WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.839 must remain absolutely daunted. First, so, I 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:09.660 will congratulate those who were received into 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:13.119 this church on this glorious morning. We rejoice 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:18.719 with them. They entered not just great and holy 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:21.980 week, as we all will on Monday, but a great and 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:26.620 holy life. You heard Thomas in this account say 00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:30.010 to the other apostles, When Jesus has set his 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:34.829 mind and his path going towards where they said 00:00:34.829 --> 00:00:38.450 he would be killed, Thomas says, let us go and 00:00:38.450 --> 00:00:45.049 die with him. That's a good word for the newly 00:00:45.049 --> 00:00:48.429 baptized because you have died. We have all died, 00:00:48.630 --> 00:00:51.549 those of us that have united ourselves to Christ 00:00:51.549 --> 00:00:54.250 and been joined to Christ in the church. We have 00:00:54.250 --> 00:00:58.530 all died and risen again. And we hear that. incredible 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:02.570 word that that word of affirmation and consolation 00:01:02.570 --> 00:01:08.269 and triumph I am the resurrection he who believes 00:01:08.269 --> 00:01:11.510 in me though he were dead yet shall he live yes 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:13.769 we have died with Christ we will go with him 00:01:13.769 --> 00:01:19.510 like Thomas whoever lives and whoever believes 00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:22.969 in me shall never die do you believe this that 00:01:22.969 --> 00:01:27.290 question is given to Martha But let us also remember 00:01:27.290 --> 00:01:31.290 that. We are being asked when we hear a gospel 00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:35.930 such a question. That question is directed towards 00:01:35.930 --> 00:01:41.349 us. Because it's not at all clear until we make 00:01:41.349 --> 00:01:45.870 a definitive stand. We can hear about the resurrection. 00:01:46.450 --> 00:01:51.930 You can see the resurrection. The multitude of 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:55.689 people, the people at the grave of Lazarus, And 00:01:55.689 --> 00:02:02.290 what is the response of the Jewish leaders? They 00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:07.989 are at that point set very definitively on the 00:02:07.989 --> 00:02:12.930 course, as it says, to destroy Jesus. And lo, 00:02:13.150 --> 00:02:16.689 the parable in the Gospel of John comes true. 00:02:17.270 --> 00:02:22.129 Even if they have seen a dead man rise from the 00:02:22.129 --> 00:02:30.219 dead, they will not believe. Why? Because, why 00:02:30.219 --> 00:02:34.099 does anybody not believe? Because the heart is 00:02:34.099 --> 00:02:38.099 already married to something else. Or you might 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:40.740 say in another metaphor, the heart is buried 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:45.520 beneath rubble in a tomb. And the rubble is greed. 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:50.879 In the case of the leaders, a raid against Jesus. 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:56.259 The rubble is envy. for what he had done and 00:02:56.259 --> 00:02:59.860 the adulation he was about to receive on Palm 00:02:59.860 --> 00:03:05.979 Sunday. The raising of Lazarus is then God's 00:03:05.979 --> 00:03:09.159 promise to us, but we must move beyond, I heard 00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:14.300 about it, to I enter my own heart, to sense that 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:19.099 the Lord has called me out from death into life. 00:03:21.930 --> 00:03:24.270 The raising of Lazarus is God's promise to us. 00:03:24.310 --> 00:03:28.389 It's God's message and word for us. If we are 00:03:28.389 --> 00:03:31.789 our friends, as Lazarus was the friends of Christ, 00:03:32.069 --> 00:03:35.389 he will help us too. If we love Christ as we 00:03:35.389 --> 00:03:38.210 claim to, and then when we follow his commandments, 00:03:38.469 --> 00:03:45.189 he will help us too. Most of us, I'm not guessing, 00:03:45.349 --> 00:03:49.669 I know, are just as troubled, stressed, confused. 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:55.060 sometimes anxious, and sometimes angry as everyone 00:03:55.060 --> 00:04:04.460 else in society. Because for many of us, our 00:04:04.460 --> 00:04:08.039 focus is on all of that. And that's what feeds 00:04:08.039 --> 00:04:11.740 our soul. And so people look at us and they say, 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:13.900 Christians are no different than we are. Why 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:16.199 should we become Christian? Where is the joy 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:19.420 of the resurrection in those people? Because 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:21.879 that's what it takes. for someone to believe. 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:29.240 Saint Silouan once said to Jesus in a prayer, 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:35.220 Christ, don't give me more joy, or else my heart 00:04:35.220 --> 00:04:39.480 will break. But what do we say? We say, Christ, 00:04:39.579 --> 00:04:42.579 don't give me more stress and problems. Fix this, 00:04:42.620 --> 00:04:45.079 fix that, fix the other thing, or else my heart 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:49.339 will break. Do you see the difference? We've 00:04:49.339 --> 00:04:52.259 been going to church, all of us, for so many 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:54.879 years. And now our catechumens have been coming 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:57.899 for the past six, eight, nine months and a year 00:04:57.899 --> 00:05:01.120 or something more than that. But do we have the 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:05.060 joy within us? If not, we need to seek out the 00:05:05.060 --> 00:05:08.060 reasons, the causes. And we will discover, as 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:10.839 St. Maximus the Confessor says, that the cause 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:13.500 is that our bond with Christ, our connection 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:18.160 with him is weak. All the coming days now. or 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:21.839 have so much grace, will we be able to remain 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:26.740 in that or sense any of it? It's because these 00:05:26.740 --> 00:05:30.139 days are not just historical landmarks that we 00:05:30.139 --> 00:05:33.060 somehow keep. I was at the grave of Lazarus in 00:05:33.060 --> 00:05:37.139 2010. It's on this little street in Bethany there. 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:43.240 And it's a house owned by a Muslim family. Of 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:45.339 course, they take money, so I have to run it. 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:48.579 And you go through a narrow thing and you go 00:05:48.579 --> 00:05:51.339 down a little stair. And it's a small cave area. 00:05:51.379 --> 00:05:53.560 Somebody else here I know has been there. About 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:57.000 the size of our altar. And our pilgrim group 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:02.480 sang, How's it go? By raising Lazarus from the 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:06.500 dead before thy passion. And we felt such joy. 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:13.139 But it's here at this liturgy today that the 00:06:13.139 --> 00:06:17.149 grace of God is truly made manifest. to the extent 00:06:17.149 --> 00:06:22.470 we experience this grace, is up to us. It depends 00:06:22.470 --> 00:06:26.310 on the degree of our preparation. It depends 00:06:26.310 --> 00:06:29.970 on how much we prayed. It depends on how we fasted 00:06:29.970 --> 00:06:32.730 and lent, how we struggled, how much we loved, 00:06:32.949 --> 00:06:36.750 how much we visited the poor and the sick and 00:06:36.750 --> 00:06:39.290 those in prison, as St. Paul says in the reading 00:06:39.290 --> 00:06:44.459 from Hebrews today. So that we might hear what 00:06:44.459 --> 00:06:47.819 God is saying within us. If our connection with 00:06:47.819 --> 00:06:52.319 him is weak, we have to discover the cause of 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:58.420 that. But even when we are dead, says St. Maximus, 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:01.949 in the very midst of our darkness, In the midst 00:07:01.949 --> 00:07:04.430 of our death and worries and troubles, Christ 00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:07.129 comes to us just as he came to Lazarus. And when 00:07:07.129 --> 00:07:09.529 you hear that he raised Lazarus, and when you 00:07:09.529 --> 00:07:11.870 hear that he descended into the grave himself 00:07:11.870 --> 00:07:14.670 and to death to free the souls that were there, 00:07:14.930 --> 00:07:17.910 don't think this is something that happened a 00:07:17.910 --> 00:07:23.350 long time ago. The heart is a tomb, says so many 00:07:23.350 --> 00:07:26.610 of the hymns and so many of the church commentators 00:07:26.610 --> 00:07:30.060 on the scriptures. The heart is a tomb. And deep 00:07:30.060 --> 00:07:32.740 within it are buried our thoughts, our mind, 00:07:32.779 --> 00:07:36.120 the center of who we are. It's buried and imprisoned 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:38.379 in that darkness, and Christ comes to those who 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:41.459 call upon him, and those who call upon him will 00:07:41.459 --> 00:07:44.970 be helped, even the name Lazarus today. Eliezer, 00:07:45.110 --> 00:07:47.569 we find the promise of the resurrection because 00:07:47.569 --> 00:07:51.930 it means God is my helper, God himself, the God 00:07:51.930 --> 00:07:54.790 -man who comes to the aid of Lazarus, the four 00:07:54.790 --> 00:07:57.810 days dead Lazarus, the friend of God who would 00:07:57.810 --> 00:08:01.069 be truly helped by God. That's why we heard in 00:08:01.069 --> 00:08:04.870 the epistle also these words of St. Paul quoting 00:08:04.870 --> 00:08:09.389 Psalm 118, the Lord is my helper and I will not 00:08:09.389 --> 00:08:12.129 fear what men shall do to me. And why we sang 00:08:12.129 --> 00:08:15.680 twice at the baptism, And before the epistle. 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:21.740 The Lord is my savior. Of whom shall I be afraid. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.139 The Lord is the defender of my life. So brothers 00:08:26.139 --> 00:08:30.459 and sisters. On this glorious. This bright. This 00:08:30.459 --> 00:08:33.059 important day. This memorable day for so many 00:08:33.059 --> 00:08:38.539 of us. Let's strive. Really beg the Lord. That 00:08:38.539 --> 00:08:41.600 we may live in the joy. And the blessing of the 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:44.700 presence of God. The blessing. of the resurrection, 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:49.299 and the joy of Pascha to come. Amen.