Homily 640 – 4 Pascha Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa May 11, 2025 Epistle:  (334) – Hebrews 13:7-16

Gospel:  (14) – John 5:1-15

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

Christ is risen!

We have another intersection within the festal calendar of the Church today.  Like every year, it is the Sunday where we remember the paralytic, the fourth Sunday after Pascha.  This year, because it falls on May 11, we also remember those great missionary saints, Cyril and Methodius.

We say “Cyril” sometimes, but the correct pronunciation is Kyrill.  The Greek letter at the beginning of the name is not an “S” but a “K” – kappa.  The Greek letter which looks like a “C” is actually an “S”.  This likely got latinized during a period in which they lived in Rome, sometime in the late 9^th Century.

Now I want to tell a story.  It is as intriguing as any modern political novel.  This story shows how God uses all of life, not just Church and religious life, to achieve his ends.

Cyril and Methodius are the evangelizers of the Slavs – notably, the western and southern Slavs.  They were from what is modern day Macedonia and Bulgaria, while that area was still Greek.  We are in the Bulgarian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America, and so they become important to us as well, along with their disciples, and other great saints from that region, like St. John of Rila.

They are also important for another reason, though.  Cyril and Methodius were really the ones who established how the Church does mission work.  Many of their methods and practices are still in use today in the Church.

They were asked by the Emperor of Byzantium, Michael III, and Patriarch Photius, to go first to the Khazars, in modern day Crimea.  That was a precursor to the most significant mission – to Moravia.  Moravia is modern day Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine and Slovenia.

At the time, Cyril was known as Constantine.  After he and Methodius arrived in Rome, Cyrill was given the name in his monastic tonsure, and died 50 days after his tonsure.  Methodius was ordained a priest by the Pope himself, Pope Adrian II.

I’m getting a bit ahead, though.  This is where the story gets more interesting.

The Latin Church had already sent Germanic bishops to the area.  These bishops and other clergy insisted the people use Latin in their worship.  As happens from time to time, the local ruler found himself under pressure from the Germanic kings and rulers of the Carolingian empire.  So, he threw out the Latin Catholics and contacted the Byzantines.  The emperor, and the patriarch, as mentioned, then pulled Cyril and Methodius from Crimea and sent them to Moravia.

When they got there, they began establishing a written language.  It is thought they already knew the Slavic language, but it had no written form.  So, they developed an alphabet, known today as Cyrillic, but the original alphabet they developed is called Glagolitic, and formed the basis for Old Church Slavonic.

They translated both liturgical and biblical texts into this language.  As a result, they were wildly successful.  So successful in fact that they were invited to Rome.

In Rome, they obtained the Pope’s blessing for their mission in Moravia.  They got Papal blessing to use Slavonic.  This was the time when Constantine took monastic vows in Rome, was made Cyril, and then reposed.  But Methodius was ordained a priest, and then made a Bishop, and sent back to Moravia.

So, Methodius had the blessing of everyone concerned – both Roman and Byzantine.

They had some disciples with them as well – who became saints.  Gorazd, Clement of Ohrid, Naum, Algelar, and Sava.  These five disciples, along with Cyril and Methodius, became known as the “Seven Saints” of the Bulgarian Church.

The return to Moravia wasn’t without a struggle, though.  There was still a looming split between Constantinople and Rome – this was the late 9^th Century, and the famous schism would take place only 140 or so years later – and Moravia was literally in the middle of Rome and Constantinople.

Sandwiched between the Western and Eastern halves of the old Roman Empire was not a terribly comfortable place to be.  When Methodius died in April of 885, his successors (the remaining five disciples) tried to stay and tend the flock, but were forced to flee – and they fled to Bulgaria, and the protection of the Bulgarian Empire.

When they arrived, the Bulgarian ruler St. Boris commissioned them to train the clergy in Slavonic, and to establish theological schools to train the clergy within the Empire.

Which leads somewhat directly to us, here in Ames, in a mission parish of the Bulgarian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America.  Because like Cyril and Methodius, I aspire to also be a missionary.

Candy and I went to Albania to contemplate mission service there, but God had other plans for us.  I was sent to my people, where I knew the language already, here in the upper Midwest.  A mission on the prairie.

But what we learn from the great missionaries Cyril and Methodius still applies.  We all need to be able to understand the liturgy, the prayers, and the scriptures.  We need a common basis for understanding each other.  We need to refrain from making ourselves into something that we are not.  We have to embrace the parts of our culture that are consistent with the Christian faith, and change the parts of our culture that are inconsistent with that faith.

We have to avoid the temptation to force those who come to Orthodoxy to become Russian, or Greek, or Arabic, or African.  In this we follow other great missionaries – St. Herman of Alaska, St. Alexis of Minneapolis, Anastasias of Albania.

But keep in mind – our challenge is no less daunting and full of potential pain that that of the Moravian missionaries.  Our challenge is to take American culture, and to be Christian in it, even if that isn’t popular or welcome.  Over time, as we are seeing now, the faith will overtake the culture and transform it.  It will never be our home – but God willing, we can live in peace.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Christ is risen!