Archbishop Lazar Puhalo
Today, brothers and sisters, we celebrate the triumph of faith, the victory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today, the darkness of falsehood and error are eclipsed by the luminous grace of the Holy Spirit. On this, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, as we enter into preparation for the Resurrection, the holy Church proclaims the Incarnation. Today, we proclaim to all that God the Word may be portrayed in icons, together with His saints, because He has truly appeared in the flesh. We declare also that the material world, created by that same Word of God, is good and able to be grace-bearing.
While commemorating this victory and proclaiming these truths, however, there is no place for triumphalism, self-satisfaction or smugness. Rather, this is an occasion for re-commitment to the truth we claim to uphold. It is of no value for us to proclaim it with our lips if it is not manifested in our lives. It avails us nothing to hold the sound doctrines of the faith intellectually and not have that faith as a living flame burning in our hearts.
The faith of Christ is manifested in love, compassion and forgiveness. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that being redeemed from the fear of death with which Satan holds us in bondage, and forgiven for our sins, we might have the Kingdom of God abiding in us in this life, and the object of our sure hope in the next. We are not freed from one bondage only to be placed in another. The dawning of grace within us is not a constraint, but an opening up of our hearts. We are not redeemed from our alienation simply to observe conventions and words, but to follow a path of liberation from the prison of egoism, self-centredness and self-love. The true calling of the faithful is to become a point of unity in the universe. This is the "mark" or "goal" which we continually miss and fall short of through our illusions and egoism. The Church binds together both heaven and earth in faith and worship of the Holy Trinity, and calls upon us to fulfil the same and no longer "miss the mark."
Nevertheless, while confessing these things in words, we must also confess them in deeds, in life, in all of our interhuman relationships. The faith is not an ethnic identity, and it is not ours to hoard or preserve like some exhibit in a museum. Orthodoxy — the truth of the Gospel — seeks to embrace all mankind with God's love and with redemption in Christ Jesus. To be truly Orthodox, our hearts must be open to all with unselfish love. Such love cannot be expressed in condescending triumphalism, but in sincere compassion and a desire to understand everyone and to judge and condemn no one. It is in this manner that we can confess and proclaim Orthodoxy to the world.
Nor can this openness relate only to humanity. We were created as a microcosm of the universe, uniting in ourselves the material, the spiritual and the intellectual. With all these, we are to glorify our God and Creator not in vain words, but in love for him, and love and care for one another and for the earth upon which we walk, and the universe which we inhabit. When, with God's help, we able to encompass all this through the conquest of egoism and self-love, we will become truly Orthodox and proclaim the faith in spirit and in Truth.
Amen!