Homily on the Leave-Taking of the Feast of the Reception of Christ (Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou)

By Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou

It is a joy for me to be among you again and to concelebrate with you. It is very significant that the celebration of the Divine Liturgy has been appointed today, on the day of the leave-taking of the feast of the Reception of the Lord, which is in reality the feast of the Royal Priesthood of Christ. The “presentation” of the Lord, that is, the sacred work of our salvation, begins in the temple of God.

The last time you invited me to your conference of clergy, we spoke about the double presentation of Christ before God and before men. Christ justified men before God by His true and perfect example. And if we follow it, no, we will never be ashamed, but we will be accepted by the Father and the Spirit as sons of God. Christ also justified God before men, because He loved us to the end, even unto death, and in this way He worked out our salvation. But His appearance also constitutes the beginning of the manifestation of His priesthood, an event of great importance for us who participate in it. There is only one priesthood, the royal priesthood of the Lord, which is the lot of all Christians; however, we, as ordained priests, have a double share.

Zacchaeus Was Consumed With the Desire To Know God (Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou)

By Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou

According to Cyril of Alexandria, Zacchaeus was consumed with the desire to know God the Saviour in person and to see Him. This is the seed of salvation and when this seed falls into the heart of man, he has a great longing to see Who the Lord is. Once he is possessed by this longing he will do certain things which will seem mad in the eyes of the world, but which will in fact prepare the way for his first meeting with the Saviour. Such was the case of Zacchaeus when he began to seek the Lord.

And this was the Lord’s desire, for the Son of God came to save sinners. It is hardly astonishing that He should want to save a chief publican: in every time and place, the Lord seeks out His own. Zacchaeus’ desire made him run ahead and climb a sycamore tree so that he could see the Lord. But what was happening in his heart was visible only to Him Who is both God and Man. The crowd could not see the transformation of his heart, nor could they understand the nature of his desire. But even before Zacchaeus had seen Him, the Lord had perceived the movement of Zacchaeus’ heart in a supernatural way, with the eyes of His divinity. He saw that the wild and greedy heart of the chief publican had now begun to soften and, melting with desire, had become transfigured so that he was ready to bear within himself the image of Christ.