The Church is the Source of Life

(A Sermon on the Lesser Consecration of the newly constructed lower part of the Church of St. John the Forerunner of the Lord in Washington, DC, on Saturday, March23/April 5, 1958)
Archbishop Nikon (Rklitsky)

   "In confirming the common Resurrection, O Christ God, Thou didst raise up Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion. Wherefore, we also, like the children bearing the symbols of victory, cry to Thee, the Vanquisher of death: Hosanna in the highest; blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

   In these holy words, which today are sung over and over again in Christ’s Church, when the spiritual eyes of the Church’s children see the resurrection of Lazarus, four days dead, and tomorrow, when the Holy Church greets the Lord, coming to voluntary sufferings in Jerusalem, are opened unto us the true meaning of a church, filled with God’s grace.

   Only here, in God’s church, can we unshakably convince ourselves that common resurrection awaits us. All of the billions of people who have lived and whose it will be to live on this earth and taste death, will arise for eternal life – so teaches us the Holy Church, in direct contradiction to the false wisdom of this world, which lives only the superficial life of the age of mortality, failing to think of the age of immortality.

   But it is even more surprising that not only does the world not consider death, which lords over it, but even teaches its unfortunate prisoners lies. The vast majority of people who live in the world live as though they will never die. Despite the self-evident truth that death will inevitably end every man’s life, people are instead taught to live at though there is no death, and when it inevitably comes, they respond to it as to an uninvited and terrible guest. And only the Holy Church teaches Her children how to prepare for death, how to live in order not to fear it; in the words of St. Chrysostom, which we hear here on the Paschal night: "Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free."

   So the Holy Church is the true Teacher of life – She teaches Her children how rightly to live to life and how rightly to die. In this grace-filled School of life the Teacher is Christ Himself, Who invisibly abides in His Church and, through His Apostles and Saints and through the very life of the Church, teaches the world His teaching: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Matthew 28:19-20).

   But not only are lessons on life taught in the Church. In Christ’s Church we are given mystical spiritual gifts, which heal our ailing souls and bodies and make us capable of receiving these life’s teachings. Our souls, captivated by sins, constantly whirling about in this world that lies in sin, are in need of means of healing, and these means are given to us here in the holy mysteries, in prayers, in the recollections and descriptions of the sacred events of our salvation, in communion with the spirit of God’s holy saints, in the keeping of God’s commandments, which defend our soul and body from the world’s evil.

   Finally, the Holy Church opens for us the mystical curtain which divides earth from heaven. With her experience She leads us to the threshold of paradise, prepared before the creation of the world for all those who love the Lord and please Him in their earthly lives. In hours of prayer, in days of great feasts, and especially on the day of Christ’s Glorious Resurrection, heaven mystically opens to us, and a ray of light shines into the softened hearts of each one according to our faith: for the holy God-pleasers, who have obtained spiritual experience – to a higher degree; for us, sinners – to a lesser degree; but every believer and every one who repents of his sins, which divide us from God, can obtain here those spiritual gifts, and the blessings invariably bound to them. Christ’s Church is a new, grace-filled life on earth.

   Such is the meaning of Christ’s Church. We haven’t the time to discuss also the social significance of Christ’s Church, as the sole source of healing for society’s mores and the elevation of society’s cultural interests; or the governmental and political signification of the Church, as a means for the fortification of the state’s foundations; or the international significance of the Church, as a means for the establishment of the peace of the whole world. In short, Christ’s Church has an all-encompassing significance: the Light of Christ illumineth all.

   That is why today your hearts so rejoice and exult, beloved in the Lord parishioners and builders of this holy temple! By the mercy of the Mother of God, through her wonder-working Icon "of the Sign," here now in your church, by the prayers of our Primate, His Eminence, Metropolitan Anastassy, who cares particularly strongly for your church, the Lord has poured out on you special grace and has helped you in such a short time, less than half a year, to raise up this marvelous church. May the Lord Himself reward all of the benefactors and all those who have labored in this holy work. Please accept from our ruling Archbishop, His Eminence Vitaly, these certificates of appreciation, and I would especially like to note the labors of the Building Committee chairman A.A. Fetisov, foreman A.I. Gutan, and the generous benefactor P.R. Vaulin. May the Lord help you in the same brotherly and successful manner to complete the upper part of this church for the glory of God, for your salvation, and in witness of Holy Russia in this wonderful city of Washington, which presides over this great nation.

   Amen.