Year 2004

Sunday after the Nativity of Christ (Old-Style)

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Being Obedient to God’s Will
Sunday after the Nativity of Christ (Old-Style)
(Memory of King David, Saint James and Saint Joseph)
11 January, 2004
Galatians 1:11-19 ; Matthew 2:13-23


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

There is a tendency especially in these days (as there was in other times), to re-make the Christian faith into something that is an intellectual exercise, or into something that is equal to one philosophy or another. As long as we pander to this idea, we can adjust all sorts of things to our liking. This is what is happening now in our day in North America, and in the western world in general. People try to reduce Christianity to some sort of philosophy, and we try to tinker with it to make it more suitable to our whims, fads and fashions. What we easily forget is what the Apostle Paul is saying today in the Epistle. He encountered Christ personally. Christ appeared to him, and in His compassion, He straightened him out from his wrong way of thinking. The Lord put the Apostle on the right path by leading him in the right direction.

As Saint Seraphim of Sarov said, it is most important for us Orthodox Christians to acquire the Holy Spirit first. By that, he meant that we must allow the Holy Spirit to be fulfilled in us, to work in us by virtue of our baptism and chrismation when we were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We must allow the Holy Spirit to work in us in order to renew and build up this relationship of love between us and Christ. The way of the Orthodox Christian is not only an intellectual way. It is a way of love between us and Christ, a way of loving harmony with Christ. In harmony with Him, we lovingly and willingly obey His will. This harmoniousness might even become instinctual.

This is exactly the way of the Mother of God. In every part of her life, she said “Yes” to God’s will, even though it was not logical. At the time of the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her, and told her that she would bear a child although she was not yet married, and still a virgin. She asked how this could be. The Archangel answered her (as it were) : “Not to worry. The Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and all will be well”. When she heard this amazing assurance, she accepted this, and it came to be as the Archangel had said. The rest of her life was a life of obedience, even though she still asked questions. Sometimes, she even prepared the way for her Son, as at the marriage of Cana. She prepared His way by ordering the servants to do what He was going to ask them to do.

It is high time that we, ourselves, like the Mother of God, learned to be lovingly and willingly obedient to God’s will. Even though we are often afraid of it, God’s will is always life-giving, and saving for us. It is always Life for us, even though we do not know where it will lead us, and what will happen to us. If our hearts tell us that God wants us to do something, or to go in a particular direction, then what He asks is not to endanger us but to increase true life in us. We are often afraid of losing our temporal life, of losing the sense of being comfortable in the world. However, the Lord does not want us feel that we are so comfortable in this world that we will be afraid of leaving it when the time comes. Our life in this world needs to be fulfilled in the Kingdom. Our end is eternal life with Him in the Kingdom. We have no idea what this means except that it is eternal life, eternal light, eternal love. Life in the Kingdom is far better than anything we could have in this life. This life is a vale of tears, pain and difficulty as a result of the Fall. However, in His mercy, the Lord shows us His love. He gives us hope. He gives us a sense of direction. He puts us on the path to the Kingdom and to eternal life with Him.

Today, as we are keeping the memory of King David, Saint James, the Lord’s brother, and Saint Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, it is important that we correctly understand the will of God in their lives. It is especially important today when we are so prone to distortion. David, the King, was the direct blood ancestor of the Lord. Christ was born of the house of David. However, David is also two other things to us. In the first place, in his Psalms, David wrote many prophesies about the coming of and the life of Christ. When we read the Psalms, we are reading the life of Christ. Many Psalms are very explicit about the Birth, Life, Suffering and Death of Christ, as well as about His kingly reign. David prepared the way of Christ. In the second place, as we all know, he fell into temptation very severely. He was not a small sinner when he sinned. However, he knew how to repent, and when he repented, he repented greatly. David sinned as we all do. Being a king and head of government, as well as an autocrat, he was subject to many temptations. This is why we have to pray that our leaders be protected from the great temptations of their office. Nevertheless, even in the face of these temptations, David turned about, repented, and became an example of repentance for us. He accepted God’s correction, turned about completely, and tried to follow the Lord’s will. This happened more than once in his life, as it happens in our lives, too.

There are those who like to say that since James is the “brother” of the Lord, the Theotokos had children after she gave birth to Christ. This has always been incomprehensible to Orthodox. From the beginning, Orthodox have believed that the Mother of God was ever-virgin because she gave birth as a virgin. It is incomprehensible that she would then have children in the normal way, after she had given birth to God the Word. She gave herself to the service of God in purity and love. This is why we venerate her to this very day. Then why is it that, in the Holy Gospels, James is called Christ’s “brother” ? An article in the Canadian Orthodox Messenger (Winter 2003/2004) explains this quite well. In short, brotherhood and sisterhood is not confined to the immediate blood family in oriental, Semitic (Hebrew) thought, but means all the close relatives. Therefore, first cousins can be called brothers and sisters in popular, everyday terms. That is exactly who James, the brother of the Lord, was to Jesus Christ. He was a brother as in first cousin.

Saint Joseph, the Betrothed, is also an example for us. Although we often forget about him, and treat him as a nice piece of furniture, a convenient person to have around, we should understand the service that he rendered to our Lord as the foster-father of Christ. He provided a home for Christ and protection so that He might grow up in a good atmosphere. All these things are important, as is the fact that he was a good person, a man of prayer, and one who understood God’s will. Out of negligence, we often dismiss him. At the time of the Annunciation, he could not comprehend what was going on, and wanted to send Mary to what we would call a home for unwed mothers. According to the Law of Moses, she was supposed to be stoned because she was expecting out of wedlock. However, being a merciful man, he wanted to hide and protect her until she gave birth. When God revealed to him in a dream what was going on, he accepted the whole thing, and provided protection for Mary and the Child. When he learned in a dream that God wanted him to take Mary and the Child to Egypt in order to escape from Herod (who was going to kill all the small children in the region of Bethlehem in order to protect his kingship), Joseph obeyed the dream. When he was in Egypt, God told him when it was time for him to go back, and where he was to go. Joseph did as God had directed him. We see that Joseph was not just anyone. He was a man of God. His heart was open to God’s direction. He was worthy, like the Mother of God, to prepare the way of Christ.

The important thing in all of this is to emulate, to try to be like these people. James was the leader of the Jerusalem community from the very beginning as its apostle and bishop at the centre of the early apostolic community. All these holy persons were people who loved God. God perfected them, and they became His instruments for good. The same thing is true for you and for me. We must love God and allow His love to grow in our hearts. He wants you and me to be His instruments for good.

Here in n, people are not going to take this small community very seriously, because it is small and hard to find at the present time. Nevertheless, by God’s love and mercy, this community is going to take a big step, and become more independent and visible. People will be better able to find this community, and perhaps to find the Orthodox Faith in the process. Our responsibility is to love our Lord Jesus Christ, to befriend the persons He sends to us, and to be loving to them. The Lord will send yet more people to come to this community to encounter Christ’s love, and to experience healing, encouragement, hope, and joy. They will perceive Christ’s love, and will follow Christ in the same way, loving others and living in His love. Despite what is often mistakenly believed and done, the Orthodox Faith is not taught ; it is caught. Love is not taught ; it is caught. We want to be contagious with the love of Jesus Christ, so that people around us will sense this love, will be encouraged by this love, and will be attracted to it. Let us open our hearts with loving devotion to the Lord in order to receive Him, and allow Him to increase in us, so that we may glorify the all-holy Trinity : the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

The Triumph of the Love of God

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
The Triumph of the Love of God
Sunday of Orthodoxy
29 February, 2004
Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-12:2 ; John 1:43-51


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

In the Epistle to the Hebrews today, we heard about all the things that were suffered by so many people long before Christ came to us. They endured everything that they did suffer because they loved God. They trusted God. They were waiting for the fulfilment of His Promise of a Saviour. In due time, the Saviour did come. He fulfilled all their hopes, all their desires and all their concerns. Our Saviour began the new life in the Kingdom. In the Gospel reading today, we heard about the beginning of the call of the disciples, starting with Philip. It was Philip who found Nathaniel. This is what the Lord brought us into, along with Philip, Nathaniel, all the other apostles, and all the followers of Christ – the relationship of love with the living God.

Human beings have always had a difficult time accepting the depth and the extent of the love of God for us. Human beings have always fallen into temptations and resistance. So, in the course of many centuries, there has been one heresy after another, invented by people who could not understand and accept that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Instead, they tried to turn Jesus Christ into a “nice guy”, or a very interesting and great philosopher, or maybe even a prophet greater than John the Baptist. For them, perhaps they will even admit that He was the greatest prophet of all times, but they will not accept to say that He is the Son of God. That He is, in fact, the Son of God is difficult for some people to accept.

Such people say : “How could God do such a thing ? It is too much for me to accept”. The fact is, however, that God is God. As we are singing in our hymns all the time, God is God, and God is Love, and because of the way His love operates, God can do whatever He wants. During this last week, we were singing this very thing in the Great Canon of Saint Andrew. God does whatever He wants. This does not mean that God is impetuous or frivolous. God, the Lord, always does things for a purpose. Therefore, when it suits Him for the salvation and the good of human beings and the world, He overturns the usual order of nature. For instance, there is the miracle that occurred in Cana of Galilee (see John 2:1-11). When our Lord told the servants to fill up the giant vessels with water, and then to take some out and to give it to the master of the feast, it was found, upon being tasted, to be the very best wine. The Lord bypassed the years of the fermentation and maturing process, and He took the water straight from being water to being wine (with no grapes in between) because the people had a need. They had run out of wine, and the Lord knew that this wedding feast required wine. His most pure mother made certain that He was aware of the situation, and she knew that He could meet the need. Therefore, out of love, the Lord short-circuited nature (as it were). He does many other things like that, and not only in the Gospels. He still does things like that for human beings today, for those who love Him and who pray to Him. Even in our days (sometimes, but not very often), there are some people who have died and have been returned to life by the prayers of the faithful. I have heard of some cases in my own lifetime. It does sometimes still happen (although not every day), because the Lord knows what is necessary in people’s lives and in particular situations, for building up the faith of the people and reassuring them of His love.

Let us take as an example the famous stories about the priest-monk, Father Arseny (Streltsov). There are two books about him now translated into English from the Russian. This priest-monk spent more than twenty years in a prison-camp in Siberia. There is the story about him when he was sent for punishment in the middle of a particularly cold period of the winter, into an unheated, uninsulated storage shed, along with a young man, another prisoner. This was done in order to kill them because they were Christian believers, and because they were doing good. The young man was very afraid that he was going to die. Then he suddenly realised that he was not cold. He further realised that Father Arseny was shining with uncreated light. When the guards came to check on them more than a day later, they found that Father Arseny and the young man were just fine, well rested and warm (at minus fifty degrees Celsius !). It did not completely impress the prison authorities, so as to convert them. They only admitted that they could not understand it – some people are very stubborn. However, other people in the camp very much understood, and they came to Christ because of this. The Lord is with us, and He loves us. He cares about the small things and the big things of our lives. The Lord is with us in His love.

Today, we are celebrating the memory of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and what we call the “Triumph of Orthodoxy”. It is the triumph of the truth about Jesus Christ, who is the Truth. This commemoration is not only about the icons, themselves, but it is also primarily about Jesus Christ Himself. The icons are a gateway to Him ; and they are given to us by God, so that we can easily communicate with Christ. We like to call them our windows to heaven, and that is truly what they are. This is because of the truth about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This is what the Seventh Council is concerned with. Icons are an expression of the Love of God which became visible and tangible as the Only-begotten Son of the Father, in accordance with the will of the Father, took flesh through the Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God and the Theotokos, in order that we might be saved. The Son took up into Himself all our sinfulness, all our brokenness, all our fallenness, all our rebellion, all our darkness, all our despair, all our depression, all our hopelessness. He took it all up into Himself. He cleaned it ; He repaired it, and He is still doing that for you and for me out of His love. This is what we are celebrating today : the triumph of the Love of God, and the truth about Him who is the Truth.

The Seventh Ecumenical Council was the last ecumenical council to solve such problems, and it was a long time ago, in 787. There have been other local councils since then that have solved smaller problems. Probably we need an ecumenical council nowadays in order to clean up some of the big messes that afflict us these days, although the Church cannot very well afford such a council (we do not have a rich emperor to pay the bills). I think that it will still be a little while yet before we will manage to have such a council. Nevertheless, the Church is carefully preparing for such a council ; and even in the preparation for this council, some problems are beginning to get cleaned up. Any council is concerned with cleaning up the messes that are created by our sins, by our limitations, and in particular, by our fears. These councils resolve the fears, straighten out the messes, and reassure the faithful, because they meet in the Grace of the Holy Spirit. The Grace of the Holy Spirit brings about the corrections that are necessary, and this Grace maintains the whole truth, only the truth about Him, who is the Truth, Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Lord and Redeemer.

Remembering this love, let us today pay attention to our Lord’s care for us. He sees us in the same way as He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree. He knows about our sorrows ; He knows about our depression ; He knows about our difficulties ; He knows about our sicknesses. He knows, and He cares about them. Let us run to Him through the intercessions of the Mother of God, and through the prayers of many saints, as we plead for His help. Let us allow Him to give that help to us, because He is the Hope of the hopeless, the Saviour of the bestormed, the Physician of the sick, the good Shepherd who cares for us, loves us, and is with us. Let us open our hearts more to Him, so that we may realise that He is truly with us. Let us allow Him to work more and more in and with us, so that we can work more in and with Him to His glory : the glory of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Feast of Pentecost : God is with us

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
God is with us
Centennial Celebration
Feast of Pentecost
30 May, 2004
Acts 2:1-11 ; John 7:37-52, 8:12


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

All we who have been baptised and chrismated have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, although the gift of the Holy Spirit does not come to us in the way that it came to the holy Apostles on the day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us, and it is our responsibility to live in accordance with this gift of the Holy Spirit. Saint Seraphim of Sarov said that our main responsibility was to acquire the gift of the Holy Spirit. What did he mean by that ? He did not mean that it is something that we do not have. What he meant is that this gift is very often something that we do not let be alive and working in us.

Most North Americans, if they think about God at all, and if they are searching for God and trying to communicate with God, think that He is somewhere “out there”, far away and distant. This is one of the big difficulties of life in North America. Because people think that God is somewhere else, they ignore Him for the most part, and life is all divided up and broken up. Therefore, we have secular life, religious life, school life, work life and all sorts of little compartments into which people fit their lives. People then tend to have somewhat different personalities, depending on which environment they happen to be in at the time. It is no wonder that our North American society is in such great need of psychiatrists, psychologists, and all sorts of other psychological therapists, because life is broken. Life is divided. People really do not know who they are, and they do not know how to cope with everything. They think that it is nice that at least the Aboriginals of North America “have it all together”, and they do know that all things are one. However, for the most part even the Aboriginals have lost this correct awareness, although they once did know in the traditional way that everything was a unity and everything was interconnected. Many of them got poisoned by our way of going about things. Even though they pretend that they understand that everything is a unity, very many of them do not anymore live in accordance with real unity for the most part, because so many have become like us in the worst ways.

All the spiritual fathers tell us that we if we hope to find God, then we are going to find Him here in our hearts. If we, Orthodox Christians, are looking for God, then it is not outside that we have to look for Him, but rather, it is in the heart that we have to find Him. That is where the “Prayer of the Heart” comes from. However, strangely, many people try to practice this prayer, all the while keeping the mentality that God is “out there”. Still, trying to practice the Prayer of the Heart with the mentality that God is “out there” is quite a juggling act, and it does not necessarily work. Nevertheless, God will pour out His Grace upon a person, and He shows Himself to be here, now. We, Orthodox Christians, have inherited correctly what is the state of human beings and what is the nature of human beings : that we find God here, in our hearts. As a result of finding God here in our hearts, everything else can be understood to be in unity. Everything else finds its oneness in our lives because God is here.

Because God is here, now, it is possible for Orthodox Christians to keep everything in life together and connected. We can be one and the same person, whether we are working, whether we are in school, whether we are in church, whether we are on vacation or whether we are playing. Whatever we are doing, we can still be, more or less, the same person. Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we are bringing Jesus Christ with us. He is with us, not beside us, but with us, in us. He is part of us. Because we are members of the Body of Christ, we are in Him. When we can live with this understanding properly, we can live our lives as God intended that we should live our lives, and we can be some sort of witness to people around us. People can see just by how an Orthodox Christian lives his or her life that there is something different (in a good way) about this way of living. They can come to desire to follow the same way, to be as we are, to have the same unity, the same joy, and the same all-encompassing belief.

It is because of this understanding of unity that Orthodox Christians have always been prepared to make the sign of the Cross on, and bless everything that they are doing in their life. They ask for the blessing of houses, cars, horses, birds, wells, workplaces and work. In the course of their daily lives, when they are cooking, they bless the ingredients of the things that are being cooked ; they bless the process of cooking ; they bless the eating of what has been cooked. They bless the beginning of a car-ride ; they bless the beginning of any sort of a journey with the sign of the Cross. Everything in the Orthodox way has the sign of the Cross applied to it. That is our inheritance.

If we really want to be Orthodox Christians who are faithful to this inheritance here in Canada, then it is very important for us that we follow this way. Let us remember how our parents and grandparents lived their lives, and let us recover it in our own lives – bringing God’s blessing on everything that we are and everything that we do, because God is with us. Jesus Christ is with us and in us. Because of our desire to serve, to be like Him, we will follow Him out of love for Him.

Brothers and sisters, we have Christ in our hearts and our lives because as we just sang : “As many as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ”. For more than 100 years, faithful Orthodox Christians have been worshipping God here in the Orthodox manner. They have been witnessing to this way of life. Because of their love and the witness of people in this Temple, many people have come to Christ. By the Grace of the all-holy Trinity, this community is being renewed, revived and enlivened. Make sure that Christ, Himself, is always in the centre and in the heart of this renewal and revival. Never let your awareness of Christ be other than that He is in the middle of everything that you are, and in the middle of everything that you are doing. In so doing, you will be a faithful Orthodox Christian. In being a faithful Orthodox Christian, you will be faithful to the inheritance that has been provided by the people of this Temple a century ago. In 1904, Saint Tikhon (who was then the bishop of North America), blessed and consecrated this holy Temple, and he blessed the faithful offering which the founders had built. This foundation provided the inheritance which is today our responsibility to perpetuate. Saint Tikhon, himself, went on later to become the Patriarch of Moscow ; he renewed the Patriarchate of Moscow, and he then suffered and died for his faithfulness in 1925 at the hands of the godless.

Most of us are not called to that, but we are still called to be faithful witnesses in the love of Jesus Christ. By God’s mercy and Grace, a special blessing has been given by our Metropolitan Herman to this community because of this particular fact of our history. Although the requested icon of Saint Tikhon has not yet arrived from Russia, it will eventually get here in Orthodox time. Nevertheless, n, the comptroller of The Orthodox Church of America, on behalf of Metropolitan Herman, has brought here a small piece of the body of Saint Tikhon to stay here in this Temple. Saint Tikhon has returned to this Temple which he consecrated 100 years ago. As you will in due course be able (with the icon) to kiss the holy relic of Saint Tikhon, himself, remember to ask for his prayers. Obviously, he has been praying all this time for the many whom he blessed in this community and also for the community which he put in order when he was here. Remember to pray to him and ask him to support you by his prayers, also.

Brothers and sisters, let us ask our Saviour to renew our hearts, and to refresh our hearts with His love so that we will be able faithfully with love and all devotion to worship Him today, together, on this great centennial anniversary celebration. In the same way and with the same love, day-by-day, always and everywhere, let us glorify the most Holy Trinity : the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Remembering who we are, and what we have to do in Canada

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Remembering who we are,
and what we have to do in Canada
Archdiocesan Assembly,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
20-23 July, 2004


Glory to Jesus Christ.

The biggest problem that we have living here in North America is that, in its own way, this continent is a land of forgetfulness. It has come to be so, not because the Lord created it in this way ; but rather, it is so because of the abundance that our land produces, and the comfort we consequently find in all this abundance, and in all the consequent coziness. A professor I once had remarked frequently on our obsession with softness. Perhaps we might think that we, ourselves, do not have all that much comfort in our lives. However, we very likely have more than enough of the companion of comfort and coziness — distraction.

Living in such an environment, we are living in the midst of a mist, or worse, in the midst of a fog. Of course, being self-sufficient Canadians, we try to find our way in this fog all on our own. This particular fog is special, also, because while we are trying to find our way, we generally forget what we are looking for. This is one of the reasons that it is pastorally difficult for the bishop and the clergy to try to help our parishes and parishioners to “wake up”. You may well ask what I mean by the need to “wake up” ? I will try to explain now.

We all know that, in the history of our archdiocese particularly, we have gone through very many trials. Up to now, we have existed for only a little more than a century, but in this short time there have been many tests. We began with immigration from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, and those who immigrated were not well-treated by the government which imported them. They were sent to populate remote and difficult places, and they had little support. There, in the places where they settled, they characteristically began by building Temples to the Lord (even before building their own homes). There was plenty of prejudice also against these people who were so different from their predominantly British and West-European neighbours. During World War I, some were sent to internment camps because their passports said that they were Austrian citizens. The after-effects of the Bolshevik Revolution wrought havoc in the Church in Canada after this war, and those effects remain to this day. Although the hard-working people began to prosper, the diocese which ought to have supported them remained only in skeletal condition because of the many divisions that had arisen. Despite the best efforts of our holy Bishop Arseny and his successors, it was always very difficult to provide enough priests and deacons to lead, educate, form and nourish the faithful people. This difficulty remains to this day.

There were some times in the course of our history when the obstacles were so great that the diocese was nearly extinguished. Because of these trials, it seems that in many smaller places our self-sufficient people came to be content to try to manage on their own. Because of insufficient reinforcements and reminders about the essence of the Orthodox way of life, many people throughout our archdiocese fell into living for themselves, in imitation of the society in which they live. Living in this way can be described as going to sleep spiritually ; it can be described as forgetting “in the arms of morpheus”. This old expression can mean more than simply sleeping ; it can mean being comatose. When any pastor sees that this is how things are spiritually, it provokes a great compassionate concern.

By this present time, the Lord has accomplished a great deal in this archdiocese. There has been a pastoral renewal, and a renewal of relationships amongst the parishes and amongst the faithful believers in the archdiocese. Because of the serious work of many clergy and lay-persons, there has been a development of better administration and better communication. Nevertheless, the fog in which we have subsisted for many years has not yet lifted. There is still a great tendency to “sleep in”, to “take our rest”, to “get comfortable” in this world. This is the great danger of the self-indulgence which we are so much encouraged to embrace in our secularised society. When we do indulge ourselves, then we can come to understand that we have fallen into a typical worldly trap, a trap which is not at all new. Solomon addressed this at least twice,

How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man (Proverbs 6:9-11 ; see Proverbs 24:33-34).

Although these words address physical laziness and its consequences, it is much worse when there is spiritual inertia. We have a term for this in the Orthodox Church : “accidie”. We do not often use this word nowadays, and I reckon that this is because most of us are so affected by it as to be unaware that it is our condition. The dictionaries usually describe the condition simply as “spiritual or mental sloth”, or “apathy”. It is not so simple. This English word “accidie” comes to us from the Greek word akedia. This word was imported into Latin with the same meaning, giving acedia. The words differ by one letter, but are pronounced the same. Accidie implies that the one suffering from it has fallen into a state of listlessness or torpor. As a result, the sufferer does not seem to care (apathy) or to be concerned about one’s position, condition or responsibilities. As a result of this state, the sufferer can become unable even to perform daily duties in life. The person forgets. It can, obviously, be mistaken for depression, but it is truly a common and very well-known spiritual condition. This is, in part, what I am referring to when I say that we forget what we are supposed to be doing ; we forget the priority of living as Christians ; we forget that the Lord loves us ; we even forget who we are supposed to be. A reader of Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings will recognise this experience in Frodo as he journeyed towards Mordor, and significantly also when he was poisoned by Shelob. When we fall into this, we may recognise that this forgetfulness is a symptom of the terrible poison that is accidie. It is a paralysing poison for which we have no antidote by ourselves.

In order to avoid the worst consequences of accidie, it is the crucial responsibility of anyone who has any understanding of the Gospel, of Christ, of the intercession of the Mother of God and of the saints, to be constantly calling on them all for help at all times. Indeed, we are not going to survive in our Christian life anywhere, anytime, unless we come to the so-called bottom, unless we come to the point of crisis, unless we come to the turning-point, to the point of encountering the fair-judgement of the Lord. Then, as indicated by the twelve-step programmes (which are geared to those who are addicted), we realise that we cannot get out of this paralysis, out of this inertia, out of this fog by ourselves or on our own. We need help. We need the help of the Lord, of the Mother of God, of the saints, of those who love us. We finally call out to the Lord for help. When we cry out to our Lord and Saviour for help, it comes. He sends it. He does help us. This is why it is so necessary that we, with His help, develop the habit and the mindfulness, and acquire the heart to do this every day, and not only once a day. It is necessary that we begin to ask for help as soon as we become conscious in the morning, and to keep asking for this help throughout the day. It used to be common that we would say something such as : “with God’s help I will do this or that”, or “God willing, I will go here or there”. It is time to recover such habits of thinking and speaking.

“Who am I ?” I am a person who has been baptised into Christ, who has put on Christ (see Galatians 3:27). Because I have “put on Christ”, the people I encounter every day (whether they are aware of it or not) are expecting something through me from Christ. They are expecting a sign of His love for them, a word of encouragement, a word of support, perhaps a word of correction. As far as it is possible, it is my responsibility to live in Christ in such a way that those I meet may see something of Him, may sense His presence in me. It is my responsibility to be transparent enough in His love that He will reveal Himself through me to others. I may not always be conscious of His acting in and through me, but it is my responsibility to co-operate with Him for the sake of these other persons who are, in one or another way, lonely, hungry, thirsty. They are hungry and thirsty for love, for hope, for some reasonable sense of direction and purpose in life. It is He who can and does provide all this.

The Apostle reminds us to put on the whole armour of God,

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints [...] (Ephesians 6:10-18).

He exhorts us to carry all this Gospel-equipment, and to use this Gospel-equipment. In effect, the Apostle is exhorting us to keep our prayer consciously alive, and our community in Christ alive, and to pay attention every day.

However, we forget. We forget that we have such resources. We forget to turn to the Mother of God, most particularly, for help. We live in an environment of forgetfulness about these essentials. Of course, also, since we are North Americans, we are lacking many of the resources more easily available to Orthodox Christians elsewhere. This is most particularly so in Canada. We are bereft of relics of saints and of wonder-working anything (or at least we think that this is so). Because we are living in such a cynical, secularised society, and because this environment is always eating at us, always eroding us, we tend not to be able to recognise the gifts when the Lord does give them. Indeed, in Canada there are wonder-working icons and relics, but we do not talk much about them, or do anything about them. We neglect the supports He gives us.

The secular, cynical, materialistic environment in which we live is always eating at us, and most of the time we are unaware of it. If I may personify metal, a piece of steel is unaware of the fact that it is rusting, and it does not notice the corrosion. This is how it can be for me, for us, in our lives. I also often take no notice of the fact that there is something being corroded by rust. This obliviousness has been shown up in many of the automobiles I have driven in my life. I often did not notice the rust until it began to bubble out and something was ready to fall off. The rust is very insidious in its quiet, subtle work. So it is with our lives and the work of the tempter. As we are surprised when a muffler or a fender suddenly might fall away from our car, so we can also wonder what happened when a big chunk of our interior life can suddenly disappear. Well, it happened because I was not paying attention. I did not apply the oil of God’s mercy and love, and then it fell off. Then I have the trouble of welding this lost portion back on. This is certainly something that I cannot do by myself. It has to be the Lord who does this work. This work of repair can be very difficult and painful, just as it is with the re-integration of a severed limb. The process of re-welding also requires repentance, the complete turning about of our hearts and lives, and we generally are not so very competent at that.

In this context, it is not for nothing that, in this week of our Archdiocesan Assembly, we have had some important feast-days. Such co-ordination was not by simple human planning and design. Rather, Divine Providence prepares well. The Lord organised this, and it is His gift to us. This is why our meetings have happened during this particular week in July.

For instance, the Lord gave us this week the example of the Prophet Elias, whose life and words repeatedly exhorted the wayward to repentance. Despite his doubts and fears, the Lord was always with him and guiding him and protecting him. The Lord also gave us this week the example of the repentant and bold Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene. Using a red egg, she went so far as to proclaim and explain the Resurrection of Christ to the emperor. As did the Prophet Elias, so Saint Mary Magdalene served the Lord in and with her whole life. Now, today, it is the Feast of the wonder-working Pochaiv Icon of the Mother of God. This icon commemorates the miracle in the 17th century of the deliverance of the Pochaiv Dormition Monastery in Ukraine from the attacks by a Turkish army. The deliverance was not because of any supposed strength of the people there. It was the Mother of God herself who visibly defended the monastery. The army retreated. Some of the soldiers became Christians. During the same century, a very similar situation occurred at the Tikhvin Dormition Monastery in Russia. Because of the wonder-working Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, the Tikhvin monastery was spared from a Swedish invasion. The same protection was given later to the city of Novgorod, not so far away. The Mother of God herself was protecting the children of her Son. The Mother of God does not confine her activities and her protection only to monasteries in Russia, Ukraine and other Orthodox countries. She is involved in our lives here, in North America as well. Indeed, she is very much involved with and interested in our life here on this continent. Indeed, it was an icon of the Theotokos that Saint Herman used to stop both a tsunami and a forest-fire. Now, in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, there is an icon of the Mother of God which has for a long time now been myrrh-streaming, and which also miraculously survived a very destructive fire. I saw this icon not long after that fire, which destroyed the whole Altar area and the iconostas — except for this icon alone, on which there was not even smoke-damage.

The Mother of God is trying to encourage us to do what we are supposed to be doing as Orthodox Christians : remembering who we are, remembering that we are the children of her Son. This means that we are not Orthodox Christians in name only. It means that we are people who know the Gospel, and who live it out in our daily lives. We are those who are strong in Christ, who is our true Strength. Some may recall the books and movies called Star Wars, and the rôle of “the force”. People still talk about this “force”. The principles behind the stories may not be called Christian, but there is a useful element of truth involved. It is that we must remember who we are, and who we are in Christ. If we do not put our trust in Christ, and if we do not constantly rely on Him, then we cannot be strong. None of us can be strong without constantly calling out to the Lord for help, without constantly turning to him, without constantly putting our trust in Him.

From where does the Mother of God receive the strength to do what she does ? How does she turn away armies ? How does she protect from invaders ?

Today, we sang these hymns :

"Those who pray before your holy icon, O Lady, are vouchsafed healing and receive the knowledge of the true faith, and they repel the attacks of the Hagarenes. Therefore, entreat remission of sins for us who fall down before you. Enlighten our hearts to thoughts of piety, and raise a prayer to your Son to save our souls".

"Your icon of Pochaiv, O Theotokos, has become a source of healing and the confirmation of the Orthodox Faith. Therefore, deliver us who have recourse to you from calamity and temptation. Preserve your monastery unharmed. Confirm Orthodoxy in the surrounding lands, and forgive the sins of those who pray to you ; for you can do as you will".

"O victorious Leader of Triumphant Hosts, we, your servants, delivered from evil, sing our grateful thanks to you, O Theotokos. As you possess invincible might, set us free from every calamity, so that we may sing, 'Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride'".

The Mother of God is the leader of glorious, triumphant hosts, of hosts of angels. From where does her strength come ? It comes from her perpetual “Yes” to her Son. She knows Him, and she knows how to ask Him for what is needed in complete accordance with His Love, with His Will.

When we listen to these reminders of the Mother of God to turn to her Son, we are able to have such strength. We can have such strength when we turn to her for her support and for her protection. We can, then, have the strength of those who have served in this country, such as the holy bishops Tikhon and Arseny. Through her intercessions, the Lord will give us the Grace to accomplish His will in wonderful ways, just as He did with them, and just as He did with other holy persons to whom we do not yet pay attention (because our eyes are not open enough to see clearly).

When we have been talking about our ancestors, we have been recognising that they understood these things. They arrived here with such a formation in their lives. They continued to live in this way, and they passed this way on to their children as well as they could. Let us remember this. Let not any one of us think that we who are newcomers are not, as well, the spiritual descendants of these Christ-loving and brave people, who came here more than a century ago and planted firmly and permanently the Cross of Christ. When we are at worship, we constantly remember the founders and benefactors of our Temples. These founders and benefactors are the spiritual ancestors of every one of us. They are our spiritual parents and grand-parents. In and through them, our Saviour has established His Church in this land. We are either blood-descendants of these founders, or we are the spiritual descendants who have been made a living part of this vineyard. We pray for them, those who are our ancestors, and they pray for us, who are their spiritual descendants. This is the inclusivity of the Orthodox Church, of the Body of Christ.

We are standing here today, doing what the Lord has created us to do. We are worshipping Him, and we are expressing our love to Him, and we are trying to be faithful to Him. Being who He has created us to be, standing here, glorifying Him and offering our lives to Him, let us ask the Lord to enable us to remember who we are ; to remember that, today and tomorrow and after tomorrow, we are His children. Let us ask Him to help us to remember that our focus and our home is at the Holy Table. This is our home : this Table. This Offering which we are making today, and yesterday, and the day before ; this Offering which we will be making day after day afterwards : this Offering is our home ; it is our place ; it is where we want to be ; it is where we must be. Our ancestors knew this well.

Come and see : Taste the Heavenly Banquet

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Come and see : Taste the Heavenly Banquet
14th Sunday after Pentecost
5 September, 2004
2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4 ; Matthew 22: 1-14


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

The Gospel and Epistle today have to do with the more difficult side of Christian life. Particularly in the Apostle’s case, I, myself, would have great difficulty in doing what he had to do, which was to impose some discipline and order so as to correct people. Because they were particularly self-willed and rebellious, he had to correct them somewhat sharply, and that is why he is apologising at length in case he might hurt their feelings too much. Nevertheless, what had to be said, had to be said. There is always the temptation in Christian living to fall into ... well, there is always the temptation to fall into temptation. We all do that in one way or another, and to a greater or lesser extent. There is also the temptation in this whole environment to puff ourselves up and to think that we are something, and to try to make something of ourselves. This has always been a part of human fallen society, but it is especially the character of western societies, and of North America in particular.

The way North American society forms us is the opposite of what the Christian life is supposed to be about. Whereas in Christian life, we are supposed to be learning how, like Christ, to love selflessly, western society teaches us to love ourselves above everything. It teaches us always to have strings attached. By this, I mean that there are conditions. As people popularly say : “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine”. There are many sayings of that sort. If we do something for someone else, we only do something good for someone else if they are going to do something good back to us. “Do not do good for someone else if there is nothing in it for you”. That is the way Canadian society has been tending to move for a long time now. Indeed, I have heard throughout my whole life : “What is in it for me ?” If I am going to do something, or refrain from doing something, then what advantage is it to me ? What advantage is it to me if I do something good for someone else ? “We have to look after number one (i.e. me)”. These are all secular, selfish and egocentric attitudes that completely clash with the Gospel.

On the other hand, the teaching of Christ, the example of Christ, is that we do good because Christ is good ; we love, because Christ is love. Furthermore, we do not expect anything back. If we get nothing back but abuse, we still give love and we do good to the others. We do what is the right thing, in accordance with the standard of Christ. That standard is — whether we pay attention or not — one of the reasons the Beatitudes come to us every Sunday (and even on weekdays if we offer the Divine Liturgy). The Beatitudes are with us all the time. If we were in a monastery (as I was a couple of weeks ago in Romania), every single solitary day there is the Divine Liturgy. Every single solitary day, they are hearing those Beatitudes. The Beatitudes come to us because our Saviour is telling us in them about how to love even if people do not love us in return. The Beatitudes show us how to behave in accordance with His will, even if people do go so far as to abuse us.

In the context of this subject, I always seem to have to talk about Saint Juvenaly, our first priest-martyr. He was not the first martyr in North America, but he was the first priest-martyr in North America (in Alaska), near the end of the 18th century, just before the turn of the 19th century. Saint Juvenaly had been one of those who had been zealously active in Alaska, doing missionary work. Thus it was that he went to western Alaska where the Yup’iks live. As he was approaching them on his boat (I am told by the actual descendants of those people), he was misunderstood in two ways. When he was approaching, the fact that he was wearing his gold Cross appeared to be a threat to the shaman of the area, and to their faith, because it seemed to be some sort of religious invasion. Thus, they were going to try to stop him. It was a sort of religious invasion, but it was not what they thought it was. He was not a foreign shaman trying to take over. Nevertheless, as Father Juvenaly was nearing the shore on this boat, they started to shoot arrows at him. The descendants of these Yup’ik people say to this day that their ancestors thought that he must have been “nuts” (a sort of a crazy man), because he was waving his hand. Mistakenly, they thought this hand-waving was to brush away those arrows as though they were mosquitoes or some other insect. What they did not understand was that Saint Juvenaly was doing exactly what the Gospel teaches, and what our Saviour directs us to do under those circumstances. When the arrows started to come at him, he knew what was going to happen and what his end would be. Therefore, he began with his hand to make the Sign of the Cross upon them, upon the people who were killing him. That is exactly what happened. The descendants of those people now understand. They were converted by someone else afterwards ; and now, for almost 200 years these descendants have been faithful Orthodox Christians living in that same area – very faithful and strong Orthodox Christians. In addition, they have Saint Juvenaly in heaven to pray for them. He is their own martyr at their own making, as it were, and he continues to protect them until this day.

A considerable amount of the Christian life is backwards according to the standards and ways of the world. Regardless, it is important for us, despite what the world thinks of us, to persevere in what seems to be so strange to the world. This is because it is only in this way that there is life-giving freedom and true, real love, substantial love, eternal love. It is love without borders : love without conditions. It is just plain life-giving love in Jesus Christ.

In the Gospel today, the Saviour is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven : the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven, and what happens when people do not take seriously their invitation from Him to this banquet. As we heard, there were people who were frivolous about the invitation. They did not take it seriously, and they did not bother to come. In some cases, they even killed the messenger. Now this parable is exactly directed at the people of Christ – the Jewish people of those days – because they had been given a responsibility in God. This responsibility was rooted in the fact that long ago God had revealed Himself to the ancestors of the Jews that He is love. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jakob, and many others besides them and after them had a personal experience of God and of His personal love for them. It was to be their work and responsibility as a people to show to all their neighbours what joy and hope there is in this loving relationship with God. They were expected by the Lord to be a witness to the world as a nation, as a people. Just as our Saviour speaks about our need to be yeast and salt, so was it the responsibility of the Jewish people, the chosen people of God, to give a good and lively example to everyone else. However, since we human beings so frequently tend to take the easy way, and so frequently do nothing, even this is a visible sign of God’s love for us, because of the unimaginable extent of His patience. Going their own way, they decided instead that because they were the chosen people, they were therefore the exclusive people.

Instead of being a light to everyone else and revealing the truth about the one true God and about His love for us, they became a closed and exclusive club, as it were. This, of course, is contrary to what God had sent them to do. Therefore, when our Saviour speaks about sending out into the highways and the byways and bringing in anyone – anyone at all – to fill up His banquet hall, this is exactly what He was addressing. He was letting us know about what would come : the mission to Gentiles — to us. He was preparing us for the mission to the people who would hear the voice of Christ and respond. They would hear His voice and say “yes”. They would hear His call, and come to His banquet. They would hear His call, and even more importantly, they would try to do His will. It would now no longer be understood to be an exclusive call. Indeed, this call cannot at all be interpreted as an exclusive call. With their hearts responding readily, large numbers of Jewish people have, from the very beginning, heard the call of Christ and come to Him, and entered into His banquet-hall. The whole idea of having an exclusive nation was broken with the coming of Jesus Christ, and the development of the Christian mission to us, the Gentiles.

Sometimes, Orthodox people still fall into the temptation about this idea of exclusivity. It is very important for us, especially here in North America (where we are still relatively free of this), to be diligent about keeping out the idea of exclusivity. This is important because as always, if I think that I merit something (regardless of what my ministry or call is), if I dare to think that it is my own ministry, my own call, my own privilege, my own anything, then our Saviour is very quick to respond, as it were : “All right, you can think like that if you insist, but I will find someone else who is ready to listen to Me and to do My will”. He does do just this. Therefore, even in our ministries in Christ, even with our particular gifts that Christ gives to us in living our Christian life, none of us had better dare to think that it is “mine” exclusively and alone. It is so sadly ironic how we human beings can be. It seems that we never grow up. It seems that we very much tend to stay emotionally and even spiritually for the most part at the age of two. At that age, of course, everything is “mine”. It belongs to no-one else. It is “mine”. We seem to be frozen in this condition. It is amazing. We tell ourselves that we have grown out of it, but if we were to look at ourselves honestly, that attitude of “mine” is still there. We can recall the story of The Lord of the Rings, with Smeagol-Gollum and his “Precious” and his all-consuming, obsessive fascination with the precious ring. We seem rather often to tend to be too condescendingly dismissive of the poor benighted chap. Even in flash-back recollections of how his torture began, not many readers or viewers seem to grasp the full import of the death-dealing process and the depth of distortion that occurred in him once he became the slave of the ring and of the evil associated with it. Not many see how Gollum, himself, became a lie.

When we come to the point of considering the details about our lives, about the seasons in our lives, about the portions of our lives, in what way are we so different from Gollum or from a two-year-old ? With His love, Christ breaks us out of this possessiveness, this obsessive, exclusive possessiveness. It is important that we learn how to grow up, and to break out of any ideas at all – in any part of our life – about exclusivity. Orthodox Christian faith, which is life in the love of Jesus Christ, is inclusive, not exclusive. Yes, it is true, there are some regulations, and there are some boundaries, but these are not for the sake of exclusivity. Rather, they are for the sake of good order. Our Lord Jesus Christ on His Cross, with His arms outstretched, was forgiving all those who were killing Him. With His arms outstretched, He was welcoming you and me into His Kingdom, along with the Repentant Thief. Our Saviour is inviting all peoples into His Kingdom. Christ is the Light and Life of the world. It is our responsibility as Orthodox Christians to be, in and with Christ Himself, a light shining in the darkness, a light to the Gentiles, a light to the nations, a light to the world, a light of Jesus Christ’s love. It is our responsibility to be bringing people into the Body of Christ. It is our responsibility – each one of us – with the net of the love of Jesus Christ, to catch human beings with His love, to bring them into His light, to bring them into His love, to unite them to His Body, and to bring them to this Banquet-Table in which we are about to participate.

It is our responsibility to use the talents and gifts that God has given to each one of us, gifts of love, compassion and mercy, to bring His love, His life, to the people around us : to the person that God is sending to us everyday, and perhaps especially to beggars on the street. It is our responsibility compassionately to bring His love to those He sends, with the hope and the prayer that they will seek His love and ask to come and see. It is not for us ever to be bashing people over the head with the Gospel as some people seem to do. When we turn on the radio or the television, we very frequently see one or another person doing just this : bashing other people over the head with the Gospel, and preaching to them about things that do not yet make any sense to them, because they probably do not yet know Who Jesus Christ truly is. It is indeed odd. People are ready to quote long passages of the Scriptures to people who have never read the Bible, and yet they expect such persons to understand what all this means.

What does the Gospel mean ? No-one can know what it means until after having been introduced to it. Nowadays, very many persons have no exposure at all to the Bible, quite unlike the environment of my own youth (in Alberta in the 1950s), when most children already knew very well Who is Christ, and already knew many scriptural passages by heart. Indeed, most people in those days regularly went to church services. How did and do children get introduced at an early age to the Gospel ? They were introduced in the first place by the love of human beings, by the witness of the love of human beings who knew and loved Christ personally. It is not different with adults. They, too, must be introduced. They will often ask us us : “What is this love ; what is this hope ; what is this joy that you have ? How can you manage to live your life in the midst of all this pain and sorrow with such joy and such hope, when it seems that no-one else can do it ?” Such a moment is precisely when we would say : “Come and see”. They would come ; and as there are in this parish, there would be some people waiting to talk about their love for Christ, and for the Gospel. When they speak, they will not start talking about this or that prophesy, or about who is this or that prophet. They will, out of love, and as a loving reflex, talk about Who God is to us. Newcomers have to be shown, little by little, for instance as in Genesis 1 (also called 1 Moses 1), how God created everything. We have to begin at the beginning with the ABCs, because we in North America are really very much like those who lived in the early times of the Christian faith, times in which no-one knew anything. Now, we can again say with some certitude that no-one knows anything about the Gospel. We can very safely assume that no-one knows anything about the Orthodox Christian way, either. We have to start from zero, and before anything else, show them that God loves them.

We also have to try in some fashion to fit in elements of the Twelve-Step Programme in which so many people are finding some sort of consolation in their difficulties in life. It is a good introduction to Christ and to the Christian way to give people some form of the Twelve-Step Programme to begin with. This is because one of the first things that a person has to do in the Twelve-Step Programme is to admit that whatever one is addicted to (and people can be addicted to very many and surprising things), whatever it is, one cannot get out of the addiction by oneself alone. They say that we need a “higher power”, but we know that this means God. We need God’s help. We can help them to realise that they are truly in need of God’s help to get through life, to get out of whatever holes they have gotten into.

When we are beginning to introduce people to Christ and the Church, we first teach them about Genesis, just as was done in apostolic times. In so doing, we teach them about the evidence of God’s love in Genesis, and then we continue, following this theme of God’s love, in Exodus. Once we have talked about Genesis and Exodus, we will have hope that they can begin to understand something about everything else. We really have to begin with the beginning. We certainly still speak about Jesus Christ, but we have to talk about Him in His full context. We cannot begin simply by reading the entire Gospel according to Matthew, for instance. If we read the Gospel according to Matthew to someone, the Gospel according to Matthew is full and overflowing with references to the Old Testament (also called the Old Covenant). Matthew cannot be understood properly without understand also the references to the Old Testament. Therefore, if we would begin with Matthew, then we will be required at the same time and immediately to make the necessary connections with the Law, the Prophets, and the Wisdom writings which we find referred to in this Gospel. Perhaps Matthew is in fact a good catechetical tool to begin with, because we begin with the fulfilment and the foreshadowing found in the Old Testament. However we may begin this introduction, it is the Lord Who is guiding it all in and through us.

Witnessing really involves how I, as a Christian, treat other human beings. How do I behave in Christ ? Do I bring Christ, His love, His hope with me when I am shopping at my grocer’s ? When I am standing in a very long line and being impatient because it is hot and people are being grumpy, do I bring Christ with me then ? Do I, as a bank teller, bring Christ with me when I am encountering someone who is really nasty ? Bank tellers seem to receive the worst of this sort of behaviour. This is because when it comes to people and money, well, people seem to become angry and impatient and aggressive very quickly. This is surely why banks offer so many machines now. People can be very nasty about their money and any small mistakes — a penny here and a penny there. On the other hand, it may be that just because they are feeling grumpy, or they have had a fight with someone that day, they take it out on the nearest bank-teller or clerk in a store. When such people are doing that sort of thing to me, do I show them Christ’s patient love in response, or do I tell them that their mother is a hamster ? Which way is it ? What sort of response do I give ? If I say to them that their mother is a hamster, I am then behaving just as everyone else in the world would. However, if I am patient and I do not answer back with the same ill-treatment, but instead if I have some sort of real peace within myself, then while I may be suffering this abuse, they will not take it out on the next person. Two and two sometimes add up to four. If I go so far as to pray for such an irate person, perhaps it may help that person to make two and two add up to four faster. Indeed, we may well understand that we meet such wounded and angry people every day.

Our Saviour invites us to His banquet. As we participate in this banquet, He gives us a responsibility to become co-workers with Him : co-workers with Him in His field ; co-workers in building His buildings ; co-workers in strengthening the members of His Body, in grafting on members to His Body. Let us be the good respondents to His invitations, those who are (because of love) eager and willing to work together with Him in His Kingdom, to eat together with Him in His Kingdom. Let us, in our co-working, glorify our Saviour in every part of our lives, every day 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.

Sharing our Hope

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Sharing our Hope
80th Anniversary of Holy Resurrection Sobor
12 September, 2004
Hebrews 3:1-4 ; Matthew 16:13-18


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

The readings of today are those of the Altar Feast of this Holy Temple. This feast-day is the Dedication of the Temple of the Holy Resurrection in Jerusalem, which took place originally just before the first time the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was served there in the fourth century. This feast-day is usually offered on 13 September ; but we are marking it today, Sunday, when the most people can be present to mark this day, and this very significant anniversary.

When the Apostle speaks about our being like members of a building, and that the Builder is God, it is important for us to remember that it is the same Apostle who talked to us about being members of the Body of Christ. In both cases, the same principle applies in our Christian living. If a building is not properly built, if the stones or the wood that constitute the building are not properly put into place and each part is not doing its job, the building can very easily fall down (especially if there should be any sort of stress, such as an earthquake or windstorm). However, if a building is properly constructed, it cannot easily be shaken down by an earthquake. Vancouver has many buildings constructed in modern times according to the modern disciplines of physics and architecture that are built for this exact purpose. So then why do we now hear about various buildings falling down here, and in other parts of Canada ?

It is not only because of our descent more and more into crime and corruption, which causes the production of low-quality structures that unexpectedly collapse. It is also because are making more and more laws to try to protect ourselves from each other. The more we make such laws, the more complex every operation becomes, and more opportunities then can be found for the unscrupulous to circumvent the laws and regulations. There is a great loss of honour and respect for ourselves and for the other as we become obsessed with making money and acquiring power. The next consequence of this selfish attitude is that we can have no concern for the health and welfare of those who live in, work in, and use these structures. The laws that we are making now in great number were not necessary before ; but even so, it does not seem to matter how many laws we make. These laws of protection do not work because we in Canada, in general, are forgetting all about Jesus Christ. Especially since the 1960s, people have been more and more forgetting (apparently often quite deliberately) about Jesus Christ. They have been reducing Him to some sort of philosophical idea (at the very best). They want to reduce Jesus Christ to something or someone that they can control, and as a result, they lose Him altogether. Jesus Christ is not some sort of philosophical idea. He is not some sort of system. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and no-one can control God.

On the other hand, there is a strong tendency nowadays to misunderstand completely our relationship with Jesus Christ, and to forget that He is the Love of God incarnate – the Love of God who has taken flesh for us. Jesus Christ is the One whom God the Father sent. He is His Only-begotten Son. Because God so much loves the world that He wants us to be saved, He sent His Only-begotten Son (see John 3:16 ff). He allowed us to abuse Him, and to kill Him so that His Son could rise victorious over sin and death, and finally break down the barriers between us and the Lord, that we, human beings had established. We humans seem to want to blame God for all the things that are wrong in the world. We habitually blame God for all the terrible things that are happening. In fact, I hear this sort of thing said rather too frequently. It is not at all the case that the Lord is to blame for the mess. These horrible things that are happening on earth are our fault. Just last week, I was asked why God is allowing all these horrible hurricanes and typhoons to happen and to cause so much destruction. It is not that God wants all these hurricanes, horrible storms and earthquakes to be afflicting us. Rather, it is because we human beings as a race are so stubborn, so rebellious, so rejecting of Him. The fact is that we are so sunk in our selfishness and our criminal activities in the world that the weather is deteriorating very rapidly, and the condition of the earth, itself, is deteriorating rapidly.

If we Christians, especially we Orthodox Christians, would remember to pray, and be willing actually to pray, then things could be better. For instance, just recently Hurricane Yvonne was supposed to cause horrible destruction on Jamaica. It did cause much destruction, but the main part of the hurricane missed the main part of Jamaica and went to the west. Of course, everyone was surprised at this last minute change. Why did that happen ? The people of Jamaica have nothing ; they have no resources, and they are poorer than Russians or Romanians. They are very, very poor. They have nothing, except prayer. It was nice that they said this on the news, because the news broadcasts (especially Canadian news) usually erase that element. However, God is merciful, so the news reports said that the Jamaicans could only pray. Even the government said that there was nothing left to do but to pray. The people of Jamaica did pray, and I believe that this is why the hurricane moved and did not go straight over Jamaica as the meteorologists were predicting that it would do. The people prayed and trusted God to save them, and they are not even Orthodox Christians (see Acts 10).

We Orthodox Christians have a very great responsibility to pray, and to take our Saviour, Jesus Christ, very seriously. In a similar way, people would like to say that communism was overthrown because the American government was very clever in sowing the seeds of discontent, desire for material goods, and that there was American manipulation behind the scenes. The fact is, however, that these activities were not accomplishing anything. The American and western European interference in Russia made things much worse, in general. Communism went down for only one reason, which is very much neglected in people’s consciousness. In the first place, communism was overthrown because of the many millions of martyrs that Russia has had in the last century. In the second place, very many faithful people continued to pray to God to save them. It is because of their prayers, and because of the blood and the prayers of the martyrs that the whole system began to change.

There are many prophecies about Russia and its future contribution to the world. Orthodox prophets predict that Russia will be the source of future peace and growth of Christianity in the world. If it is going to be so, it will be because people were faithful to Jesus Christ throughout the course of the horrible suffering in the last century. It will also be because, in Russia and in other countries, people are still being faithful, and they are still depending on Jesus Christ. The faithful people are continuing to trust our Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. Our Saviour is answering their prayers. We, Orthodox Christians in North America, have to remember our responsibility and to act on it. We are called to witness for Jesus Christ. We are called to witness for Him who is the Truth, plain and simple. He is the Truth. Truth is not some sort of philosophical idea (contrary to what many Canadians think). There is only one Truth, not many truths. Jesus Christ is the one and the only Truth. We Orthodox Christians understand that, and we live in accordance with that. It is our responsibility to show everyone else around us how it is that Jesus Christ brings joy to our hearts and our lives in the midst of all sorts of difficulties, sorrow and pain. He brings joy ; He brings hope ; He brings power to our lives. He brings a sense of direction. He opens doors in front of us. Things that seem to be impossible do happen.

Just a short while ago, I had the blessing to have lunch with a man who was told by the doctors two years ago that he had just one week to live. However, this man and his family are believers, and they prayed. Even though he is supposed to be dead, he is not. It is not God’s time for him to depart. This man is not taking it lying down either – he is building his house even though he is not supposed to be able to do any of that. This is because of the love of Jesus Christ. Perhaps in due course he will die, as it happens to everyone sooner or later. However, it will happen in God’s time and it will happen when this man will have testified enough to the love of Jesus Christ and to the hope that Jesus Christ brings. The Lord brings much hope to this man and to his family. He is not the only one, but he is the most recent example that I can mention to you. God is exceedingly merciful to us, and it is important for us Orthodox Christians to trust in His mercy. It is important for us to turn to Him and to turn to the Mother of God who is always protecting us. It is important to run to them in hope, and to pray fervently for those things that we need, so that we may glorify Jesus Christ. Our Saviour will give us what we need in accordance with His will ; and in doing that, He increases our confidence and our joy in Him.

It is our responsibility to share our hope and our love with our friends, neighbours and the persons that Jesus Christ sends to us day-by-day. It is important for us to share this love. We do not have to talk all the time, as do the television and radio evangelists. In North America, words are so cheap. In North America, it seems not to matter what anyone says ; people do not find it convincing. In North America, you have to do the love of Jesus Christ to other people. In this community, you are celebrating eighty years of Christian witness. This parish was the first Orthodox community to be established in Vancouver ; and throughout the years, you have drawn many people into the Body of Christ because of the loving hospitality you have shown to them. I can tell you that I am one of them. I experienced this love and this care for me amongst you thirty years ago when I first came here as a student. Because of this love, many people have come into the Body of Christ through this community. It is important for each one to pay attention to how well you take care of each other ; how well you support each other, nurture each other, and encourage each other in being faithful to Jesus Christ. It is important for you to go in the right and life-giving path, living in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you do these things, anyone coming into this community who is suffering from the terrible pains of life in this world, will feel the love, concern and care in Jesus Christ that you have for each other. They will be drawn to this community by your love, and by the doing (not just the talking) of your love. It is important to do the things that show that you love each other : you telephone each other and ask how you are ; you find out if someone is ill and you take care of that person ; you find out if someone is out of work, and you help that person to find work in one way or another. If the Lord gives it to us, it is the responsibility of each one of us to help and nurture the other person.

There are many amongst you, who have arrived recently from Russia or Russian-speaking lands, or from other Orthodox countries abroad. Between these Orthodox countries and Canada there are similarities and dissimilarities. I really hope that you would do your best, if possible, to avoid imitating the typically Canadian habit of standing in the back of the Temple and as far back as possible (and even outside the Temple). Everywhere I go in Russia, Ukraine and Romania, the faithful people are not hiding in the back. They are coming near to the front. Canadians avoid being in the front because they still remember sitting under the nose of the teacher in school and being afraid that the teacher might ask a question. No-one wants to be the first to answer a question in school because of fear of giving the wrong answer. However, here in the Temple of the Lord, we are not in school. I do not usually ask questions during a homily, but if someone were to give a wrong answer, I would not make fun of the person (or bite). What matters is that we are here in the Temple of the Lord. Throughout two millennnia, Orthodox Christians everywhere have always tried to come as close to the Holy Table as possible. That is why when you go to a Temple in Russia, Ukraine, Romania and other countries, you will find that people are all crowded up at the front. They want to be as close to the Grace of God as possible. There is Grace pouring from the Holy Table, from the Altar of the Lord, and they want to be near. That is why, when I am giving Holy Communion, I always want to stand in the Royal Doors (which is the old, historic way) in order to allow the people to come as close as possible to the Holy Table when they are receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. It is normal for you to come and be near, but it is not so normal to be crammed in the back like sardines. It is nicer to be up front where the windows are open and you can breathe. Please remember your heritage. Do not be afraid to come near to the Lord. The Lord loves you. He is waiting to give you His Gifts and His Grace. Do not be afraid to come close to the Lord and be near Him. You will receive His love, His nurturing care and His Grace (and you will not be bitten). I remember very vividly that, in Constantinople, in Greece and Egypt, the faithful are very comfortably moving near, coming up to the icons, touching them and kissing them all the time. If you get caught in the traffic of liturgical movement, you should not worry but just step out of the way, and then return to you place again. This is the living nature of our liturgical assemblies ; this is why we do not usually have much furniture in our Temples, and this is why all Orthodox cultures have this spaciousness in their Temples. Orthodox worship does not entail our being a spectator or part of a sedentary audience ; but rather, living, active, moving participation. Our worship is truly organic.

We are co-workers with the Lord, and this is expressed in our worship. Everything in our worship, everything in our life is focussed on our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our worship and our whole life are testifying, along with the Apostle Peter : “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. We understand that if we are doing anything good, if we are building anything, then we are doing it in, with, and for our Saviour. In this case, a beautiful community has been established, which worships in a beautifully appointed Temple. This was possible only because the faithful people here have done everything in, for, and with our Saviour. Therefore, it is and has been because of love. It is because of Christ’s love, love beyond expressing, that we can confess, along with the Apostle Peter, Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. It is because of this love that we can have faith, which also means confidence and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of this faith rooted in true love that our Saviour might say to us, as He did to the Apostle Peter, “on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”. Our building (which really means this community) will resist all spiritual storms and spiritual attacks as long as it is firmly and resolutely founded in Christ, and only Christ.

Let us, carried by the prayers and love of all those who have gone before us, offer ourselves whole-heartedly to our Saviour today, tomorrow and always. Let us offer our single-minded co-operation to our Lord. Let us ask our Saviour to refresh us by the Holy Spirit, so that our whole lives will proclaim every day the glory of the Most Holy Trinity : the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

The Healing of two Women

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
The Healing of two Women
24th Sunday after Pentecost
4 November, 2004
Ephesians 2:14-22 ; Luke 8:41-56


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

In today’s Gospel, when our Saviour was surrounded with people, one woman who had had a hemorrhage that had lasted for many years, and who could find no cure, was so desperate that she sneaked up behind Him, and touched just the hem of His garment. Immediately she was healed. Then our Saviour said : “‘Who touched me ?’” The Apostles answered (to paraphrase) : "Lord, how can You say that ? There is a big crowd around You, and everyone is pushing against You. What do You mean ?"

There is touching, and then there is touching. In this case, our Lord knew very well the faith of the woman who had touched Him. She had strong hope that if she were able just to touch Him, and not disturb Him at all, God would have mercy on her, and heal her. That is exactly what happened. Because of her faith, she was healed by touching the hem of His garment. Every time I hear this passage from the Gospel, it reminds me of the times that I have had the blessing to visit Ukraine. During this past year, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Romania for the first time. When you are in these countries in particular, it is very much like what we just heard and saw in today’s Gospel reading. Our Saviour is surrounded by people who are pressing close to Him. Why are they pressing close to Him ? They are trying to get as near as possible to Him in order to receive some sort of blessing. They want to be close to our Saviour, partly because of love, and partly because they want to receive Grace from the Lord God. This woman, in particular, wants healing, and she receives it. If a bishop is going anywhere in Ukraine or in Romania (especially at the end of church services), he becomes surrounded by people. He then has to touch their heads, and they are anxious to touch his vestments in order to take a blessing from the Lord God.

There is a monastery in the village of Putna (in the north of Romania), and the feast-day of this monastery is the Dormition of the Mother of God. I especially remember that on the Feast of the Dormition, there were about 10,000 people there, and three bishops serving (it was out-of-doors, on a special stage). When the bishops left the Altar, it was almost impossible for us bishops to move because the people surrounded us. They were asking for blessings right, left, and centre. It was a Grace-filled moment. For me, in particular, in such moments, it is possible to feel drained because of such a press of people, and because so many people are asking for so much all at once. It is more than a human being can give. This situation forces me, the bishop, to rely on God simply to pass the Grace through me to them as I touch them, and give them the blessings that they are asking for. As a result of that, such an experience is no longer wearying, tiring, and dragging. Instead, it becomes life-giving, and renewing to me. While the bishop is allowing God’s Grace to pass through him to the people, the Lord’s Grace is renewing him ; and the faith of the people is renewing him. As the bishop is giving to the people from God, the people are giving back to him their love, and their faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the way it is in the Body of Christ. The bishop or the priest may give God’s Grace to the people, but the people’s love for Jesus Christ comes back to the priest or the bishop, and renews his strength at the same time. We are all together members of the Body of Christ. In Christ, we are like the building about which the Apostle Paul is writing in the Epistle today. We are all together supporting and strengthening each other, no matter what is our function in the Body of Christ. We all need each other. We all support each other. We all strengthen each other. We pray for each other. We nurture each other. We encourage each other in the love of Jesus Christ.

Today, our Lord resurrects the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. Everyone knew that the girl was dead. However, our Saviour had more things to show them. People think that they know everything, but they do not. They think that we are limited by a normal, average way of life, and when people die – that is it. There are two reasons why our Saviour did what He did. In raising the little girl from the dead, our Saviour reveals that He, Himself, is the Lord of the living, and not of the dead, and that He is the Giver of life (see Matthew 22:32). However, this does not mean that when anyone dies, the Lord abandons him/her. On the contrary, when people die, this is not the moment of eternal death or ceasing to be. Rather, after death we live in a different manner. Our Lord shows us Who He is. He shows us that His love for us is bringing this same life, and this same resurrection from the dead in the future as well as in the present. In her rising from the dead, He shows us what was coming with His own rising from the dead.

Our Saviour is also assuring you and me that, in our love for Him, we can have confidence that, as He has promised us, the resurrection from the dead really will happen. We can have confidence that it really will happen. If we love Jesus Christ, and if we are alive in Jesus Christ, then His Resurrection will be to eternal life for us. That is our hope for ourselves, and it is our hope for everyone we love. Because of the love of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection and life eternal in Him are, in His love, possible.

Our Lord is calling you and me to live in love with Him. This means that as much as possible, we should be trying to live a life of purity and of cleanness. There are no human beings who do not sin ; but, in confession and Holy Communion, we have the way to healing and cleansing from sin. Our Lord gives us the possibility to renew our baptism in confession and in Holy Communion. If we slip, we can be healed, and cleansed from the dirt of sin. We can be renewed in confessing our sins, and in receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. This enables us to do better. The way of the Orthodox Christian, the way of the Gospel, the way of Jesus Christ is not the way of the world. It is not the way of secular Canada. People very often make fun of those who try to do what is right, who try to live in accordance with what is right, and who try to follow the way of our Lord Jesus Christ. Despite the mocking, let us persevere in the love of Jesus Christ. Let us keep on doing and being what is right. With God’s help, let us not worry if people make fun of us or if they say negative things about us. Let us pray, saying : “Lord have mercy” for those who do not like us, and for those who are abusing us (as in the last phrases of the Beatitudes that we sang this morning). If we, in Christ, through praying for others, can find the way to forgive them, then we open the door for them to find the same strength, the same hope, the same love in Jesus Christ that sustains us. It is this love that enables us to overcome all sorts of pain, betrayals, and difficulties in human life

Brothers and sisters, our Saviour is with us here today. He is giving Himself to us in this Divine Liturgy. We are here because we love Him. He is offering Himself to us because He loves us. In effect, He is saying to you, and to me : “Come to Me, all you that labour, and all you that are weary in your labour, and I will give you rest” (see Matthew 11:28). Let us come to Him this morning. Let us receive Him. Let us allow Him to give us rest and peace in our hearts. Let us allow Him to give us hope in our lives, so that we may have strength to carry on, and to glorify Him today, tomorrow, the next day, and the rest of our lives : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.