Forgiveness Sunday 2022

Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ. On Tuesday, this

last week, clergy of the deanery met in San Mateo

at the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin

with His Eminence Archbishop Benjamin and a muliebin,

a service of supplication, was served, asking

God, begging God. all the people that came for

peace, for the end of the hostilities in Ukraine.

His eminence began with a quote from St. Silouan

the Athonite who died in 1938. I think I have

that right. St. Silouan's here on our iconostasis

next to St. Barbara. This is what St. Silouan

wrote as a poem called Adam's Lament. Adam knew

great grief when he was banished from paradise.

But when he saw his son Abel, slain by Cain,

his brother, Adam's grief was even heavier. His

soul was heavy, and he lamented and thought,

peoples and nations will descend from me and

multiply, and suffering will be their lot, and

they will live in enmity. and seek to slay one

another. And Adam's sorrow stretched wide as

the sea, and only the soul that has come to know

the Lord and the magnitude of his love for us

can understand. I too have lost grace and call

with Adam. Be merciful to me, O Lord. Bestow

on me the spirit of love and humility. Obviously,

brothers and sisters, we do not dwell in paradise.

And we suffer loss. We suffer all kinds of difficulties.

But the church is telling us today, find the

pathway back. And you heard the parable in honor

of the holy martyrs. Even if you find it at the

11th hour, the Lord is gracious. You find the

path back since it's the journey to Pascha. We

don't say, tomorrow might be a better day. Things

will get better. Our hope isn't found on such

trivialities, on things that might happen that

we have no power over. Our hope is in Jesus Christ

and what he did, his cross, to kill death. by

his death, to do away with sin so that we may

be united to him, to rise from the dead, and

that we may rise also. That's not a philosophy.

It's not a myth. It's not just some pie -in -the

-sky story. It's the truth of God and us. That's

our hope. This is where we find our strength,

even though we do not live in paradise. The first

steps that Lent gives us to return on the way

to Pascha, the mystery of our salvation, the

resurrection, are to fast. And to do it joyfully.

To give alms. And to do it generously. To pray.

And to do it with contrition. But first, before

we do anything else, is to forgive from our hearts.

We can expect as much from God, says the Lord,

as we give to others in terms of forgiveness.

And by the way, the word forgiveness in Greek

is synchoresis. Synchoresis means something like

to be together in the same place. Peter says,

the Apostle Peter, Lord, how often do I have

to forgive these people? Peter's looking for

accountability, such as, they should know that

they did the wrong thing, and I should tell them,

and they should be accountable to me or to whomever,

and fix it. You heard St. Paul. Cast off the

works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

We want everybody else to do that. And it would

be wonderful. But we have to start with ourself

to cast off the works of darkness and put on

the armor of light. And be strengthened first

so that we can then forgive. Like the Lord says,

to be in the same place. Christ is our model.

Forgive them for they know not what they do was

not an easy, painless, let bygones be bygones

kind of forgiveness. It was the Lamb of God who

takes away the sin of the world on the cross.

It hurts to forgive. But forgiveness is an act

following Christ. And it's best done before.

I feel ready to do it. Then you will find that

Christ gives you the grace. If you wait until

you're ready to do it, you might get caught unawares,

and you won't have the Lord's forgiveness. You

don't want to be controlled by the past, by the

sins of others. You want to be free in Christ,

and it helps. It helps an awful lot to remember

that we don't live in paradise. And forgiveness

might soften that terrible reality for others.

Do not lay up for yourselves. The Lord said,

you heard this, this is the way we begin Lent.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.

where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break

in and steal. Lent is a specific, intentional,

structured time of the year in which we together

as a community Yes, secretly we fast, secretly

we give alms, and secretly we pray, and God will

reward us openly, but we do it together as a

community. It's the tithe of the year, the 40

days, the time when we truly do our best to be

his disciples. It's the time when we lay up for

ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither

moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not

break in and steal. No one can take that away.

No bombs, no guns, no terror. It's the time,

Lent, and how precious it is when we find that

the truth, the truth in the Lord's words, for

where your treasure is, there's your heart. I

promise, this happens every year to me. To you,

once Lent starts, the evil one and the demons

rush out of hell to distract mainly, to demoralize,

to divide, to tempt us. Expect it. This is spiritual

warfare. We're putting on the armor of light.

You need armor, not when you sit around. You

need armor when you're attacked. So we are going

to remain watchful. We're going to remain prayerful,

generous, giving, loving towards one another,

patient towards one another, bearing one another's

burdens, always praying for one another, interceding

before God. casting off our own works of darkness.

Remember, the time is short. It's at hand. Our

salvation is nearer now than when we began and

when we first believed. Yes, we're going to remain

watchful. Is Lent a sad time? Well, only in the

sense that we want contrition. We want joy producing

sorrow. And that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Is Lent a morbid time? Not at all. Yes, there

are plenty of things to be saddened about, terrorized

about, concerned about, troubled. We thought

COVID was a problem. But fasting and prayer is

not gloomy. From ancient times, our fathers and

mothers in the church have taught us, when we

are troubled, when we are faced with difficulties,

we fast and we pray. And then that opens us up

to God's grace and his mercy so we do not despair.

St. Basil says about prayer and fasting not being

gloomy, he says this, don't make healing, being

healed, gloomy. It's outrageous that you don't

rejoice over your soul being healed. But you

mourn over changing food. You seem to be giving

more concern to your stomach than to your spirit.

Thank you, St. Basil. Let's ask the 40 martyrs

for resolve in our faith, in our fasting, for

unity to be together. Let that be our model.

You see those men in that fresco. For courage,

and especially... Because we are not in their

position, but what we can do especially is ask

that we can also be, because we trust in God,

because we can be courageous, we will witness

to the resurrection of Christ within us. This

is the good news. Let me quote a brother priest.

Yes, we grieve over our sins, but only so we

can arrive at the flip side of repentance, the

act. The acquisition of beautiful virtues. This

positive dimension is the true meaning of Lent

as we swap out pride for humility, lust for purity,

anger for mercy, gluttony for moderation, laziness

for diligence, envy for gratitude, irritability

for patience, apathy for zeal, despair for hope,

and misery for joy. Let us begin the fast with

joy, says the hymn. Its destination is the great

and incredible mystery of our salvation, the

Lord's resurrection, Pascha. Amen.