2nd Sunday in Great Lent
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today, we are celebrating the memory of what one of our professors called one of the greatest of Orthodox theologians, Saint Gregory the Theologian. Professor Sergei Verhovskoy used to say that he is the only one of the Fathers who is 100 percent Orthodox. That is a very good recommendation from Professor Verhovskoy, who was rather critical.
How does a person get to be this sort of theologian and bishop of the Church ? It is by living the Gospel, by following the directions of Saint Paul, and by not allowing pride or personal gain to get in the way but always doing the work of the Lord. It is also by exercising the gifts that have been given as described by Saint Paul in the Epistle to the Corinthians (see 1 Corinthians 12), and by building up the Church on the Truth, which is Jesus Christ. This truth is not gained by being a philosopher, a journalist, a private investigator or a law-maker. A true theologian is a person who knows God and then speaks as clearly as possible about the experience. That experience is consistently the same sort of experience that all Christians have always had. We can tell if a person is on the right track by whether what he has to say about his knowledge of God is correct. We measure the correctness by how the writing fits what the ancient Fathers have to say. By contrast, we can also tell how he has been “led down the garden path” by certain strays. If the person speaks about God in the way all the Fathers and Mothers of the Church have spoken, then the person remains a Father or Mother of the Church. There are Fathers and Mothers of the Church today just as there were in the days of Saint Gregory the Theologian about 1500 years ago.
Since we are all expected by the Lord to become theologians, since we are all expected to build up the Body of Christ and be saints by our baptism, therefore, we humble ourselves and give ourselves to God not as slaves, but as loving children co-operating with Him. We allow Him to work in us and we allow him to create in us not only our true selves, but the true selves of all those around us. We allow ourselves by humility to be transfigured as the Lord was transfigured on the mountain and as other saints have been transfigured since then. We allow ourselves to be transfigured into our true selves that are found in Christ. We allow ourselves, then, to share this transfiguration with those around us. By allowing ourselves to be transfigured, we become an example to other people. By allowing ourselves to live in Christ, and to put on all the weapons of the Gospel, all the armour of which Saint Paul speaks (see Ephesians 6:13), we allow ourselves to be prepared to be a good example. Then we are exercising those gifts that the Lord has given us.
The Lord does not give us all the same gifts because we are not all just the same. The individual gifts, although very similar, are not identical to each other. Each person exercises his or her own gifts. Exercising our own gifts teaches other people that they have gifts as well. As we exercise our gifts in the love of Christ, we encourage other people to do the same. The more we exercise our gifts and strengthen others in the Body of Christ, the more they strengthen other people. Thus, the whole Church becomes stronger in the world because people are exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are supporting, strengthening, healing, loving and lifting up other people.
That is essentially what we have to do as members of the Body of Christ. We co-operate. The fundamental lesson for us is to remember that we are the members of the Body of Christ. In order for the body to function properly, the members must co-operate. Our arms cannot do things by themselves ; neither can our legs or any other parts of our bodies walk by themselves or function independently. The whole body functions by co-operative effort, and each individual member is only able to function at all because it is joined to the rest of the body. That is what our living together is supposed to be : co-operation, mutual encouragement and strength (and sometimes correction), general building up, and overall co-operation. This co-operation is what brings about real unity. We humble ourselves. We remember that we are members of His Body. We recognise that we are not the Head ; but as the members of the Body of Christ and for the sake of the rest of the Body, we allow ourselves to be governed by the Head, Jesus Christ. In this way the whole Body is able to function well together and be saved by healing, strengthening, renewing and re-creation.
Therefore, as we come to receive the Lord this morning, let us ask Him to renew us and bring us to that transfiguration so that we may be truly properly functioning members of the Body of Christ, able to know Him well so that in due course, we may be given the “O” stamp of approval of Professor Verhovskoy (and the “O” means Orthodox). Thus, each of us will be a true knower of the Lord, and therefore a true theologian, glorifying in our whole life the all-holy Trinity : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.