St. Paul writes to us in his Epistle to the Galatians, concerned about those who are putting their trust in the Law (again) instead of their new-found identity in Christ, given to them at baptism. Having put on Christ in Baptism and become a new creation, they are turning back to reliance, and that’s the […]
21st Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Unmercenary Saints
Today is the Synaxis of the Holy Unmercenary Healers or, as they are called in some traditions of the Church—“Physicians without silver”, which still has a resonance in our day. As Americans, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars treating our illnesses and diseases each year and hundreds of billions on prescription drugs that treat […]
20th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man
It’s no secret that we live in an age where most people assume they’re good and automatically going to heaven. Misconceptions about heaven abound. This is particularly troubling from the perspective of the Gospel’s commands that the Kingdom of Heaven means life with and in God, participation in the divine life of the Holy Trinity, […]
19th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Parable of the Seeds
Our Lord presents us today with a parable about how we receive His Gospel. He compares us to the seeds sown here in this parable—some fell on the wayside, some on the rock, some among the thorns, and some on the good soil. As we dig deeper, we come to realize that the ‘seeds’ in […]
18th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on First Fruits Giving
Today, St. Paul challenges us with this elemental truth of the Gospel—that “he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.” We’re presented today with an opportunity to consider our attitude toward giving of ourselves, our abilities, our resources, to consider how much we give back to God from that which He’s so greatly blessed us. […]
17th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Agape
Today we’re challenged by Christ to “love our enemies.” But before we can begin to understand the “how” of Christ’s command, we have to understand what He means by love. There’s a lot of confusion today about the meaning of love. While everyone recognizes that love is good, what often passes for love is not […]
16th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Being Fishers of Men
We see before us today another miracle of Jesus Christ that bears particularly and personally on your faith, on my faith, and on our church. Christ once again reveals Himself as God incarnate. The Gospel is opened for us today to reveal the calling of Christ’s foremost disciples: Peter, James, and John. Christ doesn’t call […]
Sunday After the Elevation of the Cross – Orthodox Homily on Denial of Self
Brothers and sisters, as we celebrate today the leave-taking of the Great Feast of the Cross, we’re once again confronted with the paradox of our salvation: the instrument of Christ’s death has become the means of His victory over sin and death. The cross is, in the theology of the Church, “the trophy invincible, the […]
Great Feast of the Elevation of the Cross – Orthodox Homily on the Cross
We remember today the re-discovery of the cross of Christ in Jerusalem, whereby the Empress, St. Helena, on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, discovered with God’s help the cross of Christ, the nails that pierced His precious hands and feet, and pieces of the crown of thorns, which she then brought back to Rome and […]
13th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Incarnation
Happy New Year! The new Church year began September 1 and on this day we begin the celebration the first Great Feast of the ecclesiastical year on this the Fore-feast of the Nativity of the Most-Holy Theotokos. And so, with the advent of the new ecclesiastical year and this first Feast, we’re presented by God’s […]