Homily of His Eminence Metropolitan NIKOLAJ
The Church invites us today to a celebration filled with light, to the consecration of this church. Blessed from God are those who worked on the building of this church, dedicated to St. Sava of Serbia, which today joins the many Serbian places of prayer of our distant and present predecessors.
As the others, this holy church will also always offer union with the Lord Christ to the faithful. That is the most the Church offers, She offers that we follow Him in faith. May this truth, with this consecration, fill your hearts and minds. That with sincere thanksgiving you accept the reconciliation which “shown from the tomb”. Rejoice in the reconciliation with God which was sealed through the Resurrection of Christ.
The Church invites us to grasp that it is not a closed community of the saved, who exclusively use God's gifts and battle for priviledges and worldly power, but it is a holy Liturgical community of the faithful, which acknowledges and glorifies the experience of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, the victory over death. And with this we enliven and transfigure all (the entire universe) in freedom and love. Therefore, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not closes us in ourselves, in our circles, in our country, in our local Church, but invites us to celebrate all and everything with hope and love. Organically united with Christ, who took upon Himself all of human nature, except sin, we, in a spiritual sense, are called Christians, as the many Saints of our Church are called.
The Church sings: “Let all creation rejoice, let the heavens rejoice, the people in joy clap their hands.” The Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself all sin, the personal and all of mankind, and accepted them on the Cross and forgave them. Those who sincerely base their lives on Him will multiply the gifts of grace and use their creative abilities to the best of their capabilities for a common good. And today in this consecrated church we also call you that in a similar manner you invoke God, the meaning of life and death. She reveals to us that God is love, selfless and sacrificed for all of mankind. She invites us to re-examine our position on life with more optimism and power, in the affirmation that the God of love is the source of life and that He has the last word in history, both individual and the history of the world.
And “this day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Perhaps this sounds foreign, to remind ourselves of joy at a time in which death plays with cynicism and the jingle of weapons and the weeping of those who die. In the difficult atmosphere in which we live there is a need for one, deeper breath of peaceful joy. The best resistence to today's chaos and disorder is the mystical rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the victor over sin, death and the devil, He conquers and calms wars, oppression, poverty, uncertainty, disappointment. The consecration of this church is joy in the “day which the Lord has made” for you, who are far from you homeland, it is an inexhaustible source of joy in this God loving country of America.
The message to all of you present is: “Receive the light from the unsetting Light”. That is the only Light which is not limited to only a few people or nations, but should embrace all, without discimination of people, lineage, color or descent. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Light which, “lightens every man that comes to this world”, every vision of life, relations and development is transfigured. My brethren, let us wish one another that our God and Father of glory, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that He give us that we know something of the gift of His victory in our personal lives. Especially that we recognize: “what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead” (Eph. 1:18-20) says the holy Apostle Paul.
I beseech of all of you Serbian people that you be an example worth emulating in all things in this hospitable country. You have someone to emulate, Such as the example for emulation of our Saint Sava of Serbia, the creator of our holy Church, unified without any divisions, our education, our spirit of hospitality, friendship with everyone and good relations with other people.
You will always be able to do this when you are with your faith in God, with your Church, your bishops and priests. Make an effort to make your homes little churches, that family members be
good and faithful Christians, respecting your Krsna Slava, that tradition which only we Serbs have.
With confidence and dedication, with faith in the dignity of man and life, with the selfless giving of love, may you always be blessed, my brethren, and that your faith always remain in you, blessed from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
For this reason may we further,
Fear God, not hate others, carry the holy image within us and not burden our soul with sin, but that we may offer it clean before God.
Go to church, pray to God, serve the Divine Liturgies, remember our living, and offer memorials for your deceased.
And wherever we might call upon God, there He will help us: saving us from sufferings and distress and place us on the right path! May God deliver us from every suffering and the hands of our enemies: that we always have, and to the needy give, and God will return to us with joy and plenty and success.
From God mercy, from the heart joy and from the Church we grant you blessings – here and everywhere, now and always. Amen, God grant it!
Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosna
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