anything unclean. And this is where we understand a little bit more clearly what’s going on inside Peter because in some sense, we could say he was being sober and denying a vision, but Peter knew it was the Lord, and he still said, No, no, no, Lord. I’ve never eaten anything unclean.
And this is key because it wasn’t so much of Peter not knowing what was going on. It was Peter not being able to let go of his logic. It was Peter not being able to let go of the way that he assumed things. And more importantly, it was Peter forgetting something. It was Peter forgetting something very valuable that he had learned when he was a disciple of the Lord, and what is that?
Now, let us go to the Gospels, and let us look and see because the Lord is giving the teaching, the core teaching of what it means to be a Christian, the core, that he is giving his life for us, not metaphorically, literally. He says, “Eat of Me.”
And unfortunately, we all know of this confusion. I shudder to even speak of it in the Lord’s temple, but we must. That many of us struggle with this very idea that Christ, God, would give himself literally to be eaten and to be drunk, and this is why many of us struggle with conversion, and this is why still so many to this day struggle.
Early accounts of cannibalism and other blasphemies uttered against our forefathers for obeying the Lord. Nevertheless, I digress, Peter says, right, Peter says, “Lord, where will we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” Interestingly enough, before Peter says this, what happens? The disciples, many of the disciples are confused, and they don’t understand what Christ is saying, and it says that they walked with him – at John 666 – it says that many of the disciples walked with him no more.
Now, this is an important moment for countless reasons, but for today, we have to understand this. Peter is the one. This is maybe one of the many reasons why the Lord made him the Rock, quote unquote. Peter stands up and says, “Where are we to go?” The Lord didn’t sit there and explain what he meant. He didn’t say to those disciples who were leaving, well, this is metaphor. Well, this is a symbol.
He explained things like this before. He had no problem taking disciples aside and saying, look, this is what the parable of the seed by the road means. This is what it means when I say I’m the door. He didn’t do it this time. And so we see Peter gathering himself his inner powers and recognizing, “Where are we to go?” Just like Peter also said, “You are the Christ.”
And so this is why our warning today should be terrifying. Because Peter walked with Christ. Peter was the one several times, and I’m sure more times than have been recorded in the Gospels.
He was he was the one who got it. Okay. But in this moment, in the book of Acts, in this Epistle today, Peter’s forgotten. He’s forgotten that Christ, that Jesus, that the Lord is going to go outside the bounds of his understanding. Peter’s forgotten that the Lord’s vision and the Lord’s ways are beyond his. Peter has forgotten. Peter doesn’t know everything. And so he says, “Lord, I have never eaten anything unclean.” There is no speculation. Peter knows it’s the Lord, and yet he’s still stuck.
Three times the vision happened. It says it happened three times. Peter needed three times. And we are all familiar with this. Peter still struggled, didn’t he? Because we know from the Epistle in Galatians, Peter still struggled with this idea of what it meant to be a follower of Christ versus what it meant to stick to his logic, to his way of doing things, to his understanding.
For those of you who don’t know here, Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles. Even after this happened with the vision, even after the Christ had spoken to him, Peter still refused to eat with the Gentiles, so much so that Paul had to stand up and call him out in front of everyone. If Peter, the Rock, could have this stubbornness within him for so long with Christ, years after Christ’s resurrection, working miracles in Christ’s name, people being healed by just being in his shadow, and still, Peter, his vision being very small.
Should we not look at our own lives and say, what am I not understanding? Truly, I see in my own life as a priest, as a spiritual father, my own blindness, yes, of course. But I see where short-sightedness brings so much sin and destruction to people’s lives because they think that they understand something and they think that something needs to work according to a very narrow perspective and they will not let go. Warning upon warning upon warning upon warning.
This is a very real issue. And I bring it up because, again, this thing of our logic. Because if you want to be charitable, of course, Peter is going to feel this way. It was the traditions of his father.
We always have to remember, what is more important? The tradition or the One who gives the tradition? Our logic or the One who endowed us with the ability to have logic?
May we have St. Peter’s prayers. May we receive the thing that he knows so clearly now. And in doing so, when the Lord speaks to us, may we receive in obedience the word of the Lord.
Christ is risen!
Sunday, May 11, 2025: Sunday of the Paralytic
ACTS 9:32-42
JOHN 5:1-15
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
In the Gospel today, we have this man who is laying at the pool of Bethesda. The pool by the sheep gate. This sheep gate is pretty self-explanatory. It was the gate by which the sheep were led into Jerusalem, being brought out for pasture, back into the city. So, traveling through the sheep gate, we now see, in many respects, a man we could call a sheep.
As Christians, we understand this terminology, being a sheep. Christ is the Good Shepherd, we are the sheep. So, it’s very simple at this point. We can say that this man is a sheep. Why? Well, he was obedient. There was a tradition in which God would send an angel, and the angel would stir the waters, and those who stepped in first, they were healed.
And this man knew of this tradition, and this man was obedient. And like a sheep, he was doing what he was supposed to do. He was there by the waters, and in some respects, it’s even safe to say, he wasn’t even complaining.
38 long years being afflicted in such a way, not complaining, but yet, being faithful, being steadfast, enduring. He’s a sheep. This is a quality that I would pray all of us would have, to a greater degree. That we would learn to endure our afflictions a little bit better. But this is not the point that I’m trying to draw today. In fact, it reinforces my point in the sense that, even though he’s a sheep, he was still not aware of his time of visitation.
He was not aware of his time of visitation. He was expecting God to do something in the way that everyone else expected it. He was using his logic. His logic was thus, well, this is what people do to get healed. I am broken, I need to be healed, and I will wait patiently, which is good. But the problem with it is, that became it. He was fixed in that. This was how it was going to be. And so, when God actually visits him, he’s not prepared.
When the Lord speaks to the man and says, “Do you want to be healed?” He then begins to unload all of his reasonings. “Well, of course, but I can’t, no one is taking me down to the pool, I don’t know what else to do.” His logic. And his logic was sound. But his logic was not divine. And his logic was not according to God. His logic was according to man. And so he, thanks be to God, did not miss his visitation necessarily. But he was close.
He was very close. Because we can even see, right after, the Pharisees missing their visitation again. And how many times did the Pharisees miss their visitation? Knowing the law so well, doing all the things they’re supposed to do, and when God himself shows up, they’re not ready, they’re not able to hear and to see.
And so they miss the visitation of God. And so, of course, the correlation is, if we are sheep, half of the battle is doing what you’re supposed to do. Learning to be patient, learning to wait on God. This is good.
But the other half is what I find we are often so lacking. And it’s because we very quickly want to say to God, “Look God, I’ve done X, Y, and Z. I’ve done everything by the book. I’ve done what’s expected of me, and I haven’t even really complained much.” But when He comes, at the time in which He chooses to come, we are not ready. And I would submit to you, the reason for this is, is because, unfortunately, we very quickly want to confuse the means of healing for the One who heals.
And so we think our prayers are the thing that heals us. We think that our faithfulness in attending services is what heals us. All these things, but really, it’s the encounter with God. And this is why so many young people actually, they stop believing. They stop believing because they think God is going to be one way, but in reality, God comes to them another way, and they’re not ready. So many times, what we think is the problem will often be the solution.
It’s often the thing that God is bringing for the healing. Do you notice that the Lord says to the man, “Go and sin no more. Go, lest something worse befalls you.” And it’s very easy to ignore this portion of the Gospel, because we can just assume, well, this man was probably born like this, he had a terrible accident, but it’s safe and correct to assume there was sin involved, because the Lord says to him, go and sin no more. And so where was the true healing? I submit to you that it was wonderful the man could walk, but really the thing that was paralyzed was his soul, was his will, was his ability to encounter God as he should.
And so when we look upon the Gospel today, we have to ask ourselves, we think that we may be doing right, we may think that we’re healed, but really the part of us that is paralyzed, we are blind to it. And so our will, because this is the thing, you having your will bending to God, this is where you miss the visitation. And this is why obedience is so important, but it’s not the whole thing. Humility has to be there, a willingness to say, “I don’t understand this, I’m going to crucify my mind and my logic.”
And in doing that, we receive the liberation, we’re able to walk, we’re able to now do what we need to do, because it’s in the will that freedom is made manifest. And if you understand this last final point, that is the core of all of our problems. That is the core of all of our sin – every single one of us – is that our will is sick.
Because our will is the place where freedom reigns, or it doesn’t. And Christ made us to be free. And when our wills are stuck and paralyzed, that we’re not able to walk into the freedom that Christ brings to us. And this is why He comes at a time when we least expect. By showing you his freedom, he hopes to inspire in you, yours.
Christ is risen!
Wednesday, May 7, 2025: St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre
ACTS 8:18-25
JOHN 6:35-39
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
Today in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus is speaking to us, and He’s telling us about His Father, and our Father, what His desire is. That His will is that the creation of the world, people, would be saved, that they would be brought together, kept together, in love and in unity.
And Jesus says that He came not to destroy things, but to save them, to preserve them. And this is an important lesson, because when we look at Jesus, when we look at our Lord’s work on this earth, we have to recognize something, and that’s this: Even though our Lord Who died on the cross willingly, we should understand that Jesus is a fighter. Does that make sense? Jesus is a warrior. That doesn’t make sense, Nina? I’ll explain it to you.
You see, we all fight sometimes, don’t we? Sometimes we fight with our sisters, sometimes we fight with our brothers, sometimes, unfortunately, we fight with our moms and our dads, or our husbands or our wives, on and on. And this fighting is not good. And it’s not good because we aren’t fighting for a good reason.
We fight with each other because, as St. James says in his Epistle, where do wars come from? Wars come from our wanting something. We want something. And we want something that maybe we think someone else has. Whether they have it or not, it doesn’t matter. If we think they have something, we will fight them. And so we won’t have peace in our homes, we won’t have peace in our parish, we won’t have peace in the world.
Now, the problem isn’t necessarily fighting. The problem is fighting for what you want. Because Jesus was a fighter.
Jesus fought for love. Jesus fought for truth. Jesus fought for the will of the Father. And because Jesus was a fighter, we have victory. Because Jesus fought against the devil, we have victory. But the fight that Jesus does, the fight that Jesus does and the saints do, it isn’t to destroy things. It’s to free things, to free people. I’ll give you an example.
Today we’re commemorating St. Alexis Toth. He’s in the icon right behind you guys. And St. Alexis, he was not always Orthodox. He was in America when America was still kind of young a little bit.
But he comes from a people in Europe who, they were Orthodox a long time ago. But at one point in time, they were conquered. And certain countries had come in, they had fought and they had conquered his people and made them to become Roman Catholic.
So for a long time, St. Alexis, his people, they were Roman Catholic. Although they kind of looked like Orthodox, they were still Roman Catholic. And so they were used to being told what to do and how to do things in a certain way that was not in Orthodox fashion.
And so when St. Alexis came here, and he was a priest in this Catholic church, they called them Uniates. Uniates, meaning that they were kind of a mix of Orthodox, kind of a mix of Catholic. When he came over here, he was shocked.
And why was he shocked? He was shocked because he looked around at all his people. And he realized that they weren’t being treated the way that Christ wanted them to be treated. That they weren’t being given proper churches and proper sacraments.
And that really they weren’t given the life of Christ. They weren’t being taught how to pray and how to love Christ. And so St. Alexis, he went to that Catholic bishop and he said, “Your Grace, I see that my people aren’t being provided the way that God wants them to be provided for. Can we change this?” And over and over and over again, St. Alexis was rudely put down, told that he had no business telling the bishop what to do, and that the people, well, they just need to deal with it.
Now this was a problem for St. Alexis, but you have to understand something. It wasn’t a problem because he was personally offended. It was a problem because he knew, number one, that this isn’t what Christ wanted. This was not the Father’s will. The Father’s will was not that his people would go and struggle without true, deep piety and faith. Without Orthodoxy.
So, there came a time when St. Alexis said, “Enough is enough. I have to fight. Not for my opinion. Not because I want something nicer. But for the sake of the will of the Father.” So, St. Alexis, he began to fight.
And he began not to fight in the way of destroying churches and destroying people. He began to fight that his people would be liberated and brought back to the true faith. That they’d be brought to a place where they could have prayer again. And rich Liturgies and full sacraments and deep piety. This is why he fought for the will of the Father. And he fought hard and it was a struggle.
But St. Alexis had the icon of Christ in his mind and in his heart. And so he fought. And he fought. And he fought. And then eventually, Christ rewarded his fighting. But remember, was he fighting because he didn’t get what he wanted? No. Was he fighting because people didn’t respect him personally? No. He fought for love. He fought for the will of the Father.
And God rewarded St. Alexis. Why? Because the Father rewarded Jesus in his fight for our liberation from the devil. Our liberation from sin. And our liberation from our flesh.
So, my sons and my daughters, you’re going to fight one way or the other. The question for you is, are you going to fight for love? Are you going to fight to do good things? Or are you going to fight for selfishness or for pride? Let us be warriors, all of us.
And let us be warriors for the sake of Christ. Christ is risen!
Tuesday, May 6, 2025: St. George the Great Martyr and St. Sophia of Kleisoura
ACTS 8:5-17
JOHN 6:27-33
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen. Today we commemorate the Great Martyr George the Trophy Bearer.
George, this ubiquitous figure of Orthodoxy. St. George, a soldier during the reign of Diocletian who’s awarded all the accolades of valor. St. George shows us that – not so far from the word of St. Paul – to remain in your calling, in which you were first called when the Lord found you.
St. George, a soldier, and all the qualities of a soldier. When we think of a soldier, not in this corrupted age in which cynicism, abuse, all these things have corrupted every single icon of vocation. Nevertheless, for you to have more pure eyes and to look upon the vocation of a soldier, one who serves his king, one who is valiant, one who seeks to preserve the life of their country, their countrymen, this is the ideal of the soldier, this is the icon of the soldier.
St. George encapsulates, epitomizes this icon of the soldier. And so, in this earthly life and in the eternal one, St. George remains this ideal of a soldier, what it means to serve. To some degree, even more importantly, St. George reveals to us something very profound, which is that there is life after death, that there is eternal life, and that beyond quote-unquote mythology and these things, that the spirit in which God bestows upon a man is true and efficacious and leads to eternal life.
Let me tell you a story. A great ascetic, he’s a saint, but a great ascetic, Geronda Arsenios, he was the deputy of St. Joseph the Hesychast. And Geronda Arsenios, before he was a monastic, him and his brother were captured by the Turks. And they languished in prison, so much so that they had to suffer various cruel and inhumane tortures, lacking food, lacking water, and being forced to even drink their own urine. The deprivation and the humiliation of the Turks being such. And truly, Arsenios relays that he thought he was going to die.
That him and his brother and the other Greek national men that had been captured, that they were going to die. Now take in mind, this is some time in the 40s. 1940s.
Not that long ago. And so St. Arsenios, he relays how, as they were just about to lose hope that they were to die, a rousing rescue happened. A man on horseback came, rounded out the Turks, and allowed these men to go free, including Arsinius and his relative.
Amazed and giving thanks to God, they make it back to their home and lo! What does Arsenios find? Who does he find? Arsenios finds his father. He opens the door, he finds his father standing in front of the icons, praying.
“Papouli, I’m home!” His father, surprised but not exhausted. He starts giving thanks to God, starts giving thanks to St. George. Because, he says, “From the very moment that I heard that you and your brother were taken, I did not leave this corner. I did not sleep, I did not eat, I did not drink. I sat” – excuse me – “I stood here and I prayed to St. George and I begged him to free you.”
Did not St. George come and free Arsenios and all those Greek men on that day? Surely he did. Surely he did. More of a soldier in the eternal life than he ever was in this earthly life. This is what it means to be in theosis. It means that you become truly who you were always meant to be in Christ. Through the prayers of St. George, Lord help us to embrace our cross, become truly who You call us to be.
Christ is risen!
Monday, May 5, 2025: Day of the Angels
ACTS 6:8-7:5, 47-60
JOHN 4:46-54
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen!
In the Epistle today, we hear of the first martyr, the proto-martyr Stephen, Stephen the deacon. Stephen, who gives the church a great gift. You see, in the Epistle today, it speaks of how a young man saw that the accusers laid their clothing at his feet, and then they began their work.
So Saul bore witness to this, Saul bore witness to Stephen’s great martyrdom. “Lay not this sin at their charge, Lord. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Saul heard the word of the Lord, but more importantly, he saw the word of the Lord made flesh. You see, we cannot separate Saul witnessing the martyrdom of Stephen from the transformation from Saul into Paul. When we think of Paul, the apostle, the one who wrote half of the New Testament, when we think of Paul, we think about his transformation on the road to Damascus. We think about him being struck blind by the uncreated light by Christ. But we must remember that before the Lord struck him on Damascus, Saul, before he became Paul, Saul saw Christ in Stephen. Saul heard the word of the Lord coming forth from Stephen.
You see, it is only by witnessing Christ is one transformed. And these seeds are very deep. But Saul, this Jew among Jews, tribe of Benjamin, student of Gamaliel, circumcised on the eighth day, a Pharisee of Pharisees, he knew the Scriptures. But more than just knowing the Scriptures as information, as a source of his earthly tradition, something mystical happened that day. It is when we see Christ manifest, it’s when we see Christ revealing Himself to us, this is where the transformation happens. And for Saul, that seed began in the witness of Stephen because it is in that moment God has revealed not just simply teachings and philosophies, but God.
Why? Because it’s in death that Christ was revealed to Stephen. It was in death that Stephen said, “My Lord and my God.” It was in his death that Stephen looked and he saw the heavens parted and he saw the right hand of the Father who was there, Christ. But in some sense, even more importantly for the life of the church, Saul witnessing that death because by Saul witnessing that death, something began there. A deep seed was planted. Christ was manifested in the death of Stephen. And it’s in that death that seeds were planted, seeds beyond just hearing something. A burning began to begin in Saul.
And so when we recognize that the gift of Stephen, his martyrdom, that it was more than just his bearing witness to all of us, it was the bearing witness to Saul. And that gift has given us countless joy, countless guidance, the Epistles of Paul. They are the pillars of the New Testament life.
But those pillars were established in the blood of Stephen because the blood of Stephen revealed the obedience to Christ. In the Gospel today, the man from Capernaum whose son is dying, he only hears the word from the Lord. And on that word, he has faith, he obeys.
Obedience, but obedience in the face of death. This is a mystery to us, but we recognize it. Why? Because Christ reveals Himself as God in His obedience to the Father, which was an obedience unto death.
And we know, especially in the apostles’ time, that that obedience unto death is the seed of resurrection. We need to be aware. We need to listen and we need to look because Saul that day had no idea that what he was witnessing was going to transform his life.
How often do we come across God working our lives when we have no idea what we’re witnessing? Because what we see is death, but instead of, you know, kind of a failure, instead of something not being right, we should recognize it as the seed of something so much greater. The failure of Stephen was the seed which brought Saul. And even the failure of the Man, quote unquote, Jesus of Nazareth, His failure, His crucifixion, that was the seed towards eternal life.
Christ is risen!
Sunday, May 4, 2025: Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women
ACTS 6:1-7
MARK 15:43-16:8
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is risen! Today we commemorate the Holy Myrrhbearers. We commemorate these brave women.
We remember their work and their dedication to the Lord on that early morning, that morning of tragedy, mourning the loss of their Master, mourning the loss of their Teacher – but inspired. Inspired by love, they go to the tomb, they go to the tomb to tend to Jesus. We also see Joseph of Arimathea, who although in the time of Jesus walking with him on the earth, he did not display this courage, it says very clearly in the Gospel that he bravely, with courage, he went and asked for the body of Jesus.
This is important because the reality of our own life with Jesus is revealed here. I remember when my mother passed away, and I remember being in the midst of the funeral and looking upon my mother’s body, and I remember the feeling of a particular kind of loneliness because my sister and I were the only ones really left, and everyone was mourning my mother, but there was something different. The connection of love that my sister and I had with our mother, we looked upon her differently than everyone else did, and this is something very hard for people to understand that they’ve never really experienced death because as Christians, just like Jews, we have a tradition.
When someone passes away, we gather, we pay our respects, we pay respects to the person who’s passed away, and we feel sorrow. We may have known and loved this person to a degree, but life kind of moves on, but depending on your relationship with the person who’s passed away, you will see the body very differently. I saw my mother differently than everyone else did. Why? Because of my love for her. And my love for my mother, I can tell you, was greater than my own grief. My grief caused me to suffer pain deeper than everyone else, yes, but it also inspired me to live in such a way that would honor my mother because I loved her.
And so the Myrrhbearing women, they were inspired by the love of Christ. It moved them out of just the kind of tradition, the formality, the expectation. They didn’t just do what was expected of them. They did what moved them out of love. They didn’t care what other people thought. “Why would you do this? Why would you spend all this money to care for this dead Teacher already? You’ve already mourned for Him. Why would you do this?” People who think this way, they didn’t have the love for Christ that they did.
Because love inspires courage. Love inspires greatness. Love inspires a desire to remember. Love moves you beyond just your obligation and your duty in a community, your obligation and your duty in religion.
And so for many of you, you may be even maybe feeling guilty of what I’m saying. You may not even understand what I’m saying. But you will. When death touches you, you will. You’ll understand. But I appeal to you as your spiritual father that you should understand on another level.
Why? Because your love for Christ is precisely what determines whether you’re alive or whether you’re dead. Are your prayers cold? Are you just kind of going through the motions? It’s because you have no love. And so now you would say to me, “Well, Father, how do I get love? How do I love Christ? When I say my prayers, I’m here in church right now. Shouldn’t you just be saying this sermon to the people that aren’t in church?” Maybe. But I know that many of us struggle with coldness. I mean, many of us struggle with just checking the boxes. And yes, I preach about checking the boxes, and yet we still struggle with checking the boxes.
So here is the secret: don’t just do what’s asked of you. Don’t just do your bare minimum, and that’s why you have no love. You see, the love for God will inspire you not to perform better in the community, not that people would see you as more pious. No.
The love of God will inspire you in such a way where you don’t care if anyone even sees you, let alone what they think about you. Your love for God will carry you to places you didn’t even think was possible. Many of us have had this experience. We’re shocked that we’re in the Orthodox Church. We’re shocked that we’re maybe a priest, or a reader, or a nun, or that we go to services all the time. We’re shocked. Because the love of God gave us a different kind of madness. It brought us to a place of inspiration. But some of us may have had it and lost it. And you lost it because you began to just do the bare minimum.
No. It’s going above and beyond. That’s where the love is found. That’s how you get the love back. You don’t just do what’s expected. You do what’s pulling you. You do the thing that is outside of you. You do the thing that is greater than you.
That’s love. That’s love. And that’s the love that the Myrrhbearers had. Can you imagine? If they had been caught, arrested, or maybe even worse, who knows what they would have done to those women? They didn’t care. Their love inspired them for something so much greater.
So, we know better than they do. At that moment in time, on that dark morning, they didn’t know that He’s risen, but we do. And in your heart, do you sing Christ is risen? Of course you do during the Pascha season because we’re all doing it. But what I’m saying to you is, you need to sing Christ is risen all the time. Because a heart that’s in love and a heart that’s consumed with the fire of God sings Christ is risen year round.
Christ is risen!