May 10/23, 2004
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Grace and Peace be with you.
SEVENTH SUNDAY OF PASCHA,
THE SUNDAY OF THE HOLY FATHERS
The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 44]. In those days:
20 16Paul decided to sail by Ephesus, so that to spend time in Asia might not happen to him; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.
17And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to himself the presbyters of the church. 18And when they came to him, he said to them,...28"Be taking heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit set you for Himself as bishops, to shepherd the Church of the Lord and God, which He preserved for Himself through His own blood. 29"For I know this, that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock, 30"and among your own selves men shall rise up, speaking things which have been perverted, to draw away the disciples after themselves. 31"Wherefore keep on watching, remembering that for three years I ceased not admonishing each one night and day with tears. 32"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build up and to give you an inheritance among all those who have been sanctified. 33"I desired of no one silver or gold or clothing; 34"but ye yourselves know that these hands ministered to my needs, and those who were with me. 35"I showed you by example all things, that so toiling it is needful to help those who are weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" 36And having said these things, he kneeled down and prayed with them all.
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 56]. At that time:
17 1Jesus lifted up His eyes to the heaven, and said, "Father, the hour hath come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son might glorify Thee, 2"even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, in order that all whom Thou hast given Him, He should give to them life eternal. 3"And this is the eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou didst send forth. 4"I glorified Thee on the earth. I finished the work which Thou hast given Me that I should do. 5"And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world came to be. 6"I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou hast given them to Me, and they have kept Thy word. 7"Now they have come to know that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are from Thee. 8"For the words which Thou hast given Me, I have given them; and they received them, and know truly that I came forth from Thee; and they believed that Thou didst send Me forth. 9"I make request concerning them. I do not make request concerning the world, but concerning these whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine; 10"and all My things are Thine, and Thy things are Mine, and I have been glorified in them. 11"And I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep in Thy name those whom Thou hast given Me, in order that they may be one, even as We. 12"When I was with them in the world, I was keeping them in Thy name. Those whom Thou hast given Me I guarded, and none of them perished, except the son of the perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13"And now I come to Thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in them."
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost is known as the Sunday of the Holy Fathers. On this day we commemorate the Holy Fathers who assembled in Nicaea, who censured and tried to correct the impious priest Arios. When he would not repent, they cut him off from the Church and anathematized him and his teachings. He taught that Christ is not the Son of God, but a creature. This is what Saint Photios the Great said about the holy First Ecumenical Synod:
"The First holy Ecumenical Synod assembled in Nicaea, in Bithynia; prelates were present to undertake the determination of the truth. Their leaders included Alexander, the patriarch of Constantinople, a man of great age, renowned for the depths of his wisdom, the radiance of his life, and the piety of his soul; with the firmness of his faith he exercised an eloquent freedom of speech on matters divine. Then, too, Silvester and Julius, the renowned and articulate bishops of Rome, neither of whom attended the synod in person. They had for the time of their pontificate appointed Victor and Vincentius respectively to be present at the general meeting, both men who paid tribute to virtue and held the rank of presbyters; with them was associated the bishop of Cordova. During the Greek persecutions, he showed the truthfulness of his name, Hosios (Holy), as he refrained completely from any participation in the worship of idols. Alexander of Alexandria was present, too, illustrious for his holy conduct. He brought with him as his collaborator Athanasios, who then presided over the body of deacons but soon would succeed to the patriarchal throne. Also present was the famous Eustathios, the glory of the Church of Antioch, brilliant with the purity of his faith, remarkable for the wisdom of his words and thoughts. Among them, too, was Makarios of Jerusalem, abounding in many kinds of virtues. There were a good number of other prelates illustrious with the graces of apostles and the sufferings of martyrs. Among them were Paphnoutios and Spyridon, Iakovos and Maximos, champions of the good and wondrous assembly. Above them all there shone the great and admirable Constantine, the ruler of the Roman Empire, who had convoked the synod and made it more illustrious by his presence.
The sacred synod, composed of such distinguished men, judged a certain innovator, Arios by name, guilty of impiety and strengthened the divine and apostolic message. This wretch had been born in Alexandria, had been enrolled in the clergy of that church, and had risen to the priesthood. First he assumed an arrogant attitude toward his own shepherd and then extended his madness against the Shepherd and Lord of us all. He reduced the Son and Word of God (O, the daring of that tongue and mind!) to a creature and an object, nor would he see something that is true of everything and is self-evident: that every son is of the same being and nature as his begetter. In placing the Son among creatures, he proclaimed that the Father, too, is a creature. Since one knows that the Father's being is that of the Creator and His nature eternal, he should admit that the Son's is the same. Where would be the Son's legitimacy if the Father's being were of one kind, the Son's of another? How will the polytheism of Greek error not reappear, if the Godhead is divided into greater and lesser, with one God as the first, the elder, the Creator, and the other God as the second, the younger, and the servant? These are the shoots of Arios' sowing. But since he had used his blasphemous lips against the Creator, the holy synod stripped him of his priesthood and placed his most impious and God-assaulting heresy under an anathema. In their discussion of sacred matters, they declared that the Son and Word of God is of the same being, the same nature, and of the same coeternity as the Father who begot Him, and of the same power and majesty, in accord with the Sacred Scriptures and the common belief of the pious. They knew well that, just as it is Jewish and Christ-hating to confound the majesty and monarchy of the Trinity in one person, so it is Greek and polytheistic to divide the simple Godhead, which exceeds being and nature, into unequalnatures and dissimilar beings. These were the concerns of the First holy Ecumenical Synod."
Last week we had the Sunday of the Blind Man, where as clear as can possibly be told Christ revealed to the blind man that He was the Son of God; yet Arios, in his limited mental capacity, dared to say just the opposite, and still try to affirm that he is a Christian, and that he belongs in the Church.
Those in our modern day that hold the teachings of Arios are the 'Jevhovah's Witnesses', who cannot bear to say that Christ is the Son of God, and God. Those also in our day who cannot bear to say that Christ is the Son of God are the Moslems. In fact, they love to tout just the opposite, and think that they have some kind of fantastic argument and loophole against the Christians. So convinced of their stupidity are they, that they write this on the outside of their mosques, namely, that God does not have a son and this can be seen on the mosque sitting on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
In the service today we heard the hymns in Matins saying that the 318 holy fathers gathered together to cut off from the Church the putrid member, Arios. We read in the holy Epistle today the prophecy of the Holy Apostle Paul, "For I know this, that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock, 30"and among your own selves men shall rise up, speaking things which have been perverted, to draw away the disciples after themselves." Now I ask you why or how does such a putrid member come up or grow in the Church? The answer is from putrid pride.
Now there are all kinds of pride. We are proud/grateful that we, by God's mercy, are found in His holy Church. We are proud, and forever will be proud, that we are Orthodox Christians. This is our glory. In fact, this is probably the only thing we can be proud of because we know that we have done no good dead on earth. This pride is praiseworthy.
There is the sinful pride, though. There is the sinful pride where we indulge ourselves. Of course, this is harmful. When we are gluttonous, slothful, avaricious, lustful, envious, angry, greedy, and in short, when we are filled with all kinds of passions because of our pride, this can be deadly to our souls if we do not remedy these movements before they take hold of us.
Then there is the pride which is intellectual. This pride says I wish to believe my own ideas even if they are contrary to those of the Christ and the Church. This is the pride of Arios and all the heretics. Somehow, (through the devil, of course,) he concocted his own ideas of Who Christ is, and those were in contradiction, oh the madness, to the very words of Christ and the Church. So, as it says in the services that we heard today, he zealously followed and honored Judas through his pride. Therefore God gave him the same end as that of Judas, his insides burst. May it never be that any one of us would ever be possessed by such pride. We should be like little lambs following our beloved Shepherd, Christ, in that whatever He says, and whatever His Church says, we as humble servants/slaves will do not our own will, but the will of our Master. This is the path of a true Orthodox Christian. Otherwise, to what purpose are our prayers? To what purpose is our fasting? To what purpose is our identity? Our life is to attain holiness through the Holy Church, to attract the Grace of God by our humility, to increase our virtue by obedience.
We see these types of people among the so-called Orthodox now-a-days, as we know, in the persons of the ecumenists. They not only disregard the First Ecumenical Council; but all of the Councils. They maintain that we live now in modern times, and therefore, we must show "love" - the way they understand love. As if the fathers and saints who were present at all the Ecumenical Councils were not showing love! So these so-called Orthodox bishops, or as we know, they are Masonic bishops, say that "love" should override theological differences. In other words, because we, they say, have love, we will overlook theological differences. Therefore, the Roman Catholics who idolize the pope, the Protestants who despise the priesthood, the Jehovah Witnesses who put down Christ, the Jews who don't even believe in Christ, the Mormons who believe in polygamy, the Moslems who worship the moon-god, Allah, (and we could go on and on) all worship the same "god". Therefore, they say, let us make one religion where we will all be united and the differences between us will be eliminated. This is where they are headed - a one-world religion, and "god" who fits all, or is acceptable to all. May the true God spare us and bring all their devising to perdition.
Church / Monastery News:
This past week we visited Vladyka Metropolitan two times. He is getting his strength back remarkably so. He looks better than I've ever known him. He is still taking antibiotics so that there is absolutely, positively, and without a doubt any possibility of the staph infection to be revived and pop up when he is in Russia where there is no medication that could fight it.
On this Sunday of the Holy Fathers, Novice Nathaniel received his black.
We finally finished painting the columns in front of the new house, for the most part. Now that it has warmed up, we are able to prime and paint the trim around the exterior doors also.
Question Box:
Q. May we donate our organs when we die?
A. This is my personal opinion. We as Orthodox Christians are temples of God, as it says in the Scriptures, and as St. Paul says we should not defile the temple of God, so it follows we should not destroy it either so that when we repose, the priest should be praying over a complete body, not a body that has been torn apart and its members dispersed to who knows who. Therefore, I recommend that we not cremate our bodies, nor embalm them if possible, nor give our body parts for people whom we do not know.
If, on the other hand, while we are alive, someone needs an organ who is in our family, or someone whom we love and wish to sacrifice ourselves, this is acceptable, with the exception of course of the heart. Saint Metropolitan Philaret also concurred with this by saying that we may receive or give parts of our bodies while alive, except for the heart, which is the seat of the soul.
Q. What type of prostrations do we do in this period between Pascha and Pentecost?
A. In church we do not do prostrations, but only bows from the waist. In the privacy of your home, you may do as your spiritual father advises.
Please pray for:
Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine and for the safe travel of all those who are coming to Buena Vista for Pentecost.
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
This coming week Vladyka Metropolitan will serve for the Feast of Pentecost. We encourage all to make an effort to come to the monastery for the feast day.
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.
