WEBVTT 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:16.199 Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. In the name 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.719 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:26.660 Spirit. Amen. It was not a quiet week here this 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:34.159 last week. Our parish was honored, and it was 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:39.060 very moving to host the funeral services for 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:42.640 Machka Priscilla. Shipley, she's the wife of 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:47.079 Father Ian. They were both here with their family 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:49.380 some years ago as parishioners before they went 00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:53.520 to seminary. Now Father Ian is the rector of 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:56.880 St. Carol Methodius in Chico, a very, very fine 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:02.399 mission parish. We had 12 priests and our Archbishop 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:07.560 Benjamin, lovely choir from Chico. Much grieving, 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:12.439 but much joy, much peace. Priscilla had suffered 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:18.200 greatly, greatly for many, many years. And then, 00:01:18.219 --> 00:01:22.180 of course, we celebrated the vigil for the elevation 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:24.519 of the cross, the exaltation of the precious 00:01:24.519 --> 00:01:28.140 cross. It was brought out in solemn procession 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:31.640 during the singing of Holy God. You heard the 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:36.980 hymns already. We sang those. And then the next 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:42.379 day, of course. was the last time to visit our 00:01:42.379 --> 00:01:46.680 dear friend, our brother in Christ, the awesome 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:50.959 church reader and singer, Tom, Reader Stephen. 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:57.859 And on Friday, the day of the feast of the translation, 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:01.439 the uncovering of the relics of the Holy Protomarty 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.219 Archdeacon Stephen, this is icon of St. Stephen, 00:02:05.420 --> 00:02:10.280 he reposed peacefully. So much going on this 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:14.419 week. And it was blessed. It was full of grace. 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:18.860 We need consolation during these times. I mean, 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.400 when you pick up the... Well, who picks up a 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:26.280 newspaper? When you look at the Internet news, 00:02:26.439 --> 00:02:29.379 you see horrible tragedies all across the world. 00:02:30.020 --> 00:02:35.319 Violence, killing, natural disasters. Criminal 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:40.150 negligence. We need... We need encouragement. 00:02:42.009 --> 00:02:44.069 I'd submit to you that the four readings you 00:02:44.069 --> 00:02:48.849 heard today, if you heard nothing else about 00:02:48.849 --> 00:02:52.389 the Christian life, those four would be sufficient. 00:02:53.650 --> 00:02:57.129 Consolation and suffering. Knowing that Christ 00:02:57.129 --> 00:02:59.490 loves us and died for us and that we have him 00:02:59.490 --> 00:03:02.810 within us. Knowing that we have to love our... 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:05.639 Lord and God and Savior with all our heart, all 00:03:05.639 --> 00:03:08.919 our soul, all our mind, all our strength. Think 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:12.879 what that means. Very few of us can do that. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:15.979 But that is the first and the greatest commandment. 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:20.659 To put God before all things to serve him. And, 00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:25.979 Jesus says, see this is the lawyers who are trying 00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:29.900 to trip Jesus up. To get him to say something. 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:34.240 He didn't take the bait. your neighbor, the other 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:38.919 person, because he is where you're going to find 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:41.800 yourself. That's what that means, to love your 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.020 neighbor as yourself. In your neighbor, you will 00:03:44.020 --> 00:03:48.159 find yourself. Your neighbor, as St. Anthony 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:51.280 the Great of the Desert said, is your salvation. 00:03:55.060 --> 00:03:59.159 And of course, we heard what it means to follow 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:03.139 the Lord, to take up a cross. All this is for 00:04:03.139 --> 00:04:07.199 our consolation. The cross is in the middle of 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:11.400 the church. The word of God is given us to be 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:15.560 in the middle of our heart. It's placed there 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:19.920 through prayer and struggle so our hearts change. 00:04:21.980 --> 00:04:25.459 All this is given, I say again, providentially 00:04:25.459 --> 00:04:29.079 as an encouragement to those who are grieving, 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:34.310 which is all of us. Those who are troubled and 00:04:34.310 --> 00:04:39.589 vexed about life, which is all of us. Those who 00:04:39.589 --> 00:04:43.189 are suffering or sick, which is all of us at 00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:47.529 one time or another. Buffeted by the world or 00:04:47.529 --> 00:04:51.430 confused or broken. Isn't that true for most 00:04:51.430 --> 00:04:55.269 of us at some point? And for many, all the time? 00:04:57.639 --> 00:05:00.699 When we read the scriptures, we receive encouragement 00:05:00.699 --> 00:05:03.180 and consolation. Maybe some of us don't know 00:05:03.180 --> 00:05:05.399 that, and we need to work on our scripture reading 00:05:05.399 --> 00:05:09.660 a little bit more to be more faithful to what 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:14.079 we're given. St. Paul says this, whatever things 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:17.139 were written, and he's not talking about the 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:20.680 New Testament, because it wasn't written and 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:24.459 passed around yet. Whatever things were written 00:05:24.459 --> 00:05:28.040 before were written for our learning, that through 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:31.500 the patience and comfort, see, patience and comfort 00:05:31.500 --> 00:05:37.439 of the scriptures, we might have hope. I know 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:39.360 that for many of you, again, you don't give the 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.439 scriptures enough time or consideration in your 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:50.600 life so that you don't have the comfort and the 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:55.579 patience promised that you could acquire. Let's 00:05:55.579 --> 00:05:58.800 work on that together as we go through this year, 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:03.639 this liturgical year. Discipleship, as you heard 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:07.759 in the first reading, whoever wants to come after 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:12.100 me, the Lord's inviting us to be with him, to 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:15.480 be his disciple. Discipleship is the way of the 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:18.920 cross, he says. That's denying ourselves, following 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:21.879 Christ, not following ourselves. How do we pick 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:28.819 up our cross? What does that mean? Well, it doesn't 00:06:28.819 --> 00:06:33.779 mean little acts of charity. It doesn't mean 00:06:33.779 --> 00:06:37.779 those so -called small crosses, situations that 00:06:37.779 --> 00:06:40.579 we bear that are difficult in our life, relatives 00:06:40.579 --> 00:06:45.699 or friends or something else. That's not what 00:06:45.699 --> 00:06:50.660 this cross business is about. St. Peter objected 00:06:50.660 --> 00:06:52.699 to the cross not because Christ wanted him to 00:06:52.699 --> 00:06:55.610 do some charitable work. or to be kind to his 00:06:55.610 --> 00:07:01.889 mother -in -law. St. Peter objected to the cross 00:07:01.889 --> 00:07:05.449 because he knew what it meant. The cross for 00:07:05.449 --> 00:07:10.050 us is the stretching out of our arms in self 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:17.370 -sacrifice for other people. The cross is giving 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:24.389 our entire life, our strength, our mind, Our 00:07:24.389 --> 00:07:29.850 soul, as Jesus says, loving with all of that 00:07:29.850 --> 00:07:35.269 without reservation. That's why St. Peter said, 00:07:35.430 --> 00:07:38.910 Lord, this won't work. People are not going to 00:07:38.910 --> 00:07:42.350 follow you if that's what you expect. And Jesus 00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:45.329 said what? Get behind me, Satan. You're thinking 00:07:45.329 --> 00:07:48.769 of the ways of man, not of the ways of God. Because 00:07:48.769 --> 00:07:51.870 there's no other way for us to be refashioned 00:07:51.870 --> 00:07:54.199 and saved. From death and sin. Except to follow 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:58.720 the Lord. So we can crush that sin. The stone. 00:07:58.899 --> 00:08:03.420 As the Lord says. In another place. We'll crush 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:09.199 it. And we will be refashioned. But when we follow 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:14.740 the Lord. This is what Saint Innocent of Alaska 00:08:14.740 --> 00:08:19.470 wrote. In his book. To the Alaskan natives. Okay, 00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:22.209 we consider ourselves educated people. But brothers 00:08:22.209 --> 00:08:24.850 and sisters, in the way of the heart, we're not. 00:08:25.189 --> 00:08:28.730 In the way of technology, yes, oh, we're so educated. 00:08:29.550 --> 00:08:31.589 But the way of the heart. So these are asking 00:08:31.589 --> 00:08:34.149 people to understand what he wrote quite clearly. 00:08:34.350 --> 00:08:36.950 We kind of struggle with what he said. It's simple. 00:08:37.129 --> 00:08:41.970 Listen, he says, as we come closer to God, much 00:08:41.970 --> 00:08:44.450 of what seemed difficult or bitter, the crosses 00:08:44.450 --> 00:08:47.909 are stretching out of our arms to embrace our 00:08:47.909 --> 00:08:52.279 neighbor. Self -sacrifice, much of what seemed 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:55.919 bitter or difficult before will become easy and 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:00.460 sweet. And what seemed to please us before will 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:05.720 come to seem boring and harmful. Of course, there 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:08.259 will be trying periods in our life when the path 00:09:08.259 --> 00:09:12.820 of ascension towards God, how beautiful, ascension 00:09:12.820 --> 00:09:15.679 towards God will seem exceptionally difficult. 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:20.139 Then we should think, that for every step taken, 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:22.960 there are a thousand rewards being prepared. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:29.220 This is the narrow path that leads to heaven, 00:09:29.340 --> 00:09:35.860 he says. St. Paul concurs. You heard it in the 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:39.120 epistle. He says that we are troubled on every 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:44.120 side. We're distressed. We're perplexed, but 00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:48.399 not in despair. Persecuted. but not forsaken, 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:52.179 cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing 00:09:52.179 --> 00:09:55.059 about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, 00:09:55.159 --> 00:09:58.759 that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:01.279 in our body. This is the state of things for 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.700 us as well, isn't it? It's all true. It's sad. 00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:07.019 It's tragic. This is the state of things, this 00:10:07.019 --> 00:10:10.460 path. This path with Christ has many difficulties, 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:15.440 but it's full of joy. Because the peace of God 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.399 that passes understanding will be given to us. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:24.580 By the way, remember that when Christ was on 00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:28.139 Golgotha, on the cross, there were two thieves. 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:33.059 We can choose to be like the thief, the so -called 00:10:33.059 --> 00:10:35.700 wise thief, or as many of the church fathers 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:39.679 call him, the grateful thief. Thanking the Lord, 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:45.399 understanding his position. We can be like the 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:52.039 other thief who reviled Christ, hated him, continually 00:10:52.039 --> 00:10:57.720 questioned God, turned his back. Let's be like 00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:04.240 the wise thief. That means we can kind of forget 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:08.980 the idea that our Lord and God and Savior is 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:11.899 going to come to us in a very pleasant and wonderful 00:11:11.899 --> 00:11:17.340 and easy way. that will require little or no 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:20.360 change on our part. See, this is the part that's 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:24.240 hard. This is the cross part, the change on our 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:27.399 part. We probably just give up approaching the 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:32.860 Lord since it doesn't happen that he comes to 00:11:32.860 --> 00:11:37.159 us in the easy moments. God is more likely to 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:41.580 enter our lives through a crisis. Through all 00:11:41.580 --> 00:11:43.600 these things that we're enduring through the 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:47.820 last few weeks. Through serious illness or loss 00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:53.480 or failure. Why? Because these, the cross is 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:57.320 the sign of that. These are the things of God's 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:03.179 presence. These tell us Jesus is with us. He 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:08.240 comes to us in the eye of the storm. Through 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:12.149 the cross. For many of us, afflictions and troubles, 00:12:12.509 --> 00:12:17.210 thunder alone can tear us away from our isolated 00:12:17.210 --> 00:12:23.350 individualism and transform us into real servants 00:12:23.350 --> 00:12:28.110 of God, to love our neighbor as ourself. We know 00:12:28.110 --> 00:12:30.309 that it's possible because the man that used 00:12:30.309 --> 00:12:32.809 to stand right there every Sunday and Saturday 00:12:32.809 --> 00:12:35.429 night and every feast day, that's what he did. 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:39.220 We know it's possible because the priest that 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:42.620 used to stand here, who was a priest for 65 years, 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:47.019 did the same thing. We don't need any more examples. 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:53.360 We just need to do and to follow. And then, when 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.279 these things happen to us, these difficult moments, 00:12:57.259 --> 00:12:59.860 When we're called to repentance, that is to turn 00:12:59.860 --> 00:13:02.980 to Christ, not to feel guilty, no. Repentance 00:13:02.980 --> 00:13:05.940 brings us joy. Then what happens? The Holy Father 00:13:05.940 --> 00:13:13.100 says, say this, we begin to long for God as he 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:19.360 longs for us. We begin to love God as he loves 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:25.279 us. And then there's the consolation. One of 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:28.460 the elders says, all that pain and difficulty 00:13:28.460 --> 00:13:32.100 that we experience, what we're really experiencing, 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:35.120 says Elder Milianos, is the pain of Christ on 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:41.000 the cross pursuing us. In my affliction, I cried 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.240 unto the Lord, says the psalmist, and the Lord 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:48.679 heard me. Believe me, brothers and sisters, God 00:13:48.679 --> 00:13:52.970 will not forsake us. We have the light of Christ 00:13:52.970 --> 00:13:55.909 shining in our hearts. St. Paul claims this today. 00:13:56.029 --> 00:13:59.029 We have this treasure in earthly vessels, our 00:13:59.029 --> 00:14:02.529 bodies. That the excellency of the power may 00:14:02.529 --> 00:14:06.590 be of God, not of us. That means that we have 00:14:06.590 --> 00:14:08.950 the promise of the resurrection within us now. 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:12.049 This is the way we live. His eternal life within 00:14:12.049 --> 00:14:15.570 us. Here, especially when we partake of the Eucharist, 00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:19.490 in our bodies, which will be transformed. And 00:14:19.490 --> 00:14:23.120 the life... Then, which I live in the flesh, 00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:26.460 in my body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:32.539 who loved me and gave himself for me. That's 00:14:32.539 --> 00:14:36.259 encouragement. That's consolation. That's peace 00:14:36.259 --> 00:14:40.440 in the heart. That's comfort in the Holy Scriptures. 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:46.139 The Abba Philemon said to one of his disciples, 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:51.039 the person engaged in spiritual struggle, That's 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:55.179 why we're here. Who has grown close to God, who 00:14:55.179 --> 00:14:58.419 partakes of the holy light, and is wounded by 00:14:58.419 --> 00:15:02.179 his longing for that light and presence, delights 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:06.779 in the Lord with inconceivable spiritual joy. 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:11.500 To our Lord be glory now and ever, to ages of 00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:12.779 ages. Amen.