Homily on the Universal Church

St. Gabriel of Seven Lakes Monastery, Kazan (†1915)

6 / 19 November 2023

THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – Tone VII

Commemoration of Our Father Among the Saints, Paul the Confessor, Archbishop of Constantinople

The Reading from the 

Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, 

§221 [2:14-22]

Brethren: Christ is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that He might make in Himself one new man out of the two, so making peace, and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were nigh; for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, ye are strangers and foreigners no more, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in Whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

13. A Homily on the Occasion of the Laying of the Cornerstone of the Church at the Seven Lakes Monastery in Homor of St. Euthymius the Great, for the Ceaseless Reading of the Psalter for the Reposed (May 16, 1899)

What went ye out to see? (Matt. 11:8-9; Luke 7:25-26).  Christ asked the large crowd of Israelites that had gathered around Him in the wilderness.  What went ye out for to see?  We too are compelled to pose that question, seeing your large gathering in the wilderness.  Here there is no prophet like John the Baptist, nor is there anything astounding that might usually attract a crowd of idle spectators.  What brought you together?  What compelled you to leave your homes and set aside your everyday cares to understake such a long trip?  The desire to pray?  But you have churches and clergy nearby.  A festive service?  But they exist in the rich city churches.  Or is it perhaps the desire to take part in our exultation today and to contemplate the greatness of the mystery of Christ's Church within the circle of our brotherhood?

...to take part in the great mystery of Christ's Church...

We hope that it is precisely for this reason that you have gathered here from distant place, having left your homes and all your work.  For it is a commandment given to us Christians that we think about the heavenly, and not about the earthly (cf. Col. 3:2); that we look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen (c. II Cor. 4:18), or, to put it better, that we remember the invisible, the heavenly, with regard to the visible.  Everything visible in our Faith, all the rituals, are a shadow, a reflection that should lead our thoughts up to our heavenly homeland.  The will of God is such that we can work out our salvation in no other way than by makng use of every object and occasion to direct our heart and thoughts toward God, toward His kingdom.  We were commanded to do this by the Apostles and by Christ Himself, Who said: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:21).  The holy hierarchs, monastics, ascetics, and other saints lived according to that commandment.  Living on earth, they strove in their heart to always abide in the choir of the angels before God, and to do this they strove to find a reminder of the heavenly in everything.

We too, at these sacred moments, are following their example; and, contemplating with out bodily eyes the founding of this visible church, we are carried away spiritually and shall comtemplat another Church, other stones and construction and shall take part in another kind of exultation.  What is this other Church, these other stones and construction, this other exultation?

The Apostles Peter and Paul speak of this Church and these stones: Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (I Cor. 3:11), to Whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house (I Pet. 2:4-5).  St. Hermas as well contemplated the construction of this Church in a vision: He saw a tower built by six young men, and many thousnads of other men brought stones for the building.  And a woman supported that whole tower in her hands.  The Lord and Master of all was Christ.  And it was revealed to him that the tower that was being built was the whole Church of God.  The six young men were the first-created angels of God, to whom the Lord entrusted all His creation, and the other men who carried stones were the other angels of God.  The stones, out of which the walls of the tower were erected, were the apostles, bishops, teachers, clergy, and those who walked righteously before God, fulfilling His commandments, or those who siffered for the name of the Lord.  The woman who held the tower in her hands was faith.  The tower was still being built, but it would soon be completed.  Then all who had taken part in its construction would exult around it and glorify the Lord, that the building of the tower had been completed.  Hermas added at the end of the vision that this was all true, and nothing therein was false, but that everything was firmly and strongly founded (cf. Shepherd of Hermas, third vision).

This is the Church that we confess: "I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."  Brethren, have you been thinking about this universal Church built by the angels?  And if you have been thinking about it, have you posed yourselves the question as to whether you will enter into this edifice of God, if only as little stones?  Have you concerned yourselves about this?  You have heard that, in order to enter this edifice it is not absolutely necessary to be a bishop or a member of the clergy—that you can be made worhty of this by fulfilling God's commandments and by confessing Christ alone.  You know that the lime that can bind us to the foundation of this edifice is christ, and that Faith is what unites us one to another in a solid wall.  Let us be built, like living stones, into he Church of God.  Let us adhere by firm faith to the foundation of Christ.  Let us besech the Master of the edifice: Secure us upon the good estate of the Churches of God and for the unity of all.

Thus, being borne away in spirit to the invisibly founded edifice of the universal Church, let us begin the celebration of the founding of this visible church.  Amen.

source: The Love of God, The Life and Teachings of St. Gabriel of Seven Lakes Monastery, 

by Archimandrite Symeon Kholmogorov, Platina 2016, pp.287-290,    $19°°  

(Please let me know if this book goes out-of-print or otherwise becomes unavailable for a fair price.~jh) 

(See caveat in book review on this website. ~jh)