Below are three of Fr. Abbot's homilies: for the 3^rd Sunday after Pentecost, the Feast of SS Peter and Paul, and the 5^th Sunday after Pentecost, 2007.

There is good news in the readings today, especially in the epistle from the Letter to the Romans (5:1-10)—that is, good news for those who have faith in Jesus. First of all, St Paul says that we are justified by faith, that is, that we come into a right relationship, a saving relationship, with God by believing in all that Jesus has revealed to us and done for us. What is the fruit of that relationship? "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," says the Apostle. To have peace with God is a precious fruit indeed. When someone is dying and has received reconciliation through repentance and absolution, we say that he has "made his peace with God." That is, he has come into a relationship with God in which he is confident of God's love and mercy and hence can put his full trust in Him for salvation.

But there is more. Through Christ, Paul goes on, "we have obtained access to this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God." Because we have this peace-through-righteousness, we "stand" in grace, that is, we live in it, and God's own life is communicated to us; therefore we look forward to its full flowering in the glory of the heavenly Kingdom. We might wish that Paul had stopped there and let us bask in the glory, but he goes on to talk about sufferings, which we would probably prefer were left out of the equation. But no, says the Apostle, sufferings are the first link in a chain that brings us endurance, tested character, and hope. Hope here is used in the theological sense and not the colloquial—the latter meaning little more than a wish—so that this hope does not disappoint us. Remember, he said our hope was for sharing the glory of God. God Himself confirms that our hope is not misplaced, for He pours his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

Paul goes on to explain our reconciliation and hence the grounds for our hope. God loved us so much that even when we had made ourselves his enemies through sin, He sent his only Son to die for us, that we might be made righteous by his Precious Blood. So here he says that it is really the Blood of Christ that justifies us, that reconciles us with God, that communicates his grace to us—but it is by faith that we personally accept what He has done for us. So by our faith and Christ's sacrifice out of love for us, we stand reconciled with God and hence are given the strength to persevere in virtue and even endure sufferings in peace. The sufferings aren't an option, however, for a few chapters later the Apostle says that we shall be fellow heirs with Christ—provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For Paul this was nothing to fear. He immediately said that the sufferings of the present time are not even worth comparing to the glory that is to come. And if you look at chapters 11-12 of Second Corinthians, and a few other places, you know that Paul's sufferings were extreme and frequent, so he's not preaching from some plush ivory tower. Even in the midst of suffering, he just couldn't help rejoicing—because he was found worthy to stand in grace before God and look joyfully toward everlasting peace and happiness.

With all this as a background, we can now look at the Gospel (Mt 6:22-34). For what Jesus says to us here can only be put into practice if we are confident in the Father's love for us, assured of our reconciliation with Him through the Blood of Jesus, and filled with hope for sharing the glory of God in his Kingdom. Because of all that, Jesus says we cannot serve mammon if we want to serve God. All those gracious benefits unto eternal life are only given to those who serve one Master, to those who serve God. If we think we can have "all this and Heaven too"—that is, worldly pleasures and riches, and the kind of degenerate lifestyle that usually accompanies them, avoiding the demands of the life of righteousness—if we think we can have all that and still find eternal happiness we are tragically mistaken. So Jesus starts by getting us straight on whom we are to serve. We are to be free from the enslavement to those three harsh masters—the world, the flesh, and the devil—and to joyfully serve the benevolent King of Heaven.

Just in case we're a little anxious about what the righteous life will require of us—since it has nothing to do with self-indulgence and narcissism—Jesus tells us right away: "Do not be anxious about your life." We will be given everything that we need to faithfully serve the Lord and to live in peace in his world. We may not be given all we want or crave, but God is here to do only what is good for us, and the satisfaction of cravings and desires often leads to self-centeredness and harmful addictions. So the Lord says, your heavenly Father will provide you with food and clothing and whatever you need to do his will. If we don't receive all we want, we begin to learn about endurance and tested character, as Paul said, and our hope will be sharpened, and we will become more aware of the grace of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. God doesn't co-exist with self-indulgence, so if we are having our own way, we will not be aware of his presence, and then our faith will falter and we'll turn all the more to worldly things. The progress of that self-destructive pattern has to be stopped by our choice to do things God's way. Doing things according to the Father's will is another way of saying: Seek first the Kingdom of God—the hidden treasure, the precious pearl, the everlasting joy, that which is ultimately the only necessary thing—and whatever else you need in the meantime will be given to you as well.

Jesus introduces Solomon into his discourse, saying that the lilies of the field—which take no care about themselves but simply are what they are by God's providence—are more glorious in splendor than King Solomon in all his man-made finery. At first glance Solomon seems to be used here as little more than a prop. But perhaps there's another reason Jesus brought Solomon into the picture. Pope Benedict has discovered this, and I'd like to share his thoughts on it:

"The order of priorities that Jesus indicates for us here may remind us of the Old Testament account of Solomon's first prayer after his accession to office… the Lord appeared to the young king in a dream at night, and gave him leave to make a request that the Lord promised to grant… What does Solomon ask for? 'Give your servant therefore a listening heart to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil" (1Kings 3:9). God praises him, because instead of asking for wealth, fortune, honor, or the death of his enemies, or even long life (2Chr. 1:11), tempting as that would have been, he asked for the truly essential thing: a listening heart, the ability to discern between good and evil. And for this reason Solomon receives those other things as well" (Jesus of Nazareth).

So perhaps Solomon is introduced as one who knew how to seek first the Kingdom of God. He didn't ask for personal benefits or advantages, but only that which would enable him to do God's will in rightly governing his people. And because he sought this, God gave him everything else as well. Jesus is trying to get us to order our priorities rightly. He comes right out and says that God knows we need all the things that make for living a decent life, so therefore He doesn't want us to make the acquisition of them our first priority, for the Kingdom of God is more important. He doesn't say, however, do not work (St Paul says just the opposite), or do not provide for your families, or do not take care of what has been entrusted to you. What He says is: do not be anxious about these things. The unbelievers are anxious about them, for they serve a different master. Disciples of Christ must have a different world-view and way of life.

Returning to Paul, this world-view and way of life are based on what Christ has done for us in obedience to the Father's will, and where we stand in relation to God because of grace and faith. We who have peace with God can have confidence in Him. The God who sent his Son to die for us sinners, so that we could become righteous and stand in grace and rejoice in the Holy Spirit because of our hope for sharing the glory of God, can be trusted to keep our needs in mind and grant us all we need for this life. Meanwhile, we seek first the Kingdom. Let us not be people of little faith, but people whose trusting faith grants access to grace, to peace, and to glory.

I sometimes wonder why the feast of SS Peter and Paul is, in the Byzantine tradition, a "holy day of obligation," and not just a solemn feast. It is not a feast of the Lord or of the Mother of God, which all the other feasts of obligation are. But, as I've said more or less in passing before, it may be because this feast is considered, as our Offices indicate, to be the "Feast of the Church" as such, and hence is something central to our lives and relationship with the Lord. This year I won't just mention this in passing but will go into a little more detail.

We have an epistle from Second Corinthians (11:21—12:9) in honor of St Paul, and a Gospel on the essential role of St Peter to honor foremost among the Apostles (Mt 16:13-19). What do these readings tell us about the Church? First of all, we learn from the account of St Paul's many and severe sufferings, that the Church of Christ is a Church of confessors and martyrs—those who suffer and even die for their witness to Christ. It is a Church of stavrophores, Cross-bearers, who aren't afraid to stand up for what they believe in and to endure all manner of hardships for the sake of Christ and his Gospel.

As this reading continues, we learn also that the Church is a Church of mystics, of those whose love is so great and whose spiritual perception is so refined that they are able to have direct experiences of Christ. Paul talks about his visions and revelations—being "caught up to Paradise" and hearing ineffable things—yet he also mentions an additional affliction that was given him in order to keep him from being conceited over these divine favors and gifts. Now to say the Church is a Church of mystics doesn't mean that all in the Church are mystics as Paul was—though it is correct to say that all in the Church are called to carry their crosses faithfully and patiently. But the Church encourages and preserves her mystical tradition and sees this type of profound communion with Christ as something we ought to strive for, though always deferring to the divine will, whatever that may be in our own vocation.

The Church is a Church of divine grace, as we also seen in the epistle. This mystery is foundational to all Christian life, and we need to hear and integrate the Lord's words at every step of our spiritual pilgrimage, especially in time of trial or pain: "My grace is sufficient for you." This is a precious message St Paul has handed down to us, though it came at the price of much suffering of his own. We don't know what was the "thorn in the flesh" that he was given after his special revelations, but it must have been horrible indeed. Paul didn't complain about being beaten or stoned or scourged after he endured those torments, and on several occasions. But as for this "thorn," he begged the Lord three times to get rid of it! So that should tell us that whatever our problems or sufferings may be, the Lord's grace is sufficient for us. And this grace, which is mediated to us by the Church, especially through the sacraments, is not only for strength to endure hardships, but for leading us to salvation, to a deeper relationship with God, even unto mystical communion with Him this side of Heaven.

Now to the Gospel and St Peter. We discover here another fundamental dimension of the life of the Church: faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what is expressed in Peter's solemn and definitive profession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. This faith was a gift to Him from the Heavenly Father. Jesus said as much: "flesh and blood [that is, a human being] has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven." So the Church is a Church of believers in the Son of God, whom the Father has anointed as the Christ, our Savior and Lord.

The Church also holds a sacred and divinely-given authority and power to preach in Jesus' name and to be the means of sanctification of all its members. Here again, St Peter's role is highlighted. At the moment of his profession of faith, Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter, Kifa, the "rock" upon which He would build his Church. Then Jesus gave Peter the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, to "bind and loose" in the name of the Lord, that is, to forbid or permit in all matters that pertain to salvation and the Christian life.

The profession of faith and the giving of authority are intrinsically linked. Authority will not be given to, or else it will be taken away from, anyone who does not hold to the apostolic faith in Jesus Christ. If a successor of Peter renounced the Faith, his apostolic authority would be ipso facto rendered null and void.

The "rock" is related to both faith and authority. The faith of the Church is its foundation, without which it could not stand. Yet Jesus said to Peter not that He would build his Church on Peter's faith, but on Peter himself: "You are rock, and upon this rock I will build my church." It was then that Jesus gave him the keys of authority. The combination of true faith and Petrine authority is what makes the Church strong enough to withstand all the powers of Hell, which Jesus promised would not prevail against his Church.

There's another point about Peter and Paul that Pope Benedict mentions in his new book. It has to do with their calling. Some scholars, he laments, in their attempts to present Jesus as little more than one great religious teacher and founder among many, try also to relativize the uniqueness of his primary witnesses, who testify to the absolute claims of the Master—based not only on mystical experience but on the will of God manifested through Christ in concrete historical circumstances, witnessed by the whole community.

Some scholars try to deny what we hear in the Gospel today, and say that St Peter's confession was a later production of the Church. They say that his own authority in the Church was no different than St Paul's, based only on mystical experience of the presence of the risen Lord. That opens wide the door to everyone claiming to know the truth of God based on subjective experience, and hence we see the relativizing of the message of the Gospel. The Pope notes that after his personal experiences of the Lord, Paul went back to Jerusalem to confer with those who were apostles before him, to make sure he was not "running in vain." His personal experience had to be tested against the apostolic teaching and tradition if it was to be accepted as valid—which, in his case, it certainly was. But the point is that Peter's experience, in the concreteness of Jesus' own historical teaching—received also by the other apostles as corroborating witnesses—along with the clear commission Jesus gave to Peter, who was also a witness of his death and resurrection, guarantees the continuity of apostolic faith. Jesus gave Peter an authority He didn't give to Paul—symbolized by the keys and the name "Rock," expressed also in his command to Peter to strengthen his brethren and feed the sheep. Paul had his own special commission from the Lord, but it had to be carried out in union with the apostolic tradition and ministry already established before Paul became a believer and fellow Apostle. Therefore in today's rather bizarre spiritual climate, we see the need not for mavericks or self-appointed gurus, but for the Church of the living God.

All of this gives us just a basic summary of the mystery of the Church. There is much more that can be said, but I've limited myself to a few main points indicated by the readings. It is now for us to "incarnate" in our own lives what it means to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ, established on the Rock of Peter and the apostolic faith. The Church is a Church of believers, confessors, martyrs, and mystics, relying on God's grace and living under the divine authority given to safeguard the faith and morals of the People of God. Let us ask SS Peter and Paul to intercede for the Church, for if we didn't have the promise of Christ, we might be tempted in our day to think that in many places the power of Hell is prevailing! But by the grace of God the Rock will stand firm and the Church will one day be transfigured into the heavenly Jerusalem, where all the faithful will glorify our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, having persevered unto the end and found salvation.

We notice right away in the Gospel (Mt 8:28-9:1) that Jesus "crosses over to the other side," that is, He leaves the holy land to go to the unholy land. That is, He goes beyond the boundaries of Israel into pagan Gentile territory, the "other side." Geographically, this simply means the other side of the Sea of Galilee, but spiritually it means the dark side, their side rather than our side, the habitation of evil spirits and of all that is unclean and opposed to God.

Sure enough, as soon as Jesus arrived on the "other side," He was met by two men who were possessed by demons. Lots of them. Enough to fill a large herd of swine. The swine, by the way, also belonged on the "other side," because they were considered unclean, and no Jew was permitted to make use of them for food or anything else.

The demoniacs lived among the tombs, St Matthew tells us. That is, they lived on the "other side" of life, in the place of death and corruption. In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes the devil as a "murderer from the beginning," as one who comes only to "slaughter and destroy." So it is fitting that those whom he possesses would not embrace the abundant life that Jesus came to give, but would dwell only in the shadowy realm of death and decay.

Was this simply the preference of these unfortunate men—an alternative lifestyle, perhaps? Did it work for them? They don't seem to have been very happy and fulfilled, much like those people today who follow the devil's seductions but in the end reap only misery, emptiness, and degradation. In fact, the Gospel said they were quite fierce, full of rage, and so no one wanted to be near them, which only exacerbated their lonely misery.

They tried to torment others, for the demons urged them to do so, but when the Son of God entered their dark and angry domain, they were thrown into confusion. Suddenly they felt like they were being tormented—by this Man of Peace who quietly strode toward them. They realized then who He was. They knew it even before Jesus' own disciples knew it. In the episode immediately preceding this one, in which Jesus and the disciples were actually making the crossing to "the other side," Jesus calmed a storm (perhaps whipped up by the devil, in order to prevent Jesus from coming to conquer him?). The disciples didn't know what to make of it and wondered who this man could be, whom even the winds and sea obeyed. The demons knew and shouted it out in their mad rage: The Son of God! "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?"

What is "the time"? St Peter and St Jude tell us: "God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell… kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day" (2Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). We learn from St Luke's parallel account of the demoniacs that they were bound with chains as well as lived in the tombs. So there's a kind of projection into the visible, material world of what was happening in the invisible world. The demons are bound with spiritual chains in the nether gloom of Hell, so when they possess these men on earth, the men are bound with earthly chains and live in the gloom of the tombs. Back to "the time," though, that is the "judgment of the great day," when the fallen angels and all the damned will enter upon their definitive and everlasting torment. Now the demons are still allowed to roam around the earth, where it seems that they don't suffer quite as much. That becomes clearer in Luke's account, when he relates that the demons begged Jesus not to send them back to the abyss, but rather into the swine. So even inhabiting pigs was less disgusting that dwelling in Hell! In effect they were saying to Jesus: "Hey, leave us be. We know we have to go back to Hell on judgment day, but let roam around here in the meantime. You are the Judge, the one who is going to declare our sentence. Why are you here now? Don't torment us before the time!"

Jesus was not interested in their plans or calculations, or their outraged sense of justice. They would have turned on Him in a second if He gave them half a chance, anyway. What Jesus was interested in was proclaiming and establishing his Kingdom, and preparing his people to embrace and enter it. The Gospels make it clear that in order for the Kingdom of God to be established, the anti-kingdom of satan has to be overthrown. The path has to be cleared, the rough ways made smooth, as the prophet announced. This is especially clear in Mark and Luke, in which Jesus' very first miracle is the casting out of a demon. It is as if to say: The Christ has arrived and therefore the Kingdom of God is at hand. All uncleanness and evil must be banished and depart. The Kingdom of God will not share authority with the kingdom of satan.

Jesus also makes this clear when He says explicitly that his casting out of demons means that the Kingdom of God has come (see Mt 12:28). In a sort of allegory, Jesus refers to the devil as a "strong man" but to Himself as the "stronger man" who binds the strong man and plunders his goods. We see in today's Gospel that the "strong man" had seized the souls of the two men and made them his possession. But the Stronger Man came on the scene, despoiled the strong man and recovered the souls of the two men for service in his own Kingdom. They went off proclaiming the wonders Jesus had worked for them.

The demons thought they were being crafty when they asked Jesus to send them into the swine. They may have thought: "OK, we have to leave these two guys, but the pigs aren't so much worse. At least if we're in the pigs we don't have to go back to Hell." They must have been momentarily surprised that Jesus actually permitted what they wanted. Imagine, the condemned demons asked a favor of their divine and just Judge, and He granted it! Maybe they then thought: "Hey, this guy is a pushover after all! All right, into the pigs we go!" Perhaps Jesus was suppressing a smile at the time, knowing that within a few minutes they would all indeed be right back in Hell, for even the pigs found them so loathsome that they would rather drown than host them for a moment!

The swineherds, however, were not privy to all this. They had no idea what was going on, except that they had just lost a year's supply of bacon and ham. They were angry and indignant and asked Jesus to leave. Jesus had accomplished his mission by liberating the possessed men, restoring the image of God in them, and sending the demons back to Hell. But the "other side" remained the "other side" because the rest of the people, in St John's words, preferred the darkness to the light. A great light had just shone on a people dwelling in darkness, but they did not wish to receive it. Their land remained the land of uncleanness and pagan unbelief and idolatry—until perhaps after Pentecost the Apostles brought the grace of the Holy Spirit to them. In our world today, the "other side" still exists, wherever the devil's will is done. The saints cross over and do battle with the powers of darkness, to win souls for Jesus' Kingdom.

The Gospel closes by saying that Jesus "crossed over and came to his own city." Having crossed over to Hell, as it were, He came back to minister to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. We hear in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that there is an uncrossable chasm between Heaven and Hell. Only Jesus can make that crossing. He first crossed the uncrossable chasm between Creator and creature by his Incarnation. While on earth He crossed over to unclean lands to deliver souls from the devil. When He died He descended to the "nether gloom" to rescue all the righteous souls who were longing for their Redeemer.

Today He wishes to cross over into the land of our hearts, our souls. What will He find: uncleanness, idolatry, unbelief, selfishness, sin? That is the devil's kingdom that He has come to overturn and destroy. But since He has given us freedom, He waits for us to allow Him to come in and liberate us. We have to want it, to pray earnestly for it—as He taught us: "Your Kingdom come; deliver us from the evil one!" If we do not wish to be tormented when the time comes, the great day of judgment, now is the time to ask Jesus, once and for all, to enter our lives and hearts, to dwell and reign there and keep us safe and pure and holy. When we sin, we are like swineherds who ask Him to leave. Let us rather cling to Him, so that on that great and final day we may rejoice that the Kingdom of God has been victoriously and gloriously established, forever—and we are there!

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