Feast of the Nativity 1999

To the Reverend Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America

Dearly beloved,

Christ Is Born! Glorify Him!

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (Jn 1:14).

With joy and love I embrace you as we celebrate the radiant feast of our Lord's birth. Today the Son of the Father is revealed as the Son of the Virgin. He comes as a child, poor and defenseless. And yet He lies in the manger as the God-Man reigning over all His creation.

      Today He who is God before the ages takes to Himself sin and death so that all mankind may be endowed with a new beginning. The child of the Virgin dwells among us as the new Adam Who, with outstretched arms, offers us the Kingdom of Heaven. He calls us to become one with Him through water and the Spirit so that, indeed, we may be formed into a new people who possess a "living hope through the resurrection" (1 Pet 1:3).

      The Word has become flesh transforming corruption into incorruption. We are raised from death to life and are clothed with the uncreated glory that enables us to reflect the beauty of divinity.

      Today Christ is born and we are commissioned to share our gift. We must be generous in proclaiming by word and deed the birth of the universal Savior. To a world seeking comfort and healing — to a world strangled by the tyranny of sin and death — we must offer the ongoing ministry of the Lord. For it is His ministry that imparts the Word of Life. It is His ministry that distributes the bread of immortality. And it is His ministry that embraces the poor, nurses the sick, comforts the suffering and remembers the forgotten. This is the work that imparts the power and beauty of our celebration. This is the work that will enable "all flesh to behold the salvation of God" (cf. Lk 3:6).

With love in the newborn Christ,

+Metropolitan THEODOSIUS

and the Members of the Holy Synod of Bishops

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Statement of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius on the Tragedy in Littleton, CO

Beloved in Christ, dear brothers and sisters,

Christ is risen!

For weeks our sensibilities have been shocked by images of violence and death in the Balkans. On Tuesday, April 20, 1999 — on the Orthodox Christian calendar, the “Day of Rejoicing” on which we commemorate the faithful departed — our sensibilities once again were shocked by new and equally disturbing images of violence and death, this time in our own land.

      The senseless shooting and bombing at Littleton, Colorado’s Columbine High School, which left fifteen individuals, including the two troubled teenage perpetrators, dead and many others hospitalized, has stunned our nation. How could this happen? What have we done wrong? What can be done to assure that this painful tragedy is not repeated again?

      Surely these questions are not new. They are the same questions we asked after the half-dozen similar school shootings which have occurred during the past two years. Sadly, the answers, which all too often focus on legislation rather than motivation, have been inadequate at best and downright wrong at worst. Endless debates on gun control have not stopped the violence. Calls for parental controls over children’s internet access have done little. Everything from rock lyrics to video games to television violence to a lack of metal detectors in school lobbies has been targeted as the root of the massacres in Littleton and elsewhere.

      Despite demands for a return to “family values,” there are countless children in our society who have never been permitted to enjoy the delights of childhood. Many grow up alone, perhaps out of necessity, as their parents pursue careers and other quests. I recently read a disturbing article which reported that, in a survey of middle school children, nearly half said they would rather surf the internet than have a face-to-face conversation with another person. A culture which demands a renewed focus on the family while applauding the development of computer software for infants is a culture in trouble, a culture in which hearts have grown cold, a culture in which human relationships have been marginalized in the quest to give our children an “edge” on their peers, regardless of the cost.

      Legislation may indeed help reduce the availability of guns or warn the public about violent and inappropriate visual and verbal images on television. But legislation is incapable of reaching deeper to the real crisis facing American young people: the need for loving adults who are willing to listen, to empathize, and to accept young people — adults who are willing to help them overcome the uncertainties and doubts, the anger and the fears, the disappointments and the cynicism that are a part of adolescence. The title of a song popular in the late 1960s, “All You Need Is Love,” may have been dismissed as naive and shallow; for those convinced, as the Evangelist John writes, that “God is Love,” I dare say it holds the only answer — and the only solution.

      To the families of those who died in Littleton, Colorado, I write with deep sympathy and sorrow, offering our prayers and the comfort of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Your loss is our loss. Your pain is our pain. And your hope is our hope.

      To all who would listen, I write with renewed fervor and conviction: Love your children. Accept them for who and what they are. Guide them in learning, in living and, above all, in loving. Talk less. Listen more. They are not our enemies, but the products of our love and a reflection of the Creator Himself. While preparing them for adult life, do not rob them of the joy and delight of childhood and adolescence. While keeping a watchful eye on them, resist the temptation to live their lives for them. Treasure your relationship with them, for it can never be recaptured at some later point in time. Nurture them in the Christian life, in the sacraments and worship of the Church, in forming loving relationships and friendships based on the God Who is Love Itself. Recognize that their spiritual thirst will remain with them long after they have lost interest in soccer and have grown bored with the internet. Be there for them as a loving presence in their lives, just as our loving Father in Heaven is there for us at all times. And above all, remember that it was Jesus Christ Himself Who told us that unless we become like little children we will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

With love in the Risen Christ,

+ THEODOSIUS

Archbishop of Washington,

Metropolitan of All America and Canada

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Pascha 1999

To the Venerable Hierarchs, Reverend Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America

Dearly beloved,

Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I will be glorified with him. Yesterday I died with Christ; today I will return to life with him. Yesterday I was buried with Christ; today I will rise with him from the tomb. (Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Homily On Pascha)

CHRIST IS RISEN!

INDEED, HE IS RISEN!

On this day of unwaning light I greet you with the words of our holy father. They are words that echo the very core of the Gospel. They are words that have been incorporated into our liturgical celebration and express the life giving power of our Savior’s passover from death to life.

      Today we proclaim the victory of the Life Giver. He who was suspended on the cross and placed in the tomb has destroyed the kingdom of death and corruption. The uncreated and transfiguring light of the resurrected God-man fills our early morning vigil with the radiance of the Kingdom which is to come. Indeed, the joyous news of the Messiah’s Resurrection is given to us to share with a world bound to its own sin and mortality. Today we are called to acquire the generosity of our Lord who desires us to seek and draw others into the dawn of the new and never ending day of glory.

      Yet to extend Christ’s benevolence requires us to identify with the words of Saint Gregory. For unless we perceive with our mind and heart that we have been taken from death to life, our proclamation will not be compelling. Unless we acknowledge that in our baptism we were crucified and buried with Christ, our words about the Resurrection will remain hollow and unconvincing. Only when we acknowledge our baptism can we enter the empty tomb that has been transformed into the gathering place of all the living.

      Beloved in the Lord, Christ is risen and the entire cosmos is being renewed. Christ is risen, and the living and the dead are no longer separated. As one choir we announce the joyous news of the Resurrection. With one voice we announce the power of our Lord’s great and holy Pascha.

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED, HE IS RISEN!

With love in the Risen Lord,

+ THEODOSIUS

Archbishop of Washington,

Metropolitan of All America and Canada

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Sermon delivered at St. Tikhon's Monastery

+ Theodosius

Archbishop of Washington, DC

Metropolitan of All America and Canada,

Primate of the Orthodox Church in America

April 8, 1999 / Great and Holy Thursday

EPISTLE: I Cor 11:23-32

GOSPEL: Mt 26:2-20; Jn 13:3-17; Mt 26:21-39;

Lk 22:43-45; Mt 26:40-27:2; Jn 13:1-11; Jn 13:12-17

By celebrating this vesperal liturgy we enter the Lord's three day Pascha. Sharing the mystical supper with his disciples the Lord manifests himself as the lamb of the new Passover and the life giving bread of his Father's Kingdom. Reclining with his disciples Jesus shows them that what they are being led into is a new and everlasting covenant with the living God. Therefore, whether we adhere to the chronology of the Synoptics and characterize the evening supper as a Passover meal, or whether we follow the chronology of Saint John the Theologian and place the Lord's supper with his disciples prior to the Jewish Pascha, we must acknowledge that we are participants in this irrepeatable and saving event.

      According to Saint John Chrysostom, what we do in this sacred space is no different than what was accomplished in the upper room. (Hom. 82, on Matt) There is no discontinuity. There is no break with what we do now from what was done in the past. It is our Lord who presides at the one mystical meal which extends throughout time and space. For this reason what is so often referred to as the "Last Supper" is in fact misleading since it has never ended. It is an ongoing meal offered "on behalf of all and for all."

      The celebration of the Lord's mystical supper is opened to all who seek to be his true and faithful disciples. Jesus calls all to himself. He identifies himself with the food which satisfies the hungry. He is the bread of immortality which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (Jn. 6:32). Without this bread that comes down from heaven (Jn. 6:51) one cannot live. Without the Son of Man who gives himself as flesh and blood for the sentence and transformation of the human person all life — all existence — remains entombed in its own mortality. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you..." (Jn. 6:53).

      Like the disciples of Jesus we are to take this hard saying (cf. Jn. 6:60) and make it our own. For if we cannot accept this teaching of the Savior the mystical supper will be perceived as a memorial meal with no eschatological significance — with no eschatological reality. Indeed, what we celebrate in the present is the ongoing event of the upper room which extends into the future. As the new and everlasting covenant the mystical supper joins us to that which is yet to come. The Lord himself stresses this to the disciples in the upper room; "I will not drink again the fruit of this vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom" (Mk. 14:25; cf. Mt. 26:29).

      Because of the Messiah's voluntary death and glorious resurrection, the Kingdom of the Father is among us through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As Israel passed over the sea and was delivered from bondage and led into the promised land, we now, in the Eucharist, pass over into the Kingdom of heaven. In this pascha the new Israel, comprised of Jews and Gentiles, is manifested. In this passover, rooted in the sacrifice of the God Man, the universe continues to be renewed.

      The passover of Jesus Christ proclaimed and revealed in the mystical supper is a transforming event. Bread and wine become the body and blood of the Savior. Yet, the transformation does not end here. For we, through our receiving the food of the new and everlasting covenant, are joined to Christ's deified and resurrected body. Listen again to the words of St. John Chrysostom, "For neither was it enough for [Jesus Christ] to be made man, to be smitten and slaughtered, but he also commingles himself with us...truly making us his body" (Hom. on Matt. 82).

      Each celebration of the Eucharist "members" us to the Lord's three day Pascha. Each celebration reveals and affirms the activity of the Holy Spirit who maintains the catholicity of our celebration. Through the Holy Spirit the crucified and resurrected Christ is among us. Through the Holy Spirit the Passover of the Lord continues to draw every one and every thing into the new and everlasting covenant. Amen!

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Sermon Delivered at St. Vladimir's Seminary

+ Theodosius

Archbishop of Washington, DC

Metropolitan of All America and Canada,

Primate of the Orthodox Church in America

January 30, 1999 / Feast of the Three Hierarchs

Hebrews 13:7-16 / Matthew 5:14-19 (Saints)

The three hierarchs — Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom — are an integral part of that venerable community of pastors which provide us, and indeed the entire Church, with the basis for understanding and proclaiming the Gospel as a living reality. It is this fundamental reality that distinguishes patristic theology from what is often referred to as school theology. In fact, it was Father Georges Florovsky, former dean of this seminary, who, when speaking about Saint Gregory the Theologian, emphasized that the "main distinctive mark of patristic theology was its existential character. We can affirm the truth of this statement — we can claim this statement as our own — since patristic theology is an evangelical theology rooted in the very worship of the Church.

      By celebrating the Feast of the Three Hierarchs we acknowledge that theology — those words proper to God — is a vital aspect of Christian life and Christian ministry. It should come as no surprise to anyone here that one of the great tragedies to befall theology is its removal from the core of Christian life. Theology continues to become a science that is applied outside of the Church. What this means is that theology — particularly patristic theology — is becoming part of a curriculum that has little, if any, interest in drawing people closer to the living God. Consequently, study and research become ends in themselves while those searching and yearning for God are offered a gospel which does not challenge, which does not edify and which does not save.

      For the Three Hierarchs theology, or knowledge of God, was a dynamic of love which culminated in union and communion with the tripersonal God. This dynamic emphasized and taught by the past visionaries of Saint Vladimir's Seminary, continues to be the basis of the study and research that takes place in this school. And this dynamic of love must be taught and shared by those who will leave this school as pastors so that our parishes may become more and more communities of divine illumination.

      To be a theologian requires a knowledge of the self. The principle know yourself, derived from classical Hellenism, was used by the Three Hierarchs and incorporated into their ascetical and monastic way of life. Thus, the dynamic of love requires self examination. For the Three Hierarchs knowing oneself provided the means for discerning what was true and saving theology from what was false and deprived of life.

      To know oneself, to be immersed in the ascetical life, is not optional if theology is to maintain its existential character. To know oneself is an ascetical ordeal that is for all Christians — those living in the world and those living in monastic communities. Only in the ascetical struggle — the battle with the self and with sin — can we discover theology and therefore the knowledge of God as a personal encounter with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ascetical life liberates theology from being impersonal and solely objective. It liberates theology from having no impact on daily life including interpersonal relationships.

      By entering the ascetic arena there emerged for the Three Hierarchs what is referred to as apophatic or negative theology. Here we must emphasize that, unlike those who would use apophatic theology to defend what can be termed as an anti-intellectual movement in the Orthodox Church, negative theology by no means ignored learning. The intellectual formation of the Three Hierarchs attests to this. As an ascetical tool the negative theology of these great pastors recognized the limitations of the senses, of human reason, and of experience itself. Apophatic theology was and must continue to be a way which guides the faithful into the realm of the unutterable. It must continue to guide the human person into that dimension of reality which is not confined by the parameters of time and space.

      Rooted in the ascetical life the three Hierarchs recognized worship as the most proper expression of theology. What we are doing in this sacred space is theology of the highest calibre. What we are doing in the celebration of this Eucharist — in the celebration of what Saint John Chrysostom refers to in his anaphora as giving thanks for "endowing us with the kingdom which is to come" — is the irreplaceable source, context and goal of theology. Without liturgical worship — without the celebration of the Kingdom which is to come — the scripture is stifled while the dogma and theology of the Church are reduced to opinion. Thus to use a word employed by Saint Basil in his anaphora, what we do as a Eucharistic community is the antitype — the very manifestation and convergence of history and eschatology in the present. In this Eucharist the words, whether proclaimed aloud or in silence, have their fulfillment in the one high priest presiding at the Eucharist.

      Beloved in the Lord, as professors and students of an Orthodox theological school, we are entrusted to convey the existential reality of theology. Like the Holy Hierarchs, we are to draw the faithful and those who are searching into the realm of living theology. In this realm the tripersonal God reigns. In this realm the purpose and goal of human life is offered on behalf of all and for all. Amen!