Sermon, Fifth Sunday of Lent 2015 (St Mary of Egypt)
Mark 10:32-45

This morning, James and John desire to be seated with Christ in His Glory. And our Lord, to test them, asks whether they are able to drink the cup that He drinks, and to be baptized with the baptism with which He is baptized. James and John answer, “We are able!” The response from Jesus, in a nutshell, is: be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Today is the last Sunday of Great Lent, and on Friday evening just five days from now, we will begin the celebration of Holy Week. Friday evening will open a ten day long procession to the cross, to the tomb, and to the resurrection.

And as we get ready, our Lord extends the same invitation to us as He extended to James and John. To all of us who wish to see His glory, who desire to be by His side at Pascha, Jesus first says to you and to me, “but are you able and willing to drink the cup that I drink from? Are you able to walk with me through Holy Week? Are you willing to be by my side, and to carry my cross with me?”

I hope your answer is yes. I hope that Pascha is not just a Sunday on which we show up, having given no thought to Christ on the days of Holy Week.

To help us prepare — to help us take up and drink from the Lord’s same cup — I wanted to share a list of 10 things to do during Holy Week. These are ten recommendations for how to be baptized with the same baptism with which our Lord is baptized.

1. Go to as many services as you can. We offer a large number. Usually, at least two each day. And if you can’t go to every service, set aside time to read prayerfully through those you cannot attend. It is through worship that we return and unite ourselves to Christ. The services of Holy Week are not just memory exercises. Holy Week is a single unbroken Liturgy that over ten days invites us to participate in the saving love of Jesus Christ, not to just remember some events from long ago. The love which Jesus shows is real, it is now, and we are invited through worship to receive it. Does it seem unreasonable to attend Church so much in a single week? Of course it does! But Christ’s love for us is extreme and intense. And so we return that love during Holy Week in a way that is beyond reason!
2. Intensify your fasting. Each person is called to fast as he or she is able. Some are able to fast more, some less. During Holy week, each of us should increase the intensity of the fast. Think about how you have followed the fast up to this point. During Holy Week, continue what you do, and then do a little bit more. Do you fast just a few days a week? Increase the number of your fasting days. Are you fasting from meat only? Consider fasting from dairy as well. Consider eating smaller meals each time. For some, it may be possible to eat only two small meals a day rather than three. Holy Week is a time in which we should increase our hunger for Christ, and physical hunger is one way to do so. Physical hunger reminds us that we need what God offers, and fasting helps us to focus on the love of Christ. Fasting is hard, but remember the good gift which waits for us at the Paschal Liturgy of the Resurrection — the good gift of Christ Himself!
3. Create silence. Disconnect entirely from your cell phone, email, internet usage and especially social media. (If any of this is needed for work or school, designate a window of usage of no more than a few hours.) Do not watch TV, or listen to the radio. Cancel all lessons, sports, and social activities. It’s only for one week. The world will still be there after Pascha. When we create silence in this way, we give ourselves the space and opportunity to be drawn by Christ more deeply into His words and actions during Holy Week. We remove some of the man-made barriers that separate us from “drinking from his cup” (Mark 10:38). And if we do not create silence, then the noise of this world will easily overwhelm the “still small voice” through which the Holy Spirit speaks (1 Kings 19:12). To hear the voice of Christ, we have to silence the relentless cascade of screed and distraction we otherwise allow the world to pump full force into our hearts and minds.
4. Create prayer. Turn on some church music. In particular, listen to the hymns of Holy Week. And learn something about each hymn you hear: On what day do we sing this hymn? During which service? What is the place and purpose of this hymn? The hymns of Passion Week create holy echoes that help to connect our worship with the rest of daily life. Singing “Behold the Bridegroom” at the services which begin Holy Week is good, but hearing and singing the same hymn while driving, walking, or cleaning the house is even better. Doing so, we allow the prayer of the Church to become the prayer of everyday life.
5. Be still. Set aside time each day to sit quietly in front of an icon of Christ, about 20-30 minutes. Light a candle, say a short prayer, and then simply wait in silence for the Lord to speak a word, or to bestow a deeper sense of His presence. Being silent is a way of saying to God, “I am here. And I wait on no other than You. Visit me in my smallness.” Stillness during Holy Week is a good practice for the experience of Great and Holy Friday and Saturday. The most eloquent word ever spoken is the silence of our dead Savior while hanging on the cross, and while lying in the tomb. His silence says everything. The stillness of His death is the great action that redeems and sanctifies all the world. His silence on the cross shouts down hell. His stillness in the tomb explodes the realm of the dead and bestows life on all. When we practice stillness and silence during Holy Week, we are preparing to unite our silence to Christ’s. We are preparing to die with our Savior … so that we too might be raised to new life!
6. Always be with Christ (as Fr +Tom Hopko reminds us). Occupy your mind as often as you can with a short prayer. If you do not already have the habit of praying the Jesus Prayer, Holy Week is a great time to begin: “O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” This prayer increases our awareness of the nearness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It reminds us that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. Christ is always with us, and through continual prayer, we work to do the same — to always be with our Lord who loves and strengthens us.
7. Read a Gospel. Set aside time each day to read several chapters from either Matthew, Mark, or Luke. (We save John for after Pascha!) And remember that in the Gospels, we do not find words about Christ, we find words from Christ. Each verse of Holy Scripture is a word spoken directly to you by the raised and glorified Lord. Each word is a word for now, each word is a new word that you have never received before. Enjoy the gift! Jesus wants to give it to you!
8. Seek forgiveness and healing. Chances are, each of us has at least a small handful of relationships in need of healing. During Holy Week, work for that healing. Admit your mistakes, and forgive the mistakes made by others. Offer yourself in love to at least one other person from whom you are estranged. Make a phone call, send a letter or email — you have a blessing to use email in this one case! — or schedule a coffee date. Remember how much you love this person, and remember that we were created to live in peace and joy with one another. Christ’s love for us is ENORMOUS compare to pettiness we so often hold on to. And if you have been deeply harmed by another person, seek help! Reach out to someone — your spouse, another family member or friend, your priest — and ask for guidance. Search through prayer, fasting, and honest communication for a way forward. As they say, holding onto anger (or hatred, or resentment, or vengefulness) is like swallowing poison and expecting someone else to die. Seek release from what possesses. Enjoy the lightness of a relationship that has been healed and restored.
9. Call someone who is sick or lonely. Visit them if you can. Share yourself with someone who needs you. Our parishes, and our neighborhoods, are filled with people who are dying of loneliness and isolation. Extend yourself and give them the gift of human presence. One of the great themes of Holy Week is abandonment — how our Lord was abandoned by just about everyone, including it seems by His own Father. As we seek to unite ourselves to Christ through prayer and worship during Holy Week, may we not at the same time abandon those who need us. To be united to Christ, we must at the same time strengthen our solidarity with all those around us. We are part of the mystical body of Christ, and we are called to a life of unity and communion with one another.
10. Think about Bright Week and beyond! With Pascha comes the true light that enlightens the whole world and each person in it. As we unite ourselves to Christ, the radiance of the Resurrection changes everything. The week after Pascha is truly a Bright Week — the Resurrection colors all with brilliance and beauty. Nothing should ever be the same. Let this Holy Week be a launching pad into the rest of life. Having united ourselves to Christ in both death and resurrection — having lived out our baptism through the celebration of Holy Week — we should get ready to proclaim the good news in all that we do. May we remember that every Sunday is a “little Pascha” and that each time we gather to celebrate the Liturgy we proclaim Christ’s death and we confess His resurrection. And if every Sunday is a little Pascha, then every week is a little Holy Week. Each day of the year is a day on which we give thanks for the Holy Mysteries we last received, and look forward to being received by Christ once again at the life-giving chalice. Holy Week and Pascha occur once a year, but they are the rule, not the exception. Holy Week and Pascha are the models for every week of the year. Jesus Christ touches all of time through the Cross, and all of time collapses into the eternal now of His divine love. May we live all of life in the light of the Resurrection!

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The Rev. Theophan Whitfield (SVOTS ’10) is the rector of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Salem, Massachusetts. Father Theophan had been a teacher for fifteen years at independent schools, first in New York City and later in Connecticut, prior to pursuing studies at St. Vladimir’s. He and his wife, Matushka Manna, have three daughters: Ayame, Miya, and Emi.

Baptism is Christian initiation. The goal of this process and its culminating rite is not some individualized, purely personal experience. The goal of baptism is initiation into a community of faith, a church. It is entrance into a way of life together, not a rite to do something to or for an individual in private. It asserts from its beginning that to be a follower of Christ means to be grafted into the Body of Christ. There is no Christian without church, no faith outside the community of faith.

Christian initiation and its attendant rite of baptism is the proper and primary business of the church. The church has been told to make disciples by “baptizing and teaching” (Matt 28:19-20). Our major work is the evangelistic business of claiming people for the Kingdom and fitting them for life in that Kingdom. Baptism is that rich, multi-faceted, complex way of engaging the body, head, and heart in that strange and glorious work of claiming, instructing, washing, anointing, blessing, and receiving people for the Kingdom.[1]

These words, written over thirty years ago by a Duke Divinity School professor, did as much to inform my theology of baptism as any other words I have read, either while in or after leaving seminary. In truth these two paragraphs stand as the foundation for my own theology of mission. The Orthodox Church is in the business of making converts. The Great Commission, given by our Lord in the closing words of Matthew’s Gospel, is not an option. Archbishop Anastasios of Albania has stated two remarkable things concerning evangelization: “A Church without mission is a contradiction in terms,” and “Indifference to mission is a negation of Orthodoxy.”[2] I would expand this by saying: “A Christian not engaged in mission is simply not a Christian.”

I am one of those people who are Orthodox by conviction. Like thousands of others in recent years, I made a choice to enter the Holy Orthodox Church, not counting the cost and believing that I had found the “pearl of great price” (Matt 13:46). I have not changed my belief that I was uniting myself to the Church of the Apostles. What I have done is matured in my Orthodoxy, to the point where I can now clearly see the need to rediscover, in most of the Orthodox Christian world, a new zeal for making the Great Commission central, once again, in our common life.

For too many in Orthodoxy, words like “evangelism” and “outreach” are not claimed as our own and are given over to others. This sad fact keeps the “Pearl of Great Price” hidden in ghetto worlds where cultural preservation and so called “ethnic pride” is substituted for the “Gospel Truth.” All too easily our faith communities have created a surrogate gospel supported by surrogate ministries that betray our baptismal identities as Orthodox Christians.

If we accept the dominical charge that we are to “go forth” to all nations, we will do well once again to consider the scripture readings and homilies on the Sundays of Great Lent: they are directed to those who are “preparing for holy illumination.” This is true even in parishes where there are no candidates for baptism being prepared. The Church is catholic and throughout the world we find catechumens seeking to be united to Christ and His Church. Great Lent is the baptismal season of the ecclesiastical year, and preaching must stir this memory and fill the faithful with zeal to share the treasure of their faith. The faithful are also called to listen closely to the prayers offered in the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts and to “pray for these brethren who are preparing for holy illumination and for their salvation.”

The blessing of hearing and preaching directed to those preparing to enter the Church through baptism, chrismation, and Eucharist triggers the rediscovery of our own baptismal identity. We are called to once again recognize that having been united to Christ and to one another in Christ, we are His Body. We have been sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we recall that this is not merely a past event, a static reality, but a “stream of living water” (John 7:38).

By privatizing the rite of holy baptism, we have separated the corporate nature of the mystery from the very people who are called to nurture the newly baptized. We have turned baptism into something precious for infants, and we have forgotten the radical nature of what it means to “put on Christ.” The gospel is not only a belief, but a way of life, and, in this life, our values—the values of the Kingdom—often find us at odds with the beliefs, values, and way of life accepted by the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, which is passing and is not eternal.

If Orthodox Christians are once again to proclaim the glad tidings with boldness, we will need to restore the centrality of The Great Commission. We will need to bring ourselves to a fresh response to the New Testament teaching that we did not choose God but he chose us (John 15:16). We are his hands, feet, and voice in this present world. Life in the Kingdom involves our synergia in response to the love offering from God. We are invited to a conversion. We must become as little children to enter the Kingdom (Matt 18:3).

Many years ago I read a book written by Archbishop Joost de Blank of Cape Town titled This is Conversion.[3] I have never forgotten how convicted I was, to use an evangelical term, of just how radical true conversion is. Try turning the other cheek when struck and you will know exactly what I mean. To go down into the watery grave of holy baptism is to rise to a radical, new way of life. Is this not why Jesus says: “If you have ears to hear, then hear”? (Rev 13:9). To hear the Beatitudes is easy but to live the Beatitudes is radical to the extreme!

This radical conversion and way of life that Christians willingly embrace are exactly what preachers are called to proclaim and to make clear to those who seek to fully unite themselves to Christ. To be signed and sealed with the sign of the cross is to be marked as a Christian, and, come the dread day of judgment, an account must be given from one so marked. This is why a lukewarm faith—an anemic response to the great gift given in holy baptism—is so deadly. This is true for us as individual Christians and corporately as the Church. A Christian not engaged in evangelism is simply not a Christian!

We who are members of the Orthodox Church make the audacious claim to have “put on Christ” and to possess “right faith and right worship.” This is why we must be very conscious of our Lord’s words as we live our lives as baptized Christians: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22).

I have been told, but I don’t know the source, that Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann was once asked what the Orthodox Church needed in order to experience a revival. He responded: “Nothing, as we have everything we needed. All we must do is begin to use what we already possess.” We have many positive signs that a recovery of the centrality of The Great Commission is underway. Many parishes have not only restored the prayers of the catechumenate, but they also have catechumens preparing for baptism and reception into the Church.

This year, as you celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great on the morning of Holy Saturday, be aware this is the traditional time to baptize those whom we have been praying for throughout the Great Fast. The Old Testament readings from Genesis, Jonah, and Daniel are intended to be read at the actual time of holy baptism for the catechumens. They prepare us to hear St. Paul addressing the Church at Rome with these words:

Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:3-11)

Matthew 28:1-20 soon follows this epistle reading. The Great Commission in the gospel reading is placed at the center of the initiation rites for the newly baptized to hear and for the faithful also to hear, helping them to remember their own baptism and to give thanks to God for the gift of eternal life.

[1] William H. Willimon, Remember Who You Are: Baptism, a Model for Christian Life (Nashville, TN: The Upper Room, 1980), 22-23.

[2] Luke Veronis, Go Forth, from the Foreward (Ben Lomond, CA: Conciliar Press, 2009), 10.

[3] (New York: Morehouse-Gorhma Co.), 1958.

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Archpriest Chad Hatfield is the President of St. Vladimir’s Seminary.. He previously served as dean of St. Herman Seminary, Kodiak, Alaska, and was founding priest of All Saints Orthodox Church, Salina, Kansas and St. Mary Magdalene Mission, Manhattan, Kansas. Before converting to the Orthodox Christian faith, he and his family were missionaries in South Africa. Currently, he is developing a missiology component in St. Vladimir’s Curriculum. He earned M.Div. and S.T.M. degrees from Nashotah House Seminary, which also granted him a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa in 2008.

1. Be always with Christ and trust God in everything.
2. Pray as you can, not as you think you must.
3. Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline.
4. Say the Lord’s Prayer several times each day.
5. Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occupied.
6. Make some prostrations when you pray.
7. Eat good foods in moderation and fast on fasting days.
8. Practice silence, inner and outer.
9. Sit in silence 20 to 30 minutes each day.
10. Do acts of mercy in secret.
11. Go to liturgical services regularly.
12. Go to confession and holy communion regularly.
13. Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings.
14. Reveal all your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person regularly.
15. Read the scriptures regularly.
16. Read good books, a little at a time.
17. Cultivate communion with the saints.
18. Be an ordinary person, one of the human race.
19. Be polite with everyone, first of all family members.
20. Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.
21. Have a healthy, wholesome hobby.
22. Exercise regularly.
23. Live a day, even a part of a day, at a time.
24. Be totally honest, first of all with yourself.
25. Be faithful in little things.
26. Do your work, then forget it.
27. Do the most difficult and painful things first.
28. Face reality.
29. Be grateful.
30. Be cheerful.
31. Be simple, hidden, quiet and small.
32. Never bring attention to yourself.
33. Listen when people talk to you.
34. Be awake and attentive, fully present where you are.
35. Think and talk about things no more than necessary.
36. Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly.
37. Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out.
38. Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance.
39. Don’t complain, grumble, murmur or whine.
40. Don’t seek or expect pity or praise.
41. Don’t compare yourself with anyone.
42. Don’t judge anyone for anything.
43. Don’t try to convince anyone of anything.
44. Don’t defend or justify yourself.
45. Be defined and bound by God, not people.
46. Accept criticism gracefully and test it carefully.
47. Give advice only when asked or when it is your duty.
48. Do nothing for people that they can and should do for themselves.
49. Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice.
50. Be merciful with yourself and others.
51. Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath.
52. Focus exclusively on God and light, and never on darkness, temptation and sin.
53. Endure the trial of yourself and your faults serenely, under God’s mercy.
54. When you fall, get up immediately and start over.
55. Get help when you need it, without fear or shame.

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Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko [March 28, 1939–March 18, 2015], dean emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, New York, was a noted Orthodox Christian priest, theologian, preacher, and speaker. Memory eternal!

Let’s be honest: how do we parents feel when we suddenly realize, while attending Liturgy, that the Gospel reading for the Sunday is the Prodigal Son, reminding us that Lent is around the corner? If you’re like me, you start doing a mental checklist of all the meat that needs to be used up in the next few weeks, and what upcoming events are going to conflict with the fast and services. When does Holy Week fall? And whose birthday is getting trumped by Lent? (Three of our children have birthdays in late February and early March!)

Perhaps some of these collected words of wisdom from other moms and dads will be encouraging.

• Don’t sweat the small stuff. Most parents find it’s better to resist the temptation to read labels while shopping in the store, or to try to monitor what our older kids are choosing to eat when they aren’t at home. Let’s not set up standards of perfection that will end up succumbing to the practical realities of family life. The overall goal is that we and our children will cleanse our souls, simplify our lives, practice a greater degree of love and self sacrifice, and prepare for the Feast of Pascha. Our own father confessors can best guide us as to how to do this without ruining the atmosphere in our homes with Lenten grumpiness.
• Do create a Lent-friendly kitchen. We can keep our pantries free of dairy-heavy snacks and Beef Jerky. Our food purchases can set an example and help us make good choices. But then, we also need to remember that our children are still children! I’ll never forget His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph’s exhortation when, at a women’s retreat, a mother asked him, “How do we handle the fast with our children?” “Your fasting should be more rigorous than your childrens’ fasting,” he said. He went on to explain that what we do while they are watching is more important than what we make them do. Also, as the cooks, we can help them along by finding tasty, albeit simple recipes that they enjoy. Try the book When You Fast: Recipes for Lenten Seasons by Catherine Mandell.
• Do put thought into managing the family calendar. During Lent, life relentlessly marches on with baseball playoff games, school plays, family weddings and birthday celebrations, and western Easter gatherings. We have to decide at the beginning of each Lenten week what to do, and what to forgo. In this, there are two temptations: to try to attend each and every service and live as if nothing else is happening, or to resign ourselves to not participating at all. With the former, we get after our kids if they complain about fasting and church attendance. With the latter, we end up ignoring the holy season because of our kids’ resistance or our own laziness. As always, we need to strive for balance.

Sister Magdalen reminds us in Children in the Church Today, being a wise parent “sometimes involves letting go temporarily of secondary aspects in order to concentrate on central things (faith, love, freedom, truth). We know that ‘secondary’ things contribute to the essentials, and we try to live in a way that makes this manifest, and to explain it to our young people. However, we may have to wait patiently while our children go through the experience of sorting out the central meaning of life for themselves.” This good counsel extends to all of the Lenten disciplines. Let’s go forward into this journey with enthusiasm, knowing that in due season we will “reap, if we faint not.”

Practical suggestions for observing Lent: 

• Attend an extra service each week, but be sensitive to the family schedule and the patience and endurance levels of each child.
• Volunteer during Lent and Holy Week for special activities—prosphora baking, egg dyeing, decorating the temple.
• Talk about it! After dinner, ask, why do we fast? Discuss the Sunday observance that’s upcoming.
• Pick an alms project, the more hands-on the better–perhaps your parish offers Lenten outreach opportunities, or your family can collect money in a jar for the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC).
• Put up this creative fridge poster: “My Lenten Journey;” it suggests one simple way to keep Lent during each of the 40 days.
• Read good books and listen to sacred music with your kids–try listening to Ancient Faith Radio, or ordering resources from SVS Press.
• Get off screens and go outdoors! Turn off the TV. Unhook cable. Hide the X-box. Instead, take family nature walks or plant a garden.

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Virginia Nieuwsma grew up in the Philippines with her missionary parents, and later graduated from evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois. Since 1981, she has worked in Christian media, both as an editor and writer, as well as a spokesperson for pro life organizations. Twenty two years ago she discovered Orthodoxy, and subsequently she edited Conciliar Press’ book, Our Heart’s True Home, and served as journal editor to The Handmaiden as well as Conciliar’s acquisitions editor. This reflection is used with the kind permission of Virginia Nieuwsma and the Antiochian Archdiocese.

The life of Fr. Matthew Baker is a triumph of Orthodoxy.

It is easy to doubt God’s Providence in taking away a young priest, newly installed in his first parish, a husband, and a father of seven (his youngest, Alexis, so recently taken from his mother and father in stillbirth).

It is tempting to question God’s Providence in taking from the Church one of the most brilliant theological minds of the twenty-first century at a time when the Church is very much in need of sound and sober, yet penetrating, teaching, in both the academic and the pastoral spheres.

It is, for me personally, difficult to see the hand of God’s Providence in taking from me my best and most intimate friend, the man who taught me what true friendship means by pouring himself out year after year after year in boundless dedication to every aspect of my spiritual well-being and human flourishing.

Yes, in all of this we are reminded – harshly – that God’s Providence is a mystery that cannot be grasped by the minds of men.

And yet: Fr. Matthew was taken from this life on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. And because of this seemingly small detail, there can be no doubt, no question, no difficulty in perceiving that God is at work here, that His Church will triumph still, that His Truth will prevail over all falsehood, darkness, distortion and exaggeration – all those evils against which Fr. Matthew fought, exhaustively, ruthlessly, and bluntly. And when Truth is triumphant, love is victorious. For Fr. Matthew love and truth were inseparable, distinguishable only in thought. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” When truth triumphs over falsehood, there love triumphs over coldness, mercy over suffering, and light over shadow. There life triumphs over death. Orthodoxy has triumphed! And this means, as Father Matthew would teach us, that Christ – the whole Christ, the totus Christus, Head and Body, the Savior and his Bride, holy Church – Christ has triumphed. He is triumphant over death, since He is the firstborn of the dead and the author of life. And in Him, the presbyter Matthew also is triumphant.

On each of the last two days of his earthly life, Christ’s faithful presbyter Matthew offered the Holy Liturgy, preached the Word of God and communed of the precious and and all-holy Body and Blood of Christ. He spent the last week of his life – the first week of Lent – in fasting and prayer, in the reading of Scripture, and in ministry and care to his new parishioners. Fr. Matthew grew an immense amount in the last year, but also in the last month, since becoming a parish priest, and even just in the last week, in which he entered into new depths of his priestly ministry. The Lord was truly preparing his servant for this moment of exodus on yesterday’s feast of triumph.

I am honored to say that Fr. Matthew spent the last evening of his life on the telephone with me, and while now I wish that some aspects of that conversation had been different, I am heartened to think that, among other things, we spoke of how the dead in Christ, while awaiting the resurrection and the final consummation of all things, are granted even now to partake of the light of Paradise.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me: “Write: Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” (Rev. 14:13)

Now Fr. Matthew rests from his many intense labors, and we who have been his friends and colleagues, who have known his vision, must continue in his labor, trusting that his works have indeed followed him into Paradise, but that they remain here with us as well, here in this vale of sorrow, and so here, we must work as ardently as he did for the Triumph of Truth over its many modern day enemies, for the Triumph of Christ. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Fr. Matthew, in Christ, is now seeing the triumph of Orthodoxy much sooner than he expected, this triumph for which he labored single-mindedly. He beholds the triumph of Christ and the triumph of His holy and spotless Bride, the Catholic and Apostolic Church whom he loved and served so ardently. Christ is risen! Let us be of good cheer, for Christ has overcome the world!

Forgive me if these words are uncouth. Let us also mourn – for death is real, and Fr. Matthew’s death is a horrific tragedy – but let us not mourn “as those who have no hope.” In our friend and brother, the presbyter Matthew, our dear and merciful Savior has given us much cause for hope.

He lived most of his life near the city of Providence, Rhode Island, and throughout their thirteen years of marriage, Fr. Matthew and Presbytera Katherine trusted fully that God would provide as they opened their hearts to the abundant gift of life, raising six children without ever having a steady income during Fr. Matthew’s many years of study. Now we have no doubt that God will indeed continue to provide for Fr. Matthew’s widow and children, as indeed God has provided so much for all of us through friendship with Fr. Matthew and Presbytera Katherine.

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This reflection was written by Fr. Herman (Majkrzak).

What appears to happen in the Passion of Christ and what actually happens are not at all the same. What appears to happen is not that extraordinary. The Romans crucified a Jewish man in order to keep public order. During their long rule over Judea, the Romans had killed many Jews, making the death of Jesus one among these many. But, only in appearance. The reality was very different. The Paschal homily attributed to St. John Chrysostom emphasizes this difference between appearance and reality. Chrysostom describes Christ’s encounter with Hades as follows:

Hades…was embittered when it encountered thee in the lower regions… It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen. Fooled by what appeared to be just another corpse, Hades was overthrown by an encounter with the Almighty God, as the Passion and Resurrection of Christ shook the foundations of the universe in the final acts of a cosmic drama. As we enter the Lenten season, we are reminded that we have a role in this universal, cosmic drama. Let’s reflect on the proper nature of our role by using the language of appearance and reality. For, it is easy to confuse our role, or to play the wrong role by focusing on our appearance rather than our reality. When Jesus chastises his opponents, he often calls them hypocrites for practicing their piety in public, and for drawing attention to themselves as they pray.

The word hypocrite, of course, is the Greek word for “actor.” They are trying to “act” pious and “act” charitable. Their focus is on their appearance in public. Jesus urges them instead “to go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt 6:6). Now, these things are not included in the Gospels so that we can ridicule the Pharisees whom Jesus criticizes. Indeed, they are written, not because we are unlike the Pharisees, but because we have the unfortunate potential to be just like them. The very things that are designed to make us more humble, the very acts of repentance and self-denial that are supposed to make us more open to God and more loving to one another can be used to make us more self-satisfied and more self-centered. But this is to focus on the appearance of holiness, and not its reality.

A wonderful little book called the Way of the Ascetics provides an important image for reflecting on real holiness. For, we may be inclined to think that, if we want to be humble, we must try to appear humble. We might, for instance, wear especially humble clothes or constantly adopt humble postures. But, this, too, can be a way of drawing attention to ourselves. The Way of the Ascetics has a lovely passage about real humility, however, emphasizing that the truly humble person doesn’t stand out as being more humble than others, and, indeed, doesn’t stand out at all. You may not even notice him because the goal of humility is precisely not to stand out. Real holiness has a way of making a person appear relatively normal, just like everyone else. As with the Passion of Christ, of course, this appearance of being usual and everyday is only on the surface.

A very helpful step in focusing on the inner drama of holiness is to avoid comparing ourselves with others, and the Church reminds us of this fact in various ways. On the 5th Sunday of Lent, for instance, we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt. She lived alone in the desert until she met St. Zosimas, who tells her story.

We wouldn’t know anything about St. Mary, however, if St. Zosimas had not encountered her in the desert. And St. Zosimas would not have been in the desert if his monastery had not observed the Lenten fast in a particular way. To keep the monks of his monastery from competing with one another, the monks retreated individually into the desert, in order to observe the fast separately. Their drama was internal and their only audience was God. This is a helpful model to imitate. A certain silence should accompany our fasting. While it will be helpful to encourage one another and support one another over the next forty days, it is also easy for this need for support to become something else. It’s easy to find ways to drop hints of our fasting regimen into casual conversations. We might even rationalize a good reason for doing so. But this is to risk making the fast into one more opportunity to put ourselves in the limelight and at center stage, and to undermine the real work of fasting, prayer and repentance that lie within the inner heart of Lent.

His scroll reads: “I have seen all the snares of the devil spread out on… [earth and I said with a sigh: ‘Who can pass these by?’ and I heard a voice saying to me: ‘Humble-mindedness.'”] Alphabetical Sayings (PPS trans.), Saying 7

The great ascetics of the early Church always navigated between the appearance and the reality of holiness. We are regularly told in the stories of the Desert Fathers that the monks of the Egyptian desert would hide their ascetical practices from visitors. They don’t make their guests fast with them, but prefer to show hospitality to whomever comes to see them. They feed them well and make them comfortable. The visitors, of course, are always surprised and suppose that these renowned monks are not really all that strenuous in their spiritual exercises. We are always told in the stories, however, what really happens, and how the ascetic only allows himself to appear unimpressive, because his greater concern is the care and comfort of his guests. Here we see the opposite of the hypocrites whom Christ admonishes. The appearance is allowed to be unspectacular, while the reality of generosity and holiness is profound. Let us, then, observe the fast in reality and not only in appearance, following these models of piety and especially the model of our Lord, whose strength was shown in weakness and whose apparent defeat in death led in reality to the victory of the Resurrection. “For, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6:5).

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George Parsenios, M.A. Duke University, M.Div. Holy Cross School of Theology, M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary and Professor of New Testament at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Used with the kind permission of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Department of Outreach and Evangelism.

A homily delivered in the Three Hierarchs Chapel at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on January 12th, 2015.

We all know the story of Saul of Tarsus.

When he set out on the road to Damascus, Saul knew exactly what he was doing. He was well trained, he was respected by his elders and he was extremely good at what he did. He was so zealous about his cause that he had gone to the high priest, and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any people there who were in error, he could arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem on trial.

But somewhere on that road, Saul heard a word.

A word that called him to repentance. A word that pierced his heart and brought him to his knees. The problem was that Saul’s faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not agree with his works.

And how easy is it for us to fall into the same trap?

As St. James says, faith without works is dead.

We might confess the Niceo-Constantinopolitan Creed, we may even sing it in a lovely melody, and we might confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior following every nuanced contour of the Chalcedonian definition. But if God brings someone into our lives that is poor, or angry, or struggling with addiction, and if we ask “Are you Orthodox?” but fail to offer mercy and compassion, or even a decent meal, then what does it profit us?

St. James says, “O foolish man…faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). To believe in God is not enough, for even the demons believe. The test of our faith, is what our faith inspires us to do. How do we treat our neighbor? This is how we are judged. Christ says that if I cause one of the least of our brothers or sisters to stumble, then it would be better for me to have a millstone hung around my neck  and be thrown into the sea.

If my hand causes me to sin, if it does the works of unrighteousness, or if my neighbor is in need, and my hand does nothing then cut it off.

If my foot causes me to sin, if it carries me to do the work of my own selfish ego, or if my neighbor is suffering and my foot is heavy with sloth, then cut it off.

If my eye causes me to sin, if I look upon my neighbor with lust, or greed, or condemnation, or if I look upon a person who is difficult to love, and my eye does not see the image of God, then I should pluck it out.

For, as Christ says, it is better to enter the Kingdom of God, maimed, lame and blind, than to burn in the unquenchable fire.

This is how we are judged.

Because whatever we do to the least of these our brethren we do to Christ himself. “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) This was the blinding word of Christ to Saul that zealous man of faith on the road to Damascus, and it is Christ’s word to us.

Now, there are a number of ways that Saul could have responded, he could have made excuses, “No, that’s not me, I don’t do that, you’ve got the wrong guy.” Or he could have blamed someone else, “No Lord, the woman you gave me, she made me do it.” Or he could have tried to run away, like Jonah who fled to Tarshish.

But Saul did none of these things. He made no excuse, he did not blame someone else, and he didn’t run away. Instead he heard the Word of the Lord, and that changed everything. And today, we who are called to teach and minister and serve in Christ’s Holy Church, we do the same thing.

Like Saul we fall to the ground in the dust of our sin, and weakness and mortality, and God lifts us up, refashions us and strengthens us to do His will. You see, when Christ talks about cutting off hands and feet or plucking out eyes, he’s not talking about self-mutilation, but rather our Lord is talking about putting off the old nature, and putting on the new man created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. For if Christ can cure a man of a withered hand, he can refashion hands that are withered by works of unrighteousness. If Christ can heal a lame man, and make him walk, he can renew and strengthen feet that are crippled by evil. If Christ can grant sight to a man born blind, he can renew the sight of one whose eyes cause him to sin.

In hearing the Word of God, on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus allowed God to perform radical surgery upon him.

The hands that once held the garments of those who killed St. Stephen, were renewed as hands that healed the downcast and forgotten with the power of the Holy Spirit.

The feet that once traveled the roads of vengeance and anger, were transformed into those that carried an apostle on missionary journeys, preaching the good news of salvation and the love of Jesus Christ.

The eyes that once saw only the unclean, the outsider and the unworthy, were refashioned into the eyes of St. Paul who saw brothers and sisters, created in the image and likeness of God, in need of kindness, mercy and God’s love.

On this day, as we receive the Broken Body and Spilled Blood of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our faith is renewed and our hands, feet and eyes—our whole being is transformed. So that we may do God’s will and become like God, showing mercy to those who are unkind, bringing hope to those in darkness, and offering ourselves even to the point of death.

Today Christ lives within us, and strengthens us to repent, cast off the old man, and be renewed to love God and love our neighbor.

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The Rev. Dr. J. Sergius Halvorsen (SVOTS ’96) received his M.Div. from St. Vladimir’s Seminary and completed his doctoral dissertation at Drew University in 2002. From 2000 to 2011 he taught at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell Connecticut, where he also served as Director of Distance Learning. He was ordained to the priesthood in February 2004, and currently serves on the faculty of SVOTS as Associate Professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric and Director of Field Education.

Some of the most famous members of this community are also perhaps some of its least remembered. Physically, they are silent and unmoving. Spiritually, they active here and throughout the world, and their written words resound like trumpets sounding from heaven, calling us to Jesus. Theirs are the loud voices in hearts, crying out and saying: “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15.)

And yet they can be visited in the chapel: John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and Gregory the Theologian; Basil Aleksandrovich Martysh; Ignatius of Antioch; the Great Martyr Panteleimon. Fragments of their relics, minute physical reminders of their spiritual presence, tiny conduits of Christ’s grace: every day the seminarian has the opportunity to venerate these small pieces of dead bodies and so encounter, and be confronted by, the life-giving presence of the saints.

Life-giving, indeed, for if Christ is the true Giver of Life, where else can we expect to find that life, apart from in his saints, those in whom he is wonderful, those with whom he shall abide always, even unto the end of the age (cf. Psalm 67:36 and Matthew 28:20)? Yes, as every Christian knows, we are an ecclesial organism, we expect to encounter Christ and serve him in our neighbor, in the community of the Church. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the Church beyond the chapel walls, and of our Christian brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, who have gone before us and who now intercede for us, those whose very blood cries out to God on behalf of the whole groaning creation.

For at least one seminarian, this time at St Vladimir’s has provided an opportunity to remember these forebears in the faith more than ever, both those who are physically present in their relics and those who are not. On the one hand, there are those I have venerated since before I came: Tikhon of Moscow, Seraphim of Vyritsa, Tikhon of Kaluga, Emperor Justinian, Tsar Nicholas, Alexander Nevsky, and of course my patron, John Chrysostom. But here at the seminary, not only have I deepened these relationships with God’s holy ones, but I also have formed new connections as well: some with popular saints like Luke of Simferopol, but others with more controversial saints like Peter Mogila, Cyril Loukaris, and Nicodemus the Hagiorite.

There are some of whom I had never heard before, such as Alexis of Zosima Hermitage, and then there are some to whom I had never paid sufficient attention, such as the Evangelists Matthew and Luke. And then there are the newly canonized saints: Elder Porphyrius is rightly known by all, but what of Bartholomew of Chichirin, canonized one week ago, and of the Righteous Dmitrii Gorskii and the Blessed Parasceva, glorified in October? May we each have their prayers.

Yes, the saints are there, in the chapel, in their reliquaries, ready to help and guide each of us, ready to be encountered. But they are also there whose relics we don’t have, whose bodies are long gone to dust. Indeed, a multitude of saints are present with us at every place and in every hour, if we open our spiritual eyes and turn to them in prayer. Sometimes they comfort us, and sometimes they confront us with our sins. But there is one constant, and that is he to whom they lead us, he whom they make present for us: none other than our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the Savior of us all. To him be glory forever. Amen.

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 John Max Mikitish is a second-year M.Div. student at St Vladimir’s Seminary and a member of Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church in New Haven, CT. Born in Alabama, he graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Russian and East European Studies. He will be married in January 2015, and his soon-to-be wife is also a Yale graduate and a member of the same parish.

His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon has awarded St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVOTS) Alumnus Very Rev. Michael Koblosh (’68) the miter in recognition of his decades of service to the Orthodox Church. Father Michael was elevated to the dignity of mitered archpriest during the Divine Liturgy Sunday, January 5, 2020 at the mission parish of All Saints of North America, Alexandria, VA.

Father Michael and his wife, Matushka Nadia, serve at All Saints and were integral to the beginning of the mission in 2008. They have also served in a number of other parishes including Holy Trinity in East Meadow, NY; Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church in Terryville, CT; Holy Ghost Church in Bridgeport, CT; Christ the Savior Mission in Southbury, CT; and St. Nicholas Church in Whitestone, NY. During his time in Connecticut, Fr. Michael was dean of the Connecticut Deanery.

“Together with your wife, Matushka Nadia, you have taken the talent that was nurtured in your heart, harnessed the wisdom that you and her, together with your children, have accumulated over your many years of service, and brought it to visible fruition in your work as missionary priest here in Alexandria,” said His Beatitude during the awarding of the miter. “Here, there have been many trials and difficulties as you strive to find a permanent place of worship for this community, and it is your wisdom as a pastor, your insight as a confessor, and your calm and peaceful demeanor that have, with God’s grace, brought this community to its present place of stability.”

Father Michael graduated from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in 1964 before pursuing a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree from St. Vladimir’s Seminary. He taught at St. Tikhon's in liturgical theology for many years during the 1970s.

• READ: “Orthodoxy is Not Here by Accident,” by Very Rev. Michael Koblosh

Also serving at the Divine Liturgy at All Saints January 5 was another SVOTS alumnus, Mitered Archpriest Michael Westerberg (’75), who was celebrating his 45th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.

Axios, and may God grant many years to Archpriest Michael and Matushka Nadia Koblosh and Archpriest Michael and Matushka Lydia Westerberg!

(*Much of the information and the photos for this article were provided by the Office of the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America.)

A homily delivered in the Three Hierarchs Chapel at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on the Sunday before Theophany, 2015.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Today is the fourth day of January. We’ve taken the first steps into 2015. This time of year is a season of beginnings. It is the beginning of a new year. Eleven days ago, we celebrated the Nativity of our Lord, the beginning of Christ’s sojourn on the earth, and on this Sunday the Church directs that we hear the first words of the Evangelist Mark: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk. 1:1).

And in beginning his Gospel, St. Mark starts us off with the fundamentals: Repentance and baptism. God’s messenger, John the Forerunner, appears before our faces, proclaiming “prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Mk. 1:3). It is the response that God desires of all people when confronted with the Good News: to repent, that is ‘to change one’s mind’, one’s perspective, one’s lifestyle, one’s habits, to change oneself from top to bottom. Repentance is a revolution of heart and a shocking rejection of the world not in a morbid way, but in a way that is centered on love of Christ, who has destroyed the old order of things.

We are able to do this by virtue of another fundamental: baptism. We are preparing for the celebration of Theophany in a couple days, the feast of Christ’s baptism at the hands of John. But the feast has another name, less well known now, and for centuries was called “The Feast of the Lights.” What better time for the Feast of the Lights then at a time of year when the sun sets early and the night is long?

The lights refer to a couple things, no doubt. We have lights in the church, candles and such, but more importantly for our consideration today, the lights are the newly-illumined: Christ shining in, and through, those who have just been baptized. It is a light of the soul and it is a light which must be tended as a fire is tended. These days, artificial light allows us to have light without heat but remember that at that time, there was no light without the burning sun or a burning flame.

And those of us whose baptism is old, who may not even remember our baptism, we are not exempt from the joy of the coming Feast of the Lights. Even if we have neglected our Christian calling, or are burnt out from church life, if our energy is spent from keeping faith in a culture that sees us as strange and irrelevant, if our love for our neighbor has been quenched by conflict with friend and family, or if our devotion to God has been smothered by the thousand problems in our lives, even with all this, we are unable to completely extinguish this light which Christ keeps smoldering in our souls, waiting for us to return again to the high calling of our baptism.

To tend that light we are called to “prepare the way of the Lord” by preparing our hearts. The Apostle Paul gives us a few ways to do this in today’s epistle: “Be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5).

Be watchful for all the things which you know will cause you to stumble. If you know that work pulls you away from your family, carve some time in your schedule which is theirs and theirs alone. Be watchful if Facebook tends to make you annoyed, angry, or worst of all, prideful. Put some distance between you and your computer screen and, better yet, pray. Take what is a passion and allow Christ to be victorious in you.

Endure afflictions with patience. When our lives are grim and dark and yet we still manage to let the words of the Righteous Job fall from our lips: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21), then even evil is made good, by His goodness.

Do the work of an evangelist, declaring the news, the news that is truly ‘good,’ through your sacrificial love to family, friends, co-workers at the office, classmates at school, that homeless man you see everyday, love for the acquaintance who lobbies for the opposite political party, for the bully who won’t leave you alone, for the guy who annoys you on the train, love for all whom God puts in our path.

Fulfill your ministry to your husband, wife, children, parents, friends, to your church. Fulfill your ministry out of gratitude for the One who died for you.

Doing all these things, especially when we don’t feel like it, when wrestling with ourselves is the last thing we want to do, stirs up the coals of faith, so when the Holy Spirit gently breathes over those glowing embers, a flame of love erupts to life.

According to the Apostle today, doing these things shows that we are among those “who have loved his appearing,” (2 Tim. 4:8) that is his ‘epiphany’, yet another name used for the upcoming feast. Being a light in a dark world, the hands and feet of our Lord, is a great reward. But having beheld the resurrection of Christ, we know that there is more to our God’s goodness and St. Paul assures us that there is a greater reward still, a “crown of righteousness” (2 Tim. 4:8) laid up for us who run the race and keep the faith. Crowns laid up for those who are part of the royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9).

As we, the Church, now prepare to call down the Holy Spirit upon us and upon the gifts which we will soon offer, we can do so in full expectation that the flame of love will be stirred in us, so that we may fulfill our baptismal calling, and start the year of the Lord two-thousand fifteen, with another new beginning, greeting the upcoming Theophany committed to the gospel through loving repentance, and becoming lights in a world which is in desperate need. Amen.

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The Rev. Kyle Parrott (SVOTS ’13) received his M.Div. from St. Vladimir’s Seminary and is currently completing a Masters of Theology at St. Vladimir’s. Father Kyle spent his early years in the Anglican church before becoming active in several Evangelical churches. His interest in missions led him to participate in short–term outreach in Grenada (in the Caribbean) and in Uruguay. The Parrotts’ daughter Sophia was born in 2011 at the beginning of Fr. Kyle’s studies. Matushka Leanne is a gifted photographer and has chronicled many events for the St. Vladimir’s Website.