Sermons & Homilies
The Son of God and God has clothed Himself with our humanity, furtherly clothing Himself in the letters of ink of the Holy Gospel. Today, we are given a little glimpse of one of the many qualities of Christ, as in every place of the Gospel.
As we celebrate today the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, let us also rejoice in the assurance that that same Holy Spirit has received our dear father into the life of heaven, and that through that same Holy Spirit, we are ever united with him and with Christ. The Holy Spirit bears witness to my spirit that the love wherewith Fr. Seraphim loved me and each one of us, individually and collectively—that love is stronger than death.
It’s in this state that Christ comes to us and asks us the question upon which hinges the entire Christian life: Wilt thou be made whole? (Jn. 5:6). “Do you want to be healed?” The answer may seem self-evident. Why else would the man be laying there by the sheep pool? But significantly, the paralytic does not simply say, “Yes.” He begins to explain why he can’t be healed. Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool (Jn. 5:7). We do something very similar. We presume that we want what’s best for ourselves, we presume that we truly desire spiritual health and salvation. “Why else would I be living a Christian life? Why else would I have come to the monastery?”
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.