nativityofchrist.org
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
My dears, our friends, children of God, children of the holy Orthodox Church! Today is a special day—the day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the day of the triumph of the Holy Orthodox, Catholic, and Apostolic Church; of the Heavenly Church Triumphant and the earthly Church Militant. And this is a day of the joy of the incarnation of the Son of God, of the fullness of the Godhead on earth in Him, and of the fullness of the Godhead in His Body—in the Church of Christ.
His Body is all those who go through the podvig of life in faith and truth, in the bosom of the Church; it is everyone, beginning with the Holy Apostles: the Apostles themselves and the teachers of the Church, its patriarchs, holy hierarchs, holy fathers, and the people of God—the laity who hold onto the true faith and who have lived by it and who live by it even now. It is all of us, gathered in church after the first week of our Lenten podvigs and clothed now in the white robe of justification, having tasted of the Divine life, having united with the Lord in the Mystery of Holy Communion.
We heard in the Gospel reading today the high evaluation and praise from the Lord, Who searcheth the heart, for the future Apostle Nathanael: Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! (Jn. 1:47). And this is the praise of the Christian, this is the praise of the Church of which the Lord spoke: Here is a Church in which there is no guile, no vain imaginings of men, which is in true in all of its teachings, Sacraments, services, authority, and in its whole structure
This Church, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) in the words of the Apostle Paul, is a glorious Church, having neither impurity nor blemish. By what bloody podvigs, by what struggles with the enemies of truth, by what and how many deaths of zealots for the purity and holiness of the faith and the Church has Orthodoxy been acquired, preserved, and transmitted to us!
Today we see the earthly Church dejected and burdened with various troubles and sorrows (and this has been an almost constant state for the Orthodox Church from the day of its founding), and we wonder: Is there anything about which to rejoice? But you know, my dears, the Triumph of Orthodoxy will ever be celebrated in the Church, for this triumph is not of the visible glory of Orthodoxy, but of the only thing that gives life to the world, and which no external troubles or enemies now can take away—it is the triumph of Divine love for the world and the eternal life of the world in this love and by this love.
And for us, for every one of us, there remains only one personal question: Will we be participants in this Divine love? Will we preserve for ourselves and for our posterity that which Christ Himself gave to us and which His faithful followers in the Church have handed down to us in purity?
Let us remember, dear ones, that in order for us to be true Orthodox Christians, we must have a living and constant communication with the Orthodox Church in its prayers, teachings, and Sacraments; we must know our faith, study it, be imbued with it, live by its spirit, and be guided by its rules, commandments, and statutes. And most importantly—we must constantly restore the image of a true Orthodox Christian within ourselves through deep repentance, after the example of the holy people of God who have lived at all times.
The first Triumph of Orthodoxy was established when, in the struggle with iconoclasm, the Church defended its right and duty to venerate icons of Christ, the Mother of God, and the saints, and thus defended the truth of the Divine Incarnation. And now the Church continues to celebrate, and will celebrate until the end of the world, the appearance of images of the Living God within it. For even now God reveals Himself in people who have acquired and manifested within themselves this priceless treasure, this sole pearl, of which the world is not worthy—a person like unto God in holiness of life.
So let us pray now, my dears, to those who have illumined and still illumine the path to truth for us by the holiness of their lives.
Let us also pray for those who by their labors and ailments preserve fidelity to the true God in our day.
Let us entreat the Lord that we might not be strangers to this fidelity and these labors. Amen.
