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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The words of our Saviour to us today are very simple and very serious. He says to you and to me that even if we would like to think differently, nevertheless, there are only two ways to walk in our lives – with Christ or against Christ. There is not a grey, middle way. We serve Christ, and we work with Christ, or we work against Him. These are difficult words for us, but they are important words for us. Here, in these days in particular, people are typically serving themselves first before they are serving Christ. When we are serving ourselves first, and not Christ first, our lives are out of order. They are, in fact, against Christ. We, who are living here in this city in particular, and desiring to be faithful Orthodox Christians, must remember that what comes first must always come first. What comes first is our love for Jesus Christ, our communication with Jesus Christ, our service of Jesus Christ, our life in Christ.
The person after whom this mission is now named, Saint Tikhon, the Patriarch of Moscow and Enlightener of North America, was indeed such a person who put the service of Christ first above everything. Because he did this, we in Canada have a proper incorporation, and we have a proper organisation as the Church. Saint Tikhon, who was a missionary 100 years ago in this very area (apart from his other responsibilities), organised the incorporation of the bishop and the diocese here in Canada. The incorporation that he established would be impossible to make happen 100 years later. It was difficult then, but it would be impossible now. Because of Saint Tikhon, with this incorporation, the Church can be herself here in Canada even though it is difficult.
Saint Tikhon had a personal relationship with the people whom he served. There are families in this area whose children, grandchildren (and I suppose we are actually up to great-great-grandchildren by this time) still remember the stories of his visits here. Saint Tikhon, also, was such a pastoral person that he was constantly bringing people whom he knew from Ukraine and Russia to North America in order to make certain that the sheep in North America would receive good food, healthy food, true food about Jesus Christ and the Orthodox way. Many of these persons whom he brought to North America became saints.
Even when he was unexpectedly chosen to be the Patriarch of Moscow at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, Saint Tikhon nevertheless embraced his responsibility whole-heartedly. He prayed to the Lord, and he tried to make the best decisions for the Church that were possible under such difficult circumstances. For the most part, he managed to do this. Ultimately, he died or as most people believe, he was killed (although this seems to be impossible to prove). He suffered so much that, at the very least, he is considered as a confessor. This is true of multitudes of his companions in those days, who were confessors and martyrs.
Saint Tikhon was a stable, loving father in Christ. He established this Church in Canada and in the United States, too, on a good foundation. He established the renewal of the patriarchate in Russia on a good foundation. That foundation is primarily Jesus Christ and the love of Jesus Christ, who is the Truth. Saint Tikhon could guide the Church and do what is right because his heart and his mind were in constant communion and love with our Saviour, Jesus Christ. He himself, as a loving father and shepherd, showed us the way to fulfil these words of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, which we have just heard in the Gospel. We must be with our Saviour, Jesus Christ. We must be in our Saviour, Jesus Christ because we want to have life. We want to have eternal life. However, the only way to have this is to be in communion and in love with Jesus Christ. When we put Him first, everything else that is difficult or seems impossible, in fact, becomes possible. In Christ everything is possible when it is His will.
If we want to do what is right, or even to do the impossible, our hearts must be in communion with the Lord so that we may know His will. Therefore, by the prayers of Saint Tikhon, let us do our best to follow his good example. By his prayers, by the protection of the Mother of God, let us develop more and more our habit and custom of daily prayer. Let us develop our habit and custom of praying together every day in our families. Let us develop our inherited custom of blessing everything that we are doing. Through the prayers of Saint Tikhon, let us renew and develop these habits which are soaked in the love of Jesus Christ : blessing our getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, going out to work, coming home from work, sending the children to school, welcoming them back from school, blessing our driving, blessing our cooking, and everything that we are doing. Let us also refresh and renew our inherited custom of drinking a little Holy Water every morning, and if possible, eating a little prosphora every morning so that our hearts, our souls and bodies will be constantly fed by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, by prayer and by sacramental food. Holy Water and prosphora are like supplemental vitamins for us, although they are not the Body and Blood of Christ.
Most of all, let us ask the Lord to renew in our hearts this love for Him so that our lives may show Jesus Christ as He wishes us to reveal Him. May our lives show in every part that we are with Him, and not against Him. May our lives help other people who are lost, hungry, in the dark, sad and depressed, to find the joy, life, love and light of Jesus Christ in and through us. By the Grace of the Holy Spirit, may we be received into His heavenly Kingdom with love and joy. There, with Saint Tikhon and all the other saints, and with the Mother of God, may we glorify Him in eternity with great joy, growing ever more in His love, glorifying the all-holy Trinity : the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.