Prologue in Sermons: December 11

 

When Judging Others, the Court Must Be Impartial

December 11
 
(A Sermon From the Life of Epiphanios, that one should rightly judge in court and not be partial in court to either the rich or the poor.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some people who are appointed judges over others make mistakes in the following case. For example, a rich and a poor person come to court. The former is right, and the latter is wrong, which clearly means that the former should be considered right, and not the second. Meanwhile, another simple-minded judge thinks: “How then shall I judge the poor? For it is written: ‘You shall justify the widow, judge for the fatherless, give to the poor’” (3 Esdras 2:20). And, based on this reasoning, he justifies the poor man who is wrong, but condemns the rich man who is right, and thinks that he has done a good deed. No, brethren, this is not so. If you are a judge, do not judge as man judges, but as the Lord judges; and with the Lord there is no injustice, nor respect of person (2 Chronicles 19:7). Judge impartially, otherwise no good will come from your judgment.

2010 Pastoral Encyclical for Christmas (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Pastoral Encyclical

The Sun of Righteousness

Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Christmas 2010

The feast of the Nativity of Christ is celebrated every year not only to remember it and to glorify God for His infinite condescension, but also so that we can, during the short period of our lives, spiritually experience this great event, that Christ assumed human nature, became man in order to deify man. It is difficult, even impossible, to understand logically the events of the divine incarnation, which is why it is necessary to experience them in our inner space, in our hearts.

In the Gospels, the troparia of the Church, and in the homilies of the Holy Fathers, various aspects of this great mystery are presented, and then man is called to confirm it within the limits of his personal life, through repentance, prayer, Divine Communion, and generally through his living relationship with Christ in the Holy Spirit. In the troparia that we sing in the Church, Christ is praised as the “sun of righteousness.” In the apolytikion of the feast, we sing: “to worship you the sun of righteousness.” And in another troparion composed by Saint John of Damascus and proclaiming the goodness of Christ towards the human race, among other things it is written: “The sun of righteousness has set among us... for those who sit in darkness.” Christ is the uncreated sun that shines and radiates in the world, but He is also perfect righteousness.

December: Day 1: Teaching 3: Holy Prophet Nahum

December: Day 1: Teaching 3:
Holy Prophet Nahum
 
(God, Although Long-suffering, Is Also Just)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Church now remembers the Holy Prophet of God Nahum, who lived about 700 years before the birth of the Savior. Two hundred years before Nahum, the prophet Jonah, by command of God, threatened the Ninevites with the destruction of Nineveh for the great iniquities of its inhabitants. The Ninevites repented and the All-Good Lord canceled the strict sentence. But after some time the Ninevites again became corrupt; and then the Lord, through the mouth of the Prophet Nahum, revealed to them the terrible disasters that would befall them. The prophecy was fulfilled exactly. Nineveh, one of the most significant and richest cities of the ancient world, was completely destroyed and plundered by enemies; the flooding of the Tigris River completed the devastation; and now one can hardly even recognize the place where this huge city stood.