Our Faith is our Life

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Our Faith is our Life
6 November, 2005
Galatians 1:11-19 ; Luke 16:19-31


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

On this day we are hearing the Gospel reading about Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus sat outside the door of the rich man for many years, and the rich man had many daily opportunities to give to the poor because the poor man was sitting right under his nose. In those days, when a rich person would go out from his house, he did not go out in a Mercedes with dark windows and with curtains so that he could not see around. In those days he went out from his house carried likely in a chair by his servants. Maybe there were curtains, but they were sheer curtains because it was hot where Lazarus and this rich man lived. Every day, this rich man could see and hear Lazarus asking for help. Every day he did not give help.

This lifetime in which we live is our time for doing good for each other. It is part of what God gives us : to do good for each other. It is by what we do for each other that God is ultimately going to measure us when we come to the end of our life. When we come before His throne, He will say : “How did you love Me ?” What are we going to say ? If we never give to the poor, if we never care about each other, the Lord will say (as He said in another parable) : “‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me’” (Matthew 25:45). However, if you were good to those poor people, those suffering people, those needy people, then He will say : “‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:40). We cannot be Christians, and merely say : “I am a Christian”. If we are truly Orthodox Christians, we must do something with this Faith of ours.

Our Faith is not something limited only to the head. Rather, it is in the heart. It is our life. The Orthodox Christian way is the way of life. That is what made Russia become Russia ; that is what made Ukraine become Ukraine ; that is what made Byelorus become Byelorus ; that is what made Greece become Greece ; and Romania become Romania ; and Serbia become Serbia ; and Bulgaria become Bulgaria, etc. That is what made those countries what they became : different countries from the places we are living in here and now. That is what made those countries become places where people know the right way to live, the right way to behave, and how to look after each other (even if they are not perfect). No-one is perfect. Not even Russians and Ukrainians are perfect – although they truly can be good. They do know how to care for people in the manner of the Gospel. When someone is on the street asking for something, the Orthodox Christian who is properly formed, knows he must do something.

Metropolitan Leonty of our Church, who died in 1965, was born in Kremenets, in Ukraine. When he was in North America, his wife died, and he became a monk. Then he became a bishop, and later on a metropolitan of our Church. He was well-known, because in New York City our cathedral was in a very poor area. Now this neighbourhood is becoming “yuppy” – more fashionable. However, in those days, it was very, very poor. One of our priests was talking to me (about three weeks ago) about his memories of Metropolitan Leonty. He said that the two of them were walking out on the street one day, and Metropolitan Leonty had a change purse. He always carried a change purse. In it he always had coins to give to people who were poor. He said to this priest as they were walking along the street : “You do not approve of what I am doing, do you ?” The priest knew he was caught because he did not approve, and he said : “Well, Vladyka, you are right”. Metropolitan Leonty said to him : “You think that they are going to drink this money that I give them, don’t you ?” He replied : “Yes. That is what everyone says ; that is what I think is probably the case. They are going to spend it on drinking”. Metropolitan Leonty said : “Well, Father, I am not responsible for what they do with this money. If they ask, I must give. I am not the judge. Christ is the Judge. If they do not use the gift well, that is their responsibility. It is my responsibility to give”.

Metropolitan Leonty was a very holy man. Before some of you younger people die, he should be on the Church calendar, I hope. He always had in his pockets sweet things for children. He was a very special person. Of course, parents are not so happy to have their children eat sweet things. Nevertheless, he was loving them ; he was sort of an uncle or grandfather to them, and they loved him, too. A retired archbishop of our Church, Archbishop Gregory, who was born in Kyiv, confirms this attitude. He said that his uncle always told him that we have to have money in our pocket to give to the poor. This uncle always did, and Archbishop Gregory did, also. He talked about it in order to remind us younger ones to pay attention.

We are responsible for what we give. We are not responsible before Christ for what someone else does with the gift. I am not a social worker. I am not a psychologist. Many times I have given to people with precisely those same fears, because everyone talks about it in North America – they are going to drink ; they are going to buy drugs or whatever. Many times when I have been thinking along these lines, I gave, and they ate. I saw them go and eat. I have been put to shame.

The Tempter is always coming to you and to me to try to pull us away from the right way to live. We Orthodox Christians here in Canada have been brought here to Canada for more than one purpose. Although we have the blessing to come to Canada for the sake of a stabler and more peaceful and more productive life, there is yet more for us to do. Canada is a country that used to be spiritually not too bad. Now it is really getting lost. People are forgetting everything, and especially, they are forgetting about the way of Christ. It is important for us, who are Orthodox Christians, to remind them, to show them by our life what is this right way. Many Canadians used to know it, and when they see us, they are encouraged again to pick up their Christian life, to repent, and to follow Christ in the right way. Nevertheless, we are the Orthodox, and it falls on our shoulders, this responsibility to be in Canadian society the yeast and the salt (see Matthew 5:13 ; 13:33) that Christ is speaking about, because He loves this country. You people, Orthodox Christians who immigrated here, have a responsibility to share this Faith. When the very first Orthodox Christians came to Canada (mostly to western Canada over 100 years ago), even before they built their homes, they built the Temple. They lived in a borday (sod house) first before they built the Temple. When they had built the Temple, then they built their own houses. They had their sense of priorities correct.

It is important for you, coming to this country 100 years later, to have your priorities correct, too. Why am I saying this ? The answer is found in Saint Paul’s words this morning to the Galatians. Saint Paul said, as it were : “I am not preaching something that someone has thought up. I am not preaching something that I thought up. I am not preaching something that is the result of my reading. I am preaching Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead”. Our Saviour revealed Himself to be the Son of God. God Himself revealed the Holy Trinity on the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, and on the Feast of Pentecost. The Holy Trinity was demonstrated : one God, Three Persons, on these two feasts, and other times, too. We know for certain, at the time of the Baptism, that the Father said : “‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He reveals Himself to people. He revealed Himself to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, and many more times in his life in one way or another.

Christ has revealed Himself to Orthodox believers in every century, in every country in which people are believers up until now for the past 2,000 years. Christ reveals Himself to each of us. He reveals Himself to each of us sometimes by a personal appearance (that is not so often) : sometimes He lets us see Him, Himself. Very often He reveals Himself through an appearance of His Mother in one way or another. He reveals Himself very often in the goodness of human beings who do good for each other because they love Him. We are carriers of Jesus Christ. When we were baptised, we put on Christ (see Galatians 3:27). We were baptised into Jesus Christ. We died and rose in Christ in the water of baptism. We put on Christ. When we are doing these good things (like helping someone who is in need or giving sweet things to children or doing other things that God moves us to do that people need), we are sending to that person the love of Jesus Christ with the good thing that we are doing ; we are revealing Jesus Christ in ourselves, too, to the person who is receiving.

Even on Sunday morning, we are standing here and we are supporting each other as we stand here worshipping the Lord. We are giving Christ to each other. As we come to receive Him, He gives Himself to us in His Body and His Blood. He gives Himself to us, also, in the hymns and prayers that we are singing and saying. He also gives Himself to you and to me in the mutual love and support that we give to each other. Jesus Christ is truly amongst us. Jesus Christ is truly alive amongst us. It is important for you and for me, Orthodox believers, to live in this way, because Jesus Christ reveals Himself to you and to me. He tells you and me : “I love you. I am with you. I am protecting you. I am helping you”. We are able to love Him. He is to you and to me a Brother, a Father, a Friend. He is all this and much more to us. The relationship between you and me, between us and Jesus Christ, between us all and God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one of love. This relationship does not consist in mere mental activity (although the mind and the logic can explain things sometimes). This relationship is characterised by love.

Every spiritual Father and Mother has talked about the relationship between themselves and Jesus Christ in this way. It is all focussed on love. When Saint Seraphim says : “Acquire the Holy Spirit”, it is, again, love to which he is referring. Otherwise, why would he, at the end of his days, dress in white and say to everyone : “Christ is risen”. Indeed, why would he say that if it were not because of love ? Everything he said was ultimately about Jesus Christ risen from the dead, and His love. Healing came to people through Saint Seraphim because he was full and overflowing with this love himself. It was the same way with the Fathers of Optina, and other Fathers and Mothers all over Russia, Ukraine, and the Orthodox world. You and I have a big work to do here in Canada, but it is primarily a work of love, glorifying Jesus Christ in our whole lives, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.