Homily on the 22 second Sunday after Pentecost
Galatians 6: 11-18; Luke 8: 26-39.
Life can be is difficult at times - let's face it trying to be a faithful Christian in a world that is often opposed to the message of the Gospel can be tough! We are often blasted with messages from the media as to what they think the message of the Gospel should be.
Often, this message that is preached across the various platforms is but a very poorly constructed parody of the true message of love presented in the Gospel – many of these people have never even read the Scriptures yet they seek to provide moral guidance.
We live in a time where people have embraced an attitude of nihilism where for many people nothing matters and can matter because the meaning of life is nothingness – so they preach. Yet this is far from the message of love that is preached in the Gospel! Christ the God-man came so that all who so desire it may have life and live it to the full (John 10:10).
Christianity is not meant to be a joyless faith we are not here to live in constant misery – if that were the case, we would not joyfully celebrate feasts such as Pascha and the Holy Nativity.
Love is the reality that binds the Kingdom of God together through the gift of grace bestowed by the All-Holy Trinity to His Holy Orthodox Church. Love is He who opened His arms on the Holy Cross so that mankind might be brought back into communion with his Creator.
Saint Justin Martyr puts it nicely when he says in his second apology to the Roman Senate of his day:
“For next to God, we worship and love the Word who is from the unbegotten and ineffable God, since also He became man for our sakes, that becoming a partaker of our sufferings, He might also bring us healing.”
Christ came so that mankind’s broken nature may be healed through love so that it might be returned back to the state it was before the fall of Adam and Eve when we inherited death from Adam and Eve's fall – in the Orthodox Church we do not believe in the concept of original sin as this sin is not ours but rather of that of Adam and Eve. Rather, as Christians we are only responsible for the acts that we do and not the acts of our ancestors.
In today’s Gospel, we have recounted, the account of the exorcism of the demoniac of Gadarenes who had for a long time been possessed by many demons. What this account makes very clear for us is that the evil ones do not have power over our Lord and Saviour for he casts them out by His will for He is the Word of God - the second Person in the All-Holy Trinity (John Chapter 1).
This is why the celebration of days such as Halloween must not be celebrated by faithful Orthodox Christians. The day of Halloween came about in pagan Ireland through the work of the Druids as a way to mock the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour – in a way they were making it clear to the Christian missionaries that they did not believe that Christ was God.
Moreover, there is a tendency these days to dismiss the reality of the fallen angels - many people today do not believe in the fallen powers and will willingly go to seances and ghost hunts seeing these events as entertainment.
Yet the reality is often these people will leave these events and only later realise that they have brought into their lives an unwelcome guest or more.
Often, these hauntings are associated with terrible events which happened in the past which easily attract the attention of the fallen powers (the fallen angels).
Whilst we must not let ourselves be intimidated by the fallen powers; we must not put ourselves in a place where they can easily enter our lives! We as Christians have a shield in Christ who is the fortress in whom we take cover. He is the shield that crushes the attacks of these evil ones!
Furthermore, never forget that the Mysteries of the Church (the Holy Sacraments) are the armour with which we cover our souls from the attacks of these evil ones. Each of the Holy Mysteries plays its part in the joining of the Christian to the All-Holy Trinity.
In Baptism we put on Christ (Galatians 3: 27) and in the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist we are joined in a profound way to our Lord and Saviour. For it is through this union that we truly have life within us (John 6:54).
Please note that unlike Christians in the West, we do not limit the Mysteries to only seven - rather, we acknowledge that every blessing given us by God through His Church is a Holy Mystery. Meaning that whilst we have seven great Mysteries which are given us for our salvation, we are not to limit He who is unlimited and whose depths cannot be fathomed by our small minds!
Saint Clement of Alexandria says this regarding the Holy Eucharist:
"’Eat my flesh,’ [Jesus] says, ‘and drink my blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children" (The Instructor of Children 1:6:43:3 [A.D. 191])”.
This means, that by partaking in the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist we are given the graces that we need to not only live a good Christian life but also be united to Him who is Love personified through His incarnation.
This is why Saint Clement uses the word intimate here because we are brought into the deepest possible union with our Lord and Saviour through partaking in the Holy Mystery of Holy Communion. Saint Clement is making clear here for us that through the Eucharist Christ’s Bride the Church is united to the Bridegroom in a covenant of love - which is deeper even than the covenant of love a bride and groom enter into through the Holy Mystery of Matrimony.
We by partaking of these Holy Mysteries are brought into a deep spiritual communion with our Lord and Saviour for when we approach the Holy Chalice, we take our seat at the Mystical Wedding Banquet of the Lord to His Bride the Church.
Therefore, being members of this Mystical Body each of us is brought into the deepest possible communion with Him who is the Bridegroom who seeks only to love, cherish and protect His Bride - us His Church.
Never feel that the All-Holy Trinity has left us alone for it is through these great Mysteries of His Church that we are provided for by our Heavenly Father.
Christ makes it clear in Matthew 6: 25 -34 that we are to have full faith in the All-Holy Trinity for He will provide for us for Christ says:
“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour
or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Whilst it might seem prudent to worry and let stress overtake us it has been proven by study after study, that stress has many negative impacts on us both mentally and physically – so it is spiritually - for the evil one likes to use our fears against us to try and create a wedge between us and the All-Holy Trinity!
Therefore, never forget that we are loved by the All-Holy Trinity and if we have faith He will provide for our needs.
Finally, let us pray that like the Saints we may be gifted with a deep faith. Let us focus on the lives of the great Saints so that we can learn how to live lives that are focused on loving God and our neighbors for these are the two commandments that fulfill the Law (Mark 12: 28-31).
Let us pray that we will be able to learn to live in the moment seeing where God’s hand is guiding us for, He is always gently leading us along our way.
Never forget that you are loved by the All-Holy Trinity, despite your faults for He is the Lord of all who loves His creation – especially man- for He was incarnated, died, rose and ascended into Heaven so that we might have life not condemnation!
Comments