Today’s readings remind us that God has a perfect plan for your life. He created you. Only He can truly nourish you and care for your every need—body and soul. And in return, we owe Him our whole life—our gratitude, our trust, our fidelity, and our cooperation with His divine plan. But the reality is, many people today are living outside of that plan. They are living outside the state of grace. The world tells you to follow your feelings, chase your desires, and create your own truth. But Scripture calls us back—to once again make Christ the sole center of our life.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, expresses frustration. The community is divided. Some are saying, “I follow Paul,” others, “I follow Apollos,” or “Cephas,” or even, “I follow Christ.” In other words, they’ve started to confuse the messengers with the message of the Gospel. We see the same thing today. Some people rally around Catholic personalities or influencers—this writer, that apparition, this pope, that devotion. But the question is not, “Whose camp are you in?” The only question that matters is: Are you following Christ in the Church? As St. Paul says elsewhere, “Imitate me in so far as I imitate Christ.”

The Gospel brings this into focus through the feeding of the five thousand. The context is important: John the Baptist has just been beheaded. The Fathers explain that Jesus retreats to the wilderness not out of fear, but to avoid provoking a second murder before His appointed hour. His Pascha had not yet come. There was still work to do—healing, teaching, and preparing His disciples. When the crowd follows Him, Jesus has compassion. He heals their bodies, and—as St. Hilary teaches—He also heals their obstructed minds and unbelieving hearts, preparing them to receive the truth. Then He feeds them with bread and fish. And the way St. Matthew describes this miracle is fitting. Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and gives—the same language used at the Last Supper and in the Divine Liturgy.

And then, He tells the Apostles, “You give them something to eat.” And in so doing, He is planting the seed of their future ministry. They don’t understand it yet. They prefer to send the crowd away. But Christ is forming them—preparing them to feed His Church with the Word of God and the Bread of Heaven. The five thousand represent the members of the Church who respond to the invitation and follow Christ into the wilderness to be fed by Him. As He says elsewhere: “I am the bread of life… unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you.” He created us. He sustains us. He prepares a table for us—even in the wilderness.

The question is, am I following the Father’s plan for my life—or am I following my own program? Christ is inviting us into eternal communion with Himself—a communion that requires daily surrender, daily cooperation. This communion of love is fullness of life!

It is fitting that this Gospel passage ends with Jesus sending away the crowds. Those who had tasted the goodness of the Lord did not want to leave—and understandably so. But Christ teaches us that it is good both to be together—and to be alone. He models the importance of retreating into silence, to be with the Father. We encounter Jesus in the Liturgy, in Agape, and in community. But we also encounter Him in the interior stillness of the heart. It is there—in silence and solitude—that we learn to invite God into every hour, every task, every joy, and every sorrow. He comes in sacrament and sacramental. In Divine Liturgy and in daily duty. That is how He nourishes and sustains us: when we allow Him to reign perpetually in our hearts—as Father provider, loving Savior, and benevolent King. Amen.

Today the Church honors the Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils—those courageous bishops, theologians, and confessors who preserved the true faith of the Apostles in the face of heresy and division. They stood firm in times of enormous pressure, choosing exile, slander, imprisonment, and even death rather than compromise the truth about who God is and how He saves us by transforming our fallen nature through the Sacramental Mysteries of the Church.

The Fathers understood that if we lose sight of the truth of Christ and the Holy Trinity, we lose our hope of salvation.

Let me briefly recap the six Ecumenical Councils and the saints who defended orthodoxy during this period:

1. At Nicaea in 325, St. Athanasius the Great, though only a deacon, was the lead voice against the heresy of Arianism, which claimed that Christ was a creature, not God. The Council declared that the Son is homoousias—meaning of the same essence as the Father—true God from true God.

2. At Constantinople in 381, St. Gregory the Theologian defended the full divinity of the Holy Spirit against the Macedonians. The Council reaffirmed the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-equal and co-eternal.

3. At Ephesus in 431, St. Cyril of Alexandria battled Nestorianism, which denied that Mary is the Mother of God. The Church solemnly taught that Christ is one divine Person with two natures, and that Mary is rightly called Theotokos, the God-bearer.

4. At Chalcedon in 451, Pope St. Leo the Great’s Tome was read, which stated that Christ is one Person in two natures, fully God and fully man. This refuted the claim that Christ had only one (divine) nature.

5. At Constantinople in 553, the Church condemned lingering Nestorian writings and reaffirmed the unity of Christ’s Person.

6. Finally, in the 7^th century, St. Maximus the Confessor was mutilated and exiled, and Pope St. Martin I was arrested and died in exile defending the truth that Christ has, not one will, but two wills—human and divine—the doctrine upheld at Constantinople in 681.

Why were they willing to suffer like this? Because Christ’s true nature had to be upheld. As St. Gregory of Nazianzus proclaimed: what Christ has not assumed cannot be redeemed. Only if Christ is truly God and truly man can we be united to God through Him and merit the hope of salvation.

Today’s epistle from Hebrews 13 calls us to “remember your leaders… imitate their faith… for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The Fathers are those leaders. Their holy lives bore witness to the unchanging Christ they preached. The passage ends with reference to the Eucharistic altar and the sacrifice of praise—the very life of the Church that the Councils preserved.

In the Gospel of John 17, we hear Christ’s high priestly prayer: “Holy Father, keep them in your name… that they may be one, even as we are one.” This prayer was fulfilled through the Church’s response to heresy. The unity Christ prayed for is not mere sentiment, but unity in truth and love, which the Fathers safeguarded through the Councils.

And yet today, many of the same heresies have returned, under the umbrella heresy of Modernism. Relativism, for example, says all religions are equal—which is a denial of Christ’s divinity. New Age spirituality denies Christ’s humanity, reducing Him to a cosmic spiritual force. Moralistic Deism denies the Holy Spirit’s power, replacing divine grace with therapeutic sentimentality.

The Holy Fathers remind us that doctrine is not a dead letter, it is the light that guides our path, the truth that sanctifies our worship, and the armor of our salvation. At every Divine Liturgy, as we stand before the holy doors and recite together the Creed, I want you to imagine the holy angels clothing you with the armor of God for spiritual combat. Truth is our armor in the unseen battle.

May we, like the Council Fathers, love the truth more than comfort, and Christ more than the approval of the world.

Through their prayers, may we remain faithful to the One who is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life. Amen.

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Today, we celebrate both the Sunday of All Saints and Father’s Day—and naturally, on such a day, we immediately reflect first on the example of our own biological fathers. Because God’s law is written on our heart, we can learn from our own fathers almost everything there is to know about fatherhood—because our dads were either a good example or a bad example of each of the different characteristics of saintly fatherhood. They teach us how to be, or not to be, good men.

St. Augustine says that all men are called to the vocation of spiritual fatherhood. Fatherhood is the vocational path by which men become saints. The saints are not distant icons; they are our family, our ancestors in the faith.

A Marine once wrote that 'Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.' St. Paul in Hebrews 11 names the great fathers of old: Gideon, David, Samuel—men who "through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice... were made strong out of weakness" (Heb 11:33-34). Yet these were not merely heroes—they were fathers who passed down a living faith, not by living comfortably, but by embracing their duty.

The Lord says in today’s Gospel: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me… and whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matt 10:37-38). This is not an anti-family message—it is a purification of fatherhood. To be a father in Christ is to put God first, and then to love one’s wife and children, even when it means suffering for them. St. John Chrysostom says: "He who does not carry his cross is not truly a disciple."
(Hom. on Matthew 35.2)

Every father is called to carry the cross daily—laying down his life for his family by providing for their spiritual and temporal needs and protecting them from spiritual and physical danger. We provide for the spiritual wellbeing of our children by ensuring they have regular access to the sacraments, through catechesis, reading the lives of the saints, and daily prayers together in the home. We protect our children from spiritual danger by keeping secular pop culture out of the home and our children’s daily lives, which includes complete oversight of their screen-time, friendships, and other influences.

The saints we honor today were not lone mystics—they lived in the communion of the Church—some as bishops or martyrs, all as spiritual fathers or mothers. Their holiness is a model of fatherly sacrifice. The saints are the pillars and foundations on which the Church is built. (Commentary on Matthew 10.23). Every Christian father is called to be a pillar for his family and the Church through steadfast sacrifice, fidelity, and prayer.

And so today, as we honor the cloud of witnesses and thank God for our earthly fathers, let us remember: holiness is not for the few. It is the universal call of baptism. It begins at home—at the dinner table, in our daily family prayers, in the battles we fight for purity, integrity, and fidelity.

Therefore, let us “run with endurance the race set before us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus” (Heb 12:1-2), and let us ask the saints to intercede for all fathers: that we may become reflective icons of the one Father “from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph 3:15).

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy, now and forever and ever. Amen.

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Today is the fiftieth day—Pentecost—when we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. In the Old Testament, today marked the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), celebrated a week of weeks (49 days) after the second day of Passover. This feast began as a harvest thanksgiving, but by the time of Jesus it also commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. At Sinai, God descended in fire and thunder, giving the Law on tablets of stone. Today, in the Upper Room, the Holy Spirit descends in fire again—this time upon the hearts of the Apostles—writing the new Law within them.

Our Gospel reading from John 7 takes place during a different feast: the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), when Israel recalled her journey through the wilderness and God’s provision of water from the rock. On the final day of that feast, the priests poured water at the Temple altar—which is why Christ’s says: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink... Out of his belly [meaning his inner being or heart] shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn 7:37–38) St. John tells us: “He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.” (v. 39). So while the Gospel reading takes place at the Feast of Tabernacles, it points to Pentecost—when this living water would flow abundantly upon those disposed to receive it.

In the reading from Acts, the miracle occurs in the hearing of the Gospel: “Each one heard them speaking in his own language.” St. Gregory the Theologian beautifully explained that this was a reversal of the curse of Babel. He says, “[At Babel] tongues were divided through pride; here [at Pentecost], they are united through the Spirit.”

The Troparion for today helps us better understand the mission of Pentecost. We sing: “Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who have filled the fishermen with wisdom by sending down the Holy Spirit… and who through them have caught in your net the whole world...” By the power of the Spirit, the apostles became fishers of men, casting the net of the Gospel to every nation and tongue. Though many have rejected Christ and His Church, the goal remains: to catch the world—to bring all into the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

Yet, as we see in both the Gospel and Acts, the Spirit does not nullify our free will. Some are convicted and believe. Others reject the gift. Pentecost demands a human response. Will we receive the Spirit? Or will we remain satisfied with the world? To receive the Holy Spirit is to receive the grace which enables us to follow Christ in spirit and in Truth. The Holy Spirit is not given so that we can wield magic powers, but to sanctify our souls through the Gospel Way.

So today, let us invite the Holy Spirit—not as an ephemeral emotion or so called “spiritual experience”, but as the next step in our conversion, our communion with Christ, and our call to holiness through the life of the Church. The Holy Spirit is given to make saints out of sinners, temples out of fallen nature, and to lead us into the life of the age to come.

Oh, Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth …come and abide among us and in thy goodness, save our souls. Amen.

Today we commemorate the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, who defended the True Faith against the heresy of Arius. And this feast is especially significant in 2025 because this year marks the 1700s anniversary of that First Council. The battle against Arianism was a battle for the truth about our salvation. Arius denied that Jesus was truly God, but Our Lord, speaking to the Father, teaches us in today’s Gospel, “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3). If Jesus is not God, we cannot know the Father. If Christ is a creature, however exalted, He cannot give us eternal life. Only God can.

The Nicene Fathers knew this. That’s why they boldly confessed that the Son is ὁμοούσιος, meaning “of one essence” with the Father. Christ is not “like God.” He is God. And because He is God, He can draw us into divine union with Himself.

Saint Augustine said: “Let us ascend in Christ so that through Him we may come to God” (Tractates on John, 17.13). Christ alone ascends to the Father because Christ alone came down from heaven. And the only way we ascend with Him is by being united to Him.

How do we unite ourselves to Christ? Not by independent spiritual thoughts or “positive feelings,” but through Baptism, Chrismation, and Holy Eucharist. We are united to Christ through the Sacred Mysteries of Christ’s Holy Church. The Church is not an ethnic heritage club or an NGO. She is the Body of Christ, purchased with the blood of God Himself. Saint Paul says in today’s reading that we are “...the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). And as Chrysostom reminds us: “It was not a servant, but the very Master Himself who did this” (Homily XLIV on Acts).

Our unity with Christ flows from Christ’s divinity. Without His divinity, there is no true Eucharist. Without His divinity, there is no real forgiveness of sins. Without His divinity, the gates of heaven remain shut, and we remain slaves to sin.

Saint Athanasius, the greatest champion of this feast, said it profoundly: “For He became man, that we might become godlike” (De Incarnatione, 54.3). The Church Fathers we honor today fought for this truth. Some bore the trials of Roman persecution. Others were exiled. Many were slandered. But they stood firm. Why? Because truth matters! One of the great heresies of our day says that truth is relative. Relativism is an insidious lie. Jesus is the Way, Truth, & Life.”

Let us then live in the truth of Christ’s divinity as a sacramental reality clearly defined by the Fathers. Let us confess with the Council: “We believe... in one Lord Jesus Christ... true God from true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father.” And let us receive Him in the Eucharist as the source of our unity and our life.

To Christ our true God, who ascended in glory and abides with His Church forever, be honor and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

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In today’s Gospel, we encounter a man who has been blind from the moment of his birth. And the disciples, echoing a common assumption of the time, ask: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” But Jesus explains that “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9:2–3).

Jesus teaches us that suffering is not always the result of sin. Sometimes, as St. John Chrysostom explains, suffering is permitted for the sake of God’s glory. This man’s affliction becomes the occasion not for condemnation, but for the revelation of Christ as Light of the World. God’s plan for this man was that his blindness not remain permanent. The man’s blindness was the means by which he would be healed, convert, confess Christ, and ultimately worship God.

Jesus heals in a very sacramental manner. He spits on the ground, makes clay, and anoints the man’s eyes—then sends him to wash in the Pool of Siloam. As St. Irenaeus notes, Christ uses the very earth from which man was formed, signaling a new creation. And St. Augustine adds that “Siloam,” which means “Sent,” points to Christ Himself, the One sent by the Father, and to the waters of baptism, which wash away the blindness of sin and restore spiritual vision.

But notice something else: the man is not healed instantaneously. There is a process that he must obey. His journey begins in darkness and unfolds gradually. He begins by saying, “The man called Jesus opened my eyes.” Then he professes, “He is a prophet.” Finally, when Christ reveals Himself as the Son of Man, the man responds with full faith: “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him (Jn 9:38). St. Cyril of Alexandria says this is the pattern of true conversion: first obedience, then recognition, then full confession and worship.

We see a parallel movement in Acts 16. Paul and Silas, though beaten and imprisoned, are seen sing hymns of joy. Their heroic bravery and faith became the occasion of their witness. Then God sends an earthquake—not to punish the jailor but the create an avenue of mercy for him. The earthquake not only opens the prison but opens the heart of the jailer who cries out, “What must I do to be saved?” And the answer is the same: “Believe in the Lord Jesus” and follow the Way. And that night, he and his household are baptized. He passes from fear to faith, from mortal danger to life.

This is the logic of grace: suffering often disposes the soul to conversion and worship. What seems like a loss becomes a path to salvation.

It is the same for us. Each of us begins in darkness, each of us is summoned by Christ, and each of us is called to worship. The final goal is not simply to see, but to fall down and say, “Lord, I believe,” and worship Him.

And in the Divine Liturgy, we do exactly that. Let us joyfully embrace our sufferings and adore Christ in the Eucharist. The same Christ who opened the eyes of the blind man wants to open our hearts to the light of truth. Let us come to Him in humility. Let us allow our wounds to become an opportunity to receive His grace. Let us allow our afflictions to lead us to adoration. Amen.

Today’s epistle reading focuses on joy—a joy that flows from virtue and charity. In contrast, selfishness is the root of sadness. Interestingly, St. Cyprian teaches that joy reaches its fullness when we embrace cross. Christians exercise their greatest faith and virtue not when times are easy, but by enduring suffering and persecution for love of God when it is difficult. Part of this pure joy, as St. Paul reminds us, comes from the nearness of Our Lord in times of trouble. When we trust in Him and turn to Him in prayer, He listens, responds, and gives us the grace we need to overcome difficulties. For example, singing the prayers of the Church gives us peace and regulates our emotions. We pray in the Psalms: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit!”

In today’s Gospel, it is remarkable to observe how each of the followers of Christ interact with Christ on what we now call Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. Christ knew what was about to take place; He knew He was going up to Jerusalem to be put to death, but not all his disciples had accepted this yet. Many of his followers thought he was going up to Jerusalem to take the throne and rule as King of the Jews including this crowd that gathered around Christ at Bethany to see Lazarus whom Jesus had risen from the dead. For many, this was proof enough that Jesus was the Messiah who was going to lead them to victory over their political enemies in Jerusalem. Jesus was going to defeat His enemies, but Jesus’ true enemies are unseen. Jesus is not a political Messiah. His kingdom of heaven is much greater than any earthly kingdom could ever be.

Mary, the sister of Lazarus, probably came closest to understanding Our Lord’s words and purpose. She anointed His feet with a pound of pure and precious fragrant oil that she had purchased for His burial.

On the other hand, Judas is no longer listening to Jesus. John shows us in his gospel that Judas was already lost because of his sins; Judas is a thief. It is noteworthy that Christ tolerated Judas and did not cast him out earlier, even though he knew that Judas’s heart was no longer with him. Augustine says that Jesus teaches us in this that we have a duty to tolerate the wicked so as not to divide the Body of Christ based on the principle of showing mercy to sinners knowing that we too are sinners and that we will be shown mercy by God in proportion to the mercy we show to others. God’s Justice will prevail in the end. Our duty is to show mercy to the baptized and pray for their salvation. But we should also not be surprised when unrepentant sinners betray the Church and cause suffering within it, like Judas did. It is part of God’s plan to let the wheat grow up with the chaff.

The next day, Jesus did not raise an army and conquer Jerusalem; He rode up the mountain of the Lord as a lamb is led to the slaughter, riding humbly on the back of a donkey. This was to fulfill the scripture passage from Zechariah which prophesied, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Behold your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.”

St Caesarius says that the donkey symbolizes the Church upon which the Son of God will sit when he brings her into the Heavenly Jerusalem. Let us, therefore, rejoice with Christ today for he is entering his passion, he is going up to Jerusalem to conquer death by death! He is going to rise from the dead to begin a new creation through the Sacramental order of the Church. We are entering the holiest week of the year, let us be glad and rejoice because the Mysteries of our salvation are at hand.

I encourage you to participate in this week’s services on Holy Thursday and Good Friday; take time off from work. Holy Week is the greatest drama, the greatest celebration of life, death, redemption, and victory that the world has ever known. The Pharisees despaired in seeing that the whole world was following Jesus; but we should rejoice and be glad in it. The Lord reigns! He is not the mere King of the Jews; He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and His Kingdom will last forever. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest!

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The reading from Hebrews today is about faith, hope, and the assurance of our salvation. Two thousand years before Christ, the Lord swore an oath to Abraham that He would bless and multiply Him. God swore an oath and gave Abraham strong assurance of his salvation and that promise sustained the faith and hope of not only Abraham, but of all his righteous offspring, including Moses and David, until the coming of the Messiah, who was held in the arms of St Simeon and announced, “Your Word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people” these past two thousand years.

Christ then made a new oath through his passion, death, and resurrection—a new covenant that has sustained our faith and hope for the past two thousand years. God’s promise in Christ is the door of our salvation, our anchor in times of trial, our comfort and certainty no matter what threatens us. Through the sacramental order established by Christ through the Apostles we have assurance of salvation and hope of eternal life. With this faith and hope, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We have so many sureties of our salvation through the Church, guided and sanctified by the ministerial priesthood of Christ, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Today’s gospel passage is about a pitiful man who had very weak faith and little hope. He did not recognize Christ as the Messiah, he did not believe Christ or His Apostles had the power to save his son, but he did have the humility to ask for the gift of faith, and that was his salvation. The story is about a boy who had been possessed by a demon since he was a child. Bede remind us that children are not born innocent in all respects because of original sin. The child’s father had despaired but asks Jesus, without much hope. if anything can be done. Jesus replies saying, “If you can believe, all things are possible.” This is a reminder that we have free will. Our Lord wants us to cry out to him and plead for his mercy. This was the moment of conversion for the father of the demoniac because he then earnestly pleads, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” He could not have been more sincere in his cry for help, because in that moment he realized he was a weak believer and so he asked the Lord to make up what was lacking in his virtue of faith.

Faith is a virtue that needs to be developed through practice, but faith is also a gift from God, meaning that it is both a natural virtue and a supernatural virtue. We can develop the natural virtue and we have the supernatural virtue, if we are in a state of grace, but we need to beg the Lord for an increase in faith because we cannot have perfect faith without his help. We have union with God through the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Our duty is to remove obstacles to these virtues and beg for their increase in our soul. We remove obstacles to faith by making acts of faith and of hope, for example, by praying the daily Psalms and by focusing on the meaning of the words we pray during the Divine Liturgy.

Prayer together with fasting is very important for the healing of our soul and body. St Jerome says that softness and effeminacy are healed by fasting, and anger and laziness are healed by prayer. Fasting detaches us from carnal passions and prayer keeps us from being foolish. If we don’t fast and pray, God has to teach us the hard way by punishing us with sickness, hardship, and sometimes even demonic possession. It is easier for Our Lord to instruct us in the way of perfection concerning the things of eternity if we fast and pray. All attacks from the enemy can be overcome by prayer and fasting. And Our Lord’s just wrath for our sins can also be appeased by prayer and fasting. Let us continue to fast and pray with faith and hope this Lent! God is near.

I am grateful to be here and offer a few words at the funeral of so holy a woman. Jeannine is my grandmother and we grandchildren have always called her “Nonnie.”

A homily is traditionally given about the gospel. Gospel literally means “good news,” and I would like to take this opportunity frame Jeannine’s life within the context of the Catholic Gospel message, because she is a great example of one who lived her life in harmony with the Gospel.

The good news is this: That God made us because He is perfect love and desires to share that love with creatures because He is generous. But we humans are unique. He made us men and women not only to be loved but to love; he made us for loving communion with Him and one another.

But in order for us to reciprocate God’s love, He also gave us free-will, the power to chose God or deny Him, the freedom to know God or ignore Him, to love God or curse Him, the freedom to serve God or to serve ourselves. Adam and Eve were deceived by the devil into thinking they could be equals with God, that they too could be gods and decide what is best for themselves without obedience to God’s laws.

We call this decision by Adam and Eve, Original Sin, because that first sin introduced sin and death into the world. Death and all the evils, injustices, and sufferings of the world are the result of that original sin and the sins of the human race that have been committed since the beginning; and I think we can all agree we have made a pretty big mess of things.

But God never withdrew His love from us and even while man was sinning he learned to repent and ask for God’s forgiveness and because some men were righteous, as we read about in the book of Wisdom today, God began to prepare for these righteous men a beautiful path of salvation that would restore us to the relationship we lost when Adam and Eve sinned. That gathering together of the people of God, who worship and serve God according to His revelation, is called the Church. We call the Church before Christ, the Jews and we call the Church after Christ, the Catholic Church because this is what happened.

In the fullness of time, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. The Second Person of the Triune God became a man. Without giving up any of His divinity, Christ took on all of our humanity, except sin. Why? Because only by becoming a man could God conquer sin and death. Jesus had to die because death is the just punishment for sin, but because He is God, death did not conquer Him, he conquered death, forever. No longer is man destined to eternal separation from God in hell because of his sins. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, meaning that He came to restore us to communion with God through Himself. How is this possible?

It's not automatic, we still have free will. We still have to freely choose to know, love, and serve Him. How do we do that? First, we have to believe that everything He has revealed to us through the prophets and the apostles is true. Secondly, we need to repent of our sins and beg for God’s mercy with firm amendment to live the rest of our lives in peace and repentance, rightly worshiping God according to His precepts. Thirdly, we are invited by God to be coheirs of the kingdom with Christ, adopted sons and daughters of Our Heavenly Father. We do that by uniting our lives to Christ in the sacramental life of the Church. What is the sacramental life of the Church?

1) Baptism by water and the spirit, 2) Confirmation where we receive the seal of the Holy Spirit like the Apostles did when Jesus laid hands on them and again at Pentecost, and 3) the Eucharist because Jesus said, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life within you.” We also need the other sacraments: confession, marriage, holy orders, and anointing of the sick, because these mysteries make up THE Way that Jesus instituted with His Apostles.

The Way Jesus set up for us to get to Heaven is through the sacramental life of the Church. And who in the Church did Jesus give the authority and responsibility to—to guard and distribute the sacraments? The Apostles—and the Catholics bishops are the successors of the Apostles—every one of these traces their lineage back to one of the Apostles. Priests are just deputies of the bishops. As St Ireneus said in the second century, “where the bishop is, there is the Church.”

So, the good news is, you can reverse the effects of sin in your life, and you don’t have to be condemned to hell, as your sins justly deserve. You can go to heaven and Jesus has given us the Catholic Church as The Way of salvation. To reject the Church is to reject God’s plan for your salvation. To reconcile yourself with the Church and live the sacramental life in peace and repentance for the remainder of your life is the only way you will get to heaven AND ever see Nonnie again, because this is the path that Nonnie followed, and I am pretty sure Nonnie is in heaven.

Now, it’s not the tradition of the Catholic Church to eulogize or canonize the dead on the day of their funeral. This homily is for you, not Nonnie. Today we offer this funeral mass for the soul of Jeannine because it is our duty to pray for the dead. Even when we know someone has died with the graces of the Church as Jeannine has, there is still the probability that the soul will necessarily undergo a time of purification in Purgatory.

Let me clarify: Purgatory is not hell. Purgatory is good. Purgatory is a state of purification for souls who still need to make restitution for sins that have been forgiven, before entering into the full glory of heaven. Purgatory is the anteroom of heaven and is only for those who have made it. It is not a second chance at salvation.

For one who has prepared one’s self for Heaven, as Nonnie has, Purgatory is a merciful gift of God that purifies souls before they enter Heaven. We can’t just stumble into the presence of God; that would destroy us. Purgatory is willed suffering. If Nonnie is in purgatory she is suffering willingly. Purgatory is standing outside the banquet hall longing to go in, simultaneously knowing you’re not perfectly ready yet. In a sense, its because you know you need to take a shower, put on your best clothes, do your hair, etc. Entering heaven is the biggest event of your eternal life. It can’t be taken lightly.

Unfortunately, many souls remain in Purgatory longer than they need to due to a lack of prayers and penance offered for them by believers on earth. This is why it is so important to offer Masses and pray the Rosary for our beloved dead, because it greatly relieves their suffering. You might say, well, I don’t believe in a God that would allow Jeannine to suffer any more; she suffered enough. That may be true, but let me ask you this, did God allow Nonnie to suffer in this life? Yes, we all suffer in life. God does not cause suffering, we sinners cause suffering in the world. Suffering is the just effect of our individual sins and the collective sins of the entire world.

If I steal a $100 from you and I confess it and tell you I am sorry, but I don’t give you the $100 back, I haven’t made restitution. Suffering is how we make restitution for sin, so it makes sense that suffering is part of our purgation before heaven, here and after we die.

You might say, yes, but Nonnie wasn’t a sinner; she was so holy. Yes, she was holy, but she certainly sinned. We all sin. Only Jesus and his Blesses Mother lived their entire life without sinning. And because we sin, we suffer the effects of sin. And if we are not careful, we may suffer the effects of our sin for all of eternity. Here I am not talking about Nonnie, I’m talking about you.

Nonnie’s father, Bompie, kept a card in his wallet with a list of the Four Last Things. This was a common practice among Catholics in his day, and Nonnie would have learned about the Four Last Things in her Catechism classes growing us. The Four Last Things are Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. They are the fundamental realities that every person must face. These teachings serve as a reminder of human mortality, the necessity of repentance, and the eternal consequences of our earthly decisions.

1. Death, a consequence of original sin, is a certainty for all of us. By death we mean the death of this earthly body, but we are made in the image of God meaning we have an immortal soul. In today’s reading from St. Paul, we are instructed that “the dead in Christ will rise first”, their souls will be reunited with their bodies, and “God will bring [into heaven] those who have fallen asleep in Him”, meaning united to Him through the sacraments.

2. Judgment: The Church teaches that there are two judgments:

1. Particular Judgment – Immediately after death, the soul stands before Christ and is judged based on its faith and works (CCC 1021-1022).

2. General Judgment – At the end of time, all will be resurrected, and God’s justice will be revealed before all creation (CCC 1038-1041).

• St. Alphonsus Liguori warns that nothing will escape God’s judgment: "Our past sins will stand before us, our conscience will accuse us, and Christ, as the just Judge, will render His verdict: Come or Depart!"

The Church teaches that judgment is not based on feelings but on objective reality—either a soul has lived according to God’s law or it has rejected it. Unfortunately, many souls are lost because they presume upon God's mercy but fail to repent and be reconciled with the Church before death.

3. Heaven: Heaven is the eternal reward of the righteous, where the soul experiences the Beatific Vision—when the righteous see God face to face and worship Him for all of eternity.

Heaven is not automatic—one must strive for holiness and actively cooperate with God’s grace in this life, before death. There is a modern tendency to assume everyone goes to heaven. That is simply not the case.

4. Hell: God is loving and merciful and he is also just. He would not be God if he was not perfect justice. And Hell is the just punishment for those who die in unrepented mortal sin. Hell is a state of eternal suffering, where the damned experience the loss of God, eternal regret, and eternal torments.

Hell is real and it would be uncharitable of me not to tell you that many souls go there. Funeral Masses should scare the hell out of us, literally. The greatest victory of the enemy is when he convinces people that hell does not exist. Many modern Catholics fall into the sin of presumption. Presumption is persisting in serious sin assuming you will be saved and go to heaven.

Nonnie was not presumptuous. She knew these four last things and spent her whole life preparing for death. She was like the faithful servant in today’s Gospel parable:

· Jesus describes faithful servants who keep their lamps burning, meaning they remain in a state of grace and are prepared to meet their Master (God) at any moment.

· The Church teaches that a holy death requires perseverance in grace, avoiding mortal sin, and staying close to the sacraments.

· Catholics practice vigilance by regular confession, prayer, penance, and reception of the Eucharist, ensuring they are spiritually prepared whenever Christ calls them home.

· Devotion to Our Lady through the daily mediation of the rosary is also a powerful habit Nonnie learned from her father, Bompie.

And Finally, Jeannine died with the graces of the Church receiving Last Rites: Confession, Holy Anointing, Viaticum, and the Apostolic Pardon.

The last rites are the Church’s most powerful spiritual aid for the dying. These sacraments, given at the end of a Christian’s earthly life, prepare the soul for its final journey and judgment before God.

· Confession is crucial at life’s end because it restores the soul to sanctifying grace if it has fallen into mortal sin. The Catechism (CCC 1446) teaches that reconciliation with God through confession is necessary for salvation, because sin separates us from God.

· Holy Anointing., formerly called Extreme Unction, is given when death is imminent. The Catechism (CCC 1526-1532) explains that this sacrament imparts the Holy Spirit’s grace to strengthen the soul, provide peace, and, if it is God’s will, restore bodily health. But most importantly, this sacrament unites the sick person more fully to Christ’s Passion, allowing suffering to be redemptive rather than merely painful.

· Viaticum, meaning “food for the journey,” is the reception of the Holy Eucharist as one’s last communion before death. The Catechism (CCC 1524) teaches that it is the sacrament of passing over from death to life, fulfilling Christ’s words: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54). Viaticum is the greatest gift a soul could receive before death, ensuring union with Christ in their last moments.

· And finally, the Apostolic Pardon, is a blessing given by a priest to grant the dying full remission of punishment due to sin. The Catechism (CCC 1471-1473) affirms that while sin’s guilt is removed through confession, temporal punishment remains and is usually purified in purgatory. The Apostolic Pardon, granted with the authority of the Church, applies a plenary indulgence, ensuring immediate entrance into heaven for those properly disposed and takes effect at the hour of death.

This powerful grace reflects the infinite mercy of God and the authority of Christ’s redemption through the ministry of the Church. Popes and theologians, including St. Alphonsus Liguori, greatly emphasized its importance, urging priests never to neglect giving it to the dying. Jeannine received all four of these phenomenal graces before she died.

Conclusion

So, is Jeannine in Heaven? She certainly hoped so. Nonnie spent her whole life fostering the gifts of faith, hope, and love, preparing herself for these moments. And seeing as she died in the loving arms of Christ through the sacramental graces of His Church, we also have very good reason to hope that she is in heaven. In the Greek tradition we pray “Save Oh Lord and have mercy on those who have fallen asleep in faith and hope of the resurrection.”

I will leave you with Jeannine’s own words about this hope. Mom found this in Nonnie’s Bible a few days ago. It’s a meditation on death that Nonnie wrote out for herself. It reads, “Death… is the beginning of new life [so] we have to surrender ourselves to our Maker and give our life once more for His taking, giving back all that we are and have. In this surrender, I willingly leave my loved ones in Hope of being met with openness by my Savior and His Blessed Mother Mary to escort me to my new life.”

Christ is among us!

Today, on this First Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy, commemorating the restoration of the veneration of holy icons in AD 843. This feast affirms the heart of our faith: that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Because Christ took on human nature, we can depict Him; because He made Himself visible, we can gaze upon Him in the icons, just as the disciples gazed upon Him in the flesh.

The Co-eternal Son took on a body so that we might look upon God in the flesh and receive the gift of faith. St. Paul urging us: "Let us run the race with endurance with our eyes fixed in Jesus". In today’s Gospel, Philip says “Come and See”. But sometimes, like Nathanael, we hesitate. We want to make sure, we want to verify the truth and that is a good thing.

"Philip takes Nathanael to Christ, knowing that once he hears His words, he will make no more resistance." Nathanael wisely withholds judgement until he sees Christ; he wants to investigate. He seeks truth, exercises discernment, but is then humble enough to accept that Christ is indeed the Messiah when Our Lord reveals Himself to Him. When Jesus reveals His divine knowledge—"Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you" —Nathanael immediately confesses, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God!".

Great Lent is a time to recover orthodoxy (right believing) and orthopraxy (right living)—which are inseparable. The heresy of iconoclasm denies that the human body can be sanctified and transformed, but the restoration of holy icons affirms that Christ is true God and true man, and that He came to save us through the renewal of our mind and body. This is why we fast, pray, do penance, and amend our lives.

In our modern world, the battle against iconoclasm has taken new forms. Modern culture seeks to erase not just sacred images but all signs of God, right worship, and orthopraxy —we complain of Latinization, but the greater evils are Protestantism, Gnosticism, and spiritualism in the Church—these are the modern day manifestations of iconoclasm.

St Basil defended the veneration of icons when he taught that "The honor given to the image passes on to the prototype.” To bow before an icon of Christ is to acknowledge His real, incarnate presence among us. To live our lives in imitation of His life is to become a saint.

On this Sunday of Orthodoxy, let us follow the example of Nathanael by seeking the truth with diligence and embracing it with humility. Like St. Paul, let us run the race of Lent with endurance, fixing our eyes on Christ. And like St Basil, let us defend and venerate the sacred images of our faith as witnesses to the Incarnation. Christ calls each of us, as He called Philip and Nathanael, to "Come and see." May our eyes be opened, our hearts and bodies purified, and our faith strengthened, so that we too may see and confess: "Rabbi, You are the Son of God!" Amen.

St Paul says, “Our salvation is at hand.” Great Lent is an important season. It’s our opportunity to fast from parties and drinking, from quarreling and jealousy, and from every selfish action or pleasure that stands in between us and Christ. To this end we enter Great Lent with resolutions for fasting and abstinence, and St Paul reminds us that it is not our place to judge what other people are eating or not eating. Some might eat nothing but bread for all of Lent and some might only be able to follow the minimum requirements; the main thing is that we don’t eat each other this Lent by bickering and gossiping. Whatever we do, we want to do in charity, for love of God and neighbor.

Our Lord instructs us in today’s passage to do three things: 1) forgive those who have wronged us, that’s today’s theme, 2) fast and pray out of love for God, not out of vanity, and 3) store up for ourselves heavenly treasures by giving alms and performing works of mercy. These are the three themes of Lent: prayer and fasting, almsgiving, and reconciliation.

First, about forgiveness, the Fathers say that if you want to stop being miserable, start being merciful. It is really quite profound. You see, by holding a grudge we harm no one other than ourselves. The person we are holding a grudge against might not even know it. The bitterness of unforgiveness eats us up from the inside out. Let it go. Forgive that person. And here is the amazing part: when we forgive, we become more like God, because who taught us to forgive? Forgiveness is uniquely Christian, because it is part of theosis; part of our transformation as coheirs with Christ. The Father wants to forgive us our sins, but He waits for us to forgive others because He can’t forgive someone who has no mercy in his heart. Nothing so enslaves you to your fallen nature than to bitterly hold on to a grudge. On the other hand, “nothing so likens you to God as to forgive him who has injured you” (Chrysostom).

So why do we also fast during Lent? There are two main reasons, 1) because fasting strengthens our prayer and 2) the idea is to eat less so that we can give more alms. (I highly recommend that you give some alms this Lent to a monastery.) But the Fathers say it is also important how we fast—that we not fast in order to be seen by men, but fast for love of God. We shouldn’t brag about our fasting or look on those who are fasting less. That is all vanity and pride. We fast in order to enhance our prayer. One obvious way we can do this is by praying first thing in the morning before we eat anything. But Our Lord is also instructing us not to be cranky when we fast. If we are hangry, it is better to eat some food than to eat our neighbor. We should be joyful during Lent because prayer should make us happy. What could possibly make us more amiable than to fast from sin and spend more time in prayer and works of mercy? If fasting keeps you from doing good, then eat, because the whole point of fasting is to deny our base passions and to pray more.

And finally, we are instructed to lay up for ourselves treasure in Heaven. This means growing in virtue, and giving alms, but it also means practicing detachment from earthly goods. It is easy for us to get attached to things. Some accumulate wealth to earn honor and praise from men. Others store up wealth as a means of earthly happiness, pleasure, security, or comfort. But what is better? To hold our treasures on earth where their security is doubtful, or to place our treasures in heaven where they are absolutely secure? By heavenly wealth, I mean our virtues and merits earned in this life. Disordered attachment to things pulls our attention away from God and lofty thoughts and enslaves us to avarice, gluttony, lust, pride, jealousy, and even heresy. And if all our treasure is on earth, what do we have to look forward to in heaven?

Lent only comes once. Let’s take advantage of it and store up for ourselves some heavenly wealth so we have something to look forward to when we die. As my father used to remind me, “Life is short and eternity long.”

On this Meatfare Sunday, the Church gives us this epistle reading to remind us that true Christian life is not about food or external observances, but about charity and our duty toward others. St. Paul teaches that while eating or abstaining from meat does not in and of itself make us holy, if our ascetical observances are accompanied by works of mercy, guided by charity, they are an excellent opportunity to grow in the virtues of humility and self-control and to build up the Body of Christ.

Matthew’s gospel has two major themes that tie in with this preparatory season. First, Jesus teaches us that works of mercy are an essential part of the Christian life. Second, He teaches that hell is a real and just consequence for those who do not follow the Way.

It is difficult for us to imagine eternal life in heaven or hell because it is outside of our experience. What we know is this present life of suffering, sin, and strife with the evil powers of corruption. It is difficult for us to set our eyes on a prize that comes after death, not in this world. But this is precisely what Our Lord is telling us to do in this story. He is telling us once again that we will inherit his eternal kingdom in heaven where there is peace without strife and consolation without mourning, IF we will just follow the unselfish path, He has designed us for.

The Church has given us 14 works of mercy, corporal and spiritual, and we need to pick a few that fit our station in life and practice them according to the principle of subsidiarity. The main focus is on loving the person in front of you—willing the good of the other. This is how we grow in virtue, but it is also a way that we encounter Christ. There is a popular story about how when a priest was not immediately available to give him the last rites, Aquinas asked for poor people to be brought into his room so that he could see Christ in them.

And who are the poor that we are to seek out for our works of mercy? The Fathers say that first we should feed and care for our children (Ambrose) and then those brothers and sisters who partake of the Divine Mysteries with us (Chrysostom). We don’t belong to this world, so Catholics need each other to survive and flourish. Performing works of mercy are not so much about nourishing the body as they are about nourishing the soul. Those that have yoked themselves to the Devil have their own way of life that is foreign to ours. This is not to say that it is wrong to show love to non-Catholics, but there is an understand among the Fathers that “a deed of mercy shown to the more holy is more acceptable to God than one shown to the less holy” (Origen).

Concerning heaven and hell, Christ tells us that bad men excuse their own sins and try to prove to themselves that they are venial, but Christ says, “these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The Fathers have a lot to say about this final verse of the passage. Apparently, Christians have been trying to downplay the realities of hell since the beginning, but the Fathers assure us it is very real suffering and it is eternal. There is no going back or making up for sins after death. We have this time on earth to prove our faith and loyalty and that is it. If we fail, we will suffer the consequences forever. Hell is a very serious reality that is not popular to contemplate, but it is worth our deep consideration. We want to err on the safe side. If we prefer temporal things to Christ, if we prefer pleasure to charity, if we share in the Lord’s table but afterwards commit mortal sin, we must return to a state grace in the Church or suffer the evil consequences forever. Christ is merciful, but he is also just. He does not force us to know, love, and serve Him with undivided hearts. It is our choice.

St. Paul’s epistle helps us to frame our understanding of the story of the prodigal son. The Prodigal son didn’t have a noble motive for leaving his father. He was motivated by base passions rather than charity. His actions lacked piety, chivalry, and the application of right reason. It is important that we do not blindly follow our passions and just do whatever we feel like doing, especially when it comes to chastity. St Luke said, the prodigal son was “longing to be fed”. The Greek word for “longing” here is ἐπιθυμία (epithumia), which is the same word the Greek Fathers use to talk about unbridled passions, heedless of reason or virtuous motive. Sin had real consequences for the prodigal son who squandered his inheritance with loose living and sensuality. The Prodigal son’s reckless passion stripped him of every material and spiritual good, cutting him off from love and family.

The Fathers of the Church explain the passage allegorically, focusing on a deeper, mystical interpretation of the story. The prodigal son can be seen as a type of Adam and his father is our heavenly Father. Adam’s inheritance is his soul, made in the image and likeness of God, endowed with intellect and will, and the gift of divine revelation. St Ambrose says that “the Divine patrimony is given to them that seek it.” The intellectual life of man is oriented toward the truth and the will is oriented toward the good, and the sinner finds neither when he departs in his heart from God the Father and seeks his own way. The man who desires to preserve his image and likeness to God, does not depart from God but clings to Him in love. The lawless sinner, on the other hand, grows cold, senseless, and animal-like when he departs from Truth. Departing to a far country means forgetfulness of God which exhausts the soul, and the famine in the parable represents a lack of truth and good works. There is no greater poverty than to abandon wisdom, communion with God, and the life of virtue, which is our heavenly wealth.

The Fathers tell us these husks (pig feed) filled the belly but had no nourishment—just like the unsatisfying lies and vanities of the world give us fleeting pleasure but do not sustain our spirit. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4) If we cut ourselves off from Christ, we lose all sense of created order, chastity, knowledge of truth, and remembrance of God. The prodigal son is sent to the pigs, meaning he nourishes his soul with unclean thoughts and evil conversations. But then he finally comes to himself, meaning he realizes this is not what he was made for, and decides to humbly ask his father to forgive him and take him back, and the father runs to meet him, symbolizing that we can’t come to the Father except by grace. The grace of conversion allowed the son to change from a life of vice to a life of virtue, he was no longer lost but found, and his father clothed him with the garment of salvation.

The celebration feast in this parable is an allegory of the Divine Liturgy. The Father puts a robe on his son symbolizing the dignity and wisdom lost by Adam but restored to man through holy baptism, and a ring on his finger, which signifies the marriage of Christ to His Church. The fattened calf is Christ, whom the Father hands over to be sacrificed for the eternal banquet, the Body and Blood, which feeds the household of faith. Let us then shun the vanities of the world and cleave to the Father in our hearts. Let us beg His mercy so that we can embrace Him and rejoice with Him today, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

In today’s readings St Paul reminds Timothy that the Christian life is not easy. We can’t run from the cross; it is better to embrace it. Righteousness is not always rewarded with material goods in this life. Our reward is in heaven, and we must keep our eyes on the prize, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, in suffering and in joy. Are we faithful to Our Lord if we love Him only in good times, but despise Him in times of trial?

In reference to the gospel reading about the Publican and the Pharisee, St John Chrysostom likens striving for salvation to a chariot race. By nature, the chariot of righteousness is swifter than the chariot of sinfulness, but in the case of these two characters, the pride of the Pharisee acts as a dead weight on the chariot of righteousness, while the humility of the Publican acts as a “booster” on the chariot of sinfulness, and in this race, humility is the deciding factor.

Obviously, a life of righteous deeds performed with true humility is the best course of action and a life of sin and pride is the worst course of action, but let’s look at this dynamic more closely. Pride is when we ascribe something good to ourselves instead of acknowledging that, without God’s grace, we can do nothing good. In this sense, pride is a denial of God. St Luke says that the Pharisee stood and prayed “with himself,” meaning that in his pride the Pharisee was not talking to God but to himself. In order for our prayers to be fruitful and actually communicate with God, we must pray in a spirit of humility, recognizing our lowliness before Him.

The Pharisee is proud for two reasons. 1) He thinks he has made himself righteous without God’s help, and 2) he believes he is better than everyone else and thus despises everyone else. But St Gregory reminds us that there are other way for us to be proud beyond just these two: a) We could believe that our righteousness comes from God, but that we grew in it because of our own merits, b) or we might think that we are righteous when, in fact we’re not, c) or in despising another for a particular vice he has, we might think that we are the only one who has the opposite virtue.

Notice that pride is often linked to condemning our neighbor. When we talk badly about others, we hurt both ourselves, and those who hear us because in thinking badly of another both the speaker and the listeners not only fall into the sin of pride, thinking they are better than the one being condemned, but also the sin of calumny, which damages the reputation of the condemned. In this way all three parties are damaged, the Church suffers because it loses its dignity, the glory of God is diminished in us because we show ourselves unworthy of His favor, and we make ourselves liable to punishment.

Instead of praising ourselves and condemning others, let us then, like the Publican, ask God for his help and mercy. Let us approach Him with a penitent heart, recognizing our own sinfulness, and beg for His forgiveness. Let us focus our mind and heart on our prayers when we say them because the Church has given us the remedy for both pride and sin in our prayers. How many times do we ask for the Lord’s mercy without thinking about what we are saying? Are you brazen at home in condemning your neighbor, but silent in your heart before God in the holy temple? Let us strive to be humbly silent when we want to gossip at home, and humbly earnest when it’s time to pray. We can find consolation in humility and hope for the day of judgement. Amen.

Today is the final feast of the Christmas season: the Encounter of Our Lord with Simeon; and the first Sunday of our pre-Lenten preparations: The Sunday of Zacchaeus. Both Simeon and Zacchaeus longed to see Our Lord but in different ways. This homily is taken from the readings for the Encounter.

God gave the Old Law to Moses to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. The Old Law was full of ritual purifications, animal sacrifices, and atonement offerings. However, this Old Law couldn't bring people to Heaven; it was established by God to prepare His people for the coming of Christ.

Jesus came to give us a New Law that restores communion with God and gives us the hope of Heaven through baptism, confession, and the Eucharist. Since the purpose of the law changed, the way to reach this new goal had to change too. This is why Jesus established a new priesthood and a New Law, called the Holy Mysteries or the Sacramental Life of the Church. The rituals of the Old Law are no longer needed because Jesus fulfilled them by giving us the Sacraments.

One of the aspects of the Old Law was ritual purification and making atonement for sin, but Our Lady, the Mother of God, was without sin, which according to St. Cyril, means she had no obligation to the Old Law. However, like Christ and in union with Him, she submitted herself to the Old Law, of her own free will, in order to participate in Christ’s transformation of it. She didn’t need to be ritually purified because she was a virgin, inviolate, and every aspect of her maternity was absolutely pure and holy; the conception, gestation, and birth were immaculately chaste and perfect, without any corruption or weakness; without any defilement of original sin.

The Light of the World had come into the world, through this perfect Vessel of Grace, to dispel all darkness, which is precisely what St. Simeon the priest was waiting for. He had been told that he would see the Messiah before he died. And true to the promise, Simeon was able to hold His Beloved Savior in his arms on this blessed day when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the Temple to fulfill the obligations of the Old Law.

As St. Simeon cradles the Christ Child in his arms, it is further revealed to him that, not only is Israel redeemed, but that the Light has come for the Gentiles who have been in great darkness, which is why we bless candles on this day, to remember that the Light of Christ has come into the world to conquer the darkness of sin and death.

Then St. Luke says that Mary and Joseph marveled at the proclamation of the fulfillment of the prophesies, not because they were unaware of the truth of these prophesies being fulfilled in their Son, but because they were contemplating the beauty and goodness of these supernatural truths. As St. Photius says, “the knowledge of supernatural things, as often as it is brought to recollection, renews the miracle in the mind;” which is why continual remembrance of God is so important for the Christian life and why the noise of the world is so distracting for us.

Jesus came to save and sanctify us, but He also came to judge us based on the strength of our faith, whether we have remained in a state of grace, and the merit of our actions. We need to guard our souls because, as St. Simeon predicted, many will fall and many will rise. Whether we fall or rise depends on our own choices, and though we may struggle, if we commit ourselves to prayer and the Sacraments, God's grace will strengthen our resolve. As followers of the New Law, we have hope in the Resurrection, which strengthens the weak through the Holy Mysteries.

Let us then, like Simeon, welcome the light of Christ into our souls, to illuminate the darkness of sin lurking there, so that we may root it out in the sacrament of confession—that we may receive in our arms and contemplate anew the beautiful Christ Child in Holy Communion. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (Jn 1:5). Amen.

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus entering Canaanite territory with His disciples and a Canaanite woman comes out to meet Him. The way the Canaanite woman approaches Christ is deeply significant. The Fathers interpret her journey out of her own land in search of Jesus as symbolizing the Holy Church leaving behind former errors and sins. Similarly, Catholics do not simply “come as we are” to Liturgy on Sunday. Instead, we are called to leave our sins behind—in confession—so that we can fully enter into divine worship. Like the Canaanite woman, we ought to approach God in humility, begging for His love and mercy.

St. Jerome urges us to particularly imitate the faith, patience, and humility of the Canaanite woman. Her faith is evident in her unwavering belief that Jesus is God and can heal her daughter. Her patience is evident by her perseverance, even after Jesus initially refuses to answer her and likens her to a dog, unworthy of His blessings. Yet, her humility is perhaps the most striking. She does not ‘defend her dignity’ but instead lowers herself further, comparing herself to a puppy seeking scraps from the Master’s table. She acknowledges her unworthiness but still pleads for the Lord’s mercy.

In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he exhorts the faithful to remain chaste, warning that it is gravely sinful for those who have become temples of the Holy Spirit to defile their bodies. Christians, united to Christ through baptism and Eucharistic communion, have been redeemed by His blood. Thus, sins against chastity not only harm oneself but also defile our mystical union with Christ and His Church. For those called to sacramental marriage, these sins also violate the exclusive rights and indissoluble unity with one’s spouse (or future spouse for those who are still single).

When St. Paul says, “Avoid fornication!” he means all sins against chastity, including adultery, sodomy, prostitution, pornography, and self-defilement. Again, these sins are not merely offenses against God but also against one’s own body, which is meant to glorify Him. As St. Paul urges, we must “Glorify God in our body” by fleeing lust and cultivating purity, the virtue that enables us to control our bodies in holiness and honor (cf. 1 Thess 4:4). Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8)!

While the prevalence of smartphones and the internet has made purity particularly challenging, especially for our youth, it has never been an easy virtue to master. The Fathers teach that our lustful passions are so powerful that prayer alone is often insufficient to resist them. Instead, they advocate fleeing temptation entirely. Jesus Himself used hyperbole to make this point, saying, “If your right eye or right hand causes you to sin, pluck it out or cut it off.” While the Church does not recommend drastic measures like Origen’s self-mutilation, it does emphasize the need for vigilance. For those struggling with chastity, practical steps are essential. When tempted, one ought to literally flee the source of temptation. Going for a long walk without your smartphone, for example, is a great way to calm the passions and remember the noble life for which Our Lord has called us.

Brothers and sisters, let us be like the Canaanite woman. Let us desire healing and unity with God above all else; let us flee from error and sin and persevere in prayer; let us humbly beg Our Lord Jesus Christ for His mercy, with unwavering faith, and trust in His loving plan for us. All glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen.

The context of St Paul’s letter to Timothy is that Paul knows he is not worthy of Christ’s mercy because he persecuted the Christians without mercy, even putting to death St. Stephen, before Christ appeared to him and saved him on the road to Damascus. We repeat St Paul’s words and recognize our unworthiness before Our Eucharistic Lord every time we say those same familiar words: “I believe Oh Lord and confess, that you are truly Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.”

But this “Prayer before Communion” is itself rooted in the “Jesus Prayer”, which is one of our oldest Christian prayers and is taken from both the publican’s and the blind man’s prayers in the Gospels, altered just slightly, we pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

To better understand these prayers, let’s take a closer look at what the Fathers have to say about the blind man who cries out to the Lord on the way to Jericho and for his faith, receives his sight. St. Cyril points out that the blind man called out to Christ with confidence and without shame, even thought the crowd told him to be quiet, “It is a good thing to lay aside shame in behalf of divine worship.” The Jesus prayer is a prayer of worship, as well as petition because we, with the blind man, acknowledge the divinity of Christ, the Son of God, and praise and glorify Him.

Cyril also says he was released from a double blindness, both physical and intellectual because, “he would not have glorified Him as God, had he not truly seen Him as He is.” So when we pray the Jesus Prayer we should offer our praise and worship as well as ask the Son to illuminate our intellect with the knowledge of truth so that we may better serve Him, because as St Gregory says, “He who sees [the Way the Truth and the Life] also follows [Him], because we practice what we understand,” meaning our actions will conform to the truth if we clearly see and understand it.

The trouble is that we do not always see clearly because

we suffer the effects of the original wound: our minds are darkened, our wills are weakened, and our passions run wild. This is why we need to pray the Jesus prayer, “without ceasing.” The demons sow thoughts and arouse images in our imagination and even disturb us in our prayers, much like the crowd that tries to silence the blind man. But the blind man cried out, all the louder: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” because, as St Gregory says, “the more violently we are assailed by restless thoughts, the more fervently we ought to give ourselves to prayer… By being steadfast in prayer, God becomes fixed in our hearts and our lost sight is restored.”

And St John Chrysostom says this about the Jesus Prayer: “We must continually cry ‘Lord Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me,’ so that the name of the Lord Jesus descending into the depths of the heart will subdue the serpent ruling over the inner pastures and bring life and salvation to the soul… Always guard your heart by remembering our Lord Jesus Christ until the name of the Lord becomes rooted in the heart and it ceases to think anything else.” And the Greek, St. Hesychios, says it is impossible to purify our heart from passionate thoughts and to drive out mental enemies without constant calling on the name of Jesus.”

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner! Amen.

On this Sunday after Theophany, the Church continues to celebrate the revelation of Christ, who has come into the world for our salvation. In the Gospel, we hear that after John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus began His public ministry in Galilee, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). This call to repentance is at the heart of Christ’s mission on earth. Christ came to

set us free from slavery to sin and death, leading us to the knowledge of truth and the way of salvation. His call to repentance is an invitation to reverse the effects of the fall through a cooperation with Him, by conforming our lives to the truth and following the new way of life to which He has called us: a way made possible by His Incarnation, death and Resurrection and the gifts of supernatural virtue: faith, hope, and charity.

Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, speaks of the grace given to each one of us through Christ, who has ascended on high and given gifts to His Church (Ephesians 4:7–8). These gifts are not given to us for our own glory, but for the edification of the Church and the glory of God. We are each called by God to build up the body of Christ according to our vocation or state in life, which for most of us means fulfilling the duties of our married vocation. Fulfilling our marital duties in conformity with the way, truth and life that Chrit has established for us has a positive synergistic effect on the Body of Christ and enables us to grow together in holiness.

Our growth in Christ is both an individual endeavor and a communal one. As Saint John Chrysostom emphasizes, the unity of faith and the knowledge of Christ are achieved when each member of the body of Christ fulfills their role with humility and love. Through this unity, we come to maturity in Christ, sharing in His divine life as members of the Church militant. We are in this battle together, so both our virtues and our sins affect one another.

In today’s Gospel, Christ’s proclamation of the kingdom and His call to repentance remind us that this unity and maturity begin with our own response to His grace. Repentance is not merely a sorrow for sin but a surrendering of our will in obedience to the way of life that He has revealed to us. Saint Basil the Great calls it “a transformation of the heart,” where we renounce the works of the enemy and live our life in conformity with the truth of Christ.

As we continue to celebrate Our Lord’s Theophany, His revealing of Himself to us, let us hear anew Christ’s call to deeper conversion and reflect on the responsibilities He has entrusted to us. Let us ask ourselves: are my actions strengthening or weakening the Church? Am I living in conformity to the truth of the Gospel in every area of my life or have I conformed certain areas of my life to the ways of the world?

May the graces of Theophany strengthen us to fulfill our duties and may the light of Christ dispel the darkness around us and draw us into deeper unity with Him. To Him be glory forever.

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