Speaker 1: Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Nunciation
Speaker 1: Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an
Speaker 1: old calendar Orthodox church sharing the faith of the Apostles
Speaker 1: and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,
Speaker 1: let's listen to this week's homily, and then the.
Speaker 2: Father and the Son the Holy Spirit Court of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: Have a seat if you like, and where you can.
Speaker 3: It's fine. For is fine if you'd like to sit
Speaker 3: on the floor. We're not offended by that either.
Speaker 2: Yesterday we celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the Feasts of
Speaker 2: the Universal Exaltation of the Cross. On that feast and
Speaker 2: through the after feast, we him our Lord's self willed
Speaker 2: offering of himself on the cross in fulfillment of his
Speaker 2: Father's divine economy for our salvation. We call the cross
Speaker 2: his invincible trophy. We call it the weapon of peace.
Speaker 2: We fall down before it in veneration. We understand that
Speaker 2: in this material world, our Lord, who himself bore our
Speaker 2: same material flesh, conquered death through the wood of the cross.
Speaker 2: But today we hear a different gospel reading.
Speaker 3: Yesterday we heard the.
Speaker 2: Sentencing of Christ by Pilot his journey to Golgatha, has
Speaker 2: assent on to the cross. But today we hear the
Speaker 2: words of Christ. And when he had called the people
Speaker 2: to him with his disciples, also he said unto them,
Speaker 2: whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and
Speaker 2: take up his cross and follow me. Yesterday we're called
Speaker 2: to humble ourselves on our faces before the.
Speaker 3: Wood of the cross.
Speaker 2: But today we're told that we must take up that
Speaker 2: same cross ourselves. Not only that we must first deny
Speaker 2: ourselves and then take up the cross. Now there are
Speaker 2: two important things to remember here. The first, the most obvious,
Speaker 2: should be that this requirement is entirely upon us Christ.
Speaker 2: God does not compel us to do this. It's Saint
Speaker 2: John Christism notes it's as if Christ is saying, I
Speaker 2: force no one, I compel no one, but each one
Speaker 2: I make lord of his own choice. So I say,
Speaker 2: whosoever will come after me. Christ is acknowledging that there
Speaker 2: will be troubles and tribulations along the way for those
Speaker 2: who follow him, So that choice must be of our
Speaker 2: own accord, a choice of love, not an act under compulsion.
Speaker 2: And the second thing is this, there is an order
Speaker 2: to how God has made us. Love of self was
Speaker 2: the ruin of the first man. If Adam had placed
Speaker 2: his desires over God's commands, right, if he had not
Speaker 2: loved himself in the wrong order, if he would have
Speaker 2: been willing to be subject to God, if he would
Speaker 2: have preferred God to himself. Christ reminds us of this
Speaker 2: same priority. Man follows God. Man does not dictate to
Speaker 2: God the terms of his obedience. Rather, this is a
Speaker 2: free choice that we are asked to make, to turn
Speaker 2: away from our own desires and to take up the
Speaker 2: cross and to follow Christ. Saint Cesaius of Ours has
Speaker 2: provided us with one the simplest explanations of what it
Speaker 2: means to take up one's cross, which is to bear
Speaker 2: with whatever is troublesome, that is, to patiently endure all
Speaker 2: that comes at us as we attempt to follow Christ.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's incredible the timeless wisdom that the
Speaker 2: church fathers possessed, because sat Csari has lived in the
Speaker 2: sixth century, but he gave this example of how the
Speaker 2: people that make the decision to follow Christ will be troubled.
Speaker 2: He says, when man has begun to follow Christ according
Speaker 2: to his teachings and precepts, he will find many people
Speaker 2: contradicting him and standing in his way, many of whom
Speaker 2: may not only deride him, but even persecute him. Now
Speaker 2: we may hear this more today than many centuries. It's
Speaker 2: less of a persecution. But there are.
Speaker 3: Clearly non believers.
Speaker 2: Who will mock and attack those who choose to fall Christ.
Speaker 2: They'll make fun of those who adopt the traditional beliefs
Speaker 2: of the Church, and they'll even mock God in the
Speaker 2: process of doing it. But the atheists and the pagans
Speaker 2: that take that position aren't the only.
Speaker 3: Groups that thanks serious warned of.
Speaker 2: He even warned of those in the Church, or at
Speaker 2: least those who visibly appear to be in the Church
Speaker 2: but are actually outside of it because of the perversity.
Speaker 3: Of their deeds.
Speaker 2: He says, these glory in the title of Christians, but
Speaker 2: they continually harass faithful Christians. And this is true as well,
Speaker 2: especially in the days of the Internet. They're all over it.
Speaker 2: They're all over the place, whether it's self proclaimed Christians
Speaker 2: who reject the Apostolic faith, or it's the holy tradition
Speaker 2: that they attack. There are those who call themselves Christians
Speaker 2: but attack others. And these people we know by their fruits.
Speaker 2: Their objective is not building up the body of Christ.
Speaker 2: But it's not humble obedience to God. Rather, it's tearing
Speaker 2: down others and making themselves the center of all things.
Speaker 2: That's the purpose of their attacks, is to make themselves central.
Speaker 2: But they've failed in that first command. They can't deny themselves.
Speaker 2: Saint Cisaria says, if you wish to follow Christ, do
Speaker 2: not delay in carrying his cross. Tolerate sinners, but don't
Speaker 2: yield to them. Don't let the false happiness of the
Speaker 2: wicked corrupt you. You'll do well to despise all things
Speaker 2: for the sake of Christ, in order that you may
Speaker 2: be fit for his companionship. This path to following Christ
Speaker 2: is more than a call than.
Speaker 3: Just bearing our own afflictions, and.
Speaker 2: The Orthodox tradition taking up our cross calls us to
Speaker 2: actually be participants in Christ's self emptying love. Christ loves
Speaker 2: so much that he raised himself up on the cross
Speaker 2: for his salva. We too, are called to accept the
Speaker 2: path of humility, of sacrificing, of obedience. We're called to
Speaker 2: die to our old self, to put to death our
Speaker 2: selfish desires, our pride, the passions that beset us. We're
Speaker 2: called to not be ashamed of living the Gospel, no
Speaker 2: matter what the cost socially or materially is, and to
Speaker 2: remember the Cross, as mighty as it is, is not
Speaker 2: the end of itself, because it leads us to the
Speaker 2: empty tomb, and it leads us to that time of
Speaker 2: resurrection the Sunday after the Feast of the Cross builds.
Speaker 2: On the feast, we proclaim the cross as Christ of victory.
Speaker 2: But Christ tells us it's not just his weapon, but
Speaker 2: it is ours to bear.
Speaker 3: Now, what bearing your cross looks like in.
Speaker 2: Daily life, Well, that's a difficult question, and really it's
Speaker 2: a question that varies so widely from person to person.
Speaker 3: Look around the room.
Speaker 2: You don't know what cross someone else is bearing unless
Speaker 2: they choose to share it. You know, we never compare
Speaker 2: our cross to someone else's cross. We don't know what
Speaker 2: their cross is, we don't know how deep it is.
Speaker 2: But we're called to bear it joyfully without complaint, whether
Speaker 2: it's enduring illness, whether it's forgiving people that have hurt us,
Speaker 2: whether it's following the fast or just being in the
Speaker 2: church on a day when you don't really feel like
Speaker 2: being there. When we lay down our old self in
Speaker 2: exchange for life and Christ. That is that is burying
Speaker 2: our cross. We bear our cross whenever we live our
Speaker 2: faith in public, whether it's making the sign of the cross,
Speaker 2: maybe it's saying the prayers over the meal of the restaurant,
Speaker 2: speaking the.
Speaker 3: Truth of the Gospel as marked.
Speaker 2: There are many, many ways that each of us may
Speaker 2: be called on to bear our cross on.
Speaker 3: A given day.
Speaker 2: In fact, there's scarcely going to be a day that
Speaker 2: passes in this world where we're not called on, in
Speaker 2: one way or another to deny ourselves and carry our cross.
Speaker 2: It's not just a Sunday thing. It's not just an
Speaker 2: in church thing. It is an imperative of Christian living.
Speaker 2: And if we constantly deny ourselves, we're cultivating humility. If
Speaker 2: we bear our cross, we cultivate even more. We cultivate worship,
Speaker 2: We cultivate obedience, we cultivate maybe even the preaching of
Speaker 2: the gospel from our own mouths and proclaim.
Speaker 3: The good News.
Speaker 2: So, brothers and sisters, as we move from the feast
Speaker 2: of the exaltation of the Cross to the after feast,
Speaker 2: we move from adoring the cross to carrying it.
Speaker 3: We move from bowing.
Speaker 2: Before it, to wielding that weapon of peace in our
Speaker 2: own fight against sin and darkness. May Christ, our True God,
Speaker 2: permit us to follow him in faith and humility, that
Speaker 2: we may be made worthy of His kingdom. Maybe the
Speaker 2: Father and Son the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Hill Country homilies. For more information,
Speaker 1: visit Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church at www dot Denunciation, tx
Speaker 1: dot com, and please join us again next week