In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Every year after the celebration of the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven, we remember the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. It is important that we keep this memory. First, we must remember that our Lord was, is, and shall be praying for our unity, for our unity with Him, just as we heard now in the Gospel. Second, we keep it always in the forefront of our minds that He continues to intercede for us and to work for this unity in us, in every part of our life.
At the time of the First Ecumenical Council, just after the ending of the first series of big persecutions of Christians, there were all sorts of strange ideas developing because of the connexion with philosophy. This came about because human beings always have difficulty comprehending the fulness of the love of Jesus Christ. There is always a temptation amongst human beings, first, not to trust Him, and at the same time to be afraid about all sorts of things. Second, we are tempted to think that we know better, and to think that we can somehow be controllers and protectors of the Orthodox Faith and controllers and protectors even of Christ.
There were some significant and seriously mistaken ideas that had developed at that time. The most pernicious of them, perhaps, was the Arian heresy in which it was said that Jesus Christ was not eternally begotten from the Father. Arius said that there was a time when the Son of God was not. Arius said that the Son of God had a beginning. This is all because of philosophy. People became confused (and often still are) because it is difficult to accept the truth of the love of Jesus Christ, and how deep is the love of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, it is difficult to accept Who is Jesus Christ. If we want to take our minds in directions like those of Arius, Nestorius (and others who have strayed from the Orthodox way), we are following a path of fear. As the saints always taught us, it is imperative that we find Jesus Christ in our hearts, and that we know Him in our hearts. His presence in our hearts directs our intellect, directs our head, and keeps our confused thoughts in order (and in the right order, too).
Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, can change water into wine if it is for the good of the people He is caring for. He can raise people from the dead if it is for God’s glory, and for the accomplishment of God’s purposes. He can give sight to the blind. He can heal the paralysed. He can do all sorts of things, as He has done, and is doing to this very day, if everything is to the glory of God.
In these present days, the Lord has accomplished yet a new wonder for us. This is the reconciliation between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Synod of Bishops in exile (the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia). This separation, brought about by politics, has had a very big influence on the Church’s life. The political issues which caused the separation have ended, and the Church is free. By the Grace of God, the Church has been brought back together again, and what was broken is being healed. For those people who may be unaware of the causes of this division, I will give a brief outline. Many books have been and can be written about this painful period. The first and major cause of this division was the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. This revolution unleashed wild, blood-thirsty and godless forces which attempted to exterminate the Orthodox Church.
There was a very large emigration from the former Russian Empire territories, as people escaped with their lives. The exiles were dispersed over several continents, and with them, the Orthodox Church. Many of the escapees were monarchists who hoped to be able to return. A large number of those who escaped migrated to Western Europe and to North America, where they found that the Orthodox Church already existed because of previous economic emigration and because of missionary activities. In North America in particular, the Russian Orthodox Mission had been long established, and it had begun to take root. Therefore, it had a different character from the Church in other places, even Western Europe.
When the people who were exiles arrived, it became obvious that there were two scarcely-compatible perceptions about Church life in North America. Some were concerned with developing the Orthodox Church in North America. Others hoped to maintain their culture, their Orthodox traditions and their language so as to be able to return to their former life in a possibly restored Russian Empire. Both streams were still dependent upon the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Because of the demands of the Soviet state that the Russian Orthodox believers outside Russia must be Soviet citizens, both groups found themselves cut off from communication with the Patriarchate. One group continued to try to recover normal communion with the Patriarchate of Moscow. The other group doubted the true Orthodoxy of anyone left in the Russian territories. When Stalin established a fake, imposture “church” (the “Living Church”) whose tentacles appeared in Europe and North America, the distrust increased greatly. After World War II, when Stalin had to ease his persecution of the Church in order to win the war, conversations about reconciliation began again with some of the Church outside Russia. Others would have nothing to do with it.
For the missionary-minded of North America, the conversations enabled an eventual reconciliation (1970) which transformed the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in North America into The Orthodox Church in America. For the remainder of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia, a complete reconciliation (which nevertheless left a small, stubborn, schismatic remnant) was not possible until after the fall of communism. Then it could be seen that the Patriarch of Moscow was truly a canonical Orthodox believer, and the Russian Orthodox Church with him was properly canonical, and the faithful people were truly Orthodox believers.
On the internet, there is a site where we can watch the service, all five hours of it. I was able to watch part of this momentous event yesterday. It was heart-warming and joy-giving that this reconciliation has been made possible, and that families that had been divided can now be reunited, and be in communion with each other, as well as the Churches that had been divided. This is the work of the love of Jesus Christ. Human beings work at it, but they work at it in and under the guidance of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
From this reconciliation, I believe that a huge amount good will come to the Church in general, and to the Church in North America more specifically. The Church in Russia did not feel this division very much because the people who were not in communion were not very numerous. However, here it has been a more significant part of our history, a more painful part of our history which can now be healed. I am looking forward to the full effects of this healing as we are able more and more to work together to build up the life of the Orthodox Church and witness for our Saviour, Jesus Christ, here in North America. The more we are able to do this together, the more people will be able to begin to understand the Orthodox Faith.
Next Sunday, we will be celebrating the outpouring of the Grace of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. Every time we celebrate a feast-day, we are present at the Event. Next week, when the Descent of the Holy Spirit is being celebrated, we will be with the apostles in the upper room in Jerusalem with the Holy Spirit being poured out in fiery tongues. We will be present, and the Holy Spirit will refresh us also, along with the apostles.
It is necessary that we all remember that it is by the Grace of the Holy Spirit that we Orthodox Christians live our lives. It is the Grace of the Holy Spirit that Saint Seraphim of Sarov said we had to acquire. By “acquiring” he meant that we have to allow the Grace of the Holy Spirit to grow to fulfilment and maturity in our lives. We are given this gift when we are baptised, and we can either squash it or allow it to grow. The Lord gives us such freedom. It is important for us to allow the Grace of the Holy Spirit to grow and mature, and that we be on fire in our hearts. The Orthodox way is always completely involved with love, loving God first of all, and loving each with the same selfless love, just as our Saviour says. This love is alive. This love is not merely a technicality or an idea. This love is alive. That is why Saint Seraphim of Sarov and other saints like him were able to be as they were because this love was alive in them. In the Orthodox Church we do not have “specialists”. These holy persons are outstanding holy persons, true, but we all are called to the same life of love in Jesus Christ, the same living love in Jesus Christ.
We all are called to be holy, along with Saint Seraphim, along with Saint John of Kronstadt and everyone else. Today, we are celebrating the joy of this reconciliation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia. We are gratefully celebrating this wonder which has been accomplished by the love of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and which is being accomplished (because there is a lot of work to do). Therefore, let us ask the Lord to renew this love in our hearts this morning, and ask Him to refresh us, so that we will be truly faithful to Him.
We must be faithful to Him like those many hundreds of thousands of martyrs and confessors in the last century in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and the Balkans. Let us never forget that in the last century there was the biggest persecution that ever happened to the Orthodox Church. Let us ask the Lord to give us the faithfulness and the love for Christ of those martyrs and confessors. May this love renew us, and enable us to be faithful to our Saviour, Jesus Christ. May we be able to live in accordance with His love, and witness to His truth, in harmony with the Nicene Fathers, and with all those who have gone before us. With them, let us glorify Him in every part of our lives, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.