27th Sunday after Pentecost; Ven. Sabbas the Sanctified

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. So here we are in the middle of our Lenten period for preparing for Nativity. And clearly the Holy Fathers, when they organized the lectionary and the Typicon for preparation, shocked us, and they also assigned readings that are, I think, appropriate to the fact that we are in a preparation mode. And of course, the most important part of this preparation should be attendance at the Divine Services. However, it’s also—we in our homes particularly try to make efforts in prayer and in fasting. And fasting, of course, is not something that’s, for spiritual reasons at least, it’s not something that’s common in Christian life, I think, these days. However, there’s this understanding that when we fast, that is, deny ourselves with regard to eating—and in the Holy Orthodox customs, of course, we deny ourselves meat and dairy products in particular—that there’s an understanding that in a sense it weakens our passions. That is, that we are—and it makes us more receptive to the Word of God. And the weakness often is felt in a physical way, but the reality is that we separate ourselves from the pleasures of the flesh, and in separating ourselves from the pleasures of the flesh, we are better able to attend to the things of God.

And today there’s an epistle from St. Paul today from the Ephesians. It says, “My brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” And St. John Chrysostom makes little comments—actually, it’s quite a commentary on the—I should say—I’m picking out a few here. And the whole question of what are wiles? He says, “For this enemy is at war with us, not simply, not openly, but by wiles. What is meant by wiles? To use wiles is to deceive and to disrupt by cunning and invention.”

So very, very clearly St. John Chrysostom sees this struggle as a spiritual struggle. And we, of course, in our modern society, I think, have found many ways to seal over the inner conversations that we have. And so people are very—it’s very hard to listen to the conscience and to hear the conscience instructing us and guiding us and warning us when we’re in danger of falling into the hands, as it were, either through our thoughts or our feelings, of the evil one. And so this idea that the demons, the devils are active—and I think that it’s another thing—we’re in our contemporary mode. We do not see this as much. We don’t think of it that way. We don’t think of the demons attacking us. We’ve blocked that out. But St. John Chrysostom says that they deceive us and disrupt by cunning invention our thoughts and our feelings.

And so, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness.” And St. John says, “What are these?” The conflict lies in the heavenly realm. The struggle is not about riches nor about glory, but about being enslaved by the powers of darkness. And this enmity, this hostility is irreconcilable. And it is not that the evil powers gain anything by their conquest, but their only purpose is to despoil us. In short, there is evil and we must stand unwavering against evil powers.

Now I think that this is not a very commonly thought theme in modern society—namely, that the woes that we suffer and the difficulties that we suffer are from the devil, literally, and from evil. And what’s fascinating is that the powers of evil—it’s not as though they’re gaining a reward. There’s something in it for them. It’s simply the powers of evil are attacking us. And not to divert from the text, but it seems pretty obvious to me that we are in a time in our society, throughout the world, really—it’s not just America, it’s everywhere—where the powers of evil and darkness are working their evil mysteries and attacking the hearts and minds of men and women throughout the world and deceiving us. They’re deceiving us.

And so St. Paul says, “Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” That is, having done all, to stand. And St. John mentions the question of chastity. And chastity isn’t just a physical matter. Chastity is a matter of the heart and the inner workings of the mind. And I know that—I’m sure that all of us at times are afflicted even by evil dreams and so on that attack our chastity. And so we need—the correction of this is purity of heart. And so the question, of course, is how do we achieve purity of heart? And by walking on the path of God’s Word, which establishes the peace that passes all understanding.

So here we have the Word of God as the essential weapon that we need to push back these huge and remarkable temptations. And obviously we are blessed in our Holy Orthodox Church to have the Word of God so prevalent throughout the divine services. Obviously our divine services are made up of the Word of God or commentary on the Word of God. And so we are able to have this profound blessing of being wrapped up, as it were, in God’s Word during divine services. But what do we do at home? What do we do at home? Do we actually immerse our minds in God’s Word in such a way that that Word, which is filled with power—this is the great mystery of the Church—is that Word is not a system of concepts alone. It is certainly concepts and very clear concepts. But actually when we read the Word of God, we put ourselves in a position where His grace and His love and His divine energy shines on us. And this is the very, very unique thing about the Word of God.

In fact, many passages that we find in the Gospels seem as though they are kind of worldly instruction, but if you dwell upon them you realize that actually they are worldly instruction for those who can only see the surface of things. But if you dwell on it, you discover that there is a great mystery behind the words, and that mystery reveals itself ineffably, namely without words, by pouring the grace of God into our hearts and minds. And so as part of our preparation for the mystery of the birth of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ—and then something that should be continued throughout the year—we need to read and dwell upon the Word of God. And we can begin by keeping the lectionary, which is online everywhere. One can just click on their little phone and up comes the readings for the day. And so we need to dwell upon the Word of God in this manner.

And so he goes on and he says, “Stand therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” And here again, the girding of the waist with truth is chastity, and the breastplate of righteousness is purity of heart. And having shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel, it is walking on the path of God’s Word, which establishes the peace that passes all understanding. And taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts. And what is the shield of faith? It’s this never wavering faith—a faith that remains intact always in confrontation with the powers of darkness. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God again. Always measuring our thoughts according to the Word of God, which is the sword of the Holy Spirit. Reading each of the lessons appointed by the Holy Church. Being always with prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Being watchful for this purpose with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel.

So here St. Paul is saying, “Be watchful, continuously praying throughout the day and the night for our families and our clergy and our brothers and sisters in Christ.” Amen.