Princeton, New Jersey
October 29, 2026
Colossians 4:2–9 • Luke 11:14–23
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
My beloved children of the Lord,
By the grace of God, the clergy and faithful of this venerable diocese have come together today as an assembly under the archpastoral leadership of your hierarch, His Eminence Archbishop Michael. You gather as a community of communities in this temple dedicated to the Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrow, for fellowship and for the fulfilment of the work of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey.
The Gospel reading we have just heard might seem ill-suited for such a gathering, since our Lord Jesus Christ speaks extensively about themes such as the casting out of demons and the ruler of the demons, of kingdoms divided against themselves and of the desolation that follows. Though these themes may appear to emphasize division, which might be counterintuitive during a gathering where we are striving to fulfill the common work of the Gospel, the division that our Lord speaks of is, in reality, a call to unity.
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” It is, in fact, by using the negative image of the division brought about by the enemy that our Lord guides the disciples, and us, towards a life of unity. Saint Cyril of Alexandria tells us that this is the very work of the evil one: to scatter those whom Christ has gathered and saved. And so an assembly such as this is not merely an administrative meeting. It is an act of resistance against the one who scatters.
Saint Paul, in the epistle for this day, offers some concrete ways that we may attain this unity with Christ. “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” Even in this one phrase, the Apostle offers us a multifaceted path: it is the path of prayer, not just superficial prayer but rather prayer offered with earnestness, with vigilance, and with thanksgiving.
We are told to continue earnestly in prayer because, as Saint John Chrysostom reminds us, the devil knows how great a good prayer is, and therefore he presses heavily against it. Our perseverance in prayer is itself a refusal to be scattered.
We are told to be vigilant, which the same holy Father explains as being sober, not letting the mind wander. A diocese, like a soul, is kept whole by attentiveness: attentiveness to God, to one another, and to the work entrusted to us.
And we are told to pray with thanksgiving, giving thanks not only for what is pleasant but for all things, “for the seen and the unseen.” We hear this same thanksgiving in every Divine Liturgy, when we give thanks “for all things that we know and that we know not, whether manifest or unseen.” It is the Eucharist, the great thanksgiving, that gathers us into one Body. When we are able to give thanks, we are not easily divided.
Then the Apostle asks something for himself: “Meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains.”
We notice here that, though he is writing from prison, Saint Paul does not ask the Colossians to pray that his chains be removed. Saint John Chrysostom marvels at this: “The great athlete said not, ‘that I may be freed from my bonds,’ but being in bonds he exhorted others.” Paul asks only for a door for the word, and his chains, Chrysostom says, gave him greater boldness, not less.
This is the model of the martyrs, and it should be the model of our own prayer. We are so often tempted to pray that our problems and temptations simply be taken away from us. But the martyrs did not pray that the cross be taken from them. They prayed for the grace to carry it, and for the door of the word to remain open even in chains. Saint Alexander Hotovitzky, who served in the territory of this diocese, later went to his death for Christ in his homeland. He did not ask to be spared. He asked to be faithful.
And here the epistle and the Gospel come together. In the Gospel, the man possessed was mute. Saint Cyril tells us that his silence was not a natural defect, but “a trick of the devil, by whom his tongue was as it were tied.” The enemy would like nothing better than to tie the tongue of the Church through fear, discouragement, or quarrels among ourselves. Christ, the stronger one who binds the strong man, looses the tongue. Saint Paul asks for the door of utterance to be opened, reminding us that a Church that is gathered in prayer has an open door and a loosed tongue.
So what, then, are we to say when that door opens? The Apostle continues: “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”
Many of you know that this word is not abstract. The door has opened and, across this diocese, as across our whole Church, men and women are coming to our parishes in numbers we have not seen in a generation. Some come with deep questions, some with wounds, and some with ideas about Orthodoxy formed more by the internet than by the life of the Church.
How are we to receive them? We should receive them with speech that is “with grace” and “seasoned with salt.” Grace means that our first word is a word of welcome, not suspicion. Salt means that what we offer has savor and substance, that it preserves the truth and does not water it down. If we give them too little salt, we give them nothing they could not find elsewhere. If we give them too much, we risk wounding or simply overwhelming them. Saint Paul says we must know how to answer each one and Saint John Chrysostom observes that we ought not to speak to all in the same way. The seeker who has lost everything needs a different word than the zealous convert who has read every book but has not yet learned to pray. Our task is not to win arguments, but to bring each person to Christ and to walk with them in His Church.
Finally, the Apostle closes this passage in a way that might seem to be only a matter of travel arrangements: “Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me… with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.”
Here we should remember who Onesimus was. He was a runaway slave, a man the Apostle elsewhere refers to as “formerly unprofitable.” Now, Saint Paul calls him “a faithful and beloved brother” and entrusts him with carrying an apostolic letter to the Church. Saint John Chrysostom is struck by this: “Paul calls a slave, brother.” In the household of Christ, the one who was far off has become one of you, trusted with the work of the Gospel.
Here we find the answer to the divided house of the Gospel. The house of the enemy is divided against itself and cannot stand. In the house of Christ, Tychicus the faithful minister and Onesimus the former runaway stand side by side as beloved brothers, carrying the same word.
As we look around the Church today, at those who are gathered in this assembly, there are certainly many like Tychicus, who have served faithfully for many years, and many like Onesimus, who have only recently found their way home and will soon be carrying the word to others. Both are needed. Both are beloved and both are “one of you.”
So let us continue earnestly in prayer, vigilant and thankful. Let us ask, not that our burdens be lifted, but that the door of the word remain open. Let our speech be with grace, seasoned with salt. And let us gather with Christ, and not scatter, so that this diocese may be a house that stands, to the glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.