Fathers of the 1st 6 Councils

of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus

Christ. Those who may be starting out on the

study of some science, biology, or music, or

some other endeavor, have a guide to begin their

work. You can make such monumental mistakes and

waste so much time if you don't have that person,

that guide, that tradition and the body of knowledge

and understanding that lets you progress in your

study. So if you're learning guitar as I did

at my music school, I had a personal guitar teacher.

He was my mentor and he guided me. made lots

of mistakes, and he was somebody that could set

me straight so that I could have a relationship

with music that wasn't just technical, but that

was something that was dynamic and that actually

was musical. So today, we celebrate, we commemorate,

we remember, whichever word you like to choose,

those that do that for us in the faith. We can

go down all kinds of wrong pathways with our

faith. Because faith in Jesus Christ is not faith

in an idea. It's faithfulness to a person. And

a person has personality. A person has qualities.

Aaron's hair is not blue or red. It's black.

He's this tall. He's this wide. He speaks like,

so it's about the truth of something. The truth

of the science of the theology of the church,

let's say. So we commemorate the Holy Fathers,

those holy bishops that gathered in ecumenical

councils for hundreds of years. The first, second,

third, fourth, fifth, and sixth councils. Those

are the people we are remembering today. You

heard this reading from St. Paul. Remember those

who guide you. Spiritual guides, those we trust,

those we love, those we honor, those who are

sanctified, our saints. Those who have spoken

the word of God to you, whose faith follow. You

don't make it up on your own because it's about

someone in particular, not something in general.

who has spoken the word of God to you, whose

faith follow, considering the outcome of their

conduct, what are their lives like? Are they

trustworthy in the way they conduct and live

themselves? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,

today, and forever. So do not be carried, says

St. Paul, do not be carried about with various

and strange doctrines. These words from St. Paul

lead us then to consider the Holy Fathers of

the first six ecumenical councils with honor,

with love, with seriousness. This is an important

day, as all Sundays are in the church calendar.

If we wanted to give this Sunday a subtitle,

we might call it Truth Sunday. Why? Because the

fathers of the first six ecumenical councils

were all about the truth. They gathered in council.

They weren't a bunch of old white men. Don't

think of it that way. They were wounded in persecutions.

They had suffered for their faith. And they came

from all over. From Africa. North Africa, Italy,

Europe, Asia, Asia Minor. They were men of strength

and humility and honor who sought the truth.

And they sought the truth, as St. Paul says,

to speak the truth in love. I'll say something

about love in a moment. They did not meet. to

create a theology. They came to respond to an

attack on the faith. They didn't invent the truth.

They came to preserve, to respond to the falsehood,

to give the authentic truth, the truth as it

has been revealed. You heard the words of Jesus

Christ. The words I have given, they have received.

And they have known that all things that I have

given them are from thee. O Holy Father. Those

are the words of Jesus to his Father about the

apostles and by extension to the Holy Fathers.

Reveal truth from the beginning, not made up.

They spoke that truth in love. This is what St.

Justin of Serbia says. Let me quote something

from him. Because it's easy to say, oh, this

is the truth. It's easy to say, this is the way

it is. But can you back it up by the conduct

of your life, by who you are? This is what St.

Justin says. True and real knowledge of God and

of yourself is acquired by us only through the

path of practical love. By loving God and other

people, we come to know by experience that our

soul is Christ -like. Our soul is immortal by

God's grace. The experience of practical love

is part of the good news which Christ as the

God -man has given to the human race. In Christ,

who is both God and man, there is something incomparably

greater than truth, than goodness. than beauty.

He is himself all of these things in their absolute

sense. You want to know beauty? Look at Christ.

The truth? Look at Christ. Goodness? Look at

Christ. Love? Look at Christ. Whatever good there

is in the human soul, Christ draws it to himself

by some invincible force of love. It is he who

gives the human soul something that absolute

truth, absolute goodness, and even absolute beauty

couldn't give by themselves. It's not something

we can acquire just because we would like to.

When we acquire love, which is God himself? Love

is not love in general. We can love terrible

things, harmful things. I love all kinds of things

that aren't good for me that I eat. I probably

love them. More than I love my neighbor. That's

a sick love. Love of God. That's different. We

are united with him through that love. And in

this way, we arrive at the real knowledge of

the eternal truth. Love fills us with God. Our

knowledge of God depends on the extent to which

we're filled with him. The Holy Fathers had that

love. St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans,

the first one we heard, says today something

like, love in a genuine way, without hypocrisy.

It's easy to say we love our neighbor, especially

if they haven't done anything against us. Maybe

it's even easy to say we've forgiven our enemy

if they haven't done anything. against us but

to love our enemy but mostly well indifference

to our neighbor is not love do you know your

neighbor you look around the church starting

there do you know people here are you indifferent

to the who they are or are you like like father

michael who all of you know had an enormous love

for everybody. Why? Because he was curious about

each and every person. He wanted to know them.

He wanted the best for them. It's that kind of

love that is without hypocrisy and that is genuine.

Not indifference to our neighbor. That's not

love. St. Paul. has given us an amazing lesson

today. But Pontius Pilate, who was very far from

being St. Paul, also gives us a lesson. What

did he say to Jesus at the trial? What is truth?

Of course, he was being cynical as a Roman. What

is truth was the wrong question. Who is the truth?

It would have been pointless, wasted words for

Jesus to answer Pilate in what he said earlier,

I'm the way and the truth and the life. That

would have been pointless. Pilate could not have

heard that. That's why, and this is important

for us to remember, dear brothers, dear sisters,

no matter what our culture says, and it changes

quickly. no matter what experts might tell you,

ultimately what we should always defer to is

what the church teaches. Our mentors, our guides

in the truth, in the way of love and peace and

goodness and true faith. Yes, the church teaches.

Now you're saying to me, now wait, Father Lawrence.

Didn't you just say that Jesus is the truth?

And now you're telling us that the church is

our source for the truth? Yes, I did say that.

Because Jesus is himself the head of the body.

We are the brothers and sisters gathered here,

members of one another. Like my finger is a member

of my body. And all of you, from the smallest

young thing to the oldest. have been given a

gift of grace. You are connected to one another.

You are united to one another by Christ. It doesn't

matter if you're a pinky or something more. Now,

of course, you know, I could live with a piece

of my pinky being removed, but I can't live without

my head. But let's realize it's the church that

is Christ's presence on the earth. It's not an

organization of like -minded people. Our Lord

forgave the sins of the paralytic. And what did

he also say to the apostles later? You have also

this grace and gift to remove the sins of those

who come to you to heal them. To relieve the

pain of separation from God and each other. So

for us to find Jesus, for us to find the fullness

of the truth, we must of necessity come to the

church. St. Paul was knocked off his... horse

and made blind and then he heard from the Lord

Jesus Christ and said, go into the city and talk

to this man and he'll tell you everything. He

had to go to the church to be baptized, to be

enlightened. Dear ones, it's a temptation to

think of these councils and these fathers as

dusty, ancient history. That's what the devil

wants us to think. Church doesn't know, it's

out of touch. The work and the message of the

council is clear. The gospel is to save us, to

save us, to proclaim the incarnation of the Son

of God, his crucifixion, his resurrection in

all its glory. So let us rejoice in these holy

fathers and give glory to God. Amen.