WEBVTT 00:00:02.220 --> 00:00:05.059 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:05.059 --> 00:00:09.080 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:14.140 Glory be to God. Today, the fourth Sunday of 00:00:14.140 --> 00:00:21.000 Lent, we hear the story of the young man who, 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:25.300 as the scripture says, had a deaf and dumb spirit. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.780 From our perspective, of course, He has all the 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:34.979 symptoms of epilepsy. But be that as it may, 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:41.920 yesterday's gospel also was taken from Mark. 00:00:42.659 --> 00:00:49.880 And much of St. Mark's gospel is a succession 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:54.840 of miracles that Jesus performs. People that 00:00:54.840 --> 00:01:02.250 are blind, cannot speak. lame, sick, cannot hear. 00:01:02.810 --> 00:01:07.390 One way or another, these are miracles of healing. 00:01:08.569 --> 00:01:26.790 And... Or to elicit faith from those... who are 00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:29.829 surrounding the event. So one way or another, 00:01:29.989 --> 00:01:33.969 the purpose of these miracles is not simply to 00:01:33.969 --> 00:01:37.930 heal someone, but to do spiritual healing as 00:01:37.930 --> 00:01:42.290 well. And I think that's why the church during 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:45.890 the period of Lent chooses these Gospels primarily 00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:50.090 on Saturday and Sunday, primarily from the Gospel 00:01:50.090 --> 00:01:56.260 of St. Mark. Because Lent is... par excellence, 00:01:56.439 --> 00:02:03.319 a time of healing and change and transformation. 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:12.719 So Jesus came to heal our bodies, but most especially 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:18.620 our souls. How does this healing take place nowadays? 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:23.960 The church... is the continuation of jesus's 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:28.939 ministry the church does this through its liturgy 00:02:28.939 --> 00:02:35.180 through especially the sacraments and all the 00:02:35.180 --> 00:02:38.620 other items that we have at our disposal in the 00:02:38.620 --> 00:02:43.099 church scriptures spiritual reading primarily 00:02:43.099 --> 00:02:46.219 though through the sacraments if you look at 00:02:46.219 --> 00:02:49.639 each one of the sacraments almost one way or 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:51.939 another there's something involved in healing 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:57.879 there baptism which has two purposes fundamentally 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:03.259 the giving of new life and then also the forgiveness 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:08.719 of sins a person who is baptized gets a clean 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:13.099 slate all the sins of the past life are forgiven 00:03:14.090 --> 00:03:18.090 With the expectation, of course, that we continue 00:03:18.090 --> 00:03:23.969 in this state of newness of life with God. But 00:03:23.969 --> 00:03:26.610 we all know from our own experience and from 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:31.610 that of others, we don't stay there in our baptismal 00:03:31.610 --> 00:03:37.870 purity and innocence. So therefore we have primarily 00:03:37.870 --> 00:03:44.039 the sacrament of penance or repentance. popularly 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:48.460 known as confession, where we confess to God 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:55.460 in a public and liturgical way, at least in the 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:58.419 presence of the priest, that we, like everyone 00:03:58.419 --> 00:04:03.919 else, are sinners. We ask for and need his forgiveness. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:09.840 The healing of the sick is not only for healing 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:15.009 of physical ailments, but also spiritual elements 00:04:15.009 --> 00:04:18.649 if you look at the prayers in the unction service 00:04:18.649 --> 00:04:23.550 they invariably speak about faith and spiritual 00:04:23.550 --> 00:04:29.069 renewal as well as healing of physical infirmities 00:04:29.069 --> 00:04:35.069 holy communion all those prayers that we have 00:04:35.069 --> 00:04:39.350 in prayer book before receiving holy communion 00:04:39.350 --> 00:04:43.889 which we should do as faithfully as possible, 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:47.290 say these special prayers every time that we 00:04:47.290 --> 00:04:51.449 go to Holy Communion. They invariably mention 00:04:51.449 --> 00:04:58.189 healing of soul and body. Even when we, right 00:04:58.189 --> 00:05:00.949 before we receive Holy Communion, we say the 00:05:00.949 --> 00:05:04.110 last of these private prayers for the healing 00:05:04.110 --> 00:05:10.790 of soul and body. So the church, through the 00:05:10.790 --> 00:05:16.649 sacraments, continues Jesus' ministry of spiritual 00:05:16.649 --> 00:05:23.629 restoration. What else do we have? Spiritual 00:05:23.629 --> 00:05:30.389 reading, primarily the scriptures. If you don't 00:05:30.389 --> 00:05:35.769 read the scriptures every day, start that as 00:05:35.769 --> 00:05:40.139 a Lenten practice. You have online or calendars 00:05:40.139 --> 00:05:44.819 or whatever, a method by which you can find what 00:05:44.819 --> 00:05:48.860 the daily scripture reading is, the epistle and 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:52.680 the gospel. And then during Lent, on weekdays, 00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:55.879 of course, we have the readings from Isaiah, 00:05:56.259 --> 00:06:01.439 Genesis, Proverbs. That's a good one, the book 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:05.620 of Proverbs. And so that's one thing that if 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:09.540 you don't... To really do that, start reading 00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:14.939 the scriptures daily and fervently. Ask Jesus 00:06:14.939 --> 00:06:20.540 to speak to us when we read the Holy Scriptures. 00:06:22.180 --> 00:06:28.360 We also have a wealth of spiritual reading. One 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:33.139 of the most prominent of these is the saint whom 00:06:33.139 --> 00:06:36.639 we commemorate today. St. John of the Ladder, 00:06:36.660 --> 00:06:40.980 who's also known as John Climacus, Climacus meaning 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:48.379 ladder, and his most famous writing is The Ladder 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:53.660 of Divine Ascent. St. John was the abbot of St. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:57.939 Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Sinai. He 00:06:57.939 --> 00:07:01.050 lived in the late... 6th century. You can still, 00:07:01.170 --> 00:07:04.089 that St. Catherine's Monastery is still in existence. 00:07:04.329 --> 00:07:07.209 You could go there if you happen to go to the 00:07:07.209 --> 00:07:10.589 Holy Land and of course pray for the Holy Land 00:07:10.589 --> 00:07:14.449 because of these dreadful times. But you can 00:07:14.449 --> 00:07:17.449 still go there and see St. Catherine's Monastery. 00:07:18.430 --> 00:07:21.870 So John was the abbot there and he wrote this 00:07:21.870 --> 00:07:28.170 Ladder of Divine Ascent. 30 rungs of the ladder 00:07:28.170 --> 00:07:32.389 by which you can ascend from earth to heaven. 00:07:33.129 --> 00:07:39.110 Primarily for a monastic audience, but we need, 00:07:39.129 --> 00:07:44.009 in our Orthodox spirituality, certainly focuses 00:07:44.009 --> 00:07:48.129 a lot on the treasures of monastic literature. 00:07:48.610 --> 00:07:52.970 So that's monastic writings as well as practical 00:07:52.970 --> 00:07:56.939 writings. Whole wealth of that. Your library, 00:07:57.339 --> 00:08:03.579 your bookstore, pick up something also to read. 00:08:04.139 --> 00:08:07.139 But John of the Ladder, I'm not going to tell 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:09.620 you all 30 of these steps. You can figure that 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:18.319 out on your own. But number one is asceticism 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:24.079 and renunciation of the world. Boy, don't we 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:27.819 need that nowadays. So many people are concerned 00:08:27.819 --> 00:08:33.419 about things of this world. What they eat, what 00:08:33.419 --> 00:08:38.320 they wear, what kind of a car they have, what 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:41.659 kind of a house they live in. These are all important, 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:46.700 but they're secondary. Asceticism, renunciation 00:08:46.700 --> 00:08:53.460 of the world, and super... fluidy or whatever 00:08:53.460 --> 00:09:00.059 super something in our spiritual life super preoccupation 00:09:00.059 --> 00:09:06.379 with these things that's it remembrance of death 00:09:06.379 --> 00:09:10.700 that's one thing we a lot of people try and avoid 00:09:10.700 --> 00:09:13.700 thinking about but it's going to come sometime 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:17.700 for each and every one of us could be today could 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:21.960 be tomorrow could be next week could be 40 years 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:27.100 from now. No one's immune. So we shouldn't be 00:09:27.100 --> 00:09:31.120 overly preoccupied with that, but we should remember 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:36.279 we're going to die. And we have to stand before 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:40.419 Jesus on Judgment Day and account for our past 00:09:40.419 --> 00:09:50.070 life. On silence rather than talkativeness. It's 00:09:50.070 --> 00:09:52.389 a nice thing to chit -chat with friends, but 00:09:52.389 --> 00:09:56.870 sometimes we can be a little too gabby. And it's 00:09:56.870 --> 00:09:59.889 nice to have fun and share joy with people we 00:09:59.889 --> 00:10:03.590 know. But there are also times for quietness 00:10:03.590 --> 00:10:12.309 and reflection and speak to God alone. Step 13, 00:10:13.429 --> 00:10:20.000 on despondency. and I'm sure every one of you 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.840 as well, get depressed, down in the dumps. It's 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:28.980 natural because our life is like that. And if 00:10:28.980 --> 00:10:32.080 that's the case with us, then we ask, Lord, give 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:36.100 me strength. You love me. I want to share your 00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:40.799 love with other people. Help me snap out of this 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:48.019 mood that I'm in. Love of money. Well, I more 00:10:48.019 --> 00:10:51.100 or less touched on that. He has two steps on 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:53.659 that, so it's undoubtedly of some importance. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:02.980 Vanity and meekness. Peace of soul in prayer. 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:07.299 That's what prayer does for us, too, is healing 00:11:07.299 --> 00:11:13.600 and peace in our soul. We have an icon here alone 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:17.139 of St. John Chrysostom. But many icons, they 00:11:17.139 --> 00:11:23.600 show this ladder of divine ascent where these 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:28.039 little demons are trying to pull monks and other 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:31.779 people off the rungs so that as they get up close 00:11:31.779 --> 00:11:35.919 to that divine ascent into paradise where Christ 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:39.620 is at the head of the ladder in heaven, they're 00:11:39.620 --> 00:11:42.659 trying to pull him off. So all of the faults 00:11:42.659 --> 00:11:46.179 that are described in the ladder of divine ascent 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:49.840 are things that we have to keep vigilance and 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:56.220 watch out for. So with all of that in mind, I 00:11:56.220 --> 00:12:01.120 would say during this Lent, choose one thing 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:07.460 that you haven't done regularly or done at all 00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:13.129 and be faithful with that. That becomes, stick 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:19.190 with it, and that becomes one of the rings on 00:12:19.190 --> 00:12:23.809 your ladder, your step stone into the kingdom 00:12:23.809 --> 00:12:26.909 of heaven. May God, through the intercession 00:12:26.909 --> 00:12:30.629 of our Holy Father, St. John Climacus, grant 00:12:30.629 --> 00:12:34.850 us this grace of ascendancy during Lent. Amen.