Holy Angels pray for us!

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Holy Angels. This feast is a reminder to us of the helpers that the All-Holy Trinity has put in place to guide us toward our Heavenly home. Angels are one of the most misunderstood Heavenly beings – one only has to go into a New Age shop to see many goods sold as somehow offering the protection and support of the angels.

However, this is a misunderstanding of the role of the Angels. Right from the beginning of time, the angels fulfilled the roles of messangers to and protectors of the people of God. Indeed, one can gain an understanding of how important they are by taking note of the number of times they are mentioned in the Holy Scriptures (Matthew 25:31; Isiah 6:12; Genesis 3:24; Colossians 1:16; 1 Peter 3:22; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Joshua 5:13-16; 2 Kings 19:35; Daniel 3: 22-25; Jude 1:9; Daniel 8:16; Luke 1:26; Tobit 3:16, 12:15; 3 Ezdras 5:16; 3 Ezdras 4:36; Tobit 5-8).

Indeed, the advent of our Lord and Saviour’s birth was announced by the Archangel Saint Gabriel to the All-Holy Theotokos Mary (Luke 1: 26-38). Each one of us is assigned a guardian angel at the moment of our birth.

Furthermore, each and every cleric is assigned another guardian angel at the moment of their ordination for much is expected of deacons, bishops and priests!

Therefore, it is important to pray to your Guardian Angel every day for it is their job to guide you and protect you from the attacks of the evil ones. Indeed, I recommend it a good practice to ask the guidance of your Guardian Angel before you make any decision for they have your best interests at heart, and as such, they will lead you towards the correct path willed by the All-Holy Trinity.

Unfortunately, we now live in an age where the supernatural is denied by many in our society and as such people have stopped believing in evil. Indeed, it is this loss of the belief in good or evil that has made it so easy to treat human life as not sacred and as such disposable as seen enacted by many people who do not treat others with the dignity they deserve- often taking the life of the other person!

This is the very reason the many Communist regimes were able to do as they did - human life became to be seen as cheap and disposable no more valuable than that of a sheep!

In such an environment where the existence of evil is denied, many people do unwise things such as play with Ouija Boards, go in search of haunted locations or dabble in Wicca and other such diabolical practices.

So many people by being involved in these activities have come to the attention of the fallen angels (demons). The problem with these practices is that they open the person up to the attacks of the evil one and his legions.

People might say that they are not scared but ask any priest or bishop who has had to exorcise these people who have come under the power of such entities and the reality is very different from a Hollywood blockbuster horror film!

Moreover, to go into a location where there has been great suffering such as an asylum is to tempt the evil ones as they love nothing better than to cause suffering and alienation from the All-Holy Trinity!

Furthermore, on the off chance that one finds a genuine haunting of a trapped soul, it is the height of uncharity to not seek the assistance of a priest to help the soul through prayer and exorcisms to be set free!

Please note, I do not bring these difficult topics up to cause distress but rather to educate - we live in an age where it has become fashionable to dabble in the Occult. Unfortunately to do so has caused great spiritual harm to many of our youth and adults. Do not forget the very goal of the evil ones is to cause people to lose hope and become alienated from the source of all good – the All-Holy Trinity.

Furthermore, belief in things like the ‘evil eye’ must not be engaged with as the ceremonies done by many well-meaning relatives and friends cannot lift curses and the like of the supposed ‘evil eye’! If someone believes in the All-Holy Trinity and prays to Him and their Guardian Angel they will be protected from the efforts of those who would seek to do them harm by such means!

Also, it is vital that in the season of Theophany that one gets one's house blessed by one's local priest with the water that was blessed at the feast of Theophany (the Feast of the revelation of our Lord and Saviour's divinity at His baptism). This blessing is vital as it makes your house a spiritual fortress where you can rest assured that your family is protected from the attacks of the fallen powers.

Finally, let us not forget that we like the Holy Angels are called to announce the Gospel of truth to our neighbours. We are called to become beacons to the world and let the light of Christ shine clearly. (Matthew 5: 14-16).

Unfortunately, many in Orthodoxy have forgotten that we are a missionary Church – we are to evangelise to the world – not only with our words but also with our deeds!

This is why we are here to bring others to Christ and His Church- the Orthodox Church! We are called to not hide our light but to let it clearly shine so that others may see and realise that the Lord is good and to trust in Him is to be truly blessed (Psalm 34:8).

Unfortunately, many ethnic Orthodox have somehow gotten confused and think that to be truly Orthodox one must be part of their ethnicity! I have seen many potential Catechumens (potential converts) stop their journey to Orthodoxy because they were made to feel unwelcome because they were not part of the perceived favoured ethnicity!

Truly, it would do us good to remember that as Christians we are all converts for one is not born a Christian – one is made a Christian through the Holy Mystery of Baptism. This is why at Theophany we sing – all those who have been baptised in Christ have put on Christ alleluia!

Thus, once one is a Christian one is a Christian - any differentiation between cradle Orthodox and Convert Orthodox ceases to be relevant! To make such a distinction is to be counterproductive and causes scandal and unnecessary divisions in Christ's Body the Church!

Christ prayed that all in the Church would be one – if He wanted a Church divided on ethnic lines He would have made it so (John 17:21)!

Let us as the Church then become one and let all petty divisions cease! I am not talking about divisions that are not related to Doctrine or Heresy but rather petty divisions which set one Orthodox Church against another!

A perfect example of such a petty division is revealed in how the Serbian Patriarchate and Constantinople have disgracefully and uncanonically treated the Macedonian Orthodox Church which is a valid church in her own right!

Additionally, many other valid Orthodox Churches on the Old Calendar (the canonical calendar) treat each other with such disregard – this needs to stop! The egos of these bishops in their spiritual arrogance lead to uncharitable words and actions, which in turn, lead to a form of spiritual idolatry where a personal agenda is placed above Christ's call to spread the Gospel!

This is a spiritual sickness that affects many of those who claim to be Orthodox regardless of whether they are on the Old or New Calendar!

Further to this, we clergy in the Exarchate seek to make the truths of Orthodoxy easy to understand and in a language that people can understand! This is not to say that we are perfect, but rather that we recognise this need in the Australian land which currently thirsts for God like a deer that longs for water (Psalm 42).

Recently I have spoken to a number of ethnic Orthodox who lament that their children are not going to their church anymore. In most cases, their children have either left Christianity altogether or they have joined some protestant sect.

Why does this happen? The problem is that many ethnic parishes have become ethnic clubs that seek to continue their cultural practices! However, the Church is not a museum to preserve culture – Saint Paul did not say, ‘they must become Greek…Russian…!

Rather Saint Paul Said, that there is no ‘Greek nor Jew in Christ’ because all are called to Christ’s Church for Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection is for all who seek Him - regardless of cultural background, race or language (Galatians 3:28)!

This is why the Divine Liturgy of the Church must be in the language of the country in which the parish is based! There is no point in preserving liturgical and cultural languages in the liturgy if these very languages alienate the congregation from the truths expressed in the Divine Liturgy!

If I could count how many times after our Divine Liturgies I have heard someone who grew up in an ethnic parish say – 'I finally understand what is happening, why did they not celebrate the Divine Liturgy in a language I could understand this when I was a child'- I would be a very wealthy man!

If the congregation cannot understand the words of the Divine Liturgy how can they learn from the truths expressed in the Liturgy? Liturgical languages create a kind of barrier which leads to a new form of Gnosticism where only those who understand the liturgical language benefit from what truth is being taught causing them to become a special class above the others who do not understand the language used in the Divine Liturgy!

In a way, this situation could be argued to be a new form of Pharisaism – causing those who understand the truths expressed in this secret sacred language to parade around as if they are somehow holier than the other people whom they perceive as ignorant and below them!

Our Lord and Saviour taught the people in the languages that they were most comfortable with! If a person understood Greek -He spoke Greek, if another understood Aramaic (His native tongue) He spoke Aramaic!

We must bear this in mind as people need to be catechised in a way that is easy for them to understand.

What a shame it is to waste the teaching power of the Divine Liturgy, and hide the truths that it expresses behind a wall of incomprehensible words that ordinary people cannot understand!

Our Divine Liturgy is a wonderful treasure for it often quotes the Scriptures to teach the faithful why we believe the things which we do!

The homily whilst useful as a teaching tool, is too short and people’s attention spans are short – this is why if the people understand the words of the Divine Liturgy they will absorb the truths of Christ’s Gospel for the words of the Divine Liturgy were created by the Church Fathers under the inspiration of the All-Holy Spirit to be instructive to the faithful as well as words of praise to the All-Holy Trinity!

We are called to help people that are in despair to see that there is hope and through the Mysteries of the Church that they can grow and reach their full potential as adopted children of the All-Holy Trinity!

The Lord is a God who loves mankind! Let us then ensure that we always pray to the Angels that they may guide our footsteps that we may always stay on the correct path which leads to salvation!