Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration when Jesus Christ went up Mount Tabor and was transformed into a glorious figure with shining white garments. Many Biblical commentators point out that we too can be transformed into persons who are drawn closer to God. How can we do that? By praying and by seeking to live a good life, we can be transformed.

The apostle for today from the 15th chapter of the Letter of St Paul to the Romans begins: “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbour for his good, to his edification.” Two words here are very important—“weaknesses” and “edification.” So, today I am going to focus—I am going to pay attention—to those two words—“weaknesses” and “edification”—in those opening two sentences: “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbour for his good, to his edification.”

A modern Biblical commentary has pointed out that weaknesses are not sins. Just because we are not very good at doing something does not mean we are sinning. However, if we are weak at something—if we are not able to do something well—we do need advice and support from those who are strong. Children, can you think silently about something at which you are weak? Don’t tell me, just think about something at which you are weak. Now, can you think of some person who can help you with that weakness or some way in which you yourself can tackle that weakness and become stronger? Parents, learn your children’s strengths as well as their weaknesses. Help them to grow into the persons that you and the Lord—and they—wish to become.

This idea of identifying your own weaknesses—that is, to recognise them and to admit to yourself that you have certain weaknesses—applies both to practical tasks and spiritual tasks, whatever our ages. When the great 4th century church leader St John Chrysostom was preaching on this passage he pointed out a similar reading in chapter 6 of St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians where St Paul urges, and I quote, “those who are spiritual [should] restore [those who are] caught in any trespass in a spirit of gentleness.” Now, a trespass—entering into someone else’s property without permission or hurting someone else—is a sin. So St Paul is telling both the Christians of the first century and us that we are responsible for each other, that it is not right to live our lives in such a way that we simply please ourselves and ignore other people. Any “weakness,” any “trespass” in a Christian community, is a problem for the community to identify and then to tackle together. So how can we tackle both our weaknesses and our sins, as we seek to live good lives? We work together for “edification.”

Children, suppose someone walked up to you tomorrow and said, “I’m going to edify you. Get ready, I’m going to edify you NOW.” What might you think? . . . Your response would probably depend on their tone of voice and the position of their body. If they raised their fists and said, “I’m going to edify you NOW,” you would probably think you were about to start a fight. However, if they looked you in the eye and smiled, your response might be, “Edify? What are you talking about?” 

“Edify” means to build up someone morally or spiritually. It means to educate—to help someone improve as a person. The word comes from a Latin word aedis that means “a dwelling,” and the original sense was “to construct a building”—to build a stronger person and a stronger Christian community with fewer weaknesses. That can only happen if we get to know the strengths and weakness of each other. However, to know the strengths and weaknesses of each other requires us to be honest with each other—to make ourselves vulnerable to each other, to learn how to love each other, and to learn how to love and respect ourselves as persons who hope to be drawn closer to God. My experience is that God often waits for us to ask to be drawn closer to Him before He draws us closer to Him.

A beautiful example of how to build each other up and love and respect each other has been given by Ignatius IV—the Patriarch of Antioch for 33 years from 1979 until his death at the age of 91 in 2012. When he became Patriarch of Antioch back in 1979, the Metropolitan of Lattakia in Syria said, “It is not possible for me to address you as if I were different from you. No difference separates us. I am an integral part of you.” The new patriarch was saying that he and all Antiochian Orthodox Christians are a unity—complete and whole as a community. He continued, “I am in you; and I ask you to be in me.” I say those words to all of you today at St Aidan’s and to our listeners on Ancient Faith Radio. I take those words of the Patriarch and make them mine: “I am in you; and I ask you to be in me.” The Patriarch continued: “The Lord comes, and the [Holy] Spirit descends on the brothers [and sisters] gathered, united in communion, as they manifest a diversity of charisms in the unity of the [Holy] Spirit” [end of quote]. Children, “to manifest” something” is to show it clearly; and “charisms” are gifts and abilities that influence and inspire other people. In other words, the new Patriarch was pointing out that all of us together influence and inspire each other by our personalities, our hopes, our prayers, our desire and ability to love each other. We are each worthy of love and respect. We can respect ourselves as Orthodox Christians, be drawn closer to God and draw others to us. AXIOS!

Before his election, Patriarch Ignatius IV had served as the founder and Dean of Balamand Orthodox Theological Seminary in Lebanon and as joint founder of Syndesmos, the World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth. He often urged everyone to prepare for and go to Holy Communion frequently, as well as to reach out in love to other Christians. He continued that renewal of the Antiochian Orthodox Church as Patriarch.

In The Resurrection and Modern Man, an introduction to several talks by Patriarch Ignatius, Oliver Clement, a lay French Orthodox theologian wrote: “The goal of this effort [by the Patriarch] was to work in common for the establishment of a more open and more just society, for the deepening of Arab culture capable of drawing deeply from its own sources and thus developing the capacity of mastering the material world.” Those words in 1979 from the new patriarch are goals that we still share today, as we build up our parish community here at St Aidan’s and our new Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of the British Isles

and Ireland.

Reflecting on chapter 15 of this Letter of St Paul to the Romans, one early Christian teacher wrote, and I quote: “Nobody can build up another person if [they have] not first attracted [them] by [their] good life” [end of quote]. Patriarch Ignatius IV from the family of Hazim in the village of Mhardey (Mhardeh) near Hama in north western Syria lived a good life that continues to influence and inspire many of us today. We too, in whatever rural areas, villages, towns, cities or countries we are located can live good lives. Whatever our ages, young or old—we each can be drawn by the Holy Spirit closer to Christ and to God the Father. Because we understand our weaknesses, we can then become stronger. When we edify each other—when we educate each other—we build a strong Christian community as we share our lives with each other.