18th Sunday after Pentecost

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. So this Friday we celebrated the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God. What happened is about a thousand years ago, Constantinople was under attack by pagan Slavs who were later known as the Russians. And they had a very large contingent of ships in the Bosphorus, right outside of Constantinople, and they were on the verge of attacking. And so clearly the faithful in the city became panicked and greatly frightened, and they raced, as it were, crowded into the Church of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God at Blachernae. And there they entered into a vigil, an all-night vigil—and when we say an all-night vigil, truly all night through the night—praying for salvation and protection from this impending attack. And while they were praying, the Most Holy Mother of God appeared up in the highest reaches of the Holy Church. And she was seen as being the protector, and St. Andrew and his disciple Epiphanius—St. Andrew first saw the Most Holy Mother of God there, and he pointed out to his disciple Epiphanius, "Do you see?" And of course he also saw the remarkable presence of the Mother of God. And throughout the night of the vigil, with the Mother of God standing above them, with the protection of the grace of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ emanating from her and throughout the city and into the reaches of the Bosphorus, the Slavs withdrew and departed, as though they had been defeated without any warfare, except spiritual warfare, of course. And this is a very, very beautiful account, and it's a very precious account because very soon thereafter the Slavs converted to Christianity. And so 988 is the official date of the baptism of the Slavs, and they converted to Christianity and were baptized en masse and then became profoundly pious, profoundly pious people.

It's my personal opinion that our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, knowing all things, could see into the future, and He saw that the division between East and West was about to happen. 988 precedes 1054, and He converted the Slavs who had never been under the dominion, as it were, of the Greco-Roman Empire. They hadn't been, as it were, acculturated by the Greco-Roman Empire and traditions. And they had this sort of natural piety and openness to the presence of God. And they were converted before the Great Schism to preserve the true Church and the true piety of the Church throughout the impending times of the Great Schism, and of course, all of the difficulties that have flowed from that.

So I want to say just a little bit about the Mother of God. It's amazing because we have the holy tradition—obviously we all know she conceived our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. And we know according to our holy tradition that she was brought up, as it were, in and around the temple in Jerusalem. And then when she came of age, she was presented to Joseph, who cared for her. And then after, we have the miraculous Annunciation when the Archangel Gabriel came to her and told her that she was going to miraculously conceive our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. And so this of course happened. And she gave forth, as it were—came forth from her—our Lord. And what's fascinating, I think, is that I think that one of the greatest differences between Orthodox Christian believing and perhaps Protestant believing is the significance of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, in the understanding of who we are as the children of God.

And if you go back to Paradise, we see that our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ established Paradise. And it was a lush and fertile garden-like reality. And Adam and Eve were placed in Paradise. Now obviously they didn't have implements of farming and so on. And St. John of Damascus tells us that their work was to lay all care upon God. Now you've heard me say this before and I'll keep saying it because it's such a beautiful idea—to lay all care upon God. And it's amazing because I think parents have this experience at times, and perhaps adult children when they're caring for their parents have this experience of, as it were, petitioning on behalf of the child or on behalf of the aging parent, and laying, as it were, all care upon God, knowing that we in our finite finitude of our flesh are unable to care. But we know that through our hearts and our prayers and our love, that this care can emanate upon the child or upon the diminishing adult. And so it was that Adam and Eve cared for the garden by laying all care upon God.

And I see in my own mind this very beautiful image, I think, where it's kind of like the sun, you know, the sun shines down upon us. We have wonderful sun in our church during the services. So the sun shines down upon the earth, and where it shines life comes forth, and there's all of the vegetation life and that vegetation supports other life and of course creates a context where even we as human beings are sustained. And it's a very, very beautiful, simple material image. And so it was with Adam and Eve. They laid all care upon God, and the light came down into them, and at that time the mind was at one with the heart, and it entered the heart, and then it shined out or shone out around them. And wherever that light fell, so there was peace and tranquility. And the lion and the lamb were able to lie down together without violence and without hostility. And so it is that we have this idea—this not just this idea, but this living reality—of Adam and Eve in Paradise.

A birth which absolutely sanctified and deified the Virgin Mary. How else could it have happened when the all-consuming God came into the womb of a person? How could it not happen that she was in a sense consumed, but consumed in love and in goodness and in virtue and in purity, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God that brought about this birth. And she, of course, is in a sense a forerunner for us, more so than John the Baptist for our Savior, of course, but the Mother of God for all of us, because she exemplifies this purity and this virginity. And she stands, as it were, before the throne of God, petitioning on our behalf. And so when we—coming back to the Feast of Protection—here we have her appearance and she's petitioning before the throne of God and came down and changed the hearts and minds of the Slavs, or either that or terrified them by the imminent destruction that was going to come upon them. And that changed their hearts, but nevertheless their hearts were changed and they withdrew.

And I say this because we are in the image and likeness of God. And it is precisely what she represents is precisely what we pray that we will become, that is, mediators of God's grace. And in such a way that the things—that the lives of people around us, first of all ourselves, that we will be purified and sanctified, and then the lives of those for whom we care will be also purified and sanctified. And it's—we should not be surprised because man was created, Adam and Eve were created a little lower than the angels, and after the fall and through the birth and life and death and Resurrection of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, we who were fallen were raised up also. That is the reality, the possibility, the potential for our transfiguration and transformation, and it is found in the Resurrection, that we will be transformed and raised up and again enter into—and raised up not lower than the angels, but actually higher than the angels. And that we will once again participate in this great mystery which is unknown to us in its details, but nevertheless, in the ministry of laying all care upon God on behalf of the created order. And when we say laying all care upon God, we mean that the mind and the will have been sanctified. We are—we're not just—it's not just that we're automatons, but that we through repentance and transformation, that our mind has been changed into a mind of total, complete faithfulness and the desire to realize our potential in the service of God through being mediators, that our mind is changed and our will is changed, so that we choose, as it were, to be mediators of God's love.

And so with this very brief introduction, I'm going to just read a little bit of a homily from St. Dimitri of Rostov, who lived between 1651 and 1709, which is a very long time ago, a thousand years ago essentially. No, not a thousand years, but it's certainly a very long time. And he says, "During these difficult times, with the increase of our sins and the increase of dangers for us and for our society, we behold the fulfillment of the words of the Lord when he wrote to the Corinthians: 'In perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.' And these words in diverse places. Brothers and sisters, let us understand that when we are pressed with invasions by foreign nations, civil wars, and fatal diseases, the Most Holy and Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Lord, gives us her protection as our shield in order to free us from all disasters, in order to protect us from famines and floods and earthquake, to save us from wars and diseases and preserve us unharmed under her protection."

And I read this, you know, it's from a very long time ago. And it sounds like the present situation, to be very honest with you, that we are under attack with perils of war and the perils of robbers and perils of countrymen and perils of heathen and perils in the city, in the wilderness, and perils in the sea and perils among false brethren. It's true. What we are witnessing, and I've always been very cautious now to say it because it's so in a sense overwhelming and frightening, is we're witnessing a complete collapse of civilization. And it's not just in this country, it's a worldwide collapse of civilization. Divinely revealed truth which allows us as we peer at the world before us through, as it were, the lens of truth—we see what the reality is and we understand it and we know how to respond. And this truth has been eradicated and it's replaced by these portals, as it were, that open up to the passions which are so—and obviously adults, but when children enter into these portals and witness the debauchery, the corruption, as it were, of what it means to be a man and a woman and what it means to community, to be a family, and they enter into these portals. What they witness is so overwhelming we need to expect that only a very few will be able to break the bondage of these passions that they participated in in mind. There are things which you know. And here we are on the threshold. And so we are in a condition not unlike, as it were, the Byzantines in ancient times.

"A sign of this protection appeared in the royal city of Constantinople during the reign of the pious King Leo the Wise, in the glorious church of the Most Holy Theotokos of Blachernae, during the all-night vigil for Sunday on the first day of the month of October, in the fourth hour of the night, in the presence of many people. Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ lifted up his eyes and saw the heavenly queen and protectress of the whole world, the Most Holy Virgin Theotokos standing in the air and praying and shining with the light of the sun and covering the people with her honorable omophorion. Seeing this, Saint Andrew said to his disciple, Blessed Epiphanius, 'Do you see, brother, the queen and mistress of all praying for the whole world?' Epiphanius replied, 'I see, holy Father, and I tremble,' as recorded in the Book of Revelation at 12:1, even as Saint John the Theologian saw a woman clothed as the sun, as a great sign of the heavens. So also did Saint Andrew see her while standing in the church of Blachernae, and remarkably this sign was previously seen by the mystic Saint John the Theologian as a prefigurement of our most merciful protectress. As recorded in Revelation, the same sign appeared to him as a revelation when Saint John the Theologian, the mystic, saw the destruction of the whole creation, and there were, as it says, lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun."

So it comes from Holy Scripture. It's seen in the prophets also, but it comes from Holy Scripture. And St. John the Theologian bears witness to this divine reality that we have been given for our protection. Why did this sign that prefigured the Most Holy Virgin not appear earlier than the lightnings, thunders, voices, and earthquakes and hail, when all the elements were still calm, but rather during the most terrifying troubles in heaven and on earth? It was in order to show that our most blessed protector hastens to us to help us in the most difficult times. And when destruction has come upon us, she guards us from the deceptive shine of the briefly sparkling worldly vanity, from the voices of the pride of life and vainglory, and from the thundering of sudden enemy attacks, from the storm of the passions and from the hail falling from above that threatens to punish us for our sins. For when all of these perils are bearing down on us, at that moment, like a great sign, the speedy helper of the Christian race appears, guarding and protecting us with her invisible intercession.

The Psalmist says, "The Lord has given such a sign to those who fear Him that they may flee before the bow." For in this world we are placed as if targets for the shooting. The arrows fly at us from all sides, and some from weapons, others from our flesh which wars against the spirit, others from the bow of God's righteousness, wrath, and the threats of punishment, which Saint David spoke of: "Unless he be converted, his glittering sword shall he furnish, and he hath made ready the instruments of death. His arrows for them that rage hotly hath he perfected." That we will not fatally be wounded by all these arrows and might escape danger, a sign has been given to us—the protection of the most pure and most blessed. Covered as with a shield by her protecting veil, we remain unharmed by the arrows. For our protectress has a thousand shields to guard us, as the Holy Spirit said to her: "A thousand bucklers hang upon it, all armor of valiant men." Once David created a beautiful and high tower between Zion and the high mountain of Jerusalem below, which was called the daughter of Zion. On that tower were hung shields and all the weapons needed for the battle and defense of Jerusalem. Now the Holy Spirit compares the Most Holy Virgin to this tower. For she also, a daughter of David, is a mediatress between Christ, the head of the Church, and the faithful who comprise the body of Christ. She surpasses the Church because she is truly higher than all its members, but she extends up to Christ as one who gave Him flesh upon which hung mighty shields. It signifies her powerful prayers. For us were heard by those who were worthy during the vision of her honorable protection. She prayed with compassion as a mother to her Son and Creator, producing the following words filled with divine mercy and love: "O heavenly King, receive everyone who praises Thee and calls upon Thy most holy name, and sanctify every place where my name is remembered. Glorify those who glorify Thee, and honor Thee, Thy Mother, with love. Accept from them all prayers and pious vows. Deliver them from every evil and affliction."

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.