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2 Cor 11:31-12:9
Our Lord Jesus Christ is God incarnate, that is, He is God who Himself took on human flesh and blood and became a man so that He might reveal Himself to us as fully as possible. During the time of His life in this world, He chose 12 Apostles from among those who followed Him and who had seen and heard all that He did and said. After the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the ministry of the Apostles was to proclaim to the whole world what they themselves had seen and heard and experienced directly from our Lord Jesus Christ. However, the difficulty that seems apparent was that the number of those who had directly experienced Christ was limited and therefore the Apostolic ministry and the guidance of the Church entrusted to them was likewise limited and would eventually cease as they all reached the end of their own earthly lives.
God, however, cares for us and loves us and did not want us to be without the living witness of the Apostles to guide us. Therefore, He has provided a way to overcome that limitation. Today we heard the Apostle Paul relate how he also was chosen by Jesus Christ as an Apostle and how, although he had not been present during the earthly ministry and life of Christ, he too had experienced the revelation of Jesus Christ first hand. After his miraculous conversion where he was blinded by the light of Christ and then healed by the touch of Ananias, Paul, by his own account went his home in Damascus (Gal 1:16ff) where he remained in seclusion for 3 years, praying and seeking God. The vision of which he speaks in this epistle occurred during that time and it was in this miraculous manner that he directly experienced our Lord Jesus Christ. From this we see how it is that the experience of Jesus Christ continues on, even beyond those who lived with Him during His earthly sojourn. The Apostle Paul, therefore, was truly an Apostle and like the rest had seen and heard and experienced Jesus Christ Himself. Having had this miraculous revelation, he then came to the Apostle Peter and James the brother of the Lord in order that this revelation might be submitted to them and confirmed as true by the Church in the persons of these Apostles before he acted on it.
Throughout the history of the Church and even now there are many who claim to have had some kind of supernatural experience and who claim to have received some special revelation from God. The problem, however, is to know what is a true revelation from God and what is the deception of the evil one leading us away from God. The experience of the Apostle Paul will help us to understand how to make this distinction. First we know that this vision did not come immediately nor did it come outside the context of ascetic prayer. The initial vision that led to the conversion of the Apostle Paul was so intense that he could see nothing but was blinded by the light of Christ. Only by the healing touch of Ananias, himself acting in obedience to the command of God, was his sight restored. After this the Apostle Paul began to fast and pray in order to draw near to the One Who had called Him. Only after a period of withdrawal from the world and ascetic prayer was he ready to experience God in such a direct and miraculous manner again, but this time, being prepared, he was not blinded, but saw and heard the heavenly things which cannot be described.
Even this, however, was not enough and the Apostle Paul then sought out the Apostle Peter and submitted himself and his vision to the Church before he spoke to anyone else about it. Consider for a moment the great courage of this action for if the Apostle Paul had been deceived by the evil one, then he would lose all that he thought he had gained and need to return again to his life of seclusion and prayer, repenting as well for falling prey to the delusion of the evil one. In submitting himself and his experience to the judgment of the Church, he acted out of humility not counting even this seeming heavenly vision as having any worth or value unless it was confirmed by the Church. Here is the second test of Paul’s experience and his apostleship – submission to the teaching and experience of the Church.
The Apostle Peter, having received Paul and having heard of his vision, did not presume to act alone, even though he had been among those who were the closest disciples of our Lord and had been the one singled out as the leader of the Apostles. Peter called James, the brother of the Lord, and the two of them, acting together in prayer and fasting heard the witness of Paul and confirmed that this indeed was the true revelation of Jesus Christ, just as they themselves had also experienced. We see here that the Church in such matters never acts independently or individually, but rather exercises her true authority corporately, recalling the words of the Gospel that the witness of two is required (Matt 18:16-20) for judgment and for the true action of the Church. In such matters, we do not act on our own, but submitting ourselves first to those whom God has placed in authority over us in His Church (that is the Apostles and their successors the bishops) we then also see that they do not act unilaterally, but only in the consensus of the whole Church (manifest in the whole council of bishops or of a lesser council gathered by the local bishop). Having received the blessing of the Apostle Peter and James the brother of the Lord, the Apostle Paul only then began to proclaim and act upon what he had seen and heard and experienced.
Here we see how it is that we should act when someone makes a claim of having received the revelation of God. First is the necessity of a life of prayer and ascetic labor. Without a righteous and holy life marked by prayer and fasting there is no context for such a gift from God. In such a case, even if there is an element of truth, this vision will only serve to exacerbate the pride and draw those who heed it away from God. Second is the necessity of humility and submission to the judgment and teaching of the Church and of obedience to the authority of the Church. Where there is no humility, there is no truth and where there is no submission and cutting off of one’s own will, there is no humility and the proof of humility is found in true obedience. We do not owe obedience to ourselves or to any other single person but to God alone and to His Body the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. There are many false “churches” founded by people who claim to have some special revelation from God – but without the historical root in the experience and teaching of the Apostles that is found only within the Orthodox Church, there is no authority and no truth. The authority of the Church is not found only in one person, or even in a few people, but it is found in the witness of the whole Church from that of the Apostles on through to the present (and for that matter even into the future for the Body of Christ is eternal, that is to say, outside of time). Thus it is necessary to submit one’s own opinion and experience to the eternal teaching of the Church which is the revelation of Jesus Christ witnessed by the Apostles and passed on by them to their successors. If it is consistent with the whole Church then we can act on those ideas and experiences with certainty. If it is not, then, in humility, we repent of our error and leave it behind so that we might then follow the true path of salvation laid out for us in the Church.
God loves us and does not wish any man to perish. For that reason He makes possible a living and active relationship with us through the Church. In order that we not be led astray by the evil one and thus lose our way, He has given us the tradition and teaching of the Church proclaimed by our bishops and the witness of the Apostles so that we might be able to discern what is truth and what is error. But we are not left to do this on our own, but by humility, we submit ourselves to the authority of the Church in the person of our local bishop and his clergy – that is the local priest – and gain the help and assistance of the whole choir of the saints from the beginning until now, singing together the hymns of praise to our God. If our song is true, then it will join in perfect unison with theirs, however, if our song is found to be lacking or in error, we must exhibit the true humility of self-denial abandoning our own ideas and conforming ourselves instead to the image of Jesus Christ made manifest before us in the Body of Christ. In this way God opens and lays out before us the path to salvation and to the life of union and communion with Him.
Gal 2:16-21
“For if I build again the things which I destroyed…” Very often salvation is spoken of as something to be obtained, like a commodity or a status. But the Apostle uses a better image of salvation for us, he speaks of it as “building”. Indeed that’s what our salvation is – the sum total of what we have built with our lives. Now immediately the objection arises that we are not saved by works, but by grace and indeed this is true, there is no contradiction here. The confusion is in understanding what grace is. Grace is not some ethereal environment that somehow surrounds us and magically transforms us. Grace is a spiritual commodity – something God gives to us and our lives are spent acquiring that grace and using it to build our lives according to the plan of the image and likeness of God with which He created us. That image and likeness is spoiled, marred and distorted by our sin and therefore in order to begin again we have to “tear down” and “destroy” that misshapen “life” that we have already begun to build and restart again from the foundation and build using the grace with which God provides us.
This “destruction” of the false start of the fallen life is accomplished through the Cross. When He ascended the Cross, our Lord took with Himself all of our sin and destroyed it by His death and Resurrection. When we ascend the cross with Him, when we embrace his death and resurrection, when we “put on Christ” and are “crucified with Christ” so that “nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me” The old life, founded upon sin, which I lived by my own efforts is destroyed by the Cross – now I have a new life, the life “by the faith of the Son of God…” Having destroyed the old, it is now our task to build the new.
When building, the first and most important element is the foundation. The foundation upon which we now build is Jesus Christ (1Cor 3:11) and it is necessary that having acquired this foundation, as the Apostle tells us, “…let every man take heed how he builds thereon.” It is necessary that we do not build again the same old misshapen life of sin upon this new foundation. “If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor” If we take up the same life that we crucified on the cross, then we have gained nothing. If we are to build a new life, we must do so with new materials and in a new manner.
What are these new materials with which we are to build? The foundation is Christ, however we build upon this foundation, as the apostle says with “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble” and then he warns us that “the fire (of God’s presence) will try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he has built … he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss:” (1Cor3:12-15). Thus it is important to choose those materials for building which will withstand the fire and not be burnt. The material which God has made available to us for building is grace. His grace, coming from Him, will withstand the fire of His presence and will not be consumed. It is, indeed, gold and silver and precious stones for it is more valuable than all. But there is also another material that we can use to build – that is the wood, hay and stubble of our sins. We can (and often do) choose to build with these old materials, which will be consumed in the flame of God’s presence, because they are easily obtained and familiar to us. But in doing this we only build that which we have already destroyed. Having begun with the new foundation of Jesus Christ, let us eschew the “old” materials of our sins and seek to acquire the new building material of grace that is provided for us by God.
How do we acquire this grace then and work with it? St Seraphim takes up this analogy of the acquisition of grace by telling us that our task in this life is just this, “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.” He tells us of many ways of making this acquisition: by self denial, giving alms, attending the services of the Church, receiving the sacraments, doing works of mercy and compassion. But he reminds us that there is one means by which we can acquire this grace which is always available to us in all places and at all times and that is prayer. By making our lives a constant act of prayer, we open the gates to continually receive the stream of grace with which we then build the house of the soul.
Rather than choosing the old familiar material of our sinful life; those materials born out of self: self love, self regard, self dependence, self worth; and the works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like (Gal 5:19-21), we can choose instead the materials born out of the grace of God; love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal 5:22,23). By building with these materials that are born of the grace of God, we build our lives as though with gold, silver and precious stones and when we enter into the fire of God’s presence, the work of our life is not consumed, but it is joined with the fire and begins to glow with the glory of God.
Brothers and sisters, having passed through the cross, having been crucified with Christ, let us now begin to build profitably on the new foundation of Jesus Christ. Let us build with the materials of grace, the fruits of the spirit and the virtues which are born of them. Let us build our lives in the image and likeness of Christ, rather than in the image of our sinfulness. Let us prepare that we may enter into the fiery presence of God and not be consumed but rather be filled with the glory of God and joined to Him in eternity.
In the Gospel today we heard a narrative of redemption. Certainly we heard the narrative of our redemption by our Lord’s sacrifice on the Cross, however, that is not the only redemption that is described here. We also heard the narrative of the redemption of the cross itself. The cross was an instrument of torturous death; it was a symbol of despite and of ridicule and the ultimate condemnation of a person. Only the worst criminals were crucified. Roman citizens could not be crucified, unless there was some exceptional reason, but had to be put to death by beheading if they were condemned because such a death – the death on a cross – was unworthy for a Roman.
And so Jesus, when he was condemned, was nailed to the cross as an indication that He was considered the worst of all men. But instead of being dragged down by the cross and counted among the worst of all creatures, Jesus took the cross – the symbol of shame, dishonor and defeat – and redeemed it. He made it into the symbol of victory, of joy and of the greatest power. This is what He does to everything that He touches in this world, including us – he redeems the world and turns it from corruption and destruction into the instrument of His grace. Hence we have such things as Holy Water, Chrism, Holy Oil, Holy Bread, vestments, icons and of course crosses. These things which were once simple created elements are, by the touch of our Lord Jesus Christ, transformed, redeemed, converted into the bearers and conduits of divine grace.
Today then we celebrate the Elevation of the Holy Cross, the symbol and instrument of Christ’s victory, the destruction of sin, the defeat of the devil and the resurrection from the dead. The cross has been redeemed and today we celebrate that redemption.
Our Lord said, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” So you see from this that the Cross is an integral element in our own salvation. We must take up the cross in order to follow Christ. But what is this cross that we carry. Is it necessary for all of us to be condemned to be nailed to a wooden beam and lifted up in the air and so slowly with great suffering suffocate to death in order to be saved? No this is not what our Lord means. What He is telling us is that we need to carry the difficulties and sorrows that we experience in this life so that those struggles can be transformed and “redeemed” into great blessings and riches of grace in the life to come. Not only do we carry the cross, but we do so as we follow Him – we carry our cross as He carried His. We carry our cross without complaining or protest; we carry it with love and forgiveness for all mankind, even those who nailed us to the cross; we carry it out of obedience and submission to the will of God. This is way of the cross, the path of our salvation.
Now there are those who think that they should somehow have to endure a great trial in order to take up their cross – but that is not always the case. Some think that if only they could live in a time and place where they were physically threatened with pain and even death that they could then truly carry their cross. The martyrs were granted this grace, and they gladly accepted the trials they were given in order to confess Christ. But we are not all in such a place and yet we are all called to “take up our cross”. How do we do this in our modern world? Some are given the very heavy cross of a long and painful illness and manage to carry it with meekness, thanksgiving and even joy. Some are given the cross of poverty and want, facing starvation, homelessness, and nakedness and they manage to do this again with grace and with thanksgiving and joy. There are many other great crosses that we see around us, but not all of us have such crosses. Some are given the cross of good health and physical well being. Is this a cross you might ask? Certainly it is, for in order to carry this cross you have to bear the weaknesses and struggles of those who are ill and suffering, to do for them the things they cannot do for themselves. There are those who bear the cross of wealth, and so they have to carry the suffering of those who are impoverished and in need and want. These bearers of these so called “good crosses” constantly have to struggle against passions of pride, selfishness, greed, judgement, condemnation, and many other similar passions. While their life might be considered “good” in the world, still that goodness can serve as a barrier to the Kingdom of Heaven.
But there is another aspect to the crosses that we carry. Sometimes these crosses are not huge and imposing, but small, almost unnoticeable, wearing on the soul, constant little irritations and temptations that we fall prey to over and over. We don’t think of these small irritations as crosses, but indeed they are and it is as important to carry these “small” crosses as it is to carry a “big” cross. You may have to carry the cross of a difficult co-worker or a unpleasant job, or the cross of a car that breaks down, or the cross of an unpleasant neighbor, or the cross of a family that is a real trial to live with. I have no doubt that each one of us could come up with an infinite list of these little irritations, and we love to complain about them and elicit the sympathy of our friends and talk trash about those who cause them and so on. But these are your crosses and to act in such a way does not constitute carrying your cross – rather it is the opposite; this is how we lay down our cross and walk away from our salvation.
It is vital to carry the cross that you are given by God and not try to “create” your own cross. There is a tale of a man who was in the midst of a great trial in his life. His difficulty was so great that he began to fall into despair. He called out to God to relieve him of this suffering and to give him some simpler way to work out his salvation. One night he was given a dream in which his guardian angel appeared to him and told him, “God has heard your plea and wants to give you the chance to lay down the cross you have been given and to select instead a cross of your own choosing to carry in the world.” Having said this the angel led the man to a great treasure house. This treasury was filled with every kind of cross imaginable – some large, some small, some ornate, some plain, some of gold or silver and covered with jewels, some of rough wood, Some were resplendent and shone brilliantly and others were dull and covered with dirt. Every cross that could be imagined was to be found here. The angel said to the man, “Here are all the crosses in the world, go through and inspect them all and then select the one you wish to carry.” The man entered the treasury and went through all the crosses, picking them up, admiring their appearance, and noting the beautiful materials with which they were made. Finally he made a selection and returned to the angel and handed him a tiny little cross, which was so delicate that it almost disappeared in the hand. The angel looked at the cross and with a odd look on his faced asked the man, “Are you sure this is the cross you want?” and the man sighed, “Yes, yes, I’m very sorry, but I really don’t think I can carry anything more than this.” The angel asked again, “Are you really sure this is the cross you want?” And the man again said that he could not bear to carry anything greater and said, “Why do you keep asking me this?” And the angel replied, “This is your cross, the one you have been carrying all along.” And the dream ended and the man realized that indeed this cross that he carried in this life was not as difficult as anything else he might have been given and that with the help of God’s grace he could indeed continue to carry this cross without complaint, with thanksgiving and trust in God’s providence and grace.
We might think that we can choose for ourselves an easier cross, but God knows your heart, he knows your strength, he knows your ability. He gives you the cross that you (and no one else) can carry that will bring you into His heavenly kingdom. Therefore, look at the crosses that you carry in this life, whether large or small, whether obvious or hidden, and give thanks to God for what He has granted you. Having made that start, then take up your cross with joy and trust in God and follow our Lord Jesus Christ as He leads you into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew 25:14-30
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
"We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye accept not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation)" (II Cor. 6:1-2).
So says the Apostle this day. And the Gospel tells us that a lord gave talents to his servants: "Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every one according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.... After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them" (Mt. 25:14-19).
So says the parable. How does it apply to us? To us the Lord has also given talents. And essentially the talent is one. What is it? This is what it is. As we heard last Sunday, the entire law and the prophets are concentrated into one commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind....[and] Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Mt. 22:37, 39). God came to earth in order to fulfill this commandment. And He fulfilled it in His whole evangelistic life and taught us how to fulfill it. But above all — in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in receiving His Body and Blood — He gave us the strength to fulfill this commandment. This is what talent means. The talent is the strength given to us by Christ in His Holy Sacrament to fulfill the main commandment of God: love for God and neighbor.
See what a great gift is hidden in this talent given to us by God. In the parable, one servant buried his talent, but all the other servants applied it to their life. This is what depends on us: whether to bury the God-given talent or to apply it to life. The sacrifice of Golgotha was offered once and forever, for the whole world. It depends on us to accept it or to reject it. And to accept it means to live according to the Gospel. According to the words of the parable, this would be to "trade" with our talent and acquire for it that which God gives. And then, when the day of reckoning comes, God will say: "Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Mt. 25:23).
Not to accept the sacrifice of Golgotha, to reject this Tree of Life of the New Testament, and as the Gospel says, to bury the talent in the ground — this means to tell the Lord: I do not want it; "There thou hast that is thine" (Mt. 25:25). Then the Lord will also say to us, "Thou wicked and slothful servant..." and will tell His attendants: Cast him into the outer darkness. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Mt. 25:26-30).
Brothers and sisters! The Lord has done everything for us, has given to each of us a talent. The choice is ours. Let us choose "the good part" (Lk. 10:42). Then we too will exclaim with the Apostle: "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!"
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
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