Sermons & Homilies
Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. This was the hymn the hosts of Angels sang on the very first Christmas over 2,000 years ago and we sing this every Matins and the clergy say this quietly before every liturgy. Peace, goodwill toward men. This is what the world so desperately needs and this is what perhaps of all the fasting seasons we feel most deprived of.
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"And what is a merciful heart? It is the heart burning for the sake of all creation, for men, for birds, for animals, for demons, and for every created thing…" The heart of a merciful man "burns without measure in the likeness of God." Thus St. Isaac expands upon the mercy that today’s Gospel is exhorting us to have.
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Christianity is a religion of sacrifice. And on this day, we commemorate one of the greatest sacrifices ever made in the history of our holy faith — a sacrifice which echoes the Patriarch Abraham’s incredible sacrifice of his beloved son Isaac, and which prefigures God the Father’s even more awesome sacrifice of His only-begotten son: our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
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So let us always remember that for us too, our resurrection — both bodily and spiritual — is not given to us for our own sake, but for the sake of those around us: those who love us, those who pray for us, and even for the sake of those who hate us and do us wrong. Above all, our resurrection is given to us for the sake of our own mother, the Holy Church of Christ, so that we can truly become Her faithful children.
Today’s Gospel, in short, shows us an icon of deformed humanity—ungratefulness, lack of good stewardship, laziness, greed, jealousy, vanity, hatred, and pride. All of this ends with the killing of Christ, the son of the Householder—the killing of God Incarnate!
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