Homily on the 1st Sunday after Pentecost.
Hebrews 11: 33-12:2; Matthew 10: 32-33, 37-38; 19: 27-30.
Today we live in an age where it is seen as a pejorative to be a Christian. This is an age, where people are encouraged to look at a situation and think what is in it for them. We have stopped looking out for the spiritual well-being of others. We have become obsessed with what the religious Pharisees think about us! Back in the day, the Orthodox Church had an unstoppable desire to bring those lost into her fold.
However, now there are many people who are comfortable within the walls of the institution believing that they are a sort of ‘chosen people’ - too bad if the people do not have the opportunity to encounter Christ. We need to realise that we are a missionary Church our call is to go forth and make disciples for Christ.
Many are spiritually hungry in our world this is why they turn to many weird cults. To profess the Christian faith is to take up our cross and follow the Lord on His way to Golgotha! We cannot let the taunts of the people, who would have us silenced for our faith in Christ, dismay us. To carry one’s cross is to have a deep spiritual encounter with He who opened His arms on the Cross for His people.
Whilst it is true, that in many instances, the sufferings of a faithful Christian can be many – the blessings that they receive because of carrying their cross are even more! Let us keep our eyes focused on the wonderful examples of the lives of the Orthodox saints. Each of these men and women had to carry their crosses so that they could radiate the light of Christ to the world.
These praiseworthy men and women, could not and would not deny Christ – they recognised that Christ is the only way to the Father! To deny Christ to save their earthly life would cause them to lose their heavenly life (Luke 17:33). Christ is clear – to deny Him before the world will cause Him to deny us to the Father (the First Person in the All-Holy Trinity)!
We are then called to show the world the love that we have for them – nothing attracts curiosity more than a kind word or deed. Our deeds must be done not so that we can expect the adoration of the world- what good does that do for us? Christ states even the Pharisees of His day loved those who loved them and lauded their good deeds among men (Matthew 23).
Here we come to one of the key tenants of the Gospel – to love those who hate us (Matthew 5: 43-48)! To do this can be difficult, yet, I am continually inspired by the stories of the love that Christians persecuted in other lands have for their torturers! Let us strive to be like these people no matter how difficult this may be.
This week on Friday, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas. These two saints placed their trust in our Lord and Saviour. These two men took up their crosses and evangelised the peoples of Syria and Asia Minor. These men faced many hardships along the way from hunger, imprisonment, and finally martyrdom – the ultimate abandonment of their lives to the will of the Lord.
What can we learn from these role models of the Christian life – even in the midst of hardship, brought down on them by their faith in our Lord and Saviour? We have it easy these days, we have inherited the structure of the Christ’s Orthodox Church which they grew through their ascetic and missionary labours.
This is the point – all have the right to be told the message of love that is the Gospel – for all are created in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:27). There are no peoples who are to be denied this right that they have inherited through their human nature gifted them by God!
Therefore, we as Christians have to place much care into the way that we evangelise those around us. We all know the often-repeated trope of the ‘Protestant Bible basher’ whose only message is that all are going to go to Hell if they do not conform to whatever twisted Protestant doctrine they preach. How many converts do they make? It is safe to say not many- if any!
This reminds me of a story a wise priest once told me about a young Russian Orthodox priest who was a missionary in China. One day he was talking to his spiritual Father commiserating on his lack of success in converting people. Then his Spiritual Father asked him about his methods of evangelisation to try and help him to do a better job in the missionary field.
It turns out, that he would go to Chinese temples, and much like the Bible basher, yell at them in Chinese, that all would go to Hell if they did not embrace the true faith of Orthodoxy. Needless to say, his spiritual father sat him down and told him that to successfully win converts, one has to be willing to engage with the other on their level and first seek to understand who they are including their beliefs.
Then, once one has built this relationship of trust with the person being evangelised, one can then start to build on what is correct in their beliefs and use this as a bridge to gently lead them to the fullness of the truth found in the Gospel of love.
There is much we can learn from the wisdom of this Spiritual Father - for if one respects the culture of another and shows a willingness to engage with them, showing respect for them, then this will encourage them to become curious about what one believes.
Evangelisation should never be a shouting match or an argument – rather it ought to be a gentile encounter between two or more people, where through love, the evangelist, gently leads those being evangelised, to a place where they can either choose to accept Christ or reject Him.
Many will chose to accept Him just as many will choose to reject Him – this is a consequence of the free will that we have been gifted by the All-Holy Trinity. We do not believe in predestination where an angry god-head destines some people to be saved and others damned no matter what they do!
Whilst it is true that the All-Holy Trinity knows ultimately where we will go through our choices in our earthly lives – we are the ones that make these choices and not Him!
Therefore, we are not predestined to Heaven or Hell by the capricious will of an angry deity who seeks nothing more than to torture His underlings. This is a caricature too often amplified in the teachings of some Protestant Sects! Cue hell fire, lightning and brimstone here with Ned Flanders holding a Bible - truly a vision of Hell on earth if ever there was one!
Rather, whilst there is a very real possibility that we could reject the All-Holy Trinity and face the consequences of this rejection – we have the ability to respond to the graces that the All-Holy Trinity offers us by saying yes to Him like Saint Samuel (1 Samuel 3: 7-11).
We are all called as much as any of the Saints to make our decision – either we accept the Christ by partaking in the sacramental life of the Orthodox Church through her Holy Mysteries or we reject Him and go our separate ways!
Moreover, just as the Saints were called to conform their deeds and lives to Christ so are we in our own capacity called to do the same. I am not saying that we all have to do 100 prostrations a night and fast like a champion.
Rather, I am saying, that we must do whatever is in our power to do good works for others, as well as, fast in a manner that is appropriate for our manner of life! We are all made differently, with different challenges which we face in life and as a result, we must do that which we can.
For instance, if one is in delicate health one must adjust one's fasting in a way that is not going to further diminish one’s health!
Finally, we enter into the Apostle’s Fast this week. This Fast has been put in place by the Church so that we may, like the Apostles, better conform our lives to our Lord and Saviours will. Let us use this time as a time where we can get back to basics and build our relationship with our Lord and Saviour through prayer, fasting, and the regular reception of the Holy Mysteries of the Holy Eucharist.
Let us pray to the All-Holy Theotokos that she will pray to her Son that He may give us the graces we need to better conform to His plan for our lives.
