Sermon: The Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Council
Forty days after the Resurrection His resurrection, Christ ascended bodily into to the heavens and sits at the right hand of God the Father. Before he left His disciples he promised to send them His Holy Spirit, which event we will celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. In this way, that is through the descent of the Holy Spirit He promised not to leave them orphans but that He would be with us, even until the end of time. Christ is present with us in a number of ways, one through His real presence in the Holy Eucharist which presently sits on the Holy Altar and of which we shall communicate shortly. Christ also acts in our lives through His Church. Christ has said about the Church “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The Holy Spirit descended on the Holy Apostles on the day of Pentecost and they were the first leaders of the Church and they guided the Church through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When they would start a community of Christians in a certain place and the time came for them to move on to another, they ordained Bishops for that particular city who were guided by them in the spiritual life and had also had received the Holy Spirit and were thus in a proper state to guide the Church. They in turn ordained other Bishops whom they had taught and spiritually nurtured and so on down the line, throughout the ages until today. This is what is called apostolic succession. The Bishops of the Church are called the successors of the Apostles, because they continue to uphold the Faith which was handed down to us by Christ through His apostles and their successors.
Today is the Sunday after the Ascension and before Pentecost and as the Fathers of the Church have established for us to keep the memory of the 318 God-Bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council which was held in the city of Nicea in Asia Minor. An Ecumenical Council was a meeting of Bishops from all over the world during which they put to rest some dispute which was raging in the Church at that time. The creed which we recite at every liturgy is called the Nicene Creed because it was written at the Council at Nicea which we celebrate today because there was a dispute over certain dogmas concerning the Holy Trinity. The Fathers of the Church are called God-bearing because they bore God within them, they experienced the same enlightenment which the Disciples experienced on the day of Pentecost and as such their decisions, and especially the decisions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, are directly inspired by the Holy Spirit and cannot be questioned. If we sometimes refer to the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils it should not be misunderstood that they defined the dogmas of the Church by majority vote. St Constantine did not ask the Bishops at the council, “All who think that the Son is Consubstantial with the Father, raise your hands” and the majority won. Certainly not! The 318 Fathers of the First Ecumenical simply expressed or put into words the tradition which has been handed down to them by the Apostles in order to combat whatever heresy or false teaching was troubling the Church at the time. One of the decisions which the First Ecumenical Council made was the establishment of what is called the Old Calendar for use in the Orthodox Church. It is therefore properly called the Orthodox Calendar. There is a dispute raging in our own days regarding the celebration of Feast Days among the Orthodox. For instance, on Wednesday we will celebrate the memory of Sts Constantine and Helen, while most Greeks have already celebrated them two weeks ago. You may ask yourself, “who’s right and who’s wrong?” Now, the Orthodox calendar which we follow was established by the First Ecumenical Council at which Sts. Constantine the Great, Nicholas of Myra and Spyridon of Trymithus among other saints took part and which calendar has been in use for about 1,700 years and the new calendar was unilaterally imposed on certain but not all of the Orthodox Churches 84 years ago, mostly by secular governments with the aim of fostering closer relations with the Latin and Protestant churches of Europe. In an attempt to unite with the churches of the west they have severed the unity of the Orthodox and brought schism into the Church. On a practical level it is easier to celebrate Christmas together with everyone else in America often times we feel isolated because we have to fast while everyone else is feasting and that’s really why they changed the calendar in the first place. Christ Himself has told us the way that leads to destruction is wide, and there are many which go that way: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Truly there are few who have the strength of character to follow what is right at all costs but Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father\'s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.