Thursday, October 31, 2024: Midnight Liturgy for Our Holy Lady Theotokos, Terror of Demons, Holy Apostle & Evangelist Luke
PHILIPPIANS 1:20-27
LUKE 9:49-56
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Since the time in which man handed over authority, since the time in which Adam handed over authority, his inheritance, his birthright, of having dominion over this earth, over this world, and ever since the time in which our first mother, Eve, relinquished the very natural calling of giving nurture and life. Since that time, man had been in incredible darkness. Man had been in the darkness, not simply of his own making, but had been in the darkness that had been imposed upon him by the demonic hosts.
Man had been not simply robbed, but betrayed. Man had been betrayed, had been stabbed in the back, had been beguiled by the serpent, and as St. Gregory of Nyssa tells us, the enmity between the serpent and the seed of man is deep, not just because of war, but because of betrayal. The serpent being close to man, and the very reason of this closeness is why the devil used the guise of the serpent to beguile man, to betray man.
This betrayal runs deep. It runs so deep that even to this very day, there’s a special hatred that the devil has for women. There’s a special hatred that the devil has for the Mother of God.
The Mother of God being this ultimate expression of redemption. The Mother of God being this ultimate expression of God’s victory and justice. The Mother of God in her purity, the Mother of God in her silence, the Mother of God in her faithfulness, the Mother of God in her strength redeems us. She shows us that the victory that’s given to us is based upon one simple thing, that through her we find our relationship to the King of all, to the victor of all, to Christ.
In the Epistle today, St. Paul speaks to us about how Christ made a spectacle, a public spectacle of the principalities and the powers. What this means is that in the very hour in which the demons thought that they were victorious and strongest, that is in this very hour that they were made ashamed.
In this very hour, the thing in which they thought they had, let’s say, pulled the wool over the eyes of God, they were the ones who were tricked. The Mother of God, she continues, even now, this work of making a public spectacle of the enemy. Because each one of us, when we turn to her and when we hide ourselves behind her, when we say to her, “Help me, Holy Lady,” we’re taking the very thing that Satan once used to undo our authority. We’re taking the very thing that Satan once used to try to humiliate not only mankind, but humiliate God. And we’re saying “By this very thing, you are now undone.”
Because it’s in the weakness in which Eve fell, this is where the strength to undo the devil is found. Where Eve was not obedient, the Mother of God is now obedient. Where Eve was not able to stand firm and to resist the seduction of the serpent, the Mother of God not only stands firm and refuses that seduction, but she now goes on the offensive. There is no greater name under heaven and earth, outside of Christ, than the Mother of God. Her very name, her very utterance, brings rage and ultimately terror to the demons.
This day in our country, we will begin to feel the unleashing of dark forces. And on this day, as we watch the world begin to plunge itself into demonic hedonism, clamor, confusion, darkness, may this be a day in which we as Christians hide behind the shield and the spear of Our Lady.
May we remember that although the darkness comes, truly the dawn is what we look towards. She holds this dawn for us when we turn to her in prayer, when we light our lamps in front of her. Remember that there is no darkness that has overcome us, because truly in Christ, her Son, we stand victorious.
She is truly the one who heralds the way. She is our general. She leads us into battle.
May we continue to honor her. May we continue to fight the good fight by her spear, by her shield, her faithfulness, and her purity. May we continue to be soldiers of Christ.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024: Prophet Hosea, St. Andrew of Crete
Homily for the Mount Tabor School Liturgy.
PHILIPPIANS 1:12-20
LUKE 9:44-50
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Gospel today, the Lord is speaking to the Apostles. And the Apostles began to not act so good. You know, have you guys ever been in line for something? Maybe to get ice cream, or to go somewhere to do something. And then someone just kind of like cuts in front of you.
You ever had that happen? Yeah. Did it make you feel kind of bad? A little bit? Made you kind of angry a little bit? Yeah. Well, the problem is, is that we’ve all had that happen to us.
And we’ve probably all done it to someone else too, haven’t we? Maybe we’ve cut, or maybe we said, “Me first.” You know, or we found a way to make sure that we get the cookie or the ice cream first. Something like that, right? Well, God doesn’t want us to do that, because there’s something very important to realize: that our Father in Heaven has enough for everybody. Yeah, I know, that sounds crazy.
He has enough for everybody. And so people, when they want to be first, or they want to cut in line, they want to do these things, what they’re really doing is they’re not remembering that our Father in Heaven has enough for everybody.
Jesus said to the Apostles, He said to them, “You have to receive this little child.” Meaning, you have to make room for them, right? How many times have you guys been at home, and you maybe feel like you have something important to say, but it feels like no one’s listening to you. Ever had that feeling before? Yeah. But guess what? You are important. And your Heavenly Father does care about what you say.
And Jesus was teaching the Apostles to have a certain type of attitude. A certain type of attitude. And that attitude was to remember that the least of them, meaning even little kids, are important to our Heavenly Father.
And if we want to be with our Heavenly Father, then we have to remember to treat even the smallest of us with respect. The best way to do that, what do you think the best way to do that is? What’s the best way to treat others with respect? How do we show that every day? What do you think? Lucy?
Well, for one thing, just be kind, be patient… Every virtue.
Very good. And if we want every virtue, the best way to do that simply is to be like Jesus, isn’t it? Because when we look at Jesus, we see every virtue. We see kindness, just like you said. We see patience, just like you said, right? If we don’t know how to act, but we want to please our Heavenly Father, we just look to Jesus.
And the big thing that Jesus showed us, this is where it gets tough, guys. Are you ready? The big way that Jesus showed us how to please the Heavenly Father is obedience.
Obedience. St. Paul, in the Epistle today, he was talking to us about his obedience. That even though he was having a difficult time, he still preached Christ. It didn’t matter whether people liked it or not, he was still going to be obedient.
And you know how it was like that? Jesus was like that too. Jesus did the right thing. He pleased the Father, even though he had to go to the cross. So the way that we get all those virtues, that kindness, that patience, is we look to Jesus. And the best way to look to Jesus is to be obedient.
Because when we’re obedient to what we’ve been given, then that’s the way that we follow Christ. So now you’re asking me, “Well how do I be obedient, Father?”
Okay. Did you know that God’s given each one of you the parents that you have on purpose? That’s not an accident.
It’s not an accident. And so, when our mommy and daddy tells us something, even if we maybe don’t understand it, we have to obey them and trust them. Why? Because we love them, and we know that they love us.
Right? And that trust, that is the perfect way to show obedience. Because that’s the type of obedience that Jesus showed the Heavenly Father. Okay? So in that obedience and in that trust, then we learn to get all those good virtues.
That kindness and that patience. Right? And then when we show kindness and patience, then guess what? Kindness and patience are shown to us. Okay? So let’s look to Jesus and let’s have Him help us to be obedient. Okay? So that we can be received by our Heavenly Father.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Monday, October 28, 2024: Day of the Angels
PHILIPPIANS 1:1-7
LUKE 9:18-22
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Epistle today, St. Paul the Apostle is writing, writing to the church in Philippi. And it’s important to remember that St. Paul is writing to the Philippian church from prison. He’s writing from prison. He’s writing from a place of crucifixion. He’s writing from a place of persecution. He’s writing from a place of experience and authority.
And he says, He who has begun a good work in you is faithful to complete it. Now, the very experience that St. Paul is sharing with us is one of what it means to be with Christ. To be like Christ. Understanding that our life is found in Christ. And so, these words should encourage us and not delude us.
These words should bring us courage and resolve to see the work of the Lord fulfilled in our lives. But in order for that to happen, we have to understand what the work of the Lord is. So oftentimes, we imagine that the work of the Lord is to bring us glory. To bring us to heights. To bring us to a place of empowerment.
And it is. God’s work is to bring us glory. And it is to bring us to heavenly heights. And it is to bring us empowerment in the Spirit. But because we are often carnal, because we are often babes in our minds, in our understanding, we mistake the work of the Lord for a temporal work.
Even in our lives here – even in our lives, our religious lives, we can find this same temptation. But, if we look with sobriety, we will always understand what the work of the Lord is. And we will always see that He is faithful to complete the work that He has begun.
In the Gospel today, the Lord says to His Apostles, those who were to know Him, or were supposed to know Him, the best: “Who do men say that I am?” And they said, “Well, some say you’re a prophet. Some say you’re Elias.”
But Peter speaks up. Peter says, “You’re the Christ.” But even then, in that space, Peter doesn’t quite understand what it means to be the Christ. Because in that space, you can’t help but just wonder if Peter has his own position in mind. You can’t help but wonder if Peter’s thinking about, “Well, if he’s the top dog, where will I be?” Because very quickly, the Lord says, “Well, the work of the Son of Man is to be betrayed, to be crucified.”
And this is the work that He begins in all of us. And it’s the one that He will complete. Because what is the work of God the Holy Spirit? The work of God the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin and righteousness.
And how do you deal with the sin? How do you attain the righteousness? Well, you can only do it in Christ. Well, how do you become in Christ, quote unquote? You have to know Christ. You have to look to Christ. You have to live the life with Christ. You have to be sacrificed. You have to be crucified.
Remember, crucifixion isn’t just death. It’s humiliation. It’s execution. And Christ God joins us and gives us the means by which we become like Him. And when we become like Him, when we truly learn to embrace the cross and seek the will of the Father and not our own will, then God the Father looks upon us and says, “This is my beloved child.” And that is the completion of the work.
The work that we should all be looking to is not for others to look to us, for man to applaud us, for man to reward us. The work that we’re looking for is for the Heavenly Father to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
Through the prayers of St. Paul, Lord Jesus Christ our God, help us to embrace the will of the Heavenly Father.
Sunday, October 20, 2024: Sts. Sergius & Bacchus
2 CORINTHIANS 6:16-7:1
LUKE 16:19-31
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
The old Jewish purity laws in which a person was excluded or included into the community depending upon whether they were clean or unclean, for example, if you were to touch a dead body, you would be unclean for a period of time.
And so, these purity laws were given for a purpose and for a reason. And unfortunately, as we know, these purity laws, the reason, the purpose in which they were given was never really quite understood by the people. When Jesus comes to Nain – which means pleasant, Nain means “pleasant.”
When he comes to Nain, this is after he had just been in Nazareth. And in Nazareth, his hometown, where people thought they knew him, people thought they knew what he was about, and people thought they knew the Scriptures, people thought they knew Torah, they thought they knew what God wanted. Here the Lord says to them, and in your ears this prophecy is fulfilled, speaking of this prophecy of Isaiah, and they are unable to hear him.
And it says in the Scriptures that Christ could not work many miracles in Nazareth because the people already thought they knew everything. They thought they knew what the law meant. They thought they knew what God wanted.
That’s what they thought. And so subsequently from there, Jesus is moving now and he’s healing and even raising the dead to fulfill the prophecies, yes, but to put forth the kingdom of God. And more than just making a sign and a miracle for some sort of religious, mystical, sensationalist experience, Jesus has mercy on a widow who now, because her son has died, will be left with nothing. Because as a woman with no husband and now her son being gone, she’s left without any recourse. And so He has mercy on her.
Now, when we look at the work of the Lord and we see how He’s uncovering and trying to speak to the people of God and trying to open their eyes to the real work of God, this brings us to the Epistle today. Because in the Epistle today, St. Paul, he says, echoing the sentiment of the whole of the law, the whole of the quote-unquote Old Testament, “Come out from them, My people. Touch nothing unclean, My people. I will dwell with you and in you, My people.”
What is this unclean thing, though? Is Paul talking about dead bodies and honeycombs inside lions?
The arrogance of the ones who think they know. Arrogance. The pleasantness of religious life. You see, these pleasantries, they’re what facilitate the arrogance. They keep these facades going.
This is the unclean thing. The unclean thing isn’t necessarily something external that you’re going to touch or not touch. The unclean thing is what you’ve already opened your heart up to.
Arrogance. What is arrogance? Assuming. The presumption that you know. And then to cover it up. This is the thing. And then we cover it up. We kill the body and then we hide it and we try to bury it and just…
You see, the Jews and really all of mankind in our various forms of distraction, in our various ways of, like, “No, no, no, God, I know what you want. You want this. I know what to do, this!”
These are the things that Christ is always coming in. And this is why we kill Him. And this is why in Nazareth they say, “No, no, no, we know who You are. I know what You’re about. Don’t you know I did this? Hey, I read this, God. Remember when I read this, God? And remember when I did that, God? And remember, don’t you know who my dad is, God? No, no, You don’t need to tell me this, God. I already know.”
And then we go about our religious externals, the pleasantness. Right? We’re just sitting in Nain, being pleasant, making sure we’re doing the things because God forbid He comes and He uncovers the dead and says, “Rise.”
I don’t want to say every Pascha because it’s only been a few years, but I’ve been having this habit of sending in our little men’s chat, Bright Monday, there’s this wonderful essay written by this hieromonk. It’s terrifying.
It’s terrifying because it goes on to say, you know, “Christ is risen. And we’re going to live forever. And that person that you can’t stand, they’re going to live forever too.”
That person that you’re just going to kind of, like, hide the body, pleasantness, just do the thing, white knuckle, grit your teeth, smile, just get through it. They’re going to live forever too. And guess what? Everything is going to be uncovered.
That’s why we should be living without arrogance, and we should be living without these pleasantries. Because what they’re doing is, they’re creating a hell for us. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? They’re creating hell for you.
Because the more that you push it into the closet and into the basement, “I just got to get through it. I’m just going to say my prayers. I’m just going to do this. I’m just going to do that.” It doesn’t matter because you have to – there is a body in that coffin. What will you do?
You’re not going to psychoanalyze your way out of it. You’re not going to find some self-help technique out of it. It’s going to take Christ because you’re the widow, you see. You’re the one with no more recourse. You’re dead. Your loved ones are dead. You have no resources. You have no finances. You have nothing.
All you have left is to turn to Christ, and it has to be truly Christ, it can’t be the Christ of your making who you keep grinning and saying, “Yeah, yeah, pleasantness.” He’s saying, “Come out from these things, My people.”
This is why everything’s messed up. This is why the world is messed up. But we, as a people, should not be messed up. And we, as a people, we can feel the Spirit move through us and in between us only if we dispose of these things, this arrogance and this politeness, this pleasantness, because that hell that we’re creating, you’re going to face it. That’s why you can’t just go like, “Yeah, I forgive you,” and move on. You can’t do that. It’s not real. It’s just an external that is just pushing back the inevitable, and it’s compounding, and it’s building.
Open the grave. Let the Master come. Let Him raise you out of it. Face these things with His help, not in your own strength, with His help, and let Him bring you life. Let Him provide for you.
The reason why you are stuck is because of your pride, period. Period. We have all kinds of words for pride in our community, in our tradition. We call it self-love. We call it vanity – and pleasantness is vanity, by the way, just so we’re on the same page. There’s no mistaking what I’m talking about. Pleasantness is vanity.
All of these words we have are what we’re talking about, and they keep the dead bodies in the closet, and they’re piling, and as they’re piling, you’re getting poorer.
So what are we to do? Recognize that God will have mercy and compassion, and so I feel very strongly convicted to tell you God is having mercy on you already. I’m seeing consistently, our problem is you’re asking and begging God to help you, and then when He comes in, you don’t want Him. I’m seeing it in so many of your lives. You don’t want Him.
Remember, He just came from Nazareth: “Get out of here. We don’t want You.”
When He goes to fix the thing, you’re angry with Him. When he tries to get you to be prepared for eternal life, you’re angry with Him because you want your little fiefdom here.
Listen. Forgive me, because in the natural world, I’ve already seen it. I know what it looks like. I watched my dad go from this to this. That’s why I’m so passionate about it. That’s why I’m telling you, you’re not bulletproof. Not even in this world.
God forbid, God help you in the next world. We’ve got to take seriously that God is merciful and He wants to help us, and when you ask Him, you better be ready because He’s going to answer, but the problem is He’s not going to answer the way that you want, and He’s not answering the way that you want. That is the problem.
Not that God’s not hearing, not that He’s not acting, and not that He’s not there. It’s you. It’s us.
We are the problem. God is always faithful. Back in the Old Testament, right here in 2024, in fact, He’s more faithful now than he’s ever been, but we are weaker than we’ve ever been, and we are more proud than we’ve ever been, and we are more vain than we have ever been.
When you need help, when you’ve dug yourself in a hole, when you find yourself with no recourse, with no resources, like the widow, and you ask God to help you, I’m telling you right now, He’s going to answer, but you better be ready. He’s not coming in to make you the hero and the star. He’s coming in to resurrect a dead body.
Through the prayers of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.
Monday, October 14, 2024: Protection of the Theotokos, St. Romanos the Melodist
HEBREWS 9:1-7
LUKE 10:38-42; 11:27-28
Today’s a brief word, my sons and my daughters, a brief word not because the Mother of God is not worthy of an hour-long oration, not because the Mother of God in this great feast of her protection doesn’t deserve days and days of pontificating and elucidating. Today’s a brief word because the silence of the Mother of God is the greatest gift she’s given us.
In the Feast of Pokrov, you have the Holy Fool Andrew and his disciple. They are in the great church and they with all the people are besieged, terrified, frightened, awaiting almost certain death. And in this great moment of terror, Andrew looks up and he beholds our Holy Lady with her precious veil covering the people, signifying her love, signifying her protection. And in this great vision, profound silence.
In the Scriptures, profound silence from the Mother of God, and oftentimes in our lives, profound silence. And this profound silence is exactly the evidence of her presence in our life because it’s in her silence that we know she’s watching. It’s in her silence that we know she is guiding. It’s in her silence that we know she’s protecting, interceding.
This is a brief word because the Mother of God deserves our attention and she deserves our silence. May we learn to honor her by imitating her.
Through the prayers of our Holy Lady, the Mother of God, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.
Sunday, October 13, 2024: St. Gregory of Armenia
2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10
LUKE 6:31-36
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Christ conquered through His willingness, His desire to reveal who the Father is to the world. He did it not necessarily through preaching. He did it not necessarily through the working of miracles.
He did it through His acts of love. The act of love. His willingness to be, if you will, completely undone. And even though He alone had all power in heaven and earth, He did not exact revenge. He did not take out and do the equal measure that was done to Him. And in this, He changed the world.
Because in this, He gave a pathway that others would be like the Father in heaven. The Apostles were able to endure the utmost shame, betrayal, discouragement, depravity. And they were able to do this and still maintain the witness of who the Father is.
How? Through mercy. Through mercy. Mercy for us is so oftentimes this kind of abstract concept. Mercy is something that we kind of know what it is, but interestingly enough, we forget essentially what it is whenever we need to exercise it. We know what mercy is when we need it, but we lose sight of what it is when we need to give it.
And this is our problem. And so the Lord in His teaching today makes it clear how are we to understand mercy, truly. Well, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
That’s not abstract. It’s very personal. Every single one of us here has needed mercy at one point in time. And let’s be clear. Mercy is given to the guilty. Mercy isn’t something that’s extended to those who are righteous.
Mercy is for the guilty. Mercy is for those who have wronged. When you think of the times that you’ve transgressed, the times that you’ve, small betrayals, a husband will unfortunately enact upon his wife. The small betrayals a wife will unfortunately enact upon her husband. The small betrayals a daughter would do to her father. The small betrayals a son would do to his father.
If you remember those moments – and they’re real, every single one of us here have them – mercy is no longer an abstract concept. Mercy is something that we all need.
But more importantly, mercy is something that we should all give. Because the whole world knows it needs mercy. But the difference between us and the world is that we’re designed to be children of our Father.
So more than just asking, we give. You see, we’re the ones who are rich. We’re the ones with the inheritance. We’re the ones with abundance. And when you don’t give mercy, you must realize the deep avarice that is upon you. The deep greed in which you’re swimming in. When you decide to not give mercy to the other, you’re essentially taking the inheritance God’s given you. And you’re doing something unspeakable with it.
Another reason why we struggle with mercy is because of this thing, our ego, our pride. Everybody’s a gangster, aren’t they? Everybody wants to make sure that they know, that I know, that I can give it back even worse than I got it. Everybody’s tough. Everybody wants to be tough when they’re offended, everybody wants to be tough just to make sure that you know that “I’m the king, I’m the boss.”
We are not the boss, we are not the king. But we are to be His children. And so we should understand that in order to wield mercy, you need to have something very particular also. You need to have the wisdom that begins like this: what is wisdom? It’s the fear of God.
Wisdom is the fear of God. This is where wisdom begins. If you do not have the fear of God, you do not have wisdom. And truly, if you don’t have the vessel of wisdom, you have nothing to hold your mercy in. Because only a fool doesn’t give mercy knowing that he was given mercy. Only a fool decides to give to others in a way that, you know, he’s proud, again, everybody’s a gangster. Because that fool forgets who gave them mercy originally. And that that same Father is also the Judge.
And there’s nothing worse than watching your child squander their inheritance. How painful it is. How painful it is. Remember what this inheritance is. The world was changed by Christ’s mercy. The world was changed by the mercy of the apostles.
It doesn’t mean anything to be able to enact violence. Both emotional and physical. It means nothing. You’re not strong. In fact, you’re weak.
This is the teaching of our Master. This is what God himself has shown us. Strength is found in mercy. Strength is found in knowing that the Father of heaven, the Father on high, how is He able to be so merciful?
Because He alone is strong. He looks to no one. And from that place of strength, He reveals the power of love, which is so much more powerful than hate. It’s so much more powerful than vengeance. Vengeance is childish. It’s demonic. Vengeance comes from someone who’s lost sight. They’ve lost the fear of God.
Mercy. Mercy comes from those who know their Father. Mercy comes from those who know that everyone that they see, if they desire, could be brothers and sisters.
God is love, my sons and my daughters. God is love. And God’s love is not weakness. His love is not blindness. His love is not indifference. His love is not laziness. He’s not a lazy dad who would rather watch the game than chastise his kid. That’s not the love of the father. The love of the father is not a mother who’s just tired: “Just get on the screen. I don’t want to deal with you.”
That’s not the love of the Father. The mercy of the Father is one that is fully aware of your transgressions and yet has the strength to be with you, has the strength to teach you, to bear with you. We are to be the children of heaven, the children of the Father.
We’re meant to be strong. We find our strength not like the world does. We find our strength being like our Father in heaven, like the Apostles, who can endure incredible amounts of shame, who can endure betrayal, and yet still that betrayal and that shame doesn’t change them.
In fact, they change the ones who betray. They change the ones who seek to strike out in anger. This is the power of Christ. This is the power of the Father. This is the power that the Apostles wielded, and this is the power that’s your inheritance if, the key word is if, you want it.
Don’t forget these words. Be careful when you get in your cars to go home. Be careful when you’re in the kitchen tonight. Be careful what you’re going to say during coffee hour. Be careful what you’re going to think.
Be like our Father in heaven. Be merciful.
Through the prayers of the Holy Apostles, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.
Wednesday, October 9, 2024: St. John the Theologian and St. Tikhon of Moscow
Homily for the Mount Tabor School Liturgy.
1 JOHN 4:12-19
JOHN 19:25-27; 21:24-25
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Well, today, guys, we are commemorating the repose, the death of St. John the Theologian. And St. John the Theologian, he has a very special title. He has a special title. He’s also known as the Beloved of God. And in the Epistle today, St. John was speaking to us and he said to us, he talked to us a little bit about fear, a little bit about love. He was saying that perfect love casts out fear.
So what are we to make of that? Perfect love casting out fear. How is love and fear connected? Well, so oftentimes, we can become anxious about things, yes? We’re not really sure if we’re gonna be able to get our homework done. We’re not really sure if we’re gonna be able to have that fun activity that we wanted. We’re not sure if we’re gonna pass the test at school. We become nervous, and we think that only bad things are gonna happen to us.
Well, that happens because we forget love. Yes, our mommies and our daddies love us. Yes, our friends love us. But more importantly, God loves us. And the love of God is the very thing that allows even things that we’re scared of to be for our own good. Because in those times when we are worried, in those times where we think things aren’t just gonna go well, those are the very times where God’s trying to teach us a lesson.
Trying to help us to understand something so that we can be like Him. So that we can learn to have wisdom, we can learn to have patience, and we can learn to have love. St. John, he was called the Beloved of God. Do you know why? Isidora.
He was closest with Christ. Like, in the Last Supper, in the icon, you can see St. John the Theologian leaning on Jesus’ chest.
Exactly, St. John leaned on the breast of Jesus, and he listened to His heartbeat. He listened to His heartbeat.
And that belovedness, that closeness that John had – John understands why love and the love of God is so important. Because John was with Jesus right before the crucifixion. John was with Jesus at the crucifixion. John stayed with Jesus in his heart the whole time. And although John may have been scared, John may have been tempted by fear, he learned through that time that the love of God conquers all.
And the love of God filled him with such confidence, because he realized something. It was God’s love for him, and not his love for God, is what gave him strength. Let me say that again to you: it was God’s love for him, and not his love for God, is what made him strong.
John remembered God’s love for him first. And that’s what allowed John to not have fear. That’s what allowed John to write those words to you, and that they’re true. He remembered God’s love for him. And it’s in that that he was able to now have love for God.
John shows us something very important. During that Last Supper, you can look at it two ways, guys. The Last Supper is either a very important event – which it is – but the last supper was just like every other night they had before. Yes, it was a very important event, because it was the last time that they were gonna be with Jesus like that, as a family, but they didn’t know that at the time.
John took the time to listen. John took the time to put his ear, and to really hear what God was saying. John didn’t look and say, “Well, we do this all the time. We’re always eating with Jesus.” John took the time to listen and to hear the One Who loves him first, what He had to say.
When we take the time, guys, whether it’s a special event, or whether it’s something that happens every day, we need to take that time to remember that God loves us first.
Because when God loves us first, all of our problems, all of our bad behaviors, all of our fears, they slowly begin to really change. Because God’s love is the very thing that will inspire us, will inspire all of us to be like him. So let’s remember God’s love for us.
Let’s take the time, and let’s listen. Through the prayers of Saint John the Theologian, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Sunday, October 6, 2024: Conception of St. John the Baptist and the Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of God
2 CORINTHIANS 4:6-15
LUKE 5:1-11
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
It says in the book of Proverbs that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it is the glory of kings to discover the matter. And God – He has built us, He has designed us in such a way that we are naturally inquisitive. We are seeking, always seeking, always searching, always trying to go deeper.
In the Gospel today, we see the encounter in which Simon Peter, who will become Peter, Simon, who, in his first encounter with Christ – and perhaps this is maybe why he became the rock – is that in this encounter, we see him coming up short from his night’s work of fishing. And he hears the word of the Lord, and He says to him, go and lay down, cast your nets deeper, and you’ll draw up more fish.
And Peter, surprisingly, for whatever reason, Peter is obedient, and he casts the net, and lo and behold, such a great catch of fish that even their boats began to sink. Now, we, and this is one of the big problems for us in modernity, is that we are losing not just the sense of what it means to be human, but we’re losing the sense of what God had intended for us, making us humans. And perhaps maybe it’s better for me to say it’s not so much that we are losing it, but it’s being hijacked, it’s being covered up, because there’s this interesting phenomena that we are all too familiar with, you know, this whole thing about doom scrolling, yes? We’re on our phones, going from thing to thing, never really finding anything, always unsatisfied, and we’re spending hours and hours and hours searching.
And before the phone, some of us were just on our desktops, but this phenomena of searching, searching, searching, scrolling, scrolling, looking for the next thing – we can chop it up and we can talk about all kinds of things, we can talk about dopamine and all these things, but I’ll tell you something. This phenomena, although it’s playing on certain things in regards to the way that we take in information and the way that it affects our neural systems and all those things, but ultimately, at the core, what it is, is that human beings, we’re searching, we’re wanting, we’re yearning, we’re digging, and that’s a good thing. That’s what we’re designed to do. But see, this design, the sword cuts both ways.
And the devils know that. And so they’ll put things in front of us, not just meaningless things, but even ways of fishing that lead us to this place of just spinning our wheels. We’re spinning our wheels, and you know that feeling, it’s a terrible feeling, isn’t it? You’ve wasted 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 3 hours, and you’ve looked up and you’re like, “What have I done?” And that feeling, that’s a good feeling, actually.
Because the reason why you feel like, “What have I done? Why do I feel like I’ve just wasted my life?” Because you have. We do waste our lives like that. Because we only have a certain amount of time to do this uncovering. We only have a certain amount of time to do the digging. And every one of us are digging, we’re searching, we’re looking. But so oftentimes we’re looking for the wrong thing, and usually in the wrong place.
And so the Lord, he’s not going to take that mechanism away. He’s not going to take it away from you. Don’t ask God to take that away from you. “Oh God, I’m tired of being on my phone. Oh God, I’m tired of wasting time, I want to pray.” That mechanism is there for a reason.
That seeking, searching, this game almost of hide and seek, that’s prayer. You need to take that movement. You need to learn to take that desire of searching and seeking and digging and looking. You need to apply that into prayer. You need to apply that in such a way that when the Lord beckons you, and you feel like, “I prayed, I said my prayer rule, I haven’t really felt anything, Lord.” Go back out there and cast your net again, but deeper.
You have to go deeper. Because what happens to us is that we say our prayer rules, and yes, maybe we check a box, and we can say, “Oh yes, yes, I’ve done my thing.” But we’re still hungry, we’re still searching.
And so instead we then will go to the other prayer book, the spell book, and we’ll look into the little black mirror, and we’ll see, “Ooh, what can I be discovering here?” But that movement to want to discover is good. And the thing is, God has something for you on the other end. And I think this is what I really want to emphasize today, is that there are things that you don’t know.
There are things that you’ve yet to discover, not just about God, but about yourself. And when we are caught in the scrolling, when we’re caught in the distraction, we’re not seeing ourselves. And yes, maybe that’s a part of the reason why we do it, is because we don’t really want to see ourselves doing it.
But I tell you something, and you guys know me, I’m not really one for patting people on the back, but all of you are wonderful. God loves you. God’s put good things in you.
And if you want to know God, you have to know yourself. If you want to know God, you have to go deeper within yourself. And that thing that you’re running from, which is yourself, it’s going to catch up with you one way or the other.
So my advice to you is to get after it. Get on the offensive. Go fishing. Seek out that thing that’s a little bit deep. Pull it out, because what you’ll find is, that searching and that hungering, it’s not bad, it’s good. Don’t be scared of what you’ll find.
Because at the end of that depth, the depth of the seas of your soul, you’ll find God. If you feel like you haven’t found Him in prayer, it’s because you haven’t. I’m telling you, you haven’t. You haven’t even begun to fish. So you need to keep going. And you need to get back out there. You need to cast your nets even deeper. Because it’s only in that place that you’ll find Him. It’s only in that place that you’ll find yourself.
Hear the word of the Lord. Every single one of you, you’ve had that moment when God’s told you, “Come to Me,” and you’ve said, “Hmm, maybe later. Hmm, I already said my prayers. Hmm, I have work in the morning. Hmm, oh, there’s church tomorrow.” When He says, “Cast your net,” cast it. Uncover the thing that He’s hidden. You won’t regret it.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thursday, October 3, 2024: St. Eustace
EPHESIANS 6:10-17
LUKE 21:12-19
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
This morning we are commemorating the great martyr St. Eustace. St. Eustace, being a soldier of great renown, revered and respected, St. Eustace discovering the Cross of Christ in between the antlers of a stag. In this time of hunting, this time of experiencing his life, doing what a man should do: hunting, seeking to provide for his family. In the midst of this, Christ gives him a vision of Himself. The true vision of Christ is always in the form of the Cross.
Because it is in the Cross, it is in sufferings, that we are known by Him, and He is known by us. And this foreshadowing that laid upon the heart and mind of St. Eustace would be the very thing that would allow him to endure the most painful of experiences. Not only the disgrace of losing his military rank due to his faith, but the very loss of his family, his children, his wife.
And seemingly even more unbearable, the fact that he would lose his family again, initially at the hands of what could else but be called the providence of God. And in St. Eustace we see this example of a great martyr of par excellence. Long before he was put to the sword by earthly principalities, he bore witness to Who Christ is by not falling apart when he lost his sons, by not falling apart when he lost his wife, his worldly status.
Think of how many of us fantasize about, “Oh, I would just fall apart. Oh, if this would happen to me, I would just lose my mind.” How many of us would allow even that thought to come to us of how we would give ourselves over to darkness if something like that were to happen to us? This is not the thought of a Christian.
If we are even dared to be tempted by the evil one of thoughts of loss or shame or pain, our thoughts should not run to cowardice. Our thoughts should not run to giving back in vengeance and violence. Our thoughts should not run to covering ourselves with a wet blanket of despair. Our thoughts should turn to a great holy one like St. Eustace. We see his willingness to suffer. We see his ability to be steadfast and not to blame God, not to curse God, but rather to justify God.
And we know he justified God in his mind and his heart, because what man could experience the loss of his rank, his wife, his sons, and still even then go into obscurity and labor? What man wouldn’t just give himself over to drink, to debauchery, to despair? We know that St. Eustace had his mind fixed on Christ because he was faithful, and when he was wounded, he went low, he went humble. Why? Because he had this original vision of Who Christ is in the Cross. And so when, by God’s providence, his wife and his children returned to him and they were united for a short period, St. Eustace again is tempted.
Does he say, “Oh, now that God has brought them back to me, I’m going to flee to my country villa and live a happy life”? Does he say to himself, “Well, I endured all that, now it’s my time”? No, because St. Eustace shows us true masculinity. He shows us an unwillingness to stop short.
In the Gospel today, when you hear the words of the Lord about being hated by men, maybe even brothers, family, kinsmen, what do we think to ourselves? Do we imagine, “Oh, if someone betrayed me like that, you know what I would do?” Is this where our mind goes? Our mind must go to that place, and this is why St. Eustace is the patron of this men’s group. This is why St. Eustace should be looked upon as an example – not because he hunted, not because he was a soldier in an earthly army – because he took the Gospel seriously. And when he lost everything, and when the world turned against him, he didn’t deny Christ. How many centuries later, we honor him.
That saint on that wall over there was a man just like you, just like I. He hungered, he thirsted, he cried, he wept, he felt pain. But perhaps, and God forbid, unlike you and I at times, he didn’t even entertain the idea of despair, or vengeance, or debauchery. And that is the secret, and that is why we must look to him, and that is what we must do, my brothers, my daughters.
Because even now, the world is dangerous. St. Sophrony, he recounts, and maybe I’ve shared this story before, but he recounts how he would hear stories of the saints, and he remembers how him and others would think, “Wow, how they did that so far off, so long ago.” And St. Sophrony says, “It was only a matter of years before the Soviets came, and before I had to flee my own country.”
From a young man thinking, “Wow, what courage,” thinking about the old ancient martyrs, to only a few short years, he himself and others with him having to flee their own country, and many others not making it out.
I just came back from a community not so unlike ours, who serves many Liturgies, early Liturgies, late Liturgies, Litia, why? Is it to simply bask in being a traditionalist? No. Because the days are evil, and these Liturgies, and especially tonight, St. Eustace, this is for you to prepare your heart.
This is for me to prepare my heart. You don’t prepare your heart when they’re knocking on the door. You don’t prepare your heart when you may have to lose your job because of your convictions.
You don’t prepare your heart then, you prepare it now. Because if you don’t prepare it now, you won’t be ready then, and this is what we should learn from St. Eustace. We prepare our hearts now, we receive Holy Communion now, and we say, I believe in the Gospel now.
May God strengthen us, and may He grant us the courage, the fortitude, and more importantly, the vision. The vision that St. Eustace had, to be faithful to God, not just in outward action, but first and foremost, inwardly, in our thoughts and in our hearts.
Through the prayers of St. Eustace, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, grant us your holiness and courage.