St Peters Orthodox Church

Our Gospel reading today is from St. Luke chapter 5. It is the testimony of the miraculous catch of fish and the calling of the first disciples. What we really see here is the progression of an experience Simon Peter has with the Lord Jesus Christ that would forever change his life. In this progression we not only see important truths about our life with Christ, but we also see important truths about fulfilling the Great Commission. The fulfillment of the Great Commission begins and ends with Jesus Christ Himself. In His wondrous love for mankind, He invites us to join Him and be a part of all that He does for the salvation of souls.

The Gospel of St. Luke chapter 1 gives the testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then pregnant with the Word of God Jesus Christ, visiting Elizabeth who was pregnant with St. John the Forerunner. In this narrative we see an unborn child leaping with joy in his mother's womb at the presence of His Savior Who is in the womb of His most blessed mother. We also see great humility in the Blessed Virgin Mary in how she responds to Elizabeth's words regarding her. As Elizabeth is led by the Holy Spirit to give accolades and prophecy regarding our Lord's mother, Mary receives the truth of those words takes no credit for any of it as she would glorify God as she voiced the Magnificat.

In the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 14, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches the Parable of the Great Banquet. The Church has forever taught that the great banquet in this parable is indeed the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This table was prepared by the suffering of Christ upon the Cross so that He might deliver to us everything we need for true life and salvation. Every time we gather together by His loving invitation, the One Who prepares this feast grants us every benefit He accomplished for us upon His Holy and Lifegiving Cross.

Trinitytide is the liturgical season that teaches us how to live as Christians with the finished work of Jesus Christ accomplished and the Holy Spirit having been poured out. It is no surprise that on the first Sunday of this season, our Lord puts before us the foundation virtue and tells us to become it. The greatest of all virtues is Divine love. The Apostle St. John taught in 1 John 4 "If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us." Today we look at the Divine love of God and how the greatest daily litmus test indicating whether we are actively abiding in Christ or not is this: are we becoming love?

Fr. Zacharius, a contemporary Orthodox monk, taught "Correct faith creates the right relationship with the Lord. It gradually leads to repentance illumining and strengthening this relationship until man's heart unites with the Holy Spirit." Today is Trinity Sunday; a foundational day in the life and rhythm of the Church. This day has everything to do with God's revelation of Himself to man. In this homily, we note the importance of seeing the faith as it has been passed on by a Church that experienced the revelation of God to man. To take to oneself the faith revealed by God to man, we now are postured to be recipients of a continued fellowship with God that leads to our salvation.

In the Vidi Aquam we sing, "I beheld water that proceeded from the Temple, on the right side thereof: and all they to whom that water came were healed, everyone." These words come from the Prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 47 and are fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said in the Gospel of St. John chapter 7, "He that believes in Me, as Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." The next verse tells us that this He spoke concerning the Holy Spirit Who would be poured on on the Day of Pentecost. We are the Temple, Christ's Body upon the earth, from which flows living waters for the salvation of souls until He comes again. Today we embrace the truth of God's Divine wisdom and plan to make us earthen vessels that contain this living water. Through us, He intends to heal the soul of all mankind and restore humanity to its originally created state.

The psalmist in Psalm 27, "When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” What does it mean to seek His face in prayer? What will we see when we do so? To seek the face of God is to open our hearts to both His disposition and nature towards us and all that we bring in intercession to Him. Today we use what is known as the Sinai Christ Icon to consider all that we will encounter in Christ when we seek His face in prayer.

There would be no salvation without the Ascension of Christ our God. As our forerunner, He ascended to the Father with our humanity eternally joined to His Divinity. As He did, it would be the first time the created humanity He took to Himself would ever enter Paradise, for He was the forerunner of us all. By His Ascension, the ladder was not put in place joining heaven to earth where all mankind could now ascend out of the Fall and return to Paradise through Him. Today we rejoice in Christ's wondrous Ascension and we set our souls to follow Him up so that where He is we may also be.

As our Lord prepares His disciples for His Ascension in the Gospel of St. John chapter 16, He teaches them something so very important about the nature of prayer. He teaches them, "Whatever you ask the Father in My Name He will give you...that your joy may be may be full." What does it mean to pray "in the Name of Jesus?" Today we see that, as St. Cyprian taught regarding this question: "Let Christ Who dwells within our hearts, also dwell within our voice." This message is a reflection on this very understanding of praying in Jesus' Name.

As the Resurrected Christ would appear to the disciples in St. John chapter 20, the disciples saw the eternal future of all of those in Christ. When they saw the Resurrected Jesus Christ, they saw their own resurrected bodies. And in the same visit, our Lord would commission them to be sent to the world to continue His ministry. The words of their commissioning are astounding. Today we consider the authority, power, and grace they were given toward the calling He placed on their lives.

In the Gospel of St. John chapter 16, Jesus tells His disciples that He would be returning to the Father. Our Lord calms their sadness by telling them that, "it is to your advantage, the greatest good for you, that I return to the Father. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you." Today we consider all of the advantages the Helper, the Paraclete, God the Holy Spirit would bring not only to those disciples but to all who are in Christ to the end of the age.

The Collect prayer for today's Mass prays that our Lord would help us to avoid the things of this world that run contrary to our most true identity and that He would grace us to take into ourselves only those things that benefit and bring life to the soul. Today we reflect on the truth that what we mingle with the God-created and designed soul will have a profound impact on our experience with God; and also on our experience in this life throughout this ever so brief journey.

Today we continue our reflections on our Lord's ministry after His Resurrection. The particular focus of today's teaching is on the experience of St. Mary Magdalene with her Risen Lord as recorded in the Gospel of St. John chapter 20. She was present when the Angel descended upon the tomb and rolled the stone away. And, she was given quite a revelation as she encountered the two angels, one seated and the head and the other at the foot where the body of Christ was placed. This is where we see how the tomb became a tabernacle and granted her the experience of the Resurrected Jesus Christ.

The Collect prayer for today's Mass prays that our Lord would help us to avoid the things of this world that run contrary to our most true identity and that He would grace us to take into ourselves only those things that benefit and bring life to the soul. Today we reflect on the truth that what we mingle with the God-created and designed soul will have a profound impact on our experience with God; and also on our experience in this life throughout this ever so brief journey.

Just as Christ our God descended into Hades, destroyed that prison, bound Satan, and freed those held there in captivity; so Christ is doing in the very soul of all of His beloved. Today we look at the harrowing of the Hades of our own soul. Looking at the Icon of Christ's Baptism as well as the prayers prayed over the ones to be Baptized into Christ, we see even our Baptism as a harrowing of Hades. We also look today at the disciples who encounter Christ on the Road to Emmaus. There Christ descends into their darkness and captivity to their confusion, fears, and deep sadness. As He makes Himself present to those disciples they, by their encounter with Him, are raised up out of that captivity and granted peace and joy. There are so many ways that our salvation is a continuous descent of Christ into our Hades where He binds our oppressor, releases us, and raises us up to where He is granting us Paradise.

Today we hear the Gospel of St. John 10 where Christ our God reveals Himself as the Good Shepherd. When Jesus reveals Himself to us, it is for us both to truly know Him but also for us to become like Him from the experience of the revelation. Today, we look at three attributes of Christ's nature as our Good Shepherd. First, Jesus says of Himself that He is the Good Shepherd who pursues the sheep outside of His fold. Next Jesus says that His Sheep know Him and He knows them as He is known by the Father. Finally, Jesus tells us that He gathers His sheep into one flock under one Shepherd; a life of unity rather than division.

One of the great themes of the Paschal Vigil is the harrowing of Hades by our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we look at this violent act of love by our Lord Jesus Christ. The harrowing of Hades was violent to Satan, the demonic, and death itself. His love and mercy were granted to all those imprisoned there from Adam and Eve to that present moment. The Icon of the Resurrection is our guide to the ministry of Christ is the demolishing of Hades and the deceiving of the deceiver. We will also utilize Scripture from the Old and New Testaments as well as excerpts from the book "Christ the Conqueror of Hell: the Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective" written by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev to deepen our understanding of Christ's plundering of Hades; His binding of the strong man, Satan, and releasing those souls in captivity within that dark prison until that moment.

Wondrous information about Christ and the reception of the testimonies of Christ to His people alone will not elevate the soul out of the depths of our chaos, anxieties, and fears. Only the experience of the risen Jesus Christ can do so. We see this clearly in the testimony of Christ revealing Himself to Mary Magdelene, Peter and the disciples, and then finally to Thomas. Today we look at the progression that occurs in these testimonies to see that the sharing of the revelation of Christ our God by the one who received it moves us all to a greater desire for the experience of Christ in our lives. Only in the experience of Jesus Christ can true faith grow. Only by that experience can we ascend out of the symptoms of our fallenness. And it is Christ's nature and desire to grant us all such an experience of Him.

As is tradition each year in the Orthodox Church, on this day we hear the blessed Paschal homily once preached by St. John Chrysostom.

Pascha means Passover. The way that the Paschal Vigil unfolds communicates to us the great work of our Deliverer, Jesus Christ, on behalf of us all. Tonight we reflect on what we have seen and heard to understand and experience Christ's ministry deliverance on our behalf.