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

The Christian way is, and always has been the way of self-sacrificing, self-emptying love, and St Seraphim of Sarov, whose feast we are celebrating today, is an example of just this kind of love. I saw, in fact, an example of just such an elder last summer when I was in Romania in the Monastery of Petru Voda.

There’s an elder there, Father Iustin, who is eighty-seven by this time. He hears more than a hundred people’s confessions every day. He gets up with the other brothers for the morning services which start at about 4 o’clock. They don’t end until about eight. In the meantime, there are people lined up outside his cell, and he leaves the services early to go, and start hearing confessions, and talking to people. He is hearing them all day. He goes to other services in the middle of the day. He goes back, and hears confessions some more. Then he goes back again to church for vespers, and then he goes back to hear confessions all the way up until midnight. He goes to the midnight service with the brethren, and after that he goes to his cell alone for two hours, and that’s his life. You see what I am talking about – no ordinary human being can do this sort of thing.

St Seraphim, we are told, was living like this at the end of his life. He was no spring chicken. It’s not as though he were twenty when he was doing these things. It’s not as though his health were perfect because you know by his icons that he was all bent over after he was nearly killed. He was not, you could say, in robust physical health, but the Lord gave him the strength, and the energy, as He gives this Elder Iustin to do all these things, and to be the mouthpiece of the Lord’s love, and forgiveness to the people who are coming to him in need.

The Lord wants you, and me likewise to live in this kind of loving relationship with Him because this loving relationship with Him enables the forgiveness that all of us need to give to all kinds of other people in our lives. There is no-one among us who does not need to forgive someone, sometime, practically every day. If not every day, all of us have to be ready to forgive in Christ someone, somehow (and sometimes many persons have to be forgiven in this way). The fruits of living in this love, and in this forgiveness are seen in the life, the witness, and the example of St Seraphim of Sarov. They are also given in the lives of other holy persons, some of whom I have mentioned.

Just so you know the great confidence I have in St Seraphim, and in his intercession for us even to this day, at our recent Diocesan Assembly, there were various kinds of problems that could have been difficult to talk about at that Assembly. Our Metropolitan was coming. People had had an unhappy experience with him at the previous Assembly because he wasn’t feeling well, and they had never met him before. So, somehow everyone was nervous of everyone else after that Assembly. The Metropolitan at that time thought that he wasn’t welcomed by us, and our people thought that he wasn’t welcoming us. It was a huge misunderstanding. St Seraphim’s relics came to this recent Assembly because on the new calendar, his feast happened in the middle of the Assembly. The Divine Liturgy that the Metropolitan presided over was on the feast of St Seraphim, which we are celebrating now, thirteen days later. (So much has happened since that last Assembly only thirteen days ago that it feels to me like about two months ago.) Anyway, the Metropolitan had decided that instead of coming for just one day, he would come for the whole Assembly. He didn’t know what he was going to meet when he came to us. Our people were surprised that he was coming for the whole Assembly, and they didn’t know what to expect from him. He was suffering very badly from sciatica in his left leg. He fell, I think, in Holy Week, and did something to his back. He has this nerve problem, and it’s giving him lots of pain. The Metropolitan was quite uncomfortable, and there was plenty of potential for more misunderstanding.

However, through the intercessions, and interventions of St Seraphim, the whole Assembly was peaceful, and joyful from beginning to end. The Divine Liturgy on Thursday went beautifully, and peacefully because the relics of St Seraphim were with us all the time. People were able to see the warmth of Metropolitan Herman, which is truly there, and he was able to see the respect, and the love for him of the people in this diocese. The mutual forgiveness, reconciliation, the whole experience of reconciling love was enabled by our dear Father Seraphim’s presence. That’s what I’m talking about. St Seraphim is truly a unique saint but he is not alone in his love for Jesus Christ. Many others, following a different path, have exhibited similar fruits of this love – this reconciling, forgiving love in Jesus Christ.

It is important for you, and me to remember that it is this reconciling love in Jesus Christ that has to be the foundation of your, and my Orthodox Christian way. All of us have to learn how to live in this love: to offer our pain, our sorrow, our angst, our fear, our everything, to the Lord by saying: “Lord have mercy” as St Silouan, and Archimandrite Sophrony said. Just saying: “Lord have mercy” over and over again, offering our anxieties, our pain, and our everything to the Lord, brings healing to our hearts. He brings healing to our difficult relationships. He brings healing to everything, and restores joy, and peace amongst us.

This parish has the privilege of having the relics of St Seraphim here all the time. It is really important for you to remember to keep turning to St Seraphim for help in living your Orthodox Christian life. He is there, still, with love to pray for you, to support you, and to bring down to you, and to me the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and the love of Jesus Christ. He will help us all, that we may imitate the life of Jesus Christ, and glorify Him also, 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