Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
glory to Jesus Christ. Today has been designated
by the Holy Synod of the Bishops of the Orthodox
Church in America as the Sanctity of Life Sunday.
And I'm going to read to you a portion of the
letter from Metropolitan Ticon. A few words about
the gospel. You heard this parable of the wedding
back in, I guess it was September or so. But
the church gives it to us again. One for a very
practical reason. Lent is very late this year.
And so this gospel is one of those that would
be chosen to fill in till we get to those other
readings. Zacchaeus, prodigal son. publican and
pharisee those are coming those are coming the
other reason is I think has to do with just simply
God's providence after Christmas and theophany
we need a reminder about what the wedding feast
of the sun is all about I was at a wedding last
Sunday in Lovely parish, Rochester Hills, St.
Mark of Ephesus. They celebrated their feast
day on Friday. Too bad this gospel wasn't read
last week. It's interesting. The kingdom of God
is compared to a king who gave a marriage feast
for his son. That's how it starts out. And who's
Jesus speaking to? He's speaking to the Pharisees
and it says just before this verse, the Pharisees
perceived he was speaking about them and they
were very upset about the way Jesus was referring
to them. The kingdom of heaven is compared to
a king who gave a marriage feast for his son.
And after that verse, that noble and wonderful,
a joyful description of what the kingdom of heaven
is like. Everything goes wrong with the characters
in the story. Did you notice? Did you notice
that the men that are sent, of course, these
men represent the prophets and the apostles.
They're sent to remind the guests that have been
invited from the beginning. They're treated terribly.
They're beaten and some are killed. Everything's
going wrong. And the father of the son sends
his own armies and wipes out the villagers completely.
He's angry. The father seems capricious, petty,
vindictive. And then a man is brought into the
wedding that wasn't part of the original guest
list. Because you heard, bring in everybody,
bring in everyone. And he is supplied a wedding
garment, which he does not put on. And he's tossed
out, bound hand and foot. But these are words
of the Savior. This parable is the word of the
Savior, Jesus Christ. So obviously we need to
understand what he means. Because we know the
Father is not petty and vindictive and violent.
This parable is about salvation history, isn't
it? He's talking to the Pharisees who feel they
don't need anything else. It reveals this parable,
the rejection to God's invitation through the
prophets and the apostles. Think back, the vineyard
parable was just before this. Just before this.
And again, what happens in that vineyard parable?
Jesus tells the parable and the representatives
of the parable owner. are killed. Then he sends
his son and he's killed. And so Jesus asks the
Pharisees, he asks his listeners, what do you
think should happen to those people that did
this terrible thing? Do you remember what they
said? They should be punished severely and killed.
So the story is given to you and to me right
now. here today by the church so that we might
examine our own response to God's continual invitation
to us. How? We could be here all day to speak
about the wonderful things God has done for us,
his dominion, his presence in our heart, how
we neglect it, how we... Not just neglect it,
but turn our back on it. So many distractions
we have. Who can say otherwise? Can any of us
say that we have answered God definitively in
our life? This is a parable, finally, I guess,
since it's about the kingdom of heaven, about
the judgment. It's about the judgment. What's
the meaning of this feast that the Lord, God,
holds his marriage feast. St. Gregory the Great
says that the Father Almighty, the true and living
God, made a marriage feast for his son, Jesus
Christ, which means that he united him to the
church. He united him to us. The marriage of
a woman and a man, complementary beings, are
just a dim reflection. It says, St. Paul in Ephesians,
a holy mystery, hoping to give us a little bit
of understanding of the magnificence of the intimacy
of the deep love, the chamber in the heart where
we meet Christ. And everyone's invited to this
feast. No one is left out. No one. We all need
to know. Can we go through our life? Think. if
we go through our life not knowing who our creator
is and what he has given us and what is our destiny,
this is tragic, to not know his divine love,
to not receive the wedding garment, which is
what? The man was thrown out. He was in the feast,
just like we're here. We're all here. What's
the wedding garment? Is it just the baptismal
garment? No, it's not that, because we're all
here. It's love. St. Gregory the Great of Rome
says it's love. The wedding garment is love without
hypocrisy. We don't come to church and appear
like something. We are truly, we must be revelations
of God's love to the world. That's the garment
that St. Gregory of Rome says. It's agape love.
It's sacrificial love, he says. It's patient
and forgiving love. Love for all. This is what
the creator, our God himself, for God has. For
God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son for us. And to refuse that invitation,
to refuse the wedding garment, Means to bind
ourselves up in our sins and suffer loss of God
because we don't know him. The violence in the
story, and there's plenty of it, that's for sure,
in this parable is there to forcefully symbolize,
to relate to us the tragic, painful, epic loss.
That we would suffer if we don't know God. To
not know his majesty. To not know his providence.
To not know his peace and truth and life and
love. To not know the way. That's worse than
all the violence that could be done. It's a revelation
of ourself, really. The father doesn't have to
bind. anybody up and throw them out. Listen to
what our Lord says. If anyone hears my words
and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For
I did not come to judge the world, but to save
the world. The one who rejects me and does not
receive my words has a judge. The judge is the
word that I have spoken will judge him. on the
last day. St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote that we
will be judged out of our own conscience. And
we will not object. It's not going to be for
the accuracy of my Orthodox theology. That's
important. But it's not going to be about that.
It will be for every idle word I say. For every
deed that lacks love. I have plenty of love for
myself, and you know, brothers and sisters, we
can love all kinds of things that are terribly
bad for us. But to the love of God is the first
thing. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says that on
the Day of Judgment, in relation to this wedding
garment, we will be clothed with our sins or
our righteous deeds. There it is. So let's focus
now on turning away from whatever rejection to
God that we have made, whatever ignorance towards
him we have. When Christ and we are united, this
is what I want to tell you. This is from St.
Nikolai of Zizia. He says, Heaven had earlier
seemed as though closed with iron bars to mankind,
and men's souls, whereas miserable brides shut
in a dank prison. Now heaven is open wide. God
himself has appeared on earth. Angels have come
down to earth. Christmas? The dead have been
seen alive, and man's dignity has been raised
up to God. Oh, how sweet the food! How abundant
the table! Come! Instead of accepting the wedding
invitation, the blinded souls in their gloomy
prison committed a most terrible crime, killing
the Savior in their own souls, their bridegroom.
But not even this exhausted God's patience. God
turned the crime into the deepest source of sweetness
and joy, the body and blood of the crucified
Lord, incomparably sweeter than fatlings and
oats. Goats and sheep and oxen are brought to
the king's table. Come and communicate of the
sweetness that is the envy of the angels. The
grace -filled streams of the Holy Spirit, the
almighty and life -giving spirit are wide open.
All things are ready. All things. All that is
necessary for the defiled bride. That's us. To
be purified. For the hungry to be fed, the wounded
to be healed, the naked to be clothed, the bewitched
brought to their senses, the drunken sobered,
the dead raised. Here is the baptism with water.
Here is the baptism with fire and the spirit.
Here is the ease with fasting. Here are the wings
of prayer. Here is oil. Here are bread and wine.
Here is the royal priesthood to be the guide.
Here is the church of holiness and love. All
these gifts are brought by the bridegroom to
his bride. That's us. And he places them all
on the king's table. Come then. Come to the wedding.
Our metropolitan, his letter, completely comes
to this also. He says as we mark the Sanctity
of Life Sunday this year, there's much discussion
about the right to life. Of course we Orthodox
Christians believe that certain rights, the right
to life among them, should be respected, enshrined
in law, protected by civil authority. But human
life is something even more precious than a mere
right. It is a divine gift. Lo, children are
a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb
are rewards, says the psalmist. We are called
to recognize every human life, from conception
to natural death, as a gift of the Lord. This
means protecting the unborn, but in a broader
sense, this means helping our broken society
and broken world to view our fellow human beings
not as mere mouths to feed or potential threats
or problems to be solved or subjects to be controlled,
but as blessings from above. The unborn are a
blessing. Children are a blessing. The elderly
are a blessing. The difficult people in our lives
are a blessing. Even our enemies, perhaps especially
our enemies, are a blessing. Moreover, we speak
of the sanctity of life for two reasons. Because
life comes from the Lord and because it should
be offered back to the Lord through service to
him and to others, resulting in sanctity, holiness.
if we understand that we are merely servants
doing as we have been bidden, and if we recognize
that the greatest and holiest is the one who
became a servant of all through his incarnation,
Christmas, his ministry, his passion, and rising,
then we are in the best position of all to treat
each human being as a blessing. We will have
the garment of love, not in an abstract sense,
but in the sense of someone whom we are privileged
to serve. Yours in Christ. Ticon, Archbishop
of Washington, Metropolitan of all America and
Canada. May the Lord God grant him many years.