Embracing the Light: A Journey of Faith
In this heartfelt sermon, Fr. Nicholas explores the profound symbolism of light in the Christian faith, drawing connections between the Feast of Lights and Christ's miracles. He delves into the transformative power of divine grace and the call to live a life of virtue. Join Fr. Nicholas as he inspires us to be lights to the world, carrying Christ within us.
Transcript
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Christ is risen. Christ is risen, truly Christ is risen.
Today for us as a parish, this is the last time we'll be able to declare Christ is risen until next year.
Just my sermons, probably for the next six months, are going to be incredibly short. In the car accident, as some of you know, I had damaged my neck and my shoulders, so I cannot sit in front of a computer for very long or actually read very much at all, and I'm now scratching my head how I present a sermon to you all. One of the things I was speaking to someone in the parish during the week, and I talked about the context of the gospel reading, and they said, "Oh, that's really important. We need to understand the context."
The context is in the temple, and it is the feast of lights. In the temple, in the feast of lights, they had large menorah, and the feast goes for eight days, and each day they light an extra light, so the temple is illumined. It is illumined with the light from the menorah, and that's important because here we have an action by Christ about light, about giving vision back to a person born blind. So the context is important; it gives more depth. We have the feast of light, and a person receives light.
Now Hanukkah is an eight-day, as I said, eight days, and you'll see it if you're ever in central Melbourne. You'll see they'll have the menorah, they used to anyway, in the city center, and they would light the lights there, and they would dance, they would be singing and dancing. It's a great celebration for the Jewish people, but it's marking an important event, the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC. The Jewish people, led by the Maccabeans, resisted the oppressive rule of the Seleucids, who sought to impose Hellenistic culture and suppress Jewish religious practice. Now the revolt culminated in the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem, and when they went into the temple to rededicate, they only found a small amount of consecrated oil, only enough for one day, and yet miraculously that oil lasted for eight days.
So we've got a feast, a Jewish feast, and there is a miracle with regards to the feast, and at this feast that's being celebrated, Christ is performing a miracle as well.
I've got lots of notes here. So the menorah symbolizes the light of, symbolizes God's presence and faithfulness. In orthodoxy, light is of importance, and we hear throughout, light is of importance to us all in our life, transfiguration, the uncreated light we celebrate every year.
Now it's important, God uses materials of this world. He uses clay, and he uses his saliva. Some of the fathers say the man had no eyes at all, and there is an eye condition where you are born without any eyes, and they say that God, this takes us back to Genesis, God created man by molding in clay. This man is made whole through Christ making eyes out of clay, and he receives his sight. Some say that it is also a symbol of baptism. Our eyes are opened, and we receive the fullness of the faith. We die and rise again with Christ.
St. Augustine says the mingling of the divine saliva, often seen as a metaphor for the divine word or grace, with the earth and material as an image of sanctifying union. In Augustine's view, this act hints at a sacramental reality. Just as the human body is formed from clay, it is regenerated when touched by divine grace. This parallels the transformative effects of baptism, where the believer is cleansed and reborn into spiritual light. St. John Chrysostom emphasizes that Jesus, by choosing such humble means, a mixture of dirt and spit, substances deemed lowly or unclean, demonstrates that God's healing power penetrates even the most ordinary or despised element of creation. Chrysostom pointed out that Jesus deliberately used what was common to elevate it into a vehicle of divine revelation. This attitude underlines that no facet of our fallen material existence is beyond the possibility of redemption when touched by Christ.
St. Cyril of Alexandria and others saw a sacramental typology at work. The act of anointing the eyes can be read as a prefiguration of the spiritual anointing in the sacraments such as baptism and chrismation, where believers are open to the light of Christ. This healing, therefore, is not only about restoring physical sight but also about inaugurating a deeper spiritual vision, a metaphor for enlightenment through Christ. Christ is the light of the world, and that theme we hear often throughout the gospels, and in this story, he says, "I am the light of the world," emphasizing that true sight, both physical and spiritual, comes through him.
In our spirituality, we often hear about the saints, such as St. Seraphim, who have been graced with the uncreated light. If you've ever read the story of Seraphim and Motovilov, his disciple, the light, it's in the snow, and the light is so powerful, Motovilov is overwhelmed when he sees it. It's a very good story for everyone to read, and it's very important.
So light for us in our spiritual life, we talk about theosis, we talk about journey to Christ, we talk about opening ourselves up to Christ, and our whole life, our salvation, is about moving towards Christ, and the image of light is what is used throughout, that we receive light from Christ.
When I was doing a talk, I had to look at one aspect of theosis, and the image that St. Symeon gave was as you acquire the virtues, as you acquire the virtues, the horizon, I use this image, the horizon lights up, and the more virtues you acquire, the more light there is.
And that is what we are all called to do. We are all called to live a life of virtue and to grow in Christ and to journey towards Christ and to acquire the light. We are called to be lights to the world.
When we leave the church today, we will be carrying Christ within, and we are called to live that life in Christ, that we may be lights to the world. Our life, the way we live our life, is what will call people to God, not by ranting and raving and standing up on soapboxes. It's the life we live in Christ that is going to be the most important, and our journey is towards the light, the true light.
May you all have a blessed final few days of Pascha. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Wednesday evening for divine liturgy for the Ascension as we move in our journey with Christ. The Lord be with you all. Christ is risen.
