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
A terrible picture is drawn for us by this Sunday’s Gospel. It begins with the folio wing words: "Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants" (Mt. 18:23). Among those servants was one who was indebted to the lord for a great amount. This amount was so great that in spite of his desire, he could never repay it. There was only one way out: the lord could sell him, his wife, his children, and everything he had. "The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt" (Mt. 18:26-27). Listen, he did not postpone payment of the debt, he did not reduce the amount, but he forgave everything, completely, forever. It was as if nothing had happened, everything remained as before. A new, quiet life as before began. And even better: now this servant knew his master. He saw in him a loving father, and to work for such a father is bliss.
Suddenly something terrible happened: that servant walked out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him an utterly insignificant amount; and grabbing him, started to choke him, saying, Give back everything you owe me. Learning of this, his lord was angry and gave him over to the torturers until he had paid the whole debt.
08.09.2024Read more
As last Sunday’s Gospel told us about a storm on the Tiberian Sea, in the same way today’s Gospel also tells us about a storm, only about a storm which is even more terrible. Back then, there were waves on the sea, but here.. .listen to what the father of the youth said to Christ: "Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for of times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water" (Mt. 17:15). There, Peter got out of the boat in which the other Apostles were sailing. Notice that Christ did not send him as He sent all the disciples across the sea. But Peter himself, filled with the rapture of faith at seeing Christ walking upon the waves, asked for permission to do the same. And what happened? He doubted and started to drown. And Christ said to him, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Mt. 14:31).
And what about today’s Gospel? In today’s Gospel, the father of the possessed son brought him first to the disciples of Christ. The power to cast out devils and to heal sicknesses had been given to them; this seemed to go along with their obedience. And yet they could not heal hint. And when the father in deep grief related this to the Lord, Christ in anger exclaimed: "O faithless and perverse generation.. .how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him.... Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could we not cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. However this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Mt. 17:17-21).
31.08.2024Read 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
Last Sunday’s Gospel reading told us of a great miracle: the feeding of an enormous crowd of many thousands with five loaves and two fish. The disciples of Christ themselves, through whose hands this miracle was performed, were dumbfounded. And as the Gospel says, Christ at once compelled them to enter a boat and go before Him to the other shore while He dismissed the crowd. "And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea" (Mt. 14:22-25).
A wonderful image of the Church of Christ is drawn for us here. The boat, as it were, represents the Church: its sides are the rules and canons of the Church; the disciples are all of us Christians; and the stormy sea is the sea of our life. And now too Christ has ascended a mountain, which means He is sitting at the right hand of the Father. He sees our Church boat and directs it. The Gospel says that the disciples went to the other side, not of their own will, but "straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship and go before Him unto the other side" (Mt. 14: 22). This means they were doing it out of obedience to Christ. And when they found themselves in danger, He walked to them on the water.
25.08.2024Read more
All of you who, by taking off the cloak of irrationality because of the Word’s self-emptying,? have raised up your minds from the earth and learned to think “the things that are above,” (Col 3.2) come now – if you trust me – as I spread out before you a spiritual banquet of words: let us ascend with the Word today, as he goes up the high mountain of the Transfiguration! Let us take off the material, shadowy life that we wear, and put on “the robe woven from above as a single whole,” (cf John 19.23) made beautiful in every part by the rays of spiritual virtue. Christ himself, the pure goal of life, the supernatural Word of the one who begot him, the one who came down from above for our sakes and became a poor man in our flesh out of love for humanity, wishes us – who are already purified in life and mind, who have been given the spiritual wings of sincere thoughts – to make this ascent with him. This is clear from the fact that he takes with him chosen Apostles to be nearer in their relationship to him than ever, and leads them up the high mountain. What is he going to do, what is he planning to teach them? By revealing to them the glory and radiance of his own divinity, more brilliant than lightning, he had, a little earlier in a mystical way, transformed the nature which had once heard the words, “You are earth, and to earth you shall return” now he will reveal it in full view by his transfiguration.
19.08.2024Read 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
Brothers and sisters! Last week the Holy Church placed flowers in our hands, as if saying to us: See how soulless nature is obedient to its Creator. Starting with the days of Christmas, the earth has been turning toward the sun, which began to bestow upon the earth its life-giving warmth. And nature does not prove itself ungrateful toward its Creator. In answer to His caress, she has produced this glorious beauty, these flowers, and further on, will produce fruits. And what about us? In answer to the spiritual warmth of God’s Grace, so abundantly poured out on us, do we bring to our Creator spiritual beauty, flowers, fruits of virtues? After all, He became Man for our sake, died for us, rose for us, ascended into Heaven in order to send down to us His Holy Spirit. And what about us? Is not this beauty of nature around us a reproach to our conscience? Let us answer honestly. Yes, it is. But more than this, we want to justify our negligence, our ingratitude. The commandments of Christ are wonderful, we say; and if people would begin to fulfill them, then the whole earth would be transformed into a wonderful divine garden. But is this possible for weak human strength? And here this Sunday, the Sunday of All the Saints, answers this question loudly so that the whole world hears: Yes, it is possible.
All the saints being remembered today followed the example of Christ. And all of them in their time, in their circumstances of life, fulfilled God’s commandment of love of God and neighbor. Occasionally their times were difficult, maybe more difficult than ours; and not infrequently their circumstances in life were more dangerous in spiritual terms, and often in worldly terms were worse than ours. But they still proceeded, struggled, and reached the abodes on high where they now triumph.
30.06.2024Read more
Brothers and sisters! See how the Holy Church teaches our conscience. The flowers today represent our conscience. Because when all of nature was still dead, when the time of our yearly cycle was approaching, the Holy Church revealed to us a great mystery: the mystery of our redemption. She then opened before us the cave of Bethlehem and the Lord Who had just been born. And we were told through the reading from the Epistle to the Galatians that this cave is our entrance in to a new yearly cycle, that at the manger of Christ our soul is renewed, and that in this renewal of spirit we receive the spirit of adoption (sonship), which unites us into the one family of Christ (Gal. 4:4-7).
And these are not just words. The Holy Church convinces us of this, comparing our spiritual life with what goes on in nature: the death of nature in winter, its revival in the beauty of spring and summer, and the yielding of fruit in fall. It is the same with the soul of a human being. After the sluggishness of spiritual slumber, a person receives the spirit of adoption in order to unite in one family and to receive what the Lord gives in His plan of salvation — His Body and Blood, the Mystery of the Tree of Life, which Adam lost in Paradise.
And as nature blooms, so blooms our life; if we would just make use of the Grace which the Lord gives us through His sufferings, which He endured for the sake of our redemption, in order to make our soul fruitful with good works, what the Lord called the Beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-12): Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed!
And this, our surrendering to the Lord is repeated on the eighth day after the Nativity of Christ, on the day when the Holy Church celebrates the Lord’s Circumcision. Then we too as if circumcise our own heart and confess: We are Christians; we form one family, whose Father is God.
23.06.2024Read 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
