Sunday Homilies

St. Catherine Church

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A collection of homilies from services at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church.

2d ago

The Bodiless Powers

Temporarily Lower Than the Angels In today's Epistle Reading to the Hebrews, St. Paul says, “Thou didst make Him [the Son of Man] for a little while lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:7). Then, Paul immediately follows this statement up in the second half of the same verse with, “Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor.” Rightly understanding these statements by St. Paul is crucial for a correct understanding of the place and role of every human being in God's creation. In the incarnation, God did not unite Himself to an angel; He united Himself to the human race. In this union between Jesus's divine and human natures, the devil, his demons and most of the human race wrongly thought that Jesus was weak and vulnerable, that He was a victim of the Roman and Jewish leaders. While on the Cross, people mocked Him and spat on Him. This is what St. Paul was referring to when he said, “…for a little while lower than the angels.” In so many ways Jesus lowered Himself temporarily in great humility. He hid His divine power in order to willingly and lovingly accept death on a Cross. The ultimate irony is that through the Cross and death the Son of Man reveals Himself also as the Son of God and destroys death by His own death. As the Son of God, Jesus rises from the dead victorious over every human enemy: sin, death and the devil. As the Perfect Man and the new Adam, Jesus takes our human nature and glorified human body into heaven and enthrones them at the right hand of the Father. What seemed temporarily lower than the angels become “higher in honor than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim.” This is what St. Paul meant by “Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor.” The beautiful truth about the Gospel is that what becomes true of Jesus Christ by nature also becomes true of His Christian followers by grace. As St. Athanasios the Great said, “God becomes a man that man might become God.” Through Christ's saving work—His incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement—our human nature is united to the Son of God, saved from death, freed from the slavery to sin, taken into heaven and seated at the right of God the Father. Like the holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, because of Christ and through Christ, we, who were once lower than the angels, are now called and invited to become “higher in honor than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim.”
Nov 2

You Are The Body Of Christ

In today's Epistle reading, taken from I Corinthians chapters 12 and 13, St. Paul tells us what love is: It is patient and kind…rejoices in the right…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…never ends.” Indifference seems the very opposite of love. St. Paul said that doing “great things”, such as giving away all he had and even giving his body to the flames would gain him nothing without love. Worse, according to St. Paul, acts of faith done absent love made him “nothing”. It can be hard for us to address hatred in our hearts and deal with it, but it's not hard to spot if we're honest with ourselves. It's much easier for us to slip unawares into indifference. Indifference made Lazarus, from today's Gospel reading, the “invisible man” as he lay at the gate of the rich man. The rich man didn't hate Lazarus; the problem was that he never even really saw him in the first place. Indifference to our brother, our sister, our neighbor is to become the rich man of the parable. We do well to ask ourselves who might be invisible to us. We cannot love what we do not— or will not—see. A life of faith is the antidote to indifference because we are called to love, which is active bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring for the body of Christ and our neighbor. Love, far from mere emotion, will see a person for who he or she actually is, with what they bring to the Body, and might need from it. As we approach the Nativity Fast, let's take as fuel for the journey Paul's reminder to the Corinthians, and to us: “Brethren, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” The coming season of charitable fundraising, focusing on the need of our fellows—indeed, any season—can be for us a time of profit for our souls. Far from being indifferent, “Let us love one another,” as we say in the Divine Liturgy. Confessing our faith in love, we will see one another in this Body, His Church.
Oct 26

Orientation To God

Orientation To God
Oct 19

Sanctification

Bishop Gerasimos of Abydos (1910-1995) "No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, to shine its light on everyone in the house” (Mt. 5:15) The process of canonizing Saints in the Orthodox Church does not begin in a Diocesan office, not in a meeting of bishops, nor among a gathering of learned theologians but begins “from the ground up” with the people of God. They remember a holy man or woman who lived among them and was an example of Christian faith. The people begin to share and write stories of that person's devotion to Christ. They visit and pray at their graves asking for their prayers before the throne of God. Such is the story of Bishop Gerasimos of Abydos who devoted most of his episcopal ministry here in America and fell asleep in the Lord recently in 1995. He is remembered by those who knew him for the holiness of his life, his dedication as a spiritual father to a generation of seminarians, priests and bishops. While he has yet to be canonized as a saint, people pray at his grave near the chapel of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary in Massachusetts, and icons depicting him can be found in several churches. The future bishop was born Elias Papadopoulos in 1910 in a remote village in Greece to a father who was a shepherd and a mother who was illiterate. At age 18, after hearing a lecture about St. Alexios the Man of God, Elias left home and became the monk Gerasimos on Mt. Athos at the Skete of St. Anna. With the blessing of his elder, in 1934 he left Mt. Athos and began theological studies, not for the degrees, but from a desire to learn and use the theological treasures of the Church to help people. He was ordained a deacon in 1935 and a priest in 1941. In 1945, he was appointed Chancellor to Metropolitan Michael of Corinth, who would later become the Archbishop of America and bring Fr. Gerasimos to the United States. This occurred in 1951 when he was appointed Professor of New Testament and Chaplain at Holy Cross Seminary. In 1962, the saintly Gerasimos was consecrated Bishop of Boston, and later in 1967 was transferred to the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Bishop Gerasimos retired from active duties as a diocesan bishop in 1977 and returned to Holy Cross until his repose in 1995. During this 18-year period, Bishop Gerasimos continued to teach New Testament, live on campus among the students and mentor them as a spiritual father and elder. When he fell asleep in 1995, he was buried behind the Holy Cross chapel. On October 10th, 31 years after his repose, the incorrupt relics of Bishop Gerasimos were exhumed, clothed in new vestments and transferred from his tomb into the Holy Cross Chapel and placed in a glass reliquary for the faithful to venerate. Archbishop Elpidophoros, who presided over this solemn Service, concluded his remarks with, “Through his fervent intercession, may we all attain to the perfection of love and compassion, and fulfill the purpose and meaning of our own lives.”
Oct 11

The Garden of the Soul

There is nothing so precious and valuable in all the universe as the heart and soul of a human being. Our Lord Himself proclaimed, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8). This vision of God, referred to as theoria by the Greek Fathers, is the illumination of the soul that comes through communion with God's grace. God has created human beings with the capacity to have an intimate relationship with Him. This is why the Lord Jesus told His closest disciples, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:21). We have within us an entire interior world capable of becoming a temple of the living God just as St. Paul taught the Christians of Corinth, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you” (1 Cor. 3:16)? Life in the Church brings us into direct communion with God, especially through our sacramental participation. Each Divine Liturgy, for example, we are invited to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Through this holy mystery, we abide in Christ and He abides in us (Jn. 6:56). In a very real way, our interior world—the soul—is like a spiritual garden. The soil is the condition of the heart. The seeds are the truths of our Orthodox Faith revealed in and through Jesus Christ. All the commandments of Christ—like prayer, fasting and almsgiving—provide the nutrients and necessary protection for the health of the garden. All the things that could possibly harm the garden can enter through the mind and the senses. These must be carefully guarded and filtered, so that only the good can pass into this sacred interior world. Each Christian is responsible for his own personal garden. Watchfulness over our thoughts, the guarding of the senses, and constant repentance over bad habits and distorted thinking, actions and attitudes are the recipe for a bountiful spiritual garden. The fruit of this garden is purity of heart, intimacy and communion with God, love toward all creation, inner peace and joy, and everlasting life in God's kingdom.
Oct 4

The Golden Rule

Today we hear about what many have called the Golden Rule: “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” This statement from Jesus is talking about love. The other night at a GOYA Fireside Chat, a high schooler asked an important question about love: “How do we love others?” This question was offered to the whole group, including the Youth Leaders. Here are some of their answers: How Do We Love Others? 1. We forgive them, letting go wrongs and offenses committed against us. 2. We see the image of God in others, treating them like Christ Himself. 3. We sacrifice for others, always seeking their good, not our own good. 4. We imitate Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which means we study His life by reading the Gospels. 5. We do not give in to peer pressure and act like everyone around us but think for ourselves. These are awesome answers from high schoolers and young adults. The above answers actually reflect Christ's own teachings in today's Gospel. Jesus says that we should even love our enemies who do not treat us well. We should seek to do good toward everyone, expecting nothing in return on this side of life but a reward from God. Jesus also says we should imitate God His Father Who is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish and merciful to all. This is certainly how we should endeavor to live. This kind of selfless behavior towards others is like shining a bright light in the midst of the darkness. It is life-giving to those around us, and it brings us a sense of God's peace that dispels anxiety, fear, anger and other states of negative internal agitation. To love others in this way requires the help of God; we cannot love like this on our own. God must abide in us, and we must abide in God. Please allow me to close with the words of the Apostle John: “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn. 4:7)
Sep 28

Fishers of Men

Nowadays many people misunderstand God, if they believe in Him at all. Some may think of God as a “cosmic cop” who punishes the guilty and rewards the good. Others may think of God as someone distant and remote who doesn't really care or involve himself in our everyday life. Certainly, there are some who think of God as unfair and unloving, because he allows “bad things to happen to good people.” Sadly, ignorance of God's true identity and character can lead many to distance themselves from Him at best, and at worst, to reject Him altogether. God foresaw that many throughout history would have difficulty rightly understanding Him, so in the fullness of time, He came Himself in the flesh as a human being. God knew that if people could see Him in the context of everyday human life, interacting with people and subject to the same human challenges and limitations as every human being, it would be easier for people to correctly understand Him: His personality, His character, His decisions, and His relationship with all creation and particularly with us. In today's Gospel, we see Jesus interact with four Jewish fishermen of Galilee. We know from the ending of today's interaction that Jesus's goal was to invite these men to become His disciples and key members of His team of Apostles. How Jesus goes about accomplishing His goal is deeply revelatory regarding His true identity as God and His purpose as our Savior. Instead of using His overwhelming divine power to force Peter, Andrew, James and John to join His apostolic team, Jesus met these fishermen where they were at, on their own turf. Jesus gave Peter in particular a front-row seat to witness His divine authority and wisdom as He taught the people from Peter's boat. This gentle and subtle approach gave Peter time to open his heart through listening to the possibility that this powerful preacher of truth could be the promised Messiah. Next, Jesus invites Peter to go fishing, knowing that Peter and his three partners had fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus was setting up these professional fishermen to witness first-hand His divine power even over the fish of the sea. Despite the low human odds of catching any fish, Peter's nets are so filled with “a great shoal of fish” that they were breaking and Peter needed to desperately call his partners to come and help. Peter, Andrew, James and John knew this event was miraculous. Immediately Peter fell down at Jesus's feet and worshiped Him. No violation of human free will occurred. With gentleness, humility and sensitivity, God in the flesh used the familiar to reveal the mysterious. The fruit of this encounter was that four seasoned fishermen traded in their fishing nets for the “spiritual nets of apostolic evangelism.” Through this miracle, we and the whole world can see that God does not force Himself on us, but He is gentle and lowly, patient and loving. The God of the universe created us out of love, to participate forever in His love, and therefore meets us gently where we are at to lead us into a relationship with Him in our present circumstances and forever in His everlasting Kingdom.
Sep 23

Sunday After the Holy Cross

THE GOSPEL READING IS FROM MARK 8:34-38; 9:1: The Lord said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of himwill the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

A collection of homilies from services at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church.

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St. Catherine Church
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2026
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Sunday Homilies