Sermons & Homilies
Today’s Gospel, in short, shows us an icon of deformed humanity—ungratefulness, lack of good stewardship, laziness, greed, jealousy, vanity, hatred, and pride. All of this ends with the killing of Christ, the son of the Householder—the killing of God Incarnate!
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Today is the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, the “summer Pascha,” one of the greatest of all the Great Feasts, and a day of surpassing spiritual consolation and joy. It is called the “summer Pascha” not only because the height of its glory and the radiant splendor of its joy, but also precisely because on this day, all the divine promises of Pascha have now been fulfilled — not only in the theanthropic person of Christ, but also in the quintessentially human person of Mary, the Mother of God. Today the Queen of Heaven proves to us — beyond any shadow of doubt — that death has truly been put to death, that heaven has truly been opened to the whole human race, and that Christ our God has truly come to make even us lowly sinners into nothing less than “partakers of the divine nature” (2. Pet. 1:4), destined to come — just as she has — “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Today, all the gifts and promises of Christ shine forth in the person of His Mother, as a pledge and a foretaste of the day on which they shall shine forth in us all.
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Around the year 271, there was a young man who lived in Lower Egypt, born to wealthy landowner parents, both of whom only then recently died, leaving the young man to care for his little sister and the upkeep of the family home.
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Today is the glorious feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Today is the feast of deification. Today the Church reminds us that our goal is to become saints in this life. Today Christ takes His disciples up Mount Tabor with Him and gives them a preview of the glory He has in store for us in the next life.
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Commenting on St. Peter’s wavering faith in today’s Gospel, St. John Chrysostom boldly states: “When our part is lacking, God’s part also stands still!” The Gospels teach the same. When Christ came to His hometown of Nazareth, St. Mark explains that He was unable to work any powerful works there except for a few healings. Why? “Because of their unbelief,” their lack of faith.
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