March 12, 2010
Brooklyn,
NY: The sacrament of Holy Unction in the Church of our Lady the
"Inexhaustible Chalice"
"...to
establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith..."
(1 Thess. 3:2)
"Repentance
opens the heavens for man, takes him to Paradise, overcomes the
devil."
- St. John Chrysostom
"Open unto me,
O Christ, Giver of life, the gates of repentance." Thus prays
every Christian soul during these holy days of Great Lent. And the
Church, our caring mother, hurries to provide us healing in the
sacrament of Holy Unction. "What if we have forgotten some past
sin?”, She frets. In the 4th Century, St. John Chrysostom
said thusly, "Great then
is the power of repentance, at least if it makes us as snow, and
whitens us as wool, even if sin have first got possession and dyed our
souls."
Having just
finished attending to the most critically important work of the
three-day Pastoral Conference of the Eastern American Diocese of the
Russian Church Abroad in Mayfield, PA, Metropolitan Hilarion arrived
in Brighton on March 4, to the Church of Our Lady the
"Inexhaustible Chalice," to perform the sacrament of Holy
Unction for the brethren-residents of the Mercy House of St. John of
Kronstadt, yesterday’s homeless, and all those awaiting salvation in
Christ. Despite the fact that it was a weekday and the hour was late,
Orthodox people not only from Brooklyn, but from Manhattan and Queens,
as well, came to greet the First Hierarch. Greeting His Eminence,
rector Priest Vadim Arefiev put it plainly: "As I was traveling
here, Holy Master, I thought about how every child delights in telling
others who his father is. 'My father is a builder, he builds such
big houses!' We all, your children, can joyously say today, 'Well our
father is a doctor, he grants us healing
from above.'"
Metropolitan
Hilarion was co-served by Archpriest Petre Kruashvili (rector of the
Georgian Orthodox Church of St. George the Trophy-Bearer in
Philadelphia, PA), Priest Paul Ivanov (senior cleric of New Martyrs
& Confessors of Russia Church on 18th Avenue in
Brooklyn, NY), and, of course, Fr. Vadim. The service was adorned by
the service of Deacon Nathan Mousselli (cleric of St. Alexander Nevsky
Cathedral in Lakewood, NJ). Thanks be to God, the Lenten visit of the
First Hierarch to the orphans of Brighton is becoming an annual
tradition. Last year, on Passion Week, Vladyka also led Unction
service for a multitude of Orthodox believers.
On the eve of the
service, I was asked, "The Church Abroad is so huge! Why does His
Eminence pay heed to our tiny community?" The inquirer did not
realize that the Church is one
body, and if one is ill, then all are ill; our homeless brethren
are as important for the Head of the Church as his visit is for them.
After all, how important it is for one who has forgotten himself
to realize that he is
not forgotten, as he thought! Be sure that he is truly priceless in
the eyes of the Lord and for the First Hierarch of the Church!! That for
the sake of his soul every matter is set aside!!! The Metropolitan
has hurried to his side! He arrived to search out his precious soul,
like the simple lamb and, hoisting him on his shoulders, he returns
him first to the herd, then to the Master. We are all in need of
healing, we all need the one doctor… if we are not plagued by drug addiction or
alcoholism, then certainly the abscesses of our gluttony or envy or
greed stink, or we are suffocated by the desire to gossip… It is
impossible to list every terrible dependence, the ailments of our
souls!... But what of our bodies??... How can we not recall once more
the words of Chrysostom? "If we have any bodily ailment, we do
and contrive everything to be rid of what pains us; but when our soul
is indisposed, we delay, and draw back. For which cause neither from
the other sort are we delivered: since the things that are indispensable
are becoming to us secondary,
and the secondary indispensable."
Nowhere is the
"Spirit of the Publican"
present as it is in the "Inexhaustible Chalice." No pretense
resides here! For only those who have admitted to themselves that they
are wretched sinners are drawn with all their hearts to church, to the
priest, who teaches them to lift themselves up, to climb, to stretch
forth their hands to those who are weaker… and who at the same time
crawls in the dirt, searching for the Lord’s "lost
drachmas." It is likely that His Eminence, feeling this in his
heart, hurries here again and again, that hope might not dry up, that
the faith o the newly enlightened might be fortified.
The Holy Unction
continued late into the night. Girding the church with a live ribbon,
the people came in slowly from outside, as the little church could not
contain them all. Eventually Metropolitan Hilarion sat down in a
chair, anointing those who came and fell to their knees. The faces of
the people shone! Now no one pushed; quite the opposite: people
politely gave way to one another. "Hearken unto us, O
Master," sang not only the choir, but the whole church, as well.
A spreading, prayerful cover could be felt, stretching over the vast
expanses of the universe… A church considered by all to be miniscule
was praying. It was praying for all and for each… the present and
the absent, imploring the All-Merciful Lord to pity and heal the whole
of this direly ill world
and even those who, suffering, know not to Whom to turn. Completing
the sacrament, His Eminence turned to the flock and said joyous it was
for him to serve! And all of his words were about "establishing
and comforting in the faith" (according to the words of the
Apostle Paul).
Taking an interest
in the life of the brethren, Vladyka asked to watch the film "Arise," produced a year ago by talented Ohio State University
graduate Chad Barlet, about human weakness and the power of prayerful
faith, which works wonders and in our days lifts up men otherwise
presumed lost by modern medicine. The protagonist of the film is a
resident of the Mercy House who was dying of cirrhosis and was
miraculously healed and bears witness that for God, everything is
possible! Despite the late hour, after watching the film, the
sisterhood and brotherhood of the Mercy House offered a Lenten dinner.
The theme of the movie continued in a dinner conversation about
alcoholism, drug addiction and other deathly dependencies. The rector
of St. George’s Church shared his own experiences of working with
suffering heroine-addicts. Fr. Vadim bitterly reflected on the
widespread ailment of gambling addition, that monstrous passion that
holds man on the verge of obsession. "One addicted gambler shared
with me how he was held back from suicidal thoughts by the eyes of the
icon of the Mother of God of the 'Inexhaustible Chalice'!" Here
is what St. Theophan the Recluse said: "The enemy has no power
over the soul; he can but frighten it with illusory horrors. Do
not give in, bear it, go boldly forward, saying to yourself:
'Faced even with death, I refuse nonetheless to quit, and will bravely
persevere, going with a spirit of repentance where the Lord of Mercy calls me'…" Only
at one in the morning did everyone depart. And no one felt tired!
"Hearken unto us, O Lord! Have mercy on us, O Master"…,
the heart continued to pray, filled with the oil of prayer, faithfully
believing in the prayerful help of the Church!
Tamara
Nazarova
Media Office of the Eastern American
Diocese
