Monday, September 30, 2024: Sts. Sophia, Faith, Hope, and Love
GALATIANS 2:11-16
LUKE 3:19-22
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Epistle today, St. Paul speaks to us about his need to employ boldness and directness for the sake of the purpose of the Gospel. St. Peter being carried away with what would become to be known as the Judaizing tendency. This Judaizing tendency should be understood in a broader sense. When we speak of Judaizing, we speak, yes, of course, of the technicality of those who in the early time of the church, and even now because there’s Judaizers who exist now, people of various sects, evangelicals, and even people outside of that realm, who are falling into this tendency in which the spirit behind it is that there are things outside of the mercy, the goodness, and the humility of God that save a man, that in fact there are things done out of works, things done even in a sense from just genealogy that are beneficial towards salvation. This is the root of the Judaizing tendency.
And so St. Paul is employing boldness to undo this temptation for this sect that is growing, and St. Peter and even Barnabas who apparently are getting caught up with this tendency. Now, the reality of this seemingly discouraging aspect that Peter, the chief apostle, could be carried away, we may look at this and say to ourselves, “My oh my, if St. Peter could be carried away with something of this nature, how much easier could I be carried away? And even more so, I don’t have a St. Paul in my life to speak to me in the same way, to correct me of this problem.”
This is where it gets very interesting, because if you read St. John Chrysostom’s interpretation of what happens here, he says something very fascinating. He says that in fact there was a measure of cooperation between the two apostles in this situation. And in fact, they to some degree had to, shall we say, uncover this temptation in such a way that it would be beneficial for the whole church.
Because the factions that were growing, it wasn’t just about Judaizing, it was also about cult of personality. And so if you recall where St. Paul also talks about these people are being divided, “I’m glad I baptized no one except for Crispus and Gaius, I believe, forgive me if I’m misquoting what he says. But he says, you know, some say “I’m of Paul,” some say “I’m of Apollos,” but really it’s about Christ.
And so we see now how temptations and error begins to multiply. It is no longer just about the Judaizing tendency, this tendency to find salvation in one’s own strength, one’s own works, one’s own flesh, one’s own genealogy. But now it goes into the temptation of the cult of personality and following an individual over Christ.
And so God arranges through the boldness of Paul and through this temptation of Peter’s to bring about something even larger. And I find this powerful because what you find is that, number one, on the negative side of things, as I just mentioned, error multiplies. And this is why we must be very quick if we are told or we are shown that there is some sort of error, some sort of weed that is sprouting up in us, we must be quick to pluck it out.
Because if we are not quick to pluck it out, then something else will grow out of that. It is never just your lust. It is never just your pride. It is never just your vainglory. It is never just your gluttony. These things begin to not only be contagious, but they begin to spawn other things outside of themselves, other passions.
But on the other end of this is that God is willing to employ any means to clear us of these diseases. God is a good Gardener. He makes sure, He is to make sure that all these things are cleared out.
And this brings us back to the boldness of Paul. These things, when we spot them, when we spot any temptation, any lie and error that the devil would bring forth, we must be bold. So many times, the problems that we run into, they arise out of us dancing around things.
And so I have often to say to many of you, the problem isn’t your fill-in-the-blank sin. The problem isn’t your fill-in-the-blank passion. The problem is your unwillingness to be bold in undoing it. Your unwillingness to take that corrected word, to take that, shall we say, bold and direct or even quote-unquote harsh word. This is the problem.
Because we all have sin. The problem is when we have been given the medicine, that because we want to save our egos, because we mistake the weed, the dandelion for an actual good plant. The dandelion is not the lettuce, whatever analogy you want to use, we want to protect the weed. And so what happens? You protect this weed because – whatever reason: laziness, trying to preserve ego, it doesn’t matter – the end result is you’ve ignored it, you’ve allowed it to not be plucked up.
You’ve told God, “No, no, no, no, no, go on your way, leave this one alone.” And all the while, something else has sprouted up. You come back and now your whole garden is filled with weeds. You have to be bold. More importantly, let me correct myself, forgive me.
You have to allow God to be bold in your life. You have to allow the boldness of God to come and to pluck those weeds quickly. Because if you don’t, one error turns into another. And instead of one kind of weed, you have two, three, four, five.
Let us be careful. Let us be careful and let us not think that we stand lest we fall. St. Peter himself being tempted. God forbid we think we’re above St. Peter. And God forbid we would push away the St. Pauls in our life.
Through the prayers of St. Peter and St. Paul, Lord Jesus Christ our God, grant us the wisdom and the discernment to welcome and to recognize Your boldness.
Sunday, September 29, 2024: St. Euphemia
2 CORINTHIANS 1:21-2:4
GALATIANS 2:16-20
MATTHEW 22:1-14
MARK 8:34-9:1
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Gospel today, the Lord gives us a parable of a king who sent out his servants to invite people to this glorious wedding feast of his son, the son being betrothed to his bride, and now the time would come that they would be united and this invitation to this feast would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. The people being invited, they would come to a table in which they would feast on foods that they most likely would never ever have in their life either before or after. The delicacies that would be given would be of the highest quality, nothing could compare. So the king obviously spares no expense for the sake of the glory of his son of whom he is well pleased.
Four years ago, many of us experienced a very difficult but blessed time. Not in this community, thanks be to God, but we saw around us many were denied the very entrance into the temple, and some of us even witnessed others coming from other communities and parishes as refugees because they were denied the very table themselves at that time.
It was glorious in its difficulty because it reminded and awakened people who, in many ways, they were never really awake in the first place to the reality of what is laid here in the temple. Because it was taken away from them, they were awakened to the joy, to the sumptuous feast that was laid out every Sunday that they took for granted. And so many of us, and in this community including, for the last four years we have enjoyed with a new vigor the wedding feast of the Lord.
But as time goes on and things become seemingly more and more comfortable, we can forget how precious the table is. And we can also forget that the wedding feast invitation is not necessarily to be understood as a one-time event eschatologically, way in the future, but rather this event happens also in cycles. Every week, the king sends out his messengers. Every week, he says, “I’m laying a table for the wedding feast of my son.” Every week he goes and he bids, “Will you come?”
And every week somebody says, “Well, I haven’t chained the oxen,” meaning, “I haven’t changed the oil in the car, you know, I haven’t done X, Y, and Z.” And so they say, “Hmm, maybe I’ll go, maybe I won’t go to the wedding feast.”
The temptation in hearing this Gospel for many people, because they heard it before as evangelicals or whatever tradition you come from before, or maybe even out of my own mouth, and you understand this as being in the future age.
But I tell you, it’s not the future age that you should worry about. It’s the wedding feast today. Are you ready today? Think about it. Before you came to the Church, you were languishing. And God called you, picked you up, cleaned you off, and robed you in a garment. You were baptized. You were brought into the faith. And for many of us, we would have done anything to get baptized. We were so excited.
And then a little time goes by, and we think we know everything. And lo and behold, the table is a bit shabby, isn’t it? The sumptuous delicacies, they’re not so sumptuous anymore: “I can get that next week. Ah, it’ll be another Liturgy. It’ll be all right.”
It’s not a good attitude, my brothers and my sisters, my sons and my daughters. I share this with you as one who fears and trembles before the altar. Every Liturgy is different. Every single Liturgy. There isn’t one Liturgy that is the same. And that wedding feast is precious every time.
If you pay attention to the Gospel, the Lord says there’s good and bad gathered in that wedding feast. And so many times, we allow this thought of, “Well, I’m not worthy. Well, I’m not prepared.” And really, that is the smokescreen for our sloth.
Because we’re never worthy. But the question is, did we prepare ourselves for the feast? You see, that wedding garment, yes, it’s baptism and chrismation. But that wedding garment, interestingly enough, is also being clothed with Christ Himself.
You see, Christ puts upon us His righteousness. And that’s this weird cycle. When you partake of the delicacies at the table, you take on Christ, but taking on Christ allows you to grow in Christ. To go from Liturgy to Liturgy, from glory to glory. And make no mistake, the Liturgy is the center of our life. This is how they were able to survive communism. This is how they were able to survive Islam. And this is how we were able to survive four years ago. The Liturgy became our life. It became the thing that gave us an awakening to the true meaning of our life.
And yet, the wedding feast goes on. And so I encourage all of you, my sons and my daughters, to remember that the preparation from Liturgy to Liturgy, this checking of your heart, not just saying your prayers, but the checking of your heart, this is what allows you to wear that garment. It isn’t the sins you’ve committed that keep you from the chalice – it’s your heart.
I’ve confessed many of you. And many of you may be have been surprised that I allowed you to commune. Why did I allow you to commune? Because you’re actually sorry in your heart.
And many of you may have experienced where you’ve confessed, you’ve done the things, and I said maybe you should take a break. Why? “But I said the prayers, Father, but I confessed!” But your heart isn’t quite there yet, you see. That is the wedding garment.
And it’s very simple. There aren’t any hoops except for just being honest before God. And see, this process, Liturgy to Liturgy, when you live this process out, that is how you are able to face the Lord in that future time with confidence, with boldness.
Because you live that life, unworthy though we may be, you live that life honestly from Liturgy to Liturgy. So when you finally meet Him in that final Liturgy, you can look Him in the eye with some measure of humility and say, “I tried, Lord.” Not that “I succeeded.” “I tried. I was hungry for Your feast. I was thirsty for Your drink.”
It says in the other Gospel today, “What would a man sell for his own soul?” What would you give for your own soul? What kind of prestige and honor, how many zeros in your bank account is worth it to you? The delicacies at the Lord’s table are not things that will perish in this world. They are things that are eternal.
And some of you don’t know what I’m talking about, and it’s okay, but I’m telling you, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s because you’ve never tasted at that table. But once you’ve tasted that table, once you’ve tasted wisdom, once you’ve tasted the power of love, real love, not self-serving love, real sacrificial godly love – once you’ve tasted those spiritual virtues, you will never hunger for anything in this world again. You will go from Liturgy to Liturgy, from banquet to banquet, because nothing will satisfy you in the way that those delicacies satisfy you.
So, hunger and thirst for righteousness, hunger and thirst for Christ, hunger and thirst for humility, for selflessness, for joy, for peace, for gentleness, for patience – hunger and thirst for these things, because those who hunger and thirst, they shall be filled.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Friday, September 27, 2024: The Elevation of the Precious Cross
Homily for the Mount Tabor School Liturgy.
1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-24
JOHN 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Today in the Gospel, at the end of the Gospel, we hear St. John speaking. And he says to us that he bears witness and this witness is true. To bear witness to something, what does that mean, guys?
You know what that means? Lucy.
Martyr?
That’s right.
Witness, the word means martyr. But to bear witness, right, it means that we see something. We believe it. We stand by it because we know it’s true. Right? And we can’t deny that truth, right? And so, what do you think our response to something true should be? When we see that something’s true, what should we do?
So…. uh…
Yeah. You might question it just like you did at first. You might say, “So, uh, what happened here? I don’t understand.”
And that’s okay. That’s a good response to truth sometimes. Because as long as we don’t deny that truth, that’s the key thing. We may not understand it. We may try to take some time. But ultimately, the right response to bear witness to something true is we celebrate it. And we protect it. And we preserve it. Why do we do that?
Because truth is something so very important to us, guys. Truth is a person. Jesus is the Truth. And since Jesus is the Truth, then His actions on the cross show something very powerful.
And what do you think that His actions on the cross, His dying for us, what does it show us?
He’s dying for us.
That’s right. Perfect answer. That He’s dying for us.
And His death for us, on the one hand, it’s sad, right? It’s sad because Jesus is innocent, right? You guys know what innocent means, right? Jesus did nothing wrong. But yet Jesus died with criminals. Jesus died like a criminal, right? Even though He did nothing wrong.
So on the one hand, that’s sad. But on the other hand, it’s what we would call heroic. And we celebrate it. And we guard it. And we honor it. And we protect it, right? In fact, when we all were venerating the cross, did you see how beautiful the cross was with all the flowers? It’s incredible.
And the hymns? The hymns are especially beautiful today, aren’t they? Right? And we do that to bear witness to the truth of the cross. Because the cross is the most powerful thing in the world. Jesus, who was the most powerful and is the most powerful person being, period, decided to lay down His life and die for us.
And that truth is something that we bear witness to in our lives every day. Every day when we see a difficult problem and we make that choice, will I be with Jesus or will I not be with Jesus? When we decide to be with Jesus, then we say, “Okay, I want to yell at my mom and dad right now. I want to yell at my brother and sister. Maybe I want to cheat on my homework. But I’m not going to.”
When you choose not to do that, that’s you choosing the cross. And that’s you bearing witness to the cross and bearing witness to the truth and the beauty of the cross.
And I want to encourage you guys. When you have that hard decision, when you want to yell at your sister, when you want to be rude or maybe steal a cookie, I want you to think about how beautiful that cross is.
I want you to think about all the roses and all the songs that we sing today. And remember that truth, right? And then with the help of Christ, all that beauty will come into your soul too. And it’ll be easier for you to pick up your cross, right? Because every time that we pick up our cross, we’re bearing witness to the truth of the cross.
And that Truth is Jesus. And we want to do everything we can to preserve Jesus in our hearts, right? And we do that first and foremost through worship and through beauty. So we want to keep remembrance of the beauty of that cross in your hearts and in your minds.
And when you do that, God’s going to be with you and strengthening you and helping you to carry your own cross.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024: St. Silouan the Athonite
GALATIANS 5:22-6:2
LUKE 6:17-23
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Today we are commemorating our Father among the Saints, Saint Silouan the Athonite. And Saint Silouan is in all ways the example of the saint. Saint Silouan was hidden from the eyes of man. Like the best vintage wine forgotten deep, deep in the cellar of the earth, Saint Silouan labored for over 40 years on Mount Athos.
Mount Athos being the holding place of God, the cellar where the Mother of God stores the best wine. And she placed him there, hidden to the eyes of the world. And not just the world, but to the eyes of many of the monks.
There were few who recognized the greatness of Silouan during his time. So Silouan being the greatest of saints – why? Because Silouan reveals to us the fullness of what the Gospels are to be lived out as. Saint Silouan reveals to us the fullness, the height, of what’s possible for those who are not only seeking Christ, but united with Christ, those who have actually met Christ.
Saint Silouan being hidden from the eyes, as I said, not just of the world, but of the monks on the mountain, the Holy Mountain. Being simple in his obediences. And as his disciple Saint Sophrony says, being a man which was all but illiterate, out of his mind and out of his mouth came the most profound understandings. And what was the source of these profound understandings? Something very simple: the love of God. The love of God.
Saint Silouan experienced the love of God directly by encountering Christ and losing that grace. And in losing that grace, descending into hell, and in that descent to hell, he was forged anew and was given a heart like Christ, given a heart in which he was able to see the good and have hope for all humanity. The suffering in which Saint Silouan encountered was one, as Sophrony would say, of a hypostatic nature.
He experienced within his personhood the very suffering of the world around him, not just simply because of the coming World War, but because of also in his own life and in the life of those around him, he saw how we fall short of the grace of God. This grace being revealed ultimately in the humility of Christ.
And so in Saint Silouan, we also see something profound: we see every single Beatitude lived out. We see that in the person of Saint Silouan, poverty becomes something of riches. We see being scorned by men for the sake of the Gospel, being something turned, transformed into something so much greater.
Silouan understood profoundly that the humility of Christ was the only way to encounter Him in His fullness. And I believe this is one of the moments in which, or this is the precise space rather, in which Silouan’s experience of Christ is so profound. You see, it could be very easy for people outside of our tradition – and in fact, it could be even easy for people within our tradition – to have a misunderstanding of what it means to be Orthodox, to have a misunderstanding of what it means to be Christian. The temptation to see our faith as moralism, as pageantry, the temptation is very strong. And God forbid, many of us might even fall into it from time to time.
But because of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, because of the love of the Mother of God, this fine vintage wine of Saint Silouan is hidden away. And when he was uncorked in these last days, no one could mistake, if they were willing to see, what the heart of Orthodoxy was. That the radical nature of what it means to be a disciple of Christ is precisely that – it’s radical.
Such words, such humility, such willingness to suffer. It goes beyond. And it can only be Christ that can reveal something so earth-shattering, something so contrary to our nature.
The humility that Christ revealed to Silouan is the precise thing that ushered in this fullness of Orthodoxy. Because in his words, he reveals to us the simplicity of what it means to bear your burdens for your brother. In doing so, you fulfill the law of Christ.
The humility to suffer for those who hate you. Saint Silouan says to us, “If one does not love his enemies, he does not have the grace of God.” What man here, what woman here can hear those words and still in pride puff out their chest and stick out their chin to God? Not one of us here. Not one person who can hear these words. This is the power. Because it lays us low. And we make no mistake – Silouan did not encounter philosophy. Silouan encountered God.
Through the prayers of Saint Silouan, Lord Jesus Christ our God, help us to love our enemies. Amen.
Sunday, September 22, 2024: Sts. Joachim & Anna
1 CORINTHIANS 16:13-24
MATTHEW 21:33-42
In the Gospel today, the Lord gives us this parable of the owner of the vineyard. And the owner of this vineyard, we obviously can take from this Gospel, we can extrapolate that he’s speaking of Israel, and he’s speaking of how the Lord, in His goodness, and His desire to be fair to the tenants, but also to accomplish the goal, the whole purpose of why he even planted a vineyard in the first place, to get the first fruits, he sends prophets. And the prophets are the servants who were sent that were stoned, that were beaten, that were killed, and these prophets were the ones who were given to Israel to help them, to keep them on task, and to get them to do their work, to bring about the fruit in its due season.
Interestingly enough, in the Epistle today, we see St. Paul making this movement of acknowledging household, acknowledging the goodness and the good works there, and I think this is important because this attitude of being aware of God’s goodness, this is why those tenants, they were, shall we say, tempted to take advantage of that goodness, not truly understanding that that goodness doesn’t just mean generosity, but that goodness also means justice. That with God’s goodness and His generosity, there will also be a justice. There will also be an evening out.
And so they were not able to recognize the prophets, and so also in the parable they were not able to recognize the servants, and so also in our lives, you’re not able to recognize those whom God has sent to us to help us, to get us to bear good fruit. Now, in the world today, we are all surrounded, if you will, by seemingly impossible odds, and the temptation for us is to fall into cynicism, and I would offer this for you to consider: we must be the salt.
We must be salt. We must speak the truth, but in love. When we speak the truth in love, then we are, and if this makes sense to you, we are bearing that good fruit. We are being Israel. We are being faithful to the vineyard because the world is wicked, and the world is given over to wicked things. However, saying that something is wrong, saying the truth in love, is not cynicism.
It’s not the same thing. And the problem with cynicism is that it begins to become contagious, and cynicism eventually begins to bleed into our vineyard in and of itself. We’re to give proper comment on what the world is doing.
We’re to be salt in that sense, as I said earlier, but in the house of the Lord, we’re to be gracious, and we’re to recognize and to honor those who do well, and this is what beats back the cynicism. So oftentimes, the fruit that we offer God can become a bit bitter, because it’s tainted with what we don’t like, and everything becomes about what we don’t like and what we don’t want. And we should be careful, because what happens is, when everything is viewed in a cynical light, then you may become like those bad tenants, and because you’re so swept up in the cynicism and the judgment of everything, when God does send you a prophet, you’re not able to recognize.
You’re not able to recognize the correction that God’s bringing you, and then you just assume that everyone who brings you a correction is bringing you something bad, and you stone them, and you kill them, and all the while, the very one who was sent to you is actually from God.
So how do we avoid making this mistake of stoning the prophets that God sends to us? How do we avoid the mistake of allowing our critical view of what’s going on in the world to not become a critical view of what God’s doing in our life? What are we to do? And this is why thankfulness and honoring others is very important. In the liturgy, you’ll pay attention during the troparion and the kontakion, and during that time, we are honoring the holy ones.
We’re honoring the saints. We’re praising their good life in Christ, and that movement is the very thing that begins to usher us into the reading of the Gospel, and then the reading of the Gospel, receiving the good word, is what moves us into taking Holy Communion. That honoring of the saints, that honoring of the good, is the very thing that prepares us and allows us to receive Christ.
If our mindset as Christians is only about the wrong and the negative, then it becomes very difficult for us to receive Christ in the Holy Communion. Why? Because the word for Holy Communion is Eucharist. What does Eucharist mean? Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. We come to Christ in thanksgiving. We come to this temple in praise.
We come and very soon we’ll pray the Cherubic Hymn. We’ll ask God to help us, and we’ll cast aside all worldly care. You see, in the house of God, yes, the temple, but also in this temple here, you need to maintain a spirit of thankfulness.
You also need to maintain a spirit of generosity. You need to remember those who serve you. You need to remember those who God has sent to you to help you. And when you do this, that in itself is an act of humility. Honoring and recognizing your mother who served you even though she was sick. Honoring and recognizing your husband or your dad who worked tirelessly even though he had a bad back and was sick.
See, these are the things that keep us human, and these are the things that keep us not just filled with joy, but content. This is where we find our contentment. This is where we find our joy.
But if we sully this with complaint, if we sully this with jadedness, if we speak against the work of God: “Oh, it’s so crowded, oh, it’s this, oh, it’s that”… don’t do that. We need to be giving thanks for everything God is doing in our lives, in this community, and yes, in the world. And we need to do it so that we can continue to see God in our lives.
My sons and my daughters, don’t give into cynicism. We are people of hope. We’re the ones who say to the world, “Christ is risen.” That is the life, and that life is only experienced with thankfulness. This is the key. If you stay thankful, you won’t be cynical.
If you’re not cynical, then you won’t stone the prophets that God sends to you, and He will send you a prophet, and that prophet will correct you if you will allow it. Through the prayers of Joachim and Anna, Lord Jesus Christ our God, help us to not be people of cynicism, but people of truth and rejoicing. Amen.
Saturday, September 21, 2024: The Nativity of the Theotokos
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
LUKE 10:38-42; 11:27-28
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Today is a joyous day. Today is a joyous day because we are commemorating the Nativity of the Mother of God. We’re commemorating the faithfulness of God.
God’s faithfulness to bring about long-standing desire, long-standing hope, and a long-standing plan to redeem mankind, to redeem human beings, to bring about salvation. Salvation being the very essence of what it means to be in Christ, to be redeemed, to be brought to this place where humanity is again fulfilling what we were always meant to do. The Mother of God is the first to be honored in this way.
The Mother of God, she is the culmination of the long struggle for obedience, the long struggle for faithfulness, the long struggle for purity amongst the human race. The Nativity of the Mother of God – mankind had long since fallen into chaos, idolatry, evil, wickedness. And out of this, the Mother of God, who is the cream of the crop, who is the ultimate purpose of Israel, she comes forth.
We see, first and foremost, God’s faithfulness. That although everything seemingly is dark, God’s plans will not be foiled. God’s plan is that we would return to him not out of force, not out of necessary obligation, but out of love.
The Mother of God, she is the icon of this for us. Because the Mother of God, her obedience, her faithfulness, her purity was always, first and foremost, rooted and motivated by her love for God. And in her faithfulness and in her obedience, we see the plans of the devil undone.
The devil would have us to be distracted. Israel was so often distracted with the idolatry of the world. Whether it was the power of the neighboring nations, whether it was the hope of security. Whatever the thing was, Israel was often distracted and Israel often left the fidelity of the Lord. Just as the devil would have them.
The Mother of God, she was never distracted by things of this nature. From her very birth, being born of Joachim and Anna, being born of faithful people who could not conceive in their prime, but rather in their old age. They were and are a seed for us of this same type of hope and fidelity that the Mother of God eventually inherited and eventually manifested to its fullness. And a faith and a fidelity that is not distracted.
Think of when the Mother of God, as she grows, being brought to the temple. Having no real friends, having no compatriots, but rather being completely satisfied with being dedicated to God alone. What faithfulness.
And then she will eventually grow. She will eventually be encountered with the Angel Gabriel. And again, not distracted with fear, not distracted with wanting to live a life like all the other girls, quote unquote, but rather being motivated by love.
Think, again, she has to comfort Joseph. Not being distracted by what other people would say about her or about him. Rather being focused on the love of God and being faithful to what God is calling her to. Think about her traveling into Egypt, bearing a Son, being amongst robbers, idolaters in a foreign land. Not being distracted by these things, being faithful.
Remembering God’s promise, remembering that she’s carrying the very Messiah as a baby. Preserving Him, nurturing Him, her whole being dedicated to loving Him. And her knowing that this love for Him is her fruit of her love of God.
And finally, her faithfulness, her unwillingness to be distracted by the naysayers, by the people who are slandering her Son and who will eventually murder Him. Unwavering in her fidelity. It is possible, my brothers and my sisters – this unwavering fidelity is possible in each of us.
Because the Mother of God is fully human, just as we are. And that is our hope. Because we don’t worship a myth. We worship the living God. And we honor His mother, who like us, was in the flesh. And who like us, was tempted with anxieties and worries and concerns. But unlike us, she unwavered. And so in that difference, the fact that she did not waver, there is your hope.
The devil would have you be discouraged when I said that. The devil would have you say, “Yes, yes, but that’s the difference. She was not distracted, I’m distracted.” And I say to you, that is your hope.
Because the very fact that she was able to pass through that and to stay focused on God – fully human – that means that we, every time we’re tempted, we have that potential, we have that ability to also be faithful and to be undistracted. This is why she was born, and this is why you were born into the church.
This is why you were born again through baptism and chrismation. So that potential wouldn’t be just a fanciful idea, but through her prayers would become a reality.
Through the prayers of the Mother of God, Lord Jesus Christ our God, help us to stay focused, help us to realize our birthright. Amen.
Wednesday, September 18, 2024: Mount Tabor School
2 CORINTHIANS 9:12-10:7
MARK 3:20-27
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Have you guys ever kind of woken up one day, and you’re just kind of in a bad mood? Do you know what I’m talking about? You ever have days where you’re just upset, and it’s really hard for you to get along with everybody? It’s really hard to do what you need to do with a good attitude. You ever had days like that before? And they’re tough, huh? And what’s tough is maybe you weren’t really sure why you weren’t feeling good, but as the day goes on, things probably sometimes get worse, you know? You don’t feel good, and maybe you say something to your mom, maybe you say something to your dad, maybe you say something to your teacher or one of your friends. Maybe they say something back to you, and you don’t like it, and then now you feel even worse, right? And it all just kind of keeps going on and on and on.
And so it almost just feels like, well, what are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to stop it? In the Gospel today, Jesus is speaking to the people because they don’t understand what’s going on. There’s a lot happening. People are frustrated. People are crowded in. And Jesus finds himself relaxing. He finds Himself kind of getting a little bit of peace, and they say, “What’s wrong with Him? What is He doing? Why isn’t He all kind of mixed up like we are?”
And Jesus starts talking about something very important. He says, “If you’re going to plunder a strong man’s house, then you must first tie up the strong man.” That may be kind of confusing to you guys, but let me explain what that is. First of all, you need to know who the strong man is.
Who do you think the strong man is?
God?
In this case, no. The strong man is the devil. And the devil, he is, you know, the strong man here, and his house is kind of like the world, right? Jesus was talking about how he came into the world to undo the works of the devil, right? Because before Jesus came, the devil was the big boss in the world, okay? And everyone pretty much had to do whatever the devil said before Jesus came.
So in this sense, Jesus is coming and saying, well, the strong man’s house being, you know, kind of like the world everyone’s living in, if you want to fix that, if you want to, like, get the good things out of it, which are you guys and us, right, the people, if you want to help the people get out of the strong man’s house, you’ve got to tie up the strong man. Because if you don’t, then he’s going to come and try to stop you. Does that make sense? Okay.
Now here’s the thing. Remember I was talking to you about when you are feeling kind of bad and you don’t know why, and then those feelings and those interactions with people start making other bad interactions, right? Well, the secret to finding it out is you’ve got to find out why you’re upset in the first place.
Demons love to… they love Halloween. They love to dress up and they love to disguise themselves. And they love to disguise themselves as emotions. Sometimes we have feelings that we don’t know why, and that’s sometimes the demons trying to get us to feel certain ways, right?
Sometimes they disguise themselves as thoughts. Sometimes we think certain things that aren’t ours, but they’re actually from the demons. And so because we don’t really realize that it’s the demons, right, we start thinking, “Yeah, she was looking at me weird. I didn’t do anything to her. Why is she looking at me that way?” And really it was just the demon trying to suggest that to get you to be upset. Does that make sense?
Now, it happens to the best of us, and that’s okay. But the thing is, is once you begin to realize, “Hey, my attitude’s not great right now. Why am I having such a bad attitude?” And sometimes you know because maybe your mom or your sister or your teacher or one of your sisters say, “Hey, your attitude’s kind of stinky right now, you know? Maybe we should try again. Maybe we should do something different.” God will send somebody to help you to figure out, I need to change my attitude, right? And when that happens, there’s your window of opportunity.
Your window of opportunity to say, “Okay, Lord.” You make the sign of the cross, and you just say, “Lord, please show me what’s really going on. Why am I so upset?” And what’s going to happen is when you find that original reason why you’re feeling kind of crummy or you were having bad thoughts, once you find that first original reason, you’ll probably realize that it could have been fixed, right? “Oh, that’s why I was upset? Oh, just because she looked at me funny? Maybe she was having a bad day.” You know, you begin to realize maybe it really wasn’t that bad.
And then what begins to happen then is once you tie up that strong man, once you get that first bad thought, once you get that first bad feeling that caused you to have a bad attitude all day, it becomes so much easier now to change your attitude and to change the rest of the day, to change how you feel, to change your thoughts from bad thoughts to good thoughts, from a bad attitude to a good attitude. But you’ve got to tie up that strong man. You’ve got to find that first bad, icky thought or feeling, okay? And God will help you.
See, Jesus, He was just sitting there. And He was waiting and He was watching, right? And people were frustrated with Him, but it’s the same thing. You may be frustrated and everything, but Jesus is going to be able to look and see and help tell you, “Hmm, you know what, Lucy? This was the problem.”
And He’ll point it out to you. And then from there, if you’re obedient, and you say, “Okay, Lord, I accept that.” Once you say, “Okay, Lord, I accept that,” and you begin to repent, you begin to change, the strong man is tied up, and you can just have your house nice and clean again.
This is your house, right? Your heart, your mind, right? This is where the strong man is trying to get all of us to feel icky, right? But with Christ, our house will be clean. He’ll tie up the strong man, and help us to have good thoughts and good emotions, okay?
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Monday, September 16, 2024: Day of the Angels
2 CORINTHIANS 8:7-15
MARK 3:6-12
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
In the Gospel today, we see the Lord making provision. He makes provision for the reality which He was encountering, that of the response to His ministry, the response to His power, the response of the thirsty, hungry, needy people. Hungering and thirsting for more than meat and drink, but hungering and thirsting for healing, both of body and soul.
It’s the Lord seeing the great amassing need, and understanding that He would also need to make provision for Himself, as the Gospel says, “Lest He be crushed.” He does so. We see that the Lord does this several times.
Another instance that I would bring to your mind is when He is preparing for His – preparing for the Passover, preparing for the entry into Jerusalem. He says to the disciples, “Go, and there is a foal of an ass, which has not been ridden upon. Go and tell the person that the Master has need of this.”
So the disciples went and they found, just as the Lord said, a baby donkey in which the Lord would see Himself riding upon in humility and glorious triumph into Jerusalem, He made provision for this very ministry in His steed. So He does the same thing here with this boat.
In our lives, we too will need to make provision, and we will see that the Lord will have this prepared for us. The boat in which you must often enter into is the very life that God has given you, the very vessel, this one here, your body, in which you are carried to the shores of the next world. And as St. Paul said in the Epistle today in 2 Corinthians, there’s something to be said about the commitment that’s made.
St. Paul’s speaking about this year of provision that was given and that the Corinthians were to stay fast in that remembrance of that commitment that they had made that they would do well.
It’s the same thing for us: God has given us a provision of time. We all have a certain measure of time in which we can accomplish our repentance. We all have a measure of time in which the provisions that we need will be met for us. The question becomes, are we living in such a way that that provision will be encountered? What I mean by that is there’s a certain measure of faith, and remember that we should understand and interpret faith as trust, not faith as in “these are the doctrines that I believe, these are the kind of like points in the legal ledger by which I hold to these standards,” but rather faith is trust in the living God.
And so do we have the faith that God has made that provision for us? Do we have the faith that God has what we need? So oftentimes we will miss the boat. So oftentimes we miss the boat because we don’t trust, because we don’t believe that God has made a way for us. And so I would encourage all of you to look at the areas in your life in which you have made commitment.
We lose our course on the way to the shores of the other world. And one of the best ways to not do that, one of the best ways to stay in the boat is to take a good account in which you have made commitment.
We’re coming up on the year anniversary of the tonsure of the nuns. And so for them, they look to the reality in which they’ve chosen this life. And as they hold fast to that life, as they hold fast, and they remember the year, they remember the blessing of the Bishop, they remember all these commitments, all these things – this is the boat which will carry them to the shores of the other world.
All of you have something similar but not exactly the same. It may be a marriage. Some of you may have your own calling to monasticism. Some of you may have a vocation to serve as clergy. Some of you may have a vocation to run an orphanage. Some of you may have a vocation to adopt a child, maybe a special needs child.
The point being is there is a measure of commitment in which you look at the time God’s given you for your repentance. There’s a measure of commitment in which you say, I hold to this because this is the path in which I will make it to the other world.
There is no one who in Christ doesn’t have this provision. The question is, will they miss that boat because they don’t know what they’re looking for? When you realize that Jesus is in the boat, not only has Jesus provided you the boat, but the way that you know He provides the boat is that He’s in there with you. And when Christ is in the boat with you, I guarantee you, He’s not taking you to the shores of marshmallows and resort living, but He is taking you to a place of rest.
And there is no sweeter rest than the one that is taken after a very long, hard day of work. There’s no sweeter rest. There’s no sweeter meal than the one that’s taken after a full, grueling day of work.
This is how you recognize the rest of the Lord, because He’s with you and He says to you, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Through the prayers of St. Mary of Egypt, Lord Jesus Christ, help us to make it to the shores of the next world.
Sunday, September 15, 2024: St. Mamas, St. John the Faster
1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-11
MATTHEW 19:16-26
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Gospel today, we hear about a rich young man, a rich young ruler, a man who had many possessions, much wealth, and wealth of, yes, money, actual money.
But also, too, clearly he had some sense of position, he had some sense of authority somewhere in the world, this rich young ruler, this man having influence in the world. And he comes to Jesus, being perfect in all his things: having wealth in the world, having influence in the world, and obviously having an understanding of what is being asked of him as a Jewish young man, keeping the law, keeping the commandments, having boldness to say, essentially, “I’ve done all these things. What am I lacking? Am I not perfect in all things?” So the Lord answers him accordingly.
Now, let me digress, and allow me to bring some of you back, especially some of you older people. Do you remember when you first began to approach the Church? Do you remember, maybe, when you began to learn about St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, how there were actual bishops and saints that actually were disciples of John? Do you remember how amazed you were? Perhaps you remember learning that the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well, that she had a name, and that her name was Photini, and that Photini not only had a name, but she had gone on to be quite the evangelist.
Do you remember just being amazed at the reality that the Scriptures were more than just fables and tales and something communicating spiritual understanding, but that there was an actual historical reality, a grounding, that the Church itself was still alive and visible, manifest, tangible, not something invisible and made up? It encouraged you, made you, in many ways, want to become Orthodox.
And that was because you realized that the people that Christ encountered in the Gospels were real people, and therefore, their encounter with Christ actually really did change them one way or the other. And so you, I trust, I hope, were inspired that you too would be changed. Well, today you have the inversion of that.
You have a man who could have been a great bishop. You have a man who could have been a saint. You have a man who could have had his eyes opened. You have a man who, if he didn’t love the world the way that he did, he might have been one of the first ones to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
But clearly he doesn’t, because even in his standard approach of things, the kind of sycophant, if you will, coming to Jesus, “Oh, good teacher,” and this is why Jesus is like, “Why are you calling me good?” That’s not Jesus denying that He’s God. That’s Jesus saying, “You don’t even know Who you’re talking to. You’re coming to me knowing how to scrape and to bow and how to make your way up into society, because that’s how you did it before. But you don’t know Who you’re really talking to.” So Jesus presses him even further, calling him to task, saying, “You don’t really even understand what it means to be a good Jew. You think you do, but you don’t.”
The world beguiled this man. He felt that the world was all that he needed. And he even took his religious life and it was just a part of the bigger world. But ultimately it lied to him, and it caused his name to not go down in history. And that’s a great tragedy, isn’t it? Because all he ever wanted was to be well known.
All he ever wanted was to have immortality, right? He says, “What good deed do I need to get to have eternal life? What do I need to do to live forever?” But the very thing that he needed to do, he would not do. Our Lord says, “If one seeks to gain his life, he must lose it for My sake.” And so the question of what the world is and how He interacts with the world, I think this is revealed to us, not just in this Gospel, but also when you begin to see how God has dealt with his people subsequently.
You see, when the world begins to fret and the world begins to become anxious over things, what does the Lord say to us in the Gospels? He talks to us about being still, trusting Him. Why? How can a nation trust God when everything falls apart? How can a family trust God when dad gets sick, when mom gets sick, when baby sister gets sick? How can they do that? Well, they can do it precisely for the very reason that they understand, they received in their heart the seeds of eternal life, and they recognize, “This is my opportunity.”
Imagine what that man would have gotten. Imagine what he would have inherited if he said, “Not only will I sell everything, but I will follow You. I’ll do all that You do. I’ll act as You act. I’ll be with you wherever you are.” And those husbands, those spouses, those children, when they suffer, the nation, when it suffers, it is following Christ. They are following Christ.
We are following Christ when we choose, not the world, but we choose to follow Christ. We follow Christ when we say, “Yes, I want a good name. Yes, I want to live forever. Yes, I want wealth and health. But I realize in order for me to have real health, real wealth, and to have eternal life, that I must exchange something that will be filled with rust and moth-ridden and ultimately kill me. I’ll gladly exchange that for something so much deeper, something so much more profound.”
Now, you may say right now, “Okay, Father, we all know this. That’s nice, but let’s get on with it.”
Well, I’m going to show you what eternal life looks like. I’ll show you what eternal life looks like. You see all these saints around you? Those are all people. And they have pains in their legs. They have cousins and sisters that died. Many of them suffered incredible poverty. And they’re the ones on the wall. They’re the ones you turn to for help. They’re the ones who you say, “Okay, I want to be like you. I want to take your name when I get baptized. I want to name my child after you.”
That’s eternal life. Because their name carries on. Why does their name carry on? Because their name is rooted in Christ. Because they follow Christ. Because their name is transformed and made from lead into gold.
And that’s what Christ is calling for all of us. That our name would be such that when we pass away, people will say, memory eternal. And not just out of folk custom.
But they’ll say memory eternal because they’re like, I remember Mary. I remember Mark. I remember David. And I remember who they were in Christ. May God remember them always. That’s why we say memory eternal.
May they live forever. But you can’t live forever if you’ve invested everything that you are into the grave, into that something that’s going to crumble. You can’t. You won’t. Tell me, who was the governor of Babylon? Do you know?
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, may we live forever.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024: Beheading of St. John the Baptist
Homily for the Mount Tabor School Liturgy.
ACTS 13:25-32
MARK 6:14-30
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Okay guys, I’m going to teach you a word, okay? Do you know this word? Have you ever heard of the word “vainglory”?
Vainglory, or vanity. You know that word “vanity”? Yeah? Vainglory and vanity? Okay. So, vainglory is when someone, all they care about is what other people think. So, sometimes we want to be so popular, sometimes we want to be number one, sometimes we want to be the best and have everyone think that we’re the best.
And when we begin to think that way, what begins to happen is we forget not only what is important to us, like our morals, how we think we should treat people, right? But even worse than that, we forget the people who care about us, the real people who care about us. Because with vainglory, we begin to not care about the ones who love us, but we begin to want to impress other people who don’t really care about us. Now, I know this is kind of crazy, but let me explain this to you, okay?
In the Gospel today, there was a king, right? King Herod, right? You heard that in the Gospel. King Herod did something that he shouldn’t have done, right? He did something that we would say immoral, right? He was doing something that was not of a right way of living, right? And everyone knew what he was doing, but nobody said anything to him except for one person. And that one person was St. John the Baptist, right? Okay? So St. John, believe it or not, he loved Herod. And St. John loved the people of Israel.
And so because St. John loved Herod, St. John was willing to tell Herod the truth that what he was doing was wrong. Now, for a lot of people, they thought that St. John was being proud, that he was being arrogant. But really, St. John was being very brave and noble.
He was trying to do the right thing by telling Herod what he was doing was wrong. Now, Herod respected St. John. Herod liked to listen to St. John. Even though Herod didn’t understand everything St. John said, he knew that God was speaking through St. John, okay? All right?
So, Herod, it was his birthday, and we all like a good birthday party, right? Because at your birthday party, you’re the center of attention. It’s your birthday, right? It’s a big celebration. You invite your friends so they can have some treats, some fun, play some games, right? So Herod did the same thing.
But you know, Herod got a little carried away. He got a little too excited. And so, in being carried away and being excited by this young lady’s dancing, Herod forgot who really cared about him.
You see, when Herod says, “What do you want?” He was so excited, right? He was so excited. You guys know when you’ve had so much candy, you want to eat more candy? You know what I’m talking about? You know when you’re watching TV, and you just want to keep watching TV, and you watch so much you can’t go to sleep anymore? You know what I’m talking about? Like that. You’re having so much fun, but you get carried away, and you forget who you are.
You forget what you’re doing, and you forget the ones who love you. So Herod had forgotten. And so, when he asks Salome, “What do you want?” She goes, and she asks her mother.
Now her mother, she also suffered from this thing called vainglory. Because her mother knew what she was doing was wrong. And she didn’t like the fact that St. John was telling people that she was doing wrong things.
And so she became very bitter. And she was waiting for the time to hurt St. John. So the time came. Kind of like the Wicked Queen in Snow White, yes? Okay.
So she says to Herod, “Give me the head of St. John the Baptist.” And that’s why in so many of the icons of St. John, right, you see right there? He’s holding his head. Yeah, I know.
Now, the thing is, St. John, again, remember: St. John loved Herod. He told him the truth, even though he didn’t want to hear it. Herod, he had what we call vainglory. Herod knew that he made a mistake. He knew that he got carried away. But instead of saying, “You know what, I’m sorry, this has gone too far.” He could have done that. He’s the king.
Instead of saying, “I’m sorry, I’ve gone too far. Help me, St. John. Help me, God,” Herod says, well, “I’m not going to be embarrassed, especially not on my birthday.” The worst thing in the world is to be embarrassed, isn’t it?
No, the worst thing in the world is not to be embarrassed. The worst thing in the world is to forget those who love you. And so Herod forgot who loved him. He forgot that St. John had often spoken to him words of truth. And so he had his head cut off.
Okay. Now, in our lives, we sometimes want to make sure that people like us. And that’s a good thing. We want people to like us. But as you guys get older, and as you start meeting new friends and doing other things, you’re going to have more and more people maybe giving influence on you. And these influences sometimes can get you to forget who really loves you, like your mom or your dad, maybe your teachers, maybe your priest.
Because sometimes we’ll want to do something because we’re so carried away with it. But then God will send an angel. You know, sometimes in icons of St. John, have you seen an icon of St. John where he has angel wings? Have you seen that before? Right? Because he was like a messenger. He’s like an angel. So sometimes God will send an angel, a messenger to tell you, “You’re getting carried away. Too much candy.”
And at that point, you’re either going to listen to the people who you don’t want to be embarrassed in front of. And when you do that, oftentimes you’ll forget the ones who love you. Or you can choose to listen to that angel and say, “Yes, I got carried away. Yes, I might be embarrassed for a little bit. Yes, I may not get what I want at this moment. But I know I’ll be doing the thing that’s pleasing God and the thing that’s right.”
See, vainglory, when we care about just being popular or being cool, getting what we want, it keeps us from being who God wants us to be. And God wants all of us to have joy and love, right? God wants us to be like Him. And so the thing is, do you think Jesus was vainglorious? No. Do you think John the Baptist was vainglorious? No. And they’re the ones with the icons up front, aren’t they? Because they always remind us to be true to God, to be true to love, no matter what the cost, right? Okay?
So through the prayers of St. John, may we be people who are humble and never vainglorious. Amen.
Tuesday, September 10, 2024: St. Moses the Black
2 CORINTHIANS 5:15-21
MARK 1:16-22
In the Epistle today, St. Paul speaks about the need to be reconciled to God. He tells us that we regard no man in the flesh anymore, for this reason we implore you, we ask that you be reconciled to God. When we think of the turning of the heart to God, when we think of our great father, St. Moses the Strong, St. Moses the Ethiopian, St. Moses the Black, when we think of St. Moses, he is this epitome of one being reconciled to God and one imploring others to be reconciled to God.
We recognize the difficulty of the passions, because the very blood in our veins cries out for sin. Rebellion is in our blood. At times in our life, it feels like every ounce of us, every breath we take is seething to just push off every bit of restraint, to push away any semblance of humility and to just run headlong into desire and into the fever of passion.
And so because we all know this very well, we recognize that when a Holy One, like St. Moses, is willing to get to the point of even having his body be broken for the sake of purity, for the sake of turning away from his sins, we recognize it’s no small feat. And this is why we honor Holy Ones, like St. Moses, because they show us that yes, although it is a fight, and it’s the most difficult fight in the world, the hardest thing in the world is to say no to your flesh. The hardest thing in the world is to say no to yourself and to be reconciled to God, but it can be done.
It can be done. And it’s done simply by the remembrance that God made the way for us. The thing that inspired St. Moses initially to turn away from his life of thuggery, violence, debauchery, we don’t know exactly what that initial moment was. We don’t know what broke his heart, what turned him in fear. We don’t know. But what we do know is that when he did turn his life and began to try to reconcile to God, he struggled.
It wasn’t easy. It was very difficult for him. He struggled with his gluttony. He struggled with his lust for many years. And this is important to remember because we don’t honor St. Moses and we don’t honor any saint by acting like what they did was something easy. We don’t do them any favors by looking at their struggle – which was a real struggle – as if it was a storybook.
We can turn the pages and we can read the life of the saint and go, “Wow.” But it’s a very different thing – reading about someone struggling for 30 years is very different than struggling for 30 plus years.
Day in, day out. Being insulted, being humiliated, depriving yourself of things because somewhere, somehow, something happened, or rather Someone happened to St. Moses. And he became, as St. Paul says in the epistle, a new creation.
And so now we find ourselves not so unlike him in the sense that we have come to the place of our repentance. We have found our way into the church in this wilderness, in the chaos of our time. Each one of us was raised in a myriad of beliefs, a myriad of practices, not all good, not all Christian.
There are many philosophies that would teach that hedonism and pursuing the flesh is valid. Is that not the philosophy of the world? So we have come to this place here in the temple before God trying, trying to have the grace of God come to us in the same way that it came to St. Moses. But the thing is, we must remember, it’s a battle.
And once you forget that you’re in a battle, that’s when you begin to lose that same battle. In the Akathist to St. Moses, it speaks of him having this philokalic wisdom, referencing the Philokalia, which is, as most of you know, some of you don’t know, the Philokalia being, you know, the height of our spiritual practice, the writings of the fathers. And St. Moses, more than being an intelligent guy, he understood the blood, the sweat, the tears it takes to be reconciled to God.
He understood that since he is now a new creation, then he must live like a new creation. But it is a struggle. And that’s why we honor him. Because his battle was a hard fought one. But it was fought and he won. Through his prayers, may we too fight the fight that God has in front of us.
May we fight our flesh. May we fight all the various enemies that are rising up against us daily. May we be reconciled back to God, knowing that God isn’t trying to deprive us of something good, but rather God is trying to heal us and bring us back to him.
Because it’s only in Him that we will be satisfied. It’s only in Him that all the things in our life will have true meaning. It’s only being reconciled to Him that we have life.
Through the prayers of St. Moses, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
Monday, September 9, 2024: St. Poemen the Great, St. Phanourios
2 CORINTHIANS 5:10-15
MARK 1:9-15
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
The Gospel of Mark is one of the earliest of Gospels. And in the Gospel of Mark, the actions of our Lord are decisive, quick. In many ways, you could say this is why, you know, how each Gospel is described symbolically by one of the four incorporeal beasts:
Luke being the ox, the ox being ascribed to Luke because in the Gospel of Luke, Christ is the suffering servant. And the Gospel of Matthew is the genealogy of him being sent to the children of Israel, so the symbol ascribed to the Gospel of Matthew is the man or the angel. The Gospel of John, the symbol ascribed to that Gospel is the eagle because the Gospel of John is the most theological. It’s the most erudite, profound. And so in that Gospel, the theology soars high to the heavens like the eagle. But in the Gospel of Mark, the symbol, the beast ascribed to the Gospel of Mark is the lion. And the lion being the king of the beasts, the lion being aggressive, the lion being ferocious.
And Christ is revealed in that Gospel as being very decisive. When you read the Gospel of Mark, it’s very quick. And the actions of Christ are very quick and decisive. And in this particular account of the Gospel of Mark, we see something. We see the prelude to our Lord’s passion. We often, when we speak of the passion, we’re talking about the passion of the Lord.
We’re speaking about the cross as crucifixion. But what is often missing when we talk about the passion is revealed here. And that is the Lord is driven by the Spirit. For what purpose? For the love of His people. For the love of His people. The Lord’s passion ultimately is that He would find His bride.
The Lord’s passion is ultimately that He would be victorious in finding the one who would love Him. And the one whom He could love. And this is why when you see the Gospel, He has the blessing of the Father.
The Father speaks and says, “I am well pleased.” And in that moment, we have this theophany. The Son hears from the Father the approval.
And then that grace, that blessing of the Spirit descends upon Him as if like a dove. But from there, that same Holy Spirit Which I’ve shared with you at times, is gentle. The same Holy Spirit, this is why it says like a dove.
Because of the gentleness of the Spirit and to some degree the elusiveness of that same Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, it says “immediately” and “drove.” Those two words give us a sense of something profound.
The Lord is inspired. The Lord is fixated. The Lord is determined. But why? Why is He so determined to go into the deserts? Why is He so determined to deal with the beasts? Why is He so determined to be accused? What is He being accused of? How do you know He’s being accused?
Because the word there is Satan. Not devil, not Lucifer, not Beelzebub. But Satan. And all those other names are used in the Scripture. Lucifer is used in the Gospels. Beelzebub is used in the Gospels. Devil is used in the Gospels.
Why Satan? Why then? Why now? Because Satan means “accuser.” And the Devil came to accuse our Lord. Are you really the Christ? Are you really the one? Have you really come to take from me my hostage? Have you really come to take from me this thing that you think you want so badly (speaking about us)?
Show me. Prove to me. The Lord submitted Himself. The Lord who created that very same Satan is now, in many ways, submitted to him. Not in all ways, but in many ways. Enduring this struggle. Why? Why? Because He loves His bride.
Because every single one of you He desires and He loves passionately. Every single one of you here that can hear my voice, the Lord knows you from your mother’s womb. He knows all your fears. He knows all your hopes. He knows all your desires. He knows every single thing about you.
And the thing He’s longing for is for you to wake up and to know yourself. Because when you know yourself, then the end of the Gospel here today becomes real. At the end of the gospel, it says, Repent, for the kingdom of God is in hand.
That repentance, that Gospel, that good news is that your fulfillment is not just a hope or a dream. It’s reality. That gospel is that the God who created you has not abandoned you and has demonstrated His willingness to fight for you.
But you must then, in turn, repent. When you hear now of the Lord going into the desert, my hope is that you will not just see a mythology, but you’ll see the reality that that same God you seek to commune with and offer your prayers to and take in when you receive Holy Communion, that same God loved you first and was willing to endure even the shame, if you will, of being accused by the one whom He created.
The Lord has laid His own wager, if you will, and He said, “My bride is worthy, and I will come for my bride. I will fight for my bride.” True love. There is no romance greater than the one between the Lord and His bride.
May we always remember, may we keep burning in our hearts His deep love for us, His passion for us, the great Lion of Judah.
Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of St. John the Baptist, have mercy on us. Amen.
Sunday, September 8, 2024: Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God; Sts. Adrian & Natalie
1 CORINTHIANS 9:2-12
MATTHEW 18:23-35
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
In the Gospel today, the Lord gives us a parable. And as with all the Lord’s parables, He is trying to reveal to us something about the Heavenly Father, something about the ways of God that are really, outside of the parable, very difficult for us to understand. And the reason for that is because, if you take in mind, the Jews, not only did they have, you know, the Levitical law and the prophets, but they had, they were swimming in midrash, they were swimming in tradition, they were swimming in the kind of interpretation, the Jewish pharisaical interpretations of the law, they were swimming in it.
And so, having technical, philosophical, doctrinal teachings, clearly Christ says this is not sufficient to get to the heart. These things only address the mind. And the things of the heart are what’s important.
Because if you notice, at the end, what does He say? He says, unless you forgive your brother from your heart. And so, we can find all kinds of self-help books and various teachings on how to forgive someone. And you’ll hear that forgiveness is important because, well, you forgive someone for your own mental health, you know, you don’t want to carry that burden of being mad at someone. Or, you forgive someone because of, you can just fill in the blank, you can sit here all day talking about all kinds of philosophical and intellectual ways to understand forgiveness.
But the reality is that the Master says, it must be from your heart. And He delivers this in a parable, because in a parable, we see ourselves in a way that is not as easily objectifiable as it is when you’re thinking about something intellectually.
And this is important because, for instance, a mother and a father have a child. And this child, this baby boy, shall we say, this baby boy is bright and brilliant and they love this baby boy. But one night, this baby boy does something naughty. And the mother and the father, they realize that, oh boy, this little baby boy, he did something quite naughty. We can’t really let him go on with this. If we keep him in this place where he keeps doing this thing, it’s going to get worse. It will only get worse as he gets older. And so the mother and the father, they decide this one time to hold their ground. They stand their ground.
And lo and behold, that little baby boy, you know, he just doesn’t want to relent. That little baby boy, he is, you know, just, “No. I’m going to do what I want to do. And you aren’t going to make me change.”
The mother bribes, “No, no, no, no. You know, I know you want to be here with us. I know you want to cuddle. Just, if you just admit what you did wrong, you can come in.” And the baby boy says, “No.” And instead of cuddling with his mother and acknowledging what he’s done wrong, he runs out the room. And this scene repeats itself.
Now, this is not a parable. This happened to me. And the reason why I’m saying this is because in that little moment, which I’ve had many of them, you begin to realize deep theological truths that you will not realize by reading. You realize deep theological truths, not concepts, not principles, not ideas, truths that you will not understand by reading a book or listening to some guy pontificate on YouTube.
And when that realization comes, one of my favorite words, terror. Terror comes to you. Because you begin to realize: Lord, have mercy. This is how people wind up in certain places forever.
We can hope in certain things. We can hope that, you know, maybe at the end of the age or something, God will kind of forgive us. We can hope those things, but the church is very clear that this is not the teaching of the Master, it is very clear that this is not the teaching. That in fact, forever is forever. And where you live your forever depends really on you.
As a father, that little bit of stubbornness, I need to do everything I can to get it out. And I’ll tell you why. Do you think I really cared about what a little baby boy did? It’s seemingly inconsequential in the big scheme of things, isn’t it? But see, the thing is, as a father, I understand that that little seed of rebellion, that little seed of pride, if that doesn’t get pulled out, then that little boy becomes a man. And that man then can spread all kinds of different seed.
Now you may say, well, Father, what does this have to do with forgiveness? The heart. Is everything. And God demands from us these things come from our heart.
I will tell you from personal experience that if you’ve ever been betrayed, if you’ve ever been wounded, it is difficult to forgive. It isn’t something that you can just snap your fingers, “Oh, I forgive.”
See, you can do that intellectually. You can say, “No, no, no, I forgive actually because the Bible says da, da, da, da, da, and Jesus says da, da, da, da, da, and I know that Dr. So-and-So says I should forgive because of my mental health.” You can do that, but I promise you, I guarantee you, if you’ve actually truly been betrayed, not just, you know, said no to, but truly wounded, truly stabbed in the back, it’s something else to actually work on your heart to forgive that person. And in those moments when you thought, “I thought I forgave that, what’s going on?” Then you begin to truly see the darkness that lays in your heart, never mind everyone else’s, your heart.
And this is the key to the parable because that servant, he was so completely blind to his own heart, all the reality that he owed a million dollars to the king and his fellow servant owed him 50 bucks. He’s blind to that. All that he sees is his own, shall we say, indignation. All he can think about is, where’s my 50 bucks? And that blindness cost him everything.
We don’t know why he went into debt. We don’t know. In fact, to make it real easy, you could even say, well, he went into debt because he took out credit to help his sick mother and to help the village guy. Let’s say he took out credit for good reasons. And so he couldn’t pay it. That’s fine. But it’s still on him. Do you know why? Because he was given forgiveness. And in that forgiveness, the real debt was given, you see. And that’s what he wouldn’t pay back. And that’s why the king became enraged.
Did you notice that the Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven is compared to a king”? He’s describing the king. He’s not describing all the details around it. He says the king. What He’s trying to show you is the kingdom of heaven is found being within the Father. And if you want to know how the Father is, if you want to know the way the Father does things, if you want to know, if you want to commune with the Father, then listen. The Father is merciful. The Father is wise. The Father is kind. But the Father is also not a fool. And the Father sees. And the Father knows. And if you wish to be in the kingdom, if you wish to be with that Father, then you must be like that Father.
Not outwardly. Not by studying and trying to fake it. You must be like Him from your heart. There is no other way. And so although this is uncomfortable, it’s a very easy parable. Because we don’t have to run out and find examples, do we? Do we have to run out and find examples of where we are not being forgiving? We have everything in front of us. We have everything right next to us, don’t we?
So, Holy Communion today. You take within you the life and the blood of Christ. When we pray and offer to the Father our sacrifice of praise, but ultimately the sacrifice that Christ gave, that’s what the Liturgy is about.
Take in mind what we’re doing. Take in mind what you’re about to consume. Rather, forgive me, Who you’re about to consume.
Do not have bitterness in your heart. And if you do and you can’t get it out, pay close attention. If you have bitterness in your heart and you cannot get it out, don’t be afraid. Take your medicine. The fire is going to burn you. I guarantee it. But you want it to burn you. Don’t hide it. Don’t act like you don’t have that resentment. Don’t act like you were not in the wrong. Be honest with yourself, because God already knows. And in doing that, then you can bring something to the chalice. Then you can commune spiritually. Not just out of religious obligation.
Through the prayers of St. Mary of Egypt, Lord Jesus Christ, help us to forgive ourselves and help us to forgive others.
Amen.
Wednesday, September 4, 2024: Mount Tabor School
2 CORINTHIANS 3:4-11
MATTHEW 23:29-39
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ is in our midst.
Well, good morning. It’s our first Liturgy for school this year. And it’s a very exciting thing. There’s a lot of new faces, a lot of new people here. This is really a wonderful thing. God’s blessing us.
And interestingly enough, you know, yesterday I spoke, I did the prayers for the Upper School. I gave them a little message. And, you know, I’ll just let you know, every morning when I say the prayers at school and I give a little message, I kind of don’t always know what I’m going to say. Sometimes, you know, I’ll just wait and see, I’ll read the Scriptures in the morning, I say my own prayers, and then I come to school, and then I hope that God, the Holy Spirit, will give me something to say.
And so yesterday, I was speaking to the older kids about what we do in school, our learning and how we learn. And that it was important that we don’t just remember that we’re learning math and science and geography, but also it’s almost just as important, if not more important, that we think about how we learn, not just what we learn. Do you guys know what I mean by how we learn? Right? Okay.
So how we do something and why we do something is just as important as what we do. In the Gospel today, the Pharisees and the scribes, do you guys know who the Pharisees and the scribes were? Yeah? Who were the Pharisees?
The Pharisees, they were the ones who didn’t like Jesus and they were the ones who kept saying rumors to the Israelites that Jesus was a bad person, and that what he was saying wasn’t true.
That’s right. She said the Pharisees were the ones, you call them bad people, right? And they didn’t like Jesus, right? They spread rumors about Jesus. That’s true.
That’s true about the Pharisees. But do you know what they did, though? Like, who were they? Why were they called Pharisees? Seraphima? No. Say that again?
[Inaudible]
Yes, that’s true.
But the Pharisees and the scribes, they were like, kind of like the priests, right? They were the ones who were in the temple. They were the ones who would read the Scriptures. They were the ones who would look at all the religious law and make sure that everybody was doing what was written or what they thought that they should do.
That’s who they were, okay? And that’s also why they didn’t like Jesus, was because they said, well, this is how you have to do something, right? And the way that they were about it was very much, you know, we say, by the letter of the law. And so what that means is they would read something and they would do it just enough to, you know, get the checkmark. Just enough to make sure that they could say, I did it perfectly.
But the problem was is that’s not why God gave the law, right? God gave us a law, the Ten Commandments. God gave us tradition and teaching so that we could love Him, that we could know how to love Him properly. But also so that we could love others properly.
And so the Pharisees and the scribes, right, the ones who were writing and they were keeping notes of all these things, they didn’t really care about love. What they cared about was that everybody knew that they were right, you know, that they were doing everything perfectly, right? And anyone who challenged that, anyone who said maybe there’s a different way, they didn’t like. So when Jesus came and Jesus was all about teaching people how to love God and how to love their fellow neighbor, their fellow man, right? And Jesus taught that that is what the law is all about. The Pharisees and the scribes, they lost their minds and they wanted to kill Jesus.
Now, here’s the thing. Jesus taught us that what the Pharisees were doing on one level, that was fine. But what was the real problem? The real problem was their heart, right? Their heart. They were doing everything as perfect as they could just to make sure that everybody else is going to go, “Oh, you’re very good. Wonderful. We will obey you.” There was no love; there was no heart.
So the way in which they prayed, the way in which they taught the people, the way in which they taught the history of Israel was wrong. It wasn’t necessarily what they taught. It’s the way they taught it.
And this is important for us because we can fall into the same trap. You know, your mom, your dad might say, “Hey, I have a chore for you,” and you need to do this chore, right? They say, “Hey, take out the trash. Hey, you need to make sure that you take the food out for the compost,” whatever it is, and you should do it.
But the problem is, have you guys ever done something that your mom asked you to do, but you didn’t really do it with a good heart? Do you know what I’m talking about? You did it kind of, just like, “Ugh, okay, fine.” And even though you did the job, something just wasn’t right. You know what I’m talking about? It’s your attitude, right? Your attitude wasn’t right.
So your attitude, since it wasn’t right, it’s almost like you should have done it in the first place, right? So this is very important because this year I want to encourage all the students, right? Yes, we want to get A’s in our math, in our science, in our geography, right? And we want to do good in choir. We want to be prayerful during the Liturgies. But we really should have the right heart about these things, right?
When you’re in school, you shouldn’t just be in there like, “I just need to get through the day.” We need to have a grateful attitude about school. We need to realize that school is teaching me something more than just facts. School is teaching me how to know about God.
When you learn about geography, you’re learning about the world that God created. When you’re learning about math, you’re learning about the language of God, how God makes things work. But more importantly, you’re learning from teachers who love God and who love you, and you’re with your fellow students. And so in the classroom, we learn to practice the very thing that Jesus taught us: how to love God and how to love each other.
But it’s how we learn. So the way in which we learn should always be filled with humility, right? Remember that our teachers and even maybe sometimes the students may have an idea about something and we need to listen with humility, right? But we also have love, right? Love for God, love for each other, and love for what God’s teaching us in school.
If we have this attitude this year, it’s going to be a wonderful year. And we’re going to walk away not just with something new to learn. You’re going to walk away with really deep relationships.
You’re going to have friendships that are going to last you the rest of your life. Not just with your student friends, but also with the teachers. And you’re also going to have a relationship with the things that you learn. Because that right attitude means that those lessons, they’re going to mean something to you, okay?
So this year, let’s work on how we learn things. That we learn things with the right attitude, with humility, and being grateful. And always remembering that God has brought us to this place to teach us not just about His world, but also about who He is, okay?
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Sunday, September 1, 2024: St. Andrew Stratelates
1 CORINTHIANS 4:9-16
MATTHEW 17:14-23
In the Gospel today, a man who is desperate brings his son, who is an epileptic, and brings him to the apostles, to the disciples, to Christ. He is desperate because his son is given over to these fits of self-destruction. Self-destruction leading him to be thrown into the water, to be drowned, and the fire to be burned.
And this self-destruction not only being a source of life and death for the boy, we can imagine the desperation and the despair that it brought to not only the man, but to his whole household. We can only speculate how many siblings and cousins, how many friends, how many loved ones in that village were affected by this boy’s self-destructive behavior. This behavior being driven obviously by a demon, and so the Lord is, shall we say, disappointed.
He’s a bit discouraged. It’s a moment in which, and there’s a few of them actually, where the Lord is disappointed. Because this man had brought his son to the disciples first, and they could not cast him out.
So the Lord, being the Pantocrator, being the ruler over all things, he casts this demon instantly out from the man. But then the apostles, they ask the Lord privately, and they say, “Why can we not cast it out?” He says, “Well, you have no faith.” He says something very interesting.
In these two points, they actually relate to each other. He says, “You have no faith. If you had the faith even of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘be cast into the sea,’ and it would happen.”
But then he says, “However, these are only cast out by prayer and fasting.” So now you ask yourself, or maybe you don’t, but I ask myself, “What is the power of the mustard seed, and what is the power, truly, of fasting and prayer?” In the Epistle today, St. Paul speaks about how the apostles, the ones who were sent, were the least of men. And these least of men, if you’re reading their accolades, if you’re reading their resume, it doesn’t sound very good.
Who wants to be homeless? Raise your hand. Who wants to be beaten for doing the right thing? Raise your hand. Who wants to be mocked and rejected by your own people? Raise your hand.
Not a single one of you want to do that. Who wants to be utterly despised by both man and angel? No one. And this is the source of apostolic power.
This is the source of fasting. This is the power of fasting. This is also the power of the mustard seed.
You see, the mustard seed, as you’ve probably heard through the multiple sermons on the mustard seed you’ve heard, everyone focuses on the fact that the mustard seed is small, and it is. But really, the power of the mustard seed is that it must be bruised in order for it to now spring life. And in that bruising, something so tiny becomes one of the largest trees ever.
That bruising is the same thing that happens with fasting. God doesn’t care whether you eat steak. God doesn’t care whether you eat cheese. God doesn’t care whether you eat a Kit Kat bar or Snickers. It’s in that emptying of yourself. Fasting is there to humble you, to bruise you, if you will.
And that is the source of its power. Because in that bruising, the power of Christ is released. Because He is strong with the one who is weak.
And that fasting is meant to weaken you. It’s like His power can come forth. It’s also the source of the apostolic power.
You see, the fallen one and all his minions, I will tell you something, they refuse to be bruised. They refuse to be humbled. They absolutely refuse.
And that is the source of their power. It’s also the source of their weakness. So those who desire to belong to Christ, those who desire to serve Christ, those who desire to be in the service of man for the sake of Christ, they must be diametrically opposed to the fallen ones.
They must be willing to be bruised. They must be willing to be nothing. And in being nothing, they become everything.
This is the source of their power. This is the source of fasting. It’s also the key to the secret of the mustard seed.
It must be bruised. Only in that bruising are you able to bring out that spirit that is so destructive within you. Throw you into the fire of temper, the fire of desire and lust, or drowning you in the water of despondency, despair, and self-pity.
The demon doesn’t care. He’ll make you angry with ego, and he’ll drown you with ego. They’re both the same.
Self-pity is ego. Pride is ego. And the only way out is to be bruised, to be humbled, to be unlike the fallen ones.
So the prayers of St. Gregory the Dialogist and St. Mary of Egypt, our great patron. May we learn to be people who are bruised. May we learn to be people who take hold of the apostolic power, who are sent forth.
May we be like the mustard seed. May we have the faith to trust God, that if we’re bruised, His power and His grace will take care of the rest. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.