In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
It is necessary for us to have the right attitude when we are going about living our lives in Christ. The Beatitudes, which we just heard and sang, and then heard again read in the Gospel, are important for our everyday life. Through the Beatitudes we may understand how blessing comes from God, and how we live our lives under His protection, with His blessing.
In North America where we are all living (and where most of us grew up), we are taught in every aspect of our secular life that we do everything ourselves, that we acquire everything ourselves, and that we make everything ourselves. If there is any reference to God, it is sort of on the edge. Generally, in North America we are trained to think that God is out there somewhere, disconnected from everything. That is not at all the truth. This is not the way it is. We Orthodox understand how things truly are.
“God is with us”. We love to sing that at Christmas-time and Theophany-time (although that particular group of verses is available to us in Compline and also in Great Lent – although usually only monks get to do it then because parishes are generally not serving that service). We have a musical setting that most of us can sing, which is very beautiful and expresses the emotion of our hearts. We certainly like to sing these verses : “God is with us ; understand all you nations, and submit yourselves, for God is with us”. In those words we are asking all the nations, ourselves and everyone else also, to submit themselves to God’s love. That is the thrust of the Beatitudes.
We know that if we want to accomplish anything, it has to be with God’s blessing. Therefore we must turn to Him. We must forget ourselves. We have to stop thinking that we are accomplishing everything ourselves. It is easy to say, but when we are raised the way we are, it is not even possible for us by ourselves to stop thinking like that. We cannot do even that by ourselves. It is necessary for us to understand that even for that, even to acquire a correct understanding of how things are in the universe and in the creation, and in our relationship with the Lord, we have to ask for the Lord’s help. We have to ask for the Lord’s help for everything. That is why, in doing this, Orthodox Christians in various parts of the world have been able to survive the most terrible torments that human beings can suffer, and still have joy, and still have hope. There are all sorts of books and stories about believers in the Soviet Union who lived through and survived the gulags of Stalin, Khrushchev and others. These writings describe how they spent tortuous years there in horrible prison camps. Still the believers were able to express joy. Still they were able to express their confidence in the Saviour. Still they were able to remain faithful and to be blessed by the Lord.
When people came to this country a hundred and some years ago with nothing (I do mean nothing – so much of nothing that modern Canadians cannot even imagine that), they got off the train in the forest, and with an axe and a shovel built themselves a life. Yet these people, believing in God, turning to Christ, with His help managed not only to establish themselves well but to provide well for their children and all their other descendants. It was because they were believers, because they loved the Lord, because they turned to Him and trusted Him for everything.
Saint Nicholas, whose feast-day we are celebrating, was just such a person who put love for the Lord first in his life. Because of this love for the Lord, because he knew the Lord in prayer, in his heart, in the context of the Divine Liturgy and in the context of his whole life, he was able at the First Council in Nicaea to defend the truth about Jesus Christ against the wrong ideas of Arius. He supported the true Faith of Jesus Christ, and the true Faith prevailed at this First Council. Much more than that, however, he is known for how he practiced this love by caring for other people, how he provided for the poor, how he rescued orphans, how he protected widows, how he fed the hungry, how he visited the sick and those who were in prison. He lived the Beatitudes. That is why at the Divine Liturgies which are served for holy people like Saint Nicholas (and he is not alone amongst saints of this sort), we read the Beatitudes, because he, and others like him, lived the Beatitudes. They lived the Beatitudes because they loved Jesus Christ.
As a bishop, Saint Nicholas was truly what a bishop should be to his people : a loving father, a father who cares about his flock, who cares about his children, and who tries to provide for them. He is the example to believers on all levels (from lay people all the way to bishops) because he practiced the love of Jesus Christ. He did what Jesus Christ Himself would do for other people. He always turned to Christ asking for direction and for understanding, and the Lord gave it to him. Until this day, people turn to Saint Nicholas. Mostly, it seems that they turn to him when they are travelling, because after his death, Saint Nicholas is showing us that he is particularly concerned with those who are travelling. He rescues people in danger of death on the sea. We often have an icon of Saint Nicholas in our cars. He still cares about the small details of our lives 1500 years and more after his death. He cares because he loves Jesus Christ. He hears our pleas to him for help in our travelling, and in whatever else we ask of him. He cares about us and he prays to the Lord on our behalf because of his love for Jesus Christ. This love has never changed, but only multiplies after his death and his entry into the Kingdom with the Lord.
This is our Orthodox path : the way of love. It is the way of caring for other people, and the way of caring for the creation in which we live. Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople is very well known for his concern for ecology. This is not merely because of some basic principle. It is because this is the Orthodox priority. We are poisoning things so badly in our environment ; we have to be responsible in cleaning it up. We Orthodox have to lead the way in this part of our life, too. It is appropriate that the Patriarch of Constantinople is going to do this. The rest of us ought to pay attention to this as well. It is for us to ask the Lord about how we can do our part in caring for human beings, for animals, for the soil, for the trees and rocks. The Lord, as He inspired ( and does inspire Saint Nicholas), will inspire our hearts also. He will renew and multiply our love, and He will help us do what is right. It is not that we have not been doing a lot that is right already, but He will help us do even more. We have the role, the responsibility as Orthodox leaders and examples, to do this. May the Lord give us all strength to follow the Saviour in the same way, with the same love as our holy Father Bishop Nicholas, and with him let us glorify our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.