Fr. Gerasimos Makris and the community of Holy Cross Church in Brooklyn welcomed Archbishop Elpidophoros of America on Palm Sunday evening for the Bridegroom Service – Orthros of Holy Monday.
In his homily Archbishop Elpidophoros tells us, “Behold! The Bridegroom comes to us… In the middle of this night, ἐν τῷ μέσῳ τῆς νυκτός. In the middles of our lives. The Bridegroom appears before us – we who are His Bride, the Holy Church, called to be ‘without stain, wrinkle, or any such thing … holy and blameless.’
We are called to adorn the garment of our souls to receive this Heavenly Bridegroom, who has come to claim us for Himself, and for all eternity. But something holds us back. Something keeps us from giving ourselves to Him. Something blinds us from the truth. You see, my friends, we are not approached by a handsome, attractive, and powerful personage. As the Prophet Isaiah foretold. He has no form nor comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. This is how the Bridegroom comes to us. And this is how we see him in His Holy Icon tonight, and for the next two nights. Pilate shouted: Ἴδε ὁ ἄνθρωπος. ‘Look at the Man!’ But we glorify Him and cry out: ‘Behold the Bridegroom!’”
Photos: Orthodox Observer/Dimitrios Panagos
