Homily 624 – 29 APE
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
January 12, 2025
Epistle:  (224-ctr) – Ephesians 4:7-13
Gospel:  (10) – Matthew 4:12-17

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God.

I have to confess that in preparation for this homily, my mind is elsewhere.  You have heard mention of Archbishop Anastasios, but many of you may not know about him, nor his life.  In my mind he is a living saint, and I believe will be recognized as such by the Church at some point.

Archbishop Anastasios is a Greek by birth and nationality, but he will be remembered for being a missionary first and foremost.  He went initially to Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania in 1981, before being asked to go to Albania and see what remained of the Church there.  He serves as the Archbishop of Tirana and all Albania, and is primate of the Orthodox Church of Albania since 1991.

In talking about him, this may end up sounding like a eulogy.  That is somewhat intentional.  He is 95 years old.  Candy and I met him 25 years ago on a visit to Albania, and I met him again in 2011 on a trip to Albania while I was in Seminary.  Specifically, I went to study his methods and ideas on starting missions.  Much of what we have here in Ames is directly attributable to his philosophy and activity.

The Church in Albania was established by St. Paul.  Yes, that St. Paul.  The land was known as Illyricum, and St. Paul mentions it in his letter to the Romans, Chapter 15.  It is directly across the Adriatic sea from the Italian cities of Bari, and Brindisi.  Bari, for those interested, are where the relics of St. Nicholas reside to this day.

During my visit in 2011, we went to the seaside town of Durres, and visited the ancient Roman coliseum there.  Underneath that place, dating to the sixth century, there are frescos of saints, a baptismal font, and the place for an altar.  Christians were martyred in this coliseum.

After the schism with Rome, Albania had both Latin and Eastern Christians there.  Latin Catholics in the North, Eastern Orthodox in the South.  We have many saints from there – the daughter of the great Albanian leader, Gergi Skenderbeg, married a Serbian prince, and became St. Angelina.  St. John Vladimir, who was beheaded, was the leader of a Serbian province who died in the early part of the 11^th century.  Albania was invaded by the Ottoman Turks, and Islam became the primary religious group.

After World War II, in the 1960’s, under the communism of the atheistic dictator Enver Hoxha, all the Churches were closed and the Church was driven underground.  1,600 Churches and monasteries were destroyed completely.  By the time of the official persecution, there were 330 parishes, and 25 monasteries, with about 400 priests.

When Archbishop Anastasios finally arrived in 1991, he found an absolutely decimated Church.  There are books about the time of persecution, and Candy and I were blessed to meet and hear some of the stories, since we were only 10 years removed.  It is an amazing story of life in persecution.  There were 22 priests remaining alive in 1991, and only 3 remained alive in 2003.

Since the arrival of Archbishop Anastasios, over 150 churches have been rebuilt, and another 160 churches restored.  They have graduated over 125 priests from their seminary, which also has a home for orphans.  Major parishes have schools for children, and health clinics.  They built their own hospital in Tirana.  Monasteries have been restored and reopened.  While we were there, we were blessed to visit the ruins of St. Kosmas monastery, at the place where his body was miraculously recovered after his execution in 1779.  That place is now fully rebuilt, and hundreds of people worship there every week.

Truly, Anastasios – which means Resurrection in Greek – played a major part in the Resurrection of the Albanian Church.

So why is his life important to us, here in Central Iowa, in the United States?

I think first and foremost, we see that nothing will prevail, ultimately, against the Church.  We see a land in Albania that exists with a diversity of faith, and in my mind, provides a model for how we might establish a diverse community, rooted in faith and in love, right here.

As we heard in the Gospel, after the flight into Egypt and exile, Christ also went into a foreign territory – first Egypt and then Nazareth in Galilee.  While we understand that part of that was to fulfill prophecy, I have to believe that a significant reason is that Christ was and remains an exile, never home.  And we share that as Christians.  Our land is not our home.

In the Archbishop’s earlier time in Kenya and Uganda and Tanzania, he faced many issues that were incompatible with Christianity.  One of the issues was polygamy, which was widely practiced in Africa.  But he didn’t just say “reject all your wives but one.”  He knew that if that happened, those women, and the children, would be left destitute.

He had to make adjustments – he had to slowly transition people into the Christian moral sphere.  So, while he made sure that Christians no longer took additional wives, they were still married and had obligations to care for all their wives and their children.  He was clear that they could only have relations with one wife.  But the obligation toward the others remained.

We in our day and age face issues that weren’t common in that day and time, even in Africa, but are no less serious and no less in opposition to Christianity.  Issues such as same-sex attraction and marriage, issues around gender, issues around the changing public morals and acceptance of behavior that wouldn’t have been tolerated outside of marriage a century ago, or even a half-century ago.

Yet, we are called to live in exile, in this world without Christian morals, and to still love and help those in the world.  We are not called to change their behavior – we are called to demonstrate Christ to them.  When they have experienced the Love of Christ, through us and through the Church, then I know the Holy Spirit will lead them to the place of repentance – just as the Holy Spirit leads all of us to repentance.

The Holy Spirit will lead us into the fullness of Love.  We will learn, we will be formed, by the Spirit, to love God and love others.  Unselfishly.  Unconditionally.  This is what the Kingdom of God brings.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ.