Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Luke (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Luke

23rd Sunday after Pentecost

By St. Innocent of Kherson

If there is any Gospel reading that may give rise to many objections among superficial minds, it is the one appointed for today. “How,” asks a person unaccustomed to thinking deeply, “is it possible for someone to become the dwelling place of evil spirits while still alive? Is this possible? Where, then, would the personhood of a human being be? His dignity? The very nature of a rational being? And is it not a reproach to creative Providence that it should permit such a terrible invasion of our world by evil spirits? That it should deliver such a creature as man over to their ferocity? To what purpose could this serve in the governance of the world? What would be its purpose with regard to man? With regard to the evil spirit itself? The moral existence of a human being would cease in such a case; he would lose the time necessary for his perfection and suffer torments. Is it possible that all this could exist in a world governed by the All-Wise and All-Good?”

Homily One for the Feast of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily One for the Feast of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos 

By St. Innocent of Kherson

Three weeks ago, we celebrated the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. The event commemorated by that feast is joyful in itself, but in some respects it may seem somewhat remote to us Russians, since it took place in Greece a full thousand years before our own day. As we celebrated the feast of the Protection of the Invincible Commander over Byzantium, it was quite natural to wonder: Is the Most Holy Virgin as merciful toward us as She was toward the Byzantines, who shared our faith? Can we point to any event in the history of our fatherland comparable to the Protection of Constantinople by the Most Holy Theotokos? Today, brethren, provides the answer—and the most joyful answer it is. For today we celebrate an event that most clearly demonstrates that the protection of the Mother of God extends over our fatherland as well. To the glory of the Most Holy Virgin, and to increase our spiritual joy in this, allow me, brethren, to recount this event to you, at least in its principal details.

Homily for the First Sunday of Luke (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily for the First Sunday of Luke

18th Sunday after Pentecost

By St. Innocent of Kherson

“Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.” (Luke 5:5)

How pitiful, brethren, it is to hear this complaint from the lips of the poor laborers who had toiled throughout the night! But why has it been repeated in the Gospel for so many centuries? Is it to arouse our compassion for the Apostles? But what need have those who afterward caught the whole universe with their nets for the fish they failed to catch? What need have those who have long since been crowned with heavenly glory for our pity, when perhaps they themselves grieve and lament a hundredfold over us because we are so indifferent to attaining that glory which has also been appointed for us? If the Gospel continues to tell us of the unsuccessful fishing, it is because, in the persons of the Apostles-fishermen, all of us are portrayed in this circumstance, with our labors and occupations. Therefore, I can find no subject more edifying for our conversation than to apply this Apostolic fishing to our own lives.

Homily for the Day of the Repose of the Holy, Glorious, and All-Praised Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily for the Day of the Repose of the Holy, Glorious, and All-Praised Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian 

By St. Innocent of Kherson

We celebrate the repose of John. But did he die? Is he not still alive? These are unexpected questions, but it is not curiosity that prompts us to raise them; it is the Gospel itself, for you have heard what is said concerning John: “And this saying went abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die” (John 21:23). The brethren of the divinely illumined Apostolic Church could not have lightly seized upon a dream of their imagination and arbitrarily presented it as an interpretation of the Savior’s words. Moreover, when the Gospel mentions the expectation “that that disciple should not die,” it does not refute it as something impossible that arose from a misunderstanding of the Savior’s words concerning John, but merely limits its cause and basis to their precise bounds, guarding against every exaggeration: “Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you?” (John 21:23).

In the Church hymn sung yesterday in honor of Saint John, we hear something even more; there he is directly and clearly called “still living and awaiting the fearful Second Coming of the Master” (Sticheron at Small Vespers).

If Saint John, then, did not die and is still alive, how do we celebrate the day of his repose? Is this not similar to someone commemorating as dead a man who remains alive?

Homily Two on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Day of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord 

(Delivered in Kiev when Bishop Innocent was a Student at the Kiev Theological Academy)

By St. Innocent of Kherson

“And the people answered, saying, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” (Matthew 27:25)

The desire of your heart, O godless people, has been fulfilled! Your princes and leaders have been destroyed; “the walls of your city have been overthrown, your altars have been dug up, your prophets saw vanity, your priests sigh; the infants asked for bread; those who were joined to it have rejected it” (Lamentations 2:14–16; 4:4; 1:2; 3:44). The Most High Himself “covered Himself with a cloud, so that your prayer might not reach Him” (Lamentations 3:44).

Christians! We, being “wild branches,” have by the grace of God been deemed worthy to take the place of the “natural branches,” the Jews, and to be grafted onto the good olive tree, Jesus Christ, from which they were broken off (Romans 11:17–21). What feeling does this change wrought by the right hand of the Most High produce in us? Shall we say in shameful self-exaltation, “The branches were broken off so that we might be grafted in” (Romans 11:19)? But have we considered through what they were broken off from the tree of life, and through what we were grafted onto this tree? “They were broken off through unbelief” (Romans 11:20); we, however, stand through faith. Yet faith is not “from ourselves, but the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The same merciful God who bestowed upon us the pledge of faith can also restore it to them; the same righteous God who sent them a spirit of insensibility, “that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear” (Luke 8:10; Romans 11:8), can send us “an activity of delusion, so that we should believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Therefore, we must not become high-minded when we look upon the rejected Jews, but must be filled with fear, lest God, who “did not spare the natural branches,” “should not spare” us either (Romans 11:21). The example of this people should awaken us from sinful carelessness. Let us unfold this thought.

Homily One on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Eve of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord

By St. Innocent of Kherson

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

The present evening service differs from all others in that during it the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord is performed, in memory of that glorious exaltation which once took place in Jerusalem, following the finding of this Cross by the Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helen. The large number of people gathered here shows that the sight of the Cross being raised is precious to Christians. But, brothers and sisters, our Savior and Lord did not come down from heaven for the sake of a spectacle; He did not ascend the Cross for the sake of a spectacle; nor is the Cross of Christ raised today for the sake of a spectacle. Wherever the Cross is, there must be not only the eyes of the Christian, but also his heart. The raising of the Cross of the Lord represents everything “that was and is in the life of our Lord, and everything that ought to be, and perhaps is not, in our own life.” Let us consider this more closely.

By the raising of the Cross is represented, first of all, the whole life of our Lord. For what does this life consist? It consists of an incomprehensible humiliation and an equally incomprehensible glory which, despite their opposition to one another, are joined together and intersect one another, and by this very fact form a cross. “Who, being in the form of God,” thus does the Apostle describe the life of our Lord, “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross” (Phil. 2:6–8). Here is the ladder of the Son of God’s descent! Who can count all its steps? “Therefore,” the Apostle continues, “God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9–11). Here is the ladder of the ascent of the Son of Man! Who can point out its final limit?

Homily on the Epistle for the 13th Sunday After Pentecost (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Epistle for the 13th Sunday After Pentecost

By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

Have you heard the thunder? Have you seen the lightning? This lightning flashed here; this thunder resounded in this very church. For was it not here, from this very sacred place, that the apostle’s lightning-like word was proclaimed today: “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus… let him be anathema!” (1 Cor. 16:22). What are all the thunders and lightnings compared with the one curse of God? Thunder and lightning strike at a particular time and in some particular place upon the earth; but the curse of God, once pronounced in Paradise, has continued to this day to make the whole earth bring forth thorns and thistles. Thunder and lightning may kill the body, may take away temporal life; but the curse of God may cast both soul and body forever into the fiery Gehenna. Therefore, we must look more carefully into ourselves: are we standing beneath this terrible thunder? Are we in some way drawing this unquenchable lightning down upon our own heads? Has someone perhaps already been struck by it? For this, too, may happen: someone may already have been struck by it and yet feel nothing of his affliction, just as one struck by physical thunder and lightning does not know his condition; and if he can be restored to life, it is through the help of a beneficent hand belonging to another.

Homily One on the Sunday of All Saints (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily One on the Sunday of All Saints

By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

Today is the feast in honor of All Saints, and we have gathered to celebrate it in the midst of the dwelling place of all — the dead! Is this a fitting place for a feast? I think it is most fitting indeed; for the dead are closer to the saints than we are, if only because, having been released from the bonds of the flesh, they dwell with them in the same invisible world. The dead are also closer to the saints than we are because, like the saints, they no longer sin — or at least they do not sin as we sinners do. Looking at the matter from this perspective, I do not even know, brethren, which place ought more properly to be called a cemetery: the place where the departed rest, or the place where we, the living, are gathered. For here, among so many who have died according to the flesh, there are without doubt not a few who are alive in spirit; while among us, who live according to the flesh, God alone knows whether there are any who are not dead in spirit.

Thus, the place of our celebration is most appropriate to the feast; and those acted most wisely who dedicated this church, intended especially for prayers on behalf of the departed, to the memory of All Saints. For by doing so, the souls of those who rest here have been entrusted to the powerful protection of All Saints, so that every soul may have among them a special intercessor suited to itself. You also acted wisely, brethren, in gathering here in such numbers, in this place of all the departed, to celebrate the feast of All Saints; for both the saints and the dead teach us who are living one and the same important truth: “Mortals, live for God and for virtue; without this, whatever you do, whatever you acquire, whatever distinction you attain, all is vanity and nothingness.”

First Homily on the Day of the Ascension of the Lord (St. Innocent of Kherson)

First Homily on the Day of the Ascension of the Lord

St. Innocent of Kherson

“Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He departed from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:50–52).

Thus ended the earthly course of our Savior and Lord. Much did He suffer, and greatly was He glorified. There has never been sorrow like His sorrow, nor is there glory like His glory. “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8–11).

Shall we ever behold this glory of our Lord? Not only shall we behold it, brethren, but each of us, according to his measure, shall also partake of this glory, if only we do not make ourselves unworthy of it. We shall behold it, because in His final great prayer the Lord Himself asked His Father for this very thing: “that they may behold My glory which You have given Me” (John 17:24). And the angels who appeared to the Apostles after the Ascension testified that the Lord would come again to all of us on the last day in the same manner as the Apostles saw Him ascending into heaven (Acts 1:11).

Homily on the Fourth Sunday After Pascha (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Fourth Sunday After Pascha
 
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

“In these (porches) lay a great multitude of the sick—blind, lame, paralyzed—waiting for the moving of the water” (John 5:3).

It is not surprising that by the Pool of Siloam there was a very great number of the sick: for in it there acted the power of God, yet its action was very limited. Not many angels descended into the pool, but only one: “an angel of the Lord” (John 5:4). And that one angel did not descend every day, but only once a year. And once a year he descended not upon all the streams of the Siloam spring, but upon one principal one: “he went down into the pool.” Moreover, not everyone who entered the pool after the troubling of the water received healing, but only the one who entered it first: “and whoever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was made well” (John 5:4).

But can we, brethren, fail to marvel when we find a multitude of the sick at the Christian pool, at the pool of grace, of which the Pool of Siloam was only a faint image? Here it is not one angel, but the whole choir of the purest spirits, together with the Son of God Himself and the Holy Spirit, who descend to earth to give healing to the suffering; here it is not one pool that pours forth healing, but, one may say, as many pools as there are diseases and as there are the sick; here the fountain of life is not opened once a year, but, having once flowed forth from the pierced side of the Redeemer, it flows through all times and ages; here not only the one who comes first receives healing, but all — from the first to the last — whoever and whenever they may come. And yet, if we judge by the number of those healed in proportion to the abundance of the remedies given, the Christian pool heals fewer sick than the Pool of Siloam.

Homily One on Great Saturday (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on Great Saturday

Discourse 1

By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

“The great Moses mystically prefigured this day, saying: and God blessed the seventh day. For this is the blessed Sabbath; this is the day of rest, on which the Only-begotten Son of God rested from all His works, through the dispensation of death, keeping the Sabbath in the flesh, and returning again to what He was” (Great Saturday Vespers, sticheron idiomelon 4).

Such is the greatness of the present day! The past days were great by labors and activity, but this one is great by rest. Great: for in it He rested Who is above all and everything; He rested when He had accomplished all; He rested in order thereafter never to rest for the good of the human race. The Church herself, throughout all ages from the beginning of the world, finds only one day with which the present may be compared. That is the seventh day of creation, on which, according to Moses, “God… rested… from all His works which He had made” (Gen. 2:2). How great must that day be! Yet even it was less than the present. Today’s rest is greater than that; for the second labor was greater than the first. It was easier to create the whole world and man than to redeem them: in Paradise there was no cross for man; but on Golgotha there was the cross even for the God-man. And after this great labor of the Cross, this very day was chosen for rest! God the Creator, after six days of work, rested on one — the seventh; and God the Redeemer, after many days of labor, chose for rest no more than a single day — the same seventh! O sun, stand still; prolong, precious day! Let the rest of the Divine Sufferer be prolonged! Let these wounds be closed! Let the blood cease to flow!

Homily One on Great Friday (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on Great Friday

Discourse 1

By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

The Prophet, having once beheld God upon a Throne exalted in glory, and feeling his own uncleanness and frailty, in terror cried out: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5). What then, brethren, ought we now to say, seeing God not exalted in glory, but humbled by dishonor, not upon a throne, but in a tomb? By what name should we call ourselves, considering that these wounds, this tomb, are the work of our hands? O, wretched are we men, who by our sins not only brought down to earth the Son of God, but also lifted Him up upon the Cross and shut Him in the tomb! Ah, if sin had not raised a dreadful partition between heaven and earth, then we all, like the Prophet, would behold God exalted in glory: the Son of God would appear in the human world as He appears in the angelic worlds; He would visit the earth as a master of the house and a friend. With what joy would the uncorrupted sons of the innocent forefather meet and accompany Him! But now!… O, “who will give to our head water, and to our eyes a fountain of tears” (Jer. 9:1), that we might weep day and night over this image, that we might lament that not only we ourselves from the height of immortality have been cast down into dust, but we have also cast into the tomb the Son of God!

Such, brethren, is the power of sin! It appears as a momentary forgetting of duty, and it disturbs an entire eternity; it is accomplished in a small space of earth, but shakes all the heavens; it harms, seemingly, one man, and the Son of God Himself must suffer for its erasing! Unhappy forefather, would you have stretched forth your hand to the forbidden fruit, if you had foreseen what now lies before our eyes? Would you have desired to become as God, if you had known that this desire would cause God to die upon the Cross?

Homily One on Great Thursday, After the Communion of the Holy Mysteries (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily One on Great Thursday, After the Communion of the Holy Mysteries
 
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

Our Savior and Lord, having given His Body and Blood to the Apostles at the Secret Supper, did not add any instruction to it. What was given was higher than human words, and the mystery itself spoke for itself. I believe that even now, for those among us who have partaken of the Lord’s table not with their lips only, there is no need of instruction: for the most pure Body of the Lord itself teaches them, His most holy Blood itself speaks to them.

What does the Body teach, and what does the Blood say? One thing: Christian, remember the death of your Lord, undertaken for you, and do not betray Him by your life; think and act as He thought and acted; seek in everything the glory of the Heavenly Father; labor tirelessly for the good of your neighbors; struggle against vice and impiety; endure temptations and afflictions with courage; be ready, out of love for truth and righteousness, to carry the cross, and, if necessary, to go to the cross. This is the voice of the Body and Blood of Christ. From the Secret Supper the path leads straight to Gethsemane and to Golgotha.

Homily on Great Thursday, Before the Communion of the Holy Mysteries (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on Great Thursday, Before the Communion of the Holy Mysteries
 
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

“My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples” (Matt. 26:18).

Thus it was commanded to say to the master of that house in which the Savior intended to perform His last Passover. Who this blessed householder was is not said, and those sent had to recognize him on the spot. For the betrayer was seeking in every way an opportunity to accomplish his design; therefore it was necessary to conceal the place of the Passover until the very time of its celebration. After it was accomplished, without doubt, all learned at whose house it was performed; however, even afterwards not one Evangelist told us the name of the blessed householder. The interpreters of Holy Scripture present various reasons for this concealment. But we also shall not err if we say that the name of this man is passed over in silence because he represents every true follower of Christ.

And especially, brethren, he cannot but represent you, who intend to approach the communion of the Holy Mysteries. You wish to partake of the Passover of the Lord, to receive the Body and Blood of your Savior; and your Savior and Lord wishes to keep the Passover with you, to communicate Himself “most closely” with your spirit and body, to unite Himself with each of you forever. Do not marvel at this and do not consider it some turn of phrase invented by me. The Apostle did not play with words, but spoke the truth, when he wrote that since “the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise partook of the same” (Heb. 2:14). The Savior and our Lord partook of the flesh and blood of all mankind, by taking upon Himself our nature. But He now wishes to communicate with the spirit, flesh, and blood of each of us; He wishes to make all of us His temple and dwelling, wishes to be the beginning of our life, to occupy our mind and heart. To this very mystical communion I dare to invite you on behalf of the Lord! The words will be mine (if, indeed, we who converse with you have anything of our own), but the thoughts will be taken from His conversations with the disciples. If you are His true disciples, or at least wish to be them, you will not consider them foreign and not belonging to you.

Homily One on Holy Tuesday (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily One for Holy Tuesday
 
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

“As the Lord was going toward His voluntary Passion, He said to the Apostles on the way: ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered up, as it is written of Him.' Come then, let us also go with Him, purified in mind, and be crucified with Him, and put to death for His sake the pleasures of this life, that we may also live with Him.” (Vespers, Sticheron 1)

When the Lord said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,” one of them cried out on behalf of all: “Let us also go, that we may die with him!” (John 11:11, 16). Now, brothers, the time has come not for the death of Lazarus, but for the death of our Lord Himself, who says that “after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matt. 26:2).

Will any of us hesitate to say: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him”? But it is not enough merely to say this — we must fulfill it in reality. With Lazarus, one could avoid dying; but with our Lord and Savior, we must certainly die.

Homily on Bright Saturday, Before the Distribution of Artos (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on Bright Saturday, Before the Distribution of Artos
 
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

Christ is Risen!

Having nourished us abundantly during the present week with the immaterial bread of the word of God and sweet hymns, the Holy Church, out of condescension to our weakness, has gathered us now for the breaking of material bread for us. But just as the world is accustomed to degrade the most spiritual things to flesh and blood, so the Church elevates the most sensual to the spirit. It is not in vain that images of sacred objects are seen on the broken bread: this indicates to the most short-sighted in spiritual understanding its spiritual significance and importance.

Why is it broken now? The breaking of the holy bread, according to the clear indication of the Church itself in the prayer read at its consecration, is now performed in memory of the Resurrection of Christ. Why the concept of bread was connected with the memory of the Resurrection, when at the Resurrection itself there was not and could not be any bread, there are many reasons for this. Firstly, the Old Testament Jewish Passover, instituted at the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and which served as a transformation of our Passover, was connected with the seven-day eating of a special, sacred bread, called unleavened bread. It was necessary to remind Christians, in the midst of Passover, of this eating, which among the Israelites contained much that was instructive. Bread is now especially blessed in memory of the Resurrection of Christ because in the stories of the Evangelists we more than once see the Risen Lord either eating or blessing the eating. Thus, on the evening of that very day on which He arose, He breaks bread in Emmaus, and is recognized in this breaking by two of His disciples, who did not recognize Him during the entire journey with Him. On the evening of that same day, in Jerusalem, among His disciples, the Lord Himself deigns to eat fish and honey as proof that they see before them not a ghost, but their true Teacher, truly risen from the dead. Then in Galilee, by the Sea of Tiberias, the Risen Lord miraculously prepares a whole meal for His disciples, exhausted by the all-night vigil, vainly fishing for fish, and at this meal He three times amicably torments Peter's love with the question: "Do you love Me?"

Homily on Bright Friday, When We Honor the Theotokos of the Life-Giving Spring (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on Bright Friday, When We Honor the Theotokos of the Life-Giving Spring

 

By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

Christ is Risen!

This week, brethren, is in itself very abundant in streams of grace flowing from the tomb of Christ, therefore the Church invites us daily to a new delight, exclaiming: "Come, let us drink a new drink!" But behold, at the end of the bright days, when one should expect a decrease in the streams of grace, a new, life-giving source of mercy and generosity is revealed from the person of the Mother of the Risen Lord. Truly, amidst so many celebrations in honor of the Son, there ought to be a celebration in honor of His Mother, who, at Golgotha, just like the Son, had her own "sword" pass through her heart (Luke 2:35), as Symeon foresaw.  The triumph of the Son is all for our good, and the triumph of the Mother is all for us and our salvation. This feast is called the Life-Giving Spring because the Most Holy Virgin once gave to a spring near Constantinople the power to heal all kinds of illnesses and to pour out life and consolation for all who suffer.