Sermons & Homilies
Let’s ask ourselves how this can be: how are Moses and the Prophets more apt to impart the wisdom of God and true repentance into the souls of men than one risen from the dead?
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Today, it is not just the household of a soldier that witnesses the power of Christ’s word, but many of his disciples … and much people who followed him, along with much people of the city who were taking part in the funeral procession of a widow’s only son. The Lord met this sorry spectacle as he was entering the city; and when he saw the grieving widow, he had compassion on her. The impassible Lord is moved to compassion, in the fulness of his humanity; and indeed, what human heart could fail to be wrenched at the sight of a woman, bereft first of her husband, now deprived of her only son, and leading his pale, stone-still body to burial? Her plight was desperate, and her grief inconsolable.
What is evident in these events is that not by everyone, and not at all times is the closeness of the saints evident. Many do not perceive their nearness to us, their assistance, their concern for humanity, the purpose of which is to strengthen and assist us through various means, not the least being through prayer and by interceding with God for us. Nor is this always apparent as we read the lives of the saints as much as it is today on this feast. For today, victory was due to the intercessions of the Mother of God, who was supplicated by the faithful, the Emperor, and the Patriarch; witnessed by St. Andrew, and attested to by the civilians of the capital city who saw the invaders fleeing.
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Yet today at Gennesaret, Simon Peter as it were encounters the Lord for the first time: not as an abstract idea, not as a public figure only (however great a figure He doubtless appeared to be), but face to face. St. Peter begins to glimpse that this man is far more than a religious teacher or a political liberator, and he begins to realize that his own life will never be the same. This beginning of St. Peter’s life of apostleship can and must serve to inspire and instruct us also, who are all likewise called to the apostolic life to no lesser extent than St. Peter himself.
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The founders of The Caves Monastery, as it is commonly called, beginning with Anthony, and its first superior, Theodosius, are commemorated today. The fruit of their labors extends even to our present time when one considers the conflicts which have ensued around the monastery and the land in which it resides.
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