SERMONS
Either if it was at our wedding or a wedding that we attended, we are quite familiar with the words of the Apostle Paul: “husbands love your wives as yourself.” (Eph 5:28) St. Paul’s idea of how a husband should love his wife as himself were not his thoughts alone, but one that he took from his Lord. Christ taught that we should, “love our neighbor as ourselves.” (Mark 12:31) Here, St. Paul takes the teachings of his Lord and applies them to marriage.
At the time of our Baptism, Holy Chrism is used to anoint us. As children, it is spread over the entire body, as an adult, it was used to mark the sign of the Cross over us. Either way, it is as St. Philoxenos writes, “Neither the wetness of water in which we are baptized, nor the oiliness of the oil with which we are anointed, remain with us after our death, but the Holy Spirit, who is mingled in our souls and bodies through the oil and water, does remain with us, both in this life and after our death.” We have been sealed eternally; we have been marked with an eternal mark that is the seal and mark of the Holy Spirit.
In the Pauline Epistle today, the Apostle Paul makes a differentiating statement. He says, “all sin is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” (I Cor. 6:18) At first glance, this portion of St. Paul’s teaching seems confusing because we may ask ourselves: Isn’t all sin a part of the body? For example, when someone is angry or behaving gluttonously, is that not in the body, just like sexual immorality?
There is a story of a priest who was advising his spiritual son. The priest asked his son “what are your plans for the future?” and the son responded, “to finish college then find a good job.” To this, the priest responded, “and after that?”, “to get married and to buy a home.”, “and after that?”, “to have children.”, “and after that?”, “live long enough to see my grandchildren.”, “and after that?” “well, Father, after all this, I think I will have done everything that I need and will die.”, and to this the priest asked, “and after that?”
In BBC’s virtual newsletter, called Future, author William Park wrote “Those we surround ourselves with have the power to make us fatter, drink more alcohol, care less about the environment and be riskier with sun protection, among many things.” (May 20, 2019) This article pointed out how our friends can be effective influencers in our decision-making in almost all keys areas of life, like health, career, family life, etc. The idea is quite simple: those whom we hang out with play a major in the positive and negative outcomes of our life. This is not to negate the responsibility that a person has in making decisions for oneself, as though one is helpless in the midst of friends; but it is to point out that such a human need—friendship—relationships—play a vital role in a person’s life successes and failures.
