The Light of Christ
Come receive ye Light, from the Unwaning Light, and glorify Christ Who is arisen from the dead.
Your Grace, Bishop Sergios; Reverend Presbyters; Deacons; and Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Welcome, and thank you for coming. I greet you all in the joy of our Lord Who said, “I am the Light of the World: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Our theme for the 2007 Synaxis of the Metropolis of Portland is “The Light of Christ.” We have just heard that hymn, beloved by all, that we hear every year at the very beginning of the Paschal Service, that invites us to “come and receive the Light from the Unwaning Light” that has dawned forth from the tomb for us.
This talk seeks to answer three questions:
1. What is this Light of Christ?
2. How do we receive this Light?
3. How do we cultivate the Light, and what does it have to do with our day-to-day lives?
(1) What is this Light of Christ?
The Light of Christ is the participation in the grace of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As Saint Peter the Apostle wrote in his Second Catholic Epistle:
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who hath called us by glory and virtue; by which are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, so that through these ye might be partakers of the divine nature... (2 Peter 1:2-3)
These are very startling words, “that ye might be partakers of the divine nature.”
The Church has its own language, and it is the consensus of the Holy Fathers that by the words “partakers of divine nature” Saint Peter means that we participate in the uncreated energies of God. This is the grace and glory that both men and angels partake of, for as our Savior said:
For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy Angels (Luke 9:26).
So, by this we understand that this glory is not exclusive to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This uncreated grace emanates from the Holy Trinity and is participated in by angels and also by men.
The Light and Glory and Grace of God console our hearts, illumine our minds, and it is this Grace that overshadows the Holy Mysteries that are a source of deification for us wherein our Savior makes the bread and wine His very Flesh and Blood. This is the Light that enlightened Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration and that enlightens the whole world.
(2) How do we receive this light?
We receive this light through the priesthood of the Church by Holy Baptism. We know it is only that valid priesthood which was transmitted by the laying on of hands by the very Apostles themselves that grants this gift. This priesthood has been maintained even unto this day through Apostolic succession and the Apostolic faith.
By Baptism we are made members of the Body of Christ and partakers of His Mysteries. Baptism fits us out to be vessels of this Light of the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and participation in this Grace is the Kingdom of God. It is for this reason that our Savior told Nicodemos:
Amen, amen, I say unto thee, except a man be born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3).
That is, without Baptism a man cannot receive the gift of spiritual perception. And later He said:
Amen, amen, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5).
That is, without Baptism a man cannot participate and enter into the Grace of God.
(3) How do we cultivate this Light and what does it have to do with our day-to-day lives?
There are two aspects to the answer to this question. First, we cultivate this Light within.
And when He [Jesus] was asked by the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke17: 20-21).
We are made vessels of this light by baptism, but we have also been given a fearful gift from God, and that is our free will. Because we are free we can choose to turn away from the Light of Christ. Because we are free, we have to work to maintain the Light of Christ.
Was it not Saint Seraphim of Sarov who explained so well that in the Parable of the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins, that the five foolish Virgins practiced virtue, yet they chose not to be attentive to keeping their vessels filled with the oil of the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and thus were not ready when the Heavenly Bridegroom came and, alas, they were shut out of the Kingdom?
This is a very alarming parable. One can ask, is there a way for me to avoid a similar fate? There is. Saint Seraphim teaches that it is not works that save us, but the Grace and Mercy of God. Therefore we must use spiritual discretion and seek the Grace of God daily.
One might ask, “This all may sound well and good, but how do we know if the virtue we practice attracts the Grace of God?” If we are not insensitive to spiritual things, our conscience informs us if we are in the Grace of God. Yet, even with this, sometimes it takes spiritual counsel to understand. We all make mistakes in one way or another and fall into sin. Our Savior has given us the means for restoration through the remedy of the mystery of Repentance. In Confession we gain the help of a spiritual guide who can help us understand where we are in the spiritual life. We should all see the mystery of Repentance as a means of setting the Lamp of our soul aright and a rekindling of the Light of Christ within.
There are three major obstacles to repentance.
The first obstacle to repentance is self-justification. Under this category one can place complacency and the trivializing of our sins. Saint Simeon the New Theologian teaches that if Adam and Eve had not justified themselves by blaming others for their sin, and if they had prostrated themselves and asked to be forgiven, they would not have been cast out of Paradise. – This is food for thought for us all.
The second obstacle to repentance is judging others. Our Savior explained to us that we cannot see the beam of our own sins that is in our own eye if we are looking for the speck of sins that are in the eyes of others. If we practice this one virtue of not judging, we will be delivered from many sins. As our Savior said, “Judge not and ye will not be judged.”
The third obstacle to repentance is remembrance of wrongs and refusing to be reconciled to our neighbor. Saint John Climacus calls remembrance of wrongs a nail in the soul and unceasing sin. One can practice many virtues, as did the five foolish virgins, and just this one sin of remembrance of wrongs can drive away the grace of God and make the practice of virtue an exercise in futility.
Saint Paul’s exhortation to us all to “quench not the Spirit” points out to us that the first obligation of a Christian is to tend to the things of the heart and maintain the light of grace, because this is the foundation of all that follows. In other words, in our quest to spread the Light of Christ, our effort at evangelizing begins within.
The Fathers teach that the heart is our spiritual center, and our mind is the sentinel or guardian of the heart. We must guard our hearts. What we allow into our mind through our five senses and our conscious thought, affects our heart either positively or negatively. A vigilant and wise mind can preserve the heart from much turmoil and grief. Daily each of us needs to examine our heart and see if it is right with God. Saint Moses of Scete explained to Saint John Cassian that our ultimate goal is salvation, but our immediate goal that leads us unto salvation is to seek purity of heart.
There is a beautiful illustration of this from the ancient Egyptian culture. The Egyptians had an understanding that there would be a final judgment. The symbol of righteousness and truth was a feather. The symbol of being judged righteous was a balance beam with the feather on one side and the heart on the other and the heart had to be lighter than the feather.
If in our day-to-day life our number one goal would be to have a light heart, a peaceful heart that is right with God, how differently we would act. – May God grant that all of you have a light heart.
Our Savior said, “Be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the heathen seek:) For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt 6: 31-33).
We seek the Kingdom through tending to our heart.
The second aspect of the answer to the question, how do we cultivate the light of Christ and what does it have to do with our daily lives, is linked to the things of the heart, but more specifically concerns local community. There are many differing vocations in the Christian life, but few and far between are those that were called to be anchorites and save themselves by a life of solitude. The vast majority of us are saved in the context of community.
The incomprehensible Trinity is an image of community through their agreement and unanimity. The first Christians in Jerusalem reflected this state of agreement when it was written of them that “they were of one mind and one heart.”
Our Savior Himself taught of the importance of community when a lawyer asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets (Matt 22:35-40).
In his First Epistle, Saint John the Theologian unpacked this saying of our Savior and explained why our Savior said the second commandment is like unto the first:
No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit…If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also (1John 4:12-13,20-21).
Our love of God is inextricably linked with our love of our brother, that is, our God has arranged things in such a way that our salvation is worked out in community. This community, of course, begins with our immediate family, but in the Holy Eucharist, we become, as it were, one family. In the Holy Eucharist “many grains become one bread,” as Saint Cyprian of Carthage teaches.
If one reads the writings of the saints and the history of the Christian people from the Acts of the Apostles to the present the message is clear: our Savior did not come on earth to establish an abstract philosophy; He did not come on earth to establish administrative structures. He became incarnate in order to establish Eucharistic communities wherein a Christian can grow and participate in His everlasting Light.
In the context of the local Eucharistic community, we become a new creation in Christ through the eucharistic life of self-sacrificing love. As Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
“Brethren, Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Who died for them, and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth we know no man according to the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2Cor 5:16).
All things are made new in this Eucharistic life of self-sacrificing love made manifest in the local Christian community.
There are some, even among clergy, that do not understand this concept and attempt to make Christianity into an administrative structure after the pattern of organizations in the world. There are others that are tempted to consider the Church as something abstract, living in imitation of the old saying, ‘I love humanity, but I can’t stand people.’ In other words, with the attitude, “I am a member of the Church, but I ignore the life of interacting with my local parish community. I am a spiritual person that makes pilgrimages to holy places and monasteries, but I ignore my neighbor and the nearby parish. I share the cup with the other Christians, but I barely know them and do nothing for them or contribute nothing by way of time or financial support to help my local parish community.”
To choose not to participate in the local Eucharistic community in a way wherein we demonstrate self-sacrificing love, is to choose not to grow in Christ. We establish our relationship with God by prayer and fasting, yes, but our Savior said:
“By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one for another” (John 13:35). Saint Paul explains for us how we demonstrate this love in his epistle to the Galatians when he exhorts: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2).
In other words, if one does not labor according to one’s capacity and help to bear the burden of the local community, one does not fulfill the law of Christ. Christianity does not exist in the abstract.
I share these concepts out of love and in order to help all of you come to a deeper understanding of the life in Christ and an effort to illustrate that some are unwittingly running from spiritual growth. We are all called to participate in the Light of Christ by embracing a life of self-sacrificing love in our local Eucharistic community, according to the capacity God has given each and every one of us.
Was it not our Savior Himself Who described the end of the world, when all of us will be divided as the sheep are from the goats? And He will call “the sheep” to enter His Kingdom with the words, “For when I was hungry you gave Me to eat; when I was thirsty you gave Me to drink; when I was naked you clothed Me; when I was sick and in prison you visited Me.”
These are the kinds of deeds we practice in local community. Do we know who is sick? Do we know who is hungry or lonely or in need of a word of support or help? According to Saint Simeon the New Theologian, our Savior’s words here also refer to the spiritual dimension of hunger and thirst. There are those who thirst for the word of God. There are those who are hungry for the divine services and Holy Communion.
As one who is responsible for this Missionary Metropolis, I am acutely aware of the need for spiritual nourishment in our local Church. As Christians we have an obligation to the world, as our Savior said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in the Heavens” (Matt 5:16). And also: “No man, when he hath lighted a lamp, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a lampstand, that they which come in may see the light” (Luke 11:33).
It is for us to make manifest the truth of our faith by demonstrating this by our works. In this way, every parish is a bearer of the Light of Christ in the midst of the darkness of confusion that surrounds us. We look around and see that most of the world is indeed confused. World Orthodoxy preaches the gospel of ecumenism and not the gospel of Christ. Our culture, especially the media and academia, is for the most part extremely secular and anti-Christian. Christians are few and far between, and Christianity is maligned, not unlike the days of the early Christians. – But, two or three can become the majority, for our Savior said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Our gathering here today is a call to all to come and receive the light of Christ through the Eucharistic life of self-sacrificing love in each local community.
I know that I can speak for my suffragan Bishop and the clergy here present that it is our burning desire to provide for you and your children and establish your hearts in the Light and grace of Christ. We honor the past and look to the future. Together we can embrace Holy Tradition and confront the many challenges that our modern life puts upon us.
Parish life is family life, and I have struggled to understand your struggles. Parents are harried, the rhythm and pace of modern life does not harmonize with the rhythm of the cycle of the services of the Church. It is a great challenge to prevent our secular culture from invading the home. The public school system and media make daily efforts to wrest your children away from Christian belief and values.
It is our goal to make this synaxis the beginning of greater efforts to provide for you all pastorally, liturgically, and also ideologically for the sake of combating the culture war. I hope you are ready to discuss your concerns and ideas for solutions to these concerns.
Together we can work to proceed with knowledge as Eucharistic communities united by a spirit of self-sacrificing love for the sake of ourselves and the next generation, that we may receive the Light of Christ and participate in the Kingdom of God in this age and the age to come. The balance of our meeting today will be devoted to discussions on practical approaches and plans to facilitate these goals.
I wish to close with a prayer from the Hours:
O Christ the true Light, Who enlightenest and sanctifiest every man that cometh into the world: Let the light of Thy countenance be signed upon us, that in it we may behold the unapproachable Light, and guide our steps in the performance of Thy commandments, by the intercessions of Thine all-immaculate Mother, and of all Thy saints.
Amen.
