Orthodox Sermons & Articles

Dear brothers and sisters, in His Gospel sermons our Lord Jesus Christ was constantly calling all humankind to salvation and to eternal life. This great blessedness begins already here in our earthly lives, through the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom [He has] sent, the Savior of the world.

To know God does not mean to see the Divine Being, Whom, according to st.Paul, no man has seen or can see. The Holy Church teaches that God’s Being is Light-bearing and Inaccessible, and upon Whom the orders of angels dare not gaze. It is even more impossible for a sinful person to see His Face.

The vision of grace, to see God’s glory, was granted to great and righteous men -- the prophets Moses and Isaiah, the Holy Apostles Peter, James and John -- on mount Tabor during the Transfiguration of our Lord; the Apostle Paul, at his call to apostolic service, and other great saints of the Church.

But the Lord grants all men the opportunity to know Him through faith and a pure heart. He calls such people "blessed and happy": Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. However, man only attains a partial spiritual knowledge and vision of God. The Lord Jesus Christ taught that God’s Light-bearing Being is known perfectly only to he...whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

In His Gospel, Christ the Savior, the Son of God revealed for us God’s Attributes. He says that God is Spirit, that He is our True Father, Creator and Providence. He truly loves us and sent His Only-begotten Son for our redemption and salvation from Sin and the Devil. God directs our paths towards salvation. But from the very beginning of Christianity there were some people who could not understand that God cannot be measured by our mind, that we cannot know everything about His being. Those groups of people strove to explain the Divine Plan even when it was impossible because of mystery. Those people taught that Jesus was not the Son of God before all ages. They doubted that fact that Jesus is true God of true God, as we sing in the Creed. One of them taught even that Jesus was not a real man but just a ghost. 

Those people are called heretics, because they strove to lead away all their people from Jesus Christ. Their teaching was influenced by pagan’s teaching about their gods. Gentiles knew everything about their gods, because their gods were a result of their own imagination. If they doubted something, they'd change whatever they wanted to change. Christianity did not know such attitude to Jesus Christ. Every Christian knew and knows that God had given us everything we need for our salvation. There are some difficult to understand places in the Bible, but it does not mean that we can explain it in our own way, in way of our imagination. It is why we had Ecumenical Counsels in our Church -- to explain to all people teaching of the Church all bishops gathered in one place in order to make decisions about teaching of the Church. As I mentioned before, heretics’ teaching was influenced of gentiles’ teachings. It had happened after edict of the Emperor Constantine the Great in 312 A.D. when Christianity had become  legal religion. Many pagans entered the Church but they did not leave their old beliefs. Many of them mixed it up with their new Christian religion. Therefore, the Church needed the decision about the right teaching. The Holy Apostles, the Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and Teachers, placed everything true and saving into the Church as into a great treasure-house. The Holy Church offers Christ’s salvation in her teachings and in the Holy Sacraments without which man cannot be saved. In order to receive the Gifts of Grace of Christ’s Sacraments, the Holy Church demands firm faith and pious life. All Christians are called to know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (according to Ap. Paul to Romans 12;2).

Dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Church commands us to strengthen our piety by reading and listening to Holy Scripture, from which we receive a saving knowledge of God and His Divine Will.

In the day of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council let’s thing about inheritance we received from them -- true faith, true belief, true worship. They had fenced our Christian’s community with fence of teachings, they had taught us how we must believe and live if we want to be  saved from eternal death. Their Creed, where all truths of Christianity are gathered, we sing during the Liturgy. Therefore, let’s be thankful for that, let’s live as Christ asks us to live, let’s confirm our faith by reading the Holy Scripture. May our true God and Savior Jesus Christ bless all of us with His Divine Blessings to understand and to fulfill His Divine Will. Amen.