Sermons & Homilies
When the future Elder, Arsenie Papacioc, was asked as a soldier in his 20s what he would do if he were a general to train soldiers, he replied, “I would teach them to die, if they didn’t fear death, they wouldn’t be so cowardly. They would fight better, and win”. “I would teach them to die”. This lesson from a soldier is pertinent for us today. It is no surprise that analogies between the spiritual life and physical combat are as old as Christianity itself. Just as courage in the face of death is necessary on the front line of war, so too, is it necessary for each one of us as we engage in spiritual warfare. And it’s this unwillingness to die that we see is the ultimate downfall of the rich man in today’s Gospel.
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For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Beloved, we have spent the first couple weeks of the new year celebrating the beginning of Christ’s march against the devil and his works. The Church offers us these bright feasts now to start the new year off in triumph.
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There are few things in this world so joyful as the birth of a child. It’s the fulfillment of long expectation and months of patient waiting. The birth of a child carries with it all of the hope and promise of new life.
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Today, beloved, the Church remembers the Forefathers of Christ. On this Sunday and next we remember all the Old Testament righteous. Just as we are preparing in this fast period to receive Christ born in a manger, so it is appropriate for us to remember the Old Testament righteous who were preparing their wholes lives for Him as well. And yet, it was not for them to behold the promises fulfilled. What they longed for, they did not see. Living in the year of our Lord 2023, it is important to remember their expectation and hope and to know what they were deprived of in their lifetimes so that we can see and better understand the rich treasures we have inherited.
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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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