On July 31, on the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the six Ecumenical Councils, St. George parish family had a nice liturgical celebration. Divine Liturgy in our temple was served by our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:
“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate 7thSunday after Pentecost, as well as Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the six Ecumenical Councils. Last week we celebrated memory of Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir who introduced Christianity in the lands of our ancestors”.
“The Gospel reading of this Sunday tells us about giving sight to the two blind men and healing of the man possessed by a mute demon”.
“Holy Fathers of the Six Ecumenical Councils in the course of several centuries (from the 4th until the 7th century) were working on defining the true Christian faith, were spelling out what orthodoxy means and in what we must believe in order to be saved. Following all these times in history, only in the 10th century, our common ancestors, the people of Kievan Rus became the followers of Jesus Christ and confessors of the true faith. The greatest role in that played by St. Vladimir, the ruler of the country who by the Divine Providence could choose among different religions the true faith and holy tradition of the Eastern Church. As his troparion says, he was seeking good pearls and found a priceless pearl – Jesus Christ”.
“Thus, dear brothers and sisters, today we speak about the true faith. The true faith is knowing the true God. And as Christ proclaimed in His prayer to God the Father, knowing true God gives eternal life. It also makes people seeing spiritual truth. While in today’s Gospel our Lord gave physical sight to the blind men who begged Him to have pity on them, acceptance and professing Christ gives all the people spiritual sight. Thanks to the Holy Fathers we may know how to use that sight and how to set it in a right direction. Thanks to St. Vladimir our Ukrainian, Russian and other people, the heirs of Kievan Rus’, stopped to be spiritually blind. True faith also makes people free from slavery to the evil one. While today’s Gospel tells about freeing a man from a mute spirit, acquiring and learning true faith sets us free from evil and from any wrong spirit or error. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” – says the Lord (Jn. 8, 32). Thanks to St. Vladimir our people renounced the idols and came to know the truth, came out from the darkness and blindness of paganism and received the light of Christ”.
“In our days many people tend to lose the truth and the light of Christ. Many wrong and false teachings overspread the earth. Statistics says that more than a half of the American people believe in reincarnation, believe that a human soul may live many times in different bodies. The teaching of Christ totally denies that. But many people who formally belong to Christian denominations privately believe in that heresy. Many today’s people believe in astrology, tend to admit that the stars and planets can rule our lives. All these people look like blind or possessed by demons. They may search for the truth, but look for it in the wrong places. They are not seek the truth in the right place because they are blind or possessed. They find something which seems to be the truth for them, but they are unable to make a right judgment. Even formal membership in the Church may not help them because they lack awareness and firm faith”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Only by the grace of God we may come to the truth, embrace the right belief and acquire the spiritual knowledge of God. Only by the light of our Lord Jesus Christ we may stop being spiritually blind. Only by the power of Christ we may be freed from the slavery to our primal enemy. Let us then appreciate and hold firmly our true faith, faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, faith defined by the Holy Fathers of the Councils, faith brought to us by St. Vladimir, faith which teaches us the truth, faith which is our eternal life”.
During the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector had a petition for the suffering country of Ukraine and its people. He also added a commemoration of the “suffering Ukrainian land” at the Great Entrance.
The choir director nicely performed Psalm 33 and Theotokian hymns during preparation for Holy Communion.
After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector greeted our parish Treasurer and altar server Emilian Suric on the occasion of his name day, the memory of the Holy Martyr Emilian wishing him God’s blessings, fervent intercession of his heavenly patron and many years. Traditional Polychronion was proclaimed and Theotokian prosphora presented.
