In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In the Scripture readings we heard today what it is like for believers in the world. We are not at home in this world, and this world does not receive us very kindly, overall. We can all attest to that from the experience of our personal life, I think. Who really does take Christians seriously in Canadian society today ? The government certainly does not. For instance, I belong (out of necessity) to various groups and institutions that write to the Prime Minister and other government authorities from time to time. We tell them that they could do things in a better way, and they reply : “Thank you very much for your comments”. That is all that they say. We, being Canadians, know what is behind that sort of thank-you-very-much. “Go away and do not bother me” is what they are saying.
This is the attitude that Canadian society has developed towards Christian values and Christian ways in general ; to Orthodox Christians and the Orthodox Christian way in specific. “Go away and do not bother me”, because I am having so much fun in playing the game of denial, and living with all my goodies, my comfortable things, chasing after wild geese, and so forth. This is exactly what our society is about : wild-goose chases – looking for comfort in things that give no comfort ; trying to find some sort of substance in things that are empty. However, the only hope that we have is in Jesus Christ, Himself. He is the only One who does not fail us.
We Orthodox Christians have a difficult time growing in the context of the western ways of our environment. The west is, willy-nilly, all intellectual. Christians of the west are (if they examine themselves) more often than not intellectual. People in the west know about emotion, but the truth about the heart is not so well known in the west. There is a confusion made between emotions and the heart. Orthodox Christians live by the heart, with the intellect, in fact, guided and informed by the heart. It is not the head that runs the heart. People in the west tend to talk about the heart as though the heart were all emotions. They usually say that a person cannot let the heart run the head because one would then become an emotional wreck. However, that is not how it works.
The heart is where the Lord is. The heart is where we encounter God. It is the heart’s encountering of God that informs the intellect. It is the intellect that is all scattered and running around, and very often it is empty. It is through the intellect that we get caught up in every sort of fear. That is one of the reasons why the North American way is so scattered and actually so fear-driven these days. We merely have to observe how many ways the North American way of life is driven by fear. We merely have to observe how we are making laws to protect ourselves. Human beings in the long run are not different from how they were when I was little, but our fear of each other is much, much greater.
Saint Peter the Aleut, the patron of this Temple, was probably still a teenager when he had been conscripted into the Russian-American Company’s service, and was sailing around in the fur trade, and other sorts of trade. This took him from Alaska as far south as San Francisco (because Fort Ross, the last most southerly Russian trading post, was just north of San Francisco). The fort is still where it was then (I have been there), but it is not operating as it was in those days. Saint Peter encountered a hostile reception, and a complete misunderstanding of his Christianity. He, knowing Saint Herman, had accepted Christ, had encountered Christ, and in his heart, knew Christ. It is because of this encounter that he entrusted his whole life to the Lord. He knew what was right. He knew that he believed in Jesus Christ. People who encountered him in San Francisco were determined that that way was absolutely foreign, and could not possibly be right. They tried to force him to give up what he knew was right, and to change his ways – to become a “real” Christian, they said. However, Saint Peter already was one. He knew very profoundly that he was a real Christian, even if he could not give a rational defense of it. Saint Peter was too young to know many details of the why-and-wherefore of his faith as an Orthodox Christian, but he certainly did know that he and his family had encountered Jesus Christ in Saint Herman and the other missionaries. They had experienced the Orthodox way in the lives and witness of Saint Herman and the other missionaries. They were not going to change for anyone or anything.
This is how our lives should be. It is all very well to read books about the Orthodox Faith. It is all very well to know the canons, and all sorts of rules about what one ought to do as an Orthodox Christian. It is all very well to know how one ought properly to fast in a particular season. However, if the love of Jesus Christ is not at the foundation of that, if the love of Jesus Christ, and the encounter with Jesus Christ in the heart is not at the root of all of this, then, as the Apostle Paul said in his Epistle to the Corinthians, it is “sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). It is all empty noise. The rules of the canons, and so forth, all of these things are important. The details of fasting are also important. However, if the tail wags the dog, it does not work. If the cart goes in front of the horse, it does not work. If we put rules in front of Jesus Christ, rules in front of the love of Jesus Christ, the rules are senseless. The love of Jesus Christ is what makes all those rules make sense. It is because of the love of Jesus Christ that we behave in all these ways. It is because of the love of Jesus Christ that we fast. We offer this fast to Jesus Christ, whom we love.
It is important for each of us, who are parishioners of this holy Temple to remember what comes first. What come first ? Jesus Christ comes first. If we say we are Orthodox Christians, then Jesus Christ must come first in our lives as in the life of Saint Peter, the Martyr. By the way we live our loving relationship with Jesus Christ, we must reveal Him to each other in our daily life. We do not have to be preaching to each other. We do not have to be teaching each other. However, we do have to be serving each other because Jesus Christ, our Saviour, on the night in which He was betrayed, washed the apostles’ feet. He said, as it were : “Whoever wants to be great amongst you has to be as the least. You have to do for each other what I am doing for you” (see Luke 22:26-27). We have to be servants of each other.
I learned that lesson in a long-term way. This only began really to make sense in my life in later years as I gained experience in the Christian life, and the Lord finally woke me up to some extent. I, like most other people, am a slow learner about some things. In this case, I remember how, in my childhood, I came to take my parents and my grandparents, even, for granted because they were so good to me. I started to treat them as though they existed for me – I was the centre of the world, and they were there for me. I would tell them to do things for me. Then I got the response : “Who was your servant last year ?” That was a shocking thing to hear a few times, and I did hear it a few times, because I am a slow learner. I realised later on in my adulthood that my parents were like that towards me because they loved me. I could not presume on that love. I had to accept that from them, and learn from them. Ultimately, I think I got somewhere in that direction.
What, nevertheless, is important is that we remember that Jesus Christ must come first. We must be like Him. If we are going to be like Him, we have to serve as He serves (see Luke 22:27). We have to care about each other as He cares about us. We have to be supporting each other and nurturing each other deliberately in each others’ lives. More important yet, because of the difficulties of living the Christian life in Canada these days, we have to try to be together in Christ as often as we can. It is easy for us to make excuses (because of how busy we are, and how many things we are doing) not to be with our brothers and sisters in the Temple of the Lord sometimes when it does not seem so important.
However, this actually is a temptation. There are many times when I, too, do not feel like going to church. Many times. Before Vespers, for instance, it sometimes feels so heavy. I am so tired. It has been such a long day. It is so hard, and I am really tempted not to go. Then, of course, the Lord speaks to me in my heart, and says : “Wake up”. Then I do go. I find that every time I might feel like this before Vespers or the Divine Liturgy or any service, when I get to the Temple of the Lord all that heaviness sooner or later during the service goes away. Being here with my brothers and sisters, and offering praise to the Lord sends those clouds away. Two and two make four in the end. Why do I feel heavy and reluctant to go to church ? It is because You-know-who-down-below is trying to drag me away. Yes, it does happen to bishops. Bishops can be tempted, too (in fact, you have no idea how much and in what diabolical variety).
We have to use our head, our common sense. If I am feeling that it is too much ; it is too hard ; it is too expensive ; or I do not know what – all these are ideas that come to keep me at home away from the Temple. Why is this ? Well, if I stay home, I can continue to feel sorry for myself, and say : “No-one loves me ; no-one cares about me, and so forth”. These are the sorts of things that I have been tempted to fall into, and did, many times in my life before. What is even worse is to think : “Well, I stayed home, and it did not really make any difference, anyway. Maybe I can stay home some more”. Then, I do not go, and I do not go, and I do not go. What has actually happened here ? By listening to the Tempter, I have separated myself from the fellowship of the Faithful. I have separated myself from the people who support me by being there, co-struggling. I feel sorry for myself, and say : “No-one loves me”. However, in fact, my brothers and sisters, who are co-strugglers, have lost me as their support. That is how it goes. I have given up my responsibility – I do not go. I do not support my brothers and sisters. I am not washing their feet.
Therefore, I have betrayed my brother and my sister by giving into my self-will, my self-indulgence. The fact is, my dear brothers and sisters, that the Church is a hospital for sinners. We are all more or less in the same boat. We are all more or less tempted in rather the same way, as anyone who is hearing confessions will tell you. The sins of human beings are very repetitive. We are all just about the same. As Father Schmemann once said : “The devil is not all that creative in temptation. However, we certainly are gullible”. If I come to the Temple (even if I do not feel well or I do not feel like it), by my being here I am encouraging and supporting my brothers and sisters. Without doing anything seemingly active, but being here, offering my praise to the Lord, I am supporting my brothers and sisters. I am supporting each one who is struggling in the same way that I am. In the heart, we are loving Jesus Christ. In the heart, we are knowing Jesus Christ. In the heart, we are trying to be faithful to Jesus Christ, but suffering all sorts of obstacles on the way. Just by being here together, we renew the joy of this love in one another, and we give each other hope. We can see Jesus Christ ministering to each other in our mutual presence.
Let us, brothers and sisters, remember the example of the patron of this holy Temple, Saint Peter. Let us remember his example of faithful love, and, through his intercessions, be like him, loving Jesus Christ. Let us be faithful to each other, and encourage each other on the way of life. Let us together glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.