Sermon 88. On John the Baptist{1}.
1. Last Sunday, when we were asking pardon for our silence, we said that even if the bishops{2} were silent about the salvation of all, the Gospel teaching would not be silent, and that the divine words would make up for their silence{3}. For the divine Scripture always speaks and cries out, as it is written of John: I am the voice of one crying in the desert (John 1.23). For John did not only cry out at the time when he announced the Lord, the Savior, to the Pharisees and said: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God (Matt. 3.3), but he also cries out today among us, striking the desert places of our sins with the thunder of his voice, and although he has fallen asleep in a martyr’s holy death, still his voice lives. For he also says to us today: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. The divine Scripture, then, always cries out and speaks; hence God also says to Cain: The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me (Gen. 4.10). Blood, to be sure, has no voice, but innocent blood that has been spilled is said to cry out not by words but by its very existence{4} and to make demands of the Lord not with eloquent discourse but with anger over the crime committed – not to accuse the wrongdoer with words so much as to bind him by the accusation of his own conscience. For although the evil deed may perhaps be excused if it is talkatively explained away, it cannot be excused if it is made present to the conscience, for in silence and without contradiction the wrongdoer’s conscience always convicts and judges him{5}.
2. Today, therefore, John cries out and says: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight, and so forth. We are ordered, then, to prepare the way of the Lord – not a highway, namely, but a pure faith. For the Lord does not proceed along an earthly path but sets out in the recesses of the mind. If, therefore, there is on this way any unevenness of character, any rough unkindness, any filthy habit, we are ordered to clean it, to make it level, and to arrange it so that, when He comes, the Lord may not find in us anything that would make Him stumble but would instead discover a way that was clean because of chastity, easily traversable because of faith, and lofty because of almsgiving. And that the Lord is used to setting out on such a road the prophet mentions when he says: Make a road for Him who ascends over the setting sun; the Lord is His name (Ps. 68.4).
11.09.2024Read more
1. To do justice to the holy celebrations proclaimed for today, my friends, our words call for the sound of the trumpet, for the voice of the horn sounding out more loudly and echoing to the ends of the earth; yet I fear they must be borne by the weak instrument of our own voices. Still, the queen and mistress of the world cares little for honor, and may well accept our short, poor discourse, offered here in her service, as graciously as the long and splendid works of great orators. For she is moved by the prayers of those who have asked me to speak, since she values true goodness, after all, and looks only at our intentions.
But come, gather around me, everyone under heaven – all you hierarchs and priests, monks and people of the world, kings and rulers, men and women, young men and maidens, of all nations and tongues, of every race and every people – change your clothes for the robes of virtue, wrap yourselves in them as in “bright garments fringed with gold” (Ps 44:13 [LXX]), and come with hearts rejoicing to celebrate the festival of the burial and the passing [into glory] of Mary, the Mother of the Lord. For she has gone away from here and draws near the eternal mountains, she who is the true Mt. Sion, where God was pleased to dwell, as the Psalmist’s lyre sings (Ps 131:14 [LXX]). Today she who was heaven on earth is wrapped in a cloak of incorruptibility; she has moved to a better, more blessed dwelling-place. Today the spiritual moon, shining with the light of God, has come into heavenly conjunction with the “sun of righteousness,” eclipsing her temporary home in this present life; rising anew in his home, she is radiant with the dignity of immortality. Today that ark of holiness, wrought with gold and divinely furnished, has been lifted up from her tabernacle on earth and is borne towards the Jerusalem above, to unending rest; and David, the ancestor of God, poet as he is, strikes up a song for us and cries, “Virgins” – meaning souls – “will be led to the King” – to you, О God – “behind her” (Ps 44:14 [LXX]).
28.08.2024Read more
Sermon 5. On the Birthday of Saint John the Baptist{1}.
1. In praise of the holy and most blessed John the Baptist, whose birthday we celebrate today, I do not know what is the most important thing that we should preach – that he was wonderfully born or more wonderfully slain. For he was born as a prophecy and murdered for truth; by his birth he announced the coming of the Savior and by his death he condemned the incest of Herod{2}. For this holy and righteous man, who was born in an uncommon way as the result of a promise{3}, merited from God that he should depart this world by an uncommon death, that he should lay aside his body, which he had received as a gift from the Lord, by confessing the Lord. 2. Therefore John did everything by the will of God, since he was born and died for the sake of God’s work.
Let us briefly go over the events relating to his birth. When his father Zechariah and his mother Elizabeth were worn out by their advanced age and were not enjoying the fruit of sons, and the best time for begetting children for themselves had gone by, so that the very desire to raise up offspring was lacking to them, suddenly they are given a promise by an angel, and holy Gabriel announces that John is to be born, saying: Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for behold, your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth shall conceive and bear a son (Luke 1, 13). Your prayer has been heard, he says. From this we understand that Zechariah’s righteousness begot John by prayer rather than Elizabeth’s old age did by the act of procreation. From this, I say, we understand that supplication and not pleasure brought forth John. For when the maternal womb had grown cold as a result of old age and the enfeebled members of the body had already lost the power of fecundity, contrary to the body’s incapability and contrary to the sterility of the womb, by Zechariah’s prayers Elizabeth’s belly swelled and she conceived John not by nature but by grace. It was necessary for that holy child to be born in this way—he who was begotten not so much by embraces as by prayers.
07.07.2024Read more
Sermon 44. On Pentecost.
1. Your holiness{1} should know, brethren, why we celebrate this holy day of Pentecost and why for 50 days we have a continual and uninterrupted festival, such that during this entire time we neither proclaim a fast to be held nor prostrate ourselves to implore God but, as we are wont to do on Sunday, celebrate the resurrection of the Lord while standing erect and in festal mood. For to us Sunday is venerable and solemn because on it the Savior, like the rising sun, broke forth with the light of resurrection and scattered the darkness of the nether regions, and consequently this day is called the day of the sun by people of the world because, since Christ the sun of justice{2} has arisen, He illuminates it. The whole course of 50 days is celebrated on the model of Sunday, then, and all these days are counted as Sundays, since the resurrection is a Sunday{3}. For the Savior, rising on a Sunday, came back to men, and after the resurrection He remained the whole 50 days with them. It is necessary, then, that there be an equal celebration of those things whose holiness is equal. For the Lord arranged it that, just as we mourned over His suffering with the fasts of a 40-day period, so we would rejoice over His resurrection during the festivals of a 50-day period.
2. And so we do not fast for 50 days because the Lord abides with us during these days. We do not fast, I say, when the Lord is present because He Himself says: Can the friends of the bridegroom fast as long as the bridegroom is with them? (Luke 5.34). For why should the body abstain from food when the soul is filled with the presence of the Lord? The one who is refreshed by the Savior’s grace cannot be a faster, for the companionship of Christ is a kind of food for the Christian. We are refreshed, then, in this 50-day period when the Lord is with us. But when He ascends to heaven after these days we fast again, as the Savior says: But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast in those days (Luke 5.35). For when Christ ascends to heaven and is removed from our sight we suffer hunger not of body but of love, and we are burdened not so much by want of food as by desire. For our eyes suffer a kind of desire when they do not see the one whom they seek, as the prophet says: My eyes have grown dim while I hope in my God (Ps. 69.3). The eyes of the prophet grew dim because he did not yet see the one whom he hoped that he would see. In the same way the eyes of the apostles also grew dim when they were unable to see the Lord going to heaven, as Luke says: And in their sight he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their eyes (Acts. 1.9). The blessed apostles stood, their bodies completely tense, and followed the Lord ascending to heaven with their eyes since they could not with their feet, and although human vision failed to catch the Savior, nonetheless faith’s devotion did not fail. For their eyes follow Christ up to the cloud, but up to the heavens they are united with Christ by the eagerness of faith. Hence the Apostle says, knowing that our faith is in heaven with the Lord: But our way of life is in heaven (Phil. 3.20).
23.06.2024Read more
Sermon 36. A Sequel: That There Should Be No Wantonness during the Time of the Fast{1}.
1. Last Sunday we said that this was the first work of our faith – to fast most devoutly during the course of these 40 days – and that it was the cause of our salvation if at this time we would devote our attention to abstinence. Therefore, beloved brethren, we ought to consider what kind of fasting this is so as to be aware of how useful it is. For sometimes there exists a useless and empty fast which, although it empties the stomach and all the inner organs of their fulness, is nonetheless unacceptable to God because it does not empty the mind and the inmost senses of the fetters of wickedness. For what use is it to fast in the stomach while acting wantonly at the hunt, to abstain from food while wandering in sin, to subdue the body by not eating while exercising the mind in wickedness, to refrain from strong wine while getting drunk with thoughts of evil, except that it is easier to excuse someone who is full or drunk than someone who is both wicked and fasting? The former occasionally ceases from sinning since, being drunk, he sometimes falls asleep, but the latter does not cease from his error since, practiced in evil deeds and hungry, he is ever watchful. Hence such a fast is empty and useless: this abstention from food weakens the body and does not free the soul from perdition. About this fast the holy prophet, speaking in the person of the Lord, says: Why do you fast for me? I have not chosen such a fast, says the Lord (Isa. 58.5-6).
24.03.2024Read more
