My Beloved Ones,
As members of the Body of Christ, we are indeed blessed with the promise of eternal life, but we also have clear responsibilities to show the world how the Kingdom of Heaven can be felt & seen here and now.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Christ tells His followers, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14— 16). Our Lord gives us not just a statement of philosophy, but a call to action. We must be careful, so that in everything we do, we bring glory to His Holy Name.
This Sunday commemorates those Holy Fathers who participated in the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451. This Council was called to address a heresy, advocated by a presbyter named Eutyches, who claimed that Christ had only one nature—Divine—after His Incarnation. This heretical teaching gained many followers, including the then-Patriarch of Alexandria, who, like Eutyches, was sent into exile after the Council disproved their teachings.
In this way, those holy Fathers also acknowledged the wisdom of St. Paul’s advice to Titus in this Sunday’s Epistle: “After a first and second admonition, have nothing more to do with anyone who causes divisions, since you know that such a person is perverted and sinful, being self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11). The Church sets our understanding of theology, not in a legalistic spirit, but so that we might better feel the awesome mystery, in which God willingly took on flesh to practice what He preached: glorifying His Father in Heaven through healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and even raising the dead.
As both God and Man, Jesus Christ also insists that we hold to the correct understanding of what God teaches: “Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19).
In this way, when we commemorate the Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, we honor their commitment to the Word of the Lord: not simply as things written down, but as examples from a life lived, glorifying Him through our thoughts and deeds.
+ALEXIOS
Metropolitan of Atlanta