Read the article Memory Eternal to Igumen John (Scratch)

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

In the life of Father John, and his family, we have an example of the working out of what we have just heard in the Holy Gospel. It is important for us to remember this, and especially to remember the words of the Gospel, and the assurances of love that the Saviour gives to us. We, ourselves, must take confidence in these words of love in our living of our lives in Christ. The Saviour, no matter what, is always with us. He emptied Himself in His love, in order to keep us in loving harmony, and union with Him. Everything about Him, and His relationship with us, is about this love.

It is important for us to remember the life of Father John in this context, and the life of his whole family, because his inheritance was all about living in the confidence of this love. He was not the first person in his family to serve Christ. In his childhood, he was in China, and India because of his parents’ love for Jesus Christ. And the way Christians worshipped, and loved God in these countries affected him very much also. I think to a great extent his experience of his parents’ love for Christ, and of the love for Christ of Christians he encountered in other parts of the world, confirmed him in his own desire to serve Jesus Christ in this same single-minded, single-hearted way. That was, as far as I can recall, in my experience of him for about 25 years, completely characteristic of him.

He was full of the love of Jesus Christ, and wanted to serve Him, and serve Him only. He was willing to do what sometimes seemed ridiculous to other people, in order to be faithful to Jesus Christ, and to the truth about Jesus Christ. That is why he gave up everything, and came into the Orthodox Church, because of embracing the whole, full truth about Him who is the Truth, Jesus Christ. It was because of his loving obedience, even though there were plenty of difficulties, and he made mistakes like everyone else.

It is, nevertheless, because of his obedience, and his love that we, ourselves, are able to be here today in this place. It was Father John’s love for Jesus Christ that enabled him to gather people to establish one of the earliest English-speaking missions in the country, and then to do what was impossible. I don’t know that it is being done anywhere else yet – but by his prayers, and by his example, it became possible here: the re-unification of the Holy Transfiguration community with its mother parish, St Nicholas, to make our Cathedral community. For the most part, people got along reasonably well after that reconciliation, and a really life-giving, and strong community was formed.

When it comes down to it, it is also because of Father John that we are in this building, too. I’m quite sure that when this came up, if he hadn’t himself been so convinced by the Mother of God that this was the right thing to do when he was venerating the Kursk Root Icon of the Theotokos (as many know from his own words), I don’t think that we would be here today. And that is just as well, because if it were not God’s will, we shouldn’t have been here. It was also because of Father John’s love for Jesus Christ, and the joy with which he lived that love of Jesus Christ, that this Cathedral community is able to be such a family in Christ. If we are going to be faithful to his love for Jesus Christ, and if we are going to live following his example of living the love of Jesus Christ, then, making mistakes like he made mistakes, and repenting like he repented, we, ourselves, are going to do everything that is possible for us to maintain this community as a loving family even if it’s quite big. Being a big family like this is not easy. Sometimes it has to be in subgroup families in order to keep together. But the community still somehow has to be maintained as a family because the Lord would not have given it to Father John to make it this way if that were not how it is supposed to be, and if that were not what we are supposed to be doing in this city, in this diocese. It is as it is, because God wills it. Father John has been co-operating with that will, not necessarily always knowing exactly what he was doing, and why. Nevertheless, this is the fruit of his love of Jesus Christ.

He was a good father. He was a good father, and not just to his family. It’s a good thing for the rest of us to remember his example (especially fathers), and to do something similar, as well as we can. No-one can be Father John again, not even his children. No-one can be Father John again, because there only ever was one – God only created one of him, as He creates only one of you, and me. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be similarities, however. We can encourage each other by the example of our lives, and the memory of his good, Christ-loving example. Those of you who heard from him in his last week, heard how full of joy he was, even when he was faced with the possibility of a cancer (and everyone knows what his family already went through with Suzanne in that, and how it should have been awfully upsetting for him). By God’s Grace, and mercy, he was full of joy, full of peace, and full of acceptance of God’s will, no matter what it would bring about. He was radiant with joy, as people have been saying.

Well, isn’t that an example for us: how to be encouraged in our own difficulties, and struggles in trying to follow Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ was in him, facing everything he faced. Although he did not have an easy life, facing everything he faced, and enduring everything he endured, he was still able to be so effervescent with the love of Jesus Christ, so emptying of himself. Even the night before he departed, he was still emptying himself, serving , loving, and giving of himself one hundred percent to people around him, being the father that he was to everyone around, and like Christ, serving people all around.

The Saviour gave him this joy, this strength, this peace, this ability to face something horrible with joy, and with victory. And the Lord took him just like that, in the middle of the night. No-one expected anything. The Lord took him just like that. Well, how merciful can you get, because anything having to do with colon cancer is unpleasant, to make a real understatement. The Lord spared him, and his family such an ordeal. Yet we know by his love, by his faith, by his confidence in Jesus Christ, that he would have lived through that, he would have endured it as he went through everything – with love, and confidence in Jesus Christ, and with joy.

We are full of heartache right now, and we are full of tears, mixed with joy, in the Orthodox way. It can’t be otherwise, as long as we remember the fundamental: that the love of Jesus Christ, and joy in the hope of the Resurrection (which the texts are assuring us about), all have meaning. It’s not some sort of crazy, philosophical idea. It is reality. Father John lived, and lives that reality. We are following with him in the same path, loving the same Jesus Christ with him. We have him, with many others now, to intercede for us, and to support us in the work that we have to do.

Let us not get lost in the cares of this world, but let us remember him, his faithfulness, his love, and be encouraged, ourselves, to persevere in the same love. Let us allow the Lord to give us the same joy, the same strength, and the same sense of direction, so that when our time comes, we will meet him there in the Kingdom of Heaven, with all those others whom we love, who have gone before us, and who are glorifying the Saviour. With them, we will unite our hearts, and our voices in eternal praise of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, in the Kingdom, 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