Day of the Holy Spirit

Have you noticed, brothers, that today's Gospel has in a way intervened in the order the Holy Church has been showing us? The whole time we have been reading the Gospel of St. John the Divine and his teaching on salvation: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1). And suddenly today among these Gospel readings enters the Gospel of Matthew (18:10-20). Here is what this Gospel says: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven."

We are as if shown here what value each person has in the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the eyes of His Church. There is no such thing as a non-person; everyone is a person; and everyone has a guardian angel who beholds the face of the Heavenly Father. And we have no right to despise anyone, because through his guardian angel he is standing in awe before the Lord. "For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost," the Gospel says further; because whoever he is, he belongs to Christ. Even if he were the greatest sinner, a man fallen beyond repair, as you see, the Gospel says it was just such a man that Christ came to save. "How think ye? if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?" Yes, the Holy Church gives us the daring to call, to beg, to pray and cry out that the soul of such a person might find mercy.

But mercy not only on earth. Here is a state of mind against which we so often have to fight, in others and even in ourselves. Christ came on earth, but He did not come with the purpose of 8he Provider, the Judge and the Rewarder—eternal, not temporary.

The Gospel continues: "And if so be that he find it [this lost sheep], verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it... So it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." This is how the Grace of God is revealed. "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone."

And further it says how we should confront him, how finally to bring this confrontation up to the Church; how carefully, how tenderly we should act and with what love.

And then: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." Here the Grace of the Holy Spirit, acting within us, is revealed in absolute clarity. This passage of the Gospel teaches us about today, about the joy which the Lord grants us through the Third Person of the Holy Trinity—God the Holy Spirit. And becoming tangible for us, He saves us from everything that tempts us, that leads us to destruction, because "Whatsoever ye shall loose...shall be loosed." And he who "looses" is a sharer in the Apostles' mystery, God's shepherd who has received upon himself the Grace to bind and to loose.

See what today's Gospel reveals to us. Why should we engage in discussions of how the understandings about God change in humanity? The only thing we need is the understanding of our salvation, the understanding of this Grace of God which looses us from sin and gives us Eternal Life with Christ—our Life.

Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) of Rockland and Novo-Diveevo (1893—1978) was a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and founder of the renowned Novo-Diveevo (New Diveyevo) Convent. A spiritual son of the last Optina Elders, Ss. Anatole the Younger and Nektary, he became a guiding light of the Russian Diaspora until his repose in 1978. The above homily was originally published in a collection of his homilies, titled The One Thing Needful, published by the Novo-Diveevo Convent and Saint John of Kronstadt Press (SJKP).

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