St. Herman 2020 Fr. Lawrence Margitich

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

of the Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ. My

dear friends, you probably thought you would

never get too much sun by coming to the Divine

Liturgy. But here we are, enlightened in more

ways than one. We have a great blessing today,

my dear friends in Christ. We have an opportunity

to open our hearts, to be inspired, to be nourished,

and maybe to be renewed in our soul by the life

of the first saint glorified in America, Saint

Herman of Alaska. It was August 9th. 1970, exactly

50 years ago today, that hierarchs and priests

and monks and faithful came together to celebrate

the many vigils, muyebbins, liturgies before

the grave on Kodiak Island of the humble and

assuming but bright, very bright star of the

church, Father Herman. It was so important, not

only for Alaska, not only for the church, not

only for the church in the whole world, but even

the country. His life was submitted to the congressional

record in Washington with a resolution to recognize

this day the glorification of St. Herman. Times

have changed, obviously. You can read about the

life of St. Herman on your own. So I'm not going

to give you much detail about that now. Let me

just tell you this. Some recent research about

St. Hermit tells us what his name was before

monasticism. Before this research, we had no

idea. It was Igor, George. We had no idea that

he had been married, and at 19 years of age,

he had a son. We had no idea that the son...

and the wife died in an epidemic. One can imagine

the young man's sorrow, 19 years of age. And

he became a monk in a difficult time when Tsar

Peter the Great made it very difficult for someone

to join a monastery. He eventually came to the

great and ancient monastery of Valam on Lake

Latika. I had the blessing to go there in 19...

And he became a hermit. While I was there, I

saw the field they call Herman's Field, where

he had a hut. And he lived there until the call

from the church, from missionaries to come to

Alaska to evangelize. And he volunteered with

some nine or so others. After a year's travel

across Russia, it took a year to travel to get

to Alaska, they arrived in September of 1794,

not to find a church built, not to find a place

to stay, but to find a Russian -American company

that was abusing the local native population.

And their work was cut out for them. Forty years

of labor, and most of that alone, because the

others that came with him, two or three drowned

at sea, some returned, some were killed. And

here's where your own reading is going to need

to fill in the rest of the story. I want to...

focus our attention on six things that he did

that we also can do as Christians and that we

are invited by the Lord to do. He was an ascetic

and he was a monk. He took up the cross. He denied

Christ. He took up the cross, denied himself.

And he followed Christ. He took up that invitation

from the Lord to be with him. That's what we've

all done. And he wore a 16 -pound cross around

his neck inside of his shirt. He was a true ascetic.

He gave himself entirely to the Lord to care

for the people, to teach them the faith, and

they... Loved him. He didn't worry about what

he wore. He wore the same clothes. Year in, year

out, icy cold, terrible heat. Same clothes. And

most of the time he was barefoot, even in the

snow. He was an equal of the Desert Fathers in

every way. He humbly prayed the services of the

church. He taught others to sing. He prayed all

night the Jesus Prayer. He slept very little,

and he had the gift of pure prayer of the heart,

and he was an enlightened man. This is why people

wanted to be with him. He was an evangelist.

Because people came to him, he could share the

good news of the resurrection of Christ. of the

overcoming of death, of the forgiveness of sins.

He was a nurse to the suffering, having lived

through two, not just one epidemic. He buried

hundreds who died. He stayed with the sick during

the epidemic. He tended them. He prayed for them.

Some of them were healed. He comforted them,

and he prepared many. to die. He was a man who

cultivated paradise. What do I mean by that?

Because the Garden of Eden, the kingdom of God,

was in his heart, so he was in harmony with nature,

stopping a tsunami from destroying the village,

stopping a fire from destroying a village. He

had a spring with healing water coming out of

it. Around him and within him, because of his

heart, was paradise. He had friends of wild animals

and bears that would come to him. He had a productive

garden, and he made food for all the people there.

He was a defender of the oppressed. He spoke

the truth, but he spoke the truth in love, and

he spoke the truth from a heart that was transfigured

by the knowledge of the resurrection. He was

a defender of the oppressed against the Russian

-American company who was oppressing the native

population. And attempts were made many times

on his life. to kill him, to get him out of the

way, because he was a troublemaker for them.

And he was a prophet. He spoke the truth. He

spoke of things to come, including the day of

his own repose. Much, much more. He was many,

many more things. He was a man, let us just say,

whose very presence revealed the kingdom of God,

the goodness, the mercy, the love and embrace

that God has for all. That was his life. Exactly

as St. Paul says, the grace of God was not in

vain. Through patience, endurance, in stripes,

in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings.

by pureness, by knowledge, by long -suffering,

by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, as sorrowful,

yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many

rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing all

things. That was St. Herman. And the physical

hardships he endured, the sorrows of his life.

the personal attacks against him by the authorities,

the care of so many souls, right up until his

repose in November of 1837, just a few years

after the repose of St. Seraphim. All that he

did seems impossible to us, and it is heroic,

which is why... We place him where we do, and

we write hymns about him, and we sing, and we

pray to him that he would intercede for us. Despite

all these troubles, but along suffering, imprisonments,

tumults, great endurance, sleepinesses, fastings,

he was not shaken. He did not sink. Like Peter,

who should not have gotten out of the boat in

the first place, who became just like his name.

What happens to a stone, a rock, when you throw

it in the water? It sinks. Peter the rock should

not have gotten out. St. Herman did not sink.

The storms. It's not the storms outside the boat

that we need to worry about. Yes, sometimes we

need to do something about them, but it's not

the storms outside the boat that we need to worry

about. Do you follow what I'm saying, my dear

friends? It's not the storms outside the boat,

the church, that we need to worry about. It's

the storm within us that will sink us. Christ

doesn't save us from the storm. Here we are.

He saves us in the midst of the storm. He comes

walking, and when we sink, we cry out, save me,

O Lord, and he reaches his hand out to us, and

he pulls us up. Dear friends, we don't need to

complain. We don't need to curse what's around

us. All we need to say is, save me, O Lord. St.

Herman's gaze and trust, unlike St. Peter's,

who at that point was not illumined by the Holy

Spirit yet. St. Herman, his gaze, his trust was

always on and in the Lord Jesus Christ. How?

How can we follow that same way? Yes, by prayer,

reaching out our hands to Christ. When we are

in turmoil, We reach out our hands to Christ.

When the sea of life is scaring us, we reach

out our hands, save me, O Lord. When we feel

alone and anxious, without resources to cope,

when we think it's someone else's fault, we say,

by God's grace, save me, O Christ. And then the

time comes, indeed, finally it will come, when

we finally admit that we are ruled not by the

Lord, the master and king of all creation, but

by the turmoil within us, by our thoughts and

fears and desires. And when we realize that,

this is good news, then by God's grace, we can

grasp our Savior's hand. And through the prayers

of St. Herman, we understand. that it's not the

storm outside the boat. We need to come to the

peaceful harbor first before we can fix things

out there. And then we start believing in God

as St. Herman would describe it. Listen to these

simple, basic words. If we love someone, he said,

we always remember that person. We try to please

that person. Day and night, our heart is concerned

with the subject of that person. Is that the

way we love God? Do you turn to him often, says

Venerable Father? Do you always remember him?

Do you always pray to him? Do you always fulfill

his holy commandments? Why was St. Herman successful?

Why were the missionaries in Alaska successful?

Why within the first few years were 7 ,000 people

baptized? It wasn't just because they defended

them against the oppressors. No, it was because

they brought good news of the peace and the joy

of the kingdom of God and the life eternal now.

The legacy of St. Herman, his work, His life

as an icon of our Savior is our model of orthodoxy

in this land. He is the first saint canonized

in this country. And that's true for the Catholics,

too. He's the first one. Can we accept his work,

his legacy, as our own? If we don't, then as

St. Paul says, is the Holy Spirit given in vain?

He prays for us, this saint. His relics are before

us, and they contain holiness of God. Let's receive

the benefit of his prayer. Let's receive the

benefit of the grace of the relics. Let us shake

off our spiritual slumber, be awakened, or else

the Orthodox Church in this country will be irrelevant

if we don't embrace the legacy for life. the

acts of St. Hermit, because it's just the Christian

life. That's all. He lived it in a way that is

magnificent and beautiful and intense, but we're

also invited to share in the same good news and

peace and love of Christ, to be renewed in our

conversion to the Lord in whatever humble way

is appropriate to us. To our Lord be glory. And

may God bless us through the prayers of our venerable

Father Herman of Alaska.