APOSTLE THOMAS SUNDAY
Sermon by H.G Bishop Emilianos of Meloa, 23rd April 2017
Today our Church celebrates the Sunday of Apostle Thomas. We heard in the Holy Gospel that where the disciples were gathered because they were afraid of the Jews, Jesus appeared amongst them, and He told them: “Peace be with you.” “The way that the Father has sent me, I send you”. He then breathed on them, He gave them the Holy Spirit, and He continued: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven and if you retain them, they are retained.”
What happened here in the Holy Gospel is what we call in Greek: Theoptia (Θεοπτία) and Theokoinonia (Θεοκοινωνία), meaning a Vision of God, which was at the same time a Communion with God. The Fathers of the Church tell us that spiritual experiences are usually one of the two kinds or both of them. When we talk about a Vision of God, we refer to a spiritual visualisation of some kind, which includes an understanding of God, not of His Essence, but of His Grace and Presence. Like St John the Forerunner, when he saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove. It doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit was a dove. It was a special Spiritual experience and realisation for St John the Forerunner.
Theokoinonia, Communion of God (is not the Holy Communion we talk about here), it’s when we sense or feel the love and peace of God, when we feel the eternity of God, or any of His other Qualities/Energies. There is no vision there; we don’t see anything with our spiritual eyes. It’s just a feeling. The way we feel, because God is present, and we understand that God is present there and He allows us to Commune with Him in a unique and mystical way.
After this vision of and Communion with God, as the Gospel indicates, Jesus gave His Disciples a gift/authority. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven and if you retain them, they are retained”. Spiritual gifts are given to people, but, they are given for the benefit of the Church as a whole. It is as if God is making us executors of His Will. Will here meaning both Wealth and Desire. He is making us treasurers of His gifts and His intensions. If we take advantage of them, if we bury the gifts or if we spend them, then we are guilty and we will miss out ourselves, as well as everyone else around us. The same applies with all God’s gifts: the spiritual, the psychological and the material ones.
The Saints were not keeping the Grace of God or His gifts for themselves. And they were full of His intensions as well. Full of His Love. They were trying through their prayer, through their words and through their actions to sanctify everyone, to make people Holy, to guide them and to protect them spiritually.
If God was to give them riches, they became treasurers of them, like St John the Merciful. St John the Merciful was born in Limassol of Cyprus. He was married, he had children, but then his children and wife passed away. He had a great inheritance and that’s why they asked him a few times to get remarry but he didn’t want to. He said, “I owe things to my fellow people”. He started giving away and helping everyone. That’s why he is called “merciful”. He ended up becoming Archbishop of Alexandria. But the more he was giving, the more he had to give. It was like fire. The more you share fire, the more it increases, it cannot be reduced. The more the Saints were giving the more it was increasing for them and others. That is the case with love, with knowledge of God and even with the material things.
The same happened with Saint Basil the Great. He spent whatever he had to build the Vasiliada, which was big like a village, and it was a place where the sick and the hungry could find comfort.
If the Saints had the gift of Theology, which is the understanding of God (nothing to do with the academic Theology), like Saint Gregory Palamas, like Saint Basil the Great as we said before, or even like Elder Sophrony of Essex (a recent Elder who passed away a few years ago), then they would talk about God. They would talk about prayer and how we could become One with God through prayer. They would not keep the gift of knowledge of God for themselves. They tried to explain to people what He is and how to approach Him. If they had psychological or social gifts like Gerondissa Gavrillia, then, they would give their love to everyone. To Orthodox and non-Orthodox. When Gerondissa Gavrillia was still a physiotherapist in England, she used to say: “Through the feet to the heart”. She was helping people to recover from their pain. Through this material help through, the treatment of their feet and their body, she was ending up unlocking and unblocking their hearts, making them share their emotional pain and freeing them from their fears.
This is what Jesus did when He washed His Disciple’s feet and He told them to follow His example. The Apostles and all of us are to wash each other’s feet. What does this mean though? Back then they did not have shoes like today. They did not have cars like today, or streets like today. They were either wearing sandals or no shoes at all and they were walking on dirt paths. That’s why their feet were becoming very tired and very dusty. Washing them was not only relieving them from pain but it was also necessary because they were very dirty. Our feet are the point that we attach ourselves to the ground, to earth. It is the similar to our intellect, which tries to lead us through the difficulties of our everyday life to our heavenly destination through this world’s dusty paths. But it also becomes tired and dirty from this world and from everything which gets attached to it, and that’s how it becomes dark and foggy. Even our soul and body become heavy because of our intellect. To wash each other’s feet here means to clean their mind, to clean their intellect from the confusion so that they will find rest inside them.
Jesus said to His Disciples today: “Peace be with you”, and He gave them at the same time His acting Peace, the Holy Spirit, God inside them. The Apostles experienced the Holy Spirit to fill them up at this instance. He did not give them the Holy Spirit so that they would feel good, but so that they would be armed with their cross. He told them: “Go therefore and teach all the nations”. Without cross there is no Grace and peace. No Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a personal gift but at the same time He is a personal weapon to defend everyone else’s peace. It is for us a gift, but at the same time a duty. This is how we draw the mosaic of our earthly life. The cross is woven with Grace, and the serving is knitted with God’s gifts.
What happened here in the Holy Gospel is what we call in Greek: Theoptia (Θεοπτία) and Theokoinonia (Θεοκοινωνία), meaning a Vision of God, which was at the same time a Communion with God. The Fathers of the Church tell us that spiritual experiences are usually one of the two kinds or both of them. When we talk about a Vision of God, we refer to a spiritual visualisation of some kind, which includes an understanding of God, not of His Essence, but of His Grace and Presence. Like St John the Forerunner, when he saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove. It doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit was a dove. It was a special Spiritual experience and realisation for St John the Forerunner.
Theokoinonia, Communion of God (is not the Holy Communion we talk about here), it’s when we sense or feel the love and peace of God, when we feel the eternity of God, or any of His other Qualities/Energies. There is no vision there; we don’t see anything with our spiritual eyes. It’s just a feeling. The way we feel, because God is present, and we understand that God is present there and He allows us to Commune with Him in a unique and mystical way.
After this vision of and Communion with God, as the Gospel indicates, Jesus gave His Disciples a gift/authority. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven and if you retain them, they are retained”. Spiritual gifts are given to people, but, they are given for the benefit of the Church as a whole. It is as if God is making us executors of His Will. Will here meaning both Wealth and Desire. He is making us treasurers of His gifts and His intensions. If we take advantage of them, if we bury the gifts or if we spend them, then we are guilty and we will miss out ourselves, as well as everyone else around us. The same applies with all God’s gifts: the spiritual, the psychological and the material ones.
The Saints were not keeping the Grace of God or His gifts for themselves. And they were full of His intensions as well. Full of His Love. They were trying through their prayer, through their words and through their actions to sanctify everyone, to make people Holy, to guide them and to protect them spiritually.
If God was to give them riches, they became treasurers of them, like St John the Merciful. St John the Merciful was born in Limassol of Cyprus. He was married, he had children, but then his children and wife passed away. He had a great inheritance and that’s why they asked him a few times to get remarry but he didn’t want to. He said, “I owe things to my fellow people”. He started giving away and helping everyone. That’s why he is called “merciful”. He ended up becoming Archbishop of Alexandria. But the more he was giving, the more he had to give. It was like fire. The more you share fire, the more it increases, it cannot be reduced. The more the Saints were giving the more it was increasing for them and others. That is the case with love, with knowledge of God and even with the material things.
The same happened with Saint Basil the Great. He spent whatever he had to build the Vasiliada, which was big like a village, and it was a place where the sick and the hungry could find comfort.
If the Saints had the gift of Theology, which is the understanding of God (nothing to do with the academic Theology), like Saint Gregory Palamas, like Saint Basil the Great as we said before, or even like Elder Sophrony of Essex (a recent Elder who passed away a few years ago), then they would talk about God. They would talk about prayer and how we could become One with God through prayer. They would not keep the gift of knowledge of God for themselves. They tried to explain to people what He is and how to approach Him. If they had psychological or social gifts like Gerondissa Gavrillia, then, they would give their love to everyone. To Orthodox and non-Orthodox. When Gerondissa Gavrillia was still a physiotherapist in England, she used to say: “Through the feet to the heart”. She was helping people to recover from their pain. Through this material help through, the treatment of their feet and their body, she was ending up unlocking and unblocking their hearts, making them share their emotional pain and freeing them from their fears.
This is what Jesus did when He washed His Disciple’s feet and He told them to follow His example. The Apostles and all of us are to wash each other’s feet. What does this mean though? Back then they did not have shoes like today. They did not have cars like today, or streets like today. They were either wearing sandals or no shoes at all and they were walking on dirt paths. That’s why their feet were becoming very tired and very dusty. Washing them was not only relieving them from pain but it was also necessary because they were very dirty. Our feet are the point that we attach ourselves to the ground, to earth. It is the similar to our intellect, which tries to lead us through the difficulties of our everyday life to our heavenly destination through this world’s dusty paths. But it also becomes tired and dirty from this world and from everything which gets attached to it, and that’s how it becomes dark and foggy. Even our soul and body become heavy because of our intellect. To wash each other’s feet here means to clean their mind, to clean their intellect from the confusion so that they will find rest inside them.
Jesus said to His Disciples today: “Peace be with you”, and He gave them at the same time His acting Peace, the Holy Spirit, God inside them. The Apostles experienced the Holy Spirit to fill them up at this instance. He did not give them the Holy Spirit so that they would feel good, but so that they would be armed with their cross. He told them: “Go therefore and teach all the nations”. Without cross there is no Grace and peace. No Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a personal gift but at the same time He is a personal weapon to defend everyone else’s peace. It is for us a gift, but at the same time a duty. This is how we draw the mosaic of our earthly life. The cross is woven with Grace, and the serving is knitted with God’s gifts.