Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Before we do the dismissal, let me express my
gratitude to the singers and to the servers,
and especially to God who has led us to this
day and fed us, nourished us, our souls and bodies
with his most immaculate life -giving. glorified
body and blood. What could stand between us and
God after that? In the hymns, we are then asked
to fulfill the commandments. You heard some hymns.
These are hard to do. We're only starting Lent,
so maybe we trip up a little bit right now before
we can... do with that first hymn in tone 8 that
the choir sang, to follow through with something
like that. It says, let us fast, not just with
the body, but spiritually. Most of what we do
is driven by some kind of internal process, an
internal, sometimes an obsession, an impulse.
That statement, let us fast not only with the
body but spiritually, is so that we tame that.
And then it says, because we can fast, because
we fast, then we have something to give to the
poor. It was very insistent about that. It says,
let us feed the hungry. We try to do that. We
try as a parish to do that. But this is asking
us as individuals, servants of God, who carry
the body and blood of Christ within them to do
that. Feed the hungry. And even the thing which
we'll find totally impossible to do, give shelter
to those who have no place. This is not an easy
task. Most of us would find every excuse, me
included, to not do that. We have to find a way
to actually carry out that commandment in some
way. I don't know how that's going to be done.
Each of you, before God, can figure that out.
And then it says in that hymn to tear up every
contract. In other words, this is where it gets
really hard. All the loans, anything that anybody
owes you, gone. Any blame, any money, any property,
any situation, you give it all away. What this
is asking you to do is what in the Old Testament
law, the Jubilee celebration asks the faithful
to do. Let the land, this land set aside. If
anybody owes you anything, all debts totally
forgiven. And all of those things that I just
mentioned, that happens every what? Is it 49
years? 49 years. We're asked to do that every
year. It's just a part of being Christian. This
is like the power and the adventure, the excitement,
the fire of being a Christian is find how to
do those things because the Lord himself has
done that for us. Here we are. We're sheltered
in this beautiful church. We're nourished, we're
fed, although we are poor and destitute and unworthy,
the Lord feeds us and enlightens us. And each
one of you that received communion tonight, I
remember Father Meletius Weber, the Archimandrite
Meletius, saying this at a diocesan assembly,
when you receive holy communion, this is an act
of theosis. Your heart, your soul, is becoming
like Christ. Do we have room in there for that
to happen? Only if we fulfill those commandments.
It's not about doing it. It's about doing it
with the Spirit of God. Enlightening us so that
we can do it in a joyful way. So it becomes a
natural thing. A natural thing. Like Adam and
Eve were told to have dominion, lordship over
the fish of the sea. We go out with a hook to
try and catch something that doesn't want to
come to us. But those that are saintly, everything
around them is in harmony. So let our struggle
this Lent be to just keep the basic commandments,
and maybe God will give us more. Let's start
simple. That's why that hymn was so great. It
just said, do these things. This is how Christians
are if you want to be the child of the Heavenly
Father. The blessing of the Lord and his mercy
be upon you, through his divine grace and love
for mankind, always, now and ever and unto ages
and ages. Amen. Glory to thee, O Christ, our
hope. Glory be to thee. Glory to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.