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Homily ~ About the Impossibility of Secrets
"For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed"(St. Mark 4:22).
All secret works of man will be revealed one day. None of man's works can be hidden.
Judas thought to hide his traitorous agreement against his Lord, but the Lord discerned this agreement and declared it to his face. "Jesus said to him, 'Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?' "(St. Luke 22:48).
The Lord also discerned the hearts of the Pharisees and read their evil thoughts. "Why do you think evil in your hearts?" (St. Matthew 9:4). What kind of works, what kind of things, what kind of events in this world can be hidden from Him Who sees and reveals even the most secret thoughts of the hearts of men?
"For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed." Because of this we need to be fearful; because of this we need to rejoice. To be fearful - for all of our secret evil deeds, evil desires and evil thoughts will be brought out in the open. To rejoice - for all the good, which we have committed, or desired or thought in secret, will be brought out in the open. If it is not brought out before men in the open, it will be brought out before the heavenly angels. The greater the fear for sinners, so much greater the joy for the righteous!
0 Lord, Lover of mankind, forgive us our sins and do not make them known to our destruction and to the sorrow of Thy holy angels!
The Time of His (Second) Coming
"We ask for what reason our Lord was unwilling to state the time of His (Second) Coming (cf. Mk. 13:31-32). If we ask it, we shall not find it is owing to ignorance, but to wisdom. For it was not to our advantage to know; in order that we being ignorant of the actual moments of judgment to come, might ever be as it were on guard, and set on the watch-tower of virtue, and so avoid the habits of sin; lest the day of the Lord should come upon us in the midst of our wickedness. "
- St. Ambrose of Milan
"The Lord often said to His disciples, 'Watch and pray; for you do not know at what hour your Lord is coming' (Mt. 24:42)... For the demons... are immaterial and sleepless, concerned only to fight against us and to destroy our souls through word, act and thought. We lack a similar persistence, and concern ourselves now with our comfort, and with ephemeral opinion, now with worldly matters, now with a thousand and one other things. We are not in the least interested in examining our life, so that our intellect may develop the habit of so doing and may give attention to itself unremittingly. "
- St. Peter of Damascus
Christ and this World
"The world is very frightening for him who does not know that God rules the world and that He has the authority to hold it in existence as long as He wills and to return it into non-existence whenever He wills. But, to him who knows that, the world is not frightening.
Compared to Christ the Lord, this world is as a fabric woven of weakness itself; while in Christ the Lord, there is not a single weakness. To him who does not know that, the world is frightening and he who knows that, has no fear of the world.
The world has loaned us a body and because of that it wants to acquire our soul. How can the world overpower us if we stand as soldiers of the Conqueror of the world?
The Conqueror of the World gives us weapons for the battle. By His example, He teaches us how to fight it, reveals the hidden enemy, shows us the path of attack and retreat, holds us with His hand, protects us under His wing, feeds us by His Life-giving Body and more, He encourages us by shouting: 'Take courage!' Brethren, what then can the world do when its defeat is sealed with the victory of Christ?
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- St. Nikolai of Ochrid, from the Prologue
On the Flesh and Thoughts
"In the war of the flesh, only turning our back saves us—that is, we must flee from fantasies and thoughts as soon as they appear. Do not linger at all in order to examine or to converse with fantasies! The imagination is a great and terrible snare; things avoided by the eyes and touch are approached with the greatest of ease by the imagination. "
- Elder Ephraim
Reflection: "Why did the Son of God appear on earth in a human body and not in another form of creation?"
"If they ask why did He not appear in some other better form of creation, for example: as the sun or the moon, or the stars or fire, or the wind but just as a man? Let them know that the Lord did not come to show Himself but to heal and teach sufferers. For, to reveal Himself only to amaze the viewers would mean to come for a show. It was necessary for the Healer and the Teacher, not only to come, but to serve for the benefit of the suffering ones and to reveal Himself as such so that this revelation would be bearable for the sufferers. Not one single creature was in error in the eyes of God, except man alone: neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the sky, nor the stars, nor water, nor wind did betray their ranks but, on the contrary, knowing their Creator and their King - The Word [The Logos], they all remained as they were created; only human beings separated themselves from good and replaced truth with deceit, and the honor belonging to God, as well as the knowledge about Him, they transferred to devils and to men carved out of stone [idols]. What is, therefore, so unbelievable in this, that the Logos [The Word - The Son Of God] appeared as a man to save mankind? Indeed, even as we ask the unbelievers of our day: In what form would you wish God to appear, if not as a man? "
- St. Athanasius the Great
On Ascesis
Ascesis helps, of course, when the body is strong (Ascesis means prayer, fasting, prostrations, vigil), but when it is weak, thanksgiving and self-reproach make up for ascesis. Overall piety and vigilance are everything; they are the true marks of a soul living in Christ. When these are absent and one practices ascesis one-sidedly, either he benefits little or he is totally lost because he becomes puffed up by the praises of others as well as by his own thoughts. Without watchfulness—that all-embracing light of the soul, inestimable in value — he loses his labors. This is what happened with many ascetics in the desert, and they literally lost their souls, as we read in the writings of the Desert Fathers.
Ascesis is depicted by the Fathers as the leaves of the tree, while vigilance is the fruit (Abba Agathon, vid. The Philokalia, vol.lV, p.199). By their fruits you shall know them (Mt.7:16) — it is fruits that we have been commanded to bear. May God enlighten us how to walk, for true guides have vanished and everyone walks his own way. May God be a true guide for all of us.