The title just about says it all, but a little extra general information:
My father is a Russian Orthodox priest, and these are the sermons he gives during Sunday Divine Liturgy.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
As the Lord foretold in last Sunday's Gospel reading, we are about to witness some pretty harrowing things. The Son of God will be subjected to mockings and scourgings and crucifixion at the hands of the Gentiles, but at the behest of his own people, the Jews. Angels will hide their faces, unable to fathom God dying on a cross. The earth will quake. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. He said all this beforehand to prepare our hearts so that we might be assured that though evil is about to have its day, good will triumph. Likewise, the lesson of Lazarus' resurrection, was that Christ has power over death and that his own death, therefore, would be voluntary. The devil and the demon-inspired mob did not overcome the Son of God. Far from it! They blindly lunged at the bait and fell into the trap that he set for them. As we will soon hear in the Paschal Homily of St John Chrysostom,
Hell... "was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen".
Christ took upon himself everything that evil could throw at him...all the sins of mankind, all the fury of the demons. And so by his death he tore up the handwriting of our sins and spoiled the principalities and powers, cancelling out all their claims over us (remember that the next time the devil tries to condemn you). And by his resurrection he ushers in a new order of things, which will culminate in a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness on the Last Day.
And so with this in mind, as we stand at the threshold of Holy Week, we are exhorted in our epistle reading to "Rejoice in the Lord always," to "Be careful for nothing", but to make all our wants and wishes known to God, and to allow the "peace of God which passeth all understanding" to keep our hearts and minds. The word in Greek means to post a military guard or sentinel. As in all things, we must work in synergy with Divine grace. But as long as we do our little part by entrust all of our worries and cares to God's Almighty Providential care, his peace will stand guard over our hearts. Jesus himself will tell us the same on the night before his Passion in the Twelve Gospel Readings for Holy Thursday:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27
Therefore in the face of evil, we must keep our focus on those things which are true and right and edifying. Jesus will be victorious this week. "Be of good cheer," he says, "for I have overcome the world." By this means evil will be destroyed, the devil defeated, sin blotted out. He gladly does this for our sake. As he tells his Mother (from the Good Friday Lamentations):
"That I may renew man's lost nature now from beauty fallen, gladly in my flesh I take death on me; wherefore, mother, slay me not with bitter tears."
So as we contemplate the dreadful things of Passion week, let us not lose heart. They are temporary and will have an end. Yet a little while and they will become as a fading dream that will soon be forgotten in the light of that eternal Day which is Pascha.
And so it is in our day to day lives when the dark days come as surely they will. They will pass, but joy is eternal. Therefore "Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, rejoice!"
