WEBVTT

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

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of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

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Today, the first week of Lent is, as I'm sure

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you all know, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. On this

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Sunday of Orthodoxy, really like every Sunday

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of Orthodoxy in the past, there is much for us

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to rejoice about. as well as much for us to pray

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about. Let's look at the rejoicing first. Of

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course, this day commemorates the restoration

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of icons in the church that after 150 years,

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we can't imagine how this iconoclasm tore the

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church apart. for 150 years. The Seventh Ecumenical

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Council in 787 gave us our definition of the

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reason why we can venerate and should venerate

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icons, but that wasn't the end of the story.

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The final restoration of icons took place in

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the year 843, and that didn't even solve the

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issue completely because iconoclasm didn't really

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peter out for at least another 30 years. We know

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that at a council in 969, there was still an

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issue. What do you do with iconoclastic clergy

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who want to repent and join the church? Should

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they be received as clergy or should they be

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received as lay people? So we know that iconoclasm

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was an issue even into the latter part of the

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10th century. Much like Arianism, which brought

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about the first ecumenical council, this issue,

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who is Jesus Christ, and the issue of why do

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we have icons, may we venerate them, these tore

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the church apart. St. Jerome, after the Council

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of Nicaea, St. Jerome even lamented. He remarked,

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you know, the whole world groaned to find itself

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Arian. So even after the Council of Nicaea, Arianism

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for a while looked like it was gaining the upper

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hand until that issue was definitively resolved

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at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople.

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381, excuse me. So we have the fullness of orthodoxy,

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how blessed we are, not only to have our Christian

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faith, but to have our orthodox Christian faith,

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that we can triumph in the fact and triumph with

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humility. that we bear this truth in earthen

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vessels, that we hold that faith which was transmitted

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to us, preached by the apostles, and handed down

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by the church fathers and the councils. So that

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is the triumph that we have to humbly glory in

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our Orthodox Christian faith. Okay, so what do

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we have to pray for? For the peace of the whole

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world, for the well -being of the holy churches

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of God, and for the union of all, let us pray

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to the Lord. How, a few weeks ago or a few years

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ago, those words, that petition might just have

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rolled out of our mouth without... Too much reflection.

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But how important that is. Because just as heresy

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tore the church apart during the time of Arianism

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and iconoclasm, so what tears the church apart

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nowadays? Factionalism. Nationalism. All these

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things that we fought about for several centuries.

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I remember when I first became Orthodox, almost

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60 years ago, people would say, oh, Orthodox,

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you mean Greek Orthodox, or what kind of Orthodox

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are you? And I thought, man, when will we ever

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get over this hump? And they still ask that question

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now, oh, Orthodox, what flavor, so to speak?

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What is the one church looks to some people like

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several different churches, nations. Serbians

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are different from Greeks, Ukrainians are different

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from Russians. So we fought this issue about

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fragmentation for quite a while. In, I'd say

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within the last decade. it became even more intense

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with the long -standing feuding between the Patriarch

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of Constantinople and the Patriarch of Moscow

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and between the church in Greece and the church

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of Russia that this family feud, so to speak,

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started gaining more momentum. And then now it

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erupts. unfortunately, in the situation in Ukraine,

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which is no longer just a family feud, but it's

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a war between brothers. Years ago, when I was

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teaching at a Roman Catholic seminary at a faculty

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discussion, one of the priests, my colleague,

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asked me very sincerely, he said, Father, What

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really holds the Orthodox Church together? And

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you know, that's a good question. And I said,

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the Holy Spirit. Nobody else could. And that's

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true. The Holy Spirit holds our church together.

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But you know what also holds our church together?

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Our adherence to this one faith, the faith of

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the one holy Catholic and apostolic church. This

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is what makes us one with Orthodox throughout

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the world. Their problems, their issues, their

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pains are our problems, issues, and pains. Because

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we are not only members of the human race, but

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we are members of the same family of Jesus Christ,

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the Holy Church. So today, let us pray. for the

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peace of the whole world, for the well -being

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of the holy churches of God. That means that

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they stay in good shape, that they get along

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with one another, and for the union of all, that

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the different Orthodox churches throughout the

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world will be maintained in that oneness of faith,

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and we can overlook pettiness in our church life

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and realize that pearl of great price which we

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have in the faith of the one holy catholic and

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apostolic church thank you lord jesus for teaching

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us and giving us faith in you and in your church

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and save your church amen