(Memory of Saint Basil the Great)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today, we are celebrating more than one feast at the same time. The two most important things that we are celebrating are the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ and the repose of Saint Basil the Great. It may seem strange that, as we sing the hymns, the Feast of Saint Basil in some respects takes precedence over the Feast of the Circumcision. However, the Feast of the Circumcision was not established until very long after the celebration of the departure into Heaven of Saint Basil had been firmly established. This is one reason why we still serve the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great on this day. His memory and his writings are extremely important for us. Therefore, the way we are keeping the memory of these two events may seem unusual. This is merely one of our Orthodox paradoxes.
Today, when we are celebrating the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, we are paying special attention to His obedience, and that of His whole family, to the Law. He was raised in the tradition of Moses as everyone else of Jewish tradition was in those days. He grew up in a pious family. We understand that they were definitely observing the Laws of the day. Our Saviour came from a long line of fourteen times three generations of people, many of whom suffered for the sake of the Promise of the Incarnation of the Saviour. All such people were faithful to God even though they were still waiting for the fulfilment of the Promise. Even though, as the Apostle Paul said in one of his writings, they had not seen what was to come, yet they were faithful to God, as Abraham was. Abraham trusted God even though it did not necessarily seem logical sometimes. This is an example for us of trust in the Lord. In fact, there were many other people, likewise, who came before who were, because of love, obedient and faithful to the love of the Lord whom they knew, but could not see. Now we have seen God in the Incarnate Christ. He lived His life in accordance with the Law, but as we see in the Gospel, He was living in accordance with the spirit of the Law, and not always according to the letter of the Law. He put things into their correct perspective. The Lord showed us the way : that obedience in love is the way of freedom.
According to the way the Law had developed, people were observing the Sabbath : it was extremely important to obey the law of rest on the Sabbath. All sorts of rules developed to make sure that people did not do any sort of work accidentally on the Sabbath. As we hear our Lord saying, and the Apostle also saying, people were so busy obeying the little rules that they forgot that “‘the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath’” (Mark 2:27). What is this Sabbath ? It is the one day in the week on which we are supposed to rest. Of course, nowadays, the memory of the keeping of the day of rest has been neglected and then almost universally forgotten. Nowadays, we do not bother to rest, and that is not good. It is crucial for us to learn that the Lord directed us to rest, and we should rest regularly, somehow. When I am talking to you about these things, I am talking to myself as well, for even to this day I have not properly learned how to do this.
According to the Gospel we heard today, our Lord was growing up in obedience to the Law. His family had been in Jerusalem in obedience to the Law, and then His Mother and Saint Joseph lost track of Him on the journey home. They went back to Jerusalem to find Him, and they found Him in the Temple of the Lord where He was talking to the elders. He loved to be in the Temple of the Lord. This has always been characteristic of Orthodox Christians throughout the past 2,000 years. The faithful people love to be in the Temple of the Lord. They love to come to the Temple of the Lord to pray and to worship Him and to be in His presence. In some parts of the world where the churches are not yet locked up all the time (unlike North America where the churches are now most often locked up all the time), people go to church ; they light candles, and they stand there and pray for a while. People love simply to be there in the presence of the Lord in the Temple of the Lord.
In North America these days, and in the West in general, people are making a little too much of the “fear” of God. There is an unhealthy fear of God, somehow, when they read the Gospel. They make the mistake that people have been making for 2,000 years and more. People somehow cannot accept that, because of His love, God would empty Himself, take on human flesh, live as a human being, fully, yet remaining fully God, and allow us to kill Him, as it happened, so that He would rise from the dead on the third day in order to conquer sin and death. Many people have had difficulty with this, and they still do. Somehow, they often try to limit Christ to being merely some sort of human being or merely a philosopher, in order to make Him more acceptable to their reasoning. However, God is not and cannot be boxed in like this. God is not limited like this in any way. If the Lord should choose to empty Himself, God is God, and He can do what He pleases. It pleased Him to empty Himself, to become a human being for our sake in order that He would save us from ourselves. Truly, that is what He was doing – saving us from ourselves. This is the extent of His love for us. So very many people have such a hard time accepting that the Lord could love us that much. Yet, He did, and He does.
It is essential to understand that our Saviour, in growing up as a human being, was showing us the example of how we should be : living in complete harmony with God. He was showing us the direction. If that is not enough for us, His Mother, also, following in this loving path of obedience to God’s will, is for us an example of a human being obedient to the will of God. She said “Yes” to God. This “Yes” is always bringing life. It brings suffering, too. All who follow the Lord in this world suffer, because the prince of darkness is not happy if the light shines in the darkness. In the Gospel according to Saint John, chapter one, we read that the light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness tries to overcome it but does not succeed (see John 1:5). In our lives it is essential that we Christians, bearing Christ, remember that we are lights shining in the darkness. We have Christ’s light, and if we have difficulty in our lives, it is connected to this same opposition to the light. Before our time, very many other Christians have suffered because they were shining with the light of Christ in the dark. We likewise have to take courage from the Saviour, because He is with us. We, who have been “baptised into Christ, have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). He is with us, and He will be with us. He will protect us.
Saint Basil the Great, whose memory we are celebrating today, is one such light who had to suffer very much. He did not suffer the death of martyrdom, but, in those early days, he had a very difficult life, nevertheless, being faithful to Christ in a society which was not Christian. Yet, 1700 years after his death, he is venerated as being one of the greatest of the shining lights. The Lord will do for you and for me similar things. He will bring light in and through you and me, but we have to be faithful. Here in n, it was thought to be almost impossible that this parish could continue to be an example of Orthodox living in this community. Indeed, many people believed that it was far too difficult, and they had given up hope completely. Yet the Lord chose faithful people to come here again, and renew the life and the visible presence. The Lord is with us and He will bless us. There has been a complete transformation, and God is blessing. The Lord will continue to strengthen and bless those who labour for Him.
It is important for you and for me, always, to keep our hearts and our minds on the Saviour at all times in love. May we always be ready to respond promptly and to do His will, like Saint Herman of Alaska who said (as we must all learn to say, and to live it out) : “From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us love God above all, and do His holy will”. In doing so, we will be glorifying the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.