Homily on the 28th Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 17:12-19.
In today’s Gospel we have recounted the healing of the ten lepers what is clear from this account is that only one of the lepers was grateful for the healing granted him by Christ. Why is this important? Firstly, the only leper that returned was a Samaritan. The Samaritans were a people of mixed heritage that were not looked favourably upon by the first century Jews as they only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament - also, they had a separate temple on Mount Gerazim. This is incredibly significant as the people who by all accounts who should have come back to thank the Lord (the other nine) did not. Rather, the man that was considered to be an outcast by mainstream Jewish society was the only one that came back to thank the Lord! How many times is it this way in life – being that often times the people that show the most gratitude are the very people society looks down upon!
As Christians it is important that we are always grateful for what the Lord does for us. Sometimes life can be difficult, and it is in these moments of difficulty that many Christians ask God for help. However, how many people when they pray rather than making another request spend a moment saying to the lord – “thank you Lord for all that you have done for me”? I remember the moment that this realisation occurred to me in my mid-twenties – I began to realise that I spent much time asking God for this and for that and not much time thanking him. Nonetheless in this moment of epiphany (moment of realisation) I remember thinking to myself, “I really do not know how often I have just spent a moment just thanking God for all he has done and does for me”! This is why attending the Divine Liturgy is one of the greatest acts of gratitude a Christian can make to the Holy Trinity for it is in the liturgy that we the Church offer the great offering of the Holy Anaphora - the great prayer of thanksgiving which leads up to the epiclesis where the All Holy Spirit changes the bread and wine into the very Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ! It is in this Mystical Heavenly Banquet that we the Body of Christ (united as one with the priest directly facing God) offer our thanks and gratitude to God for what he does for each of us individually as well as what he does for us collectively the Church. This is why in today’s Epistle (Colossians 1:12-18) - we have from verse 10 (the verse preceding the Epistle) through to verse 12 - Saint Paul praying for the Colossians in this manner –
“That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light”.
It is clear from these verses that Saint Paul is praying that the Colossians will be given the grace through the All Holy Spirit to comprehend that it is through good works and the giving of thanks to the Father (through prayer expressing gratitude and partaking in the Holy Mysteries) that they will be worthy members of the Communion of Saints.
Why is thanking the All Holy Trinity and partaking in the Holy Mysteries so important? The Church on earth is the Mystical Body of Christ meaning that through the Holy Mysteries (the first being baptism) one is joined to this Mystical Body and becomes part of it. Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:27 makes this clear as he states:
“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it”.
In the following verse St Paul notes that whilst we are all members of the Body of Christ we each have a different role in that said Body – meaning that each person is unique and fulfills
a God given role in Christ’s Body the Church (some bishops, priests, deacons, and laymen etc). Without all these important roles the Church would not be able to properly function and offer witness to the world the truth of Christ’s much needed Gospel of love.
How then does being a member of Christ’s body then relate to the Communion of Saints? Well think of it in this way the All Holy Trinity is eternal -beyond the constraints of time and place always existing never changing. Following on from this the Orthodox Church through the power of the All Holy Spirit is then Christ’s Body and as the Lord is eternal (beyond time and place) – it then follows that there is the Heavenly Church consisting of all our holy and righteous ancestors who have gone before us in the faith (the saints who surround God’s throne who are mystically connected to the earthly Church through the power of the All Holy Spirit).
My dear people this is why we pray to the saints asking them to intercede to the Holy Trinity on our behalf because they stand before God’s throne and as result of this can intercede on behalf of His Earthly Church. This is why the Protestant sects have gotten praying to the saints all wrong – we do not worship the saints rather we the Church make intercession to the saints as they stand before the All Holy Trinity and can make intercession to God on our behalf! If the Communion of Saints is powerless to help the earthly Church through intercession, then what is the point of prayer? If this were the case one would have to concede that prayer accomplishes nothing – praying to the saints or praying directly to God! It is clear that this is not the case as many miraculous happenings have occurred throughout history as a result of holy people in faith praying to the saints asking them to intercede to the All Holy Trinity on their behalf (a book detailing all such miraculous occurrences could never stop being written as such miracles continue to happen to this day)!
Furthermore, this is why Christ is very clear that no one can come to the Father except through Him as He states in John 14:6 –
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
What He means here is that to come to the Father one needs to be part of His Mystical Body (the Church). It is through the Church (Christ’s Mystical Body) that men are joined to Christ through the Holy Mysteries(Sacraments) - meaning that members of the Church can only come to the Father through their membership of Christ’s Mystical Body the Church (through participation in the Holy Mysteries). It then follows that the Father does indeed hear the intersessions of his individual people (individual parts of Christ’s Mystical Body) as well as He hears the prayers of his collective people (Christ’s Mystical Body as a whole being His Church). This is the great mystery of the Body of Christ as it is through one’s membership of Christ’s Mystical Body (the Church) that one can make prayers for one’s individual needs and rest assured that they will be heard! This is then why Christ is clear in Matthew 18:19-20 that –
“… if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name I am there in the midst of them.”
This again alludes to Christ’s Mystical body the Church meaning that when it (as a corporate whole) asks the Father for anything with genuine faith - the Father will make it happen. This is why praying to the saints in faith for ones needs works because they the saints are present before the All Holy Trinity. Furthermore, it is through the saint’s membership of Christ’s Mystical Body (the Church) that they the saints have come to the Father and it is in virtue of being in communion with the Father (through the Way being Christ) that the saints can intercede for the needs of Christ’s Mystical Body!
Moreover, this is why the Divine Liturgy is the most perfect prayer that the Church (Christ’s Mystical Body) can offer as it the most perfect act of gratitude that the Church can give to the Father. In this act of gratitude, the Church not only offers to God the whole mystery of our salvation being Christ’s – Incarnation(birth), death, resurrection and ascension into heaven (as all these moments are Mystically present in the Holy Mysteries). Also, it is a moment of supplication to the All Holy Trinity where the Body of Christ the Church (both as individuals and as a whole) petition the Lord for its needs. This is why at the Divine Liturgy the Deacon continually directs the people in prayer through his Litanies to remind the people that this is the perfect moment to petition the All Holy Trinity for all of their needs.
Finally, this is why it is said that when a priest celebrates the Holy Mysteries the Communion of Saints is mystically present where ever the Mysteries are being celebrated - precisely because they are members of Christ’s Mystical Body the Orthodox Church!
Let our prayer be this week that we may always be grateful for the many wonderous things the Lord does for us and that being aware of these many things that we may never stop being grateful.
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