In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
Today is the third Sunday of Lent, the middle
of Lent, and the Church liturgically places before
us the Holy Cross. Twice a year, The church reminds
us about the centrality of the cross in Christ's
life and in our life by placing it in the center
of the church. But I want to focus, before we
return to that, I want to primarily focus our
attention on the epistle reading, which is taken
from the epistle to the Hebrews. And it sets
out one of the major themes of the epistle to
the Hebrews, that the forgiveness of sins and
the reconciliation with God is accomplished by
Jesus Christ once and for all in that full and
perfect sacrifice which he offered to the Father
on the cross. The sacrifice which brings about
what those continuous and daily sacrifices in
the temple could not accomplish, the permanent
reconciliation of human beings with God, which
occurs once and for all by Jesus, our great high
priest, at the altar of the cross. And so this
is why this theme is... is i think particularly
prominent in today's epistle reading saint paul
says we see then that we have a great high priest
jesus of course for every high priest is taken
from among men and is important and is appointed
for men in things pertaining to god that he may
offer both sacrifices, both gifts and sacrifices
for sins. These are the high priests of the old
covenant of the temple worship, to offer sacrifices
for sins. But then Christ did not glorify himself
to become a high priest, but it was he, who said
to him, in other words, the father said to him
in another place, you are my son, today I have
begotten you. And he also says in another place,
you are a priest forever, according to the order
of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, of course, that
strange and enigmatic person who appears out
of nowhere. and meets Abraham in the book of
Genesis and brings an offering to God to him.
This is, as I said, the central message of the
epistle to the Hebrews, that Jesus is the new
high priest, not according to the Old Testament
priesthood, but a new priesthood which he establishes.
which eclipses the temporary priesthood of the
old covenant. You are a priest forever, not according
to the Aaronite priesthood, but a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek. To offer
sacrifice for sin, which he did on the cross,
and at each and every divine liturgy, which in
a way is a mystically unbloody representation
of what Christ accomplished, again, once and
for all, in a bloody way on the cross. This idea
and theme is reflected in one of the prayers
of the Divine Liturgy. And I've always thought
about that one of the unfortunate practices of,
there's a whole history behind this, but one
of the unfortunate practices of our contemporary
liturgical worship is that the real important
prayers at the liturgy are the ones that are
said mystikos, or silently, by the priest. Sometimes,
nowadays, some of these prayers are read aloud,
such as the prayer of consecration, the anaphora.
But it is these prayers, actually it is a litany,
which is an introduction to the prayer. And so
we have, sort of ironically, we have the introductory
liturgy, but it doesn't culminate in the prayer.
But be that as it may, the prayer that I want
to call your attention to is a prayer which is
said by the priest as a choir is singing the
cherubimic hymn at the time of the great entrance.
This, a number of priests I've talked with, and
they share my feeling that if we could single
out one prayer that is dearest. to us as priests,
it is this prayer, which is in a way unique for
two reasons. Number one, it's about the only
prayer in the liturgy in which the priest uses
the first person singular, I, I, I. Normally,
throughout the liturgy, the priest prays in the
first person plural, we. So the priest speaking
with and on behalf of the people offers this
praise and worship to God. It's unique in the
sense that, as I said, one of the few where the
priest speaks I and me, first person singular.
And then also it happens to be Historically,
one of the latest additions to the liturgy probably
was included in the liturgy somewhere in the
Middle Ages, 12th, 14th century. Can't say for
sure. But as I said, for many priests, it is
their favorite. That's what I'm going to share
with you. Because this prayer says precisely
what St. Paul said in the epistle to the Hebrews.
says today. The priest says, No one who is bound
with the desires and pleasures of the flesh is
worthy to approach or draw near to serve thee,
O King of glory. For to minister to thee is great
and awesome, even to the heavenly powers. Nevertheless,
through thine unspeakable and boundless love
for man, thou didst become man, yet without change
or alteration as ruler of all, and did become
our great high priest, and commit to us the ministry
of this liturgical and unbloody sacrifice. Therefore,
I, priest speaking first person singular. Therefore
I entreat thee, who alone are good and ready
to listen, look down on me, a sinner, thine unprofitable
servant, and cleanse my soul and my heart from
an evil conscience. And by the power of the Holy
Spirit, enable me, who am endowed with the grace
of the priesthood, to stand before this, thy
holy table, and to perform the sacred mystery
of thy holy and pure body and precious blood.
For I draw to knee near to thee, and bowing my
head I implore thee, do not turn thy face away
from thy servant, nor cast me out from among
thy children, but make me thy sinful and unworthy
servant, worthy to offer gifts to thee. Now,
for thou art the offerer and the offered, the
receiver and the received, O Christ our God.
And we ascribe glory to thee together with the
Father, some everlasting, and the all Holy Spirit,
now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen. But there
is the key also, and a connection with the epistle
to the Hebrews, Thou, meaning Christ, is the
offerer and the offered. He is the one who makes
that offering on Golgotha. He makes that offering,
and what is that offering? It is himself. It's
him being crucified on the cross. The offerer
and the one who is offered. The receiver. and
the received. He receives the offering as God,
and he is what is received, the offering. So
it's a beautiful prayer, which reflects the great
high priesthood of Christ, the new high priesthood
of the New Testament, the new covenant. This
is what St. Paul is speaking about in Hebrews.
And by the way, Hebrews happens to be my favorite
epistle. I was once asked by, I was debating
whether or not to share this with you, but I
will. I was once asked by a non -Orthodox theologian,
well, what's your favorite epistle? And this
always is sort of, I'm wondering what's behind
that question. He had no ulterior motive. It's
like getting caught in that, what's your favorite
scripture saying? Well, you know, I've got several.
But there's nothing wrong with that. Some people
have favorite scripture sayings. But I said the
epistle to the Hebrews. He said, oh, you have
a high Christology. And I replied, is there any
other kind? The high Christology of who Christ
is, the great high priest. who offers this sacrifice,
full and perfect, once and for all, to the Father.
Leading us to what it has to say today, which
is precisely what our Lord himself says in the
Gospel. Whoever desires to come after me, must
take up his cross and follow me. The intimate
connection between following Christ and taking
up the cross in imitation of Christ. Now we can
interpret the cross to us in many different ways.
We can look into our life and say, all of us
have some kind of cross or crosses to bear. It
might be a sin or a bad habit that we have or
something, a very close member of our family,
whatever, that we feel should be closer to God
than what they are. The cross might be difficult
people. Either in our family, extended family,
or difficult people in the workplace to get along
with. We all have crosses. But I think for each
and every one of us, the greatest and the most
difficult cross, the heaviest cross, is to follow
Christ. To follow him perfectly, completely,
unreservedly. Christ expects of us unconditional
surrender to him. Not to have any strings attached,
but to do our best in this world to follow him
perfectly. This also I think is very appropriate
at the time of Lent too, because we see when
we try and do extra acts of charity, fasting,
avoiding sin perhaps a little bit more diligently.
Whatever we try to do during Lent, don't we see
our own weakness and helplessness? No matter
how hard we try, we don't really make it, so
to speak. I think this is good for us spiritually
because we can never get to a point and say,
aha, I've achieved. My goal in life. No, our
goal in life is a constant struggle. A constant
struggle to day by day and hour by hour conform
ourself as much as possible to our great high
priest who loved us so much that he suffered
and died on the cross. And the more we share
in his effort and in his love, the more we follow
him. and the more happiness and fulfillment we
find in this world and perfect joy and blessedness
in the kingdom to come. Amen.