March 12, 2017: 2nd Sunday of Lent - Fr. Maximos (Rossi)

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

the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is truly a great joy

to be among you once again, my beloved parish

family, to see all the familiar and beloved faces,

and also to see new faces. This church is so

alive and so growing. Truly, it's a wonderful

place. Well, I hope we will be able to continue

with this love fest at the Agape Mio, but now

it's time to get down to business. And the business

of today is to understand and to contemplate

what the Holy Church, our Holy Tradition, places

before us on this, the second Sunday of Lent.

also known as the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas.

In his wonderful little book called Great Lent

by Fr. Alexander Schmemann, which, by the way,

is a book that's indispensable, I think, for

understanding Lent, and I think every family

should have a copy. It's very simple, simply

written. complete outline of Lenten practice

and it's easily understood and it allows you

to really move through Lent and through the rhythms

and the dialectic of the Lenten journey very

easily. But in that book, he describes the Sundays

of Lent and he talks about the two different

themes or the two different meanings that the

Sundays of Lent have. The first and the primary

meaning, according to him, is found in the Epistle

and the Gospel. But there, through history, the

Church has given each of those Sundays another

meaning, another theme, which is what we have

today with St. Gregory Palamuth, and also the

fourth Sunday, St. John the Ladder, and then...

and then St. Mary of Egypt. And then he says

that the first two Sundays, the triumph of Orthodoxy,

and the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, those

secondary meanings are essentially associated,

are given to the Church through acts of history.

These things happened in history. they are not

actually related to Lent proper. And then he

says, no matter how wonderful they are, we're

going to go on, and he doesn't spend any time

on them. But he does spend time on the Sunday

of John of the Ladder and the Sunday of Mary

of Egypt, because, of course, St. John of the

Ladder is the great theoretician of asceticism,

and St. Mary of Egypt is the supreme practitioner

of ascetic practice, and those things directly

are related to Lent. Now, I don't want to disagree

in any way with Father Alexander, but I think

that in the spirit of St. Gregory, which is his

Sunday, we can say, or we can extend what Father

Alexander says, which is actually correct. We

can extend that a little bit further, which is

to say that if... God is everywhere present and

fillest all things, then he is surely the Lord

of history. And if he is the Lord of history,

then what happens during Lent, the fact that

the first and the second Sunday of Lent are given

these names, does come within the purview of

divine providence. So we can begin to understand

that. We can now look at St. Gregory Palamas,

the Sunday of St. Gregory, and see, what divine

providence, what God places before us in this

saint. St. Gregory Palamas, I think that most

of us who are Orthodox, even if we've only been

Orthodox for a short while, have heard of St.

Gregory. We know something about him. But he

tends to be a saint that is put on a lofty pedestal.

He's not necessarily a saint that we automatically,

that is beloved, like St. Seraphim of Sarov is

beloved. St. Silouan the Athenite is beloved.

St. Gregory is, we look on him with awe. But

is that what the church, is that what is really

happening here? If St. Gregory is placed before

us for our contemplation, it must have to do

with Lent in some way. So what is it? What can

it be? We know, many of us know, that St. Gregory

is famous for the distinction between the essence

and the energies of God. We know, or we have

heard, that St. Gregory was a great hesychast

and was perhaps the leader of the 14th century

hesychasts. And so we have some idea of that.

Do we even understand what the word hesychasm

actually means? It means, in fact, we'll just

deal with that right away. It means, it's a word,

it's a Greek word that means stillness. It means

the path of stillness that leads to holiness.

The path of stillness that leads to holiness.

We know that St. Gregory was associated with

that. We know that he was associated with with

a great controversy that happened in the 14th

century. And we know that then he was honored

very soon after his death, which was in 1359.

And he was sanctified, he was made a saint in

1368, very soon. And that Sunday was called the

second. Sunday, the second triumph of Orthodoxy.

So what does this really have to do with us?

Now, it's impossible not to give a little bit

of historical context, but I want to go through

that very quickly because his life had so much...

So many events that happened in his life, so

many valuable things, so many wonderful things

happened in his life that if we just started

to deal with that, we'd be through my allotted

15 or 18 or 20 or 25 minutes. We'd be through

that without having really dealt with anything.

But briefly, the first 20 years of his life was

lived in the court of the emperor in which he

received a very advanced education. was considered

kind of a second Aristotle. And then at 20 years

old, he went and became a monk. And he went to

the Holy Mountain. And that next 20 years was

the time of his reclusion, in which he lived

an extremely ascetic life, both on and off the

Holy Mountain, and at the most extreme. He lived

a life in which for five days a week he lived

in total reclusion, doing the Jesus prayer, practicing

unseen warfare, working out his salvation in

Hezekiah. And then on Saturdays and Sundays he

would leave his reclusion, join the Brotherhood

for Divine Liturgy and maybe some conversation,

some holy conversation, and then go back. So

he did that for 20 years. And he was taught by

eminent teachers on the Holy Mountain. And then

he was drawn out of his seclusion by this controversy

that took place, which is called the Hesychast

Controversy. And that is that third period of

his life, which goes from 1337 to 1347, in which

he did battle with what had been known as Byzantine

humanists, led by Barlam of Calabria. And in

that period of time, even though he was a Hesychast

and wanted to live in peace, he did battle for

the sake of the spirituality and the spiritual

life of what the Orthodox Church is. And then

in this final period, he was elected, he was

appointed the Archbishop of Thessalonica in 1347.

Could not enter it right away because of the

Civil War going on, but when he finally did enter

it, he entered with great joy and jubilation,

and he became an excellent and eminent and a

wonderful archpastor. And for that, we know that

we have... We have all of his sermons and they're

translated in English. But what does this have

to do with us? What does this have to do with

us, our journey during Lent? We can honor all

the saints in the world and we can put them on

pedestals, but if they don't help us, if they

don't give us what we need to know or understand,

if they don't... give us an aspect of vision

that we're missing or an aspect of spirit that

we need, then they're not going to be of that

much help. So why does the Holy Spirit present

St. Gregory before us? I think that the answer

is found in all the various wonderful phrases

of praise that we give to St. Gregory, such as,

Pillar and teacher of the church. Light of orthodoxy.

Invincible protection of theologians. Clear trumpet

of theology. All of those things are wonderful.

But I think that the real essence of what St.

Gregory gives us is in this sort of last one.

Preacher of grace. Or herald of grace divine.

And this is so because Gregory's main purpose

was not so much to enunciate the truths of God,

the uncreated reality of God, the uncreated energies.

And all of that theology, which we can go into.

But for us, it's grace. He was really a herald

of grace. And he was a herald in particular,

specifically, of deifying grace. Because deifying

grace was something that was being experienced

on the holy mountain by the hesychasts and by

others. His father was a hesychast and lived

in the court. So the hesychasts weren't just

monastics. There were lay hesychasts. Nicholas

Cavazos is another one. So it was deifying grace

that he was defending. He really came out of

reclusion to defend the experience. of the saints,

the experience of the holy men of Athos, and

what they experienced was deifying grace. That's

what he came for. Now, scholarship has focused

too much, I think, I believe, on the idea of

the uncreated energies and the difference between

the East and the West, but the difference between

the East and the West in theology is not going

to do us much good during Lent. Maybe that will

be something that we can look at, that we can

study later on. But for Lent, for Lent, we need

to know about deifying grace. And that is really

the heart of St. Gregory's work. Because he came

out to defend the experience of the saints and

the experience of all of those who practice Hezekiah

and who practice that life of prayer. That's

what he came to do. To defend that, because that

was being attacked by these very sophisticated,

very intelligent, very educated philosophers,

which we know historically as Byzantine humanists.

They had an idea of God, which was not wrong

in itself, but they took it in a wrong sort of

way. In other words, they were aware of... what

we now know as the apophatic or the negative

way to God, that you can't say anything about

God positively without having to deny what you

have said, because God is super abundant in being.

His being is beyond being. If we say that we

exist, then we have to say that God does not

exist, or at least does not exist. in the way

that we exist. If, on the other hand, we say

that God exists, the question is, do we exist

outside of God? And we do not. So, even though

they were attacking the experience of the saints

and of the elders and of the monks, many of whom

were... were truly holy and realized men with

no education whatsoever. And of course, Barlow

went to the holy mountain, saw these men, and

looked down his nose at them, had great contempt

for them, and therefore thought that what they

said about their experiences could not be true

because they were ignorant men. So this is good

for us to know. It's good for us to know that

deifying race is no respecter of persons. It's

no respecter of education if education gets in

the way. Nor is it respecter of no education

if no education gets in the way. It is truly

no respecter. But it gives you everything. And

this is what he came to defend. And this is why

it's so important for us to realize that what

Gregory leaves us is the conviction. and the

reality, as fundamental to orthodoxy, that God

can be experienced in this life. That God can

be known and experienced in this life, by you,

by me, by everyone who is born again, everyone

who is born of the Spirit. God can be experienced

in this life. The visiting humanists were honoring

God. by saying that he can't be experienced in

this life. We have to wait to the next to understand

the beatific vision, the human experience. We

have to wait till then. Gregory fought that because

in his own experience, he saw men and women experiencing

God. So there was a battle not only in theology,

not only about what and who God is, and it's

a fundamental theological truth that one's...

one's understanding of God will trickle down

to everything one does in life. If you believe

that God is a great parent in the sky and that

you have to kind of appease that parent in some

way so that he will honor you, then grace becomes

merely God's favor. and you are constantly at

work trying to appease this kind of God. And

there's a separation, therefore, between God

and you. But the God of Orthodoxy, the God that

Gregory proclaimed in defense of the experience

of the saints, was and is a God that unites heaven

and earth. That the created and the uncreated

are in union. And so he had to make clear, because

he was dealing with something, with this knowledge

of God, this idea that God can be known, was

also part of the battle. And for Gregory, and

for the Orthodox tradition, God can be known,

but he is not known in propositions. He is not

known in whatever you can say about him. That

is knowing about God. Gregory said to Barlow,

it's a dangerous thing to talk about God before

you have learned to talk to him. And then he

went on further. And it's a dangerous thing to

talk to a God that you don't really believe can

talk back to you. and can experience you at the

very core of your being. Because, as Gregory

said in his homily on this day, Gregory gave

a wonderful homily when he was an archbishop

on the paralytic. It's one of the homilies that's

been translated into English. As he said in that

homily, he said the kingdom of heaven, there

are three elements to the kingdom of heaven.

It is at hand, which is what the gospel teaches.

It is... Within you, which Jesus taught. And

it's coming again in glory and majesty. At hand

within you and coming again. So really, what

Gregory gives us is a way into the presence of

God. And he says, the saints proclaim, and the

deifying grace, which is uncreated. The deifying

grace, which is given. by supernatural illumination.

But it is given also to the embodied intellect,

the nous, the embodied intellect. Supernatural

illumination to the embodied intellect in the

form of light. Light that is real and that is

unapproachable and incomprehensibly vast. And

it issues from God in the form of energies that

are uncreated. Because nothing that issues from

God naturally can be created. So the whole idea

of the essence and the energies approach was

a way for Gregory to defend the idea of true

divine participation. Where you literally can

participate in the divine life. And that that

is knowledge of God. The only real knowledge

of God is participating in his life. Everything

else is knowledge about. That's what the saints

have taught us. And that's what deifying grace

teaches us. And the sixth element, I've just

given you five from what's called the Hagiuritic

Tome. Which is something written by Gregory.

presented by the Holy Mountain in defense of

this tradition. The sixth one is that it's participated

in by the body, as well as the soul and the spirit,

by the body as an eschatological foretaste of

the end times. That is to say, a foretaste of

the world to come. And that's what deals with

the transfiguration. The light of Tabor is what

he's defending. That light is a light that is

given to us. And so, really, the way you summarize

this is to take seriously in all of its implications

that part of the prayer that we say every single

day as Orthodox Christians, which is the O Heavenly

King, Comforter Spirit of Truth, who are everywhere

present. and fillest all things. Everywhere present,

fillest all things. This is, this has to be carried

out to the fullest. Present in everything that

exists, present in us, and we are living in an

ocean, a coruscating, scintillating ocean of

light. and we are blind, and we don't see. We're

living in it now. If God is everywhere present

and fill us to all things, we don't have any

place to go to get to heaven. It's already here.

It's already here. But if we're living in hell,

we're not seeing. And that's why Gregory, in

his homily, and this is where I'll end, in his

interpretation of the homily, or an interpretation

of the scriptural reading of today from St. Mark,

Mark 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. He interprets it precisely as an image

and a symbol of the descent of the mind into

the heart to meet Christ. The paralytic is ourselves.

It's our soul. We're paralyzed. The four friends,

who carry him, are virtues. They are probably,

they're analogous, and they are the four cardinal

virtues. Prudence, or rather, practical wisdom.

Practical wisdom is a better way to say that

than prudence. Practical wisdom, justice, fortitude,

and temperance. Those four friends of the paralytic

carry him to Jesus. Because they were the virtues.

They're actually virtues that are part of Christ.

So they carry him to Christ. But St. Gregory

gives them four other names. He gives them the

names of self -condemnation, of compunction,

of constancy in prayer, and of commitment. So

temperance is the self -condemnation. It's what

leads you to a true state of temperance. Justice

is... is compunction. And courage or fortitude

is commitment. And finally, constancy in prayer.

Those are the four friends that bring him up

to the roof and tear open the whole roof. The

roof is your mind, it's your thoughts, it's all

of the things that you have that you wall off.

You wall off your interior being because you're

afraid there's nothing there. You wall that off.

You roof it over. But those four friends ripped

those things out, tore a hole in it, and let

the paralytic down on the pallet. And letting

that down is the humility, the absolute humility

that is necessary to be able to meet Christ at

the center of the heart. And the true golden

ladder that leads to heaven is found there. And

that's where we meet Christ. And it's there when

those four virtuous friends, when that constancy

and that commitment, that self -condemnation

and that courage lead us before Christ, then

he forgives our sins. Because it's our sins that

is keeping us from this deifying grace. It's

our sins that is holding us. to the nature of

the fallen world, so that the supernature of

Christ, which we are to attain, cannot get in.

We can't rise to it. The noose automatically

will rise if it is free. And then Christ frees

our soul, frees our noose, frees our being from

sins. And then he says, arise, take up your bed

and walk. And that is the life of the saints.

That experience. So that is what this feast gives

us. That's what St. Gregory gives us. He gives

us the vision that we can have. That it's there

for us. That the presence of God is around us,

through us, and in us. And that if we're going

to see God face to face, we have to build through

God's grace a face for us. to see Him. That's

what this feast day is all about. And to the

glory of God, may He grant it to each one of

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

and of the Holy Spirit.