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

In the course of our life it is quite possible for us to compare ourselves with the different sorts of seeds which fall on all different sorts of ground. We all pass through various sorts of temptations in our life. We are, overall, not so nearly faithful to Christ as we might be.

God is, nevertheless, a good Gardener with us, a good-hearted Gardener with us. Even if we are seed that is falling in shallow soil, or if we are seed living at certain times amongst weeds (and sometimes we are almost dead because of the bad conditions in which we are living), God in His mercy continues to provide new opportunities for us to get into better soil. He is so merciful, and loving. If we don’t succeed in the first planting, He often gives us many more chances to take root in good soil. Sometimes, in the course of our life, it is necessary to spend time upon rocks, and amongst weeds, and so forth, and be trampled, and suffer all sorts of other things before we are able to take root in the good soil. In the same way, some actual seeds have to be eaten by birds before they will germinate. Other seeds have to pass through forest fires before they will germinate. We are not so different from these sorts of seeds in the course of our lives.

What is important is to know that we are the children of God. We are members of the Body of Jesus Christ. He it is who created us. He it is who loves us. He it is who holds us up. He it is who brings us from place to place until we can find the good soil in which to grow. Very often I have seen that the good soil condition does not come until later in life. I have seen many people who have grown up being concerned about everything else except the Church, except Christ. I have seen those who have been coming to church just periodically, who have not been very serious about it, but who, in their late middle age have finally understood what it means to be an Orthodox Christian. They have finally understood what is the love of Jesus Christ. They have finally understood what is the joy of receiving Holy Communion, and looking forward to the next time. These people are always regretting that they did not know earlier. They worry about their children who grew up in the course of all this, and now think that their parents have become fanatics. The parents are not fanatics at all. The parents are people who finally know, and understand something about the love of Jesus Christ, and they want to share it. However, the apple does not fall far from the tree. Very often the children of parents who come to this understanding late in life will likely have to take their turn going through all sorts of hard knocks until finally, they, too, will come to an understanding, and experience of the love of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord is a merciful, loving Lord. He is eternally patient with us. We keep making mistakes. We keep betraying Him with our selfishness, and He keeps waiting for us like the Father of the prodigal son. He is there with us, nurturing us, guiding us (even if we cannot see it), giving us every opportunity to find our way to Him, and to His love. He is a good Gardener. You, and I are all members of the Body of Christ, and we are called with the same call to live in love with Him. We are called to live a life that expresses His selfless love – love which is not conditional in any way, love which gives life.

Each of us suffers from the same difficulties, and temptations in life. Ask any priest who hears confessions, and he will tell you that people are all more or less the same. Therefore, when we, who have the experience of the love of Jesus Christ, see the other persons in our midst struggling, having difficulty, falling or slipping, it is our responsibility, like God, and with God, to pray for those persons in order to help them keep faithful.

In order to live the Christian life well, the Christian has to learn to live in forgiveness, blessing those who persecute, and forgiving enemies. That is sometimes a big difficulty in this community, as I have seen, but not so different from any other community, if you boil it down to normal human experience. It is, nevertheless, important to forgive. How do you do it? People always ask that. People always have difficulty with it. It is the Christian way which must be followed if we are Orthodox Christians. We have to be able to bless those who are hurting us, and to forgive people who offend us or do worse to us. And the only way that I have ever heard of is to follow exactly the teaching of the Gospel as it is expressed by both St Silouan of Mount Athos, and Archimandrite Sophrony of St John the Baptist Monastery in England. They said that following the teaching of Christ, and His example, the best way to go about this forgiveness, and increasing the forgiveness, is steadily to say: “Lord have mercy” over and over again for the person who has caused an offense, for the person who has caused suffering. “Lord have mercy” over and over and over again. When we are saying this “Lord have mercy”, we are not telling God to do anything except to be Himself for the other person. When I am saying this to the Lord, asking Him to have mercy on the person who is a sort of enemy to me, the Lord does act towards that other person. He gives that other person the opportunity to repent, to change his way of life. He does show His love to that person.

At the same time that I am saying this simple prayer for the person who has hurt me deeply or who is hurting me deeply, I am keeping my own heart warm with the love of Jesus Christ towards that other person who has hurt me. When that person does come to repentance, it is possible for my heart to accept that repentance. It is possible to be quickly reconciled again without condition because God’s love is without condition towards us. He freely gives gifts, and especially forgiveness to me. so I have to give gifts freely to people around me. I must give forgiveness freely as well. There are no conditions on our Orthodox Christian love, no “I will love you if …”. It is simply: “I love Jesus Christ, therefore I love you”. That is all it can be for the Orthodox Christian. That is very much what was meant by St Seraphim when he said that we have to acquire the Holy Spirit. We cannot acquire the Holy Spirit without this love. The two things go together – the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the life, and activity of this love in, and through Jesus Christ.

On this very day may God grant all of us the ability to grow more and more in this love. May God grant all of us, as we worship our Saviour today, an increase of this love for Him, and for each other. May He grant us the ability to persevere through all the difficulties, living out that Russian proverb of “smiling through tears”. Orthodox Christians can do that paradoxical thing – smile through tears – because of the love of Jesus Christ. Let us ask the Lord to give us this gift of His love so we will have the strength to live for Him with joy, and serve Him in joy, glorifying Him together with His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America