WEBVTT 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:19.600 Today we celebrate a great and wonderful saint. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:29.960 So allow me to begin my reflections with something, 00:00:30.019 --> 00:00:42.240 to all appearances, completely unrelated. 20 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:44.820 years trying to teach Bible to 18 -year -olds 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:51.000 who would rather be anywhere else. I came to 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.280 reflect on how happy I was in my Southern California 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:59.820 background, approaching at least some elements 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:04.980 of the Holy Scripture. If you're brought up in 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:11.400 Wisconsin, references to water and green and 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:14.859 pleasant places don't really have a lot of resonance. 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:19.920 Well, they might in January, but not in July. 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:24.000 There's water everywhere, and everything's green. 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:32.480 But as we know in parched California, water springing 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:37.319 from the hills, water coming forth from the earth, 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:42.480 is a kind of... Well, it's not a kind of. It's 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:48.599 an exceedingly precious miracle. A wonder that 00:01:48.599 --> 00:01:52.439 obviously gives life. And this is the language 00:01:52.439 --> 00:01:58.540 the Holy Scripture uses time and again for the 00:01:58.540 --> 00:02:10.560 world to come. Our Lord. at the well in Samaria, 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:14.819 speaks to the woman of the water that he will 00:02:14.819 --> 00:02:18.539 give her that will well up into everlasting life. 00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:23.580 And at the Feast of Tabernacles, a few chapters 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:30.919 later in the same Gospel, he says, whoever believes 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:37.639 in me, rivers of water shall flow from his belly. 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:43.969 a rather odd image if you come to think of it, 00:02:44.030 --> 00:02:52.689 but the evangelist states then in the very next 00:02:52.689 --> 00:03:01.729 line, but he was speaking of the Spirit. Now 00:03:01.729 --> 00:03:05.830 this describes that last verse, whoever believes 00:03:05.830 --> 00:03:09.469 in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 00:03:09.469 --> 00:03:16.650 living water. This describes the saint. Every 00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:25.770 saint. The idea of saint. A spring. A welling 00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:33.250 up of that which gives life in an unexpected 00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:42.500 place. Look at today's saint. You might not know, 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:46.740 his patrons were Emperor Nicholas and Tsarina 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:50.460 Alexandra, which made his case rather unpopular 00:03:50.460 --> 00:03:55.080 in much of the Russian Empire, since anything 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:57.599 that the Tsar wanted by that point, we're talking 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:01.360 just after the turn of the century, anything 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:11.439 the Tsar wanted certainly couldn't be good. the 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:14.000 Russian Empire was already headed toward its 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:22.079 catastrophic end. And Seraphim was canonized, 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:28.120 or recognized. Now there must have been providence 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:33.620 in that. To go back to the image of the spring 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:42.279 welling up in a parched and dead place. How parched, 00:04:42.459 --> 00:04:48.160 how covered with death was the land of Rus in 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:54.480 the decades that followed the saint's consecration. 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:02.620 Millions upon tens of millions would die. And 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:10.040 the church be reduced to a ghost of its presence. 00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:17.180 And the memory of Seraphim flamed in that dark, 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:23.519 and not just in Russia, but throughout the Orthodox 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:31.439 world. Greece, they love him. Images and books. 00:05:33.699 --> 00:05:36.779 The fathers of Athens know him and call him. 00:05:44.500 --> 00:05:50.600 So what is the saint? Well, you heard in the 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:56.019 hymns last night, healings, instructor of monks, 00:05:56.259 --> 00:06:03.300 converser with angels. But let me go back to 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:07.160 that idea of miracle. Like I felt as a seven 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:08.759 -year -old the first time we went up to the Sierra. 00:06:09.470 --> 00:06:13.329 And in July, I saw water coming from the earth 00:06:13.329 --> 00:06:19.629 that wasn't coming from a pipe. Unthinkable. 00:06:20.810 --> 00:06:26.610 And there it was, miracle. Well, so is the saint, 00:06:26.709 --> 00:06:32.889 miracle. Because the saint is the evidence of 00:06:32.889 --> 00:06:41.879 God. More than the evidence. The saint is the 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:49.620 visibility of God among us. And this is simply 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:53.300 the fulfillment of our calling, in the saint's 00:06:53.300 --> 00:06:58.420 case, of our calling as human beings. Since we're 00:06:58.420 --> 00:07:04.860 made indeed in the image and likeness, since 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:15.189 our Lord Jesus is called the image, and the visibility 00:07:15.189 --> 00:07:24.410 of the invisible God. And so the saint, in generation 00:07:24.410 --> 00:07:27.550 after generation, this is a very great one whom 00:07:27.550 --> 00:07:30.769 we commemorate today, but he is part of a multitude 00:07:30.769 --> 00:07:36.790 of what St. Simeon, of a succession of what St. 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:39.329 Simeon the theologian calls the golden chain. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:48.120 that unbroken continuity of miracles, of appearances 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:53.759 of God among his people from the very beginnings 00:07:53.759 --> 00:08:00.120 of Israel to the present, from Abraham to now. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:12.339 Finally then, this miracle, the saint, This one 00:08:12.339 --> 00:08:22.579 who, this particular one, who gave life to a 00:08:22.579 --> 00:08:29.180 women's monastery, to the people round about 00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:34.820 in his lifetime, and after his lifetime to a 00:08:34.820 --> 00:08:51.419 nation and a world. This saint is exemplary beloved 00:08:51.419 --> 00:08:57.460 of what we are all called to be. Each of us. 00:08:59.539 --> 00:09:11.080 The visibility of God in a perishing world. The 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:18.759 brightness of God in a dark place. The love and 00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:22.159 humility of God in a hateful and prideful world. 00:09:28.059 --> 00:09:38.399 The sweet water of God in a dry and parched and 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:45.600 thirsty world. Let us venerate his relics in 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:49.980 the Eichel. giving thanks for him and asking 00:09:49.980 --> 00:09:54.879 his prayers, especially that we ourselves may 00:09:54.879 --> 00:10:02.460 be to some small, some small itty -bitty reflection 00:10:02.460 --> 00:10:15.460 like him in bringing the presence of God to God's 00:10:15.460 --> 00:10:20.440 world power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:23.220 who is glorified with the Father and the Spirit 00:10:23.220 --> 00:10:25.179 forever. Amen.