Month: May 2024

A SERMON FOR PASCHA 

Archpriest Sergiy Baranov

Church of the Iveron Icon, Iveron Monastery of Orsk

05.05.2024

 

Christ is Risen!

A week before this glorious and great Day, there was Lazarus Saturday and the Lord told His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus died.”¹ It has always been that this theme of death has always produced shiver, protest, and great disgust among people. However, all of a sudden, one of Christ’s disciples, who anticipated somewhere deep inside of his intuition the change of the flow of all being, said a very strange phrase, “Let us also go, that we may die with Lazarus.”²

Despite everything that humankind felt towards death, all its disgust, fear, and protest, this disciple suddenly said this. I suppose, he did not realize deeply what he was saying, but he suddenly said, “Let us go and die.” It was a week before the Glorious Resurrection of Christ, and the disciples, through the Holy Spirit, had this presentiment of the change of attitude towards death. Before, the point of death was so fatal, so dark, there was a black hole behind it. Suddenly, the Resurrection of Christ changes everything. There, beyond this point of death, appears light. And one can see the point and hope there. At that moment, all Christians felt that this paralysis, this fear of death changed dramatically into something different. The first Christians, who lived in the first century and who saw Christ and heard Christ, (perhaps, some did not see but heard about him from His close disciples) all at once change their attitude to death and go to amphitheaters themselves and take their children with them. “Where are you hurrying?” “I hear they are torturing Christians there.” “You should not go there, you should go the opposite way. You will only find death, and fear, and horror, and filth of death there.” But she goes that way… “Where are you going?”  Her attitude to death changed, and she takes her little child, a little Christian, with her.

How a person’s mind should turn upside down to make the most horrible theme change dramatically. The theme of death ceased to be frightening, horrible and paralyzing to goosebumps and chills all over the skin for Christians. This theme suddenly became full of meaning and the point of death moved forward. It turned out, the whole meaning dwells beyond this point. It appears that our short life before this point will pass in a dash and we will not even mention it. There are people in their venerable age standing at the church now. They can tell us, “It seems to me, I haven’t lived yet. Only yesterday was I a little girl, and then, a young lady, and a woman, and now I am an old crone, and I cannot do anything about this.”

If Christ did not break this meaning, did not change this point of death – the closer death is, the deeper is the desperation, the more chilling fear you have, Christians would have never opened out their shoulders, stood up straight and looked bravely into the face of death.

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”³ We heard the words of St. John Chrysostom tonight. The Resurrection of Christ defeated everything. It changed things drastically. Christians ceased to fear death and it became a part of the meaning of our lives.

Light and hope appeared behind the point of death and the Kingdom of Heaven that is there. We should live our short life without wasting it. We should not burn, run or lose. We should live it the way that will allow us to pass into eternal never-ending joy. If we inherit it like Christians, if we cease to fear death, as Christ defeated this fear in us, we will even desire death at the end of our life to meet Christ sooner.

When the great St. Gregory Palamas was dying, he faced his death bravely and calmly and his last words were, “Above, above, to Christ.” If our going to church will not change us in this meaning, then we have lost our time, we have gone to church in vain, because nothing changed in us. Let us look up to Christ, Who passed it, giving us His example. When a child is afraid, his father goes and gives him his example. He says, “Follow me, do not be afraid. Look, son, I am going first.” This is how Christ did. He passed the gates of death first and death did not hamper Him. He passed it without stopping at this point. And suddenly, one Christian, and then one more, and more followed Him. Then, the Apostles, who feared a lot, feared that much that even betrayed their beloved Teacher, something changed in them. One decided and passed this point, and death did not hamper him, and then there were more of them. Hundreds of thousands of the first Christian martyrs passed through this point and did not stop there. They went further, into the Light.

Today we celebrate the great triumph of life over death. Life defeated death. Life is Christ and there is no other meaning in it. Life is Christ. Christ is the meaning. Christ is power. Christ is victory. While everyone of us can take part in it, having taken hold of Christ with both hands. Only with Him we will pass through it and win.

Glory to our God, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages! Amen!

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¹ Jn. 11:14, 11:11 (“Our friend Lazarus sleeps.”)

² Jn. 11:16

³ 1 Cor. 15:55

WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? FROM HIS CHILDHOOD

Archpriest Sergiy Baranov

14.04.2024

 

Today, the first Gospel was about how a man brought his son to the Lord to have him healed. The son suffered from possession by demons. And there is such a detail… his poor father, who is worn out with suffering! Don’t you agree that it is better to be ill yourself than to see how your children suffer from illness? Do you? The greatest sorrow is when one’s children are sick or, God forbid, when one buries his children. Therefore, this father, worn out with suffering, comes to the Lord and says, “I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.1 Now I am asking You to help us with this sorrow and to release us from this trouble.” To which the Lord asks him, “How long has this been happening to him?” The father of the sick young man says, “He has had these fits of possession since his childhood.”2

We understand the reason for all our diseases. When Adam and Eve lived in Heaven, they did not fall ill. They did not suffer. They enjoyed their peaceful and quiet life. They worked and cultivated Heaven. They were in communication with the Lord. They knew neither sorrow, nor oppression. But after the Fall, people begin to fall ill and die. Thus, we all realize the reason for our sufferings. It is sin. 

When we come back to the question of the Lord, “How long has this been happening to him?” and the answer, “From childhood,” we have a question at once. “Well, he is only a child. What sins can he have? He was born a little while ago. He had no time to commit anything.” Please, hear what I am going to tell you now. It is not about the fact that he was born recently and had no time to sin. A child participates in a sin before he is born.     He develops during the nine months in his mother’s womb and lives by her feelings. He experiences everything that his mother experiences. He is connected to her not only with the umbilical cord but also with all his nerves and the entire power of his soul.  Everything that his mother experiences during these nine months, he experiences too. Does she become angry? The baby is angry too. Does she envy? He envies too. Is she being proud? He does it too. Everything that is present in humans after the Fall is present in the mother during the nine months and she involuntarily passes this on to her child. It is not by chance that there is a spiritual tradition in the Church, that when a mother becomes pregnant, from the very first week when she feels there is life born inside of her, the man and the woman go to sleep in different rooms, so the child does not feel and experience anything. It is not easy but feasible. Our ancestors used to live this way and it can be done.

A child should be nourished with peace, serenity and prayer at maximum. A mother receives the Eucharist and the child receives it as well because they have a united blood circulation and nerve system bound through the umbilical cord during this time. This is why, not only from his childhood, but also from before he is born, a child already takes part in sin to the full extent. He experiences everything, all the details, particulars and nuances of a sin. This is why, when a child is born, we look at an innocent baby, no one has taught him how to sin, he has never seen it read or learned about it, but he is already laying and beating with his little legs and arms, demanding what is due to him and fussing. He does not behave properly because he already has all this sin, he was born with this sin. His mother has given him her blood type and her damaged blood; she contaminated him in her womb. She contaminated him. Both the mother and the father did. 

Pay attention to this, even the Apostles could not heal him. In today’s Gospel, this poor father says, “Why couldn’t Your disciples cure him?”2 In today’s Gospel, according to St. Mark, it is said that “this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting”4 Meanwhile, in another Gospel, the situation is described more precisely. The Apostles said in bewilderment, that they have already worked many miracles, and suddenly failed that time. They came up to the Lord privately and asked Him, “Why could we not heal him?”5 To which the Lord gave them a deep and accurate answer, “Because of your unbelief.”6 And then He says, “this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” Disbelief… 

The absence of faith is cured by prayer and fasting, in other words, by spiritual life. I would say, not only by prayer and fasting, but by the entire spiritual lifestyle. Sometimes we approach the mystery of faith so naively. It seems to us we walk in a Church and we are already faithful. Test your faith at the point of sorrow. Your faith will fall to pieces. When we do not understand God, we say in desperation and even in contradiction to God “Why? I am asking You!” At this moment, our faith is tried. You believe in God only at favorable times but what about the moments of sorrow? Your faith disappears like vapor at once. It means this was not faith. It was something very relative and unstable.  True faith always remains faith both at the moments of happiness and sorrow, and when you do not understand God at all. You do not understand God but you believe Him, you believe that He sees the situation better than you and that He is Great Love, Goodness, and Wisdom, and that everything is in His kind fatherly hands. It is not that simple to have such a faith. Such faith is acquired through sweat, sorrow, and blood.  

The more a person has endured, the stronger his faith is. It is not by chance that the Lord says the following words when He appeals to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”7 The bearing of the Cross will test and strengthen your faith. You cannot convince yourself to believe, but you can deceive yourself thinking that you are faithful. However, at the moment of sorrow and desperation, your faith will vanish. Faith is a miracle. Faith is a mystery. It is when you cannot explain what it is and how it has come to you. You just state the fact, “I believe. Lord, I strongly believe.” But before this point, you cry all the time at Church like that father, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”8 It means that I have some preliminary faith, but the final faith will come to me only through Your grace. You will send Your Holy Spirit, and He will enlighten me. What will happen to me? I do not even understand what it is. But I will become a convincingly believing person. “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” My faith needs Your participation. My part of faith is very unstable and unreliable, this is why, Lord, help my unbelief! Unfortunately, we can speak about this only with sorrow and tears, and we can have this state even if we go to Church for fifty years.  Fifty years, sixty years, our whole life.  Our faith is often imperfect. We believe today and we do not believe tomorrow. We trust in God in one situation and do not trust in another. 

Therefore, if God visits you, a miracle happens! You believe simply, without thinking, explanation and going into philosophy. I believe! And one can go further to the Cross and death with such faith. Such faith is like a foundation. It is unshakeable. Lord, give us faith! It is so easy to live with faith. I do not say that sorrows do not exist in the life of a faithful person. It is a fantasy if someone thinks that when a person is baptized and goes to Church, every sorrow and trouble passes by him. They can even be more in number! One’s attitude to them changes. You simply believe that if God sends you this, it should be so. And the Lord will warm your heart and strengthen you, and you will endure, you will bear it all and go further. There are such sweet words! Not just Jesus, but Jesus the Sweetest, save us! 

1 Mt. 17:16

2 Mk. 9:21

3 Mk. 9:18, “I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

4 Mk. 9:29

5 Mt. 17:19, “Why could we not cast it out?”

6 Mt. 17:20

7 Mt. 16:24

8 Mk. 9:24