Sermons & Homilies
Christ is risen! It seems to me that, at least in certain ways, fathers are always mysteries to their sons. And certainly I think that this was true in the case of Fr. Panteleimon (known to most of us during...
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Our feast today is called Annunciation, in Greek εὐαγγελισμός. It means no ordinary proclamation but the preaching of good news, glad tidings, of the gospel. Accordingly, the Angel Gabriel begins his salutation to the Virgin with the greeting, “Rejoice!” And as we heard in the Synaxarion reading last night, this feast is above all else a feast of joy: “Rejoice, thou through whom joy will shine forth! Rejoice, thou through whom the curse will cease!” The Mother of God herself is called the “joyous one” throughout the hymns of the Church.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. This was the hymn the hosts of Angels sang on the very first Christmas over 2,000 years ago and we sing this every Matins and the clergy say this quietly before every liturgy. Peace, goodwill toward men. This is what the world so desperately needs and this is what perhaps of all the fasting seasons we feel most deprived of.
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"And what is a merciful heart? It is the heart burning for the sake of all creation, for men, for birds, for animals, for demons, and for every created thing…" The heart of a merciful man "burns without measure in the likeness of God." Thus St. Isaac expands upon the mercy that today’s Gospel is exhorting us to have.
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Christianity is a religion of sacrifice. And on this day, we commemorate one of the greatest sacrifices ever made in the history of our holy faith — a sacrifice which echoes the Patriarch Abraham’s incredible sacrifice of his beloved son Isaac, and which prefigures God the Father’s even more awesome sacrifice of His only-begotten son: our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
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