In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen.

The Epistle reading today is from the 5th chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians. St Paul urges us to, and I quote: “Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise persons, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” That’s a sensible goal for us as Orthodox Christians—to look carefully as we go about our lives, to seek to be “wise persons” and to make “the most of the time,” in the midst of any evils that we encounter. But how can we do all that—stay alert, try to be wise, use our time well, not be discouraged by evil?

St John Chrysostom, the remarkable 4th century Bishop of Antioch and of Constantinople explains what St Paul means by “the days are evil.” St John preached: “When Paul says ‘the days are evil’ he does not mean that they are created evil or that they are by their very nature evil. Rather, he says this of the troubling events that occur in time. We are in the habit of saying, ‘I have had a terrible day,’” preached St John. We still do that twenty centuries later when something doesn’t “go right” for us, don’t we? St John continues: “But [this idea of ‘a terrible day’] does not imply that the day of itself is intrinsically terrible [that is, inwardly terrible]. Rather, [the phrase ‘a terrible day’] refers to what has occurred in the day. Some of the things that occur[red] in it are good, as they are enabled by God. Some are bad, because they are brought about by evil willing [of others or of ourselves]. Therefore, it is we humans who are authors of the evils that occur in time. Only on this basis are times called evil,” concludes St John. 

So, if we are to build “good days” rather than “terrible days” into our lives, we need to decide what thoughts and prayers and actions are, as St John phrases it, “enabled by God.” The word “enable” means “to make someone able, to give them the necessary knowledge, time, opportunity and authority to do something.” All of those parts of “being enabled” are important: first, have the necessary knowledge of what to do; second, have the time to act; third, have the opportunity to act; and fourth, have the authority to act—knowledge and time, opportunity and authority. St Paul proposes in verses 17 and 18 that to achieve these “good days” in our lives it is essential that we, and I quote, “understand what the will of the Lord is [and] be filled … with the [Holy] Spirit.” That means we each need to “Understand what the will of the Lord is” at this time, at this moment in our lives, and “be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Can we each do this? Is it possible? Well, it might be.

St John Chrysostom has preached clearly about what we have to do if we wish to “understand what the will of the Lord” is for us and “be filled with the Holy Spirit.” In St John’s words: “Be ready to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This happens only when we have [each] cleansed [ourselves] of falsehood, anger, bitterness, sexual impurity, uncleanness and covetousness—[that is, wanting something that belongs to someone else]. [Being filled with the Holy Spirit] happens only when we have become compassionate [that is, merciful], meek and forgiving to one another, only when facetiousness [that is, trying to be excessively witty and amusing to others] is absent, only when we have made ourselves worthy. Only then does the [Holy] Spirit come to settle within our hearts, only when nothing is there [within us] to prevent it. Then [the Holy Spirit] will not only enter [us] but also fill us,” concluded St John.

So, learning how to “understand the will of the Lord” and becoming ready “to be filled with the Holy Spirit” depends on each of us—on what we decide to do in our free wills, in our decisions about how to live our lives. In The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology, Father John Anthony McGuckin states that “the human will … [has] the ability to choose freely that which is good or evil and … the ability to shape by assent or dissent [that is, by agreement or disagreement] one’s place within the order God has established for the world” (p. 363). In other words, the Lord has already given an invitation to each of us to understand His will and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is up to each of us to prepare our bodies and minds and souls to receive the Lord.

The 4th-century theologian and preacher Ambrosiaster, a follower of St Ambrose of Milan, preached that, and I quote: “If we are living well, we are always being filled with the Holy Spirit in order to confess and [praise] the gift of God. The Holy Spirit loves this way of life…. If the [Holy] Spirit is dwelling within someone, [that person] is already meditating on the [Holy] Spirit…. We are told to give thanks to God for all His gifts. For God has … adopted us through Christ His own Son, through whom we know God,” concluded Ambrosiaster. So, we can “understand what the will of the Lord” is for us and be filled by the Holy Spirit by drawing closer to Christ. 

St Seraphim of Sarov, in his Conversation with Nicholas Motovilov Concerning the Aim of the Christian Life, said: “[The Holy Spirit] is given [to us] through prayer; for prayer is somehow always in our hands an instrument for acquiring the grace of the [Holy] Spirit…. Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and simple, strong and weak, healthy and suffering, righteous and sinful [young and old]…. [The Lord] distributes the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to them that ask….” concluded St Seraphim. So, if we wish to understand the will of God for each of our lives and be filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to ask the Lord for that understanding and empty ourselves of whatever is blocking us from experiencing “the good days” that the Lord has prepared for us.  We can each do that. We can all experience “good days.”

So be it, as we ascribe as is justly due, all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.