Vladika's Homilies

[Julianna]

Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
The Sunday of the Holy Fathers.

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Titus [§ mid 302 A]: Child Titus:

     3  8Faithful is the word. And concerning these things I desire thee to be affirming, in order that they who have believed God may give heed to set before themselves good works. These things are good and profitable to men. 9But be shunning foolish inquiries, and genealogies, and strifes, and contentions relating to points of the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. 10A heretical man, after a first and second admonition, be rejecting, 11knowing that such a one hath been perverted, and sinneth, being self-condemned.

     12Whenever I should send Artemas to thee, or Tychikos, hasten to come to me in Nicopolis, for I have decided to winter there. 13Send forth with haste Zenas the lawyer and Apollos, in order that nothing may be lacking to them. 14And let ours also be learning to set before themselves good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.

     15All those with me salute thee. Greet those who love us in faith.
     Grace be with you all. Amen.
 
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 11]. The Lord said to His disciples:

     5  14"Ye are the light of the world. A city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid. 15"Nor do they light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lampstand, and it giveth light to all those in the house. 16"Thus, let your light shine before men, that they might see your good works, and might glorify your Father Who is in the heavens.

     17"Do not begin to think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish, but to fulfill. 18"For verily I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall have passed away, one iota or one tittle in no wise shall pass away from the law, until all shall have taken place.

19"Whosoever then shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever shall do and teach them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens."
 
     Dear Faithful, since we are about to leave on a trip, instead of the sermon from myself, we are including a sermon from the great Abba of abbas, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky).
 
The First Ecumenical Council by Blessed Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky)
 
The First Ecumenical Council [held in 325 A.D. in Nicea] was the first not only in time, but in the sacred authority which it has gained and in its significance for the true faith and the Church The subsequent Councils recognized this primacy, as did the holy Fathers of the Church, and especially our holy hymnographers whose works became part of our divine services.

Three services were composed in honor of the Ecumenical Councils and are celebrated on the following Sundays: for the First Council. on the sixth Sunday after Pascha; for the first six Councils: on the Sunday falling closest to the 16th of July; and for the Seventh Council (which the service recognizes as the final and concluding council): on the Sunday following the 11th of October. However, these three services, those similar to them (on the Sunday of Orthodoxy - which is directed against the iconoclasts and falls on the first Sunday of Great Lent - and the services of the 18th of January and the 2nd of May, dedicated to St. Athanasius the Great), glorify primarily the First Ecumenical Council and inveigh against the irreverent Arius.

The fathers of the First Ecumenical Council are revered in the mind of the Church pre-eminently for their sanctity and power to work miracles, while St. Athanasius, who as the main champion of the doc trine of the Trinity and the God-manhood of Christ, is termed the thirteenth Apostle (in the sixth ode of the canon), which subsequently was assumed as a title by his successors to the throne of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. In addition, all the fathers of this Council are commemorated as a whole; especially Osios of Cordoba (probably the presiding bishop at the Council), Nicholas the Wonderworker, Eustathius of Antioch, Paphnutius the Confessor, Spyridon of Trymiphon, the Wonderworker, and others.

The Emperor and Equal of the Apostles, Constantine, is equally lauded with them, for it was he who decided to assemble the episcopal 4*'pastors from the entire civilized world for the first time since the days of Christ and the apostles. He refrained from any misuse of his power, for he took a position at the Council only "at the behest" of the fathers and, as the Synaxarion of the Triodion states, "he sat not upon a royal throne, but upon a seat of little note."

In extolling the First Council and its participants over the other Councils, the Church all the more firmly smites and condemns Arius above the other heretics.

We are all familiar with the depiction of the holy hierarch Peter of Alexandria, who lived a few decades after the Council, in which with a  sorrowful expression he lifts his hands toward the Divine Child Who is depicted with torn clothing. The message of this representation and the point of his exclamation is made clear by the verse which is sung to a special melody at all the feasts dedicated to the commemoration of the Councils:

"'Who, O Saviour, hath rent Thy raiment?' 'Arius,' hast Thou said" .' - thus the Lord replies to the grieved inquiry of the hierarch - " 'Arius,' hast Thou said, who hath severed the co-honored principle by division: this person hath denied that Thou art one of the Trinity, this , person and Nestorius teach one not to say, 'Theotokos.' But the Council which is in Nicea proclaims Thee to be the Son of God, O Lord, co-enthroned with the Father and the Spirit."

In the canon of the feast of the Holy Fathers, Arius is constantly compared to Judas and in the depictions of hell he is shown seated on the knees of Satan. As with the majority of heretics, he was not simply a erring thinker, but a cunning and malicious enemy of Christ, deceptive and clever, and, as with the majority of heretics who resembled him, he strove to spread his false teaching by means of court intrigues and slander of the defenders of the truth; as a result, St. Athanasius was subjected to twelve exiles and St. Constantine almost fell into heretical error. The right-believing emperor, at the very least, believed that Arius had repented and convinced the Patriarch of Constantinople, St. Metrophanes, to receive him back into communion with the Church, but the Lord prevented this from being realized. On the way to church Arius fell ill of intestinal disorder and, after he went to a concealed spot, his bowels were torn open, just as those of the hanged Judas (Act! s 1:18). Let us now turn our attention to St. Athanasius again before saying a few words about the significance of the First Council for the Christian Church. In the canon for his feastday it is said that St. Athanasius "attracted all to himself like a magnet" and the saint is addressed with the following words: "In the fire of thy doctrines every kindling is consumed, O most glorious one; in the depths of thy wisdom the unsubmissive and impious army is drowned, O Athanasius the venerable" (verses for the lauds).

Thus, having noted the witness of the Church concerning the great and sacred significance of the First Ecumenical Council and its main participants, it behooves us to state precisely what is the significance of this Council both in regard to the confirmation of the Church and ecclesiastical order and in regard to the content of our holy Faith.

Until the First Council, the Church did not have an unquestioned external authority. True, she was sacred in the minds of all Christians. In all the most ancient Symbols of Faith (creeds), which permitted various definitions of the most important doctrines concerning the essence of God and the Holy Trinity, we encounter also without fail the doctrine of the Holy Church as the preserver of truth and as the conjoining of the heavenly world with that of the earth; we know also of the faith placed by Christian teachers and all Christians in Tradition (common to the entire Church), as an infallible guide in the faith and as an interpreter of the Holy Bible. But in order to consult such a Tradition it was necessary to travel to the most ancient Apostolic Churches, as St. Irenaeus of Lyons teaches, this being attainable only for the few, and the means for making such an inquiry, especially with the presence of established heresies, was extremely difficult. The Sacred Scripture! s, on the other hand, which the Protestants consider to be (in the majority, without sincerity) the sole guide for the true faith, made possible not only purely dogmatic errors, but errors in the realm of ethical principles (for example, those of the Manicheans, the Gnostics, and their like). The concept of an Ecumenical Council, as the infallible interpreter of the word of God, of the doctrines, and of the commandments, was as yet unknown to the ordinary Christian. This is why the First Council referred to itself only as Holy and Great, while the term "ecumenical" (universal) became part of the Christian mind only later. The existence of such a Council, brought into being by the divinely enlightened Constantine while still unbaptized and only a catechumen Christian (cf. VI:95, where catechumens are referred to as Christians), was a kind of revelation, establishing forever the path for the perception of truths which were not fully apparent from the Holy Scriptures! . It is no accident that medieval writers said of the Bible: this is a book in which each can seek and find his own private dogmas ("Hic liber est in quo quaerit sua dogmata quisque invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua").

Thus, the greatest and the incomparable merit of the First Ecumenical Council lies in the fact that it manifested to all the highest instance of ecclesiastical authority and was the tribunal preceptor of the Faith.

Of course, who is ignorant of the fact that the authority granted to this tribunal was not universally submitted to, and indeed, not everyone submitted to the doctrines of even the Gospel; who is ignorant of the fact that opposition to the dogmas concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ and, in particular, the authority of the Nicean Council, was stubborn and cunning, especially in the first fifty years. Nevertheless, sincere people received once and for all an infallible witness to the truth which could authorize the very contents of the Bible and the true interpretation of its doctrines and commandments, even as the Church proclaims on the Sunday of the 318 God-bearing Fathers of Nicea: "The apostolic proclamation and doctrines of the fathers impressed one Faith upon the Church." And in the service for the Three Hierarchs on January 30 the Church expresses it in this manner, "By the word of understanding do you compose the doctrines, by which formerly th! e simple words of the fishermen overturned the mind through the power of the Spirit: for thus it behooves us to acquire the simple content of our Faith."

Such is the significance of the First Ecumenical Council and the Symbol of the Faith it initiated, for which the Church particularly extols this Council in her sacred hymnody.

Now we may ask just which truths of the Faith did this Council set forth, or, more precisely, confirmed for the Holy Church? And how much need was there for the confirmation and explication of these truths? Let us answer the second question first. All are aware how stubborn and persistent were the false teachings concerning the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, beginning with the Ebionites and the Docetics who were contemporaries of the holy apostles (I Jn. 4:3; II Jn. 10; Heb. 14:2-14).

And thus although a conscientious and dispassionate study of the Gospels and epistles convinces us beyond a shadow of a doubt that the First Council only confirmed what is revealed to us about the Trinity and the Son of God in the Sacred Scriptures. Nevertheless, history has proven how many children of the Church and even ecclesiastical pastors were unprepared for the acceptance of these elucidations which are unquestionable for a disinterested reader of the New Testament. Perfectly disinterested and unprejudiced interpreters of Holy Writ are few. Had they all been perceptive and dispassionate, Orthodoxy would have remained undisturbed and without councils. Prejudice and cunning partisanship are the primary causes of all the heresies and of unbelief. This is why the evil characteristics of the human soul armed themselves with every weapon available against the decisions of the Nicean Council. Protestants of various types quibbled with exceptional stubbornness (and forem! ost among them were many authoritative bishops) with the word "co-essential" by hypocritically pointing out that this word was not of Biblical origin. The reason why this latter term was so precious to the younger contemporaries of the Council is explained through the mouth of St. Basil the Great. He affirmed that they were ready to offer their souls for this word, for even one "iota," in accordance with the behest of the Saviour (Matt. 5:18), for upon this iota hung Orthodoxy itself. The fact of the matter is that only a single iota in Greek (the Greek letter "i") distinguishes homoousios "co-essential" ("of one and the same essence") from homoiousios "of like essence," which was the term used by the Arians to refer to the Son of God. Of course, at that time both the Orthodox and the Arians regarded the Gospel with such esteem that they could never utter - as do some of our contemporaries led by the nihili! sts - such an absurdity which one continually hears from frivolous peo ple: "I respect Jesus Christ, but not as a Son of God, but only as a great man." There did not exist at that time the general ignorance and shoddiness in regard to the Holy Scripture which now blinds people confronted with the dilemma: "Jesus Christ was either the Son of God and God, or a miserable fraud, who pretended to be the Son of God." Thus Arius and his followers, although they rejected the co-essentiality of the Son with the Father and thus His divine qualities, did not dare to regard Him as merely an ordinary man, as Strauss, Renan, Tolstoy, and those like them did, but considered Him to be the first-created of the angels, incarnate of the Holy Virgin, suffering, risen, and ascended into heaven and intending to return to earth to judge the living and the dead. The Arians believed in the Holy Gospel (after a certain manner); they were many times-over closer to Christ and to God than the above-mentioned ignoramuses, who are nothing more than atheis! ts. For them the Symbol of Faith and the Holy Gospel do not exist, but they did for those who desired to change only a single letter.

But was the struggle for one word on the part of the Ecumenical Council not a vain one? Note how our historians rail against the Old Believers, accusing them of the fact that for one "az" they were ready to sacrifice their lives; and here not even an "az" is at issue, but a little iota. Did St. Basil the Great not struggle in vain, and before him the 318 Fathers of the Council? Or, to put it another way: What are the ethical values which are granted to the human race through the absence of this iota and what ethical deprivations threaten us with its introduction into the Symbol of Faith ("co-essential": homoousios; and "of like essence": homoiousios). We gave a detailed reply to this question more than thirty years ago in the Theological Messenger, contained in the Complete Collected Works, volume II. These articles were translated into French and German (The Moral Idea of Christian Dogmas) and were published in St. ! Petersburg. There separate articles were devoted to the ethical concepts of the dogmas concerning the Trinity, God-manhood, the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, the Church, and others. Here we will say a few words only concerning the dogma of co-essentiality, although the First Ecumenical Council was also closely connected with the dogma of the Trinity.

In opposition to the Orthodox doctrine of co-essentiality, the teachers of the "like-essence" doctrine numbered the Son of God among the ranks of the created and in this way made Him a part of the world, as are all human beings and even the angels - and, in addition, apart of the earthly world, since He took on flesh; and if at the same time He had not remained God, then He would be some sort of being characteristic of the world, like the rest of creation, even ,though He may have been personally sinless. In actuality, being the True God, by entering the world He established a new world order, with which, of course, the created and fallen world immediately entered into conflict. Consider the remarkable words of the Apostle John: "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I Jn. 4:4); and the similar statement made by the Lord Himself in the Gospel (Jn. 10:28-29). These words would be inappropriate if the universe were of a higher or! der than Christ or equal to Him. "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world ... Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? ... And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." (I Jn. 5:4-5, 19).

The words "the world lieth in wickedness" refer not only to the evil which predominates in the life of society, but also to the fact that evil has entered the very nature of the universe, every living thing that exists on earth, as well as the fallen angels. The struggle for existence is conjoined with malice and vindictiveness; such is the lot of human relationships and of all created beings in general. Inherent to the human soul are pride, self-love, and sensuality, or - in the words of the Evangelist - "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (I Jn. 2:16). Therefore the favorite and confidant of Christ says to Christians in the same epistle: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 Jn. 2:15). The follower of Christ contests with the world and fights against himself, having inherited worldly, sinful corruption; he batt! les against nature, and he struggles against history. In the world he finds for himself no support that is stronger than the world; it is to be found only in God, and God, Who was incarnate in the world, abides in the Christian (Jn. 15:1-7). Read these comforting words of the Son of God to God the Father: "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me" (Jn. 17:23; cf. Rom. 15:45-50). These exalted and compassionate words would be meaningless if Christ, in Whom Christianity abides, were not True God, but only a part of the world which is hostile to Christians (Jn. 15:18-20). This is why the victory of the First Ecumenical Council over the Arians was the victory over the world of the way of Christ and of holiness which Christ bestowed. By not allowing the hateful iota into the Symbol of Faith, so-called moral relativism and ethical conditionality (that i! s, ethical indifference) were prevented from entering Christian life a nd thought. Otherwise, there would have been a nullification of the commandments of Christ and of Christian asceticism and martyrdom [i.e., If Christ were not truly and fully God, but only one of our fellow-creatures, then we would have no sure and undoubtable strength and support to rely upon and, through Him, overcome the world; consequently, the Christian could say that fulfilling Christ's commandments is impossible, since no one has the strength to overcome the whole hostile world.].

Let us not forget what a great event in the history of the salvation of the human race the First Ecumenical Council was, for it confirmed unswervingly the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the no less salvific doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity.

Translated by Timothy Fisher from: Tserkovnya Vedomosti, No. 9 & 10, May, 1925, pp. 14-17.
 
Monastery News:

We will be away from the Monastery on an iconography job in Canada. We will try to have a sermon for next week; however, we cannot guarantee it. Please keep us in your prayers, as we will be very high up on scaffolding.
 
This past week the slab was poured, glory to God. For those who have a knowledge of concrete, we poured seventy-two yards. It took twenty men eight hours for the pour. It took nine cement trucks and a pump truck. This was the major portion of the cement work. The electrical, the plumbing, and the water supply line are now buried in cement. The building is scheduled to arrive in the first week of August. We have never erected a steel building, but it can't be that difficult. J
 
Please pray for:
 
     Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine.
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.

[Julianna]

July 21/August 3, 2003
Beloved Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
The reading is from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans.
15     1We then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2For let each of us be pleasing his neighbor for the good, toward building up. 3For even the Christ pleased not Himself; but even as it hath been written: "The reproaches of those who reproach Thee are fallen on Me." 4For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our instruction, in order that we through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures may be having hope. 5Now may the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded among one another according to Christ Jesus, 6that with one accord and with one mouth ye may be glorifying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Wherefore, be receivin! g one another, even as also the C hrist Himself received us to the glory of God.
 
The reading is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew.
9     27And when Jesus passed by from that place, two blind men followed Him, crying and saying, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 28And after He came into the house, the blind men came to Him; and Jesus saith to them, "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" They say to Him, "Yes, Lord." 29Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your ! faith, let it be to you." 30And their eyes were opened. And Jesus earnestly admonished them, saying, "See to it, let no one know it." 31But they, after they went out, made Him known in all that land. 32And as they went out, behold, they brought to Him a mute man possessed by a demon. 33And after the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the crowds marvelled, saying, "It was never so seen in Isra el." 34But the Pharisees were saying, "He casteth out the demons by the ruler of the demons."
     35And Jesus was going about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every bodily weakness among the people.
 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
As we only just arrived back home, we are supplying you with a short sermon from St. Dorotheos of Gaza, instead of one of our sermons.
 
St. Dorotheos of Gaza, "On Conscience":
 
     WHEN GOD CREATED man, he breathed into him something divine, as it were a hot and bright spark added to reason, which lit up the mind and showed him the difference between right and wrong. This is called the conscience, which is the law of his nature. This is compared to the well which Jacob dug, as the Fathers say, and which the Philistines filled up. [cf. Genesis 26:15] That is, to this law of conscience adhered the patriarchs and all the holy men of old before the written law, and they were pleasing to God. But when this law was buried and trodden underfoot by men through the onset of sin, we needed a written law, we needed the holy prophets, we needed the instruction of our Master, Jesus Christ, to reveal it and raise it up and bring to life through the observance of the Commandments that buried spark. It is in our power either to bury it again or, if we obey it, to allow it to shine and illuminate us. When our conscience says to us, ! do this!' and we despise it and it speaks again and we do not do it but continue to despise it, at last we bury it and it is no longer able to speak clearly to us from the depths where we have laid it. But like a lamp shining on a damaged mirror, it reflects things dimly and darkly, just as you cannot see the reflection of your face in muddy water. We are found unable to perceive what our conscience says to us so that we think we have hardly any conscience. No one is without a conscience, since it is something divinely implanted in us, as we have already said, and it can never be destroyed. It always patiently reminds us of our duties, but sometimes we do not perceive that we are despising it and treading it underfoot. This is why the prophet bewails Ephraim and says, 'Ephraim prevails against his adversary and treads down judgment.' [Hosea 10:11] The adversary here isconscience.' Here the Gospel says, Come to an agreement with your adversary while you are on t! he way with him, lest he deliver you to the judge and the judge to the warders and they put you in chains. Amen, I say to you, you shall not leave the place until you have paid the last farthing.' [Mt. 5:25-26] Why does he call conscience the adversary? It is called the adversary because it always opposes our evil desires and tells what we ought to do and we do not, or what we ought not to do and we do; and it accuses us, and so conscience is called our adversary, and Our Lord admonishes,Come to an agreement with your adversary while you are on the way;' for the `way' as St Basil says, is this world. [Hom. in Ps. I; PG 29:200-21]

     Let us be zealous, brothers, to guard our conscience for as long as we are in this world and not to neglect its promptings in anything. And let us not tread it under foot even in the least thing, for you can see that from the smallest things, which of their nature are worth little, we come to despise the great things. When we begin to say, What is it if I say just these few words? What does it matter if I eat this morsel? What difference if I poke my nose in here or there? From this way of saying,What does this or that matter?' a man takes evil and bitter nourishment and begins presently to despise greater and more serious things and even to tread down his own conscience and so, at last destroying it, bit by bit, he falls into danger and finally becomes completely impervious to the light of conscience.

     Therefore, brothers, see to it that we do not neglect little things; see to it that we do not despise them as of no account. There are no little things'-for when it is a question of bad habits, it is a question of a malignant ulcer.  Let us live circumspectly, let us give heed to trivial matters when they are trivial, lest they become grave. Doing what is right and what is wrong: both begin from small things and advance to what is great, either good or evil. Therefore Our Lord warns us to take account of our conscience as one giving evidence of his own experience and sayingBe careful, simpleton, see what you are doing, come to an agreement with your adversary while yet on the road' and he shows the danger to be feared: Lest he deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the executioner and he throw you into prison.' And what else?Amen, I tell you, he shall not go from there until he has paid the last farthing.' [Mt. 5:26] C! onscience then warns us, as I said, about what is good or what is bad and shows us what to do and what not to do, and in the world to come it will accuse us. Therefore it says, `Lest he deliver you to the judge...' etc.

     In attending to our conscience, we need to consider many different factors. A man needs to satisfy his conscience towards God, towards his neighbor, and towards material things. As regards God: he must not despise God's precepts, even those concerning things which are not seen by men or those things for which one is not accountable to men. A man should obey his conscience in relation to God; for example, did he neglect his prayer? If an evil thought came into his heart, was he vigilant and did he keep control of himself or did he entertain it? He sees his neighbor saying something or doing something; does he suspect it's evil and condemn him? To put it simply, all the hidden things that happen inside us, things which no one sees except God and our conscience, we need to take account of. This is what I mean by our conscience towards God.

     To respect our conscience towards our neighbor means not to do anything that we think may trouble or harm our neighbor in deed, or word, or gesture, or look. For there are gestures, as I very often tell you, which hurt our neighbors and there are looks capable of wounding him and, to speak plainly, whatever a man does readily, knowing it gives his neighbor a bad thought stains his own conscience because it means that he is ready to harm or trouble his neighbor-and this is the sort of thing I mean by keeping a good conscience towards our neighbor.

     As regards keeping a good conscience in respect of material things: not to use things badly, not to render things useless, not to leave things about, and when we find things left about not to leave them even if they are of small value, but to pick them up and put them in their proper place. Not to be slovenly about our clothes or wear them out too quickly: for example, when one can wear a shirt a week or two, to want to wash it every day and so by constant washing wear it out too quickly and always be asking for new. These things are against the conscience. Similarly about the bed, often when one can make do with a small mattress, one asks for a large one; and when one has a blanket, one wants to exchange it for a new one or a better one for the sake of prestige or from mere thoughtlessness. Or where a rush mat is adequate one asks for a carpet and is quick to protest unless one gets it; or one approaches one of the brethren and says, `Why has! so-and-so got such a thing and I haven't?' Such a man is not on the right road. Or a man hangs his tunic or blanket in the sun and through negligence leaves it there to spoil-this is all against the conscience. It is the same about food: a man is perfectly able to satisfy the needs of his body with bread, vegetables, and few olives, but he gives up doing so and seeks something more tasty and more expensive-all this is against the conscience.

     The Fathers tell us that a monk ought not to give his conscience occasion to reproach him about anything at all. [Apo Agathon 2; PG 65:109] It is necessary, therefore, brothers, to keep watch over ourselves always and to keep ourselves away from all these things lest we fall into danger. For Our Lord also will bring an indictment against us, as we have said above. May God grant we listen and be attentive to these things, lest the sayings of our Fathers turn out to be for us words of condemnation.
 
Monastery News:
 
     This past week, Vladyka Gregory, Fr. George, and Fr. Peter traveled to Ottawa, Canada, to install icons. The work took them four days to complete. It was very tiresome, because the scaffolding was not properly placed, and the scaffolding had to be dismantled and erected again to make it usable.  This had to be done more than once.  Most of the icons were placed on ceilings that were 35 to 40 feet above the ground.

     After finishing up in Ottawa, they traveled to Toronto, where they dropped off their rental-car and were met by Iakovos (James) Bennett, who drove them down to his home in Niagara Falls (Canada). There they were guests at his home for two days. During that time, James, his wife Aurika, and their two children, Michael and Natasha, were united to the Holy Church through holy Baptism.  Because of our great joy and excitement in receiving the Bennett family, we unfortunately did not think to take pictures of the family.  We only remembered at 3:30 a.m. as we were about to leave for the airport, so we only took one quick photo of Iakovos.  His lovely wife and children were sleeping. 

     Last week, the porch of the new building was poured, and when Vladyka and the fathers arrived they discovered that the semi which had 40-50,000 pounds of steel girders of the new building, which was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, arrived on Monday instead. There was some mix up with the dispatcher. Because it was a 50-foot semi and its weight was altogether 90,000 lbs. (the rig and the freight), we decided that it would be safer to unload the truck in Buena Vista at the lumberyard, and they would put it on their trucks in smaller loads and bring it up to the monastery. Somehow, even this information was not dispatched to the driver, and so instead of going to the lumberyard, he came to the monastery. The outcome was that he could not make the first turn and fell into the ditch and took out part of the gate in the process. Happily, however, it was only his cab that went into the ditch at a 45 degree angle and was kept from completely turning on ! its side by the weight of the trailer and its cargo (our home in pieces). Three special wrecker trucks for semi's came and dislodged it and put it upright, and he went happily down the road to the lumberyard. Tomorrow, Tuesday, it should be delivered and the long process of putting it together will commence. We rented a fork-lift to aid us in unloading the materials and erect them. Please pray that this week will pass without any further mishaps.
 
Please pray for:
 
     Metropolitan Valentine, for his good health.
     The newly illumined servants of God, Iakovos, Aurika, Michael, and Natasha. 
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
     Wednesday is the feast of St. Christina and we have ladies in our Church who celebrate their name days then. Oil and wine on the feast day are permitted. Thursday is the feast of St. Anna. Friday is the feast of St. Paraskeve. She works miracles particularly for curing eye-ailments. Saturday is St. Panteleimon's feastday.
 
     Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
Bp Gregory, and those with me.

[Julianna]

July 28/August 10, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!

Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.

SUNDAY OF THE EIGHTH WEEK
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [ 124].

1 10Brethren, I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all be speaking the same thing, and that schisms may not be among you, but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same sentiment. 11For it was declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of the house of Chloe, that there are strifes among you. 12Now this I say, that each of you saith, "I indeed am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Kephas," and "I of Christ." 13Hath the Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or in the name of Paul were ye baptized? 14I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispos and Gaios, 15lest any should say that in mine own name I baptized. 16And I baptized also the household of Stephanas. As for the rest, I know not if I baptized any other. 17For Christ sent me not forth to baptize, but to be preaching the Gospel, not in wisdom of speech, lest the Cross of Christ should be made empty.

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [ 58]. At that time:
14 14Jesus, having gone out, saw a great crowd, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He cured their sick. 15And evening having come to pass, His disciples came to Him, saying, "The place is desolate, and the time is already past; dismiss the crowds, in order that they might go away into the villages and buy food for themselves." 16But Jesus said to them, "They have no need to go away; give ye them to eat." 17But they say to Him, "We have nought here except five loaves and two fish." 18And He said, "Bring them here to Me." 19And He commanded the crowd to recline on the grass. And having taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to the heaven, and blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled, and they took up of the fragments that which was over and above-twelve baskets full. 21And they who ate were about five thousand men, apart from the women and children.

22And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to embark into the ship and to go before Him to the other side, until He should dismiss the crowds.

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

Dear Faithful,

Please pray for us because we are in a week of great toil. We are putting together a house which is made up of I-beams and steel girders that weigh hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Because of the work and the exertion, we are quite exhausted, so we have copied a sermon of Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, which we are inserting as a sermon. It is quite appropriate since today is the anniversary of the repose of this great Church father. It may be more than two parts, but this will be necessary, I think, because of our construction.

There is one thing I wish to bring to your attention, namely what Saint Paul spoke in his Epistle today. Saint Paul says:
1 10Brethren, I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all be speaking the same thing, and that schisms may not be among you, but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same sentiment.
The Fathers explain what is meant by being of the same mind and the same sentiment. Being of the same mind means being of the same Faith, that we all speak true Orthodoxy, but being of the same sentiment means that we show love, one for another. How many times have there been in the history of the Church that schisms have been caused not because of matters of Faith or righteousness, but because of personal disagreements or animosities between personalities, whether they be bishops, priests, or even laymen? Saint Paul says this ought not to be. God forbid that there should be schisms among our flock.

I see us as small, but pure and fervent in our Faith. I wish that it remain such. I have a desire to convert the whole country, if not the world, but I realize that this is not practical; but those whom we do have, who are true believers as we are, because nobody, absolutely nobody, and I wish to include in that nobody even the angels, and yes, even God, could reproach us because of our Faith and because of our canonicity. We are God's elect because of our Faith and because of our canonicity. And if we are His elect, then He cannot find fault with us because we keep to His Faith which He has handed down to us, and prayed that we keep when He was in the garden of Gethsemane. So if it is His will that we keep His Faith, then it is obvious that He cannot find fault with our Orthodoxy.

Now what I am going to say is just a logical conclusion of the above statement. We, and I mean you and I, can, and if need be, should find fault with those who do not hold to true Orthodoxy and true canonicity. These are the schismatics and the heretics. We are not blind to the dividing devices of the devil.

So in this we glory (our Faith, our Orthodoxy), but as far as our deeds and our works, we are the most humble because of our sins. Let us keep this true sentiment, and be united with one heart and one mind in the love of Christ and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

"CHRIST THE SAVIOR AND THE JEWISH REVOLUTION"
BY BLESSED METROPOLITAN ANTHONY KHRAPOVITSKY

It is well-known that the Gospel accounts of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus are almost identical in the first three Gospels, but that they differ in content from the fourth; not in the sense that the former contradict the latter, but in the sense that the Apostle John recounts sayings and events which are passed over in silence in the first three Gospels, while failing to make mention of the majority of those events recounted in the first three Gospels. Yet not only are there no contradictions between the first three and the last, but the attentive examiner of the Gospels readily notes that St. John presumes his reader to be familiar with the accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke and supplements them, or provides elucidating remarks for his own account of the few events which he and the other evangelists describe, as, for example, the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, the Mystical Supper, Peter's visit to the Lord's tomb, et al. In general, one must say that, beginning with the description of the entry into Jerusalem and the betrayal by Judas, the accounts of all four Gospels blend more thoroughly than in the description of preceding events. But then, of the miraculous actions performed by Christ previously, only one - the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and the Savior's walking on the water - is recorded by all four evangelists. It is precisely this event which provides us with the key to open the subject posed in the title, and which, furthermore, clarifies for us the relationship between the Gospel according to John and the first three Gospels.

Indeed, in the first three Gospels, the miracle of Christ's walking on the water is the only miracle performed, as it were, without a definite purpose. One senses something unsaid, something deliberately unspoken. This suggests itself to the reader of the Gospels especially in view of one expression issuing from the pen of Matthew and Mark: "And straightway [after the miraculous feeding of the people] Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a boat, and to go to the other side..." (Mt. 14: 22; Mk. 6: 45). Why the haste and urgency? There is no mention; there is also no mention by the three evangelists of the impression produced upon the people by the miraculous feeding, although in recounting other miraculous events - e.g., the deaf mute, as well as the raising up of the son of the widow of Nain from the dead, and others - the first three evangelists continually make reference to this. In this case it is John alone who speaks of the impression made by the miracle on those who witnessed it, and from his words it is clear that this miracle, more than all the rest, moved the people to rapture and faith in the Savior, although, as we shall see, not for long.

But wherein lies John's explanation of the miracle of walking upon the water? It is very short - two words in all - but from it it is easy to understand why the miracle took place, Jesus Christ's urgent haste in sending the disciples over the lake, and why the other evangelists let all of this remain without explanation.

"Then those men, when they had seers the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus, therefore, perceived that they would take Him by force, to make Him a king, He departed then into the mountain Himself alone" (Jn. 6: 14-15).

Of course, the Jews postponed their decision to proclaim Christ a king until the morning; they would not have allowed the Savior to depart from them by boat, but were probably satisfied that He sent His disciples away and remained alone with the Jews, expecting that He would be less able to oppose their intention.

Why did the three evangelists pass over in silence the reason for Christ's miraculous walking upon the water, which as we see from John, lay in the Lord's desire to escape from their hands being forcibly proclaimed king? They kept silence for the same reason that they did concerning the resurrection of Lazarus, the Savior's subsequent sentencing to death, the people's rage which was kindled against Him when He permitted pagans to mock, in His Person, the nation's beloved dream of a national king, i. e., Pilate's announcement: "Behold your King!" They had to keep silent about such things because a Jewish kingdom was still in existence; for an explanation of this aspect of the events of Christ's life would have been tantamount to a denunciation of the popular uprising then in preparation, of the nation-wide revolutionary mood inspired and fueled by the Sanhedrin and the scribes. The sacred authors, disciples of Christ, quite wisely protected themselves against the hostile Jews' suspicion that they would betray them, would denounce the great rebellion being prepared by the Jews against Roman domination and which broke out in force in A. D. 67. They acted in this way when recounting the earthly life of Christ, and later, when recording their own activities. When the Apostle Paul, for example, arrived in Rome, he considered it his duty, at his first encounter with his compatriots, to explain that he was appearing before Caesar's tribunal, "not that (he) had ought to accuse [his] people of (Acts 28: 19), but in order to acquit himself.

Such circumspection was totally unnecessary by the time the fourth Gospel was written, i. e., after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish kingdom by Vespasian and Titus. It was not necessary for St. John to pass over in silence those aspects of the Gospel events, the description of which could have resulted in retribution on the part of the Jewish government, e.g. who it was exactly who cut off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest, while not one of the first three evangelists decided to name Simon Peter as the one who had wielded the sword, but all three contented themselves with the expression: "one of those who were with Jesus," not even calling him His apostle or disciple (only John calls by name the one who drew his sword and the one who was wounded by the sword). For this same reason the Synoptics keep silence concerning the resurrection of Lazarus, since he had been condemned to death by the Sanhedrin as an alleged criminal who, as is known from the most ancient accounts, was forced to flee to Cyprus, and moreover was exceedingly weighed down by the remembrance of his death and resurrection; for the Jews who were there in great numbers followed the Christians everywhere and incited the pagans against them, and sometimes even those who were the dregs of society, as we can also see from the Book of Acts (14: 1; 17: 5; et al.).

Regarding Lazarus, his name is not mentioned at all in the first three Gospels, unless one counts the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (which doubtless is also connected with what was to take place at his resurrection), although Mary and Martha are mentioned; so that John, in giving an account of Lazarus, puts forth the names of his sisters as well-known to the reader: "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha" (Jn. 11: 1). John senses that readers of the first three Gospels were perplexed as to how the triumphal honoring of Christ by the people could have taken place in view of the Lord's last entry into Jerusalem, when those surrounding Him expected the capital to react to Him in a completely different way, and "were amazed and, as they followed Him, they were afraid" (Mk. 10: 32); the Apostle John, in his turn, confirms that the disciples of Christ tried to dissuade the Savior from going anywhere near Jerusalem when He prepared to announce that He was going to resurrect Lazarus. "Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee; and goest Thou there again?", yet they nonetheless heeded the call of the brave Thomas: "Let us all go, that we may die with Him" (in. 11: 8, 16).

And suddenly, instead of the expected persecution - a triumphal greeting with palm branches! The perplexity of one who has read the first three Gospels is dispelled by reading the fourth, from which he learns that the greeting was preceded by the raising of Lazarus from the dead, which brought many Jews to believe in Christ (Jn. 11: 15); and the evangelist confirms for him precisely this connection between the events: "For this cause the people also met Him; for they heard that He had done this miracle" (Jn. 12: 18). Of the other evangelists, only Luke gives a hint of the special impetus the believing people had to glorify the arriving Savior: "The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King Who cometh in the name of the Lord" (Lk. 19: 37-38). For reasons already indicated, Luke was unable to explain that it was not so much the miracles of Christ in general which is to be understood in this passage, as the raising from the dead of one who had lain four days in the tomb, which had taken place only a short while before. Renan, who rejects this event, was unable to explain in his book either the event of the triumphal entry or the sentence passed upon the Savior immediately afterwards.

Thus, the silence of certain of the evangelists concerning what the fourth makes clear depends upon the Jewish revolution which was coming to ripeness in the Savior's time, and which was directed by the Sanhedrin. From the Gospel episodes cited above, another truth, unremarked by biblical science, also becomes clear - that the Jewish revolution came into extremely close contact with the earthly life of Christ the Savior and in general defined by itself (of course with the particular permission of God) many of the events of the Gospel; further on we shall see that it was the principal reason for the arousing of the hatred of the people against Christ, which brought Him to be crucified.

Have we any other historical data that the uprising of the Jews, which burst into flame with such terrible force in the year 67, had ripened long before and with time erupted chronically throughout the entire first century of our chronology? Of course we have. We will not expatiate on the extreme freedom-loving and mutinous temper of the Jewish people throughout the whole of its history, which began with the era of King David (II Kings [Samuel], chs. 15-18, 20) and reached the highest degree of tension in the era of the Maccabee brethren: we will say only that that most ardent friend of the people, the Prophet Jeremiah, dedicated nearly a quarter of his extensive book to urging his compatriots not to rise up against the invincible might of the king of Babylon, yet was unable to secure the aim of his admonitions even when Jerusalem and its temple were already destroyed, almost all the people led away into captivity, and only a little band of common folk remained, which nevertheless, with mindless courage, launched itself at the representatives of the Babylonian military regime and thereby condemned the entire remnant of the people to death and their country to utter devastation. The Jews of the time of the earthly life of Christ were also of a similar temper. Finding it impossible under the ever-vigilant Roman regime to organize rebellions in the cities, their leaders led their followers out into the wilderness; yet even these attempts were, of course, put down by the military might of the Romans. Here are the words of Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrin, uttered shortly after the Lord's ascension: "But before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves; who was slain, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the registration, and drew away many people after him; he also perished, and all, even as many as obeyed him , were dispersed" (Acts 5: 36-37). It was probably them that the Lord mentioned, calling them "thieves and robbers" (Jn. 10: .

Similar undertakings on the part of the rebels continued during the time of the apostle's preaching. When the Apostle Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, the chief captain asked him: "Art not thou that Egyptian, who before these days, madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?" (Acts 21: 38). We know from the Gospel that the fateful "Barabbas,. . . for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison" (Lk. 23: 1819), and of course by this very fact attracted to his side the people's sympathy expressed in such an insistent form before Pilate and heated up by the high priests and the members of the Sanhedrin (Mk. 5: 11).

Thus having taken note of the revolutionary mood of the Jews which was supported by the Sanhedrin, we shall not only grasp with total clarity the events surrounding the miraculous feeding of the five thousand with five loaves, but we will also understand the fateful significance which these events had in the earthly life of Christ the Savior. "Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world," and they decided to "come and take Him by force, to make Him a king" (Jn. 6: 14-15).

It is now quite understandable exactly why this miracle, and not any other, produced such a reaction in the revolutionary people. They found in Christ what was most necessary to have, but what was more difficult for a rebellion to obtain - a ready source of bread. At that time it was not possible to equip oneself with cannons and armored trains: the outcome was decided by the vital force of the people and by cold steel; but to amass provisions under the watchful observation of the Romans was impossible in the wilderness places, where, as we have seen from the Book of Acts, the insurgents concentrated their forces. In Moses' time, in the wilderness, manna was sent down from heaven directly upon Israel who had risen up against Egypt; and now this new Prophet was able to do the same thing that God had done of old. What was needed, though, was the force to compel Him to place Himself at the head of the popular uprising. The Lord escaped their hands in a manner such as none of the people were capable of foreseeing: He walked away over the water, as though on dry land. Thus the purpose of this miracle becomes quite clear.

Naturally, Christ's secret departure was not at all pleasing to the Jews. The Apostle John devotes several chapters of his Gospel to their further conversations with Christ, in which they remind Him of the heavenly bread in Moses' time and demand that the miracle be continued. Of course, they could not speak directly of the rebellion they desired, but when the Lord began to unfold His teaching concerning another bread, the spiritual bread, and then concerning the Bread of the New Covenant, the eucharistic Bread which is His all-pure Body; when He promised to the Jews who believed in Him a moral freedom instead of a political freedom and spoke of the scant value of the latter, the ecstasy of the people, which had been prompted by the miracle of the five loaves, gradually changed to grumbling, and subsequently these exchanges, resumed in Jerusalem, conclude with the people taking up stones to kill the One they wished to proclaim king but a short while before. Read the Gospel according to John, and you will see that the Savior's refusal of this choice and the discourses which followed after it, which were not in sympathy with the uprising, constitute the turning point in the Jews attitude toward Christ the Savior. It is from this that the people's enmity began; and though it was overcome by the resurrection of Lazarus, this was not for long. But let us turn to the Gospel account.
(To Be Continued)

Monastery News:

We are happy to announce that Alexander Kassal has been received into the Church. He is trying to settle in Colorado Springs, and has moved here from Omaha, Nebraska. He is half Slavic, and has skills as a chef.

There are some parishioners who are interested in the work progress. Those who are not interested don't need to read the following if it is going to bore them.

This past week has been a very difficult week for us. Forty to fifty thousand pounds of steel was finally delivered up to the monastery. Two eighteen-wheelers (semis), which were about fifty feet long, dropped off all their load at the lumber company which I have done business with for the past twenty-five years. Out of respect for me, they offered to unload the semis and store the freight on their property until they could deliver it on their smaller trucks which can easily be driven up to the monastery. Their trucks have a flat bed twenty-five feet long, yet they have just a certain capacity for weight. The roof rafters are massive I-beams which if they were placed on the ground, four men could not move one end because they weigh so much. We know this because we tried it, and it would not budge. It requires a very large forklift. The lumberyard could only accommodate four of these big roof rafters on one truck at the same time because of the weight.

So after many trips, everything was finally delivered on Thursday afternoon. We had to unload their trucks using a forklift which we rented, and then placed all of this material near the building site as best as we could. To be quite honest, we had some close calls because of my forklift driving skills. The forklift which we had to rent is not the typical forklift that lifts something up to seven or eight feet. This one has an extended arm which raises its forks about forty feet high. The wheels are quite large - almost as large as a tractor wheel. To make things even more difficult, I had to use the forklift on ground which slopes in every direction imaginable. Not to distress anybody, but in unloading the trucks that came up, for some reason the forklift would not go where I wanted it to go, and I could not get the thing to be centered on the material where I wanted it. Then we discovered that the wheels were not acting properly. The rental company immediately sent up a man who spent some time to lock the wheels properly so they could move the way we wanted. That was frustrating.

Then we started assembling work with the end wall of the home. This involved first placing six steel columns vertically, and then attaching two roof rafters (which we assembled together) at one time to the columns. We attached the roof rafters to the columns with great ease on four of them, but two of them gave us great difficulty. So we forced them to go where the fabricator had placed the four holes which we were to use to attach them to the columns. We braced this assembly, and stood back and noted that the four that we attached with ease were vertical. But the other two were not plumb. In other words, they were no longer straight up and down. We couldn't imagine that the fabricator had put these eight holes in the wrong place. We proceeded to connect the columns with what is called steel girts. The vertical columns, of course, connected very well. But the others, of course, gave us great difficulty. We called the fabricator, and he sent us the specifications for these roof rafters, and said that if the holes are not in these dimensions, it is our mistake. When we measured it, of course, we saw that they were about eight inches off center. They suggested that we get a welder to come and put the holes in the proper place, which we did, and then everything fit properly. This took a day out of our schedule.

There was another, shall we say, imperfection that we noted, on the columns, which we also had authorization from the company to have the welder correct. Now mind you, this home comes from the largest and most respected fabricator of steel homes in the country. They have twenty-six assembly plants in the United States all across the country. They make everything from homes to airplane hangers. They came highly recommended. But of course, our order is from an Orthodox monastery, and if anything, as the saying goes, can go wrong, it probably will, because the devil has his hand in the mix to try to mess up the order. All in all, we had to hire a welder who had to cut and replace fourteen flanges, cut many holes that were either not properly placed, or not even drilled to begin with. Of course, the fabricator of the building accepted to pay all the expenses of the welder.

As the week progressed, we finished the end wall section, and added two more sections. We connected only the end wall to the first section, which bolted together girders and roof purlins, and attached bracing cables. Thank God all of those holes were in the proper place, and everything connected with relative ease.

We would like to thank Benjamin Pugsley, who after his eight hours of work with a construction company in Buena Vista, comes to the monastery after five o'clock to help us until dusk, when we come down to have our supper. We work from seven in the morning until eight thirty in the evening. Glory be to God, if we take our time and do everything once properly the first time, and not have to detach and reassemble, the work will proceed relatively quickly.

For those who have internet connection and are interested, we will continue posting photos of the construction on the ROAC list.

Please pray for:

Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine.

Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:

Wednesday starts the Fast of the Dormition. This is just a two week fast in which we honor the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. The feast day is August 28th New Style, but of course, the 15th of August according to the Church calendar. The fast is kept as strictly as the Great Fast is. This means that we may have oil, shell fish, and wine on the weekends. (There are only two weekends.)

During this period is the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, which is a great feast of the Lord. The Transfiguration is the 19th of August (New Style), which is a Tuesday. We may, and should, have fish, oil, and wine on that day.
We wish everybody a good fast for the Virgin Mary.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

In Christ,

+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.

[Julianna]

August 4/17, 2003
Beloved Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
SUNDAY OF THE NINTH WEEK
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 128]. Brethren:

     3  9We are God's co-laborers; ye are God's cultivation, ye are God's building. 10According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid a foundation and another buildeth upon it. But let each one be taking heed how he buildeth up; 11for no one is able to lay any other foundation beside the One being laid, Who is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, 13the work of each shall become manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it is being revealed in fire; and the fire shall put to the test the work of each, of what sort it is. 14If the work of anyone abide which he built upon, he shall receive a reward. 15If the work of anyone shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, but so as in the midst of fire. 16Know ye not that ye are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17If anyone corrupt the temple of God, God shall bring this same one to corruption; for the temple of God is holy, which ye are.
 
THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 59]. At that time:

     14  22Jesus constrained His disciples to embark into the ship and to go before Him to the other side, until He should dismiss the crowds. 23And after He dismissed the crowds, He went up into the mountain apart to pray. And evening having come to pass, He was there alone. 24But the ship was already in the midst of the sea, being tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25But in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went toward them, walking on the sea. 26And after the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a phantom"; and they cried out from fear. 27But straightway Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good courage, I am; cease being afraid." 28And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it be Thou, command me to come to Thee on the water." 29And He said, "Come." And after Peter came down from the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30But when he saw the strong wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me." 31And straightway Jesus stretched forth His hand and laid hold of him, and said to him, "O thou of little faith! Why didst thou doubt?" 32And after they stepped into the boat, the wind abated. 33And those in the ship came and made obeisance to Him, saying, "Truly, Thou art God's Son." 34And after they went across, they came into the land of Gennesaret.
 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
Since we are still building, we are continuing to serialize Blessed Metropolitan Anthony's article, instead of one of my sermons.
 
"CHRIST THE SAVIOR AND THE JEWISH REVOLUTION"
BY BLESSED METROPOLITAN ANTHONY KHRAPOVITSKY
(Continued from last week)
 
The people searched for Jesus where He had fed them with the five loaves, and unable to find Him, in perplexity they embarked in boats which had recently arrived from the other shore and, to their astonishment, found Him in Capernaum, to which it was not possible for Him to have gone earlier, in that since evening there had not been a single boat left. "Rabbi, when camest thou here?" (Jn. 6:25).

The Lord did not answer their question, but reproved them: "Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labor not for the food which perisheth, but for that food which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you" (Jn. 6: 27-27). This is not an upbraiding because of gluttony: the day before the people, carried away listening to the words of God, even forgot their daily bread, following Jesus into the wilderness. No, the Lord was displeased because they still had in mind what is earthly, temporal - an uprising against the Romans, military preparations, etc., which would nonetheless end in death, just like the triumphal passing of their forefathers through the desert. "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat of it, and not die" (Jn. 6:49-50). Before these words were spoken, the Jews had not yet lost all hope of persuading Christ to become for them another Moses, a leader, and they asked: "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" (Jn. 6: 28), referring to the miraculous leadership of Moses; and they added: "Lord, evermore give us this bread!" (v. 38), for then the success of the uprising would be assured. But Christ's subsequent words about spiritual bread and life everlasting disenchanted the hotheaded Jews, and many even of His disciples lost their faith in Him (v. 64), "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him" (v. 66). It is apparent that the heart of Judas also departed from Christ at this time, and He said: "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (vv. 71-72). The decisive meaning of this event is demonstrated also by the following verse which commentators do not accord the necessary attention. "After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee: for He would not walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill Him& quot; (Jn. 7: 1). "After these things", i.e. after the discourse which took place in Capernaum in Galilee. It is obvious that a report about this was made to rebel headquarters, i.e. the Sanhedrin, just as one was later made about the resurrection of Lazarus (Jn. 11: 46); and there they resolved to part company with the new Prophet Who was summoning the people to a different way of life, just as they had separated themselves from John the Baptist (Mt. 17: 12; Mk. 9: 13) who, when the people asked: What should we do? answered them with instructions of a purely moral character and did not support their chauvinistic aspirations (Lk. 3: 7-8, 11).
How far the clerical, and even popular, enmity directed against the Savior began then to assume an active character is clearly apparent from the further actions and words of Christ. When His brethren called Him to the approaching feast of tabernacles, He spoke to them of the world's hatred for Him and did not go openly to Jerusalem, but secretly, as it were (Jn. 7: 7, 10); yet when He arrived and excited the people's reverent astonishment by His teaching, without hesitation, and apparently without immediate cause, He said: "Why go ye about to kill Me?" (Jn. 7: 19). These words were so unexpected that "the people answered and said, Thou hast a demon; who goeth about to kill Thee?" (v. 20). However, as though in confirmation of Christ's words, very soon "they sought to take Him," first in the midst of the people (v. 30), and later by the servants of the Pharisees deliberately sent (v. 32); but no one laid a hand on Him (v. 30). The latter expression (Jn. 8:20) has a more important meaning than is apparent at first glance. In another article ("The Kiss of Judas") we made clear, using the words of the Pentateuch, that it was forbidden by the law of God, by which the Jewish nation was governed, to condemn anyone without responsible informers who, when making an accusation against a man for something, had to lay their hands on his head and, after the death sentence, were required to be the first to cast stones at him (Lev. 24:14; Deut. 17:4-7). This no one undertook to do to the Savior, for false accusation was punished severely by the law: it subjected the informer to the fate he prepared for his victim (Deut. 19:19). Read the story of Susanna and the Two Elders (appended to the Book of Daniel), the account of the woman taken in adultery (Jn. 8), the condemnation of the Archdeacon Stephen and, finally, the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and of the Apostle Paul by the Sanhedrin, and you will see that it was no easy matter for the enemies of justice to circumvent this wise law.

What did the enemies of Christ hope to accomplish in attempting to arrest Him, then? Of course, they were unable to lodge accusations against Him for not wanting to take part in an uprising; therefore they apparently returned to an old one - Christ's healing of a paralytic on the Sabbath day, although this healing, which was performed in Jerusalem, preceded the miraculous feeding of the five thousand in Galilee, where the Lord went at that time, departing from the capitol unhindered, having delivered a tirade against the Jews because they murmured against the healing. And if after His return from Galilee the Savior was again compelled to justify a healing on the Sabbath, it was of course because that occurrence, as one not performed before witnesses, was probably interpreted by His lying enemies as an ordinary cure and could serve unscrupulous people as an object of accusation of violating the Sabbath rest, which, according to the law of God given through Moses, was punishable by death (Num. 1:33). The Savior always triumphantly refuted attempts to accuse Him of violating the Sabbath, when He performed healings on that day and shamed His accusers while the people approved His words (Lk. 13:17; cf. also 14:4-6). In the present instance, when it became clear that Jesus Christ was not in sympathy with the planned uprising, the malice of the Sanhedrin and the fanatic revolutionaries of Jerusalem reached such a degree that, incapable of concealing the real reason for their bitterness, they again brought up the case of the healing of the paralytic; but the Lord understood well where the actual reason for their enmity lay, and therefore, having spoken twice again concerning the legality of healing of the suffering on the Sabbath (Jn. 7: 22-24), and having vanquished this new attempt on the part of the Pharisees to accuse Him of violating the law in the case of the woman taken in adultery, on the second day after His arrival in Jerusalem He again directed His discourse toward the people of Judea who thirsted for po litical freedom and told them of that higher, spiritual freedom which He brought to earth by His teaching. On that day, as on the day before, the people wavered between belief and bitterness of heart (Jn. 7: 31, 8:30). The Savior's sincere speech, His staunch profession of His obedience to the Father Who sent Him: all of this poured the holy faith into the hearts of those who listened to Him, yet they were unable to wrest their hearts from their cherished dream of an uprising against the Romans under the direction of the awaited Messiah, of the extermination of all their enemies and the subjugation of the entire world to themselves, basing such hopes on a faulty interpretation of the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel and other prophecies. Such, and only such, an understanding of the current mood of those who listened to Christ makes clear for us the pertinence and consistency of the words of comfort which the Lord extended to those who believed in Him. His words were these: "If ye continue in My word, then ye are My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn. 8:32).

Earlier, there had been no talk at all of freedom: the Lord here responds to the secret thoughts and desires of those who were listening to Him. But this reply did not please the crowd. "They answered Him: We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest Thou, Ye shall be free?" (Jn. 8:33). Was this response a provocation with the objective of compelling the Savior to mention the Roman yoke, as later were the question of the coin and the slandering of Christ before Pilate in averring that He called Himself king and commanded that tribute not be given to Caesar (Lk. 23:2), when they threatened Pilate himself with denunciation before Caesar (Jn. 19:12), or is what we have here merely an extreme hatred of the Roman yoke, which the people refused to acknowledge as fact? It is possible that it was all of these things. Legally, the Jewish nation, like the majority of the nations absorbed into the Roman Empire, possessed an autonomy, which the Roman government tried to reduce (Jn. 11:48), but which the Jewish revolutionary theocracy strove to expand (Jn. 18:30-31); under such conditions, the mood of the masses of the people became dichotomous: among themselves the people lament their enslavement, but if anyone from the outside points out their subjugation to them, they begin to speak haughtily of their autonomy and their equality by right with the people that holds them in submission. In such a dichotomous temper it is sincerity which is absent, first of all, and therein, it would seem, lies the reason that the Lord, almost without warning, began to denounce those with whom He was speaking for satanic falsity, calling them children of the lying devil and liars (Jn. 8: 55), again (cf. 6:49-50) promising blessed immortality to those who believe in Him, instead of an earthly kingdom (Jn. 8: 51). Then the discourse ended with the people's cooling toward the Savior; but now, when it became definitely clear that He did not value political freedom in any way or all the good things of the transitory life of man and nations in general, His interlocutors, doubly exasperated and more so by His direct reproaches against them, picked up stones with which to shower the Teacher.

In this discourse, one must say, the opposition between the Christian moral freedom and political freedom is proclaimed with particular clarity in speeches which, in the majority of interpretations, remain misunderstood; but they are more than comprehensible in our elucidation of the sense of this discourse. Look at these words: "A slave [such as the Jews were] does not remain forever in a household; the son remaineth forever. Thus, if the son free you, ye are truly freed" (Jn. 8: 3536). True freedom, in the imaginary counterbalance, is a moral, Christian freedom in which the Christian remains everlastingly; and the people, preserving it, will remain eternally in the house of the heavenly Father with His Son, i.e. in the Church with Christ, and even here in the Promised Land, from which slaves of sin, even though they are the seed of Abraham (Jn. 8: 37) can be driven and replaced with another nation or nations, as did in fact happen in accordance with another prediction of the Savior (Mt. 21:43; Lk. 19:43-44) and, moreover, at the very time when they hoped to establish a free Jewish realm in the time of Vespasian and Titus [Editor's Note: i.e, the Roman general and his second-in-command who, in A.D. 70, crushed the first Jewish revolt, in which about two million Jews died and Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed]. It is understandable that similar warnings aroused the hatred of the chauvinistic revolutionaries. However, the healing of the man born blind, which followed after this, again elicited faith in Him, and although Christ's later conversations once more resulted in the Jews attempting to cast stones at Him, the number of believers increased (Jn. 10:21, 42) and the quarrel between those who sought the heavenly kingdom and those who sought an earthly one intensified among the people and even among the Pharisees (Jn. 7:12, 9:16, 10:19).
(To be continued)
 
Monastery News:
 
Last Sunday after the Divine Liturgy, we all made a procession to the building site to bless it. Thanks be to God, we were able to accomplish much this week without any major set backs or injuries. More than half of the red iron has been put up, although the work is very tiresome. This past week it would have been impossible to accomplish all this work without the help of Benjamin Pugsley, who asked his boss if he could take a week off and work for the monastery for one week. He was granted permission from his boss, and we were greatly benefited by having him with us, because Fr. George's asthma was bothering him, and he couldn't work outside.
 
We put up all the main columns and connected them with the roof rafters and struts. Bracing each roof section was done with what is called "purlins," which are long Z-shaped steel which run the length of the house on top of the roof.  This was all very time-consuming. This coming week we are going to take it easy and give our bodies time to recuperate from the scratches and bruises. The fork-lift has to be returned on Tuesday. Hopefully all the major parts that have to be elevated high above the ground will be finished by then.
 
Please keep us in your prayers that God will continue to help us bring this work to an end pleasing to Him. We are conscious throughout the day of the privilege God has granted us, to work on a building that will serve for the salvation of souls, which makes the work easier.
 
Please Pray For:
 
The health of our Metropolitan Valentine.
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
Tuesday is Transfiguration. Fish, wine and oil are permitted. We wish everybody a blessed feast. Grapes are blessed during this feast day.  By the end of this week, we will be more than half-way through the fast for the Dormition. 
    
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 
Since we celebrate the Lord's Transfiguration on Tuesday, here is a short sermon on the subject by St. Theodore the Studite:
 
CATECHESIS 20
 
That we must preserve the beauty and untarnished loveliness of the soul, and about repentance.
 
Brethren and fathers, since we have been counted worthy to celebrate the forefeast of the divine Transfiguration, from this then let us compose an instruction, discharging our duty in a few words. On the one hand, all the feasts of the Lord expound the mysteries of His sojourn in the flesh, such as that He was born, that He was baptized, that He was crucified, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day, that He was taken up in glory; while the mystery of the Transfiguration hints at the restoration in the age to come. For in the same way that 'His face blazed like the sun, while His garments became white as light' [Matt. 17:2], in the same way He will come from heaven like lightning, with power and great glory to judge the universe. And as Peter, James and John were with Him on the holy mountain, so the elect will be with Him in the kingdom of heaven, enjoying His ineffable manifestation as God and inexpressible joy. And who is adequate for all this? Who is worthy to attain that joy? Who else but one whose way of life is pure and undefiled? For since our God is pure, or rather the highest light, He comes to the pure, and as He has placed a pure soul in us, He will also ask it from us pure. For since it has been made according to God's image and likeness, that is to say as a figure of the divine beauty, it has also shared in that beauty. And knowing this the psalmist speaks thus, 'Lord, by your will you granted power to my beauty' [Psalm 29:8], that is to say to the beauty of the soul, lest, having turned away towards the ugly passions of sin and become disfigured, it fall from God and His divine rewards. Since therefore it is agreed that our soul should be like this, lovely and beautiful, and that we should give it back to God like a pledge on the last day, the day of resurrection, I beg and urge that we love this beauty and carefully guard this loveliness, not turning back to the fair things of the present age or to the beauties of flesh and blood. They are not beauties, but idols of b eauty; they are rather corruption and change. And this we can learn from the end of things, for one who today is outstandingly beautiful and fair of face is tomorrow cast into a tomb, stinking and abhorrent. So there is nothing fair and loveable but exemplary virtue, which should be our chief pursuit, my brothers. But if admittedly it frequently happens that the soul grows slack and is defiled by unseemly thoughts -- for who will boast that they have a pure heart? -- let it be quickly made clean again and brought back to its former condition, lest by delaying in evil it gives birth to death. And let no one ever say that they cannot be made clean again, stained as they are by many sins, when they listen to the One Who said, 'Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow. Though they are like crimson, I will make them white as wool' [Isaias 1,18]. Do you see God's ineffable love for humankind? Not only has He promised to purify, but to bring the one who repents to the pinnacle of loveliness. And examples are manifest.
 
David was a prophet and, when he fell into the crime of adultery and murder, he did not give up, but after he had swiftly had recourse to repentance, he received the grace of prophecy once again. Manasse perverted Israel for fifty two years, but when he repented, he too found salvation. The foremost of the Apostles, after his denial, by the medicine of tears took up again the burden of the apostolate. Mary of Egypt, to pass over the numberless others, had reached the uttermost limit of debauchery, but once she had come to a remarkable repentance, she attained the highest degree of virtue. So there is no excuse for claiming incapacity for someone who chooses to be saved, unless they are insensible or bent on death. But we hear the words, 'Why would you die, house of Israel?' [Ezekiel 18:31], and why do we choose everlasting death rather than immortal life that is set before us? Our good Master cries out each day, 'Come to Me all you that toil and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' [Matthew 11:28]. And we are unwilling to get rid of the heavy load of our sins. The same Master cries, 'I am the light of the world. One who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life' [John 8:12]. But we turn to the opposite, proclaiming by our actions, 'We do not want to know Your ways' [Job 21:14]. All that remains is for us to hear, 'Walk by the light of your fire and the flame you have kindled' [Isaias 50:11]. And Scripture says, 'Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God' [Galatians 5:21]. But God forbid that such things should be said of us. 'For you are My friends, says the Lord, if you do all that I command you' [John 15:14]. So then, let us do all that we have been commanded, that we may be worthy to be called friends, to inherit the kingdom of heaven, in Christ our Lord, to Whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me

[Julianna]

August 11/24, 2003
Beloved Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
SUNDAY OF THE TENTH WEEK
 
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 131]. Brethren:

     4  9I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 10We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored. 11Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest. 12And we toil working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; 13being evilly spoken of, we beseech. We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now. 14I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children. 15For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus ! I begot you through the Gospel. 16Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.
 
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 72]. At that time:

     17  14There came to Jesus a certain man, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffereth badly; for often he falleth into the fire, and often into the water. 16"And I brought him to Thy disciples, and they were not able to cure him." 17And Jesus answered and said, "O unbelieving and wayward generation, until when shall I be with you? Until when shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." 18And Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out from him; and the boy was cured from that hour. 19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why were we not able to cast it out?" 20And Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief. For verily I say to you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing ! shall be impossible to you. 21"But this kind goeth not out except by prayer and fasting."
     22And while they dwelt in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men; 23"and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised."
 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
I just have a few thoughts I would like to share with our parishioners today, because we celebrate the life of St. Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople, which brings to mind an incident from his life.  When he was archbishop in Bucharest, the prince of Wallachia was Prince Radul, who was reputed to be very pious.  The prince, however, decided that in one matter he was going to disobey the Church laws.  He wanted his sister to marry the Moldavian prince, Bogdan, while Bogdan's wife was still alive.  When Saint Niphon heard of this, he told Radul that this was forbidden, and that if he disregarded the laws of the Church, instead of a blessing coming upon his reign and upon himself, a curse would come instead. 

     The prince decided that he would be disobedient to Saint Niphon, whom he ransomed from a Moslem sultan, and invited him to come and lead the Church in his country.  When Saint Niphon saw that the prince decided that he was going to disobey his bishop, and of course, the Church laws, he prophesied an evil end to him, and drove him publicly out of the Church.

     Saint Niphon said to himself, what need is there for me to be here then and he left and went back to the Holy Mountain.  The prince then proceeded with his ungodly desires.

     Immediately after this, there was a drought in all the land and a great famine in the region, and Radul fell into an incurable sickness, his whole body being one great, suppurating sore which no one could come near to for the stench. When they buried him, his grave shook for three days, like the grave of the Empress Eudoxia, the persecutor of St. John Chrysostom.  This all happened to Radul around 1500 AD.

     I am bringing this to note because we should all be very, very careful how we respect the rules of the Church.  In our society, one may take marriage lightly.  In Orthodoxy, however, this is a solemn and profound act which is recorded not only in the Church on earth, but by the angels and even at the throne of God.  Just as the vows of a monastic are binding for life, so too the vows of marriage before the holy altar are binding for life.  One cannot just cast them off as he changes his garments.  How many souls were lost when a similar dispute in the Church erupted in the times of Saint Theodore the Studite?  The same thing happened in Russia when Tsar Alexander put away his wife for someone else.  That union produced Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and we know how many evils this man brought upon the land of Russia. Even Saint John the Baptist was a victim of a man who disregarded the laws of marriage.  Herod ha! d him beheaded because he reproved his taking his brother's wife. 

     Therefore, for all our young men and women, I exhort them to be very careful when they choose their spouse. This is chiefly a means for our salvation. It should not be a means for our destruction.
     We now continue with our third segment of Metropolitan Anthony's homily.
 
"CHRIST THE SAVIOR AND THE JEWISH REVOLUTION"
BY BLESSED METROPOLITAN ANTHONY KHRAPOVITSKY
(Continued from the past two weeks)
 
II.
     The miracle of the resurrecting of Lazarus intensified the division, as well as the Sanhedrin's fear for the revolutionary solidarity of the nation which was hitherto in submission to them; and there was cause for their fear. As long as the Lord, deprecating the earthly hopes of Israel, had been promising believers everlasting life only orally, His message was unable to captivate many - on the contrary, it alienated many from Him, because it was a promise incapable of fulfillment (Jn. 6:58-60; 8:52).

But the staggering miracle of the raising from the dead of a man four days in the tomb confirmed with such clarity Christ's promises of eternal life to those who believed in Him, and were able to satisfy them with Christ's faith to such an extent, that they were not only filled with that faith, as John bears witness (Jn. 11:45) but even prepared a triumphal greeting for Him in Jerusalem, whereas the apostles tried to persuade Him not to go to Jerusalem, but finally heeded the words of Thomas: "Let us also go, that we may die with Him" (Jn. 11: 16). Yet the people's rapture was the reason for the death-sentence pronounced over the Savior in the Sanhedrin.
Unfortunately, commentators usually understand this sentence in a sense completely at variance with its actual significance. "Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on Him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? For this Man doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him; and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation" (Jn. 11:45-48).

Short-sighted commentators find here the Sanhedrin's fear of the Romans in the sense that they later could take the nascent Christian religious movement as a revolt and could completely enslave Judea to themselves. But the Romans were not so stupid. On the contrary, in the person of Pilate they tried to save Christ from the enmity of the Jews, knowing "that for envy they had delivered Him" (Mt. 27:18). "Am I a Jew?" Pilate asked Christ in answer to His question; "Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me. What hast Thou done?" (Jn. 18:35). It was not that the Sanhedrin, in passing a death sentence upon the Savior, was reacting to any fear that the Romans would consider the Christians revolutionaries; on the contrary, they were afraid that, under the Savior's influence, the people would cool completely toward the revolutionary direction supported by the Sanhedrin, would cease even to show opposition to Roman usurpati! ons, and that the Romans, unimpeded, would abolish Jewish autonomy and civilization, something Antiochus Epiphanes had not accomplished, thanks to the revolt of the Maccabees. This is why the enemies of Christ, while not in the least doubting the authenticity of the miracle performed over Lazarus and the rest of Christ's miracles, and ready to acknowledge His innocence, agreed with the fatal verdict of Caiaphas and "from that day forth took council together to put Him to death" (Jn. 11: 53). It was they who were alarmed by the growing belief in Christ. "But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, because, by reason of him, many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus" (Jn. 12:10-11), and when the Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place, "the Pharisees ... said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after Him!" (v. 19). What was it in which they prevailed not! hing? Obviously in their attempts to put a stop to the honor shown the entering Savior (Lk. 19: 39) and in preparing a popular uprising. Moreover, the Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem not only caused the Romans no anxiety, even though "all the city was moved" (Mt. 21: 10), but by its very nature was completely anti-revolutionary, peaceful, as the personification of a purely spiritual authority, which is foreign not only to violence and weaponry, but also to every kind of luxury, in fulfillment of the words of the Prophet Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter; proclaim it aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, the King is coming to thee, just, and a Savior; He is meek and riding on an ass, and a young foal. And He shall destroy the chariots out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be utterly destroyed; and there shall be abundance and peace out of the nations . . ." (Zech. 9:9-10). This prophecy, so clearly fulfilled in the regal entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (Mt. 21:5; Jn. 12:15), ! was quite foreign to the militant, revolutionary spirit, as was the very event foretold by it, and it is entirely understandable that the enemies of Christ, who were laying plans for an armed revolt against the Romans, felt that the ground was about to be cut from under them and decided, come what may, to destroy the Savior, although this would not be so easy according to biblical laws, as we have seen above.

According to the literal sense of the law, which we pointed out, it was essential that two or three witnesses lay their hands on the head of the accused and declare definitely what it was of which they were accusing him. Before this day, no one had resolved to do this, despite the attempts of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin to find such. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of the people were on the side of Christ. Vexed by Christ's parable of the wicked vine-tenders, the priests and elders "sought to lay hold of Him, but feared the people" (Mk. 12:12), the more so when at the time of Christ's disputes with the Pharisees "the common people heard Him gladly" (v. 37) All of this took place after the Lord's entry into Jerusalem. It is hence apparent that the change in the people's mood which was revealed in Pilate's presence did not develop over a period of five days, as is usually stated in sermons, but in a much shorter period of time. Just how it w! as we shall soon see, but now let us recall that even on Wednesday of Passion Week the enemies of Christ "were afraid" of the people who were well-disposed towards Him, for on that day Judas "promised, and sought opportunity to betray Him unto them in the absence of the multitude" (Lk. 22:2-6). Nevertheless, by this declaration of the traitor the single difficulty in arresting the Savior was finally eliminated: a witness had been found. It is understandable that "they were glad, and covenanted to give him money" (v. 5). Accordingly, their reason for needing the betrayer was not at all to have him point out where Jesus was alone with His disciples: it would have been easier for them to track down twelve men in the city through their own servants; but according to biblical law they had no right to seize Christ without an accuser, and according to Roman law they could not execute Him unless such were approved by the procurator, and consequently wi! thout a preliminary arrest. Judas did as he promised, though not exact ly: he decided not to place his hand on the Master's head, but replaced this ritual gesture with a kiss, telling the guardsmen and the Pharisees beforehand: "Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He; take Him, and lead Him away safely" (Mk. 14:4). This is why the Lord said: "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" (Lk. 22:48). This kiss was not an indication of which of the group was Jesus, for all or most of those who were with Judas knew Him; no, his kiss was the ritual gesture necessary for the arrest of the accused. But the ritual gesture was not exact, and it is perhaps for this reason that the soldiers decided not to lay hands on the Savior immediately. And He Himself did not help them, casting them to the ground beforehand with the power of His spirit. " 'Whom seek ye'. . .Jesus of Nazareth.' ...'I am He.'... Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him" (Jn. 18:4-12).

The Lord was brought to the high priest for trial at night, in violation of the law, but the informer, tormented by his conscience, hid himself and soon afterwards hanged himself. Again there were difficulties: how could one conduct a trial without the witnesses who had betrayed the accused to the court? The law of God says: "He shall die on the testimony of two or three witnesses; a man who is put to death shall not be put to death for one witness. And the hand of the witnesses shall be upon him to death, and the hand of the people at the last" (Deut. 17:6-7). Moreover, there is a proviso: "Thou shalt enquire and ask, and search diligently" (Deut. 13:14). The enemies of Christ knew that even then the people were on His side, and they understood that they would have to shoulder tremendous responsibility for this terrible deed, and were therefore doubly afraid to violate the requirement of the law. The Book of Acts reinforces our conviction that the c! hief priests and Pharisees "feared the people, lest they should have been stoned" (Acts 5:26), and they reproached the disciples of Christ, saying: "Ye ... intend to bring this Man's blood upon us!" (v. 28).

However, personal revenge, malice and envy, and even more so concern for their favorite plan of revolution, which they had worked on, won out. According to the law, they should have released Jesus Christ for want of witnesses (Lk. 22:68), but such was far from their intention, and contrary to the law, they themselves began to search for witnesses, i.e. false witnesses, concerning which the evangelists Matthew (26:56-61) and Mark (14:55-59) speak with particular clarity. John mentions the fact that at the first interrogation the High Priest Annas himself began to question Jesus Christ about His teaching and His disciples, and when the Lord reminded him that it was for others to accuse Him, a soldier struck Him in the face, although the Savior had merely pointed out the requirement of the biblical law. [Cf. the illegal interrogation of Christ by Pilate (Jn. 18:34) and that of the Apostle Paul in the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:1-5).] The three remaining evangelists recount tha! t, wearied by the unsuccessful cross-examination of the perjured witnesses, the judges of Christ, contrary to the law, began themselves to demand of Him that He say whether He considered Himself the Christ, the Son of God. The Lord did not reply, until Caiaphas repeated the question with an oath. Then the Savior answered, but first explained His silence: "If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I also ask you, you will not answer Me, nor let Me go" (Lk. 22: 67-68).

Once, the Lord had asked the Jews: " 'What think ye of the Christ? Whose Son is He?' They said to Him, 'The Son of David.' He said unto them, 'How, then, doth David, in the Spirit, call Him Lord ... ?' And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither dared any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions" (Mt. 22:42-44). Here He would probably have liked to ask them of what Son of man going to God on the clouds of heaven does Daniel speak? However, convinced that He would not receive an answer to the question, the Lord speaks of this already in the affirmative sense: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mt. 26:64). These are nearly the literal words of Daniel: "I beheld in the night visions, and, lo, One coming with the clouds of heaven as the Son of man, and He came on to the Ancient of Days, and was brought near to Him. And to Him was given ! the dominion, and the honor, and the kingdom; and all the nations, tribes and tongues, shall serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7:13-14). Who would have dared accuse the Teacher because He cited the words of the Sacred Scriptures? Yet the chief priests pretended not to recognize in Christ's words a quote from the ancient prophet and played out a scene of sacred indignation, like a man who has listened to blasphemy. The Sanhedrin unanimously condemned the Savior to death, permitting the violation of the law both in the manner in which the interrogation was conducted and in the very qualification of the alleged crime, for the Jews applied that prophecy to the Messiah, despite the fact that they expected Him to come as an ordinary Man Who is made worthy of such glorification; that is why the Lord had to convince Nicodemus that man is never accounted worthy of such glory, because &quo! t;no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven , even the Son of man Who is in heaven" (Jn. 3:13). If the Jews hoped that the Messiah would be vouchsafed such glory, being simply a man, then wherein would lie the blasphemy if Jesus Christ, Who stood before them in the guise of a man, applied these words to Himself? They could refuse to agree with Him, to maintain that this glory is appointed for another man, but to see blasphemy in words taken from the book of sacred prophecy was possible only for those pretending to forget whence these words were borrowed. And this is exactly what Caiaphas and the entire Sanhedrin did. We have dwelt upon this event in Christ's life to show once more in what strict accord with the teaching of the biblical law He acted and taught, and consequently how foolish is the opinion that the Sanhedrin was convinced that the Savior was a popular revolutionary and violator of the law. The Sanhedrin itself was both, as is, made clear from all the foregoing and as will be made clear in a still mo! re definite manner from the following events which accompany the sufferings of Christ.

(To be continued, with the last segment next Sunday)
 
Monastery News:
 
This past week Vladyka hurt his left elbow somehow. It became swollen and he couldn't bring his hand up to his shoulder, as he could his right hand. We suppose he must have hit it against some of the steel or against some of the scaffolding. He has been applying cold presses to it, and still is working with it, but not as he was before.

     After the Transfiguration, all of the roof purlins were installed and braces on the two end walls were completed, along with studs in the upper portions of these walls. Benjamin Pugsley has been working with us this week again. Without his help probably very little would have been accomplished, even without Vladyka's elbow problem. Subdeacon John Phillips has also volunteered some of his time to come and help. We are very grateful. The building is really taking shape now, and the amount of work sometimes seems overwhelming because the building is so big. However, as we said before, this is the last building that we can put on our property that can be supplied with water. Therefore, we had to make sure it was big enough to satisfy our needs for the foreseeable future.
 
Please pray for:
 
Our beloved Metropolitan Valentine.
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
This Thursday is the holy Dormition of the Virgin Mary. We wish everybody a joyous and grace-filled feastday. May the Mother of God be with us all in a very special way on this day.
 
Crumbs from the Trapeza Table:    
 
Some Excerpts from St. Basil the Great's "Advice to the Youth":
 
On the Christian's Priorities and Conduct of Life:
 
"We Christians, young men, hold that this human life is not a supremely precious thing, nor do we recognize anything as unconditionally a blessing which benefits us in this life only. Neither pride of ancestry, nor bodily strength, nor beauty, nor greatness, nor the esteem of all men, nor kingly authority, nor, indeed, whatever of human affairs may be called great, do we consider worthy of desire, or the possessors of them as objects of envy; but we place our hopes upon the things which are beyond, and in preparation for the life eternal do all things that we do. Accordingly, whatever helps us towards this we say that we must love and follow after with all our might, but those things which have no bearing upon it should be held as naught, For it will not be possible for us, while we are fast asleep and leading care-free lives, to make the heavenly rewards our own by half-hearted efforts, Is there not rather truth in the maxim of Pittacus which says, 'It is hard ! to be good?' , Therefore we must not be light-minded, nor exchange our immortal hopes for momentary idleness,"
 
Some General Requirements:
 
"To speak generally and so far as your needs demand, purity of soul embraces these things: to scorn sensual pleasures, to refuse to feast the eyes on the senseless antics of buffoons, or on bodies which goad one to passion, and to close one's ears to songs which corrupt the mind."
 
On Being Satisfied With Just Simple and Necessary Food:
 
"We must provide our body with the necessary food, to be sure, but not with delicacies, as those do who (from excessive love of pleasing the bodily senses) seek everywhere for waiters and cooks, and scour both earth and sea, like those bringing tribute to some stern tyrant."
 
On Avoiding Excessive Care for Appearance:
 
"Then to spend more time than is necessary on one's hair and clothes is, in the words of Diogenes, the part of the unfortunate or of the sinful. For what difference does it make to a sensible man whether he is clad in an august robe or in an inexpensive garment, so long as he is protected from heat and cold? Likewise in other matters we must be governed by necessity, and only give so much care to the body as is beneficial to the soul. For to one who is really a man it is no less a disgrace to be a fop or a pamperer of the body than to be the victim of any other base passion."
 
On Protecting the Senses of Hearing and Smell:
 
"[You must shun and close your ears to songs which corrupt the mind.] For passions which are the offspring of servility and baseness are produced by this kind of music. On the other hand, we must employ that class of music which is of a higher class in itself and which guides us to better things... [St. Basil then gives well-known examples drawn from the world of how people have acted debauched when listening to sensual or exciting music, but when another more somber or chaste tune was played, the seemingly-drunk sobered up quickly and ceased their lewd tendencies.] Even so great a difference does it make whether one lends his ear to healthy or to vicious music. Therefore you ought to have still less to do with the music of such influence than with other infamous things. Then I am ashamed to forbid you to load the air with all kinds of sweet-smelling perfumes, or to smear yourselves with ointment. Again, what further argument is needed against seeking the grat! ification of one's appetite than that it compels those who pursue it, like animals, to make of their belly-region a god?"
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory and those with me

[Julianna]

August 18/31, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
SUNDAY OF THE ELEVENTH WEEK
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 141]. Brethren:
     9  2Ye are the seal of mine apostleship in the Lord. 3My defense to those who examine me is this: 4We do not have authority to eat and to drink, do we? 5We do not have authority to lead about a wife who is a sister in the Lord, as also the rest of the apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Kephas, do we? 6Or do only I and Barnabas have no authority not to be working? 7Who at any time serveth as a soldier at his own pay? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of its fruit? Or who shepherdeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? 8I am not saying these things after the manner of man, am I? Or saith not the law these things also? 9For in the law of Moses it hath been written: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth the corn [Deut. 25:4]." It is not the care of the oxen that matters with God, is it? 10Or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes it was written, that the one who ploweth ought to plow in hope, and the one who thresheth in hope ought to partake of his hope. 11If we did sow to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap of your carnal things? 12If others partake of this authority over you, should not rather we? Nevertheless we did not use this authority; but we bear up against all things, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ.
 
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 77]. The Lord said this parable:
     18  23"The kingdom of the heavens is likened to a man, a king, who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24"And after he began to make a reckoning for himself, there was brought to him one debtor of ten thousand talents. 25"But when he had not wherewith to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and the children, and all things whatsoever he had, and to render payment. 26"The slave therefore fell down and was making obeisance to him, saying, 'Lord, be long-suffering toward me, and I will pay all to thee.' 27"And the lord of that slave was moved with compassion, and released him, and forgave him the loan. 28"But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hold of him and began to throttle him, saying, 'Pay me, if thou dost owe anything.' 29"Then his fellow slave fell down at his feet and was beseeching him, saying, 'Be long-suffering toward me, and I will pay all to thee.' 30"And he was not willing, but went away and cast him into prison, until he should pay that which was owed. 31"But after his fellow slaves saw what was done, they were exceedingly grieved; and they came to their lord and made quite clear all that was done. 32"Then his lord, having summoned him, saith to him, 'O thou evil slave, I forgave thee all that debt, since thou besoughtest me; 33"'was it not also necessary for thee to have pitied thy fellow slave, even as I pitied thee?' 34"And his lord, having been provoked to anger, delivered him up to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was owed to him. 35 "Thus shall My Father, the heavenly One, do to you also, unless each one of you from your hearts forgive his brother their trespasses."
 
     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
     Dear Faithful,
 
     God bless you all on this glorious Feast of the Holy Dormition.  I pray that the grace of God and His peace will be with you all.  We have heard this Gospel reading many times, and we should never weary of its lesson.  Our Saviour wishes to fashion the soul of His rational sheep, and so He tells us this parable of a man who was forgiven very much by his lord, and yet would not forgive his equals some paltry amount.  And our Saviour ends the parable by saying that if you imitate this worthless man, who had no mercy, you will receive the condemnation of which He spake.  35 "Thus shall My Father, the heavenly One, do to you also, unless each one of you from your hearts forgive his brother their trespasses."

     Thus, we must all have the disposition that we are sinners, and that we have been forgiven the very great debt of our sins.  We must have the disposition that we do not hold any hatred towards anybody, that we forgive everybody who may have trespassed against us, and in a word, that we maintain love for one another. We should have the disposition not to be always finding fault with people.  I want all of our faithful to examine themselves, to be certain that they do not hold the demon of hatred, or anger, or resentment in their hearts towards any man.  If anyone does this, then he is losing, or has lost, the peace which we must have as Orthodox Christians.  If anyone has the disposition of hatred, or revenge, or wishing someone evil, then we should know that we are only, and let me repeat this again, ONLY hurting ourselves.  We are driving away, deliberately driving away, the grace of the Holy Spirit.  Let this not be done. 

     Let us be aware at the very inception of bad thoughts that we may be lead to harboring this evil within us.  When I was young, I had a job at a hardware store, and one of the tasks I was given was to go to a woman's house to change the screen on her door which had been damaged.  This old woman, the whole time I was there, did nothing but curse and darn not only the person who did it, whom she did not know, but also said that if it happens again, she was going to curse God's creation.  I looked at this woman in utter amazement at her anger and audacity.  Her face showed this same wretchedness which was within her.  I was maybe seventeen years old when I saw that the hatred within many times is exhibited in the face of those who harbor it. 
     Let us be vigilant and cognizant of what is going on within us.  Let no one think that the devil is only going to assault someone else, and not us.  If he assaults us, or I should rather say, WHEN HE ASSAULTS US, because he is going to assault us, no one is exempt, so when he assaults us, that is when we should take action against him.  Read carefully here what Saint John of Damascus wrote in the Life of Ss. Barlaam and Ioasaph, Ch. 19:
 
"Wherefore on no account suffer any evil habit to master thee; but, while it is yet young, pluck the evil root out of thine heart, lest it fasten on and strike root so deep that time and labour be required to uproot it. And the reason that greater sins assault us and get the mastery of our souls is that those which appear to be less, such as wicked thoughts, unseemly words and evil communications, fail to receive proper correction. For as in the case of the body, they that neglect small wounds often bring mortification and death upon themselves, so too with the soul: thus they that overlook little passions and sins bring on greater ones. And the more those greater sins grow on them, the more doth the soul become accustomed thereto and think light of them."
 
     Take note, all of you.  He says, do not let evil fasten on and strike root so deep that time and labour be required to uproot it.  Isn't this true with every passion and evil habit?  So I again exhort all of you to be careful, to be very careful.  Do not let any passion gain dominion over you. 
 
News from Russia:
 
     We just received news that our Church is being persecuted again in Russia and Latvia.

     On Sunday morning, August 3rd, two fires were started on church buildings in Suzdal. The first fire was started on the big metal hangar that is situated next to the Synodal House at Teremki Street and to the garage in a yard of the Deposition of the Sash of the Virgin Mary Convent at Vasilievskaja Street.

     At 4.30 in the morning, casual by-passers noticed a blaze rising over the hangar building that is used as a garage of the Synod and also as a storehouse of construction materials and fuel. Five minutes earlier pilgrims, who were at the building, heard the sound of a car departing in a quick manner. In it, in all probability, were the arsonists, who set the fire.

      The starting point of the fire was in a firewood storehouse added to the hangar. Arsonists splashed liquid fuel through a crack in a wall of the storehouse. As a result, their stored saw-timber burst into flames. Soon a metal wall of the hangar glowed because of the fire, and it started to split. Then flames enveloped shelves with car spare parts, wheels and paints.

     Protopriest Nicholas and Protodeacon Vladimir did their best to prevent an explosion of the cars, which were in the garage, and they succeeded: one car was rolled out into the street and the other, which was left inside, was continually cooled off by pails full of water.  Miraculously the fire didn't spread to areas with fuel, among which was a tank with twelve tones of solar oil. A consequence of such a possible explosion of such a quantity of fuel could be placed on the same footing as a serious terrorist act.

     In the building next door to the hangar was bishop Ambrose, several clerics and pilgrims, among whom were two children ages 7 and 9. They hastily left the building when a pungent smell of smoke began to penetrate in its corridors. Fire brigades arrived in five minutes after the conflagration was revealed. They coped with the fire in about half an hour. As a result of the conflagration several cubic meters of board, slate, other construction material and also the motorcycle of Subdeacon Ivan Kostin were burned. According to the most modest count, the damage caused by the conflagration amounted to 50 thousand rubles. Protodeacon Vladimir, who was among the first to fight the fire was poisoned by coal gas. Urgently needed medical help was given to him.

     The second arson took place approximately at 9:30 in the morning. An arsonist splashed petrol from a jerry-can (which was later found) and threw a match inside a crack in the back wall of a garage. The fire was noticed at once and in several minutes nuns and workers of the monastery extinguished it. As a result, saw-timber and plywood stored in the garage were slightly burnt. Also the walls of the garage became covered with soot.

     It is far from the first time that ROAC church buildings in Suzdal have become objects of arson. Last summer a conflagration took place in the Deposition of the Sash of the Virgin Mary Convent at Vasilievskaja Street, where a petrol bomb was thrown through window. The building was so damaged that its repair hasn't been completed yet. The disciples of the deposed Andrew Osetrov also set fire to the chapel on Znamenskoe cemetery in Suzdal and to a church house on Slobodskaja Street, where elderly nuns and invalids live. Several years earlier an unfinished building of women cloisters in the name of St. John of Shanghia was burnt down.  Perpetrators of all these arsons, who are well known to many inhabitants of Suzdal "aren't ascertained" by investigation even up to now and criminal cases for the majority of such incidents are closed.

     We also have news that our Church in Latvia has been assaulted. 

     Around five in the morning of the 28th of August, the day of the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, unknown hooligans gathered in Daoobavrelse and burned the Cathedral Church of the Holy Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir, belonging to the Autonomous True Orthodox Church of Latvia - the Latvian Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church.  The fire in the church was at once discovered by Archbishop Victor.

     According to the report of the Latvian firemen, there were discovered two canisters of gasoline, one of which was full, the other empty, which proved the fire was maliciously set.  The flames of the fire seriously damaged the roof of the church, the interior, and church property.  The damage is estimated at $9000 U.S. dollars.

     According to Archbishop Victor, about five in the morning he was woken by a neighbor lady, who informed him that the church was engulfed with flames.  At that point the fire was burning the staircase on the second floor where the bishop slept.  To flee the burning church, Archbishop Victor was helped by our Saviour.  Vladyka was taken to the clinic with numerous burns.  Later it became evident that the culprits threw bottles with a flammable mixture straight into the window of the Archbishop's residence.

     Archbishop Victor had reported that he had been threatened continuously during the previous two months.  Whoever threatened the hierarch referred to themselves as Christians.

     The result of the fire was that the bishop's entire bedroom, the trapeza and the Eparchy's boardroom were burned.

     It is obvious to us that this is again a continuation of the persecution of the Moscow Patriarchate. This corrupt organization cannot tolerate the existence of the True Church in Russia. Our prayers are with our faithful in Russia and Latvia. 

Monastery News:    
     This past week we worked at the building site, and prepared the roof for the application of the roof panels.  We framed completely the east and west walls, which had four windows and two doors.  We started framing the back wall also, waiting for a bid from a contractor who was willing to put on the roof panels.  We had called about six or seven contractors to install the roof.  Only one was willing to do the job.  One other person came up and saw the job and said that it was too big and dangerous for him: find someone else, he told us.  The person who was willing to do the job had one other helper, and they submitted a bid which was beyond imagination.  So we decided that we will do it ourselves.  We will start on it, Lord willing, on Wednesday.  The roof panels are approximately 37 inches wide by 27 feet long - all one piece.   Forty pieces go up just to complete one side. 

     Benjamin Pugsley has been working with us this past week.  We are very grateful for his efforts.  Subdeacon John Phillips also has been lending a hand, along with Alexander Kassal.  Alexander is staying with us now for one week to help in any way he can.  He is a good cook, and frees up one of us to work on the building, although he has been working on the building also. Vladyka's elbow has been healing steadily.  

     We have been getting rain every day like clockwork about two or three in the afternoon.  No wonder this place has the name "Mushroom Gulch".  Mushrooms have to have lots of moisture. 
 
Please pray for:
 
Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine, Archbishop Victor and Bishop Ambrose.
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
     Today we celebrate the repose of Saint John of Rila.  We congratulate Father Lyudmil and our faithful in Bulgaria. 

     Wednesday and Friday are fast days again.  Saturday is the Feast of Saint Kosmas of Aetolia, Equal to the Apostles. 
 
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 
Excerpt from St. John of Damascus' Homily on the Glorious Dormition of the All-Pure Theotokos, the Ever-Virgin Mary, 19:
 
     "What are we to say to the tomb [of the Virgin Mary]? The grace you possess is indeed rich and unfailing. But divine power is not circumscribed by place; and neither is the goodness of the Mother of God. For if it were restricted to the tomb alone, few would gain by it. Now it is poured out in every place throughout the world. Let us then make our own soul a treasure-house of the Mother of God. How shall we do this? She is a virgin and a lover of virgins. She is pure and a lover of purity. If then, together with the body, we keep our soul pure, we shall obtain that her love shall be with us. She flees from every foulness, and turns aside from all unclean passions. She has a horror of the glutton, and a special loathing of the vice of fornication, and shrinks from its polluted discussions as from a brood of vipers. She repels with disdain the speech that is obscene and licentious and perverted. She drives from herself carnal lures and perfumes. She hates the swelling of anger, and cannot endure inhumanity, envy, and jealousy. She turns away from useless vain-glory. Pride and arrogance she resists with hostility. She hates, as the enemy of our salvation, the remembrance of past injuries. She regards each single vice as a death-bringing poison.

     "But her joy is in the contrary things. For contraries are healed by contraries. She rejoices in fasting, in self-control, and in the songs of the psalms. And she rejoices with purity, with virginity, with holy wisdom. With these she is ever at peace, and with gentleness of spirit. Love, mercy, humility; these she holds like children to her breast. In a word, she sorrows over all wickedness, but rejoices in all virtue, as if each one were her own special gift.

     "If therefore we turn with all our heart from our former wickedness, and with all zeal love the virtues and make them our constant companions, she will come often to visit her servants, bringing with her a train of all the graces and, together with them, Christ her Son. She will bring with herself to dwell in our hearts the King and Lord of all: To Whom be glory and honour, power and majesty and magnificence, now and for ever, unto the ages of ages. Amen."
 
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.
 
P.S. The fourth part of Metropolitan Anthony's homily will be given next week.

[Julianna]

August 25/September 7, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
SUNDAY OF THE TWELFTH WEEK
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 158].

     15  1Brethren, I make known to you the Gospel which I preached as good tidings to you, which also ye received, and in which also ye stand, 2by which also ye are being saved, in what word I myself preached as good tidings to you, if ye hold fast, unless ye believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you in the first place what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He hath been raised the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that He appeared to Kephas, then to the twelve. 6Afterward He appeared to over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the majority remain until now, but some also fell asleep. 7Then He appeared to Iakovos, then to all the apostles. 8And last of all He appeared to me also, as it were one untimely born. 9For I am the least of! the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was toward me did not become void; but I toiled more abundantly than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach and so ye believed.
 
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 79]. At that time:

     19  16A certain young man came to Jesus, and knelt down to Him, and said, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" 17And He said to him, "Why callest thou Me good? No one is good, except One: God. But if thou art willing to enter into life, keep the commandments." 18He saith to Him, "Which?" And Jesus said, "'Thou shalt not murder; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness [Ex. 20:15, 13, 14, 16]; 19"'be honoring thy father and thy mother [Ex. 20:12]'; and, 'thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself [Lev. 19:18].'" 20The young man saith to Him, "All these I kept for myself from my youth; what lack I yet?" 21Jesus said to him, "If thou art willing to be perfect, go and sell thy possessions, and give to the poor,! and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and keep on following Me." 22But after the young man heard the saying, he went away being grieved; for he had many possessions. 23And Jesus said to His disciples, "Verily I say to you, that a rich man, with difficulty, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens. 24"And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." 25And after His disciples heard this, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, "Who then is able to be saved?" 26But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
 
     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
     I want to speak a few thoughts about the Gospel and the Epistle. 

     Today we heard the story of the rich man who came to Christ and asked Him, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  Christ gave him His famous answer, and this person thought that he kept those commandments, and yet he knew there was something lacking.  As we said in previous years, this man thought he kept the commandments, not realizing that he was boasting and deceived.  Christ told him, "If thou art willing to be perfect, go and sell thy possessions, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and keep on following Me."  This he could not do because he was riveted to his wealth.

     Now I want our people to understand that this is a grave sickness of the soul, that one is so attached to fleeting wealth that it will hinder him, or even prevent him from following Christ, the true Wealth, the only Wealth.  So, if we are poor, let us not be mind-locked only on acquiring wealth, and lose sight of what is really the wealth of the world.  If we are this, let us not be so attached to this wealth as to neglect Christ by not regarding those in need. 

     When we read the Epistle and the Gospel, I think this rich man was the exact opposite of the Apostle Paul, who described himself in the Epistle.  He did not hesitate to give up everything he had, and to follow Christ; whereas the rich man hesitated to the point where it was impossible for him. 

     Today we read in the Synaxarion the story of a young Jewish boy who had Christian boy friends, and went to church with them.  In time, he saw how the boys, with reverence, came and partook of Holy Communion, so one time he followed them in the line to partake.  A very serious mistake was done.  First of all, the boy was permitted to be in the Divine Liturgy, and no one knew that he was a Jew.  And then an even greater mistake was committed, in that the priest gave this Jewish boy Holy Communion.  When this boy came home to his Jewish father, who was a glass-blower, and told his father, as he was working next to his big, red-hot, oven which he used to melt his glass, that he had gone to the Christian church and partaken of Holy Communion, his father was so enraged that he opened the door of the oven and threw his son in headlong and closed the door for three days.  So, after three days, he opened the oven, expecting to see nothing left of his son, but behold the wonder.  God preserved him unharmed.  The story does not continue to tell us if his Jewish father converted.

     Today also we heard of the dream/Divine revelation which the bishop of Lipara received that the lead coffin containing the body of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle was about to appear at the seashore.  He gathered all his clergy and lay people and went to the shore, and behold - before them all, the lead coffin floated ashore.  Now, this was not a dream, but divine revelation.

     I want to bring this up because many of us have a tendency to believe in dreams, and I want again to restate that dreams are not to be believed.  Probably the amount of dreams that an Orthodox person has during a lifetime that he should believe amounts to zero, or perhaps one.  So, if you consider for an eighty-year old person, if he has but one dream per night, he has the potential of having over twenty-nine thousand dreams.  My, that is a lot of night activity which is for all practical purposes, useless.  Is it no wonder that we pray in the Compline that we have a sleep light and free from all satanic fantasies (dreams).  Wow, that gets me to wonder.  We have in our lifetime, if we live to be eighty, twenty-nine thousand two hundred days, minus five thousand or so for our youth, which makes about twenty-four thousand days in which to find Christ and the Church, and Holy Baptism.  This determines our eternity! !  It seems like a small number compared to eternity.

     Because of our building project, we are going to continue the Homily of Metropolitan Anthony.  It will be the last installment of this sermon. 
 
Monastery News:
 
     Last week we reported about the persecution of our Church in Russia.  This is a very sad occurrence which is typical in two ways:  firstly, because we are in the last times, and secondly, because it originates from the graceless and heretical Moscow Patriarchate.  Many people do not realize how ruthless the leaders of World Orthodoxy can be.  Their power is such that they can, and do, heinous things which are completely opposed to the Gospel of Christ.  We thank God that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with these people.  They are the enemies of Christ, and we are the little flock of Christ.  We follow our Chief Shepherd through peaceful times, and through persecutions, and delight in being His sheep of His flock.  May God help and protect our people in Russia.
 
     This week has been a very rainy week, so our roof building project has been quite hampered.  The first day it was with great difficulty that we secured the first roof panel.  It took us four hours to secure six panels.  After the first panel was up, we started to get accustomed to working on the roof.  Then it rained.  We couldn't resume work on the roof until the roof dried off.  This takes approximately two to three hours.  A wet steel roof is exceedingly slippery.  In fact, when it rained that first day, Vladika was caught on the top, which is called the ridge.  There was no way for him to get down because of the danger of sliding off.  So he had settled in his mind that he was going to sit there until the rain stopped.  The fathers, however, devised a way of putting plywood on the ceiling rafters, and putting an extension ladder from there up to the roof right beside where he was sitting! .  They "rescued" Vladika! 

     The next day it rained.  The next day, there was a two-hour period of dry weather, and in those two hours we secured five more panels.  The rest of the week it was impossible to work on the roof because of the morning dew, which lasted until 10:00 am, and the showers which came shortly thereafter. 
     The earth here is saturated.  We concentrated on putting in all of the exterior partitions where the doors and windows are located.  This we completed, thank God. 
 
     We would like to thank Benjamin Pugsley, Subdeacon John Phillips, and Alexander Kassal for their help with the roofing project.  Alexander departed today to Nebraska. 
 
Please pray for:
 
Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine.
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
     Monday is a special day.  It is the Meeting of the Vladimir icon, which is very special for the monastery.  Thursday is the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist.  It is a fast day, so this means we have a three day fast - from Wednesday to Friday.  Also, we know that this is the anniversary of the World Trade Center disaster.  It is amazing, I was thinking today, that my ancestors came to this country to get away from the fanatical and crazy Moslems, and now we see that the entire world is susceptible to their jihad.  This is their word for "holy war" - which is a crazy term, only used by Moslems, Roman Catholics, and other religious fanatics.
 
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 
"CHRIST THE SAVIOR AND THE JEWISH REVOLUTION"
BY BLESSED METROPOLITAN ANTHONY KHRAPOVITSKY
 
(Fourth Segment:)
 
     Let us begin with the question posed earlier, yet which remains still without explanation: when did the final change of the people's feelings, from favorable disposition to opposition with regard to the Savior, take place? The evangelists Mark and John answer this for us. From the former we learn of something which has not attracted the notice of biblical scholarship. Instructed by the latter, people were accustomed to think that the crowd which stood before Pilate had followed the Sanhedrin and its Victim in, and that the conversation with Pilate was about Christ; but later, when Pilate proposed freeing the Savior for the sake of the Passover, the people would not agree to this, and began to insist that the robber Barabbas be released.

     Such an unexpected and pointless joining of the people to the malevolent, accusatory procession with Christ to trial by a pagan, while His very betrayal and preliminary interrogation were conducted at night out of fear of a popular riot (Mt. 26:5; Mk. 14:2), with a similar understanding of the events, remains totally unnatural. In actual fact, the people's sympathy for the Savior continued as far as Friday morning, and the people themselves appeared before Pilate in the praetorium not because they had followed Christ in, but because they were there on other, personal business. This follows from the account of Mark, and if in his Gospel, as in all the first three evangelists, the people's demand that Christ be condemned seems nonetheless unexpected, this is so for the same reason that they leave unexplained why the Savior walked on the water. But we will return to this. How does Mark describe the appearance before Pilate of a crowd of people? He ! writes that when Pilate's interrogation of Jesus Christ had already begun, at that time "the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire [Pilate] to do as he had ever done for them" (Mk. 15:8), because "at [every] feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired" (v. 6). Thus, the cries of the crowd for the fulfillment of this custom were raised without any relation to the legal case of Jesus Christ. One of three things happened: either those who brought the Savior found in the vicinity of the praetorium a crowd of people who had gathered together to petition in behalf of Barabbas, or the crowd arrived and found the enemies of Christ, with their divine Prisoner, assembled at Pilate's, or both crowds happened to arrive at the same time, but from different places and on different business. One can find an indication of this in the Gospel of St. Matthew. There, the evangelist, describing the interrogation of the Savior and the amazemen! t of Pilate continues: "Therefore, when they were gathered togeth er [i.e., the people, not those who accompanied Jesus Christ], Pilate said unto them, 'Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus, Who is called Christ?' " (Mt. 27:17).

     Why was Barabbas so well-loved by the people? Why did they ask Pilate to release him with such insistence? Why was Pilate so reluctant to let him go? The Apostle John, adding details to the brief accounts of the other evangelists, speaks, as is his wont, quite briefly of what in their narratives is set forth more fully: he, for example, passes over in silence the thirty pieces of silver, the false witnesses, Jesus Christ's answer taken from the prophecy of Daniel, Herod, the good thief, et. al. He speaks of Barabbas more briefly than the other Gospels: "Now Barabbas was a robber" (Jn. 18:40).

     It is strange that under this simple epithet he has remained in the memory of both the believers and the scholarly commentators. Yet the people do not take the part of simple robbers, but demand stricter punishments for them than the judicial authorities are usually inclined to mete out. Read in the other Gospels words concerning Barabbas which you have not noticed heretofore.

     This is what Mark writes: "And there was one named Barabbas, who lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection" (Mk. 15:71). Luke reports that Barabbas, "for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison" (Lk. 23:19).

     Only Matthew limits himself to the short expression: "And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas" (Mt. 27:16).

     From these excerpts it is clear in each case that Barabbas was not simply a robber, but a revolutionary, the leader of a gang, a person well-known to the people, who was the instigator of urban revolt. This is why he was the darling of the revolutionary party and of its leadership in particular. Read further in Mark: "But the chief priests stirred up the people, that [Pilate] should rather release Barabbas unto them" (Mk. 15:11).

     How rich is the content of these few words which are almost completely ignored by scholarship! It must be admitted that I myself arrived at their meaning only in the fifth decade of my life. Apparent from these words, firstly, is what the Sanhedrin said after the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, i.e., that the chief priests and Pharisees were taking part in the popular uprising which was in preparation, or rather, were directing it, and that the commentators' notions that they were going to have Christ put to death out of fear of a popular revolt are entirely at variance with historical reality. Secondly, it is clear from this that during these fateful moments the people were not yet against Christ, that they wavered when confronted with a choice between Him and Barabbas, of which one may find an indication in the second speech of the Apostle Peter after the Lord's ascension into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 3:13). It is q! uite possible that evil men suggested to the people that they might be releasing Jesus Christ-as someone innocent of any wrongdoing, but that Pilate was proposing that he release Him to the loving crowd only to avoid releasing Barabbas, the hero of the revolution; in any case, the sympathy of the people for the latter was expressed with considerable insistence, and if the chief priests had to resort to persuasion to convince the crowd to prefer him to Jesus Christ (cf. Mt. 27:20), it is clear how far the people still were from that malicious hatred of the Savior which flared up in a very short time with such dreadful force, even impelling them to call down a curse on themselves and their posterity. The reason for the gradual growth of the latter is explained only by John, and in the accounts of the first three evangelists, especially Matthew and Mark, this speedy change from wavering to rabid enmity remains completely incomprehensible; but their silence concerning this rapi! d alteration is explained, as we mentioned at the beginning of this ar ticle, only by the fact that they were unable to write about it because to make the matter plain would have meant exposing the revolutionary mood of the people and hastening the abolition of their autonomy, which happened after the revolt of A.D. 67 and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The writer of the fourth Gospel did not have to circumvent this aspect of the events in silence, for his Gospel was written after the destruction of the Jewish realm.

     True to his custom of avoiding what the other evangelists had already written, the Apostle John does not even mention what Jesus Christ was accused of by His enemies, but probably presumes that the reader is acquainted with the words of the third Gospel: "And they began to accuse Him (before Pilate], saying, We found this Fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King" (Lk. 23:2).

     The possibility mentioned is based on the fact that, according to John, Pilate immediately asked Jesus Christ: "Art Thou the King of the Jews?" (Jn. 18: 33). The enemies of Christ knew what sort of accusation would be of the most interest to the Roman procurator, and this is why, in accordance with Jewish custom, they did not stop at that most intentional slander concerning tribute and the subversion of authority, whereas the Savior had brought upon Himself the displeasure of the people, who rejected the latter; and we all know what He said about the legality of paying tribute to the Romans. The Savior's answer that His kingdom is not of this world and what He said about the truth convinced Pilate of His innocence, for even earlier the procurator was aware that they were betraying Christ out of envy (Mk. 15:10). Pilate, however, was apparently annoyed with the Jews and, mocking their revolutionary mood, said unto them: "Will ye, t! herefore, that I release unto you the King of the Jews?" (Jn. 18: 39). The following verse, as also Mark's narrative, gives one reason to think that the intercession for Barabbas had begun prior to Jesus Christ being brought before Pilate, for that verse reads as follows: "Then cried they all again, saying, Not this Man, but Barabbas!" Why does the word "again" appear here? The evangelist has not mentioned any previous outcry of the people. It must be supposed that the argument over Barabbas had begun earlier, and was later interrupted by the appearance of the Savior's enemies and Himself, which Pilate wanted to use so that, instead of a rebel whom the Roman procurator in no wise wished to have around, he could free the innocent Teacher. In the people's cries in response to this their hostile relationship to the Savior has still not become definite, but only their desire to come to the aid of Barabbas. After this, no further mention of Barabbas is! made in the fourth Gospel: apparently Pilate had then already decided to meet the demands of the mob which was sympathetic to the rebel Barabbas, but he also decided to avenge himself on the revolutionary people, ridiculing their idea of a national king who would cast off the yoke of Rome. In this Pilate wished to half-satisfy the feelings of malice of the enemies of Christ, and so, when he heard the cries going up for Barabbas, "then Pilate, therefore, took Jesus, and scourged Him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe [the one in which Herod had arrayed Him], and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote Him on the cheeks. Pilate, therefore, went forth again, and said unto them, Behold, I bring Him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in Him" (Jn. 19:1-4). Of course from a humanitarian point of view it is terrible to beat a man known to be innocent and to subject him to ridicule; but the prideful and arrogant Roman thought that it would be a me! rcy for Jesus Christ if, instead of the death sentence demanded by His enemies, He be subjected merely to a beating and mockery which, moreover, would not apply so much to Him as to the autocratic plans of the Jews. Besides, Pilate tried to elicit sympathy for the Victim of the Pharisees' hatred, Who had suffered so much already. "Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them, Behold the Man!" (v. 5).

     The procurator probably did not stop to think that the mockery of the people's ideal, the people's yearning for freedom, for the possibility of wreaking vengeance upon the cause of their being oppressed, would be transferred to the One in Whose Person the mockery of their concept of revolution was made. But such is usually the case. However, even at this moment love for Christ and the remembrance of His benefactions had not been utterly wrested from the hearts of the people: the people still wavered. But then, "when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him!" (v. 6). In these hearts there was no sympathy, and to personal hatred was added the enmity because in His own Person the Wonderworker had allowed heathens to ridicule what they held dearest: before, He had expressed no sympathy for their uprising, but now He was prepared to endure torture rather than defend the honor of the nation a! nd its future kings with a new miracle. Hence the further mockery heaped upon the Savior on Golgotha by the chief priests, scribes, elders and Pharisees, who were incensed by the insult to the nation contained in the inscription on the Cross - "He saved others; Himself He cannot save!" (Mt. 27:41; Mk. 15:31; Lk. 33:35). But still, shouting alone was not enough: new arguments were needed to prevail upon Pilate to agree to the crucifixion of the Savior, the more so since the people were still wavering between their former love and sympathy for Christ and disgust over what they saw before them. Thus, the chief priests, their servants, the Pharisees, whom John calls "the Jews," detaching them from the general understanding of "the people," cited their own law, according to which Jesus had to be killed "because He made Himself the Son of God" (Jn. 19:7). There is, of course, no such law, and we know how the Lord deflected such an accusat! ion earlier (Jn. 10: 34-36); furthermore, the Jews in general thought of the Messiah as the Son of God (Jn. 1:34, 49) - although not as God. But as regards Pilate, such an accusation produced the opposite impression: he "was the more afraid" and, secluding himself with Jesus for several minutes, "from then on Pilate sought to release Him" (Jn. 19:8, 12). However, the Jews, experienced manipulators, knew how they could force Pilate to do what they wanted, and began to hint at the possibility of a denunciation: "If thou let this Man go, thou art not Caesar's friend . . ." (v. 12). Pilate had to recognize the case as a legal action, perhaps as a case of lese-majeste, and he went up and sat in the judgment seat in the place called the Lithostroton (The Pavement); but, hoping to set the matter aright, with three words he destroyed Jesus Christ, crying out to the Jews, "Behold, your King!" (Jn. 19:14). The procurator's first exclamation, "Behold the Man!", elicited sympathy and was not fatal for ! all the people; but in these words - "Behold, your King!" - they heard a contemptuous ridicule of their dream: See what I am doing and will do with every great king? Do you despicable people really dream of casting down our great power?!

     "But they cried out: Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" (Jn. 19:15). This was already a general outcry, the cry of the people who were transferring the impotent hatred they felt for Pilate to the One Who, alone out of all of them, was able to prevent such a mockery; but inasmuch as He consented to such a thing, He submitted to it. Yet when Pilate, continuing to mock the people, said: "Shall I crucify your King?" (ibid.), it was not all the people, who in their rage were incapable of dissimulation, but only the chief priests, who excelled in it, who answered, We have no king but Caesar!" (ibid.). Here Pilate again detected a hint of a threat of denunciation, and gave the Savior over to be crucified. However, he did not deny himself the pleasure of wreaking his revenge one more time on the seditious Sanhedrin and the people, and composed in three languages an inscription offensive to them, which he had affixed! to the instrument of execution; in vain did the chief priests ask him to change the text of the inscription. Pilate replied: "What I have written, I have written" (Jn. 19:22). Pilate probably did not stop to think that this inscription, irritating the national self-love of the Jews, would deprive them of their last impulses to sympathy and would incite them to new mockeries of the crucified Just One (Mk. 15:32).

     This is what the centurion called the Lord when he saw His holy end, and all the people were touched, finally by a certain repentance and returned to their homes, "smote their breasts, and returned" (Lk. 23:48); but this already alarmed the enemies of Christ, and they were afraid that faith in Him Who raised up Lazarus from the dead would not cease with His death, and that if there was cause to believe in His resurrection, that that Faith would spread rapidly among the people. They therefore appeared before Pilate on the Sabbath, and asked permission to set a guard on Christ's tomb for three days and to seal the stone with their own seal.
     But the Lord catches the wicked in their wickedness. They could not have done more to insure that the event of Christ's resurrection would become as irrefutable as it did after the soldiers spread their lies, alleging that the body of Christ was stolen by the apostles while they were asleep. Can a sleeping man know what is happening around him? And would they have gone unpunished when, several years later, the sixteen soldiers who kept guard in prison over Peter when he was led out at night by the angel, were executed by Herod?
     The inhabitants of Jerusalem placed no credence in the calumny of the Pharisees, and some fifty days after the resurrection of Christ thousands of them began to receive holy Baptism. And even those who decided not to go over to the new Faith treated its followers with reverent love, and especially the disciples of Christ. Apparently no one then believed that they could have stolen the body of their Teacher; they retained the love of all the people (Acts 2:48), and the Sanhedrin, fearing the people, decided not to detain Peter and John in prison after the healing of the lame man (Acts 4:21). The people continued to glorify the Apostles (Acts 5:13); but no outsider dared join them after God's retribution fell upon Ananias and Sapphira, yet from the outlying cities they brought the sick, who were healed through the prayer of the Apostles (Acts 5: 16). Their enemies, the members of the Sanhedrin, were afraid, as we have already seen, that the people! would stone them to death (v. 26).

     Perhaps the joyous animation which filled the first Christians would have penetrated deeper and deeper into the Jewish milieu and diverted them from their fanatical revolutionary mood, but the perfidious Pharisees managed to incline the inhabitants of the capital to believe that the Christians were enemies of the law of Moses and the temple. This began from the time of the Archdeacon Stephen, when "they suborned men, who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders" (Acts 6:11-12), which resulted in the stoning of St. Stephen to death.

     Enmity toward the Christians began rapidly to gather strength from the time gentiles began to associate with them and receive Baptism; and even more so when the Apostles Paul and Barnabas went to pagan lands to convert the heathen. The Jews even followed them there and waged an intensive war against Christianity; the latter broke out with particularly dreadful force after Paul's return to Jerusalem after his third journey, when forty men vowed not to eat until they had slain him.

     But let us return to the earthly life of the Lord Jesus and to the illegal trial to which He was subjected. It seems that everyone who reads this survey agrees that the reason for the hatred of the Jews for Him was first and foremost His lack of sympathy for the revolution they envisioned, and this revolutionary aspiration, which was weakened for a few days as a result of the resurrection of Lazarus, excited the malice of the Jews against Jesus when they saw Him in the robe of ridicule. Hence, the conclusion is inescapable: Jesus Christ was the victim of the Jewish revolution, appearing to be a counter-revolutionary in the eyes of the seditious. Of course, all of this took place as part of God's providential plan. None of it would have happened if the Lord Himself had not wanted, in accordance with the pre-eternal Counsel, to ascend the Cross, as He even said of Himself (Jn. 10:17-18; 12:27, 32; Lk. 22:22; Mt. 26:54).

     But to this basic and principal good reason for Christ's sufferings must also be added the evil human means, such as the treachery of Judas, the envy and vengefulness of the chief priests and Pharisees, and finally, the revolutionary venture which they shared with the people, and which alienated the Jewish people from Christ, prompted them to hate and crucify their Savior, and which has even induced their progeny to remain in unbelief and enmity towards Him until our own times.
 
26 April 1921
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.