Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and of Theophany, as well as St. Theophan the Recluse’s day!

In today’s excerpt from the Epistle to the Ephesians, we heard that each person is given the grace of God. This happens when we are anointed with myrrh immediately after our baptism. St. Paul emphasizes that grace is given not as a result of our achievements, but because of God’s love toward us. To support this idea, he brings up a quote from the 67th (66th) psalm as a prophecy or foreshadowing of the giving out of grace. This psalm talks about how God led captive the pagans who were inhabiting the Promised Land and passed it on to the Jews. We can succinctly sum up this idea in the following way: just like God freely gave the Jews Palestine, in like manner, Christ freely gives out grace to us. The Apostle mentions the heights of heaven as well as the “lower parts of the earth” to emphasize that Christ had been everywhere so that everyone would be able to receive the gift of grace from Him.

In the second part of today’s excerpt, the Apostle Paul talks about that special gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to the leaders of the Church during their ordination and explains what obligations these people have. The obligations of the pastors are as follows: to instruct and guide believers on the path to holiness, to perform all the sacraments and divine services decorously and correctly, and to call other people into the Church. St. Paul finishes by stating the goals which the pastors and teachers of the Church must strive to achieve: that all people become Orthodox Christians, that all be sanctified, and that all enter into communion with Christ.

We see that the world today is far from these goals. It seems that the world is not progressing, but instead regressing. All around us sin reigns and Christ is forgotten. The faithful are excluded from society. We could say that we have been driven into isolation. Perhaps we ourselves have entered into this isolation from the world, have become recluses, for who out of the faithful wants to live where everything good, radiant, and holy is called black and is considered undesirable, and where everyone runs towards sin? What should we do? How should the pastors of the Church, and in general all the faithful, use that gift of grace that was received during the anointing with myrrh (and for the pastors, during their ordination) so as to join to Christ the surrounding world and to sanctify it? How are we to save within ourselves spiritual joy, seeing everything that is happening around us?

In these difficult times, let’s take today’s saint, Theophan of Vysha, as an example. The final 22 years of his life he lived as a recluse, never leaving his rooms, nor meeting with anyone but his cell attendant. Despite this, he lived an extremely full and joyful life. He performed the divine services daily, studied the works of the Church Fathers, made translations, compiled explanations of the Holy Scriptures, and carried on relationships with many through letters. Along with his church endeavours, he was interested in many secular subjects. He had a telescope and microscopes and grew plants on his balcony. Through his efforts, much spiritual good was accomplished and is still being accomplished. Therefore, let us, who are in our own form of isolation, spend all the days of our lives productively, using the gift of grace given to us from Christ for our salvation, having hope that in such a way we will bring some kind of benefit to the world around us.

priest Alexis