There have been times in my life as a priest
when I have served alone. A couple weeks ago,
I did the Akathis on a Friday night. Of course,
I prayed for all those who are absent for honorable
reasons. There have been times which I have served
Divine Liturgy with just one singer. congregation
but this is the first time that i have served
divine liturgy on a sunday with empty church
you can hear the echo in the building but this
morning before the liturgy began i took all the
commemoration books and prayed oh there must
be over a thousand names so i don't feel as if
I've been abandoned or alone. I'm reminded of
the story of Father Dimitris Gagathakis, a very
saintly priest who died in the mid -20th century,
I suppose it was. No, had to be the 60s or 70s.
He complained in the altar that the angels were
crowding him and he needed more room. Get out
of my way, I have to go out the door now, he
said. But we have an empty church today, but
many of you are watching, and I feel your prayers
too. Normally I would try to aim to speak for
10 minutes, but you haven't seen me much, and
I haven't seen you in a long time, so forgive
me if I go on a bit longer than usual with my
words not being... very used to media. I'm not
sure how that will carry, but may God grant help
to me and discernment and the words that he wants.
We now especially look for stability in our life
assurance, don't we? Of course, job security
is important. Our family being stable with a
place to live. The lights go on. The water comes
out of the faucet. There's food to eat. Our health
care is reliable. And we have reasonable expectations
for every day. But now, I think more than ever,
we see the real nature of things, the real nature
of this world, which we are blind to for the
most part because we settle into our good routine,
which God blesses us. Make no mistake, I understand
that. But our life is in flux. This world is
ever -changing, temporal, unstable, and it can
be very scary. Right now there are spiritual
and emotional and psychological earthquakes going
on in the people of this world. There's dissatisfaction
for us, too, maybe with the course of action
that the church doors are locked. But it's for
good reason, my dear friends. We do it voluntarily.
No one forces us. The world now, and has always
had in itself, in itself, because it's a fallen
world, nothing to lay hold of. Christians experience
all the turmoil, all the suffering that everyone
else does. We are not exempt. but we can also
experience the peace of God in our heart. Our
goal in our life is not to make peace with this
world in that way that I'm speaking of, to keep
things from falling apart, to hold it together,
to find a comfortable place in life. That can't
be done too well here on earth anyway. And it
can't be permanent. And those who seek after
that is their goal. I'm not saying we shouldn't
ask for God as a blessing for that stability
and goodness and blessing, material blessing.
But if we seek after it, then we have done two
things. We have ignored the Lord's command. Seek
first the kingdom of God. And secondly, we will
find out what St. Isaac the Syrian wrote about.
He said this. when the world completely strips
a man of everything and carries him in a coffin
out of his house on the day of his death, then
the man finds out that the world is a flatterer
and a liar. The world does everything it can
to help us spend our lives chasing after a worldly
good, seeking that first. Seeking the blessings
first, rather than the Creator. And we forget
about God and his love and our eternal soul and
the life of the age to come and the resurrection.
We forget about our sins. Today we heard the
epistle. We heard two epistles striking in how
relevant they are, especially the second one
from Ephesians. Awake, O sleeper. Redeem the
time. Be sober. In the epistle to the Hebrews
we read that we have a sure and steadfast anchor
of the soul. A hope that enters into the inner
shrine behind the curtain where Jesus has gone
as forerunner on our behalf. A sure and steadfast
anchor of the soul. Only one is holy. Only one
is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the
Father. Amen. We sing, and only God is the same
yesterday, today, and forever, as the epistle
of the Hebrews teaches us. We have a sure and
steadfast anchor of the soul. Now, a normal anchor
makes the ship stationary, keeps it in one place,
and that's not a very good image for the spiritual
life. Although stability and habit are good,
but that's a different story. I've read that
the anchor that's been written about in Hebrews
chapter 6 is a different kind of anchor. This
anchor is called a kedge, K -E -D -G -E. And
a kedge is an anchor used to pull a sea vessel
forward. That process is called kedging. I've
learned this from listening to Father Patrick
Reardon in a sermon some years ago. To kedge
a vessel is to place the anchor at some distance
from the ship and pull towards it. The ship moves
forward, even against the current, and is winched
into a particular heading, held steady against
the tide. The kedge anchor holds the vessel fast
in the proper direction. Sailing ships use the
kedge anchor when becalmed or drifting. On a
ship, the whole good of an anchor depends on
the ship not losing contact with it. Just so.
Hope cannot be hypothetical. A sure hope in an
anchor, we say. We must be tied to it, holding
fast. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we hear
that the anchor of hope has already been carried
out in front of us, and that anchor is Jesus
Christ. He is already behind the veil. He has
been crucified, buried, died, died and buried
and rose again, ascended into heaven and sits
at the right hand of the Father. He's gone beyond
the veil of death and we that are baptized sit
with him as he sits in glory. We are united to
him. Jesus is drawing him, hedging us to himself.
to the full glory of the kingdom of God. And
right now, this moment, we are joined to him
and ever maintain our proper position and direction
by pulling towards him to the labor that we have
to assert on our part, keeping the prow of our
life, our ship, ever drawn toward him and with
him. This gives us assurance because we can experience
God's love this way, his providence. What did
Jesus say to the apostles about the man whose
faith was foundering on the rocks of his pain
and despair? You heard that story today from
the Gospel of Mark. The boy throwing himself
into fire and into water. The man didn't know
what to do. The apostles couldn't help. We can't
be very tempted by those who are spiritually
weak like ourselves, can't we? We can lose our
equilibrium. if we focus on them. Do you remember
what Jesus said to the apostles at that incident?
He said, when they asked, why couldn't they cast
it out? He said, prayer and fasting. Prayer and
fasting. Lent. We hear about the coming resurrection,
the crucifixion and the resurrection too, but
we really don't understand fasting. Maybe because
we don't trust it. Because we don't do it. to
the extent to find Christ and hunger for God
and our own mortality and weakness in that fasting.
But the Lord's words are pure words, says the
psalmist. And the prayer and the fasting is the
kedge. It's the winch we use to maintain our
direction, to advance our course. That's how
this anchor works. That's how we're going to
maintain union with Jesus Christ, especially
now, during this time. And we learn, like this
man in the gospel, that our faith is weak. And
this is good news to know, because we can do
something about it. It's a valuable lesson. And
then we can stop pushing our own will all the
time. We've placed ourselves in God's hands.
We say to him, Lord and Master of my life. And
then, A situation comes and we've given him authority.
He doesn't take it. We give it to him. Authority
over our life. Because love couldn't bear to
force. And he loves us. A situation comes to
us that he allows. And we push back. We resist.
We push our own will. We don't want it. We won't
approve and we complain. Faith in Christ is fundamental
because faith, which is a virtue from God, implies
that I renounce my arrogance. I can't remember
which pope wrote this, but it was a recent one.
I renounce my arrogance, my thoughts, my idea
of myself, and the claim to judge by myself without
entrusting myself to others, knowing that I may
be wrong. And I need to overcome, when I trust
in Christ, the attitude of arrogance that makes
a person say, well, I know better. My goodness,
this is the 21st century, whatever that means.
I know what people before did not know. No, we
entrust ourselves to the Lord. And right now,
to entrust yourself to the sure anchor. We have
so many opportunities to become more, what would
you think I was going to say? More joyful, more
happy, more sure in God's help, more settled
on things. No, that's not what I'm going to say.
Our life is now full of opportunities to admit
that we are like that brokenhearted, honest,
humble father in the gospel today who said, I
have faith, I believe, but help my unbelief.
So many challenges now are going to reveal, and
that will be good news because it's the light
of God shining on us, the weakness of faith and
the sickness of our souls. And that's good that
we have this time to discover that. And in that,
we will grieve for those who are really, truly
suffering and pray for those who have died. Ask
God to receive them. Lent is the time, this Lent,
because, brothers and sisters, will we have another?
I don't mean that the virus may wipe out the
entire population. I mean, you or I might not
exist this next year. Will we have another? Lent
is the time to see ourselves in that brutally
honest Father, who even in the midst of His love
for His Son, and the confusion around him, and
the apostles being unable to help, and no doubt
the jeering and criticism of the Pharisees around
them. He told the truth about the weakness of
his faith. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
He didn't say, Lord, I believe these things,
but these are the things I don't believe. And
because this is the way I am. No, he wanted to
be put right. The more we become like that man,
the better. Then we grasp our own sinfulness
and our weakness. The more we cry out from our
hearts, really in a heartfelt way, Lord have
mercy, and the Lord will answer. Because he did
in the story, and he will again. All things are
possible to him who believes. Right now, today,
in our state of separation, We're given the opportunity
to practice patience and endure temptation. We're
given the opportunity to show confidence in our
church by receiving the decisions of our Archbishop
and our Metropolitan, trusting that they love
us and they seek the best for us. We have the
opportunity to spend more hours, many more hours
at home and come to peace with that. We have
the opportunity to spend more time with our spouse.
Couples move away from each other through the
weeks and the months of duties and responsibilities,
and then that brings lack of understanding, lack
of conversation, and maybe alienation. We have
the opportunities to be with our children more.
We have the opportunities to devote time to ourselves,
which we have neglected to do. We have the opportunity
to pray more and be with God because we forget
him in our daily busyness. We have the opportunity
to serve the liturgy at the altar of the heart.
And the time is now at hand. Not just to accomplish
things, the opportunity is here to accomplish
all these things, but if it is not in the altar
of the heart that we seek to be pulled By Christ.
Our anchor. Then we have lost. The ability to
redeem the time. That St. Paul spoke about. Stay
connected to the altar. Which is Christ. The
anchor. The catch. The loving Christ. Is drawing
us. As if we were drowning. He is drawing us
to himself. To him be glory. Now and ever. To
ages of ages.