Matthew 6 Bp Vassily

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Since we are justified

by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Every time we gather as the

Church on the Lord's Day to hear the divine words

of the Gospel and to celebrate the Eucharist,

by which Christ is present in our midst, we remember

and celebrate the mystery of our salvation. of

every one of us. St. Paul, in his epistle to

the Romans we were hearing today, unpacks for

us this ineffable mystery. While we were still

weak, at the right time, Christ died for the

ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a

righteous person, though perhaps for a good person

someone might actually dare to die. But God shows

his love for us, in that while we still were

sinners, Christ died for us, says Holy Apostle

Paul. The mystery that we celebrate and remember

as a church every Sunday, every time we call

upon the Holy Spirit to descend upon us and upon

the gifts and to make us the partakers of the

mystical supper, whenever we gather as a church,

This is the mystery of the Lord's Pascha, his

passion, death, burial, and resurrection. We

remember the marvelous work of God fulfilled

in Christ. We, creatures of God, were alienated

from him, were foreigners to him, our creator

and the source of our life. But God did not abandon

us in our fallen state and came and saved us,

not by a voice of a prophet, nor an example of

a righteous life, but by the blood of his own

immortal Son, who came to find us, the weak,

the sinners, and to destroy the wall of enmity

between us and God, and to meet us at the lowest

point of our fallen existence, our death. This

is the mystery of our redemption. Our God ascended

the cross for us to reconcile us to himself.

to transform our death into the victory over

death, corruption and sin, the reality of our

fallen existence, and to bestow upon us the gift

of the true life which is in the knowledge of

Him. Because of his love for us, the immortal

and eternal Son and Word of God came to be in

the flesh, clothed himself in our human nature,

the body like ours, the soul and mind like ours,

in all things except sin. And he made his body,

his humanity, the source of healing, restoration,

sanctification, and salvation of mankind. St.

Paul says, if while we were enemies, We were

reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

Much more surely, having been reconciled, we

will be saved by His life. We who were called

into existence by God have become alienated from

God through our fall, through our sin, and consequently

through our enslavement to death. We have become

alienated from God and from ourselves. Through

our weak and corrupted thoughts, through our

guilt and unholy despair, when we thought and

we still think sometimes that we are lost, we

are done for, there is no one to help us. Who

will save us from death? But God himself came

in order to help us, to forgive us, to set us

free, and to restore us to the dignity of his

beloved children. the adopted sons and daughters

of God, the dignity that we receive through holy

baptism. Christ, our high priest, offered his

humanity on the cross as the sacrifice, as liturgical

sacrifice, and we partake of his humanity every

time we partake of the Eucharist. We partake

of the source of our healing and reconciliation.

There is no man who lives and does not sin. It

is impossible for human beings not to fail. Only

Christ is truly perfect. Even St. Paul says about

himself, what I want to do I do not do, but what

I hate I do. But for us, this thought of our

past and present alienation, our imperfection,

is not meant to throw us into guilt and despair,

but to encourage us, to give us hope, to remind

us that our freedom lies in God and not in ourselves,

that we are saved by communion with Him through

the gift of true life, the inexhaustible fountain

of God's grace and mercy. And when we look at

the saints whom we honor and celebrate in our

church, such as the fathers of the six ecumenical

councils whom we remember today, for example,

we tend to perceive them as the epitome of Christian

perfection, a perfect assembly, spotless examples

of Christian faith and piety. And this assessment

bears a degree of truth and reality. We praise

the fathers of the six councils. First in Nicaea,

second in Constantinople, third in Ephesus, fourth

in Alcedon, fifth in Constantinople, sixth in

Constantinople again. Between fourth and seventh

centuries, as those who, as we sing in the hymns,

in the midst of the church sang the harmonious

hymn of theology, who as if with one voice proclaimed

the same truth about God, true theology, true

Orthodox doctrine. But our look into the details

of the history of the church show us a more complicated

reality. The fathers of the councils assembled

and agreed with each other and sometimes disagreed,

sometimes compromised. The historical narratives

of the councils are filled with details of intrigues,

quarrels, controversial decisions. While the

acceptance of the councils, the work of these

fathers as ecumenical and binding was far from

immediate and far from universal at first. At

the same time, in the theological statements

pronounced by the councils, the genius of the

fathers was revealed. The light of truth shone

through the mess and complexity of church's historical

life. And the language of theology endorsed and

mandated by these councils summarized, encapsulated

the truth of the revelation, the one Christ,

of one essence with the Father and the Spirit,

perfect God and perfect man, from two natures

and into natures, two operations, two wills.

But this is the true God who was one of the Trinity.

who ascended the cross. He is true God of true

God. He is God in the flesh, God with us, God

who is truly God and truly and fully became man

in order to save us through his humanity, to

enable our nature, mortal nature, to conquer

evil and death. This is how the fathers speak

with one voice. We venerate the Fathers for their

work through the nuance and complexity of the

earthly history and their own lives and actions.

They continued to gaze upon the mystery, to look

upon the cross, to look at Christ as crucified

God and Lord of glory. And through the inspiration

of grace, they found the precise language which

reveals as much as possible of that which cannot

be revealed to man, the life of God who loved

and saved mankind. As Christ said to Peter on

the road to Caesarea Philippi, when Peter confessed

Christ as a son of the living God, the only one

of the apostles at the time, Christ said to him,

Blessed are you, for this was not revealed to

you by flesh and blood, but this truth was revealed

to you by my Father in heaven. And thus we also

bless and glorify the Fathers of the Church,

who spoke at her councils. For what was spoken

by them was not an accidental product of an earthly

mind, but the eternal truth revealed through

human earthly language. They affirm through the

language of theology what we know to be true

about us as humans and especially us as Christians.

And we do not need to have theological and philosophical

training to comprehend it with all our being.

God has brought us from nothing into being to

make us the objects of his love. God did not

abandon us when we fell into sin and corruption,

but raised us up and made us the sons of the

kingdom. As St. Gregory the Theologian, one of

the fathers of these councils, said, We needed

God made flesh and made dead so that we might

live. We were made dead with him. in baptism,

that we might be purified. We have reason with

Him since we were made dead with Him. We were

glorified with Him since we rose with Him. To

be a Christian is not to fall into pride thinking

that we are perfect or can be perfect in this

life, but to recognize our need for God. and

to gaze upon him, upon his cross, and try to

love him and one another by his grace. May we

now stand before him in his church, in his body,

as his children, as his disciples and servants,

and give praise and thanks to him for his great

mystery of redemption, by which he gave us salvation

and hope. Amen.