St Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
161 N. Murphy Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Sunday of Orthodoxy

Sunday Of Orthodoxy

We have completed the first week of Great Lent. This first week is by far the hardest week in Great Lent with numerous services combined with strict fasting. In a sense, the way if you start off strong, it will help you complete the rest of the fast with great vigor. Today, on Sunday, the Holy Orthodox Church presents to us a great feast day which culminates the first week. This day is known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy in which the holy Orthodox Church commemorates the triumph over various heresies. Throughout the history of the church there have been many various clergy that have taught incorrect teachings about the nature of Christ and God. These men were officially condemned by the church and are proclaimed to be Anathema.

So what does Heresy and anathema mean? For starters heresy means for one to choose what one believes. A heretic is one who simply chooses what to believe and does not follow the teachings of the holy Orthodox Church passed on by the Apostles. Anathema, on the other hand, is a word that derives from let God decide. It basically means that these people are cut off from the Church and have nothing to do with it. Now, only God decides the judgment of these people. We are only instructed not to follow their teachings because what these heretics taught were contrary to the teachings of the Fathers.

So we see that based on the actions of the heretics, the Church proclaims Anathema upon them and excludes these people from the life of the Church. We also know that the Church does not proclaim Anathema on all people, but only those heretics who have truly caused many innocent souls to fall from the truth.

Today a service is generally served that calls all those former heretic teachers: Anathema. Generally in the Russian tradition this service is served only in Cathedrals by a Bishop. If anyone has visited the Cathedral today, they would have witnessed the anathema service in which the Deacons stand on the ambo and proclaim anathema to all the different heretics throughout the ages. Afterwards they proclaim memory eternal to all the holy Orthodox they have fought and protected the faith. This service is almost frightening, when you hear that all these people have been condemned by their teachings.

We should know that these heretics were not Anathematized lightly. In fact all heretics had the opportunity to repent of their ways, and be united back to the Church. Even if a heretic had taught the most egregious things, the church would still keep the door open and still allow them to come back and repent. The only time the door to repentance is closed for these people is when they pass on from this life to the next; there they stand to be judged by the Almighty God. Unfortunately, a lot of these heretics decided not to accept the medicine of repentance and so were placed outside the saving grace of the church.

So what does this mean for us living here today? We have just finished the hardest week of Great Lent, as I mentioned earlier. Maybe this past week for some of you wasn’t so good. Maybe you didn’t fast as you should have. Maybe you didn’t keep your prayers and had your mind think about the things of the world. Maybe your church attendance was lacking and you only were able to attend one of the services that was offered this week. Maybe you had a huge argument with your loved ones or the devil tempted you and in turn you fell into a grave sin. If this has happened, then in a sense, we have cut ourselves off from the Church. Sin is what cuts us off from the grace of God, in a sense like the heretics were cut off from the Church for their sin.

And even so, we should not forget the one key aspect of our faith, which we heard all about this past week: and that is the act of repentance. No matter what happens, we will always have the opportunity to start anew. We still have time to change our ways. But we should not wait, we should act today and now. And the reason for this is because we do not know how much time we have left. As we heard this past week in the canon of St Andrew: "My soul, my soul, arise! Why are you sleeping? The end is drawing near, and you will be confounded. Awake, then, and be watchful, that Christ our God may spare you, Who is everywhere present and fills all things". We need to make sure we are doing the right thing because the end is approaching.

This is what the journey to Pascha is all about. It’s all about struggling in order to reach the great feast of the resurrection of Christ. If we put in the time and effort, if we take great strides in fasting, if we increase our prayer, attend all the extra the church services, we will get so much more out of this. If we are like those who just simply come on Sunday, who only fast the first week, and don't do any additional prayers; we won't get any spiritual benefit from Lent. In a sense, instead of following what the Church teaches will help us, we choose what we want to do (like the heretics chose what they wanted to believe). And that does not provide us with any benefit.

So I urge you, take this Lent seriously. If you have not fasted or done what you should have done, then start now. Do so while you still have time, because the end is approaching. We do not know the time or the hour when we will pass from this life to the next, but we do know one thing: we can prepare for it starting today.

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