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.
I would like to dwell for a moment on those two people who were in the temple and welcomed Christ: Saint Symeon, a man “righteous and pious,” as Scripture describes him, and the Prophetess Anna. Both were of advanced age, but they retained in their hearts a very strong expectation of the coming redemption, awaiting the incorruptible “consolation of Israel,” who was Christ (Luke 2:25). This means that they unceasingly rekindled in their hearts the prophetic gift, having become partakers of the prophetic Spirit of God.
The priesthood is also a prophetic gift, which we must constantly renew within ourselves, in order to keep it alive until the end. And this is ensured if we always preserve the incorruptible consolation of God alive in our hearts. And when this consolation abounds in the heart, we can console others, the people of God, who come to us. These two people, Symeon and Anna, are examples of people who prophetically received a portion of the Royal Priesthood of Christ. Their expectation was great. They awaited the consolation of Israel, just as we, the people of the New Israel, await the great day of the Second Coming of the Lord.
The Lord “bowed the heavens and came down,” and His coming in the flesh to earth is at the same time the prophecy of His second coming. For this reason, those who loved His appearance in the flesh live with an unquenchable thirst for His second coming in the glory of His Father. They do not simply live with intense anticipation, but such is their desire to meet the Lord, that they rather hasten towards it.
When the Lord came, He became the so-called “sign” of God for all future generations, as today’s Gospel says (Luke 2:34). That is, there is no room for neutrality in our attitude towards Him. Therefore, if we surrender to Him with humble love, He will cover us by extending His messianic authority over us. We will bring Him within us by singing a hymn of praise, as the righteous elder Symeon did. But if we allow the long years of our lives to extinguish from our hearts the hope of such a grand redemption, we will end up in tragic shipwreck. If eternity ceases to be our exclusive and unique inspiration, with the help of which our earthly existence is worthily realized, we will inevitably conform to the sad reality of the fallen world that surrounds us. In this, of course, lies the tragedy of humanity.
Our Lord has entrusted us with a sacred trust, which we guard with faith, and He expects us to present it to Him undefiled on that day, when He will come again to judge the world with justice and goodness. As we have mentioned before, there is no room for neutrality. If we surrender to Him, we too will sing a hymn of praise, like the righteous Symeon, for there will be no greater day than that on which we will meet the Lord, our Master and Redeemer. This great hope keeps our hearts alive, despite the sufferings of the priesthood. We must not forget that we are partakers of the priesthood of Christ and that His priesthood in this world was a ministry of pain and suffering. Therefore, let us not allow ourselves to become discouraged in trials and tribulations, but rather let us renew our expectation through prayer and worship. Then the gift that the Lord bestowed upon us at our ordination will continually refresh our hearts and establish them firmly in the hope of future good things.
The world in which we now live, as beautiful and attractive as it may be, is like a curtain that separates us both from the Kingdom of God and from the kingdom of darkness. There are times, however, when the shadow of the kingdom of darkness spreads over us threateningly. At other times, we receive the bright rays of the Kingdom of Light, which comfort and sustain us. We must simply guard the gift of God within our hearts, so that we may be worthy to stand firm on that day when the Lord shakes heaven and earth. Then all creation will pass away, and only those sealed by the uncreated grace of the Cross and the Resurrection will remain eternal.
Just before His Passion, the Lord said: “Now is the judgment of this world” (John 12:31). As He hung on the Cross, the world was indeed being judged. He was silent, but all creation lent Him its voice. We know that the sun was darkened, the stones were split, and the tombs of the dead were opened. And all those present, who did not have the light of His grace in their hearts, “beat their breasts and turned back.” They could not bear the scene of His Crucifixion. The only two people who proved capable of standing at the foot of the Cross were the Mother of the Lord and Saint John the Theologian. For He who was dead on the Cross was alive in their hearts, and He was the One who gave them the strength to stand unmoved in that terrible hour, even though they were certainly immersed in great pain.
If we too have loved the first appearance of God and treasure the gift granted to us, a wonderful light will shine in our hearts, inspiring hope and expectation of His second coming. This light, even if it now seems dim, will be a gateway to the endless Kingdom of Light, when the Lord returns in glory. And then, together with all the Saints and the righteous Symeon, we will sing the epinikion hymn: “Blessed is he who came and will comes again in the Name of the Lord.” Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
