WEBVTT 00:00:01.290 --> 00:00:03.410 In the name of the Father, and the Son, and of 00:00:03.410 --> 00:00:11.150 the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is truly a great joy 00:00:11.150 --> 00:00:14.589 to be among you once again, my beloved parish 00:00:14.589 --> 00:00:19.870 family, to see all the familiar and beloved faces, 00:00:19.989 --> 00:00:24.769 and also to see new faces. This church is so 00:00:24.769 --> 00:00:27.609 alive and so growing. Truly, it's a wonderful 00:00:27.609 --> 00:00:31.039 place. Well, I hope we will be able to continue 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:37.100 with this love fest at the Agape Mio, but now 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:42.840 it's time to get down to business. And the business 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:49.119 of today is to understand and to contemplate 00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:52.640 what the Holy Church, our Holy Tradition, places 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:58.119 before us on this, the second Sunday of Lent. 00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:02.380 also known as the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas. 00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:09.159 In his wonderful little book called Great Lent 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:14.500 by Fr. Alexander Schmemann, which, by the way, 00:01:14.500 --> 00:01:17.959 is a book that's indispensable, I think, for 00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:21.760 understanding Lent, and I think every family 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:26.040 should have a copy. It's very simple, simply 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:30.060 written. complete outline of Lenten practice 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:32.659 and it's easily understood and it allows you 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:36.480 to really move through Lent and through the rhythms 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:40.599 and the dialectic of the Lenten journey very 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:47.859 easily. But in that book, he describes the Sundays 00:01:47.859 --> 00:01:50.900 of Lent and he talks about the two different 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:54.120 themes or the two different meanings that the 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:58.540 Sundays of Lent have. The first and the primary 00:01:58.540 --> 00:02:03.819 meaning, according to him, is found in the Epistle 00:02:03.819 --> 00:02:07.900 and the Gospel. But there, through history, the 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:12.099 Church has given each of those Sundays another 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:17.879 meaning, another theme, which is what we have 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:21.960 today with St. Gregory Palamuth, and also the 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:25.240 fourth Sunday, St. John the Ladder, and then... 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:30.550 and then St. Mary of Egypt. And then he says 00:02:30.550 --> 00:02:36.710 that the first two Sundays, the triumph of Orthodoxy, 00:02:36.710 --> 00:02:41.210 and the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, those 00:02:41.210 --> 00:02:45.210 secondary meanings are essentially associated, 00:02:45.650 --> 00:02:49.629 are given to the Church through acts of history. 00:02:49.710 --> 00:02:53.479 These things happened in history. they are not 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:57.960 actually related to Lent proper. And then he 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:00.199 says, no matter how wonderful they are, we're 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:03.740 going to go on, and he doesn't spend any time 00:03:03.740 --> 00:03:07.360 on them. But he does spend time on the Sunday 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.439 of John of the Ladder and the Sunday of Mary 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:12.780 of Egypt, because, of course, St. John of the 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:16.800 Ladder is the great theoretician of asceticism, 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.759 and St. Mary of Egypt is the supreme practitioner 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:22.199 of ascetic practice, and those things directly 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:28.580 are related to Lent. Now, I don't want to disagree 00:03:28.580 --> 00:03:31.919 in any way with Father Alexander, but I think 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:34.240 that in the spirit of St. Gregory, which is his 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:42.379 Sunday, we can say, or we can extend what Father 00:03:42.379 --> 00:03:45.719 Alexander says, which is actually correct. We 00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:48.419 can extend that a little bit further, which is 00:03:48.419 --> 00:03:53.460 to say that if... God is everywhere present and 00:03:53.460 --> 00:03:56.580 fillest all things, then he is surely the Lord 00:03:56.580 --> 00:04:00.099 of history. And if he is the Lord of history, 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:05.060 then what happens during Lent, the fact that 00:04:05.060 --> 00:04:07.759 the first and the second Sunday of Lent are given 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:11.560 these names, does come within the purview of 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:15.800 divine providence. So we can begin to understand 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:18.199 that. We can now look at St. Gregory Palamas, 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:22.509 the Sunday of St. Gregory, and see, what divine 00:04:22.509 --> 00:04:26.329 providence, what God places before us in this 00:04:26.329 --> 00:04:33.250 saint. St. Gregory Palamas, I think that most 00:04:33.250 --> 00:04:36.269 of us who are Orthodox, even if we've only been 00:04:36.269 --> 00:04:39.790 Orthodox for a short while, have heard of St. 00:04:39.970 --> 00:04:44.629 Gregory. We know something about him. But he 00:04:44.629 --> 00:04:49.389 tends to be a saint that is put on a lofty pedestal. 00:04:49.410 --> 00:04:52.089 He's not necessarily a saint that we automatically, 00:04:52.470 --> 00:04:54.829 that is beloved, like St. Seraphim of Sarov is 00:04:54.829 --> 00:04:57.410 beloved. St. Silouan the Athenite is beloved. 00:04:57.850 --> 00:05:03.069 St. Gregory is, we look on him with awe. But 00:05:03.069 --> 00:05:05.449 is that what the church, is that what is really 00:05:05.449 --> 00:05:10.050 happening here? If St. Gregory is placed before 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:13.990 us for our contemplation, it must have to do 00:05:13.990 --> 00:05:18.040 with Lent in some way. So what is it? What can 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:23.439 it be? We know, many of us know, that St. Gregory 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:28.639 is famous for the distinction between the essence 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:33.680 and the energies of God. We know, or we have 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.220 heard, that St. Gregory was a great hesychast 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:39.379 and was perhaps the leader of the 14th century 00:05:39.379 --> 00:05:43.439 hesychasts. And so we have some idea of that. 00:05:44.779 --> 00:05:47.399 Do we even understand what the word hesychasm 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:52.660 actually means? It means, in fact, we'll just 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:56.540 deal with that right away. It means, it's a word, 00:05:56.620 --> 00:06:00.139 it's a Greek word that means stillness. It means 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:03.540 the path of stillness that leads to holiness. 00:06:04.379 --> 00:06:06.800 The path of stillness that leads to holiness. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:09.000 We know that St. Gregory was associated with 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:14.089 that. We know that he was associated with with 00:06:14.089 --> 00:06:16.550 a great controversy that happened in the 14th 00:06:16.550 --> 00:06:21.910 century. And we know that then he was honored 00:06:21.910 --> 00:06:27.970 very soon after his death, which was in 1359. 00:06:28.889 --> 00:06:33.069 And he was sanctified, he was made a saint in 00:06:33.069 --> 00:06:40.689 1368, very soon. And that Sunday was called the 00:06:40.689 --> 00:06:44.850 second. Sunday, the second triumph of Orthodoxy. 00:06:45.589 --> 00:06:50.569 So what does this really have to do with us? 00:06:50.730 --> 00:06:56.089 Now, it's impossible not to give a little bit 00:06:56.089 --> 00:07:00.209 of historical context, but I want to go through 00:07:00.209 --> 00:07:05.709 that very quickly because his life had so much... 00:07:06.009 --> 00:07:09.050 So many events that happened in his life, so 00:07:09.050 --> 00:07:11.009 many valuable things, so many wonderful things 00:07:11.009 --> 00:07:13.930 happened in his life that if we just started 00:07:13.930 --> 00:07:16.670 to deal with that, we'd be through my allotted 00:07:16.670 --> 00:07:23.649 15 or 18 or 20 or 25 minutes. We'd be through 00:07:23.649 --> 00:07:25.930 that without having really dealt with anything. 00:07:26.350 --> 00:07:30.509 But briefly, the first 20 years of his life was 00:07:30.509 --> 00:07:33.290 lived in the court of the emperor in which he 00:07:33.290 --> 00:07:36.360 received a very advanced education. was considered 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:40.079 kind of a second Aristotle. And then at 20 years 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:43.019 old, he went and became a monk. And he went to 00:07:43.019 --> 00:07:45.740 the Holy Mountain. And that next 20 years was 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:50.660 the time of his reclusion, in which he lived 00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:54.860 an extremely ascetic life, both on and off the 00:07:54.860 --> 00:08:03.370 Holy Mountain, and at the most extreme. He lived 00:08:03.370 --> 00:08:05.629 a life in which for five days a week he lived 00:08:05.629 --> 00:08:10.189 in total reclusion, doing the Jesus prayer, practicing 00:08:10.189 --> 00:08:19.129 unseen warfare, working out his salvation in 00:08:19.129 --> 00:08:22.069 Hezekiah. And then on Saturdays and Sundays he 00:08:22.069 --> 00:08:24.670 would leave his reclusion, join the Brotherhood 00:08:24.670 --> 00:08:28.670 for Divine Liturgy and maybe some conversation, 00:08:28.990 --> 00:08:31.379 some holy conversation, and then go back. So 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:34.500 he did that for 20 years. And he was taught by 00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:41.559 eminent teachers on the Holy Mountain. And then 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:47.820 he was drawn out of his seclusion by this controversy 00:08:47.820 --> 00:08:50.200 that took place, which is called the Hesychast 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:52.679 Controversy. And that is that third period of 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:56.820 his life, which goes from 1337 to 1347, in which 00:08:56.820 --> 00:09:01.259 he did battle with what had been known as Byzantine 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:08.419 humanists, led by Barlam of Calabria. And in 00:09:08.419 --> 00:09:12.740 that period of time, even though he was a Hesychast 00:09:12.740 --> 00:09:17.539 and wanted to live in peace, he did battle for 00:09:17.539 --> 00:09:23.899 the sake of the spirituality and the spiritual 00:09:23.899 --> 00:09:29.570 life of what the Orthodox Church is. And then 00:09:29.570 --> 00:09:34.610 in this final period, he was elected, he was 00:09:34.610 --> 00:09:38.470 appointed the Archbishop of Thessalonica in 1347. 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:41.570 Could not enter it right away because of the 00:09:41.570 --> 00:09:44.269 Civil War going on, but when he finally did enter 00:09:44.269 --> 00:09:48.070 it, he entered with great joy and jubilation, 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:51.710 and he became an excellent and eminent and a 00:09:51.710 --> 00:09:56.389 wonderful archpastor. And for that, we know that 00:09:56.389 --> 00:09:58.700 we have... We have all of his sermons and they're 00:09:58.700 --> 00:10:05.779 translated in English. But what does this have 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:09.120 to do with us? What does this have to do with 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:12.679 us, our journey during Lent? We can honor all 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:15.159 the saints in the world and we can put them on 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:18.480 pedestals, but if they don't help us, if they 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:23.740 don't give us what we need to know or understand, 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:27.549 if they don't... give us an aspect of vision 00:10:27.549 --> 00:10:30.769 that we're missing or an aspect of spirit that 00:10:30.769 --> 00:10:34.029 we need, then they're not going to be of that 00:10:34.029 --> 00:10:37.690 much help. So why does the Holy Spirit present 00:10:37.690 --> 00:10:43.129 St. Gregory before us? I think that the answer 00:10:43.129 --> 00:10:49.230 is found in all the various wonderful phrases 00:10:49.230 --> 00:10:54.450 of praise that we give to St. Gregory, such as, 00:10:55.149 --> 00:10:59.730 Pillar and teacher of the church. Light of orthodoxy. 00:11:00.110 --> 00:11:03.730 Invincible protection of theologians. Clear trumpet 00:11:03.730 --> 00:11:06.490 of theology. All of those things are wonderful. 00:11:06.789 --> 00:11:10.070 But I think that the real essence of what St. 00:11:10.190 --> 00:11:14.289 Gregory gives us is in this sort of last one. 00:11:14.809 --> 00:11:19.850 Preacher of grace. Or herald of grace divine. 00:11:23.879 --> 00:11:31.639 And this is so because Gregory's main purpose 00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:42.500 was not so much to enunciate the truths of God, 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:50.899 the uncreated reality of God, the uncreated energies. 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:55.440 And all of that theology, which we can go into. 00:11:55.620 --> 00:12:00.360 But for us, it's grace. He was really a herald 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:04.139 of grace. And he was a herald in particular, 00:12:04.419 --> 00:12:11.940 specifically, of deifying grace. Because deifying 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:15.179 grace was something that was being experienced 00:12:15.179 --> 00:12:20.139 on the holy mountain by the hesychasts and by 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:24.379 others. His father was a hesychast and lived 00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:28.960 in the court. So the hesychasts weren't just 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:34.700 monastics. There were lay hesychasts. Nicholas 00:12:34.700 --> 00:12:40.200 Cavazos is another one. So it was deifying grace 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:45.120 that he was defending. He really came out of 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:52.649 reclusion to defend the experience. of the saints, 00:12:52.889 --> 00:12:56.350 the experience of the holy men of Athos, and 00:12:56.350 --> 00:13:01.509 what they experienced was deifying grace. That's 00:13:01.509 --> 00:13:05.769 what he came for. Now, scholarship has focused 00:13:05.769 --> 00:13:09.809 too much, I think, I believe, on the idea of 00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:14.769 the uncreated energies and the difference between 00:13:14.769 --> 00:13:17.330 the East and the West, but the difference between 00:13:17.330 --> 00:13:22.889 the East and the West in theology is not going 00:13:22.889 --> 00:13:25.309 to do us much good during Lent. Maybe that will 00:13:25.309 --> 00:13:27.070 be something that we can look at, that we can 00:13:27.070 --> 00:13:30.610 study later on. But for Lent, for Lent, we need 00:13:30.610 --> 00:13:34.649 to know about deifying grace. And that is really 00:13:34.649 --> 00:13:37.250 the heart of St. Gregory's work. Because he came 00:13:37.250 --> 00:13:41.169 out to defend the experience of the saints and 00:13:41.169 --> 00:13:45.330 the experience of all of those who practice Hezekiah 00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:48.889 and who practice that life of prayer. That's 00:13:48.889 --> 00:13:51.700 what he came to do. To defend that, because that 00:13:51.700 --> 00:13:54.639 was being attacked by these very sophisticated, 00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:58.460 very intelligent, very educated philosophers, 00:13:58.539 --> 00:14:02.360 which we know historically as Byzantine humanists. 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:12.419 They had an idea of God, which was not wrong 00:14:12.419 --> 00:14:15.480 in itself, but they took it in a wrong sort of 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.529 way. In other words, they were aware of... what 00:14:18.529 --> 00:14:22.610 we now know as the apophatic or the negative 00:14:22.610 --> 00:14:24.970 way to God, that you can't say anything about 00:14:24.970 --> 00:14:33.029 God positively without having to deny what you 00:14:33.029 --> 00:14:36.690 have said, because God is super abundant in being. 00:14:36.929 --> 00:14:42.049 His being is beyond being. If we say that we 00:14:42.049 --> 00:14:44.669 exist, then we have to say that God does not 00:14:44.669 --> 00:14:47.230 exist, or at least does not exist. in the way 00:14:47.230 --> 00:14:50.389 that we exist. If, on the other hand, we say 00:14:50.389 --> 00:14:55.289 that God exists, the question is, do we exist 00:14:55.289 --> 00:15:00.830 outside of God? And we do not. So, even though 00:15:00.830 --> 00:15:06.669 they were attacking the experience of the saints 00:15:06.669 --> 00:15:11.350 and of the elders and of the monks, many of whom 00:15:11.350 --> 00:15:14.879 were... were truly holy and realized men with 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.720 no education whatsoever. And of course, Barlow 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:20.820 went to the holy mountain, saw these men, and 00:15:20.820 --> 00:15:22.980 looked down his nose at them, had great contempt 00:15:22.980 --> 00:15:25.620 for them, and therefore thought that what they 00:15:25.620 --> 00:15:28.379 said about their experiences could not be true 00:15:28.379 --> 00:15:32.500 because they were ignorant men. So this is good 00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:37.159 for us to know. It's good for us to know that 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:43.210 deifying race is no respecter of persons. It's 00:15:43.210 --> 00:15:46.509 no respecter of education if education gets in 00:15:46.509 --> 00:15:49.129 the way. Nor is it respecter of no education 00:15:49.129 --> 00:15:53.210 if no education gets in the way. It is truly 00:15:53.210 --> 00:15:58.250 no respecter. But it gives you everything. And 00:15:58.250 --> 00:16:01.490 this is what he came to defend. And this is why 00:16:01.490 --> 00:16:04.590 it's so important for us to realize that what 00:16:04.590 --> 00:16:09.980 Gregory leaves us is the conviction. and the 00:16:09.980 --> 00:16:14.460 reality, as fundamental to orthodoxy, that God 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:22.240 can be experienced in this life. That God can 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:26.039 be known and experienced in this life, by you, 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:30.200 by me, by everyone who is born again, everyone 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:34.120 who is born of the Spirit. God can be experienced 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:38.240 in this life. The visiting humanists were honoring 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:42.059 God. by saying that he can't be experienced in 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:44.759 this life. We have to wait to the next to understand 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:48.559 the beatific vision, the human experience. We 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:51.340 have to wait till then. Gregory fought that because 00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:56.379 in his own experience, he saw men and women experiencing 00:16:56.379 --> 00:17:01.279 God. So there was a battle not only in theology, 00:17:01.539 --> 00:17:05.619 not only about what and who God is, and it's 00:17:05.619 --> 00:17:08.279 a fundamental theological truth that one's... 00:17:10.540 --> 00:17:13.880 one's understanding of God will trickle down 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:16.960 to everything one does in life. If you believe 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:23.140 that God is a great parent in the sky and that 00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:29.299 you have to kind of appease that parent in some 00:17:29.299 --> 00:17:32.259 way so that he will honor you, then grace becomes 00:17:32.259 --> 00:17:38.380 merely God's favor. and you are constantly at 00:17:38.380 --> 00:17:43.000 work trying to appease this kind of God. And 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:45.500 there's a separation, therefore, between God 00:17:45.500 --> 00:17:49.160 and you. But the God of Orthodoxy, the God that 00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:57.099 Gregory proclaimed in defense of the experience 00:17:57.099 --> 00:18:03.500 of the saints, was and is a God that unites heaven 00:18:03.500 --> 00:18:06.289 and earth. That the created and the uncreated 00:18:06.289 --> 00:18:13.710 are in union. And so he had to make clear, because 00:18:13.710 --> 00:18:18.109 he was dealing with something, with this knowledge 00:18:18.109 --> 00:18:22.289 of God, this idea that God can be known, was 00:18:22.289 --> 00:18:26.230 also part of the battle. And for Gregory, and 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:29.650 for the Orthodox tradition, God can be known, 00:18:29.769 --> 00:18:33.119 but he is not known in propositions. He is not 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:38.859 known in whatever you can say about him. That 00:18:38.859 --> 00:18:42.359 is knowing about God. Gregory said to Barlow, 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:47.519 it's a dangerous thing to talk about God before 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:52.039 you have learned to talk to him. And then he 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:55.500 went on further. And it's a dangerous thing to 00:18:55.500 --> 00:18:59.039 talk to a God that you don't really believe can 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:02.529 talk back to you. and can experience you at the 00:19:02.529 --> 00:19:05.809 very core of your being. Because, as Gregory 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:10.190 said in his homily on this day, Gregory gave 00:19:10.190 --> 00:19:12.150 a wonderful homily when he was an archbishop 00:19:12.150 --> 00:19:16.690 on the paralytic. It's one of the homilies that's 00:19:16.690 --> 00:19:19.150 been translated into English. As he said in that 00:19:19.150 --> 00:19:22.630 homily, he said the kingdom of heaven, there 00:19:22.630 --> 00:19:24.289 are three elements to the kingdom of heaven. 00:19:24.589 --> 00:19:27.710 It is at hand, which is what the gospel teaches. 00:19:28.130 --> 00:19:32.599 It is... Within you, which Jesus taught. And 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:36.359 it's coming again in glory and majesty. At hand 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:40.259 within you and coming again. So really, what 00:19:40.259 --> 00:19:44.259 Gregory gives us is a way into the presence of 00:19:44.259 --> 00:19:49.740 God. And he says, the saints proclaim, and the 00:19:49.740 --> 00:19:54.980 deifying grace, which is uncreated. The deifying 00:19:54.980 --> 00:20:03.150 grace, which is given. by supernatural illumination. 00:20:04.809 --> 00:20:08.769 But it is given also to the embodied intellect, 00:20:08.970 --> 00:20:11.809 the nous, the embodied intellect. Supernatural 00:20:11.809 --> 00:20:16.789 illumination to the embodied intellect in the 00:20:16.789 --> 00:20:22.250 form of light. Light that is real and that is 00:20:22.250 --> 00:20:29.089 unapproachable and incomprehensibly vast. And 00:20:29.089 --> 00:20:34.109 it issues from God in the form of energies that 00:20:34.109 --> 00:20:38.869 are uncreated. Because nothing that issues from 00:20:38.869 --> 00:20:44.269 God naturally can be created. So the whole idea 00:20:44.269 --> 00:20:47.789 of the essence and the energies approach was 00:20:47.789 --> 00:20:54.829 a way for Gregory to defend the idea of true 00:20:54.829 --> 00:20:59.170 divine participation. Where you literally can 00:20:59.170 --> 00:21:02.069 participate in the divine life. And that that 00:21:02.069 --> 00:21:04.549 is knowledge of God. The only real knowledge 00:21:04.549 --> 00:21:08.990 of God is participating in his life. Everything 00:21:08.990 --> 00:21:12.230 else is knowledge about. That's what the saints 00:21:12.230 --> 00:21:14.690 have taught us. And that's what deifying grace 00:21:14.690 --> 00:21:18.910 teaches us. And the sixth element, I've just 00:21:18.910 --> 00:21:23.210 given you five from what's called the Hagiuritic 00:21:23.210 --> 00:21:25.309 Tome. Which is something written by Gregory. 00:21:26.410 --> 00:21:28.569 presented by the Holy Mountain in defense of 00:21:28.569 --> 00:21:32.029 this tradition. The sixth one is that it's participated 00:21:32.029 --> 00:21:35.390 in by the body, as well as the soul and the spirit, 00:21:35.529 --> 00:21:41.049 by the body as an eschatological foretaste of 00:21:41.049 --> 00:21:43.690 the end times. That is to say, a foretaste of 00:21:43.690 --> 00:21:47.710 the world to come. And that's what deals with 00:21:47.710 --> 00:21:54.660 the transfiguration. The light of Tabor is what 00:21:54.660 --> 00:21:57.200 he's defending. That light is a light that is 00:21:57.200 --> 00:22:04.400 given to us. And so, really, the way you summarize 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:09.160 this is to take seriously in all of its implications 00:22:09.160 --> 00:22:12.559 that part of the prayer that we say every single 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:17.339 day as Orthodox Christians, which is the O Heavenly 00:22:17.339 --> 00:22:20.660 King, Comforter Spirit of Truth, who are everywhere 00:22:20.660 --> 00:22:25.200 present. and fillest all things. Everywhere present, 00:22:25.299 --> 00:22:31.680 fillest all things. This is, this has to be carried 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:35.039 out to the fullest. Present in everything that 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:42.960 exists, present in us, and we are living in an 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:49.559 ocean, a coruscating, scintillating ocean of 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:53.869 light. and we are blind, and we don't see. We're 00:22:53.869 --> 00:22:57.369 living in it now. If God is everywhere present 00:22:57.369 --> 00:22:59.369 and fill us to all things, we don't have any 00:22:59.369 --> 00:23:01.670 place to go to get to heaven. It's already here. 00:23:02.609 --> 00:23:05.769 It's already here. But if we're living in hell, 00:23:05.950 --> 00:23:11.630 we're not seeing. And that's why Gregory, in 00:23:11.630 --> 00:23:15.890 his homily, and this is where I'll end, in his 00:23:15.890 --> 00:23:20.940 interpretation of the homily, or an interpretation 00:23:20.940 --> 00:23:25.039 of the scriptural reading of today from St. Mark, 00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:30.440 chapter 2. He interprets it precisely as an image 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:35.880 and a symbol of the descent of the mind into 00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:42.420 the heart to meet Christ. The paralytic is ourselves. 00:23:42.619 --> 00:23:47.339 It's our soul. We're paralyzed. The four friends, 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:54.759 who carry him, are virtues. They are probably, 00:23:54.759 --> 00:23:59.200 they're analogous, and they are the four cardinal 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:03.180 virtues. Prudence, or rather, practical wisdom. 00:24:03.579 --> 00:24:05.740 Practical wisdom is a better way to say that 00:24:05.740 --> 00:24:08.980 than prudence. Practical wisdom, justice, fortitude, 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:14.059 and temperance. Those four friends of the paralytic 00:24:14.059 --> 00:24:18.230 carry him to Jesus. Because they were the virtues. 00:24:18.369 --> 00:24:21.029 They're actually virtues that are part of Christ. 00:24:21.109 --> 00:24:23.710 So they carry him to Christ. But St. Gregory 00:24:23.710 --> 00:24:29.109 gives them four other names. He gives them the 00:24:29.109 --> 00:24:32.069 names of self -condemnation, of compunction, 00:24:32.289 --> 00:24:37.130 of constancy in prayer, and of commitment. So 00:24:37.130 --> 00:24:40.869 temperance is the self -condemnation. It's what 00:24:40.869 --> 00:24:43.789 leads you to a true state of temperance. Justice 00:24:43.789 --> 00:24:52.259 is... is compunction. And courage or fortitude 00:24:52.259 --> 00:24:58.859 is commitment. And finally, constancy in prayer. 00:24:59.220 --> 00:25:02.579 Those are the four friends that bring him up 00:25:02.579 --> 00:25:05.740 to the roof and tear open the whole roof. The 00:25:05.740 --> 00:25:09.140 roof is your mind, it's your thoughts, it's all 00:25:09.140 --> 00:25:12.619 of the things that you have that you wall off. 00:25:13.049 --> 00:25:16.049 You wall off your interior being because you're 00:25:16.049 --> 00:25:18.450 afraid there's nothing there. You wall that off. 00:25:19.849 --> 00:25:23.210 You roof it over. But those four friends ripped 00:25:23.210 --> 00:25:25.990 those things out, tore a hole in it, and let 00:25:25.990 --> 00:25:29.789 the paralytic down on the pallet. And letting 00:25:29.789 --> 00:25:34.410 that down is the humility, the absolute humility 00:25:34.410 --> 00:25:38.890 that is necessary to be able to meet Christ at 00:25:38.890 --> 00:25:41.339 the center of the heart. And the true golden 00:25:41.339 --> 00:25:44.119 ladder that leads to heaven is found there. And 00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:48.059 that's where we meet Christ. And it's there when 00:25:48.059 --> 00:25:51.700 those four virtuous friends, when that constancy 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:53.680 and that commitment, that self -condemnation 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:59.059 and that courage lead us before Christ, then 00:25:59.059 --> 00:26:03.400 he forgives our sins. Because it's our sins that 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:06.980 is keeping us from this deifying grace. It's 00:26:06.980 --> 00:26:09.960 our sins that is holding us. to the nature of 00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:12.680 the fallen world, so that the supernature of 00:26:12.680 --> 00:26:16.500 Christ, which we are to attain, cannot get in. 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:20.000 We can't rise to it. The noose automatically 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.099 will rise if it is free. And then Christ frees 00:26:25.099 --> 00:26:29.500 our soul, frees our noose, frees our being from 00:26:29.500 --> 00:26:33.000 sins. And then he says, arise, take up your bed 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:37.440 and walk. And that is the life of the saints. 00:26:40.430 --> 00:26:46.250 That experience. So that is what this feast gives 00:26:46.250 --> 00:26:49.390 us. That's what St. Gregory gives us. He gives 00:26:49.390 --> 00:26:54.430 us the vision that we can have. That it's there 00:26:54.430 --> 00:26:59.009 for us. That the presence of God is around us, 00:26:59.029 --> 00:27:01.950 through us, and in us. And that if we're going 00:27:01.950 --> 00:27:05.750 to see God face to face, we have to build through 00:27:05.750 --> 00:27:10.410 God's grace a face for us. to see Him. That's 00:27:10.410 --> 00:27:13.450 what this feast day is all about. And to the 00:27:13.450 --> 00:27:16.450 glory of God, may He grant it to each one of 00:27:16.450 --> 00:27:18.009 us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 00:27:18.069 --> 00:27:18.549 and of the Holy Spirit.