In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, I greet you, brothers and
sisters, those here, the few that are here, and
those who are at home. I greet you with the joy
of the feast. The end of summer approaches, although
the days are not getting any cooler, the skies
are not getting any clearer, and probably won't
for a bit. We all had expectations for September,
probably for August, July, and June, too. Certainly
expectations for the end of summer, the beginning
of the school year. The beginning of so many
activities in our society. Those expectations
have not come to pass. Maybe they're more serious,
personal expectations and hopes that did not
come to pass. Maybe there were prayers that were
not answered. They were said over and over again.
And you felt God did not respond. But our life
is charged with God's grace. He always responds,
just not in the way we expect him sometimes.
The end of August is also not just the end of
summertime activities. It's the end of the church
year. The Dormition of the Theotokos, which you
see depicted as you leave the church, just passed,
that feast just passed, the beheading of St.
John the Baptist, that feast just passed. They're
glorious, yes, glorious reminders of our own
death, death as Christians who await, who look
for, anticipate. Yes, and desire, desire the
coming of Christ in glory and our own glorification
into a mortal life at the resurrection. That's
how the church year relates to us at the end.
And September is not just the beginning of the
school year and activities that aren't going
to happen as normal, but it's the beginning of
the church year. And those... That grace, that
will always come. Nothing in this world can stop
that. So today is a pivotal day. Yes, I use the
word pivotal. A pivot is when you can push off
on one foot and go forward, like a skier or a
basketball player, using the body to accomplish
what he or she wants. Today is pivotal. If we
allow. Father Seraphim, I think his name is Father
Seraphim, he's the abbot of the Monastery of
the Holy Cross in West Virginia. He describes
the liturgical new year by saying that our life
is mystically orchestrated and harmonized with
the church's calendar. And we're greeted today.
We're greeted. Today, with the first feast of
the church new year, the nativity, the birthday
of the mother of our life and salvation, she
is the hymn, say, the beginning of our beginning.
She is the birth giver of the birthless one.
She is the cause of our cause, the beginning
of the beginningless one. At any feast, The church
is inviting us to consider that we are not spectators.
We're not just listeners to events that happen
historically, but are kind of far from us. How
are we to be participants? What is the key? The
liturgy, the vigils, the grace of God, Christ.
who considered not robbery to be equal to the
Father, made himself the same as us. He became
incarnate and he entered into this world. He
became a man. He became a servant. And the death
on the cross and the resurrection and the ascension
into heaven, because we are given the Holy Spirit,
enliven us and make those events, even the birth
of the Virgin Mary, have grace that reaches out
to anyone who reaches out to Christ. It is a
reality. It's not a footnote in a historical
book. There's power. There's meaning. There's
relevance of that thing that happened. which
is always happening to those who come to Christ,
who are being reborn by him and his power. They
don't have a use -by date. Nativity, Pascha,
Pentecost, Ascension, Annunciation, yes, the
birthday of the Virgin Mary, today's feast, are
all initiated by God, part of his providence,
and very importantly, very importantly, received
and welcomed and sought. by those like us, human
beings, who want to know God, who are illumined
by the knowledge of the Lord's incarnation. This
invitation today, the Nativity of the Theotokos,
is about a birthday. The birthday is the beginning.
We begin the church year with the birthday. And
we might, because of this feast day, we might
have a new beginning too. A renewal in our faith,
a rebirth, if you will. But in order for us to
experience that rebirth, we need to be reminded
about two things. That we need to begin again.
We need it. We need. We have an inner sense.
And secondly, when we experience failure, when
it seems that God does not answer our prayers,
we again need to be reminded to know that God,
with God, all things are possible and that we
can be renewed. Sarah, the old lady, conceives
and bears a child. Hannah, the one unable to
bear a child, conceives and bears Samuel, the
prophet. Elizabeth, in her old age, receives
grace from God, conceives and bears John the
Baptist. Joachim and Anna, shamed by years because
of the society and the culture, years of infertility,
barrenness. God answers their prayers. You know
the story. I'm not going to go through it right
now. The first thing of the two things that this
feast reminds us of is our need for rebirth.
It may be that we are distracted. By the blessings,
the material blessings, the good things that
God sends us in this world. And we place them
between God and us. We forget about God a little
bit. He takes the back seat to the gifts he gives
us. I'm not even talking about outright sin.
That does something else to us. We forget that
we need to be reborn, renewed, revivified. If
we don't have that feeling, perhaps our faith
is just one of ethics and morals in which we
try to be a good person, which we should be,
keeping the commandments. But we know that Christ
asks us to be holy, to be holy as our Heavenly
Father is holy. To be good is possible even without
God's direct help. But to be holy, to be as we
were created to be by him, reborn comes only
from Christ. And so we need to discover that
need for that holiness. And the second thing,
the second thing, we may have experienced such
loss and difficulties. struggling for nothing,
it seems, and we're broken, worn down, loss of
hope. Many around us are experiencing that. Then
despondency comes from that fruitless, apparently
fruitless struggle. What good can come when we
discover that is keeping us? Then we think of
this feast day. We enter into it. The pure, the
virtuous, the holy Joachim and Anna who wanted
children prayed and prayed. Barren, no good.
Dried up, hardened, cold, lifeless is what they
felt. What good could come? But God's gaze, his
love, his providence is upon them. And it's upon
us. God guides us. He hears us. He reaches us,
towards us, continually. Let me finish with these
words of the Abbot Ephraim from the monastery
of Vatopedi on Mount Athos, where I was last
year about this time. These are words that the
Elder Ephraim spoke at the Thrapisa. at the lunch
after the service. Joachim and Anna nourished
the hope, which does not bring shame. They had
great persistence in their prayers, and they
felt sure that God would fulfill their respect,
their request. And it was not as though they
bore their lack of a child for any short time.
Tradition tells us that Anna conceived the mother
of God after 50 years of sterility. We often
despair or become displeased with our struggle
and say we have not had a response, that God
has not heard us. We have no sense of grace.
We are distressed. What's needed is patience,
says the elder, patience in sorrows. Not patience
to overcome the sorrows, but patience in sorrows.
Faith, patience and faith in the promises of
God. What is faith? It's not trying harder to
believe what you think the Bible says and the
church teaches. Faith is the action of those
commandments in our life. To keep walking on
the way, no matter what. That's faith. And learning
from what we read in the scriptures and the tradition
of the teaching of the church, that it is true.
That's faith. Trust in God. The elder says, it
was not as though they bared their lack of a
child for any short time. We often become displeased.
We have no sense of grace. We are distressed.
What's needed is patience and sorrow, faith in
the promises of God, perfect obedience to God's
will and hope. Not to lose heart in our prayers.
God knows when it's in our interest to give us
his inexpressible, inconceivable, and invaluable
glorifying gifts. His divine grace as a resident
condition. Spiritual things come by themselves,
says Abba Isaiah. We don't arrange them as and
when we want. And the elder finishes with these
words. We pray that Our Lady, the Mother of God,
and the Foremother of God, who have the blessing
of curing physical sterility, will cure our hearts,
which are barren of spiritual works, so that
God will send to our souls His divine and most
sweet grace, which adorns, renews, and immortalizes
people. making them incorrupt, that is, as saints.
Most holy Theotokos, save us.