Homilies & Addresses

This year, we are celebrating the life and the teachings of St. Paul the Apostle. Just yesterday (Sunday, June 29th), His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Benedict recited the Nicene Creed together, in the Greek language, using the Orthodox words of the Creed. They did this in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, during a special announcement of a year-long celebration of St. Paul. We are celebrating this great Apostle, his life and his teachings because we know that St. Paul was the one that God used to write down, for the first time, the teachings of the Holy Orthodox Church.

"And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split." (Matthew 27:50-51) This day in our Holy Orthodox Church is called in Greek "Megali Paraskevi," in Slavonic "Velikij Pjatok," and in English this translates "GREAT FRIDAY!" Many of us, of course, know the more common title derived from the west: "Good Friday," which is also appropriate, but which is in reality a corruption of the original name: "God's Friday." But our term "Great Friday" is much more accurate and profound because of the great act of salvation which has been accomplished on this day!

"Brethren, rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, 'Rejoice!'" (Philippians 4:4) The Great Fast is over! The Holy Forty Days is accomplished! The Apostolic Reading for this day has different and distinct tone, you will notice. For the past five weeks the Sundays of the Great Fast, we have heard the words of the Holy Apostle Paul as he addressed the Hebrews. He instructed us about God's promises, our sins, types of sacrifice, and so on. But in today's epistle lesson, St. Paul exclaims, "Rejoice in the Lord always..." and then to further emphasize it, he repeats, "AGAIN, I say rejoice!" We can already anticipate the beautiful refrain to the Theotokos that we will hear next Sunday: "Rejoice, O pure Virgin. Again, I say: 'Rejoice; Your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb!'"

St. John Chrysostom reposed in the Lord 1600 years ago. He died from exhaustion in a small, out-of-the-way village called Comana. Earlier that day he had collapsed, out of breath, while stumbling between two armed guards. They had been hiking on a long twisting path in the wilderness. The sixty-year-old St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, had been exiled out of his cathedral, his city and his home by a jealous gang of politicians. He was forced to march the whole way, from the civilized neighborhood of Constantinople for hundreds of rocky miles into the wilds of bandits, enemies, severe weather and unfriendly land.

I greet you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Teacher of the ages Who calls all people to the knowledge of the truth for the salvation of their souls.I welcome you to this Diocesan Conference which brings to the forefront our common ministry of educating our young people in the Faith and in the knowledge of God. This is a ministry that we share, whether bishop, priest, church school teacher, parent, grandparent, godparent -we all influence the spiritual growth and development of the children who have been entrusted to our care and whose lives we touch.

A Retreat for the Diocesan Clergy Wives is scheduled for Friday, September 29th through Sunday, October 1st at Camp Nazareth, in Mercer PA. The theme for the Retreat is "The Truth of Ruth: Finding Joy in One of the Toughest Jobs in the World." Metropolitan Nicholas will be in attendance at the Retreat, and will address the clergy wives at various moments throughout the weekend. Fr. Jonathan Tobias, Pastor of St. John's Church in East Pittsburgh and Professor of Pastoral Theology at Christ the Saviour Seminary, will present a series of reflections on the tiny Old Testament book of Ruth.

Earlier this year, I joyfully received an invitation to participate in the 100th Anniversary of Fr. John Boksaj's publication on Prostopinije, held at the Blessed Theodore Romza Seminary in Uzhorod, Transcarpathia. I enthusiastically accepted this invitation, as this anniversary would commemorate a significant element of the piety and culture of this Diocese. Fr. John Boksaj, working together with the eminent cantor of Holy Cross Greek Catholic Cathedral, Professor Joseph Malinic, produced a transliteration of the Rusin plain chant tradition - for the first time in western musical notation. Until this publication, the greater part of the plain chant had never been printed in standard music, much less in the easily-understood western musical notation.

Your Excellency the Most Reverend Bishop Milan Shashik, Most Reverend Bishops, Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers, and Beloved Monastics and Faithful in this joyous celebration: Slava Isusu Christu! I rejoice today to be with you in this celebration of such an influential work, and I am humbled and honored to be so invited. The Prostopinije volume compiled by Rev. Fr. John Bokshay has been used as a standard for liturgical singing, for the entire life of my Diocese, the American Carpatho-Rusin Orthodox Diocese. I am greatly honored and privileged to make this journey, and to fellowship with you. I come here as a son of the Rusin people, and as a Metropolitan of the Orthodox Carpatho-Rusin Diocese in America, and as a Hierarch of the Ecumenical Throne of the Apostolic See of Constantinople, whose Patriarch now is His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Only one week before the Crucifixion of Our Lord, two of the Twelve Apostles, James and John, approached their Master with a proposition. "Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and the other at Your left in Your glory" (Mark 10.37). Our Lord looked at them with deep comprehension. He knew that they were only saying out loud what was on the minds of all the Apostles. Everyone had been impressed with the wild popularity and the adulation of the crowds. Everyone in the band of disciples had assumed that it was only a matter of time before Jesus became the Lord of Jerusalem, drive out the Roman soldiers, and set things to right in the Jewish nation. So the Apostles were doing what every politician knows how to do: jockey for power and influence. James and John wanted prestige and authority. The others were scandalized when they heard what these two had attempted. But they wanted the same thing, nonetheless.

At the end of St. Paul's second pastoral epistle to Timothy, and probably at the very end of his life, he writes these words: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His Kingdom: Preach the Word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4.1-5 RSV)