Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Luke - Ecclesiastical Teaching (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Luke

Ecclesiastical Teaching

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

"The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11).

Beloved brethren,

The interpretative teaching of the Parable of the Sower and the declaration that the seed is the word of God, is one of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, which the disciples of this heavenly Kingdom deserved and deserve to know. This is the great value of preaching in the space of the church. It is a revelation and interpretation of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, to those who seek it. It is a real sacred work, a transforming power. This basic teaching will be interpreted below.

Elder Ieronymos of Aegina on the Empirical Prerequisites of an Effective Preacher

 Then the Elder [Ieronymos] turned to his other visitor:

"How are you? How is the spiritual life going?"

"Thank God, Elder, I'm trying. I was recently assigned to preach and I do not know what to do. What do you advise me?"

"Let me tell you. If your life is such that it is in agreement with what you teach and you are an example, then take the assignment. The saints experienced what they wrote and taught. And those who write or speak for the Holy Fathers, must have a similar life. Preaching is good. The hare is not as afraid of the thunder of heaven as the devil is of the preaching of the apostles. However, you should only teach what you yourself do.

1955 Encyclical of Saint Luke of Crimea (To Encourage Priests To Always Preach the Gospel Even Though They May Not Be Theologically Educated)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea

 

(1955 Encyclical) 

To Encourage Priests To Always Preach the Gospel 

Even Though They May Not Be Theologically Educated

 

If the priest seeks for the grace of God, if the mind and heart of the priest are filled with the words of God, then his mouth will speak from the heart.

The Holy Spirit who dwells in the heart of the priest, He will preach through the humble mouth of the priest…

There are so many subjects for sermons in Holy Scripture that one can easily find them if one reads them. But few read them…

Remember, brethren, also Saint Seraphim of Sarov, who read the whole of the New Testament every week.

But some do have a hard time preaching… What about them?

The Great Preacher

By Fr. Ephraim

Once an older priest went up to a remote village in order to comfort and support the weary. The village was perched on a cliff, a living painting, and there was a small church in the middle next to the fairytale-like stone houses. Behind the sanctuary of the church was the cemetery of the village with the oil lamps constantly lit uniting yesterday and today.

The old priest struck the bells of the church and the few villagers gathered to hear his comforting words, since their parts were at a distance and doomed to loneliness. Before the elder began to speak, the eyes of the villagers sparkled.

Saint Theodore the General as a Model for our Lives

Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Stratilatis (Feast Day - February 8)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Theodore the General lived during the reign of Licinius (late 3rd and early 4th century). He was from Euchaita in Galatia and lived in Heraclea near the Black Sea. He was an officer in the Roman army and was distinguished for his bravery. He had the gift of speech, which he used in the best way, since it was a tool that helped a lot in sowing the word of God. With the fiery missionary zeal that distinguished him he preached the word of God with boldness and courage and attracted many who were well-intentioned to the faith of Christ.

Saint Gregory the Theologian as a Model for our Lives

St. Gregory the Theologian (Feast Day - January 25)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Gregory the Theologian was from Nazianzus in Asia Minor. His mother Nonna was a pious Christian, while his father was initially a follower of the system of the Hypsistarians, which merged Jewish and Gentile religious elements, and in which the worship of the Most High God was combined with the worship of fire. His wife through prayer and daily persuasion succeeded in returning him to the Christian faith. He was baptized by bishops of the area and received the name Gregory. Shortly afterwards he was ordained Bishop of Nazianzus. Saint Gregory the Theologian likens his parents to Abraham and Sarah because they had three children at an advanced age - Gorgona, Gregory and Caesarius.

Saint Gregory was ordained Presbyter by his father and Bishop by his friend Basil. He was a great theologian. In hymnography he is mainly praised as "the utmost theological mind". The Church honored him by awarding him the title of "Theologian", which it has reserved for only three Saints. The other two are John the Evangelist and the venerable Symeon the New Theologian.

Saint Gregory was chosen to assume the leadership of the Church of Constantinople at a difficult time, during which the heretical Arians prevailed for forty years and the imperial court favored the heresy. There, despite great difficulties, his theological charisma shined, as well as the greatness of his soul. He delivered his famous homilies on theology and the small church in which he spoke and liturgized was called "Anastasia" ("Resurrection"), because he resurrected the divine word. Eventually, the Emperor Theodosius handed over the cathedral and the Second Ecumenical Synod elected him Archbishop of Constantinople. His enemies, however, raised the issue of canonical irregularity upon his election to the throne of Constantinople, because allegedly he held another office. The complaint, however, was not correct, because he was never settled in the city of Sasima. But to prevent schism within the Church, he departed Constantinople, after delivering a moving speech at the headquarters of the Synod, which revealed the splendor of his spiritual power. He said that if he was the cause of division, then let him be thrown into the sea like Jonah, that the storm may cease. And he retired to find "his friend quietude".

His life and writings give us the opportunity to highlight many and important things, but the narrowness of space allows us to mention the following:

First, Saint Gregory was a Theologian both by name and reality, because he had the personal knowledge and experience of God. His homilies, especially his festive discourses on the great Despotic Feasts, have theological content, because Orthodox preaching is simultaneously a catechism and an initiation into the mystery of theology. Orthodox theology is a way of life and helps man to be purified of his passions, that he may acquire personal communion with God, who is not only a higher power or an abstract idea, but a Person. Saint Gregory the Theologian, like all the Holy Fathers, nourished and nourishes the people of God with the teachings of Orthodox Theology, which offers solutions to the great existential problems.

Orthodox preaching today has been influenced, unfortunately, by foreign standards and secularism. Of course, there are exceptions, but one mostly hears sermons that are societal, moralistic, colorless and tasteless of Orthodox theology, leaving people untouched and untreated. The Holy Fathers, as pastors, certainly grappled with various social issues and problems, but they did so as Theologians. They reflected on the issues and proposed solutions from the perspective of Orthodox theology.

Second, we are in the first month of the year, and as is known, we tend to wish each other "many years". And we do this because we love life and want to live as much as possible. Nobody wants death because we weren't created to die, but to live eternally. Death is something foreign and an intruder in our lives. It is a result of sin, the misuse of freedom, and disobedience to God's will. Human life has a higher purpose and thus is of great importance and value. It is worth reflecting on the value and purpose of human life through the theology of Saint Gregory. The Saint will tell us that man is "an animal residing here but transferring elsewhere, and the end of this mystery is to move towards God." In other words, man is not made for the herein, but for eternity. In this life, by economy, we live, breathe, eat, drink, work, become a monastic, get married, etc., but the purpose of our life is something else. It is deification, namely communion with the Holy Triune God. Our true citizenship is not here, but elsewhere. It is the Kingdom of the Holy Triune God. We live here, but we are transferring elsewhere, that we may become citizens in heaven.

It is worth rejoicing in Orthodox theology, which offers solutions to our daily problems, and helps us overcome the herein, namely death and the enjoyment of life, not just for "many years", but for eternity.

Source: Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, "ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΣ Ο ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΣ", January 2004. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Holy Apostle Timothy as a Model for our Lives

St. Timothy the Apostle (Feast Day - January 22)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

The Apostle Timothy was a disciple of the Apostle Paul. He was born in Lystra of Lycaonia of a Greek father and Judean mother. Very early on his father departed this temporary life and Saint Timothy grew up with his mother Eunice and his grandmother Loida, who raised him with the pure milk of faith and taught him from his childhood to pray and study the word of God. When the Apostle Paul passed through Lystra he acknowledged the spiritual gifts of the young Timothy and saw him as a worthy missionary worker. He took him on his second apostolic journey and later placed him in Ephesus, to shepherd the flock of that Local Church as its Bishop. The Apostle Paul sent him two epistles, which can be found in the New Testament. They are wonderful texts of advice which should be studied by all believers, but especially by spiritual shepherds.

After the martyric end of the Apostle Paul in Rome, the Apostle Timothy continued his pastoral work in Ephesus until his own martyric end. According to tradition, he was martyred by angry pagans because he criticized their orgies during a series of celebrations of Artemis in Ephesus.

In his two epistles to Saint Timothy, the Apostle Paul gives him advice for his personal advancement, but also for the advancement of his flock. He writes among other things:

- "...nourished on the words of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed" (1 Tim. 4:6).

He teaches him to be nourished on the words of the faith and the good teaching which he has followed, that he may hence be in a position to nourish as a good shepherd his reasonable flock.

The word of God is truly spiritual food that sustains and strengthens while relaxing and comforting man, but it is also living spiritual water that cools and quenches the thirst of the soul. Of course, this is when it is transmitted clearly and without distortion, because today, like it was in the time of the Apostle Timothy, and as it is in every era, heretics exist who distort the faith and with spiritual food they offer spiritual poison.

In today's age of overconsumption human societies are plagued mainly by spiritual hunger. Although many spiritual books are currently circulating and many sermons heard, in almost every part of the earth, spiritual hunger still exists: "There will be a famine of hearing the word of the Lord" (Amos 8:11). On the one hand because the majority of people unfortunately do not study, a fact of which many factors are responsible, such as television, the loosening of morals, indifference to spiritual life because of the abundance of material goods, etc. On the other hand, because most of the time, even where there abound books and sermons, that which is offered as the word of God and spiritual food is nothing but a theology of the passions. Namely, passionate human words that do not have the power to comfort, support and cause regeneration in people.

We live in an age where secularism has taken dangerous proportions and devours the marrow of Orthodox theology and life. Many sermons are, alas, colorless, odorless, tasteless and anything but the word of God. Also, words about God are one thing, but the word of God is another, the latter being the fruit of experience and the vision of God. And if the preacher of divine words does not have much personal experience and expertise, then he has the ability to "exploit" the experience and expertise of the God-seeing Saints, and he must do this and not offer his own thoughts and reflections, because there is the possibility of making serious mistakes. And certainly no one has the right to play with their own salvation, as well as the salvation of others. "So it is necessary to emphasize how it is possible for anyone to carry out the purpose of their life and obtain their salvation, in what way and by what method they should follow" (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos).

- "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7).

He urges the Apostle Timothy to rekindle the flame of the gift of God, given to him by the laying on of hands of the Apostle Paul, because God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but power and love and soundness of mind.

There is a widespread impression among many people that all those who struggle to experience God's will in their lives are timid, antisocial, cut off from society, losers of life who are without the strength to cope with everyday life and its problems. But what takes place is quite the contrary, because one needs to have at their disposal great bravery, inner strength and spiritual manliness to renounce one's own will, to live in obedience to the will of God, and to live with virginity, purity and soundness of mind in the difficult and adverse conditions of the world, whether it be in marriage or as an ascetic in the desert with voluntary deprivation, with asceticism and prayer, far from beloved faces, "alone except for God". "To pray for the entire world is like spilling blood" (Saint Silouan the Athonite).

Those who have learned to feed on the pure milk of the faith from the living breast of the Church rather than spoiled substitutes, will acquire spiritual antibodies, spiritual health, courage, valor and true manliness.

Source: Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, "ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΟΣ ΤΙΜΟΘΕΟΣ", January 2005. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Saints Xanthippe and Polyxene as Models for our Lives

Sts. Xanthippe and Polyxene (Feast Day - September 23)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saints Xanthippe and Polyxene were sisters according to the flesh. They were from Spain and lived in the first century during the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.). Both sought the true faith which would bring meaning to their lives, and it pleased God for them to come to known it and then strive with all their strength to disseminate it.

Xanthippe was the wife of Probus, the ruler of the country. She was led to faith in Christ with her husband by the Apostle Paul, when he was in their country. Polyxene was a virgin and before her baptism she was tried by a great temptation. A certain libidinous man attempted to corrupt her, but the Grace of God preserved her and she remained unharmed. After this her desire grew to search for the true God which caused her to move from place to place. God made her worthy to hear the preaching of the Apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip. She became a disciple of the Apostle Andrew, who baptized her together with Rebecca, her friend and companion on her journey. After her baptism she returned to Spain, together with the Apostle Onesimus and Rebecca, and lived there the remainder of her life. The two sisters, Xanthippe and Polyxene, by divine zeal as genuine disciples of the holy Apostles, preached the true faith and led many well-intentioned to salvation. Although they lived in a time when members of the Church were persecuted and killed after cruel and inhuman torture, it pleased God for both of them to complete their lives in peace, at an advanced age.

Their life and times give us the opportunity to highlight the following:

Preaching the word of God is necessary because, when done the right way, it helps people to believe. Saint Gregory Palamas, interpreting the Gospel passage that mentions the healing of the paralytic - who was lowered with ropes before Christ after the roof of a house was destroyed - says that in order for people to believe they must first hear the word of God, which is why Christ "spoke unto them the word".

For the word of God to take hold and bear fruit in the souls of the listeners it must fall on fertile ground, "beautiful and good land", since there are many people who like to hear the word of God, but few people who strive to apply it in their lives. This is because, as Saint Gregory Palamas says: "All love to hear and to see, but not all are lovers of God." That is, everybody likes to hear and see things, but, unfortunately, few have a love for virtue, which is why there are few who hold within their hearts the word and strive to make it an experience and way of life. Characteristic is the phrase of Christ, which He repeated numerous times to the listeners of His words: "They who have ears to hear, hear." That is, whoever has their ears open, especially the ears of their soul, let them hear, that they may obey and apply what I say.

Fruition, however, does not only depend upon the earth, but also on the quality of the seed. In other words, the fruition of the word of God in the hearts of people does not only depend on the listeners, but also on the preachers of the word of God. The first, as mentioned, should have the desire to apply what they hear in their lives, but the latter should try to offer the people the word of God in a pure and unadulterated manner, as the Orthodox Church has experienced it and taught it through her Holy Fathers. Also, before the sermon they should pray for themselves, as well as for their listeners, whom they should primarily teach and inspire with their example. This means that whatever they teach they should first strive to apply this within their own lives, since, as Saint Seraphim of Sarov says, the greatest missionaries are those in whom is "the intensity of prayer and example". But the listeners should also pray together for the preachers of the Divine word, that God may enlighten them to correctly teach the word of His truth, and then for themselves, that Christ may open their mind "to be presented with the scriptures".

In our days we hear many sermons, but from what it seems by the results, few are those which touch the hearts of people and lead them to repentance and spiritual regeneration. Perhaps this is because they are reflections and pious thoughts, which are the words of men, and do not have the power to comfort, support and regenerate man. Indeed, sometimes, because in human words there are energies of the passions, they cause the opposite effect, that is, they cause confusion, agitation and sometimes despair. Rather, the word of God regenerates, heals, comforts and gives meaning to life, since "it is a living, active and sharp double-edged sword, penetrating deeply... discerning thoughts and the intentions of hearts." Once they told Christ, as He was teaching the people, that His Mother and brothers (the children of Joseph) were asking for Him. He, pointing His hand to His disciples, said: "Behold my mother and my brothers." He then added: "They who do the will of My Father Who is in the Heavens, they will be My brother, sister, mother."

It is truly an honor and blessing for all of us to be worthy to become mothers and brethren of Christ. It depends on us.

Source: Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, "Άγιες Ξανθίππη καί Πολυξένη", August 2013. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.