In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

People who have known me for a long time, along with my sisters, and brother, will admit that I was a geezer long before my time. Because I have been a geezer for such a long time, I have a sort of a nostalgic wish that on a day like today, when the readings are like they are, it would be possible to talk like they used to talk in the old days about the Scriptures. That means to pay attention to all the really good things that are in them – like for an hour or two. However, this is North America, the 21st century, so I don’t get to play that game. That’s good for you, because I would put you to sleep probably in the process.

Nevertheless, I’ll try to say as briefly as I can what, I think, the Scripture has to give to us today. When I was young, and I would hear the Gospel that was read today, I used to think: How could that rich man ignore Lazarus who was sitting right under his nose there every day? He was being taken out on his litter (it was not like driving in a Cadillac nowadays, or some other sort of big car where you can have tinted windows, turn up the radio so you can’t hear or see anything, and pull some curtains). In those days they were being carried around on a sort of a stretcher thing with a chair on it. It would be hard to ignore people who are sitting right in front of your nose, with no radio, nothing – just the noise of the streets, and the sellers all around. How could the rich man ignore Lazarus?

The fact is, though, as I have grown up, I have understood that human beings are quite capable of ignoring all sorts of things that are right under their nose (just as I do, I find, as I have grown up). It is interesting what you learn as you grow up, and the perspective that comes in life as you grow up. It was easy for a rich man like Dives to ignore others. It is interesting how like him we can be: interested in ourselves, afraid of what’s out there, afraid of what’s around us, but mostly, self-preoccupied. I’m sure that this rich man, Dives, was such a self-preoccupied person. How would he be so different from anyone else, anyway? When you become very rich, and everyone is bowing, and scraping to you, and everyone is doing this, and doing that for you, you begin to think that the world turns around you. In a sort of a way, you never pass adolescence in that respect. You think that everyone owes you, instead of paying attention to what is out there, and what you owe them, too.

Everything about the readings today that the Lord has given us are about what sort of a life a Christian is supposed to live. A Christian life has to be open. It has to be selfless. It has to be open-handed. It has to be open-armed, as I was taught many years ago, in the way Christ is open-armed to us, and has been open-armed to us always. This was so especially when He was crucified on the Cross, with His open arms embracing us who were killing Him at the same time. It is true. That was His attitude from the Cross when He said: “Forgive them” from the Cross. His hands were nailed to the Cross voluntarily. He was not forced. He was voluntarily crucified for our sakes. He has been open-handed with us at all times. We go crying to Him for everything. He is giving us everything.

Then we have the nerve to say: I did it myself. I’ve got my career. I’ve got my house. I’ve got my everything. We forget that Christ is the source of it all. That’s how we so easily, so quickly, turn in on ourselves. Yet in His open-handedness, He is always giving to us, always meeting our needs, binding up our wounds, comforting our sorrows, mending all of our wounds, tending our “boo-boos”, spiritual, and physical.

Sometimes, I suppose, we are grateful, However, we are not nearly grateful enough. Really, in living our Christian life every minute of every day, we have to be filled with a sense of gratitude for God’s love, for His provision for us, and for the ability to be able to co-operate with Him. Freely He gives to us. Freely we receive. Freely we also have to give. We have to be ready to give everything: not just money, but ourselves, and everything that we are. We can’t have this sort of mentality, this sort of readiness, unless our hearts are somehow prepared, unless we are renewing, and refreshing our love in, and for, and with Jesus Christ every day.

Here in the seminary, where studies are very demanding, I remember (sometimes too well), that the demand is so intense that it is easy sometimes to let go to the side those moments of daily, regular prayer, Scripture reading, and so forth. We say: Well, I’m going to hear the Scriptures in Matins anyway; I’ll just skip looking at it, myself, today. However, the problem is, that if I skip looking at it, myself, today, before I come to the temple, my heart isn’t prepared to receive them. If I haven’t said at least some sort of basic good-morning prayers to the Lord when I get up, my heart isn’t prepared to receive what’s coming in the chapel, and in the services. Even if it is the most basic thing, it opens the door to the heart just a little bit, and prepares the heart to receive what the Lord is going to give. If I read the Scripture ahead of time a little bit, then the Lord will speak to me what I need to hear to survive today. That’s the whole point.

It’s really important, therefore, in order to keep the heart prepared, not only to receive the Scripture for the day, but also to receive everything that is going to be taught in that day, and everything that is going to be read in that day. The heart has to be warmed up slightly at least, in the morning. It has to be opened up, and readied to be in communion with the Lord enough to hear Him say to me what I have to hear today in order to be more who I am supposed to be. All of this study is part of it, but it’s not just an intellectual exercise. All of the study that is going on in this seminary is a whole life experience. There is nothing that we are learning here (even in all of its technicalities, and refinements of meaning), that is not applicable to everyday life sooner or later. It is applicable here in our discussions with each other, and also when we leave here, and we are going to be confronted by various sorts of persons who want to know what is Jesus Christ, and Who is Jesus Christ to them. Our hearts must be prepared, and ready.

Metropolitan Leonty, of blessed memory, was a man different from the rich man today. He was dead before I ever came along in these parts. Some people remember him from their youth. Amongst us there are people whom I know who have known him for a much longer time: Father Sergei Glagolev, Father John Nehrebecky, Father Vladimir Berzonsky, and others. Just this week Father Sergei was reminiscing about being with Metropolitan Leonty in the Bowery. It’s so long since I have been in that part of New York that I don’t know what it’s like anymore. People are telling me that it’s getting “yuppy”. I remember that it used to have Hell’s Angels, and all sorts of alcoholics everywhere in those days. Metropolitan Leonty went out on foot very often when he was living at the Cathedral, there in the Bowery. Sometimes Father Sergei Glagolev would go walking with him. (I’m pretty sure Father Sergei will forgive me for telling this story, as he tells it quite freely himself.) Metropolitan Leonty, as he was going along, had a purse with him, and to anyone who was asking for money, he was giving – not lots, but he was giving. At one point he said to Father Sergei: So, you don’t approve of what I am doing, do you? Father Sergei knew that he was caught, and said: Vladyka, you know that I think that they’re just going to drink. Metropolitan Leonty said: Yes, I know you think that. It’s entirely possible. However, the thing is, that I am not responsible for what that person will, or won’t do. If he asks, I have to give. I can’t condemn him, or judge him according to what he might or might not do. (I am now paraphrasing Metropolitan Leonty.) If I am giving openly like this, and freely like this, then maybe there’s some hope that he will use it in the right way.

What’s interesting about this is that I heard exactly the same story from Archbishop Gregory about his uncle in New York, and other places. So, we have before us this sort of attitude about non-judgemental giving – just giving openly, and freely to whoever asks, as the Saviour says in many places. There’s life going with this giving. There’s love, and me going with this giving. There’s my prayer, at least “Lord have mercy”, going with this giving to the person who has been asking, and is receiving. By the act of giving, by this act of open-handed love in sharing with this person just a little bit, comes an opportunity for the person. People are always free to receive in the right spirit or to abuse, and to betray. It’s their business, and their problem.

It’s the same thing with everyday life, too, as we experience it here, in this seminary. This seminary is not just some sort of ivory tower. It’s real life in this community, as it always has been. Here, and everywhere, we Christians give openly, and with love, ourselves to each other. We serve each other in Christ, like Christ, as for Christ. We do all of this. Sometimes temptations grab another person, and the person who has been receiving this love, and this trust, and this openness so freely, betrays that trust. You get a stab in the back, a stab in the heart, a stab in a few places. So, when that happens (and it does happen all through life), how do I respond – how must I respond in Christ?

I can’t retaliate, because Christ never retaliated. I have to be very careful about being bitter, and bearing anger, because both of those are deadly poisons for the soul, for the heart. I have to do what Christ did, and does. He says from the Cross: “Forgive them”. I have to learn in His love to forgive the person who betrays, and stabs me, as the Lord forgave Judas, too. The Lord forgave the Apostle Peter for his betrayals. The Lord forgave the Apostle Paul for his over-rambunctious, over-zealous persecuting of Christians, and turned him completely about.

The Lord’s forgiving love does wonders. I have to be careful not to take onto myself the responsibility that is not mine for how someone else misuses the gift of love towards me. If someone misuses the gift of love towards me, and betrays my love, and my openness, and my sincerity – that is that person’s responsibility before Christ to answer. It is that person’s responsibility, period. My responsibility is to make sure that my heart stays clean, and pure towards that person. I, in Christ, have to be able to pray for that person, as Archimandrite Sophrony, and St Silouan say. I have to say at least: “Lord have mercy” repeatedly for that person. In doing this, I am offering that person to Christ in the hope that that person may yet see the error, turn about, and repent.

Everything in the Christian life is about giving. Even if we all make mistakes, still we must give ourselves in Christ, with Christ, openly, and lovingly, and unreservedly. This offering must be with no strings attached (unlike the American teabag). There must be no conditions – only the love freely given of Jesus Christ which we share, and in sharing, glorify Him, together with His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America