Third Building Block: Purpose, Sermon by Fr. Vasile Tudora
Why do people build Churches? Why people even come to Church, one might ask. Wouldn’t be enough to worship at home where you feel comfortable or on a mountain top where you are closer to God? Why do I need organized religion or anyone to tell me how, when and how much I should pray? I have God in my heart shouldn’t this be enough.
These are all questions that we all ask at some point in our lives and we all have some friends, relatives, colleagues that are still asking them and ids nothing wrong with that. Indeed if we honestly look into what we do in Church we hold services: Liturgies, Vespers, Vigil, we are taught about the word of God and His will, we learn to fast, pray, do good works. And most of us go home and apply these things in our lives. But if someone questions the purpose of all we do we don’t have an easy answer because in the heat of doing everything we sometimes forget what the real purpose is to all that we do.
Same goes for building a church. We build a church because we want more people to fit in, we want a church because we want our children to keep our traditions and our faith, we want a church so the services will be more uplifting and we can go on and on with the wonderful things we will do in our beautiful new Byzantine church. And all these things are again very good.
But in all the frenzy of designs, capital campaigns, fundraisers, financial calculations etc. it is important not to lose sight of the goal that lays ahead of all these efforts. It is important to meditate from time to time at what we obtain from coming to Church, from the services and the fellowship and the fasting and the prayers. It has to be something for us in the end “for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. (Rom 8:28)
Saint Seraphim of Sarov, a blessed saint of the Russian Church answered once to someone that asked him the same question. He said: “prayer, fasting, vigil and all the other Christian practices may be, they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life. Although it is true that they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. (St. Seraphim of Sarov. On acquisition of the Holy Spirit)
This is fine, but some might ask how does one acquire the Holy Spirit? Well, exactly through those good and indispensable means we just mentioned we do in Church. The Church is the place where we can receive what we all need: the Holy Spirit.
But why do we need the Holy Spirit? There is a lot of talk in all Christian denominations about developing a personal relationship with God. But this is easier said than done because we don’t really see Him. It has been revealed however that there is a way. The gate to knowing God is the Son incarnate: Jesus Christ; if we know the Son, we know the Holy Trinity. He said:”He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Joh 14:9). But here is another difficulty, how do we get to know the Son, He came and yet, after His resurrection, He has ascended into heavens and now He sits at the right hand of the Father. This seems a pretty remote place for someone on earth. In the same time we know that ascending into heavens Christ also said “behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world.” (Mat 28:20). How can this be?
Christ’s presence and His perpetual actualization into our midst is made possible through the Sacraments of the Church, which in turn are practicable only through the Holy Spirit. At Baptism we are born again from water and from Spirit, at Chrismation we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of bread and wine are transformed during the Liturgy through the power of the same Holy Spirit. The Holy Unction, the Crowning, the Ordinations , the forgiveness of sins at Confession are all the work of the Holy Spirit. Through all the mysteria that we receive in Church the Holy Spirit, the Comforter is abundantly given to us so the work of transformation the Jesus Christ has started can be made possible in us. Christ’s presence in us becomes a reality through only through the Holy Spirit.
Through the same Holy Spirit all the Christian works: prayer, fasting, vigils, charity and the others, receive substance as means of purification and preparation of our bodies for the great encounter with God. The Holy Spirit fulfills our incomplete and imperfect acts and takes us past the finish line in union with God or theosis as the Father of the Church call it.
Man is sick, our nature is broken, but through the Holy Spirit we can be made whole again, we can be cured, we can go back to our original state of creation. The Holy Spirit is the Healer that rests in the Great Hospital for the sick, the Church, uniting all the members into one body of Christ. Only in this body there is hope and salvation, only here we can receive what our aching nature craves for.
So we need our church buildings, designed in the narrow ways of our tradition so the holy services could be kept unchanged in a space that allows proper manifestation of our rich liturgical heritage, providing the needed relief to so many chronically ill.
We have to use this extraordinary opportunity that is given to us today to, to allow the Holy Spirit to touch our hearts in the fullness of our Holy Tradition. We should all engage in this work for the glory of God and our souls’ salvation.
But building the church is only the beginning, we have to participate in the purpose of construction but we also have to commit unto the higher purpose lying ahead. Only by serving both goals, the transformation of our parish and the active engagement in the transformation of our souls we will “be partaker(s) of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the eternal times.” (2Ti 1:8-9) Amin.