Homily Three for the Eighth Sunday of Matthew
(8th Sunday of Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
(8th Sunday of Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today, my brethren, the Gospel was read concerning the miraculous feeding of five thousand men, not counting women and children, with five loaves and two fish. Let us recount this story of the miracle in a manner understandable to all.
After the Lord heard of the beheading of John the Baptist, He withdrew alone to a deserted place. As we see further, our Lord went to pray in solitude to His Heavenly Father, seeking to lighten His heart, burdened with sorrow over the violent death of the great Prophet and Forerunner. Oh, brethren, even the Lord was not estranged from sorrows, and great, mortal sorrows, as He Himself declared before His sufferings: "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death" (Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:34). Thus, He went into the wilderness to pour out His sorrow in prayer before His Heavenly Father – for His friend John the Baptist. But would the people forsake the great Wonderworker and the most eloquent Teacher? And behold, the people followed Him on foot from the cities; a great multitude proceeded after Him.
The Lord sees the crowds of people following Him, has compassion for them, and turning to them, He heals the sick who were among them. The people do not depart from the Lord, but rather continue to move further and further away from their villages. Evening has already come. His disciples approach the Savior and say, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late; send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." They said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." He said, "Bring them here to Me." And He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, He blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied; and they gathered the leftover pieces, twelve baskets full; and those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children" (Matthew 14:13–21).
When I read, brethren, this Gospel, many examples came to my mind of how the holy men of God, living on earth, never wavered and from their humble possessions fed the hungry, and how the Lord wondrously multiplied their loaves.
Here is one example: Saint Tychon, who later became the Bishop of Amathus and a great defender of Orthodoxy, sold loaves of bread in his youth, for his father was a baker. Possessing a compassionate heart, the pious youth often gave away several loaves to the poor without charge, for which his irate father once harshly punished him. Then Saint Tychon said to him: “My father! You are grieving unnecessarily. I lend your bread to God and have from Him a testament in the sacred books, where it is precisely stated: 'He who gives to God will receive threefold.' If you do not believe this, let us go to the granary; there you will see how God returns His due to the lenders.” Having said this, he took his father by the hand and led him to the granary: and when they opened the door, they found it filled with pure and finest wheat, although previously there had been almost nothing in it. The father was astonished and terrified; he fell to the ground, giving thanks to God, and from that time forth he did not forbid his son to distribute alms at his own discretion.
Brethren! Do not doubt to always give alms: from much comes much, from little comes less, and be assured that the Lord will bless you and your household and will never allow you to lack anything necessary, and, most importantly, for your mercy towards the poor, you will be granted mercy at His dread and righteous Judgment: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
Here is one example: Saint Tychon, who later became the Bishop of Amathus and a great defender of Orthodoxy, sold loaves of bread in his youth, for his father was a baker. Possessing a compassionate heart, the pious youth often gave away several loaves to the poor without charge, for which his irate father once harshly punished him. Then Saint Tychon said to him: “My father! You are grieving unnecessarily. I lend your bread to God and have from Him a testament in the sacred books, where it is precisely stated: 'He who gives to God will receive threefold.' If you do not believe this, let us go to the granary; there you will see how God returns His due to the lenders.” Having said this, he took his father by the hand and led him to the granary: and when they opened the door, they found it filled with pure and finest wheat, although previously there had been almost nothing in it. The father was astonished and terrified; he fell to the ground, giving thanks to God, and from that time forth he did not forbid his son to distribute alms at his own discretion.
Brethren! Do not doubt to always give alms: from much comes much, from little comes less, and be assured that the Lord will bless you and your household and will never allow you to lack anything necessary, and, most importantly, for your mercy towards the poor, you will be granted mercy at His dread and righteous Judgment: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
