Conception of the Theotokos

Archbishop Seraphim : Homily
Giving Thanks to the Lord for Everything
28th Sunday after Pentecost
(Conception of the Theotokos)
9 December, 2007
Colossians 1:12-18 ; Luke 17:12-19


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

Today, we are celebrating the Conception of the Mother of God, which is the very beginning of the fulfilment of the Promise. This Promise is important for us to remember because everything happens according to God’s direction. Something extraordinary is going to happen. The Mother of God is going to be born, eventually, and she will then give birth to the Son of God. Who is He that we are worshipping ? Who is He whom we serve ? It is necessary that we remember this because we live in such an egocentric time. Human beings have always been egocentric, but it is more than ever like that now.

Who is He whom we are serving ? We heard and remember what the Apostle Paul said to the Colossians this morning : “He is the Head of the Body, the Church”, and more than that, too. He is the One from whom all things are. Therefore, we call Him the Word of God. (We did not invent this. He told us Who He is.) He spoke everything into being, and He still does speak everything into being because creation is continuing. Everything that exists, exists because of Him. It is that Person, the Word of God, the Only-begotten Son, who is being prepared for by the Conception of the Mother of God, and all the other fulfilments of the Promise that are to come.

He is the Source of everything. He is not merely some nice-guy, some philosopher, some person with interesting ideas. He is the Source of everything. In that context, the words of our Lord to His followers after the healing of the lepers that we heard in the Gospel today are important. Most of the lepers who were healed were not grateful at all. They took their healing for granted. Only one person came back to Him, and said thank-you, and he was not even a Jew. This person was a Samaritan, and that sort of person in those days was despised, rejected, and thrown out. That person remembered to come back and say thank-you.

We Christians are beginning to be considered as Samaritans were in those days. In our society Christians have fallen to the bottom, and society is considering us to be naïve, silly, or worse. (A lot of this is really our own fault because of our faithlessness.) It is crucial that we remember Who is the Lord in our lives. It is necessary to remember that contrary to what we are taught in school, on television, and so forth, we do not achieve everything on our own ; we do not acquire everything by ourselves. What good that is accomplished, what we have, what we are doing, comes about (and it is good and effective sometimes) because the Lord is giving it to us. He helps us to become whatever we are becoming, and to do whatever we are doing. However, we have to remember to say thank-you to Him for being willing to give us these things and to help us to do these things.

This is truly essential for us, because the whole way of Christian living is giving thanks. That is what we are doing now in this Divine Liturgy. We are giving thanks to the Lord for everything that He is, for everything that He does, for His love for us. We are giving thanks that we have life because of His love. We are giving thanks to Him in this Divine Liturgy for everything.

It is important in our daily lives when good things are happening to remember to say thank-you to the Lord, remembering Who He is. He is the Word of God who speaks everything into being. The speaking into being is an act of love. What comes to be is the product of love because “God is love” (1 John 4:16). If we loved Him as we love our family, our friends, our relatives, then we would say thank-you to Him regularly, frequently, every day, for all the good things He is giving us, enabling us to be stewards of the good things He has given us, caretakers of the good things He has given to us.

The most important thing we have to keep in mind, I think, is this thanksgiving. We have to remember all the time to recognise the good that is coming forth to us from the love of God, that is spoken to us in the love of God. We have to remember to give Him thanks for every little thing that we can see happening during every day (even for the difficulties), and to be therefore able to glorify Him constantly in our lives in thanksgiving : the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.