Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. In the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. It was not a quiet week here this
last week. Our parish was honored, and it was
very moving to host the funeral services for
Machka Priscilla. Shipley, she's the wife of
Father Ian. They were both here with their family
some years ago as parishioners before they went
to seminary. Now Father Ian is the rector of
St. Carol Methodius in Chico, a very, very fine
mission parish. We had 12 priests and our Archbishop
Benjamin, lovely choir from Chico. Much grieving,
but much joy, much peace. Priscilla had suffered
greatly, greatly for many, many years. And then,
of course, we celebrated the vigil for the elevation
of the cross, the exaltation of the precious
cross. It was brought out in solemn procession
during the singing of Holy God. You heard the
hymns already. We sang those. And then the next
day, of course. was the last time to visit our
dear friend, our brother in Christ, the awesome
church reader and singer, Tom, Reader Stephen.
And on Friday, the day of the feast of the translation,
the uncovering of the relics of the Holy Protomarty
Archdeacon Stephen, this is icon of St. Stephen,
he reposed peacefully. So much going on this
week. And it was blessed. It was full of grace.
We need consolation during these times. I mean,
when you pick up the... Well, who picks up a
newspaper? When you look at the Internet news,
you see horrible tragedies all across the world.
Violence, killing, natural disasters. Criminal
negligence. We need... We need encouragement.
I'd submit to you that the four readings you
heard today, if you heard nothing else about
the Christian life, those four would be sufficient.
Consolation and suffering. Knowing that Christ
loves us and died for us and that we have him
within us. Knowing that we have to love our...
Lord and God and Savior with all our heart, all
our soul, all our mind, all our strength. Think
what that means. Very few of us can do that.
But that is the first and the greatest commandment.
To put God before all things to serve him. And,
Jesus says, see this is the lawyers who are trying
to trip Jesus up. To get him to say something.
He didn't take the bait. your neighbor, the other
person, because he is where you're going to find
yourself. That's what that means, to love your
neighbor as yourself. In your neighbor, you will
find yourself. Your neighbor, as St. Anthony
the Great of the Desert said, is your salvation.
And of course, we heard what it means to follow
the Lord, to take up a cross. All this is for
our consolation. The cross is in the middle of
the church. The word of God is given us to be
in the middle of our heart. It's placed there
through prayer and struggle so our hearts change.
All this is given, I say again, providentially
as an encouragement to those who are grieving,
which is all of us. Those who are troubled and
vexed about life, which is all of us. Those who
are suffering or sick, which is all of us at
one time or another. Buffeted by the world or
confused or broken. Isn't that true for most
of us at some point? And for many, all the time?
When we read the scriptures, we receive encouragement
and consolation. Maybe some of us don't know
that, and we need to work on our scripture reading
a little bit more to be more faithful to what
we're given. St. Paul says this, whatever things
were written, and he's not talking about the
New Testament, because it wasn't written and
passed around yet. Whatever things were written
before were written for our learning, that through
the patience and comfort, see, patience and comfort
of the scriptures, we might have hope. I know
that for many of you, again, you don't give the
scriptures enough time or consideration in your
life so that you don't have the comfort and the
patience promised that you could acquire. Let's
work on that together as we go through this year,
this liturgical year. Discipleship, as you heard
in the first reading, whoever wants to come after
me, the Lord's inviting us to be with him, to
be his disciple. Discipleship is the way of the
cross, he says. That's denying ourselves, following
Christ, not following ourselves. How do we pick
up our cross? What does that mean? Well, it doesn't
mean little acts of charity. It doesn't mean
those so -called small crosses, situations that
we bear that are difficult in our life, relatives
or friends or something else. That's not what
this cross business is about. St. Peter objected
to the cross not because Christ wanted him to
do some charitable work. or to be kind to his
mother -in -law. St. Peter objected to the cross
because he knew what it meant. The cross for
us is the stretching out of our arms in self
-sacrifice for other people. The cross is giving
our entire life, our strength, our mind, Our
soul, as Jesus says, loving with all of that
without reservation. That's why St. Peter said,
Lord, this won't work. People are not going to
follow you if that's what you expect. And Jesus
said what? Get behind me, Satan. You're thinking
of the ways of man, not of the ways of God. Because
there's no other way for us to be refashioned
and saved. From death and sin. Except to follow
the Lord. So we can crush that sin. The stone.
As the Lord says. In another place. We'll crush
it. And we will be refashioned. But when we follow
the Lord. This is what Saint Innocent of Alaska
wrote. In his book. To the Alaskan natives. Okay,
we consider ourselves educated people. But brothers
and sisters, in the way of the heart, we're not.
In the way of technology, yes, oh, we're so educated.
But the way of the heart. So these are asking
people to understand what he wrote quite clearly.
We kind of struggle with what he said. It's simple.
Listen, he says, as we come closer to God, much
of what seemed difficult or bitter, the crosses
are stretching out of our arms to embrace our
neighbor. Self -sacrifice, much of what seemed
bitter or difficult before will become easy and
sweet. And what seemed to please us before will
come to seem boring and harmful. Of course, there
will be trying periods in our life when the path
of ascension towards God, how beautiful, ascension
towards God will seem exceptionally difficult.
Then we should think, that for every step taken,
there are a thousand rewards being prepared.
This is the narrow path that leads to heaven,
he says. St. Paul concurs. You heard it in the
epistle. He says that we are troubled on every
side. We're distressed. We're perplexed, but
not in despair. Persecuted. but not forsaken,
cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body. This is the state of things for
us as well, isn't it? It's all true. It's sad.
It's tragic. This is the state of things, this
path. This path with Christ has many difficulties,
but it's full of joy. Because the peace of God
that passes understanding will be given to us.
By the way, remember that when Christ was on
Golgotha, on the cross, there were two thieves.
We can choose to be like the thief, the so -called
wise thief, or as many of the church fathers
call him, the grateful thief. Thanking the Lord,
understanding his position. We can be like the
other thief who reviled Christ, hated him, continually
questioned God, turned his back. Let's be like
the wise thief. That means we can kind of forget
the idea that our Lord and God and Savior is
going to come to us in a very pleasant and wonderful
and easy way. that will require little or no
change on our part. See, this is the part that's
hard. This is the cross part, the change on our
part. We probably just give up approaching the
Lord since it doesn't happen that he comes to
us in the easy moments. God is more likely to
enter our lives through a crisis. Through all
these things that we're enduring through the
last few weeks. Through serious illness or loss
or failure. Why? Because these, the cross is
the sign of that. These are the things of God's
presence. These tell us Jesus is with us. He
comes to us in the eye of the storm. Through
the cross. For many of us, afflictions and troubles,
thunder alone can tear us away from our isolated
individualism and transform us into real servants
of God, to love our neighbor as ourself. We know
that it's possible because the man that used
to stand right there every Sunday and Saturday
night and every feast day, that's what he did.
We know it's possible because the priest that
used to stand here, who was a priest for 65 years,
did the same thing. We don't need any more examples.
We just need to do and to follow. And then, when
these things happen to us, these difficult moments,
When we're called to repentance, that is to turn
to Christ, not to feel guilty, no. Repentance
brings us joy. Then what happens? The Holy Father
says, say this, we begin to long for God as he
longs for us. We begin to love God as he loves
us. And then there's the consolation. One of
the elders says, all that pain and difficulty
that we experience, what we're really experiencing,
says Elder Milianos, is the pain of Christ on
the cross pursuing us. In my affliction, I cried
unto the Lord, says the psalmist, and the Lord
heard me. Believe me, brothers and sisters, God
will not forsake us. We have the light of Christ
shining in our hearts. St. Paul claims this today.
We have this treasure in earthly vessels, our
bodies. That the excellency of the power may
be of God, not of us. That means that we have
the promise of the resurrection within us now.
This is the way we live. His eternal life within
us. Here, especially when we partake of the Eucharist,
in our bodies, which will be transformed. And
the life... Then, which I live in the flesh,
in my body, I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. That's
encouragement. That's consolation. That's peace
in the heart. That's comfort in the Holy Scriptures.
The Abba Philemon said to one of his disciples,
the person engaged in spiritual struggle, That's
why we're here. Who has grown close to God, who
partakes of the holy light, and is wounded by
his longing for that light and presence, delights
in the Lord with inconceivable spiritual joy.
To our Lord be glory now and ever, to ages of
ages. Amen.