June 7/20, 2004
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Grace and Peace be with you.
THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
For the Third Sunday
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 88]. Brethren:
5 1Therefore, having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through Whom also we have had access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only so, but we boast in afflictions also, knowing that the affliction worketh out patience; 4and patience, a tested character; and a tested character, hope. 5And the hope doth not put to shame, for the love of God hath been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us. 6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth His own love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died ! for us. 9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
For the New-martyrs Under the Turkish Yoke
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 99]. Brethren:
8 28We know that to those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformable to the image of His Son, in order for Him to be the firstborn among many brethren. 30But whom He foreordained, these also He called; and whom He called, these also He justified; and whom He justified, these also He glorified. 31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He Who indeed spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also graciously give us all things? 33Who shall bring an accusation against the elect of God? God is the One Who justifieth. 34Who is the one who condemneth? Christ is the One Who died, b! ut much more is He the One also Who was raised, Who also is at the right of God, Who also intercedeth for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36Even as it hath been written: "For on account of Thee, we are being put to death the whole day; we were counted as sheep of slaughter [Ps. 43(44):23(22)]." 37But in all these things we more than conquer through the One Who loved us. 38For I have been persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things coming, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For the Third Sunday
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 18]. The Lord said:
6 22"The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be sound, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23"But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee is darkness, how great is the darkness? 24"No one is able to serve two lords; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye are not able to serve God and mammon. 25"On this account I say to you, cease being anxious for your soul, what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on. The soul is more than food and the body is more than raiment, is it not? 26"Look at the birds of the heaven, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor do they gather into storehouses; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Ye much m! ore excel them, do ye not? 27"And which of you, by being anxious, is able to add one cubit onto his stature? 28"And why are ye anxious about raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, nor do they spin. 29"And I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself as one of these. 30"But if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into an oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31"Therefore do not become anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?' 32"For all these things the nations seek after; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all of these things. 33"But be seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
For the New-martyrs Under the Turkish Yoke:
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 106]. The Lord said to His disciples, "Be taking heed of men:
21 12"For they shall lay their hands upon you and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors on account of My name; 13"but it shall prove to be a testimony for you. 14"Therefore settle it for yourselves in your hearts not to premeditate to make a defense; 15"for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all those who oppose you shall not be able to contradict nor withstand. 16"And ye shall be delivered up also by parents, and kinfolk, and friends, and brethren; and they shall put some of you to death. 17"And ye shall be hated by all for My name's sake. 18"But a hair of your head in no wise shall perish. 19"In your patience win your souls."
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today we celebrate the Third Sunday after Pentecost, and we hear the Gospel reading, '"The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be sound, thy whole body shall be full of light." But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.' Now the eye directs our body. If we don't see where we are going, we will hurt ourselves and fall into many temptations and precipices because the light, the direction of our body, which is the eye, is gone.
Our Savior is saying, "The lamp of the body is the eye." Our Savior is not speaking in the physical sense, for we all know that if we have eyes, we can direct ourselves upon the right path. But what about in the spiritual sense? When Our Savior says, "If therefore thine eye be sound, thy whole body shall be full of light," He is speaking about our Faith … our Orthodox Faith, compared to other persuasions. There is only one sound Faith, and that is Orthodoxy.
Orthodoxy shines because we are governed by the laws of God. What are these laws? They are the commandments of our Saviour, which are in the Gospels and the Epistles, and they are the Holy Canons of the Church which we are all bound to obey. No one can say that they are above the rules of the Church. No one can say that they don't have to obey the Holy Canons. If we do this, the Church is given up to lawlessness, and very quickly will cease being the Church. How many times have we seen this in the history of the Church?
If your light is Orthodoxy, your whole body shall be full of light, and you will be able to walk on a sure and safe path. Yes, there will be temptations. There will be tests. There will be afflictions. But this is how the athlete is crowned. We were reading in the Philokalia just this past week that our spiritual life is being tempted and being deified; being tested, and being rewarded; being afflicted, and then being comforted. Through all our temptations there is a reward afterwards - deification - provided, of course, we remain steadfast in obedience to God's laws.
If we are tempted to do something evil; of course, do not even dream of a reward for not resisting and conquering the evil. The only thing remaining for us then is repentance.
The Gospel goes on to say that we are not able to serve two lords. We can either serve God, or we are going to serve mammon. We can't serve one or the other. And this is how it is in Orthodoxy. Either you are Orthodox, or you are not Orthodox. You either have the true Faith, or you do not have it.
Then the Gospel goes on, and our Savior says, "Do not be anxious for your soul, what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on." If we are Orthodox, God will bless us.
He goes on by saying, "But be seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." And this is a characteristic of us who call ourselves, and who in reality are, Orthodox Christians. We seek first the kingdom of God. If we seek first His righteousness, His Kingdom, all these things will be added unto us.
But seeking first means "par excellence." By seeking first means, "Without a question." The absolute and most fundamental requirement in our life is to have true Faith, to have true Orthodoxy.
In the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, in the reading for today, St. Paul starts by saying, "Therefore, my Brethren, having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." What does this mean - to be justified by Faith? If anybody should know it, we should know it, because we are the elect of God by being Orthodox. But we can not just hang up our hats and say that the contest is finished. We have won … we have already won because we are Orthodox! No. The soul and the body has to prove itself; or rather the Christian has to prove himself worthy of this Faith.
And how do we prove ourselves worth of this Faith? We must have an Orthodox way of life to correspond with that Orthodox Faith. "Faith without works is dead," it is said. And so are works without Faith. Both are required.
St. Paul says that we, because we are justified by this Faith, have access by this Faith, into this Grace, which has been given to us by our Savior. It is only through proper Faith that we have the Grace of God, so that we can perform works of Faith.
How can we understand this part, where, at the end of the Epistle, St Paul says, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son"? Understand that when we have separated ourselves from God by our disobedience, we were reconciled to God through the divine dispensation of God the Son, or through the divine dispensation of the Holy Trinity, for it was determined that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity would come and suffer and be crucified and rise on the third day to lead them to salvation. This is the reconciliation to God that we are now united to Him.
We should not understand it in the Latin way, in that God was offended at the disobedience of Adam, and that He needed to be pacified, or that He needed revenge, or some stupid thing like this. There is no such thing as this in the Godhead. The Latins say, therefore, that He demanded blood, and the only reconciliation would be the blood of His own Son. This is not so.
It was an offering of the Son to the Father, of His life. It was not the Father demanding the death of His Son. It was an offering of His Son to ransom and free the human race, which had been held in bondage to sin. This is how the good will of the Wisdom of God determined to win back the human race.
Today we also celebrate the Holy New-martyrs under the Turkish yoke - all of them. This is a big feast day. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a church dedicated to all the New-martyrs under the Moslems? We have all the icons of the New-martyrs out, and there is not room for them all! They suffered under this horrendous blight which has covered the world - and it is called Islam. It's like the pit of hell opened up… There must be reference to this in the Revelation of St. John! It's like the pit of hell opened up and someone started a religion that is like a plague that you can't stop, or like a fire that you can't put out no matter how hard you try. It just won't be put out. It just grows, and grows, and grows. It is incredibly demonic. The way the demons made this religion is such that it is like a plague that constantly grows, and it devours multitudes wherever it spreads.
My family had to flee from these people because they were coming along to destroy everyone in their wake. They were going from village to village killing all the Orthodox Christians. My family found out about it when the Moslems were in the next village over. Someone from the next village managed to warn them. They barely escaped with their lives. They did not have time to take anything with them. They just ran, and barely escaped. That is how they came to America.
The Moslems' laws were such that if they saw a little boy, or a little girl, and they liked him or her, they could just kidnap the child. As long as the child was Christian, it was legal for a Moslem to do this. And there was nothing the parents could do to get their child back. And the worst part of it, was then they forcibly converted the children to the filthy Moslem religion!
If you broke the law, or was simply accused by a Moslem of having broken a law - whatever crazy law they had - if you were a Christian, you would be punished tremendously. But to avoid the punishment, you could become a Moslem, and then you would be set free. If you refused, most often you were tortured and killed.
Christians lived under this constant tyranny. The Greeks lived under this for five hundred years. It is very sad. During those times, however, many people shone forth through martyrdom. It is a very beautiful thing to glorify God in this way. We have on the Church calendar something like three hundred new martyrs under the Turkish yoke -- one for every day of the year, practically. And these are only those whose martyrdoms have been recorded. There are many, many more we do not have recorded.
These are Orthodox Christians who the Moslems tried to force to deny Christ, or were coerced in many and various ways to take Islam as their religion, and they refused, and for this they were tortured in the most diabolical ways, and killed.
I remember this story in Chios. When I heard it, it was very moving to me. There was some kind of rebellion on the island, so the Moslem armies came and gathered up all the population. They gathered the entire population of the island, and that was in the thousands, for Chios is a big island. The Moslems suppressed the rebellion, but this was not good enough for them. Then they had to take revenge. So they took all the Orthodox Christians to this one pier -- a very long pier that goes way out into the sea. Everybody was made to form a line. The Moslems went into the Orthodox churches and they took out these big icons of Christ and the Mother of God, and they put them at the end of the pier, lying face up, flat down on the ground. They had a boat at the end of the pier, and they had soldiers all around with their swords. All those Orthodox Christians who would step on the icons, and walk! over them to the boat could go free; but all those who refused were immediately beheaded and thrown into the sea. Not one Christian stepped on the icons. The Moslems killed so many people that day that finally, because they saw the hundreds of bodies in the sea, some of their leaders said, "If we kill off everybody on the island, from where can we collect the taxes? If we kill everybody here, who will keep the island going so they can send us our taxes, and the mystica, which they loved." (Mystica is a sweet, white gum which only comes from the trees on Chios. The people bottle it and sell it as the unique crop of their island. The sultan loved it, and therefore gave the Orthodox citizens there a break on their taxes. The rebellion on Chios enraged him, thinking that the citizens of Chios were ungrateful to his "generosity." Usually, the sultan's taxes on Christians kept them in poverty. One of the taxes was cal! led the "head tax." If you were a Christian, if you didn't p ay the head tax, you would lose your head.) So finally they decided that since no one would step on the icons to save their lives, they stopped the massacre.
But this is the tyrannical nature of these people. It's a religion of force. It is a religion of sexual perversion. It's a demonic religion of the occult. And it is a religion which appeals to the most base and lowest fallen nature of man. It suppresses women, making them a material object that can be bought or sold; it makes them like glorified slaves. And you can collect them, and then if you do this, you have a harem. It is pitiful. I could go on and on, but let's get back to the saints.
What other religion besides Orthodoxy could endure this filthy scourge and maintain their Faith? None. Only we have the grace of the Holy Spirit preserving us; and the Orthodox endured it, and many glorified God through their martyrdoms.
It is sad to say that after the five hundred years of Moslem rule came to an end, then the Greeks lost their Faith. They endured the torments and persecutions and held fast to their Faith; but then once the persecutions ended, they lost their Faith and went running to embrace the ways of the West, along with their heresies. There is only a remnant there that remains true to the Faith.
But today we celebrate all the New-martyrs of the Turkish yoke, from Ss. Nicholas, Raphael and Irene, to St. Kosmas of Attolia, to St. Nicholas of Metsovon (whom Fr. Peter was named after at Holy Baptism), St. Seraphim Bishop of Phanar… One can not bring to mind the multitude of Saints that have sacrificed themselves (have been slaughtered) under this oppressive cultural religious system. From all parts of the Byzantine Empire, which was conquered by the Moslems, martyrs have sprung up: from Syria, there were New-martyrs. In Asia Minor, in Greece, in Serbia, in Bulgaria … there were all New-martyrs due to the oppression of this so-called religion.
Church / Monastery News:
Our Metropolitan Valentine, this past week, had another surgical procedure on him to help his prostate. He has departed Colorado, and is on the east coast.
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
This week we continue the Fast of the Holy Apostles, with special note that on Thursday we commemorate the icon "It is Truly Meet", and the Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
In Christ,
+Archbishop Gregory, and those with me.
