In this homily, Fr. Anthony explains the meaning of the Cross for us today in the light of 1 Corinthians 6:12 ("All things are lawful for me..."), Philippians 2:6 ("[Christ Jesus] did not consider it robbery"), 1 Corinthians 10:33 ("...so that some might be saved."), and the Transfiguration.  Enjoy the show!

This is the audio recording of Fr. Anthony Perkins' YouTube livestream on 26 September 2020.  In it Seminarian James Cummings talks about the journey of discernment that took him through the army, the Satanic priesthood, and finally to Christ and Holy Orthodoxy.  Enjoy the show!

Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross
Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1

(The Greatest Commandment) life has no meaning without a goal. Goals allow us to distinguish between what is useful and what isn’t; the right goal ensures that all our actions are virtuous.

This week restates this lesson. Listen closely:

And Jesus called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8: 34)

Do you see how this is just a restatement of the goal of “loving God and neighbor”?

The “self” that we must deny has to be properly understood or we will end up perverting the Scripture, pursuing the wrong goal, wasting our talent, and – as we are warned in today’s Gospel reading – losing our very soul/life. There are two main ways that the “denial of self” should be understood:

• The denial of the self as a sacrificial action.Why do you think that the Old Testament is full of sacrifice? In part, it is because doing something worthwhile requires giving up something else. If I am saving my money so that I can buy a new computer or go on a nice vacation, then there are things that I have to give up – to sacrifice – along the way. If I am going to follow God, that is to say, if I am going to love Him and love my neighbor the way He does, then that means giving up or “sacrificing” all the other goals that I might have pursued. This is only fitting and logical: when someone accepts a 9-5 job, they give up doing other things they might have done during that time. When a couple gets married, they give up both the single life and the possibility of marrying anyone else. When we commit ourselves to following Christ and serving our neighbor – the two Great Commandments – then we are sacrificing all the other things we might have done.

• The denial of self as commitment and hard work. When someone takes a job, they don’t just give up doing other things while they are at that job: they commit themselves to working hard to do that job well. When a couple gets married, they don’t just give up dating other people: they commit themselves to working hard to make their marriage joyful and productive. This takes constant effort; these people “deny themselves” to do their job well and to keep their marriages healthy. When we commit ourselves to following Christ and serving our neighbor, we aren’t just giving up all the other goals we could have committed ourselves to, we are dedicating ourselves to put real effort into living a life of love.


So why the big warning? Because today’s reading, like last week’s, comes with a big warning:

For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8: 35)

The bottom line is that you will waste and ruin your life if you pursue the wrong goals. Idolatry? Two masters? Temple? It’s all saying the same thing. Don’t waste your life. Live a life of virtue. Commit yourself to it, study how to do it well, and then work hard an sacrifice yourself for it. Parts of you will rebel – deny those parts. Other parts will enjoy it; this is the multiplication of your talents – take that joy and offer to God and share it with your neighbor … this is how you grow “into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).

One of the ways that today’s reading can be misunderstood is to think that the “denial of self” means the denial of joy. Now I hope you see how ridiculous this is. Do not turn God into a monster: he is not trying to turn this world into a hell of misery but into a place where all his children have joyful life in abundance (John 10:10) – and He wants us to want and work for that, too.

The denial of self does NOT mean that we hate or neglect or selves; quite the opposite. This is made clear by the final verse we will cover in today’s homily;

For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul (life)?
(Mark 8:36)

Love of self means doing what is good for the self; pursuit of the wrong goals brings destruction to our lives. That is not love, that is something else. You know people who have destroyed their lives through the pursuit of power, or of laziness and self-indulgence, or of the approval of the wrong people, or through drugs … this is what Jesus means when He warns that you can gain the world but lose your soul. People who have lived for the wrong goal may well “gain the whole world”, but all that effort has been counter-productive; it has not brought abounding joy, it has not brought joy to others.

So now that you understand this command of Our Lord, the challenge is to make it your primary motivation:

Deny yourself. Give up your life and live it for the Good News of salvation that is guaranteed to bring joy to you and to this world.

This is a recording of Fr. Anthony's livestream on 19 September 2020.  It it, he and Dn. Michael Abrahamson talk about gardening and the difference between transactional love (loving to be liked, respected, etc.) and loving without reservation.  Enjoy the show!

St. Matthew 22:1-14 (The Wedding Feast)

Today is the threshold of the new liturgical year, a time when we take stock of ourselves and the great story we are a part of.  Today I want to retell this story.  You are familiar with the events, but perhaps not with how they fit together or how they culminate with the revelation offered in today’s Gospel.  It is a huge story, running from the very beginning until now – and just a bit into the future.  Obviously there isn’t time to go over all the nuances of this story – that would literally take forever; but there is time to speak of the general contours.  Mel Brooks did it in two hours – I propose to do it in much less.  And while the story I tell will not be funny like his (nor will it allow our subdeacon to test out of this semester’s class on the Old Testament), understanding it can be a passage through which we can understand and rejoice in this world and our place in it.

Act I: In the Beginning
God brought order to things.  Even the waters – the ancient sign of chaos – were divided and contained.  Creation was established as a very special sort of place.  A place of wonder and the deepest magic.  And the greatest wonder was that he made a creature from the dust of that place and enlivened it with his own breath.  He gave that creature special power, endowed Him with His own image and likeness, then commissioned that creature to use its powers for the benefit of others.  It was the steward of creation.  Its power was such that everything in creation responded to its intentions.  The was the design of the God, that everything be interconnected so that every thought and action of His steward would be a blessing.  That everything would grow in perfection, unity, and love as His steward grew in perfection, unity, and love under God’s own example and instruction.

But this new creature, this steward with the power to affect everything in the world around it, ignored its calling and used its power for something else.  It still had this power, the world still responded to its thoughts and actions, but instead of bringing blessings, it brought curses.  Instead of fruits, the world offered up thorns and thistles.  Instead of a joyful abundance of life, it brought pain and death.  The steward became perverted and warped, and it warped and perverted the world.  It groaned in sin.

Act II: The Flood
This steward was mankind.  One might expect that mankind would learn its lesson.  That it would grow tired of thistles and pain and death and disorder and separation, that it would return to its original commission and the world to its original purpose, but it did not.  It continued to use its powers to curse creation; it even turned its magic against itself.  Mankind became a living blight on the world.  When it seemed that all was lost, when perversion had twisted almost everything and everyone, God could allow it no more.  He withdrew His powerful protection that separated the waters and kept the destructive might of chaos at bay.  The world was flooded.  The last remnant of good was saved – life was given a new chance.  Mankind rejoiced at this and offered up its thanks to the Lord.  God commissioned mankind once again to tend to creation and promised never again to allow the waters of chaos in.  The world once again felt the blessings of love and unity.

Act III:  The Tower of Babel and the Instruction of lsrael
But this state did not last.  Mankind soon drifted away from its purpose once again.  It joined together, uniting its great power to work against the order and love that created and sustains the world.  God saw that if this continued, there would be no end to the evil mankind would do.  He divided them into nations, assigning divine guardians to watch over and instruct each of them and He Himself took up the instruction of one of them, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He established a new covenant with them through Moses, and gave them the Law.  He used the Law to teach them how to use their powers for good, to teach them the proper order of things and how they can be maintained, and to forbid those things that would sow discord and chaos.  He demanded that they keep themselves pure and holy as He is holy so that mankind would become the blessing to creation that it was created to be.  When they went astray, he sent prophets to guide them back.

Act IV:  The New Adam
But even with the Law and the Prophets, this nation – the Israelites – could not stay true.  The nations around them had given themselves over to demons and many of the Jews had joined them.  As in the days of before the flood, it seemed as though all creation would be destroyed by the wickedness of mankind.  But among them there were some that still stayed true, most notably the Virgin Mary.  And through her, the most amazing thing happened: God’s commission to mankind was finally realized in full.  Adam’s power was perfected and completely turned to its proper purpose.  How was this done?  Through the Incarnation of the God-man Jesus Christ.  He is called the “New Mankind”, the “New Adam”, because all the things mankind was called to be and become were brought about in His person.  Creation responded to Him and it was a blessing.  Remember how, when He went into the river Jordan at His baptism, all the filth and evil that had accumulated in its waters from generation after generation of curses was turned back by his presence – the Jordan turned back!  Sickness fled at His touch.  Leprosy was healed.  The blind could see.  The lame could walk.  Creation finally had the steward she was made for, and it responded in joy!  But evil did not rejoice – it retaliated.  It could not tempt The New Adam from His purpose, so it conspired against Him.  The fallen powers of the world hated Him for His goodness.  They condemned Him to death and crucified Him on the Cross.  But they underestimated His power – death itself fled from His power and from His love.  No curse, no disease, not even death itself, can abide to be in the same place as the New Adam.

Act V:  Unity in Christ
But the story does not end there.  There is a New Covenant and there is a new power.  Jesus Christ is the New Adam, the new mankind, the One who can live up to the high calling of steward to creation.  His presence, His thoughts, intentions, and actions, bless the world and transform it.  They bring about its healing, unity, love, and perfection.  But the most amazing thing about this act of  history is that we are called to join Him!  Through Him, we, as created beings, can be purged of all filth.  Through Him, we can become true stewards.  We can become the New Adam.  We can become a blessing to the world.  The Church is the Body of Christ.  Those who are baptized (in the water He transformed) have “put on Christ”.  Those who believe in Him have Him in them and they in Him.  Through Him the unity of mankind is restored and it is finally ready and able to go about the work of its original calling.  Matter is transformed by the intentions and actions of the Church: water is sanctified, oil heals, a prayerful touch brings the remission of sins, another brings the charisma of ordination, another unites man and woman into one flesh, through the actions and intentions of the Church even bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ!  The world is transformed around the New Adam, and all of us are part of that.  This is the most heroic epic ever written – and we are offered the part of heroes! 

Today Christ refers to this calling as a wedding feast.  He desires that His people join Him in His joy.  But do you remember how they responded?  They had other things to do!  They mocked and turned down His offer.  They even killed His messengers.  But others did come in.  We have joined them.  We have put on our wedding garments and bask in the glory of Our Lord.

But the story does not end there.  We, here at Holy Resurrection in the heart of Appalachia, have the fullness of the Church.  We are the New Adam.  The world is groaning in sin – the people suffer.  We must go out and be the source of healing, joy, and unity that we are meant to be.  It is time for us to live up to our commission.  Through Christ, this is possible.

1 Corinthians 16:13-24; St. Matthew 21:33-42.  In this homily, Fr. Anthony describes how our obsession with past wrongs, the future, and tribalism turn us into the vinedressers who persecuted the owners servants; will we also kill his son?  Enjoy the show!