Sermon for the Sunday After Theophany

The present Sunday is called the Sunday after Illumination, a weekly day on which one ought not to occupy oneself with the ordinary, worldly, earthly affairs of daily life, but to do the works of the salvation of one’s own soul—after illumination, that is, after baptism, which was, and still is, called illumination, because through baptism a spiritual light is granted by God to our souls, the light of the knowledge of God and of piety, a sign of which is still given by the lamps or wax candles lit at the font, and also by the lit candles held in the hands of the godfather and godmother. This spiritual, incorruptible, eternal light, imparted to our souls, is Christ God Himself, the true Light, who enlightens every man who comes into the world; while spiritual darkness is sin, or the author and originator of sin, the prince of darkness, the devil, who darkens and beguiles the human race with sin, teaching every sin and drawing men toward eternal ruin. In keeping with such a meaning of the present Sunday, the Gospel read at the Liturgy is of the coming of Jesus Christ from the city of Nazareth, where He lived and was brought up, into pagan Galilee, to the people sitting in darkness in a land and shadow of death, and of their illumination, as the prophet Isaiah foretold seven hundred years before the coming of Christ to earth, saying: the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light, and for those sitting in the region and shadow of death, a light has dawned (Mt 4:15-16; Is 9:1-2). And since spiritual illumination is accomplished through sincere repentance of sins—which are true darkness, eternal darkness and eternal torment—the Lord, having settled in this land of darkness and the shadow of death, began to preach, saying: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt 4:17). And so true repentance drives away the darkness of sin, sin itself, and the author of sin, the devil, who lives and reigns in the hearts of sinners, and establishes in the heart of the believing and repentant the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of Christ. Such is the content and meaning of today’s Gospel; it speaks of our spiritual illumination, of repentance for sins, of the nearness to us now, with the coming of Christ God to earth, of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of grace, which is His Church, this gracious kingdom on earth, in which all things pertaining to life and godliness are granted to us (2Pet 1:3): therefore today’s sermon must be about Christian illumination. Are all of us enlightened Christians? Do all of us live in constant, sincere repentance, as perpetual sinners, liable to the judgment of God, or do we add sins to sins? Do we strive earnestly to do good works, for which we were created; or have we grown vain, become petty, and chase after the fancies of our own hearts? I put these questions to myself and to you, in order to show that true Christian illumination consists in the knowledge of ourselves, of who we are, and for what purpose; of what we were in the beginning, when created by God; of what we have become through the commission of sin, and of what we must without fail become; further, true Christian illumination consists in sincere, active repentance, not empty, formal, false repentance, undergone by many of us every year on appointed days, and not followed afterward by the fruits of repentance—a corrected life, deeds of righteousness, mercy, self-restraint, purity and holiness, an earnest striving toward Christian perfection, according to Scripture: be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48)—further, that I might show that true Christian illumination consists, not merely in literacy, or in the study of various sciences concerning the earth and what is on the earth, or concerning heaven and the mechanics of the heavens, nor even in the study specifically of the Christian science of the knowledge of God—because one can be both literate and a theologian, and yet not have true illumination in one’s soul; one can even be, as indeed happens, a man wholly darkened by the shadow of the passions; but it—that is, Christian illumination—consists in the illumination of the eyes of the heart by the light of the Gospel of Christ, in the removal, with the help of the grace of Christ, through repentance and prayer, of every darkness of the passions, in the removal from oneself of cunning, unbelief, self-love, self-conceit, malice, pride, anger, hatred, envy, the condemnation of others, hardness of heart, and love of gain, in the removal of idleness and vanity, or of the ruinous art of passing and killing time—for instance, at cards and various spectacles such as theaters and circuses; of wrongdoing and extortion, of an unclean, adulterous life, of the reading of empty books, which may perhaps contain a skillful, ingenious web and play of words and a mastery of language, but which in their essence contain no edification whatever, and leave behind only regret for the time wasted on them. And so Christian illumination, beloved brothers and sisters, consists in sincere faith in Christ, in the knowledge of oneself, in unfeigned repentance and the removal of evil, and in a constant striving toward Christian virtue and perfection, for the sake of eternal blessedness in God and with God. If you have come to know that you are dust and ashes, that you are the stench of sin, that you are a sinner, ever deserving of God’s punishment; if you are without malice and simple of heart, meek, humble in heart, peaceable and peace-loving, patient and self-denying, love righteousness, stand up for it, and despise unrighteousness; if you are sincerely well-disposed, merciful and compassionate; if you are self-restrained, sincere of heart, honor purity and blamelessness, hate idleness and idle amusements, and meditate day and night on the fulfillment of the Gospel—this most wise, life-giving, righteous, eternal science of sciences—then you possess an incorruptible Christian, not an illusory worldly, vanishing, meteor-like illumination, and you are not far from the kingdom of God—or rather, the kingdom of God is already within you—it is so (Lk 17:21); with which may God grant us one day to congratulate ourselves. Amen.