by Rev. Fr. M. K. Kuriakose, Philadelphia

Scripture: St. John 10: 22-38

The second Sunday of the liturgical year is named Hoodos Eetho Sunday or the Sunday of the dedication of the Church. This follows the sanctification of the Church. Both sanctification and dedication are two meaningfully related actions. Once the Church is sanctified, it should be dedicated. In fact, in the Orthodox terminology, both sanctification or consecration and dedication are used interchangeably. When a new church building is consecrated, we used the word either ‘dedication’ or ‘consecration’. Dedication by its literal meaning makes a lot of sense as an act that should follow sanctification. A sanctified place, person or institution should be dedicated or set apart for fulfilling its goals and objectives. Without a mind of dedication, a sanctified entity will not fulfill its function. Often it has been a huge challenge to us Christians as we sanctify our homes by housewarming, persons by baptism, church building by consecration and so on but fail to comply with the call to sanctification because of the lack of dedication.

This reminds us of the parable our Lord said in St. Matthew 11and St. Luke 12 about a man from whom an unclean spirit departed looking for places to inhabit and finds none and came back to see that the place he left is still kept clean and decorated but not inhabited by anyone. The unclean spirit brought seven other spirits more wicked than himself to inhabit in that place. That man’s condition became worse than before. If the man were able to dedicate his life to goodness, the evil spirit would not have come back. One of the reasons that God cannot use the sanctified community is that the community is not dedicated. Just imagine if we as a Church did show some dedication how much difference we would have made in serving the Lord! Baptized members find it difficult to do justice to their call to sanctification; ordained clergy finds it difficult to carry out their duties and so on. All these we see are due to lack of dedication to the call.

In the passage from the Gospel there is reference to ‘festival of dedication’ of the Jerusalem temple at the time of Maccabees during the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes the Syrian King who desecrated the Temple. It was under the leadership of the Maccabees that the Temple was rededicated. Thus, the dedication of the Jerusalem temple became a festival signifying the importance of the holiness of the Temple. St. Paul in I Corinthians asks, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (3:16). Yes, we are the holy temple of God. God should be installed in that temple. The holy Jerusalem temple was desecrated by the Syrian king by offering a swine on the holy altar. Wrong things we do in our life desecrate our body, which is the temple of God. These days it became a fashion to desecrate the human body with several kinds of drug, sex, mutilation, alcohol etc. abusive behavior. The Church as the Body of Christ also is abused these days by involving in activities that the Lord won’t approve. We must work together very hard to understand and practice how to keep the holiness of the Church.
Our Lord speaks against the people who are finding it difficult to believe him as the Messiah. The reason that he says was that the unbelieving people do not belong to his fold. Like the sheep understands the voice of the shepherd, those who understand the Lord will follow him. And those who follow him are safe and secure; no one can take them out. This is the indication of dedication. Even these days the rare Christian quality is seen only in those who have dedicated their life to Christ. Such people will stay within the fold. Today all problems in our Church happened because some leadership and position mongering people went out of the fold. Those who listen to the Lord cannot do this. We as members of the Church must make sure that we dedicate ourselves for the Church regardless of what we gain.