In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The last verse of the Epistle reading today : “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” is a Bible verse which I had to memorise when I was quite little. When I was little, I did not understand very much about the meaning of that verse. In my life I went blithely on my way, having that in my memory, but not knowing the first thing about it.
Saint Paul himself is very clear this morning. The way of sin leads to darkness and death. Life in Christ, the following of Christ, brings us to eternal life in the Kingdom. It has only been after plenty of stumbling, falling on my face and derrière that I have begun to learn something of what this interior darkness means and what this sin means. It is part of becoming an adult, I suppose. When I was little, I thought that this sin to which the Apostle refers was something gross and horrible, or perhaps something dramatic and terrible. However, I have come to see that it is not necessarily gross sins. It is not only living a soap opera sort of life that leads to death and destruction. In fact, it is the much more mundane, boring, simple, straightforward sins that lead most surely to destruction. It is these boring, uninteresting, humdrum, everyday sins that enable a person to be pre-conditioned to engage in soap opera sort of immorality. In fact, these small sins produce the famous “slippery slope”. This slippery slope brings a person to be able to live the sort of corrupt, degraded life that is shown to us in these soap operas day-by-day. In order to be able to do the sort of gross, corrupt, terrible and bloody things that we see in the so-called “entertainment” programmes on television now (blood and gore flow on television), we have to be pre-conditioned to do that. To be jumping from bed to bed, to be killing people, to be stealing, to be committing adultery left, right and centre, one has to be pre-conditioned and hardened up.
The Lord has built into your life and my life the testimony of our conscience. Our conscience teaches us right from wrong. When we are inclined to do something (or when we have already done or said something that was wrong), there is a burning inside that says : “Oh, Oh !” We listen to that (or we do not listen to that). Either we pay attention to those times when the alarm bells have rung and we say : “Oh, I had better pay attention here, and straighten out my life” ; or otherwise we say : “Aaagh, that is an old-fashioned idea. Where did that come from ?” If I keep saying often enough : “Aaagh, who taught me that sort of fairy tale ?” I harden myself and pre-condition myself to do much worse things. I become capable of doing those gross and terrible things.
We talk and we behave these days as though we are terribly shocked that all around us in the world there is horror after horror. We behave as though we are surprised, somehow, that this should be the case. However, there is nothing surprising about this sort of behaviour in the world. We can see in ourselves how we have led ourselves astray and not listened to the conscience that God gave us. We have not listened to the inspiration and the tugging of our Guardian Angel away from the darkness. No, I have led myself away from the teaching of that Guardian Angel, away from the pleas and the tugs of that Protector sent from God. I have gone on to talk on the telephone at great length about my neighbours, about my friends, about the people I work with, to destroy their reputation and to pass on lie after lie that I have received on that same telephone. In fact, by my tongue I have murdered my brother and my sister. I have ignored the needs of those around me, people who are hungry, thirsty and lonely. I have not met their needs. I have said : “I have better things to do. I am more valuably occupied than to spend my time doing those things which are necessary”. I have hardened myself up and pre-conditioned myself to do worse.
If I have murdered my brother or my sister with my tongue, why is it so surprising that there are many people who have got yet harder and allowed their anger and their hatred to go much farther so that they kill, steal, rob, rape, poison, abuse and oppress ? None of that is surprising. None of it should be surprising because you and I can see all that in our own hearts. I am rebellious. I insist on having my own way. I do not want to read the Gospel. I do not want to be condemned in my heart about my darkness and my wrongs by reading the Gospel and having the Lord confront me face-to-face.
“The wages of sin is death”. The product of sin is death because ultimately, when I go on that path away from the Lord, I take myself away from life, itself. Where am I going to find life except in the Lord ? Who is the Giver of life except the Lord Himself ? If I am not going to pay attention to an incident such as we see today in the Gospel reading where, because of His love, once again the Lord heals without even being there physically present ; if I am not going to put my trust and my confidence in His love for me and call out to Him and say : “Save me. Help me” ; if I am not going to put my confidence in Him, then I cut myself off from being myself.
Brothers and sisters, the fact is that you and I can only be ourselves when our life is found in Christ and our life carries the characteristics of this presence of Jesus Christ in our hearts at all times. Our life must bear the tangible marks of His presence which are found in feeding, clothing, visiting, speaking good, encouraging, uplifting, and interceding in prayer for others.
Your life and my life are judged by what we do to and for each other. Have I had patience with my brother’s and sister’s shortcomings or have I condemned my brother or my sister for what I perceive to be faults ? Have I condemned my brother or sister in my heart ? If I condemn my brother or sister in my heart, I have set myself up to be a judge as God. That sort of pride comes straight from the depths of hell. It will take me, and not my brother, to my Judge. If I let my anger turn to hatred, instead of turning myself to repentance and asking God to help me forgive the wrong that has been done to me ; if I have allowed my anger to flare up and turn into hatred, so that I practically wish that my brother or sister would die, I am the one who will die instead. I will not die in the Lord, but I will die in the devil and be taken straight to join him in separation from the Lord of life. I will live in perpetual death in separation from the Lord of life whose love penetrates everywhere.
This morning, as always, the Lord comes to you and to me face-to-face. The Lord stands in our midst and He addresses you and me not only in this Divine Liturgy, not only in the reading of the holy Epistle and the holy Gospel, but He addresses you and me in each other. He says to you and to me as it were : “Inasmuch as you have done good (or have not done good) to one of the least of My brethren, you have done it (or have not done it) to Me” (see Matthew 25:40-45). The Lord comes to you and to me today to say : “Turn away from the ways of darkness that lead to your self-destruction”. He says to you and to me : “‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life’” (John 14:6). He says to you and to me that life is found only in Him and in being like Him. The only way we can be ourselves is to allow Him to shape us and form us into that image that He prepared for us, into that plan He has for us and into that way which He has prepared for us and opened for us.
In this church, we are supported by the prayers of all the believers worshipping the Lord for almost a hundred years. We are supported not only by those prayers, but also by the presence of the continuing prayers and love of all those who have fallen asleep before us. We are surrounded even on the walls by these great and holy people – Saint Job of Pochaiv, Saint Gregory the Theologian, Saint Basil the Great, Saint Sergei of Radonezh, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Saint Barbara, Saint Olga, Saint Nicholas – we are surrounded by them all. They in their love exhort you and me to do as they did : to give up selfishness and self-will and to live in Christ. By their prayers, may we co-operate with them, say “Yes” to the Lord and be able to join them in glorifying our Lord, God, and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, it is time for you and for me to put our priorities straight and get our house in order. It can only be done by following the exhortation of our beloved Father Herman, the Elder and Wonder-worker of Alaska, who says to you and to me today : “From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us love God above all” and glorify the all-holy Trinity : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.