Sermons & Homilies – Page 47 – Holy Cross Monastery

2 comments ·Mar 04, 2018

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent: St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica (2018)

How is God known? That is the question which St. Gregory Palamas answered in his response to accusations raised by Gregoras, Barlaam, and Akindynos. After four successive synods in the fourteenth century (1341, 1344, 1347, 1351), the teaching of St. Gregory was upheld and that of Gregoras, Barlaam, and Akindynos were condemned. His teaching and their heresies were written in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy in 1453 and are read on every Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy (the first Sunday of Lent). The commemoration of St. Gregory on the second Sunday of Lent is like a continuation of the Triumph of Orthodoxy because of his triumph over these heretics. St. Gregory reposed in 1359 and was canonized in 1368, only nine years after his death and seventeen years after the last synod which upheld his teaching. It is St. Gregory’s teaching on how God is known which will be the subject of our homily today

Feb 25, 2018

The Unity of the Faith: A Sermon for the Sunday of Orthodoxy (2018)

We are gathered here together on the first Sunday of Great Lent to celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy. This feast was originally established to commemorate the victory of the venerators of icons over the iconoclasts, but more generally we also commemorate on this day the victory of the true Orthodox faith over all the heresies that have challenged it throughout history.

There is an interesting fact which we easily overlook about this feast: the original Triumph of Orthodoxy, the triumph of the veneration of icons, was not only a victory in a battle waged within the Church, but also within society and the entire Byzantine Empire at large. You see, when the final victory of the holy icons occurred, the Seventh Ecumenical Council was long over, the bishops had already decreed that the icons are a holy and necessary part of our faith. It was rather the iconoclast emperors who had continued to resist; therefore the Triumph of Orthodoxy was not only a theological triumph, but also a political triumph.

Feb 17, 2018

A Tale of Two Cities: A Sermon on Exile, for Forgiveness Sunday (2018)

Today during Matins we heard for the third and final time this year the singing of the beautiful and haunting psalm “By the waters of Babylon.” This psalm tells us a story, the same story that comprises all of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. It is the story of our home, and of our exile from it. The psalm tells the story of the Israelites taken away captive into Babylon, weeping for the Jerusalem that was lost. This story is mirrored also in the Gospel readings of the three Sundays on which it is sung: it is the story of the Prodigal Son, “coming to himself” in the far country and remembering the Father’s house. It is the story of the Last Judgement, that great day on which all of us will return home, whether we will it or not. And above all, it is the story of Adam, weeping outside the gates of Paradise.

Feb 11, 2018

Sermon for the Sunday of the Last Judgment (2018)

Today, we see heaven and earth passing away. We see them rolled up like a scroll. We see the elements melting on account of the divine fire of Christ the most glorious God-Man Who has come again to His creation in the same manner as He ascended from it. However, now He is seen by every eye. Now the veil of time and space, of heaven and earth, the veil of spiritual blindness, and of willful ignorance, all of these now are taken away, and every eye sees Christ.

Feb 04, 2018

Sermon for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (2018)

In the life of a martyr, the greatest of all virtues is seen – love - love for Jesus Christ. “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends” (cf. John 15:13-14). And who is our supreme friend if not Christ? As He himself says, we are His friends, and not His servants, if we keep His commandments.

It is only through the lens of love that we can see that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. For God’s love and His purposes are less apparent to us in a life of pleasure and ease than they are in a life of hardship and suffering.

Where does this love begin? When we come to ourselves.