To Those Who Deny That History Repeats Itself

Today, 05Mar on the New Calendar, is the Feast day of the Martyr John of Bulgaria.  For those following the happenings within the world around us now, the following should bring chills to the body, and strength to the spirit.

Pray for peace in the world!!  Pray for persecuted brother and sister Christians!!  Pray for their persecutors!!!

Fr. B

                                                        ------------  +  ------------

The holy New Martyr John was born in Bulgaria in 1775.  Since fanatical Muslims believed that they would be assured of an eternal 'paradise' where they would enjoy beautiful virgins and an abundance of food if they could force Christians to deny Christ and follow Mohammed, they spread no effort to convert Christians through flattery or by threats of death.

When John was still a boy, he fell with Muslim companions.  Through various ways, he was led to renounce Christ and to follow Islam.  He came to his senses when he was about sixteen, and was stricken with grief at his denial of Christ.  He fled to Mount Athos, to the Great Lavra.  There he spent his time in repentance under the guidance of an Elder.

He lived a monastic life of great strictness for three years, yet his conscience continued to trouble him.  With the blessing of his Elder, he decided to travel to Constantinople to wipe out his apostasy by confessing Christ in a public way and by shedding his blood.

The young monk dressed himself as a Turk, which a Christian was not permitted to do.  Arriving in Constantinople, he went directly to the Church of Hagia Sophia, which had been turned into a mosque.  Before the Muslims gathered there, he made the sign of the Cross and began to recite Christian prayers.  Then he said in a loud voice that he had been born a Christian, but had fallen into error and renounced Christ.  Now, he declared, he wished to renounce the false religion of Mohammed in order to follow Christ once more.

The Turks fell into a frenzied rage when they heard his words.  They seized him and began to torture him in various ways.  'Renounce Christ,' they said, 'and return to Islam, or you will be killed.'

Saint John replied, 'Without Christ, there is no salvation!'

The furious crown dragged the Saint out into the courtyard to behead him.  In this way, Saint John received the crown of martyrdom in 1784 at the age of nineteen.

The Expulsion From Paradise

We Liturgically celebrated this event two Sundays ago, on the Sunday of Forgiveness.  But here is the event inside of today's prescribed readings, from Genesis 3:

"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.  And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever' -- therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.  So He drove out the man; and He placed Cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life." (Gen 3:22-24)

For those who deny the Triune nature of God, take note of the first sentence.  To Whom is God speaking?  If He says, "the man has become like one of Us," Who then is part of "Us"?  Is it not God speaking to God in Trinity?

But the true beauty of this passage remains for us to uncover, for God then, in His discourse with Himself, reveals His plan for the eternal nature of man.  It was always His plan for man to be with Him eternally.  It was only Adam's (and Eve's) sin that brought physical death to them.  But sooner or later, God would have shared with them not only of the Tree of Knowledge, but also of the Tree of Life.

It is fascinating that in this passage it is Cherubim who guard the entrance to where the Tree of Life is to be found.  Why is this 'fascinating'?

Consider the Divine Liturgy.  It is the Cherubic Hymn that "guards" the entrance of the gifts we bring so that God can, through the Holy Spirit, effect their change into the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior.  And it is us here on earth, you and me, who share in the guarding of this entrance to this very day.  For we sing, "Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, and who sing the thrice-Holy hymn to the Life Creating Trinity now lay aside all earthly cares, that we may receive the King of all, Who comes invisibly upborne by the angelic hosts.  Alleluia!"

"Mystically" we represent these very angels, who have guarded the "Tree of Life" since mankind's expulsion from Paradise.  How God allows this is truly a mystery, beyond our human ability to understand.  And if only we can set aside all that ties us, binds us to the cares of this world, then we may be found worthy to receive the King of all, our Lord and Savior, His very Body and Blood.  For the Cross is the Tree of Life, and the fruit of the Cross is the Body and Blood of our Lord.  He came to share the Tree of Life with us, so that we might again receive the promise of dwelling with God in Paradise forever!

What is the 'price' of our entrance, to receive He Who is priceless?  Repentance for our own sins.  Forgiveness of those who have sinned against us.  Caring for the 'least of His brethren.'  Loving neighbor as ourselves.  The requirements are simple, easy.  Loving is so very much easier than hating.  Repentance is so much easier than carrying guilt.  The path may be narrow, but our Lord has made it obvious, not hard to find.

Our bodies are in the world, expelled from Paradise.  But through the Tree of Life, through the Eucharist, our spirits need not dwell there as well.  And where the spirit is, there is the heart.....

On the Sunday of Orthodoxy - 2015

The following was delivered as today's (01Mar15) homily in Hudson.  We pray that you will find it helpful.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Glory to Jesus Christ.

My brothers and sisters in Christ:

Together we’re going to go to a couple of places today that other faithful were taken by two who far exceed the humble abilities of your priest to preach on a topic.  In 1985, Fr. Schmemann gave a sermon on this day that is perhaps one of the most moving we’ve read.  So, in part we’ll go to school today at the lectern of Fr. Alexander.  In 1984, Metropolitan Philip gave a sermon on this day, and it charged the American people with a solemn duty to also carry Orthodoxy forward.  We’ll paraphrase from both of these sources as best the Spirit allows us.  It’s not unworth the investment to find the originals of both, and I’d encourage any to do so if you’re interested.

The Holy Orthodox Church celebrates this day on this Sunday of the Great Fast every year.  It was in 787 at the Seventh Ecumenical Council that the victory of the Church over the iconoclasts occurred.  But it wasn’t until a regional council of the Church was called in Constantinople in 843 that this particular celebration was instituted.  At that time, Empress Theodora, her son Michael III, Patriarch Methodius, and monks and clergy restored to the temple Hagia Sophia the iconography that had been removed.  From that day, on this first Sunday of the Great Fast, the Holy Church has celebrated this victory. 

So in a very special way, today is a feast of the past.  And certainly if we are celebrating it today, it is a feast of the present.  But we, as the faithful of the Church today, need to take our place in the life of the Church to assure that the feast will also be a feast of the future.

While the focus of the Triumph of Orthodoxy which we celebrate today is that of the use of icons, there are many “triumphs” in Holy Orthodoxy.  The first and foremost is the reversal of the ultimate defeat that became the most glorious victory.  This of course is the death of God the Son on the Cross, only to have that defeat become the most glorious victory in the history of the world – the triumphant Resurrection.  This is the foundation of all that we are as Orthodox Christians.

The next victory is not unlike the first.  For our Lord chose twelve simple men, uneducated, unskilled, and He gave to them the Holy Spirit, and the power to preach about that defeat turned into victory.  He sent them to the whole world to preach and baptize and build up this Church.  These men were hated, and all save one martyred.  But even their blood was another victory, for the Church grew, until it filled the universe with the True Faith.  Ultimately, the earthly kingdom that sought to snuff out the fledgling Church was converted to the Church.  It only took 300 years for the Roman Empire to become the Holy Roman Empire.

Throughout this whole time persecutions arose.  As did heresies.  As did enemies of the Church.  There were attempts to change this Faith, to change the truth.  But holy people, men, women, and even children defended the truth.  Martyrs all, the Church is washed in their blood.  All of this happened before the council and the events which instituted today’s celebration.  But since then, there have been more such trials. 

And so we ask ourselves today:  Do all the victories of Orthodoxy lie in the past?  Fr. Schmemann makes this observation:  “My dear friends, if the triumph of Orthodoxy belongs to the past only, if there is nothing else for us to do but commemorate, to repeat to ourselves how glorious was the past, then Orthodoxy is dead. But we are here now to witness to the fact that Orthodoxy not only is not dead but also that it is once more and forever celebrating its own triumph — the triumph of Orthodoxy. We don’t have to fight heresies among ourselves, but we have other things that once more challenge our Orthodox faith.”

The challenges that Fr. Alexander outlined are those from that era – a church united by a core faith and divine services and councils, but otherwise ‘divided’ by ethnicities.  We are now thirty years after this proclamation, and what has changed? 

One change is the movement associated with the Assemblies of Bishops throughout the world.  This is a precursor to a new council, scheduled for 2016 in Constantinople (Istanbul).  And that is a momentous and wonderful development for the Church.

Unfortunately, the challenges that face the Church today are more than those associated with ethnicity and the lack of a unified council for more than 12 centuries.  Christians, and many of them Orthodox Christians, are being slaughtered in the political and religious press of Islam throughout the Middle East.  This is perhaps an even greater issue for the Church than the issues intended to be discussed when the upcoming council was first considered years ago.

Still, a unified Orthodox presence worldwide is a stronger advocate for the faithful of all countries and jurisdictions, and therefore, the dream of Orthodox unity around the world is a dream that we need to bring to fruition.  Metropolitan Philip’s address in 1984 contained a passionate plea along these very lines.  Here are a few words from his address.

“It is indeed astonishing that we have not had an ecumenical council since AD 787, despite the many changes which the Church has encountered during the past 1197 years. I shall mention but a few of these global events which affected the life of the Church directly or indirectly since the last Ecumenical Council: the 1054 schism between East and West; the fall of Constantinople; the European Renaissance with all its implications; the Protestant Reformation; the discovery of the New World; the French Revolution; the Industrial Revolution; the Communist Revolution and its impact on the Orthodox Church; the First and Second World Wars; the dawning of the nuclear age; the exploration of space and all the scientific and technological discoveries which baffle the mind….  You might ask, what is the reason behind this Orthodox stagnation? Did our history freeze after AD 787? There is no doubt that the rise of Islam, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, and the fall of Tsarist Russia have contributed much to our past and present stagnation. The sad condition of our mother churches across the ocean is indicative of this reality….  Have we then lost all hope for an Orthodox renaissance? Is there not a place on this planet where we can dream of a better Orthodox future? I believe that there is a place, and this place is the North American continent. We have a tremendous opportunity in this land to dream dreams and see visions, only if we can put our house in order. Where in the whole world today can you find seven million free Orthodox except in North America?  We are no longer a church of immigrants; the first Orthodox liturgy was celebrated in this country before the American Revolution. Many of our Orthodox young people have died on the battlefields of various wars, defending American ideals and principles. We have contributed much to the success of this country in the fields of medicine, science, technology, government, education, art, entertainment, and business.  We consider ourselves Americans, and we are proud of it—except when we go to church, we suddenly become Greeks, Russians, Arabs, and Albanians.”

Here today, inside of St. Herman’s, we still suffer from this schizophrenia, in that we are the home of people with Greek, Slavic, Russian, Serbian, and speaking for my wife, even a little hillbilly background, and we worship under a Bulgarian omophorion by the grace of God.  And please, this is not a complaint – rather, it is simply a statement of fact.

This unity needs to be found so that the voice of Holy Orthodoxy becomes meaningful within our society.  You've all watched the news.  When moral issues arise, you'll find news reporters seeking clarification from Catholic and Protestant clergy.  But where are the Orthodox?  Why is the voice of the True Faith silent in these important discussions?  It is this way because we have marginalized ourselves by our ethnic divisions.

Metropolitan Philip ended his homily with his own reference to Fr. Schmemann, using these words.  “One can almost visualize the glorious and blessed day when forty Orthodox bishops of America will open their first synod in New York or Chicago or Pittsburgh with the hymn, ‘Today the grace of the Holy Spirit assembled us together,’ and will appear to us not as ‘representatives’ of Greek, Russian, or any other ‘jurisdictions’ and interests but as the very icon, the very ‘Epiphany’ of our unity within the body of Christ; when each of them and all together will think and deliberate only in terms of the whole, putting aside all particular and national problems, real and important as they may be. On that day, we shall ‘taste and see’ the oneness of the Orthodox Church in America.”

It is a vision not only for America, but for Orthodoxy in the entire world.  Pray that our hierarchs will be moved by the Holy Spirit to achieve this unity in Holy Orthodoxy in these coming years!  That would be the next in a great series of triumphs for the Church!

Glory to Jesus Christ!