Archbishop Elpidophoros of America visited the Parish of St. Gerasimos in New York City where he officiated the Orthros and Divine Liturgy on New Year’s Eve day.
After the Divine Liturgy, His Eminence bestowed the title of Archon Hymnodos to Mr. Gerasimos Athanasatos, President of the Community. Mr. Athanasatos couldn’t receive this honor on Archon Sunday 2023 due to his pivotal role in His Eminence’s visit to Kefalonia in October. Additionally, Archbishop Elpidophoros also awarded parish priest of St. Gerasimos, Rev. Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne Fr. Panagiotis Papazafiropoulos, with a Centennial Cross of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Read the Archbishop’s full Homily for the Sunday before Theophany:
I am so very pleased to spend this last day of 2023, and this last Sunday – New Year’s Eve – worshipping with you, the faithful members of Saint Gerasimos.
I think of the marvelous and spiritually rewarding days that many of us spent together in Kefalonia back in October, and I am overcome with gratitude for this wonderful community. I want to thank especially Gerasimos Athanasatos, the president of the Parish Council, for his leadership and all the work he accomplished with so many of you to make that pilgrimage to Kefalonia the fruitful and beneficial trip that it was.
Today – the 31st – is the Apodosis of the Feast of Christmas, and therefore this Sunday looks ahead to the Baptism in the Jordan, and is called the Sunday before the Theophany – Κυριακή πρὸ τῶν Φώτων – rather than the Sunday after Christmas. It always amazes me, that in these few days we know as the Δωδεκαήμερον – the Twelve Days that lead from Christmas to Theophany – we behold the Infant of Bethlehem come to His complete humanity.
We are already seeing the Lord in His Thirtieth Year, with only a brief stop for His Twelfth Year tomorrow on the Feast of the Circumcision on January First.
This accelerated timeline leaves many questions unanswered about how the Lord was raised; what his experience was as a child, and indeed how he was formed by His parents and His culture as a person. Yes, the Lord Jesus is God, and as such, He is immutable. But He is also a human being, with all the factors and exigencies of life that every human being endures and engages.
To see Him, then, in the fullness of His humanity, is a message for all of us. But what does it convey?
That we, His followers and disciples, are called to be in the fullness of our humanity, whatever age we are. For just as a child can be kind or cruel once they learn to speak and to act, so this duality persists throughout life, even to the white hairs of old age. Our vocation is to choose kindness, to choose truthfulness, to choose goodness. At whatever age we find ourselves.
We see in today’s Gospel reading, which begins: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,”* that all the following verses are about John the Baptist, and the preparation for the coming of this extraordinary Son of God, Who arrives at the peak of His own human history. What then, are we to understand about ourselves from this Gospel reading today?
I believe that the message is that we must engage and prepare for life and the fullness our own human existence. That our lives are to be readied to enter into the wholeness of our human nature, one that is healed and even deified by the Lord Jesus Christ. That we are to travel with Him to the Jordan River, and there receive not only instruction in how to live, but also, by Holy Baptism and all the Mysteries of the Church, be granted the grace to do so.