Sermons & Homilies
One of the hymns for Vespers during “Lord, I have cried…” on Sunday says that Christ “hath renewed the ascent into the heavens.” If we are told that the ascent into the heavens has been renewed, then it must be that man was supposed to ascend into the heavens in the first place. With a most penetrating and unique divine vision, St. Symeon the New Theologian unfolds to us what would have been if we had not fallen. And this vision of his also fully unravels what is taking place today in the human nature of Christ, and therefore, in our human nature:
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Today’s feast has many meanings, many aspects, and even many names. It is sometimes called the Meeting of the Lord, sometimes the Purification of the Virgin, sometimes the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and finally, especially in the West, it is known as Candlemas – the Feast of the Light that shown upon St. Symeon and which we remember by blessing candles on this day. This multiplicity of names and meanings is an indication that today’s feast is situated at a crossroads: between the Law and the Prophets, between the infancy and the adulthood of Christ, between the Old and the New Covenant. Today, for the first time in history, God Himself enters bodily into the Temple which was made for Him, carried in the arms of Her who is Herself the true Holy of Holies, the Tabernacle more spacious than the heavens. He enters not in a cloud of glory, but in humble poverty, in meekness fulfilling the Law which He Himself gave. And She enters to be purified, She who alone is spotless and undefiled. Here the Righteous Symeon prophecies over Him who is the fulfillment of all the Prophets.
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Of all the feasts of the church year, Theophany is one of the most ancient and important. In the early church, Theophany and Nativity were celebrated together on January 6. And they are both still intimately connected, as we can see in the similarity of the structure of the two services today. These two feasts are connected because both feasts call to mind the manifestation of Jesus Christ as the the Incarnate Son of God. At Nativity we behold Christ as a new born babe, lying in a manager, helpless and weak, yet still the Incarnate Word of God and Creator of all things.
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Today we celebrate the Circumcision of the Lord. It might seem strange to us to commemorate this event; after all, the old covenant has been abrogated, and St. Paul and the New Testament Church took great pains to eradicate the belief that circumcision was required of Christian people of the new covenant. If anything, we might think that the significance of this feast is essentially the fulfillment by Jesus Christ of the Old Testament law. And of course, this is true. But it is all too easy to lapse into the unspoken idea that once something has been fulfilled, it is therefore meaningless. This is a grievous error. Every single moment, every word and every act of our Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly life was absolutely filled with meaning, purpose and significance. And this particular act was so great and contained so much meaning that today’s feast is accounted among the great feasts of the Church.
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There is a quote by Elder Aimilianos that I think is so appropriate for this Feast of the Nativity. The quote is this:
“That which we lack is precisely faith, not in the existence of God, but in the fact that He can do anything and does indeed do everything!”
This quote strikes right at the heart of our modern post Christian society and raises all sorts of questions:
Is God really involved in our daily lives? Can God really heal diseases? Does God care about my sufferings? Can God reverse the elements of nature?