There are crossroad moments in every person’s life.  We choose and the road goes along a different path than it might have done had we chosen differently.  Sometimes the change is quite dramatic.

Permit me to share with you one such moment in my life.  One day, a long time ago (I believe it was in the fall of 1963), Albert and Alan, two senior classmates of mine, at Bellis School, in a little hamlet of the same name 156 kilometers northeast of Edmonton, where I received my educational preparation for living, showed up with their hair combed down over their foreheads.  Our principal Marian Weleschuk was taken aback.  Nonetheless he showed himself to be a thorough-going democrat in this matter.  He took a poll of the senior high school students before deciding whether or not these - at that time - shocking hair styles should be permitted in school.  The students voted “No”.  And I was among the nay-sayers.

Then at the home of a Bellis storekeeper, Chris Chornoluk, together with my father and sister I saw John, Paul, George and Ringo perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Not only did I find the music great – there was a special kind of joyous energy to it that immediately drew my sister and I into the circle of Beatle admirers.  It wasn’t long before I too was sporting that hair style.  I recall keeping it like that until I was ordered to lose it when I entered seminary in Winnipeg in the fall of 1964.

The love of the music remained, however, and I continue to this day to keep in touch with what is happening on the music scene.  I like the sound of all sorts of contemporary music, and, what is more important to me, I listen to the words.  This is a passion I share with my son, Andrey.  A little earlier this year he drew my attention to the following words in the song “Any Road” by the late George Harrison: “If you don't know where you're going/ Any road will take you there”.

Dear recipients of the Father Jean Foundation scholarships!  It is a great joy for me, an Orthodox priest honoured to be addressing brothers and sisters in Christ of the Catholic fold, to have this opportunity to congratulate you on the scholastic excellence and diligence that have made it possible for you to receive these marks of distinction.  It also affords the opportunity to reflect on the question implied by George’s words.

Do I have any idea of where I am going?  Of where I wish to go?  In other words: Do I have a dream?  A dream, keenly felt, makes the choices we have before us much easier to see, aspire to and negotiate.  The wise Solomon writes in Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV).

In pondering this saying of Solomon’s (which sprang to mind as I thought of what to say to you today) I discovered that the more literally exact translation of this verse is: “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint” (ASV).  And that rather ties the insight together quite well with George’s observation.  Indeed if one has no vision, no compelling dream of where one’s life ought to go, one can go, do, say, act as one pleases.

Each fancy, each pleasure, each fascination calls out: “Come on down – this is fun!”  “This feels good”.  “This is exciting”.  Some of these appeals only take up time.  Some take up other resources such as money and health as well as relationships.  Some may lead ultimately to the lament voiced by Soul Asylum: “Runaway train never going back/ Wrong way on a one way track/ Seems like I should be getting somewhere/ Somehow I'm neither here nor there”.

The gentleman for whom these scholarships you receive today are named had a dream that took the train he was on down a track that did not lead to a dead-end.  Fr. Jean dedicated his life to serving the One Who said: “He who has the desire to keep his life will have it taken from him, and he who gives up his life because of Me will have it given back to him” (BBE).  That service led him to share his life with a people from whom he had not sprung and which, until he made his decision, he had not known – the Ukrainians.  So profoundly did this vision shape his life that to this day the grateful flock he shepherded remembers him by giving a helping hand to young folks taking their steps along their own paths – which may or may not be guided by their own vision, inspired by the One Who sends such revelations, but binds Himself by the freedom He has accorded to them to accept or refuse them.

My young brothers and sisters!  Like Fr. Josaphat Jean of blessed memory, I have found that there is no higher vision than to spend oneself – one’s energy, intellect, strength, imagination, love – in service to the One Who is the Source of all that is, the One Who, as the amazing George Harrison proclaimed in his song by the same name, is “Life Itself”.  Listen to his words.  He sings: “You are the One/ You are my love/ You send the rain and bring the sun/ You stand alone and speak the truth/ You are the breath of life itself, oh yes you are/ You are the One”.

I stand before you today, a supremely happy homo sapien. (I hasten to add that I am not spared the struggles, challenges, yes, and the doubts to which our species is prone, by God’s mercy).  And I solemnly proclaim to you: there is nothing that I have given up in following the vision of seeking to promote, in the community of which I, like yourselves, am a part, the Kingdom of Peace, Love, Hope, Kindness and Joy that Jesus has ushered in, that I have not received back many times over in one form or another.  Often when I have not expected it or even despaired of it ever coming.

That Kingdom stands ready to be revealed in each and every situation in which we can find ourselves.  Can you see it?  Can you imagine a place where each and every person is provided for, cherished, treasured, loved?  Where one does not need to measure up to false criteria set up by an order which is fading away each second that we are speaking of it?  Where one can be what one truly is and be valued for that very thing?

It is not conflict, backstabbing, undercutting, conspiring, scheming, shooting, bombing, lying, robbing, murdering, hurting, that brings this about.  It is a vision, a dream: the dream of the world as God meant it to be.  An ever-new vision of the world as proclaimed and LIVED perfectly by Jesus of Nazareth.

It is not required that one become a monk, nun, priest, bishop to serve and strive to realize and actualize this vision.  As a matter of fact when that Kingdom shall fully come there will be no such distinctions any more.  No more nuns, monks or priests!  Just transformed people!  For in fact the Christian Faith we hold in common says that the only True Priest, Who shares that priesthood with ALL His friends – and, of course, within this space and time, in a special way with the sacramental priests such as myself, is Jesus Himself, the true God and the true Man!  Can you imagine a world with no more confessionals (because the tendency to sin has been transcended), no more prisons, no more elections, no more campaigns, no police, no army, no government?  

What I ask and what I challenge you – and myself - to seek is: how do I in my circumstances and situations direct my thoughts and imagination, my hopes and my aspirations, my words and my actions to work towards the realization of this dream?  I am sure that some will cry out: “You silly  preacher!  Can’t you see that that train has already left the station?  You are preaching Utopia.  It does not and can not work!” 

And here I will take refuge in the words of another imperfect pop visionary, John Lennon, who said:  “You may say I’m a dreamer,/ but I’m not the only one,/ I hope some day you'll join us,/ And the world will live as one.”

God bless you, dear friends!  Have a happy and blessed life, full of “Life Itself”!  I could not wish you better!