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In just a few days, later this week, we celebrate the feast of the Entry of the Virgin into the Temple.  It is one of the twelve great feasts of the Church and it celebrates the fulfillment of the Old Testament images by the Virgin in preparation for the incarnation of the God/man Jesus Christ.  The Virgin Mary was not simply a random girl who was “in the right place at the right time” and so was chosen to be the instrument of the incarnation.  Rather, she was the end product of centuries – even millennia – of preparation by God to bring her out of the human race.  She was the culmination of the gradual process of the selection by God first of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; then, from the chosen people, of the house of David, who was the “man after God’s own heart”; and finally of Joachim and Anna who would become the grandparents of the Messiah.  The Virgin Mary was granted to them as a child of their old age – they had been childless and thus her conception and birth was unusual, even miraculous, the fruit of their many prayers and an act of faith in response to the promise of God. Because God had given to them this great gift of a child, they in turn gave her to the service of God, even from before she was born. 

When the child Mary turned three years old, it was time to bring her to the temple where she would then live and grow up in the service of God.  This was not unusual in that many children, especially firstborns, were raised in the temple to serve God and then when they reached adulthood (about 13 years old) they returned to their parent’s home, married and established their own lives having a special link to the temple and the spiritual heart of the people.  The child Mary was unusual however in many ways.  When she reached adulthood, she desired to remain in a life of virginity, dedicating herself to the service of God (something that was unheard of in that society).  However even before this, on this day of her entry into the temple, she was seen to be special and chosen by God.  When her parents brought her to the temple to give her into the care of the priests and Levites, they were met by the High Priest at that time, their kinsman Zachariah (who later was to be the father of John the Baptist).  He was given the spiritual vision by God to see the Virgin not as simply a child, but as the chosen instrument of God and was inspired to do the unthinkable, leading her into the Holy of Holies for she was the new ark of the covenant replacing the original ark which had been lost.  The original ark, which was the symbol of God’s presence in the world, was replaced by her who would bring God into the world as a man. 

This is the core of the feast – that the Virgin Mary is the new ark of the covenant, the new throne of God, the ladder by which God descends into the world, the portal by which He enters human flesh. The original ark was built by the Israelites following their flight from Egypt as they camped around Mount Sinai.  In addition to the tablets of the Law (the ten commandments) God had also given to Moses the instruction of how to construct the tabernacle which would serve as the center of the spiritual life of the people.  The tabernacle was constructed with three areas – the courtyard where the people would gather, the sanctuary where the priests would come to pray and finally separated from the sanctuary  by a seamless curtain the Holy of Holies which was the throne of God.  Within the Holy of Holies was placed the ark which was constructed to contain those things which were the marks of God’s intervention in the world to provide for His chosen people – the tablets of the Law, a chalice of manna, the rod of Aaron and so on.  Upon the top of the ark were two angels who spread out their wings as a throne symbolizing God’s presence among His people, sitting upon His throne in their midst, just as He sits upon His angelic throne in heaven.

The ark, as the symbol of God’s presence sat in the middle of the encampment of the people of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness of Sinai to the promised land.  When they moved, the tabernacle was taken apart and packed to be erected when they set up camp again.  The ark of the covenant, which was suspended between two poles, was carried by the priests at the front of the procession of the people, signifying God’s leading of His people throughout their journey in this world.  It was carried in this manner for as the sacred throne of God it could be touched by no man.  Having finally entered into the promised land and settling there, the tabernacle was erected again in the midst of the land so that God remained in the center of His people in Shiloah.  When David became the king of Israel, he brought the tabernacle and the ark to Jerusalem which he had established as the capitol city of the land and his successor, Solomon built a permanent temple in which the ark was housed.  But as the people of Israel angered God by their rebellion and idolatry, God punished them and they were overrun by enemies and taken as captives to Babylon.  The ark, however, was hidden that it might not be defiled and was then lost to the people of Israel.  The temple to which the Virgin Mary came did not have the ark and no one knew where it had been taken.  She came to the temple as the new ark, the new throne of God – but more than this, she herself was the one to whom the ark pointed, she was the one by whom God took flesh and became man.  The ark was a symbol of the Virgin and so entering into the vacant Holy of Holies, she took her rightful place as the throne of God, the portal by which He entered into the world and became man and dwelt among us.

Just as the ark is the symbol of God’s presence with us, so the Virgin is the instrument by which God’s presence became a physical reality.  Just as the ark was the sacred and holy throne of God and could be touched by no man, so also the Virgin remained undefiled before, during and after the birth of the God/man Jesus Christ.  Just as the ark rested in the center of the encampment of the chosen people, so also the Virgin remained with the Apostle John in the midst of the disciples and so is at the center of the Church.  The Virgin Mary, the true ark of the Church, was taken from our sight not as a punishment (as was the original ark) but rather she was taken as a sign of the promise of God that we should all dwell with Him – body and soul – in heaven.

Today we celebrate, for the ark, the throne of God and the sign of His presence in the world, has returned.  God’s plan and provision for our salvation is made visible today for all who have eyes to see.  Today the Virgin enters into the temple and takes up her rightful place in the Holy of Holies telling us that God has not abandoned the world, but that He is with us and His coming is near.  The temple of stone and mortar has been long destroyed, but just as there was a new ark revealed made of flesh and blood so also a new temple made of flesh and blood has been revealed.  Because of the incarnation and the joining of God and man, we have become the temple of God and it is the Virgin who brings to us her son, the God/man Jesus Christ to reside in that temple. On this day we celebrate the coming of the new ark, the Virgin Mary, into the temple of Jerusalem signifying God’s presence with His people.  Therefore, we also celebrate the coming the God/man Jesus Christ into the world through the Virgin Mary (and so it is appropriate that this feast falls at the beginning of our preparation for the Nativity of the Lord) and His entry into the new temple, the temple of our hearts, that He might remain with us all the days of our lives and even into eternity.  Today God returns to His people and today God enters into His new temple and comes to us, to care and provide for us, to renew us with His life, to join us to Himself and to bring us into His kingdom.  This is the feast of the Lord’s return – This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice in Him.

"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" This question posed to our Lord in the gospel this morning expresses the concern of so many who believe in and hope for something after this life, and has elicited many different answers from different people. Believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ, ask Him into your heart, keep His commandments, be a good person, be nice, be kind, love people. But how does Christ answer this question? With another question. "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?"

Christ asks this lawyer what he understands about this question. And more specifically he points Him to the law which was given by God. He is basically saying, you study the law that God gave, you ought to know the answer to this. Likewise, we should know the answer to this question because we have the law and the prophets, we have the gospels, we have the apostolic deposit of faith, we have the Holy Spirit abiding in us, and we have the Church which is the Body of Christ. The means of inheriting eternal life is not a secret, it is what God has been revealing to those willing to listen and obey since the beginning. 

The lawyer responded "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.' "Christ said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." So this is the answer to the question, we love God with our whole self, with everything we are, everything we have, everything we do. And we love our neighbors like we love ourselves. We don’t simply believe in God, we love Him, and we love our neighbor. We do things. Christ says, “do this and you will live”

We know this. As I said, it's not a secret. But if we look back to the book of Genesis, we see why this is a surprisingly hard saying for us, as it was for this lawyer. God commanded Adam “You may eat food from every tree in the garden; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat; for in whatever day you eat from  it, you shall die by death.” If Adam had truly loved God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, he would have obeyed this simple command. After all, he was given all the other fruit in the garden. But the serpent tempted Eve and convinced her that the fruit was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree beautiful to contemplate. And so she ate and gave some to Adam who also ate. When Eve began to turn away from the love of God, she began to turn from love of her neighbor and brought harm to him as well.

After the expulsion from paradise, Cain, having offered an unworthy sacrifice to God became jealous of Abel whose sacrifice was accepted. He did not love God completely and out of that became the first to murder. God came to him asking him where his brother was, to which Cain replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” His question is essentially the same question as the lawyer in the gospel, "And who is my neighbor?" Who should I care about? What is he to me? Why should I have any obligation toward another? When we turn away from the Lord, no one is my neighbor, I am free to treat everyone as I wish, I may tempt them into sin, I may become hostile or jealous, or envious of them, and I may even spill their blood because I am my own ruler, my own judge, my own God.

But Christ responds to the lawyer with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In short and leaving much of the beautiful detail aside,  a traveler was beaten by thieves and left for dead. A priest and a levite passed by him without helping, but a Samaritan had compassion on the man and took care of him. Christ then asked the lawyer, “which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” and the lawyer responded, "He who showed mercy on him."

The word neighbor means “one who is near (or close)” So the priest and the levite by staying away from the man refused to be a neighbor to him. The Samaritan by having compassion and going to him became a neighbor to him. The Samaritans generally avoided all contact with Jews (the feeling was mutual...) but this man made himself a neighbor. Christ puts the question to the lawyer in exactly this way, “which do you think was a neighbor to him?”

So to love your neighbor as yourself is to demonstrate love, to act lovingly toward your neighbor, who is the person that you are close to. This almost seems like a tautology. A person is your neighbor if you love them by drawing near, but you need to draw near and love them because they are your neighbor.

But we should understand that the first and greatest commandment to love God and the second commandment which is like it -- to love our neighbor -- are tied together. If I love God who loves all men, then all men are my neighbor whether I choose to act on that. I am near and close to all men because God whom I love loves them. It is for this reason that Saint John the Theologian says in his epistle, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

We must love God if we are to truly love our neighbor, and we must love our neighbor if we are to truly love God. The two commandments are essentially one. Performing works of mercy can be difficult, it can be painful, it can be like pulling teeth. Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)  uses exactly this analogy. When we are children, our baby teeth become loose and either fall out or must be pulled out so that new teeth can grow in their place. As we seek to mature and grow in our faith, we must pull out all the selfishness, all the callousness in our hearts that we have toward others because unlike baby teeth, these things will never fall out on their own. But when pulled out , the Lord creates in us a clean heart and renews a right spirit within us.

From the moment that sin and death came into the world, we have been living in a world that teaches us to treat others as something other than neighbors. We learn to hate people because of what they do -- whether their works are good or evil. We learn to hate people because of who they are identified with -- racially, ethnically, politically, or religiously. But mostly we learn to hate people because we don’t love God and so we see no need to be our brother’s keeper, or a neighbor to someone who is different.

But Christ tells us the same thing that he told to the lawyer, when the lawyer correctly identifies the Samaritan as the one who was neighbor to the man who fell among thieves. “Go and do likewise.” This is eternal life. This is loving God and loving all whom God loves. Be a neighbor, draw near. Minister to and serve those whom God loves. Inherit eternal life by tearing out of your heart all the hatred, apathy, and lack of compassion so that God will create in you a clean heart and renew a right Spirit within you.

Gal. 6:11-18

It is necessary to act according to your faith – to order your life to conform with the laws of righteousness that God has given us.  Here, however, the Apostle seems to say that such actions are of no effect, for in speaking of the law he says, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”  This impression however ignores the context of the Apostle’s instructions and serves not to diminish the importance of our labors to live a righteous life, but rather to emphasize the importance of a renewal of our interior, spiritual life at the same time.  He says to us that “in Christ Jesus …  (only) a new creature” will be effective.  It is our renewed interior spiritual life that is the “new creature” which is vital to our salvation.  Thus we see that our external conformity to the law of righteousness must be accompanied by an internal life in Christ – the birth and development of the “new man” of righteousness.

We have, in our Orthodox tradition, a great accumulation of rules for life: when to fast, when to feast, when to stand, when to kneel, what to eat, rules for prayer and on and on.  These rules, by themselves, are meaningless.  We cannot ignore them, however, because they have a purpose and that purpose is that by conforming our outer life to the life of Christ, we foster the conditions for our soul to also conform to Christ.  We must become like Christ both in our outward behavior and in our inward life.  Thus we see that it is not only important what we do – but why we do it as well.

The Apostle here is giving us an example of keeping the law externally, but with the wrong internal component – that is doing the right thing but for the wrong reason.  In the early Christian Church there was a faction that insisted on the keeping of the Mosaic law.  Their thinking was still rooted in the idea that it was the keeping of the Law that saved them.  They were right in the sense that the purpose of the Law is to nurture the development of the inner man in a Christ-like direction, but they were wrong in that they ignored this link to the spiritual life.  And in this case (as in many places throughout the early Church) this emphasis on keeping the Law came to have nothing to do with the development of the inner man, but rather the desire of these advocates of the Law (Judaizers as they were known) wanted the Christian Church to look like the synagogues of the Jews and thereby avoid criticism of the Jews and of society as a whole.  They didn’t want to be “different” and so pushed, even the gentile converts, to be circumcised and to strictly adhere to Mosaic Law.  This motivation was definitely flawed – for these Judaizers were concerned less with being like Christ and more with not being different from their neighbors.  Their keeping of the law was not motivated out of love for Christ, but rather out of fear of the criticism of the world around them.

We have seen this same process occur frequently in the Orthodox diaspora.  Many immigrants from Orthodox Christian cultures to Western Europe and the New World as well as new converts have tried to minimize the difference between their faith and traditions on one hand and the heterodox practices of the Roman Catholics and Protestants around them on the other.  Thus we see parishes where the sanctuary is filled with pews or that have incorporated organs and other instruments into their worship.  We see a compromise of traditions by which we express our veneration and honor towards holy things and holy people.  Many people are reluctant to make the sign of the cross in public or to pray before a meal in a restaurant for fear of looking different or out of place.  Often we see people ignore the fast in order to avoid having to explain their “strange” diet and so they just eat what everyone else is eating.  All of these compromises by Orthodox Christians echo the behavior of the Judaizers of the early Church in that they are born from the desire to avoid criticism by looking like everyone else.  Their compromises arise from a desire to preserve the “self” – i.e. the “old man” of sin – rather than to sacrifice the “old man” and foster the growth of the “new man” of righteousness.

There is also another side to this kind of “doing the right thing for the wrong reason” and that can be seen from an overly strict adherence to the Church traditions not out of love for Christ but out of fear of offending God which results from forgetting His love and mercy for us or out of a desire to look pious and holy and thereby impress everyone with one’s advanced spirituality.  The Fathers talk about this situation frequently when they warn us against engaging in overly strict ascetic practices which endanger our health.  They note that in most cases such excessive strictness does not have to do with the love of Christ, but rather with the love of self (self-esteem) and the praise of others.  We can see that in both cases these “wrong reasons” all go back to the common element of love of self rather than the love of Christ.

Having looked at the “wrong reasons” let us now consider the “right reason”.  The “right reason” for doing all of these things is, as we have mentioned, the love of Jesus Christ.  If we love God, we will eagerly seek to do those things that please Him.  How do we know what pleases God?  Quite simply, He tells us; He has given us His law as a description of the kind of person that pleases Him.  Therefore we follow the law, not because it will save us or for any worldly reason, but rather because we love God and want to please Him.  This is the only “good reason” for doing anything in our lives – to please God and to glorify Him.  Any other reason is bound to this world or to our own egocentrism and as a result creates a barrier between us and God. 

God also loves us and draws us to Himself by means of that love.  Our love for Him is the response to His love for us – even while we were yet sinners God has loved us and gives Himself to us.  This mutual love creates a connection between His life and ours so that we begin to move in complete and perfect harmony with Him.  The object of our lives becomes the desire to move in perfect unity with our Lord Jesus Christ.  His divine nature and human nature acted in perfect unity, and this is an example of what He desires for us and of the culmination of our love for Him – to participate in that perfect union of God and man that was first accomplished in the Incarnation.

How do we then avoid the errors of the “wrong motives” and pursue the “right motive”.  First is to nurture within ourselves the love of God – to recognize and embrace His love for us and to return that love with our love for Him.  Let your every act be done out of love for God and for His glory.  Secondly we must crucify ourselves, sacrificing our own lives and receiving in return His life.  His life becomes ours – as the Apostle has said, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” The pursuit of the life of Christ through the sacrifice of our own lives and through God’s love in us is how we find and embrace the “right reason” which is in fact the love of God.

Avoiding the “wrong reason” is also wrapped up in our self sacrifice.  Since the “wrong reason” is our own self love, we have to take every measure to set aside the self – our self esteem, our self will, our self reliance, self pleasure and all the other “self”s that we have in our lives.  The best tool that we have for this is obedience.  The essence of obedience is to set aside one’s own will in order to follow the will of another.  In our lives this is accomplished simply by asking a blessing for the things that we do.  By this I don’t mean that we should ask a blessing for every little thing during the day, but rather that whenever we depart from the “normal routine” of life we ask for a blessing.  For example, we should all fast and pray according to the rule that we have been given by the Church and by our confessor.  But sometimes maybe we wish to add more prayers or to fast more strictly for a particular purpose or to relax our rule somewhat – and then is the time to ask a blessing from your parish priest or confessor.  When you are faced with a decision in life – to change jobs, to move to a new home, to make a major purchase – take the simple step of asking a blessing.  This practice extends even beyond your relationship with your confessor and can be exercised in your own household.  Husbands and wives should never undertake a change in their lives without asking for a blessing from one another.  Children should always ask a blessing from their parents for every new thing they undertake.  Even when brothers and sisters live together in Christian harmony, to ask a blessing of one another adds the dimension of mutual submission and humility to the household.  To ask a blessing helps to insure that you are not doing things out of self will, self pride, self love or out of fear for one’s self – because the sacrifice of one’s self is an inherent part of asking a blessing.

It is not acting according to the law that sanctifies us, but the love of God – and our love for God is shown by our actions.  These two things – faith and works or love of God and following the law – are the inseparable rhythm of our Christian life.   With these two elements we are doing the right thing for the right reason which will bring us into perfect harmony and unity with the life of Christ.

In the book of Deuteronomy, just before the Israelites were about to enter the promised land, Moses again set before them the Torah, the way that God commanded them to live. As part of this way, every seven years, all debts should be forgiven, no matter how large or how recently incurred. Every fifty years should be a jubilee year in which all their slaves were to be freed, all debts were to be canceled, and all property should revert to its original owners. Moses told the people that if they kept the Lord’s commandments the inheritance and the blessings they received would be great. 

In Chapter 15 of Deuteronomy, he said “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren within any of the cities in your land the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall surely open your hands to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.” If the people had lent to the poor as the Lord commanded, if they had forgiven debts as they were commanded, their love and generosity would be blessed such that there would be no poor among them. This is what God told them. And yet just a few verses later, we read “the poor will never cease from the land;” We see this echoed in the gospels when Judas complains about the cost of ointment that was poured out on Christ to anoint Him -- “You have the poor with you always, but Me you do not always have.” In a sense, this statement serves as an indictment for them, and indeed for us. The Lord is saying, you aren’t keeping my commandments, and so you will always have the poor with you, and I won’t remain with you if you don’t keep my commandments. But on the contrary, God who loves the poor, the weak, the lowly, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow will be with you if you love them as He does and care for them in His name.

God does not desire that some should be rich and some poor as if these things were good in and of themselves, but in this fallen world these realities are very much a part of our daily lives, and God wants us to do good in either state that we are in. And so the Lord speaks to us the parable of Lazarus and the Rich man which we heard in the gospel this morning. There was a man blessed by God with great riches. This man chose to use his riches to dress himself in expensive purple, and fine linen clothing. He ate fine foods in abundance. The rich man used his wealth to fatten himself up, to make himself more fleshly, and to decorate himself outwardly.

Poor Lazarus, in contrast, wasted away from lack of food, becoming skin and bones, and he was decorated with sores that the dogs would lick. Lazarus was not fasting by choice, but by accepting his circumstances He was able to draw closer to God. But notice that it is the very things that the rich man indulged in that Lazarus lacked. The rich man was in the position to change Lazarus’ circumstances without even impacting his own much.

The parable mentions that they both died and that the rich man was buried. I think it safe to assume that the rich man would have had a fine funeral, in keeping with the way that he lived. We are not told that Lazarus was even buried. But we are told that he was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The Wisdom of Solomon, in words that we often hear during readings at Vigil, gives us insight into what Lazarus would have experienced in death:

“The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torture will ever touch them. In the eyes of the undiscerning they seem to have died, and their departure was considered to be misfortune, and their passage from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. For though in man’s view they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.” 

In contrast, we read a few verses later, in the Wisdom of Solomon, the fate of those like the rich man: “the hope of the ungodly man is carried by the wind and like a light frost driven away by a storm, it is dispersed like smoke before the wind, and it passes like the remembrance of a guest who stays only one day.”

Today we celebrate the memory of Saint Artemius of Verkola. Saint Artemius was a young boy from a poor peasant family, in the mid-16th century. He was raised to be pious and prayerful, but there are no records of anything extraordinary that he did in his life. At the age of thirteen, he was dutifully working with his father in the fields when he was struck by lightning. Many considered this a cursed death, given by God in return for his sins. But recall the words from the Wisdom of Solomon, “though in man’s view they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.”  So it was that certain people in the village objected to a proper burial and left him in the forest covered with dead wood. But Saint Artemius was carried by angels into the presence of God, and twenty-two years later his relics were found incorrupt  under that pile of rotten wood by the Church sacristan. From these relics which showed forth immortality, great riches were given to the Church.

We often fail to see the things of God clearly. What we call fortune and misfortune are mysteries in the workings of the providence of God. Whether we have received great riches from God, power, and prestige;  or are poor, hungry and covered in sores, or taken from this life unexpectedly in tragic circumstances, we don’t see who is truly blessed with our earthly eyes. Indeed, we often perceive things backwards.

We should also understand that a holy life is not always an extraordinary one. Lazarus was holy because he endured the afflictions of his life with faith and love of God, Saint Artemius was holy because he prayed, went to Church, and obeyed his parents. The rich man did big things, lavish things, things of note; but they all focused on himself and his desires. We don’t need to be extraordinary in this life, we need to live peaceable lives in all godliness and modesty.

Everything given to us is meant to be used to live this godly life. Whether riches or poverty, life or death. It is what we do with the things that God has given us that either lead to the Bosom of Abraham and paradise or to torment in Hades and destruction.

I have heard it said that every homily should have something for the hearers to act upon, and I would like to suggest just such an opportunity. I try very hard to steer clear of the realm of politics, and I hope you will forgive me for drawing near enough to be uncomfortable, but I believe that we have an opportunity to enact these truths that the Church is presenting to us today.

Many of you no doubt are following what is happening with the government shutdown, and regardless of your opinions about government programs, regardless of  political affiliation, regardless of who you think is at fault, it seems likely that there are a lot of people who will soon be struggling to pay for food. Our job is not to place blame, it is to recognize a need and help. Regardless of why there will be poor people like Lazarus sitting just outside our gates. We will have a choice. We can choose to see the ugliness of their lowly state, to see their sores and turn away, or we can choose to see Christ in them, and turn to them with help.

I have been in their situation, and not that long ago. Many of you have, some of you may still be. We who have been blessed by God with any amount of riches, however small, can reach out to those who have been blessed by God with poverty. We can give them our earthly riches and they can give us heavenly riches. This is why the poor are always with us, to keep reminding us to live according to God’s commandments, to keep us lending and forgiving debts because that is what God Himself does, so that by doing so, we can be more like Him.

It is an indictment that there are poor among us. We are not called to solve poverty as a social project, but it does serve as a continual sign that too few of us are really caring for the least of our brethren. So, especially in the coming days, be on the lookout for the Lazarus who needs what you can supply. Be active in checking on those you suspect might need help. Give to those who are committed to helping feed others. One of the simplest things that we can do is to give food and drink to those who hunger and thirst. It is not extraordinary to do so, but it is one of the things that we will be judged for.

My hope is that at the end of your days, each one of you will be carried by the angels to the very presence of God, and that each one of you will hear “in that you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it unto me,” and “well done, thou good and faithful servant.” You will find this blessing by holding your riches lightly and giving to those in need freely, and inasmuch as you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.

Homily given by Fr. David at St. Martin the Merciful Orthodox Church in Corvallis.  This is an audio file.  LINK TO AUDIO FILE

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