Holy Friday Vespers 2012 - 04/13/12
Sermon by Archimandrite Luke on Holy Friday Vespers
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!It is finished — exclaimed Our Saviour, and thus He accomplished His salvific sufferings.Suffering
came into the world because of the first sin, and sin became the wall
of separation between God and man depriving us of a blessed state and
the Kingdom of Heaven. Man by his own devices could never heal his
fallen soul, and thus we confess and believe that the Son of God was
incarnate in order to redeem us and deliver us from our sinful and
pitiful state. He became one of us to correct that which we spoiled, and
in order to renew that which was darkened.Suffering is always
with us, and man is constantly preoccupied with the question of
suffering —mainly how to avoid it. We modern people on a daily basis
invent new means in order to avoid reality, and the reality of our life
is frequently filled with various sorrows. One can only be amazed at the
multitude of various ever-increasing distractions and new medications
appearing to assuage psychological burdens.We tremble when we
recall the terrible spiritual struggle of our Lord in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when He, by means of His divine vision, foresaw those
sufferings incomprehensible for us which He voluntary and with love was
to take upon Himself so that we might return to paradise.He overcame all
difficulties, and even on the Cross He refused to alleviate His pain.
And in all of this we can conclude that suffering is an inescapable fact
of life. But what is its significance? And what can we as Orthodox
Christians do? What should be our attitude to such an unavoidable
phenomenon?The answer lies before us in the tomb. Our Lord
accepted the inescapability of suffering as the central redemptive
struggle of His life, and we must accept suffering as an inescapable
fact and surrender to it. Even this humble submission to an extent
relieves our sorrowful state of soul.Our Lord also showed that it is
extremely important to have a God-pleasing disposition of heart towards
suffering. In spite of the fact, that He is surrounded by hatred,
ill-will, intrigues, treachery, ingratitude, and lack of understanding,
none the less His love remains unshakeable. He preserves and defends His
love with the words: “God forgive them”. And thus He crowns His
redeeming struggle of love.Genuine spirituality like true
friendship demands great attention, nurturing and support. Without this
our soul, like a rare flower wilts and dies. Only a firm spiritual
state, without complaining, without bitterness and hard-heartedness can
assist us in overcoming all sorrows and suffering sent to us for our
cleansing and correction. A living witness and example of a God-pleasing
attitude towards suffering is the Mother of God, who is present in Her
icon, Softening of Evil Hearts or Seven swords. Without complaint, She
stood by the Cross and grave of Her Son, despite Her horrendous anguish.
She took no offense at the torturers and did not become hard-hearted,
quite the opposite. Her heart expanded, became softer and spiritually
She achieved even greater perfection.Dear brothers and sisters, I
have spoken here only briefly about the inescapability of sufferings,
but we must further continually and deeply nurture within ourselves a
God-pleasing and good-hearted attitude towards sorrows, which the
all-wise Lord sends for our correction. It is a terrible thing to live
with a darkened, gloomy, heart. Our Lord summons us to soften and
cleanse our evil hearts. And only with a purified and soft heart can we
like the Mother of God, inherit eternal blessedness. Amen.