by Saint Peter of Damaskos

The passions are:

harshness,
trickery,
malice,
perversity,
mindlessness,
licentiousness,
enticement,
dullness,
lack of understanding,
idleness,
sluggishness,
stupidity,
flattery,
silliness,
idiocy,
madness,
derangement,
coarseness,
rashness,
cowardice,
lethargy,
dearth of good actions,
moral errors,
greed,
over-frugality,
ignorance,
folly,
spurious knowledge,
forgetfulness,
lack of discrimination,
obduracy,
injustice,
evil intention,
a conscienceless soul,
slothfulness,
idle chatter,
breaking of faith,
wrongdoing,
sinfulness,
lawlessness,
criminality,
passion,
seduction,
assent to evil,
mindless coupling,
demonic provocation,
dallying,
bodily comfort beyond what is required,
vice,
stumbling,
sickness of soul,
enervation,
weakness of intellect,
negligence,
laziness,
a reprehensible despondency,
disdain of God,
aberration,
transgression,
unbelief,
lack of faith,
wrong belief,
poverty of faith,
heresy,
fellowship in heresy,
polytheism,
idolatry,
ignorance of God,
impiety,
magic,
astrology,
divination,
sorcery,
denial of God,
the love of idols,
dissipation,
profligacy,
loquacity,
indolence,
self-love,
inattentiveness,
lack of progress,
deceit,
delusion,
audacity,
witchcraft,
defilement,
the eating of unclean food,
soft living,
dissoluteness,
voracity,
unchastity,
avarice,
anger,
dejection,
listlessness,
self-esteem,
pride,
presumption,
self-elation,
boastfulness,
infatuation,
foulness,
satiety,
doltishness,
torpor,
sensuality,
over-eating,
gluttony,
insatiability,
secret eating,
hoggishness,
solitary eating,
indifference,
fickleness,
self-will,
thoughtlessness,
self-satisfaction,
love of popularity,
ignorance of beauty,
uncouthness,
gaucherie,
lightmindedness,
boorishness,
rudeness,
contentiousness,
quarrelsomeness,
abusiveness,
shouting,
brawling,
fighting,
rage,
mindless desire,
gall,
exasperation,
giving offence,
enmity,
meddlesomeness,
chicanery,
asperity,
slander,
censure,
calumny,
condemnation,
accusation,
hatred,
railing,
insolence,
dishonour,
ferocity,
frenzy,
severity,
aggressiveness,
forswearing oneself,
oathtaking,
lack of compassion,
hatred of one’s brothers,
partiality,
patricide,
matricide,
breaking fasts,
laxity,
acceptance of bribes,
theft,
rapine,
jealousy,
strife,
envy,
indecency,
jesting,
vilification,
mockery,
derision,
exploitation,
oppression,
disdain of one’s neighbour,
flogging,
making sport of others,
hanging,
throttling,
heartlessness,
implacability,
covenant-breaking,
bewitchment,
harshness,
shamelessness,
impudence,
obfuscation of thoughts,
obtuseness,
mental blindness,
attraction to what is fleeting,
impassionedness,
frivolity,
disobedience,
dullwittedness,
drowsiness of soul,
excessive sleep,
fantasy,
heavy drinking,
drunkenness,
uselessness,
slackness,
mindless enjoyment,
self-indulgence,
venery,
using foul language,
effeminacy,
unbridled desire,
burning lust,
masturbation,
pimping,
adultery,
sodomy,
bestiality,
defilement,
wantonness,
a stained soul,
incest,
uncleanliness,
pollution,
sordidness,
feigned affection,
laughter,
jokes,
immodest dancing,
clapping,
improper songs,
revelry,
fluteplaying,
license of tongue,
excessive love of order,
insubordination,
disorderliness,
reprehensible collusion,
conspiracy,
warfare,
killing,
brigandry,
sacrilege,
illicit gains,
usury,
wiliness,
grave-robbing,
hardness of heart,
obloquy,
complaining,
blasphemy,
fault-finding,
ingratitude,
malevolence,
contemptuousness,
pettiness,
confusion,
lying,
verbosity,
empty words,
mindless joy,
daydreaming,
mindless friendship,
bad habits,
nonsensicality,
silly talk,
garrulity,
niggardliness,
depravity,
intolerance,
irritability,
affluence,
rancour,
misuse,
ill-temper,
clinging to life,
ostentation,
affectation,
pusillanimity,
satanic love,
curiosity,
contumely,
lack of the fear of God,
unteachability,
senselessness,
haughtiness,
self-vaunting,
self-inflation,
scorn for one’s neighbour,
mercilessness,
insensitivity,
hopelessness,
spiritual paralysis,
hatred of God,
despair,
suicide,
a falling away from God in all things,
utter destruction — altogether 298 passions.

© 2012, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

This past autumn, about the time that students hit their post-midterm academic lull, I was presented with a curious opportunity. One of my professors, Fr. Sergius Halvorsen, invited members of his homiletics class to apply for an all-expense-paid trip…to Louisville, Kentucky…over Christmas recess…to attend the Festival of Young Preachers!

Now to some people, this sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime, while for others this doesn’t quite make their “bucket list.” Myself? I was somewhere in the middle. It would be Christmas break—perhaps my last career opportunity for three consecutive weeks of holiday. And, at 29, I would be the oldest “young preacher” at the Festival. I was also wary of the subject. We all know that homilies, even when divinely inspired, can occasionally be a bit drab, so the prospect of hearing 30 homilies in three days was not without its own risk. On the other hand, I hold preaching in very high regard. And I had a hunch that this conference might be a little more dynamic than a typical Orthodox Divine Liturgy homily. Many participants were from denominations or persuasions that had little structure to their worship beyond scripture and preaching. This was their bread and butter, so to speak.

So in an audacious (if scriptural) fashion, I replied with those famous words

“Here am I. Send me!” (Is 6:8).

And so, I was sent.

The faculty of St. Vladimir’s seminary very graciously provided for my traveling, meals, accommodations, and the festival registration fee, all so that I could preach a brief homily to my peers and listen attentively to their sermons as well! I would like to thank Fr. John Behr and Fr. Chad Hatfield, and the SVS Board of Trustees for making my attendance at this conference possible, and also Fr. Sergius Halvorsen for accompanying me on this journey. I will not soon forget this wonderful experience!

The Festival of Young Preachers is organized by The Academy of Preachers, and is billed as the largest and most ecumenical gathering of its kind in the country, with its 120 young preachers representing over 30 denominations of Christians from over 30 states and Canada. The gospel message upon which we were to preach was Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapters 5–7. From this text, we could preach on any section or subject that we considered appropriate.

So as a young preacher, I was asked to preach on the preaching of our Lord, to a room full of preachers! “Curiouser and curiouser…”

And where does one begin with the Sermon on the Mount, anyway? Even after acknowledging that it takes a life lived faithfully to do this passage of scripture justice, the text is so rich that it is hard to get a foothold. I figured that several of my peers would take the Beatitudes and ideas of faith in God, prayer and what-not, so I thought I would try to unravel some of the features of the Sermon that have always puzzled me.Fr. Sergius Halvorson, assistant professor of Homiletics at St. Vladimir’s (left), served as Seminarian Ketz’s mentor

I found myself struck by a brief passage near the beginning: Matt 5:17–20. Christ explains that he is here to fulfill the Law, telling us

“unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20).

What fascinates me is the seeming contrast between this appraisal of the Pharisees’ legalism (which our righteousness must exceed), and Jesus’ famous rebuke shortly before his Passion, which we hear each year at the (Bridegroom) Matins of Holy Tuesday. “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees…” (Matt 23:13-39). What is “exceeding righteousness”?

So I prepared my homily as best I could, drawing on the advice of my ‘coach’ Fr. Sergius and all of studies and life experiences to date, all while trying to imagine what, precisely, was in store for me in Louisville this winter

The conference began on Monday afternoon with a workshop on the “first line” of a sermon. Was this exercise to set the stage for the whole conference? Twenty-five of us gathered with two professors of communications and spent two hours practicing and discussing and rehearsing first lines of speeches and sermons. The workshop was technical and theatrical, and (deliberately so, according to its leaders), somewhat awkward. At one point, we were deliberately saying each others’ opening lines like movie stars, just to see if we could convey different messages with our tone of voice. While my understanding of the value of the first spoken line in an oration deepened considerably, my expectations for the festival were thoroughly confused by some of the memorable one-liners of advice in that workshop. At one point, we were told to “take a good breath before you start preaching, because that’s the last good breath you’ll get.” OK, I guess. But don’t all speakers (and preachers) pause to take a breath if they need to? I soon learned otherwise.

The festival began with an evening worship service, the main feature of which was scripture and a homily, followed by a reception. I was introduced to 12 of my peers, whose homilies I would hear in coming days. The group was an incredible cross section of America—people from all walks of life in all regions of the country. Most people were (undergraduate) college students, though there were two high school students and an itinerant minister who had been preaching for 14 years (he started at age 12)—all in this small group. High church, low church, non-denominational. We were quite an unlikely group of friends.

We continued the next morning with another worship service. After this, five rooms were set up for concurrent preaching. It wasn’t possible for all of us to hear everybody, so they organized things as best the could, giving us each 15–20 minutes, along with an introduction, scripture and prayer as appropriate, and a brief evaluation by a professional in homiletics or communications after we were finished. The first day was reserved for return students, presumably to give the first-time guests an extra evening to polish up our sermons based on what we saw and heard.

And nothing could have prepared me for the variety of preaching that I heard in just three short days!

The preaching I have heard throughout my life is all variation on a single theme: the paced, pointed, crafted message designed to engage the intellect. Most of my experience as a listener is in the Orthodox Christian liturgy, but even in the occasional wedding or funeral I have attended outside the Orthodox Church, the preacher’s style has had a familiar (slow) pace and gentle guiding tone. Apparently this is only a single type of flower in the garden of Christian preaching.

Here at the festival, the first thing that struck me was the repeated confirmation of our workshop coach’s advice on breathing before speaking! Though I don’t think I’d attempt it, many preachers are able to talk for three or four minutes before pausing for a dramatic breath. Several preachers controlled the emotion in the room with all the skill of a professional musician. Volume. Pitch. Punctuation. Crescendos, rhyme, meter, repetition, alliteration. I myself had never seen such deliberate speaking on a Sunday morning. None of these preachers let themselves get in the way of their message, but they used their public speaking abilities in ways I had never even considered! On the other hand, many preachers handled their homilies like rhetorical bible studies, asking deliberately paced questions, and inviting us all to walk through the scriptures together to find answers. There was such diversity in preaching that I can’t hope to describe it!

Yet for all the variety, these sermons shared a common ground. The soil from which these homiletic flowers grew was the gospel: our Lord’s call to repentance, and his promise of salvation. In fact, a point on which Fr. Sergius and I both mused was that, with only the slightest bit of theological editing, the texts of many of these homilies could be preached at any represented denomination’s Sunday service. But what would my homily sound like if it were offered by the preacher at a Southern Baptist or AME Zion church? And how would I deliver their homily if they gave me their manuscript? Preaching is so much more than words on paper! Even an attempt to describe my experience falls flat.

The festival continued with an evening worship service at the local Roman Catholic cathedral, and many more homilies on the Sermon on the Mount the following day. My predictions on content were only partially correct. Many preachers I heard discussed the Beatitudes, but never exclusively. And there was not a moment in these four days that I had the sense of “wash, rinse, repeat.” Every sermon was as unique as the preacher giving it, and I benefited from hearing every one.

We concluded our festivities with a wonderful banquet recognizing all of us who preached, all of those who help us preach, and especially  those who organized the conference. There seemed to be unanimous agreement that the breaking of bread (and other great food) together at a meal was the appropriate way to seal the friendships we had each begun over these few short days; to recognize the common roots of our diversity.

My last great question heading into the conference was whether I’d be burned out on the Sermon on the Mount. After 30 homilies, how would I feel about the “salt of the earth,” or the Beatitudes, or “lilies of the field,” or “turning the other cheek”? To my surprise, I am more excited than ever, and because of this excitement, I’m also a bit saddened. This festival has forced me to confront a strange reality within the Orthodox Church. Our lectionary seems to give Christ’s great lesson from the Gospel of Matthew “second billing.” The sermon is read in the first weeks after Pentecost, and almost entirely on weekdays. Almost nowhere in the Orthodox Christian world is this incredibly powerful portion of the Gospel read liturgically and then preached. This is not a critique of our lectionary—by no means!—but it is our loss that we don’t all read these verses of scripture together and rejoice in them as a community of believers. Realizing this, I am all the more thankful for this opportunity to attend a festival of preaching in which the Sermon on the Mount was the selected text!

Sadly, I will not be able to return to the festival next year, but I hope and pray that our seminary and Church will continue to send representatives to this Festival of Young Preachers. St. Vladimir’s Seminary was a welcome presence at the assembly, as was Holy Cross School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. I hope that we will all see this festival as an opportunity for us to embrace the fullness of our faith, to share our joy with the world, and to be, as individuals and as an Orthodox Church, the trumpets of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“I can’t imagine paradise without you!”
The Author of the Law instructs his disciples (Matt 5:17–20)
by Jason Ketz

People love to follow rules! Right from the start — from our youth up, we have followed rules. Even as kids, we seemed to thrive on rules. We would even make games out of rule following. Did any of you play follow the leader? The whole point of the game is to follow rules, and kids love it! As adults, we take rule following to the extreme. We have laws to protect people, customs to protect the status quo, and sometimes we have rules ‘just because.’ One set of customs told us each what to wear today. A slightly broader ordinance told us we had to wear some clothing. Etiquette tells us not to slurp our soup at lunch. And those of us who drive are familiar with a whole book of traffic laws.

These laws and rules and customs support our culture. Like the wooden frame of a house being constructed, law is the framework of our society. The rules outline how we all live together, how we all agree to interact with each other. God gave the Law to Israel for this very reason. The Law of Moses brings God’s children together as one culture — one people. Authority, purity, sacred places and sacred spaces, tithes and sacrifice — all of these commands, all of these precepts outline how a society lives together in God’s presence. And the Law is the framework of God’s covenant — God’s promise to remember us, and our promise to remember God. We believe this, but at some point, we forget our place. We focus in on the promise — on God’s blessings as rewards for our obedience. We try to earn these blessings, to earn God’s love and approval through our willingness to follow his commands. But the moment we think we understand how to earn blessings, we become the judges. We become the administrators of the law, and we interpret the law to best serve our purposes. And other people become a threat to our blessings. Suddenly, we’re no longer neighbors, but adversaries. The rules and laws no longer unite us, but divide us. Now we’re not working together. We’re competing against each other.

We play with laws and ordinances, and even with commandments and traditions like a poker game. Constantly trading cards, betting and raising, bluffing and calling each other’s bluff, exploiting the rules to our advantage. Making sure that we get the rewards, even at somebody else’s expense. Does anybody remember the company Enron? The most hated company of the last decade. They used their authority to hijack the power grid. They blackmailed state governments with rolling blackouts, taking taxpayer money in return. And they spent their employees’ pensions on their personal riches, until the whole company buckled under the greed of just a handful of executives who were drunk with authority. Ponzi schemes, fraud, mafias and drug lords. With the wave of a pen or the click of a trigger, any of us can take a law we all agree on — a law meant to help us interact — we take that law and use it competitively. We use it to our advantage.

God’s covenant is not a private agreement. The Law of Moses promises eternal life to all humanity. It’s our way to paradise, and it’s available to everybody. We know this. We believe this, and still we figure out ways to abuse and exploit the ordinances of our Lord. Just as Enron used the power grid, we try to use God’s promise of paradise to our advantage, and to our neighbor’s disadvantage. When we imagine ourselves in heaven, we each have somebody who is not in that dream. All too easily, we can imagine paradise without somebody. What a horrible thing to say, right? That we could imagine paradise without a person?! And yet we do so constantly. Sure, we don’t set out to think these evil thoughts. We set out to help people. We know that God forgives sinners, and that God loves everybody, so we just want people to change, to repent. To be saved. Because we know that all people will be judged by God. And as students of the word, and students of the law, we know the law by which we are judged. we have heard the commandments — all of God’s “do’s and don’ts.” From Moses and the Prophets and Jesus and Paul. We know that we cannot relax them.

Today’s text tells us this. So we have to make people understand — we have to help people, get them to somehow hear the same law we’re hearing. And oh, do we know how to manipulate people with this idea of sin. Sexuality is one of those enduring examples of church authority. Our way of “helping the lost sheep.” Whether its preference or promiscuity, we comment
on the disparity between what we see in the world and what we read in the scriptures. Some of us preach. Some of us write. Some of us pastor, and some of us keep our mouths shut and do the judging in our hearts and in our minds. But every one of us has rendered a judgment against another human being. Our Lord has come today to knock us off our little thrones of judgment, because we’ve got it all wrong. Christ cannot imagine paradise without us. He can’t imagine paradise without us, so he doesn’t want us imagining paradise without
each other. Because we are not the judge. Our Lord meets us today in the midst of our legal competition, in the midst of our wicked card game of rules and customs and rewards and punishments. Christ takes Moses’ seat on the mountain, takes his place as the law-giver — and he gathers us all around for another familiar game of cards. And this time he’s the dealer.

There is only one round of cards being dealt, and the stakes are very high. Christ tells us all that

“not one iota of the law will pass away” (Matt 5:18).

We like to judge by the law, so the Author of the law can show us how it’s done. Jesus offers a radically intense reading of the commandments.

“You have heard in the law…dot dot dot… but I tell you even more” (Matt 5:21f, 27f, 33f).

He teaches us that hating our neighbor is the same as murder (vv 21–6). He tells us that looking lustfully at another person is the same as adultery (vv 27–32). The Law structures and governs and judges not only our actions, but also our emotions and our thoughts. All of the chips are in now, and we’re starting to see that we have a lousy hand of cards for this final round. As Christ has now explained the law of Moses, it’s impossible to follow! Game over, the house wins. Every one of us — all human beings will fall short under this law. Woe to us, scribes and Pharisees. None of us will be blameless in a judgment. None of us will be righteous by following the letter of the law. In fact, he tells us

“unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will not get into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20).

But suddenly this isn’t the same sleazy backroom poker game we know and love. Something more is going on here. Christ unexpectedly unites himself with — well, with the losers. He blesses those who can’t follow the laws, who struggle with rules, who aren’t the most competitive. The outcasts, the downtrodden, the hurtin’ people. Christ unites himself to these people, because they are his creation. They are his chosen people. Long ago he promised to remember them all, and today he honors this promise. Our Lord remembers those we would just
as soon forget. And he blesses them (Matt 5:3–12). He can’t imagine paradise without them.

Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who are persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Christ cares about his children. He can’t imagine paradise without any of us. And if the people that we would just as soon forget are an image of our Lord…well that’s bad news for our exclusive ideas of heaven. Now, if we imagine paradise without each other, we’re imagining paradise without Christ. And paradise without the messiah — well, there’s another name for that place. But instead of beating us at our own game of judgment, our Lord does something completely unexpected. He lays down his hand of cards and walks away from the game table. He reveals the law in a new light. This new righteousness our Lord speaks of. He’s not saying try harder, be craftier, or hang in there. He’s telling us to stop playing this silly game. Today Christ instructs us to love each other, because he loves us. This is the great law of the law-giver; the great lesson given by the teacher. He teaches us on the mountain, and he shows us on the cross.

“I can’t imagine paradise without you.”

And when we return on Easter Sunday to hear to hear Jesus’ second sermon on the mount — we witness the resurrection — the perfect display of Love. The Father’s love for his Son, and our Lord’s love for his creation. Love is action and love is a gift freely given. Throughout his ministry, Christ shows us how to give this gift of love to each other. Every time he healed a person or cast out a demon, or fed a group of people, he brought them back into his community. He singlehandedly dissolved all of the exclusion we had mistakenly created. He tears down our walls, he breaks our defenses. He takes our rules and our laws and our customs that divide us, that make us unique, and he unites us once again as his creation. Christ waits for all of us in paradise — in the resurrection. And as we journey through life in hope of the resurrection, We help each other along the way. And we help each other through God’s blessings. Because God’s blessings are gifts, not rewards. And we are stewards of these gifts, not recipients. As stewards, we share our blessings with others — with the least of the brethren (cf. Matt 25:31–46). Those hurting people that our Lord has recently blessed, the ones who have nobody else to look after them.

And what better place to start caring for each other, to start helping each other, to start loving each other than through basic needs. One of the great fathers of the church said, “to a hungry person, God is a loaf of bread.” As we give of our possessions, our time and our talents to those who need them, we offer hope. We offer hope in God’s promise. Hope in paradise. Hope in the Resurrection. Hope in our Lord. Every time one of us gives a coat and a cup of soup to a homeless person, both people suddenly understand Christ’s love. The scales fall out of our eyes, and we realize something. We realize that we can no longer imagine paradise without this other person. These loving interactions with each other are glimpses into the kingdom. The fiery red sky before the brilliant sunrise.

Our Lord’s great lesson is that we love each other. We give to those in need. We offer our strengths and our blessings to those who need them. But the least of Christ’s brethren, the weaker brother or sister — they not only live somewhere else, in shelters or slums. In fact, they are not even outside of this room. There is no “they” but only “we.”

So as we pause for a moment from our busyness, from our anxiety, from our theology — as we stop playing poker with all our rules and customs and expectations, we encounter our Lord. We encounter our Lord as we pause to ask the person sitting beside us how they’re doing today. Or maybe even “what’s your name?” We encounter Christ the moment we honestly say to one another

“I can’t imagine paradise without you.”

Christ gives us each other to prepare us for the kingdom of heaven, through our love for one another. As we care for each other, little by little, and day by day, we come to understand the depth of Christ’s love. Today he has opened his law to us once again. Today he has renewed the covenant, and today he has invited us to his heavenly kingdom. Today we rejoice, because Christ has said to us all

“I can’t imagine paradise without you.”

AMEN

© 2012, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

Perhaps you will say,

I see something else, how is it that you assert that I receive the Body of Christ?

And this is the point which remains for us to prove. And what evidence shall we make use of? Let us prove that this is not what nature made, but what the blessing consecrated, and the power of blessing is greater than that of nature, because by blessing nature itself is changed.

Moses was holding a rod, he cast it down and it became a serpent. (Exodus 4:3-4)

Again, he took hold of the tail of the serpent and it returned to the nature of a rod. You see that by virtue of the prophetic office there were two changes, of the nature both of the serpent and of the rod. The streams of Egypt were running with a pure flow of water; of a sudden from the veins of the sources blood began to burst forth, and none could drink of the river.

Again, at the prophet’s prayer the blood ceased, and the nature of water returned. The people of the Hebrews were shut in on every side, hemmed in on the one hand by the Egyptians, on the other by the sea; Moses lifted up his rod, the water divided and hardened like walls, and a way for the feet appeared between the waves.

Jordan being turned back, returned, contrary to nature, to the source of its stream. (Jos. 3:16)

Is it not clear that the nature of the waves of the sea and of the river stream was changed? The people of the fathers thirsted, Moses touched the rock, and water flowed out of the rock. (Exodus 17:6)

Did not grace work a result contrary to nature, so that the rock poured forth water, which by nature it did not contain?

Marah was a most bitter stream, so that the thirsting people could not drink. Moses cast wood into the water, and the water lost its bitterness, which grace of a sudden tempered. (Exodus 15:25)

In the time of Elisha the prophet one of the sons of the prophets lost the head from his axe, which sank. He who had lost the iron asked Elisha, who cast in a piece of wood and the iron swam. This, too, we clearly recognize as having happened contrary to nature, for iron is of heavier nature than water.

We observe, then, that grace has more power than nature, and yet so far we have only spoken of the grace of a prophet’s blessing. But if the blessing of man had such power as to change nature, what are we to say of that divine consecration where the very words of the Lord and Saviour operate? For that sacrament which you receive is made what it is by the word of Christ. But if the word of Elijah had such power as to bring down fire from heaven, shall not the word of Christ have power to change the nature of the elements? You read concerning the making of the whole world:

He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created.

Shall not the word of Christ, which was able to make out of nothing that which was not, be able to change things which already are into what they were not? For it is not less to give a new nature to things than to change them.

But why make use of arguments? Let us use the examples He gives, and by the example of the Incarnation prove the truth of the mystery. Did the course of nature proceed as usual when the Lord Jesus was born of Mary? If we look to the usual course, a woman ordinarily conceives after connection with a man. And this body which we make is that which was born of the Virgin. Why do you seek the order of nature in the Body of Christ, seeing that the Lord Jesus Himself was born of a Virgin, not according to nature? It is the true Flesh of Christ which crucified and buried, this is then truly the Sacrament of His Body.

The Lord Jesus Himself proclaims:

This is My Body. (Matt. 26:26)

Before the blessing of the heavenly words another nature is spoken of, after the consecration the Body is signified. He Himself speaks of His Blood. Before the consecration it has another name, after it is called Blood. And you say, Amen, that is, It is true. Let the heart within confess what the mouth utters, let the soul feel what the voice speaks.

Christ, then, feeds His Church with these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, He rightly says to her: How comely are your breasts, my sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of your garments is above all spices. A dropping honeycomb are your lips, my spouse, honey and milk are under your tongue, and the smell of your garments is as the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. By which He signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed up with you, that it be not violated by the deeds of an evil life, and pollution of chastity, that it be not made known to thou, for whom it is not fitting, nor by garrulous talkativeness it be spread abroad among unbelievers.

Your guardianship of the faith ought therefore to be good, that integrity of life and silence may endure unblemished.

(On the Mysteries 9.50-55)

Source

© 2012, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

Stand fast on spiritual watch, because you don’t know when the Lord will call you to Himself. In your earthly life be ready at any moment to give Him an account. Beware that the enemy does not catch you in his nets, that he not deceive you causing you to fall into temptation. Daily examine your conscience; try the purity of your thoughts, your intentions.

There was a king who had a wicked son. Having no hope that he would change for the better, the father condemned the son to death. He gave him a month to prepare.

The month went by, and the father summoned the son. To his surprise he saw that the young man was noticeably changed: his face was thin and drawn, and his whole body looked as if it had suffered.

“How is it that such a transformation has come over you, my son?” the father asked.

“My father and my lord,” replied the son, “how could I not change when each passing day brought me closer to death?”

“Good, my son,” remarked the king. “Since you have evidently come to your senses, I shall pardon you. However, you must maintain this vigilant disposition of soul for the rest of your life.”

“Father,” replied the son, “that’s impossible. How can I withstand the countless seductions and temptations?”

Then the king ordered that a vessel be brought, full of oil, and he told his son:

“Take this vessel and carry it along all the streets of the city. Following you will be two soldiers with sharp swords. If you spill so much as a single drop they will cut off your head.”

The son obeyed. With light, careful steps, he walked along all the streets, the soldiers accompanying him, and he did not spill a drop.

When he returned to the castle, the father asked,

“My son, what did you see as you were walking through the city?”

“I saw nothing.”

“What do you mean, ‘nothing’?” said the king.

“Today is a holiday; you must have seen the booths with all kinds of trinkets, many carriages, people animals…”

“I didn’t notice any of that,” said the son. “All my attention was focussed on the oil in the vessel. I was afraid to spill a drop and thereby lose my life.”

“Quite right, my son,” said the king. “Keep this lesson in mind for the rest of you life. Be as vigilant over your soul as you were today over the oil in the vessel. Turn your thoughts away from what will soon pass away, and keep them focused on what is eternal. You will be followed not by armed soldiers but by death to which we are brought closer by every day. Be very careful to guard your soul from all ruinous temptations.”

The son obeyed his father, and lived happily.

Watch, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. (I Cor. 16:13).

The Apostle gives Christians this important counsel to bring their attention to the danger of this world, to summon them to frequent examination of their hearts, because without this one can easily bring to ruin the purity and ardor of one’s faith and unnoticeably cross over to the side of evil and faithlessness.

Just as a basic concern is to be careful of anything that might be harmful to our physical health, so our spiritual concern should watch out for anything that might harm our spiritual life and the work of faith and salvation. Therefore, carefully and attentively assess your inner impulses: are they from God or from the spirit of evil? Beware of temptations from this world and from worldly people; beware of hidden inner temptations which come from the spirit of indifference and carelessness in prayer, from the waning of Christian love.

If we turn our attention to our mind, we notice a torrent of successive thoughts and ideas. This torrent is uninterrupted; it is racing everywhere and at all times: at home, in church, at work, when we read, when we converse. It is usually called thinking, writes Bishop Theophan the Recluse, but in fact it is a disturbance of the mind, a scattering, a lack of concentration and attention. The same happens with the heart. Have you ever observed the life of the heart? Try it even for a short time and see what you find.

Something unpleasant happens, and you get irritated; some misfortune occurs, and you pity yourself; you see someone whom you dislike, and animosity wells up within you; you meet one of your equals who has now outdistanced you on the social scale, and you begin to envy him; you think of your talents and capabilities, and you begin to grow proud… All this is rottenness: vainglory, carnal desire, gluttony, laziness, malice-one on top of the other, they destroy the heart.

And all of this can pass through the heart in a matter of minutes. For this reason one ascetic, who was extremely attentive to himself, was quite right in saying that

“man’s heart is filled with poisonous serpents. Only the hearts of saints are free from these serpents, the passions.”

But such freedom is attained only through a long and difficult process of self-knowledge, working on oneself and being vigilant towards one’s inner life, i.e., the soul.

Be careful. Watch out for your soul! Turn your thoughts away from what will soon pass away and turn them towards what is eternal. Here you will find the happiness that your soul seeks, that your heart thirsts for.

(Translated from Pravoslavnaya Rus) and taken from

ORTHODOX AMERICA, Vol. XIV, No. 2-3, September-October, 1993

© 2012, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

by St. Simeon the New Theologian

Brethren and fathers,

How great is the condescension and the love of God toward men! Before the unutterable goodness of God I am struck with amazement, I am filled with wonder. So I cry out,

“O wondrous miracle, power of God’s commandments, how they change those who practice and observe them!”

Once I had started out on the way and had in slight measure returned to my senses from the abyss of evil and darkness I was obsessed with feear as I was tormented by the evils within me. Yet it was really love and striving for goodness that contributed most to turn me toward it. But all that it accomplished was a flight from evil that impelled me toward the good. In the midst of these things there was this alone that held me back—my ingrained propensities and evil habits of sensuality.

By the persistent practice of prayer, the meditation on God’s oracles, and the acquiring of good habits this fades away. As the sun gradually rises the darkness recedes and disappears. So as virtue shines, evil, like darkness, is driven away and is proved to be without substance, and from then on we shall always continue in goodness just as we have previously been evil. Through a little patience and a very slight effort of will, or, rather, by the help of the living God, we are re-created and renewed. We are cleansed in soul, body, and mind, and we become that which we really are, though we know it not because we are shrouded by passions, and in addition we receive gifts of which we are not worthy.

Even I, who am of all men most insignificant and useless, have received some of these gifts—how good it is thankfully to proclaim the blessings of God, who loves men!—by the grace of my Saviour Jesus Christ. By grace I have received grace, by doing well I have received His kindness, by fire I have been requited with fire, by flame with flame. As I ascended I was given other ascents, at the end of the ascent I was given light, and by the light an even clearer light. In the midst thereof a sun shone brightly and from it a ray shone forth that filled all things. The object of my thought remained beyond understanding, and in this state I remained while I wept most sweetly and marveled at the ineffable. The divine mind conversed with my own mind and taught me, saying,

“Do you realize what My power has done to you out of love for men because of but a little faith and patience that strengthens your love? Behold, though you are subject to death, you have become immortal, and though you are ruled by corruption you find yourself above it. You live in the world and yet you are with Me; you are clothed with a body and yet you are not weighed down by any of the pleasures of the body. You are puny in appearance, yet you see intellectually. It is in very deed I Who have brought you into being out of nothing.”

Saint Symeon the New Theologian, from Discourse 17

© 2011, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

by St. John Chrysostom

From Homily 58 on The Gospel of John.

“If a man should come here with earnestness – even though he does not read the Scriptures at home – and if he pays attention to what is said here, within the space of even one year he will be able to  obtain  a  considerable  acquaintance  with  them. For we do not read these Scriptures today, and tomorrow others that are quite different, but always the same section and consecutively. However, in spite of this, many have such an apathetic attitude that after such reading they do not even know the names of the books. And they are not ashamed, nor do they shudder with dread, because they have come so carelessly to the hearing of the word of God. On the other hand, if a musician, or a dancer, or anyone else connected with the theater should summon them to the city, they all hurry eagerly, and thank the one who invited them, and spend an entire half-day with their attention fixed on the performer exclusively. Yet when God addresses us through the prophets and apostles, we yawn, we are bored, we become drowsy.”

© 2011, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

By Metropolitan Saint Philaret

Homily Delivered on December 6

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

When we commemorate whole groups of Saints, we usually mention the great hierarchs among the first, and we have become used to the three great universal hierarchs and teachers — Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom — always being at the head of the hierarchical assembly. They belong there, because each of them contributed precious gifts [e.g. their writings] to the Church’s theological and moral treasury. So the Church honors them in particular and has established a feast for the three of them together, in addition to the solemn services for their individual feast days. But the feast of the great hierarch whom we commemorate today, the hierarch and wonderworker Nicholas, has a special place of its own.

He did not leave us as rich a spiritual heritage as these three great men, but we all know how greatly the Church reveres him. The Feasts of Saint Nicholas are so splendid that they even remind us of the 12 Great Feasts. Why is that so? Because he lived a life of virtue incarnate: an accessible, comprehensible virtue, close to every man and every heart, even the heart that rejects every other holy thing. That virtue is love; love and compassion.

The Russians like to call Saint Nicholas “Nikola the Merciful” because his miracles are as numerous as the stars of heaven. I would like to remind you of one touching miracle that shows his mercy. This did not happen once upon a time, long ago; it happened in our time, in the city of Harbin [China], where I lived for over 40 years. At the train station in Harbin there was a large icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, and it was especially venerated by all the travelers. Hundreds of candles were always burning in front of it. People departing by train and the people who came to see them off would light candles, and prayers were constantly going up to the great hierarch for his protection during trips. There was always a crowd in the station because the rail traffic was very heavy.

One day the people who happened to be there (they related this themselves, this is their own story; it was early spring, when the ice breaks up on the Sungari, on which Harbin is located) they saw a Chinese man rush in, soaked from head to toe. He ran up to the icon, threw himself down in front of it, and stretched out his arms to it, saying something in Chinese. The people who knew Chinese said he was thanking the saint for saving him from death.

Here’s what happened: for some reason he was in a terrible hurry to cross the river. But the river is wide, and the ice was flowing along it. He decided to take a chance. As he ran across the ice, jumping from one floe to another, he slipped, lost his balance, and fell under the ice. He was drowning, dying, when he remembered the wonderworking icon. His pagan countrymen revered it too, just as the Russian Orthodox did. As he was drowning, he cried out in despair, “Old man from the train station, help me!” He lost consciousness and went under completely; and he was about to perish…when all of a sudden he was on the riverbank, soaked but alive and unharmed! So he took off and ran — the train station was far away — and he rushed in to the icon and thanked the great hierarch for this evident and amazing miracle of his mercy and love.

The entire Far East, the entire land of China, has a great veneration for Saint Nicholas, you know. Once a Russian hunter had wandered far, far, into the taiga or steppe, and there he came upon a Chinese farmstead where he asked shelter. The friendly master and mistress of the house invited him in, and over their door he saw an icon of Saint Nicholas. He thought to himself, “What can these heathen be doing with it? What do they need it for?” And he wanted to take it. His host was offended and said, “Why do you want to take the Old Man away from us? He’s so kind, he helps us so much. We won’t give him up for anything!”

So not only the Orthodox Church but practically the entire human race honors this great hierarch. Whenever anyone is in trouble or has some need, he turns to Saint Nicholas. This great hierarch hears and fulfills each of the hundreds of petitions that fly to him in Heaven, as long as we ask with firm, strong faith. That’s why the Russian people love Saint Nicholas so much and constantly entreat him: “O Father and Hierarch Nicholas pray to God for us!” Amen.

Source

© 2011, admin. All rights reserved.

In America, as in the Church, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

Happy Thanksgiving Day.

I wish you a day of peace, joy and, of course, great thanksgiving to the God of nations, who has vouchsafed to us a land of liberty and freedom to do as we ought.

Preach the Gospel this Sunday.

Enjoy.

A

SERMON,

DELIVERED FEBRUARY 19, 1795:

BEING THE DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING

Throughout the United States.

BY THOMAS BALDWIN.

P S A L M XXXIII 12
BLESSED IS THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD, AND THE PEOPLE WHOM HE HATH CHOSEN FOR HIS OWN INHERITANCE.

In obedience to the call of the President of the United States, we are now, my brethren, assembled in the house of God to offer thanksgiving and prayer to the “great Ruler of nations, for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation” [a direct quote from the 1795 Thanksgiving Proclamation issued by President George Washington]. And as God is this day publicly to be praised in the assemblies of His people, I have thought the [Bible] passage now read might be a suitable foundation of our present meditations.

This beautiful psalm, whoever might be the penman of it, is evidently designed to set forth the power and goodness of God in such an amiable [agreeable] light as to excite our confidence, awaken our gratitude, and warm the devout passions of the soul with sacred joy.

If we contemplate God either in His word or works, we shall find abundant matter for joy and thankfulness:

“For the word of the Lord is right, and all His works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment; the earth is full of goodness of the Lord” [Psalm 33:4-5].

From this view of the righteousness, equity, and benevolence of the Divine government, the pious psalmist was led to exclaim, as in the text;

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

That we may more fully enter into the spirit of the text, we shall attempt:

I. To show when it may be said of a nation that “the Lord is their God” – to consider what evidence a people may have that the Lord has chosen.

II. To consider what evidence a people may have that the Lord hath chosen them for His inheritance.

III. That we may infer the duty and obligations of a people thus favored and blessed (in illustrating of which we shall attend to several particulars contained in the proclamation).

I. We are to show when it may be said of a nation that “the Lord is their God.”

As a nation, we form a particular character in distinction from that of individuals. As such, we may exhibit the amiable [likeable] features of virtue and religion, or the base picture of vice and infidelity. In this character we may receive temporal blessings as the fruits and reward of virtue, and also suffer national calamities as the punishment of our vice and impiety.

Therefore,

1. When as a nation we acknowledge the eternal God to be the Creator, Preserver, and Upholder of all things – when we acknowledge His universal dominion over all worlds, and all beings – and when we attribute those Divine perfections to Him which are necessary to form His exalted character and render Him the proper object of our love and esteem; and

2. When we acknowledge that system of truth contained in the Bible to be His word, and as such reverence and obey its doctrines and precepts – when we cordially subscribe to its Divine originality [inspiration] and rest all our hopes of futurity on its precious promises – when we endeavor to imbibe its genuine spirit and live agreeably to its dictates; and

3. When we acknowledge Him as the lone object of religious worship and adoration in distinction from all false gods and idols – when at stated seasons we attend upon His institutions and offer up our prayers and praises through that medium which He hath appointed; and

4. When we acknowledge Him as our rightful Sovereign and live in subjection to His laws (for it can never be supposed that a people have chosen the Lord for their God, while they refuse to have him reign over them. The very language of His enemies is,

“Let us break His bands in sunder and cast His cords away” [Psalm 2:3],

whilst those who approve of His government say,

“The Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, He will save us” [Isaiah 33:22].

And, said Jesus,

“Then are ye My friends when ye do whatsoever I command you” [John 15:14]);

and

5. When we acknowledge His universal Providence over all the works of His hands (if we rely upon His protecting care and Providence, we shall manifest it by appealing to His wisdom to direct us when involved in darkness and difficulty, and to His power to defend us when surrounded by threatening dangers; and finally, in leaving the issue of our most interesting concerns to the righteous disposal of Him who controls all human events);

6. And lastly, when we acknowledge the Lord to be the Giver of all mercies (nothing can be more calculated to keep us humble and thankful than to realize our dependence on God:

“Every good and every perfect gift comes down for the Father of lights” [James 1:17].

A sense of our own unworthiness and of the Divine goodness in bestowing favors upon us will excite in us the most lively [strongest] sentiments of gratitude and undissembled [genuine] joy and will finally issue in thanksgiving and praise).

But we come

II. To show, what evidence a people may have that the Lord hath chosen them for his inheritance.

The terms very naturally imply each other; agreeably to the tenor of the new covenant,

“I will be their God and they shall be My people” [Ezekiel 37:27].

And again,

“I love them that love me” [Proverbs 8:17].

Although this part of our subject may not appear so capable of proof as the former (since neither love nor hatred can be certainly known by common course of Providence) as one event happeneth to all, yet undoubtedly there may be some rational evidence in favor of the people whom God hath chosen.

As

1. God’s disposing a people to choose Him to be their God is a clear evidence that He had previously chosen them for His inheritance:

“Ye have not chosen Me (said the Savior to His disciples, that is first) but I have chosen you” [John 15:16].

They had indeed chosen Him with all their hearts; but this was consequent upon His choice and therefore could not be the cause, although it was the best evidence of their being His people.

“We love Him because He first loved us” [1 John 4:19].

But we observe,

2. Special and remarkable instances of Divine interposition in behalf of a people naturally lead us to conclude that God hath chosen them for His own.

Of old, He chose the seed of Abraham for His people and Jacob for the lot of His inheritance; and although He suffered them for a season to be afflicted by their enemies, yet when the set time was come for their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, His arm was made quite bare in the fight of the nations.

The children of Israel at this time were sunk under the most abject slavery. They indeed groaned under their bondage but had no idea of deliverance; and by being so long accustomed to serve, they had quite lost the spirit of enterprise. Yea, they were so far inured [accustomed] to their wretched condition and so indifferent to the cause of freedom, that after Moses had exhibited his credentials and given the most unequivocal proof of his being sent of God to liberate them from their vile servitude, they were ready upon almost every appearance of difficulty or danger to raise their clamorous voices and say,

“Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.”

But their drooping spirits were finally cheered, and with one consent they rallied round the standard of freedom; and while the Egyptians for their cruelty were visited with various plagues and were now mourning the loss of their first-born, under cover of the night they made their escape. But the tyrant of Egypt soon determined to pursue them.

The ransomed tribes, not being furnished with weapons of defense in order to escape the Philistines, took their route by the way of the wilderness and were now encamped between Migdol and the Red Sea. Imagination itself could scarce conceive of a situation more disadvantageous and distressing than theirs. The sea spread itself in their front; on either side they were enclosed by inaccessible mountains. Hahiroth on one side and Baal-zephon on the other, forbade their flanking off, whilst in their rear they beheld their late imperious master with all their tyrant bands in crowded columns advancing towards them, glittering in armor and amply furnished with the whole apparatus of death!

At this critical moment when ruin appeared inevitable, Moses – who had the most perfect command of himself – endeavored to calm their fears and excite their confidence in God.

“Stand still,” said he, “and see the salvation of the Lord” [Exodus 14:13].

The cloud which led their way instantly went back and stood as an impenetrable wall before the Egyptian host. Moses now took his awful rod and stretched his hand out over the sea and the waters divided. Then,

“the waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid and the depths were troubled” [Psalm 77:16].

“He made the waters to stand as an heap; they were congealed in the heart of the sea” [Exodus 15:8],

until the chosen tribes had marched safely through.

But when one dark scene has passed, another equally distressing instantly opened to their view. They were now traversing the barren sands of Arabia beneath a burning sun and their soul fainted within them. No fruitful fields supplied their hunger, nor cheering springs allayed their thirst. In vain they wished for the flesh-pots of Egypt or the waters of the Nile. No human exertions could save them. The Lord again interposed and the heavens supplied them with bread, and the rock followed them with streams of living water.

The interpositions of Heaven were so visible in behalf of this people that an eastern soothsayer, after using in vain all the arts of magic to curse them, was constrained to say,

“The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a King is among them” [Numbers 23:21].

When David upon a particular occasion was celebrating the Divine goodness, it brought to remembrance those days of the right hand of the Most High when God so remarkably interposed in their behalf; even when they were strangers in the land.

“And when (said he) they went from nation to nation and one kingdom to another people, He suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not Mine anointed and do My prophets no harm.” [I Chronicles 16: 20-22].

And thus He led them on to the possess the Promised Land.

But we are called upon by the man whom we delight to honor [President George Washington] thankfully to notice “the manifold and signal mercies with distinguish our lot as a nation.” But where shall we begin! The various streams of Divine goodness have constantly followed us through all this wilderness.

The interpositions of a kind Providence towards us from the first settlement of this country to the present day have been almost as conspicuous as those granted to Israel of old.

The groaning of our fathers under the persecuting yoke of oppression, although in their native land, was heard in heaven. Nor did they long groan in vain, for God was pleased to dispose their hearts to unite in forming the important design of attempting a passage across the pathless ocean in search of these western shores. Numerous were the trials and disappointments they experienced in leaving their native land, and many were the fears and discouragements with which they conflicted on the boisterous ocean until at length they discovered the Continent [America] and again trod on solid ground.

But how seemingly easy would it have been for the savages to have collected their numerous tribes and hurled such showers of darts and poisoned arrows upon them as to have obliged them to quit [leave] the shore; or at least to have harassed them in such a manner as to have prevented them from cultivating the soil and in that way forced them to re-embark.

Various indeed were the scenes of distress through which the first adventurers passed, and various were the deliverances which they experienced. Death early discovered their infant settlement and within less than five months after their first landing at Plymouth swept away nearly one half of their number. Sometimes painted savages with hideous yells disturbed their peaceful camp, and sometimes famine with meager visage [face] stared them in the face.

Three years after their arrival they were brought to such straits, their provisions being spent, when it was three or four months to harvest so that when they lay down at night they knew not where to get any for the morning; and for three or four months together they had neither bread nor corn.

“Yet (said they) we bear our wants with cheerfulness and rest on Providence”

[a quote from the Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, compiled by George Cheever (New York: John Wiley, 1848), p. 283].

Nor did they rely in vain. God heard their cry and sent them relief.

Thus when death and savages and famine seemed all to combine against this feeble colony, God was pleased to give the high command, “Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it” [Isaiah 65:8].

Heaven had undoubtedly designed this beautiful part of the creation for nobler purposes than to lay an uncultivated waste for beasts and savages to roam over. It was evidently marked out by Divine Providence as the favored spot on which liberty (which had long been imprisoned in other parts of the globe) should erect her spacious temple.

But this high design was not then fully understood, and America – like a child in minority for a long season – was under

“tutors and governors” [Galatians 4:1-2]

of a foreign appointment until the fullness of time [Galatians 4:4] came for her to be free.

But time would fail to recount the various wonders of Divine goodness towards this land, or the numerous instances of oppression from a foreign power which led on to that memorable season which marked a new epoch in the history of the world – I mean the fourth of July 1776, which announced the freedom and independence of America.

That auspicious [fortunate] morn will long be remembered (perhaps as long celebrated) as the political birthday of this nation. Then our fathers in council assembled made their solemn appeal to the Great Judge of the Universe for the rectitude of their intentions and the justice of their cause.

And, my brethren, were not the interpositions of Divine Providence quite visible in our behalf in disposing the different states to lay aside their local prejudices and all unite in one great object? And did not Heaven remarkably smile upon our exertions? How surprising was the spirit of enterprise which then appeared in every class of citizens! Our legislators in Congress nobly opposed and effectually counteracted the subtle and perfidious [treacherous] politics of a nation long skilled in the intrigues of war. And our young sons, uninured [unaccustomed] to the dangers and hardships of a camp but animated with the noble sentiment of liberty, and led on by our immortal WASHINGTON, encountered an army of disciplined veterans with a courage and firmness which would have done honor to Roman bravery. Unsubdued [unconquered] by difficulties, and unappalled [not scared] by dangers, our troops were led on from conquering to conquer [Revelation 6:2], one army after another falling into their hands until our foes were obliged to subscribe [agree to] conditions of peace.

Shall we now, my brethren, ascribe all this glory to ourselves? No; we will say with the devout psalmist, “If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side – now may America say, if it had not been the Lord Who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick” [Psalm 124:1-3]. It was the God of armies which led our troops to victory and glory, and His forever shall be the praise!

Happy indeed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom He hath thus highly favored.

We come now, as was proposed,

III. To infer the duty and obligations of a people thus favored and blessed. The two following inferences very naturally arise from the subject;

1. If we have chosen the Lord to be our God, it is our indispensible duty to acknowledge with thanksgiving the numerous favors He confers upon us.

2. As we are dependent creatures, it is our duty to beseech the kind Author of these blessings to continue them to us and to extend those which we enjoy to all mankind.

In illustrating those observations, we shall attend particularly to the proclamation [of President Washington] upon which we are now convened.

• 1. We are called upon to offer thanksgiving “for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and by their union establish liberty with order.” If ever a people were under obligations to the Great Ruler of the Universe for the full and free enjoyment of their natural rights and privileges, we certainly are. ¹If we are not happy, we must blame ourselves for it, for our modes of government are not the dictates of a conquering tyrant but the deliberate choice of American freemen. No foreign lord has dominion over us, but our “rulers are of ourselves and our governors proceed from among us” [Jeremiah 30:21]. And as the most important offices, both Federal and State governments, are elective, no hereditary dunce can ever be imposed upon the people; but [only] the man whose tried wisdom, fidelity and patriotism shall commend him to their choice.But our constitutions are said to “unite and by their union to establish liberty with order.” But why do they unite? Undoubtedly because they secure the equal rights of all. We cannot reasonably expect that either “union or order” will long prevail where the essential rights of one part of the community are violated and government is instituted and administered for the benefit of a part only and not for the whole. May we ever consider our rights unalienable and in a constitutional way remonstrate [protest] against the smallest infringement.
• 2. We are directed to offer public thanksgiving to God “for the preservation of our peace, foreign and domestic.”A moment’s reflection, my brethren, will convince you of the propriety of this remark. For notwithstanding the embarrassments which our trade hath suffered on the seas, and the many unprovoked insults offered to our flag; we have shown ourselves superior to those who have injured us by despising rather than retaliating their crimes. And although our western border has been partially distressed, yet the great body of the nation has been folded in the secure arms of peace. And by the blessing of God on the cause of liberty in Europe, and the wise and steady exertions of our supreme Executive [President Washington], aided by our Federal Council [the U. S. Congress], we have been preserved from the horrors and calamities of a foreign war.
• 3. “The suppression of the late insurrection” is mentioned by our worthy President as a matter of public thanksgiving [in 1794 in western Pennsylvania, armed riots had broken out against the federal government to protest a federal tax on whiskey]. And let the cause of the unhappy insurrection be as it may, we will rejoice and praise God that the consequences were far less fatal than we feared and that it has been wisely overruled not only for the suppression of that rebellion but for the strengthening and cementing of the union. May it also be farther beneficial by deterring other from opposing lawful authority and prevent their making the desperate appeal to arms.
• 4. “The prosperous course of our affairs, public and private” calls for our grateful acknowledgments. That our wealth and population have rapidly increased within these few years past much beyond any former calculations cannot be denied. And we have the satisfaction still to believe that the tide has not begun to ebb but is yet increasing. Our settlements are extending; the wilderness yields to the hand of cultivation and becomes a fruitful field; towns are built and cities enlarged. Citizens of every class find sufficient employ and ample encouragement to reward their industry. The liberal arts are nourished and useful knowledge discussed and surely there can be nothing wanting but real piety [holiness] to make us truly happy.

But from the uncertain tenure by which we hold these enjoyments, we are led to infer:

2. That it is our duty to beseech the kind Author of these blessings to continue them to us and extend those which we enjoy to all mankind.

And

• 1. By the proclamation, we are directed “to beseech the kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us.” We shall be naturally led to this if we suitably realize that the same hand which bestows our blessings may take them away at any time without asking our leave [permission]. And such is the versatility of all earthly things that we know not what will be on the morrow or even what the present day will bring forth – we know not how soon the present scene may be revealed and the dark clouds of adversity overshadow our brightest prospects. Let us then humbly acknowledge our dependence on that Living Fountain and thankfully adore the Giver of All Our Mercies.
• 2. We are exhorted to pray God “to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of obligations to Him for them.” Without this, we can never be thankful, for if we consider our enjoyments as the just reward of our own wisdom or industry, we shall feel thankful to none but ourselves. The Lord deliver us from the horrid sin of ingratitude! As our blessings are multiplied, may we consider our obligations increased to love and adore our Great Benefactor.
• 3. We are to beech the kind Author of Our Blessings “to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value.” Our blessings, my brethren, are numberless and great. We are a people highly favored of the Lord. Our civil and religious privileges are none of the least; we “sit under our own vine and fig tree and none are permitted to disturb or make us afraid” [Micah 4:4]. We worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences without the dread of an Inquisition or fear of persecution. We are indeed exalted to heaven in point of privilege; let us not forget that “where much is given, there much will be required” [Luke 12:48].
• 4. We are directed to pray that we may be kept from “abusing” the favor we enjoy. It is too often the case that those who have called upon God in the day of their trouble have forgotten Him in the time of prosperity. Happy would it be if we could learn that sacred lesson, “to use the world as not abusing it” [1 Corinthians 7:31]. Our blessings are given us to use but not to abuse. They are often bestowed in abundance so that we may disperse abroad and give to the poor, and thus lay up a treasure in the heavens which “fadeth not away” [1 Peter 1:4]. But should we become vain in our prosperity and “forget the God which made us and lightly esteem the Rock of our salvation” [Deuteronomy 32:15]; we must expect He will turn His hand against us and deprive us of the blessings we abuse. May the Lord “preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity” and enable us so to walk before Him as a nation that He may delight to prosper and bless us.But we are to conclude our supplications by praying,
• 5. That God would “impart all the blessings we possess or ask for ourselves to the whole family of mankind.”

This beautiful sentiment, my brethren, breathes universal benevolence and good will to the whole human race. Much more is implied in it than what is expressed. I conceive that it fully authorizes and enjoins us to extend our views to other objects not so particularly mentioned in the proclamation. And

1. We will fervently pray that the blessings of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we peculiarly enjoy may be extended to all mankind – that the altars and idols of Pagan superstition may fall before the light of truth and that the shades of Mahometan imposture [Islamic deception] may be dispelled by the bright beams of the

“Sun of Righteousness” [Malachi 4:2].

And that the dragon and the beast and the false prophet; and all the anti-Christian powers which have in any way opposed and persecuted the religion of Jesus Christ may be subdued. May the Gospel with its benign [gentle] influences extend from land to land and from sea to sea until the knowledge of God shall cover the earth, from the rising to the setting sun [c.f., Isaiah 11:9].

2. As we enjoy the blessings of peace, we sincerely wish the same to all our fellow-men. Base indeed must be the heart which for any pecuniary [monetary] advantages would wish a war to continue, which makes such havoc of the human species. Hence, my brethren, let us offer up our prayers continually to the God of Peace that the present distressing war among the European nations may come to an end [the Second Hundred Years War between France and Britain and their respective allies were raging in Europe at this time], and that it may terminate in the overthrow of tyranny and despotism and the establishment of liberty and the equal rights of man. And particularly, that nation which came to our relief in the day of trouble [France] may speedily obtain and give such honorable conditions of peace as shall convince the world that they are friends to liberty, order, and humanity and are only to be dreaded by tyrants. May they soon realize all the advantages which a free and enlightened people can derive from a government framed by the unalterable principles of reason and founded upon the eternal basis of equal rights.

But

3. As we desire and enjoy liberty and freedom ourselves, we will not forget our brethren who are in captivity and slavery.

Our unhappy countrymen who have fallen into the hands of the Algerines [Muslim terrorists opposing America during our first War on Terror against Islamic terrorists which lasted from 1784-1816] whose

“tender mercies are cruelties” [Proverbs 12:10],

shall not be forgotten in our supplications. We will beseech the God of All Compassion to remember them in the land of their captivity and to give them favor in the eyes of those who have carried them captive. We will not only pray for them but whenever we shall be called upon by proper authority, we will cheerfully subscribe for their redemption [i.e., contribute to a fund to pay a ransom to free Americans; see the WallBuilders article on this at ] and restore them again to the embraces of their friends and the blessings of freedom.

But the benevolent sentiment we now dwell upon does not confine our wishes here; no, we wish the same blessings of liberty which we enjoy to all mankind. May the day soon arrive when not difference of climate or features nor the color of the skin – when nothing but crimes shall consign any of the human race to slavery.

Urged by my own feelings, I am persuaded, my brethren, you will indulge me to mention in particular one of our suffering friends. I mean the brave, but unfortunate Marquis de la Fayette!

“At the age of nineteen he espoused the cause of America,”

and early determined to embark for this country. But before he could accomplish his design, intelligence arrived at Paris

“that the American insurgents reduced to two thousand, were flying [retreating] before a British force of thirty thousand regulars.”

In short, things appeared so discouraging that our commissioners at Paris

“thought it but honest to dissuade him from the present prosecution of his perilous enterprise.”

But nobly triumphing over every discouragement, he said,

“Hitherto I have only cherished your cause – I am now going to serve it.”

He at length procured a vessel at his own expense and came to America. Soon after his arrival, Congress conferred on him the rank of Major-General, which he accepted – but with the condition of serving at his own expense.

His services for several years together in the American army are too well known to require a particular detail upon this occasion. The later part of his command, however, was peculiarly distinguished by the difficulties he encountered and the important services he rendered this country – particularly in counteracting and harassing the movements of the British army in Virginia.

From his embarrassed [difficult] situation at a certain time, Lord Cornwallis thought himself so sure of taking him that he wrote to the British court that “the boy could not escape him.” But the fact proved just the reverse, for he found not long after that it was impossible for him to escape and was finally obliged to resign himself and army as prisoners of war [i.e., the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781].

Can we now, my brethren, who enjoy the fruit of his toils, forget this generous patron of American freedom who is now suffering the horrors of a wretched confinement and languishing in a dreary [French] prison? [Lafayette was imprisoned five years (1792-1797) because of his views of liberty, first in Germany and then in Austria. At the time of this oration, he was still in prison – a fact that greatly angered Americans since he was an American citizen – an honor awarded him by Congress at the end of the Revolution – as well as an American hero]. No; we will raise our supplicating voice to Heaven for him. And may that God who heareth the groans and sighs of the prisoner break the bars of Magdeburg Castle and let that oppressed patriot go free! And may the glorious Gospel of Peace which proclaims liberty to captives and opens the prison doors to them that are bound extend its heavenly influence throughout the world!

To conclude.

While we commiserate [empathize with] the cause of the unfortunate and sympathize in their distresses, let us endeavor wisely and thankfully to improve our privileges and blessings to the glory of God and the best good of our fellow-men. Let us diligently cultivate habits of

“sobriety, order, morality and piety”

and study to lead

“quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty” [1 Timothy 2:2].

And may the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Israel – the God in Whom our fathers trusted and found deliverance – continue to be our God and to bless us.

“There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who rideth upon the heaven in thy help and in His excellency upon the sky” [Deuteronomy 33:26].

“The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms” [Deuteronomy 33:27].

“Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord” [Psalms 33:12].

Endnotes

The following footnotes appear in this form in the original sermon:

1. As a nation, we certainly enjoy every natural right; and if under any of the State Constitutions any class of citizens do not enjoy equal privileges, the matter will undoubtedly be attended to at a proper time and the grievance redressed.

2. Amer. Geog. pp. 136, 137.

3. Ibid.

© 2011, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

By George Mantzarides

Are you aware that counting 40 days from today, on the 40th day we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross? It’s not a mistake.

The Transfiguration of Our Savior has a central place in the Orthodox Church and in Orthodox theology.

It is the event that reveals the glory of the Church and of the faithful. It is a witness to the new reality introduced by the coming of Christ in history.

During His Transfiguration, Christ revealed the Uncreated Glory of His Divinity within His human nature. At the same time, He took up those surrounding Him into His Uncreated Divine Glory. Moses and Elias participated in the same radiance as Christ. The only difference is that Christ is the Source of Divine radiance, whereas the others are recipients thereof.

The reason why Christ was transfigured before His Disciples was that the day of His Crucifixion was approaching:

“That when they should see Thee crucified, they might know Thy Passion to be voluntary….”1

By His Transfiguration, Christ, on the one hand, bears witness to His Divinity, which His Disciples had confessed shortly before through the mouth of the Apostle Peter; and, on the other hand, He offers an initial experience of the coming of His Kingdom.

The fact that we celebrate the Transfiguration on August 6 perhaps does not help us to remember its direct relationship with the Cross of Christ. Only when we consider that a few weeks later, on September 14, we celebrate the Universal Exaltation of the Precious Cross — which is reminiscent of Great Friday — do we find its historical connection with the Feast.

In other words, as an historical event, the Transfiguration took place a few weeks before the Passion. From an historical standpoint, we would place it in the ecclesiastical Calendar a few weeks before Pascha — perhaps as many weeks as now separate it from the Exaltation of the Precious Cross.

And we should not reckon it fortuitous that the Church has instituted another Feast in this place: the Feast of the Theologian of the Light of Mt. Tabor, St. Gregory Palamas. Thus, the Second Sunday of Great Lent, five weeks before Pascha, is dedicated to St. Gregory Palamas.

Moreover, it is significant that in all three Synoptic Gospels the event of the Transfiguration is related immediately after Christ’s declaration that

“there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power.”2

Hence, as Patristic Tradition also emphasizes, the Transfiguration of Christ comes as a revelation of the Kingdom of God “with power.”

By His Transfiguration, Christ confirms and strengthens faith in His Divinity, which His Disciples had already confessed.

During His Transfiguration, Christ did not assume something that He did not previously possess; rather, He reveals — once again, according to the measure that His Disciples could receive it — the Glory that He always possessed as God-Man. In other words, the Glory that His Disciples saw on Mt. Tabor was not some transitory phenomenon, but rather the eternal Light of the Divine Nature of Christ. One of the hymnographers of our Church declares this when he says:

“Thou wast transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, showing to Thy Disciples Thy Glory as each one could bear it.”3

The Light of the Transfiguration is the Uncreated Light of the Kingdom of God, which came into the world with the coming of Christ. Of course, the Kingdom of God, being without beginning or end, is not limited by time; rather, it transcends and transforms time. It does not begin at the end of history, but rather already exists within and above it, and it will continue to exist beyond history.

In reality, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God “with power” is nothing other than its revelation “with power.” This is not the arrival of something that did not previously exist; instead, that which existed and will always exist is revealed.

Just as the Uncreated Light, which was revealed during the Transfiguration to the Disciples, existed from before the ages and abides eternally in the Theanthropic Hypostasis of Christ, so also the Kingdom of God, which came into the world with Christ, is sometimes revealed to the faithful as a precursor of the Age to Come.

The Christian Faith is not based on some moral principle or ideology; rather, it is founded on the revelation of the Kingdom of God in Christ within history. The testimony of the Apostle Peter, in which he makes precise reference to his experience of the Transfiguration in order to proclaim the truth of the Christian message, is striking:

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”4

Without experience of the Heavenly, man is not freed from earthly temptations. The Apostles of Christ, Martyrs, Saints, and ascetics of the Church would not have been able to gain victory over the world and to offer everything to Christ had they not had some taste of Heavenly bliss.

One obtains adoption in Christ in the present life.

“Now are we the children of God,” writes the Apostle John the Evangelist, “and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”5

Man acquires a sense of adoption in Christ in his life by keeping the Divine commandments. By self-abnegation and offering oneself to God and to the Will of God — which constitutes a form of death — the believer becomes a participant of the Divine Life and Kingdom.

The taste of eternity does not begin after the Cross, but rather with the Cross. Obedience to the Will of God “unto death” already constitutes participation in the resurrection. Just as the Glory of Christ begins with the Cross, which crushes the powers of the Evil One, so also the glory of Christians begins with voluntary acceptance of death for Christ, Who crushes the old man and reveals the new.

The Transfiguration of Christ is preparation for the Cross. And the Cross of Christ is the commencement of His Glory as man. By His Transfiguration, Christ does not acquire anything new; rather, He strengthens His Disciples in view of His Crucifixion. His Disciples are in need of this strengthening, in order to face the Cross of their Teacher, as well as their own cross, later, for the Name of their Teacher.

The gate of the Kingdom of God is the Cross, and the Glory of God in the world begins with the Cross. Every revelation of the Glory of God within history, whether before or after the coming of Christ, constitutes a model or an extension of the Cross of Christ. Every experience of the Glory of God during this present life presages or accompanies an experience of the Mystery of the Cross.

___________

1. Kontakion for the Feast.
2. St. Mark 9:1; cf. St. Matthew 16:28, St. Luke 9:27.
3. Apolytikion for the Feast.
4. II St. Peter 1:16.
5. I St. John 3:2.

HT: Mystagogy

: Orthodoxe Martyria, (Cyprus) No. 49 (Spring-Summer 1996), pp. 8-10.

© 2011, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

St. Anastasius was a priest and abbot of Mt. Sinai. His zeal for true faith led him to travel through Egypt, Arabia, and Syria to combat the errors of the Acephalites and Eutychians. His writings show not only a thorough command of Holy Scripture and a wide knowledge of the writing of the Church Fathers and other Christian writers, but also classical erudition and a solid grounding in Aristotelian philosophy. Of his prolific output the most important works are Guide Against the Acephalites and Answers to Questions.

Upon Mount Tabor, Jesus revealed to his disciples a heavenly mystery. While living among them he had spoken of the kingdom and of his second coming in glory, but to banish from their hearts any possible doubt concerning the kingdom and to confirm their faith in what lay in the future by its prefiguration in the present, he gave them on Mount Tabor a wonderful vision of his glory, a foreshadowing of the kingdom of heaven. It was as if he said to them:“As time goes by you may be in danger of losing your faith. To save you from this I tell you now that some standing here listening to me will not taste death until they have seen the Son of Man coming in the glory of his Father. “Moreover, in order to assure us that Christ could command such power when he wished, the evangelist continues: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain where they were alone. There, before their eyes, he was transfigured. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Then the disciples saw Moses and Elijah appear, and they were talking to Jesus.

These are the divine wonders we celebrate today; this is the saving revelation given us upon the mountain; this is the festival of Christ that has drawn us here. Let us listen, then, to the sacred voice of God so compellingly calling us from on high, from the summit of the mountain, so that with the Lord’s chosen disciples we may penetrate the deep meaning of these holy mysteries, so far beyond our capacity to express. Jesus goes before us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven, and – I speak boldly – it is for us now to follow him with all speed, yearning for the heavenly vision that will give us a share in his radiance, renew our spiritual nature and transform us into his own likeness, making us for ever sharers in his Godhead and raising us to heights as yet undreamed of.

Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: Lord, it is good for us to be here.

It is indeed good to be here, as you have said, Peter. It is good to be with Jesus and to remain here for ever. What greater happiness or higher honor could we have than to be with God, to be made like him and to live in his light?

Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out with joy: It is good for us to be here – here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen. For here, in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying as he enters: Today salvation has come to this house. With Christ, our hearts receive all the wealth of his eternal blessings, and there where they are stored up for us in him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the first fruits and the whole of the world to come.

Source

© 2011, admin. All rights reserved.