May 24th, 2026: Sunday after Ascension: Fr. Justin Patterson

important and put here on purpose, put here because

it matters and because we need to hear the legacy

and the meaning and the words of the Holy Fathers

of that council. And there's a lot we can say

about Nicaea I, which is the first ecumenical

council held at Nicaea in the year 325. It was

the first worldwide gathering of bishops in the

history of the church, at least since the apostolic

age. All the bishops, as far as could be possible

to gather together, were invited. to Nicaea on

the shores of the Mediterranean by Emperor Constantine

to gather from the Roman Empire, from the Persian

lands, from the lands of Mesopotamia, from Armenia

and Georgia, from all over, from the west and

east they came. And they gathered there, and

he kind of paid the bill, the hotel bills and

the food bills and the travel expenses. It was

a big deal. Many fathers gathered together for

this council. It was the first. And it also was

the end of the great persecution. You remember,

not only did we have 300 years of intermittent

persecution as Christians from the time of our

Lord until the Roman Empire legalized our Christian

faith, but also the 30 years before Emperor Constantine

legalized our faith, it was the great persecution.

And if you can imagine this, one in three clergy

were murdered, martyred in that time period.

One in three. I think we have four or five here,

and at least one or two of us would have been

killed. And one in ten of the lay people were

killed in that time period. What an experience

for the church. And the fruits of that were gathered

together in Nicaea. You had these bishops, many

of whom had physical wounds. St. Paphnutius had

an eye god gouged out. And as he came into the

hall where the bishops were gathered, the emperor

processed, and he saw Paphnutius, and he bent

down and kissed his eye. And there was another

bishop, I think James of Persia, had been persecuted

by the Persian kings and had his fingers sliced

off and his hands, he had two nubs where his

hands had been. And the bishop bent down, the

emperor bent down and kissed those hands, what

was left of him. We had St. Nicholas gathered

there. Of course, you know that story, Nicholas

and Arius. We had St. Athanasius the Young, a

deacon at the time with his aged bishop, St.

Alexander from Alexandria. We had St. Spyridon

of Trimethus, the shepherd bishop there. We had

St. Macarius of Jerusalem, who would find the

true cross with St. Helen. We had Bishop Ossius

of Cordoba, the advisor to Emperor Constantine.

St. Cecil of Carthage. Eusebius of Caesarea.

It was an incredible gathering of people who'd

suffered. These were men who knew what it was

to be Christian, who had seen their faithful

suffer, and had given all they had to our Lord

Jesus Christ. Everything was on the line for

them. And it was called, of course, to resolve

a number of disputes. The lesser disputes would

be, for example, the calendar question, how to

celebrate Pascha, what does discipline for the

clergy look like, so that we're not a scandal

to the laity. regulations about synod meetings

and how to deal with schismatics, how to receive

schismatics back, how to receive and penance

those who had apostatized from the faith. These

are all really interesting questions. I recommend

reading about it. It's fascinating. But the most

important question of all was the question raised

by the heretic Arius who dared to preach that

Jesus Christ was not divine. He had all these

songs and ditties about what that meant, but

he said there was a time when Jesus was not,

which meant that he was a creature. He was not,

as the other fathers proclaimed, co -worshipped

with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And so this

teaching ate away at the Christian faith all

around the edges of the Christian world, and

many fell into this heresy. And the question

that dominated that council, which is important

for us today, not just then, but today, is, Who

is Jesus? Who is he really? And who do I say

that he is? And this question is important because

our church, the Orthodox Church, makes some really

bold statements and claims about who Jesus Christ

is. In fact, St. Paul himself, kind of reflecting

in this key, says if we do not really believe

that Jesus is risen from the dead and we try

to be Christians, we are of all people most miserable.

And we might say in the key of the fathers, if

we don't wrestle with who Jesus is in terms of

what the church teaches, then we too are miserable

because our faith is incomplete and our faith

is in vain. Just as Arius attacked a key tenant

of the ancient Christian faith, which is our

faith too, so too in our time, our culture eats

away at the full teaching of who Jesus Christ

is. And we find, I think, lots of little... Fake

icons of Jesus. There are a lot of people that

say, and he says this, Lord, Lord. But he says,

they don't know me. And part of why many of us

are Orthodox is that we sought this, who is really

Jesus? Who is he really? And some of the portraits

we find out there are silly. For example, I read

somewhere recently that people were teaching

at a college that Jesus was a fiction. There

was no Jesus. So there is no Jesus. That's really

ludicrous that no one who's serious thinks that.

But there's examples of Jesus' image. Like he

exists, but he's just a really nice dude. You

find that sometimes. Or he exists, but he's a

good teacher. And then his teachings were co

-opted by this kind of scheming. Paul of Tarsus,

who changed the faith and made it different.

You find examples. He's kind of like the Buddha.

He's a wise guy with wonderful teachings that

you might incorporate into your life. He's a

super nice guy, but he doesn't demand anything

of me, and he can have this wonderful preaching

of of christianity but i can pick and choose

what i want and maybe this is really common this

idea of relativism where you know um i have my

truth you have your truth uh down the street

they have different gods different different

christs even and we can we can all do that together

by contrast though on this day the fathers don't

make room for that the fathers are pretty pretty

firm the fathers and i see a teach that um They

make very bold claims about who Jesus Christ

is. For example, they quote John chapter 1. In

John 1 · chapter mention

the beginning was the Word, and the Word was

with God, and the Word was God. This Jesus was

with God, and he is God. Jesus Christ is the

very image of the Father. They quote, if you

behold him, Jesus, you behold the Father. This

is the words of Jesus Christ. He is revealed.

himself in the Old Testament. We see that actually

all over this church. Images of Christ in the

Old Covenant popping out. And we also believe

in the fullness of time. God himself broke through

all of this and entered our world and became

man. Last night I was at vigil with Father Kirill

Sokolov in San Francisco and he made a wonderful

short point which is worth considering. He said,

so many religions Teach that there is a divinity

or a God who comes into the world for a period

of time, who does something. He might look as

a man or act as a man or be a hero and do something

wonderful. But that's not our faith at all. In

our faith, the God that we worship, the God we're

proclaiming, that we're singing about here, that

we're celebrating his ascension of on this day,

this God is not like those gods. This God is

one who is eternal. one with the Holy Father

and the Spirit, who enters the world and truly

is born in the womb of the Virgin Mary and experiences

childbirth, who experiences childhood, who experiences

love for his mother, who had love for his foster

father, who had siblings, who had all these cousins

and relatives, and he knew the love of his nation.

He knew the frustrations of his nation. He knew

what it was like to live with Pharisees and Sadducees

and zealots and crazy people and wonderful people

and everything in between. He understood all

of this. He experienced it all, including betrayal,

misunderstanding, denial, spitting, scourging,

the very cross itself, the tomb into Hades, and

on the third day, the glorious resurrection.

All these things are part of our celebration

of who Jesus Christ is. And my brothers and sisters,

for us, it is not enough just to say, I go to

church and I believe in Jesus. This feast today

is inviting us to say, I confess Jesus in the

key of the Holy Fathers. I confess Jesus in the

Orthodox way. And it's, I need to do this. I

need to do this for myself. And for my family

and for my brothers and sisters in Christ to

hold to that. And not just as an ideology. This

is not ideology. This is about truth. This is

about God. This is about being able to live and

move in Him. Father Lawrence said to the catechumens

who were enrolled this morning, he reminded them

of the prayer. Not just that the light of Jesus

would shine on them, but the gospel would shine

brightly within them. This is the promise. Of

this present feast. And it's even more perfect.

Because it's rounded out in ascension. In the

feast of ascension. Jesus does all of these things.

And then at the end. Having spent 40 days on

the earth. He ascends. He's taken up into the

heavens. And what is taken up is not just a nice

guy. Or a good teacher. Or even God. But it's

God with the fullness of our human nature. which

he takes up into the life of God. And he invites

us all into that very life of God. We're called

to live in that reality of God made man who then

makes man like God, who makes man full of the

divine life. What a glorious thing. May the Lord

Jesus Christ who ascended, who gave us the teachings

of the Holy Fathers, may he take us up with himself.

May we say to him, amen, amen, amen, all the

days of our life. And may we know him. And may

that gospel shine brightly in us. Always now

and ever to ages of ages. Amen. Spraznikum.