16th Sunday after Pentecost

In today’s Holy Gospel our Lord tells us of the talents given to the servants – to one was given five talents, to another two, and to another only one – each according to his own ability.

The servant who was given the five talents was diligent and invested them so that when the master returned he was able to double the value of what had been given to him.

The servant who received the two talents, even though less was given to him, also proved to be a good steward and returned to his master a profit.

The final servant, who was only given the one talent, was fearful and exacting… he had hidden his talent in the ground and when the master returned he gave back nothing more than what he had been given.

The master praised those servants who had taken their gifts and used them wisely – benefiting and increasing the wealth that had been given them.

To that servant who did nothing with his gift, the master condemned him as a wicked and lazy servant. He took from him the one talent that had been given and gave it to others who had proven themselves better caretakers of the master’s gifts.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we stand here today as recipients of a tremendous treasure given to us by God. On this day we celebrate several saints who are our spiritual forefathers in the faith. Today we commemorate Sts Sergius and Herman of Valaam and we also remember St Silouan the Athonite. These saints shine brightly in a spiritual lineage handed down from one generation to the next and lead us to very doorsteps of our parish.

St Sergius was a monk of Mt Athos who was sent to the northern areas of Karelia (now Finland and northwestern Russia). The Karelian people had recently experienced the missionary efforts of the Catholic Swedes, who attempted to convert the people to Christianity by force. As one might expect, this did not work… and it left the people of this area with an aversion to the Christian message. However, St Sergius, and St Herman who followed just behind him, came with a different approach. Their monastic formation directed them to a missionary approach founded in love and in works of generosity. They lived the Gospel and this drew the people’s attention to want to learn more about their radiant faith. There is an old saying which perfectly captures St Sergius and Herman’s missionary success: ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and only when necessary use words.’

St Sergius settled on the islands of Valaam in the midst of the great Lake Ladoga and founded a monastery there. St Herman, who was from the region of Karelia, followed in his footsteps, and continued the monastic presence there. Valaam monastery has stood as a citadel of Orthodoxy in this northern region for many centuries. It is from Valaam that our own St Herman of Alaska came to this country – bringing with him that same spirit of Orthodox piety and humility which enabled him to shine the light of faith in the new land of Alaska.

We know from the accounts of the native peoples of Alaska that St Herman demonstrated a similar way of being as his forefathers St Sergius and Herman of Valaam. The native Alaskans were attracted to St Herman by his quiet reverence for God, his deep prayer, his untiring work ethic and generosity toward others – in a word, the treasure and talent of his Christian love.

This is the treasure and the talent that is handed down to us by these great saints – by Sts Sergius and Herman of Valaam and by their monastic descendent, St Herman of Alaska.

We also celebrate today a saint of our own times – St Silouan of Mt Athos. St Silouan was born in Russia in the late 19th century and pursued his monastic life on the blessed peninsula of Mt Athos in Greece. There he quietly struggled in the process of salvation, drawing closer to Christ through his ascetic efforts of fasting, prayer, and vigil. We have been gifted with details and insights of the life of this righteous man through the writings of his spiritual son, St Sophrony of Essex, England. When I was first converting to the Orthodox faith, there were very few books in English about Orthodoxy… yet the two small volumes on the life and the writings of St Silouan were available and they were powerful sources of inspiration. Over the years these twin volumes have been combined, along with new material, into the highly recommended book entitled: ‘St Silouan of Mt Athos’. Reading about St Silouan and hearing the words of his prayers, one encounters the inestimable treasure of a man wholly steeped in the love of God and whose love for God spills over into prayer and weeping for the whole world.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been given these talents, these treasures of the inheritance of our Orthodox faith from our fathers: Sts Sergius and Herman of Valaam and St Silouan of Mt Athos. They gift us with the example of an Orthodox spirit of humility and love for God and neighbor. What will we do with this inheritance? Will we be like the foolish servant, who buries his treasure in the ground? May God forbid! Let us take the lesson of the parable of the talents and invest ourselves in our faith so that this faith can grow and bear fruit.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers Sergius, Herman, and Silouan, may God grant us some small portion of this treasure of Orthodox piety, humility, and struggle. May we live our lives in such a way that the light of Christ can shine through us – preaching the Gospel at all times, and perhaps only when necessary, using words.