Sermons & Homilies
Nine weeks ago, we began the Triodion with the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. And now, as we’ve finished the forty days and begin Holy Week, we again encounter the Publicans and Pharisees in the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. Here we see the culmination of a life of humble repentance, for Matthew the former tax collector is found in the company of Christ’s followers and joins with them in praising Christ. The Pharisees, too, were present. And we see the terrible outcome of a life of self-righteousness.
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I think most, if not all of us, are familiar with St. John Climacus, and his eloquent, witty, and above all soul-saving teaching found in the Ladder, moderately balanced between stern spiritual sobriety and loving fatherly humor. This is the reason for his significance in the Church for both monks and laity, revealed by a whole Sunday during Great Lent being dedicated to him. Because of the shortness of time allotted to a Sunday sermon, I want to focus on just one aspect of his teaching.
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The feast of St. Gregory Palamas this Sunday is a second Triumph of Orthodoxy. It was first instituted less than 10 years after St. Gregory reposed in the Lord. This is a remarkable fact. This ought to tell us something. It says, our Fathers recognized something so important and essential in the life and teaching of St. Gregory that they did not hesitate to accord it public veneration and to praise it with sacred hymns, even while he was within living memory.
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Lent is the recalling to Paradise of those who have been cast out; it proclaims the truth to those deceived by the devil; and it announces sight to the blind, guidance to the lost, a haven for the storm-tossed; it is the announcement of life in Christ to those dead in sin, a life in a world that kills the soul.
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Thankfulness lies at the heart of the Church’s life and worship. Eucharist, as is well known, means thanksgiving. Thankfulness is a confession of God’s greatness and goodness born from experience of his love. The importance of thankfulness surrounds us in our ascetical and liturgical spiritual lives. It shows up in the very first page of the Philokalia in St. Anthony the Great, who explains that it is absurd that we often thank physicians who prescribe bitter medicines and perform painful surgeries for our health’s sake, but do not thank God for those things which seem harsh to us but are soul-saving.
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