Of all the resurrection stories, perhaps the one concerning St Thomas is the one we can most relate to. He is the "common man", who was later able to do uncommon things. We are just like him, so our path of life must also be like his, which is the Christian life in microcosm. He, like us, was a complex indivicdual, believing, then faint of heart, couargeous, then full of fear. The one thing that he did that we must do to be saved is to endure, and "believe in the midst of our unbelief". If we do this, we are not far away from the supernatural exploits of St Thomas, the Apostle.
Category: Homilies
2nd Sunday of Pascha; Thomas Sunday “Believing disbelief” is the most important part of the story. Text and Audio.
There are several important parts to the story of the encounter of the Apostle Thomas with the risen Lord, such as why the first words Jesus spoke to the assembled apostles were “Peace be unto you”, the promise of the sending of the Holy Spirit and the power that Jesus gave to His Apostles to remit sins. The most important gleaning from the reading is none of these, but is understood in the blunder of St Thomas, and his subsequent behavior, which led to his full enlightenment, and gave him the privilege to be the first to proclaim in the scripture that Jesus is fully God and man. We are all much like Thomas in his mistakes; let us also investigate his great virtue, which the church calls “believing disbelief”, without which, scarcely one would be saved.
Impious Judas with avaricious thoughts … falls away from the light and accepts the darkness. A warning to us and a way to avoid losing ourselves.. Great Tuesday 2012
Six and a half important minutes using Judas as an example to teach us how not to “accept the darkness” Commentary on the Sessional Hymn from Great Tuesday Matins:
“Impious Judas with avaricious thoughts plots against the Master, / and ponders how he will betray Him. /He falls away from the light and accepts the darkness; / he agrees upon the payment and sells Him that is above all price; / and as the reward for his actions, in his misery / he receives a hangman’s noose and death in agony. / O Christ our God, deliver us from such a fate as his, // and grant remission of sins to those who celebrate with love Thy most pure Passion.”
The Lord is at hand! Why do we read this epistle on Palm Sunday, since it is not about suffering, or the cross or the resurrection?
Why do we read this epistle on Palm Sunday, since it is not about suffering, or the cross or the resurrection? There are many other epistles about these things, but this epistle contains instructions that must be applied during Holy Week in order to truly benefit from Pascha. We can understand how to apply the Apostle Paul’s instructions by looking at the good and bad examples in today’s Gospel, such as Mary, who annointed the Lord, Judas, the people, and the high priests. There are many lessons here, and all of Holy Week will contain many more. The Lord is at hand!
Great Monday:The cursing of the fig tree teaches that we must bear fruit or we will wither and die and that we have no excuse for our lack of fruit; faith comes from obedience.
The whole point of Great and Holy week is to prepare us to fully understand and live in the resurrection – not just during the approaching Pascha, but in all of our life. We must listen to the Gospels and hymns with this objective. In Great Monday Matins, the Gospel contains the story of the fig tree that withered; this very short homily explains the spiritual meaning of this passage. The more obvious teaching of this action of our Lord is that we must bear fruit – growing in the virtues and holiness – or else we will wither away. There is much more: the season in which the Lord cursed the fig tree allows us no excuses for our lack of fruit, and we learn that faith is built upon obedience and the bearing of fruit.
“O brethren, let us fear the punishment of the fig tree, / withered because it was unfruitful; / and let us bring worthy fruits of repentance unto Christ, // who grants us His great mercy.” (Great Monday Matins, Aposticha, T8)
Repentance, humility, leadership, learning – it is all in there in 2 homilies for the 5th Sun of Great Lent, 2012
Another “two-fer” today. Homilies on St Mary of Egypt, and the Sunday Gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent. As is always the case, the Scriptures have a lot to say about how we should live, and St Mary is the quintessential example of how to repent.
Synopsis: The 2 epistles for the 5th Sunday of Great Lent describe well the life of St Mary of Egypt, and also how we must live. Truly, after her repentance, she “Put on Christ”, and had her conscience purged from dead works. We look in some detail at her life and how these scriptures will fulfilled in her life, and must also be fulfilled in ours.
Synopsis: The Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent not only sets the stage for our Lord’s passion, which we will shortly go through on our way to Pascha, but also teaches two important truths. Firstly, learning takes time. This may seem like a simple and obvious truth, but it is often an ignored truth. Second: without humility, there will be no learning at all.
2 Homilies on the cross: What is the way of the cross? Why this epistle which does not mention the cross?
Two homilies on the Precious Cross:
The entire Gospel is important, but some passages are absolutely critical to understand and follow. This is one of them. It explains what the way of the cross is, and teaches a principle that we must use literally every moment of our lives – to learn to always make a good “exchange”. We explain what the Lord means when He commands us to “deny” ourselves, and what the answers to His questions: “What shall it profit a man…” and “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” must be. These are not rhetorical questions – you must answer them.
The Epistle for the Exaltation of the Cross never mentions the cross. There are many epistles that mention the cross; why was this one chosen?
What Shall a Man Give in Exchange for His Soul? 3rd Sunday of Great Lent – Holy Cross Mark 8:34-9:1
Brothers and sisters, this is now the midpoint of the fast, the Sunday in which we exalt the All-Holy Cross, the third Sunday of Great Lent.
In this gospel that we read today, there are many important points, and there are important questions which you must answer. I think the most important question is this: What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? The question before it is: What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? But that is sort of, more of a general question.
The question that follows it, what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul, applies to every moment of your life. It’s not just a general theoretical question. These are not rhetorical questions.
A two-fer today: Homilies on the two Sunday Gospels and St Gregory Palamas – sin,sickness,faith,healing,perfection – it’s all in there.
A two-fer today: Homilies on the two Sunday Gospels and St Gregory Palamas
St Gregory PalamasSynopsis: This is an important discussion, too wonderful to believe for most Christians, but absolutely true, and the main teaching of St Gregory Palamas: To be Christian is to become perfect. The Gospel for St. Gregory teaches this in a hidden way, when it says: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”. Let us look in wonder at his teaching, the Gospel John 10:9-16, and the Matins Theotokion: “Adam’s nature was made Godlike O Virgin, when without undergoing change, God took flesh within thy womb, and we who were deceived of old by the hope of becoming Gods, have been set free from the ancient condemnation”, and how we are to pursue perfection.
Synopsis: Why do we speak of the Paralytic borne of four during Great Lent? It is because we must learn that we are paralytics because of sin, and the relationship of sin to sickeness, physical and mental. We must also learn what saving faith is and that we must help out our brother.
The Triumph of Orthodoxy must occur in the heart, and will be because of doing simple things, as the Gospel teaches today
Orthodoxy and life is very deep and complex, but the essence of Christian life is simple. The Gospel today teaches us a simple way, and if we obey the simple apostolic command, we will not be confounded. If we think too much, we will always be confused. We look at the calling of Nathaniel and the simple way he was told to approach his doubts; this applies to EVERY doubt and difficulty in our life. “Come and see!” is the only door to the triumph of Orthodoxy, that is, the fullness of the indwelling of God, in our hearts.