August 23rd, 2026: Sermon on the Young Man, Matthew 19

Glory to Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. God truly

wants man to be his equal, his likeness. God

directs his gaze toward man and seeks out his

deep heart. His desire for man's heart to know

a spiritual and divine sensation, as Proverbs

says. This kind of inner life, not the mere exercise

of thinking, is what elevates man's existence

above that of animals. Rational thought may distinguish

us from them, but if it is occupied merely with

our physical well -being, then we are hardly

above the level of an animal feeding itself.

If our inner life is dissipated and lost and

wasted in the things of this world, it will surely

end in the grave along with our physical body.

But as we have said, our divine calling is so

much higher than this. God wants man's deep heart

to know the living. spiritual and divine sensation

of his presence within her. And when a person

becomes aware of this treasure in his heart,

a godly fear comes upon him. And as soon as this

godly fear takes hold of our heart and we begin

to feel God's life -giving energy, we enter into

a personal relationship with the personal living

God. We heard an account of a man who came to

Jesus Christ. This man could not have imagined

what we know. That at the name of Jesus, every

knee should bow, both those on earth, those above

the earth, those below the earth, to the glory

of God the Father. And he came and asked a question

about something he could do. This gospel has

to be read in the light, and I do mean literally,

in the light of the two feasts we just celebrated,

Transfiguration and Dormition, if we are going

to make any sense at all of what Father Zacharias

just told us in this marvelous book. The light

of Christ shown to us on Tabor and in the light

that received the mother of God, bodily risen

into the kingdom of God. Dear people, let me

misquote St. Paul. I don't say this to shame

you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

Come to the great feast days. In thy light shall

we see light, we sing. It's true. The world looks

different in that light, and the stories we hear

in the gospel, we interpret in that light. We

have been given a gift that that man could not

imagine when he asked that question. Our question

comes out differently. At the transfiguration,

a voice from heaven said simply, Hear ye him.

The apostles heard the voice. Hear ye him. Just

like at the baptism. This is my beloved son.

Hear ye him. Saint Theophon the recluse asks,

why the father would say only this? Hear ye him.

And he answers, because obedience, obedience,

that the ability to hear and to follow, it's

not to become a... humiliated slave. We hear

this word obedience and it's colored for us in

our culture. So, so distorted. To hear and to

follow. Obedience was being shown to the disciples

on Tabor as the very door into glory. It's as

if the father were saying, do you want this?

Then hear what he tells you. O apostles, O disciples,

O people of God, and do it. Walk in the path.

You will enter a light that does not come at

you from the outside, but rises up within you.

You will be filled with the light of joy, of

goodwill, of all knowledge. Sorrow will come.

Sufferings will come. The cross will come. Sorrow

will pass. The noise of the passions will go

quiet. On earth, you will become heavenly. Born

of earth, you will become of God. All things

will be yours because you will have become Christ's.

Thank you, St. Theophon, for telling us. This

is the promise. Are his words too far -fetched?

Does this make us feel inadequate, like giving

up? Like, no way for me. Sorry. I'm busy with

my life. Jesus looked at his disciples and said

to them, they were probably feeling that. With

men, this is impossible. But with God... All

things are possible. Yes, the saints are granted

this now in this life. And by God's help, we

too shall experience this and attain it in the

life of the age to come at the resurrection.

The man came. He said, what do I need to do to

have eternal life? What his understanding, his

idea of eternal life was. Was nothing like I

just described. Or what Father... Zacharias just

told us. It wasn't like that. How could he possibly

know? And I wonder if our ideas too may also

be rather earthly limited. What must I do to

attain a happy life and be comfortable? That

just doesn't work. The young man's vision of

eternal life was earthly. Perhaps ours is too

sometimes. Hear ye him was heard by Peter, James,

and John on the mountain. And this man heard,

sell the riches that are holding you back from

true life and come and follow me. This is the

same voice offering the same light, the same

kingdom, the same door, which is obedience. Christ

was inviting him with love onto Mount Tabor to

be with him. And yes, the way does go through

the cross. Jesus is telling the rich man, okay,

you want the real kingdom of heaven and not just

some assurance of eternal happiness in human

terms, then do this, what I say. Jesus is not

what we call seeker friendly. His sayings can

be hard. But only hard because we want our own

way so much. It's usually not that hard in and

of itself. What makes doing God's will hard is

the fact that I don't want to do it. Anything

but that for the most part. And for this particular

man, his possessions were the thing that kept

him. He was speaking of the commandments, wasn't

he? Which commandments? And he listed them that

he kept. But it was keeping him from doing the

first commandment of the Ten Commandments. I

am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no strange

or other gods before me. And he did. And when...

Jesus revealed what this man lacked. A vision

of God and of true salvation and of eternity

and of heaven. The man could not accept it and

he wanted, like us, to retain control. He wanted

his individualism to remain intact. He was a

man who had done well and a young man. And he

wanted to keep doing well. on his own terms,

with Christ added respectfully somewhere near

the top of his priorities. Perhaps the young

man, like me, was a hypocrite, posing to Jesus

as if he had actually fulfilled the commandments,

as he said, from my youth I have kept them. Notice,

which is why I ask you to come to the vigil.

You'll hear so many things. At the vigils we

sing, From my youth. Many passions have warred

against me. But do thou help me and save me oh

my savior. It's a bit of honesty there about

our own condition. Do we keep the hope of God's

kingdom. That we experience at those vigils.

As Saint Theophon described it. As Father Zacharias

tells us. The deep heart. The love and fear and

wanting to be with God. Do we have that hope

of God's kingdom revealed to us? Can we hear

the good news and follow Christ? And it's simple.

We simply go home today and we pray. If there's

anyone that you need to forgive, you do it with

your whole heart. Not expecting any kind of,

I don't know, completion to that relationship.

If there's anything that you have done, you ask

forgiveness. It's like that. That's what we do.

We prepare ourselves to be here, to be with each

other. We try to love our neighbor. Any one of

those things is not difficult, especially with

the grace of God that inspires our heart, our

hands, our voice, and our eyes and our ears to

go forward in obedience to follow him. You know,

eternal life is not something that one can acquire

by doing something doable. It's by following

the Lord. So if we welcome Christ in our heart,

has he found a place within us to rest his head?

Do we know this feeling of rest and repose? Or

anxiety instead? Father Emilio Noce, a great

elder from Athos, says, why do we bar the door

of our heart to him? Why do we choose ourselves

over God? We do not, it seems, want God to be

justified in his word, as we say in Psalm 50,

but rather we seek our own mind and our heart.

But brothers and sisters, remember this. God's

promises are true. We look at the saints, we

read the example of those that have gone before

us, we read the scripture, and we, like Abraham,

we follow. And our heart will rejoice and be

filled with the love of God and our neighbor.

We cannot do it by ourselves. And we will have

riches in heaven. There's nothing evil in itself

about money. This is not about that. The love

of money is the root of all evil, not the money.

But this man could not distinguish. He could

not remove that from himself. His heart had grasped

it. Let not that happen to us. Our society, it

can happen to us very easily. We can pursue this

life of being comfortable rather than the life

of the kingdom of God first and all other things

we need will be given. Amen.