Blind Man in Jericho St. Mark of Ephesus 2020 - Fr. Lawrence Margitich

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

of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. There's

more than sufficient room in this gulf between

you and me. Did you notice at the end of the

Gospel, After the blind man received his sight,

what he did? He followed Christ. That's really

the main point of that story. But that leads

me into speaking about St. Mark of Ephesus today.

But let me back up before I talk about St. Mark.

There are incidents in the history of our Holy

Orthodox Church in which your members have not

followed Christ very well. Some by sin, some

by heresy. I'll say that sin, which brings dishonor

to the church, for sure, when it's public, and

hurts the person that does it, and hurts those

around that person, It's a tragic thing, but

we repent of it. And there's possible repentance.

But heresy and error is a repression of the truth.

And that is very harmful, not just to those in

the immediate vicinity, but going down and down

and down the rows. Sometimes the church's members

have acted poorly, sometimes faithlessly. Sometimes

with ambition more than charity. And mind you,

I'm not talking about anybody here. Just so you

know. I'm talking about history of our church.

Some people have acted cruelly, forgetting the

love of God and the neighbor. There are petty

incidents in the history. And there are profoundly

disturbing incidents. Remember this. The true

church is not yet the perfect church, humanly

speaking. I remember, now this is a petty event.

I was a student in Boston going to school. This

is 1979. And at the annual meeting, you know,

where we gathered together, a man looked at the

financial report, which is extremely simple.

The church was rather poor. and raised his hand

and wondered why the altar spent so much money.

And the priest said, well, wine, incense, etc.,

etc. And he said, wine? Just use water, it's

free. Now, it seems foolish, but lest I judge

that person, I've said and thought and done far

more foolish things to bring dishonor upon the

church. It was disheartening. I was only 22.

And there are profound betrayals of the church.

Abuse. Persecution brought upon the faithful

by those who used to be in the church, specifically

during Soviet times. Repression of Jewish people

in Russia in pogroms. Crushing taxes and so forth.

It's not much different from Western Europe,

but it's profoundly disturbing because it was

committed by the members of the church. Yet,

the church is Jesus Christ's. He said, the gates

of Hades will not prevail against it. Scripture

calls the church the bride of Christ, the counsel

of the upright, the pillar and the ground of

truth. Scripture says it's the congregation of

saints, the body of Christ, God's building, the

family of God in heaven and on earth, the dwelling

place of God and man. And more and more is said

in the scriptures about the church. Because the

divine, the sanctifying, the deifying grace of

God is given in the holy mysteries of the church

by Christ for our transformation. our repentance,

our salvation. There are those that turn aside

from that, some of us sometimes. The church is

comprised of sinners seeking healing and union

with Jesus Christ. Sometimes we act against the

church. Sometimes it's petty. Sometimes it's

profoundly disturbing and tragic. Against the

commandments. Against love. Against the truth.

But it cannot stain or corrupt the holiness and

the truth of the church. Any more than me turning

on a flashlight is going to change the power

of the sun in the sky. The church is not a worldly

organization. which functions according to accomplished

worldly goals, whatever they might be, good ones

or bad ones. She continually acts to bring us

into true communion with the Father through our

Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit

to make us become by grace what Jesus Christ

is by nature. She is God's gift. And our response,

she is the new creation. The continuance of Pentecost

in this sorrowful world. Not of this world, but

for this world. The true church, we confess,

is the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church believes

this, confesses this. The fathers of the church.

Teach it. The councils show it. The saints, the

liturgy, all assure us of this. Yet still, we

are broken people. I want to offer you this theological

word today in light of St. Mark of Ephesus, in

honor of this great saint. Because the saint

we celebrate today, January 19th, because...

He alone stood for the truth against ambitious

men of the church who would make a sacrifice

for expediency to accomplish worldly goals, knowing

that they were doing that, knowing that they

were signing something away that they didn't

believe in. They were ready to sell off orthodoxy

for military support. In the church, there have

been, and there always will be, leaders who betray.

St. Mark was born in the year 1392 to devout

Orthodox Christian parents in the city of Constantinople.

These were dark and dangerous and difficult days

in the city of Constantinople and in the whole

Eastern Roman Empire. They didn't call themselves

Byzantine. That's a later term the historians

came up with. The city was pressed on all sides

by the powerful Turkish army. St. Mark, given

the name Emmanuel, do you remember what that

name means? God is with us. Acquired an excellent

education, and he began in his early 20s to work

for the patriarch. But by age 26, he gave it

up. Even though he had this great education,

he gave up an academic and bureaucratic career

to become a monk, to devote his life to prayer

and to the love of God and neighbor. He matured

spiritually in the contemplative life, in prayer

and worship, in the practice of the Jesus Prayer.

He was called to participate, not long after.

in a council, a council that was hopeful by all

sides, seeking union with Rome. And this council

would take place in 1438 in Florence, Italy.

So Mark, the monk, was consecrated a bishop so

he could be part of the delegation. He went to

Italy, now get this, with 25 bishops and a staff

of 700. This is more than, you know, our government

sends to delegations. But the hopes for a union

were very high. It's not a history class that

I'm giving today, so I'm not going to speak of

what happened at that council, the teachings

and the issues that were on the table. Let's

just call them heresies, and the Orthodox were

being forced to accept them. Difficult negotiation.

And everyone signed the document of union with

the Pope, Eugenius, in the year 1439, except

for one. Mark of Ephesus. What was one man already

fatally ill with cancer? In comparison with the

whole multitude of Greek dignitaries, headed

by the Emperor John, the Greek metropolitans,

and Pope Eugenius and his, the glory that they

saw there. There's a Russian proverb that says,

one alone on the field is no warrior. One alone

on the field is no warrior. However, in this,

one man was represented the whole mysterious

truth of the Orthodox Church. This is why when

Pope Eugenius was solemnly shown by his cardinals,

the paper, the Act of Union, signed by all the

Greek delegates, he could not find the signature

of Mark, Bishop of Ephesus. And what did he say?

He said, so we have accomplished nothing. St.

Mark returned with the delegation to Constantinople,

but would not serve with the Unionists. The churches

were empty in Constantinople, even though it

was Great Lent, because the people knew that

this was a sellout of their faith. The monastics

and the village priests rejected the union. Mark

was imprisoned for two years, although again,

seriously ill, and freed only in 1442. He died

June 23rd, the year 1443. four at the age of

52. One of his contemporaries wrote this about

his death. Our sorrow was increased yet more

by the fact that he was taken away from our embrace

before he had grown old in the virtues which

he had acquired, before we could sufficiently

enjoy his presence in the full power of this

passing life. No defect. nor cunning had the

power to shake his mind, nor to lead astray his

soul. So strongly was it nourished and tempered

by virtue. Even if the vault of heaven should

fall, even then the righteousness of this man

would not be shaken. His strength would not fail,

his soul would not be moved, and his thought

would not be impaired by such difficult trials.

The so -called union did not last long. The bishops

that signed it were rejected by their flock,

and the next and the last emperor of Constantinople,

named Constantine, rejected it in days before

the city fell to the Turks in May 29, 1453. Brothers

and sisters, be strengthened in your faith. Be

not shaken. Keep the truth. Make a good confession

of faith. Be careful in how you live your Orthodox

life. Why? Because the grace of God then is poured

out on us, not as reward, but because we stand

then in the midst of the saints with them. There's

a story. of St. Herman of Alaska about some Russian

sailors who were in Kodiak or Spruce Island where

he lived. You know, he was not a priest, but

he had a chapel. And he was praying all the time,

and he invited the sailors to come to his chapel

and to pray with him the ninth hour or whatever

it might have been. One of the sailors said,

Oh, Abba, Father Herman, we can't go. We're sinners.

We can't enter into your holy place after what

we've done. And St. Herman said to the sailor,

that's good. That's a qualification. You can't

come to church unless you are a sinner. Unless

you are a sinner, you can't come. The church

is not for those who think they're righteous.

There aren't any anyway, except those who are

saved and holy and righteous because of faith,

because of grace. And any person, he said, who

is holy and righteous because of faith and grace

would never consider himself a saint, but would

confess himself a sinner, as you heard in St.

Paul's marvelous letter to Timothy today. So

St. Herman said to the sailor again, being a

sinner is what qualifies you to be a member of

the church. You can't be one if you're not a

sinner. But brothers and sisters, you can repent

of sin. Just don't repress the truth. To our

Lord, who is the truth, be glory and honor now

and ever, to ages of ages.