Dear friends, at the door, there's plenty of
room up here. If you would like to sit down,
there's plenty of room. Beloved of the Lord,
we've now reached the fourth, let's call it the
port of call. One of our priests referred to
a hymn saying that Lent is a great voyage on
the sea. So we're at the fourth port of call
in our Lenten voyage. The Sunday of St. John
of the Ladder, John called Klimakos. Klimakos,
it means ladder in Greek. And the Sunday of the
Gospel of St. Mark with that desperate father
asking for, who believes asking for more faith.
You know, in a way, each Sunday of Lent brings
us on a journey. It's called a journey for a
reason. And we know that the final destinations
of that journey are Bethany, raising of Lazarus,
Palm Sunday, Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane,
the place where the Lord was tried, the pavement.
the empty tomb, Golgotha, the empty tomb, and
the ultimate destination, which we have a share
in today, as we have every Sunday and every liturgy.
And that is the table in the kingdom where we
meet and we know the risen Lord and the breaking
of the bread, holy Zion, the city of the living
God, the divine liturgy of Pascha, of which all
liturgies are... are connected. The heavenly
Jerusalem, an innumerable assembly of angels,
the festal gathering, says St. Paul, the assembly
of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.
We are looking forward to Pascha, at which point
we will receive from the Lord that Pascha communion
and demonstrate and be enlightened and be blessed
in our action of receiving that community that
we are orthodox Christians just as the Hebrews
in ancient times demonstrated that they belonged
to this new gathering that God made his people
in Egypt and the angel of death passes over just
as they did we do without that are we Christian
without that Eucharist are we Christian He who
eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me
and I in him. So that defines us. That's very
important, especially on Pascha. You know, the
Hebrews were not considered Jewish if they didn't
celebrate Passover. With us, without Pascha,
are we Christian? The old approach doesn't disappear.
This is our hope. We're on our way. That's that
final port of call. You know, commemorations
begin somewhere, don't they? Looking back, the
restoration of the icons on the first Sunday
of Lent, we could say, that's Constantinople,
where things had gone so wrong by the imperial
power and authority, and then they were set right.
And then, Constantinople, Christian city, gone.
Gone. Lamentable. It's gone. The second week,
we could say, in honor of St. Gregory Palamas,
we were at Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain. Last
week, that week of the cross, we were in Jerusalem,
the Church of Jerusalem. Today, we ascend Mount
Sinai, or at least we go to the bottom of Sinai,
and to Mount Tabor also, which I'll explain in
a moment. Showed his glory to his disciples.
Our saint for today. Saint John. Wrote this book.
The ladder of divine ascent. And lived most of
his life. At the monastery of Saint Catherine.
At the foot of Mount Sinai. Where we are today.
And that's where he reposed. On March 30th. The
year 649. We don't know much about Saint John.
This book. It has been considered for 13 centuries,
to have my math right, as a Christian survival
guide for the days of confusion and sorrow and
anxiety. And praise God, the reason it's held
up today, and St. John is held up today, one
of them is because it has been the guide. for
countless numbers of Christians to learn repentance,
to learn the gospel life, to have a guide. And
for anyone, monastic or otherwise, who wants
to believe and to pray and to fast and to gain
the godly virtues and to defeat the devil and
to appropriate the victory of God and Christ
by the Holy Spirit in our human life, To discover
the gift of Great Lent, anybody would do well
to study repeatedly this book along with the
scriptures. And we are doomed to just a superficial
reminder of St. John and this book on the fourth
Sunday of Lent each year, unless we actually
read this book and engage in this book and try
to live according to it. And become. Become.
Loving Christians, do you know what the last
chapter of this book is? Anybody? Love. 30 steps,
one for each year of the Lord. 30 steps with
the top step, love. Not just how we feel, but
godly love. Coursing through us, through our
hearts. Through our souls. So that we can share
God's love. That's why it's the top step. And
the most difficult one to achieve. So let's,
brothers and sisters, let's take it seriously
what the church suggests. And read. Read this
book. Get a copy. Will you understand everything?
I guarantee you, no. Does that matter? It does
not matter. Because what you do understand, you
will benefit from. And there on Mount Sinai.
The foot of it where St. John lived in this monastery,
which still exists, St. Catherine. Mount Sinai,
of course, is the place where the prophet Moses
ascended to stand before God. We have his fresco
right there. You can't see it too well from here.
Taken up. At the top of the mountain. Into the
kingdom of God. The divine assembly. And shown
the mysteries of the worship of God. In this
incredible vision. And coming down from the mountain.
With the commandments. His face shining with
the uncreated light. What did he see? What did
he see? His people. Worshipping an idol. The
golden calf. And having an orgy. If you take
my meaning. Now, why am I telling you this? Because
it's not in the gospel readings for today. Because
St. Mark wants us to, I believe, wants us to
make a connection in his gospel, which you did
hear. The Lord has just come down from Mount
Tabor. The day of their transfiguration. St.
Mark is telling us. He's reminding us of that
event. And the sorrowful chaotic mayhem that
Moses saw. In the same way as Jesus comes down
from the mountain. What does he see? He sees
absolute chaos. The three disciples had a glimpse
of the glory of God. And at the bottom. And we
see how quickly we forget the providence and
the promises and the grace of God in our lives.
The bottom, St. Mark writes this. He says, there
was a great crowd around the nine other disciples
that stayed, that did not go up to the mountain.
And the scribes were arguing with them. And immediately
upon seeing Jesus, the crowd rushes over. They
were greatly amazed, says St. Mark, and ran up
to him and greeted him. And Jesus asks them,
what are you arguing about? Imagine the scene.
Yelling and this boy writhing on the ground.
This is probably a young man by this point. And
someone from the crowd says, teacher, I brought
you my son. For he has a spirit that makes him
mute. He's got a demonic spirit. And whenever
it seizes him, it casts him into the fire. And
he foams and he writhes about. The nine disciples
had been given the power, the authorization,
the glory, the grace to heal this boy. They could
not do it. And you know the very touching and
heartfelt plea of the Father. If you can do anything,
have compassion on us. If. Do we ever say to
Christ, Lord, if you can help? There's no if
with Christ. It seems to me, looking in my own
soul and my own experience, we so often want
our Lord. It's Jesus coming down from the mountain.
It's not Moses. It's the Redeemer of our souls.
It's the Savior of the world. It's the Word of
God. It's God incarnate in the flesh with all
power, both in heaven and on earth, he says.
And we want God to control. Outward circumstances
most of the time. And certainly in our heart
there's things that we should ask for that. But
we neglect that one thing needful that God can
do for us that would change our perspective in
everything in our life. You know, the disciples
like this talk of healing. But as soon as the
Lord speaks about the cross, they back off. And
it says, They didn't understand what he was saying
and were afraid to ask him. We want God to control
the outward circumstances, but what he can do
for us is to change the inner direction to heal
us of whatever passions, whatever impulses, whatever
obsessions we have. Little by little, his word
guiding us, and he is trustworthy. You heard
in the epistle, immutable, changeless. Oh God,
we say at the funeral service when someone is
brought in singing Psalm 118, Thy law, O Lord,
I love with my whole heart, for it is forever.
This is what we need to ask God. Lord, I believe.
And I don't mean an intellectual understanding
of the Holy Trinity and St. Gregory of Nazianzus,
St. Basil the Great, and the three holy hierarchs,
what they said about hypostasis and homoousias.
And what St. Cyril says about the Theotokos,
all essential and important. That's not what
I mean by belief. I mean, do you have the experience
of the encounter with Jesus Christ that this
man in the gospel had on that day? And he says,
I believe, O Lord. Now he starts to see Christ.
And he knows something can change. For us, it's
not this scene of a crazy child who is demon
-possessed. Certainly, that's an encouragement
for the catechumens who did have that exorcism
and are preparing for baptism. For us, it's that
inner man that needs to change. Lord, I believe.
I want to know you more deeply. One saint says
something startling, which kind of worries me.
He says, when you pray, do you have distraction
when you pray? Now think about that. Think about
you get up in the morning or in the afternoon
or whatever, and you pray. Oh, heavenly king,
the comforter of the spirit, and you're doing
Psalm 50 or whatever, where is your mind? He
says, what I find challenging and worrisome,
he says, if you pray with the distractions, you
don't love God. Thinking, well, that's pretty
harsh. And then he says, imagine you're in the
embrace of your beloved, and you're thinking
about something else. Do you love that person?
Or is there another love, more powerful, that
has captured you? So this is what our Lord can
do for us. Do we love God enough? And if we don't,
Lord, help our unbelief. Grant us the experience
of your presence so that we feel embraced and
joyful. We know we have this gospel. We have
this book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, to encourage
us at this fifth of week, at fifth Lent of week.
And we have the catechumens preparing for holy
illumination. And for us that are trying to fast,
to pray more, to do works of mercy, may Christ
answer the prayer of the Father for us. Lord,
I believe. Because belief, faith, trust is gained
by knowing and loving Christ. information about
him. We experience all the turmoil and the suffering
that everyone in the world experiences. All the
fears, all the sicknesses, the weakness, the
passions, the anxieties, addictions, desires,
the ignorance. All mankind has this. Yet we have
an anchor, wrote St. Paul in that epistle today.
Jesus Christ. And that anchor is pulling us.
It's keeping us in connection with the Lord.
So we also have a goal. We have a hope. We have
a destiny. We have the risen Lord. And despite
our sinfulness and our troubles and cares, we
have experience of the good news. We don't just
wait for the magic fairy faith to come down and
wave something over us to make us more faithful.
We can, number one, practice endurance. We can
endure the things that happen in our life that
will strengthen us. We can rely upon God instead,
not on ourself. The disciples couldn't heal this
man. They thought they had the power. Number
two. We believe in the immutable counsels of
God and know them and read them and understand
them and come to live by them. And number three,
let us practice prayer and fasting. And these
things will help us deepen our faith and make
us more faithful. And when the difficult times
come, the challenges come, we will be ready.
Sometimes we think we need to get everything
set before we can come to the Lord. No, it's
the other way around. When we're a mess, this
is the place we come. Not how we feel about it,
because God will change that feeling. Dear brothers
and sisters in Christ, how rich is our faith?
How much God loves us and wants to embrace us,
to believe in us, to believe in him, to rely
on him, in order to give us the comfort and the
challenge of faith. Let's enable this in our
life. let us trust that God is worthy of our
attention. To him be glory now and ever, to ages
of ages. Amen.