Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost; Our Holy Father Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia
Ephesians 6:10-17; Hebrews 13:17-21; Luke 13:10-17; Luke 6:17-23
All-Night Vigil Feast. Nativity Fast.
Read Ephesians 6:10-17
My favourite Christmas meme is the one which features a little boy sitting on the lap of a mall Santa’s lap and asking him the question, “homoousios or homoiousios?” To which the Santa replies, “What?” and the boy states, “You’re not the real Santa.”
This meme is funny because of the often-forgotten (or ignored) story of St. Nicholas at the First Ecumenical Council which resolved how to articulate the divinity of Christ. Arias was arguing that Christ was not God but of a similar essence (homoiousios) as God, whereas the truth of the gospel clearly reveals that Christ is God of God, of the same essence (homoousios). In his zeal and love for the Lord and his flock, St. Nicholas slapped Arias in the face at the council! That’s right, jolly old St. Nick! He knew that some things were worth fighting about. If Christ isn’t God, then God is not love. If Christ isn’t God, we are not forgiven and redeemed and we die in our sins. Truth matters and is worth fighting about.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I am not advocating violence against human beings. St. Nicholas lost his temper and hit a fellow cleric. He was rightly deposed and imprisoned for a time. The lesson we take from this story is not that we should perform violence against others. Instead, what we must reject is the relativism that we find so prevalent in our modern world. The ideas that something could be “your truth but not my truth” or “right for you but wrong for me” have no place in the Christian life. There is no such thing as a morally relativistic saint. Only by standing firmly in the truth can we hope to have any fruitful dialogue with those who disagree with us. Being honest is a sign of respect for them. Only by being authentic can we hope to love authentically. The Father of Lies remains our ultimate enemy in that one of the prerequisites for love is truth! Let us not take the easy way out of conflict and disagreements but wear the belt of truth and stand in the Lord’s strength as St. Paul tells us today!