Altar Feast

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Every year as we celebrate the patronal feast of this Temple, we are celebrating at the same time the Dedication of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. This church is named for that Temple and that feast which always happens the day before the Elevation of the Holy Cross. The Exaltation of the Holy Cross happened in that Temple in Jerusalem the day after the church itself was dedicated.

In celebrating this feast, we are celebrating the mystery of God’s love for us, and how it works out. It is a great mystery how Saint Helena could find the true Cross which healed people as soon as it was found, and demonstrated to people that God is still with us. It is God Himself who led Saint Helena to this Holy Cross. It was not because she was a good detective that she found it. It was because she had a good heart that was listening to God’s leading. She paid attention to the words of believers who remembered where it was kept. She listened to the Holy Spirit moving in her heart, and that is how the Holy Cross was found.

Ever since that time, the Holy Cross has been for us an example of God’s self-emptying love. The presence of parts of this Holy Cross in many corners of the world has been an encouragement to believers where there has been a lot of suffering and difficulty. People have been able to turn to the Holy Cross and find healing. Saint John of Damascus has told us that every time we venerate any representation of the Holy Cross, the veneration goes straight to the original Holy Cross, and through it, to Christ Himself who was crucified on this Holy Cross. It is He, that through His Cross, gives us life in His Resurrection. It is He, that through His suffering on the Cross, brings us healing and life today through the Grace of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord, in His love, is with us. We built this Temple a long time ago, and before that, its ancestor farther downtown, in order to have a place in which to worship the Lord. It was built not only so that we can worship the Lord, but also so that people around would be encouraged by seeing that there is such a Temple of the Lord, and that there are believers worshipping there. When the bell is ringing, even though the neighbours may not come, they are touched in their hearts by the sound of the ringing of the bell. Some of them may sometime come, as other people have come to this holy Temple and have found Christ. They have worshipped Him with us, and have become part of us over the years.

It is good for me to see this Temple again with blue domes. It was nice while they were gold, but for me, sentimentally, it is better now that they are blue. When I first came to this Temple more than thirty years ago, they were blue. These blue domes are also reminding me of the blue domes of Ouspensky Sobor in Trinity-Sergius Lavra, for instance, because they have a similar character to them (although I did not know that when I first came to this Temple). These blue domes and the shiny Crosses upon them will catch peoples’ eyes and make them think : “What is this lovely church ? Maybe I might be able to go there sometime”. And sometime they might.

It was because believers in this community were loving and caring (and were in some ways related to believers I knew in n), that I was able, when I first came to this city as a student, to be brave enough to come here, even though I did not yet know anyone. However, the people I had been told to look for, met me. They were expecting me, and they welcomed me. Then people like n, who did not know me, met me, and greeted me, and warmed my heart. This is how it has to be. When that door opens, we do not know who it is that the Lord is sending through that door, and what will come with that person who comes through that door. It is our responsibility to be welcoming in Christ, to be receiving in Christ.

God moved the hearts of Orthodox believers eighty or more years ago to build this Temple to His glory. As the words from the Epistle this morning say : It is the Lord who is the Builder. People helped Him build, but it is the Lord who built this Temple (first the one downtown, and now this one). It is He who moved the hearts of faithful people to do this work. They worked with Him to build this Temple to His glory, in which we have been able to worship Him day by day, and week by week until now. It is important for us to be grateful for the founders who established this Temple and its predecessor. They listened to God. They listened to the moving of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Because they did this, they were able to erect a Temple to His glory here in this city. From this very community have, in fact, grown up all the other Orthodox communities in the whole of this province. This one was the first. It is because this church was established to the glory of God that other communities of believers were able to establish themselves in various parts of this city and province.

I still remember well how the welcoming disposition of this community enabled a second Greek-speaking worshipping community to develop. It was in the hall over there that for a number of years that fledgling community was worshipping at the same time that we were praying here. Because of the generosity of the people here, because of their willingness to support other believers, there came to be a second Greek church. It was because of the welcoming and God-loving disposition of the people here, that various Romanian communities were able to establish themselves in this city. People here welcomed them, and gave them a start.

A great deal of good fruit has come from here, not the least of which is that Mission in n, which for many years waited for the right and opportune time to come for it truly to grow. Back in the days of Vladyka Ioasaph, when n was a deacon (well over thirty years ago), they went over to n and were serving in that Mission, establishing a seed. The seed had a hard time growing, I guess, because it is very rocky spiritual ground over there. Eventually there was enough soil around for the plant to grow, through the prayers of Vladyka Ioasaph and the people who originally went there. Because of their love and their service so long ago, now we have a thriving community there. It still calls itself a Mission, but it actually is not. It has regularly sixty people in church already. It is advanced enough to be called a parish. This is because faithful people have been ready to co-operate with the Grace of the Holy Spirit. People who have come before us, because they always have been welcoming and loving to people who came through that door, enabled a great multiplication of the Orthodox Faith in this province.

The Lord has been building through you and in you. The Lord speaks to us today in the Gospel about that rich young man (who could obey the commandments but who could not give up everything and follow Christ) : “‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God’”. When the apostles ask who then could be saved, our Lord says to them : “‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’”. In this community, even though some people have become well endowed with financial resources, most of them have still been ready to put the Church first in their hearts and lives. They considered these resources to be God’s blessing, and they have used these resources to God’s glory. That is one reason why this Temple is in such good condition. We have such nice doors, windows, and cupolas. The parish hall is in good condition, because people have been prepared to share their personal resources for the glory of God. They have been ready to share with the rest of the church what God has given them, to glorify God, to give thanks to God, and to show their gratitude in a material, as well as a spiritual way.

The way of the Orthodox Christian is to show and express gratitude. That is why we are here today. We, Orthodox Christians, are standing here today in the Temple of God’s glory, which our ancestors erected (our spiritual or physical ancestors). All the people who came before, if they are not our personal, physical ancestors, are definitely our spiritual ancestors. We are standing here today in the Temple which they erected to God’s glory. We are continuing with them and in their footsteps as we glorify our Lord, God, and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We are doing what the Lord is asking us to do. Every week, and very often during the week, we come here to give thanks to Him, and to praise Him for His love for us, for His presence with us, for the Grace that He pours out upon us, for the love that He shares with us, for the healing that He gives to us, for the doors that He opens for us to find work, for the way that He helps us to reconcile our differences one with another. We are giving thanks to Him today, and praising Him in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, as the Apostle Paul says (see Ephesians 5:19), because we are responding to His love for us. We are grateful that He is with us, that He is helping us, that He is supporting us, and enabling us to do the supposedly impossible for ordinary, unbelieving persons. He helps us to do the impossible.

One of these apparently impossible things is to remain hopeful, joyful, strong, vigorous, with a sense of direction in the middle of a time and a society where everything is inside out and upside down ; in a time when people are depressed because their selfishness is leading them into nothingness and complete emptiness. Psychiatrists are so overloaded with appointments these days that all they can do is give people pills. Very often, these doctors do not even have time to listen to their story. People are in such a wrecked condition. However, we Orthodox believers are still able to go about life with a sense of direction, with a sense of God’s being with us, with a sense of hope, with joy, knowing that no matter how bad things are in our society, no matter how much people have turned their backs on Christ, we have not. God is with us. His love is with us, and we are going to share the light of His love by going about our lives in this way. Hopeless people are seeking help from psychiatrists. Hopeless people grasp at empty straws in weird philosophies and theories. Hopeless people struggle to find meaning through magic. All these paths are ruinous and empty. Indeed, may it be possible that because of the activity of the light of Christ in us, they may find true hope.

Dear brothers and sisters, God in His mercy is with us today as we celebrate to His glory the Feast of the Dedication of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. He is with us today as we give thanks to Him for His love. He is with us today as we give praise to Him for His love, and in His love. He is with us as we go from this Temple today and tomorrow, and as we go about our lives. Let us offer anew our hearts to Him, our lives to Him, and allow Him more and more to direct our lives. Then everything about our lives will be directed in Jesus Christ. Then everything about our lives will point others to Jesus Christ just as the Mother of God herself always directs everyone to her Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, so that we, and others with us, may glorify Him, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America