Salvation Requires Time and Effort

In today’s Gospel we have a rare opportunity to hear Christ directly explain to us a parable He had offered. In the Parable of the Sower, He explains:

“The seed is the Word of God….”
“The wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out     of their hearts…”
“The rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root…”
“Thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life…”
“The good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart…”

What goes unsaid in today’s Gospel lesson is that, all of these explanations refer to all of us at some point during our life. Some of us may even go back and forth between them during certain seasons of our life. We can all remember certain times in our lives when we received the word of God with great fervor, only to forget about Church and our spiritual journey while we were distracted by ‘life’ and the many responsibilities we carry. We can all remember certain times in our lives when we may have even totally ignored our spiritual journey.

Today’s Gospel isn’t so much a condemnation of our past, but a guide to our future. When a farmer ignores a field, it begins to become taken over by weeds and other unprofitable things. The longer the farmer ignores the field, the worse the condition becomes, and the harder it is to return the field to a healthy production. The same is true for our souls. If we ignore our souls, the various distractions of life will eventually run over our lives and we will produce no good fruit in our lives.

If we wish to restore our soul, or even to avoid our soul being run over by the distractions in the future, it will require work, just as it does for a farmer. It will require constant attention and vigilance to weed out any distractions the moment they appear. The sooner a weed is pulled, the less damage it can do to the soul.

Fortunately for us, we have a tools shed just like the farmer. Our tools aren’t axes and spades, but prayer and fasting, reading the Holy Scriptures and Holy Fathers and Mothers for guidance, taking care of the poor, being good stewards of God’s Church, loving each other. The most effective tool we have is God Himself, and His willingness to share Holy Communion - His Precious Body and Blood - with us. If we are committed to work, then we will have a better chance to maintain rich and fertile souls.

+Fr. Athanasios C. Haros

Dear St. Nicholas Cathedral Family,

We move onto the next feast that we celebrate on the Ecclesiastical Calendar. The Feast of the Entrance into the Temple of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated on November 21 each year as a fixed calendar date. The Feast commemorates when as a young child, the Virgin Mary entered the Temple in Jerusalem.

When Mary was three years old, Joachim and Anna decided that the time had come to fulfill their promise and to offer her to the Lord. When she arrived, she ran toward the Temple, overtaking her attendant maidens and threw herself into the arms of the High Priest Zacharias, who was waiting for her at the gate of the Temple with the elders. Zacharias blessed her saying, "It is in you that He has glorified your name in every generation. It is in you that He will reveal the Redemption that He has prepared for His people in the last days.”

Then, Zacharias brought the child into the Holy of Holies—a place where only the High Priest was permitted to enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. He placed her on the steps of the altar, and the grace of the Lord descended upon her. The Virgin Mary dwelt in the Temple until she reached an age for marriage and she was taken from the Temple by the priests and elders and entrusted to Joseph as the guardian of her virginity.

The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple signifies her total dedication to God and her readiness for her future vocation as the Mother of the Incarnate Lord. This feast is celebrated because she enters the Temple to become herself the living temple of God, thus inaugurating the New Testament in which are fulfilled the prophecies of old that “the dwelling of God is with man” and that the human person is the sole proper dwelling place of the Divine Presence. May the Theotokos intercede for us!

With Love in the Lord,

+Fr. Sampson N. Kasapakis

Memorials

8:15AM Divine Liturgy (Greek)
Father Tryfon Theophilopoulos | 13 Years
Alex Spanos
Agapitos Papacalodoukas | 40 Days Maria Tsakalakis | 40 Days
Menelaos Solon | 1 Year Kaliope Agelis | 1 Year
Katina Zoanos | 2 Years Niki Solon | 3 Years
Irene Koulianos | 16 Years

11:00AM Divine Liturgy (English)
Alexander Bazos | 40 Days
Fillipos Tsantakis | 4 Years