“ORTHODOXY AND TRUTH”

Your Eminence, beloved brother in Christ and co-celebrant, Archbishop Spyridon of America,
Holy brothers, Your Eminences and Your Graces,
Beloved and blessed children of the Church and of our Modesty,

Glory and thanksgiving to our Lord and God Jesus Christ, Who loves mankind, Who grants us today’s encounter within the Divine Liturgy.  This encounter is full of power, because the whole Church partakes of it.  All of our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection unto eternal life are with us.   For in the Divine Liturgy, we live out the mystery of the unity of all who believe in Christ and the union of all creation.  Indeed, we live in the mystery of the end of time and of the timeless, eternal kingdom.  The Pre-Eternal Logos of God is present with us.

This is the mystery of mysteries.  It is the recapitulation of time.  It is the unity of all in Christ.  It is sensing of that which is beyond all sensation.  It is the assurance of things unseen.  It is the blessedness that exceeds time and space, as we in precisely this time and space, celebrate the Divine Liturgy in this holy church.

This sensation is not a false impression or feeling, but the incontestable reality of our experience — the true faith.

Our faith is not just the priceless deposit of true Christian teaching.  It is this, but not only this.  It is the complete personal belief in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has called us “friends” and “brethren.”  The Lord calls us to the banquet of His kingdom, and we must accept the invitation with complete and utter faith in Him.  For the Lord desires to lead us above, in accordance with the measure of our faith and belief in Him.

The Divine Liturgy is more than a simple service.  Neither is it an opportunity for a weekly encounter on the basis of purely social or personal relationships.  It is participation in Mystery which sanctifies the world and fills us with divine grace.  In order to understand and live this mystery, we must realize two things.

First, we must accept that we must change; change in accordance Christ, Whom we put on and with Whom we were clothed through Baptism.  When you accept this change through divine grace, you are empowered to live in the fullness of this great mystery.

Second, those who participate in the Divine Liturgy must worship the Lord in the right and holy way.  True worship is in full accord with the words of  the Lord Who said that the true worshippers should worship God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

And indeed, the Lord Himself is the Truth! (John 14:6).  Consequently, to worship the Lord in truth is to worship Him as is fitting.  And to know what is fitting and proper for Him means we must know Him.  This knowledge first arises in our hearts, as a desire to know him.  But if we desire to know the Person of Christ, we must know His Body, that is, the Church — and this includes the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church.

The preservation of the truth, the true belief and faith in Jesus Christ has the utmost significance for the Orthodox Church.  These are not simply obscure details, but the guarantees that our faith will be correct, or way will be straight and our lives will be righteous.

Beloved children in the Lord,

We have come from the Mother Church to this new country to celebrate with you the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.  For these many years, under the spiritual guidance of each of your Archbishops, Bishops, priests and many teachers of the faith, you have preserved your Orthodox Faith.  You have raised up Churches.  You have founded schools.  You have performed deeds of love and philanthropy.  You have lived your lives by Christ and as faithful children of the truth.  Your love for the Church, your former and your new country, and toward your fellow human beings is very much alive and self-evident. 

However, you live in a world which holds the view that Christian truth is not important.  It maintains that to be ethically good is enough.  Certainly, ethical goodness is necessary, but we say unto you with all our love and as simply as we can, that the Lord desires that we worship Him “in spirit and in truth.”

Therefore, in this first Divine Liturgy in America, we have spoken to you of the necessity of truth, together with love and all the other virtues.  However, there is another reason why we have spoken this way today.  This is the sixth anniversary of our Modesty’s election by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the lofty service of the Ecumenical Throne.   As you well know, the first duty of the Ecumenical Patriarch and of every Bishop is to vigilantly and rightly interpret the word of truth.  We ought to, therefore, on this anniversary, honor our responsibility and in a fatherly way exhort you to give greater attention to this theme of truth, for only by truth is our faith made firm.  The Lord came into the world, as He Himself said, to witness to the truth (John 18:37).  The knowledge of His truth liberates us from the darkness of ignorance and error.

May our Lord, the only truth, send down on all of us and on the entire flock of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and on the whole Orthodox flock world-wide, His Holy Spirit, to guide us, His faithful, into all truth.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.  Amen.