His Eminence Metropolitan Antonios, Patriarchal Vicar, celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, patron saint of the mother cathedral – St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral – of the Archdiocese, in Brooklyn, New York on Monday, December 5. He conveyed the love, prayers and best wishes of His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East to the clergy and laity gathered, and for the entire Archdiocese.

In his homily, Sayidna Antonios explained that we achieve holiness like St. Nicholas by following the virtues that our Lord Jesus Christ outlined in the gospel reading from St. Luke for the feast.

Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God (6:20). “The ones who choose to be poor will be blessed. It doesn’t mean that I own nothing, but all that I am and all that I own belongs to God.”

Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied (6:21a). “We should try to taste the taste of hunger in order to feel with the hungry. If you don’t know what it means to be hungry, you will never know what a hungry person feels, and have empathy with him. This frees us from ego.”

Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh (6:21b). “Jesus is talking about weeping for our sins, and our repentance; weeping because I am not the person I should be; weeping because I do not know God; weeping because I do not know how to love. If we do not know our sins, we will not weep. This is a call for repentance.”

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in Heaven (6:22).

“Are we ready to be hated, to be excluded, cast out, for the sake of Christ? Do we have this courage, or do we fear for our interests in order not to lose in this world? The Lord is telling us to be courageous and not to fear. The truth will set you free.

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