In the name of the Father, and the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is truly a great joy
to be among you once again, my beloved parish
family, to see all the familiar and beloved faces,
and also to see new faces. This church is so
alive and so growing. Truly, it's a wonderful
place. Well, I hope we will be able to continue
with this love fest at the Agape Mio, but now
it's time to get down to business. And the business
of today is to understand and to contemplate
what the Holy Church, our Holy Tradition, places
before us on this, the second Sunday of Lent.
also known as the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas.
In his wonderful little book called Great Lent
by Fr. Alexander Schmemann, which, by the way,
is a book that's indispensable, I think, for
understanding Lent, and I think every family
should have a copy. It's very simple, simply
written. complete outline of Lenten practice
and it's easily understood and it allows you
to really move through Lent and through the rhythms
and the dialectic of the Lenten journey very
easily. But in that book, he describes the Sundays
of Lent and he talks about the two different
themes or the two different meanings that the
Sundays of Lent have. The first and the primary
meaning, according to him, is found in the Epistle
and the Gospel. But there, through history, the
Church has given each of those Sundays another
meaning, another theme, which is what we have
today with St. Gregory Palamuth, and also the
fourth Sunday, St. John the Ladder, and then...
and then St. Mary of Egypt. And then he says
that the first two Sundays, the triumph of Orthodoxy,
and the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, those
secondary meanings are essentially associated,
are given to the Church through acts of history.
These things happened in history. they are not
actually related to Lent proper. And then he
says, no matter how wonderful they are, we're
going to go on, and he doesn't spend any time
on them. But he does spend time on the Sunday
of John of the Ladder and the Sunday of Mary
of Egypt, because, of course, St. John of the
Ladder is the great theoretician of asceticism,
and St. Mary of Egypt is the supreme practitioner
of ascetic practice, and those things directly
are related to Lent. Now, I don't want to disagree
in any way with Father Alexander, but I think
that in the spirit of St. Gregory, which is his
Sunday, we can say, or we can extend what Father
Alexander says, which is actually correct. We
can extend that a little bit further, which is
to say that if... God is everywhere present and
fillest all things, then he is surely the Lord
of history. And if he is the Lord of history,
then what happens during Lent, the fact that
the first and the second Sunday of Lent are given
these names, does come within the purview of
divine providence. So we can begin to understand
that. We can now look at St. Gregory Palamas,
the Sunday of St. Gregory, and see, what divine
providence, what God places before us in this
saint. St. Gregory Palamas, I think that most
of us who are Orthodox, even if we've only been
Orthodox for a short while, have heard of St.
Gregory. We know something about him. But he
tends to be a saint that is put on a lofty pedestal.
He's not necessarily a saint that we automatically,
that is beloved, like St. Seraphim of Sarov is
beloved. St. Silouan the Athenite is beloved.
St. Gregory is, we look on him with awe. But
is that what the church, is that what is really
happening here? If St. Gregory is placed before
us for our contemplation, it must have to do
with Lent in some way. So what is it? What can
it be? We know, many of us know, that St. Gregory
is famous for the distinction between the essence
and the energies of God. We know, or we have
heard, that St. Gregory was a great hesychast
and was perhaps the leader of the 14th century
hesychasts. And so we have some idea of that.
Do we even understand what the word hesychasm
actually means? It means, in fact, we'll just
deal with that right away. It means, it's a word,
it's a Greek word that means stillness. It means
the path of stillness that leads to holiness.
The path of stillness that leads to holiness.
We know that St. Gregory was associated with
that. We know that he was associated with with
a great controversy that happened in the 14th
century. And we know that then he was honored
very soon after his death, which was in 1359.
And he was sanctified, he was made a saint in
1368, very soon. And that Sunday was called the
second. Sunday, the second triumph of Orthodoxy.
So what does this really have to do with us?
Now, it's impossible not to give a little bit
of historical context, but I want to go through
that very quickly because his life had so much...
So many events that happened in his life, so
many valuable things, so many wonderful things
happened in his life that if we just started
to deal with that, we'd be through my allotted
15 or 18 or 20 or 25 minutes. We'd be through
that without having really dealt with anything.
But briefly, the first 20 years of his life was
lived in the court of the emperor in which he
received a very advanced education. was considered
kind of a second Aristotle. And then at 20 years
old, he went and became a monk. And he went to
the Holy Mountain. And that next 20 years was
the time of his reclusion, in which he lived
an extremely ascetic life, both on and off the
Holy Mountain, and at the most extreme. He lived
a life in which for five days a week he lived
in total reclusion, doing the Jesus prayer, practicing
unseen warfare, working out his salvation in
Hezekiah. And then on Saturdays and Sundays he
would leave his reclusion, join the Brotherhood
for Divine Liturgy and maybe some conversation,
some holy conversation, and then go back. So
he did that for 20 years. And he was taught by
eminent teachers on the Holy Mountain. And then
he was drawn out of his seclusion by this controversy
that took place, which is called the Hesychast
Controversy. And that is that third period of
his life, which goes from 1337 to 1347, in which
he did battle with what had been known as Byzantine
humanists, led by Barlam of Calabria. And in
that period of time, even though he was a Hesychast
and wanted to live in peace, he did battle for
the sake of the spirituality and the spiritual
life of what the Orthodox Church is. And then
in this final period, he was elected, he was
appointed the Archbishop of Thessalonica in 1347.
Could not enter it right away because of the
Civil War going on, but when he finally did enter
it, he entered with great joy and jubilation,
and he became an excellent and eminent and a
wonderful archpastor. And for that, we know that
we have... We have all of his sermons and they're
translated in English. But what does this have
to do with us? What does this have to do with
us, our journey during Lent? We can honor all
the saints in the world and we can put them on
pedestals, but if they don't help us, if they
don't give us what we need to know or understand,
if they don't... give us an aspect of vision
that we're missing or an aspect of spirit that
we need, then they're not going to be of that
much help. So why does the Holy Spirit present
St. Gregory before us? I think that the answer
is found in all the various wonderful phrases
of praise that we give to St. Gregory, such as,
Pillar and teacher of the church. Light of orthodoxy.
Invincible protection of theologians. Clear trumpet
of theology. All of those things are wonderful.
But I think that the real essence of what St.
Gregory gives us is in this sort of last one.
Preacher of grace. Or herald of grace divine.
And this is so because Gregory's main purpose
was not so much to enunciate the truths of God,
the uncreated reality of God, the uncreated energies.
And all of that theology, which we can go into.
But for us, it's grace. He was really a herald
of grace. And he was a herald in particular,
specifically, of deifying grace. Because deifying
grace was something that was being experienced
on the holy mountain by the hesychasts and by
others. His father was a hesychast and lived
in the court. So the hesychasts weren't just
monastics. There were lay hesychasts. Nicholas
Cavazos is another one. So it was deifying grace
that he was defending. He really came out of
reclusion to defend the experience. of the saints,
the experience of the holy men of Athos, and
what they experienced was deifying grace. That's
what he came for. Now, scholarship has focused
too much, I think, I believe, on the idea of
the uncreated energies and the difference between
the East and the West, but the difference between
the East and the West in theology is not going
to do us much good during Lent. Maybe that will
be something that we can look at, that we can
study later on. But for Lent, for Lent, we need
to know about deifying grace. And that is really
the heart of St. Gregory's work. Because he came
out to defend the experience of the saints and
the experience of all of those who practice Hezekiah
and who practice that life of prayer. That's
what he came to do. To defend that, because that
was being attacked by these very sophisticated,
very intelligent, very educated philosophers,
which we know historically as Byzantine humanists.
They had an idea of God, which was not wrong
in itself, but they took it in a wrong sort of
way. In other words, they were aware of... what
we now know as the apophatic or the negative
way to God, that you can't say anything about
God positively without having to deny what you
have said, because God is super abundant in being.
His being is beyond being. If we say that we
exist, then we have to say that God does not
exist, or at least does not exist. in the way
that we exist. If, on the other hand, we say
that God exists, the question is, do we exist
outside of God? And we do not. So, even though
they were attacking the experience of the saints
and of the elders and of the monks, many of whom
were... were truly holy and realized men with
no education whatsoever. And of course, Barlow
went to the holy mountain, saw these men, and
looked down his nose at them, had great contempt
for them, and therefore thought that what they
said about their experiences could not be true
because they were ignorant men. So this is good
for us to know. It's good for us to know that
deifying race is no respecter of persons. It's
no respecter of education if education gets in
the way. Nor is it respecter of no education
if no education gets in the way. It is truly
no respecter. But it gives you everything. And
this is what he came to defend. And this is why
it's so important for us to realize that what
Gregory leaves us is the conviction. and the
reality, as fundamental to orthodoxy, that God
can be experienced in this life. That God can
be known and experienced in this life, by you,
by me, by everyone who is born again, everyone
who is born of the Spirit. God can be experienced
in this life. The visiting humanists were honoring
God. by saying that he can't be experienced in
this life. We have to wait to the next to understand
the beatific vision, the human experience. We
have to wait till then. Gregory fought that because
in his own experience, he saw men and women experiencing
God. So there was a battle not only in theology,
not only about what and who God is, and it's
a fundamental theological truth that one's...
one's understanding of God will trickle down
to everything one does in life. If you believe
that God is a great parent in the sky and that
you have to kind of appease that parent in some
way so that he will honor you, then grace becomes
merely God's favor. and you are constantly at
work trying to appease this kind of God. And
there's a separation, therefore, between God
and you. But the God of Orthodoxy, the God that
Gregory proclaimed in defense of the experience
of the saints, was and is a God that unites heaven
and earth. That the created and the uncreated
are in union. And so he had to make clear, because
he was dealing with something, with this knowledge
of God, this idea that God can be known, was
also part of the battle. And for Gregory, and
for the Orthodox tradition, God can be known,
but he is not known in propositions. He is not
known in whatever you can say about him. That
is knowing about God. Gregory said to Barlow,
it's a dangerous thing to talk about God before
you have learned to talk to him. And then he
went on further. And it's a dangerous thing to
talk to a God that you don't really believe can
talk back to you. and can experience you at the
very core of your being. Because, as Gregory
said in his homily on this day, Gregory gave
a wonderful homily when he was an archbishop
on the paralytic. It's one of the homilies that's
been translated into English. As he said in that
homily, he said the kingdom of heaven, there
are three elements to the kingdom of heaven.
It is at hand, which is what the gospel teaches.
It is... Within you, which Jesus taught. And
it's coming again in glory and majesty. At hand
within you and coming again. So really, what
Gregory gives us is a way into the presence of
God. And he says, the saints proclaim, and the
deifying grace, which is uncreated. The deifying
grace, which is given. by supernatural illumination.
But it is given also to the embodied intellect,
the nous, the embodied intellect. Supernatural
illumination to the embodied intellect in the
form of light. Light that is real and that is
unapproachable and incomprehensibly vast. And
it issues from God in the form of energies that
are uncreated. Because nothing that issues from
God naturally can be created. So the whole idea
of the essence and the energies approach was
a way for Gregory to defend the idea of true
divine participation. Where you literally can
participate in the divine life. And that that
is knowledge of God. The only real knowledge
of God is participating in his life. Everything
else is knowledge about. That's what the saints
have taught us. And that's what deifying grace
teaches us. And the sixth element, I've just
given you five from what's called the Hagiuritic
Tome. Which is something written by Gregory.
presented by the Holy Mountain in defense of
this tradition. The sixth one is that it's participated
in by the body, as well as the soul and the spirit,
by the body as an eschatological foretaste of
the end times. That is to say, a foretaste of
the world to come. And that's what deals with
the transfiguration. The light of Tabor is what
he's defending. That light is a light that is
given to us. And so, really, the way you summarize
this is to take seriously in all of its implications
that part of the prayer that we say every single
day as Orthodox Christians, which is the O Heavenly
King, Comforter Spirit of Truth, who are everywhere
present. and fillest all things. Everywhere present,
fillest all things. This is, this has to be carried
out to the fullest. Present in everything that
exists, present in us, and we are living in an
ocean, a coruscating, scintillating ocean of
light. and we are blind, and we don't see. We're
living in it now. If God is everywhere present
and fill us to all things, we don't have any
place to go to get to heaven. It's already here.
It's already here. But if we're living in hell,
we're not seeing. And that's why Gregory, in
his homily, and this is where I'll end, in his
interpretation of the homily, or an interpretation
of the scriptural reading of today from St. Mark,
chapter 2. He interprets it precisely as an image
and a symbol of the descent of the mind into
the heart to meet Christ. The paralytic is ourselves.
It's our soul. We're paralyzed. The four friends,
who carry him, are virtues. They are probably,
they're analogous, and they are the four cardinal
virtues. Prudence, or rather, practical wisdom.
Practical wisdom is a better way to say that
than prudence. Practical wisdom, justice, fortitude,
and temperance. Those four friends of the paralytic
carry him to Jesus. Because they were the virtues.
They're actually virtues that are part of Christ.
So they carry him to Christ. But St. Gregory
gives them four other names. He gives them the
names of self -condemnation, of compunction,
of constancy in prayer, and of commitment. So
temperance is the self -condemnation. It's what
leads you to a true state of temperance. Justice
is... is compunction. And courage or fortitude
is commitment. And finally, constancy in prayer.
Those are the four friends that bring him up
to the roof and tear open the whole roof. The
roof is your mind, it's your thoughts, it's all
of the things that you have that you wall off.
You wall off your interior being because you're
afraid there's nothing there. You wall that off.
You roof it over. But those four friends ripped
those things out, tore a hole in it, and let
the paralytic down on the pallet. And letting
that down is the humility, the absolute humility
that is necessary to be able to meet Christ at
the center of the heart. And the true golden
ladder that leads to heaven is found there. And
that's where we meet Christ. And it's there when
those four virtuous friends, when that constancy
and that commitment, that self -condemnation
and that courage lead us before Christ, then
he forgives our sins. Because it's our sins that
is keeping us from this deifying grace. It's
our sins that is holding us. to the nature of
the fallen world, so that the supernature of
Christ, which we are to attain, cannot get in.
We can't rise to it. The noose automatically
will rise if it is free. And then Christ frees
our soul, frees our noose, frees our being from
sins. And then he says, arise, take up your bed
and walk. And that is the life of the saints.
That experience. So that is what this feast gives
us. That's what St. Gregory gives us. He gives
us the vision that we can have. That it's there
for us. That the presence of God is around us,
through us, and in us. And that if we're going
to see God face to face, we have to build through
God's grace a face for us. to see Him. That's
what this feast day is all about. And to the
glory of God, may He grant it to each one of
us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.