Saint George Albanian Orthodox Cathedral
Boston, Massachusetts
September 16, 2023
Në emër të atit e të birit dhe të shpirtit të shenjtë.
Krishti është midis nesh!
Today, on this Saturday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Lord declares: ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. And he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him.’
Jesus Christ is the perfect Image, the Seal, the Radiance of the Father: he does nothing of himself; he is from the Father, and all that the Father has is his, and all that is his comes from the Father.
Thus, when he came into the world, he did nothing but his Father’s will, and spoke nothing but his Father’s words.
This our calling, too.
This high calling applies foremost, and in a special way, to bishops, the shepherds and guides of the Church. This is the duty of the newly-ordained Bishop Nikodhim: to do nothing but the will of God and to speak nothing but the word of God.
When he received the monastic tonsure, he died, and his own will was buried with him under the black shroud of the monastic garb; now, he is filled with the charism of the episcopate. The space left behind by his buried will are now to be filled with the activity and word of God himself.
This is especially true when it comes to his words. A bishop is the mouthpiece of God, the voice of Christ. To him is entrusted the apostolic preaching and the patristic and conciliar dogmas and the tradition of the saints. He must guard these jealously and share them freely, proclaiming the Gospel to the world and ruling over his flock in accordance with the divine words we have received through the saints. He is the leader and ruler of his people, the little ones, the precious souls for whom Christ died, and a chief steward of God’s treasures, the priceless pearl of the Gospel.
But this calling to become filled with God’s activity and word does not belong solely to the episcopate.
All of us, all of you, are called to become little Christs, to become Christ. It is not in vain that we bear his Name: ours it is to make him present to the world. We are called to offer ourselves as oblations, as whole-burnt offerings to God; we are called truly to commend ourselves and our entire life to him.
This total dedication to God is exemplified by the martyrs. Saint Christos the Gardener, one of the Albanian martyrs of the Turkish Yoke, even turned down food and water before his execution, saying that if he was to die, he wanted to die hungering and thirsting for Christ.
Hungering and thirsting for Christ is the same as hungering and thirsting after righteousness, that condition of which the Lord speaks in the Beatitudes. On the one hand, Christ is himself the Sun of righteousness; he is our Righteousness before the throne of God. On the other hand, if we desire Christ, then we can know his presence by practicing righteousness in our words, deeds, and thoughts. This practical righteousness is known primarily in the love we show to others: praying for the world and its people, speaking the truth, and doing truly beneficial works. As the bishop must care for the Christian people, so the Christian people must care for the world.
I conclude with this: to be filled with God’s words and activity is our common calling, but it is no mere duty, much less drudgery. In fact, it is our only hope for lasting joy. Everything that comes from us, that is oriented toward anything less than God—all of this is mortal and will pass away. Even in this life, we all walk on the hedonic treadmill: pleasures, both innocent and illicit, last for but a short while, and then become dull. Then we have to roam off in search of another pleasure, another object upon which to focus our fallen will.
But when we do the works of God the Father and speak his words, we are doing and speaking the eternal: we experience the joy of eternal life even now. We are building on a foundation that will last; we are speaking the words that will not pass away. We are in the world, but not of the world, transcending the world by the power of the one who came from above and who returned there by means of the Cross.
The Cross: as the Lord says, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I do nothing of myself and speak as the Father taught me.’ When we are crucified to the world, when we are lifted up with Christ, then we, too, no longer do or speak save as the Father instructs.
Therefore, let us all die to this dying world, to our fallen will, to our narrow ego, and let us live to God, in God, for God, through God, doing his works and speaking his words always and everywhere, living not for ourselves but for Christ and for our neighbor. This is life indeed.
If we live in this way, giving everything up to God, then our death will be no death, but a passage to life, a life that we are already living even while the world dies around us.
To Christ our true God, who overcame the death and the world on his Cross, be all glory, together with his Father and the Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen.