The Eternal Glory: Understanding the Seventh Ecumenical Council
Fr. Nicholas delivers an inspiring sermon on the significance of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and the profound mysteries of faith. He explores the eternal life and unity found in Christ, revealing how the icons reflect the divine presence. Through vivid narratives, Fr. Nicholas engages his audience with a timeless message of love and truth.
Transcript
There were multiple readings for today, and I actually found out last night there were two readings for the Seventh Ecumenical Council, and we read today the Gospel reading for the Sunday. But even if we'd used the gospel that we have here for the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the liturgical that I was following gave me another reading, and I've based it on this other reading. So I'm going to read you from the Gospel of St. John, the 17th chapter, verses 1 to 13.
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you. And as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given them the words which you have given me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves."
In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, today we commemorate the holy fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, those God-bearing bishops and confessors who, in the year 787 at Nicaea, defended the truth of the Orthodox faith and preserved for us the right confession concerning the holy icons. They safeguarded not merely a custom or form of art, but the fullness of the gospel itself. The confession that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This proclamation still resounds. The honor given to the icon passes to its prototype. When we venerate the holy images of Christ, his mother, his saints, we do not worship wood or paint, but him who took flesh for our salvation and those who have been glorified in him.
The gospel we hear today brings us to the very heart of this mystery. In the 17th chapter of St. John, we listen to what the Fathers called the High Priestly Prayer. The prayer of the Son to the Father on the night before his passion. "Father, the hour has come," he says. "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." Throughout his ministry, Jesus had said, "My hour has not yet come." But now the hour has arrived, the hour of the cross. Here is the paradox of divine glory. It is revealed not in power or splendor but in obedience, humility, and sacrificial love. The cross which the world sees as shame becomes the throne of glory.
Christ glorifies the Father by completing the work given to him to make the Father known and to bring eternal life to those who believe. "This is eternal life," he declares, "that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Eternal life is not merely endless existence. It is communion, the knowledge of God through love and participation in his life. It begins now in the church and is perfected in the kingdom to come.
He continues, "I have manifested your name to those whom you gave me." To reveal the divine name is to make known the very being of God. In Christ, the invisible becomes visible. The unknowable is made known. This truth stands at the very center of what the Fathers of Nicaea defended, that because the Son of God truly became man, he can be depicted. As St. John of Damascus proclaimed, "When the invisible one becomes visible in the flesh, you may then draw his image. The holy icons bear witness to the same truth as today's gospel, that in Jesus Christ the Father has been revealed and the matter itself has been sanctified through the incarnation. To deny the icon is to deny the reality of the Word made flesh."
Christ then prays, "Holy Father, keep them in your name that they may be one even as we are one." The unity of the church is not the product of human compromise or tolerance. It is the fruit of divine truth and love. The Fathers of the Seventh Council guarded this unity by remaining faithful to the apostolic teaching even when it cost them dearly. The unity was forged in truth and sealed with sacrifice. Finally, the Lord prays, "I am coming to you that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves." This is the joy of divine love. The joy that springs from communion with the Father. A joy that shines through the saints, through every faithful disciple, and even through the luminous face of the holy icons.
Beloved, the commemoration of the Fathers is not only about history. It concerns our own life in Christ. The same spirit that once sought to erase the visible witness of the incarnation still tempts the world today to reduce faith to a private idea, to a spirituality without flesh, without cross, without resurrection. Yet Christ has given us his word, and he has revealed his image. To venerate the holy icons is to confess with our bodies, our eyes, and our lips that God is with us, that he has entered our history and invites us into his life. Let us then give thanks for the holy Fathers who preserved the faith whole and entire. Let us hold fast to their teaching, not only by venerating the icons in our church, but by striving to become living icons of Christ ourselves, men and women who reflect his truth, humility, and love in the world. May the power of Christ, our high priest, be fulfilled in us that we may be one as the Father and the Son are one, kept in his name, filled with his joy, and brought at last into his eternal glory. Through the prayers of the holy fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, our Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
