Homily on the 1st Sunday of Great Lent
Today we celebrate the feast of the triumph of orthodoxy, where iconoclasm came to an end in the year 787.
For the past couple of day’s the Archbishop and I have been painting the icon of icons; where our Lord ascends the wood of the cross out of pure love for us the work of His hands. Thus, shattering the gates of hades, restoring grace to those in the tombs and putting an to death and its hold over humanity.
On contemplating the meaning of the triumph of orthodoxy and it’s liberation, it brings me back to my conversion to the faith which is orthodox and safe guards it’s teaching and its mysteries.
As a young member of the Roman institution, I felt wonderful when I would worship God in the form of the mass and venerate our All Holy Mother Mariam.
However, as I progressed in years so did my train of thought. Most clergy I would speak to, in regards to spiritual matters would identify certain issues as a direct result of sin. There was so much doom and gloom, it was so consumed by this notion of sin, that it totally forgot or disregarded the whole point of the incarnation, the reunion between God and us His creation!
Moreover, when I saw the changes within the liturgics, that was another alarm bell for me. I thought to myself who are these people changing such ancient practises? Why?
The sense of sacred was no longer there! Any person adult or child could ascend the steps leading to the altar, (which long ago was the holy of holies and can only be entered by ordained clergy by the laying on of hands within the rite of ordination) and irreverently touch that which belongs for the glorification of God.
Thus, when I had reached the age of 21, I had been fed up with the circus act and made the decision to stop attending services and practice my faith. I harboured anger within my heart for several years; trying to look for another religion which gave true and reverent worship to God, you name it and I looked it up. But there was one problem I couldn’t denie the fact that Christ is the Son of the Living God. I was stuck in a real jam with no one to turn to and no where to go. I felt lost, just existing not living.
Four years ago, I was at a rosary. The grandfather of a friend of mine had passed away.
The priest that was holding the service was non other then our now Archbishop. I was hooked on his words of salvation resurrection and the shear love that God has for us His creation.
Hence, after service I approached him and told him how wonderful his sermon was and were his church was. He then to my surprise told me he was an orthodox priest and at that moment I knew I had found my salvation! It was the orthodox church, a faith that I never gave a thought to, firstly because I thought it was all Greek and secondly because I thought they where rigorists who impose there values on others.
Moreover, as I have stated in past homilies, when we don’t know something we begin to make it up and concoct our own fable!
Thus after several meetings with the Archbishop, he then made me a catechumen where he taught me the faith, liturgics and all I know to this present day.
With every grace bestowed upon me in the mysteries of the Church, I remember feeling the physical grace of the Holy Spirit from the catechumenate to baptism and to my ordination to the deaconate, each time intensifying.
Finally, the triumph of orthodoxy is truly the end of the era of iconoclasm but for us it is God liberating us out of the prisons which we at times wilfully place ourselves in and the ones people put us in. It is the feast of our returning home to our origins, the true orthodox faith!
“He who has ears, let him hear!” Mt 11:15
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