Bog se javi!

God is revealed!

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In today’s Gospel we hear that Christ is leaving for Galilee upon hearing that Saint John the Baptist had been imprisoned. He then begins His public ministry in Galilee with the message “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Why does our Lord retreat to Galilee upon hearing of John’s imprisonment? Why does he not confront those that would persecute Him from the start? Saint John Chrysostom and the Blessed Theophylact provide the same answer to these questions. Our Lord withdraws to Galilee to teach us to protect ourselves by not going out to meet with temptations or to put ourselves into danger.

The Gospel says that Christ departed to Galilee, which means rolled down. It says that He dwelt in Capernaum that translates to house of comfort and consolation. The Gospel then states that this is in the region of Zebulon, meaning nocturnal, and Naphtali, meaning broadening. This shows that Christ not only came into the world for the Jews but, also for the Gentiles. Thus, Christ went to the Gentiles who were rolled down in sin by dark and broad ways of life that lead to destruction as a comfort and consolation to them.

Christ did the same for us. We need to ask ourselves do we want to walk on the narrow path to salivation by following God’s Law or walk on the broad path that will lead to our own destruction.

Saint Matthew says that Christ’s coming to this region was to fulfill the Prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 9:1) showing that Christ is the fulfillment of prophecies. This prophecy says that the people of Zebulon and Naphtali that were sitting in darkness saw a great light. The most oblivious understanding of this is that they see Christ coming to them. The deeper meaning of the great light is that the Law of God has been brought to them by Christ. This is a great challenge for us. We who have accepted Christ into our lives are also responsible for sharing that Great Light with others. At times we do not realize the darkness that exists in the lives of the people that are close to us. When we share our faith by the examples of our lives we help bring the Light of Christ to those around us.

It was not until Saint John the Baptist was arrested that Christ began his public ministry. This was because John was a prophet who prepared the way of the Lord by bearing witness to Him. Blessed Theophylact says that this is in the same manner as servants make preparations for their masters.

Christ’s preaching was that of a simple message “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repentance or the changing of one’s mind and being to God; is to change and live a life of virtue. Living a life of virtue is to live an angelic life. In living an angelic life the kingdom of heaven is made manifest within each of us. When the kingdom is made manifest within us and is made manifest to the world around us.

Repentance is probably the most joyous thing that we can do in our lives. This is because we become free. We are no longer enslaved to our own self-seeking, selfish will. Selfishness and self-seeking is at the heart of each and every one of our sins.

What we do through repentance is to return to our created image and likeness which is to be in the image and likeness of God. That means that we are in harmony with God and His Law. All that we do is in Harmony with God. We live in obedience to Him.

We no longer make choices based on ourselves because we know what the right thing is to do. There is no question in our minds to do anything else but that right thing; to act in harmony with God. It is through this obedience to God that we obtain joy, peace and serenity in our lives.

This simple message of repentance is given to us now by the Church to remind us that we are about to start the Great and Holy Fast, Veliki Post. It is hard to believe that in a few short weeks we will be preparing for Christ’s Resurrection. The first message that we receive to prepare for the Great and Holy Lent is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So my dear brothers in sisters in Christ-
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent for Christ came into the world for the salvation of all men as a little child.

Repent for Christ was baptized by John in the Jordan that the Trinity was made manifest.

Repent for Christ came to those that sat in darkness that they might see a great light.

Repent for Christ is going to his voluntary Life Saving Passion.

Repent for Christ is crucified for us men and our salvation.

Repent for Christ is Risen to grant us eternal life.

Repent to end a selfish self-seeking life.

Repent to live in harmony with God.

Repent to bring joy, peace and serenity into your life.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Amen
Bog se javi!
God is revealed!

Delivered on Sunday after Theophany 2012 by Protodeacon Fr. Milan Medakovic at St. Stephen’s Serbian Orthodox Church, Lackawanna NY

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ today is Serbian Children’s day. Today the third Sunday before Nativity we start our Serbian Christmas celebrations. On this day we practice two traditions; tying and remembrance. In the home the children are bound or tied by their parents. In order to regain their freedom the children give presents to their parents.

Tying and remembrance are common to all three pre-festal Christmas celebrations in the Serbian home; Children’s day, Mother’s day and Father’s day. That which is to be remembered today is all the holy children of God. We remember their innocence. It is this type of innocence that that is needed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord reminds us of this in the Gospel of Saint Matthew “Truly I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) And again “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come to me: for such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)

The tying or binding aspect reminds us of the bonds of family. The binding of the children reminds the parents and the children how they are bound together as a family. It also reminds the family members that they are united with the present and the past. Generations are united by the tying aspect of this tradition. This is done by uniting the present generations with the past generations that kept these traditions. The bond also reminds us of the mutual bonds of love and respect that should exist within the family.

The loosing or untying is done with the exchange of gifts which is the final symbol of love and devotion between the family members. All gifts are given on these three Sundays. No gifts are exchanged on Bozic or Nativity because on that day we receive the greatest gift of all our Lord God and Savior Jesus who came into to the world to free us from the bondage of sin.
In today’s Gospel we are given an example of a child of God; a women who has been bent over for eighteen years. In her we see a different type of binding than we saw in our Christmas traditions. She has been bound by her affliction. Our Lord releases her through His love for mankind.

Jesus sees this woman who is bent over. She cannot lift herself up. She cannot see the faces of those around her or look up to the heavens. Afflictions, such as her’s, are a result of the consequence of our ancestral sin; the sin of Adam and Eve. The consequences of this ancestral sin are those that man brought upon himself; all sickness, physical death and man’s inclination to sin.

Jesus moved by compassion goes over to her. In her state she cannot present herself to Him to be healed. Her state is such that she doesn’t even know that He is in her presence. This is important for us to realize because sometimes we can be in a place in our lives where we cannot see God acting in our lives but, He is still there. We need to realize that in this state God will act giving us an opportunity to get out of this state of being too clearly see Him. All we need to do is embrace that opportunity. Sometimes that opportunity may be difficult to see as it was for this woman to see when she was about to be healed her affliction.

Our Lord calls out to her “Woman.” He does not use any other term to call her. He does this to acknowledge her humanity; to acknowledge her as she was created to be in the image and likeness of God. This is what she is underneath this affliction that binds her humanity. This is what our Lord is about to restore her to; her intended image in the likeness of God.

When we sin we bind ourselves and inflict damage on our souls. Our souls become sick. Our souls are bound to the evil one and the world. When bound by sin our souls cannot raise themselves up to gaze upon our Lord let alone ascend to be with Him much like the women in the Gospel.

Our Lord wants to unbind us from the affliction of sin in the same manner as he unbound the woman of her affliction. This is why He instituted the Holy Mystery of Confession for us when he said in the Gospel of St. Matthew to His Apostles “Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18) Our God loves us so much He gave us this Holy Mystery to free us like He freed this woman and how we untie our children in our Christmas tradition out of love.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ as we prepare for the Nativity of Christ through our Serbian custom of tying and loosing or binding and unbinding let us recall that it is our own sin that binds us and it is God who frees us. Let us remember that through coming to church and receiving the Holy Mystery of Confession we are freed from all of those sins that bind us up and block us from God. It is through Confession that we are restored to our intended created humanity and freed just as this woman was restored and freed of her affliction.

Amen

Delivered on the 27th Sunday after Pentecost 2011 by Fr. Milan Medakovic at St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church, Steelton, PA

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ today we heard the familiar parable of the sower in the Gospel (Luke 8:5-15). This parable has much to say about how we should live our lives.

In His explanation of the parable to His disciples, our Lord describes the seed as the Word of God (Himself) and the soil as various types of souls. Most of us at some point of time in our lives have had to prepare soil for a garden or a flower bed. The preparation of our souls to receive the Word of God, the incarnate Word of God, the seed in the parable, is very much like the preparation of a garden or a flower bed.

The first step in the preparation of a garden or flower bed is a decision to have a garden or flower bed. This can be equated to deciding to give our lives over to God. We haven’t done anything, all we have done is made a decision. For a few of us this is a very easy decision because it is natural to want to live in harmony with God and His creation. However, most of us want our own way; we want to be in control, which puts us into conflict with the world, our neighbors and even if we don’t realize it – God.

This first step is often the hardest decision we can make in our lives. Sometimes all it takes is for us to hear something that will soften us just enough to make the decision. However, all too often it takes some tragic event for us realize that the way we run our lives does not work. Resulting in the realization that we need Christ in our lives.

Once we get past the decision phase of planting a garden we need to take action. If we do not take action then we do not have a garden. All too often we make plans that never come to be because we did not take the actions necessary to bring them into being. This often happens concerning taking actions to improve our spiritual life.

When we first start our garden we encounter hard and unyielding ground, very similar to the hard ground in the parable. In order to start preparing the ground we have to get out the roto-tiller, a pick axe and a hoe violently attacking the ground to start loosening it up. Those that start to prepare their souls for God experience the same thing. They have to take violent actions in the way they live their lives to change their lives. This is what the Lord means when He says “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12) These violent actions are spending time in morning and evening prayer, reading Holy Scripture and other spiritual books, fasting and confessing of sins.

Confession is extremely helpful in preparing the soil because it rids us of our sins. When we first sin it is like a thread that is easily broken but, unrepented sin is like a robe that binds us. It makes us hard like the hardened packed soil that is bound together. The confession breaks this bond of sin allowing grace to enter.

However, like the garden our work just does not end here. We must further sift through the soil removing the rocks and break up the soil even more so that seeds can be planted. Water and nutrients must also be added for the garden to grow. After the initial cleansing of our souls then we must remove those things that block us from God like the rocks because we do not want to have our new way of life to just parish because it has no roots as the seeds that fell on rocks in the parable.

The rocks or things that block us from God are our passions and idols; power, money, sex, gluttony, addictions, etc. We need to take on ascetical practices in order to remove the passions from our lives. Such things as giving alms, helping those in need, watching what enters us through our eyes, ears and mouth also watching what comes out of our mouths are all very helpful in removing the passions.

Along with removing the rocks or passions, more will be revealed to us about our sins and nature to further break up the soil of our souls. We will continue to remove our sins through confession making the soil of our souls finer and proper for planting.

At this point the fruit of the Word of God will start to emerge from the garden of our souls. We will “seek peace and pursue it” (1Peter 3:11) Again we will need to continue to feed the soil of our souls so that Christ can grow in us through our prayer, reading and the reception of His body and Blood.

In the parable some of the seed falls in an area where weeds grow up around the sprouts and choke off the new plants. Weeds grow in any garden and must be removed for the garden to flourish. Within the garden of our souls new passions and sins can develop that will work to keep us from Christ, the Word of God. The Lord reminds us of this in two passages within the Holy Gospel. The first is the parable of the tares where an enemy sneaks in and plants tares in a crop of wheat to ruin the crop. (Matthew 13:24-30) The second is when the Lord speaks regarding the proselyte that having been converted has been made worse than a devil. (Matthew 23:15) Thus, we must be ever watchful over our souls to remove new sins and passions so that our new life in Christ does not become ruined.

Finally, the Lord speaks in the parable about the good ground and that it yields fruit a hundred fold. We see the same with any garden in which the soil has been properly prepared. It is beautiful and yields an abundance of flowers and fruit. The same happens with the garden of our souls as we receive the Word of God having properly prepared the soil of our souls for it. We will be more loving and peaceful and grow to be like God. Others will want to be like us, causing them to prepare the soil of their soul to receive the Word of God. Thus we will be fruitful and multiply replenishing and subduing the earth. (Genesis 1:28)

My dear brothers and sisters in I pray that each of you continues to prepare the soil of your soul no matter where you are in the process so that it may be good soil that bears the fruit of Christ a hundred fold.

Amen

Delivered by protodeacon fr. Milan Medakovic at St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church, Steelton, PA on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost 2011

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Gospel we heard our Lord tell us “…love your enemies, do good….and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest.” (Luke 6:35) When we hear this verse we often say to ourselves the Lord is placing an impossible burden on us, it is unnatural to love ones enemies, at best it is extremely difficult. Is it truly unnatural or difficult to love one’s enemies? Is this what God intends, for us go through life being in conflict with those around us?

First let us look at what we were created to be by God. God created us to grow to be like Him. God loves us. He wants us to be with Him. That is why He created us in His image and likeness as it states in Genesis. He wanted us to be with Him so much that He took on flesh so that we could grow to be more like Him. Saint Maximus the Confessor tells us, that God would have become flesh even if Adam and Eve had not sinned because He loved mankind so much that He desired to share His Life and Divinity with all of mankind. (Man and the Cosmos: The Vision of St. Maximus the Confessor)

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve did sin through the misuse of their free will; disobedience to God or placing their will and desires over God’s. We now live in the consequence of that sin. We do not live with the guilt of that sin as is so often taught in western Christianity. We only live in the consequence. The consequence of that sin is that mankind is no longer in harmony with God or His creation. We are separated from God and have become subject to corruption and death. We are inclined to exert our will over God’s. Another result is that when we interact with our fellow man we place our selves first. How often have we heard the phrase, “What’s in it for me?” This results in conflict with others because we are in reality selfish, self centered and self seeking beings. If we really look at any sin we commit we will find that the root of it is in the placing ourselves first.

Take a minute and think about these questions. When do I get angry? When do I lie? When do gossip? If I have an addiction why am I indulging in it? If I am committing adultery or thinking about it or entertaining impure thoughts, why? If we are truly honest, we will find the answers are rooted in a selfish or self seeking behavior. If we look further into our behaviors we will find that our enemies are those that get in the way of our selfish or self seeking behaviors.

The fortunate thing is that we have a way out of this way of life, by exerting our free will to be with God through His Son our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ and by the grace that He gives to us. The change that occurs through the turning our will to God along with God given grace is called repentance. Through repentance or the changing of our mind; we move from self seeking to God seeking. We are given many examples of repentance through the saints.

When we repent we go to confession and ask that sins be removed from us. In confession we acknowledge that are ready for a change to occur in our lives. We are saying that we want to live in alignment with God; to live according to His commandments as Adam and Eve did before the fall. God acknowledges our repentance and forgives us of our sins. Instead of the justice that we deserve God gives us His mercy and love. Our relationship with Him is restored. This is a great gift that is given to us through repentance.

When we deal with others we must remember that we have received this great gift of forgiveness, mercy and love from God. The question is do we want to be found like the man in the parable who was forgiven a great debt by his master and then took his fellow servant by the throat and had him imprisoned for a much smaller debt? (Matthew 18:23-35) Where was the forgiveness, mercy and love this man learned from his master? This man in the parable was eventually condemned by his master for his lack of forgiveness, mercy and love. Do we want this type of condemnation for ourselves? We are also reminded of this same principle every time we pray the Lord’s prayer “…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us…” We should keep this image in our memory so that any time anyone offends us we will see that this is an opportunity to be like God by forgiving and showing mercy and love to those that offend us.

The best way we can put into action the God like attributes of forgiveness, mercy and love in our lives is through prayer. We must pray for those that offend us, those that hate us, those that we offend. Simply put we must pray for our enemies.

When we start to pray for them, we may have malice in our hearts. We must still pray for them; even if the prayer is simply “God grant unto so and so everything he or she deserves” with all of that hateful intention we have for them. Eventually, through prayer for that person, over days and months and maybe years, our hearts will soften and we will come to realize that all we are really asking for them is that which we are asking for ourselves; God’s forgiveness, mercy and love. When we realize this we become God like because we are able to forgive, and show mercy and love to that person.

We should be thankful to God for our enemies or those difficult people in our lives because they make us see ourselves as we are. We often live in a fantasy world in which we think of ourselves as good people. We often hear people say; “Yes, I may have a few faults but after all I haven’t killed anyone.”

When we interact with others all our defects or sins come to the surface. This is an opportunity for us to see and work through the rough edges of our personality, the defects of our characters, or more simply put our sins and our sinful inclinations. We will notice this opportunity by being watchful over our souls. In being watchful we will see the benefit of these interactions because we become like rough stones put in a tumbler. When we emerge from that tumbler like the rough stones our rough edges removed. We will be smooth. We will have become more God like because we will have shed those sins and sinful intentions that block us from God and others.

Saint Nikolaj Velimirovic reminds us of the benefits of our enemies in his book Prayers by the Lake. Prayer number seventy five says the following:

“Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into Your embrace more than my friends have. Friends have bound me to the earth; enemies have loosed me from the earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world…

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world…

They scolded me, whenever I flattered myself…

Whenever I have made myself wise, the called me foolish…

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand…

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out…

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me -…

…so, that I may for once be freed from self-deception,…

Enemies have taught me to know – what hardly anyone knows – that a person has no enemies in the world except himself…

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.”

Our enemies are of great value to us. They help us in so many ways; seeing our own sins and allowing us to become like God by showing forgiveness, mercy and love to them. Christ is not asking us to do anything that is unnatural or difficult when he tells us to love our enemies. He is just telling us to be what we were created to be; that is to be like God. The result of being God like is that we do good. We reduce the amount of evil in this world by doing good through the love of our enemies. By doing good we truly become sons of the Most High, as it is stated in today’s Gospel. We will move “from glory to glory” as Saint Gregory of Nyssa says as we move closer to God and grow to be more like him. We will “give glory to God for all things” as Saint John Chrysostom says through the love of our enemies.

My prayer for you my brothers and sisters in Christ is that you will learn to love and pray for your enemies more fervently each and every day so, that you may grow in the peace and serenity that comes from being God like through being forgiving, and showing mercy and love all people, especially your enemies. Amen
Delivered by protodeacon fr. Milan Medakovic at St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church, Steelton, PA on the 19th Sunday After Pentecost 2011.

Reverend Fathers and my dear brothers and sisters in Christ today brings us to the last week of Great Lent or Velikog Posta before we enter the Great and Holy Week. My question is what have you done this Great Lent? Most of us will answer this question with the following:

I have fasted.

St Mary of Egypt

I have gone to confession.

I have attended church more oftenI have received Holy Communion.

Now I ask you to remember the Gospel of the Publican and the Pharisee.
“The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, ….I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess…The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” (Luke 18:11-13)

The Slavonic word post that we often translate as lent or fasting has another aspect to its meaning. That aspect is of duty. In Great Lent we are performing our Christian Duty. There are many externals to this duty. They are nothing more than tools for us to reach our real Christian Duty which is repentance. Our Lord at the beginning of His public ministry reminds us that this is our goal when He said “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

What is the true meaning of repentance? Repentance is a translation of the Greek word metanoia. This Greek word’s meaning is the changing of one’s mind; the changing of the way a person thinks. The Holy Fathers remind us that all sin is born in thought. Thus, if we change our thought process we change the way we live our lives.

When we look at sin we often try to lessen its meaning in our lives. We divide it into degrees; major or minor. We often hear people say I haven’t killed anyone or robbed anyone; I am basically a good person; I just have some defects of character; I’m only human; God will surely look the other way because of the good things that I do.

This understanding is very far from the truth. Sin is sin. Sin blocks us or binds us from having a true relationship, communion, with God. Sin keeps God from acting in our daily lives.

Sin can be described as a thread that goes around us to bind us. A thread does not have a lot of strength so it can be easily broken by repentence. However, the more we sin without repentance that thread becomes like a rope that binds us making it very difficult for us to repent.

Repentance may also be described as a “spiritual experience” or “spiritual awakening.” The Elders of the Optina Monastery in Russia tell us that “repentance is the foundation of our salvation” and that “years are not needed for true repentance, and not days, but only an instant.”

When we come to repentance and look at our sins we will see many things. If we look at the roots of our sins we should see that they are rooted in our self-will. We will see that all of the sinful actions that we have taken are based in selfish, centered acts or fear.

The Church gives us an image of repentance on this the fifth Sunday of Great Lent in Saint Mary of Egypt. Saint Mary is often described as a prostitute. However in reality as she describes, recounts and confesses her life to Abba Zosimas she states that refused payment because she was so consumed with her own pleasure. In seeking to satisfy herself she went to Jerusalem. There she tried to enter a church to see Christ’s Life-Creating Cross. Some force would not let her enter. After numerous attempts to enter she sees herself as God sees her. She sees that she is nothing without God. This brings her to repentance. She prostrates herself and begins to beat her breast as the publican saying God be merciful to me a sinner. God accepts her repentance and allows her to enter the church to venerate His Holy Cross. She then departs from the church, crosses the Jordan into the desert and spends the remainder of her life in prayer and fasting; breaking the bonds that kept her from God. As she does this she enters into a constant communion with God.

There are things that we can learn from Saint Mary. These are that there is nothing that is so terrible that we cannot repent from it. The longer we hold on to sins, especially those we keep as secrets, the sicker we become spiritually. God is loves us and wants us to come to Him if we make the effort through repentance. Once we exercise honesty about our sins we can become willing to do something about them. Through honesty, willingness and God’s grace we can take the action of acknowledging all our sins before God sharing them with His priest so that we can change our minds and become spiritually well. In becoming spiritually well we see that the externals of prayer, fasting, church attendance, confession and communion all have a deeper spiritual meaning. We will want to do these things because they bring us closer to God.

Some of us when we come to repentance have difficulty in breaking the bonds of our sins because we are very comfortable with them. It becomes difficult for us to change and use the spiritual tools that the Church gives us because it is much easier to fall back into old behaviors. Old behaviors that are comfortable. We must be ever watchful over our lives to recognize that this falling back is occurring so that we can re-break the bond of sin before it gains the same hold on us as it did before we repented. What matters is the sincerity of our desire to change. Saint Nektary of Optina says “The details of the confession are not important, but the compunction of the heart. ‘The Lord sees the heart’.”

My prayer for each of you as we come to the end of Great Lent is that you will truly be able to come to repentance that brings you into continual communion with God. I ask the Lord that you are able to watch your thoughts because they become your words and actions, that you are able to watch your words and actions because they become your character, and that you watch your character because it is your destiny.

Through the prayers of our holy mother Mary of Egypt, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us and save us.

Amen

Delivered by Protodeacon Fr. Milan Medakovic at St. George Serbian Orthodox Church, Canton, OH at the Mission Vespers 5Th Sunday of Great Lent 2011.