Widow of Nain, a Sunday Sermon by Met. Moses

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Widow of Nain, a Sunday Sermon by Met. Moses

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  • A Sermon On The Gospel For The Third Sunday Of Saint Luke
    By Metropolitan Moses

    In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

    At that time, Jesus went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a great multitude. Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only begotten son of his mother, and she was a widow: and a large multitude from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And He came and touched the bier: (and they that bare him stood still.) And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother. And fear seized upon all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great Prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited His people. (Luke 7:11-16)

    In today's Gospel reading we are told that when our Lord encountered the widow woman of Nain accompanying the funeral procession of her only son, He was moved with compassion and He raised the young man up.

    The central message of the Christian Gospel is that our God Who existed before the ages in unapproachable light was moved with compassion and came to us and put on our human nature and tasted of death for our sakes, so that we might be set free from sin and death.

    Saint Theophan the Recluse taught us concerning the special symbolism that applies to our own personal lives in our efforts in repentance and our struggle against sin that is found in three occasions in the Gospel when our Savior raised a person from the dead, that is, the account when He raised the son of the widow of Nain and when he raised Jairus’ daughter and again when He raised Lazarus after four days.

    In the “Praises” of Matins in Psalm 149 we hear the verse, "The saints shall boast in glory, and they shall rejoice upon their beds." In this verse, the words “rejoice upon their beds,” signify the rejoicing in the resting place of the heart.

    If we remember the symbolism of the bed signifying the resting place of the heart and read the Gospel account regarding the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the raising of the son of the widow in the city of Nain we can apply the message of these stories to the struggles we face in our own spiritual life.

    Jairus' daughter had died upon her bed in her room in her father’s house. Thus, if one is originally in a state of peace and close to the Church in one’s life and begins to sin in thought or feeling and catches oneself and calls to the Lord in repentance, our Savior reaches out for us saying, "soul arise," as He did for Jarius' daughter, and grace and peace once again enters the heart.

    In the case of the son of the widow of Nain, the dead young man was being carried outside of the gate of the city. This is symbolic of the times when we are inattentive and we don't catch the beginning of the workings of sin and this sin enters more deeply into our heart and we experience turmoil and are carried outside of our dwelling; that is, we are carried outside of our resting place of peace in God and spiritual perception. In this case, if we are near to our Mother, the Holy Church of Christ, who cries to the Lord for her children, and we hear those cries and the call of our Savior, just as He called out to the son of the widow of Nain, "Soul I say to thee arise!" — we can turn and repent, and by grace we are healed and are delivered from the death of sin.
    We are near to our Mother, the Holy Church, when we make a daily effort to pray and read the Holy Scriptures and the writing of the Holy Fathers. If a person is attentive in this way, it is easier to remember God and, if a person is spiritually vigilant, the struggle against sin is limited mostly to the mind and the heart.

    Yet, there are times when a person forgets God and is led astray and sinful thoughts then lead to sinful actions. In some cases the days, weeks and months go by and the passions begin to exude their stench and the tombstone of sin covers their soul. What can that person do?

    The Holy Church offers its children the sacrament of Confession which Christ established after His resurrection saying to His disciples, "receive ye the Holy Spirit: Whosoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven" (Jn. 20:22-23).

    The mystery of Confession is symbolized in the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus on his own could not go forth from the tomb because he was completely bound hand and foot by the winding sheet and a stone sealed the door. It was necessary for Christ to command His disciples to removed the stone from the tomb and loose him.

    In like manner our Savior commands those who have received the grace of the priesthood, the gift of the Holy Spirit, to loose the sins of the faithful through the mystery of Confession and repentance.

    In the case of Lazarus, he could only passively participate in being risen from the dead. In the mystery of Confession, a Christian must exert their mind and heart and will and become coworkers with God and the clergy for the sake of their own salvation.

    In order to benefit from the saving therapy of Confession and repentance we have to understand what the stone and the winding sheet symbolize.

    The stone symbolizes stony insensitivity and self-justification. A person can go to confession and go through the motions, but through the sin of self-justification the teachings of our Savior given through the words of the priest do not penetrate into that person’s heart and this prevents the grace of confession from effectually removing stony insensitivity.

    This happens when a person says to their self, "All men have sinned, why should anyone make a big fuss over my sins?"
    Such thoughts are demonic delusion. We are called upon to justify our neighbor and to judge ourselves. Self-justification is a turning away from the light of Christ and a turning towards the path to utter spiritual darkness. Self-justification is opposed to all of the virtues. Until a person understands this concept, one cannot even make a beginning in the spiritual life. Self-justification sets a seal on the tomb of sin, preventing the priest from being able to work to remove the stone of insensibility and then help unwind the passions that have that person bound hand and foot.

    The first step in our repentance is to imitate the publican and to say with humility that is drained of all self-justification, “God be gracious to me, a sinner.”

    In the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Publican’s humility and total lack of self-justification were his only virtues, and yet, according to the words of our Savior, because of this one virtue, he departed from the temple justified. “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto Heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be gracious to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 18:13-14)

    Thus, if you desire to be justified by our Savior, turn away from self-justification as you would flee from a plague and instead, humble yourself.

    The Holy Fathers teach us that, to truly repent of our sins we must say to ourselves, “no man or demon is responsible for this, I alone have sinned.” If one does not take this first step of taking ownership for one's sins, that person prevents grace from acting to help them and set them free from that sin. Without this first step one is only making a pretense of repentance. It is only after this step of truly taking ownership for one's sins that a person can remove the stone of insensitivity from their heart and turn away from the sin and authentically turn towards our Savior.

    The word for repentance in Greek is metanoia, and this word signifies a turning away and doing the opposite. Once a person takes ownership for their sins, with the help of their priest, that person can begin to unwind the winding bands that have them bound hand and foot; that is, they can "unwind" their sins by doing the opposite deeds from their sins. An example of authentic repentance is the chief publican Zaccheaus who was avaricious and unjustly took money. When he repented he chose the saving therapy that was suitable for him and he restored those he defrauded fourfold and gave half his money to the poor.

    It is easy to mouth the words that one is sorry and claim that one experiences regret, but if one limits their actions to this, it is not genuine repentance. Such behavior can be a self-delusional act. It was only after Zaccheaus believed and repented and demonstrated his repentance by his works that our Savior blessed him. Faith without works is dead and likewise, repentance without works in opposition to the sin committed is dead.

    Our Savior said, "Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin. And the slave abideth not in the house forever: but the Son abideth forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (Jn. 8:34-36)

    If we desire to be free and abide in the house of God forever, there is no other way, but to embrace the saving therapy of repentance.

    Let us all remember these Gospel stories and know that our Savior came to raise us up and set us free from sin and death.
    May you all be renewed in the spirit of your mind and embrace authentic repentance as coworkers with God for your own salvation, so that you may partake of life everlasting.
    Amen.

Thanks to Fr. Panagiotes Carras and his yahoo group for making this wonderful sermon available.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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