WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.759 Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to the Father, and 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:09.679 to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. I'm your 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:14.699 guest preacher today. It's so good to be back 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:19.980 among you, worshiping together. The first Sunday 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:23.719 I was gone, we joined the Orthodox community 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:28.239 in Rome. under the exarchate of Metropolitan 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:32.759 John of Paris. That's what Father Theodore is 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:38.960 under. And we served at this parish in a rather 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:42.479 new Roman church, only 400 years old, which the 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:47.140 Catholics loaned to the Orthodox. There was a 00:00:47.140 --> 00:00:52.719 choir of, oh, maybe nine or 12 young women. I 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:57.329 would say none over the age of of 45, and most 00:00:57.329 --> 00:01:01.770 under the age of 30. They were magnificent. It 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:05.189 was so beautiful. Of course, not as beautiful 00:01:05.189 --> 00:01:10.430 as ours. But it was beautiful. And to be there 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:15.709 in that place was just such an inspiration. In 00:01:15.709 --> 00:01:20.390 the second week, last Sunday, our little group 00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:23.709 of pilgrims stopped at a church between Venice 00:01:23.709 --> 00:01:31.099 and Padua. It's an 11th century, correct me if 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:33.939 I'm wrong, 11th century small basilica, much 00:01:33.939 --> 00:01:36.920 smaller than this, which is not really used, 00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:40.040 and it still has some frescoes from the Middle 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:42.939 Ages, and we did a typical service, because we 00:01:42.939 --> 00:01:46.680 don't have a dementia, and we didn't have anything 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:50.319 else that we could do to serve liturgy. So, while 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:53.840 there, of course, I prayed for you as you were 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:58.760 praying for me. I want to speak a little about 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:03.859 this gospel, the first one we heard from St. 00:02:03.980 --> 00:02:08.400 Luke about the widow and her son being taken 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:11.120 for burial. This is the Feast of St. Tikkun, 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:14.120 the anniversary of the glorification, that is, 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:18.960 the canonization of St. Tikkun of Moscow. His 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:22.560 icon, his threshold is here, up here, and in 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:26.669 the middle. Great missionary. wonder worker, 00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:29.689 and confessor of the church. But I want to focus 00:02:29.689 --> 00:02:33.689 on this gospel for a particular reason which 00:02:33.689 --> 00:02:38.889 I hope will become clear. One doesn't have to 00:02:38.889 --> 00:02:44.650 live too long before you experience the loss, 00:02:44.710 --> 00:02:48.409 the death of a beloved member of your family, 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:57.080 a beloved friend. you're young enough and you 00:02:57.080 --> 00:02:59.199 haven't had that experience, but you come to 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:04.139 church and you participate in the funerals of 00:03:04.139 --> 00:03:07.319 those that are your brothers and sisters, your 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:11.560 fathers and mothers in Christ, so that you understand 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:16.259 that you are on a funeral procession in your 00:03:16.259 --> 00:03:24.699 life. I'll say more about that in a moment. Very 00:03:24.699 --> 00:03:30.400 recently, you witnessed the death of beloved 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:35.300 brother John Canagius, a long -time member of 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:38.599 this parish, a dear friend of mine. Now his wife 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:43.560 is a widow. We learned of her post, and both 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:47.259 men are righteous before God, I believe, looking 00:03:47.259 --> 00:03:52.979 at their life, hearing them speak. the repose 00:03:52.979 --> 00:03:55.219 of the monk Maximus, our former parishioner, 00:03:55.259 --> 00:03:58.719 Vincent, who now leaves his family as orphans. 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:02.159 We have orphans and widows. The scriptures are 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:06.719 very clear about the church's caring and responsibility 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:10.240 to care for orphans and widows, all throughout 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:14.580 the Old Testament. Why? Because they have no 00:04:14.580 --> 00:04:17.660 one. And in our present context, in this society, 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:20.180 it's not only orphans and widows, it's probably 00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:24.279 single mothers, it's homeless men and women and 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:27.759 teens who, because their families are so terribly 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:32.740 broken, they're orphans too. And there's grief. 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:37.079 There's grief. We experience the grief of the 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:41.860 loss of John and Father Maximus. It doesn't matter 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:44.480 if they're 80 years old or 40 years old or whatever. 00:04:45.930 --> 00:04:49.769 Doesn't matter that they lived a life in the 00:04:49.769 --> 00:04:54.529 church. We have grief because of love. But it's 00:04:54.529 --> 00:05:01.709 not grief that has no hope. Jesus our Lord, in 00:05:01.709 --> 00:05:04.850 the gospel story that you heard today, that St. 00:05:05.009 --> 00:05:10.910 Luke recounts, came upon a funeral procession 00:05:10.910 --> 00:05:16.769 coming out of a small village. Of name. Coming 00:05:16.769 --> 00:05:21.250 out of the gate. Two processions. St. Luke tells 00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:24.370 us that Jesus, on the day after he healed the 00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:28.089 centurion's servant, the centurion's slave, again, 00:05:28.110 --> 00:05:31.550 a helpless person, the day after that, Jesus 00:05:31.550 --> 00:05:35.189 is walking, intentionally going towards his gate, 00:05:35.329 --> 00:05:39.350 and it is a procession of life, because Jesus 00:05:39.350 --> 00:05:43.009 is the head of this procession. And there's a 00:05:43.009 --> 00:05:46.889 traffic jam at the gate. Who's going to give? 00:05:48.329 --> 00:05:52.829 Neither. Because Jesus, seeing that this is a 00:05:52.829 --> 00:05:56.310 widow who has lost her son, do you know what 00:05:56.310 --> 00:06:00.490 that means in that cultural context? This woman 00:06:00.490 --> 00:06:06.649 had no one. No one. It wasn't just grief of the 00:06:06.649 --> 00:06:11.399 loss of her son. Built upon the grief of the 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:14.579 loss of her husband. It was helplessness in that 00:06:14.579 --> 00:06:19.779 society. She had no one. Her life would be one 00:06:19.779 --> 00:06:24.899 of begging her neighbors to survive. That's the 00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:30.199 way it was. There's no safety net to catch anyone. 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:35.439 Jesus looked into the eyes of that mother and 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:40.220 he saw her pain. He saw real questioning. He 00:06:40.220 --> 00:06:43.199 saw a complete lack of understanding. How this 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:46.560 could have happened? My son has died. How could 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:52.199 God have allowed this? How could God have abandoned 00:06:52.199 --> 00:06:58.360 me? And what does St. Luke say? The same thing 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:01.040 he says about the father of the prodigal son. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:05.279 The same thing he says about the king who... 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:09.560 forgives the debt. The same thing he says over 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:12.100 and over in the Synoptic Gospels about Jesus. 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:15.439 And only about Jesus this word is used. It says, 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:20.920 he has compassion. Now, for us, compassion, thank. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.420 What does it mean? You feel sorry for that person. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:29.939 But the word in Greek doesn't just mean you feel 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:33.220 sorry. It means, in English too, you co -suffer. 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:37.459 But in Greek it means that he felt the sorrow 00:07:37.459 --> 00:07:42.980 and the grief in the gut of his stomach. He carried 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:48.579 her grief. He took it upon himself. This is what 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:52.819 Jesus does with our sins, with our ignorance, 00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:57.100 with our stupidity, with our sorrow and our grief. 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:01.379 He takes it on himself. He is the compassionate 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:05.449 God. And for the Greek world, which St. Luke 00:08:05.449 --> 00:08:08.189 was writing for. A God who is compassionate? 00:08:08.870 --> 00:08:15.350 Impossible! Not possible. God is distant and 00:08:15.350 --> 00:08:20.550 unfeeling and uncarried about the lesser beings, 00:08:20.930 --> 00:08:24.329 the humans, that walk upon the earth as ants. 00:08:24.569 --> 00:08:29.310 But God made himself like us in Christ. And his 00:08:29.310 --> 00:08:33.899 compassion reveals to us something new to the 00:08:33.899 --> 00:08:39.279 world, that deep in his heart, God continues 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:47.039 to ache for our sins, for our grief. He is the 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:51.019 good shepherd. This is why he wept at the grave 00:08:51.019 --> 00:09:00.419 of Lazarus. Everyone, without exception, is on 00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:05.179 a funeral procession. Each one of us living our 00:09:05.179 --> 00:09:07.779 life. We may take some detours, but in the big 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:11.320 picture, it's a funeral procession. You that 00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:15.899 are baptized into Christ and have put on Christ 00:09:15.899 --> 00:09:19.759 and have died with Christ and have already risen 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:25.279 with Christ and co -reign with Christ, walk with 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:29.059 him and know that all will be raised, all people, 00:09:29.159 --> 00:09:34.509 and the world. will be renewed when the Lord 00:09:34.509 --> 00:09:39.570 reveals himself in glory at the end. We Christians, 00:09:39.730 --> 00:09:44.409 we have to realize we are already living the 00:09:44.409 --> 00:09:48.049 life of the resurrection. Christ raised this 00:09:48.049 --> 00:09:50.370 boy from the dead for the sake of his mother, 00:09:50.429 --> 00:09:53.970 but he would die again, just as Lazarus would 00:09:53.970 --> 00:09:58.830 die again, just as the young girl. who he rose 00:09:58.830 --> 00:10:01.429 from the dead, from her bed, would die again. 00:10:04.309 --> 00:10:07.590 So we are living now. That's why we come together 00:10:07.590 --> 00:10:11.070 in the Divine Liturgy. To experience God's compassion, 00:10:11.309 --> 00:10:14.370 yes, to gain some for ourselves, to give to others, 00:10:14.629 --> 00:10:19.169 and to live as if we are already risen from the 00:10:19.169 --> 00:10:24.330 dead, despite what the evidence around us says. 00:10:24.940 --> 00:10:28.080 Because as I get older, I don't feel too resurrected. 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:35.320 But if my soul isn't participating in God's compassion 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:39.259 and glory and resurrection, then I will never 00:10:39.259 --> 00:10:44.480 enjoy the blessings of the kingdom of God. We 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:48.960 don't let sin reign as king in our mortal bodies, 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:55.830 says St. Paul. We don't obey it. We did hear 00:10:55.830 --> 00:10:58.610 just this extraordinary quote from the second 00:10:58.610 --> 00:11:03.289 Corinthians. An admonition to choose the right 00:11:03.289 --> 00:11:06.809 procession to be in. Not the procession of death, 00:11:07.029 --> 00:11:11.610 but the procession of life. The procession to 00:11:11.610 --> 00:11:14.669 the kingdom of God. Yes, we will experience death, 00:11:14.889 --> 00:11:19.450 but we've already died. And we have been raised 00:11:19.450 --> 00:11:25.029 in Christ. And our life is hid with him. So when 00:11:25.029 --> 00:11:28.870 St. Paul says that what agreement has the temple 00:11:28.870 --> 00:11:34.690 of God with you? Yes, collectively as the church, 00:11:34.850 --> 00:11:38.490 but individually you have been given the Spirit. 00:11:38.649 --> 00:11:41.610 What has the temple of God to do with idolatry? 00:11:41.769 --> 00:11:44.970 With lust, he says, with rebelliousness, with 00:11:44.970 --> 00:11:48.370 pettiness, with self -will or unbelief or jealousy, 00:11:48.549 --> 00:11:53.200 gossip, lying, self -abuse, sin. What agreement 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:56.360 does the temple of God have with these things? 00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:59.820 None. Because you are the temple of the living 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:04.460 God. I will walk in them. I will dwell with them. 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:10.960 They should be my sons and daughters. This gospel 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:15.100 also serves as a pattern to remind us that as 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:19.299 we are on this procession of life, not a processional, 00:12:19.299 --> 00:12:22.759 a procession. of corruption to the grave, but 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:26.820 a procession to the resurrection, that our soul, 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:31.100 which can be like that sun, dead before meeting 00:12:31.100 --> 00:12:34.460 Christ, is always going to be risen the moment 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:37.500 we meet Christ in prayer and in the divine liturgy. 00:12:38.259 --> 00:12:41.000 I'll end with these words of St. Gregory of Nyssa. 00:12:42.019 --> 00:12:45.840 This is his prayer at the funeral of his sister, 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:49.500 St. Macrina, who's depicted on the wall right 00:12:49.500 --> 00:12:54.919 over there. Thou, O Lord, hast freed us from 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:58.620 the fear of death. Thou hast made the end of 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:04.100 this life the beginning to us of true life. Thou, 00:13:04.100 --> 00:13:08.240 for a season, rests our body in sleep and awaits 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:12.200 them again at the last trumpet. Thou givest our 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.639 earth, which Thou hast fashioned with Thy hands, 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:20.539 to Thee, Earth, to keep in safety. One day Thou 00:13:20.539 --> 00:13:23.860 will take again what thou hast given, transfiguring 00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:27.919 with immortality and grace our mortal and unsightly 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:31.179 remains. Thou hast saved us from the curse and 00:13:31.179 --> 00:13:35.759 from sin, having become both for our sake. Thou 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.940 hast broken the head of the dragon who has seized 00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:42.539 us with his jaws in the yawning gulf of disobedience. 00:13:43.019 --> 00:13:45.960 Thou hast shown us the way of resurrection, having 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:49.159 broken the gates of Hades and brought to nothing 00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:52.519 him who had the power of death. That is the devil. 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:57.000 To our Lord, the victor over death and the giver 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:00.019 of life, be glory now and ever, to ages of ages. 00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:00.940 Amen.