Sermon on The Sunday Of The Holy Fathers of The First Ecumenical Council
In The Name Of The Father and Of The Son and Of The Holy Spirit, Amen!
My Dear Family in The Lord,
This past Thursday, we celebrated The Glorious Ascension Of Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
This important Feast Day Of our Church, marked the end of The Paschal Season that helps us to grow in our Faith to enjoy the message of The Resurrection and to rejoice in Our Lord!
Right now we are expecting The Feast of The Pentecost, or The Feast Of The Descent Of The Holy Spirit, when we will receive in our souls, hearts and minds The Third Person Of The Holy Trinity, The Holy Spirit Who will govern this world, until The Second and Glorious Coming Of The Son Of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ!
It is exactly the same period of time, when The Holy Apostles were going through in the expectation of The Holy Spirit! Right after The Descent Of The Holy Spirit, they started to preach The Gospel in the world!
In today’s Gospel Lesson from The Gospel Of Saint John, chapter 17, verses 1-13, we have a beautiful Prayer when The Lord prays for the world! A prayer that is for all of us and for all the generations that will come after us. A prayer that reveals to us, how much Jesus loves us and what do we have to do to follow Him all the time! We are called to follow Him every day, not only on Sundays, when, God willing all of us will go to Church, not only on The Feast Days Of The Church, but every day!
It is not a surprise, nor an “accident “that we have this Gospel on The Sunday when we celebrate The Holy Fathers from The First Ecumenical Council. The Holy Fathers Of The Church under the inspiration of The Holy Spirit did that, appointed this Gospel Lesson to be proclaimed on this Sunday to make us remember and to make the difference between The Truth Of Our Lord and falsehood of the heretics.
We learn from The History Of Our Church that in 325 A.D. in the ancient city of Nicaea, 318 Holy Fathers convened to discuss and resolve a very important issue, when a former bishop of The Christian Church, by the name of Arius, came up and preached an erroneous theory, stating that Jesus Christ Our Lord was The Greatest Man That ever lived, but denying His Divinity, by teaching that He Is not God or The Son Of God!
At that Ecumenical Council, after being asked to review his “theory” and to give up on it, Arius refused to do that, maintaining his heresy and as a result of that he was excommunicated from The Church, he was declared a heretic and was not allowed to serve in The Church as a Bishop anymore! This heresy is known as the Arianism heresy even to this day. Last year in October, Our Beloved Patriarch Of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, celebrated at the ruins of The Ancient City of Nicaea, 1700 years since The First Ecumenical Council took place.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers in The Lord,
I was talking about the Beautiful Prayer Of Our Lord from John 17:1-13, I also gave you the historical background of The First Ecumenical Council, that we celebrate today.
By doing these things, I wanted to reiterate for you the importance of holding The Truth. I want you to see the unbroken connection between The Holy Scriptures, The Bible and The Holy Tradition and Ecumenical Councils, because These Truths Of The Church go hand in hand with each other and they cannot be separate by anyone and by any means! The Truth revealed in The Holy Scriptures with all the beautiful words found in the Prayer Of The Lord and the Truth revealed from The First Ecumenical Council, proclaiming that Our Lord Jesus Christ Is The True God and The True Man and that He Is Indeed The Son Of God and The Savior Of our souls!
And this will stay like this forever, without change, omission or wrong interpretation! It will never be subject to change according to somebody’s desire!
Therefore, my Dearly beloved in The Lord we are to hold These Truths and to transmit them from generation to generation, to share them with “all the nations” (Matthew 28:19) to help them “come to the knowledge of The Truth”(1Timothy 2:4) and to grow In Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, for the salvation of their souls and for the inheritance Of The Kingdom Of Heaven, AMEN!!!!!!!
I cannot wait to see y’all in Church! May God bless you and your families!
In Jesus Christ Our Lord, I remain, prayerfully yours,
+ Fr. Catalin