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

On this day we are hearing the Gospel about Lazarus, and the rich man. Lazarus sat outside the door of the rich man for many years, and the rich man had many daily opportunities to give to the poor, because the poor man was sitting right under his nose. In those days, when a rich person would go out from his house, he did not go out in a Mercedes with dark windows, and with curtains so that he could not see. In those days he went out from his house carried likely in a chair by his servants. Maybe there were curtains, but they were curtains you could see through in those days because it was hot where Lazarus, and this rich man lived. Every day, this rich man could see, and hear Lazarus asking for help. Every day he did not give help.

This lifetime in which we live is our time for doing good for each other. It is part of what God gives us: to do good for each other. It is by what we do for each other that God is going to measure us in the end when we come to the end of our life. When we come before His throne, He will say: How did you love me? What are we going to say? If we never give to the poor, if we never care about each other, the Lord will say (as He said in another parable): “Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me" (Matthew 25:45). But if you were good to those poor people, those suffering people, those needy people, then He will say: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40). We cannot be Christians, and just say: I am a Christian. If we are really Orthodox Christians, we must do something with this faith of ours.

Our faith is not just something in the head. It is in the heart. It is our life. The Orthodox Christian way is the way of life. That’s what made Russia become Russia; it’s what made Ukraine become Ukraine; it’s what made Byelorus become Byelorus; it’s what made Greece become Greece; and Romania become Romania; and Serbia become Serbia; and Bulgaria become Bulgaria, etc. That is what made those countries what they became: different countries from the places we are living in here, and now. That is what made those countries become places where people know the right way to live, the right way to behave, and how to look after each other (even if they’re not perfect). No-one is perfect. Not even Russians, and Ukrainians are perfect – although they really can be good. They do know how to care for people. When someone is on the street asking for something, the Orthodox Christian who is properly formed, knows he must do something.

Metropolitan Leonty of our Church, who died about 1963 or 1964, was born in Kremenets, in Ukraine. When he was in North America, his wife died, and he became a monk. Then he became a bishop, and later on a metropolitan of our Church. He was well-known, because in New York City, our cathedral was in a very poor area. Now this neighbourhood is becoming “yuppy” – more fashionable. However, in those days, it was very, very poor. One of our priests was talking to me (about three weeks ago) about his memories of Metropolitan Leonty. He said that the two of them were walking out on the street one day, and Metropolitan Leonty had a purse. He always carried a purse. In this purse he always had coins to give to people who were poor. He gave them. He said to this priest as they were walking along the street: You don’t approve of what I’m doing, do you? The priest knew he was caught because exactly, he did not approve, and he said: Well, Vladyka, you’re right. Metropolitan Leonty said to him: You think that they’re going to drink this money that I give them, don’t you? He replied: Yes. That’s what everyone says; that’s what I think is probably the case. They’re going to spend it on drinking. He said: Well, Father, I’m not responsible for what they do with this money. If they ask, I must give. I am not the judge. Christ is the Judge. If they don’t use the gift well, that is their responsibility. It is my responsibility to give.

Metropolitan Leonty was a very holy man. Before some of you younger people die, he should be on the calendar, I think. He always had in his pockets sweet things for children. He was a very special person. Of course, parents are not so happy to have their children eat sweet things, but he was loving them, and being sort of an uncle or grandfather to them, and they loved him, too. To confirm this story about Metropolitan Leonty, another retired archbishop of our Church, Archbishop Gregory, who was born in Kyiv, said that his uncle always told him that you have to have money in your pocket to give to the poor. This uncle always did, and Archbishop Gregory did, also. He talked about it in order to remind us younger ones to pay attention.

We are responsible for what we give. We are not responsible before Christ for what someone else does with the gift. I am not a social worker. I am not a psychologist. Many times I have given to people with exactly those same fears, because everyone talks about it in North America – they are going to drink; they are going to buy drugs or whatever. Many times when I’ve been thinking along these lines, I gave, and they ate. I saw them go, and eat. I’ve been put to shame.

The Tempter is always coming to you, and to me to try to take us away from the right way to live. We Orthodox Christians here in Canada have been brought here to Canada, because Canada is a country that used to be not too bad. Now it is really getting lost. People are forgetting everything, and especially, they are forgetting about the way of Christ. It is important for us, who are Orthodox Christians, to remind them, to show them by our life what is this right way. Many of them used to know it, and when they see us, they are encouraged again to pick up their Christian life, to repent, and to follow Christ in the right way. Nevertheless, we are the Orthodox, and it falls on our shoulders, this responsibility to be in this Canadian society the yeast, and the salt (cf. Matthew 5:13; 13:33) that Christ is talking about, because He loves this country. You people, Orthodox Christians who immigrated here, have a responsibility to share this faith. When the very first Orthodox Christians came to Canada (mostly to western Canada over one hundred years ago), even before they built their homes, they built the church. They lived in a “borday” (sod house) first before they built the church. When they had built the church, they built their own houses. They had their sense of priorities right.

It’s important for you, coming to this country a hundred years later, to have your priorities straight, too. Why am I saying all of this? The answer is found in St Paul’s words this morning to the Galatians. St Paul said, as it were: I am not preaching something that someone had thought up. I am not preaching something that I thought up. I am not preaching something that is the result of my reading. I am preaching Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead. He revealed Himself to be the Son of God. God, Himself, revealed the Holy Trinity on the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, and on the Feast of Pentecost. The Holy Trinity was demonstrated: one God, Three Persons, on these two feasts, and other times, too. We know for certain, at the time of the Baptism, that the Father said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He shows Himself to people. He shows Himself to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, and many more times in his life one way or another.

Christ shows Himself to Orthodox believers in every century, in every country in which people are believers up until now for the past two thousand years. Christ shows Himself to each of us. He shows Himself to each of us sometimes by a personal appearance (that is not so often), sometimes He lets you see Him, Himself. Very often He shows Himself through an appearance of His Mother in one way or another. He shows Himself very often in the goodness of human beings who do good for each other because they love Him. We are carriers of Jesus Christ. When we were baptised, we put on Christ. We were baptised into Jesus Christ. We died, and rose in Christ in the water of baptism. We put on Christ. When we are doing these good things (like helping someone who is in need or giving sweet things to children or doing other things that God moves us to do that people need), we are sending to that person the love of Jesus Christ with the good thing that we are doing, and we are showing Jesus Christ in ourselves, too, to the person who is receiving.

Even on Sunday morning, we are standing here, and we are supporting each other as we stand here worshipping the Lord. We are giving Christ to each other. As we come to receive Him, He gives Himself to us in His Body, and His Blood. He gives Himself to us, also, in the hymns, and prayers that we are singing, and saying. He also gives Himself to you, and to me in the mutual love, and support that we give to each other. Jesus Christ is truly among us. Jesus Christ is truly alive among us. It is important for you, and for me, Orthodox believers, to live in this way, because Jesus Christ shows Himself to you, and to me. He tells you, and me: I love you. I am with you. I am protecting you. I am helping you. We are able to love Him. He is to you, and to me a Brother, a Father, a Friend. He is all of this, and much more to us. However, the relationship between you, and me, between us, and Jesus Christ, between us all, and God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one of love. It is not about mental activity (mental activity explains, sometimes). It’s about love.

Every spiritual Father, and Mother from the beginning has talked about the relationship between themselves, and Jesus Christ in this way. It is all about love. When St Seraphim says: Acquire the Holy Spirit, it is, again, all about love that he is talking. Otherwise, why would he, at the end of his days dress in white, and say to everyone: “Christ is risen”. Why would he say that if it were not because of love? Everything he said at the end was about Jesus Christ risen from the dead, and His love. Healing came to people through St Seraphim because he was full of this love himself. It was the same way with the Fathers of Optima, and other Fathers, and Mothers all over Russia, Ukraine, and the Orthodox world. You, and I have a big work to do here in Canada, but it is primarily a work of love, glorifying Jesus Christ in our whole lives, 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