WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:01.960 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:06.219 of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory 00:00:06.219 --> 00:00:13.839 to the Father. Beloved of the Lord, we have now 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:20.640 arrived at the fourth port of call. Remember 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.320 way back when, Father Nicholas described Lent 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:27.519 using the language of some of the hymns as a 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:30.269 sea voyage. Well, we're at the fourth port of 00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:32.710 call on our Lenten voyage, the Sunday of St. 00:00:32.850 --> 00:00:38.429 John of the Ladder, St. John Klimakos. Do you 00:00:38.429 --> 00:00:42.289 know why we call Lent, Lent? I probably told 00:00:42.289 --> 00:00:46.670 you this before. Lent's an old English word meaning 00:00:46.670 --> 00:00:51.950 to make longer, to lengthen. It's not just services 00:00:51.950 --> 00:00:54.609 that are longer during Lent. The days are getting 00:00:54.609 --> 00:00:57.990 longer. It's an opportunity. for more growth 00:00:57.990 --> 00:01:03.390 in nature, of which we're part. So give God, 00:01:03.409 --> 00:01:06.250 allow God some space within yourself to warm 00:01:06.250 --> 00:01:11.450 up your heart if it's cold or stony. He'll warm 00:01:11.450 --> 00:01:14.170 it up with his divine love and patience. You 00:01:14.170 --> 00:01:20.469 be patient too. Each Sunday of Lent, actually 00:01:20.469 --> 00:01:22.870 each Sunday of the entire year, not just Lent, 00:01:24.009 --> 00:01:27.829 leads and flows and expands into the following 00:01:27.829 --> 00:01:31.870 Sunday. So last week, I won't go all the way 00:01:31.870 --> 00:01:34.409 back to the beginning of Lent. Last week, though, 00:01:34.530 --> 00:01:37.349 we marked the third Sunday, that of the veneration 00:01:37.349 --> 00:01:41.480 of the precious cross. And we heard, we understood 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:44.480 from that celebration and from the hymnography 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:47.359 and from the reading of the gospel and the epistle 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:51.760 that the cross is our strength. It's our refreshment. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.980 We hear the joy came into the world through the 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:57.980 cross. It's pointing the way to Holy Week and 00:01:57.980 --> 00:02:01.459 Holy Friday and Pascha. And we were reminded 00:02:01.459 --> 00:02:07.319 in the gospel to seek the life of Christ. and 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:11.500 thereby find ourself. And the other way around, 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:14.659 you will suffer complete loss. That's what he 00:02:14.659 --> 00:02:18.939 says, basically. Well, how do we do that? How 00:02:18.939 --> 00:02:23.979 do we seek the life of Christ the way he laid 00:02:23.979 --> 00:02:27.719 it out in that gospel? Well, today, thankfully, 00:02:27.939 --> 00:02:33.360 we are instructed where we can find encouragement 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:37.120 and help for that question, precisely how. and 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:40.900 obviously it's the Gospels. You heard two selections, 00:02:41.379 --> 00:02:45.419 one from Mark about the man with the son who 00:02:45.419 --> 00:02:48.659 is demonically possessed, and Christ healed him, 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:52.039 and he healed the man of his lack of faith. Lord, 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:54.780 I believe, help my unbelief. And he healed the 00:02:54.780 --> 00:02:57.919 apostles, and he told them how to pursue this. 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:02.419 And we heard the epistle. The epistle told us, 00:03:02.419 --> 00:03:05.830 it's interesting, isn't it, about hope. in Jesus 00:03:05.830 --> 00:03:10.150 Christ, who is our anchor. This hope we have, 00:03:10.270 --> 00:03:13.650 it says, as an anchor of the soul, both sure 00:03:13.650 --> 00:03:18.210 and steadfast. I'd love to do a sermon just on 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:21.409 that. But we also today learn we not only have 00:03:21.409 --> 00:03:25.629 an anchor, we have a ladder. We have a ladder. 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:29.810 The saint that we commemorate today, our venerable 00:03:29.810 --> 00:03:36.300 and God -bearing father, John Klimakos. reposed 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:41.020 on March 30th, today is the anniversary of his 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:49.680 repose, in the year 649. Klimakos is the latter 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:53.139 in Greek. It's not his last name, St. John Klimakos. 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:55.319 That's not his last name. It's the title of the 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:59.080 book he wrote when he was abbot in the 7th century 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:02.680 at that monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:07.900 where Moses was. Possibly the oldest Christian 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:12.020 monastery in the world. Still operating. And 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:13.960 he came to that monastery and became a novice 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:19.920 when he was 16. And when he died in 649 on March 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:25.959 30th, he was the abbot. He wrote as a favor to 00:04:25.959 --> 00:04:29.300 someone. That most famous book, Father Nicholas 00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:32.620 had it last night. He read a few passages. That 00:04:32.620 --> 00:04:36.990 book called The Ladder of Divine Ascent. The 00:04:36.990 --> 00:04:41.329 book might be described, and I agree, as one 00:04:41.329 --> 00:04:45.670 bishop said, as our modern Christian survival 00:04:45.670 --> 00:04:50.389 guide. We would do well to read it and understand 00:04:50.389 --> 00:04:53.170 what we can take from it and be inspired, even 00:04:53.170 --> 00:04:58.389 though we are not monastics. Well, today is not 00:04:58.389 --> 00:05:01.110 just the usual fourth Sunday of Lent, which is 00:05:01.110 --> 00:05:03.550 dedicated to St. John, his icon's here in the 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:09.680 middle, but it's also... Providentially, 1 ,376 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:12.500 years, if I got my math right, from the time 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:16.779 of his death. And he is still relevant. You will 00:05:16.779 --> 00:05:19.800 see that. I'll read a few passages, but you will 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:24.680 see it if you take this book. After the Bible, 00:05:24.779 --> 00:05:29.980 and after the liturgical books, there is no book. 00:05:30.459 --> 00:05:34.040 I've been told. You can check your computer. 00:05:35.019 --> 00:05:38.040 No book in the history of mankind that has been 00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:42.839 read, translated, and published more than The 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:47.079 Ladder of Divine Ascent. And if you want a really 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:50.040 nice piece of historical trivia, you should know 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:53.019 that the very first book, the very first book 00:05:53.019 --> 00:05:56.279 of any kind ever published and printed in the 00:05:56.279 --> 00:06:00.399 New World was The Ladder of Divine Ascent, printed 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:05.529 by a Spaniard in Mexico in 1535. It's relevant 00:06:05.529 --> 00:06:10.569 to them. It's relevant to us. The ladder of divine 00:06:10.569 --> 00:06:14.290 ascent, our modern way of thinking, we like ladders. 00:06:16.050 --> 00:06:18.850 Ladders as a concept. Maybe you don't like to 00:06:18.850 --> 00:06:21.670 get up on one. Ladders are kind of dangerous 00:06:21.670 --> 00:06:23.810 things to put in the hands of a modern Christian. 00:06:23.990 --> 00:06:29.709 We like the idea of upward mobility, that we're 00:06:29.709 --> 00:06:32.589 always getting better. Well, St. Paul said, Walk 00:06:32.589 --> 00:06:36.589 circumspectly. Be wise for the days are evil. 00:06:36.709 --> 00:06:38.670 Do you think they've improved that much since 00:06:38.670 --> 00:06:45.029 about the year 60 AD? So this idea of ladders 00:06:45.029 --> 00:06:47.310 and upward mobility, continuing improvement, 00:06:47.670 --> 00:06:50.810 moral progress, that's sort of the way we think 00:06:50.810 --> 00:06:53.069 in the modern world. We have our career ladders. 00:06:53.089 --> 00:06:55.850 We have the ladder of success. We have exercise 00:06:55.850 --> 00:07:00.149 goals. Become whatever you want. Be all you can 00:07:00.149 --> 00:07:06.079 be. With the help of Jesus, he can help. Last 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.160 week, I think the week of the cross should have 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.439 convinced us otherwise that we are not saved 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:17.540 by being better people, by finding ourself. Many 00:07:17.540 --> 00:07:21.339 of us, brothers and sisters, are not moving towards 00:07:21.339 --> 00:07:27.000 heaven like we should. We're falling into the 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.120 trick. of thinking that this life is where we 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:32.959 need to place most of our energy and our hope. 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:37.100 It's a vain quest. We might hear about the ladder 00:07:37.100 --> 00:07:40.759 of divine ascent. We might see the ladder of 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:44.139 divine ascent. We might even interact with people 00:07:44.139 --> 00:07:46.939 that are climbing the ladder of divine ascent. 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:52.620 But are we ourselves on the ladder? We were joking 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:54.300 in the altar this morning. I said, well, I'm 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:56.319 on the stairway going down into the basement 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:01.139 most of the time. Or are we preferring to stay 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:05.060 where we are? Because it's safe. It's supposedly 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:10.980 secure. Ladders have destinations. And this one 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:16.399 is to make us Christ -like. God is calling me 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.139 and you to get on that ladder, to at least put 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:23.620 our foot on that first rung. Do you know what 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:26.480 the last rung is? Father Nicholas mentioned it 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:31.500 last night. The last rung of the 30th step? That's 00:08:31.500 --> 00:08:37.740 right. It's love. Here are a few words of St. 00:08:37.779 --> 00:08:41.539 John of the Ladder on the topic that concerned 00:08:41.539 --> 00:08:46.720 most of us. Most of us have to confess that we 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.559 judge other people. Here's what he says about 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:55.870 that. Fire and water are incompatible. And so 00:08:55.870 --> 00:08:58.289 is judging others in one who wants to repent. 00:08:59.269 --> 00:09:02.509 If you see someone falling into sin at the very 00:09:02.509 --> 00:09:06.769 moment of his death, even then do not judge him, 00:09:06.830 --> 00:09:10.470 because the divine judgment is hidden from men. 00:09:12.529 --> 00:09:16.090 Some have fallen openly into great sins, but 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:18.450 they have done greater good deeds in secret. 00:09:18.850 --> 00:09:21.730 So their critics were tricked, getting smoke 00:09:21.730 --> 00:09:27.990 instead of the sun. He says, the demons, murderers 00:09:27.990 --> 00:09:32.889 that they are, push us into sin. Or if they fail 00:09:32.889 --> 00:09:35.830 to do this, they get us to pass judgment on those 00:09:35.830 --> 00:09:39.409 who are sinning so that they may smear us with 00:09:39.409 --> 00:09:42.610 the stain which we ourselves are condemning in 00:09:42.610 --> 00:09:46.669 the other person. And in that final chapter, 00:09:47.070 --> 00:09:51.309 step 30 on love, the highest of the virtues, 00:09:51.710 --> 00:09:55.799 here are a few of his words. He who loves the 00:09:55.799 --> 00:09:59.500 Lord has first loved his brother because the 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:03.960 second is proof of the first. One who loves his 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:06.899 neighbor can never tolerate slanderers but rather 00:10:06.899 --> 00:10:11.919 runs from them as from fire. He who says he loves 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:13.879 the Lord but is angry with his brother is like 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:18.779 a man who dreams that he is running. Love bestows 00:10:18.779 --> 00:10:24.100 prophecy. Love yields miracles. Love is an abyss. 00:10:24.409 --> 00:10:28.970 illumination love is a fountain of fire in the 00:10:28.970 --> 00:10:32.350 measure that it bubbles up it inflames the thirsty 00:10:32.350 --> 00:10:36.029 soul love is the state of the Angels love is 00:10:36.029 --> 00:10:40.289 the progress of eternity what profound words 00:10:40.289 --> 00:10:44.210 so simple so true this is what you will read 00:10:44.210 --> 00:10:48.509 if you get that book we preachers love to say 00:10:48.509 --> 00:10:52.929 things like you know God became so that man can 00:10:52.929 --> 00:10:56.389 become God by grace. And it's true, and it's 00:10:56.389 --> 00:11:00.549 beautiful. But at this point of Lent, maybe we 00:11:00.549 --> 00:11:04.450 are learning that's a little more difficult and 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:10.669 that God does not meet us in the middle. He does 00:11:10.669 --> 00:11:14.570 not remove our crosses. He meets us at the bottom, 00:11:14.710 --> 00:11:18.970 because that's where we are, bottom of that ladder. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:23.139 And asks us to meet him there as well. And the 00:11:23.139 --> 00:11:28.240 gospel passage today illustrates that fact for 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:31.480 us very, very vividly. How low Christ has to 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:35.000 stoop, or as we say, condescend to us to help 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.120 us. What a scene in the gospel. How tragic. How 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:42.179 miserable that wretched man was. Demon -possessed 00:11:42.179 --> 00:11:45.379 young man. And how miserable was his father. 00:11:45.539 --> 00:11:48.789 And how confused were the apostles. And Jesus 00:11:48.789 --> 00:11:55.049 says, O faithless generation, let that go into 00:11:55.049 --> 00:12:00.389 your heart. Let that penetrate to grant some 00:12:00.389 --> 00:12:05.190 compunction. But then Jesus does what he does. 00:12:06.490 --> 00:12:10.970 He heals the father. How? He grants him the grace 00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:14.730 to see him more than a teacher. And he answers 00:12:14.730 --> 00:12:18.370 that prayer. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. 00:12:18.889 --> 00:12:22.929 And then he heals the boy. He lifts him up. He 00:12:22.929 --> 00:12:26.590 raises him, as it says, as if he were dead. Catechumens, 00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:28.990 be strengthened because you're going to experience 00:12:28.990 --> 00:12:34.570 this. This raising up into the new life of Christ. 00:12:35.870 --> 00:12:38.710 This is what we have to listen to and to prepare 00:12:38.710 --> 00:12:42.070 ourselves for Pascha. The Lord's words also in 00:12:42.070 --> 00:12:47.330 that gospel about prayer. Prayer and fasting. 00:12:47.830 --> 00:12:51.649 The exact things we need to be reminded of at 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:55.049 this point in Lent. If you have not yet begun 00:12:55.049 --> 00:12:59.029 to fast, if you have not even begun to pray more, 00:12:59.230 --> 00:13:03.929 well, that's not good. Not at all. If you haven't 00:13:03.929 --> 00:13:06.649 been praying and attending Lenten services, that's 00:13:06.649 --> 00:13:10.509 not good. How will you be able to celebrate Pascha? 00:13:10.929 --> 00:13:15.059 To enter in, except as an observer. But begin 00:13:15.059 --> 00:13:19.240 this week. Begin this week. The Lord is always 00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:21.879 waiting for us. We are going to hear on Pascha 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:25.899 that most amazing sermon. Even if you have delayed 00:13:25.899 --> 00:13:30.179 to the 11th hour, have no misgivings, for the 00:13:30.179 --> 00:13:34.120 Lord is gracious and beneficent. The table is 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:40.299 rich laden. So begin this week. We have longer 00:13:40.299 --> 00:13:42.759 services. As the days are getting longer, our 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.899 services will too. Those of you who have not 00:13:45.899 --> 00:13:48.440 participated in Lenten services, you can make 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:51.539 up for it with those longer services. You can 00:13:51.539 --> 00:13:54.559 be strengthened and your heart will be at peace. 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:58.899 Begin again. God will help. May the Lord be with 00:13:58.899 --> 00:14:03.159 each of us and stay with us as we continue on 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:07.340 our Lenten ascent, one step up the ladder at 00:14:07.340 --> 00:14:07.759 a time.