Sermon on Fasting

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Sermon on Fasting
25th November, 1990

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In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In today's Gospel (St. Luke 10:25-37) we hear the Lord saying to each of us that our neighbour is not the one whom we like, not even the one whom we love; it is the one who needs us, whether he likes us or not, and it is to him that we must turn in compassion, in charity, as indeed the Lord God Himself turned to us at the moment when the whole of mankind was alien to Him; and again, turns to each of us at the moment when we are at rock bottom, when we are as far away from Him as we can imagine, indeed, much farther, because only God can measure the distance that separates us from our being in Him, with Him, the distance which measures His absence from our life. On November 28th is the beginning of fasting time that prepares us for Christmas; many will turn to fasting, eating those things which are appointed by the Church; but is that the fast which God wishes us to keep? Listen to what the Lord said to the Hebrews, from the lips of Isaiah the Prophet [Isaiah 58:3-8]: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgressions ... Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as though they were a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. ... Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exploit all your labourers! Behold, you fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness! You shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke! Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him? and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of thy Lord shall be thy rearguard." Let us remember these words, because more than ever in our time we must not fast hypocritically, not fast with false piety, but fast by turning away from every evil, from all evil, put right in our lives everything that has gone wrong. Are we going to meet the day when the Lord our God took flesh in order to enter into the realm of death, He Who is the Eternal One, the day when He chose to enter into the realm of suffering for our sakes - are we going to meet this day by accepting to continue in our estrangement from Him? And we are estranged from Him when we hate our neighbour, when we reject our neighbour, when we refuse to forgive, when we turn away from him or her who is in need of our mercy - not only of bread, not only of shelter - indeed, that also counts! - but in need of forgiveness, of the mercy of the heart! Are we going to meet the Lord who came to save sinners by rejecting those whom we consider as sinners, those who have offended us, those against whom we have fought? Can we meet the Lord on such terms? Let us think of the shepherds: they were simple people, unsophisticated, uncomplicated, but their hearts were open to the extent to which it was possible to them, they were clean, pure of heart, and therefore, they could hear the news of the Incarnation; they could hear and receive the news as the most wonderful thing that changed everything in their lives. We have been listening to the good news day-in, day-out, year after year - has it come to us as good news that has transformed our lives, made us into people beyond compare, people who are prepared to live and to die for those who hate, who reject, who ignore, who offend us? If we are not - it is in vain that we speak of being Christian; he who does not love his brother is a liar when he says that he loves his God - these are the Apostle's words. Let us therefore enter into this period of fasting in earnest, stand in judgement before God to be judged by Him, and ask ourselves whether we could stand side by side with Him when others come to be judged, and step forward and say, 'Lord! I have forgiven - Thou hast no grudge against him, against her, any more!' Amen.

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* All texts are copyright: Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
Metropolitan Anthony Library

not in the divine power only, but in divine compassion

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
             "I believe, Lord, help my unbelief"
                      21 JULY 1996
                           ----

In today's Gospel, as in other parts of the New Testament, we see men,
women and children coming or being brought to Christ, in the hope that
they  will  be  healed  —  healed of their physical disease, healed of
misery, of pain, of agony of life. And every time Christ says to them,
"Dost  thou believe that I can do this?” And on this occasion, the man
who  was asked about it concerning his ill son said, 'I believe, Lord,
help my unbelief’. But if we believe that Christ our Lord has power to
save,  there is more to it, because what we are expected to believe is
not in the divine power only, but in divine compassion.

The text of today's Gospel speaks of mercy. Mercy means tenderness, it
means  caring, but beyond this, there is this very great, and in a way
frightening  word, ‘compassion’, which means readiness, and indeed not
only readiness but reality of suffering together, of carrying together
the whole suffering of another person. And indeed this is what God has
done  in His incarnation. He has taken upon Himself not only the human
nature  with all its frailty, but all the pain, all the suffering, all
the  agony  of  each of us. And if we turn to Him, asking for healing,
for  help,  what we really mean to say is, 'I believe, Lord, that Your
love  is  such  that  there  is  no pain of mind, no agony of mind, no
suffering  of body which You do not participate in. Yes, You have been
crucified,  sharing  not  only  our death, but the pain which sears at
every  heart and tears every limb.' Can we turn to God in our need and
say,  "Lord,  I  believe in Your compassion. I believe that whenever I
suffer,  justly  or unjustly, for my own fault or not, You suffer with
me,  You  share  my agony; and beyond this, Your agony is greater than
mine, because You know, more than I do, about what I could be, in body
and soul.'

And  so when we are in need of divine mercy or divine help, let us not
simply  turn  to  Him  and  say,  "Lord, I am in need and You have the
power”,  let  us  turn  and  say,  “I  know,  Lord,  that  there is no
suffering, no pain, no agony which You do not share with me; I worship
Your  love, I bow down before Your crucifixion, I accept the horror of
Your  sharing  all  my  suffering,  and,  because  I  believe  in Your
compassion  so  profoundly,  so  entirely,  grant  me to share in Your
wholeness”. Amen.

                           ----
* All texts are copyright:   Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                            ---
           Metropolitan Anthony of  Sourozh Library
                 http://www.mitras.ru/eng/

how great Man is

   Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                      St. Thomas
                     17 April 1977
                           ----

...On this fact the whole life of the Church depends, the whole Christian
outlook,  the  greatness  of  man,  the  boundless humility of God. In
Christ  the  one  and  the other is revealed to us, and we rejoice not
only  because  God  is the God of love and our Saviour, but because in
Him  we  are  shown  how  great Man is. He is so great that God can be
contained in him. He is so great that He can pass through the gates of
death into eternal life carrying us with Him as a torrent; that having
united  Himself  with  us  in our humanity in every way except sin, He
unites  us  completely with His Divinity if only we lay ourselves open
to His influence. How wonderful that is!
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Christ is life and the victory of life.

  Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                       EASTER SERMON
       after reading St. John Chrysostom's Easter message
                   April the 11, 1999
                           ----

If  I may I wish to add just a few words of my own. Christ is life and
the  victory  of  life.  In  the  world  in  which  He came, death was
prevalent  and  seemed  to  be all-powerful over men; when He came, He
defeated  death  by  His resurrection. And nowadays we live in a world
which  is  full of torment, of pain, of fear, of murder, of death, and
we  may  say,  “But where is the victory?”.. The victory is in each of
us,  the  victory  is in all those of us who believe that death cannot
separate  us  from God, that death is no longer a victory of evil over
us,  but a triumph of us through our faith, because death is no longer
separation.  Saint  Paul  says  that  for  him death is a meeting with
Christ; as long as he lives in the flesh he is separated, partly, from
God.  But  with  his  death he enters in full unity and communion with
Him.  This  is  our faith, but there is more to it in a sense, because
life  is  triumphant  in  our  midst. However frightening and dark the
world is nowadays, we know that victory has already been won, that God
has  won  and  that we who believe in Him partake together with Him in
His  victory.  And  therefore,  let  us  bring, to all around us, this
message of life and glory!

                       Christ is risen!

let us enter into it mixed with the crowd and at every step ask ourselves, who am I in this crowd?

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                   Palm Sunday Sermon
                      4 April 1993

....And  Holy  Week is from one end to another a time of tragic confusion.
The  Jews meet Christ at the gates of Jerusalem because they expect of
Him  a  triumphant military leader, and He comes to serve, to wash the
feet  of  His  disciples,  to  give His life for the people but not to
conquer by force, by power. And the same people who meet Him shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!” in a few days will shout, “Crucify Him,
crucify  Him!”  because  He  has  betrayed  their  expectations.  They
expected an earthly victory and what they see is a defeated king. They
hate Him for the disappointment of all their hopes.

And  this is not so alien to us in our days. How many are those people
who  have  turn away in hatred from Christ because He has disappointed
one  hope  or  another. I remember a woman who had been a believer for
all  her  life  and whose grandson died, a little boy, and she said to
me,  “I  don’t believe in God anymore. How could He take my grandson?”
And  I  said  to  her,  “But  you  believed in God while thousands and
thousands and millions of people died.” And she looked at me and said,
“Yes,  but  what  did  that  do to me? I didn’t care, they were not my
children.”  This  is something that happens to us in a small degree so
often  that  we waver in our faith and in our faithfulness to God when
something which we expect Him to do for us is not done, when He is not
an  obedient  servant,  when  we  proclaim  our will, He does not say,
“Amen,”  and does not do it. So we are not so alien from those who met
Christ at the gates of Jerusalem and then turned away from Him.

But  we  are  entering now in Holy Week. How can we face the events? I
think  we  must enter into Holy Week not as observers, not reading the
passages  of  the  Gospel  which are relevant, we must enter into Holy
Week as though we were participants of the events, indeed read of them
but then mix in the crowd that surrounds Christ and ask ourselves, Who
am I in this crowd? Am I one of those who said, ‘Hosanna to the Son of
David!’? And am I now on the fringe of saying, ‘Crucify him’? Am I one
of  the  disciples  who  were  faithful  until the moments of ultimate
danger came upon them?.. You remember that in the Garden of Gethsemane
three  disciples had been singled out for Christ to support Him at the
hour  of  His  supreme  agony, and they did not, they were tired, they
were  desponded  and they fell asleep. Three times He came to them for
support, three times they were away from Him.

We  do  not  meet Christ in the same circumstances but we meet so many
people  who  are  in  agony,  not only dying physically, and that also
happens  to  our  friends, our relatives, people around us, but are in
agony  of  terror  one  way  or  another.  Are  we there awake, alive,
attentive to them, ready to help them out, and if we can’t help, to be
with  them,  to  stand by them or do we fall asleep, that is, contract
out,  turn  away, leave them in their agony, their fear, their misery?
And  again I am not speaking of Judas because no-one of us is aware of
betraying  Christ  in  such  a way, but don’t we betray Christ when we
turn  away  from  all  His  commandments? When He says, “I give you an
example  for  you  to  follow,” and we shake our heads and say, “No, I
will  simply  follow the devices of my own heart.” But think of Peter,
apparently the strongest, the one who spoke time and again in the name
of  others.  When  it came to risking not his life, because no-one was
about  to  kill  him,  to  be  rejected simply, he denied Christ three
times.

What  do  we do when we are challenged in the same way, when we are in
danger  of  being mocked and ridiculed and put aside by our friends or
our acquaintances who shrug their shoulders and say, “A Christian? And
you  believe  in  that?  And  you believe that Christ was God, and you
believe  in  His  Gospel,  and  you are on His side?” How often? O, we
don’t  say, “No, we are not,” but do we say, “Yes, it is my glory, and
if  you  want to crucify Him, if you want to reject Him, reject me too
because  I  choose to stand by Him, I am His disciple, even if I am to
be rejected, even if you don’t let me into your house anymore.”

And  think  of  the  crowd  on Calvary. There were people who had been
instrumental  in His condemnation, they mocked Him, they had won their
victory,  so  they thought at least. And then there were the soldiers,
the  soldiers  who crucified Him. They had crucified innumerable other
people,  they were doing their job. It didn’t matter to them whom they
crucified. And yet Christ prayed for them, “Forgive them, Father, they
don’t   know  what  they  are  doing.”  We  are  not  being  crucified
physically,  but do we say, “Forgive, Father, those who offend us, who
humiliate  us,  who  reject  us, those who kill our joy and darken our
life  in  us.”  Do  we  do  that?  No,  we don’t. So we must recognise
ourselves in them also.

And then there was a crowd of people who had poured out of the city to
see  a  man  die, the fierce curiosity that pushes so many of us to be
curious  when  suffering,  agony  comes  upon people. You will say, it
doesn’t happen? Ask yourself how you watch television and how eagerly,
hungrily  you  look  at  the  horrors  that befall Somalia, the Sudan,
Bosnia  and every other country. Is it with a broken heart? Is it that
you can not endure the horror and turn in prayer to God and then give,
give,  give  generously  all  you can give for hunger and misery to be
alleviated?  Is it? No, we are the same people who came out on Calvary
to see a man die. Curiosity, interest? Yes, alas.

And  then there were those who had come with the hope that He will die
because  if  He  died  on  the  cross,  then  they were free from this
terrifying,  horrible  message  He  had  brought that we must love one
another  to  the  point  of  being  ready  to die for each other. That
message  of the crucified, sacrificial love could be rejected once and
for  all  if  He who preached it died, and it was proved that He was a
false prophet, a liar.

And  then  there were those who had come in the hope that He will come
down  from  the  cross,  and  then they could be believers without any
risk,  they would have joint the victorious party. Aren’t we like that
so often?

And then there is a point to which we hardly should dare turn our eyes
-  the Mother of the Incarnate Son of God, the Mother of Jesus silent,
offering His death for the salvation of mankind, silent and dying with
Him  hour  after hour, and the disciple who knew in a youthful way how
to  love  his master, standing by in horror, seeing his Master die and
the  Mother in agony. Are we like this when we read the Gospel, are we
like this when we see the agony of men around us?

Let  us therefore enter in this Holy Week in order not to be observers
of  what  happened then, let us enter into it mixed with the crowd and
at  every step ask ourselves, who am I in this crowd? Am I the Mother?
Am  I the disciple? Am I one of the crucifiers? And so forth. And then
we  will  be  able  to  meet the day of the Resurrection together with
those  to  whom  it was life and resurrection indeed, when despair had
gone, new hope had come, God had conquered. Amen.

http://www.metropolit-anthony.orc.ru/eng/

To die means to renounce... Fr Anthony

Христос умер на кресте для того, чтобы с нами разделить самое трагическое последствие нашего отступления, нашего отпадения от полноты общения с Богом. Он умер, потому что только смерть может выразить в предельном смысле, до предела любовь, себя отдающую для другого. Но мы не всегда готовы пожертвовать жизнью. И Бог, Который является самой Жизнью, для того чтобы мы не потеряли ее навсегда, пожертвовал Своей жизнью. Он согласился с нами разделить не только нашу смерть, но самое страшное условие этой смерти; пригвожденный на кресте Христос воскликнул: "Боже Мой, Боже Мой, зачем Ты Меня оставил?" Бог Его не оставлял; Христос в глубинах Своего Божества и даже Своего человечества, - нет, не терял Бога, но Он в Своем сознании вдруг соединился со всем человеческим миром, даже со всей тварью, на которую легло проклятие смерти из-за нашего падения, и это закрыло Ему Его человеческое сознание Его Божественной вечности. Он принял на Себя не только вещественную смерть, Он принял на Себя ужас потери вечной жизни, потери самой жизни с Богом.

Как нам после этого относиться к любви Господней? Так легко мы жалуемся на то, что Господь не исполняет наших просьб, нашей мольбы, порой - нашего крика о помощи, о спасении. И однако, если подумать: ведь Он отдал всю жизнь Свою, и не только простую человеческую жизнь, но жизнь Богочеловека, Человека, который был уже всецело единым с Богом, для того, чтобы мы могли поверить, что нас Бог любит.

Подумаем над этим и ответим Ему достойно. Ответим Ему не только верой в то, что Он отдал Свою жизнь за нас и мы Ему благодарны, - нет, благодарность не в словах должна выражаться, не в чувствах, а в жизни. И мы должны научиться жить так, как нас учит жить Господь. В первую очередь понять, что любовь - это не трогательное чувство, это не умиление, не сладкосердие, это готовность, и не только готовность, - но реальность отдачи собственной нашей жизни для другого человека, для всех людей, для любого человека, дорогого нам или безразличного, знаемого и не знаемого, для любого человека должна быть наша жизнь как жертва. И это можно выразить очень многими способами, потому что мы свою жизнь можем отдавать друг другу множеством путей.

 

++++

 

And  yet,  this  following  is  not  devoid  of  tragedy because to be
disciple  of  Christ  we  must,  as  the reading of the Epistle at our
baptism  warned us, die with Him in order to be risen with Him. To die
means  to renounce, in an act of loyalty, of friendship, of solidarity
with  Him,  of  respect  and veneration for Him, of recognition of the
cost  to  Him for His love of us, to renounce everything which was the
cause  of  His death. We must reflect on everything which is within us
which  makes  us  alien to God, unworthy of ourselves, unworthy of His
love.

 

…. So is it with our sins: there is nothing
which is small, and there is nothing which is great, if - and the ‘if’
is important - if we do not find a way of putting it aside.

 

And  so,  from  the twilight of sin revealed to us, to the light which
has  shone  through the Saints and in the Saints, of the Divine grace,
we come to the light pure, perfect, revealed in God, and at each stage
we are told by God: are you going to respond to this? Is the horror of
darkness not sufficient to make you shudder? Is the vision of what can
be  done  not enough to inspire you? Is My Own life and death for your
sake  not  sufficient  to  move you? We are given one chance after the
other to change, to respond: let us do it! Let us make haste to do it!
There  is  a passage in the Great Canon in which it says, Let the hand
of Moses covered with leper convince you that God can cleanse your own
life which is covered in leper... Yes - if leper could be washed by an
act of God, all leprosy which stains us, destroys us in soul, in body,
which  undermines the purity of our heart, darkens our soul, makes our
will  unfaithful  to  our  own vocation and to the calling of God, all
that can be healed.

A WEEK AFTER CHRISTMAS

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                   A WEEK AFTER CHRISTMAS
                      13 JANUARY 1985
                          ----

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

In  imagination we think ourselves 2000 years back. What wonder should
fill  us:  a  week, and the world has become different. The world that
had  been for thousands of years like the lost sheep was now the sheep
found,  taken  upon  His shoulders by the Son of God become the Son of
man. The unbridgeable gap that sin had created between God and man was
now  at  least  incipiently bridged; God had entered into history, God
Himself  had  become man. God had taken flesh, and all things visible,
what  we perceive in our blindness as dead, inert matter, could in His
body recognise itself in glory. Something absolutely new had occurred,
the world was no longer the same.

Moreover,  there  is another aspect to the Incarnation. God had become
man,  but  God  in Christ had spoken words of truth that was decisive,
that  gradually like yeast dropped into dough was to change the world.
God  had  revealed to us the greatness of man. Christ becoming man was
evidence,  is and will remain forever evidence that man is so vast, so
deep,  so  mysteriously  deep, that he can not only contain the divine
presence as a temple, but can unite himself with God, “become partaker
of  the divine nature”, as St. Peter puts it in his Epistle. And again
that  man  is  great,  and  that  however  far  we  fall away from our
vocation,  however  unworthy  we  may  become  of  it,  God will never
re-establish  with  us  a  relationship which is less than that of His
fatherhood  and  our condition of sons and daughters of the Most High.
The  prodigal  son  was asking his father to receive him as a hireling
now that he was unworthy of being called a son; but the father did not
accept  it.  When  the son made his confession, the father stopped him
before  he  could  even  pronounce  those  words, because God does not
accept  our  debasement,  we  are  no slaves and no hirelings. Has not
Christ  said to His disciples, "I no longer call you servants, because
a  servant  does  not know the will of his master, and lo, I have told
you everything."

Again,  the  proclamation  in  Christ  and by Him is that what matters
supremely is every person, that He lives and dies for every one of us,
that  it  is not collective units that matter, but each of us. Each of
us, tells us the Book of Revelation, possesses from God a name, a name
which  will  be revealed to us at the end of time, but a name which no
one  can know but God and he who receives it, because this name is our
relationship  to  God,  unique, unrepeatable; each of us is unique for
Him.  What  a  wonder! The ancient world knew of nations and races, it
knew of slaves and owners, it knew of categories of people, exactly in
the  same way in which the modern world that is gradually becoming not
only secular but pagan, distinguishes categories and types and groups.
God knows only living men and women.

And  then  a  new justice was introduced, or rather proclaimed by Him,
not  the  distributive  and  retributive  justice  of the law, another
justice.  When  Christ says to us, "let your justice be beyond that of
the  scribes  and pharisees," He speaks of the way in which God treats
each of us. He accepts each of us as we are. He accepts good and evil,
He  rejoices  in  the good, and He dies because of and for the sake of
what  is  evil.  And that is what God calls us to remember, and how He
calls  us  to  be and to behave — not only within our Christian circle
but  in  the  whole  world,  to look at every person with that kind of
justice;  not  judging  and  condemning, but seeing in each person the
beauty which God has impressed upon it and which we call "the image of
God  in  man".  Venerate this beauty, work for this beauty to shine in
all glory, dispelling what is evil and dark and making it possible, by
the  recognition  of  beauty  in each other, for this beauty to become
reality and to conquer.

He  has  taught  us  also about a love which the ancient world did not
know,  and the modern world, like the old one, is so afraid of: A love
that  accepted to be vulnerable, helpless, giving, sacrificial; a love
that  gives  without  counting,  a  love  that  gives not only what it
possesses,  but  itself.  That  is  what the Gospel., that is what the
Incarnation  brought  into  the  world,  and  this has remained in the
world.  Christ  said  that  "the light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness  cannot  comprehend it," but it cannot put it out either. And
this  light  shines  and  shall  shine, but it will conquer only if we
undertake  to  be  its  heralds and the doers of these commandments of
justice  and of love, if we accept God's vision of the world and bring
to  it  our  faith,  that is, our certainty and our hope, which is the
only  power that can help others to start anew; but to start anew they
must  see  newness  in us. The world has become incipiently new by the
union  of God with man, when the Word became flesh; it is for us to be
a  revelation  of this newness, the resplendence and shining of God in
the darkness or the dusk of this world.

May  God  grant  us  courage and love and greatness of heart to be His
messengers and His witnesses, and may the blessing of the Lord be upon
you  by His grace and love towards mankind always, now and forever and
world without end. Amen.

                               ----
 * All texts are copyright: Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

3rd  International  Conference  dedicated  to  Metropolitan Anthony’s
legacy  in Moscow, September 23-25, 2011
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The Genealogy of Christ

we  can  also  learn  something from those who in history, in the
Bible,  appear  to  us  as  sinners.  They  were  frail,  this frailty
conquered  them,  they had no strength to resist the impulses of their
bodies  and  of their souls, of the complex passions of men. And yet —
and yet, they believed in God passionately. One of them was David, and
one of his Psalms expresses it so well: "From the deep I cry unto Thee
.." From the depths of despair, of shame, from the depths of his fall,
from the depths of his alienation from God, from the darkest depths of
his soul he still cried to God. He does not hide from Him, he does not
go  away  from Him, it is to Him he comes with this desperate cry of a
desperate  man.  And others, men and women have this same concreteness
as, for instance, Rahab the harlot — and so many more.

Do  we,  when we are at the darkest point of life, when we are wrapped
in  all  the  darkness  that  is  within  us — do we, from within this
darkness turn to God and say: It is to You, oh Lord, I cry! Yes — I am
in  darkness,  but  You  are  my  God. You are the God who created the
light,  and  the  darkness, and You are within the darkness as You are
within  the  blinding  light; You are in death as You are in life; You
are  in  hell,  as You are on the Throne; and from wherever I am I can
cry to You.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                   The Genealogy of Christ
                        03-01-1988

Where do we stand?

Where  do  we  stand? Are we prepared to believe Christ's word? Are we
prepared,  captured  by  the  beauty,  the  ineffable, the unutterable
beauty of Christ's personality to follow Him at all risk? And risk, we
know,  is great: we will be reviled, we will be laughed at, we will be
strangers,  people will think that we are tramps on earth, not that we
are pilgrims of Heaven; but are we prepared to do this?

               Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
           THE PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
                  5th of November 1989

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Exaltation of the Cross. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                   Exaltation of the Cross
                     September 28, 1986
                           ----

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

We  have  been  keeping  these days the Feast of the Exaltation of the
Cross.  There is a passage in the Gospel in which the Lord says to us,
«No  one  has  greater  love  than  he  who  gives  his  life  for his
neighbour». And these words resolve the antinomy between the horror of
the  Cross  and  the  glory of it, between death and the Resurrection.
There  is nothing more glorious, more awe-inspiring and wonderful than
to  love  and  to  be loved. And to be loved by God with all the life,
with  all  the death of the Only-Begotten Son, and to love one another
at  the  cost  of all our life and, if necessary, of our death is both
tragedy and mainly victory. In the Canon of the Liturgy we say, «Holy,
most  Holy art Thou and Thine Only-Begotten Son and Thine Holy Spirit!
Holy  and most Holy art Thou because Thou hast so loved Thy world that
Thou hast given Thine Only-Begotten Son that those who will believe in
Him  do  not  perish  but  have  life  eternal, Who hath come and hath
fulfilled  all that was appointed for our sakes, and in the night when
He  was  betrayed  - no! - when He gave Himself up, He took bread, and
brake it and gave it to His disciples ...»

This  is  the  divine  love. At times one can give one's own life more
easily  than  offer  unto death the person whom one loves beyond all -
and  this  is what God, our Father has done. But it does not make less
the  sacrifice  of Him who is sent unto death for the salvation of one
person or of the whole world.

And  so  when  we  think  of the Cross we must think of this strangely
inter-twined  mystery of tragedy and victory. The Cross, an instrument
of  infamous  death, of punitive death to which criminals were doomed,
because Christ's death was that of an innocent, and because this death
was a gift of self in an act of love - the Cross becomes victory.

This is why Saint Paul could say, «It is no longer I, it is Christ Who
lives  in  me  ...»  Divine  love filled him to the brim and therefore
there was no room for any other thought or feeling, any other approach
to  anyone apart from love, a love that gave itself unreservedly, love
sacrificial, love crucified, but love exulting in the joy of life.

And when we are told in today's Gospel, «Turn away from yourself, take
up  your  Cross,  Follow Me» (St Mark VIII: 34) - we are not called to
something  dark  and frightening; we are told by God: Open yourself to
love!  Do  not  remain a prisoner of your own self-centredness. Do not
be,  in  the  words  of  Theophane the Recluse, like a shaving of wood
which  is  rolled  around  its own emptiness. Open yourself up! Look -
there  is so much to love, there are so many to love! There is such an
infinity  of  ways in which love can be experienced, and fulfilled and
accomplished...  Open  yourself  and love - because this is the way of
the  Cross!  Not  the  way  which the two criminals trod together with
Christ to be punished for their crimes; but the wonderful way in which
giving oneself unreservedly, turning away from self, existing only for
the other, loving with all one's being so that one exists only for the
sake of the other - this is the Cross and the glory of the Cross.

So, when we venerate the Cross, when we think of Christ's crucifixion,
when  we  hear  the call of Christ to deny ourselves - and these words
simply  mean:  turn  away  from yourself! take up your cross! - we are
called  to  open  ourselves  to the flood of Love Divine, that is both
death to ourselves and openness to God , and to each, and to all.

In  the  beginning  of  the Gospel of Saint John we are told, «And the
Word  was  with God». The Greek version says «Godwards». The Word, the
Son had no other love, no other thought, no other movement but towards
the  Beloved  One, giving Himself to Him Who gave Himself perfectly to
Him.  Let  us  learn  the  glory  of  crucified  Love,  of  this  Love
sacrificial  which is in the words of the Old Testament, stronger than
death,  stronger  than  hell,  stronger  than all things because it is
Divine  Life  conquering  us  and poured through us onto all those who
need  to  be  loved  in  order to come to Life, to believe in Love and
themselves  to become children of Love, children of Light, inherit the
Life eternal. Amen.

Following Him...

When  Christ  says  to  us  "Follow Me", He does not call us to walk a
frightening, dark road; He says, "I have trodden all this road, I know
every  meander  of  it  —  you  can  safely follow! I am like the good
shepherd  that  walks  in  front  of  his  sheep,  meeting all dangers
himself, so that the sheep may be safe."

Fr Anthony


http://www.mitras.ru/serm_eng.htm

we immediately expect that He will allow us to stay by Him, to follow Him, to accompany Him.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                      From a retreat
                       7 March 1981
                           ----

The  moment we offer our allegiance to the Lord, we immediately expect
that He will allow us to stay by Him, to follow Him, to accompany Him.
We expect as the reward and as the response for our choosing Him, that
He will choose us as companions from whom He will not be parted. Well,
we  must be prepared for something else, because we do not join Christ
in  order  to stand about around Him or around His place, but to serve
Him where and in the way in which it is more expedient for Him and for
His purpose.

More  than  once  we  can  read  in  the Gospel that someone healed by
Christ,  whose life was transformed by his meeting with Him, wanted to
follow Him, to accompany Him, to cling to Him. And Christ said to him,
'No, go back to your own people. Go away into the world from which you
have  come,  because  it is there that your presence is needed.' It is
enough  for  us  to know God, to know Christ, to know within ourselves
the crushing and transfiguring work of the Holy Spirit. We do not need
more.  If  we receive more we can be grateful for it and marvel at the
privilege,  but our function and our essential privilege is to be sent
by  Christ  wherever  He  needs us, into darkness to bring some light,
where  there  is  hatred  to bring some love, when there is strife, to
bring  some  reconciliation,  where  there  is  pain,  to  bring  some
consolation, and so forth. Our place is where things are wrong. And we
must  go  there,  we  must  be  there so that there is someone in each
situation  who  will  say 'Come, Lord, stand in our midst. Give us Thy
peace.'

I  want  you  to  give thought to this, because all of us all the time
fall  into  a  natural but ugly temptation to treat God as the One who
gives  and who must give. We forget that He is a consuming fire and we
want  to  sit  round a fire and warm our hands. It is not right. If we
have  chosen  Him, if He has been wonderful, so wonderful as to reveal
himself  to  us,  we  can  leave it to Him to give us whatever He will
choose,  but  to live for His sake and for the sake of those for whose
sake  He  has become man, lived and died. Ask yourself questions about
the  way  in which you approach Him in prayer. Is it in His Name or in
yours?  Is  it  for His sake, that He may win His victory over you and
within  you,  or  is it that sweetness and peace and joy may come? Ask
yourself whether to be Christ's has anything to do within you, in your
life, but in your deeper self, in turning away from self-centeredness,
saying to yourself whenever thought of self comes, 'Oh, out of my way,
because  you  are  in  my  way  to  God  and  in God's way to me.' Ask
yourselves  whether  you  relate  to people in God's Name and in their
name  or  in  your  own,  whether  you  can imagine one person in your
surroundings  about  whom  you  can says 'This person, his existence I
contemplate  and  serve  without  a thought of the way in which it may
affect me; or whether all the people who are dear to you, who are your
friends,  who  are your acquaintances, who are your chance meetings in
life, are seen and judged only from your point of view: 'What shall he
do to me? What is this person to me?'
                              ----

 * All texts are copyright: Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

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SUNDAY OF THE CROSS. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                    SUNDAY OF THE CROSS
                        10 March 1991
                           ----
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

One  of  the  Fathers  tells  us that the memory of the Cross has been
placed  halfway  between  the  beginning  of  Lent and the week of the
Lord▓s Passion because when people start on a journey they are full of
life  and  of energy; when they see the end, again, energy and courage
flood  into  their  hearts;  but  there  is  a  moment  half-way  when
despondency  comes,  when  the tiredness of the journey begins to tell
and  when  the end of it is not yet in sight. When we come to the Holy
Week,  we  will  be  confronted with the Crucifixion, the Cross as the
ultimate  tragedy,  the  moment  when  the Lord God in an act of total
surrender,  of a gift of Himself unreserved dies, dies for us and dies
our death with all the tragedy, the horror of it. But now the Cross is
presented to us as victory.

The  Cross is not only the instrument of Christ▓s death; it▓s also the
instrument  of  Christ▓s  victory and of our salvation. And it is with
hope  that  we can look at it and say, ▒Yes! If God has so trusted us,
if  He  believes  in  us to such an extent as to give His life for us,
then  we  can truly take up our own cross and follow Him, because this
cross is not a sign of defeat, this cross is the sign of victory.

But  the  first  step  on  this  way is given us by the Lord Who says,
▒Whoever  wishes to follow Me...▓ ≈ and He does not force us to do so,
He  leaves  us free to turn away from Him, to let Him die for us while
we  have  no  concern  for it. But if we want to follow Him, the first
thing we must do is to renounce ourselves.

What does that actually mean? It means that we must turn away from our
continuous  concern  with  us  and  look farther afield, see the whole
world  in its tragedy, in its significance, in its meaning to God, and
also  turn  to  God himself. We concentrate so continuously on what we
are,  what we have, what we do not possess, what we need, what we long
for,  what  we are afraid of. Is that the way in which we can live: in
continuous  hope  for  little things, in continuous fear, continuously
tormented  by greed, and fear, and dislikes, and hatred? What is there
what  we  can  regain, what we can make our own, which we can identify
with? Very little!

Saint  Paul  says:  what  is  there that you possess which is yours? ≈
Nothing! Everything is given. Our existence is a gift of God, our life
is  a gift of God, our knowledge of Him is a gift of God, our physical
well-being,  our  friendships,  the  beauty of the world ≈ all this is
given and we can do nothing either to possess it or to regain it if we
begin  to  lose  it.  We cannot retain the vision of the world when we
become blind, we cannot hear the harmony of the world if we go deaf...
Then  why  should  we concentrate so continuously on our own selves as
though  we  were  what we possess while we do not even possess what we
are!

Let  us  therefore  have  the  courage to recognize the meaning of the
first  Beatitude:  Yes,  I am poor, everything what I am, what I have,
what  I  treasure  or  what I fear is a gift of God for which I can be
grateful,  it is an act of Divine love for which I can be so grateful!
And  if  it  is  so, then I have understood what it means to be in the
Kingdom  of  God,  because  the  Kingdom  of  God is that relationship
between us and God which is love, between me and my neighbour which is
love.  And  the  moment we have understood this, we are in the Kingdom
provided we have freed ourselves from our foolish imagination, foolish
idea  that  ⌠I  am  in  my  own  right,  I possess by my own power and
strength■.

Let us then, in weeks to come, get more and more free of this concern,
this  centredness on what we imagine we have or we imagine we are; and
realize  that  all  that  is  a gift of God and therefore it cannot be
lost. It is enough to be with Him to be possessed of all things; it is
enough to be with Him to be free of the things earthly and yet as rich
as  God  because  God  does not give only the little we long for or we
need; He gives His whole own self, His life, and all He possesses.

Let  us  therefore  make  a start. But then, what is the self which we
are,  which  is  worth renouncing all the rest? Let us read the Gospel
with  attention,  and  let  us single out those things of which we can
say, ▒My heart is burning within me!▓ Those things which cast a ray of
light  in  our  life,  which  give  us  courage and inspiration, which
cleanse  and  renew  us ≈ because these things show us what we have in
common with God, the way in which we are already now the likes of God,
the  way in which His image is already shining through the twilight of
our  being.  Isn▓t  that a wonder! And if we concentrate on looking at
what is of God in us then we may let go of what is not of God, of that
very  twilight  or  darkness  to which we cling all the time imagining
that  it  is us. While the twilight exists only because there is light
in it, that light which the darkness cannot receive, but which dispels
all  darkness  and  lead us step by step to the day when there will be
nothing but light, the light of God, the life of God.

Let  us  therefore  concentrate  in weeks to come towards this ascent,
towards  that freedom which will allow us to enter into the Passion of
the  Lord without a thought of ourselves, thinking only of Him, of the
Mother  of  God  in the horror that pierces Her heart and the distress
and agony of the disciples. Amen.

                              ----

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Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                   Triumph of Orthodoxy
                           1980

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Today the Orthodox Church is keeping the great feast of the Triumph of
Orthodoxy  over  all  heresies.  It is not the triumph of the Orthodox
over  other  people,  of  our  Church  over  another church. It is the
triumph  of  the  spirit  of  truth  within  the community of men, the
triumph of God in the midst of His people.

This  triumph  was  declared  when  the  doctrine  of  the  icons  was
proclaimed  and  it signifies once more the vindicating of two things;
on the one hand that God has truly become man. God Himself, the God of
Heaven, the Living God has become a living man, and also that the Lord
was made flesh and that it is within the compass of this created world
that  the  divine  presence  was  made  manifest and revealed. It is a
revelation both about God and about the created world. We recognise in
Christ  the true Man and true God, very Man and very God, the Lord who
makes  Himself a servant and the created that unfolds itself in depth,
in  vastness  to be great enough to become the place where God dwells,
and more than this - to unite itself to God, the Lord of all things.

The  triumph  of  Orthodoxy  was  appointed  to the day when the dogma
concerning  the  icons was declared, a dogma according to which it its
right  and legitimate to paint the likeness of Christ our Lord, of the
Mother of God and His Saints. And yet it is not simply images to which
we attach divine names. An icon is something far greater than this. We
do  not  possess  any  likeness  of  Christ  and  we are not trying to
reproduce  His  earthly  features  as  accurately as possible. An icon
painter  displays  in an icon the knowledge of the Church of God about
the word of God incarnate in human features, in lines and colours what
is  to  be  conveyed  to us is not the historical likeness of Jesus of
Nazareth, but the vision of the divine presence in human features. And
an  icon is even more than a revelation, a declaration of truth and of
faith  in  lines  and  colours. It is blessed and hallowed, it becomes
within  the Church a real focus of presence. And this is why we bow to
the icons, we venerate them, we kiss them, not only as likenesses, not
only  as  images  that reveal the invisible but as a dwelling place of
divine grace and divine power.

To  declare  this  means  simultaneously  to  speak  of the incredible
closeness  of  God Who unites Himself to man and makes history His own
but  also  unites Himself to the very matter of this world and reveals
its  greatness  and its incredible capabilities not only to become the
dwelling  place of God but to become pervaded with divine presence, to
be  filled  with  it. It is a message of great hope not only about men
but  about  all  things  around  us, and we, Christians, are called to
understand this.

This  is  why  it  is so important for us to try to understand all the
depth  of  the  Church's teaching about God, One in Trinity, about the
incarnation of the Word of God, about the Mother of God, about Man and
about  things created, because we are those who should bring the world
that  has  lost  the  sight of itself, an understanding of itself, not
only  words  of truth, but words of life, not only speak but live with
an  understanding and depth that the Christian alone should have if we
only were of the stature of true Christianity.

It  is  a message of hope but it is also a challenge to us. As long as
we  do  not  understand this we are still on the fringe of that Church
which is life eternal. Let us the try to learn, try to understand, try
to  live, and then we will be able to declare, not in words but in the
manifestation  of  the  spirit of God, what God has said, what He says
day  after  day  about the world He has created, about man whom He has
loved  and  willed  into the world and about Himself which is life and
joy and eternity. Amen.

                              ----

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