WEBVTT

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Glory to Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father,

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and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Dear brothers and sisters, we are on the second

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Sunday of the Great Fast. I welcome you. I rejoice

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together with you on this day. When I was a child,

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well, back when I was young, back in the 60s,

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we used to say youngsters. That sounds like grandpa's

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talk. When I was a youngster living in Biloxi,

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Mississippi, it was a heavily Roman Catholic

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area because it had been founded by the French

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and the Spaniards. Catholic kids would ask me,

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you know, back then, it was not unusual, like,

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what religion are you, would be asked by children

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to each other. I'd say Orthodox and people like...

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You're Jewish? And I'm like, no. But I really

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couldn't say more. But they would also ask me

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when Lent comes around, what are you giving up

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for Lent? Because, of course, they're giving

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up candy or whatever. Little did they know. So

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we think of Lent, at least initially, as when

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we do something. We fast. We come to church during

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the week. We have matins, we have presanctified,

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alms, the liturgy is longer. Alms, yes. Keep

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in mind that the first two things are for us.

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God doesn't need them. But the alms, we learn

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in Matthew 25, is a way that we honor, we venerate

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the Lord himself in that other person that we

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think is probably not worthy. The least of these,

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my brethren. Just as much as we honor Christ

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when we kiss this icon, we honor Christ when

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we serve somebody. It's the same thing. It's

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veneration. So that third one is something that

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is absolutely essential. And I think we know

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from the gospel we heard some weeks ago, not

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optional for us. It's a sign of our Christian

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love. So yes, we do something during Lent, but

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we soon discover in Lent that it is he, the Lord,

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our Savior, Jesus Christ, that does something

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for us. Catechumens, please be clear, you heard

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that epistle reading from Hebrews. Did any of

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the angels, did the Lord say, sit thou my right

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hand till I make thine enemies footstool before

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thy feet? No, this is Christ, the King, the Savior,

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not some spiritual emanation. This is the Son

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of God. Otherwise, whatever he does for you is

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not going to help you any more than what I do

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for you. He does something for us. Just in the

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way that when we are very ill, we go to the hospital,

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we're helpless on that bed, and it's the doctors

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and the nurses that are doing something for us

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and to us to heal us. That's what Christ is doing

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in Lent. The fasting, the prayers, the alms,

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of course. What is that but to allow us, to prepare

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us, to give us capacity to receive God's grace,

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God's activity, his deifying, his sanctifying,

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his holy, his joyful, his mercy. Joyful mercy

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in our hearts. So that our spiritual eyes, as

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we say in some of the prayers, our noetic faculty,

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the faculty of the heart, can be healed. Father

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Maximus, the late monk Maximus, Anastasia Brother's

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father, and a dear friend and mentor to many

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of us, preached here in 2017. I shared that sermon

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with you online. For this day, this second Sunday

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of Lent. And he clearly explained why we need

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this spiritual hospital of Lent. Which the church

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brings us before Christ. He says this. Because

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our spiritual senses are atrophied. In other

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words, they're just not working. It's like I

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had muscles once but I never used them so they

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atrophied. Because our spiritual senses are atrophied

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by the fall in the Garden of Eden. We are not

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seeing, as we should, the ocean of God's light

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and love. And that blindness, which is not the

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will of God for us, can make this life seem like

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a virtual hell with anxiety, uncertainty, fear,

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and going continually in the wrong direction.

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If you are a catechumen, please recall that Great

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Lent is the time, the training, the spiritual

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therapy, and for us too, that may have been baptized

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even as children, we relive it, we redo it, so

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that we will, the grace of God will be renewed

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within us. It's preparing you to meet the risen

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Lord. We meet, The crucified and risen Jesus

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Christ. The real one. Not an imaginary spiritual

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being. We meet him by doing something real. Picking

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up our cross. That is denying ourselves. Saying

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no to ourselves. Opposing ourselves. So we can

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affirm the other person. So we can affirm God's

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place in our life. We meet him by picking up

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the cross and we follow him to Golgotha. And

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the fasting and the prayers and the repentance,

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it can be the cross for us. And very difficult.

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It is a Golgotha because something in us is dying.

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And that's sin. So something real, true. Who

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you really truly are can live and blossom and

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be fruitful. We follow him to the joy of Pascha.

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And in all this effort, catechumens are long

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time orthodox. We discover that Jesus Christ

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is doing something for us. His providence, if

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we keep our eyes open, and I can tell you I failed

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miserably the first week of Lent. There were

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so many instances when I look back. God was pointing

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me in the right direction. I won't go into the

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details now, but I guarantee you, if I had only

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been more watchful and attentive to God's providence,

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that first week of Lent would have gone very

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differently for me. And I could have embraced

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something much more profound than just living

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on the surface. You discover that Jesus Christ

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is doing something for you as you struggle and

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as you fail, as I did. And failing is an important

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part of Lent. It's built into it. So don't be

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discouraged. Failure is a part of Lent. It's

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okay. It teaches humility. It teaches that it's

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not all you. But listen carefully. This gospel

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account that we had today. The four friends bringing

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the man to Jesus and couldn't get into the house

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because it was so packed. What a glorious thing

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that would be if this church was so packed, like

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you were sitting right up to here, and we'd have

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to walk across this with the altar service, and

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there'd be no parking to be parking on the street

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all the way up. That would be amazing. May God

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grant that. May God grant that. You've heard

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this gospel about the man and his four friends.

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And all of us, the catechumens too, sense this

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very much. You were brought here, like those

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four friends brought that man. You were brought

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to church by someone. If you were a baby, if

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you were an adult, by somebody's prayers, by

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somebody's hands, perhaps you were invited, somebody

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prayed for you, you didn't even know it. For

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all of us, that's true. Your godparents, your

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parents, your friends, your former pastor maybe.

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Your family. Maybe your sin. You were brought

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here. This is an image of the church. Catechumens,

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you're being brought before the Lord by the friends

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of the Lord who trust him. You and I are in some

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ways are absolutely helpless. You look at the

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cross over here and what do you see? Christ having

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given up all the glory of being the son of God.

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Naked on the tree. Helpless. And only depending

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on his father to raise him in glory from the

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dead. He gave it all up. That's the way we're

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going to be too. If we're smart, we will realize

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right now, we are still helpless ahead of time.

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And like the paralyzed man, if we're brought

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to Christ, he will heal the spiritual atrophy

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of our spiritual vision. He will forgive our

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sins, those things that stop us from seeing the

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glory, the light, the mercy, the ocean of God's

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love that monk Maximus mentioned. Perhaps on

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this day of the commemoration of the great saint,

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the Athonite saint and the bishop of Thessalonica,

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Gregory Palamas, which we commemorate on the

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second Sunday of Lent, a way to honor him, at

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least the way I'm capable of doing, is to quote

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from his sermon for today. St. Gregory died in

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1359. He died on November 14th. And because that's

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the day of the Apostle Philip, the Athonite monks

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felt after his death that his commemoration,

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he was, icons are painted of him ten years after

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he died. The Athonite monks felt that his memory

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should be moved to the second Sunday of Lent

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as a bridge. Sunday of Orthodoxy. What happens

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when you live this Orthodoxy? St. Gregory Palamas.

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And he shows us how to carry the cross, which

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is our theme next week. St. Gregory says that

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the paralytic represents our own soul. I can

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relate. I seem pretty paralyzed most of the time.

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The bed on which the paralytic lies, says St.

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Gregory, is our body. And the four friends, let's

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call them virtues, that's what he calls them,

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who carry him represent... spiritual realities

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that bring us to Christ. St. Gregory identifies

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these four things. They are self -condemnation,

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compunction, constancy in prayer, and commitment.

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Self -condemnation, compunction, constancy in

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prayer, and commitment, the four C's. Now, the

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first word, self -condemnation, can sound harsh,

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and we don't like that. Condemn myself. But St.

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Gregory doesn't mean self -hatred. He means something

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healthier. He means honest self -knowledge. To

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stand before God without excuses. To not pretend.

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To not blame others. But to be accountable. That's

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self -condemnation. It's just being truthful.

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Getting real about yourself. Takes courage. And

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from that, honesty comes. And from honesty comes

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the compunction, which is what? It's the softening

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of the heart, a grateful sorrow, the sorrow that

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produces joy, that opens us up to God. And that

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compunction, that joyful sorrow, gives birth

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to commitment. We sense the love of God in his

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providence, and we will not leave him. And it's

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a firm desire to be healed, no matter what. And

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this commitment naturally leads to constancy

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and prayer, wanting to be with the Lord, wanting

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to speak to him and to feel his presence, the

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longing to remain always in the presence of God.

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These are the four friends that carry us. All

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the things we build to avoid this self -condemnation,

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this honesty, looking into our heart to accept

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our condition, there's too much noise. That we

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allow. And we can't even tell if we have a soul

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sometimes. But repentance, the four friends,

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leads to repentance. And that tears open the

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roof, says St. Gregory. And the soul is lowered

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before Christ. And this lowering is humility.

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There at the center of the heart stands Jesus

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Christ. And we are helpless and exposed before

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him. But he loves us. And so we feel received.

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We feel accepted. We don't feel a guilt trip.

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We feel God's mercy. The soul line helpless before

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the Lord. And what does Christ say? What does

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he say to the man? He doesn't begin with the

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man's paralysis. He says, son. Words of love.

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Son, your sins are forgiven. His word unties

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the knots that have bound us. Come to Christ.

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Don't delay with your sins. And the noose, that

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is the spiritual faculty of the heart, that thing

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that is atrophied, that we can't see the ocean

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of God's love around us. Even sustaining and

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upholding the trees and the wind and the rocks

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and the frogs and the lizards and all of that

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stuff. We're freed from the chains of sin and

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the paralysis of our passions and we become capable

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of holding God's uncreated. life -sustaining,

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deifying grace in our heart. We are free. Christianity,

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this path of orthodoxy that St. Gregory speaks

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about in just this simple sermon that he gave,

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brings us freedom. He frees us from the fear

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of death and from sin, and he speaks those healing

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words, the next words that he says to that man.

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Arise, take up your bed, and walk. And we are

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going to walk as free creatures before God, brothers

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and sisters, all the way through Lent now. This

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is the liberating experience of deifying grace,

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God's activity in this world, that St. Gregory

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was so careful. to explain to his flock as he

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was Archbishop in Thessalonica. This is the vision

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that St. Gregory places before us today on this

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second Sunday of Lent, and he reminds us that

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we are created for this vision. We may feel extremely

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far from it, like these are just sort of religious

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-sounding words, but be assured, this is the

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vision. We are called and invited and equipped

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to have this experience so that Christ dwells

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within us. Quoting Jesus Christ, St. Gregory

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says, The kingdom of God is not far away. It

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is within you when the heart is purified and

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illumined by grace. Let's think about this during

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this week and remember this is what God does

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for us. Amen.