In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. There's
more than sufficient room in this gulf between
you and me. Did you notice at the end of the
Gospel, After the blind man received his sight,
what he did? He followed Christ. That's really
the main point of that story. But that leads
me into speaking about St. Mark of Ephesus today.
But let me back up before I talk about St. Mark.
There are incidents in the history of our Holy
Orthodox Church in which your members have not
followed Christ very well. Some by sin, some
by heresy. I'll say that sin, which brings dishonor
to the church, for sure, when it's public, and
hurts the person that does it, and hurts those
around that person, It's a tragic thing, but
we repent of it. And there's possible repentance.
But heresy and error is a repression of the truth.
And that is very harmful, not just to those in
the immediate vicinity, but going down and down
and down the rows. Sometimes the church's members
have acted poorly, sometimes faithlessly. Sometimes
with ambition more than charity. And mind you,
I'm not talking about anybody here. Just so you
know. I'm talking about history of our church.
Some people have acted cruelly, forgetting the
love of God and the neighbor. There are petty
incidents in the history. And there are profoundly
disturbing incidents. Remember this. The true
church is not yet the perfect church, humanly
speaking. I remember, now this is a petty event.
I was a student in Boston going to school. This
is 1979. And at the annual meeting, you know,
where we gathered together, a man looked at the
financial report, which is extremely simple.
The church was rather poor. and raised his hand
and wondered why the altar spent so much money.
And the priest said, well, wine, incense, etc.,
etc. And he said, wine? Just use water, it's
free. Now, it seems foolish, but lest I judge
that person, I've said and thought and done far
more foolish things to bring dishonor upon the
church. It was disheartening. I was only 22.
And there are profound betrayals of the church.
Abuse. Persecution brought upon the faithful
by those who used to be in the church, specifically
during Soviet times. Repression of Jewish people
in Russia in pogroms. Crushing taxes and so forth.
It's not much different from Western Europe,
but it's profoundly disturbing because it was
committed by the members of the church. Yet,
the church is Jesus Christ's. He said, the gates
of Hades will not prevail against it. Scripture
calls the church the bride of Christ, the counsel
of the upright, the pillar and the ground of
truth. Scripture says it's the congregation of
saints, the body of Christ, God's building, the
family of God in heaven and on earth, the dwelling
place of God and man. And more and more is said
in the scriptures about the church. Because the
divine, the sanctifying, the deifying grace of
God is given in the holy mysteries of the church
by Christ for our transformation. our repentance,
our salvation. There are those that turn aside
from that, some of us sometimes. The church is
comprised of sinners seeking healing and union
with Jesus Christ. Sometimes we act against the
church. Sometimes it's petty. Sometimes it's
profoundly disturbing and tragic. Against the
commandments. Against love. Against the truth.
But it cannot stain or corrupt the holiness and
the truth of the church. Any more than me turning
on a flashlight is going to change the power
of the sun in the sky. The church is not a worldly
organization. which functions according to accomplished
worldly goals, whatever they might be, good ones
or bad ones. She continually acts to bring us
into true communion with the Father through our
Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit
to make us become by grace what Jesus Christ
is by nature. She is God's gift. And our response,
she is the new creation. The continuance of Pentecost
in this sorrowful world. Not of this world, but
for this world. The true church, we confess,
is the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church believes
this, confesses this. The fathers of the church.
Teach it. The councils show it. The saints, the
liturgy, all assure us of this. Yet still, we
are broken people. I want to offer you this theological
word today in light of St. Mark of Ephesus, in
honor of this great saint. Because the saint
we celebrate today, January 19th, because...
He alone stood for the truth against ambitious
men of the church who would make a sacrifice
for expediency to accomplish worldly goals, knowing
that they were doing that, knowing that they
were signing something away that they didn't
believe in. They were ready to sell off orthodoxy
for military support. In the church, there have
been, and there always will be, leaders who betray.
St. Mark was born in the year 1392 to devout
Orthodox Christian parents in the city of Constantinople.
These were dark and dangerous and difficult days
in the city of Constantinople and in the whole
Eastern Roman Empire. They didn't call themselves
Byzantine. That's a later term the historians
came up with. The city was pressed on all sides
by the powerful Turkish army. St. Mark, given
the name Emmanuel, do you remember what that
name means? God is with us. Acquired an excellent
education, and he began in his early 20s to work
for the patriarch. But by age 26, he gave it
up. Even though he had this great education,
he gave up an academic and bureaucratic career
to become a monk, to devote his life to prayer
and to the love of God and neighbor. He matured
spiritually in the contemplative life, in prayer
and worship, in the practice of the Jesus Prayer.
He was called to participate, not long after.
in a council, a council that was hopeful by all
sides, seeking union with Rome. And this council
would take place in 1438 in Florence, Italy.
So Mark, the monk, was consecrated a bishop so
he could be part of the delegation. He went to
Italy, now get this, with 25 bishops and a staff
of 700. This is more than, you know, our government
sends to delegations. But the hopes for a union
were very high. It's not a history class that
I'm giving today, so I'm not going to speak of
what happened at that council, the teachings
and the issues that were on the table. Let's
just call them heresies, and the Orthodox were
being forced to accept them. Difficult negotiation.
And everyone signed the document of union with
the Pope, Eugenius, in the year 1439, except
for one. Mark of Ephesus. What was one man already
fatally ill with cancer? In comparison with the
whole multitude of Greek dignitaries, headed
by the Emperor John, the Greek metropolitans,
and Pope Eugenius and his, the glory that they
saw there. There's a Russian proverb that says,
one alone on the field is no warrior. One alone
on the field is no warrior. However, in this,
one man was represented the whole mysterious
truth of the Orthodox Church. This is why when
Pope Eugenius was solemnly shown by his cardinals,
the paper, the Act of Union, signed by all the
Greek delegates, he could not find the signature
of Mark, Bishop of Ephesus. And what did he say?
He said, so we have accomplished nothing. St.
Mark returned with the delegation to Constantinople,
but would not serve with the Unionists. The churches
were empty in Constantinople, even though it
was Great Lent, because the people knew that
this was a sellout of their faith. The monastics
and the village priests rejected the union. Mark
was imprisoned for two years, although again,
seriously ill, and freed only in 1442. He died
June 23rd, the year 1443. four at the age of
52. One of his contemporaries wrote this about
his death. Our sorrow was increased yet more
by the fact that he was taken away from our embrace
before he had grown old in the virtues which
he had acquired, before we could sufficiently
enjoy his presence in the full power of this
passing life. No defect. nor cunning had the
power to shake his mind, nor to lead astray his
soul. So strongly was it nourished and tempered
by virtue. Even if the vault of heaven should
fall, even then the righteousness of this man
would not be shaken. His strength would not fail,
his soul would not be moved, and his thought
would not be impaired by such difficult trials.
The so -called union did not last long. The bishops
that signed it were rejected by their flock,
and the next and the last emperor of Constantinople,
named Constantine, rejected it in days before
the city fell to the Turks in May 29, 1453. Brothers
and sisters, be strengthened in your faith. Be
not shaken. Keep the truth. Make a good confession
of faith. Be careful in how you live your Orthodox
life. Why? Because the grace of God then is poured
out on us, not as reward, but because we stand
then in the midst of the saints with them. There's
a story. of St. Herman of Alaska about some Russian
sailors who were in Kodiak or Spruce Island where
he lived. You know, he was not a priest, but
he had a chapel. And he was praying all the time,
and he invited the sailors to come to his chapel
and to pray with him the ninth hour or whatever
it might have been. One of the sailors said,
Oh, Abba, Father Herman, we can't go. We're sinners.
We can't enter into your holy place after what
we've done. And St. Herman said to the sailor,
that's good. That's a qualification. You can't
come to church unless you are a sinner. Unless
you are a sinner, you can't come. The church
is not for those who think they're righteous.
There aren't any anyway, except those who are
saved and holy and righteous because of faith,
because of grace. And any person, he said, who
is holy and righteous because of faith and grace
would never consider himself a saint, but would
confess himself a sinner, as you heard in St.
Paul's marvelous letter to Timothy today. So
St. Herman said to the sailor again, being a
sinner is what qualifies you to be a member of
the church. You can't be one if you're not a
sinner. But brothers and sisters, you can repent
of sin. Just don't repress the truth. To our
Lord, who is the truth, be glory and honor now
and ever, to ages of ages.