Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ. On Tuesday, this
last week, clergy of the deanery met in San Mateo
at the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin
with His Eminence Archbishop Benjamin and a muliebin,
a service of supplication, was served, asking
God, begging God. all the people that came for
peace, for the end of the hostilities in Ukraine.
His eminence began with a quote from St. Silouan
the Athonite who died in 1938. I think I have
that right. St. Silouan's here on our iconostasis
next to St. Barbara. This is what St. Silouan
wrote as a poem called Adam's Lament. Adam knew
great grief when he was banished from paradise.
But when he saw his son Abel, slain by Cain,
his brother, Adam's grief was even heavier. His
soul was heavy, and he lamented and thought,
peoples and nations will descend from me and
multiply, and suffering will be their lot, and
they will live in enmity. and seek to slay one
another. And Adam's sorrow stretched wide as
the sea, and only the soul that has come to know
the Lord and the magnitude of his love for us
can understand. I too have lost grace and call
with Adam. Be merciful to me, O Lord. Bestow
on me the spirit of love and humility. Obviously,
brothers and sisters, we do not dwell in paradise.
And we suffer loss. We suffer all kinds of difficulties.
But the church is telling us today, find the
pathway back. And you heard the parable in honor
of the holy martyrs. Even if you find it at the
11th hour, the Lord is gracious. You find the
path back since it's the journey to Pascha. We
don't say, tomorrow might be a better day. Things
will get better. Our hope isn't found on such
trivialities, on things that might happen that
we have no power over. Our hope is in Jesus Christ
and what he did, his cross, to kill death. by
his death, to do away with sin so that we may
be united to him, to rise from the dead, and
that we may rise also. That's not a philosophy.
It's not a myth. It's not just some pie -in -the
-sky story. It's the truth of God and us. That's
our hope. This is where we find our strength,
even though we do not live in paradise. The first
steps that Lent gives us to return on the way
to Pascha, the mystery of our salvation, the
resurrection, are to fast. And to do it joyfully.
To give alms. And to do it generously. To pray.
And to do it with contrition. But first, before
we do anything else, is to forgive from our hearts.
We can expect as much from God, says the Lord,
as we give to others in terms of forgiveness.
And by the way, the word forgiveness in Greek
is synchoresis. Synchoresis means something like
to be together in the same place. Peter says,
the Apostle Peter, Lord, how often do I have
to forgive these people? Peter's looking for
accountability, such as, they should know that
they did the wrong thing, and I should tell them,
and they should be accountable to me or to whomever,
and fix it. You heard St. Paul. Cast off the
works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
We want everybody else to do that. And it would
be wonderful. But we have to start with ourself
to cast off the works of darkness and put on
the armor of light. And be strengthened first
so that we can then forgive. Like the Lord says,
to be in the same place. Christ is our model.
Forgive them for they know not what they do was
not an easy, painless, let bygones be bygones
kind of forgiveness. It was the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world on the cross.
It hurts to forgive. But forgiveness is an act
following Christ. And it's best done before.
I feel ready to do it. Then you will find that
Christ gives you the grace. If you wait until
you're ready to do it, you might get caught unawares,
and you won't have the Lord's forgiveness. You
don't want to be controlled by the past, by the
sins of others. You want to be free in Christ,
and it helps. It helps an awful lot to remember
that we don't live in paradise. And forgiveness
might soften that terrible reality for others.
Do not lay up for yourselves. The Lord said,
you heard this, this is the way we begin Lent.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.
where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break
in and steal. Lent is a specific, intentional,
structured time of the year in which we together
as a community Yes, secretly we fast, secretly
we give alms, and secretly we pray, and God will
reward us openly, but we do it together as a
community. It's the tithe of the year, the 40
days, the time when we truly do our best to be
his disciples. It's the time when we lay up for
ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not
break in and steal. No one can take that away.
No bombs, no guns, no terror. It's the time,
Lent, and how precious it is when we find that
the truth, the truth in the Lord's words, for
where your treasure is, there's your heart. I
promise, this happens every year to me. To you,
once Lent starts, the evil one and the demons
rush out of hell to distract mainly, to demoralize,
to divide, to tempt us. Expect it. This is spiritual
warfare. We're putting on the armor of light.
You need armor, not when you sit around. You
need armor when you're attacked. So we are going
to remain watchful. We're going to remain prayerful,
generous, giving, loving towards one another,
patient towards one another, bearing one another's
burdens, always praying for one another, interceding
before God. casting off our own works of darkness.
Remember, the time is short. It's at hand. Our
salvation is nearer now than when we began and
when we first believed. Yes, we're going to remain
watchful. Is Lent a sad time? Well, only in the
sense that we want contrition. We want joy producing
sorrow. And that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Is Lent a morbid time? Not at all. Yes, there
are plenty of things to be saddened about, terrorized
about, concerned about, troubled. We thought
COVID was a problem. But fasting and prayer is
not gloomy. From ancient times, our fathers and
mothers in the church have taught us, when we
are troubled, when we are faced with difficulties,
we fast and we pray. And then that opens us up
to God's grace and his mercy so we do not despair.
St. Basil says about prayer and fasting not being
gloomy, he says this, don't make healing, being
healed, gloomy. It's outrageous that you don't
rejoice over your soul being healed. But you
mourn over changing food. You seem to be giving
more concern to your stomach than to your spirit.
Thank you, St. Basil. Let's ask the 40 martyrs
for resolve in our faith, in our fasting, for
unity to be together. Let that be our model.
You see those men in that fresco. For courage,
and especially... Because we are not in their
position, but what we can do especially is ask
that we can also be, because we trust in God,
because we can be courageous, we will witness
to the resurrection of Christ within us. This
is the good news. Let me quote a brother priest.
Yes, we grieve over our sins, but only so we
can arrive at the flip side of repentance, the
act. The acquisition of beautiful virtues. This
positive dimension is the true meaning of Lent
as we swap out pride for humility, lust for purity,
anger for mercy, gluttony for moderation, laziness
for diligence, envy for gratitude, irritability
for patience, apathy for zeal, despair for hope,
and misery for joy. Let us begin the fast with
joy, says the hymn. Its destination is the great
and incredible mystery of our salvation, the
Lord's resurrection, Pascha. Amen.