Category Archives: Homily/Sermon

Homily/Sermon

The Mother of God, the Fulfilment of the Temple’s Types

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Visit of the Kursk-Root Icon to Warminster – 17 November

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, greetings on this wonderful occasion on which the ancient Kursk-Root Icon rests beneath the roof of our much-loved spiritual home of the Chapel of St Lawrence, which – in its original fabric, of which the tower remains – is more or less contemporary with our cherished wonderworking Hodegetria of the Russian Church Abroad.

It’s always inspiring to hear today’s section of the Epistle from St Paul to the Hebrews, and to contemplate the furnishings of the Temple, which the Church has historically recognised as very specific prophetic images of the Most Holy Mother of God.

The forshadowings and prophetic signs of the Mother of God, and her role as a mediatrix of our salvation was not only proclaimed in the words of the prophets, but also in the sacred imagery of the Old Covenant, especially in the ordering of the Tabernacle and the Temple: in the seven-branched candlestick, the Table of Shewbread; the golden Altar of Incense, and the gold-covered Ark of the Covenant containing the golden-pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and topped with the Mercy Seat, overshadowed by the carved and gilded cherubim,

Through types, signs and symbols, these prefiguring, prophetic images of the Old Covenenant, reveal the place of the Mother of God in the Lord’s unfolding Economy of Salvation, and the allegorical and typological reading of Divine Scripture also reveals the vast gulf between our Church’s ancient approach to Biblical interpretation and understanding, and the anti-traditional hermeneutic, by which reformation-thinking and reform theology robbed believers of the rich, multi-layered understanding of God’s Word, already established in the Judaism of late antiquity .

In all of these images listed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we see a relationship between the sacred items and that which they contained or held, for they were all functional, designed with a purpose, to hold or reserve sacred things, and to perform a God-given sacred purpose. The items mentioned, carved or cast and covered with the purest gold, were not simply ornaments, but were each revealed by God as part of the worship central to the covenenant-relationship between Him and the Old Israel.

Beyond the first veil, the great seven-branched menorah was fashioned with oil-cups in the form of almond blossoms, which were filled with the olive oil that fed the wicks whose flames filled the Holy Place with Light – a prophetic image of the Mother of God as the lampstand that bore Christ the Light of the World.

The Table of Shewbread bore the sacrificial Bread of the Presence, the sign of God’s dwelling in the midst of His people, the bread-offering filled by God’s with “infectious holiness” and grace – just as the Mother of God, as the Mystical-Table, bore Christ, the Bread of Life, Who Himself proclaimed, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)

Though its exact position is debated, the golden Altar of Incense stood in the Holy Place for the morning and evening incense-offerings, whose smoke filled not only the Holy Place, but also perfumed the area around the Tabernacle and the Temple. The incense rising from the altar was a sign of unity and reconciliation between man and God, and the union of the physical and spiritual worlds.

The Mother of God has long been seen as a noetic altar, which by its sacrificial nature encapsulates her self-offering for our salvation, sacrificing her whole life in order to bear the Saviour Who is both our Great High Priest and Sacrifice for the Life and Salvation of the World. We pray, each evening, “Let my prayer arise in Thy sight, as incense; and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.”  …and turn to the Mother of God as our intercessor, as she ever offers prayers for her children, lifting up her hands in intercession to the Saviour as a living sacrifice of prayer.

Beyond the second veil, the Ark, was the most holy furnishing of both Tabernacle and Temple, and the earthly throne of God’s abiding Presence in the midst of His people. He spoke from between the cherubim which overshadowed the Mercy-Seat, and this was the place of Divine-Human encounter, when the High-Priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement.

The Mother of God became both the new Ark of the Covenant and Ark of the New Covenant, in which the Almighty Creator dwelt, hidden within the Holy of Holies of her womb, as we see in the Kursk-Root Icon, and then nurtured and raised by her, whose lap became an earthly throne of the King of all, the Mercy Seat of the world. The Mother of God became not simply a place of Divine-Human encounter, but a place of the Divine-Human union in the Incarnation of the God-Man within the chosen sanctuary of her womb, nursing the Saviour at her breast, and nurturing Him in His childhood and youth.

The contents of the Ark of the Covenenant – the jar of manna, the tablets of the law and the budded staff of Moses – were all prophetic-images of Christ, the Heavenly Bread, the Giver of the Law, and the bud from the root of Jesse, but we should recall that at the time in which the holy apostle Paul wrote to the Hebrews, the original temple furnishings had all been lost in the Babylonian exile, and the Holy of Holies contained absolutely nothing, and was nothing more than a dark, empty cube. There was no Ark of the Covenant, no earthly Divine Throne, no Mercy Seat, and no manna, no stone tablets of the Law of Moses, no staff of Aaron.

According to God’s Economy, this bare absence was necessary, so that the Holy of Holies could be restored and reconsecrated through the Entrance of the infant Theotokos, as He prepared for the coming of the Messiah and the passage of His blessing and election from the Old Israel to the New Israel.

The first Ark, and the vanished sacred relics were superceded as the infant Mother of God was led into the Temple, walked through the Holy Place, and was taken beyond the Second Veil into the Holy of Holies, which received the true Ark of God’s Presence, the Ark of the New Covenant, who would be more honourable the cherubim, and truly more glorious than the seraphim, the Living Temple and Mystical Paradise.

The world needed no gilded acacia chest reliquary, no Mercy Seat, no relics of the first Passover journey from Egyptian captivity to the freedom of the promised land, for the world received the Theotokos, in whom God would dwell in the flesh, and come as the new Paschal Lamb, to lead us from death to life and from earth to heaven.

The types and shadows of the Old Testament passed away; the Temple with its liturgies, sacrifices, priesthood rites and rituals was abolished, having served its purpose.

It would soon be destroyed, having no further role in the spiritual life of the world: an anomaly tied to those from whom the vineyard would be taken, and given to the new Israel of God, the Old Israel having forsaken its birthright and the inheritance of the forefathers, patriarchs and prophets, with the promise of Christ’s Kingdom now offered to all believers regardless of language, race and nation. As the New Israel of God, Christ’s Church, would unite all who approach in Faith.

The Kursk-Root Icon, is an icon of this new reality and fulfillment, an icon of the inclusivity of God’s salvific plan: an icon of both oldness and newness, looking back, but also forward,with the surrounding prophets turning to Mother of God with the scrolls of their prophecy, looking forward to the Incarnation, and a new era in the relationship between God and man, and to the passing from the Old Covenant to the new.

We will soon begin the Advent Fast, looking forward to the Nativity, contemplating the prophecies of the Old Testament and looking forward to their fulfillment in the Incarnation of the Saviour, and week-by-week we will pray the Advent Moleben before the Icon of the Sign, contemplating Emmanuel within the womb of the Mother of God, the great Sign forespoken of by Isaiah:

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,

And shall call His name Immanuel.

(Isaiah 7:14)

…and it is as that great Sign that we behold her in her ancient Kursk-Root Icon, surrounded by the prophets, who guided the people of the Old Covenant through the long Advent of the Old Testament centuries. We contemplate this wonderworking icon as the representation of the cosmic changing point summed up in those wondrous words of St John’s Gospel… “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” John 1:14.

When we celebrate the birth of Christ, and the union of God and Man in the Incarnate Saviour, we will celebrate the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, the abolition of the Temple and its rites, and the beginning of God’s new relationship with humanity, as one Who has enterered Creation: God Who is not only truly with us, but through the selfless offering and obedience of the Mother of God in the Incarnation has truly become one of us

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined.

For unto us a Child is born; to us a Son is given.

And the government shall be upon His shoulder, and of His peace there will be no end.

And His name shall be called the Messenger of Great Counsel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the World to Come.

God is with us! Understand this, O nations, and submit yourselves! For God is with us!

(from the Song of the Holy Prophet Isaiah)

Through the Mother of God, the New Ark, whose sacred Icon stands before us, the Great Sign raised up in the spiritual darkness of the old Israel to usher in a new age; through her selfless giving and living-sacrifice; though her boundless love and conformity to God’s sovereign will; and through the Nativity whose celebration we will soon anticipate… we can truly exclaim with great joy, that thanks to her, “God is with us!”

Amen.

A Word on the Autumn Feast of the Kazan Icon

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, greetings for the autumn feast of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, when we commemorate the deliverance of Moscow from the Polish occupation of 1612, during which our Holy Patriarch, St Germogen, met a martyric death by starvation, but not before he had given instruction to the faithful to fast and pray, and for the Wonderworking Icon to be brought from Kazan to Moscow by the army, headed by Prince Dimitriy Pozharsky.

Muscovy had been laid to waste by the Poles, who mocked the Orthodox Christian Faith, burning towns and villages and despoiling and desecrating churches and monasteries, just as the Tatars had done centuries before.

The Time of Troubles saw confusion, anarchy and fear in every aspect of national life, which was undermined and eroded, even spiritually.

This is why the most needful thing for the people to acquire in order to overcome occupation, enslavement and such great sorrows was the repentance to which the Hieromartyr, Patriarch Germogen, called them.

It would be in spiritual renewal and newness of life, re-centred on living in the power of the Holy Trinity, according to the Gospel and the Law of God, in spiritual union with the Most Holy Mother of God, and the saints, that liberation and freedom would be found.

In our own Time of Troubles, fraught with political, educational, ideological, financial and technological tyranny and attacks on our spiritual life, on the Holy Church and the people of God, our hope, answer and liberation lies in behaving exactly as in 1612: in prayer, fasting, assiduous and active spiritual labour and spiritual life.

The true Christian life is one of resistance and swimming against the tide, refusing to bow down and give in to the spiritual tyranny of sin.

This God-centred life will bring down God’s blessing and Divine Grace, and in this obedience to the Will of God, the Mother of God (as the perfect and primary example of spiritual obedience) will come to our aid, as our Champion Leader and Invincible Protectress, to whom has been given power by her Son, according to the will and counsel of the Holy Trinity.

Let us not despair in the sea of the fallen world’s madness, but have great hope, joy and resolution to resist sin, temptation and godlessness, as children of the Resurrection, walking in the Light of Christ!

Let us repent, with faith and compunctionate hearts, heeding the words of St. Dimitriy of Rostov about the events of this feast:

“The Mother of God delivered from misfortune and woe not only the righteous, but also sinners, but which sinners? Those who turn themselves to the Heavenly Father like the Prodigal Son, make lamentation beating their bosom, like the Publican, they weep at the feet of Christ, like the Sinful Woman washing His feet with her tears, and they offer forth confession of Him, like the Thief upon the Cross. It is such sinners whom the All-Pure Mother of God heeds and hastens to aid, delivering them from great misfortunes and woe.”

Let us turn to the Father with resolution, determination and the heartfelt desire to correct all that is wrong and dysfunctional in our lives, knowing that not only is the Heavenly Father joyfully awaiting us, but that the Mother of God will be with us and go before us, step by step, protecting and interceding for us on that wonderful, salvific journey of spiritual-return!

Let us be comforted by her maternal protection, but not as some sort of vague, warm, rosey-tinted, sentimental idea… but understanding that her protection is powerful, mighty and invincible, and let us ensure that we turn to her, as children worthy of her protection and help, emulating her humility and obedience, living as the Lord wishes us to live, and knowing that the He will exult the humble and meek, and will give them spiritual victory over their adversaries.

Amen!

Homily For the Feast of the Royal Martyrs: 17 July 2025

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I am grateful to Vladyka for the invitation to preach in the cathedral on the altar-feast of the lower church, and the first anniversary of Father Mark the Younger’s priestly ordination.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, 

It is a great joy for us to gather together in this holy temple, whose dedication honours the Royal Martyrs, and as we celebrate their sacred memory, we look beyond the horror and violence of their martyrdom to appreciate the priceless treasure that God has granted to the whole Orthodox people by calling the Imperial Family to enter the mystery of Golgotha, and  to drink from the cup of suffering and martyrdom, as they were conformed to the image of the Saviour, as we heard in the Apostol reading from St Paul’s letter to the Romans: 

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  (Romans 8: 29-30)

As God lovers, the Lord called the Royal-Martyrs “according to His purpose”, and in their suffering for that Divine purpose – contrary to the wisdom of the world – they were conformed to the image of Christ, the Suffering Servant and Man of Sorrows, Who pured Himself out for His people, until He was without beauty or comeliness, as foreseen by the holy prophet, Isaiah.

In the Gospel for the feast, we heard, 

“If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18-20) 

The world vision, according to Lenin and the Bolsheviks, was at odds of the world represented by the Royal Martyrs: of Christian Monarchy defending and promoting the Christian Faith and the Church; of society built upon the precepts of the Gospel and the Law of God; of national life shaped by the Church, its Divine Services, and Christian Tradition shaped by the rhythms and celebrations of the fasts and feasts, and the seasons of the liturgical year. 

As a visible embodiment of Orthodox authority and Orthodox Sacred Tradition, itself, Christian governance and sacred-monarchy, the Royal Martyrs were an impossible threat to the Marxist-Leninist vision, and had to be destroyed as much by propoganda  lies, deception, as by the demonic, frenzied and hate-filled violence which brought their earthoy lives to their bloody end.

But, because the lives of the Royal Martyrs were based on eternal, heavenly truths, on the truth of faith, and were filled with the Light of Christ, their place in the life of the former empire and their love for their people could not be extinguished – even if their people had betrayed and forsaken them.

The lies, propaganda, obscene and solacious stories banded about in American and British newspapers, and the Russian proletarian press on the eve of the revolution seem infantile, two-dimensional and flimsy compared to the innumerable miracles through which God has glorified the Royal Martyrs since their martyrdom.

In the 1990’s, after a cross had been set up on the site of the Ipatiev House, it was illumined by a heavenly light, as the clouds opened and rotated above the Cross, and no snow fell within the large circle of light which fell upon the ground around the site of the martyrdom.

In the same decade, a former guard of the “Museum of the Workers’ Revenge” in the Ipatiev House signed an affidavit describing how she would hear beautiful church-singing from the basement room of execution, and that light shone from beneath the door during the night.

On November 7 1997, the anniversary of the Revolution, an icon of the Tsar-Martyr began to weep myrrh, and the following May, during a procession to mark the Tsar’s birthday, another icon began to weep myrrh during a procession.

Through the prayers of the Royal Martyrs, the godless have been brought to Faith; hardened hearts have been softened; the young have been delivered from depression, despair and lives heading towards self-destruction; addicts have been delivered from alcohol and drugs; childless women have been granted children; students have received help in studies; soldiers and refugees have been delivered from capture, death and great dangers; families have been reconciled and healed; the sick and infirm have been made whole.

For Orthodox Christians the resultant false ‘histories’ and mythologies necessary to dehumanise the Royal Martyrs, to justify unspeakable violence, and to desensitise the Russian people and the wider world to the horrors of the Ipatiev House and the Four Brothers Mine are an irrelevance and distraction from the glorious works of grace wrought by God through His saints.

We encounter the sanctity, rightness, and righteousness of the Royal Martyrs through their miracles, and to those of Faith, the lies and salacious stories bandied in the newspapers in America, Britain, and the Russia ‘proletarian-press’ on the eve of the revolution, seem two-dimensional, flimsy and ridiculous compared to the miracles through which Almighty God has glorified the Royal-Martyrs ever since their martyrdom.

To return to the Apostol, “…whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified”– and despite the lies the world invented and wrote about them, God has glorified the Royal Martyrs through countless miracles and outpourings of grace, and raised them up not only as exemplars of Christian living, endurance and Christ-like humility – but as powerful intercessor for the Church of Christ.

Reassured by the love of God through their deep, profound faith and their relationship with Him, the Royal Martyrs truly reflect the words of the Apostol: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Romans 8:35)

In 1917, the Empress-Martyr wrote, 

“Everything can be endured if you feel His (God’s) presence and love and if you believe in Him steadfastly in everything… 

One must ever thank God for all that He gives, and even if He took it away, then perhaps, when one endures without a murmur, all will be even brighter. One must always hope… 

If we, as Christian people can reflect the inspiring spiritual fortitude, constant hope in God and immense faith, refusing to lose our trust in His love, then that Divine love will flow into the workd through us, with a joy the shocks and challenges evil, violence, and cruelty with the Mind of Christ, so that we can join the Apostle Paul, with the Royal Martyrs and all the saints in confessing “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) 

Emulating the Royal Martyrs in faith, in life, and in death, let us put aside earthly cares, knowing that all things are in the hands of God, and that whatever may happen to us in life, His love remains immeasurable and immovable; His inscrutable will always seeks what is needful for us in the eternal scheme of His providence and wisdom, rather than according to the fickle standards and measures of success in  the world

In all things, He seeks our transformation, through the restoration of His image and likeness, calling us to be with Him in the endless glory of life of the age to come- together with the Royal Martyrs and all of His saints.

Let us hasten to the Royal Martyrs, seeking their help and intercession, but more than that, let us emulate their faith, love, courage and immovable trust in God in our own lives.

May they intercede for us!

Amen.

On the Feast of Pentecost

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O Divine Holy Spirit, Who distributest gifts unto all men and doest all things by Thy will, inspire me with Thy luminous gift, that I may glorify Thee Who art one with the Father and the Son. 

(Ode 1: the Canon to the Holy Spirit, by Theophanes)

Dear brothers and sisters, knowing that not all parishioners were able to be with us for Pentecost-Trinity, we send our greetings for this wonderful, salvific feast to our brothers and sisters wherever they are: to our students away for vacation; to parishioners on holiday with families; to those struggling under the pressure of work or studies; to those who are unwell.

We particularly pray for the newly-baptised, Macarius, and his baptismal companions who entered the holy font a little over a week ago, and for our catechumens who will soon receive Illumination.

On this Great Feast, we celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit, not simply as a foundational, historic event in the life of the Church, but as the continuing gift of God’s Grace and Divine Power, ever-outpoured and ever-giving: in the transformative cleansing of Holy Baptism, as our catechumens are born again, through water and the Spirit; in the restorative Grace of confession trough the Mystery of Repentance; in the consecrating Divine Grace through which bread and wine become the Very Body and Blood of the Saviour, Who promised us the Comforter at His Ascension; in the Grace with which God blesses us in prayer and liturgy, in which come together to worship Him, in Spirit and in Truth.

The Church is the House which Wisdom, our Lord and Saviour, built, not only for Himself, but to the glory of His Unoriginate Father, and as the Temple of the Holy, Good, Life-Giving and Uncreated Spirit: the Temple in which the Comforter dwells, shining through the lives of the saints; revealing eternal Truth as the authoritative Voice of the Church; speaking through the holy and God-bearing fathers and Seven Ecumenical Councils; protecting and preserving the Church and her children through the holy canons and God-revealed wholeness of sacred Tradition, which is the abiding sign of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, from century to century, and from generation to generation.

Our beloved father, St Seraphim of Sarov, teaches us that the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, is the central and essential meaning of our Christian life, and as we celebrate this feast of the Trinity and the Sending of the Comforter, each of us is called to actively seek the life of the Holy Spirit in both the life of the Church and our individual lives, by active engagement, involvement and spiritual-labour.

Our personal pursuit of the Holy Spirit is a life ceaselessly seeking Divine Grace, in tireless, continual labour and spiritual activity – by prayer, fasting and noetic struggle.

We cannot pray, “Come and dwell in us, cleanse us of every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One…” unless we struggle to unite and align our weak and fragile human will with God’s Will, so that through His promised Comforter, we may be bandaged, healed and made whole.

For this process of healing and restoration, we must each be active in seeking the power of the Holy Spirit; active in living the Christian life; active in trying to sweep out the filth and detritus of our fallen lives, as we try to make ourselves dwellings and vessels worthy of the Holy Spirit.

But, in these life-giving days of Pentecost, let us be active in pursuing the power and life of the Holy Spirit not simply for ourselves, but for the life, healing and salvation of the world.

Let us immerse ourselves in continual, persistent, humble and repentant prayer, praying the canons and akathist to the Holy Spirit, calling and longing for the sanctifying power of the Comforter to purify us and restore the Divine Image and Likeness in which we created, heeding St Seraphim’s words, “… every good deed done for Christ’s sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives us this grace most of all, for it is always at hand, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit.”

Let us understand Pentecost as the continuing indwelling of the Comforter, day by day, week by week, year by year, only possible through conscious, deliberate, determined searching, seeking and labour, if the Holy Spirit is to be an abiding and continued presence in our lives, and let us weigh and ponder every word and phrase of the invocation with which we once more begin our prayers:

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.

In the days ahead, let us continually return to this prayer, with compunction, concentration, and with awe at that as vessels of clay, the Saviour nevertheless vouchsafes us the seal, gift and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, with Whom He and the Father dwells in unoriginate and everlasting glory.

Paschal Greetings: Christ is Risen!

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On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Dear fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, Christ is Risen! Христос Воскресе!

After the excitement and hustle and bustle of celebrating and triumphantly proclaiming the Lord’s Saving Resurrection, we now enter a quieter time of contemplative reflection on the risen Saviour and the empty Tomb.

As we read in the Lord’s appearing to the disciples, His first act was to exchange the “shlama”: “Peace with you.”

It is in this peace of Christ, without the chanting of the choir, without the enthusiastic Resurrection exclamations of the clergy with incense, cross and candles, and without the animation and excited joy of the community, that each of us must now prayerfully contemplate and reflect upon the world-changing, history-changing, cosmic reality of the words, “Christ is Risen! Христос Воскресе!”

What do these revolutionary words mean for each us, not simply as a statement of fact, but in relation to the way we live our lives? 

It is not enough to have unflinching, cast iron faith in the Lord’s Resurrection, unless the events of that first Pascha have a spiritual and moral impetus for us, and challenge us to live and spiritually struggle in the light and power of Christ’s Resurrection.

Not only are we baptised in the power and image of the events of the resurrection, descending into and rising from the baptismal font, mirroring the Lord’s descent into death and rising from the depths of Sheol (Hades), but we are each called to continually be “rising” from the old fallen person, to resurrectional lives of changed, transformed personhood in Christ.

From the moment each of us rose from the waters of baptism, our spiritual struggle should have been, and should continue to be one of divine ascent, led heavenwards by the Risen Lord, Who in our baptism took hold of each of us, just as He grasps the wrists of Adam and Eve in the Paschal icon of the Harrowing of Hades, as He raises their souls from death to life and from Hades to heaven.

In the letter to the Hebrews, which speaks of the Saviour as our Passover and High Priest, the Apostle Paul writes that “The blood of Christ . . . will purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14), and in the Paschal canon, we sing of Pascha (the new Passover) as “a Pascha of purification”.

We will only understand Pascha and the Mystery of the Resurrection if we struggle to serve the Living Lord, as those who have been purchased and cleansed by Christ’s Blood, and heed the call of the Paschal Canon:

“Let us purify our senses, and we shall behold Christ, radiant with the unapproachable light of the Resurrection, and we shall clearly hear Him say, Rejoice! as we sing the hymn of victory.”

Struggling for this purification, and confessing and repenting when we fall, are the means by which the Resurrection will have an abiding and continuing reality in our lives, and is the only path by which we can hope to be partakers and behold Christ the Conqueror of death.

Now, in the quiet of Holy and Bright Monday, and in the days of the Paschal Season that lie before us, we must contemplate, evaluate, and struggle for this purification, as day-by-day, we sing the Paschal hymns, so that Christ’s victory may trample down all that is fallen and sinful within us, and that He may raise us up, even in this earthly life, to renewed life in Him.

As we sing the Paschal Canon, which is profitable every day in this holy season, we should reflect upon the chains and snares which hold us captive: our bad habits, habitual sins, the recurring temptations, and, perhaps passions which hold us as slaves, not to life, but to a living-death and to the evil one.

We must turn to the Lord, asking Him to grant us freedom from the chains of our sins, just as He freed the righteous in Hades from the captivity of death, knowing that this liberation must come by our fulfilling His will in struggling for purity and fighting temptation, seeking to make each day a day of resurrection.

As much as in the Great Fast, this is a time for struggle – a resurrectional struggle for the freedom which the Lord’s glorious Rising brings: a season for positive, affirmative action in which the joy of the resurrection is reflected in every aspect of our lives.

With St John Chrysostom, we face hell and death knowing that, the great final victory is already won, but that the stealer of souls will do everything to rob us and our brothers and sisters of the new life that the risen Lord brings.

Preserving humility and knowing our weakness, we must find our strength in the risen and victorious Lord, and armed with the cry of victory – “Christ is Risen!” – we must be bold and courageous knowing what Christ has gained for us, and boldly and confidently say,

“O death, where is thy sting?

O hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is risen, and thou art cast down.

Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen.

Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice.

Christ is risen, and life flourisheth.

Christ is risen, and there is none dead in the tombs.

For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of them that have fallen asleep.”

Let us unite ourselves to the Lord’s victory and third-day rising from the Tomb, and recognise the Resurrection as a constant living reality and not a just future event: as our birthright and calling by the Lord of Life, in Whom all things are made new.

May Christ our true God, Who rose from the dead, and trampled down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowed life, through the intercessions of His most pure Mother, of the holy and glorious Apostles, of our holy and God-bearing fathers, David, Dyfrig and Teilo, and of all the saints, have mercy upon us and save us, for He is good and He loveth mankind. Amen!

On the Raising of Lazarus

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today’s celebration of the raising of the Holy and Righteous Lazarus reverberates with joy, as a foretaste of Pascha, but only as a partial one, in as much as the flesh and bones of Lazarus-of-the-Four-Days were still to once again feel the kiss of death, and to await the final resurrection to which the Lord’s Pascha calls each of us!
In this “little-Pascha” at Bethany, the excitement of a four-day-dead corpse wondrously restored to life by being powerfully and authoritatively ordered to come out from the tomb, sets the scene for the wild excitement of Palm Sunday, as the news of the miracle spread, and the worldly expectations of the populace of Jerusalem and its environs became a frenzy.
Buoyed by the raising of Lazarus the crowds were ready to cry and chant “hosanna”, and “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord!” yet in their excited frenzy they had little understanding of Who the wonderworker of Bethany really was.
They failed to truly recognise the nature of His entrance into Jerusalem, and that the Saviour Who went to His voluntary passion possessed the authority over life and death, as had already been shown in those commanding words, “Lazarus, come forth!”
Unlike those who waved branches and spread their cloaks before the Messiah, we know the tortuous and painful events that will unfold in the coming week, and we understand their meaning. 
We understand that the Lord rides into the Holy City not to overthrow worldly  powers and establish an earthly kingdom, but rather to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
The bloody and humiliating spectacle of Passion Week that shocked, confused and scandalised the very same people who rushed to Bethany to see the risen Lazarus and to shout “hosanna”, convinced many of them that the Saviour was a failure and even a fraud, Whom they would call the authorities to crucify.
They clearly forgot the image of the Suffering-Servant and the prophetic words of Isaiah concerning the Messiah, “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
The excited crowds failed to understand, that the prophecies and figures of the Old Covenant had already told of His approaching blessed silence, humility, sacrificial love and obedience in the days following the raising of Lazarus and the entrance into Jerusalem.
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
In His sacrificial suffering, every blow, every wound, every insult convinces us of the absolute power of Christ’s love to destroy death and shatter the gates of Hades, and having called Lazarus from the dead, the Saviour’s own willingness to enter into the darkness of death, allowed Him show the power of His self-effacing love to not only destroy death, but also to renew creation and raise it to the very heights of heaven.
The mocking and torture, the spitting, insults and punches, the whipping, the crown of thorns, the Cross, the nails, the spear and death – were all endured so that the wonderful but incomplete and partial resurrection of St Lazarus might be superseded and replaced by resurrection to the eternal life of the age to come.
Such was the Saviour’s love for Lazarus, His friend, that He wept and was seized with sorrow, temporarily overturning death for the sake of His love, but this raising was also for the sake of His disciples and those who crowded around Him, as a concrete demonstration and promise of the resurrection of the dead.
But, the events of Passion Week would even more forcefully demonstrate the power of this Divine Love, as the Saviour offered Himself, so that what Lazarus received as a prophetic foretaste of the resurrection, would be a common gift for all of humanity: not as an earthly reprieve, but as the blessing of eternal, heavenly life.
It is by the Lord’s tasting the very death from which He had called His beloved friend that we receive His calling to this new and eternal life.
Unlike the branch-waving, hosanna-shouting crowds, and also unlike the devil and murderer-of-souls, we know that the Saviour, Who today called Lazarus from the tomb, used His own flesh and humanity as the very bait that would be deadly poisonous and would choke Hades.
We  know that in swallowing Him, as the earth quaked,  the sun was eclipsed, the Veil of the Temple was torn asunder and the bodies of the saints arose, Hades choked on Christ our Life, and could not endure the body of the Word-Made-Flesh, but spewed forth the righteous dead as the Giver of Life stripped it bare.
As Christian’s, like Lazarus, we too have received a foretaste of new life in as much as the risen Saviour has called us by baptism into His death and resurrection.
Lazarus came forth from the tomb and the darkness of death, but we have come forth from the waters of baptism, having been baptised into the dying and rising of Christ.
Through that baptismal descent, the Lord has called us to die to the old man and be restored to newness of life in the power of His resurrection, as children of the resurrection, even though we still abide on earth. 
But for what have we emerged from this death to the old me and new life in Christ? 
To what life have we emerged from our baptismal foretaste and calling to the resurrection?
Lazarus emerged from the tomb for a life of devoted apostolic ministry, preaching the message of Christ, the Light, the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection and the Life, but has the renewing power and grace of our baptismal resurrection given us drive, direction and the desire to reflect the risen Lord in our earthly lives?
After that first Pascha, the righteous Lazarus, laboured not only in the light of the Lord’s third day arising, but also in the light of his own earthly taste of restored life-in-Christ, with the ultimate meaning of his new life in Christ being the resurrection of the age to come. 
Though none of us have received the cold kiss of death, and the embrace of the grave, as did Lazarus, our baptism nevertheless calls us to live in the light of the resurrection of Christ, every hour and every day of our lives in Him. 
We must ask ourselves how our earthly lives have been changed by the resurrectional vocation of our baptism, and its call to heavenly life, and whether we are striving and struggling towards the reality of the resurrection in our daily lives, knowing that there is also a resurrection to a life which will not be with the risen Lord, “those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” among the goats on the left side?
We must live and struggle in the light of the resurrection, hoping to abide with the Lord, with Lazarus and the company of the saints who died and rose in Christ.
Through the intercessions of Thy beloved friend, St. Lazarus, О Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Celebrating the Annunciation With Joy

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And after those days Elisabeth the wide of Zacharia conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:24-38

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Greetings as we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation and the Synaxis of the Holy Archangel Gabriel.

How wonderful it was to be blessed with a warm, sunny spring day to celebrate the great and salvific event that marks the spring-time of God’s plan of salvation, reflecting the words of the Church Fathers, for whom this feast was one of great importance and radiant joy.

In his first festal homily, St Gregory the Wonderworker says, “Today is the glad spring-time to us, and Christ the Sun of righteousness has beamed with clear light around us, and has illumined the minds of the faithful.”

With similar words, St John of Damascus writes that, “Today, from the cold winter, the warm and flowery spring has shown forth, and the golden sun of rejoicing and happiness has dawned for us.”

In his festal encomium, St John joyfully recognises that this feast, and the Saviour’s conception by the Mother of God is the great and cosmic  turning-point in the history of creation and humanity, and that the fall and estrangement of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve is already undone in the Mother of God’s humble acceptance of the Archangel’s message.

“Today, God-planted Eden is re-opened, and due to His goodness and love for man, God-fashioned Adam, enters again to dwell within.

Today, the forefather’s condemnation of sorrow is dissolved, and the corrupting exile and arduous penance of Eve ceases.”

This again mirrors the words of St Gregory.

“Today is Adam made anew, and moves in the choir of angels, having winged his way to heaven.”

The Annunciation is hymned by St John Damascene as a cosmic moment of restoration to which the past looked forward and to which the future and present look back.

Though the fruit of the Mother of God’s fiat had to await fulfilment in the saving death and resurrection of the Saviour, by her acceptance of the divine message, she already forcefully placed her foot upon the head of the serpent.

Whilst St Gregory writes that,“ Most of the holy fathers, and patriarchs, and prophets desired to see Him, and to be eye-witnesses of Him, but did not attaint hereto…”, St John Damascene sees the Annunciation as the joyful and wonderful moment in which the patriarchs and prophets see the fulfilment of their far off vision of the Virgin, who will conceive and bear a Child, and participate by their anticipation of the mystery of the feast: “Today, the holy book of the Prophets from all time, is brought amidst us, and each of them proclaims before-hand the grace of this Feast.

In heaven and on earth, angels and saints, people high and low, old and young, across centuries, across continents and lands, are united in jubilation, and as creation is exulted, heaven and earth join in celebration, rejoicing in the hidden and silent reality of the physical beginning of our salvation in the flesh, known at first only to the Mother of God herself.

“Rejoice, O Full-of-grace, for the King of all was adorned with a body [through thee] as if adorned with a royal purple robe.”

What joyful voices are heard in hymns and homilies, and in the akathist hymn to the Most Holy Theotokos, whose words by St Romanos the Melodist were heard in our churches only a few days ago.

An Archangel was sent from Heaven to say to the Mother of God: Rejoice! And seeing Thee, O Lord, taking bodily form, he was amazed and with his bodiless voice he stood crying to her such things as these:

Rejoice, thou through whom joy will shine forth: rejoice, thou through whom the curse will cease!

Rejoice, raising of fallen Adam: rejoice, redemption of the tears of Eve!

Rejoice, height hard to climb for the thoughts of men: rejoice, depth hard to scan even for the eyes of Angels!

Rejoice, for thou art the throne of the King: rejoice, for thou upholdest Him Who upholdeth all!

Rejoice, star that bringeth the Sun: rejoice, womb of the divine incarnation!

Rejoice, thou through whom creation is made new: rejoice, thou through whom we worship the Creator!

Rejoice, thou Bride unwedded!

Reflecting on the joyful triumph of the Annunciation, we should each examine how we have celebrated in our homes and families, what it means to each of us, and whether we have fittingly greeted the Mother of God and her feast with worthy celebratory words and prayers.

Indeed, have we even made any time in our day or evening to celebrate the feast, or have we put our routines, comforts and interests above reverencing the Mother of God, and even finding half and hour in which to honour her?

Did we spend any time explaining this feast to our children, and have our parish families prayed together, if only to read the Gospel and say the troparion and kontakion – something quite simple at a shared meal, which should ideally be part of the celebration of every Great Feast?

Have we greeted the Mother of God with a joy that raises our souls, hearts and minds in celebration?

If the answers our negative or admit negligence, if we have failed to even make our children aware of the feast, if our families have not managed a single prayer together – then we must ask why, and how we can consider this acceptable?

How do we call ourselves Christians and neglect the Mother of God, who offered her life for each and every one of us, so that our Saviour and Redeemer could be clothed in our flesh, so that it might be translated into the glory of heaven as the sign of our invitation and calling to the heavenly life.

How is it that the Christians of past centuries celebrated this feast with such great rejoicing, and that it filled them with joy, hope and encouragement in the Christian life, yet we fail to fitly celebrate the great feast as an offering to the Theotokos, the Mother of our Salvation.

St John of Damascus presumed that his hearers, whatever their status – in their own personal way – would play their part in the laudations of the feast, confessing her as Theotokos, but approaching her not only as Mother of God, but also as the mother and protectress of each and every one of us.

Let us live up to his expectations and, rejoicing and celebrating the beginning of our salvation, let us hasten in the footsteps of the Holy Fathers to celebrate the glorious Annunciation, and echo the tidings of the Archangel Gabriel.

“Today, we and all men take up the Angel’s voice, and offer encomia like his, to her who is the forerunner of the taking away of the curse…

Rejoice, O Full-of-grace, O gate of those troubled and hope of those without hope, and the awesome protection for those who with good heart confess you to be the Theotokos.

Rejoice, O Full-of-grace, who bore the Master Who loves man for the salvation of our common race of men, and who entreats Him on behalf of everyone, as a Mother.”

Let us take up the Angel’s voice to fittingly and worthily celebrate the Annunciation in which  “our restoration hath now been revealed to us! God uniteth Himself to men in manner past recounting!  Falsehood is dispelled by the voice of the archangel! For the Virgin receiveth joy, an earthly woman hath become heaven!” 

(From the Aposticha of vespers)

Most Holy Mother of God, save us!

Amen.

Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow & All Russia, the New Confessor.

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Dear brothers and sisters, greetings for the feast of the Holy New-Hieromartyr, Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus.

He remains a great and inspiring model of Christian life for all of us, reminding us that it is our Christian duty to put the Law of God above all things, and to not turn aside from the precepts of Christ’s Gospel and our Christian principles to please and conform to the expectations of  “the world”.

Having exalted Truth and faithfulness to the Saviour and the Gospel above all earthly comforts, reputation, security and even life itself, St Philip reminds us that the Christian life is dangerous, if we live it properly.

His steadfast opposition to the tyranny and violence of Tsar Ivan, and his resulting martyrdom, showed that our discipleship has a cost, and we see this continuing in the world as employees, students and pupils, prospective adoptive parents, employment interviewees, Christian doctors, nurses and health care workers, and all manner of other people of Faith face persecution, exclusion and prejudice for their faithfulness to the Gospel and the Law of God.

Let us turn to St Philip, in prayer, for his help in our Christian witness, and for strength and faithfulness in times of uncertainty, injustice, inequality and tyranny, where the Herod’s and Caesars of government, globalism, world finance, international conglomerates, giant pharmaceutical companies and powerful NGO’s seek to mould humanity to their own image and conform it to their agendas.

Like St Philip, we are called to oppose falsehood with the Truth of Christ; darkness with the Light of Christ; the hate of the world with the Saviour’s love; and to oppose the fallen, perverted agendas of world powers with the Law of God – for like him, we belong to Christ, His Law is our law, and our Christian calling is to not be of this world, but as the Church to be the Saviour’s abiding Presence in the world.

The Church’s prophetic voice is needed, not simply through the giants like St Philip, but through each and everyone of us, however weak and seemingly insignificant we are. Together, we are the Church, and the gates of hell and death will not prevail against it!

May St Philip pray for us, and may his example give us the courage to live the Christian life with all of the risks and dangers that professing the Gospel and swimming against the political, sociological and ideological tide pose for us – and may we have the courage to do so heedless of the threats of governments, societies, and even those in the Church who oppose the Gospel with agendas that betray the Orthodox Faith of the Holy Fathers, of the Sacred Councils, and of the Saints, among whom St Philip is glorified.

Holy Hieromartyr and Wonderworker Philip, pray to God for us!

Christ is Born! Glorify Him By Your Love!

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In the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters:  Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

How blessed we have been to have such wonderful Nativity services in the Oratory Church, blessed by the warmth and generosity of the Oratorian Fathers, knowing that St Alban’s is a place where we are welcome: a place of love, generosity and boundless good will – reflecting the love which is the very meaning of the Incarnation of the Saviour, and of His glorious Nativity.

We celebrate the Nativity as the feast of Love-Incarnate, born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger, where we see the realisation of God’s immeasurable and selfless Incarnate-Love in action: love, which is neither abstract, nor an emotion, feeling or sentiment, but Love Who is a Person – and not any person, but the Creator-Saviour of all things, coming and dwelling among us, through Whom the whole Holy Trinity loves us and embraces us from within humanity itself – as Emmanuel: “God with us”!

Though we shall never be able to fully comprehend the depth of that Incarnate-Love, born in the lowly Bethlehem stable and laid in the manger, we know that it was so strong that the Only-Begotten Son and Word of God came down to earth from heaven, and was ready to not only become man, but the Man of Sorrows, Who would be mocked and beaten, and go to the Life-Giving Cross like a lamb to the slaughter, with love so unshakeable and immovable that He would remain silent, enduring torture and the agony of the Cross for us: agony because He did not simply look human, but was truly human.

Love and mercy would render Almighty God mute and silent, as the works of His own hands beat Him, mocked Him, spat in His face, wounded and pierced Him: such was the power and enormity of His love!

In Him, born in the cave and laid in the manger, we see Love-Incarnate, Who accepted a human heart to overflow with love for His whole creation, and to be pierced on the Cross not only by salvific-love, but by the cold iron of the centurion’s lance;

Love-Incarnate Whose human hands reached out to heal and comfort;

Love-Incarnate Who accepted human feet, to journey the highways and bye-ways with His in His saving ministry of love and salvation, with human lips and tongue speaking the life-giving words of the Gospel;

Love-Incarnate Whose arms opened wide on the Cross to embrace the whole world;

Love-Incarnate Whose shoulders bore not only the Cross – the Tree of Life – but also the sin and weight of all humanity;

Love-Incarnate Whose body – victoriously lifted up on the Cross – flowed with the life-blood offered and shed in redemptive, sacrificial-love for us all.

In the Incarnation, we see the earthly manifestation of the love that is the very nature of God: eternally existing in the loving relationship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the physical realisation of a love that is the bond of divine-unity, in the reciprocal, self-giving of each of the Divine persons of the Holy Trinity to one another.

From within this perfect but expansive Triune fellowship of love, it was in actively seeking to love something outside of His Triune self, that God created heaven and the earth, with creation as the physical manifestation and material realisation of His love: something external and other than Himself that He could love, care for and sustain.

Within this creation, humanity manifested God’s desire to not only have creation to love, but to have a reciprocal and personal loving relationship with His creation. God created man to love Him, to be loved by Him and to be in a relationship of loving communion!

When humanity rebelled and fell away from God, His wonderful, all-embracing love then became the very meaning of the economy of salvation and the wonder of the Incarnation.

In a divine reaching-down to redeem and restore, this love was the very reason that God entered into creation in humanity itself, clothing Himself in human nature to heal and restore mankind, not to an earthly paradise, but to something far greater: the eternal glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.

As we joyfully announce “Christ is Born!” we contemplate the beginning of this heavenly calling and heavenward journey, lying quietly in the manger, as a new-born babe but a few hours old, worshipped by shepherds and given precious gifts by the eastern magi.

But beyond this apparent newness of this life, we recognise the Pre-Eternal Son, the Word of God, Who created heaven and the earth, and know that the Christ-Child is the same Lord, Who is the maker of heaven and earth,

Yahweh-the-Lord walking and talking with Adam and Eve in the coolness of the day;

the same Lord Who visited Abraham and Sarah to promise them a son and Who stopped the sacrificial hand of Abraham to save Isaac;

the same Lord Who wrestled with Jacob at Bethel;

the same Lord Who spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush and gave Him the Law on Sinai;

the same Lord Whom Ezekiel saw upon the awesome chariot-throne in the heavens;

and the same Lord Who Daniel encountered in the Ancient of Days.

As St John Chrysostom preached in his His Homily on the Nativity:

“The Ancient of Days has become an infant. The One seated on a high and exulted throne is now lying in a manger. The One Who cannot be touched and is bodiless is now held in human hands. The One Who breaks the chains of sin is now wrapped in swaddling clothes, for this is what He willed. He desired to transform dishonour into glory, to clothe shame with splendour, and to show the power of virtue through the humble form of a servant.”

And the whole meaning of this divine condescension can be encapsulated and summarised in that one word, LOVE: love which seeks not justice for humanity, but to overflow with God’s mercy and compassion, and His desire to restore the loving communion which He established when He created man from the dust of the earth and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life.

As we celebrate the Nativity, we must remind ourselves that God created humanity to not simply be a passive and inert recipient of His love, but to grow in perfection and holiness within the relationship and the communion it had, and still continues to have with Him – for despite the fall, and consequential sin and death, our All-Loving God has not abandoned this intention.

In the Incarnation He has restated this calling, through

“The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.”

(St Irenaeus of Lyons: Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface)

The Incarnation, the Nativity and the whole economy of salvation were acts of God’s new creation, to put right what had gone wrong – our calling to restoration through the Lord’s conjoining of our humanity with His divinity.

Through His love, we continue to be called to be children of God in eternal communion and blessedness with Him, and adopted children and heirs of the promise, called to grow in perfection, holiness, and perfect love.

But, unless we live to love not only God, but also one another, the Nativity and Incarnation become meaningless, as we fail to be icons of the Incarnate Word Who has ordered us,

“A new commandment “I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

(John 13:34-35, Matthew 22:34-40)

If we fail to love and thereby obey this divine command, we reject the Nativity, and as much as we celebrate the wonder of the birth of Christ, our hymns of praise will be hollow, our prayers meaningless, and our offerings an insult to our Saviour and Lord.

Whether the birth of the Saviour and the Incarnation have any real meaning in our lives will be reflected in whether we accept or reject God’s commandment to love not only Him, but also our neighbour.

By loving, or not loving, we choose whether we accept or reject the Prince of Peace, and whether His birth has any meaning and real significance in our lives.

We repeatedly greet one another and proclaim the feast with the joyful proclamation, “Christ is born!” and the joyful answer’ “Glorify Him!”, but we can only glorify Him if the love of His Incarnation is reflected and manifested in our lives, as the bond of communion, kinship, solidarity and unity with one another as well as with God.

If Christ truly dwells within us, each of our hearts must be a fitful and worthy manger, in which love abides as the condition for His Presence. His expansive and limitless love can only coexist with our reciprocal love, reflecting Him in our lives.

We must each proactively reflect the love-in-action of His Incarnation, and the world must encounter God’s love in us, not as something theoretical but real and tangible, through which the world knows that we are disciples of the Lord, Who was born in Bethlehem to call us to the glory of the Kingdom.

Not only our mouths, but also our deeds must gratefully and lovingly announce “Christ is Born!” and each day of our lives must proclaim “Glorify Him!” And, let them be lives of gratitude to the Lord, Who came from heaven to raise us to its glorious heights.

“Let us not be ungrateful to the Benefactor, but rather bring forth, as much as we are able, faith, hope, love, chastity, mercy, and kindness.”

(St John Chrysostom: Homily on the Day of the Nativity of Christ)

May our love proclaim the wonder of the Incarnation, and that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; full of grace and truth.”

Love was His meaning. Let it be our meaning, also – living and abiding in us, for His sake and to His glory.

Amen!

From Ur to Bethlehem: Humanity’s Salvific Journey of Faith

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, on this forefeast of Christmas, as the white vestments of the clergy proclaim the nearness of the Lord’s Nativity, the ancient pre-festal hymns of the Church urge us to make ready and hasten to the city of David, and for Bethlehem itself and the land of Judah to be ready for the coming of the promised Saviour,

“Make ready, O Bethlehem, Eden hath been opened unto all. Prepare, O Ephratha, for the Tree of life hath blossomed in the cave from the Virgin…” 

“Гото́вися, Вифлее́ме, отве́рзися всем, Еде́ме, красу́йся, Евфра́фо, я́ко дре́во живота́ в верте́пе процвете́ от Де́вы…”

In the aposticha of vespers we hear,

“Behold, the hour of our salvation draweth nigh! Make ready, O cave, for the Virgin approacheth to give birth!

Се вре́мя прибли́жися спасе́ния на́шего, гото́вися, верте́пе, Де́ва приближа́ ется роди́ти…”

… and today’s pre-festal matins canon urges the created world and its people to celebrate because the Saviour is nearly here, even calling past generations to rejoice.

“Ye mountains and hills, fields and vales, people and generations, nations and every creature: exult, filled with divine gladness, for the deliverance of all, the Word of God, the Timeless One, Who in His loving-kindness hath come under time, doth come with haste.”

“Горы ́и хо́лми, поля́ и де́бри, лю ́дие и коле́на, язы ́цы и вся́кое дыха́ние, воскли́кните, весе́лия Боже́ственнаго исполня́еми: прии́де и приспе́ всех избавле́ние, Сло́во Бо́жие Безле́тное, под ле́том за милосе́рдие бы ́вшее.”

In today’s Gospel of Christ’s forebears, called to “exult, filled with divine gladness…”, we have heard great names from among these generations, from Abraham, called to be the the Father of the Promise, through the centuries Christ’s ancestors who were God’s human-preparation for the moment in which Godhood – divinity – would be joined with humanity, and born as a little Child, both divine and human and laid in a manger.

Once again, we have heard the familiar poetry of the genealogy of the generations of the ancestors of Christ: how “Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren…”, and in the succeeding generations, we have heard familiar names – Jesse, David, Solomon – as well as unfamiliar names, encountering the Old Testament and the Old Covenant established through Abraham, as the unfolding history of our salvation, as humanity drew closer and closer to the birth of the Saviour.

The oikos of the canon, addressing the Mother of God goes even further than this, saying that “the God-loving Abraham, the ever-memorable Isaac, Jacob and all the divinely assembled choir of saints rejoice, and, with joyous utterances, they lead creation forth to meet thee.” 

…a powerful image, teaching us that in God’s plan of salvation, not only humanity, but the whole of creation is led forward, towards the Mother of God and to Christ her newborn Son by the very generations of holy fathers that we commemorate in these Sundays before the Nativity.

These generations of the Messiah’s ancestors are God’s saving plan in action, and a reminder that though humanity was banished from paradise, that same humanity was NOT banished from taking a central place and an essential part in His plan of salvation.

Even though the fiery angel stood at the gates of Eden to stop exiled mankind returning to the Tree of Life, and  even though humanity was banished from Paradise, at the same time, human nature was being used by God to bring  His plan of salvation to fruition and realisation.

The All-Loving God, would not save humanity from the outside, through an external act of salvation. No! He would save humanity and the world from from the inside, having chosen that Abraham and his descendants would not only be included in His plan of salvation, but that they would be vital and absolutely necessary for this to be accomplished.

In an act of sacrificial-love, God Himself would not simply come and dwell within the human world, as a divine visitor, but would go so far as to to clothe Himself in humanity; the Creator putting on creation… and the Creator-Messiah-Saviour, would lift up His creation with Himself on the Cross; would restore that creation through His life-giving death; would raise that creation with Himself in His third-day Resurrection; and would translate that creation, in His humanity to the heights of heaven.

Abraham led his family and tribe from Ur, in Chaldea, to new life in Israel; Moses led the children of Israel from captivity to the freedom of new life in the Promised Land; but Christ, the God-Man, born in the cave and laid in the manger, came to ultimately lead His people not to an earthly promised land, but to everlasting glory and eternal life of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In history, time and space, the Creator-Saviour a set this heavenward journey of humanity into motion in the calling of Abraham to leave his homeland, to journey to a new land, with the divine promise, that in him, all the people of the world would be blessed.

Thus, we could say that the human-journey to Bethlehem began when Abraham was obedient to God.

The humanity that the Pre-Eternal Son put on in the womb of the Mother of God, through her obedience to God’s calling, is the fruit of Abraham’s obedience and faith, and the obedience and faith of all of those generations that link Abraham to Christ.

Starting with Abraham, today’s reading from St Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews says that,

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country…

By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac…

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. 

By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph…

By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel…

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents

And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 

Faith is the constant thread that runs through these successive generations, and the relationship of the righteous ancestors of Christ with God was built on the rock of this faith, but despite this, we hear, “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise…”

Although they were essential to the promise, and though it came through them, they could not see that promise in their earthly lives, as Christ deigned that He would come after them in their flesh, but we rejoice that the day of their rejoicing did come when the Lord’s Body was placed not in the manger, but in the Life-Giving Tomb, in soul He descended into the depths of Hades, and stripped it bare of all of His righteous ancestors, who had played their part in the Divine plan to redeem mankind, and though they await the resurrection of the body, they dwell in heaven with Him Who their Lord and God, and yet also their own child, their own flesh and kin through the wonder of the Incarnation and the Nativity

When the Word became flesh in the wonder of the Incarnation, He was flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone, put on, in humility for their sake, and for their salvation.

When the Saviour spoke the saving words of the Gospel, it was with the tongue and lips that He – in divine humility – received from His forefathers.

When the Saviour walked through the towns and villages of Palestine, and even when He walked upon the waves of the see, it was on the feet that He – in divine humility – had received from His forefathers.

When the Saviour, touched the sick and healed them, when He took morsels of food and fed thousands, when He broke the bread and blessed the wine of the Last Supper, it was with the hands that He – in divine humility – received from His forefathers.

When the crown of thorns was thrust down upon His head, it was the head that He – in divine humility – received from His forefathers.

When He opened His arms wide on the Cross for the sake of the whole word, they were arms that He – in divine humility – received from His forefathers.

When saving and life-giving blood and water flowed from His pierced side, it was blood and water, which – in divine humility – He received from His forefathers.

When the Lord rose from the dead, and Thomas felt the wounds in His limbs, and placed his hand on the wound in the Saviour’s side, it was the risen, triumphant and risen body, that the Giver of Life – in divine humility – had received from His forefathers.

And when the Lord ascends in glory, surrounded by the holy angels, and takes human nature into heaven, to be glorified by all of the angelic ranks, it is the humanity that He, not only in divine-humility, but also in His sacrificial love received from His forefathers.

This is His sign of the final fulfilment of His promise to Abraham, which is ultimately not earthbound, terrestrial and material, but heavenly and spiritual.

In embracing humanity, and making that humanity part of His divine plan and economy of salvation, God calls the forefathers, the righteous of both the Old Covenant and circumcision, and the New Covenant through Holy Baptism, to be with Him in the everlasting glory of the age to come.

It is through the faith, obedience, and sacrifices of the forefathers, that we now approach the Nativity to worship and adore the new born Saviour together with the shepherds and the magi, celebrating all who were not simply human details in God’s divine plan, but the very rungs on which God came down from earth to heaven, to be Emmanuel: God With Us.

And it is through the willing and devoted part of the holy fathers in the divine plan, that we are called with them, not to an earthly paradise, but to the eternal glory of heaven to be with God, Who calls us to be children and heirs of the promise.

Amen!