WEBVTT 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:04.839 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:09.740 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Since we are justified 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:12.820 by faith, we have peace with God through our 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:18.359 Lord Jesus Christ. Every time we gather as the 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:21.399 Church on the Lord's Day to hear the divine words 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:24.160 of the Gospel and to celebrate the Eucharist, 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:27.699 by which Christ is present in our midst, we remember 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:31.620 and celebrate the mystery of our salvation. of 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:35.479 every one of us. St. Paul, in his epistle to 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:38.719 the Romans we were hearing today, unpacks for 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:43.579 us this ineffable mystery. While we were still 00:00:43.579 --> 00:00:47.399 weak, at the right time, Christ died for the 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:51.659 ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:54.939 righteous person, though perhaps for a good person 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:59.159 someone might actually dare to die. But God shows 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:03.659 his love for us, in that while we still were 00:01:03.659 --> 00:01:09.219 sinners, Christ died for us, says Holy Apostle 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:13.599 Paul. The mystery that we celebrate and remember 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:18.319 as a church every Sunday, every time we call 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.700 upon the Holy Spirit to descend upon us and upon 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:24.599 the gifts and to make us the partakers of the 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:28.219 mystical supper, whenever we gather as a church, 00:01:28.670 --> 00:01:31.750 This is the mystery of the Lord's Pascha, his 00:01:31.750 --> 00:01:35.909 passion, death, burial, and resurrection. We 00:01:35.909 --> 00:01:39.049 remember the marvelous work of God fulfilled 00:01:39.049 --> 00:01:44.250 in Christ. We, creatures of God, were alienated 00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:47.909 from him, were foreigners to him, our creator 00:01:47.909 --> 00:01:51.930 and the source of our life. But God did not abandon 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:55.590 us in our fallen state and came and saved us, 00:01:55.709 --> 00:01:59.730 not by a voice of a prophet, nor an example of 00:01:59.730 --> 00:02:03.769 a righteous life, but by the blood of his own 00:02:03.769 --> 00:02:07.370 immortal Son, who came to find us, the weak, 00:02:07.489 --> 00:02:10.789 the sinners, and to destroy the wall of enmity 00:02:10.789 --> 00:02:15.150 between us and God, and to meet us at the lowest 00:02:15.150 --> 00:02:19.710 point of our fallen existence, our death. This 00:02:19.710 --> 00:02:22.969 is the mystery of our redemption. Our God ascended 00:02:22.969 --> 00:02:25.889 the cross for us to reconcile us to himself. 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:29.370 to transform our death into the victory over 00:02:29.370 --> 00:02:33.629 death, corruption and sin, the reality of our 00:02:33.629 --> 00:02:37.250 fallen existence, and to bestow upon us the gift 00:02:37.250 --> 00:02:39.889 of the true life which is in the knowledge of 00:02:39.889 --> 00:02:43.280 Him. Because of his love for us, the immortal 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:46.740 and eternal Son and Word of God came to be in 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:49.520 the flesh, clothed himself in our human nature, 00:02:49.659 --> 00:02:52.659 the body like ours, the soul and mind like ours, 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:56.199 in all things except sin. And he made his body, 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:59.439 his humanity, the source of healing, restoration, 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:04.479 sanctification, and salvation of mankind. St. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:09.000 Paul says, if while we were enemies, We were 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.479 reconciled to God through the death of His Son. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:15.599 Much more surely, having been reconciled, we 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:20.800 will be saved by His life. We who were called 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:24.960 into existence by God have become alienated from 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:28.740 God through our fall, through our sin, and consequently 00:03:28.740 --> 00:03:33.659 through our enslavement to death. We have become 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:38.259 alienated from God and from ourselves. Through 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:41.520 our weak and corrupted thoughts, through our 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:45.039 guilt and unholy despair, when we thought and 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:48.680 we still think sometimes that we are lost, we 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:52.039 are done for, there is no one to help us. Who 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:57.159 will save us from death? But God himself came 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:00.780 in order to help us, to forgive us, to set us 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:03.919 free, and to restore us to the dignity of his 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:07.530 beloved children. the adopted sons and daughters 00:04:07.530 --> 00:04:12.449 of God, the dignity that we receive through holy 00:04:12.449 --> 00:04:16.589 baptism. Christ, our high priest, offered his 00:04:16.589 --> 00:04:21.350 humanity on the cross as the sacrifice, as liturgical 00:04:21.350 --> 00:04:24.970 sacrifice, and we partake of his humanity every 00:04:24.970 --> 00:04:28.009 time we partake of the Eucharist. We partake 00:04:28.009 --> 00:04:30.730 of the source of our healing and reconciliation. 00:04:32.269 --> 00:04:35.870 There is no man who lives and does not sin. It 00:04:35.870 --> 00:04:40.910 is impossible for human beings not to fail. Only 00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:44.889 Christ is truly perfect. Even St. Paul says about 00:04:44.889 --> 00:04:48.949 himself, what I want to do I do not do, but what 00:04:48.949 --> 00:04:53.350 I hate I do. But for us, this thought of our 00:04:53.350 --> 00:04:57.050 past and present alienation, our imperfection, 00:04:57.050 --> 00:05:00.189 is not meant to throw us into guilt and despair, 00:05:00.490 --> 00:05:04.430 but to encourage us, to give us hope, to remind 00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:08.850 us that our freedom lies in God and not in ourselves, 00:05:09.290 --> 00:05:12.930 that we are saved by communion with Him through 00:05:12.930 --> 00:05:16.350 the gift of true life, the inexhaustible fountain 00:05:16.350 --> 00:05:21.740 of God's grace and mercy. And when we look at 00:05:21.740 --> 00:05:24.339 the saints whom we honor and celebrate in our 00:05:24.339 --> 00:05:27.839 church, such as the fathers of the six ecumenical 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:30.540 councils whom we remember today, for example, 00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:35.120 we tend to perceive them as the epitome of Christian 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:39.120 perfection, a perfect assembly, spotless examples 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:43.100 of Christian faith and piety. And this assessment 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:47.560 bears a degree of truth and reality. We praise 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:51.689 the fathers of the six councils. First in Nicaea, 00:05:51.750 --> 00:05:54.629 second in Constantinople, third in Ephesus, fourth 00:05:54.629 --> 00:05:57.990 in Alcedon, fifth in Constantinople, sixth in 00:05:57.990 --> 00:06:01.370 Constantinople again. Between fourth and seventh 00:06:01.370 --> 00:06:05.290 centuries, as those who, as we sing in the hymns, 00:06:05.290 --> 00:06:08.449 in the midst of the church sang the harmonious 00:06:08.449 --> 00:06:12.750 hymn of theology, who as if with one voice proclaimed 00:06:12.750 --> 00:06:16.610 the same truth about God, true theology, true 00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:20.939 Orthodox doctrine. But our look into the details 00:06:20.939 --> 00:06:24.899 of the history of the church show us a more complicated 00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:29.300 reality. The fathers of the councils assembled 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:33.779 and agreed with each other and sometimes disagreed, 00:06:33.779 --> 00:06:37.500 sometimes compromised. The historical narratives 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:42.600 of the councils are filled with details of intrigues, 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:46.019 quarrels, controversial decisions. While the 00:06:46.019 --> 00:06:48.800 acceptance of the councils, the work of these 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:53.720 fathers as ecumenical and binding was far from 00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:58.279 immediate and far from universal at first. At 00:06:58.279 --> 00:07:01.040 the same time, in the theological statements 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:04.660 pronounced by the councils, the genius of the 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:08.899 fathers was revealed. The light of truth shone 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:12.180 through the mess and complexity of church's historical 00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:16.399 life. And the language of theology endorsed and 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:21.339 mandated by these councils summarized, encapsulated 00:07:21.339 --> 00:07:24.980 the truth of the revelation, the one Christ, 00:07:25.100 --> 00:07:27.800 of one essence with the Father and the Spirit, 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:32.160 perfect God and perfect man, from two natures 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:35.959 and into natures, two operations, two wills. 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:41.560 But this is the true God who was one of the Trinity. 00:07:42.269 --> 00:07:46.149 who ascended the cross. He is true God of true 00:07:46.149 --> 00:07:50.670 God. He is God in the flesh, God with us, God 00:07:50.670 --> 00:07:54.810 who is truly God and truly and fully became man 00:07:54.810 --> 00:07:58.310 in order to save us through his humanity, to 00:07:58.310 --> 00:08:02.610 enable our nature, mortal nature, to conquer 00:08:02.610 --> 00:08:06.930 evil and death. This is how the fathers speak 00:08:06.930 --> 00:08:11.129 with one voice. We venerate the Fathers for their 00:08:11.129 --> 00:08:14.970 work through the nuance and complexity of the 00:08:14.970 --> 00:08:18.009 earthly history and their own lives and actions. 00:08:18.029 --> 00:08:22.370 They continued to gaze upon the mystery, to look 00:08:22.370 --> 00:08:25.790 upon the cross, to look at Christ as crucified 00:08:25.790 --> 00:08:29.670 God and Lord of glory. And through the inspiration 00:08:29.670 --> 00:08:34.110 of grace, they found the precise language which 00:08:34.110 --> 00:08:38.470 reveals as much as possible of that which cannot 00:08:38.470 --> 00:08:42.370 be revealed to man, the life of God who loved 00:08:42.370 --> 00:08:47.250 and saved mankind. As Christ said to Peter on 00:08:47.250 --> 00:08:51.470 the road to Caesarea Philippi, when Peter confessed 00:08:51.470 --> 00:08:55.190 Christ as a son of the living God, the only one 00:08:55.190 --> 00:08:58.450 of the apostles at the time, Christ said to him, 00:08:58.889 --> 00:09:02.230 Blessed are you, for this was not revealed to 00:09:02.230 --> 00:09:06.190 you by flesh and blood, but this truth was revealed 00:09:06.190 --> 00:09:11.350 to you by my Father in heaven. And thus we also 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:14.330 bless and glorify the Fathers of the Church, 00:09:14.490 --> 00:09:17.830 who spoke at her councils. For what was spoken 00:09:17.830 --> 00:09:21.809 by them was not an accidental product of an earthly 00:09:21.809 --> 00:09:25.909 mind, but the eternal truth revealed through 00:09:25.909 --> 00:09:29.789 human earthly language. They affirm through the 00:09:29.789 --> 00:09:33.090 language of theology what we know to be true 00:09:33.090 --> 00:09:41.629 about us as humans and especially us as Christians. 00:09:42.049 --> 00:09:45.190 And we do not need to have theological and philosophical 00:09:45.190 --> 00:09:48.950 training to comprehend it with all our being. 00:09:49.490 --> 00:09:53.190 God has brought us from nothing into being to 00:09:53.190 --> 00:09:57.179 make us the objects of his love. God did not 00:09:57.179 --> 00:10:00.480 abandon us when we fell into sin and corruption, 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:04.679 but raised us up and made us the sons of the 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:09.279 kingdom. As St. Gregory the Theologian, one of 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:15.120 the fathers of these councils, said, We needed 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:19.820 God made flesh and made dead so that we might 00:10:19.820 --> 00:10:23.940 live. We were made dead with him. in baptism, 00:10:24.139 --> 00:10:27.419 that we might be purified. We have reason with 00:10:27.419 --> 00:10:30.899 Him since we were made dead with Him. We were 00:10:30.899 --> 00:10:35.159 glorified with Him since we rose with Him. To 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:39.940 be a Christian is not to fall into pride thinking 00:10:39.940 --> 00:10:43.259 that we are perfect or can be perfect in this 00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:47.409 life, but to recognize our need for God. and 00:10:47.409 --> 00:10:51.210 to gaze upon him, upon his cross, and try to 00:10:51.210 --> 00:10:55.929 love him and one another by his grace. May we 00:10:55.929 --> 00:10:59.730 now stand before him in his church, in his body, 00:10:59.830 --> 00:11:03.370 as his children, as his disciples and servants, 00:11:03.669 --> 00:11:07.070 and give praise and thanks to him for his great 00:11:07.070 --> 00:11:10.629 mystery of redemption, by which he gave us salvation 00:11:10.629 --> 00:11:12.629 and hope. Amen.