(John 17:1-13)

Today’s Holy Gospel reveals to us Christ’s prayer for His church – that we may be one in our love for and fidelity to God. As Christ was preparing to leave this earth and ascend up to heaven, he said, “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are..” (John 17:11)

Christ’s prayer as He prepared for His ascension was for the brotherly love and unity of the Christian church. Just as Jesus Christ was one with the Father, so He prayed that His flock would be one. The message of the feast of Ascension and of today’s Holy Gospel is that we may have oneness of mind, brotherly love, and piety. That unity is, and must be, centered in Christ.

On this Sunday in between the feast of the Ascension and the upcoming feast of Pentecost, we commemorate the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council – a gathering of the bishops of the Orthodox Church in the year 325 in the town of Nicea. They had gathered to meet in council to clarify and more clearly define the truths of our Holy Faith. This was done in response to many false teachings which were beginning to be seen in the early life of the Church. These great fathers were guided by the Holy Spirit to rightly define the word of truth and codified this into what we know as the Nicene Creed. The Creed clearly states what we believe – about the God the Father, about God the Son, and about God the Holy Spirit. All Orthodox Christians should know this great statement of faith by heart and we would do well to reflect upon it often. The recognition and celebration of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council is a reminder of the precious pearl of our Orthodox faith and of the triumph of the Orthodox faith over all falsehood.

Christ’s final prayer for us as He ascended into heaven is a message of Christian unity and the commemoration of the Holy Fathers is a message of the triumph of the truth of Orthodoxy. If this is so, then surely the upcoming feast of Holy Pentecost is the key which binds this unity and triumphant truth together.

Before our Lord ascended into heaven, He promised the disciples that He would send to them the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who would reveal to them all things necessary. At Pentecost the grace of God descended upon the Apostles and therefore upon the Church and this has remained the case even to our own time. Within Christ’s Holy Church God interacts with us through the grace of the holy sacraments – the vehicles through which the Holy Spirit continues to breathe grace upon mankind. It was the grace of the Holy Spirit which inspired and guided the Holy Apostles in those first days of the Christian Church and the Holy Spirit inspired and guided the Fathers of the Council as they ‘rightly defined the word of truth’. Our Lord Jesus Christ promised to His disciples, “when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you in all truth.” (John 16:13)

Mankind desires truth and unity… these are universal values and longings of the human spirit. But, as we read in Proverbs: ‘There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is death.’

Unity and truth cannot be constructed by mankind. No matter how noble this may seem, and no matter how hard we might work toward it – this is a mirage and a delusion that we chase after over and over again and it always turns out the same… our fallen human ambitions and pride get mixed up in our noblest efforts and our towers of worldly utopias inevitably come crashing down.

Many of the truths and ways of God are paradoxical to what seems right to us. Last week, on the Sunday of the blind man, we talked about how knowledge and vision of God are not apprehended by our intellectual efforts… we see God more clearly when we first seek to purify our heart. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’

It is the same with our efforts and desires for unity… unity is a by-product of humble and obedient faith in Christ, not the construction of our utopian and ecumenical efforts. It may be instructive to think of it this way… God is the center and hub of a wheel and we are all standing along the perimeter. As long as we continue trying to seek unity by moving toward each other along the perimeter of the wheel, we only find ourselves going in circles. It is when we turn and face toward the center, toward the hub and begin to move along the spokes toward that center, toward God, it is only then that we actually draw closer together. The nearer we get to that center point, the closer the spokes come together… unity is a consequence of our correct and focused relationship to God.

Some of you may be aware of and concerned about a meeting of bishops of the Orthodox Church which is scheduled to convene in Crete next week. I anticipate that the Orthodox Church may be in the news in the weeks to come due to this meeting…

Some are calling this ‘the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church’. The original intent was for representatives of all of the local Orthodox Churches to attend. As things are turning out, this will not be the case. Several local Orthodox Churches have already indicated that they will not be participating – those include the churches of Antioch, Bulgaria, Georgia, Serbia, and, most likely now, Russia. The concern for these churches, as well as the voice coming from the monks of Mt Athos, is that the prepared statements for this council do not yet reflect the unanimous and correct teaching of the Orthodox Church – particularly on the issue of the relation of the Orthodox Church with other Christian confessions.

Because there are these unresolved issues and because the meeting, if it even still takes place, will NOT have representation from all of the local Orthodox Churches – this will not be a ‘Great and Holy Council’. There are some voices coming from Constantinople that are insisting that decisions made here will be binding upon all Orthodox Christians. This is simply not the case… such a statement reflects a Papist approach to the Church, not an Orthodox one.  As always, let us listen and take our lead from our bishops for whom we pray and to whom we belong.

As we have seen throughout history, the conciliar nature of the Orthodox Church – wherein the voice of the bishops of all the local Orthodox churches, working in concert with the grace of the Holy Spirit – guards and guides the Church in truth. My entreaty to you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is to not let your hearts and minds be troubled by any confusion that may occur in the coming weeks based on this meeting in Crete.

Let us avoid the temptation of being impatient with this process or allowing ourselves to be drawn into a ‘gossipy’ sense of sensationalism regarding any of this. If there are disputes and differences of opinion amid the local Orthodox churches and some of the bishops, let this play itself out with patience and prayer. God has guided and guarded His Holy Orthodox Church through two millennia… He will continue to do so today.

Our Lord’s prayer as He ascended into heaven was that we may be one. We are united together in Christ… in our confession of and fidelity to His Holy Orthodox Church. Let us fix our eyes and hearts upon Christ, the Author and Finisher of our Faith. In Matthew we read how ‘Christ and disciples got into a boat and suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that boat was covered with the waves. But our Lord was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying: “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.’

Our Lord is in charge… He always has been and He always will be. Let us invoke the holy fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, and let us pray for our bishops, that they will continue to rightly administer the word of God’s truth.