WEBVTT 00:00:00.590 --> 00:00:03.730 In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 00:00:03.730 --> 00:00:07.290 Spirit, one God, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy 00:00:07.290 --> 00:00:12.750 on us and save us. Amen. It is a great joy to 00:00:12.750 --> 00:00:18.670 be with you once again. I am actually here as 00:00:18.670 --> 00:00:25.010 we had a family reunion yesterday, a family reunion. 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.879 The actual occasion will remain nameless so that 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:34.640 I can get on with the homily. But anyway, it 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:42.240 was joyful. So here I am, and I am, as a preacher, 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:47.920 I am looking out at two mountains, a giant mountain 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:52.039 and a lesser mountain, but they're connected 00:00:52.039 --> 00:01:00.439 by the same range. The giant mountain is how 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:05.700 to understand the entry of the Virgin into the 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:11.819 temple at three years old and dwelling in the 00:01:11.819 --> 00:01:18.319 Holy of Holies. And the slightly lesser mountain 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.500 is the scripture that the Holy Tradition has 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:25.400 given us to help us understand this, which is 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:28.200 kind of interesting. Especially the Martha and 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:29.859 the Mary story. Of course, you know the Martha. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:31.599 Everyone, we all know the Martha and the Mary 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:38.719 story. But how does this story actually help 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:44.359 us understand the mystery of the Virgin in the 00:01:44.359 --> 00:01:47.519 Holy of Holies? That's our challenge. That's 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:52.879 my challenge. And so I'm asking you, as good 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:56.939 brothers and sisters, to pray with me. That the 00:01:56.939 --> 00:01:58.859 Holy Spirit will give me the proper guidance 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:03.420 so that words will come out of me that will be 00:02:03.420 --> 00:02:07.239 fruitful to the occasion and helpful to each 00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:15.300 of us. So, in preparing for this, I read both 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:19.139 homilies of St. Gregory Palamas, Homily 52 and 00:02:19.139 --> 00:02:24.080 Homily 53. Homily 53 is an extraordinary homily. 00:02:24.099 --> 00:02:30.090 It's a work of genius. It would be a third mountain 00:02:30.090 --> 00:02:34.889 to have to try to analyze it. But it is a paean 00:02:34.889 --> 00:02:37.889 of worship, a paean of adoration, a paean of 00:02:37.889 --> 00:02:44.469 veneration to the Mother of God and a uniting 00:02:44.469 --> 00:02:48.090 of the truths of our Orthodox faith within all 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:54.520 of that. But how do we bring it down? How do 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:57.680 we bring it down to our life? Maybe we're not 00:02:57.680 --> 00:02:59.199 supposed to bring it down to earth, but how do 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:04.039 we raise ourselves up to it? I mean, it is in 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:07.439 the temple. The idea of a temple, what does that 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:12.639 mean to us today? Even we call our churches temples. 00:03:14.819 --> 00:03:20.400 And for a good reason. Because it has a narthex, 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:25.539 a nave. a sanctuary, and a holy of holies. But 00:03:25.539 --> 00:03:28.400 do we understand that in the way that we should? 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:34.219 So I'm going to take a brief excursus to kind 00:03:34.219 --> 00:03:39.379 of deal with this point, and that's this. I recently 00:03:39.379 --> 00:03:47.259 heard a lecture by an academic philosopher, and 00:03:47.259 --> 00:03:51.889 he was actually a real philosopher. It was something 00:03:51.889 --> 00:03:54.969 that he gave recently, and the title of the lecture 00:03:54.969 --> 00:03:59.389 was Living in Eternity. And so my ears perked 00:03:59.389 --> 00:04:01.370 up. I said, oh, this is going to be good. But 00:04:01.370 --> 00:04:07.849 it was not expressed from a Christian standpoint. 00:04:08.189 --> 00:04:11.210 It was expressed from a Platonic standpoint because 00:04:11.210 --> 00:04:17.689 he was trying to analyze the work of Plotinus, 00:04:17.829 --> 00:04:19.850 the philosopher who lived in the 3rd century, 00:04:20.909 --> 00:04:25.449 on eternity and time. Now what he said in that 00:04:25.449 --> 00:04:27.990 lecture isn't important, but at the question 00:04:27.990 --> 00:04:31.050 and answer period, there was a challenge. Somebody 00:04:31.050 --> 00:04:36.329 asked him, what does Plotinus think of memory 00:04:36.329 --> 00:04:40.110 and what does Plotinus think of hope? And he 00:04:40.110 --> 00:04:44.269 dispensed with memory, saying, well, if Plotinus 00:04:44.269 --> 00:04:49.550 thinks that memory is... is a temporalized thing. 00:04:49.709 --> 00:04:52.949 It's just in this world, doesn't exist in eternity. 00:04:53.610 --> 00:04:59.449 And as for hope, he said, there is really no 00:04:59.449 --> 00:05:02.329 even virtue of hope in the Platonic tradition. 00:05:02.649 --> 00:05:06.110 And then he said this thing that caught my ear. 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:09.149 He said, you know, one of the main differences 00:05:09.149 --> 00:05:12.709 between Platonism and Christianity is that Christianity 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.500 In Christianity, hope is a virtue. And not only 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:20.540 a virtue, it's a theological virtue. But in Platonism, 00:05:20.699 --> 00:05:25.699 if you believe in hope, which is to say, if you 00:05:25.699 --> 00:05:28.860 believe in the future, you are as far away as 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:33.579 possible from eternity. Now that struck me. It 00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:35.459 struck me for two reasons. One, there seems to 00:05:35.459 --> 00:05:39.199 be a modicum of truth there. There seems to be 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:43.079 something we can learn from that. But the second 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:45.800 thing is, of course, it doesn't go to the vision 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:48.220 of God. It doesn't go far enough. It doesn't 00:05:48.220 --> 00:05:52.439 really express the idea of the Holy of Holies. 00:05:52.860 --> 00:05:56.000 But it does express something about eternity. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:03.339 How? The idea that eternity is now. It's an eternal 00:06:03.339 --> 00:06:07.399 now. It's not in the future. This is the truth. 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:11.870 Eternity is not in the future. It's now. It's 00:06:11.870 --> 00:06:15.889 only now. So living in eternity has to be living 00:06:15.889 --> 00:06:21.089 in the now. All right. With that as our background, 00:06:21.290 --> 00:06:26.509 let's now look at the scripture. What is the 00:06:26.509 --> 00:06:30.089 story of Martha and Mary? What are we to learn 00:06:30.089 --> 00:06:33.889 from that? Well, you know, we know it so well. 00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:36.790 We have learned to think that Martha and Mary 00:06:36.790 --> 00:06:43.550 are types. You know, just like Leah and Rebecca, 00:06:43.889 --> 00:06:50.810 Rebecca or Rachel? Yeah, the two wives of Israel, 00:06:50.910 --> 00:06:53.649 of Jacob, you know, that we read about, that 00:06:53.649 --> 00:06:55.829 we hear about in the canon of great Andrew. Leah 00:06:55.829 --> 00:07:01.230 is the type of activity, and the other is the 00:07:01.230 --> 00:07:06.230 type of contemplation. Is Martha a type of activity 00:07:06.230 --> 00:07:09.029 and Mary a type of contemplation? Is that what 00:07:09.029 --> 00:07:12.889 we're being told here? I don't think so. I don't 00:07:12.889 --> 00:07:15.389 think so. And here's why. Let's look at the scripture 00:07:15.389 --> 00:07:19.350 closely. Not looking for a type, but just looking 00:07:19.350 --> 00:07:22.050 for what's going on. What happens in this scripture? 00:07:22.810 --> 00:07:25.490 First of all, they go to a village, right? A 00:07:25.490 --> 00:07:29.370 certain village. And a woman in that village 00:07:29.370 --> 00:07:34.769 invites... Mary welcomes them into her house. 00:07:35.250 --> 00:07:39.170 It's her house. It doesn't say anything about 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:42.370 Lazarus, her brother. It's her house, so she 00:07:42.370 --> 00:07:45.149 invites him in. And she has a sister called Mary 00:07:45.149 --> 00:07:47.350 who sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to 00:07:47.350 --> 00:07:50.629 his word. So clearly, Martha is the stronger 00:07:50.629 --> 00:07:54.829 figure. Martha is the elder. Mary is the younger 00:07:54.829 --> 00:08:06.040 sister. Then what she says to Jesus is a complaint. 00:08:06.540 --> 00:08:09.519 But what a complaint it is. What presumption. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:13.639 What presumption she uses there. And we don't 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.199 hear that. We just hear, you know, why don't 00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:18.980 you have her come and help us? But what does 00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:21.879 she say? She actually says, and I'll read it 00:08:21.879 --> 00:08:26.639 to you. She says, but Martha was distracted by 00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:30.860 much service. And she approached him and said, 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:38.019 Lord, do you not care that my sister has left 00:08:38.019 --> 00:08:40.700 me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:43.879 me. You see what she's doing? She is inviting 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:48.120 Jesus to take her side. Why? Because her side 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:51.220 is the correct one, according to her. According 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:55.259 to the social rules of the day, women served 00:08:55.259 --> 00:08:58.450 the guests. Period. That was it. That was a rule. 00:08:59.029 --> 00:09:03.149 And it still exists to this day. I mean, in certain 00:09:03.149 --> 00:09:06.529 societies. I mean, I recently, in 2013, went 00:09:06.529 --> 00:09:11.970 on a pilgrimage to Serbia. And we had a big feast 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:14.389 at one of the towns there. And it was the Feast 00:09:14.389 --> 00:09:16.049 of St. John the Baptist. And we were all invited 00:09:16.049 --> 00:09:19.710 in for a feast day to a long hall with two long 00:09:19.710 --> 00:09:23.750 rows of tables. Everybody sat down, but all the 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:26.200 women served. All the men sat down, all the women 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:27.940 served. The only women that were sitting were 00:09:27.940 --> 00:09:31.279 the women in our pilgrimage group. They sat because 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:36.159 they were guests. So she was saying to Jesus, 00:09:36.460 --> 00:09:39.960 these are the rules. And she was saying, you 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.559 must help me. Get her to help me. That's what 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:46.440 she was actually doing. So when Jesus said, Martha, 00:09:46.539 --> 00:09:49.940 Martha, and by the way, do you hear the deep 00:09:49.940 --> 00:09:54.919 affection that Jesus has here for her? The deep 00:09:54.919 --> 00:09:57.740 affection and love he has, Martha, to say twice, 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:01.860 Martha, Martha. You know he loves her. You know 00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:05.399 he cares for her. She's not a type to him. She's 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:08.919 not the type of activity. She's a person. And 00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:14.039 he, loving her, says, you're troubled by many 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:17.399 things, Martha, dear Martha. But Mary has chosen, 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:20.299 Mary, but there is one thing needful, and Mary 00:10:20.299 --> 00:10:22.000 has chosen the good part, and it shall not be 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:28.070 taken away from her. So, clearly there, Jesus 00:10:28.070 --> 00:10:34.330 is, his reprimand is not to, is not just to reprimand 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:39.110 Martha for being busy, but to say, the reality, 00:10:39.350 --> 00:10:42.909 I'm here. Christ is here. God is here in person. 00:10:44.350 --> 00:10:49.470 Social rules, the social mores don't compute, 00:10:49.649 --> 00:10:52.370 don't fix. They are transcended by this reality 00:10:52.370 --> 00:10:56.200 that we're living in right now. And this is then 00:10:56.200 --> 00:10:58.379 proved by the next two verses, which are added, 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:00.240 you know, the verses that are added, where the 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.940 woman, hearing him from the crowd, lifts up her 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:06.940 voice and she says, blessed is the womb that 00:11:06.940 --> 00:11:09.340 bore thee and the breast that nourished thee. 00:11:09.419 --> 00:11:11.960 And then what does he do? He immediately, he 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:14.080 doesn't say, yes, well, thanks, that's my mom, 00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:17.360 you know. He doesn't do that. What did he say? 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:20.820 He said, yea, rather, but rather do them. It's 00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:23.899 more important than blessed is the womb. blessed 00:11:23.899 --> 00:11:26.039 are those who hear the word of God and keep it. 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:30.320 So there again too, he deflects, he deflects 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:38.059 the social rules that we all live by and points 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:43.080 to the presence of life that he is living, which 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:51.340 is eternity. So when we then think, when we think 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:56.049 of, Mary, in the temple, the temple then representing 00:11:56.049 --> 00:12:00.049 all of creation, all genuine holy temples represent 00:12:00.049 --> 00:12:02.629 the whole of creation, and the Holy of Holies 00:12:02.629 --> 00:12:05.909 is there. To go in there as a three -year -old 00:12:05.909 --> 00:12:11.110 and to voluntarily, according to St. Gregory 00:12:11.110 --> 00:12:15.549 Palamas, to voluntarily, of her own will, leap 00:12:15.549 --> 00:12:19.169 up those stairs and walk up to the high priest 00:12:19.169 --> 00:12:24.799 there. And he was directed to bring her in, into 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:28.820 the Holy of Holies. And she accepts this. This 00:12:28.820 --> 00:12:33.080 is a reality beyond our normal life. It's beyond 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:38.899 our social life. It's inconceivable for us. And 00:12:38.899 --> 00:12:42.960 yet, this is what we are honoring. So what are 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:46.840 we honoring? What we are honoring is what Mary 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:50.309 did there, what Mary does there. What she accomplished 00:12:50.309 --> 00:12:55.610 for us there was not just God's honoring her 00:12:55.610 --> 00:12:57.710 by having her in the temple sitting around the 00:12:57.710 --> 00:13:02.129 Holy of Holies because he knew that in the future 00:13:02.129 --> 00:13:04.649 she was going to be the mother of God. That's 00:13:04.649 --> 00:13:08.429 clearly there. But for us, in order for us to 00:13:08.429 --> 00:13:11.730 really grasp this and not get lost in all the 00:13:11.730 --> 00:13:13.769 wonderful expressions that we have about the 00:13:13.769 --> 00:13:15.889 Virgin Mother. that we don't really understand 00:13:15.889 --> 00:13:17.990 because they just go right by us. Rejoice, O 00:13:17.990 --> 00:13:20.629 Virgin Theotokos, you know, we say. They go right 00:13:20.629 --> 00:13:23.649 by us. But they are all there for a purpose. 00:13:23.809 --> 00:13:26.809 They are all there. They are all expressions 00:13:26.809 --> 00:13:32.129 of eternity. And so what Mary, what she is doing, 00:13:32.309 --> 00:13:35.509 is she is showing us how to live in eternity. 00:13:36.990 --> 00:13:45.980 So, as St. Gregory, Palamas says at the very 00:13:45.980 --> 00:13:51.220 end there, when he says, he says that so we, 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:54.220 in order to follow her, in order to understand 00:13:54.220 --> 00:13:57.639 living in eternity, this is what we must do. 00:13:57.980 --> 00:14:01.419 This is what as Christians we must do. As Christians, 00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:06.340 if we are like Martha, we are troubled by many 00:14:06.340 --> 00:14:09.600 things, right? We're worried and exposed to many 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:12.519 different things. And we don't hear Jesus saying 00:14:12.519 --> 00:14:22.600 to us, Joel, Mary, Gail. Twice, you know, you're 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:24.620 troubled and worried by many things, but one 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:28.419 thing is needful. One thing is needful. So Mary 00:14:28.419 --> 00:14:32.259 in the gospel is not a symbol of contemplation. 00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:37.240 She is an image of someone who's sitting at the 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:43.360 feet of the Lord of glory. Contemplation is obviously 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:48.299 there, implied, but what's really there is the 00:14:48.299 --> 00:14:52.500 one thing needful is for us to turn from everything 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:56.960 in this world within our hearts and turn toward 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:01.080 God in eternity. We must learn to live in eternity 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:03.559 while we're living in the present. Jesus didn't 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:06.519 say to Martha, you know, what you're doing is 00:15:06.519 --> 00:15:09.740 wrong. She was actually doing right by society. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:12.139 By the social order of things. That's the way 00:15:12.139 --> 00:15:16.200 to do it. And we can't just throw the social 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:19.799 order up in the air and say it has to go by the 00:15:19.799 --> 00:15:21.539 board. No, that's how we have to live together. 00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:24.320 It's ways we learn to live together. It's the 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:26.120 way that society learned to live together and 00:15:26.120 --> 00:15:29.639 we have to learn it our way. But within that, 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:32.639 our hearts have to be turned toward eternity. 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.559 So we learn to live in eternity. And thus... 00:15:37.259 --> 00:15:41.820 And thus we can say then with St. Gregory that 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:47.240 we can say that through Mary we learn this truth 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:53.220 that we have our dwelling places, our dwelling 00:15:53.220 --> 00:15:58.100 place should move from earth to heaven. And then 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:01.600 following the words of St. Maximus the Confessor 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:06.450 who said that who said to the apostles at the 00:16:06.450 --> 00:16:12.429 transfiguration that they moved from flesh to 00:16:12.429 --> 00:16:15.629 spirit. We have to move in our beings from flesh 00:16:15.629 --> 00:16:21.470 to spirit. And then finally, that we have to 00:16:21.470 --> 00:16:26.070 acquire this longing, a longing for eternity, 00:16:26.409 --> 00:16:30.570 a longing to live in eternity, so that... And 00:16:30.570 --> 00:16:34.210 that longing has to kind of overwhelm the things 00:16:34.210 --> 00:16:37.230 we do in daily life. Not that we have to give 00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:40.350 them up, but we have to kind of do them in the 00:16:40.350 --> 00:16:44.309 light of, in the shadow of. And we can't be Christians 00:16:44.309 --> 00:16:47.250 if we don't do them that way, if we don't learn 00:16:47.250 --> 00:16:49.929 to think that way, if we don't learn to act that 00:16:49.929 --> 00:16:53.580 way and move that way. So what I think... what 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:56.399 this feast is telling us, is showing us, is not 00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:58.899 just that we honor the Virgin Mother for all 00:16:58.899 --> 00:17:01.659 that she has done, but we honor also her for 00:17:01.659 --> 00:17:05.099 showing us the way to live in eternity. And if 00:17:05.099 --> 00:17:08.119 we can't live in a way, if we can't live in eternity 00:17:08.119 --> 00:17:12.519 now, then we must strive to live toward eternity. 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:15.500 So if we're not living in eternity, at least 00:17:15.500 --> 00:17:19.279 let us live toward eternity. Because in that 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:21.640 way, we will be truly Christian. And in that 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:30.900 way, The only hope that is God -like, the reason 00:17:30.900 --> 00:17:33.259 why hope is called a theological virtue is it 00:17:33.259 --> 00:17:37.640 is the hope that is according to God. And God 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:40.799 exists in eternity. As Saint Maximus the Confessor 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:45.000 says, the reality around God is infinite and 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:50.680 eternal. So living in eternity means living toward 00:17:50.680 --> 00:17:54.109 God. all times, even in the social situations 00:17:54.109 --> 00:17:57.589 you're in, even in raising a family, even in 00:17:57.589 --> 00:18:00.549 your job and whatever, there is something in 00:18:00.549 --> 00:18:04.910 you oriented toward eternity and doesn't get 00:18:04.910 --> 00:18:08.809 lost in the daily life. So this is what I think 00:18:08.809 --> 00:18:13.549 and I pray that our Virgin Mother is telling 00:18:13.549 --> 00:18:19.250 us, that she loves our praise, she loves to hear 00:18:19.250 --> 00:18:21.789 us say rejoice. but she is now the source of 00:18:21.789 --> 00:18:27.589 joy. So who are we saying rejoice to? We're not 00:18:27.589 --> 00:18:31.150 the angel anymore. We are people living toward 00:18:31.150 --> 00:18:35.250 eternity, trying to live in eternity. And I think 00:18:35.250 --> 00:18:40.789 that's really the message that the Theotokos 00:18:40.789 --> 00:18:44.269 would like to give us in the 21st century, in 00:18:44.269 --> 00:18:49.369 2021, as we go on. So God bless you, each one. 00:18:49.789 --> 00:18:53.690 Learn, learn, learn above all to live toward 00:18:53.690 --> 00:18:54.710 eternity. Amen.