March 15/28, 2004
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Grace and Peace be with you.
THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FAST
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ mid 321]. Brethren:
9 11Christ, Who came as High Priest of the coming good things, by means of the greater and more perfect tabernacle-not made by hand, that is, not of this creation, 12nor by blood of goats and of calves, but by His own blood-entered once for all into the Holies, having Himself obtained eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats and ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctifieth to the purity of the flesh, 14how much more shall the blood of the Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works in order to worship the living God?
COMMEMORATION OF SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§§ 208, 209]. Brethren:
3 23Before faith came, we were being guarded under the law, having been closed up to the faith about to be revealed. 24Therefore the law hath become our tutor until Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25But faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26For all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27For as many as were baptized into Christ, ye put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise.
4 1Now I say, as long as the heir is an infant, he differeth nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all; 2but he is under guardians and stewards until the appointed time of the father. 3So we also, when we were infants, were enslaved under the elements of the world. 4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5in order that He might redeem those under the law, that we might receive what is our due, the adoption as sons.
SUNDAY OF THE FIFTH WEEK OF THE GREAT FAST
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 47]. At that time:
10 32Jesus took aside His twelve disciples, and began to tell them the things that were about to happen to Him, 33saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death and deliver Him up to the Gentiles. 34"And they shall mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit upon Him, and kill Him. And on the third day He shall raise Himself."
35And Iakovos and John, the sons of Zebedee, go to Him, saying, "Teacher, we wish that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall ask." 36And He said to them, "What do ye wish for Me to do for you?" 37And they said to Him, "Grant to us that we might sit, one on Thy right and one on Thy left, in Thy glory." 38But Jesus said to them, "Ye know not what ye ask for yourselves. Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" 39And they said to Him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup indeed that I drink, ye shall drink, and the baptism with which I am baptized, ye shall be baptized; 40"but to sit on My right and on My left is not Mine to give, but it shall be given to those for whom it hath been prepared." 41And after the ten hear! d it, they began to be indignant on account of Iakovos and John. 42But Jesus called them to Himself, and saith to them, "Ye know that those who are accounted to rule over the nations exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43"Yet it shall not be so among you. But whosoever doth wish to become great among you shall be your servant; 44"and whosoever doth wish to become first among you shall be slave of all. 45"For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
COMMEMORATION OF SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 33]. At that time:
7 36A certain one of the Pharisees was asking Jesus that He would eat with him. And He entered into the house of the Pharisee, and reclined at table. 37And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she found out that He was reclining at table in the house of the Pharisee, brought an alabaster flask of perfumed ointment, 38and she stood beside His feet behind Him, weeping; and she began to wet His feet with tears, and was wiping them off with the hairs of her head; and she was kissing His feet ardently and anointing them with the perfumed ointment. 39Now when the Pharisee who invited Him saw it, he spoke within himself, saying, "This One, if He were a prophet, would know who and of what sort the woman is who toucheth Him, for she is a sinner." 40And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, ! I have something to say to thee." And he saith, "Teacher, say it." 41"There were two debtors to a certain creditor: the one was owing five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42"But when they had nothing to pay back the debt, he showed himself gracious to both. Say which of them then will love him more?" 43Simon answered and said, "I suppose that he, to whom he showed himself the more gracious." And He said to him, "Rightly thou didst judge." 44And He turned to the woman, and said to Simon, "Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house; water thou gavest Me not for My feet, but she with tears did wet My feet, and with the hairs of her head wiped them off. 45"A kiss thou gavest Me not, but she from the time that I entered did not cease from ardently kissing My feet. 46"With oil thou didst not anoint My head, but she anointed My feet with perfumed ointment. 47"For which reason I say to thee, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." 48And He said to her, "Thy sins have been forgiven." 49And those reclining at table with Him began to say among themselves, "Who is this Who even forgiveth sins?" 50And He said to the woman, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go thy way in peace."
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Bishop Gregory is on a pastoral visit to Florida and Pennsylvania, so he asked that we enclose Metropolitan Valentine's Paschal Epistle in the sermon for your edification.
PASCHAL EPISTLE
Of Metropolitan Valentine of Suzdal and Vladimir
TO THE RIGHT REVEREND ARCHPASTORS, PASTORS, AND FAITHFUL CHILDREN OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX AUTONOMOUS CHURCH
When Thou hadst fallen asleep in flesh as one mortal, O King and Lord, Thou didst rise again on the third day, raising up Adam from corruption, and abolishing death: O Pascha of incorruption! O Salvation of the world! (Exapostilarion of Pascha)
CHRIST IS RISEN!
With such sacred and ever-living words we greet each other, sharing our Christian joy in this "truly sacred and supremely festive night." The risen Christ is the never-fading source of joy for the entire human race. In "this, the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad" in our risen Christ Jesus!
Any Orthodox Christian who has ever experienced the otherworldly joy of Pascha, will agree that the heart of any truly alive Christian soul can never grow tired of hearing the paschal greeting "Christ is Risen!" nor of the short but profound troparion of Pascha, nor of the exalted poetry of the Paschal canon, nor of the triumphant "Catechetical Homily" of St. John Chrysostom, which enjoins us all to taste of the Paschal Lamb at the present Mystical Supper.
To some skeptics it might seem that everything that there is to say about Pascha has already been said, and that it would be impossible to find any new way of expressing the sense and meaning of the present celebration. But this is not so! "Every tongue is at a loss," and human speech is utterly incapable of expressing the full meaning of Pascha. Any word that we might say about Pascha can do nothing more than highlight only one of the many facets of this jewel of a celebration, but to cast light on every facet of it would be impossible. The inexhaustibleness of Pascha is the inexhaustibleness of the Divine Nature Itself, about which St. John the Theologian said, "that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."
Those of us unto whom the Lord will vouchsafe the eternal life of bliss in the Kingdom of God, will go from "strength to strength" in the knowledge of this Divine Nature, in becoming one with God, but will never be able to reach the end of this process-for eternity is endless. And in like manner, it is impossible to follow Pascha through to its end. We can only stop dead in our tracks and stand in holy fear before the mystery of the Resurrection which has been opened before us, and out of the surplus of feeling in our hearts, our mouths cannot but repeat, over and over again, "Christ is RISEN from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in their graves bestowing life."
For many, even for many of those who formally belong to the Church, the ineffable joy of Pascha remains unattainable. Of course, the universal rejoicing of the Church of Christ cannot leave them completely indifferent; however, they continue to understand Pascha only as a "Great Feast" with eggs and kulichi, as an "ancient national custom," or as an "historical event from the Gospels." From whence does such a superficial understanding of the mystery of Pascha arise?
The main cause of such an approach to Pascha is insufficient familiarity with the life of the Church, with the events that she relives and in which she takes part during the Great Fast, and especially, during Holy Week. The joy of Pascha is a continuation of the sorrow of Great and Holy Friday and the mystical and universal silence of Holy Saturday. "Yesterday, was I crucified with Thee, O Christ, yesterday I was buried with Thee, and today I arise with Thine arising," as it says in the Paschal canon. Whoever is not crucified together with the Savior, whoever is not sealed in the tomb with Him, cannot possibly rise with Him on the holy day of Pascha.
There is yet one more unfortunate error among many in the Church crowd-and that is their understanding that the events of Holy Week and Pascha are only a "commemoration" of events that happened once upon a time, many hundreds of years ago. No, dear brothers and sisters, it is not only a commemoration, but a participation and an initiation into these events!
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not in an illusory way, not just outwardly, really and completely became man, while yet remaining God, and united with Himself all of our human nature. And so we are called, while yet remaining human, to be united through grace, with God, and to become sharers in His Divine life.
Should we be but bystanders at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, then we shall be like the mean-spirited crowd of Jews, or at the very most, like the soldiers who guarded His tomb.
No, we must be crucified and rise together with Christ, just as the Church prompts us in the services before Pascha and at Pascha. When we come to church for the services, we leave the world in which we live, we step out of time, and are translated to the place where Christ is all, and in all.
The closest unification with Christ takes place in the Mystery of the Eucharist, through the reception of His Body and Blood. All of our divine services revolve around this communion, initiating us into the divine life of Christ. The paschal service is primarily a Eucharistic one. In the time of the Old Covenant, the sacrificial lamb was immolated at Pascha. This was a prefiguration of the innocent Lamb of God-our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The joy of our present-day Pascha is intensified for us, the true Orthodox Christians of Russia, and for her children of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church abroad, by the news that our persecution in the courts, which has been going on for the last three years in Suzdal, has finally come to an end, although, of course, it is too early for us to speak of a complete cessation of persecution against Holy Orthodoxy in Russia.
In this world, where evil yet reigns, those who desire to live piously, in accordance with God's commandments, with the precepts of the holy Fathers of the Church, and with the canons of the Orthodox Church, will always be persecuted. The holy Apostle Paul warned Christians that even if the Lord does at times send a small respite from troubles on the Church's path of confessing the Faith, we should use this time to prepare for yet greater persecutions, and to strengthen our faith and our resolve. In no way should we allow ourselves to fall into laxness. A Christian must always "keep the divine watch," and "not give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelids," but stand spiritually at the ready.
In our stand in the Truth, we must be firmly aware of and reinforce our remembrance of the fact that nothing in this world can withstand the power of Christ. The petty liars who challenge it, who are nothing more than protégés of the new atheists, and hirelings of the Moscow Patriarchate, who send their "documents" with their forged stamps and seals to addresses all over Russia and beyond, seem especially sad and pitiful. They seek to destroy the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, which they once betrayed, receiving in exchange for their treachery their falsely-named awards and temporary "happiness" in this perverted world.
The Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, at home and abroad, is a Church, not a human institution, in contrast to all of their "religious organizations, unions, and movements." It is pointless to fight against God. The Church of God has stood forever, and will stand forever, radiating the purity of its confession, no matter how much she is persecuted.
The fate of those who war against God and the Church will be deserving of many tears. For this reason, our goal consists, insofar as we are able, in trying to turn them and their organizations away from such a disastrous, satanic, endeavor, which they have taken up in ignorance.
Most unfortunately, in our human weakness, it sometimes starts to look like our enemies are stronger than we are, and the flock of faithful and loyal Christians is becoming smaller and smaller. It is unbelievably difficult to bear all of the sorrows, the slanders from false brethren, and to be in an absolute minority in this world. But let us not let succumb to despair!
Let us remember how the Myhrr-bearing Women, by their selfless love for the Lord, by their undeterred desire to follow Him on His path of suffering, became the first to hear from the risen Life-giver Christ Himself, the greatly comforting word, "Rejoice!"
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, warned us that we would have sorrow in this world, but that our sorrow would quickly turn into joy. And it is already turning into joy, for our Lord has conquered death! "Hades reigns, but not eternally," but the Truth of Christ is eternal! And if we wish to be together with eternal truth, then we must not betray it by even as much as one iota, turning away from all of the temptations of this contemporary world and from ecumenical, so-called "World Orthodoxy," with the Moscow Patriarchate at its head.
We, the Orthodox, just as our forefathers in the first centuries of Christianity, are called to be lamps of goodness and compassion, sympathy and love, so that the light of our good deeds should glorify our heavenly Father and His Only-begotten Son, the risen Christ.
May this sacred calling be for us ever a living one; and may the Lord Who has called us into His wondrous light, enlighten us by the light of His resurrection; and may the risen Life-giver turn the present Paschal feast into unfading spiritual joy, which no one shall ever be able to take away from us.
TRULY CHRIST IS RISEN!
Lowly
Valentine
____________________________________ ,
Metropolitan of Suzdal and of Vladimir.
Pascha
2004
In the God-preserved city of Suzdal
Church / Monastery News:
On the 23rd of March, Vladyka flew out from Denver on his yearly pastoral trip to the Florida area. After landing in Orlando, he immediately drove north to Lowell, FL, (north of Ocala), where the next morning he would meet with Andrei Cunningham and George Bulgar, and a new Catechumen, Robert. The warden was very kind and accommodating, and Vladyka was allowed to enter the prison without undergoing any kind of search at all. He was allotted three hours conversing with our brothers in Christ, Andrew and George, and with the Catechumen, Robert. He administered Confession and Communion. The time went very quickly.
After leaving Lowell, Vladyka had to drive all the way to Jacksonville, where, the next morning, he met James Grantham, a Catechumen, at another correctional facility. James has been corresponding with us for a year and a half. Something unusual happened there. The administrator of these inmates had told us since no one from the monastery had ever been there before, no one would be allowed to enter without proper identification and a copy of official ordination papers. In all the turmoil pertaining to the trip, Vladyka had forgotten to take along copies of his ordination papers. The administrator met Vladyka and told him to sign in and present his papers. It was then that Vladyka realized that he had forgotten to bring them along. He was allotted only a one hour visitation. Vladyka then just signed in and showed his driver's license, and did not mention that those were all the papers that he had, hoping that he wouldn't be asked for them. Thank ! God, the guards did not ask for them, and Vladyka was able to visit with James, not only for one hour, but for two. As Vladyka was signing out, the administrator told James that he had broken the rules for him, and James expressed his sincere gratitude. James will be leaving the prison in one month and is expecting to receive Holy Baptism, for which he has been waiting for more than a year. He will be restricted to the central part of Florida for three years after his release.
Vladyka then traveled to Titusville where he stayed with his aunt, who is 99 years old. His Aunt Lillian was baptized into our Russian Church since, at the time, as now, the canonical church in America was the Russian Church, and all nationalities were under the Holy Synod in Russia. Of course, the bishop was St. Tikhon the New Martyr. And the first bishop he ordained in this country was for the Arab-speaking Orthodox. That bishop was Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn. He was ordained by Archbishop Tikhon and Bishop Innocent of Alaska. Bishop Raphael visited the home of Vladyka's aunt on many occasions when he visited Massachusetts. Vladyka has been trying to convince his aunt to leave the Antiochian Church and come back to the Russian Church. This time, his aunt seemed less contentious about this idea, especially when she was told that Bishop Raphael believed in Orthodoxy in the way Vladyka Gregory believes in it, not in the way in which the! present Archbishop of the Antiochian Church believes in it. Vladyka told her that he had an encyclical, or pastoral letter, from Bishop Raphael that proves that he was not ecumenical like the present-day Antiochian Church is. She said that she wanted to read that letter. So, Vladyka hopes that this will make an impression on her.
The next day, Friday, Vladyka traveled to Orlando to meet with Dionysius Dee. He spent the day with Dionysius getting reacquainted (it had been almost two years since Dionysius had received a pastoral visit). As all of our parishioners who do not have a church close by, Dionysius has stayed away from all "Orthodox" churches, waiting for the Mysteries only from the true clergy. Dionysius helped Vladyka very much with regard to arranging his weekend departure for Pittsburgh on Saturday.
On Saturday Vladyka flew to Pittsburgh where he was met by Reader Jerjis and Gregory Charnisky. The flight was long and had a stop over in Washington, DC. From Pittsburgh, all three drove to the Albion Correctional Facility near Erie, PA. There, they held a previously scheduled Orthodox class for interested inmates who accompanied our brother in Christ, Anthony Lutz. Anthony was given Confession and Communion, and then the class commenced. It lasted for three hours. Besides Anthony, there were four other inmates who had signed up for the class. There was a very lively discussion, covering a broad range of topics. As we probably already know, Vladyka would have wanted to win over the hearts of all four of these inmates. However, one of them seemed offended at the uniqueness of Orthodoxy and at our belief that the bread and wine of which we partake is indeed the very Body and Blood of Christ. Indeed, the influence Protestantism on the American peo! ple is a heavy burden, difficult to overcome.
That evening, Vladyka, Reader Jerjis, and Gregory drove back to Dubois, PA. The next morning, Vladyka celebrated Matins and the Liturgy of St. Basil for the feast of St. Mary of Egypt in the small chapel which Reader Jerjis has in his home. Thomas Panowicz, in anticipation of the liturgy in Dubois, had purchased a brand new communion set, and brought it for the liturgy. It was blessed there by Vladyka. Fr. Deacon Fotios Roseboro, his Diaconissa Rachael and their three children, Zachary, Little Fotios, and Lazaria, had driven for many hours from Virginia in order to be present for this service. Fr. Fotios served with Vladyka. Thomas had also driven many hours down from Buffalo. Gregory and Catherine, and Jerjis and Naaman, of course, live in Dubois. The service was over 5 hours long. And they all rejoiced in the graces which God had given them.
The next morning, Monday, Gregory and Catherine Charnisky took off from work so that they could drive Vladyka back to Pittsburgh, where he caught a flight back to Florida where he returned to finish his mission.
Please pray for:
Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine.
Bishop Gregory - for his safe travels.
Father Savvas - for his blot clot problems.
Aurika Bennett's sister, for her health.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
In Christ,
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.
