of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus
Christ. Those who may be starting out on the
study of some science, biology, or music, or
some other endeavor, have a guide to begin their
work. You can make such monumental mistakes and
waste so much time if you don't have that person,
that guide, that tradition and the body of knowledge
and understanding that lets you progress in your
study. So if you're learning guitar as I did
at my music school, I had a personal guitar teacher.
He was my mentor and he guided me. made lots
of mistakes, and he was somebody that could set
me straight so that I could have a relationship
with music that wasn't just technical, but that
was something that was dynamic and that actually
was musical. So today, we celebrate, we commemorate,
we remember, whichever word you like to choose,
those that do that for us in the faith. We can
go down all kinds of wrong pathways with our
faith. Because faith in Jesus Christ is not faith
in an idea. It's faithfulness to a person. And
a person has personality. A person has qualities.
Aaron's hair is not blue or red. It's black.
He's this tall. He's this wide. He speaks like,
so it's about the truth of something. The truth
of the science of the theology of the church,
let's say. So we commemorate the Holy Fathers,
those holy bishops that gathered in ecumenical
councils for hundreds of years. The first, second,
third, fourth, fifth, and sixth councils. Those
are the people we are remembering today. You
heard this reading from St. Paul. Remember those
who guide you. Spiritual guides, those we trust,
those we love, those we honor, those who are
sanctified, our saints. Those who have spoken
the word of God to you, whose faith follow. You
don't make it up on your own because it's about
someone in particular, not something in general.
who has spoken the word of God to you, whose
faith follow, considering the outcome of their
conduct, what are their lives like? Are they
trustworthy in the way they conduct and live
themselves? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. So do not be carried, says
St. Paul, do not be carried about with various
and strange doctrines. These words from St. Paul
lead us then to consider the Holy Fathers of
the first six ecumenical councils with honor,
with love, with seriousness. This is an important
day, as all Sundays are in the church calendar.
If we wanted to give this Sunday a subtitle,
we might call it Truth Sunday. Why? Because the
fathers of the first six ecumenical councils
were all about the truth. They gathered in council.
They weren't a bunch of old white men. Don't
think of it that way. They were wounded in persecutions.
They had suffered for their faith. And they came
from all over. From Africa. North Africa, Italy,
Europe, Asia, Asia Minor. They were men of strength
and humility and honor who sought the truth.
And they sought the truth, as St. Paul says,
to speak the truth in love. I'll say something
about love in a moment. They did not meet. to
create a theology. They came to respond to an
attack on the faith. They didn't invent the truth.
They came to preserve, to respond to the falsehood,
to give the authentic truth, the truth as it
has been revealed. You heard the words of Jesus
Christ. The words I have given, they have received.
And they have known that all things that I have
given them are from thee. O Holy Father. Those
are the words of Jesus to his Father about the
apostles and by extension to the Holy Fathers.
Reveal truth from the beginning, not made up.
They spoke that truth in love. This is what St.
Justin of Serbia says. Let me quote something
from him. Because it's easy to say, oh, this
is the truth. It's easy to say, this is the way
it is. But can you back it up by the conduct
of your life, by who you are? This is what St.
Justin says. True and real knowledge of God and
of yourself is acquired by us only through the
path of practical love. By loving God and other
people, we come to know by experience that our
soul is Christ -like. Our soul is immortal by
God's grace. The experience of practical love
is part of the good news which Christ as the
God -man has given to the human race. In Christ,
who is both God and man, there is something incomparably
greater than truth, than goodness. than beauty.
He is himself all of these things in their absolute
sense. You want to know beauty? Look at Christ.
The truth? Look at Christ. Goodness? Look at
Christ. Love? Look at Christ. Whatever good there
is in the human soul, Christ draws it to himself
by some invincible force of love. It is he who
gives the human soul something that absolute
truth, absolute goodness, and even absolute beauty
couldn't give by themselves. It's not something
we can acquire just because we would like to.
When we acquire love, which is God himself? Love
is not love in general. We can love terrible
things, harmful things. I love all kinds of things
that aren't good for me that I eat. I probably
love them. More than I love my neighbor. That's
a sick love. Love of God. That's different. We
are united with him through that love. And in
this way, we arrive at the real knowledge of
the eternal truth. Love fills us with God. Our
knowledge of God depends on the extent to which
we're filled with him. The Holy Fathers had that
love. St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans,
the first one we heard, says today something
like, love in a genuine way, without hypocrisy.
It's easy to say we love our neighbor, especially
if they haven't done anything against us. Maybe
it's even easy to say we've forgiven our enemy
if they haven't done anything. against us but
to love our enemy but mostly well indifference
to our neighbor is not love do you know your
neighbor you look around the church starting
there do you know people here are you indifferent
to the who they are or are you like like father
michael who all of you know had an enormous love
for everybody. Why? Because he was curious about
each and every person. He wanted to know them.
He wanted the best for them. It's that kind of
love that is without hypocrisy and that is genuine.
Not indifference to our neighbor. That's not
love. St. Paul. has given us an amazing lesson
today. But Pontius Pilate, who was very far from
being St. Paul, also gives us a lesson. What
did he say to Jesus at the trial? What is truth?
Of course, he was being cynical as a Roman. What
is truth was the wrong question. Who is the truth?
It would have been pointless, wasted words for
Jesus to answer Pilate in what he said earlier,
I'm the way and the truth and the life. That
would have been pointless. Pilate could not have
heard that. That's why, and this is important
for us to remember, dear brothers, dear sisters,
no matter what our culture says, and it changes
quickly. no matter what experts might tell you,
ultimately what we should always defer to is
what the church teaches. Our mentors, our guides
in the truth, in the way of love and peace and
goodness and true faith. Yes, the church teaches.
Now you're saying to me, now wait, Father Lawrence.
Didn't you just say that Jesus is the truth?
And now you're telling us that the church is
our source for the truth? Yes, I did say that.
Because Jesus is himself the head of the body.
We are the brothers and sisters gathered here,
members of one another. Like my finger is a member
of my body. And all of you, from the smallest
young thing to the oldest. have been given a
gift of grace. You are connected to one another.
You are united to one another by Christ. It doesn't
matter if you're a pinky or something more. Now,
of course, you know, I could live with a piece
of my pinky being removed, but I can't live without
my head. But let's realize it's the church that
is Christ's presence on the earth. It's not an
organization of like -minded people. Our Lord
forgave the sins of the paralytic. And what did
he also say to the apostles later? You have also
this grace and gift to remove the sins of those
who come to you to heal them. To relieve the
pain of separation from God and each other. So
for us to find Jesus, for us to find the fullness
of the truth, we must of necessity come to the
church. St. Paul was knocked off his... horse
and made blind and then he heard from the Lord
Jesus Christ and said, go into the city and talk
to this man and he'll tell you everything. He
had to go to the church to be baptized, to be
enlightened. Dear ones, it's a temptation to
think of these councils and these fathers as
dusty, ancient history. That's what the devil
wants us to think. Church doesn't know, it's
out of touch. The work and the message of the
council is clear. The gospel is to save us, to
save us, to proclaim the incarnation of the Son
of God, his crucifixion, his resurrection in
all its glory. So let us rejoice in these holy
fathers and give glory to God. Amen.