Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

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

“When Christ, Who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory.”

We are destined for the Glory of God so long as we are in Christ.  The Glory of God is not only a destiny to which we are moving little by little, but it is the reality that is ours as we are in Christ.  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from Glory to Glory, . . . .” (2 Cr. 3:18).  And, what does the Theologian and Evangelist say?  “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2).  And, because of this destiny and reality, St. John says that “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 Jn. 3:3).  St. John reminds us – and St. Paul confirms – that if we commit sin we are, in fact, slaves to sin (Jn. 8:34; Rm. 6:15-23).  But, the Son of God took on our flesh and our lot – sans sin – in order to destroy the works of the devil and to take away our sins so that we may not sin (Jn. 1:29; 1 Jn. 2:1-2; 3:4-9).

Perhaps another way to say this – maybe what might be called a cataphatic angle instead of an apophatic one – is our Lord has come among us to promote God’s holiness and to rouse in our hearts and souls an ardent, unquenchable desire and love for the very righteousness of God in which we are being re-created as the new man (Ep. 4:24).  “’Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after,’” what?  “’[A]fter righteousness, for they shall be filled’” (Mt. 5:6).  Hence, the Evangelist and Theologian’s observation that “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 Jn. 3:3).  Indeed, Israel’s beloved King-Prophet says in his much-loved Psalm, that our God-Shepherd restores our souls and leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake through this valley of the shadow of death called the world (Ps. 22 [23]:3-4).  The untamed, wild passions that control us are, in Christ, now to be mortified, to be tamed, and made to burn with the fiery zeal, not of lust, but rather of love for God and love of neighbor.  

This we hear from our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ in today’s Holy Gospel (Mt. 22:35-46).  We heard last Sunday how love is the wedding garment we are to have on when the King comes to see us, the garment lacking in the soul of the one bound and cast out of the Kingdom into the weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 22:1-14).  Today’s Gospel follows just a little later in this same chapter as that of the parable of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is as though our Lord confirms what we have said: Love for God is the first and greatest of all the commandments and love of neighbor is like unto it, He says.  It is that upon which hangs ALL the Law and the Prophets.  Love, says the Apostle, is the fulfillment of all the Law of God (Rm. 13:8-10; Ga. 5:14).  It is the Royal Law, according to St. James, the brother of our Lord (Jm. 2:8).  It is the Law of the King and His Kingdom and all those who dwell therein.  It is the love of God and His righteousness and for His righteousness that supplants the love of those sins and passions identified by St. Paul in Colossians – the ones in which we used to walk, the ones that used to characterize us and describe us, that is, until we were baptized, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and His goodness, His righteousness, His incomprehensible and unsurpassable love.  It is this love, to use the Apostle’s words later on in Colossians, that is “the bond of perfection” (Co. 3:14).  It completes, unifies, and fulfills all the virtues we are to pursue and put on after we have put to death sins and passions.  This love our Lord describes and, indeed, enfleshes in Himself – and says even we can possess by the grace of His Holy Spirit – is all-consuming, all-penetrating.  We are to love God so thoroughly, so fully, so wholly, so completely, so perfectly, so absolutely that it takes our heart, our soul, our mind, and, yes, even our bodies (Dt. 10:12; 30:6; Mk. 12:30; Lk. 10:27).  Anyone who loves father, mother, wife, husband, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters, even life itself, “’more than Me,’” says our Lord, “’is not worthy of Me’” (Mt. 10:37; Lk. 14:26).  We make ourselves, then, a living sacrifice – a holocaust – unto God which is our true and spiritual worship (Jn. 4:19-24; Rm. 12:1-2).      

And the second, Jesus says, is like unto it: “’Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’”  Together, then, these two commandments encompass and sum up the entire Law and the Prophets.  However, it is not one or the other, but both together – intertwined like the infinity symbol (a figure “8” on its side).  To live by them is to live by all the commandments of God fulfilled in them.  “The love of God inspires the love of our neighbor,” says St. Gregory the Great, “and the love of our neighbor serves to keep alive the love of God” (St. Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome).  Our love for God is proven by our love and mercy for our neighbor, says St. Ambrose of Optina, even to the point of placing the blame for our neighbor’s shortcomings on ourselves and not on them, thereby putting to death in ourselves our sins and our passions through self-reproach and humility.  We cannot truly love our neighbor unless we first love God our Father.  And, we cannot love ourselves rightly unless we love God truly.  This is why the love for God is the first and great commandment from which flows love for our neighbor. 

So, when Sacred Scripture calls us, as it does today, to mortify and to put to death our sins and passions that assail and corrupt us, it is for the love of God and love for neighbor that we are to do so.  Our sins pain God and wound Him, and they pierce our neighbors while lacerating our own souls.  So, if we are to love God and serve our neighbor in all humility (which is what love does), then our self-love must be replaced by love for Jesus Christ Who humbled Himself and gave Himself up as a Sacrifice, even unto death on the Cross, “for us men and for our salvation” (Jn. 3:16-17; Ep. 5:1-2; Pp. 2:5-11; Nicene Creed).

The Apostle provides us with a number of passions and sins which we are to put away from ourselves, put to death in ourselves, since they work death in us and not Life Eternal.  These things do not glorify God Whose Glory is ours in Christ.  “[F]ornication (both premarital and extra-marital sex), uncleanness (having to deal with sexual appetites and desires and expressions of sexuality like the LGBTQ variations), inordinate affections or passions, evil desires (cravings for evil), covetousness or greed which, as Scripture understands it, is really idolatry or the pursuit of false gods be it people, places, or things, even ideas and concepts.  Some of the Fathers see covetousness as the root of these sins and passions, that is, we make gods out of these things, and they rule us.  St. Mark the Ascetic reminds us that “a passion which we allow to grow active within us through our own choice afterwards forces itself upon us against our will.”  It shouldn’t surprise us that the Apostle identifies the arena of sex and its varied perversions and distortions or disorderedness as something we must mortify lest they overtake us uninvited and unwanted.  Every culture has been lured into this arena by the demons, to one degree or another, to misuse this gift from God.  St. Anatoly of Optina tells us that the demon of lust will boast before all the princes of darkness that he has “provided Hell with more spoils than all the rest”!  Today, it appears to be what captivates our culture more than ever before, so it seems, and is driving us down paths we have not been down before at a rapidity we have not experienced before. 

St. Paul goes on to identify anger (habitual), wrath (explosive fury), malice (nursing grudges, cherishing ill-will, bad feelings over perceived offenses, real or unreal), blasphemy (unholy or irreverent talk or action, an egregious disdain for the sacred), filthy or coarse language with heavy sexual overtones, and finally lying to one another which does a grave disservice to the Truth for we are sons and daughters of the One Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and drives a wedge between us in which distrust, among other things, takes root and grows (Jn. 14:6).  This list, as elsewhere, is not exhaustive nor is it comprehensive (Ga. 5:19-21; Ep. 4:17-31).  But, if these sins and passions are not dealt with – and quickly, as St. Mark the Ascetic suggests – they will take us over, obscure the Glory of God in us, and drag us down spiritually into the dark recesses of Hell and death, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.      

So, what we are to do?  First, we acknowledge the manifold passions and sins at work in us or those that have taken us captive, repent of them, and confess them to our Father Confessor and receive God’s absolution, for starters.  Then, we go on the attack against our only real enemy that is the Devil.  Against him, say the Fathers, we should aim our anger and wield it as a sword, driving the sword into him up to its hilt!  And, we refuse to give quarters to those passions and sins (Rm. 13:14; Ga. 5:16).  For in this arena, there is no co-existence, nor can there ever be.  We cannot be friends of God while entertaining the devil and his delights. 

But, above all, pursue without reserve the love of God, the love for God.  There are some Fathers who suggest that if we concentrate our thoughts and efforts here – on love for God – seek it, feed it, nurture it, cultivate it, and fertilize it, its fire will consume the dross of our lives (St. Amphilochios Makris of Patmos).  This theological virtue of love – above all other virtues – is “the more excellent way,” the hallmark of the image and Glory of God, and it alone is unto ages of ages (1 Cr. 13:1-13).         

Finally, beloved, with the encouragement of all the saints gathered about us praying for us (Hb. 12:1), never surrender, never give up, for our God and His mercy and compassion and grace is far greater than our sins and always comes to the aid of the repentant and humble of heart.  God will not and does not despise such (Ps. 50 [51]:1-19).  Thus, do not lose heart, beloved, but hope in the Lord with Whom all things are possible (Rm. 8:28-39; Hb. 12:1-3).     

“When Christ, Who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory.”  [W]hen He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2). 

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

PROPERS:

Co. 3:4-11

Mt. 22:35-46