HOMILY ON THE MEETING OF THE LORD

HOMILY ON THE MEETING OF THE LORD

Delivered by His Grace Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic), 1995 in Pozarevac



Two-sided icon-tablet, late 15th-early 16th cc., Novgorod Museum-reserve



Today we celebrate a great Feast, the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple, we celerate a joyous event of the Meeting of Heaven and earth, the timeless and the transient, God and man, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Jerusalem Temple the newly born Savior was taken into the arms of the Righteous elder Simeon, who, having received a Divine promise that he would not die until he sees with his own eyes the Savior and Messiah, gave thanks to the Lord at that very moment for fulfiling that promise by saying: „Now you are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation...“. Receiving and taking into his elderly hands the Savior of the world, the righteous Elder recognized also in his prophetic vision the full history of what would be with Christ, and all of those who follow Him, and that is why He says to the Most Holy Theotokos: „Behold this Child is destined for the fall and rising, and for a sign which will be spoke against and many will stand against,“ but they will not be able to prevail, for in Him the thoughts of the hearts of many will be revealed.

Christ gives account for the thoughts of man, thus He is not only our joy, but also our judgment. Many of the Saints rejoiced in appearing before the face of Christ, and prayed: „Lord, cleanse me, have mercy on me, renew me, for if I appear unprepared before You, it will be most dreadful for me, if You only turn Your face from me.“

Homily for the Sunday of Orthodoxy,

Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic)

Given in the Cathedral of Trebinje, 2007

Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic) is one of the most outstanding contemporary Orthodox theologians. Born in 1938 in the town of Brdarica in western Serbia, he studied theology at Saint Sava’s Seminary in Belgrade, the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, the Theological Seminary in Halki, and the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, where he was awarded a doctoral degree in 1967 for his thesis entitled “The Ecclesiology of the Apostle Paul According to Saint John Chrysostom.” He has taught at the Saint Serge Institute in Paris and the Theological Faculty in Belgrade, of which he has also served as Dean, and has lectured internationally. He was one of the founders of the Theological Faculty of Saint Basil of Ostrog in Foca (Bosnia and Hercegovina), of which he was elected Rector in 1994. He was a close and trusted spiritual son of the Blessed Archimandrite Justin (Popovic), by whom he was tonsured in 1960. Consecrated a Bishop in 1991, he retired in 1996 due to his failing health. He has been an outspoken advocate of the rights of persecuted Serbs in Kosovo for many years. The author of a multitude of books and of over one hundred articles in a variety of languages, his book Christ—The Alpha and Omega was published in English by the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2007.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

“Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God!” This was the confession of Nathaniel, an honorable, modest, hitherto unnoticed disciple of Christ. When Philip said, Come, we have found the Messiah, we have found Christ, Him Who was prophesied by Moses and the Prophets, Nathaniel asked: Who is He? (cf., Jn 1:45-46). He told him, according to the human understanding of the time: It is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph (Jn. 1:45). Can anything good come from Nazareth, a remote town on the north side of Galilee that had been despised to begin with because many heathens had mixed with the Jews in Galilee? Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?