Forty days after His birth in the flesh, Christ was presented at the Temple in accordance with legal convention. And because there in the Temple He was received by persons moved by the Spirit, and especially because Symeon took Him into his arms, this feast is also called a meeting ('Ypapante' in Greek).

When a famine came upon the whole earth, it happened that there was food only in Egypt. Jacob therefore moved to Egypt with all his children and their families (cf. Acts 7:11-15; Genesis 41:54; 45.5f). The total number of people who migrated was seventy-five (cf. Acts 7:14; Genesis 46:46:27; Exodus 1:1-5), and in four hundred years, as prophesied earlier, they grew to six hundred thousand. As a result of cruel slavery, they were oppressed and suffered greatly, and turned, sighing and groaning, to the God of the Patriarch Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We are taught by Our Holy Church that "the ultimate commitment of the Orthodox Christian is a commitment to Christ our Lord, Who is known in and through the Church." This is expressed by the litanies of the Church which call upon us to "commit ourselves, one another, and our whole life unto Christ our God." And, prior to receiving Holy Communion, we pray: "O Master Who loves mankind, unto you we commit our whole life and our hope."

The Regeneration of the World

Curses

One of the sons, however, fell under a curse, while the other two inherited a blessing because of their good deeds. Ham the younger, mocked their father and because of this outrage and offense against his father, received a curse. The penalty did not, however, fall upon him alone, but upon all his children, so that all his descendants were wicked, increasing and multiplying in sins.

"As bishop of Lyons Saint Irenaios (177 A.D.) applied himself zealously to the conversion of the people in the surrounding districts. He appears, in fact, to have been Archbishop of all the churches in Gaul. From the tone of his writings, it is also clear that he was a concerned and devoted pastor of his people. To future generations, however, he was distinguished more for his battles with heretics and his vigorous efforts to promote the peace of the Church..."

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!

There is much in common among the three hierarchs and great ecumenical teachers whom we commemorate today: Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. All three lived in a time when the Christian Church, after almost three centuries of persecution, received freedom and was flourishing throughout the Byzantine 'oikoumene'.