Sermons & Homilies
Today, on the First Sunday after Pentecost, we come to the end of a long journey, a long liturgical cycle lasting around 120 days or one third of the year, which began with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and ends with this Sunday of All Saints. This is a journey of sanctification, meant to sanctify us and teach us about the meaning of our life on earth – which is to be sanctified. On the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee we contemplated the beginning of the path to holiness in Christ – the humility of the Publican. After asking the Lord to “open unto us the gates of repentance” we proceeded to fast and mourn over our sins throughout the holy 40-day fast, finally turning our attention to the saving Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and whether we were ready or not, purified completely or only a little, we rejoiced in His Glorious Resurrection. After lingering a little on the events surrounding the Resurrection and the days thereafter (the Sundays of Thomas and the Myrrh-Bearing Women), we eventually came to His Glorious Ascension, where we are reminded that Christ ascended only after giving his disciples the promise of the coming of the Divine Comforter, the Most-holy Spirit. Last Sunday we celebrated the much-awaited Descent of the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Spirit Who sanctifies and enlivens all things, all creation, most of all that created in the image of God, mankind.
St. Nikolai Velimirovic, in his beautiful poetic commentary on the Lord’s prayer, writes:
Thou makest us ashamed every day, O most Merciful. For when we are expecting punishment Thou sendest to us Thy mercy; when we are expecting Thy thunders Thou sendest to us a quiet evening; and when we are expecting darkness Thou sendest to us the sunshine. Thou art always sublime above our sins, and always magnificent in Thy silent patience.
We have reached today the last Sunday of Paschaltide. On Wednesday we will celebrate the leavetaking of Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, and on the following day we will celebrate the Holy Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.
On the Fourth Sunday of Pascha both the reading from the Holy Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles describe miraculous healing. Our Lord heals a paralyzed man who had suffered this affliction for thirty-eight years, while the Apostle Peter heals another paralyzed man, Aeneas, who had been afflicted for eight years, and then raises a maiden, Tabitha, from death itself.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
On this first Sunday after Pascha we remember our beloved St. Thomas – a great saint, apostle and martyr of the Church. Too often we remember St. Thomas as “doubting Thomas” – as if “doubt” was his defining characteristic. Often we’ve heard the term “doubting Thomas” in reference to somebody who is unbelieving, a skeptic, or somebody who cynically refuses to believe.