We have a lot to take in today. As you heard
in the hymns, we're celebrating the Feast Day
of Annunciation. I'll give a reward to anybody
who can point out the Annunciation right behind
me. That's right. The Anon. Also in the Holy
Doors, it tells us that heaven and earth come
together in the Theotokos, but most perfectly
in Jesus Christ, who we will take into ourselves
later during this very liturgy. And we will become
Christ -bearers too. Heaven and earth are joined
together forever now. The invisible and the visible
are joined. That which is spiritual is joined
to the material. So we rejoice. We know how to
celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, special occasions.
But we don't live in a culture that celebrates
religious holidays. Hasn't happened. It's been
a long time. All we have now is Mardi Gras, you
know, and that's vulgarity probably mostly. So
we have to make sure that we're going to celebrate
a feast day to imbibe in the joy the reality
of what's happened for our salvation. We have
to plan it out so our home becomes that place
of celebration. We gather other people together.
We have a special meal here, which we do every
Sunday. Why? Because every Sunday is like a little
Pascha, and we have fellowship. But we have to
be intentional. Otherwise, these feast days will
come and go, and there's no impact on our soul.
But if you listen to the hymns that we sing at
the vigil and liturgy, this is like the most
important thing that ever happened. But we need
to approach it with that kind of intentional
seriousness. So we're celebrating an Annunciation.
March 25th is how many months before December
25th? It's nine months. Yes, that's because the
feast day is the conception within her of the
Word of God. No Christmas without what we celebrated
yesterday and we continue to celebrate today.
I said there's a lot to take in. That's true.
We also remember this day, commemorate that which
the Archangel Gabriel did throughout the Old
Testament, but that culmination of coming to
the Theotokos, the Virgin, and there he is. And
you see his wings, they're all in motion. I remember
in the book club that we're reading, this space
trilogy by C .S. Lewis, I think it's in Paralandra,
and it speaks of angels, and when they come to
a certain place, they're not standing still like
us. No, because the earth is spinning at what?
Is it 18 ,000 miles an hour? Something like that?
The angel is in movement to stay with the spin
of the earth. So the angels all... Fire, all
messenger, all movement to come to us. So we
celebrate this day. And I'll read you from the
Sennacherib what it says about Gabriel. A being
of fire, free from all alteration, and permanently
consecrated to the contemplation of divine glory.
The archangel Gabriel was designated by the Lord
as a ministering spirit sent forth to serve.
quoting Hebrews chapter 1, for the sake of those
who are to inherit salvation. That's us. According
to St. Proclus of Constantinople, Gabriel's name
means God and man and signifies that he is charged
to announce all the mysteries which have contributed
to the preparation for the incarnation of our
Lord Jesus Christ. The goal... and summit of
his mission was therefore the word rejoice. That's
how we approach our Christian life, rejoice,
which he announced to the mother of God and which
has become the form of praise and thanksgiving
of all those who thanks to him inherit salvation
and try to imitate on earth something of the
angelic life of praise of God. I said we have
a lot to take in. We also have this gospel account
from Mark about the demon -possessed child, the
distraught father, and Christ's words at the
end that he will be crucified, arrested and crucified,
and the third day arise, and his disciples did
not understand. We're disciples, and most of
the time we don't either. The Lord is approached
by a noisy crowd. Let me say something about
this account. And the disciples are distraught
also. They're frustrated, and they're demoralized,
and they're being made fun of, if you read between
the lines, because they could not heal the child.
Jesus throws up his hands. How long will I put
up with you? faithless generation. That was then.
Have we gotten much better? The account is given
to us on this day, this fourth Sunday of Lent,
past the midpoint. And I'd like to point out
two things about this gospel. There are many
things, but let me say two things that it teaches
us. One, wonderful and amazing. The other, something
like sorrow, leading to joy. And the first thing,
let me start with the sorrow. It might come as
a surprise and a shock to each of us. Once we
actually dive into Lent, to try to fast, to try
to pray more. to try to come to church services,
not just Sunday, but the Pre -Sanctified and
whatever else, it might come to us as a shock
to realize how broken I am. How fragmented my
thinking and my intentions and my desires are.
Just for everything, I want to pull it all in.
How demanding I am. That's what shocks me. How
sinful and helpless I am. The father of that
boy in this story, in chapter 9 of Mark, read
it, comes to Christ. This man's got faith. Just
enough. He cries out to the Lord. Lord, I believe.
Help my unbelief. Help my fear. Help my doubts.
Help my lack of love. He sees himself so clearly
here. But it's in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, that he sees himself. It's
not just because he had some kind of realization.
You know, the devil likes to show us the truth
of our vices. And it produces because he blames
us, he accuses us. It produces hopelessness and
depression and denial in us. Lack of faith in
us. But when God reveals the truth about our
sins, our vices, our weaknesses, he also reveals
his love. The light of his love is the thing
that illumines what we can see about ourself.
And this liberates us from the bondage of self
-love. It encourages us, gives us courage. That's
what the word encourage means, to strengthen
our heart. The French word for heart is in there.
To struggle for further change, to repent. The
devil has shown me my sins, and I know he's shown
you your sins because I hear confessions. He's
shown us so many times in that negative, dark
way. God has shown me my sins, but it's a very
different experience. Because the first smothers
hope. The second renews hope. So I'm learning
to be, and I hope you are too, more careful about
this than I used to be. We have the book of the
ladder of divine ascent. That's the other thing
that the fourth Sunday is usually, almost always.
commemorated as. The St. John, the writer of
the Ladder of Divine Ascent. We have to be careful
if we read it as the devil would have us read
it to condemn ourselves. Christ is the liberator
of captives. Most of us have been captives of
all kinds of fearful self -love. It's fearful.
But now we start to move away from that. The
second thing, the second thing, the wonderful
words which we heard, the words of Gabriel to
the Theotokos. I said there's two things. This
is the second thing. Gabriel says to the Virgin,
with God, all things are possible. Let's not
reduce that to monetary or material means. Back
when I used to work at a design company, I would
frequently go to a print shop over on Pioneer.
Now it's an auto place, but it was a print shop.
It was called Cleek Printing. And the man in
there who owned the print shop would greet me
very kindly all the time. And he learned that
I became a priest. And I was still working. And
he says, Padre, because that's what people in
the world call you when you're in your civilian
clothes and they found out you're a priest. Padre,
I want to get this sailboat. I need this loan
for $250 ,000. Would you pray for me that I'll
get the loan? So what do I say? I said, Duffy,
I'll pray that God gives you. what you need for
your salvation. If it's a sailboat, may he grant
it. Duffy died about a month later. So let's
remember that when the angel says, with God all
things are possible, it doesn't mean for our
entertainment. It doesn't even mean to pull us
out of our suffering. It means that he can save
even us. The second wonderful thing also, St.
Philaret says, whom I quoted yesterday, without
its creator, now listen carefully, don't be insulted,
without its creator, a creature is nothing. Seems
accurate, right? We would not exist. He says,
it is only something, we. creatures of God by
the power of its creator and so of what significance
is the will of man if it does not attach itself
to the will of God through obedience as the virgin
did that is to follow obedience is to follow
the one whom we hear and love let me put it in
the words of the savior I am the vine you are
the branches he who abides in me and I in him,
that is, lives in me with freedom, and I live
in him with freedom, bears much fruit. For without
me, you can do nothing. This statement is about
our very existence, not our accomplishments.
This feast we're celebrating yesterday and today,
the Annunciation, the Good News brought by the
Archangel, The two bring us this wonderful self
-realization. We see our weakness. And we learn
without Christ we can do nothing. And he comes
to us. And we have success in the spiritual life.
We're so fragmented. We're so broken. We celebrate
the virgin. What's virginity? It's not an absence
of some experience. It's wholeness. It's integrity.
We need spiritual virginity from God. We're so
fragmented. The Theotokos teaches us, sweeps
us up in this feast day, literally, with the
healing of Christ. So let us rejoice, brothers
and sisters. Remember, to rejoice in a feast
takes a little work, takes some intentionality.
Takes a little bit of time. We donate that to
the Lord and we receive all the blessings he
can give us. To our Lord be glory now and ever
to ages of ages. Amen.