Exaudi, the Sixth Sunday after Easter (and Mother's Day)

The devil has been deceiving the world since the beginning, and our only antidote to his deception is the Apostolic Word of God, the testimony of the Holy Apostles. We see the deception of the devil on Mother's Day in many ways, for the devil deceived the whole world into disparaging or belittling motherhood, first, in teaching men to limit the number of children they have, though Scripture tells us to be fruitful, and speaks of the happiness of a quiver full of children, ever one of which is a blessing. And the demonic and horrendous opposite of motherhood is abortion, we dare not forget. And mothers are also deceived into thinking they must gain their importance from something in the world other than their motherhood. So the devil deceives, and also teaches men to deny that they have sinned or have been deceived, or even to deny God altogether. But still Christ came to redeem this world and to bring us back to himself. And he gave us eyewitnesses to verify his coming, his miracles, his atoning death, and his resurrection. But still the devil deceives people into thinking that we ourselves are his witnesses, when all we can witness to is what is in us. We were not there; we did not see what the witnesses saw, and we cannot testify as they did; so we must heed their testimony, which is also the testimony of the Spirit, the echo of theirs, in the preaching of this Gospel. And when this Gospel is preached, it is by the power and authority of the ascended Christ who sits at God's right hand. And each time it is proclaimed, Satan again falls from heaven, and is crushed and conquered; for he cannot deceive those who instead hear and believe the truth. Sermon for Exaudi, audio.