Homily at the Second Lenten Vespers, Sunday of Orthodoxy, February 16/March, 2026,
Holy Church of the Annunciation, Larissa
By Metropolitan Klemes of
Larissa and Platamon
Beloved Brethren,
At a certain moment our Lord took
His Disciples and Apostles and went somewhat far from His enemies, from the
Jews, who not only did not receive Him, but also threatened and persecuted
everyone who would acknowledge Him as Christ. And there, at Caesarea of
Philippi, He asked them what the opinion of the many was concerning Him, what
the multitude of the people said about Him (cf. Matt. 16:13 ff.).
And they told Him that some
regarded Him as John the Baptist; others as the Prophet Elijah, because He had
and manifested not only love for mankind and beneficence, but also reproof;
others as Jeremiah or one of the ancient Prophets, because He possessed unique
knowledge and wisdom without having been taught letters by teachers in schools.
And the Lord Jesus, our Savior,
accepted this confession as supernatural, as absolutely true, as a divine
revelation. Only through the revelation of God the Father does a man receive
the ability for a correct and true confession concerning Christ. This the flesh
cannot accomplish by itself, that is, the biological man of the fall, who walks
only with earthly data; nor even the “sensual” man, the one who relies upon the
senses. To him the spiritual revelation appears as “foolishness” (I Cor. 2:14).
And especially that revelation which is not proclaimed only with words, but
also determines the whole of life. God the Father reveals the knowledge of the
unknown and hidden mysteries to those who are able to receive and accept it, in
order that they may confess it also publicly to others, without fear, and also
that they may be ready to seal their confession even with their blood.
The confession of Simon Peter the
Lord hastened to bless, because upon it, as upon a Rock, as upon an unshakable
Foundation, He would build His Church so that they might never overcome and
overthrow it.
From this we understand that our
Lord Jesus Christ, the “Author and Finisher” of our faith (Heb. 12:2), as
Master of all, is the only Head of His Church, which He founded upon the Truth
of His Theanthropic nature, and which He acquired and sanctified with His
All-honorable Blood (cf. Acts 20:28).
His blessed “Bride” (cf. Rev.
21:2; 21:9), the Church, He foretells that the “gates of Hades” (Matt. 16:18)
will hate unto death, will fight against, and will plot against in order to
strike and destroy her, but they will not succeed.
Who are the “gates of Hades” that
fight against the Church relentlessly?
First of all, those rulers,
authorities, kings, and governors of this age, who hate the Church and attempt
in every way—openly or secretly, directly or indirectly, straightforwardly or
obliquely—to strike and annihilate Her, because they view Her with hostility
and oppose Her with fury.
This proves their alignment with
the devil and with the instruments of darkness, even if these rulers and these
authorities falsely proclaim that they are not atheistic and opposed to God.
But if they were with the Light and the Truth, they would be with Christ, the
Governor of all, as well as with His Church, His “Body” (Eph. 1:23), which is
the Ark of Salvation and the antechamber of His Kingdom on earth.
Also, if they were with the Truth
and if they considered the good of men, they would have respect for freedom of
choice in critical matters that arise in the world, and they would not be
distinguished by a mania for subjugation and imposition. The relatively recent
trial of humanity with the fabricated pandemic and the manner of its worldwide
handling constituted a dreadful experience of the future that certain perverted
men are preparing, who desire a global totalitarianism.
Those who fight against the
Church of Christ and persecute the faithful and pious in various ways, those
who plot against freedom and exploit justice, are essentially kicking against
the goads (“kicking against the goads” [Acts 26:6]). They are put to shame and
will be put to shame if they do not repent. The end of all the fighters against
Christ, fighters against Orthodoxy, fighters against the Church, and murderers
of men has always been and is miserable.
The “gates of Hades,” however,
are also the heretics, that is, those who do not believe and do not confess, to
a small or to a great degree, as the Church of Christ has believed and
confessed from the beginning everywhere and always. Those who alter and adulterate
the saving Truth of the Confession in the Theanthropic Christ and in His
Church. Those who reject or cut off whatever the Church, even as Sacred
Tradition, has preserved as a precious treasure and sacred “Deposit” (I Tim.
6:20) until today and until the Second Coming.
To these we may also say that
there belong those who set themselves, supposedly, to “correct,” to “normalize,”
to “improve,” to “modify,” and to “humanize” the wealth of the divine Adornment
in the immaculate Bride of Christ, the holy Orthodox Church. Her beauty is
unattainable and indescribable. Its purpose is to captivate us in the Love of
Christ in order to save us. If it appears inaccessible to our distorted senses,
it means that we are at fault, not it. We must strive toward the divine beauty
and not the reverse. We shall not bring down the divine and ineffable beauty to
the ugliness of human passion and deviation…
The principal problem of heretics
has always been that they were characterized by attachment to human reasoning,
by lack of simplicity of faith, by rationalism, by obstinacy, by doubt, by a
disposition toward innovation and change, by contempt for the ancient tested
and sanctified practices of our living faith, by admiration for the
achievements of this world, by servility toward the powerful, by worldly
calculation and expediency, by self-interested aims and pursuits, by dark and
opaque connections, by various entanglements with the darkness of falsehood,
delusion, and deceit.
Heretics and friends of heresy
have always put forward and continue to put forward earthly thoughts, earthly
interests, and earthly calculations. God, the Truth, the Faith, the Sacred
Canons they use selectively (heresy = choice) only insofar as they serve their
own aims. But where the abandonment of oneself even unto death is required in
the faithful following of Christ, in the confession of His exclusivity and of
His one and only Church, in the return of all to Her in repentance for
salvation, they raise the objection that this is an extreme exaggeration which
must be avoided, rejected, and even condemned. Why is this? Because they
believed and believe that they possess absolute authority in the affairs of the
Church to manage them as they see fit.
The Lord, of course, gave “the
keys” (Matt. 16:19), the “keys” of the Kingdom of Heaven, which indeed “bind
and loose” on earth with an immediate effect in heaven, to all those who are
deemed worthy of the “grace of the Episcopacy,” like Peter, according to the
divine interpreter, the Hierarch Theophylact (cf. Interpretation of the Four
Holy Gospels, Athens 1865, p. 32), and in general according to the Orthodox
Tradition.
This, however, in the literal
sense concerns—so as to be more specific—those among the Bishops who, accepting
the entirety of divine Revelation, know precisely the matters of the Faith and
walk consistently according to its principles. But those who change the things
handed down and apply methods of “cutting and sewing” in the matters of the
Faith, while nevertheless considering that they unquestionably possess
“authority to bind and to loose” according to their own will—then these are
miserably deceived.
Those who attempt, without divine
revelation, as well as without a firm and accepted Orthodox foundation, to
proceed to changes and novel openings unknown to the Canon of Piety, thinking
that in this way they serve the divine Truth, and instead of becoming “exact
guardians” are transformed into impious “new lawgivers,” these are rebuked as
instruments of Satan. Those who are in inconsistency with the Patristic spirit
and mind, as well as with the safeguards that were established by the Holy
Spirit in the affairs of the Church, are judged as makers of scandal, who do
not mind the things of God but the things of men (cf. Matt. 16:23).
Only those who follow Christ with
self-denial, being crucified together with Him and aligning themselves with His
Saints, only those who are ready even for martyrdom for the sake of the
Confession of His Truth—only these, as true successors of the Apostles,
preserve unimpaired the spiritual authority “to bind and to loose” in the
administration of the affairs of the Church.
The rest, as usurpers, have only
the appearance and form of lambs, or even of shepherds, but in reality, they
speak as “dragons” (cf. Rev. 13:11) and do not do those things which contribute
to the building up and growth of the Body of Christ, but to its corruption, as
false shepherds and false teachers (cf. Canon 15 of the First-Second Holy
Council).
All the heretics were and are
such “grievous wolves” (Acts 20:29), who are cast out from the divine Camp
through the synodal way of the Church, by means of the Orthodox Shepherds.
Those “speaking perverse things”
(Acts 20:30) in matters of the faith, their followers and supporters, but also
those who tolerate them passively, were and are confronted after suitable
“admonition” (Titus 3:10), so that, if they do not come to their senses, they
may receive separation and expulsion from the healthy Body of the Church as
“incurably diseased.”
Such proved to be the heretics of
old and of later times, who, under various names taken either from their
principal error or from the name of their leader, constitute an opposing body
and a contagious swarm, although they call themselves Christians, perhaps even
Orthodox.
Such were and are the ancient
Iconoclasts, the Papists, and the more recent Iconoclasts, the Protestants with
all their multitude of sects, as well as the innovative Ecumenists of today,
who for a century now have been disturbing the Church with their unprecedented
error and false doctrine, which abolishes the dogma of the Truth and Unity of
the holy Orthodox Church. Their impious work began with the so-called small and
insignificant Calendar Reform of 1924, which was imposed uncanonically in a
political manner and deceitfully in an ecclesiastical manner, but had been
predetermined in order to hasten joint celebration and rapprochement with the
heterodox, according to the Patriarchal Encyclical of 1920 and the so-called
“Pan-Orthodox Congress” of 1923.
The innovative Ecumenists, with
their subsequently openly expressed, supported, and applied “inclusive” and
“expanded” ecclesiology, “defile” the Church of Christ, the spotless and
undefiled, with the error and filth of the heresies. Their principal slogan in
our days is that supposedly all those who participate in the apostatic
Ecumenical Movement “have a common mission, give a common witness of faith, and
look toward a common Pascha.” Yet this deception has no relation whatsoever to
the Patristic and Synodal mind of the holy Orthodox Catholic Church.
For this reason, we, by the grace
of God true Orthodox Christians, without any disposition of triumphalism or
self-justification, proclaim on the solemn day of the victory of Orthodoxy over
all heresies that we turn away from, condemn, and reject this contagious error
and heresy, calling the deceived Innovators and Ecumenists to repentance. As
long as they follow, promote, and establish their heresy, so much the more do
we avoid communion with them in their frenzied course.
As human beings we grieve for
them and pray for their recovery. Yet under no circumstance do we accept their
sorrowful reasoning, supposedly for the achievement of peaceful and good aims.
We are not against social
cohesion and peaceful coexistence. However, we place foremost the good of the
correct and consistent confession of the Orthodox faith in the affairs of the
Church. Without repentance and conformity in all things to the instructions of
our Savior and Redeemer and of His holy Church, every other goal—however lofty
and respectable it may appear—passes into second place with respect to our
priorities and our choices.
We certainly do not ignore that
in the struggle of primary importance for avoiding defilement from communion
with the Innovators and Ecumenists, lawful striving is necessary (cf. II Tim.
2:5). The canonical and other principles of the Orthodox Church concern, of
course, also those who constitute the confessional Body of the Church. It is
not possible for us to overlook various violations and various exploitations in
the name of supposedly genuine Orthodoxy. When the correct criteria of Orthodox
resistance against heresy are not observed, then deviations arise which tarnish
the struggle of the faith and of the good confession (cf. I Tim. 6:12).
Many are those who, even if they
do not participate in the communion of those who incline toward heresy and
apparently keep the Tradition of the Church, yet unfortunately “err in their
heart,” not knowing the saving “ways” of the Lord, and for this reason they go
astray and lead astray those who follow them into the danger of not “entering
into the divine rest” (cf. Ps. 94:10–11). We call the increased attention of
our God-loving flock, exhorting it to have trust in its true Shepherds and not
in various cut-off wearers of the cassock and others, whatever pompous label or
banner they may use, who, as disorderly and eccentric persons, walk on the
dead-end paths of their own will, deceiving and being deceived…
Beloved Brethren;
It is evident that we are living
in apocalyptic days of great confusion. Great turmoil prevails because of the
lack of love, peace, justice, and unity. All these things occur because the
Truth of God does not prevail. Most people are deceived and choose falsehood,
thinking that they will find a way out of their dead ends, both personal and
social. Wars and rumors of wars disturb the world in a threatening manner,
since with modern means it is possible for a literal destruction to come upon
the world in a short time. Political understandings and negotiations fail, but
also the ecumenical activities, ceremonies, and declarations supposedly for the
peace of the world, as lacking blessing, worsen matters instead of helping.
Remaining humbly yet decisively
steadfast in the Truth of the faith, we understand the magnitude of our
responsibility to be true Orthodox Christians in faith and in life, so that we
may constitute agents of blessing in the suffering world around us, calling to
Repentance and return to our Triune God and to the Truth of His holy Church,
without adulterations and unlawful compromises.
In conclusion, we remind that we
remain faithful to the divine Promise, knowing with reverent fear that our Lord
will come with the glory of His Father and with His holy Angels, to render to
each one “according to his deed” (Matt. 16:27). That is, “to those who by
perseverance in a good work [of Orthodox faith] seek glory and honor and
incorruption, [He will give] eternal life,” but “to those who are self-seeking
[the selfish] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath” (Rom. 2:7–8).
May we be granted the divine
blessing as a worthy reward for our perseverance unto the end! May we remain
unshaken in the Truth of our Orthodoxy, as its martyrs and confessors, avoiding
at every cost the error of falsehood, whether in faith or in life, which leads
to eternal condemnation! May we be shown to be children of obedience, sheep of
the Flock of Christ, partakers of His glorious Kingdom. Amen!
I thank you and wish you a good
continuation of the holy and great Lent.
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